What’s Big Data All About And Why Should I Care About It..?

The term ‘Big Data’ has received a lot of press lately and I feel it’s being significantly misunderstood. Does ‘Big Data’ mean ‘huge amounts’ of data…? This is where most peoples’ understanding of ‘Big Data’ goes off the tracks. If the main idea around it was just that there’s a ton of data, one would have a reasonable argument that large Data Warehouses already cover that concept, which would make ‘Big Data’ just another one of those buzzwords of the week.

The reality is, ‘Big Data’ is not an adjective, it’s a concept, it’s a method for running a business, and it’s a commitment that’s bought into at the highest levels of an organization and pushed downward. This is vastly different from companies with large-scale Data Warehouses that measure the success of their Data Warehouse by looking at user adoption rates. The teams responsible for Data Warehouses are consistently jockeying for end users’ attention to prove their value to them and the ‘data they supply’s value to the organization.

Companies who are on the ‘Big Data’ train and have implemented its philosophies are years, if not decades beyond customers with traditional large-scale Data Warehouses in that they don’t just see data as a strategic asset. They’ve made a commitment and placed a big bet that data WILL drive a radical transformation in their product development, research, innovation, and marketing processes. Now you may be asking yourself, “We’ve integrated our product, sales, and marketing data and even have near real-time access to that information and there’s a TON of data in it. Isn’t that ‘Big Data‘?” Let’s take a look at a few real world examples of companies that have doubled down on ‘Big Data‘ and show (1) what the data is (2) how that data is being used:

Amazon.com was an early adopter of the ‘Big Data‘ concept and early on, they captured data at a significantly low level of detail so they could test the following factors and the impact those factors had on sales (quantities and revenue amounts):

• Button location and placement on the page had a huge impact on Sales and customer button clicks.. Sure, today the buttons are fairly consistent, but imagine the data mining that had to be done to test which button location drove the most sales, highest revenue averages per sale, how active a user is with the different products shown on a page and where they’re located.

• The sequence of how content is displayed has a huge impact on cross-selling. Click on this link and see for yourself. Let’s say I decide to buy this Smartpen, and I’m also presented with accessories that I didn’t even know were available. I have a button right there to buy the Smartpen with accessories. I might have only come for the Smartpen and planned to buy the paper and ink refills elsewhere, or I may not have even known there were accessories for it, but it’s too easy not to buy it all together, especially when I get a discount when I bundle them. And, oh by the way, I actually did purchase this from Amazon with the accessories so they increased their overall revenue of this purchase an additional 50% by presenting me with these options. This is a great real world example of how their ‘Big Data‘ commitment is bringing in a lot more revenue by correlating products with like products that have sold together in the past.
• Using that same link above, take a look at the section “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Bought” which is located towards the bottom of the page. You are shown 25 scrolling pages worth of products that other customers have bought when they purchased this Smartpen. If the above accessory section didn’t suck you into buying something else, this section most definitely will. It’s the peer pressure section that shows you what “everyone else is buying” so you better too if you want to ‘Be Like Mike’.
• It’s important to remain cognizant of the fact that data drove every scenario above. Not just line of business or sales data, but detailed metadata that’s captured during each button click on their site; and by button click that’s not only the purchase button, but rather an event history of how you scrolled the page, clicked through different products, the time you spent viewing each one, and the ability to completely simulate your browsing events, step by step. The impressive part about this isn’t the fact that they’re capturing such a massive amount of data. It’s the investment they’ve made in being able to do anything meaningful with that much data let alone incorporate the results back into their business processes and generate new revenue streams from it.

Social Media isn’t only for uploading pictures or to let everyone know you just woke up for the day. Companies such as Ford, Southwest Airlines, Pepsi, and others mine through huge amounts of worldwide data in real-time to get immediate impacts and reactions to their marketing campaigns. This insight helps evolve existing campaigns, foster new ones, and gives these companies an accurate and most important an immediate understanding of their consumers’ opinions regarding their bands.

• Keeping with the ‘Big Data‘ theme, let’s be sure to acknowledge how this fits into overall ‘Big Data‘. Like Amazon, these companies have so tightly integrated data into their business processes that they’re able to not only get a pulse of their customer satisfaction to a product or program, they’re able to immediately take action on that feedback.

• Imagine launching a ground breaking new product or program to your customer base only to find it’s not receiving the positive reaction you thought it would and has the potential to create devastating financial and/or brand impacts if nothing is done.
• Imagine the feeling in your stomach as you review these poor program results that were eventually compiled 6 months after the program launched, and after 50% or more of your customer base has gone to a competitor. If you still have a job, how do you reassure investors and customers that your business plan is viable? This is an unfortunate, yet extremely common scenario that companies will eventually get sick of being blindsided and decide to invest in their ability to be proactive to the reactive. Many companies avoid taking risks such as introducing possible ground breaking changes to their product line out of fear of what could happen.
• Now imagine you’re one of the above listed companies and you’ve built a closed loop process that ties in real-time social media results with program management. You have the extremely unique yet priceless amenity of testing new programs with immediate visibility into how they’re performing and the consumer outlook of the program so you can react accordingly.
• If the program is negatively received by your consumers or initial results are well below expectations, the program can be immediately suspended, avoiding any further negative impacts to financials and/or your brand.
• However, proactive insight isn’t just for dealing with negative scenarios. What if your new program is a smashing success? Non ‘Big Data‘ companies would say, “Great, we nailed that one” a few months into the program’s launch when the data finally rolls in. ‘Big Data‘ companies will have the early results, see it’s a smashing success, triple their production output and run their manufacturing plants 18 hours a day instead of 12 hours so they can capitalize on the positive market outlook.

The reality is, ‘Big Data‘ enables companies to experiment safely yet aggressively. Consumers have more options than ever when buying products. The days of people buying your product simply because it’s a certain brand are long gone. Consumers are smart and will sniff out the best value, even if it’s an off brand that can provide similar value in return. Along the same lines, your competitors are doing everything they can to steal your customers, one purchase at a time. The integration of Social Media with ‘Big Data‘ adds context to your data that’s just not captured in line of business data.

Implementing ‘Big Data’ as essential components of management decision making will require a very firm commitment to the following:

• New Capabilities (Companies need to master the technologies used to capture, integrate, and analyze the valuable information they can already access today, internally. These capabilities may be software related, hardware related, and even analytical related)

• Organizational (Most companies are nowhere near capable of accessing all their data which may require organizational changes to better align data ownership/stewardship. Changes could also be required when external data is brought into the mix)

• Culture Changes (The ‘Big Data‘ commitment must start at the top with the message then driven downward. Experimenting in business today often goes against the grain so it’s critical that the different management tiers in the organization view senior leadership as role models so they can show how experimentation can be a positive experience when combined with the overall value achieved with ‘Big Data‘ and real-time visibility into the experiment results)

• Right Talent and Processes (Having the right talent can make or break any successful initiative, and ‘Big Data’ is not immune to that. This doesn’t only refer to technical capabilities in your talent, but also grasps the approach of ‘Big Data’, can help drive it throughout the organization, and can design experiments that allow ‘Big Data’ to provide business value)

‘Big Data‘ is a topic I’ll be writing many posts about going forward so stay connected to my blog for future ‘Big Data‘ updates.

Thanks for reading,

Jason Volpe

How To Manually Remove Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools For Mango

Anyone who has installed Visual Basic for Windows Phone Developer Tools  may run into an install issue when they try to install Windows Phone SDK 7.1, the latest update to Mango development tools on the Windows Phone platform.  I removed through the add/remove programs option and thru the Start Menu however even though it was removed and I rebooted, the Windows Phone SDK 7.1 install continued to fail due to incompatibilities as it thought VB for WP Developer Tools was still installed.  I came across a handly cleanup utility that was written by another developer (shown below) which finally got it completely removed.

http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-PostAttachments/00-09-54-43-20/xnags_5F00_cleanup_5F00_tool.zip

Download this tool, and run it for Windows Phone Developer Tools and it will completely remove all traces of it on your system.  Once completed, you should have no problem installing the new 7.1 SDK.  Good luck and happy developing!

Jason Volpe

IRS Says Do As I Say Not As I Do!

A very large part of my job is working with some of the largest companies in the US architect highly secure databases and the right ways to allow data to be accessed from them.  This story resonates with me for obvious reasons, but it should also concern you just as much.  The very government agency that we, as tax payers, rely on for setting regulations and guidelines for how US companies protect OUR information doesn’t seem to have its own house in order.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime right now without the governments help, imagine how fast that will increase by publicizing that over 2,200 of the IRS’ databases were found to have serious security problems, as noted in the below write up.  If Washington wants to add red tape to every ideological need that comes up, that’s fine.  It’s entirely inefficient, but whatever.  However, I do have a big problem with my personal information, which by the way I’m forced to provide to the IRS each year as are you, has also gotten layered by red tape along with everything else.  So, the Federal Information Security Management Act was put in place and is enforced by the Department of Homeland Security to get a handle on such a widespread and serious issue, all the while unknowingly leaking private information out of the bottom of their cup.  How’s THAT for job security.

FYI: The below post was written by Ericka Chickowski.

Reports: DHS, IRS Databases At Risk

Protected critical infrastructure information at risk in DHS data stores, IG report says

By Ericka Chickowski, Contributing Writer

Some of the federal government’s most critical agencies are falling down on database security with misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and a lack of best practices, putting sensitive citizen and defense information at risk as a result, new government audits show. Just this week, the Office of the Inspector General (IG) found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — the agency in charge of ensuring Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) compliance among all government agencies — itself has a number of critical shortcomings within its database defenses.

The new report (PDF) highlighted database security deficiencies within the protected critical infrastructure information (PCII) system data stores, with weaknesses in both the Automated Critical Asset Management System (ACAMS) and the Linking Encrypted Network System (LENS) that put PCII data at risk. Some of the problems highlighted in the report included a failure to follow the rule of least privilege, a lack of communication among personnel to decide who was in charge of locking down the database, and a number of redacted configuration vulnerabilities.

“We all have this sense of concern that develops when the people responsible for keeping us secure are not keeping themselves secure,” says John Verry, principal consultant for Pivot Point Security. “I would be hesitant to make an assertion about something I am not directly familiar with — we haven’t done work for DHS, and they may have picked the one database that was wildly insecure. But typically what we find [when] we do enterprisewide database security assessments is that if one database is relatively insecure, most of them will be, and if one database tends to be reasonably secure, most of them will be.”

The DHS isn’t the only agency under fire from auditors. A recent report (PDF) from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) found that the IRS has some serious problems with the security of nearly all of its 2,200 databases. Even though the agency has spent $1.1 million on database security tools recently, it has not completed the implementation of tools and requisite best practices to make them effective.

