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  • Monogame/SharpDX - Shader parameters missing

    - by Layoric
    I am currently working on a simple game that I am building in Windows 8 using MonoGame (develop3d). I am using some shader code from a tutorial (made by Charles Humphrey) and having an issue populating a 'texture' parameter as it appears to be missing. Edit I have also tried 'Texture2D' and using it with a register(t0), still no luck I'm not well versed writing shaders, so this might be caused by a more obvious problem. I have debugged through MonoGame's Content processor to see how this shader is being parsed, all the non 'texture' parameters are there and look to be loading correctly. Edit This seems to go back to D3D compiler. Shader code below: #include "PPVertexShader.fxh" float2 lightScreenPosition; float4x4 matVP; float2 halfPixel; float SunSize; texture flare; sampler2D Scene: register(s0){ AddressU = Clamp; AddressV = Clamp; }; sampler Flare = sampler_state { Texture = (flare); AddressU = CLAMP; AddressV = CLAMP; }; float4 LightSourceMaskPS(float2 texCoord : TEXCOORD0 ) : COLOR0 { texCoord -= halfPixel; // Get the scene float4 col = 0; // Find the suns position in the world and map it to the screen space. float2 coord; float size = SunSize / 1; float2 center = lightScreenPosition; coord = .5 - (texCoord - center) / size * .5; col += (pow(tex2D(Flare,coord),2) * 1) * 2; return col * tex2D(Scene,texCoord); } technique LightSourceMask { pass p0 { VertexShader = compile vs_4_0 VertexShaderFunction(); PixelShader = compile ps_4_0 LightSourceMaskPS(); } } I've removed default values as they are currently not support in MonoGame and also changed ps and vs to v4 instead of 2. Could this be causing the issue? As I debug through 'DXConstantBufferData' constructor (from within the MonoGameContentProcessing project) I find that the 'flare' parameter does not exist. All others seem to be getting created fine. Any help would be appreciated. Update 1 I have discovered that SharpDX D3D compiler is what seems to be ignoring this parameter (perhaps by design?). The ConstantBufferDescription.VariableCount seems to be not counting the texture variable. Update 2 SharpDX function 'GetConstantBuffer(int index)' returns the parameters (minus textures) which is making is impossible to set values to these variables within the shader. Any one know if this is normal for DX11 / Shader Model 4.0? Or am I missing something else?

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  • BI Publisher - Hottest Show in Vegas

    - by mike.donohue
    Two days down, two to go. Monday was a very busy and rewarding day. Attended "XML Publisher and FSG for Beginners" given by Susan Behn and Alyssa Johnson from Solution Beacon. It was packed, standing room only ... even though it was at 8:00 am. Later in the afternoon, despite being at the same time and in conflict with other Publisher related sessions, Noelle's session, "The Reporting Platform for Applications: Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher" and my session, "Introduction to Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher" were both very well attended. Immediately following our presentations we ran the BI Publisher Hands On Lab which was great fun. The turnout was so large that unfortunately we could not accommodate everyone who came to the lab. There were as many as 5 people huddled around each of the 20 machines. All the the groups completed the 2 main exercises. Some groups even took the product for an off-road test drive. Look at all the fun we had ... For those who could not attend or want the Hands On Lab document: Hands On Lab Oracle BI Publisher Collaborate 2010.pdf Note that these lab instructions assume a specific set up and files that you may not have in your environment. You can download and install a trial license version of BI Publisher from the download page. Highly recommend taking a look at the additional Tutorials available on OTN. Big thanks to Dan Vlamis and Jonathan Clark from Vlamis Software Solutions and to the Oracle BIWA SIG for setting up these machines and getting the time and space to run this lab. It was inspiring to see all of the attendees successfully creating reports. On Tuesday morning we were up early again for a rousing session of BI Publisher Best Practices that was also, very well attended especially considering the 8 am start. Later that morning saw Ben Bruno from STR Software and two of his customers speak on the additional functionality and ROI they have achieved by using Publisher within EBS and AventX to FAX and Email Publisher generated documents. Spent the afternoon staffing the BI Technology demo pod and had a steady flow of people dropping by with questions. Having a great conference so far and looking forward to the rest of it.

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  • FREE Windows Azure evening in London on April 15th including FREE access to Windows Azure

    - by Eric Nelson
    [Did I overdo the use of FREE in the title? :-)] April 12th to 16th is Microsoft Tech Days – 5 days of sessions on Visual Studio 2010 through to Windows 7 Phone Series. Many of these days are now full (Tip - Thursday still has room if rich client applications is your thing) but the good news is the development community in the UK has pulled together an awesome series of “fringe events” during April in London and elsewhere in the UK. There are sessions on Silverlight, SQL Server 2008 R2, Sharepoint 2010 and … the Windows Azure Platform. The UK AzureNET user group is planning to put on a great evening and AzureNET will be giving away hundreds of free subscriptions to the Windows Azure Platform during the evening. The subscription includes up to 20 Windows Azure Compute nodes and 3 SQL Azure databases for you to play with over the 2 weeks following the event. This is a great opportunity to really explore the Windows Azure Platform in detail – without a credit card! Register now! (and you might also want to join the UK Fans of Azure Community while I have your attention) FYI The Thursday day time event includes an introduction to Windows Azure session delivered by my colleague David – which would be an ideal session to attend if you are new to Azure and want to get the most out of the evening session. 7:00pm: See the difference: How Windows Azure helped build a new way of giving Simon Evans and James Broome (@broomej) They will cover the business context for Azure and then go into patterns used and lessons learnt from the project....as well as showing off the app of course! 8:00pm: UK AzureNET update 8:15pm: NoSQL databases or: How I learned to love the hash table Mark Rendle (@markrendle) In this session Mark will look at how Azure Table Service works and how to use it. We’ll look briefly at the high-level Data Services SDK, talk about its limitations, and then quickly move on to the REST API and how to use it to improve performance and reduce costs. We’ll make-up some pretend real-world problems and solve them in new and interesting ways. We’ll denormalise data (for fun and profit). We’ll talk about how certain social networking sites can deal with huge volumes of data so quickly, and why it sometimes goes wrong. Check out the complete list of fringe events which covers the UK fairly well:

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  • SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Launch Success And Reusable Rockets Test Partially Successful

