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[Keith] Welcome to the Mind Of Root. I'm Keith Albright
[Rich] and I'm Rich Niemeier.
[Steve] and I'm Steve Murawski.
[Keith] This is Episode 62 recorded on August 11, 2008.
Chit-Chat - What's going on with you?
[Steve]
[Rich]
[Keith]
- Cloud Computing -> Rain. When you lose bits of data from the cloud. Also known as MobileMe?.
Housekeeping Items
[Rich]
[Steve]
- Tonight we have Eric Johnson and Josh Jones from the CSTechCast? joining us to talk about Data Modeling for SQL Server.
[Keith]
- Philly Tech Guys. If you haven't heard me pimp it enough, go check it out.
- Podcamp Philly on September 6th and 7th. Another Philly Tech Guy show to be recorded live there.
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Steve's Topics
- Interview with Eric Johnson and Joshua Jones
-Authors of "A Developer's Guide to Data Modeling For SQL Server"
-Eric Johnson (Microsoft SQL MVP)is the co-founder of Consortio Services and the primary database technologies consultant. His background in information technology is diverse, ranging from operating systems and hardware to specialized applications and development. Eric has also acquired an MBA. He has ten years of experience with IT, much of it working with Microsoft SQL Server. Eric has managed and designed databases of all shapes and sizes. He has delivered numerous SQL Server training classes and Webcasts as well as presentations at national technology conferences. Most recently, he presented at
TechMentor? on SQL Server 2005 replication, reporting services, and integration services. In addition, he is active in the local SQL Server community, serving as the president of the Colorado Springs SQL Server Users Group. He is also the co-host of CS Techcast, a weekly podcast for IT professionals.
-Joshua Jones (MCTS, SQL Server 2005; MCITP, Database Administrator) is operating systems and database systems consultant with Consortio Services in Colorado Springs. There he provides training, administration, analysis, and design support for customers using SQL Server 2000 and 2005. In his seven years as an IT professional, he has worked in many areas of information technology, including Windows desktop support, Windows 2000 and 2003 server infrastructure design and support (AD, DNS, MS Exchange), telephony switch support, and network support. Josh has spoken at various PASS sponsored events about SQL Server topics such as 64-bit SQL Server implementation, reporting services administration, and performance tuning. He is also a co-host of CS Techcast, a weekly podcast for IT professionals.
--Why this book? What need where you trying to fill? Was this in response to situations you have come across in consulting?
--Do you think that there are significant advantages to tailoring an application to using specific features in the SQL Server platform? (vs. sticking with the ANSI Standard)
--Indexes - GPS data - written every 10 seconds from 4 - 8 squads.. queries are very slow, often timing out a standard ADO.NET connection - any recommendation?
--In your book, you talk about creating an abstraction layer. Is it better to create this abstraction layer in the application, or at the database level, or at the reporting level (like Business Objects).
--Have you had a chance to use
PowerShell and its integration with SQL Server 2008 (which is now RTM)?
--What got you into podcasting and who is your target audience?
--From your most recent podcast, you suggested that admins specialize in an up and coming area.. Any recommendations as to how the "generalist" can find the time/resources/and topic to focus on?
Keith's questions:
-What is Data Modeling?
-You talk about normalizing data in the book. I was reading a recent post from someone who spoke about the problem with over-normalizing to the point of inefficiency. Is there an art to this or can anyone do it effectively?
-Your book is directly targeted at Microsoft SQL server users and it's unique capabilities. Would users of other database systems benefit from the concepts in the book?
Your show is very polished. Do any of you have other media experience? Or, how did you get into podcasting?
-Which of you is now riding a motorcycle? I heard on the show that some of you were taking a motorcycle safety course.
Keith's Topics
- Flash Hard Drive on the cheap
-I'm following up on my original idea for a building a server w/flash drive. IDE to CF adapter from Addonics.
-Addonics ST-308 w/a Kingston 2GB compact flash. It comes with a sled to mount in a floppy drive opening and a bracket to mount in a rear slot.
-Downloaded the latest
ProxMox?, booted the CD, and within 20 minutes I was rebooting to the flash drive and it is eerily quiet.
-This is on a basic Pentium III PC and I keep checking to make sure it is up. I'm leaving it burn in at my desk for a while to test.
-They have adapters for SD, CF, and they also have a PCI adapter that holds 4 CF cards. They also have adapters that will fit your laptop hard drive connector. Make your own
MacBook? Air.
