Cristian's Blog

• Quick Security Reference - Cross-Site Scripting
• Quick Security Reference - SQL Injection

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc511475.aspx
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc510300.aspx

• As usual we started with BI. Project Gemini - means Power for Excel - in memory analysis. If you want to read more about it, Ron compiled a large list with resources here: http://blogs.msdn.com/ronpih/archive/2008/10/09/the-gemini-project.aspx
• Next we moved to the financial problems of the present and what they would mean to BI and more generally to IT. Rafal has a simple statement and I agree with him: IT Solutions should become Business Solutions. IT has no choice but to deliver business value.
  
• Then we went back to BI to several features new in SQL Server 2008, to real life questions and so on.
• What's next to come? Rafal expects to see the "Move to the cloud" tendency to evolve. And that is of course exciting.
• Before leaving for his plane, I had one more confirmation that Rafal is as geeky as I am (not that I had any doubts about it) when he bragged about his new Sony Book Reades. Pretty cool.
  

So for today two good news, one for me and one for everyone.

First one, I made it through the final of Exceptional DBA Awards 2008. If you want to vote (for me of course ) you can use this link: http://www.exceptionaldba.com/vote.htm

Second news, the one for you, Bogdan Crivat showed me how to use Data Mining Add-ins with your own or with demo data. You can play with it here: http://www.sqlserverdatamining.com/cloud/

The long story can be found on Bogdan's blog: http://www.bogdancrivat.net/dm/archives/47

• Uninstall Visual Studio 2008 pre SP1 components (SP1 beta won't work either)
• Wait for the SP1 (should be released soon)
• When you install SQL Server 2008 make sure you don't select features that use the VS Shell (BIDS, Analysis Services, Integration Services).

Thanks to Bob Ward we have the problem documented here: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Release Notes

If you are looking for Best Practices Policies, SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1, SQL Server Remote Blob Store  or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007 you will find them in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, August 2008.

Is that all? No! The complete list follows:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services 10.0 OLE DB Provider
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Command Line Utilities
• SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP1
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Add-ins for Microsoft Office 2007
• Microsoft SQL Server Driver for PHP 7
• Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver 1.2
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Objects
• Microsoft OLEDB Provider for DB2
• SQL Server Remote Blob Store
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Policies
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies
• Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types
• Microsoft Sync Framework
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor

We have SQL Server 2008 RTM. It just happened this morning. COngratulations to the SQL Server team. You did a good job guys.

Wanna try it ? Use this link: http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333553

Recently I had the pleasent surprised to be interviewed by OdinJobs.

I won't tell you more just read here:

• SQL Server Experts: MS SQL beats the "ACID" test for Database Technology in Features, Ease & Cost
• SQL Server Experts: Part II - Stress, Pet Peeves, Roles and Responsibilities of a SQL Server DBA/Developer
• SQL Server Experts: Part III - Becoming a SQL Server MVP and other Career Choices

Bucharest - Amsterdam - Seattle - Bellevue - Redmond - Bellevue - Seattle - Detroit - Amsterdam - Bucharest is just the short version.

The long version includes trips between various Microsoft buildings and the building where I delivered a SQL Server 2008 class.

Pictures follow:

Building 35

Bill Ramos

One surprise, my book was on the shelf of Bill Ramos.

SQL Server 2005 signature box

Boris Baryshnikov

Paul Mestemaker

Bogdan Crivat, Dana Cristofor, Myself, Nicolae Mogoreanu (Data Mining)

Bogdan Crivat, Dana Cristofor, Myself, Tatyana Yakusev

Building 35

Jerome Halmans

David Reed

Mr Resource Governor

David Lean

First Starbucks

The 70-432 exam: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance is in beta between June 9, 2008 and June 30, 2008. If you are an MCT it might be a good idea to read the private newsgroup.

As a side note: our Microsoft Influencers (Diana, Narcis, Andrei, Catalin, Bogdan, Gigi) have received the promotion code with the permission of Ken Rosen and Gerry O'Brien (thanks Ken, thanks Gerry).