    - by Gopinath
    Elon Musk’s SpaceX is closing on the dream of developing reusable rockets and likely in an year or two space launch rockets will be reusable just like flights, ships and cars. Today SpaceX launched an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket in to space to deliver satellites as well as to test their reusable rocket launching technology. All on board satellites were released on to the orbit and the first stage of rocket partially succeeded in returning back to Earth. This is a huge leap in space technology.   Couple of years ago reusable rockets were considered as impossible. NASA, Russian Space Agency, China, India or for that matter any other space agency never even attempted to build reusable rockets. But SpaceX’s revolutionary technology partially succeeded in doing the impossible! Elon Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of building reusable rockets and transporting humans to & from other planets like Mars. He says If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred.  A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space. Normally the first stage of a rocket falls back to Earth after burning out and is destroyed. But today SpaceX reignited first stage rocket after its separation and attempted to descend smoothly on to ocean’s surface. Though it did not fully succeed, the test was partially successful and SpaceX was able to recovers portions of first stage. Rocket booster relit twice (supersonic retro & landing), but spun up due to aero torque, so fuel centrifuged & we flamed out — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2013 With the partial success of recovering first stage, SpaceX gathered huge amount of information and experience it can use to improve Falcon 9 and build a fully reusable rocket. In post launch press conference Musk said if things go "super well", could refly a Falcon 9 1st stage by the end of next year. Falcon 9 Launch Video Next reusable first tests delayed by at least two launches SpaceX has a busy schedule for next several months with more than 50 missions scheduled using the new Falcon 9 rocket. Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Shuttle for NASA.  SpaceX announced that they will not attempt to recover the first stage of Falcon 9 in next two missions. The next test will be conducted on  the fourth mission of Falcon 9 which is planned to carry cargo to Internation Space Station sometime next year. This will give time required for SpaceX to analyze the information gathered from today’s mission and improve first stage reentry systems. More reading Here are few interesting sources to read more about today’s SpaceX launch SpaceX post mission press conference details and discussion on Reddit Giant Leaps for Space Firms Orbital, SpaceX Hacker News community discussion on SpaceX launch SpaceX Launches Next-Generation Private Falcon 9 Rocket on Big Test Flight

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  • Miracle Growth Of Organs From Our Own Cells

    - by Rekha
    At the current situation, there is a shortage of healthy organs. The donor and patient also have to be closely matched and there are chances for the patient’s immune system may reject the transplant. Right now, researchers are seriously involved in a new kind of solution: "bioartifical" organs are being grown from the patient’s own cells. There are a few people who have already received lab-grown bladders. Bladder technique was developed by Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The healthy cells from the patient’s diseased bladder is taken and cause them to multiply profusely in petri dishes. The muscle cells go on the outside, urothelial cells on the inside by layering the cells one layer at a time. The bladder-to-be is then incubated at body temperature until the cells form functioning tissue. This process could take six to eight months. Organs with lots of blood vessels, such as kidneys or livers, are harder to grow than hollow ones like bladders. Atala’s group works on 22 organs and tissues including ears, recently made a functioning piece of human liver. Others in the list includes:  Columbia University – Jawbone, Yale University – Lung, University of Minnesota – Rat heart, University of Michigan – Artificial Kidney There are possibilities that growing a copy of patient’s organ is not always possible – for instance, when the original is completely damaged by cancer. By using stem cell bank collected without harming human embryos from amniotic fluid in the womb, those cells are coaxed into becoming heart, liver and other organ cells. A bank of 1,00,000 stem cell samples would have enough genetic variety to match nearly any patient. Surgeons can order organs grown as needed instead of waiting for the perfect donor. "There are few things as devastating for a surgeon as knowing you have to replace the tissue and you’re doing something that’s not ideal," says Atala, a urologic surgeon himself. "Wouldn’t it be great if they had their own organ?" Great for the patient especially, he means. Via National Geographic  and cc image credit This article titled,Miracle Growth Of Organs From Our Own Cells, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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  • Delegate performance of Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP is impressive

    - by dotneteer
    I wanted to dynamically compile some delegates using Roslyn. I came across this article by Piotr Sowa. The article shows that the delegate compiled with Roslyn CTP was not very fast. Since the article was written using the Roslyn June 2012, I decided to give Sept 2012 CTP a try. There are significant changes in Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP in both C# syntax supported as well as API. I found Anoop Madhisidanan’s article that has an example of the new API. With that, I was able to put together a comparison. In my test, the Roslyn compiled delegate is as fast as C# (VS 2012) compiled delegate. See the source code below and give it a try. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Diagnostics; using Roslyn.Compilers; using Roslyn.Scripting.CSharp; using Roslyn.Scripting; namespace RoslynTest { class Program { public Func del; static void Main(string[] args) { Stopwatch stopWatch = new Stopwatch(); Program p = new Program(); p.SetupDel(); //Comment out this line and uncomment the next line to compare //p.SetupScript(); stopWatch.Start(); int result = DoWork(p.del); stopWatch.Stop(); Console.WriteLine(result); Console.WriteLine("Time elapsed {0}", stopWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds); Console.Read(); } private void SetupDel() { del = (s, i) => ++s; } private void SetupScript() { //Create the script engine //Script engine constructor parameters go changed var engine=new ScriptEngine(); //Let us use engine's Addreference for adding the required //assemblies new[] { typeof (Console).Assembly, typeof (Program).Assembly, typeof (IEnumerable<>).Assembly, typeof (IQueryable).Assembly }.ToList().ForEach(asm => engine.AddReference(asm)); new[] { "System", "System.Linq", "System.Collections", "System.Collections.Generic" }.ToList().ForEach(ns=>engine.ImportNamespace(ns)); //Now, you need to create a session using engine's CreateSession method, //which can be seeded with a host object var session = engine.CreateSession(); var submission = session.CompileSubmission>("new Func((s, i) => ++s)"); del = submission.Execute(); //- See more at: http://www.amazedsaint.com/2012/09/roslyn-september-ctp-2012-overview-api.html#sthash.1VutrWiW.dpuf } private static int DoWork(Func del) { int result = Enumerable.Range(1, 1000000).Aggregate(del); return result; } } }  Since Roslyn Sept 2012 CTP is already over a year old, I cannot wait to see a new version coming out.