“As all government databases are becoming favored targets of hackers, the importance of protecting IRS databases cannot be overstated,” said TIGTA Inspector General J. Russell George, in a statement. “Any failure to maintain IRS databases with the right amount of security diligence can allow disgruntled insiders or malicious outsiders to exploit security weaknesses to gain unauthorized access to taxpayer data, resulting in identity theft, fraud, or other types of illegal activity.”

TIGTA made a number of recommendations to improve IRS database security, but some experts believe it needed to go further than what it laid out.

“Periodic scanning of databases for vulnerabilities, unpatched and legacy systems, determining excessive rights, and having a documented plan for ongoing assessment and remediation is a good first step, but the IRS should also be implementing the highest levels of security monitoring around their databases,” says Mel Shakir, CTO of NitroSecurity. “TIGTA and the IRS should be thinking of correlating vulnerability scan results with every action/access performed against the taxpayer data and profiling user behavior for outliers and exceptional activity. Application logs, OS logs, SQL activity, and configuration changes — all play a significant part in securing the database, and should not be monitored in isolation of each other using point security solutions.”

Both the IRS’ and DHS’ recent struggles should be a signal to those within government that database security must be a big priority. Unlike enterprise databases, these government data holdings are much more sensitive from a public safety perspective.

“We’ve done work in law enforcement, and the database is housing the information relating to undercover personnel or schedules for particular police personnel or home addresses of those individuals,” Verry says. “Sony doesn’t want to leak information about someone’s email addresses, of course, but we’re probably not going to have people dying or other more significant public issues like we would with a government database.”

Unfortunately, at the moment, the government remains spotty, at best, at protecting its sensitive databases.

“Government database security is a mixed bag. Many organizations have just begun to look at implementing security controls for databases for the first time. Some organizations, including IRS, have purchased technology to address the issue, but then struggled with internal politics and resource constraints that have prevented them from using what they bought,” says Josh Shaul, CTO for Application Security. “Other federal organizations are approaching a maturity around their database security programs; unfortunately those organizations are few and far between. The federal government has a long way to go before they can start calling their databases secure.”

3D Printer – I lost my steel wrench, so I’ll just print another one…?

I must admit that I had this idea 15 years ago when we were phasing out green bar printers, but I never thought I’d see the day that I could take a toy from my son Gavin, scan it, and simply print a second one for his sister Gianna.  Well watch this video and be prepared to be blown away. 

Thanks,

Jason Volpe

Should I Use SELECT * In A SQL Server View

I had a meeting with one of my clients today who asked me if there are any impacts of them creating SQL Server Views that do a SELECT * to capture all the columns from their respective tables.  The reality is it’s very easy to get into the habit of using SELECT * instead of specifying columns because it makes database development much easier. That may be true, however you’ll pay the price in other areas which I’ll outline now.

Impacts of using SELECT *:

• Exposing the data through a View using SELECT * to an unsuspecting user only knows the schema they see TODAY.  Well, what happens when a business need changes and additional columns are added to the View which has a likely chance of breaking things downstream.  The user could specify the fields on their side, but that’s only if they can.  If they’re putting a form of some sort on top of that view, they may have been forced to schema bind it to the View. When the View’s schema changes, you’ll have an unhappy customer.
• There are times where you have backend only columns that are used for backend processing that could also be in the View for accuracy or filtering.  These columns should not be shown to end users as it could cause confusion or be used inadvertently in their reporting. Specifying fields will allow you to avoid this from happening.
• Performance, performance, performance.  I’ve worked with a lot of BusinessObjects’ customers who use SQL Server Views on top of their relational tables and use those Views in their BO Universe.  They build a view for every table, and the view is simply SELECT * FROM TABLENAME WITH (NOLOCK) in order to enforce transaction isolation (read uncommitted).  This significantly improves the performance of a BO Universe, but also comes with it’s shortcomings.  Many of their tables are 200+ column tables and lots of wide character fields. This is murder on performance.  Unfortunately many of those tables only have a handful of fields that would ever be used for reporting purposes, yet those views return over 200+ columns every time a query is run.  When explained this way, it’s not so hard to see why those environments are dealing with I/O problems or Memory/CPU pressure.

And now for the biggest reason not to use SELECT * in your views…  When a View is created or altered, that is the only time the Catalog Tables are updated.  The Catalog Tables are the system tables you usually reference, such as sys.sql_modules, sys.columns, etc…  Those will be updated anytime the base table is created or altered.  But what about the View that references them?  Unfortunately when a column is added or deleted from a table, the View does NOT reflect that change.  However if the View is altered down the road, the changes to the base table will then reflect in the View, which means the end user impact may not show up when the table is modified.  It could occur many months after when a change to the View happens to occur.

If you end up having to use SELECT * in a View, run sp_refreshview ‘ViewName’ before the SELECT statement so that it forces the schema update. If no change happened, no harm, no foul.  Let me know what your thoughts are on this and what you’ve seen.

Thanks for reading.

Jason Volpe

How To Download SQL Server Denali CTP3

Really…?  Do we really need a post dedicated to the download process for SQL Server Denali CTP3?  Well, unfortunately we do.  I found myself consistently getting redirected to the main http://microsoft.com/sql website and couldn’t figure out why.  Turns out, being a guy who never reads directions before using anything he buys is a disadvantage with this download.

Denali CTP3 Download Location: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/pd/SQLDCTP3CTA/enus/

Step 1: Pick your language and then click the “Download 32/64” button respectively.

Step 2: You’ll be taken to this page with a HUGE green button that says “GET STARTED NOW >>”.  Who wouldn’t push that button…???

Step 3: You will now find yourself at the main http://microsoft.com/sql portal.  Why is that?  Well let’s take a closer look at the image in Step 2 shall we?

If you read the text in the big red rectangle at the top of this image, you, I mean I would have seen that the Download Manager add-in is being installed.  If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, you’ll have to wait about 10 seconds to see the “Allow” button if using IE, and then refresh the page (F5), so that the add-in can actually install, just like you do for any other IE add-in you install.  If you’ve used the Connect site or MSDN site to download anything, it’s the same process even though it looks like a separate website.

So you see, men are programed to think they know everything and that they don’t need to read no stinkin’ directions.   Chalk one up for the ladies who likely took their time to read everything and were already done installing this before we even got it downloaded!

Thanks for reading.

Jason Volpe

Deprecated Master Data Services Features in SQL Server Denali CTP3

As with any new software version, older features will be deprecated as either new ones take their place or the feature is just no longer necessary.  I feel it’s just as important  to highlight the things that are going away just as much as the cool new features that are available.   The reason is because of the impact these deprecated features have on existing development.  Unless you’re scanning software release notes, you may not realize that a critical part of an application you support will no longer work when you upgrade to a new version of software, which can have dire consequences.

Staging Process

The staging process that was used in SQL Server 2008 R2 is no longer available in the Master Data Manager web application; however it is still available in SQL Server Management Studio.

Staging errors from the SQL Server 2008 R2 staging process are no longer displayed in the UI. Error codes that are populated during the staging process are still available in the staging tables, and can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff487022.aspx

The staging tables (tblStgMember, tblStgMemberAttribute, and tblStgRelationship) are still available in the database. The stored procedure used to initiate the staging process (mdm.udpStagingSweep) is still available in the database.

The web service methods that call the staging process are still available.

The staging interval set in Master Data Services Configuration Manager applies to the staging process in both SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named “Denali”, Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP 3).

A new, higher performance staging process has been implemented in Microsoft SQL Server Code-Named “Denali”, Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP 3). For more information, see Importing Data (Master Data Services).

You cannot use the new staging process to:

• Create or delete collections.

• Add members to or remove members from collections.

• Reactivate members and collections.

You can use the SQL Server 2008 R2 staging process to work with collections.

Transactions

In the Explorer functional area, users can no longer revert their own transactions. Previously, users could revert changes they made to data in Explorer. Administrators can still revert transactions for all users in the Version Management functional area.

For a detailed look at the new Staging Process, take a look at the following URL. 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633726%28SQL.110%29.aspx 

Thanks for reading.

Jason Volpe

Introduction To Microsoft StreamInsight

Introduction

Microsoft StreamInsight is a powerful platform for developing and deploying complex event processing (CEP) applications. Its high-throughput stream processing architecture and .NET-based development platform enable developers to quickly implement robust and highly efficient event processing applications. Typical event stream sources include data from manufacturing applications, financial trading applications, Web analytics, or operational analytics. StreamInsight enables you to develop CEP applications that derive immediate business value from this raw data by lowering the cost to extract, analyze, and correlate the data and by allowing you to monitor, manage, and mine the data for conditions, opportunities, and defects almost instantly.

You can achieve the following tactical and strategic goals for your enterprise by developing your CEP applications using StreamInsight.

· Monitor your data from multiple sources for meaningful patterns, trends, exceptions, and opportunities.

Analyze and correlate data incrementally while the data is in-flight — that is, without first storing it–yielding very low latency. Aggregate seemingly unrelated events from multiple sources and perform highly complex analyses over time.

· Manage your business by performing low-latency analytics on the events and triggering response actions that are defined on your business key performance indicators (KPIs).

Respond quickly to areas of opportunity or threat by incorporating your KPI definitions into the logic of the CEP application, thereby improving operational efficiency and your ability to respond quickly to business opportunities.

· Mine events for new KPIs.

Move toward a predictive business model by mining historical data to continuously refine and improve your KPI definitions.

Key Benefits

StreamInsight has the following key benefits:

· Highly optimized performance and data throughput

StreamInsight implements a lightweight streaming architecture that supports highly parallel execution of continuous queries over high-speed data. The use of in-memory caches and incremental result computation provide excellent performance with high data throughout and low latency. Low latency is achieved because the events are processed without costly data load or storage operations in the critical processing path. With StreamInsight, all processing is automatically triggered by incoming events. In particular, applications do not have to incur any overhead for event polling. The platform provides the functionality for handling out-of-order events. In addition, static reference or historical data can be accessed and included in the low-latency analysis.

· .NET development environment

Developers can write their CEP applications using Microsoft’s .NET language such as Visual C#, leveraging the advanced language platform LINQ (Language Integrated Query) as an embedded query language. Given the large community of developers already familiar with these technologies, this capability reduces development costs and the time from application development to production.

By using LINQ, developers familiar with SQL will be able to quickly write queries in a declarative fashion that process and correlate data from multiple streams into meaningful results. The optimizer and scheduler of the CEP server in turn ensure optimal query performance.

· Flexible deployment capability

StreamInsight supports two deployment scenarios. It can be fully integrated into the application as a hosted (embedded) DLL or deployed as a stand-alone server with multiple applications and users sharing the server. In its stand-alone configuration, the CEP server runs in a wrapper such as an executable, or the server could be packaged as a Windows Service.

· Manageability

The monitoring and manageability features built into the CEP server provide for low total cost of ownership (TCO) of CEP applications. The management interface and diagnostic views that are provided in the CEP server allow the administrator to monitor and manage the CEP application. The manageability framework also allows for ISVs and system integrators to remotely monitor and support CEP-deployed systems at manufacturing and other scale-out installations.

