Microsoft and SQL Server 2008 R2

I’m not a huge SQL Guru by any means, but I do have a few clients with SQL Servers hosting their data, which is critical to their business, so I am letting everyone know that Microsoft delivers SQL Server 2008 R2. I have attached some inserts for you to read. Then you can goto the full article

“The updated database software lets businesses build their own business intelligence capabilities. It includes a new version of its report-making software, Report Builder 3.0, that can incorporate maps.

“Report Builder 3.0 supports geospatial visualization to produce new insights and discoveries by combining geospatial data with business information,” according to Microsoft.”

“New wizards enable administrators to quickly set up a multi-server management environment in minutes–no professional services required,”

And now onto the originating blog post.

More news on Project Natal for Xbox 360

CNET got up close and personal with Xbox 360 Project Natal, the CNET editor went to Redmond and got to try out Project Natal himself. Here is an isert from the article…

“Although Microsoft demonstrated Natal at this year’s E3 trade show, the software maker hasn’t said when the technology will be available. The company has said that Natal, which incorporates face, voice, and gesture recognition technologies, will be sold as an add-on to the current Xbox 360 console.”

Check out the full story here. Also check out Microsoft’s Official page. The video is pretty impressive… there is also a YouTube portal to all the Project Natal videos here.

Enjoy!

NS

Windows 7 is almost here….

If you still haven’t tried it out, or watched videos of Windows 7, the real successor to Windows XP you should do so as soon as possible… CNET has an excellent article with embedded videos, here is an isert from the website.

“Luckily for Microsoft, Windows 7 is more than just spin. It’s stable, smooth, and highly polished, introducing new graphical features, a new taskbar that can compete handily with the Mac OS X dock, and device management and security enhancements that make it both easier to use and safer. Importantly, it won’t require the hardware upgrades that Vista demanded, partially because the hardware has caught up, and partially because Microsoft has gone to great lengths to make Windows 7 accessible to as many people as possible.”

Read the full story here, trust me its a great read.

NS

Internet Explorer 8 or Firefox 3.5

Well Firefox hit the 1billion mark for downloads on July 31st, they are now at 1,000,122,057 downloads! Internet Explorer 8 is up there, but no where near that number… according to sources familiar with Microsoft’s statistics there has been more than 200 million times in the last 4 months. Beta testing Windows 7 has caused me to stop using Internet Explorer 8 and start using FireFox 3.5, nothing personal Microsoft, but Firefox just works better… check out the full story here. “Nothing like a good ole competition”, I say!

NS

The Near Future of Laptops

An interesting story discussing the future of Intel, laptops, and netbooks. They mention Intel’s new Pine Trail Atom silicon which will shrink the amount of space required by the silicon while boosting power efficiency and performance. Also mentioned is HUGI(Hurry up and get Idle) which will allow the Processor to instantly go from 100% complete a task then back down to full idle… very interesting.

Here is an insert from the page and a link below to read the full story.

“At the Intel Technology Summit in San Francisco on Wednesday, an executive described the imminent mobile future, including a major refresh of Netbook silicon, better-designed “ultrathins,” and turbo-powered high-end laptops.”

Read the full story here.

NS

Utility Spot Light – RichCopy

I was looking for the download to RoboCopyGUI as I was going to setup a mass copy of data from one server to another, and I stumbled upon this… RichCopy, see the insert for more info…

RichCopy is a free utility that comes to us from Ken Tamaru of Microsoft. The tool was first developed in 2001 and has been updated regularly to keep pace with evolving needs. Trust me when I tell you, this is the answer to all your file copying needs. What you’ll find most striking the first time you take RichCopy out for a spin is that it’s a multithreaded copying tool. That means that rather than copying one file at a time in serial order, RichCopy can open multiple threads simultaneously, allowing many files to be copied in parallel and cutting the total time required to complete the operation several times over. You can also pause and resume file copy operations, so if you lose network connectivity at any point, you can just pick up where you left off.

Go here to read the whole article and download the application.

RAID Levels Pros and Cons

Have you ever wondered what the pros and cons of every raid level is? Well look no further, I stumbled upon this website which describes all forms of RAID Levels and the pros and cons of each, along with a nice description. So the next time your talking with your fellow techies, you can sound a little bit smarter

Check it out here, I have also included an insert below from the website for a quick read.

“RAID 50 should have been called “RAID 03″ because it was implemented as a striped (RAID level 0) array whose segments were RAID 3 arrays (during mid-90s)

Most current RAID 50 implementation is illustrated above

RAID 50 is more fault tolerant than RAID 5 but has twice the parity overhead

High data transfer rates are achieved thanks to its RAID 5 array segments

High I/O rates for small requests are achieved thanks to its RAID 0 striping

Maybe a good solution for sites who would have otherwise gone with RAID 5 but need some additional performance boost”

NS

DynDNS.com

Does it bother you when your home IP changes or you just can’t remember what it is and you want to connect to your router, RDP, or FTP. What can you do? Not much until you get home and check whatismyip.com…

Well there is something you can do, its called DynDNS.com they offer something called Dynamic DNS Free, just create an account, pick a hostname, ie nathantheitguy.homeip.net (this doesn’t exist btw), and save it. Now you only have to remember the name you created, this wont stop the IP from changing and you would have to continue to update it from time to time, unless you have a router like my Linksys which has a section in the setup where you can specify a DYNdns username and account, when the external IP changes, the router logs into DYNdns and changes the IP for you, sweet! Now all you ever need is just your name, nathantheitguy.homeip.net.

I will warn you though that DYNdns is free and as such you must login from the web once a month to confirm that there is a human managing the account. failing to do so and DYNdns deletes your account. The router login does not actually hit the website. A paid account, 15$ US, will eliminate the need for you to login, Dynamic DNS Pro adds a variety of enhancements and additional features to Dynamic DNS Free which are detailed on the Dynamic DNS Pro page. Please check out the links for full details, they have alot to offer.

vSphere 4 and Windows Server 2008

Here is another quick one for you all…  When creating a Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine, do not enable paravirtualization, I know you want to, but whilst using vSphere, you will not be able to install the PCI Memory Controller Interface(you will be prompted to find drivers for this device, if you enable paravirtualization in the virtual machine settings). Its is only supported by certain Operating systems… now if you are using Hyper-V enabling paravirtualization will work. Just an FYI.

NS

Installing Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2008

Here’s the deal, Exchange 2003 will not work and cannot be installed on Server 2008, although if you have a Server 2008 Domain Controller, you can have an Exchange 2003 Forest. I hope that clears up some issues quicker then, say… Nathan installing Server 2008, attempting to fulfill the prerequisites of Exchange 2003 and not able to…

NS