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  • SQL SERVER – DVM sys.dm_os_sys_info Column Name Changed in SQL Server 2012

    - by pinaldave
    Have you ever faced situation where something does not work and when you try to go and fix it – you like fixing it and started to appreciate the breaking changes. Well, this is exactly I felt yesterday. Before I begin my story of yesterday I want to state it candidly that I do not encourage anybody to use * in the SELECT statement. One of the my DBA friend who always used my performance tuning script yesterday sent me email asking following question - “Every time I want to retrieve OS related information in SQL Server – I used DMV sys.dm_os_sys_info. I just upgraded my SQL Server edition from 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012 RC0 and it suddenly stopped working. Well, this is not the production server so the issue is not big yet but eventually I need to resolve this error. Any suggestion?” The funny thing was original email was very long but it did not talk about what is the exact error beside the query is not working. I think this is the disadvantage of being too friendly on email sometime. Well, never the less, I quickly looked at the DMV on my SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 RC0 version. To my surprise I found out that there were few columns which are renamed in SQL Server 2012 RC0. Usually when people see breaking changes they do not like it but when I see these changes I was happy as new names were meaningful and additionally their new conversion is much more practical and useful. Here are the columns previous names - Previous Column Name New Column Name physical_memory_in_bytes physical_memory_kb bpool_commit_target committed_target_kb bpool_visible visible_target_kb virtual_memory_in_bytes virtual_memory_kb bpool_commited committed_kb If you read it carefully you will notice that new columns now display few results in the KB whereas earlier result was in bytes. When I see the results in bytes I always get confused as I could not guess what exactly it will convert to. I like to see results in kb and I am glad that new columns are now displaying the results in the kb. I sent the details of the new columns to my friend and ask him to check the columns used in application. From my comment he quickly realized why he was facing error and fixed it immediately. Overall – all was well at the end and I learned something new. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DMV, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • SQLAuthority News – Online Webcast How to Identify Resource Bottlenecks – Wait Types and Queues

    - by pinaldave
    As all of you know I have been working a recently on the subject SQL Server Wait Statistics, the reason is since I have published book on this subject SQL Wait Stats Joes 2 Pros: SQL Performance Tuning Techniques Using Wait Statistics, Types & Queues [Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle], lots of question and answers I am encountering. When I was writing the book, I kept version 1 of the book in front of me. I wanted to write something which one can use right away. I wanted to create an primer for everybody who have not explored wait stats method of performance tuning. Well, the books have been very well received and in fact we ran out of huge stock 2 times in India so far and once in USA during SQLPASS. I have received so many questions on this subject that I feel I can write one more book of the same size. I have been asked if I can create videos which can go along with this book. Personally I am working with SQL Server 2012 CTP3 and there are so many new wait types, I feel the subject of wait stats is going to be very very crucial in next version of SQL Server. If you have not started learning about this subject, I suggest you at least start exploring this right now. Learn how to begin on this subject atleast as when the next version comes in, you know how to read DMVs. I will be presenting on the same subject of performance tuning by wait stats in webcast embarcadero SQL Server Community Webinar. Here are few topics which we will be covering during the webinar. Beginning with SQL Wait Stats Understanding various aspect of SQL Wait Stats Understanding Query Life Cycle Identifying three TOP wait Stats Resolution of the common 3 wait types and queues Details of the webcast: How to Identify Resource Bottlenecks – Wait Types and Queues Date and Time: Wednesday, November 2, 11:00 AM PDT Registration Link I thank embarcadero for organizing opportunity for me to share my experience on subject of wait stats and connecting me with community to further take this subject to next level. One more interesting thing, I will ask one question at the end of the webinar and I will be giving away 5 copy of my SQL Wait Stats print book to first five correct answers. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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  • Initial Look: Storing SQL Compact Data on a Windows Phone 7 Series

    - by Nikita Polyakov
    Ok, the title is misleading – I’ll admit it, but there is a way to store your data in Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Phone 7 Silverlight solutions have what is called Isolated Storage. [XNA has content storage as well] At this time there is no port of SQL Compact engine for Silverlight Isolated Storage. There is no wind of such intention. [That was a question way before WP7 was even rumored to have Silverlight.] There a few options: 1. Microsoft recommends you “simply” use client-server or cloud approach here. But this is not an option for Offline. 2. Use the new Offline/CacheMode with Sync Framework as shown in the Building Offline Web Apps Using Microsoft Sync Framework MIX10 presentation see 19:10 for Silverlight portion [go to 22:10 mark to see the app]. 3. Use XlmSerializer to dumb your objects to a XML file into the Isolated Storage. Good for small data. 4. Experiment with C#SQLite for Silverlight that has been shown to work in WP7 emulator, read more. 5. Roll your own file format and read/write from it. Think good ol’ CSV. Good for when you want 1million row table ;)   Is Microsoft aware of this possible limitation? Yes. What are they doing about it? I don’t know. See #1 and #2 above as the official guidance for now. What should you do about it? Don’t be too quick to dismiss WP7 because you think you’ll “need” SQL Compact. As lot of us will be playing with these possible solutions, I will be sure to update you on further discoveries. Remember that the tools [even the emulator] released at MIX are CTP grade and might not have all the features. Stay up to date: Watch the @wp7dev account if you are on Twitter. And watch the Windows Phone Dev Website and Blog. More information and detail is sure to come about WP7 Dev, as Windows Phone is planned to launch “Holidays” 2010. [For example Office will be discussed in June from the latest news, June is TechEd 2010 timeframe btw]

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  • SQL SERVER – Identify Numbers of Non Clustered Index on Tables for Entire Database

