India is an Emerging Market, Is it really?

India has contributed to computer technology enormously over the past decade, but how well is it exposed to the world, how seriously it is taken may be debated.

Take for example the currency symbol for Indian Rupee shown here.

 

The currency symbol for Indian Rupee has been standardized with the accepted Unicode U+20B9.
Review Link here.
http://www.labnol.org/india/indian-rupee-added-to-unicode/17919/

However even in documents like Microsoft SQL Server it has not found a place when referring to data types and currency symbols. However, it amuses me to see even much smaller countries whose currency is unknown to me has a place. I am sure this will be corrected, but when?

In looking through this I came across this nice blog on Unicode Code Converter v7.05 here.
http://rishida.net/tools/conversion/

These are the various converted formats for the Indian currency symbol.

The image of the currency symbol at the top of this post is from this site:

http://www.rareindianfacts.org/2011/03/new-indian-currency-rupee-symbol.html

Training Course in Honolulu: Introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL)-Starting November 5,2013

If you are interested in this course you can still register.
Please get in touch with Gerald Cerny (gcerny@hawaii.edu)

Details here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/08/introduction-to-structured-query.html

It is a tablet, no it is a PC

These 4 have to fight it out
One of them is well trenched but the others are heavy weights too, except on of them has weakened
Four tablets have made news in recent times and it is time to take a look at their specs. These four are,

• Surface Pro 2: Microsoft
• iPad Air: Apple
• Nokia 2520: Nokia
• Kindle Fire HDX 8.9

Each of them have pluses and minuses compared to others. They are also sweetening the deals and motivating the users.

Here are some basic details you may already know.

Surface Pro 2, Windows 8.1 based product,0.53" thick;  charges in 2 to 4 hours. The nice thing is you can put stuff into it and take it out relatively easily with ports. If you don't like ports use SkyDrive for free (one year). It has business applications perfected over decades. I suppose enterprise customers will buy them as presents to their employees. It is a tablet, no it is a PC.
Free Skype voice calling 60 countries for 1 yr and free storage on SkyDrive.
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/

iPad Air, iOS7 based product, a mere 0.29" thick (can it float in air?), A7 Chip x64bit architecture-a first among peers, M7 motion processor;  iPad to large scene via AirPlay, Print anything using AirPrint, Airdrop sharing with no setup.
http://www.apple.com/ipad-air/features/

Nokia 2520: Qualcomm SnapDragon 800, Processor type: Quad-code 2.2 GHZ; 4G-LTE connectivity, superfast charging and a 6.7MP camera with ZEISS optics. If you are a shutter bug this one for you. Beats all others in this respect.Display resolution: Full HD (1920 x 1080)
http://www.nokia.com/us-en/phones/tablet/lumia2520/specifications/

Kindle FIre HDX 8.9
Highest resolution (2560x1600) and the best pixel density (339 ppi); True rendition with perfect color (100% sRGB);
MayDay support 24 hours Free with MayDat button, you can see your support staff on screen and say 'Hi'.
Wi-Fi and WiFi+Cellular(AT&T and Verizon),7" HDX display (1920x1200), high pixel density (323 PPI), Amazon SkyDrive for sving and sharing.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWYQ9YE?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=2478560243&ref=pd_sl_4d1fuknzjk_e

More details on my mobile blog

Error on page 27 of my book, 'Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012'

Reporting an error on page 27 in my book 'Learning SQL Server Reporting Services 2012', Packt Publishing, ISBN: 978-1-84968-992-2, June 2013.

Despite an editorial process that took over 2 months and atleast 3 revisions, an error like this one can exist in the document. I sincerely apologize for this error on page 27 in my book, after Step.15.

Error type: Images duplicated instead of two separate figures.

Correction:
Remove the figure that is duplicated
Insert the replacement image in its place. 

Details: Instead of the image immediately after 'Step 15', review the replacement image.
Here is the replacement image.

 Here are more details.

My sincere apologies,

Mahalo

Jay

Windows Azure SDK 2.2 Released

In this release (pretty big) you can remotely debug your Azure applications (Cloud services, Azure sites, and so on) with Visual Studio. A preview of Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET is also included. Of course integrated sign-in is supported which means as far as resources are concerned it is a one stop service. Another enhancement is to do with Firewall management. In Windows Azure the firewall you configure surrounds the Azure services and you can manage them from client applications such as SSMS and Visual Studio with Windows Azure Firewall APIs. There is a new Windows Azure PowerShell as well.

