OttoRadke.com

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Tip 1 - Purge Transaction Log

Otto R. Radke — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:53:32 GMT

We've been migrating some of our production databases at work to SQL 2008 and I'm finding that Microsoft changed a lot. They updated the BACKUP LOG t-sql command and removed the TRUNCATE_ONLY switch, which means quickly and easily purging the transaction log requires a bit more work. I spent a little while yesterday and wrote the following T-SQL to purge the logs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Otto R. Radke - http://ottoradke.com
-- Info:  T-SQL script to shrink a database's transaction log.  Just set the
--        database name below and run the script and it will shrink the 
--        transaction log.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Update the line below with the name of the database who's transaction
-- log you want to shrink.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
USE BRW
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Don't change anything below this line.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GO
-- Declare variables
DECLARE @SqlStatement as nvarchar(max)
DECLARE @LogFileLogicalName as sysname
-- Alter the database to simple recovery
SET @SqlStatement = 'ALTER DATABASE ' + DB_NAME() + ' SET RECOVERY SIMPLE'
EXEC ( @SqlStatement )
-- Make sure it has been altered
SELECT [name], [recovery_model_desc] FROM sys.databases WHERE [name] = DB_NAME()
-- Set the log file name variable
SELECT @LogFileLogicalName = [Name] FROM sys.database_files WHERE type = 1
-- Shrink the logfile
DBCC Shrinkfile(@LogFileLogicalName, 1)
-- Alter the database back to FULL
SET @SqlStatement = 'ALTER DATABASE ' + DB_NAME() + ' SET RECOVERY FULL'
EXEC ( @SqlStatement )
-- Make sure it has been changed back to full
SET @SqlStatement = 'SELECT [name], [recovery_model_desc] FROM ' + DB_NAME() + '.sys.databases WHERE [name] = ''' + DB_NAME() + ''''
EXEC ( @SqlStatement )

If you want a copy of the source, let me know and I'll either update this post with the source or email it to you.

It is official, Obama lost because of my vote

Otto R. Radke — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:46:00 GMT

A friend sent this to me and it is way fun!

Linq to CheckBoxList in asp.net

Otto R. Radke — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:15:00 GMT

Linq is pretty amazing. I'm working on a feature for Boardroom Web where a person can select multiple items that are in a CheckBoxList. I wanted a quick and easy way to read all of the items they checked. Here's the Linq statement to read everything that is checked:

var selectionResults = from ListItem item in cblAnswers.Items

                       where item.Selected == true

                       select item;

I'm not sure if I'm using Linq just to use Linq, but sure seems like a very simple way to get what I needed in this case.

Gary Vaynerchuk's Web 2.0 Expo NY Talk

Otto R. Radke — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:58:09 GMT

Stop whatever you're doing right now and spend the 15 minutes and watch this video. Gary drops the f-bomb a couple of times during the talk, but don't lose sight of the real message.

Jungle Disk Automatic Backups on Windows 2008 Server

Otto R. Radke — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:22:07 GMT

I've been working on the server that's running this web site and a couple others and one thing high on the list was automating backups. If you bundle backups with hosting plans, they always seem to be fairly expensive, so I choose to use Amazon's S3 service with Jungle Disk.

Jungle Disk's biggest shortcoming is the fact that you have to be logged into the console in order for backups to fire. It appears you can run the software as a service, but I've read mixed reviews.

My solution uses standard Windows features that should work on most Windows Servers. It uses Windows Task Scheduler with two actions, one to kill any running JungleDiskMonitor.exe process, and a second to start the JungleDiskMonitor.exe process with the --startbackups and --exit switches (you can read about them via the link above).

The reason I kill the JungleDiskMonitor process is due to this screen:

Jungle Disk seems to hate to have a second copy of itself running and when I tried to fire the Windows Task Scheduler job, I would encounter this error. Solution, kill the process before starting Jungle Disk with the TaskKill command. Here is the command I'm using to kill the process: taskkill /IM junglediskmonitor.exe /T /F

Here is what my job looks like via Windows Task Scheduler:

What's nice about this solution is that I can remote into my server and open Jungle Disk and adjust my backups and settings. From the sounds of it, if you run it as a service, you lose this ability.

Checking out Google Chrome Beta

Otto R. Radke — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:56:00 GMT

I just installed the beta of Google Chrome and I'm checking out a couple sites in the new browser. I really like the clean look and feel and how fast the browser feels. I wonder how I'll like it in a week from now...

