Take Visual Studio for a Test Drive
Take this powerful tool and its features for a spin by downloading a full Visual Studio 2010 trial version. Discover how Visual Studio 2010 Professional helps individual developers build, test, debug software solutions. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/206383954/direct/01/

Attend an Event
Find out how you can ride the next wave of innovation ushered in by Microsoft Visual Studio 2010. Choose from full day, in-person Launch 2010 events in your area, or live half day Highlights events, featuring the most popular sessions from the Launch 2010 Technical Readiness Series. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9725716

Visit the Visual Studio 2010 Developer Center
Find out how easy it is to get started with Visual Studio 2010. Get invaluable resources like “How do I” videos, MSDN Magazine, product and extension information, and much more. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9725715

Watch a “How Do I” Visual Studio Video
Watch the “How Do I Videos” designed for Visual Studio 2010 developers, from novice to professional. This set of short videos will help guide you through common scenarios, features and functionalities. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9727009

Attend a Visual Studio Webcast — Turn Ideas Into Solutions
Dive into these live and on-demand webcasts and learn how the features available in Visual Studio 2010 can make professional developers more productive while building high-quality applications.
Dive in today! http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9727010

More Visual Studio Videos
Watch these free videos to explore Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 whenever and from wherever you want — just click, watch, and learn. Start by clicking the title to learn more about the video, you can then stream it or download to view offline. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9727011

Download a Podcast
Listen to podcasts and learn about Visual Studio 2010 whenever and wherever you want. Download the latest audio content and hear about new features and enhancements that help developers build next generation applications. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9727012

Visual Studio Virtual Labs
Virtual labs that you can download and learn how to program with Visual Studio. Using virtual labs is simple with no complex setup or installation required. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9727013

Video chat with Brent Ozar and SQL Server MVPs Kevin Kline, Hilary Cotter and Geoff Hiten to talk about how SQL Server 2008 addresses DBA challenges and pain points. In this webcast, we cover features like Transparent Data Encryption, spatial data, and other new things that really differentiate SQL Server 2008 from 2005.

Posted December 24, 2008.

Toad's Gone All Sci-Fi on us. Engage, Number 1!

Quest Software is proud to announce the launch of the Toad for Cloud Databases community site.  You can also get the free Toad for Cloud product here.  It’s in beta, but definitely worth a try.

If you’ve wondered what’s over the horizon, I encourage you to take a look at this interview with Billy Bosworth, the head of Quest’s database tools group.  (Yes, he’s the guy who signs my checks).  We are now experiencing more disruptive technologies in the world of data than we have seen in nearly two decades. Perhaps your database is better suited for the cloud or maybe you want to investigate using a data store as part of your application architecture that isn’t even relational.  Imagine if you were empowered to take advantage of these new database technologies, when and where it makes sense.

Believe me, cloud databases and the NoSQL movement is not a passing fad.  It will have an impact on the way you do business – maybe not today, but not as far in the future as you might think.

Check it out.  And as always, I welcome your feedback.

Enjoy,

-Kev

Twitter @kekline

I Never Could Hang 10 (Minutes) on Google Wave

While enduring an endless series of flight delays and disgruntled passengers in the Baltimore airport that was my own personal travel hell on the evening of Thursday, August 5th, I came across this interesting and important article:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/google-kills-wave-its-collaboration-tool/?ref=technology

Even if you don’t read the article, you can see from the URL that Google has decided to put an end to the collaboration experiment known as Wave.  Wave will be available through the end of the year and most of its major components are now available as open source, should any devotees choose to continue developing the code base.  However, Wave didn’t reach the critical mass that Google was looking for and, without that critical mass of users, it wasn’t seeing a lot of innovation or updates to the features or UI. I view Google’s reach of 1M users as a “failure” with a bit of grin.  How  many other vendors out there would consider 1M users too few?  Otoh, if they wanted really wide adoption, why in the world did they require a private invitation?  Superior products are frequently hampered by inferior marketing and market delivery, this being a really good example.

Slide to the Rescue?

More Fun than Google Slide?