StreamInsight ships with a stand-alone event flow debugger that can be used to analyze, diagnosis, and troubleshoot queries used in CEP applications.

CEP Scenarios

The need for high-throughput, low-latency processing of event streams is common to the following business scenarios:

· Manufacturing process monitoring and control

· Clickstream analysis

· Financial services

· Power utilities

· Health care

· IT monitoring

· Logistics

· Telecom

Here are some common scenarios and their respective requirements for a few of those key business scenarios:

Manufacturing Process Monitoring and Control

To ensure that products and processes are running optimally and with the least amount of downtime, manufacturing companies require low-latency data collection and analysis of plant-floor devices and sensors. The typical manufacturing scenario includes the following requirements:

· Asset-based monitoring and aggregation of machine-born data.

· Sensor-based observation of plant floor activities and output.

· Observation and reaction through device controllers.

· Ability to handle up to 10,000 data events per second.

· Event and alert generation the moment something goes wrong.

· Proactive, condition-based maintenance on key equipment.

· Low-latency analysis of aggregated data (windowed and log-scales).

Clickstream Analysis

An optimal customer experience from a commercial Web site requires low-latency processing of user behavior and interactions at the site. The typical click stream analysis application includes the following requirements:

· Ability to drive page layout, navigation, and presentation based on low-latency click stream analysis.

· Ability to handle up to 100,000 data events per second during peak traffic times.

· Immediate click-stream pattern detection and response with targeted advertising.

Algorithmic Trading in a Financial Services Environment

Algorithmic trading, with its high volume data processing needs, typically has the following requirements:

· Ability to handle up to 100,000 data events per second.

· Time-critical query processing.

· Monitoring and capitalizing on current market conditions with very short windows of opportunity.

· Smart filtering of input data.

· Ability to define patterns over multiple data sources and over time to automatically trigger buy/sell/hold decisions for assets in a portfolio.

Power Utilities

The utility sector requires an efficient infrastructure for managing electric grids and other utilities. These systems typically have the following requirements.

· Immediate response to variations in energy or water consumption, to minimize or avoid outages or other disruptions of service.

· Gaining operational and environmental efficiencies by moving to smart grids.

· Multiple levels of aggregation along the grid.

· Ability to handle up to 100,000 events per second from millions of data sources.

If you have not looked at StreamInsight before, I recommend doing so as it can significantly extend the capabilities of any application that requires the processing of data. Thanks for reading.

SQL Server StreamInsight FAQs

Q. What does this solution mean for customers?

A. While OLTP databases have matured and are capable of processing thousands of transactions per second; they are not optimized for processing continuous high volume, low latency streams of data. Microsoft’s innovative StreamInsight platform allows customers to use their own proprietary algorithms to build custom real-time applications, ISVs to build industry specific solutions and embedded system developers to offer low latency processing.

Q. What are some of the key scenarios that require support for complex event processing?

A. Algorithmic trading in the financial services industry, industrial process monitoring and control in manufacturing, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals etc., click stream analysis on the web, electric power utility grid monitoring, data center system monitoring, fraud prevention & detection, oil, and gas pipeline monitoring are some of the scenarios.

Q. What are the key benefits for supporting complex event processing?

A. The benefits vary by industry and scenario but all are a result of the ability to process large volumes of time varying events/data with very low latency and to take action(s) as a result. For example ability to mine trading opportunities in almost real time in stock markets.

Q. Why is Microsoft making this investment?

A. Microsoft is committed to enabling customers to better manage their business through quick and effective processing of information. Microsoft is delivering on its promise of “Enabling customers of all sizes to derive value from ALL data, birth through archival". Besides allowing customers the flexibility to develop their own applications, Microsoft is committed to enabling ISVs and embedded system developers to develop products and solutions that customers can exploit.

Q. Are there specific customers with whom Microsoft has been testing this functionality to date?

A: Many customers have expressed excitement about this functionality. We will publish more information on customer references closer to the release.

Q. When will this technology be available for customers?

A.  StreamInsight will be released as part of SQL Server 2008 R2 release which is expected in H2 fiscal year 2010.

Q. How will StreamInsight be licensed and priced?

As of today we have not committed to any pricing or licensing strategies. More information will be available as we get closer to the release in H2 2010.

Q. Do I need to install any other software to take advantage of this support?

A. StreamInsight will require Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 or higher, .NET Fx 3.5 or higher and Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or higher for development.

Q. Are there benchmark results which support performance expectations for StreamInsight?

A. There are no benchmark results available today. We will provide more guidance on actual scalability of specific workloads when we are closer to release. We will consider industry standard benchmarks.

Q. What applications are most likely to need support for StreamInsight?

A. Applications that require extremely low latency processing with high scale and performance include:

· Process monitoring i.e. scheduling, control, and inventory including processing such as RFID, bar codes, process monitoring at oil and gas refinery.

· Financial algorithmic trading, compliance monitoring, fraud detection, risk management

· Click stream analysis on websites , context sensitive navigation and ad-delivery model

· Utility grid monitoring – demand from meters and supply from generation units combined with energy trading

· Patient Monitoring (Healthcare),

· Network traffic monitoring, security intrusion detection

· IT monitoring

· Telecom network monitoring

· Anomaly detection

Q. Will StreamInsight work/interoperate with non-Microsoft platforms?

A. StreamInsight was not architected/designed with a specific platform in mind. The platform can integrate with other data sources and sinks with the help of right set of adapters.

Q. How is Microsoft fostering development of adapters?

A. Microsoft is committed to the development of a healthy adapter eco system. Microsoft will be providing an adapter development kit (ADK) with a reference implementation.

Q. What does this announcement mean for partners?

A. Our partners such as ISVs, embedded system developers and adapter developers will get opportunities to differentiate their product in solution capabilities and performance based on our platform. Partners will be able to save development cost and develop solutions faster using a platform based on a set of proven and mature tools and technologies. High performance and complex query capabilities amongst other features enables development of custom or industry solutions for a variety of industries and scenarios. The ease of development and ready availability of skilled resources will enable customers that have not been able to take advantage to build applications using the technology. Implementation of this support by vendors ensures customer has the options and is able to choose the solutions built on an enterprise class platform that best suits their business.

Q. With which ISVs is Microsoft working now?

A. We are working with many vendors to build solutions around the platforms. Several end user scenarios require use of this technology and platform. The technology will enable actions and business decision in near real time based on complex processing logic uniquely defined by the needs of the business

Q. When will the next release be?

A. We plan to release the next major version of the product in 24-26 month.

What You Need To Know About Domain Account Cube Security

I’ve never run into this problem until today.  Let me set the scene.  I’m developing on a Microsoft issued laptop, therefore it’s joined to one of our internal domains.  I restored a cube and its respective SQL Server database that was built quite some time ago.  I tested the Data Source and it succeeded.  I was also able to browse the fact and dimension tables within the Data Source View.   Additionally, I was able to browse the cube in Juneau (SQL Server Denali’s upcoming Management Console) which I then felt confident that I had tied everything together (since all 3 tiers were successfully talking to each other. 

Unfortunately every time I tried to process the cube, it would tell me that my domain account did not have access to the SQL Server database.  This was strange because I was able to successfully explore data in that SQL Server database right from the Project Solution.  As I dug around a little more, I came across an error that was showing up when I tried to preview the SQL Server database permissions.  In the first image below, you’ll notice that my domain account is unable to display the permissions that I have on this database, yet all of the local Windows accounts were not having that same issue.    That got me thinking…

I connected to VPN and magically all of my permissions were now visible.  The cube then processed fine.  The VPN connection was required even though my domain account was an “sa” on that SQL Server, as well as setup as dbo on each individual database.  I was able to isolate this issue to only occur when Analysis Services tries to connect to the data source using the service account credentials.  When that happens, even though my account shows up as dbo, it’s not able to talk to the domain and throws an error.  Typically this would never be an issue in most environments because you’re using a domain account on a server and the server is in a data center on the corporate network.  In my case, I’m on a laptop that doesn’t have DirectAccess setup yet so VPN is required to talk to the internal domain.  The easy way to avoid this in the future would be to change the SQL Server service account to run under a local account rather than a domain account.

Once connected to VPN, the permissions list immediately populated and the cube processed without an issue.

If you’re trying to process a cube and you continually get permission issues yet you’re able to query the data fine within your Project Solution, you should check to see if your service account is indeed running under a domain account, as the same thing would happen to you if you’re not connected to your corporate network at that time.

Use Outlook Query Builder With Advanced Find

In a previous post, I wrote about an Outlook feature called Query Builder.  When using Advanced Find, you also have access to the QueryBuilder functionality when searching for anything in Outlook.   The instructions below will add a shortcut to the ribbon for easier access to the Advanced Find options with the Query Builder functionality.  Query Builder adds significant filtering capabilities to searching your Outlook mailbox, making it much easier to find anything in Outlook (email, appointments, tasks, contacts, notes, or anything else found within your mailbox.  If you haven’t played with this, give it a try. 

Steps:

1. Click Customize Ribbon

2. Select All Commands

3. Scroll down and click on Advanced Find

4. Click on the Home Tab

5. Click on New Group and rename it to Advanced Find

6. Click the Add >> button

7. I dragged the new Advanced Find folder just under the Home (Mail) tab so that it’s the first button on the toolbar for easy access.

Here’s an example of how it looks when you add it to your ribbon:

Outlook Query Builder

If you use conditional formatting in Outlook for your email, calendar, tasks, notes, or contacts, this is for you.  I’ve always hated the fact that when you’re defining the criteria/condition for the conditional formatting, EVERY condition you add must be true, meaning the criteria ALL must be true for the conditional formatting to occur.  So what if I want to format an email red if it’s from a specific person OR it has the word “ACION” in the subject?  Today, I’d have to create 2 separate conditional formatting items. That may not seem like a big deal, however some rules can be quite complex, such as groups of AND’s as well as OR’s in a single condition.  That simply can’t be done natively.  Or can it…?

Query Builder is a little known feature that’s already installed and setup natively with Outlook, however it’s hidden by default.  To enable it, follow the instructions at the very bottom of this email to add a registry entry, which took me less than 15 seconds to do.   Restart Outlook and you’re good to go.  Here are some pictures of a scenario you just can’t do in Outlook without enabling Query Builder:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Instructions to enable Query Builder:

1. Close Outlook

2. Open the run command by clicking the Windows Key + R

3. Type regedit and click OK

4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook

5. Right click on Outlook and select New à Key

6. Type QueryBuilder and click Ok

7. Reopen Outlook (or close and then reopen Outlook if you didn’t close it before making this change)

I wanted to also provide a VBA script that you can use/modify as you need for conditional formatting via automation.

Private Sub FormatActionMessages()

Dim objView As TableView

Dim objRule As AutoFormatRule

    ‘ Check if the current view is a table view.

If Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentView.ViewType = olTableView Then

        ‘ Obtain a TableView object reference to the current view.

Set objView = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentView

        ‘ Create a new rule that displays any message with a

        ‘ subject line that starts with "ACTION" in

        ‘ blue, bold, 8 point Courier New text.

Set objRule = objView.AutoFormatRules.Add("Action Messages")

With objRule

            .Filter = """http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x0037001f""" & _

                " CI_STARTSWITH ‘ACTION’"

With .Font

                .Name = "Courier New"

                .Size = "8"

                .Bold = True

                .Color = olColorRed

End With

        End With

        ‘ Save and apply the table view.

        objView.Save

        objView.Apply

    End If

End Sub

Excel PowerPivot or Data Mining Add-Ins Stopped Working

On their own, installed either the Excel PowerPivot or Data Mining add-in should work upon install completion.  However, when both are installed within the same Excel client, you may see some odd behavior. 

Excel PowerPivot add-in Tab

Figure 1

Excel Data Mining add-in Tab

Figure 2

Initially, I had only Excel PowerPivot installed and was successfully using it for months without an incident.  Once I installed the Excel Data Mining add-in, it worked fine once the installed finished.  What I found was that the Excel PowerPivot add-in stopped working once the Data Mining add-in was installed.  The PowerPivot tab in the ribbon didn’t go away and was still there to browse.  What didn’t work were any of the PowerPivot buttons; you’d click them and nothing would happen. 

I uncovered a number of options to fix this which I’ve listed below.  Your mileage will vary depending on your specific circumstance.

Things you can do:

    Check your Office 2010 installation and verify that .Net Programmability Support is enabled.  If it isn’t, enable it within your Office setup.  See image below for specific details.

    If .Net Programmability Support is already installed, try doing a full Office Repair.  In my case, I always install all Office options when I install Office initially, so it was already enabled in my Office installation.  Repairing Office fixed my Excel PowerPivot add-in.

    Uninstall your Excel PowerPivot add-in completely.  Then make sure that your Excel Data Mining add-in works as expected.  If it does, move forward with reinstalling the Excel PowerPivot add-in.  More than likely, this will fix the PowerPivot add-in.

    I would suggest to anyone looking to have both add-ins installed in Excel to install the Data Mining add-in before the PowerPivot add-in.  This worked very well on the 3 machines I had this issue on. 

    It’s important to note that many people have had issues with the Data Mining add-in not working but their PowerPivot add-in continuing to work; the opposite behavior I saw.  If you witness that behavior, my suggestion would be to reverse the order of the items above, installing the PowerPivot add-in before the Data Mining add-in.

Good luck with your troubleshooting.  Let me know in the comments of things you’ve done to fix the issues you’re having with these add-ins so that we can better help the community deal with such issues.  Also, if you have Office 2010 and haven’t used PowerPivot before, click here and download it absolutely free.  It’s an add-in that no Excel user should be without. 

Jason Volpe

Microsoft Principal Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing Architect

Help! My Computer Is Frozen With Unsaved Files Opened

This may seem like a no brainer to those of you who are in the IT field, but there are many aspects of computers that we geeks “assume” everyone already knows.  This is one of those situations.  So let’s set the stage:

You’ve been working hard all day and have a ton of different applications, files, and other “things” open and your task bar is full.  All of the sudden, you get the infamous “white” square that replaces the application that you’re trying to switch to, and almost all of your applications become unresponsive.  Now, the easy thing to do would be to just reboot, however let’s add to this situation the fact that there’s a document you’ve been working on in the background that you haven’t saved.  Rebooting would delete that document, or at least guarantee the loss of some work if the document auto-saved at some point in time.

In these situations, I suggest looking in task manager for the application that’s not responding and killing it (End Task).  Usually killing the offending application will release all the other windows that are locked up and allow you to save your document(s) before rebooting.  To identify which application is not responding, click on the “Applications” tab of Task Manager once you open it, which will show you a list of all open windows, and the status of each application.  The status will either be “Running” or “Not Responding”.  Note that this is not always reliable because you’ll often have applications that are not responding BECAUSE OF ANOTHER application that’s not responding.  In those cases, both applications will show “Not Responding”.  My suggestion is to click “End Task” on the applications that aren’t responding AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT YOUR UNSAVED DOCUMENT.  Do not kill that application.     

You can get to Task Manager a number of ways in Vista or Windows 7

1) Hit CONTROL + ALT + DELETE  and click “Start Task Manager”

2) Right Click on an empty spot on your task bar at the bottom of the screen and Click “Start Task Manager”.  Hint: If you don’t know what the task bar is, it’s the bottom bar that goes across the bottom of your screen where the Clock is.

3) CONTROL + SHIFT + ESC (this is what I use)

4) Click the Start button, and type “taskmgr”

You should now see the Task Manager as illustrated in one of the two pictures above.  For the purposes of this post, we’re going to only focus on the “Applications” and “Processes” tabs, otherwise this post would quickly become 20 pages long. 

The “Applications” tab shows you the various applications that YOU opened, not processes that are running in the background.  You may look through the applications listed on this tab but want more information before you kill something that’s running.  For instance, if you switch to the “Processes” tab, you’ll see A LOT more processes running and the details for each process, such as the CPU%, Memory that the process is using, and the description of the process as you scroll to the right.  You can even add more columns to the view by selecting the View menu and then “Select Columns”.  Often times you can pinpoint the rogue process my clicking on the CPU column header to sort the processes descending (highest to lowest) so that you can see which process is using the most CPU.  8 out of 10 times, the process that’s using 100% CPU is the one you should kill. 

Unfortunately, not ever process that’s running is going to show up in the process list.  Windows does this so you don’t accidentally kill a process that another user may be running.  Note that when Windows filters processes by users, it’s not thinking of just people with logins.  The following are also users that run processes and will not show up unless you show all processes:

Users other than yourself: “System”, “Network Service”, “Local Service”, and others

To show all processes, you need to click the “Show processes from all users, which I’ve circled in Red within the 2nd picture.  On some computers, it may appear that Task Manager has closed once you click the “Show processes from all users”, however all that’s happening is Task Manager is restarting w/out filtering the processes by user.  I mention this only because some computers will quickly restart Task Manager, while others will see Task Manager close and not reopen for as many as 8-10 seconds depending on how busy your computer as while you’re doing this.  One it reopens, scroll down the list of processes (listed under the “Image Name” column) to see what’s going on.  Sorting the processes on CPU and/or Memory will tell you a lot about what’s going on at that moment on your computer. 

I want to also offer up a word of caution.  You can get yourself into some trouble by randomly killing processes.  I don’t suggest killing anything unless you know what it is.  A background process could be updating the firmware on one of your hardware components, and killing it in the middle of it being updated could very likely render the component useless, forever.  That’s a very extreme case and in all my years of doing this, I’ve never had that happen.  Many times you’ll kill something like “Explorer.exe” and your task bar will go away, and you’ll have no “Start” menu, clock, running apps to click on, and for those of you who have never seen this happen, it can freak you out because you think you broke something.  You didn’t, so don’t freak out. If that ever happens, do this:

Click CONTROL + SHIFT + ESC at the same time, which will open Task Manager.  Now click the File Menu at the top of Task Manager, and then click New Task. In the text box that opens, type “explorer.exe” and click OK. You should now see your task bar return to the bottom of your screen. 

In future posts, I’ll cover more advanced troubleshooting methods that you can use in your ever day computing. 

Thanks for reading.

Jason Volpe

How To Connect Your XBox To XBox Live From A Hotel

Connecting your XBox to XBox Live from a Hotel network may sound like an easy thing to do, and may even surprise some that a blog post is being written about it, but it’s far from easy.  I don’t connect my XBox using Wireless Networking, I prefer Ethernet as it’s much better for streaming media through services like NetFlix, Subscribed Channels, and Hulu, which I’m beta testing.  Even if you take XBox out of the mix, there’s a very specific process that you’re required to follow to get your PC online at your hotel.  Let’s look at this process a little deeper to see where the problem lies.

There are a few ways to achieve the same outcome to this, so you may find some guides that have you make these changes to your XBox instead of to your PC.  I prefer to make these changes on my PC and not touch my XBox, but that’s just my personal preference because I’m faster at making these types of changes using a keyboard instead of using the XBox controller.  Your choice in the end.  Let’s begin.

You will need to decide whether you’re going to use the Hotel’s wireless network or their LAN.  This is true whether you’re planning to use your XBox or not.  I prefer LAN simply because most people use Wireless and I typically see a noticeable difference.  Connect to either the Wireless network or plug in the Ethernet cable to your PC and move on to the next step.

Depending what operating system you’re using, you’ll either see a yellow note that pops up in the bottom right corner of your screen saying “Additional action is required to connect to this network” (see image below) or nothing at all will happen.  The yellow note is always reassuring because at least you know your computer got connected to the hotel router without any problems.  Note that you still do not have access to the internet yet. If you try to check your email, it will fail to connect.  However, if you try to surf the web by opening your browser, you will be automatically brought to a web page that is managed by the hotel’s internet provider. 

If your hotel offers free Wireless, you will almost always be forced to click a button on that page that says “I accept the terms of this agreement” BEFORE you will be provided an IP address to that hotel’s DHCP server.  I’ve never seen it any other way and I travel a lot.

If you need to pay for internet access, you’ll be routed to a page where you’re presented with the online package(s) they offer.  Most times you can just click the option and click submit and your hotel room bill will just include the charges for internet access.  Sometimes you need a credit card.  Regardless, understand that the online access you’re provided is to the MAC address (pronounced “mack” which is the machine ID),  of the network device you are connected to.  So, if you are connected via Ethernet cable, the hotel knows the MAC address for your network card, and knows NOTHING else about your PC.  The reason this is relevant for getting your XBox online is because if you got your laptop online and can surf, many people think they can just unplug the Ethernet cable from their PC and plug it into their XBox and connect to XBox Live successfully.  This is not true and can be extremely frustrating.

Remember, the hotel’s network can only be accessed by network cards whose MAC address it knows and is approved to connect to that network.  The only way to get on that approved MAC address list is to either put in your room information and the online package you want which is typically selecting a nightly fee and then clicking submit, or to just click the “I accept the terms of this agreement” button in hotels that offer free internet access.   When either of those buttons are clicked, the MAC address from the network device you’re connected (wireless device or Ethernet device) to is captured automatically, sent to the hotel’s router, and added to the approved MAC address list.  Your XBox has its own MAC address, which is unique, so when you take the Ethernet plug from your PC that’s now online once you click either of those buttons and put the cable into your XBox, the Hotel has no idea what device that is.  Most people think that the hotel activates THE CORD that’s plugged into the wall, or the port that you’re plugging the cable into.  However, the hotel activates “the MAC address”, and has absolutely no idea what room that cable is coming from.  That’s why most hotels will even ask you for the room number and the last name of the person the room is registered to.  That’s also why if you were to ask the front desk to “activate” internet access in your room they tell you to plug in the cord and follow the directions on the screen.  Realizing this, does it now make sense why the Ethernet cord cannot just be plugged into any networked device and have it work? 

