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September 03, 2009

Power Up with SQL Server

On September 15th I'll be presenting a 3 session event entitled Power Up with SQL Server. This is a FREE training event hosted by SQL Server Magazine/Windows IT Pro, so if you'd like to learn about whether or not you should virtualize your SQL Servers (and how to best do that), ways to improve database availability, or how to get a grip on performance tuning, then be sure to sign up. Right now there are over 1,000 people registered for Power Up with SQL Server, and there's also an event scheduled in EMEA in November (with different speakers) as well.

Overview
Here's a snippet stolen from the links above. But if you're interested in learning more, go check out the Agenda – which provides a better overview of the three sessions we'll be covering.

Don't wait any longer! Stop merely using SQL Server and start unleashing it to maximize its full potential! Make plans to attend "Power Up with SQL Server," an interactive live virtual event produced by SQL Server Magazine.
Join SQL Server expert, consultant, and author Michael K. Campbell in a clear, insightful, and independent look at ways in which your business can better take advantage of SQL Server capabilities to decrease management costs and improve reliability, uptime and performance.
In just three hours, directly from your own computer you will:

  • See how virtualization and consolidation benefits apply to SQL Server and understand why there's never been a better time to virtualize SQL Server deployments.
  • Learn how to best virtualize SQL Server in order to optimize provisioning, uptime and consolidation without allowing virtualization to impair workload throughput.
  • Understand the benefits and limitations of each of SQL Server's native high-availability options, and learn how to evaluate each option based upon business needs, network latency and other real-world considerations.
  • Learn the difference between High-Availability solutions and disaster recovery solutions and ensure that both critical concerns are handled in the best way possible.
  • Gain insights into what causes SQL Server performance problems and learn about the best ways to profile, load-test and tune SQL Server workloads rather than just throwing more and more expensive hardware at each problem as it is encountered.

Free Subscription to SQL Server Magazine
As a bonus, anyone who registers for this event gets a free 1-year digital subscription to SQL Server Magazine. You can't beat that.

Posted on September 03, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 20, 2009

Why More Government Intervention Won't Help

My cell phone rang this morning. Caller ID showed 866 498 5357 as the caller. I don't know anyone from that number… but since I do give out my cell phone number as a way for potential clients to contact me, I decided to answers.

And got a recording – of some woman telling me that I could consolidate my credit card debt or up my numbers or some other crap.

All I had to do was push "1" to talk to a live operator.

So I pushed 1, and got a cheerful young female who wanted to help.

I politely asked her to take my name off her registry.

Click – the phone was dead.

Enter the Conundrum:
Here's the thing though – this is just one of a few telemarketing calls I've gotten on my cell phone in the past few days.

The Federal Trade Commission wants me to know that Telemarketers may not call cell phone numbers:

Federal Communications Commission regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers.
-- From the FTC Website.

And, you can file a complaint if you are getting calls.

Only problem is: you can't file a complaint if your # isn't in the registry.

EndGame:
According to our well-funded government: Telemarketers can't call my cell phone. So there's no need to file a complaint, since they can't call me.

Posted on July 20, 2009 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

June 04, 2009

ASP.NET MVC 2

As if the ASP.NET MVC weren't awesome enough (I will NEVER go back to webforms), Phil Haack just updated the MVC Codeplex site with a roadmap of upcoming goodies.

In addition to some planned new helpers, and (of course) integration with VS 2010, there will be improved support for Areas, Asynch Controllers, and som Caching improvements – among others.

Go check out the details yourself.

Posted on June 04, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 03, 2009

Dell 20" 2009W 'UltraSharp' Panels SUCK

I've got 3 20" monitors on my desk.

The Good
2 of them are Dell 20" 2007WFPs. Some tech reviews of those monitors said they were good – but had slow response times for when it came to games. I figured that was crap before I ended up buying one, and it was SUCH an awesome monitor I bought another. dell-2009w-lcd-1I also bought a 17" 'UltraSharp' around the same time. It's viewing angle wasn't spectactacular, and I hated having 2 monitors at 1680x1050 and a third at 1280x1024. (The missing 26 pixels in height really messed with my anal-retentive tendencies.)

