E.T.L. That's Extract - Transform - Load. That doesn't sound like a lot of work when all you need to get loaded is a simple Access database or an Excel spreadsheet. In a situation like that, the process is so simple, all you really need to focus on is the L in ETL. There's not a whole lot of E.T. to process, despite how wonderful that movie is. [pun intended] But as soon as your data loading process involves some difficult or sophisticated cleansing or transformations, it gets really, really hard. The other cross-thread that had really caught my interest lately is the USA federal … [Read more...]
Archives for June 2011
Wednesday Quest: Plenty O’Betas and Product Releases
June 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Spotlight on SQL Server That's right! An all new version 8.0 of Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise is now GA and updated trials are live on the website. Some cool stuff therein: • Support for SQL Server 2011 (Denali) - Spotlight can now be used to monitor SQL Server 2011 databases (Denali CTP1 and CTP2 releases). • Project Lucy integration - Use Project Lucy to analyze the performance of your database and compare your experience with everyone else who uses the service. • VMware memory diagnostics - Analyze virtual memory using charts similar to that used to analyze virtual CPU. We also … [Read more...]
Togetherness Is Always Special
June 28, 2011 by 2 Comments
I always enjoy getting to spend time with Ray. It's really rather ironic that although I work from home, it still sort'a feels like a job. We get to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. We have coffee in the morning together. But once the work starts, it feels like separation.I wonder if the old farmers in the field with the farm wives in the kitchen felt that way about their work? When the ol' farm wives looked up from their sink of dishes, which they had to wash by hand, out to the north forty and see their husbands behind a horse drawn plow, did they smile? Did they feel … [Read more...]
Anna Gets Baptised
June 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Of all the things a Christian father wishes and strives to achieve for his children, a strong spiritual foundation is first and foremost. From that foundation, it seems like most every other good thing can flow. Anna appears in this video about 1/2 way through.Picnic, Baptism & Hail Storm of June 2011 from Friendship Community Church on Vimeo. … [Read more...]
New Releases in the Toad Family of Tools
June 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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 … [Read more...]
Wednesday Quest: Toad and Policy-Based Management
June 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Did you know that Toad for SQL Server has some nice features for users of policy-based management (PBM)? Importing Policies For example, Toad can import policies into a PBM server, so that you don’t have to manually create them every time. You can import policies that you have exported from other servers, and you can also import the Microsoft Best Practice Policies. (Read about the concept HERE). The Microsoft policies are a great place to start learning what you can do with PBM, by simply importing them and inspecting their various configurations. They are installed by default and … [Read more...]