So what are you supposed to do?  The challenge here is that when you plug in a network cable to your XBox or connect to a wireless network, you are not brought to the hotel’s web page to click the “Accept” button or able to buy the internet access package while using the XBox interface. The network isn’t unlocked yet for the XBox to communicate with the XBox Live service. 

What I’m going to detail out below are the simple steps (my 8 year old son knows how to do this, so follow these steps and you can do it) you’ll need to take to get your XBox online at your hotel without having to pay twice, once for your PC’s MAC address and another time for your XBox’s MAC address.  For those worried about getting in trouble for doing this, don’t be.   It’s completely legit, legal, and one of the only ways to get your XBox online that I know of, so if you know of another way, please let me know.

0) Step 0 is to set the scene that you’ve just checked in at your hotel and are entering your room for the first time.  You haven’t gotten online yet w/ your PC or done anything network related at this point.  It’s important that you start from here and not after you’ve already tried to connect.

If you found this post after hours of trying to get this to work from your hotel, that’s ok.  The only reason I state step 0 is to avoid people getting possibly double charged for internet access by having 2 devices setup.  Most reputable hotels will ignore the duplicate charges anyway, but I wanted to mention this just in case.

1) Locate the MAC address for your XBox.  This was actually a lot harder than I thought, and I’m a geek, so I could only imagine what most people go through to do this.  It’s probably in one of the XBox UI menus and I overlooked it, so here’s how I found it.  Connect your Ethernet cable into your XBox and then the other side of the cable into your PC.  You do not need a crossover cable, just a standard cat5, cat5e, or cat6 cable.  Yes, I know you won’t have internet access, however it will allow you to see your XBox as a device on your PC to grab the MAC address off of it. Again, depending on what operating system you’re using, the place you’ll see your XBox will vary.  I’m using Windows 7, as should all of you!, so I found it by going to the Start Menu, then click “Computer”.  This opens Windows Explorer, and you’ll want to look at the Folders on the left side where it shows all the hard drives, Libraries, Favorites, etc, and you’ll want to scroll all the way down to the bottom where you see “Network”, which has the icon of a globe with a computer screen on it. 

Click “Network”.   In the results pane to the right, you should see a fairly limited list of network devices since you’re only connecting a single PC to a single XBox. Right click the XBox that’s showing up, and click on “Properties”.  This is where you’ll see the MAC address of your XBox.  Write this down.  You don’t need to worry about the colons (:) because they aren’t part of the address’s value.

If you are using Wireless on your XBox, you can locate the MAC address from the Wireless Network management screen on your XBox directly. 

2) Armed with the MAC address of your XBox, decide what network card you’re going to use, Wireless or Ethernet.  You can close out of the XBox properties window you just opened, but DON’T close the Windows Explorer window just yet.  At the top of the window, click the “Network and Sharing Center” button that’s right next to the “Add  a printer” button.  Now look to the left of the screen for the quick launch links.  Click on the “Change adapter settings” and you’ll now see the various network adapters that you have on your PC.  Locate the one you’re going to use to get online, left click on it to select it, then right click on it so you can go to the card properties.   When it comes up click on the “Configure” button, which will be located towards the top of the properties box.   When that comes up, you should see 5 tabs across the top (General, Advanced, Driver, Details, Power Management).  Click on the Advanced tab.  You’re now looking for an option that will be listed under the Property listbox.   You may have to scroll before you see “Network Address”.   Click on “Network Address”  and you will see 2 options. 

1) Not Present (default value) 
2) a blank textbox that you can type in. 

Click in the empty textbox and type in the MAC address you took note of back in step 1.  Do NOT enter the : that are part of the address.  The textbox will only accept 12 characters, so make sure you are only entering the values, not the :.  When you’re done, click “OK”.

If you are using Wireless on your PC, the process is the same.  Put the MAC address for your XBox in the Wireless Network Address on your PC. 

3) Your PC should now have the MAC address of your XBox typed into the network card’s properties,  This is referred to as MAC address “cloning”, where you essentially “mask” the actual MAC address with something else.   Now, unplug the Ethernet cable from your XBox and plug it into the hotel wall’s Ethernet port.  At this point, your PC should be connected to the hotel’s network but do not have internet access just yet. 

4) Open your web browser and you should be redirected to a web page that allows you to accept the terms and get right online or choose the online package you’d like to purchase.  Complete that process and make sure that you can get to a website that’s OUTSIDE of the hotel’s network.  Sometimes you’ll be able to surf a website that the hotel has made available to you BEFORE you’ve paid for internet access.  http://www.bing.com is a good test.  Type in something to search for and hit Enter.  If you get results back, you’re good to go. Just getting to Bing.com is not enough.  If you’ve ever been to Bing.com, it’s likely that you’re viewing your cache, not the WWW. 

5) Once you’ve successfully made it to Bing and tested a search, unplug your network cable, and plug it into your XBox.  Then go to Profiles, and click “Connect to XBox Live”.  At this point, you should be online just as if you were at home. Let me warn you now not to expect the performance you’re used to at home.  Hotel networks have high latency due to many more users sharing a pipe that’s often smaller than what you have at home in many cases.  I play a lot of multiplayer first person shooter games when I travel, Black Ops mainly, and it’s brutal sometimes because there’s tons of lag and games where you’ll get disconnected from your party and have to reconnect. 

Once you’re connected to XBox Live, you’re good to go.  Just remember that you’ll need to click the “Accept” or “Purchase” button EVERY day because your access is only for one day.  Tomorrow, your network access will stop after 24 hours. So, if you don’t plan to use your PC at all in the hotel and only use XBox, you will have to pull the PC back out tomorrow to do this since you can’t do it from your XBox directly, otherwise you wouldn’t have had to do all these steps in the first place. For those of you who want to know what this is doing and why we did it this way, read below.  Those of you who just want to go play XBox and don’t care about the nontechnical explanation of why we did this can go have fun playing XBox.  If you want to know more about the “why’s”, read on.  .  

The purpose of putting the XBox MAC access in the PC’s Network Address field is to have both devices, the XBox and PC, show up as the same device to the hotel’s network.  Remember, the hotel’s network grants access to individual MAC addresses, which is something that it gets from your machine when you click the “I Accept” button.  You don’t have to provide it.  So, the only way the network can get the XBox’s MAC address is if it were able to open the hotel’s webpage and allow you to click “I Accept”, but unfortunately it cannot do that which is why we’re temporarily making the PC a clone of your XBox so you can click the “I Agree” button. With this setup, you will only pay 1 charge because they essentially are the same device.  Also, you can transfer the Ethernet cable back and forth between the 2, or MORE devices as much as you want provided that they’re setup with the XBox MAC address. 

I hope you found this useful.  Wish I had something like this to go by when I was trying to get mine online but at least I know for next time.

Jason Volpe

Recharge ANY Cell Phone With ANY USB Cable NOW

Ok, have you ever done something that you knew wasn’t going to work while you were working on it but out of desperation had to try just about anything?  Of course, and you’re gut feeling is right 99 out of 100 times when it’s telling you "this isn’t going to work!".  Well, I just had one of those feelings, but I was able to make it work in the end!  Hopefully this will surprise most of you as much as it did me, because I had never thought of doing this until I was in an absolutely desperate situation.  My LG Quantum, a Windows Phone 7 device, ran out of battery, and I’m in Redmond through next Friday, so I’m not at home where all my USB cords are.  I have plenty of 5 pin USB cables with me, but my Quantum requires a Micro USB cable, the really small USB connectors that most newer USB powered hard drives use.  Since I don’t have the cable, I’ve got to find a way to make a standard 5 pin USB cable fit into a Micro USB slot.  Yikes!

   

Let’s get started….  First, I took one of my 5 pin USB cables, which works with most digital cameras, and cut the end off of it, leaving me with one end that still goes into my computer, and the other which is now cut as shown in the pictures to the left and right.  The left picture with the cable shaped like a backward "S" is the keeper cord.  The side of the cord that’s in the image to the right can be discarded.

Now we need to tend to the 4 wires inside the USB wire.   There are 4 unique colors within the USB wire: Red, Black, White, and Green. The Red and Black wires are the 2 that we’re going to use.  They carry power through the cable, while the White and Green wires carry data, something we’re not interested in, today at least.

In order to get to these wires, you need to strip the black rubber/plastic sheathing that’s covering the 4 wires with a wire stripper or razor blade.  Once you get through the sheathing you’ll see a mesh foil type of material that’s wrapped around the 4 wires.  Carefully remove the foil to expose the 4 wires.  The following set of images will show you what you can expect as you begin cutting the black sheathing.

Once you get the foil off that’s covering the 4 colored wires, pull them apart so you can work with each wire individually, like the picture in the middle illustrates.  For the next step, you’ll need something sharp, like a razor blade or knife if you don’t have a wire stripper.  If you’re traveling when  you’re doing this, call room service and ask for a steak knife, seriously.  Now, carefully strip the wire cover off of the Red and Black wires so that only the metal wire is exposed.  You only need a millimeter of length, so it doesn’t have to be a bunch of wire, just enough to make contact with your phone battery’s metal pins.  You can ignore the White and Green wires for this exercise.   Once you get the 2 wires stripped and ready to go, it should look like the below picture.

If your USB cable looks like the ghetto one in the picture above, you’ve struck pay dirt!  Take the battery out of your phone, and take note of where the Positive (+) and Negative (-) terminals are on it.  They should be clearly marked on the sticker that’s wrapped around the battery.  The below image shows what my battery looks like and the terminals I’m talking about.

There are 4 pins on my battery.  Yours may have more, so just locate your positive and negative markers and note the pin locations like I do in the next sentence.  Moving from right to left, the Positive (+) pin is the 2nd pin, and the Negative (-) pin is the 4th pin. Correlate this diagram to your battery’s layout being certain to identify where your + and  – terminals are.  The Red wire needs to touch the (+) on the battery at the same time the Black wire is touching the (-) on the battery.  This essentially creates a completed circuit, starting on your computer’s motherboard which is pushing power to the USB port which is what your USB cable is plugged into and

However, like anything electrical, it needs to be a closed loop.  Since the USB cord is split into a Y (one side of the cable is a single USB adapter with the other side of the cable being many wires), at least 2 of the wires on the opposite side of the USB adapter need to be connected to close the electrical loop.  If you only touch the Red wire OR the Black wire, there will NOT be power running to your battery and you’ll be dead sooner than that battery begins to charge. BOTH the Red and Black stripped wires need to be attached to the (+) and  (-) terminals on the battery at the same time.  Take a piece of tape to secure the wires to the battery terminals so they don’t move.

So I’ll be the first to admin this ain’t pretty.  It’s not meant to be.  Ideally you’ll remember your cell phone charger, but if you don’t, and you need to recharge your battery, this will do the trick in a pinch.

