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Understanding and Leveraging Code Signing Technologies
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Poor-Performing Procedures Giving You a Headache?
February 23, 2006
1. Perspectives
2. SQL Server 2005 Watch
3. News & Views
4. Events and Resources
5. Featured White Paper
6. Peer to Peer
Hot Tip: Internals of the ALTER TABLE Operation7. Announcements
The SQL Server Magazine Master CD has it all!8. New & Improved
Understanding and Leveraging Code Signing Technologies
Learn all you need to know about code signing technology, including the goals and benefits of code signing, how code signing works and the underlying cryptographic and security concepts and building blocks in this ebook.
1. Perspectives
SQL Server Magazine's Redesigned Web Site
by Brian Moran
SQL Server Magazine launched a redesign of its Web site (www.sqlmag.com) last week. Check it out! This Web site has always been a great resource for tracking down valuable information about SQL Server, and the redesign makes the site even easier to navigate. Here's what I like best about the new site.
The redesigned site provides a cleaner, more visually appealing layout (although my mug shot is no longer front and center on the home page). The current month's feature articles are easy to find, and you don't have to scroll down to access the SQL blog. The improved search toolbar makes it easier to find SQL Server-specific information by subject (i.e., development, administration, and business intelligence) or by article information (i.e., magazine issue month, author, subject, or department). I sometimes found the old search engine a bit finicky; it was sometimes difficult to find specific content that I had written.
I asked SQL Server Magazine Technical Editor Diana May to list what she felt were the most important new enhancements. Here’s what she said: “The redesigned Web site features a complete article archive; SQL Server event and community information; an active forum community; and links to ebooks, white-papers, FAQs, special reports, and downloads of interest to DBAs, database developers, and business intelligence professionals. We also wanted a cleaner separation from the resources of our sister publication, Windows IT Pro, to recognize the distinct, unique needs of the SQL Server community.”
Most of the changes reflect the needs that users (i.e., SQL Server Magazine readers and Web-site users) have expressed through feedback. I’ve been working with the magazine since its initial launch, and I can say with 100-percent assurance that the magazine strives to give you what you’re asking for.
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2. SQL Server 2005 Watch
Adjust the Analysis Services 2005 Aggregations Property
If you set the AllMemberAggregationUsage property to None, the Aggregation Design Wizard (which is used to design aggregations for a partition) generates aggregations on the (All) member of the dimension. Microsoft has provided a workaround solution for this bug at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=912390#appliesto.
Poor-Performing Procedures Giving You a Headache?
Idera SQL diagnostic manager gives you all of the performance monitoring, diagnostic information, and alerts you need to quickly analyze, diagnose, and fix performance issues in your SQL Server environment with ease. Want to pinpoint poor-performing procedures, long running queries, or other bottlenecks in seconds? Want to check the health of SQL Servers in real-time or six months ago? No problem. Stop SQL Server headaches today!
3. News & Views
What's New in Internet Explorer 7
As of January 31, Microsoft made Internet Explorer (IE) 7 Beta 2 Preview version available for users to download and test in their environments. Some of the improvements and new features include: enhanced security protection, integrated RSS functionality, a modified toolbar search box that lets you browse multiple Web sites, and an improved platform for Web developers. You can download this new Beta 2 version.
Read more information about what to expect in IE 7 on Paul Thurrot's Supersite for Windows.
Results of Previous Instant Poll: SQL Server Magazine's Web Site Redesign
"What do you think about the new look of SQL Server Magazine's Web site?" Here are the results from the 29 votes (deviations from 100 are due to a rounding error) :
03% This site rocks--always has, always willNew Instant Poll: Wikis
"Do you trust the content in wikis?" Go to the SQL Server Magazine home page and submit your vote for:
Yes, I think they are good resources4. Events and Resources
The Essential Guide to Testing Your Disaster Recovery Ability
Learn from Paul Robichaux about what to test, how to test, and what results to expect with your disaster recovery plan in this free Essential Guide.
Avoiding Email Armageddon
Get the tools, tips, and training that you need to avoid a messaging meltdown when an outage strikes. View the FREE Web seminar today!
