I think that there's a tendency among DBAs and SQL Server wonks to be a bit dismissive of Full Text Indexing. I think that in a lot of cases people tend to think of it in terms of adding significant overhead. For a long time I actually looked at it as being a more powerful, but more EXPENSIVE, form of searching. Then I actually had the chance to ...

If you do a lot of scripting, SP2 for SS 2005 is going to be a must-have. Luckily it was just released. Here are some of the BIG improvements for people who like to script a lot: Generate Script Wizard. You can now specify that the scripted objects include a DROP statement before the CREATE statement.  Scripting of objects into separate ...

VPN Software should come with big warning labels: ''WARNING: Does not play well with others.''As a consultant I frequently need to gain access to remote networks via VPN. This means I'm frequently hosing myself by installing yet another VPN client. That, and I hate connecting to the vast majority of VPNs because they hose my network settings ...

I recently did some book reviews for the ASP Alliance (which will be throwing up a SQL Server Reporting Services portal in the near future).The reviews are for (links are to the reviews):Hitchhiker's Guide to SQL Server 2000 Reporting ServicesandThe Rational Guide to SQL Server Reporting ServicesThe reviews were easy to do as both books are ...

As a consultant, it's not uncommon for me to need to rewrite a poorly performing query or sproc without a full understanding of the underlying biz rules or context. Improved performance is the stated goal, but data fidelity is implied as critical. Enter unit testing - something many of us rely upon heavily during 'normal' development at ...

Paolo has started up his own blog on SqlAdvice. Make sure to check it out and subscribe. The focus of his blog will be on Experimental SQL technologies, including AI and self generating SQL entities. Should be a great ride.

In SQL Server 2000, if you use Enterprise Mangler to script your tables, you need to watch out that your constraints don't get turned off. For example, here's a snippet generated from the Northwind.dbo.Employees table (just using the right click > All Tasks > Generate SQL Script wizard). ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Employees] WITH NOCHECK ADD ...

I've just stumbled upon some very good news, in the form of two books:1) Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: The Storage Engine - Kalen Delaney2) Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming -Itzik Ben-GanKalen Delany's Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is the best SQL Server book that I own - the only thing I would change about it: make it ...

I've got a new project coming up that Involves SQL Server 2005 reporting services. I've got a good handle on the basics, but the project will be on a tight deadline, and I'd like to have as much 'backup' as possible, so I went out to Amazon.com to find some books that may prove handy. To be honest, projects are always a great excuse to ...

Microsoft's Paul Flessner just sent out an email to all of the official Yukon Beta Testers: SQL Server 2005 will ship the week of November 7, 2005. Very cool news. One of my favorite new features: The Oracle Conversion Wizard... muhahahah.