DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by kprernn

Microsoft announces certification exam retirement

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:49:21 GMT

Link to recently retired Microsoft exams for developers and SQL Server professionals.

How to create good technical presentations

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:55:01 GMT

Great article with practical tips for creating good technical presentations. Worth the read.

SQL Server 2005 Express Job Scheduling - Part 1

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:33:49 GMT

SQL Server 2005 Express Job Scheduling with the help of Sql Server service broker and without 3rd party products.

The undocumented sp_MSforeachdb procedure

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:32:07 GMT

Joe shows how to use the undocumented Microsoft SQL Server sp_MSforeachdb stored procedure to iterate through each database in a SQL Server instance and perform an action.

Blogging vs Twittering

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:49:48 GMT

Joe asks the question - what's better? To post longer blogs? Or more frequent shorter Twitter-like posts? Is there room for both?

DevLink 2008 presentation for Writing Better SQL Queries

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:01:20 GMT

Here's a link to a presentation from DevLink 2008 in Murfreesboro, TN, just outside of Nashville. The link includes a slide deck and demo scripts for how to write more efficient queries.

Using Excel for a Reporting Services report

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:51:26 GMT

Demonstration of how to use a Microsoft Excel worksheet as a datasource for a SQL Server Reporting Services report.

SQL Server 2005 temporary tables bug, feature or expected behavior?

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:59:39 GMT

Some unexpected SQL Server behaviour around temporary tables that is good to know about. If it can be explained...

More conditional formatting in SSRS

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:46:00 GMT

In this post, Joe shows how to use the Switch() function to show sales figures in 4 different color depending on their value.

Alternating background colors in Reporting Services

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:32:58 GMT

This blog demonstrates how to create a Microsoft Reporting Services report that shows each row with an alternating background color.

SQL Server locks: a sleeping process still holds them

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:02:52 GMT

This blog posting demonstrates how a SQL Server process can be marked a sleeping and awaiting command, yet still maintain its locks on a table.

SQL Server Virtualization

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:26:38 GMT

Good links to using Microsoft SQL Server in a virtualized environment.

Download SQL Server 2008 today

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:27:33 GMT

SQL Server 2008 was released to manufacturing (RTM'd) yesterday. You can download it from the MSDN benefits page. Here's a link.

Interactive sorting in SQL Server Reporting Services 2005

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 14:24:03 GMT

Good, graphical tutorial for adding interactive sorting to Reporting Services reports.

Number one advice to recruiters from an IT guy

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:08:08 GMT

Every recruiter should be aware of what not do to loose a candidate.

Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services online resources

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:05:35 GMT

Great list of online resources for SSRS.

Immediate deadlock notifications without changing existing code

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:00:36 GMT

In my previous post about immediate deadlock notifications in SQL Server 2005 I've shown a way to use a try catch block to get the deadlock error. The con of this method, although it uses best practice for error handling in SQL Server 2005, is that you have to change existing code and it doesn't work for non stored procedure code. And that IS a pretty BIG con! So here's a solution to this con.

SQL Server 2005 bug when using LIKE searches

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:43:30 GMT

Here's a demo of a nice little bug in SQL Server 2005 when using LIKE comparisons for searching. What is so "nice" about it is that it only manifests itself if your search ends in number 9 followed by a wildcard when selecting only columns covered by a nonclustered index.

Finding IDENTITY columns

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:00:57 GMT

Considering transactional replication in SQL Server? Need to find all tables in your database that use Identity columns? This blog offers a T-SQL query that'll do just that.

Working with tempdb

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:13:09 GMT

Link to a good TechNet article that thoroughly discusses tempdb in SQL Server 2005. A good read.

The 33 languages of SQL Server

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:10:30 GMT

In this post, Joe describes the syslanguages system table and how it is used with the sys.messages system table.

Serious Visual Studio 2008 install bug that can break your builds

Wed, 28 May 2008 19:57:37 GMT

When Visual Studio 2008 installs you can run the VS 2008 command prompt. But beware if you have already have ( or ) in your PATH system environment variable. The prompt won't load properly and csc.exe and msbuild.exe won't work. Here's how you fix it.

SQL Server 2005: Immediate Deadlock notifications

Wed, 21 May 2008 09:48:15 GMT

Deadlocks can be a pain to debug since they're so rare and unpredictable. The problem lies in repeating them in your dev environment. That's why it's crucial to have as much information about them from the production environment as possible. This is one way of getting it immediatly when it happens,

DevTeach/SQLTeach wrap-up and review

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:35:57 GMT

Joe reviews the DevTeach/SQLTeach conference that took place last week in Toronto.

SQLTeach - Writing better queries presentation

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:39:39 GMT

Want to learn some tips and tricks to make your T-SQL code more efficient? Here's a presentation that Joe Webb delivered in Toronto at the DevTeach/SQLTeach conference.