I also feel the need to point out that I have a lot of respect for Google giving the old heave-ho to a product that needs to go.  Many companies cling to a great idea, funneling huge amounts of resources into what everyone else can see as a black hole.  Failure, under vibrant and forward thinking leadership, is only success delayed.  Read Google’s take on the situation here.  Certainly, this means we’ll see Google pushing their new social media acquisition, Slide, much more as well. And, since many of the technological bits of Wave will live on, I’m sure we’ll see Slide advance in interesting ways.

Frankly, I found the general idea of Wave to be fascinating and powerful.  But after spending quite a bit of time, like at least 20 minutes, tinkering around with it, I still had no idea how to do anything with it.  I was so motivated to use it that I almost watched one of the videos that they’d posted to train you.  But honestly, am I just ridiculously jaded or has the overall market for cloud-based apps moved the bar for ease-of-use that anything that takes more than 15 minutes to figure out is drama?  I hate to say it, but I think the answer is a resounding “YES”.  By extension, I think that this is the main reason that email still trumps all other methods of collaboration. (Yes, that includes Microsoft SharePoint too for all you fanboys.)  That is, email does not disrupt any existing workflows, it has a clean UI, it doesn’t make you learn new ways of working, and it’s so widespread that you’re not hampered by a product that has a very limited user base.

Great Idea Leads To Great Product Success, Right?

The Graveyard of Ideas

I also feel that Google Wave is a good example of a technological solution looking for a problem, as well as a product looking for a marketing message.  When launching a product, it’s crucial to have a crystal clear message to a well-defined audience.  Any ambiguity in the message or muddling of the audience can spell doom.  And, IMO, Google clearly missed the boat on both counts.  Many of their demos were all about sharing photos.  Uh, ever heard of Facebook, n’est pas?  Then again, many later PR was about collaboration.  Then how come we didn’t get smokin’ hot project management demos?  A book that I recommend called The Innovator’s Prescription (website is here) says it very well:

“The graveyard of failed products and services is populated by things that people *should* have wanted–if only they could have been convinced those things were good for them. The home-run products in the marketing hall of fame, in contrast, are concepts that helped people more affordably, effortlessly, swiftly, and effectively do what they already had been trying to get done.” (Christensen, The Innovator’s Prescription, p. 16)

I really like Christensen’s point.  So many people who build products focus on the “should” of a product, as in “this should make a lot of people happy”, over and above providing an effortless aid to people’s daily tasks.   This leads me to a topic for another day, user-interface design.  But enough writing for now.  It’s bed time.

So what are your thoughts?  Do you think other factors contributed to Wave’s decline?

Thanks!

-Kevin

Twitter @kekline

If you’re wondering whether to hedge your long-term bets on cloud computing, this should help you solidify your thinking.

Microsoft has been building a dream team for Azure, including the patriarch of Windows (and father of Windows NT) Dave Cutler.  Tweets from several Microsofties reveal that another revered technologist, Mark Russinovich of SysInternals fame has also joined the team.  When almost all of the heavy hitters in a company like Microsoft go to work on a single exciting new technology, you can easily tell which direction the wind is blowing.  I encourage you to get on board soon with cloud computing, at least in experimentation mode.  Read more about Russinovich joining the Azure team here.

Protect Your @$#% Content, or, Lots of New Content on KEK.com

I’ve been enjoying two new features of WordPress over on my professional website which is missing here on SQLblog.com – scheduled blog posts and auto-tweets. What got me thinking about using scheduled blog posts and auto-tweets, you ask?  For starters, my friend and former colleague, Brent Ozar, put a lot of thought and time into the question “Who Owns Your Content?”.  Then, to add fuel to the fire, two of Quest’s best marketing minds, Christian Hasker and Andy Grant, took a survey of all the places I was posting my thoughts and IP, which led to some great advice from Andy.  I’d initially thought that by writing in multiple places and on many other websites, it would promote my content.  But a quick analysis showed that I was giving without getting anything in return, not even recognition.  I was easily writing three or four magazine style articles per month with very little to show for it, not even ping-backs to my website.

Protect Your What!?! (Audio is Not Quite SFW).