-Very affordable ($70 for the pair)
-I've been tinkering with QEMU for setting up a virtual
WindowsXP?/Vista box on my Mac, but it is just not cutting it. I have an Ubuntu image on it and it takes forever to boot. It's a brand new Mac with 2GB, so why is it so horrible (Yes, I allocated enough resources.
-Mike Smith mentioned
VirtualBox (alongside Parrallels and
VMWare Fusion) so I thought I'd check it out.
-Turns out to be an open source project sponsored by Sun Microsystems and free for personal or eval use. Since I am using it only personally, the license applies.
-I loaded an XP system to test and it rocks. Very small footprint and very clean interface. It even has a snapshot feature, which I haven't yet tested. Now, I thought that was only on
VMWare since they had some kind of patent on that concept. I could be wrong.
-Compaq laptop that was unused for a while. Guy fires it up and it asks for the HDD Password. None was ever set to anyones recollection.
-After fail on password enter, it says "Date and Time not set", so I figure the CMOS battery is dead and I can just reset.
-Not so with the HDD password. Researching online, I found no way around it (good thing, right). Well, we are out of extended warranty and Compaq won't service. So, looks like I have to replace the HDD. The lock bit is set on the drive itself. This is apparently a known flaw for certain Compaq laptop
BIOSes? that when the battery dies, the HDD password get set/locked. They have a BIOS fix, however, as pointed out in the article, you have to apply it BEFORE the problem occurs.
-I did replace the battery and try a full CMOS reset, but it didn't help.
-I tried plugging the HDD in via my IDE/USB adapter and it recognizes the drive as attached (and that it is a drive), but will not mount the volume.
-One guy in an HP forum had bought a drive on eBay and it had a password on it. He essentially bought a brick. Hey, anybody want to buy an 80GB 2.5in drive? It's cheap! Nevermind. I now have the prize for our next contest ;^)
-I never hear Steve or Rich telling horror stories with vendors. Is it just me? Am I the cause or just bad luck?
-I have a Verizon Business DSL link that I dedicate to the MAN VPN. The link keeps dropping out once or twice a week. I cycle power on the modem and it's back up. I waited until a time that the remote user was OK with and called Verizon to troubleshoot.
-They make me disconnect the firewall and connect a PC directly to the modem (I grabbed my iBook as it was handy and I had a profile with the static DSL IP).
-They then have me do a reset (recessed switch) on the modem then to reset to factory default. Then they want me to hit the web interface on the device at 192.168.1.1. I check my IP and I'm getting a 169.254.x.x auto-configure. Obviously, I can't hit 192.168.1.x subnet. So, I static a 192.168.1.x address and still can't hit it. She tells me the auto-configure address is the result of a bad or unplugged cable. I static the public IP and it still doesn't work. I cycle power on the modem and using static public, it works (As I suspected it would).
-She wants me to do an ipconfig so I remind her it's a Mac. She tells me I need to get a Windows PC to test. I scrounge up an XP laptop and swap the patch cable to make her happy and still get the auto-config address. She then declares the modem bad, out of warranty, and needs replacing.
-I tried explaining what the auto-config address meant and why it was there, but she wasn't happy with me.
-I bought the new modem since it could be the modem, I just don't know definitively. So, we'll see if it goes offline with the new modem.
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Listener Feedback
From listeners....zt, Marshall, TeknoBeast?, and BMalanowsky? who all posted pictures on our Frappr site.
My stupidity. Several people have posted photos on the Frappr site. They just didn't show up as pins, so I didn't think there was any activity.
From Listener Jeff Hicks who posted a comment on the blog....
August 8th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I debated about the output of Analyze-Packet. I too originally wanted objects that could be sorted, formatted or whatever. But as I developed the report I couldn’t come up with a single object format to handle all the different types of information I was generating. If you can come up with something I’d love to see it.
August 8th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Alright you challenged me. Look for something new on this next week.
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Website Picks
Rich - http://
Steve - http://
Keith - http://
Last Call
Anyone....Anyone....Buehler.....Buehler....
Closing
All right, well that is it for the show. For listener feedback; you can email us at Feedback [at] mindofroot.com or post a comment on the main site at mindofroot.com. If you use iTunes, you could write a review. If you just want to show us your listening, drop a pin on the Frappr map...there's a link on the show site.
Lastly, you can drop any show ideas or topic requests on the wiki. There is a link to the wiki on the main show site. If you would like to participate in the show; either through an interview, a segment contribution, or any other way, please let us know. We are also a member of the Techpodcast and the Blubrry networks. Check out some other great shows by going to Techpodcast.com and Blubrry.com....That's Blubrry without the E's
Thanks everyone.