Enjoy!

Jason Volpe

File Path Character Limit Impacts On SharePoint

All file systems supported by Windows use the concept of files and directories to access data stored on a disk or device. Windows users, that’d be you, working with file and device I/O should understand the various rules, conventions, and limitations of names for files and directories.

Data can be accessed from disks, devices, and network shares using file I/O APIs. Files and directories, along with namespaces, are part of the concept of a path, which is a string representation of where to get the data regardless if it’s from a disk or a device or a network connection for a specific operation.  It’s important to understand that the names you use for folders directly impacts the remaining characters available, since the 260 character limit (in most cases) includes the folder paths as well. 

I run into this limit quite often, and am writing this post because I just ran into it again and decided to see if there’s anything I can do about it.  In this instance, I’m trying to copy a bunch of training material into a SharePoint shared library, so I am at the mercy of the SharePoint server’s existing folder structure.  If it were on my local C Drive, I’d simply rename the folders to shorter names, such as "Dev" instead of "Developer", or "SPS" instead of "SharePoint".  I’d heard some people try using linked files and subfolders to avoid the character limit, however that also follows file naming conventions and rules just as a regular file or directory would. In the Windows API (with some exceptions), the maximum length for a path is 260 characters. A local path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, name components separated by backslashes, and a terminating null character. For example, the maximum path on drive D is "D:\some 256-character path string<NULL>" where "<NULL>" represents the invisible terminating null character for the current system codepage. (The characters < > are used here for visual clarity and cannot be part of a valid path string.)

While this limitation does exist within Windows by default, it can be overwritten.  By default, Windows sets the value of MAX_PATH (Windows’ max length variable) to 260.  Because this is a variable, it can be passed a different value from an application.  The maximum character value that can be passed to that variable is 32,767. Be careful using that because it will cause compatibility issues. 

An interesting issue that came up literally while I am writing this post is the same "too long" error in the above picture but on my SharePoint site’s Shared Documents library.  What makes that interesting is that the Shared Documents folder is the ROOT folder to the SITE, so I should be able to name a file ~259 characters.  Knowing the Windows default limit is 259 characters (260 minus the 1 NULL value it tags to the end of every filename), I should have been able to name it with 243 "1′s" (111111111111111111111….) as the filename.  However, I was only able to use 123.  When I used 124 “1’s, it errored saying I’ve exceeded the max length.  Just 123 characters, so I know now that my site’s root folder that I see actually has 137 characters before it on the actual file system (\\137 Characters\My Sites Shared Documents\).  What this means is that where your SharePoint site resides in the overall hierarchy absolutely impacts the overall size of your site’s folder structure.  Sites that are Sub-Sites of another site, meaning a site within a site, are impacted by this, yet I’ve NEVER, EVER heard this topic mentioned in the same sentence with SharePoint, yet I would think that Capacity Planning and Portal Topology discussions absolutely need to plan for this.

I cannot be the only person surprised by this.  I completely get the reason why it’s happening, but this should really concern SharePoint administrators, developers, and others because this isn’t something they think about when talking about SharePoint Scalability.  I’m thinking of an Enterprise SharePoint Portal project with a bunch of Sites with SubSites that have Subsites.  The deeper you get in the chain, the less characters you’ll have available to you from a naming convention perspective.  Much of the content I’m trying to upload is having this max length error.  To fix this, I’m uploading my documents to my SkyDrive and adding references to the SkyDrive docs onto my internal site, however there’s got to be a better way of dealing with this.

Interested to hear about creative ways you’ve dealt with this, or if you’ve ever heard about this and the potential impacts it poses.

Jason Volpe

Outlook Rule To Delay Sending All Email

So, how many of you have been at work and during dead silence heard your co-worker yell an f-bomb or pounding their fist on their keyboard after they hit “send” on an email too soon, and it went out…?  Or maybe you’ve done this..  We all see those emails coming in that are immediately followed by the desperate “message recall” attempt by the sender.  When I see those, I want to shake the sender and tell them that when people see the message recalls, it only puts MORE attention on the email you’re asking for a do-over on.  Heck, those are the juicy emails that people file around the water cooler to talk about. 

Ironically, I’m typing this blog post because I just hit send on an email that I meant to BCC someone but left them on the CC.  Thankfully this one wasn’t a big deal, but it got me thinking about addressing this once and for all.  The following steps will show you how to add a 1 minute delay in every email that you send.  If you don’t need the delay, great, the email will send after a short 60 second cooling period.  However, if you ever do need it, you’ll never be more thankful to have that delay in place. 

I’d be interested to hear any horror stories you or a colleague you know has related to this.

• Open Rules by clicking on the “Managing Rules and Alerts” button on your Outlook toolbar.   Then click on “New Rule”, and you should see the below image.   The last option in the Rules Wizard is “Apply rule on messages I send”, click on it, then click “Next”.

• You’ll now see the “Select Condition(s)” options, which you can leave blank.  Without clicking any options, click “Next”, and you will receive the dialog box that you see in the below picture alerting you that this rule will be applied to every message you send.  That’s exactly what we want; a safety net for every message.  Click “Yes” to continue. 

• Now you need to decide what you want to happen to each message that you send.  The very last option “defer delivery by a number of minutes” is what you want to check mark.  Once check marked, you’ll see “a number of ” show up at the bottom of the rule in “Step 2”.  Click those works in blue and you will see the “Deferred Delivery” box pop up as illustrated in the below picture.  Choose how many minutes you want to defer delivery by, and click “Ok”. 

At this point, you’re done with the rule.  If you wanted to add more criteria to the rule, have at it.  You can get crafty and only have the delay when messages are being sent to certain people if you had the need.  To complete the rule and save it, click “Finish”.   Going forward, all emails that you send will reside in your Outbox for however many minutes you chose before actually sending.

Hope this helps.

Jason Volpe

Creating a Query Response Time Standard or Guideline

Many users of reporting platforms want and expect any report they run to come back in a couple of seconds.  Some have even placed a response time guideline on the platform as criteria to approve funding of a proposed reporting platform project.  Before accepting that challenge, it’s critical that you understand its true scope.  There are many considerations you’ll need to factor in before you can set a guideline for response time.

For instance, you could have a Data Warehouse that returns a query in 2 seconds to your screen, however when you use that same query as the data source of a report, that report could now take 7 seconds to return to the screen.  How can that be…?  Well, you must account for the additional time it takes the reporting interface to render it once your query returns from the warehouse with its result set.

You may also have a report that has a subreport embedded within in which essentially runs 2 or more queries, which needs to be taken into account when you’re trying to baseline response time.  If you have a response time SLA of 10 seconds, and you’ve tuned your report query to return in 7 seconds, there’s no room left to add a subreport because it will put you over your 10 second SLA.

You will also have varying times whether the data source you’re pulling from is OLTP (relational) versus OLAP (cubes).  If your queries are tuned and you’ve squeezed as much runtime out as possible but you’re still over budget on time, you should consider looking into Analysis Services and how cubes can solve many different business problems.

As well, you’ll even have inconsistencies within OLAP (cubes) depending on the storage mode(s) you’ve chosen (ROLAP, HOLAP, or MOLAP).   Row size and column width has a lot to do with response time as well.  2 clients that have the exact same DW architecture with the exact same reporting interface could see completely different response times even if they’re running on the same hardware.  How is that..? Client “A” may have millions of rows in their tables while Client “B” may have billions of rows.

Hardware is another critical aspect of query response time that must be carefully selected when you’re designing your infrastructure.  Many companies are still using RAID 5 for their SQL Server data files.  This is fine for a low traffic fairly static database, however database servers that are meant to service report queries demand much more.  For these, I cannot stress enough using RAID 10.  Also, isolate your TempDB from everything else if you can.  You don’t need something as large as a RAID 10 configuration, so push for a 2 drive mirror that’s dedicated and large enough for TempDB. Make sure that your databases are broken out onto at least 3 FileGroups which reside on separate physical (not logical) drives; one for the Data, one for Indexes, and the other for Logs.  Don’t forget about Partitioning, which can have a significant performance boost.  On the Analysis Services side, move your SSAS TempDir to this TempDB mirror if your only option is to run it on the C drive.

I would caution anyone trying to set report response time guidelines when the underline data varies like the above mentioned examples.   With that said, it’s more common and measureable to have data repository latency requirements.  I once had to build a DW off of a handful of AS/400s and had a requirement to meet that the Data Warehouse data must not exceed 15 seconds from realtime.   I provided numerous ways for end users to access the data, but they each took varying amounts of time to render the query result set, so assuming that each report should return in “X” number of seconds can be very misleading or impossible to meet in certain circumstances.

In the end, though, if you’re forced to come up with response time standards (for an environment and its specific access methods), begin storing query response times in a repository, and create a standard deviation from those results.   If you’re in the beginning stages of designing the environment and don’t have a working environment to check response time, you’ll want to build some expected use cases that can be worked through during the project, with an outcome of that subproject be the average response times you’re looking for.  Wish I could be more specific, but it’s just too dependent on your specific circumstances.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Update For Developers Training Kit – Jan 2011 Update

Repost from Roger Doherty’s blog.

Today I’m pleased to announce the availability of the SQL Server 2008 R2 Update For Developers Training Kit January 2011 Update.  This is a great resource for developers, trainers, consultants and evangelists who need to understand the key improvements introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2 from a developer perspective. It contains a rich set of presentations, demos, hands-on labs and videos that are perfect for self-paced learning or for conducting your own training.

The January 2011 update includes lots of great new content and several usability improvements. See below for more details on what’s new.

The easiest way to get started with the training kit is to download it, install it, open default.htm and browse the kit for the content that you are most interested in. Many of the presentations and demos in the training kit include a video that you can watch to familiarize yourself with the content. When you are ready for some hands-on experience, try installing one of the demos or hands-on labs. Each of them includes a configuration wizard that simplifies installation.

You can download the training kit now at the following URL:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9710868

This training kit is brought to you by the D&PE Platform Evangelism team.  Thanks for your interest in developing Microsoft SQL Server based solutions!

New Content: Build Your First BI Solution with SQL Server 2008 R2

This update includes a rich new set of content designed for developers who want to learn how to build their first Microsoft Business Intelligence solution with SQL Server 2008 R2.   Microsoft BI solutions leverage your existing technology investments in .NET, SQL Server and Office to develop rich integrated reporting and analytics experiences that empower users to gain access to accurate, up-to-date information for better, more relevant decision making.