Download Google Chrome

Building a New Development Computer

Otto R. Radke — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:27:00 GMT

I've been thinking about building or buying a new development computer for home and have been torn between building, buying a Dell, or Mac Pro. All of those options present various pros and cons which is what kept me on the fence so long. Not any more, most of my parts have arrived, except the case, which should be here this afternoon.

As you can see, I've decided to build vs. buy. Why? I didn't want to spend too much money and I wanted to have more control over my hardware.

Blueprint CSS Framework

Otto R. Radke — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:09:00 GMT

Over the last couple of months I've been using Blueprint CSS framework with the web applications I'm working on. I looked at several CSS frameworks, but this one seems the best fit for my needs and the more I use it, the more I love it.

Here are some of the resources that I've used when learning about Blueprint and find myself referring back to from time to time.

Blueprint on Google Code - The official version
Links to Blueprint Resources - Great collection of examples, tutorials, and tools
Blueprint PDF Cheat Sheet - Single page cheat sheet contains all the classes you need to know about when working with Blueprint
Hands on with Blueprint - Great blog post with various examples

Using Blueprint, I was able to skin this this site in a couple of hours from scratch.

Using Gravatars with GraffitiCMS

Otto R. Radke — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:16:25 GMT

I quickly implemented Gravatars in GraffitiCMS today. The only issue I had was due to my migration from dasBlog. During the conversion, comments that were migrated didn't have the commenters IP Address migrated as well. In my post.view file for Graffiti, I added the following code:

#if($comment.IPAddress)
  $macros.Gravatar($comment.Email, $comment.Name, $comment.IPAddress, "%{size ='34'}")
#end

Works great for my needs.

iPhone 3G, no thanks, but hello iPhone 2.0 firmware!

Otto R. Radke — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:36:55 GMT

Upgrading to iPhone's 2.0 Firmware

Yesterday morning Steve Rubel asked on Twitter if anyone spotted the iPhone firmware in the wild. Roughly 20 minutes later, he posts a link on FriendFeed, iPhone 2.0 Firmware (5A347) Available Early - Mac Rumors. (Note: if you are into social media and you're not subscribed to Steve's blog and/or FriendFeed stream, you should be.)

I'm not sure how it was found so quickly, but it was, and it was the real deal. Not wanting to wait for the official release (which is available right now), I downloaded the firmware and upgraded my phone. For me the whole process took about 45 minutes and was painless. All of my settings, SMS, etc were restored properly and I was ready to dig into the new features of the firmware. I'm also happy to report that when I click the Check for Update button in iTunes, it reports that I have the current version!

Everyone's been talking about the App Store and I think it is pretty amazing, but for me, the iPhone is an email life line. When I moved to the iPhone, I lost the ability to over the air sync with Microsoft Exchange. Losing core functionality like that was a big step backwards.

With the newly added Exchange support, I'm able send & receive emails on my 3 emails accounts (NWCU, iTech Northwest, and personal). And I have to say, using the iPhone to check multiple email accounts is one of the best user experiences around.

Why I'm Not Upgrading to the iPhone 3G

There are 2 new features available in the hardware that are not available on first generation iPhone - 3G data rates and GPS. I'm sure the 3G speeds will be amazing when you can access the 3G network with speeds almost that of WiFi. GPS will be handy, but I doubt I'd use it while driving, and the first generation iPhone does a pretty good job of finding your location on Google Maps. But are those two features worth the upgrade and increased monthly expense?

I called AT&T earlier this week to find out how much it would cost to upgrade myself and Joanna. Both of us are in the middle of contracts, so our costs would be $399 or $499 per phone. Our monthly costs were projected to go up $20 ($10 each because of the new data rate plans), assuming there are no other hidden fees, that's not too bad.

But is $399 worth two new features? One of which I kind of have already? No way. What if it was $199? Maybe, but doubtful. The 2.0 firmware included what I really wanted and that was free.

A week ago I was pretty sure this morning I would be in line somewhere waiting to pickup a new iPhone, but after careful consideration, I'm going to pass. I love the direction Apple is heading, but this version doesn't offer enough bang for my buck.

[Update]

Jake posted a comment this morning regarding the leaked firmware that a lot of people downloaded yesterday. He was right, the firmware that was leaked was for the iPhone 3G, not the 1st generation iPhone. If you manually patched your phone like I did yesterday, the fix is easy, just click the Restore button in iTunes and you should get the latest firmware. I confirmed this by finding the file that iTunes downloads, it should be: iPhone1,1_2.0_5A347_Restore.ipsw