Here is a complete list from Scott Guthrie's blog.

• Visual Studio 2013 Support
• Integrated Windows Azure Sign-In support within Visual Studio
• Remote Debugging Cloud Services with Visual Studio
• Firewall Management support within Visual Studio for SQL Databases
• Visual Studio 2013 RTM VM Images for MSDN Subscribers
• Windows Azure Management Libraries for .NET
• Updated Windows Azure PowerShell Cmdlets and ScriptCenter

Here is my experience in installing Windows Azure SDK 2.2

I started with Visual Studio 2013 Express RC for web and clicked on the Get the SDK link which is listed as a project.

 

This allowed me the download the Web Platform Installer 4.6 shown.

 

 

This begins the installation as shown for the SDK 2.2

 

 

Clicking Install begins checking for prerequisites etc. as shown.

 

 

This is what I see after this window disappears.

 

 

Then this shows up again.

Then I am asked to reboot. Actually this happened twice (?).

 

 

Rebooted the computer.

 It came back with another screen similar to the previous one. The next two pictures shows all the installed items.

----------------------------------------

 

 

 

--------------------------

 

 The Web Platform Installer came up again for reboot. I just dismissed it.

 

Anyway a bunch of changes were made and lots of new programs (versions in some cases) were added as shown.

 

Looks like my Visual Studio 2013 RC for web is gone and is replaced by another program which is called a Express Preview for web in the shortcut but which is really.

Here is a screen showing signing on to windows Azure from the new program above.

 

The interface has undergone a lot of changes but the basics of working with Windows SQL Databases has not changed that much and they are comprehensively documented in my book here, .

 

 

http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-sql-azure-enterprise-application-development/book

 

and in my blogs.

 

 

 

 

SSDT BI templates for SQL Server 2012 CTP2

You will get SQL Server 2014 CTP2 Data Tools BI Project templates if you install Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Data Tools BI for Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, CTP2. Note that this does not work with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. It is supported only on x64 architecture of Windows Servers 2208 R2 and 2012 but on both X32 and X64 for Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download link here
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40736

This installs the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 CTP2 Data Tools Business Intelligence project templates for Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services.

Make sure you have these on the computer as prerequisites:
•Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5
•Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Isolated) Redistributable Package
•Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Shell (Integrated) Redistributable Package
•Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2012
•Microsoft Report Viewer 2012 Runtime
For more support information follow this link here.

Kickstarter crowd funded Nanoleaf light bulb is coooooooooool

A new aggregation of LED's resulting in a cool and easy to assemble innovative light bulb has been designed by Nanoleaf. Details are here:

http://www.thenanoleaf.com/company

I thank my son Krishna Jayaram for sending me the link.
 

Here is the Video on YouTube.

It is high time we get rid of Compact Fluorescents Light bulbs!

Backup/Restore older versions of SQL Server to Windows Azure Cloud

SQL Server 2012 supported backing up database to Windows Azure . Of course higher versions will also be capable and in fact SQL Server 2014 will also do so more easily. What if you wanted to backup your SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008R2 to the Cloud. Well, a new 3 step tool released by Microsoft can do it, no problem (it appears). The tool supports backup compression and encryption to boot.

Access tool download link here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40740

Few more details here.

 

Come get it, SQL Server 2014 CTP2 is out

It is available for immediate download.

Don't click on the start to get evaluation! It won't take you to SQL Server 2014 CTP2.

Access the main link here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/sql-server-2014.aspx

New capabilities :
Promises new in-memory capabilities
Promises new cloud capabilities

Here is a cutout from product documentation.

Want to check it out, download from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39269
The installation should follow the same steps as in installing SQL Server 2014 CTP1.

Get full screen shots here.
http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2013/09/installing-sql-server-2014-ctp1-on.html

Mahalo,
Jay

Packt is having a 4day Columbus day sale, check out.

Explore something new this Columbus Day with Packt’s biggest ever sale

Packt Publishing is giving everyone the chance to explore its full range of over 1600 DRM-free eBooks this Columbus Day at a massive 50% off at www.packtpub.com, for 4 whole days.