This content is a complete training course that contains eleven units covering all the key aspects of Microsoft BI solution development.  You can find it by navigating to the Getting Started > BI Developers page.  Here is a summary of what’s included:

• 31 presentations (PowerPoint slides, videos and transcripts included)
• 27 demos (installer scripts, videos and transcripts included)
• 12 hands on labs (installer scripts included)

Here is a breakdown of each unit and its associated content:

1. Build Your First Microsoft BI Solution with SQL Server 2008 R2
   Presentation: Understanding Business Intelligence
   Demo: Delivering Information to Decision Makers with a Microsoft BI Solution
   Presentation: Introducing Microsoft BI Solution Development
   Demo: Introducing the Microsoft BI Development Toolset
2. Introduction to BI Modeling Techniques
   Presentation: Designing Data Models for Microsoft BI Solutions
   Demo: Exploring a Sample Dimensional Data Model
   Presentation: Designing Semantic Models for Microsoft BI Solutions
   Demo: Creating a Data Model with the Microsoft Entity Framework
   Hands On Lab: Your First Look at the SQL Server 2008 R2 Sample Databases
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Semantic Model with the ADO.NET Entity Framework
3. Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services
   Presentation: Introducing ETL Processing with SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services
   Presentation: Implementing Control Flow in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services Package
   Demo: Implementing Control Flow in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services Package
   Presentation: Implementing Data Flow Tasks in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services Package
   Presentation: Loading Fact and Dimension Tables in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services Package
   Demo: Implementing Data Flow in a SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services Package
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Extract-Transform-Load Process with SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services
4. Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
   Presentation: Reporting Fundamentals with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
   Presentation: SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Report Design Basics
   Demo: Developing a Simple SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Report with a Relational Data Source
   Presentation: Adding interactivity to a SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Report
   Demo: Adding Interactivity to a SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Report
   Presentation: Extending SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports with Custom Logic
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Relational Report with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
5. Publishing and Accessing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports
   Presentation: Publishing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports
   Demo: Publishing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports
   Presentation: Enabling Self-Service Reporting with SQL Server 2008 R2 Shared Components
   Demo: Enabling Self-Service Reporting by Publishing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Shared Components
   Presentation: Accessing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports Programmatically
   Demo: Developing Embedded SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Applications
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Reporting Application with the Visual Studio 2010 ReportViewer Control
6. Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
   Presentation: Analysis Fundamentals with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
   Presentation: Understanding the Components of a SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Database
   Demo: Developing a SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Database
   Presentation: Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Programming
   Demo: Developing a Time Dimension with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
   Demo: Enhancing the End User Experience of a SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cube
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Cube with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
7. Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Query Syntax
   Presentation: Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services MDX
   Presentation: Exploring SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services MDX Query Techniques
   Demo: Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services MDX Query Development
   Presentation: Exploring SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cube Calculations
   Demo: Enriching a SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cube with Calculations
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Queries and Calculations with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services MDX
8. Accessing SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Data
   Presentation: Developing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Reports for Analysis Services
   Demo: Developing a Simple SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services Report with an Analysis Services Cube
   Presentation: Using Excel 2010 as an Analysis Services Client
   Demo: Creating an Excel 2010 PivotTable Using a SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cube
   Presentation: Using SharePoint 2010 Excel Services with Analysis Services Data
   Demo: Publishing and Sharing SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Cube Data with SharePoint 2010 Excel Services
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Multidimensional Report with SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
9. Introduction to SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Presentation: Performance Management Fundamentals with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Demo: Delivering an Interactive Performance Management Dashboard with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Presentation: Developing KPI’s and Scorecards with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Demo: Developing KPIs and Scorecards with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Presentation: Developing Reports and Dashboards with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Demo: Developing Interactive Reports and Dashboards with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
   Hands On Lab: Building Your First Dashboard with SharePoint 2010 PerformancePoint Services
10. Introduction to Data Mining with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
    Presentation: Data Mining Fundamentals with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
    Demo: Developing Data Mining Models with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
    Presentation: Programming SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Data Mining
    Demo: Embedding SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Data Mining in a Custom Application
    Hands On Lab: Building Your First Data Mining Model with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services
11. Introduction to Self-Service Reporting and Analysis with SQL Server 2008 R2
    Presentation: Self-Service Reporting Fundamentals with SQL Server 2008 R2
    Demo: Self-Service Reporting with Report Builder 3.0
    Presentation: Self-Service Analysis Fundamentals with SQL Server 2008 R2
    Demo: Self-Service Analysis with SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot for Excel 2010
    Demo: Publishing and Sharing SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot Workbooks with SharePoint 2010 Excel Services
    Hands On Lab: Building and Sharing Your First Report Builder 3.0 Report
    Hands On Lab: Building and Sharing Your First SQL Server 2008 R2 PowerPivot for Excel Workbook

Other Content

This update includes all of the content from the previous release.  Here’s a quick summary of what is included:

• Getting Started Building Web Applications With SQL Server
  This content is for web developers who are new to SQL Server and are just getting started building their first solution. You can find it by navigating to the Getting Started > Web Developers page.
• SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers
  This content provides a complete training course with six units covering all the key improvements in SQL Server 2008 R2, including StreamInsight and Data-tier applications.  Integration with Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 is also covered.  You can find this content by navigating to the SQL Server 2008 R2 > Overview page. 
• SQL Server 2008 Update for Developers
  This content covers all the key improvements in SQL Server 2008, including new date and time data types, spatial data types, FILESTREAM, Transact-SQL improvements and support for .NET CLR assemblies.  You can find it by navigating to the SQL Server 2008 > Overview page. 

Usability Improvements

This update features several usability improvements that we hope will make it easier to navigate and use the training kit:

• The master configuration wizard no longer auto-starts and can be launched manually from the Prerequisites page if needed.  This makes it easier to use individual demos or hands-on labs without having to install the prerequisites for the entire training kit.  
• Remote SQL Server instances are now supported for many demos and hands on labs.  Unfortunately we were not able to add support for remote SharePoint 2010 installations. This still requires manual intervention.
• We reworked the menu structure and content pages to improve navigation and discovery of content.
• We added a desktop shortcut added to the main training kit page (default.htm).

One of the Best Examples of What Business Intelligence Is

Hans Rosling from the BBC Network recently did a lecture about the world’s past, present, and future development.  To do something like this requires an enormous amount of data and an even more difficult job of visually representing what all that data actually means.  In this example, Financial, Demographic, Health Studies, and Geographic data are consolidated, cleansed, aggregated, and then visually rendered into a format that is easily understood by, in this case, viewers.

My job as a Microsoft Data Platform Technology Specialist is doing a lot of what Hans does in this video, but my audience are customers who are looking to gain like value from their line of business core systems using Microsoft Technology.  I think this video really simplifies a complex subject in a way that many can understand.  Of course, I do realize Business Intelligence is much more complex than this video illustrates, but it does a great job of explaining it to someone with little to no knowledge of what it is, like my mother, the fabulous story that can be told from simple data points.

Business Intelligence (BI) involves the consolidation of numerous disparate sources of data.  This is the single most important part of BI and an often underestimated one because people typically get caught up in how pretty the data is going to look rather than where all the data resides across their enterprise and what’s required to get that data into a usable format.  The below video is the output from the consolidation of all that data and what can be gained from “data” once it’s put in a meaningful and digestible format.  If you’ve ever wondered “what is business intelligence”, watch this video and see how many different ways just 2 simple metrics, life expectancy and income can be viewed and analyzed.

Note: I didn’t make this video, so I’m not taking credit for it in any way. It was just worth sharing to make sure it was seen.

Enjoy.

Jason Volpe

Use-Bing-Visual-Search-To-Find-Windows-Phone-7-Apps

Recently, Bing launched a new feature called Visual Search which shows up as a new tab in the search engine’s page.  You can use Visual Search to categorize, group, rank, and even filter results, making search results much easier to manage and digest.  When you use Visual Search to find Windows Phone 7 Apps, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the way the information is provided to you.  I’m not always on a PC that has Zune installed, so being able to access such a comprehensive list of Windows Phone 7 Apps in one place is great.

Search engines are known for bringing massive amounts of disparate information together, however you’re provided with a list of URLs to click through.  The below picture shows just how different and unique Visual Search is and why it’s one of the best places to find Windows Phone 7 Apps.

Here are a few pieces of functionality that I really like about it in no particular order:

• The app results are updating in real-time, so unlike most of the blogs out there that have app rankings based on when the blog post was written, Bing’s Visual Search for Windows Phone 7 Apps includes all recently released apps
• As you can see in the top left corner of the picture, there are almost 2,500 Windows Phone 7 Apps to choose from.  Any site I’ve been to thus far looking for apps only has a couple hundred apps for the Windows Phone, so it’s a very comprehensive list
• Rankings are provided for a quick peek at the Top Rated, Newest Free Apps, Newest Paid Apps, and Most Downloaded Apps
• There are 16 different Categories to choose from allowing you to further filter your results.  If those aren’t enough, take a look at the bottom left corner of the picture and you’ll see 3 more ways to filter the app list; by Subcategories, by Price, and by Publisher.  Being a Business Intelligence Consultant for Microsoft, I can really appreciate having the “slice and dice” functionality found in most Enterprise Business Platforms applied to a massive list of applications

Interested…?  See for yourself at:  http://www.bing.com/visualsearch?g=wp7&qpvt=Windows+Phone+7+Apps&FORM=Z9GE1#

Jason Volpe

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Windows Phone 7 App Review: Pageonce Personal Finance

Pageonce Personal Finance is a free Windows Phone 7 application that provides significant functionality.  Creating my Pageonce account was easy and I was able to do it from within the application.  Once created, I was able to login and begin associating my financial accounts.  In less than 5 minutes, I created a new account, associated over 5 bank accounts, a couple of credit cards, and 10 stocks I’m interested in following.  I also love the fact that I can get to the transaction detail of my individual accounts so I can see where my wife has been shopping!  Just kidding.  Actually, I’m a bigger shopper than her, so I’m sure I’ll hear about this one!

I have everything in one place and it even gives me customizable real-time alerts, something my bank doesn’t even offer.  There is also a robust financial portal you can access from any internet browser that automatically syncs with your mobile Pageonce application which also has a really nice look and feel.

Let’s talk a little about security because that’s the single most important feature to consider when reviewing personal finance applications.  Pageonce boasts bank level security on your Windows Phone, but it takes it a step further.  To date, there has never been a security breach with Pageonce and there are more than 3 million users today.  Unlike the other personal finance applications out there, your Pageonce account is an anonymous account.  Your name, contact information, bank accounts, credit accounts, pin numbers, etc, are NEVER shown.   Why is this relevant?  Well, I’ve lost 3 mobile devices in the past 12 years.  Within that time frame, I was a victim of identity theft.  Someone had my SSN and tried to use it.  I can pretty much pin point when it was compromised because I was banking with Wells Fargo at the time, and they made everyones’ username their SSN.  When my phone was lost, someone had my SSN with my name, demographic attributes, and everything else required to steal someone’s identity.   If you lose your Windows Phone with Pageonce on it, and a remote wipe isn’t possible for some reason, you can be comforted by the fact that your financial data is anonymous; another step at keeping prying eyes at bay.   As if that wasn’t enough, Pageonce has its own Remote Data Destruct feature so that even if the Windows Phone wipe fails, you can still wipe your financial data off your phone.  How’s THAT for security?!?!  As a previous victim of identity theft, I can say with 100% confidence that I trust Pageonce with my financial information because of how much effort they’ve gone through to ensure data security.