    - by pinaldave
    Here is the script which will give you numbers of non clustered indexes on any table in entire database. SELECT COUNT(i.TYPE) NoOfIndex, [schema_name] = s.name, table_name = o.name FROM sys.indexes i INNER JOIN sys.objects o ON i.[object_id] = o.[object_id] INNER JOIN sys.schemas s ON o.[schema_id] = s.[schema_id] WHERE o.TYPE IN ('U') AND i.TYPE = 2 GROUP BY s.name, o.name ORDER BY schema_name, table_name Here is the small story behind why this script was needed. I recently went to meet my friend in his office and he introduced me to his colleague in office as someone who is an expert in SQL Server Indexing. I politely said I am yet learning about Indexing and have a long way to go. My friend’s colleague right away said – he had a suggestion for me with related to Index. According to him he was looking for a script which will count all the non clustered on all the tables in the database and he was not able to find that on SQLAuthority.com. I was a bit surprised as I really do not remember all the details about what I have written so far. I quickly pull up my phone and tried to look for the script on my custom search engine and he was correct. I never wrote a script which will count all the non clustered indexes on tables in the whole database. Excessive indexing is not recommended in general. If you have too many indexes it will definitely negatively affect your performance. The above query will quickly give you details of numbers of indexes on tables on your entire database. You can quickly glance and use the numbers as reference. Please note that the number of the index is not a indication of bad indexes. There is a lot of wisdom I can write here but that is not the scope of this blog post. There are many different rules with Indexes and many different scenarios. For example – a table which is heap (no clustered index) is often not recommended on OLTP workload (here is the blog post to identify them), drop unused indexes with careful observation (here is the script for it), identify missing indexes and after careful testing add them (here is the script for it). Even though I have given few links here it is just the tip of the iceberg. If you follow only above four advices your ship may still sink. Those who wants to learn the subject in depth can watch the videos here after logging in. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Liberado Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack y Power Tools

    - by carlone
      Estimados amig@s, El lunes recien pasado, fue liberado a la web (Release to Web RTW) el primer paquete de Visual Studio Feature Pack, el cual incluye Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack y el Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Powertools. Realmente son dos herramientas muy poderosas de las cuales pueden obtener beneficio sobre todo en términos de eficiencia y productividad a la hora de estar haciendo programación. Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Powertools En palabras simples, esta herramienta es un conjunto de extensiones para visual studio (versión Professional para arriba), para mejorar la productividad de los programadores. Dentro de las muchas características que ofrece, podemos resaltar: Mejoras a la visualización dentro de los tabs en Visual Studio, lo cual incluye Scrollable Tabs Vertical Tabs Pinned Tabs Ventana de dialog para añadir referencias a un proyecto más eficiente y con capacidad de búsqueda Sobresaltar o marcar la línea actual (Muy útil para en monitores de alta resolución) HTML Copy, que permite copiar el código sin perder el formato Ctrl + Click Go to definition, esta es una característica que permite que al presionar la tecla control podamos ubicar hipervínculos para navegar a la definición de un símbolo. Alineación del código cuando hacemos asignación de valores Bien si de dan cuenta, son muchas las características que pueden aprovechar para mejorar su experiencia de programación dentro del entorno de Visual Studio 2010. Para descargar el instalador y obtener más información dirigirse al website: http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/d0d33361-18e2-46c0-8ff2-4adea1e34fef   Microsoft Visualization and Modeling Feature Pack A través de esta herramienta podrás sacar mucho provecho para desarrollar modelos basados en UML. Nota: Este paquete esta limitado a suscriptores de MSDN y se puede descargar únicamente desde el sitio de descargas para suscriptores de MSDN. Es pre requisito tener la versión Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate para utilizar esta herramienta. Dentro de las muchas características ofrecidas, podemos resaltar: Generación de código a partir de diagramas UML Crear diagramas UML a partir del código (Ej: generar un diagrama de secuencia en base al código de su aplicación) Generar gráficas de dependencias de proyectos web Importar elementos de modelos de clase, secuencia y casos de uso de archivos XMI 2.1 Aunque esta limitada a la versión Ultimate, con esta herramienta los Arquitectos de Software y los jefes de desarrollo tendrán la posibilidad de poder controlar y diseñar mejor sus aplicaciones. Si desean ver la documentación, videos y descargar el pack pueden dirigirse a:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/ff655021.aspx   Espero que estas herramientas les sean de mucho provecho!   Saludos, Carlos A. Lone Sigueme en Twitter @carloslonegt

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  • Analysis Services Tabular books #ssas #tabular

    - by Marco Russo (SQLBI)
    Many people are looking for books about Analysis Services Tabular. Today there are two books available and they complement each other: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: The BISM Tabular Model by Marco Russo, Alberto Ferrari and Chris Webb Applied Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services: Tabular Modeling by Teo Lachev The book I wrote with Alberto and Chris is a complete guide to create tabular models and has a good coverage about DAX, including how to use it for enriching a semantic model with calculated columns and measures and how to use it for querying a Tabular model. In my experience, DAX as a query language is a very interesting option for custom analytical applications that requires a fast calculation engine, or simply for standard reports running in Reporting Services and accessing a Tabular model. You can freely preview the table of content and read some excerpts from the book on Safari Books Online. The book is in printing and should be shipped within mid-July, so finally it will be very soon on the shelf of all the people already preordered it! The Teo Lachev’s book, covers the full spectrum of Tabular models provided by Microsoft: starting with self-service BI, you have users creating a model with PowerPivot for Excel, publishing it to PowerPivot for SharePoint and exploring data by using Power View; then, the PowerPivot for Excel model can be imported in a Tabular model and published in Analysis Services, adding more control on the model through row-level security and partitioning, for example. Teo’s book follows a step-by-step approach describing each feature that is very good for a beginner that is new to PowerPivot and/or to BISM Tabular. If you need to get the big picture and to start using the products that are part of the new Microsoft wave of BI products, the Teo’s book is for you. After you read the book from Teo, or if you already have a certain confidence with PowerPivot or BISM Tabular and you want to go deeper about internals, best practices, design patterns in just BISM Tabular, then our book is a suggested read: it contains several chapters about DAX, includes discussions about new opportunities in data model design offered by Tabular models, and also provides examples of optimizations you can obtain in DAX and best practices in data modeling and queries. It might seem strange that an author write a review of a book that might seem to compete with his one, but in reality these two books complement each other and are not alternatives. If you have any doubt, buy both: you will be not disappointed! Moreover, Amazon usually offers you a deal to buy three books, including the Visualizing Data with Microsoft Power View, another good choice for getting all the details about Power View.