Customers simply use the code COL50 in their cart – as many times as they like until Thursday October 17th. The offer even extends to Packt’s bestselling pre-order of 2013, the highly acclaimed Mastering Web Application Development with AngularJS. 

But that’s not all – to mark the transition out of beta stage, the publisher will also be including its Packt Video product range in this limited offer. These practical screencast tutorials give users the working knowledge they need to get the job done, and all videos will be featured in the Columbus Day sale at 50% off – that includes the hugely popular Kali Linux - Backtrack Evolved: A Penetration Tester’s Guide. 

Of course you may also get my following books during this mega sale. God bless Columbus!!

All links to my books are available here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com

New book is being written: SQL Server Querying with SQL Server 2012

Mahalo,

 

Get your discount from here:

http://bit.ly/1bqvB29 and use this discount code: COL50

 

Connecting to SQL Anywhere 16 using Visual Studio 2013 RC for Web

You can look at the sample described in this post to see how easy it is to connect to SQL Anywhere from Microsoft VS2013RC-Web.

When you install SQL Anywhere 16 a sample folder is installed in the following location:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\SQL Anywhere 16\Samples

Among the various samples you will find the ADO.NET folder here:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\SQL Anywhere 16\Samples\SQLAnywhere

There are a couple of examples that show how to work with SQL Anywhere 16 using ADO.NET. This post shows looking at the TableViewer sample.

• Launch VS2013RC_Web and open the console application TableViewer solution file.
• The project gets upgraded should you choose to do so and you should see a message as shown.

 

• Click OK and you get a migration report. Make sure you look at all the message links.

• The project gets upgraded as shown.

 

The project should bring up a form and the button events are shown on the right. Clicking any of the button events and you should get  to see the code.

The project when run displays a form containing a couple of buttons and the connection string shows up in one of text boxes (of course this assumes that you have already started the SQL Anywhere 16 Personal demo server).

• Click Connect and the list of tables gets populated as shown.

• Choose a table from the drop-down and click Execute. Execute button instantiates a DataReader and the readers reads all the items. You will see all the columns in the table as shown.

 

Make sure you read the code.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 RC_web is an excellent (free) program that you should really check out.

Looking at Oracle Express after a long break

The version I am now looking at is Oracle 11G Express. It is also entry level like its predecessor 10G, free with a small foot print. If you are looking at getting acquainted with Oracle you may sample the express which is based on the Oracle 11g Release 2 code base. The download link is here:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/express-edition/overview/index.html

The last express version of Oracle I looked at was 10G XE. Here are the links (earliest last) to my previous Oracle 10G XE articles. It is possible some links are broken.

In many cases, exporting a table to create an XML file is easy, but importing an XML file to create a table is much more difficult. This is true for Oracle 10G XE, as you will see in the following article:
 
Loading and Unloading XML Files Using Oracle 10G XE

Queries are quantitative questions you pose to a database. Questions such as "how many employees make more than $20,000.00 a year?" or "which employee has worked for more than two years?" are typical examples. In some cases, to answer questions like the ones above, you may go no further than looking it up in one table. However some questions may need more than one table, and it is not uncommon that several tables must be used to provide the answer. Here is how you query multiple tables in Oracle.

Multi-Table Queries with Oracle 10G XE

If you need to dealing with moving legacy data  to more recent databases, this article might help.
It will show you how to move data from an MS Excel file into an Oracle 10G XE table.

Importing a CSV Text File into Oracle 10G XE

Creating tables is one of the most basic tasks you will be doing. Oracle 10G XE provides a wizard to help you create a table. The wizard walks you through several steps for creating a table, taking you to the next step after you have entered valid entries for the current step. While scripts can be used to create a table, creating a table using the visual, form-based creation process is a lot simpler and less prone to errors. This tutorial describes a table to be created in the HR database with all the necessary ingredients for a typical database. This article shows you how.

Creating a Table using Oracle 10G XE

If you're a DBA, one of your basic tasks involves managing users: dropping, adding, and changing
permissions. Even if you aren't a DBA, if you use a database, you may find it helpful to know the
tasks that a DBA performs. This article explains the basics for how to perform these tasks in Oracle
10G XE. Here is a 101 level explanation.

Oracle 10G XE User Management 101

If you have ever loaded data into an Oracle table, you know that it is a rather complicated process.
You will be surprised at how much easier it is to do in Oracle 10G XE. Keep reading to find out.