The schedule blog posts have come in very handy.  First, I’d decided a while back to start talking more about what I do at Quest Software and the products that I’m a part of.  Since I don’t want to come across sounding like a schill, I decided that I’d put those posts on my own website and not torture you with those posts where I’m syndicated.  If you’re interested in posts about products like LiteSpeed or Toad for SQL Server, you can check for my regularly scheduled posts to appear on Wednesday morning.  I’ve now got a nice little queue of Quest-related posts for many Wednesdays to come.

Second, I’ve also decided to attempt to bring in more of the content I’d written for other websites and channels into KEK.com.  So I’ve scheduled a series of posts that bring in other content I’ve written and/or recorded elsewhere.  For example, Thursdays mornings are the time where I’ll post my YouTube video clips.  Since I already had a ton on YouTube, I’m putting those up via scheduled posts for the next several weeks.  Of course, I’ll also be posting new videos.  But it’ll be good to have all of my old videos up there too in a single place.

Finally, as I mentioned before, I’d written a couple long-term columns without ever getting even one extra website hit from all that work, such as my professional development articles for SQLPass.org.  I’m pulling those back onto KEK.com and will continue those columns, but as elements of my own blog.  You’ll see more about them here when they’re posted.

The Week In Review

Timeliness has never been a strong point for me.  I’m such a procrastinator, in fact, that I’m still trying to decide if I’ll go to my 20th high school reunion in 2005.

Having said that, here are some recent blog posts on KEK.com that you might enjoy:

• Video: Disk IO Tuning and Optimization for SQL Server 2005: This video contains a lot of IO-related tips that are still applicable to SQL Server 2008 and R2, especially if you’re not on a SAN.
• The All-new LiteSpeed: The newest release of the LiteSpeed backup and recovery tool has tons of new features and capabilities.  Read about it here.
• Fast Features Video: Toad for SQL Server:
• Windows Azure Bootcamp: There’s still time to take advantage of these free Windows Azure training classes.

I hope these are of some value and hope to hear your feedback.  Thanks and enjoy!

-Kevin

Twitter @kekline

More content at http://KevinEKline.com

An Osborne Executive portable computer, from 1982, and an iPhone, released 2007. The Executive weighs 100 times as much, has nearly 500 times the volume, cost 10 times as much, and has a 100th the processing power of the iPhone.

Two recent developments are helping to change that equation.  First, solid state drives (SSDs) are having a dramatic impact many IT scenarios. My friends, Brent Ozar and Paul Randall, have each written about SSDs here and here, respectively.

Second, database vendors are supporting relational database systems that run entirely in system RAM.  If you’d like to learn more about in-memory databases (IMDB), read more in my new article in Data Management Magazine.  As we look to the future, I expect to see a lot more of both technologies in the data center.

And give me your feedback here! Thanks,

-Kev

SQL Server: We live it.  We love it.

When Jimmy May talks, I listen.  Not just because he’s a personal friend, but also because he knows what’s what, if you’ll pardon the expression.  So when Jimmy says “I believe xPerf will fundamentally change the way I do my job”, then I want to know what the heck this free xPerf management tool is and how I can best leverage it.  Check out Jimmy’s blog entry on xPerf here.

Devices & Gadgets: Usually making our lives better, sometimes not so much.

Ever wonder what’s inside one of those tiny USB hard drives?  No?  Not even a little bit?!?  When I started in IT, hard drives where as big as washing machines and cost $60,000 running at speeds in the 100′s of RPMs.  My how times have changed.  Here’s a fun hack of a USB hard drive – http://www.dansworkshop.com/electricity-and-electronics/usb-hard-drive-hack.htm.

Futurewatch: Important issues just over the horizon.

There are a lot of standard elements of society being rebranded as the “2.0″ version of itself.  The 2.0 moniker was first put forward by visionary Tim O’Reilly (blog | twitter), of the eponymous media company. Whenever you see the 2.0 moniker added to the end of something, most famously Web 2.0, then you know that it will include the characteristics of collaboration, interoperability, and user-centered designs.  So, whereas the first go at the web in the mid- to late-1990′s was about enabling information retrieval such as transforming printed catalogs into on-line catalogs, Web 2.0 enables all of its participants to comment on, review, rate, and otherwise participating with each other in the use of such a catalog.  In the last FutureWatch blurb, I pointed out work on Grid 2.0, centered on efforts to update the USA’s electricity grid.  I’m going to do a much more detailed post in the near future about emerging 2.0 efforts, but one to point out now is Gov 2.0.  Under this broad set of initiatives, governments from the lowest to highest levels of responsibility are opening up their public databases for consumption by the public.  An example of Gov 2.0 in action comes with the President’s SAVE Award, in which the public is invited to vote on their pick for the best money saving tip put forward by federal government workers.  Read all about this year’s SAVE Award here.