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  • Sync Your Windows Computer with Your Ubuntu One Account [Desktop Client]

    - by Asian Angel
    Do you have a Windows computer that needs to be synced with the Ubuntu systems connected to your Ubuntu One account? Not a problem. Just grab a copy of the Ubuntu One Desktop Client and in just a few minutes your Windows system will be feeling the Ubuntu love. Once you get the desktop client installed you will see a new System Tray Icon waiting for you. Access the Context Menu and select Add this computer to start the syncing process. Enter your account details into the login window that appears and click Connect to Ubuntu One. Go back to the System Tray Icon, access the Context Menu, and select Synchronize Now. You can monitor the progress as small desktop notification messages keep you updated during the synchronizing process. The newly synchronized files will be placed in an Ubuntu One Folder under Documents/My Documents. Here is a quick peek at the Preferences Window. The only odd thing (bug) that we noticed with the whole setup was “Disconnected” being displayed even though our system was freshly synchronized and logged in. Note: Works on Windows XP (with SP3 & Windows Installer 4.5), Vista, and Windows 7. You will need to have the .NET 4 Framework installed (links for both installer types provided below). Need to access your Ubuntu One account directly through your browser? Then see our article on Accessing and Managing Your Ubuntu One Account in Chrome and Iron. Links Download the Ubuntu One Desktop Client [Ubuntu One Wiki] *Click on the (https://one.ubuntu.com/windows/beta) link to start the download. Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) [Microsoft] Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Web Installer) [Microsoft] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions Awesome 10 Meter Curved Touchscreen at the University of Groningen [Video] TV Antenna Helper Makes HDTV Antenna Calibration a Snap Turn a Green Laser into a Microscope Projector [Science] The Open Road Awaits [Wallpaper] N64oid Brings N64 Emulation to Android Devices Super-Charge GIMP’s Image Editing Capabilities with G’MIC [Cross-Platform]

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  • ASP.Net or WPF(C#)?

    - by Rachel
    Our team is divided on this and I wanted to get some third-party opinions. We are building an application and cannot decide if we want to use .Net WPF Desktop Application with a WCF server, or ASP.Net web app using jQuery. I thought I'd ask the question here, with some specs, and see what the pros/cons of using either side would be. I have my own favorite and feel I am biased. Ideally we want to build the initial release of the software as fast as we can, then slow down and take time to build in the additional features/components we want later on. Above all we want the software to be fast. Users go through records all day long and delays in loading records or refreshing screens kills their productivity. Application Details: I'm estimating around 100 different screens for initial version, with plans for a lot of additional screens being added on later after the initial release. We are looking to use two-way communication for reminder and event systems Currently has to support around 100 users, although we've been told to allow for growth up to 500 users We have multiple locations Items to consider (maybe not initially in some cases but in future releases): Room for additional components to be added after initial release (there are a lot of of these... perhaps work here than the initial application) Keyboard navigation Performance is a must Production Speed to initial version Low maintenance overhead Future support Softphone/Scanner integration Our Developers: We have 1 programmer who has been learning WPF the past few months and was the one who suggested we use WPF for this. We have a 2nd programmer who is familiar with ASP.Net and who may help with the project in the future, although he will not be working on it much up until the initial release since his time is spent maintaining our current software. There is me, who has worked with both and am comfortable in either We have an outside company doing the project management, and they are an ASP.Net company. We plan on hiring 1-2 others, however we need to know what direction we are going in first Environment: General users are on Windows 2003 server with Terminal Services. They connect using WYSE thin-clients over an RDP connection. Admin staff has their own PCs with XP or higher. Users are allowed to specify their own resolution although they are limited to using IE as the web browser. Other locations connects to our network over a MPLS connection Based on that, what would you choose and why? I am asking here instead of SO because I am looking for opinions and not answers

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  • Design considerations on JSON schema for scalars with a consistent attachment property

    - by casperOne
    I'm trying to create a JSON schema for the results of doing statistical analysis based on disparate pieces of data. The current schema I have looks something like this: { // Basic key information. video : "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uwfjpfK0jo", start : "00:00:00", end : null, // For results of analysis, to be populated: // *** This is where it gets interesting *** analysis : { game : { value: "Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition Ver. 2012", confidence: 0.9725 } teams : [ { player : { value : "Desk", confidence: 0.95, } characters : [ { value : "Hakan", confidence: 0.80 } ] } ] } } The issue is the tuples that are used to store a value and the confidence related to that value (i.e. { value : "some value", confidence : 0.85 }), populated after the results of the analysis. This leads to a creep of this tuple for every value. Take a fully-fleshed out value from the characters array: { name : { value : "Hakan", confidence: 0.80 } ultra : { value: 1, confidence: 0.90 } } As the structures that represent the values become more and more detailed (and more analysis is done on them to try and determine the confidence behind that analysis), the nesting of the tuples adds great deal of noise to the overall structure, considering that the final result (when verified) will be: { name : "Hakan", ultra : 1 } (And recall that this is just a nested value) In .NET (in which I'll be using to work with this data), I'd have a little helper like this: public class UnknownValue<T> { T Value { get; set; } double? Confidence { get; set; } } Which I'd then use like so: public class Character { public UnknownValue<Character> Name { get; set; } } While the same as the JSON representation in code, it doesn't have the same creep because I don't have to redefine the tuple every time and property accessors hide the appearance of creep. Of course, this is an apples-to-oranges comparison, the above is code while the JSON is data. Is there a more formalized/cleaner/best practice way of containing the creep of these tuples in JSON, or is the approach above an accepted approach for the type of data I'm trying to store (and I'm just perceiving it the wrong way)? Note, this is being represented in JSON because this will ultimately go in a document database (something like RavenDB or elasticsearch). I'm not concerned about being able to serialize into the object above, because I can always use data transfer objects to facilitate getting data into/out of my underlying data store.