Solve your Branch Office Woes with R2
Efficiently replicate file changes across WANS without worrying about your remote server backups using the improved Distributed File System in WSS R2. Live Event: March 14; 12:00 pm EST.
Microsoft Clustering Technology
Use clustering technology to protect your company against network outages, power loss, and natural disasters. Live Event: 2/28/2006; 12:00 EST.
5. Featured White Paper
Align compliance with business efficiency, and learn how fax-document management plays a role in your strategy.
6. Peer to Peer
Hot Tip: Internals of the ALTER TABLE Operation
by Microsoft's SQL Server Development Team, [email protected]
Q. What steps does SQL Server perform after an ALTER TABLE operation and what goes on inside the SQL Server platform when it performs this operation?
Hot Article: Correctly Calculating Datetime Differences
SQL Server 2000 doesn't provide a built-in solution for correctly calculating datetime differences, so you have to create your own. In his February T-SQL Black Belt column, Itzik Ben-Gan provides the steps and code you can use to solve this problem.
In a Nutshell: Something Old, Something New
SQL Server Magazine launched a redesigned Web site this week. In this week's blog "Something Old, Something New" Kevin Kline mentions the three things he likes most about the redesigned site.
Hot Threads: Check out the following hot threads, and see other discussions in our 30 SQL Server forums.
Administration: Giving Execute Rights on xp_cmdshell to a User
T-SQL: How Can You Find Identity Columns Without Using SysColumns
Performance: Using Linked Server Slows Down My Stored Procedure Run Time
Security: Unable to Access Database on SQL Server
**** Hot Spot ****
SQL Server Magazine Connections Spring 2006--April 2-5, 2006, Orlando, Florida
Over 45 sessions presented by Microsoft and industry gurus. Registration includes an exclusive day of presentations by the Microsoft SQL Server product team. Register and attend sessions at Microsoft ASP.NET Connections, Visual Studio Connections, SQL Server Magazine Connections, and Sharepoint Connections. Call 203-268-3204 or 800-438-6720 for information or register online.
7. Announcements
The SQL Server Magazine Master CD has it all!
Order the SQL Server Magazine Master CD and get portable, high-speed access to the entire SQL Server article database on CD--that’s a library of over 2,300 articles in one place! The newest issue includes BONUS SQL Server 2005 Tips, and if you sign up now, you'll get 25% off.
Save 44% off the Windows Scripting Solutions Newsletter
For a limited-time, order the Windows Scripting Solutions Newsletter and SAVE up to $30 off the regular price. You'll get 12 helpful issues loaded with expert-reviewed downloadable code and scripting techniques, as well as hundreds of tips on automating repetitive tasks. You'll also get FREE, unlimited access to the full online scripting article database (over 500 articles).
8. New & Improved
by Blake Eno, [email protected]
Migrate Multiple Databases to your SQL Server Environment
Ispirer Systems released SQLWays 3.9, a data-migration solution for SQL Server 2005. The product uses a wizard-driven UI to automatically convert data, schema, and business logic from Oracle, IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Sybase, PostgreSQL, and MySQL to your SQL Server environment. SQLWays provides advanced capabilities for data-type conversion, either globally for all tables, or locally, for individual tables. The product also resolves reserved word and identifier conflicts and provides improvements for its stored-procedure and trigger conversion. For more information about SQLWays, contact Ispirer Systems at [email protected] or 877-734-7638.
Take a Business-Rules Approach to Data Integration
Sunopsis announced Sunopsis Data Conductor, an extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) solution. Data Conductor defines business rules graphically through the product's drag-and-drop interface and stores rules independently from the implementation, decreasing your development and maintenance time. Instead of using the traditional ETL approach, Sunopsis uses an extract, load, and transform approach, in which all data transformations are executed by the relational database management system (RDBMS) already installed in your data-warehouse server. Data Conductor also performs automatic data quality control while data is being processed and contains metadata features that include dependency graphs, cross referencing, and impact analysis. For more information about Sunopsis Data Conductor, contact Sunopsis at [email protected], 781-238-1770, or 888-740-0300.
