Toad Extension for Visual Studio 1.2 is now live. You can access it HERE.
Key new features in Toad Extension for Visual Studio v1.2:
Deployment Scripts: the pre- and post-deployment scripts of TFS are now supported.
XML Columns: supports tables with XML data type columns.
Nested Tables: supports tables with up to two levels of nested table type columns.
Synonyms: synonyms can now be imported into your DB project
Source Navigation: You can now use F12 navigation to find the definition of items in the code editor.
Stored Procedures: generate Oracle stored procedures that use insert, update, or delete statements.
Toad for Data Analysts 3.0 us now in free beta. You can access it HERE or at ToadWorld.com
Discover, query, and analyze data across any data source without being a SQL expert. Toad for Data Analysts (TDA) is a data discovery tool designed for data management professionals and analysts who need to access a wide variety of traditional, non-traditional, and emerging data sources to visually run queries, federate and analyze data, and create reports to support analytics and business intelligence. With Toad for Data Analysts 3.0, you can:
Easily discover data across disparate data sources including leading RDBMS platforms, all ODBC enabled sources, and Netezza, Teradata, Excel, Hadoop and NoSQL
Harness the power of SQL to visually create complex queries, visually analyze data, and create reports for self-service business intelligence and analytics without being a SQL expert
Work offline or on-the-go with Toad’s embedded database where you can integrate and cleanse data right from your desktop
Dramatically increase productivity by automating reporting and sharing of information and reports
It’s old news, but two other products in the Toad family have seen a recent refresh:
Benchmark Factory for Databases v6.5 You can access it HERE.
The highlight of this release is wizard-driven workload capture and replay for Oracle, enabling users to accurately anticipate and measure the performance impact of database changes such as patches and upgrades, OS migrations and more. Benchmark Factory is a very flexible, simple database scalability testing tool and, if you’re an Oracle user, also less expensive than Oracle Real Application Testing. If you’re like me and want shortcuts, watch THIS VIDEO to see what the tool can do without the need to download, install, and tinker with it. Quest Code Tester for Oracle v2.0 available HERE. I wish we had this for the other database platforms!
The highlight of this release is the new Test Explorer console that replaces the Test Dashboard. The Test Explorer offers a simplified workflow and greater usability in creating and managing the entire code testing process.
Cloud computing is more than just the latest buzz word in the IT trade papers. It is a remarkable paradigm shift with as much potential to “turn over the apple cart” of IT computing as client-server had for the world of mainframe and minicomputers. If you’re not spending time to learn about cloud computing, in general, and SQL Azure, in particular, then you’re missing the boat in a big way. (Ha! Two big metaphors in one afternoon. My high-school English teacher would be proud.)
There are mountains, literally MOUNTAINS, of free and high-quality content to be had. For example:
Fire Side Chats are invitation only Live Meetings. They are an hour in length, repeated at different times of day so you don’t need to attend at 3:00am because of time zone issues. Each Fire Side Chat has a key Microsoft individual talking about their area of expertise and answering questions from the audience. The Fireside Chats are aimed at technical experts, MVPs, user group leaders and the like. But they have content of interest for everyone. When looking at the archives, I noticed that there didn’t seem to be many recent chats. But some of the older ones still looked interested. You can register to see one at http://ug.gitca.org/sites/FireSideChats.
~~~
Microsoft Team Blogs of Interest
Do you ever wish that Microsoft consolidated all of their blogs in one easy to find central clearinghouse? Well, your wish was answered, actually quite a long time ago. BlogMS consolidates almost 250 Microsoft team blogs across a variety of Microsoft product and online services portfolio, with usually about 70 – 80 blog posts per week. Yes, children, that’s two to three HUNDRED blog posts per month.
You’ll find important announcements and details of Microsoft news, product releases, service packs and important support issues. On top of that, I really like all of the great links to Microsoft web resources on the right hand side of the website. If you’re like me (and let’s be honest, most rational or just sane people would not want anything of the sort), you’ll probably bookmark quite a few of those links.
The following BlogMS Resource Guides may also be of use:
You might be familiar with the term “Most Valuable Player”, but haven’t heard that MVPs exist in the professional world too. Microsoft has nearly 3,000 designated “Most Valuable Professionals”. These folks are designated experts who know their subject matter at an expert level and, as an added bonus, they don’t smell like a basketball locker room (SQLRockstar, Thomas LaRock, being a notable exception to this rule).
Late last year a cool new tool was launched called Microsoft Desktop Player. The player aggregates contextual technical content (webcasts, podcasts, white papers) from across all sorts of Microsoft websites having an IT Pro adoption lifecycle. In addition, it also provides links to local resources and news for the Developers and IT Pros based on their local settings, helping to drive the local engagement/relationship. You’ll need Microsoft Silverlight to run the website, but it’s oh-so-cool looking. Check out the details here: http://www.microsoft.com/click/desktopplayer.
If you spend any time at all reading IT trade journals and websites, you’ve no doubt heard about the NoSQL movement. In a nutshell, NoSQL databases (also called post-relational databases) are a variety of loosely grouped means of storing data without requiring the SQL language. Of course, we’ve had non-relational databases far longer than we’ve had actual relational databases. Anyone who’s used products like IBM’s Lotus Notes can point to a popular non-relational database. However, part and parcel of the NoSQL movement is the idea that the data repositories can horizontally scale with ease, since they’re used as the underpinnings of a website. For that reason, NoSQL is strongly associated with web applications, since websites have a history of starting small and going “viral,” exhibiting explosive growth after word gets out. [READ MORE]
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:
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 almostwatched 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?
I’m sorry that I got this out a bit late, but there are still a city or two where you can join in on these great free, 1-day classes on Windows Azure provided by Neudesic. Atlanta, for example, is set for July 28th. You’ll get a deep dive program that will prepare you to deliver solutions on the Windows Azure Platform.
The region’s best Azure experts will teach you how to work in the cloud through training, discussion, review of real scenarios, and hands on labs. Snacks and drinks will be provided; however, you’re advised to bring an extension cord and to you to make your own lunch arrangements prior to the event.
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.
And, since many of the technological bits of Wave will live on, I’m sure we’ll see Slide advance in interesting ways.