The Bad
So, fast-forward a few years, and I snagged what I assumed was the new 'version' of these same monitors: a Dell 2009W. Same KILLER housing/mounting equipment. Same awesome stand, same fantastic built-in USB hub. And hell, the specs looked better. Much better – at least on paper.

Only it was all lies.

The Ugly
My buddy Carson bought one of these pigs too at about the same time I did. Within a few days we both noticed that these new monitors just… sucked. They couldn't hold their color very well, couldn't come CLOSE to generating anything remotely close to rich greys like their predecessors, and (to make matters worse) colors/visibility changed depending upon what angle you were looking at them from.

And, frankly, that last point is such a crime. Used to be that 'UltraSharp' meant that you were getting a monitor with a solid viewing angle. With my older 2007WFPs no matter which direction/angle I look at something from, the colors stay the same. With these new replacements, I can shift my head just a bit, and everything is different. Let alone the fact that these monitors are seriously over-saturated (even after turning contrast and brightness WAY down).

More Ugly Still
And… of course, we all know that I'm a bit hyper-critical some times and prone to be a bit cranky (hey, that's just branding right – the site IS called AngryPets.com). But I'm not the only person complaining about it.

This review NAILS it:

Shame on Dell for not using S-IPS panels anymore. I bought this monitor coming out of a 2001FP. WOW did i get jipped.
Don't be fooled by the specs. This LCD sounds amazing on paper for the money.
2000:1 dynamic contrast, 102% color gamut, 1680 x 1050 pixels tightly packed into 20 inches. All for 259 bucks?? Sure I'll take one.
Bad idea. All I was left with was an over- saturated (and trust me the colours are wayyy intense) Almost too contrasty monitor that has a bad viewing angle.
Now more about the viewing angle. Sure it touts 170 degrees. but that's just the image. Not the colour. There's MAJOR colour shifting even at a slight angle.
When in portrait mode, the viewing angles are even worse-to-unusable(unless you don't move your head AT ALL)
      (source: cnet.com)

Likewise, geeks/readers out at Engadget nailed the craptastic choices Dell made when bolting this bucket of crap together down in their comments – where statements like this NAIL what went wrong:

Another TN panel. *sigh*
I really hate that Dell is now calling their sub-par monitors "UltraSharps". What it used to mean was a better-quality IPS or VA panel which offered better viewing angles and better colour depth. The older 2007WFP is a far better LCD than this 2009W.

So if you're in the market for a new 20" – skip past the GREAT looks of these 2009W's – they're total crap.

Shame On Dell
Yeah, I know. Shame on me for not doing a bit more homework. Especially with Dell – whose company motto seems to be: "The consumer will get over it…".

But honestly, despite the fact that I'm a fairly geeky guy and I could have done some research on these new models, why would I have needed to? The predecessor 'UltraSharps' were exactly that. These monitors (apart from their gorgeous hardware) are PURE crap.

And Dell, since you're going to find this post via Google or whatever, here's what I'm hoping: Either send me a 20" that's TRULY UltraSharp along with an apology, or I hope that someone mounts a class-action suit because you've patently decided to pull a bait-and-switch with your own 'UltraSharp' brand name.

Posted on June 03, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 12, 2009

Viable Consumer Level SSDs are Almost Here

I've been running SSDs in a RAID-0 for a few months now. I outlined a few of the issues and problems I've had with stuttering here. But, for the most part, those problems have really only been fairly minor – extending just a tiny bit above being a nuisance. Stated differently: I have no real regrets about my SSDs – they're totally awesome – though the stuttering thing can be a bit of nuisance when I'm doing larger installs or when windows updates are being slurped down to my box.

Happily a new breed of SSDs is starting to make a foray into the market – which should provide all of the benefits I'm seeing, with none of the messy side-effects.

Engadget outlined the details of a new SSD from Corsair:

MLC
256GB Capacity
220MB/sec Read
200MB/sec Write
'Sophisticated' Samsung Controller IC
128MB cache and
NCQ

Sadly, this SSD weighs in at a whopping $700 – which is a lot more than what I paid to get my RAID-0 up and running.

