Simon Sabin UK SQL Consultant's Blog

Last minute offer of free tickets for SQLBits

simonsabin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:34:10 GMT

Microsoft have some free tickets available for the Friday of SQLBits.

See Andrew Fryers blog for details http://blogs.technet.com/andrew/archive/2009/11/16/sql-bits-friday-session.aspx

Last minute bonus for those attending SQLBits

simonsabin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:14:07 GMT

If the content we've got lined up isn't good enough, Thomas Kejser (Microsoft SQLCAT) has offered along with his partner in crime Henk from Unisys to partake in an informal thing on the Thursday evening.

I call it a thing because its going to be an informal gathering discussing SQL stuff. We have, a projector, some chairs, two really knowledgeable guys on SQL and importantly a bar.So it should be a blast.

I think the idea is we get some drinks and then just see what unfolds. Undoubtedly Henk will wheel out his 96 core monster and Thomas will talk about storage at some point.

So if you are there on Thursday or coming for Friday make sure you get there to come and join us.

We will be starting about 7:30, so just follow the signs.

Car sharing launched for SQLBits

simonsabin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:23:19 GMT

Using the Bing maps you can now find people that are near you that have offered lifts to SQLBits.

Go to http://sqlbits.com/CarSharing.aspx click on the person you wish to contact and then just send them your details so they can get in touch with you.

I hope you find it useful.

Simon

Beers are on Red Gate

simonsabin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:51:28 GMT

Red Gate have kindly offered to support SQLBits by sponsoring the evening reception. So for one of the evenings of SQLBits the drinks will be on Red Gate.

Really chuffed at this as we like to have the UK companies supporting us.

So make sure you haven't booked your train for 5pm as you'll miss the fun and games we've got planned for after the sessions have finished. We've got drinks and games planned for both Friday and Saturday evenings. The games include table football, giant connect four, air hockey and more.

SQLBits

simonsabin — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:10:26 GMT

The agenda is now published for SQLBits you can select the day at the top.

http://sqlbits.com/information/newagenda.aspx

We've got some issues with colour coding since upgrading the the latest controls we use so sorry for all the blue.

Please remember that if you aren't going to be able to make it please cancel your registration. It costs us £50/person/day so if you don't cancel it means it makes it more difficult to support events in the future.

data source reference is not valid - Excel error when adding a pivot table

simonsabin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:59:10 GMT

I've had this error a few times but never figured out why.

With the help of a few posts around the web I finally found out the reason.

If you have opened a none excel file like a csv file, then you get this error "Data source reference is not valid" really helpful.

The solution is to save your spreadsheet as an xls or xlsx file and heh presto you can create the pivot table.

Bing Maps updated - loving the new features

simonsabin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:41:43 GMT

Went on bing maps today and noticed a few differences, and then remembered an email from the bing maps team saying it had been updated.

Some of the new features.

1. Its quick, very quick

2. Go to london and its got the familiar A-Z colouring not the OS colouring. This was one of the reasons I loved streetmap. A technology ahead of its time, can you believe they almost shutdown.

3. Tube overlay http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=51.5074~-0.1193&lvl=14&sty=r&trn=1&rtp=adr.~adr.&rtop=0~0~0~

Shocking news for SQL 2008 R2

simonsabin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:07:00 GMT

News about SQL 2008 R2 brings some amazing news. On the bad news, Enterprise edition will only support 8 sockets (the view that with 8 cores coming you will still get 64 cores) In addition you no longer get unlimted vritauliastion with Enterprise edition...(read more)

How to get the most out of 96 cores

simonsabin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:44:13 GMT

Henk van der Valk is a consultant for Unisys. If you've never heard of him then he is one of the guys that worked on the ETL world record for loading a database last year. This was done with 64 cores.

Now with support for 256 cores, Henk got his hands on a 96 core server and showed you what you could achieve with such a server.

Have a look at this video to see what Henk could come up with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qjrq8kpZUs

If you are really interested in SQL Server performance then make sure you come along to SQLBits to learn how you can really scale SQL Sever.

Limited places left for SQLBits V

simonsabin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:45:30 GMT

We are nearing the max numbers we can afford for the Saturday of SQLBits V. So if you are thinking of coming then make sure you register soon.

More importantly, if you have said you are coming to the Saturday (most of you) and you can no longer make it, please update your registration accordingly. We have to cater for all the number registered and so if you don't come we will still be paying the venue for you. So please keep your registration updated.

Great post from Luke on going to SQLbits

simonsabin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:23:57 GMT

Luke Hayler's been talking about going to SQLBits, Network and logistics of getting there

http://www.lukehayler.com/2009/09/sqlbits-here-i-come/

Next Cambridge Usergroup on the 29th October

simonsabin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:39:54 GMT

We are going to an evening of SQL Server Query tuning on the 29th October in Cambridge

Its going to be at the Bango offices.

Keep posted for more details.

If you want to notified of the event, then use the contact form above.

Ordering Integration Services Packages in Management Studio

simonsabin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:54:58 GMT

Call me picky but it bugs me when things aren't in order. The SQL team seem to be really bad at this particular annoyance. They seem unable to put things in a nice order.

If you are loking at packages in Management Studio then you will find the packages in totally random order, why is that you. Well they haven't put an ORDER BY on the query that lists the packages, and we all know that without and ORDER BY there is not guarantee of the order of the results.

To fix this you can hack one of the system stored procs. sp_dts_listpackages

This package is found in msdb it is classed as a system procedure and so is in the system procedures folder (if looking in object explorer).

If you change it to

ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_dts_listpackages]

@folderid uniqueidentifier

SELECT

name,

id,

description,

createdate,

folderid,

datalength(packagedata),

vermajor,

verminor,

verbuild,

vercomments,

verid

FROM

sysdtspackages90

WHERE

[folderid] = @folderid

ORDER BY name

You will get your packages ordered nicely by name.

SQLBits Early Bird has been extended

simonsabin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:34:27 GMT

SQLBits is not around to make moeny, its here to build the SQL Community. What that means is that when start to cover our costs then there is no point in charging people more. We've reached that point and so what we've done is push back the end of the early bird to the end of October.

This means that if you need a little longer to convince your bos you should go to the best SQL Server conference around then you now have 4 more weeks.

I look forward to seeing you all there and hope you can convince your boss its well worth your while. It must be the best value training you can get for SQL Server.

Oh and if you can't get your Boss to open his wallet then don't forget it's still free to come on the Saturday.

Don't forget the early bird ends on Wednesday - SQLBits

simonsabin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:53:26 GMT

If you are umming and ahhing about registering for SQLBits. Get in quick as the early bird ends on Wednesday.

If you are going to the Data Management Conference today then I will see you there and if you are lucky ther migth be some interesting giveaways with regards to SQLBits. So come and see us, I think a group of us will be in an "Ask the experts" type area.

Oh and don't forget to get your pictures for the SQLBits mugshot competition. We will be deciding on the winner at our committee meeting tonight (Tuesday). There have been some great entries so far.