Loading Spread Sheet Data into Oracle 10G XE

In a previous article, a set of tables from Oracle 10G XE were transferred to SQL 2005 Server using
SQL 2005 Server's Export/Import Wizard. This article is about migrating a table from Oracle 10G XE to SQL Anywhere 10. Someone commented why would anyone want to do this.

Migrating from Oracle 10G XE to SQL Anywhere 10

This tutorial takes you through the process of creating a web service client using the
ApplicationBuilder interface in Oracle 10g XE. The client will access the services offered by a web
service created using the Visual Studio 2005.

Creating an Oracle Web Service Client for a Web Service Created in VS 2005

Oracle 10G XE is versatile. You can also create applications.
This tutorial shows you how to create a report based on a table in the Oracle 10g XE database without stepping out of the IDE. It will show you how to manipulate the report and create a UI.

Developing Applications on Oracle 10g XE: Generating a Report

In an earlier tutorial we saw how to use SQL commands in the Oracle 10g Express Edition, or simply
Oracle XE. We also saw how to use the PL/SQL commands as well. In another tutorial we saw how to use the Query Builder, the graphical interface for fashioning and running SQL in the Oracle XE. The
present tutorial describes the SQL scripting support in Oracle XE. In order to bring out the basic
features of scripting support a few example scripts are considered in the discussion.

SQL Script Support in Oracle 10G Express Edition

Here is my favorite. Learning step-by-step everything you want to do, the technique in all my books so far.
Many enterprises need to move data from one kind of data source to another. This tutorial guides you through the steps necessary to move data from Oracle XE into a SQL 2005 Server database.

Step-By-Step Guide to Importing Data from Oracle XE to SQL 2005

In an earlier tutorial we saw how to use SQL commands in the Oracle 10g Express Edition, or simply
Oracle XE. We also saw how to use the PL/SQL commands as well. In this tutorial we will see how to use the Query Builder, the graphical interface for fashioning and running SQL in the Oracle XE. The
tutorial shows how to interact with the query builder to create a SELECT query in the context of a
single table as well as a SELECT query from two related tables.

Using Query Builder in the Oracle 10g Express Edition

Querying the database is one of the most common tasks that you may have to carry out routinely. This tutorial shows you the options for running SQL queries and how to run the queries against the database in the Oracle Express Edition, Oracle XE for short.

Learning to Query in Oracle XE

There are plenty of companies that produce large, expensive database programs with lots of features. But if you're a small company, you don't need to spend a lot of money to get a database that suits your needs; in fact, you may not need to spend any money at all. This article introduces you to Oracle 10g XE, a free database with a friendly user interface.

Experience the Possibilities with Oracle 10g Express Edition

Here is an article from my book:

"SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005", Chapter 13: Package to Copy a Table from Oracle XE', Packt Publishing, Birmingham and Mumbai, 978-1-847193-31-5, 2007".

This book is a real low cost option to learn SSIS with very little effort from your side.
Image

Oracle 11G XE

It is very easy to  install and work with Oracle 11G XE. Here are some Oracle 11g XE installation slides. After downloading run the setup (319662 KB) program. Here are some installation slides:

Make sure you choose a password for the SYSTEM here. It is not very stringent as in Windows Azure.

After installation you would have a shortcut like this one on your desktop.

You just double click it to launch as shown.

You are in. Login to start your session.

Make sure you read the following to explore Oracle 11G XE further:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/sql/11g-xe-quicktour-498681.html

Enjoy.

Mahalo
 

Bunch of new updates to Windows Azure

Here is a summary from Scott Gu's article found here regarding the most recent updates:

• Compute: New 2-CPU Core 14 GB RAM instance option

• Virtual Machines: Support for Oracle Software Images, Management Operations on Stopped VMs

• Active Directory: Richer Directory Management and General Availability of Multi-Factor Authentication Support

• Spending Limit: Reset your Spending Limit, Virtual Machines are no longer deleted if it is hit

• Storage: New Storage Client Library 2.1 Released

• Web Sites: IP and Domain Restriction Now Supported

The new virtual machine instance released is called A5 shown here (from the previous link):

Here are some more details of the virtual machines copied from here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/dn197896.aspx












Only one  active directory which cannot be deleted has changed. Now you can have multiple active directories which contributes to flexibility (with multiple tenants).

Test

This is a test post.