What I learned on 2009-12-22

by swjohnson 12/22/2009 5:04:00 PM

More Free E-Books...

by swjohnson 8/13/2009 1:57:00 AM

As you know, I am a big fan of Free...here are some other goodies:

Engineering Software for Accessibility by Microsoft Press. In an effort to enable software developers to create accessible Windows applications, we wanted to share our process with the community. We have captured this engineering process in a new book, Engineering Software for Accessibility. The book addresses three basic questions:

  1. How do you plan for accessibility?
  2. How do you design your software for accessibility?
  3. How can you implement and test to your software to confirm it meets the accessible design?

You will learn that properly implemented accessibility enables access to Windows applications for users with a variety of capabilities.  

Get it before it is gone!

- - - - - - - - -  

SQL Server Tacklebox by Rodney Landrum. Essential tools and scripts for the day-to-day DBA that helps with Scripts, tools and techniques to tackle SQL Server issues, Troubleshoot performance issues, Receive notifications of impending issues, Fight off data corruption, Document and report on your servers, Automate and standardize SQL Server installation, Migrate data and manage data growth, and Secure access to your servers.    

This is sponsored by Red-Gate Software.   

links for 2009-07-28

by swjohnson 7/28/2009 5:03:00 PM
  • MySpace Uses SQL Server Service Broker to Protect Integrity of 1 Petabyte of Data. The site’s 1 petabyte of data is managed by 440 Microsoft® SQL Server® instances and resides on 3PAR® Utility Storage. When MySpace needed a message queuing and delivery solution to help ensure data changes were correctly and atomically executed on all affected physical database instances, MySpace created an internal solution, called Service Dispatcher, using the Service Broker feature of SQL Server 2005. Service Broker has helped MySpace ensure data integrity across its distributed infrastructure, resulting in a better user experience. Service Broker also helps MySpace developers to roll out new services faster.
  • The goal here is simple: to provide free videos and forums about the Microsoft BI stack. This includes SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server Analysis Services, SQL Server Reporting Services, PerformancePoint Server, ProClarity, SharePoint, and Excel.

links for 2009-07-23

by swjohnson 7/23/2009 5:02:00 PM

Speaking the language of Management...

by swjohnson 3/17/2009 12:39:00 AM

One thing I have noticed recently with the economic crisis, is that the the money has stopped flowing.  Well not exactly, the requests have just been more scruntinzed than before and more justification has to be given before it is approved.  What I have seen then is more of us technical types have problems getting our projects funded because we don't speak MBA very well.  Do you know what ROI, NPV, and Break Even Point mean?  Management will throw these terms about like we throw atomicity, referential integrity and 3NF and assume everyeone knows what we are talking about. 

So, that's the point of the next few articles.  In this post, I will explain what they mean.  In subsequent posts, I will give a small example of what I did to justify a small software purchase and then show what I am doing to justify the migration to SQL 2008 from SQL 2005. 

Return on Investment (ROI) is a traditional financial measure that is used to evaluate the efficiency of an investement.  In some cases, it can be used to compare the efficiency of a number of investments.  Simply it is calculated by taking the benefit gained dividing by the cost of the investment and expressing that as a percentage.  

ROI = (Gain from Investment - Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment

This popular metric says that if the ROI is negative, the project should not be funded and if alternatives have a higher percentage, they should be chosen over other simialr projects with lower ROI's.  Another words, they will choose the one with the highest return.   As you can see, this is a fairly simple calculation but the difficulty is in the details.  How do you calculate the "Gain from Investmet" or "Cost of Investment"?  And that is where the manipulation can come into play.  One person may add in additional cost or think of other gains that you don't include and that can explain why one person calculates on ROI and another calculates something different for the same project.  

Net Present Value (NPV) is an indicator of how much value an investment or project adds to the company. It compares the value of a dollar (or what ever your currency you are working in) today to the value of that same dollar in the future, taking inflation and returns into account. If the NPV of a project is positive, it should be accepted. On the other hand, if it is negative, the project will probably be rejected because the associated cash flow will also be negative and most accounting types do not like that as Cash Flow is the lifeblood of a corporation (especially in tough economic times). To see the actual formula chek out the Wikipedia explanation.  

Break Even Point (BEP) is the point at which cost or expenses equal revenue; there is no net loss or gain, and one has "broken even".  Why is this important?  From a management perspective, they want to know how long it will take before the project going to cover its costs and to start making money.  From there, they can start to see the profitability horizion.  Also, with the speed of technological change, you don't want to get too far out on your break even point.  For more information please check out the Wikipedia explanation