But what's cool about this new Corsair drive is that it has ALL of the right components and the correct configuration.

From here on out, it's just a question of time before similarly configured SSDs come down in price. But once they do, they're going to be WELL worth the cost.

Posted on May 12, 2009 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 06, 2009

Huh ???

Not sure why, but I've never joined flixster.com. Yeah, I've had a number of friends and associates invite me… just couldn't ever seem to get past the whole notion of giving a site tons of information about me just to watch videos that should probably be on YouTube anyhow…

But that hasn't stopped them from spamming me with updates, announcements, and the likes. Today I decided enough was enough and went out to unsubscribe. Only, what I saw kind of set me back a bit.

flixster

 

You see, the schmoe in the photo up there is me.

Pretty good for an ad. And… pretty irksome too. In fact, after seeing that ad … I started rethinking my thoughts on third party cookies.

And it looks like this ad is being driven by a company called SocialReach.com. They, apparently, are in cahoots with lots of the social media sites. So my guess is that since I've been to facebook in the past few weeks, they dropped a cookie on my machine there… then when I hit flixster they used that cookie to do some sort of reverse-lookup and plaster my mug in an advert.

Pretty damned sly. And quite invasive.

Posted on May 06, 2009 | | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

April 22, 2009

Hyper-V Unleashed

If you're interested in learning more about what Hyper-V brings to the table, and whether or not it's ready for prime-time, make sure to check out Hyper-V Unleashed – a free Web Seminar from WindowsITPro.

The event will be on July 21st, and I'll be presenting the 'Hyper-V In Depth' session. Registration is free, and there are some great goodies/freebies available for registrants – in addition, of course, to the content.

Here's a recap of the Agenda:

11:00 a.m.

Hyper-V In-Depth

This session would provide detailed information about Hyper-V. We will begin with the Hyper-V architecture and a discussion of the differences in the Hyper-V role and Hyper-V Server 2008 standalone edition. We also would cover storage and networking options; installing and managing Hyper-V on Server 2008 and Server Core; and advanced topics such as offline VHD access, backup and recovery, high availability options, and management.
12:30 p.m.

Partner Technical Presentations

1:45 p.m.

VMware ESX vs. Microsoft Hyper-V

This session would compare ESX server and Hyper-V, showing the differences between their architectures. We would look at the different features and management interfaces and compare the performance of the two products. In addition, we would look at the more advanced enterprise management capabilities offered by VI3 and SCVMM.
3:00 p.m.

Highly Available Hyper-V

This session would present the different high-availability features offered by Hyper-V. We would cover setting Failover Clustering at both the Hyper-V server and guest level and provide an overview of Live Migration, discussing how Live Migration works and then showing how to set up and use Live Migration with Hyper-V and Server 2008 R2

Posted on April 22, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 21, 2009

CTRL+X

Dear Microsoft,

I'd like CTRL+X (remove an entire line – as per Visual Studio) added to all programs you make.

Thanks,

--Mike

Posted on April 21, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 31, 2009

Video Card Woes

Nearly 2 years ago I bought a new gaming work rig.

It's hands-down been one of the best investments I've ever made. Since purchasing it, I've upgraded it into a new case (one that looks nicer, and has better airflow with a slightly smaller footprint/chassis), upgraded it to 8GB of RAM, and slapped in an SSD RAID-0. It's still so snappy and responsive that it's hard to even quantify. Eventually I'll probably put a Core 2 Quad into it, and maybe swap out my slower RAM for some faster RAM, but otherwise, the system is great.

BaseScore

GeForce 8800 GTS
There has been one let down though – my 8800 GTS video cards. Despite how INSANELY awesome they were from a performance standpoint – and despite how insanely awesome it was to have TWO of them, they just didn't seem to like being a part of my awesome system.