Humor: I haz da funny.

Weird products in Japan have their own name – chindogu.  Most of these are crackpot inventions that everyone knows will never see the light of day, such as these these featured here.  However, some of these products DO get marketed and, more amazingly, purchased.  Check out the product reviews of this totally bizarro chindogu here at Overstock.com.

Professional Development: Because there are two words in “database professional”.

There are mountains of great websites with tips on how to be a better speaker.  Some day, I’ll write a long blog post about my favorite sites for learning how to improve your oration.  But if you’re in a hurry, and who isn’t these days, then this blog post at TechRepublic succinctly sums up the advice you’ll find from many other web sites, articles, and blogs.

Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.

One of the most remarkable things about the USA, as a rather biased citizen, is our ability to suck up our pride, admit a mistake, and try to prevent it from happening again.  One way that the USA tries to prevent future occurrences is to convene a commission of some kind.  I found this analysis by David Leinweber, a Haas Fellow in Finance and Founding Director of the Center for Innovative Financial Technology at UC Berkeley, on the commission studying banking market reform in the USA to be quite intriguing and, frankly, upsetting.

WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.

I’m always on the lookout for issues related to safe and clean water.  If you think people can be grumpy when oil is in short supply, imagine what it’s like when there’s not enough drinking water for everyone.  See how India is dealing with enormous water issues in this revealing article from the Economist.  And I’d be interested to hear what our Indian blogger friends thoughts are on this topic, folks like Rushabh Mehta, Jacob Sebastian, and Pinal Dave.  (Water issues have remained one of my passions ever since my years working for NASA developing the water recycling systems for the International Space Station, in which we made water of the H20 that passes through the human body re-drinkable.  And it tastes good.  Incidentally, all of the technology we developed for this project, as with all non-classified government projects, became public domain.  ECLSS technology is now used in hundreds of commercial products ranging from household detergents to commercial solvents to filtration systems.)

Thanks!

-Kevin

Twitter @KEKline

I’m starting a new series called Sequels for SQL Server.  In this series, I point you to sites where you can go beyond the nose-to-the-grindstone resources that we see every day as SQL Server professionals.  These are the story that comes after and outside (the sequels) of our daily working lives (the other SQL).  Let’s broaden our horizons together.  If you hit on an interesting but overlooked topic, I’d like to hear from you.

SQL Server: We live it.  We love it.

An amazing example of explosive growth in SQL Server performance using SSDs from one of the most popular on-line gaming systems, Eve On-Line by CCP Games.

Devices & Gadgets: Usually making our lives better, sometimes not so much.

Everyone I know wants the newest best smartphone, InfoWorld gives us a good test run of them all. Ultimate mobile deathmatch: iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Droid vs. Pre.

Futurewatch: Important issues just over the horizon.

The reshaping of our national power grid will provide profound benefits to consumers, but it will also bring enormous liabilities that could equal—or even outweigh—the very problems we hope to solve.   And this webcast from O’Reilly on Grid 2.0 is also quite good.

Humor: I haz da funny.

Witness firsthand a mind-boggling worst practice by a DBA insisting that he’s implementing a best practice.

Professional Development: Because there are two words in “database professional”.

Peter Drucker, one of the greats in management thought-leadership, would’ve turned 100 last week were he alive today.  Check out these top 20 quotes from the man who revolutionized management theory.

Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.

Quoting the Motley Fool, “We spent the latter half of 2008 feeling the wrath of “too big to fail.” Today, banks are bigger than ever. We need to end that. Now.”  It’s Time to End “Too Big to Fail”.  Read this thought-provoking article soon.

WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.

The smartest analyst on international issues out there, Fareed Zakari, discusses US and Indian relations in this insightful article from Newsweek.

