New things in the works for SQL Azure

 This is what I am hearing....and cannot wait.

Not only Windows Azure platform will be getting new stuff in the coming months, SQL Azure will also be enhanced by the end of the year. You will have SQL Azure Reporting as well as SQL Azure Analytics. Perhaps a CTP will appear first.

The SQL Azure Reporting will support embedded WORD, EXCEL and PDF to Windows Azure applications.

SQL Azure Data Sync-  Geo location to SQL Azure data for both cloud and mobile applications will be in place by the end of 2010.

A web based Database Manager for SQL Azure will be available by the year end, perhaps an improved version of the gorgeous looking 'Houston Project'.

Annoying features of IE 9.0 Beta

These are not really features but annoyances alright. I am using this version perhaps there is a later one available (I am not sure).

This one is really very annoying. You bring up a page in IE 9.0 such as the one shown in the first figure. You see islands on the page where display is empty. Some times scrolling up and down will display correctly and sometimes does not. Now you sweep your mouse over the are and it becomes visible. This has happened any number of times.

The other annoying feature is that some of the content editors do not work correctly. For example, I try to format my blog http://hodentek.blogspot.com and many of the editing tools does not work. I save the work (which appears to be not a problem) and open up Mozilla to finish.

Will Intel's Cloud Builders program lift it out of its lows?

Watching Intel stocks for the past 10 years I have seen it mostly going down although it seems to be coming back. But as a believer in Cloud Technology, I imagine that the Cloud Builders program will make the Cloud 2105 (Simplified, Secure and interoperable, mother of all clouds) vision a resounding success. However the task appears formidable given the number of players in the business and their idiosyncrasies.

 

Copied from Yahoo Finance on 10/28/2010

The idea of this vision is to optimize resources across the cloud providers, a growing list that includes some 20 stakeholders,
Canonical
Cisco
Citrix
Dell
EMC
Enomaly
Eucalyptus Systems
Gproxy
HP
IBM
Intel
Joyent
Microsoft
NetApp
NetSuite
Novel
Parallels
RedHat
Univa
VMWare

With all these folks committing resources, ideas, and practical guidance this vision may come true. Will this improve the bottom line?

Windows Phone 7 Developer Launch in New York

Attended the launch event at New York Marriot Marquis yesterday (Oct 19,2010) and got a lot of info on this make or break business item for Microsoft. The crowd was less than I expected but filled the hall. I think it will be great if all those developers who attended turn in a couple of apps each. Why, I may even buy some MSFT stock.
The technical team (Danillo Diaz and David Isbitski) did a nice job of presenting the details. There were six sessions:
Session 1: Get Started! The Basics of Building Apps on the Windows Phone 7 Platform
Session 2: From Idea to Interactivity: Design Guidelines for Windows Phone 7
Session 3: Supercharge Your Windows Phone 7 Apps with Microsoft Silverlight
Session 4: Step Up Your Game with Windows Phone 7 and XNA
Session 5: Monetizing Your Apps with Marketplace
Session 6: The Power of the Cloud: Exploring Windows Phone 7 Services
As I have been up in the clouds recently I have not had time to look at Windows Phone since the CTP. Of course I could follow the sessions without any problem and David's talk really inspired me to look at developing games.
Hey give it a try and make some money!
Moola! Moola!
I did a few related articles check them out:

http://aspalliance.com/1844_DoubleAnimation_Basics_with_Silverlight_Application
http://www.packtpub.com/article/pocket-pc-application-visual-studio-2005
Also Windows Phone CTP on my other blog:

http://hodentekMobile.blogspot.com

Hurry up and check out Silverlight 4

Do you need an extra motivation to start with Silverlight 4?

Here is long list of what SL4 is about from the Microsoft's very own Channel 9 (Content developers John Papa and Adam Kinney). It appears to me (some comments are my own and not in the original) very compelling indeed. Check them out here:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Learn/Courses/Silverlight4/Overview/Overview/Enabling-Business-Application-Development

Supports printing of SL apps
Localization with bi-direcitonal(bi-di) and script-based text and R-L support
Extended Language Support
 New Langauges and my own Indic group (including Indo-Dravidian)
New Rich TextBox Control with Bi-Di
Enhanced IME, specially for East Asian Languages
View Box to position your image to bring it to focus
Auto-sizing columns and copy from DataGrid
Navigation page extensibility
Command property on ButtonBase and Hyperlink
SelectedValue and SelectedValue Path on Selector
Support for referer header
UDP Mulitcast client support
Networking enhancements
WCF TCP-binding (sans securite')
WCF PollingDuplex improvements
Authentication support with ClientHTTPWebRequest
IDATAErrorInfo (unmasking validation errors)
INotifyDataErrorInfo (make use of HasError property)
Grouping on CollectionViewSource
Editable CollectionView IEditableCollecitonView
Binding to String Indexers (Good for text mining?!!)
TargetNullValue (Null is no sweat)
StringFormat (cool feature)
FallBackValue (Is it the same as default?)
Databinding support for Dependency Objects
XPath support for XML
ObservableCollection<T> constructor accepts IList and IENumerable
Isolated Storage Enhancements
Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)[hot fix running apps!!]
SDK enhancements

Are you ready for SQL Server 2008 SP2?

The Service Pack 2 is ready for downloading from this site here:
To download the SQL Server 2008 SP2 release please select from the links below:
 •SQL Server 2008 SP2: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196550
 •SQL Server 2008 SP2 Express: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=196551
 •SQL Server 2008 SP2 Feature Packs: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=202815
Note


 This is a service pack for the 2008 server and not the 2008 R2.

I have only Express editions and this executable (SQLServer2008SP2-KB2285068-x86-ENU.exe, 284MB ) from the above link applied the service pack to the two SQL Express servers on my notebook computer (Aspire 4810TZ-4011) with Windows 7 Ultimate.

I ran Select @@version on each of them and got these responses:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (SP2) - 10.0.4000.0 (Intel X86)   Sep 16 2010 20:09:22   Copyright (c) 1988-2008 Microsoft Corporation  Express Edition with Advanced Services on Windows NT 6.1 <X86> (Build 7600: )
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (SP2) - 10.0.4000.0 (Intel X86)   Sep 16 2010 20:09:22   Copyright (c) 1988-2008 Microsoft Corporation  Express Edition on Windows NT 6.1 <X86> (Build 7600: )[I call this the Vanilla]
The first of these has Reporting Services server.

So what does this service pack accomplish?
* Reporting Services in Sharepoint Integrated Mode. It also helped SQL Server 2008 R2 to integrate with Sharepoint 2007 Products.
* SQL Server 2008 R2 Application and Multiserver Management Compatibility with SQL Server 2008
    *SQL Server 2008 Instance Management. You can enroll SQL Server 2008 with SQL Server 2008 R2 Utility Control Point as a managed instance.
    *Data-Tier Application(DAC) support. With the SP2 applied I can do all the DAC Operations just like in SQL Server 2008 R2. However I am using the      SSMS tool that was installed with SQL Server 2008 R2.
     Here is an example of the DACs that you can do with SQLExpress (vanilla).

You want to jump start on DAC, the coolest feature of SQL Server, then make sure you read these articles:
http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2010/07/sql-server-2008-r2-and-data-tier.html
or
here
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2010/02/working-with-data-gotten-lot-easier.html

Have some fun!