Finally as you start your analysis keep these tips in mind:
  1. Talk in terms of company benefits. Don't go into detail about how a purchase will save you time and effort. Instead, focus on how it will save the company money. Talk to a few end-users to develop some figures as to how much money you can save.
  2. Use the right financials and verifiable numbers. Too many requests talk about "payback," when management wants to know about NPV. They want to know this, because NPV helps them maintain cash flow--the lifeblood of the company. Requests that take guesses at the financial value of the proposed purchase often come out with compelling math as to the value of the purchase. Unfortunately, the numbers behind the math don't add up and that jeopardizes the whole proposal--and your credibility.
  3. Identify, and push, hot buttons. What is most important to your managers and others who will approve or reject your request?  While I don’t like acronyms or buzz words, it may help get your project the sight it needs. 
  4. Capitalize on trends. Know what is coming up in your company's operations, offerings, and other areas that may affect your request. To find out, just ask the key people in those areas. For example, you may find out if Project X is coming out with a new version. If so, then think of how the people involved in these things might need and what the benefits of the proposed purchase mean to them.  Basically look around the entire company and see where this can benefit more than just you. 
  5. Write tight and in the active voice. In the body of your proposal eliminate the wordiness, repetition, adjectives, and fluff. The more succinct your writing, the more power it has and the more likely folks will read and understand it (they are just as busy as you).  Using the active voice increases understanding and retention of the topic and it shows confidence.  For more information see http://www.mindconnection.com/library/writing/activevoice.htm
  6. Eliminate judgment statements. Present the information objectively and you imply the reader is intelligent enough to understand it.  Making claims that something is "essential," "imperative," or "a no brainer," and you imply the reader is stupid. You want them on your side...don't alienate them.
  7. Use the recommended format. If your company doesn't have a standard format, ask someone in accounting who handles these for a couple of funding requests that succeeded, plus suggestions on format. While you're at it, ask for any other advice that might be helpful--what you gain from his/her experience just might surprise you. Be thankful and show your team spirit and you will create a good ally.
  8. Use an executive summary. This is a one-page cover sheet that provides a "thumbnail" of your proposal. It should tell the purpose, have a paragraph about the benefits, and give the key financial parameters (IRR and NPV). (NOTE:  This is dependent on the size of the request.  If you are asking for a $1000 piece of software, it may only need to be a paragraph or so.)
Next up is a simple example that I used to get a software request approved for SQL Trace Analyzer software.

Shortcut to run a command line statement within SSMS...

by swjohnson 11/10/2008 9:41:00 AM

I have been doing a lot of data migration and disaster recovery synchronization lately and had a need to run DOS commands quite frequently.  It was a pain to switch from SSMS to the command window or prompt and then run the DOS command or even more interesting the batch files I just exported.  So I found a way to run it from within SSMS.  

Type in your command and make sure to prefix it with two exclamation points !!  Then click the SQLCMD button on the tool bar and then hit Execute (F5) and voila, it runs! 

Switch to blogengine.net for blogging...

by swjohnson 8/16/2008 5:22:00 PM

I have been busy building the business and really haven't had time to blog but now that the family is visiting relatives in Russia, I had some time to convert my blog to blogengine.net.

It was very easy to convert my site and I am really impressed with the features, flexible and documentation for this free application!  Kudos to the team that wrote this!

SQL Internal Viewer...

by swjohnson 7/20/2007 5:14:00 PM

What are you talking about?  No, we aren't talking about looking inside the box.  But have you ever wanted to see what the internals of what SQL is doing.  Well Danny Gould did and this is a little utility he came up with to learn more about the internals and how data is physically allocated, organized and stored. 

Basically he has created a tool that takes all of the information from Shared Global Allocation Map (SGAM), Global Allocation Map (GAM), Index Allocation Map (IAM), Pages, Extents...and so on and creates a graphical depiction of your memory.   Then you can hover over that visualization and it will tell you what that section of memory is allocated to.  Then if you want you can click on it and it will open the Page Viewer which is a hex dump of the header information, data dump, offset table and row interpretation.  From there you can click again and drill down to the various elements that make up a row, including the internal structure and data values.

Check it out!  SQL Internals Viewer

Free Tools from Idera...

by swjohnson 6/29/2007 5:11:00 PM

Idera has some free tools for the taking. 

SQLSafe Freeware Edition:  Idera’s SQLsafe Freeware Edition is free SQL Server database backup and recovery tool based on our award-winning SQLsafe product. SQLsafe Freeware Edition gives you a really high-performance backup and recovery engine, a scriptable interface (command line and XSP) and the ability to backup and compress any size and any number of databases, all for free.

SQLCheck:  SQLcheck is a free performance monitoring tool for SQL Server databases. It provides basic performance information about one SQL Server and runs as a secure screensaver or on demand.

SQLPermissions:  Idera’s SQLpermissions is a freeware tool for copying or moving logins and permissions settings across SQLservers. SQLpermissions automates the time consuming job of configuring logins and permissions on one server to match another by generating a customizable TSQL script to do this for you. SQLpermissions also offers the flexibility to move one login or a group of logins and apply permissions across all databases on the target server, or a single database.

Some new SQL tools...

by swjohnson 6/24/2007 5:11:00 PM

I don't know about you but I am always on the look out for new tools...so it was nice to see two new ones come out. 

1.  RSS Reporter from xSQL software. This is a FREE (for a limited time) utility that creates RSS feeds for your jobs.  The RSS Reported is installed on a server running IIS – any user that has credentials to connect to certain SQL Server instances and view job information can create a profile on the RSS Reporter. The profile for each user contains a list of SQL Server instances, the authentication method, necessary credentials for connecting to each instance, and basic configuration settings. RSS Reporter connects to all the SQL Server instances in the profile and automatically generates a set of predefined RSS Feeds. The user can then subscribe to and read those feeds from any connected device.

2.  Kernel Recovery for SQL by Nucleus Data Recovery.  Kernel Recovery for SQL – data recovery software recovers data from the corrupt Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005. The corrupt, damaged .mdf database files are effectively repaired and data is recovered from them.

Tables, Views, triggers, stored procedures are easily recovered and the damaged unique keys, primary keys and foreign keys are also repaired by Kernel Recovery for SQL - data recovery software. The sql recovery software effectively recovers the deleted records, partly damaged records which get saved in separate batch files. The database rebuilding batch is created automatically by Kernel recovery for SQL with which the database can be easily recreated and the user can again work on it.

I haven't had a chance to play with either one but they do offer some interesting solutions to problems.


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