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  • Control Sysinternals Suite & NirSoft Utilities with a Single Interface

    - by Asian Angel
    Sysinternals and NirSoft both provide helpful utilities for your Windows system but may not be very convenient to access. Using the Windows System Control Center you can easily access everything through a single UI front end. Setup The first thing to do is set up three new folders in Program Files (or Program Files (x86) if you are using a 64bit system) with the following names (the first two need to exactly match what is shown here): Sysinternals Suite NirSoft Utilities (create this folder only if you have any of these apps downloaded) Windows System Control Center (or WSCC depending on your preferences) Unzip the contents of the Sysinternals Suite into its’ folder. Then unzip any individual NirSoft Utilities programs that you have downloaded into the NirSoft folder. All that is left to do is to unzip the WSCC software into its’ folder and create a shortcut. WSCC in Action When you start WSCC up for the first time you will see the following message with a brief explanation about the software. Next the options window will appear providing you an opportunity to look around and make any desired changes. WSCC can access utilities for both suites using a live connection if needed (utilities accessed live are not downloaded). Note: This occurs on the first run only. This is the main WSCC window…you can choose the utility that you want to use by sorting through an all items list or based on category. Note: WSCC may occasionally experience a problem downloading a particular utility if using the live service. We conducted a quick test by accessing two Sysinternals apps. First PsInfo… Followed by DiskView. Both opened quickly and were ready to go. There were no NirSoft Utilities installed on our test system in order to provide a live access example. Within moments WSCC accessed the CurrProcess utility and had it running on our system. Our recommendation is to download your favorite utilities from both suites (in order to always have easy access to them). Conclusion WSCC provides an easy way to access all of the apps in the Sysinternals Suite and NirSoft Utilities in one place. Note: A PortableApps version is also available. Links Download Windows System Control Center (WSCC) Download Windows Sysinternals Suite Download individual NirSoft Utilities programs Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips How To Get Detailed Information About Your PCAccess and Launch Windows Utilities the Easy WayWhat is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?How to Clean Up Your Messy Windows Context MenuRemove NVIDIA Control Panel from Desktop Right-Click Menu TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips CloudBerry Online Backup 1.5 for Windows Home Server Snagit 10 VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup Ultimate Boot CD can help when disaster strikes Windows Firewall with Advanced Security – How To Guides Sculptris 1.0, 3D Drawing app AceStock, a Tiny Desktop Quote Monitor Gmail Button Addon (Firefox) Hyperwords addon (Firefox)

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  • SQL SERVER – SSMS 2012 Reset Keyboard Shortcuts to Default

    - by pinaldave
    As a technologist, I love my laptop very much and I do not lend it to anyone as I am usually worried that my settings would be messed up when I get it back from its borrower. Honestly, I love how I have set up my laptop and I enjoy the settings and programs I have placed on my computer. If someone changes things there – it will surely be annoying for me. Recently at one of the conferences I was attending in, a small accident happened – one of the speaker’s hard drives failed. The owner immediately panicked due to this and had no clue what to do. I suggested that he may not be able to show the demos but can still show a few things with the product. He accepted my suggestion and finished the presentation. Good thing everybody looked satisfied. Little did I know that a small accident was waiting for me later that day. When I opened my SQL Server Denali, all my shortcuts were totally out of order. When I hit F5, instead of executing query, it was opening up some debugging screen for me. I was very much annoyed so I decided to surf the Internet for me to know how I could reset it to SQL Server 2012 default shortcut. There were so many different advices which further confused me. After reading 4-5 different methods, I used the following method to reset my SQL Server 2012 keyboard shortcuts: Go to SSMS > Tools >> Import and Export Settings… As I wanted to reset all the settings I selected the “Reset all settings” option, but you can select other options as per your need. I suggest you save your current Settings; however, in my case, I did not like the current option so I just decided to overwrite my settings. Here I have two options –  I can either set my shortcut to SQL Server 2012 settings or Visual Studio 2010. I went ahead with the SQL Server 2012 option. Success! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Enable Thumbnail Previews for Firefox in Windows 7 Taskbar

    - by Asian Angel
    Are you tired of waiting for the official activation of Taskbar Thumbnail Previews in Firefox? See how easy it is to enable them now with a simple about:config hack. Note: We have briefly covered this before but present it here in a more detailed format. Before For our example we opened all of the websites in the HTG Network in tabs… When hovering over the Firefox Icon in the Taskbar, you only see the one thumbnail. There are two things in particular to notice here: 1.) The Tab Bar for Firefox is displayed with all four tabs visible in the Thumbnail Preview  2.) The “Taskbar Icon” itself is displaying as singular with no “fanned edge” on the right side. Hack the About:Config Settings To get the Thumbnail Previews working you will need to make a modification in the about:config settings. Type about:config in the Address Bar and press Enter. Unless you have previously disabled the warning you will see this message after pressing Enter. Click on the I promise! Button to finish entering the settings. In the Filter Address Bar either type or copy and paste the following about:config entry: browser.taskbar.previews.enable After you enter that in, you should see the entry listing as shown here. At this point there are two methods that you can choose to alter the entry. The first method is to right click on the entry and select Toggle and the second method is to double click on the entry. Both work equally well…choose the method that you like best. Once the about:config entry has been changed, you will need to restart Firefox for it to take effect. After restarting Firefox on our system the Thumbnail Previews were definitely looking very nice. Notice that the Tab Bar is no longer displayed in the Thumbnail Previews. The Taskbar Icon also had a “fanned edge” indicating that multiple tabs were open. Conclusion If you are tired of waiting for Mozilla to officially activate Taskbar Thumbnail Previews in Firefox, then you can go ahead and start enjoying them now. For more great Firefox 3.6.x about:config hacks read our article here. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Vista Style Popup Previews for Firefox TabsDisable IE 8 Thumbnail Previews on Windows 7 TaskbarIncrease the size of Taskbar Preview Thumbnails in Windows 7Workaround for Vista Taskbar Thumbnail Previews Not Showing CorrectlyDisable Thumbnail Previews in Windows 7 or Vista Explorer TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips VMware Workstation 7 Acronis Online Backup DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Cool Looking Skins for Windows Media Player 12 Move the Mouse Pointer With Your Face Movement Using eViacam Boot Windows Faster With Boot Performance Diagnostics Create Ringtones For Your Android Phone With RingDroid Enhance Your Laptop’s Battery Life With These Tips Easily Search Food Recipes With Recipe Chimp