8800GTS

As you can see from the picture of pure awesomeness above, I had 2 EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS cards (okay, so the photo only shows one card) with 320MB of RAM each. Paired up, that was 192 stream processors, a whole bunch of GHz and MHz of Memory and Processor speeds, and 640MB of Video Memory.

Only, about a year ago, one of them just up and died on me. (Sadly, after the warranty had expired.) So I ponied up for another one… and things have been just fine. Until last Friday, when the OTHER one died. So, in less than two years, the failure rate on both of these pigs was 100%. Which, despite their insane awesomeness, just wasn't well… awesome (or, frankly, even acceptable).

The New/Lesser Coolness
So, rather than taking another gamble on a now discontinued card, I decided to downgrade a bit. Truth is, I never really ran in SLI other than a few times to see what it was like – because as cool as SLI is, you only get one monitor. So, as much as I liked having an SLI compatible machine, all I really need 2 video cards for is to be able to run more than 2 monitors. (I'm up to three now and would TOTALLY grab a fourth except three kick off a lot of heat and I'm worried about what 4 would do.)

8600GTS

So, I snagged an EVGA GeForce 8600 GTS. It 'only' has 32 stream processors, and only has 256MB of RAM, but actually has faster bus speeds than my 8800 GTS (as it came out later). So, while it's not a gaming replacement for my remaining GTS 8800, it does JUST fine running a third monitor (and will support my need for a fourth if I ever decide to just take a risk on the heat issues). And since it uses the exact same driver as my 8800GTS, I can run Aero Glass JUST FINE on it and so on.

Best of all, it was only $55 instead of $180… and comes with a 2 year warranty instead of a 1 year warranty. And, for the record, I swear I read something about NVidia having problems with HIGH FAILURE rates on some of their cards – and I blame them, NOT EVGA because EVGA literally has the best customer service and support of any hardware vendor that I know of…

Posted on March 31, 2009 | | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 26, 2009

SQL Server Consulting

Ironically, with as much self-promotion as I do on this blog, I just realized that I've NEVER mentioned my SQL Server Consulting business here.

So, here goes: If you're looking for top-notch SQL Server help and consulting, make sure to check out SQL Server Audits.

So if you're in the market for some professional SQL Server consulting help, make sure to check out the site and feel free to contact me – as my initial consultations are free.

SSA_1

Referral Bonuses
If you know of someone who needs help, send them my way.

Just make sure to give me a heads-up when you send someone, as I'm happy to pay a $50 referral fee for any client that books over 5 hours of consulting help.

And, if you send yourself, just let me know and you'll get a half-hour discount.

Posted on March 26, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 11, 2009

ASP.NET MVC and Search Engine Optimization

If you're interested in ASP.NET MVC and Search Engine Optimization, check out one of my recent articles/newsletters up at WinDevPro.com on ASP.NET MVC and Search Engine Optimization.

I've been using this approach now for a while, and I've been very happy with the flexibility and results it offers.

Posted on March 11, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 06, 2009

Why Live Writer Sucks

Video is worth a thousand words.

And yes. This is the last post I’ll do with Windows Live Writer. (Sorry guys, I’d be fine with it if it were second… it’s a distant last at this point.)

Going to try out BlogJet. Wonder why MS thought it was a good idea to get rid of NORMAL view. That thing was perfect. I could write up an entire post with it, preview it… and everything would be spiffy.

Oh well...instead Live Writer now just throws <p> tags EVERYWHERE (and sometimes arbitrarily double-nests them around your paragraphs such that hitting enter causes a new paragraph to be started ABOVE where you were working). Quite sad really.

UPDATE: Scott Lovegrove posted a solution (in the comments) to the evil I encountered by pointing out how to turn off the ‘Edit usingTheme’ functionality. That effectively turns ‘Normal View’ editing back on – which is exactly what I want.

Posted on March 06, 2009 | | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

January 20, 2009

CTRL+X Syndrome

I hate when I've been spending lots of time in Visual Studio, and then find myself wondering what's up with Word, OneNote, Outlook, and other applications when I try to remove an entire line by pressing CTRL+X.

To me it's almost as integral as middle-clicking.

Posted on January 20, 2009 | | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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