Following are some screen shots from Pageonce Personal Finance which will give you an idea of it’s look and feel.  I really like the UI and find it very easy to navigate around.  Certainly you’ll find more robust features in some of the pay apps, but here’s my stance on mobile personal finance applications.  Over the last 12 years, I’ve lost 3 hand held devices that I still worry about what information became accessible to unauthorized eyes.

Pageonce is the largest mobile personal finance service in the US and is recommended by New York Times, USA Today, CNN, Fox News, CNET, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, PC World and PC Magazine, and maintains an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau.  Go ahead and give Pageonce a try; after all it’s free!

http://www.pageonce.com

Jason Volpe

How To Use A MicroSD Card On Samsung Focus

There’s been a lot written about whether MicroSD cards can be used / should be used in the new Windows Phone 7 Samsung Focus device.  I, for one, bought the device to use the MicroSD storage to fit everything I need on the phone itself.  I spent a few hours at the AT&T store today and they let me know what’s been communicated internally at AT&T.  All AT&T reps have been instructed to tell customers that they should not use the MicroSD card slot because there are compatibility issues.  They said that there is only one MicroSD manufacturer that works on the Focus, and that is Patriot Memory Cards.  I took in all the information, but knew there was something they were missing, so I took my new Focus home to experiment.

I installed a 32GB SanDisk MicroSD card while the phone was powered off.  Then I powered it on, went under Settings –> About to see how much memory the phone was seeing.  The value didn’t increase, so then I realized what is going on.  The MicroSD card MUST be installed when the phone is initially setup for the Focus to recognize it.  Not setup from the standpoint of you putting your name and contact information in.  On the very first boot up, Windows Phone 7 does a check to see what storage exists.  Then it builds the phone’s OS and storage on top of whatever exists at that moment.  Once that’s done, it will never see additional storage that’s added in the future because it’s only checked on that first boot.  Here’s why:

In Windows, if you’ve ever created 2 partitions on a single disk (1 physical hard drive with both a C and D drive) and looked under Disk Administrator within Windows, you saw 2 logical drives (C and D drive letters) on 1 physical disk.  Conversely, on the Focus, it will create one large drive that equates to the sum of both internal storage the phone comes with PLUS whatever size the MicroSD card is and make it a single drive letter (so to speak).  What does this mean for those of you who bought your phone and plan to use a MicroSD card in it?  Well, the ONLY way you’ll be able to do that is by doing a hard reset (restoring to the factory state) so that your phone can start the install process over again that happens before they ship the phone to retail stores prior to them having an MicroSD card installed.  So, you will lose everything during this process, so be aware that any apps you downloaded will no longer exist once this process is completed.  The same is true for any pictures you might have taken or video you might have shot with the built in camera.  It’s a good idea to setup the SkyDrive open on the camera and upload your pictures/videos there prior to doing the following procedure.  There is no workaround at this time to get around that unfortunately.  In time, there will be, however we’re just too close to the initial release date, so it’s a little more painful now than it will be for future WP7 owners.

I’ve done the hard reset 3 different times now (all for testing purposes) so I could write this accurately, and it’s not that bad to have to setup your email accounts again, redownload your key apps, and setup the phone to your liking.

Here are the steps to put a MicroSD card in a Samsung Focus:

• Power down the phone so it’s completely off.  You don’t want to put the MicroSD card into the phone while it’s on just to be safe.  I’ve corrupt one before doing that so I am always extra careful.
• Take off the battery case and insert the MicroSD card into its slot.
• Now turn the phone on and let it boot up.
• Now verify how much memory your phone is showing by going to Settings –> About (Remember the value showing under Total Storage)
• While you’re still under the About menu, scroll down to the bottom of that screen and click reset your phone. REMEMBER THAT THIS WILL ERASE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR PHONE EXCEPT FOR YOUR PHONE NUMBER, SO IT WILL BE JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN YOU TOOK IT OUT OF THE BOX WHEN YOU BOUGHT IT.
• You’ll need to confirm a couple of times that you really do want to wipe the device, so click through those confirmations and your phone will essentially reimage itself to its factory state, HOWEVER, when it rebuilds the storage drive size, it will now recognize the MicroSD card size and include it in its total size calculations.
• It’s very important to understand that this MicroSD card now contains real time phone operational data on it, so it cannot be removed, ever. This would be the same as if you removed your laptop hard drive while you were surfing the web or writing a document.
  
• It’s important to understand that we’re at the beginning of the Windows Phone G1 launch, so there will be a few things that are not how we expect them to be.  Over time, there will be tools that handle disk management and allow for hot swappable MicroSD cards, but as for right now, this is what’s required to get your MicroSD card working in the Samsung Focus.  I’ve heard this is impacting all Windows Phone 7 devices, so this should work across devices, but please check that before trying this on another device other than the Focus.  Maybe someone with another device can comment on their experience with the MicroSD cards. I believe that only the Focus has an end user accessible MicroSD card slot.  I know the HTC Surround has one but it’s covered up and accessing it will void the warranty once you remove the “permanent” cover.
• Once you complete the initial setup when the phone reboots, go to Settings –> About to check what the Total Storage shows.  You should see that number increment by the amount of your MicroSD card.

This is a fairly easy procedure to complete.  Follow the steps one by one and you should be good to go.  I’d appreciate any feedback you have regarding this information or your own experiences with the MicroSD cards.

Jason Volpe

I Got A Speeding Ticket From My Broadband!

Ok, well not exactly, but I suppose I should have.  Living in an up and coming area south of Denver, CO has its perks; especially from a technology perspective.   I use Comcast for my broadband connectivity, and I’ve often said that the reason I work from home so much is because everything just runs so much faster.  I’ve worked at some very large companies, and only one of them had a connection anywhere near my home network (MCI who ran on the UUNet backbone and was really fast).  I’ve experienced really poor network bandwidth from the corporations I’ve worked for, mainly because it’s being shared across thousands and thousands of active users, monitoring software, production applications, and everything else that runs across a corporate network.   I called Comcast to check if this was correct, and while I’m only paying for 20 megabytes per second, they are pushing 100 megabytes per second to my block and plan to increase it to 150 megabytes per second late this year.  I can’t even imagine what surfing will be like on a dedicated 150 megabyte internet connection!

Home Connection:

As you can see, my throughput is over 62 megabytes, yes megabytes per second; and my upload is almost 18 megabytes per second, unheard of with any network connection I’ve ever used.   To put these in perspective, an average MP3 music file is between 5MB and 10MB depending on ripped bitrate.  I can download an entire album in just a few seconds, an entire 4 gigabyte movie in under a couple of minutes, and can leverage some of the more powerful networking features of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and the other web browsers out there such as:

• Max Connections
• Max Connections Per Server
• Max Persistent Connections Per Server
• Pipelining
• Proxy Pipelining
• Pipelining MaxRequests

 These tweaks will allow you to download all files in the album, at the same time, and split the bandwidth across the files.  For instance, you’re likely used to downloading files one at a time with the next one starting after the other finishes.  You may even be allowed to download 2 at the same time, but they will start to queue once you exceed the default threshold.  Their download speed is often capped as well to ensure there is available bandwidth for you if you open another tab or request something from the web while the downloads are going.  It’s really just precautionary more than anything, because the browser has to work whether you have an ISDN modem or a T1 running to your house.  

If you have a connection like I do, or anything over 10 megabytes per second, you can really jumpstart your internet browsing response by tweaking these setting.  Rather than downloading one at a time, you can open say 10 threads to the same server you’re trying to download the music album from, one thread per each of the 10 songs.  Each song will get at least 5 megabytes of bandwidth, leaving plenty of availability.  Keep in mind that most home internet connections rarely exceed 1 megabyte per second for each download, so me leaving 12 megabytes for everything else is more than enough.

Ok, back to the example…  10 songs at an average size of 6 megabytes each will take a total of 1.25 seconds to download ALL 10 FILES.   How is this possible…?  Well, each file starts downloading at the same time.  They each download over 5 megabytes of the file every second that goes by.  Since I use a solid state drive, the copy of the MP3′s from the temporary directory to the final folder is instant.  I highly suggest you look into these browser tweaks as they will completely change your browsing experience.  BE CAREFUL THOUGH.  YOU CAN DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER APPS IF YOU AREN’T CAREFUL.  If you have any questions regarding these setting or what to set them to, just let me know.  I’d be happy to help you avoid any problems.

Warning: Unresponsive Script Errors While Browsing The Web

Google Reader is something I use to manage the large number of RSS feeds I follow.  As nice as it is to have everything consolidated into a single UI, it’s now having problems being responsive.  Anytime I add a new feed, it hangs for a couple of minutes, then generates a “Warning: Unresponsive Script“ dialog box stating that “a script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding“.  You need to click either “Continue” or “Stop Script“ to proceed, which is a royal pain because that warning box continues to come up every minute, which makes Google Reader unusable.

It’s important to note that this is not something that only happens with Google Reader, but rather any website whose scripts run longer than the allocated timeout settings; so you could see this using Google Reader, your favorite website, or while using one of your corporate websites while running on VPN.  It is also agnostic to the browser you’re using, but keep in mind that each browser has unique configuration options, so you may see different results on different browsers.

I’ve done a lot of digging and have identified a way to fix this, which I’ve detailed below.  It requires only a couple of additions to the Windows Registry to address.

For Internet Explorer Users:

1. Open the Registry Editor (Click Start –> Click Run –> Type “regedit” without the quotes
2. Locate the following path in the folder tree to see if the Styles key exists:  HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Styles

• Note If the Styles key is not present, create a new Key (essentially a Folder Under Internet Explorer) that is called Styles

• Create a new DWORD value called “MaxScriptStatements” under this key and set the value to the desired number of script statements. If you are unsure of what value you need to set this to, you can set it to a DWORD value of 0xFFFFFFFF to completely avoid the dialog which is what I do.

Microsoft has also made available a script that does the same thing noted above, but without having to manually make these changes.  That script is located here.

For Firefox Users:

1. Open Firefox and type “about:config” (without quotes) in the URL address.
2. Click “I promise, I’ll be careful“.
3. In the Filter textbox, type “dom.max_script_run_time“ (without quotes) and hit Enter.
4. The value highlighted is likely 10, 20, or something close to that.  I suggest changing it to 120 so that scripts can run long enough to complete, but don’t run in an endless loop.
5. Again, in the Filter textbox, type “dom.max_chrome_script_run_time“ (without quotes) and hit Enter.
6. I suggest using the same value for both script run time settings to be consistent.

I’d love to hear any feedback you have on this issue and how you might have addressed it.

Jason Volpe

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