Thanks!

-Kevin

Twitter @KEKline

Start here to see this revolutionary new technology!  I’m not kidding – this is a huge game changer!

Whether you like it or not, our energy landscape is changing.  Our children’s energy needs will incorporate all the energy resources we’re currently used to – electricity generated by coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants with automobiles powered by gasoline and diesel.  But their energy needs will also be met by a plethora of other sources, such as wind, wave, and solar methods of collecting energy along with cars power by electricity, fuel cells, and possibly alternative fuels like hydrogen and LNG.  Today, those energy sources contribute less than 5% of our total energy needs.  But, for the next generation, they may contribute 10-25% of the total energy needs in America. Every percentile less hydrocarbon-based fuel that we use represents billions of gallons of oil that we don’t have to import.

One of the biggest obstacles to widespread implementation of any of the alternative energy technologies is the cost of implementation, usually measured as dollars per watt.  For example, older solar panels are very costly (usually around $2/w) as are parabolic mirror systems, which also have a large number of moving parts and, thus, high maintenance costs.  And big wind turbines, while efficient, are also monumental structures built at great expense with big time maintenance costs.  Personally, I really like the promise of wave power because of its constancy.  We will always have waves and tides as long as we have the moon.  Solar and wind, though, are vexed by inconstancy – the sun sets every night on solar power plants and wind speeds must exceed 12 mph to power a turbine on a typical wind farm.  Unfortunately, wave technology is probably about 20 years behind solar in terms of development and has a lot of obstacles to overcome due to the high amount of wear and tear inflicted by the elements.

Wide implementation of any alternative energy can becomes dramatically more effective through tinkering with the equation in one of two ways.  The first way is to improve the efficiency of the technology such that it creates many more watts at the same cost.  The current record for a solar film is about 20% conversion of sunlight into energy, though commercially available solar cells are only in the low teens of efficiency.  On the other side of the equation, we can produce the same or somewhat lower watts (i.e. efficiency), but at a dramatically lower cost.  Thus, our $/w ratio is greatly improved on either the dollars-in side of the equation or the energy-out side of the equation.  Alter either one and the equation behind the technology starts to look promising.

Here’s an example – it currently costs about $20,000 to $38,000 to place enough solar panels on your home to provide 4 kilowatts of power, about what a standard middle-class American home consumes.  A German company just developed a new thin-film solar technology earlier this year which can probably produce nearly as much energy, but for only half the cost.  While it doesn’t enable a typical American family to live entirely off the grid, it is more affordable and has a payback period that’s not measured in decades.  This technology is still in the lab, so it’ll probably be a few more years before we see it commercially available.  (An irony of this scenario is that relatively sunless Germany is one of the foremost leaders in solar technology due to the generous government subsidies in the wider context of energy consumption.  IMO, that’s reason enough to consider our own subsidies so that we don’t get left behind on one of the 21st-century’s important industries.)

Now, there’s an even more exciting new breakthrough in the area of wind energy. It’s called the windbelt, invented by Shawn Frayne.  I seriously hope that Shawn makes a mint on this idea.  But he seems to be taking the even more laudable path of Dr. Jonas Salk, who never exploited his polio vaccine for personal gain.  A windbelt is essentially an aeolian harp string covered in the proper energy producing magnetic compounds which, when buffeted by the wind, wavers near conducting elements on the sides of the windbelt.  Voila!  It produces 10- to 30- times more energy than a turbine.  Plus, it’s extremely cheap and easy to make and maintain while requiring only slight winds, rather than the gusty 10+ mph required by turbines.

With proper configuration, you can build them into windfarms.  But you could also use this technology for really interesting applications.  For example, smart sensors in the HVAC ducts of many of today’s “green buildings” require you to change the batteries every couple of years.  Factoring the cost of the batteries and the cost of the maintenance staff, it’s a couple thousand bucks over the life of the sensor.  Now, with a tiny windbelt attached to the sensor, you could create recharging sensors that don’t need any light at all, using just a breath of wind from standard HVAC ventilation systems.

I’d love to hear your feedback!  Cheers,

-Kev

Twitter @KEKline

More content at http://KevinEKline.com/