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  • Ranking Part III

    - by PointsToShare
    © 2011 By: Dov Trietsch. All rights reserved   Ranking Part III In a previous blogs “Ranking an Introduction” and  “Ranking Part II” , you have already praised me in “Rank the Author” and learned how to create a new element on a page and how to place it where you need it. For this installment, I just added code to keep the number of votes (you vote by clicking one of the stars) and the total vote. Using these two, we can compute the average rating. It’s a small step, but its purpose is to show that we do not need a detailed history in order to compute the average. A running total is sufficient. Please note that once you close the game, you will lose your previous total. In real life, we persist the totals in the list itself. We also keep a list of actual votes, but its purpose is to prevent double votes. If a person has already voted, his user id is already on the list and our program will check for it and bar the person from voting again. This is coded in an event receiver, which is a SharePoint server piece of code. I will show you how to do this part in a subsequent blog. Again, go to the page and look at the code. The gist of it is here. avg, votes, and stars are global variables that I defined before. function sendRate(sel){//I hate long line so I created pieces of the message in their own vars            var s1 = "Your Rating Was: ";            var s2 = ".. ";            var s3 = "\nVotes = ";            var s4 = "\nTotal Stars = ";            var s5 = "\nAverage = ";            var s;            s = parseInt(sel.id.replace("_", '')); // Get the selected star number            votes = parseInt(votes) + 1;            stars = parseInt(stars) + s;            avg = parseFloat(stars) / parseFloat(votes);            alert(s1 + sel.id + s2 +sel.title + s3 + votes + s4 + stars + s5 + avg);} Click on the link to play and examine “Ranking with Stats” That’s all folks!

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  • Introducing Glimpse – Firebug for your server

    - by Neil Davidson
    Here at Red Gate, we spend every waking hour trying to wow .NET and SQL developers with great products.  Every so often, though, we find something out in the wild which knocks our socks off by taking “ingeniously simple” to a whole new level.  That’s what a little community led by developers Nik Molnar and Anthony van der Hoorn has done with the open source tool Glimpse. Glimpse describes itself as ‘Firebug for the server.’  You drop the NuGet package into your ASP.NET project, and then — like magic* — your web pages will bare every detail of their execution.  Even by our high standards, it was trivial to get running: if you can use NuGet, you’re already there. You get all that lovely detail without changing any code. Our feelings go beyond respect for the developers who designed and wrote Glimpse; we’re thrilled that Nik and Anthony have come to work for Red Gate full-time. They’re going to stay in control of the project and keep doing open source development work on Glimpse.  In the medium term, we’re hoping to make paid-for products which plug into the free open source framework, especially in areas like performance profiling where we already have some deep technology.  First, though, Glimpse needs to get from beta to a v1. Given the breakneck pace of new development, this should only be a month or so away. Supporting an open source project is a first for Red Gate, so we’re going to be working with Nik and Anthony, with the Glimpse community and even with other vendors to figure out what ‘great’ looks like from the a user perspective.  Only one thing is certain: this technology deserves a wider audience than the 40,000 people who have already downloaded it, so please have a look and tell us what you think. You can hear more about what the Glimpse developers think on the Glimpse blog, and there are plenty more technical facts over at our product manager’s blog. If you have any questions or queries, please tweet with the #glimpse hashtag or contact the Glimpse team directly on [email protected]. [*That’s ”magic” in the Arthur C. Clarke “sufficiently advanced technology” sense, of course] Neil Davidson co-founder and Joint CEO Red Gate Software http://twitter.com/neildavidson    

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  • Difference between Website and Web Application in ASP.NET

    - by SAMIR BHOGAYTA
    Web site in Visual Studio 2005: A web site is just a group of all files in a folder and sub folders. There is no project file. All files under the specific folder - including your word documents, text files, images etc are part of the web site. You have to deploy all files including source files (unless you pre compile them) to the server. Files are compiled dynamically during run time. To create a "web site", you need to use the menu File New Website You will have the option to choose either one of the following location types: # File System - Allows you to choose a folder to put all the files. # Http - Allows you to choose a virtual directory to put the files. # FTP - Allows you to choose an ftp location. In any of the above cases, no project file is created automatically. Visual Studio considers all files under the folder are part of the web site. There will be no single assembly created and you will nto see a "Bin" folder. The benefits of this model is, you do not need a project file or virtual directory to open a project. It is very handy when you share or download code from the internet. You just need to copy the downloaded code into a folder and you are ready to go! Web Application Project in Visual Studio 2005: Microsoft introduced the "web site" concept where all files under a web site are part of the site, hoping that the development community is going to love that. In fact, this is very usefull to share code. However, they did not consider millions of existing web applications where people are comfortable with the "project" based application. Also, there were lot of web applications where several un wanted files were kept under the web site folder. So, the new model did not work well for them. When people started screaming, Microsoft came up with the answer. On April 7, 2006, they announced "Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects" as an Add-On to Visual Studio 2005. This Add-On will allow you to create and use web applications just like the way it used to be in Visual Studio 2003. The Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project model uses the same project, build and compilation method as the Visual Studio .NET 2003 web project model. All code files within the project are compiled into a single assembly that is built and copied in the Bin directory. All files contained within the project are defined within a project file (as well as the assembly references and other project meta-data settings). Files under the web's file-system root that are not defined in the project file are not considered part of the web project.

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  • SQL SERVER – Sharing your ETL Resources Across Applications with Ease

    - by pinaldave
    Frequently an organization will find that the same resources are used in multiple ETL applications, for example, the same database, general purpose processing logic, or file system locations.  Creating an easy way to reuse these resources across multiple applications would increase efficiency and reduce errors.  Moreover, not every ETL developer has the same skill set, and it is likely that one developer will be more adept at writing code while another is more comfortable configuring database connections.  Real productivity gains will come when these developers are able to work independently while still making their work available to others assigned to the same project.  These are the benefits of a centralized version control system. Of course, most version control systems could be used to store and serve files, but the real need is to store and serve entire ETL applications so that each developer’s ongoing work can immediately benefit from another developer’s completed work.  In other words, the version control system needs to be tightly integrated with the tools used to develop the ETL application. The following screen shot shows such a tool. Desktop ETL tool that tightly integrates with a central version control system Developers can checkout or commit entire projects or just a single artifact.  Each artifact may be managed independently so if you need to go back to an earlier version of one artifact, changes you may have made to other artifacts are not lost.  By being tightly integrated into the graphical environment used to create and edit the project artifacts, it is extremely easy and straight-forward to move your files to and from the version control system and there is no dependency on another vendor’s version control system.  The built in version control system is optimized for managing the artifacts of ETL applications. It is equally important that the version control system supports all of the actions one typically performs such as rollbacks, locking and unlocking of files, and the ability to resolve conflicts.  Note that this particular ETL tool also has the capability to switch back and forth between multiple version control systems. It also needs to be easy to determine the status of an artifact.  Not just that it has been committed or modified, but when and by whom.  Generally you must query the version control system for this information, but having it displayed within the development environment is more desirable. Who’s ETL tool works in this fashion?  Last month I mentioned the data integration solution offered by expressor software.  The version control features I described in this post are all available in their just released expressor 3.1 Standard Edition through the integration of their expressor Studio development environment with a centralized metadata repository and version control system. You can download their Studio application, which is free, or evaluate the full Standard Edition on your own hardware.  It may be worth your time. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • SQL SERVER – Detecting guest User Permissions – guest User Access Status

