Fast Features for Quest Tools. Someday soon, I promise.
I’ve been trying hard to get more videos out the door about the SQL Server tools from Quest Software (my employer). I’d sent a new one over to the program marketing team a while back, but it’s not showing up in the Coffee Break Bytes section like it should. These little videos show a single feature in detail, usually taking no more than 5 minutes to watch in their entirety.
In the meanwhile, check out the excellent video series here. And the blogs are really good too, available on the interwebs here.
Thinking about cloud computing?
Well, there aren’t many tools out there that will make your life easier than Toad for Cloud Databases. As is most cloud technology, this particular tool is still in beta. But there’s no better time to help set the direction and features of a tool with as outstanding a record as Toad. Get the details and download the beta here.
And if you like providing feedback to the development team, don’t overlook the IdeaPond where you can provide your own ideas and vote on others that are already posted. (Currently targeted towards Oracle users, but I say let’s crash that party)!
You may have seen a new super sleuth around Quest.com and Toad World – The Data Detective!
Everyone wants good data, but not everyone wants to work hard to get it
The team at Quest Software has created a new comic series where users can learn how Toad for Data Analysts will help you find, understand and report on data. Plus, you can take part in a contest to win a free one-year license of TDA!
The first in the comic book series is posted here. And there’s one each month. If you contact me directly, I can help you get to the front of the line for the contest!
If you’re like me, you’ve used Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V more than a time or two, but you’ve always felt a little dirty afterwards. Yeah, you can use the command-line COPY or XCOPY utilities. But they’re decidedly 20th Century, much like some of the laundry still loitering under my office couch.
So I spent a little time over the holidays cleaning up my file system by scripting a backup routine using the very cool and very free ROBOCOPY utility. Now, I’ve got a regularly scheduled job that, after the first run which captured all my files, only backs up new or changed files (and directories) while keeping all of their NTFS attributes. Boo-Yah!
Read all about it on my Tool Time Blog at SQLMag. I’ll also show you how to use some other free and powerful alternatives in future entries.
Here are a couple of nifty resources that you should bookmark.
Microsoft Answers
Join the conversation as a community leader through a new, fast-growing Microsoft site called Microsoft Answers. The site currently focuses on Microsoft’s consumer products starting with Windows Vista. Throughout the fall (actually, starting on September 28th), Microsoft began to add forums for Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows Live Services (in English, with other languages to follow starting back in October). Forums for Office will also be added later, with more consumer products to be added as the Microsoft Answers community grows.
Microsoft Answers is already live in the English language– go to http://answers.microsoft.com to view the existing forums. On September 28 (PST), Microsoft Answers will also offer community forums around Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Live Services.
You’ll need to register, but if you are currently registered with MSDN and/or TechNet, your credentials and user profile will automatically be recognized by the Microsoft Answers site via your Windows Live ID). If you want to tweet about this, use the #MSAnswers hashtag.
WebSite Spark and Web Application Tool Kits
Microsoft has also announced WebsiteSpark featuring a number of Web Application Toolkits to the Web. Web Application Toolkits are designed to enable Web Developers to extend their web application capabilities simply and easily by providing them with a packaged set of running samples, templates and documentation – all in a consistent packaged format that is easy to download and run in a very short period of time.
One of the key criteria that I really like about the Web Application Toolkits is that they’re designed to enable Web Developers to get to an F5 (Run) experience very quickly and ensure that this is the right solution for their problem. I’ve always felt that coders are much more like artists than they are like engineers. And every good artists knows that they key to a great piece of art is the initial sketch. Unfortunately, our application development tools frequently constrain us from making a sketch in code, running it, and then refining it. After all, how many times have you heard about or been the developer who spent hours getting a sample to work, only to find it does not do the expected?
Microsoft WebsiteSpark includes 7 Web Application Toolkits (at the time of launch, maybe there are more now?), together with an introduction to the Web Application Toolkits on Channel9 by James Senior and Jonathan Carter. Me likey the Channel9. The example scenarios were selected based on feedback from community developers with the first 7 being detailed below:
You can find the complete list of Web Application Toolkits here. Microsoft plans for several more and are exploring additional ways to make it easier for Web Developers to find and reuse this content.