    - by pinaldave
    Earlier I wrote the blog post SQL SERVER – Disable Guest Account – Serious Security Issue, and I got many comments asking questions related to the guest user. Here are the comments of Manoj: 1) How do we know if the uest user is enabled or disabled? 2) What is the default for guest user in SQL Server? Default settings for guest user When SQL Server is installed by default, the guest user is disabled for security reasons. If the guest user is not properly configured, it can create a major security issue. You can read more about this here. Identify guest user status There are multiple ways to identify guest user status: Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) You can expand the database node >> Security >> Users. If you see the RED arrow pointing downward, it means that the guest user is disabled. Using sys.sysusers Here is a simple script. If you notice column dbaccess as 1, it means that the guest user is enabled and has access to the database. SELECT name, hasdbaccess FROM sys.sysusers WHERE name = 'guest' Using sys.database_principals and sys.server_permissions This script is valid in SQL Server 2005 and a later version. This is my default method recently. SELECT name, permission_name, state_desc FROM sys.database_principals dp INNER JOIN sys.server_permissions sp ON dp.principal_id = sp.grantee_principal_id WHERE name = 'guest' AND permission_name = 'CONNECT' Using sp_helprotect Just run the following stored procedure which will give you all the permissions associated with the user. sp_helprotect @username = 'guest' Disable Guest Account REVOKE CONNECT FROM guest Additionally, the guest account cannot be disabled in master and tempdb; it is always enabled. There is a special need for this. Let me ask a question back at you: In which scenario do you think this will be useful to keep the guest, and what will the additional configuration go along with the scenario? Note: Special mention to Imran Mohammed for being always there when users need help. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Security, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Step Away From That Computer! You’re Not Qualified to Use It!

    - by Michael Sorens
    Most things tend to come with warnings and careful instructions these days, but sadly not one of the most ubiquitous appliances of all, your computer. If a chainsaw is missing its instructions, you’re well advised not to use it, even though you probably know roughly how it’s supposed to work. I confess, there are days when I feel the same way about computers. Long ago, during the renaissance of the computer age, it was possible to know everything about computers. But today, it is challenging to be fully knowledgeable even in one small area, and most people aren’t as savvy as they like to think. And, if I may borrow from Edwin Abbott Abbott’s classic Flatland, that includes me. And you. Need an example of what I mean? Take a look at almost any recent month’s batch of Windows updates. Just two quick questions for you: Do you need all of those updates? Is it safe to install all of those updates? I do software design and development for a living on Windows and the .NET platform, but I will be quite candid: I often have little clue what the heck some of those updates are going to do or why they are needed. So, if you do not know why they are needed or what they do, how do you know if they are safe? Of course, one can sidestep both questions by accepting Microsoft’s recommended Windows Update setting of “install updates automatically”. That leads you to infer that you need all of them (which is not always the case) and, more significantly, that they are safe. Quite safe. Ah, lest reality intrude upon such a pretty picture! Sadly, there is no such thing as risk-free software installation, and payloads from Windows Update are no exception. Earlier this year, a Windows Secrets Patch Watch article touted this headline: Keep this troublesome kernel update on hold. It discusses KB 2862330, a security update originally published more than 4 months earlier, and yet the article still recommends not installing it! Most people simply do not have the time, resources, or interest, to go about figuring out which updates to install or postpone or skip for safety reasons. Windows Secrets Patch Watch is the best service I have encountered for getting advice, but it is still no panacea and using the service effectively requires a degree of computer literacy that I still think is beyond a good number of people. Which brings us full circle: Step Away From That Computer! You’re Not Qualified to Use It!

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  • Reset All Internet Explorer 8 Settings to Fix Stability Problems

    - by Mysticgeek
    If you like to tweak and customize IE with Add-ons and changing settings, sometimes you may have problems with stability. To save time, you can reset all of the IE settings rather than trying to troubleshoot individual areas. Reset IE Settings To reset Internet Explorer Settings, click on Tools then Internet Options. When you reset the settings, you won’t lose personal settings like your homepage, search provider, passwords…etc. The Internet Options screen opens…click on the Advanced tab, then under Reset Internet Explorer settings click on the Reset button. You’ll need to verify that you want to reset all Internet Explorer Settings. If you choose to, you can delete all of your personal settings as well, but it shouldn’t be necessary to fix stability issues. The settings will start to reset, and when it’s finished close out of the message box. For the process to complete you’ll need to restart Internet Explorer. When it restarts you’ll be presented with the Welcome screen where you can go through the setup wizard again. After it’s complete, you should be back in business and can start using IE again. With the new enhancements and features available in Internet Explorer 8, sometimes too much tweaking can cause it to stop working. One area you could start with is troubleshooting IE 8 Add-ons. However, if you don’t want to waste time troubleshooting each potential issue, sometimes it’s just easier to reset things back to how they were originally. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Troubleshooting Internet Explorer on Vista Locking Up or Running SlowlyFix Internet Explorer Not Prompting to Choose Save Location in XPDealing With Windows Vista Explorer Screwing Up Auto-Detection of Folder TypesMysticgeek Blog: A Look at Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 on Windows XPClean Up Past Notification Icons in Windows Vista TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Gadfly is a cool Twitter/Silverlight app Enable DreamScene in Windows 7 Microsoft’s “How Do I ?” Videos Home Networks – How do they look like & the problems they cause Check Your IMAP Mail Offline In Thunderbird Follow Finder Finds You Twitter Users To Follow

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