Yes, you heard it right – if you are a Microsoft MVP you can get any of our tools for free – simply send us a link to your MVP profile and let us know which products you are interested on (you can email us at sales[select char(64)]xsqlsoftware.com).
Here are some simple rules:
- the complimentary licenses you receive are for your own personal use only (includes your own consulting practice).
- The offer is limited to a single user / single machine license for xSQL Object, xSQL Data Compare, xSQL Builder, xSQL Documenter.
- The offer is limited to a single installation and five SQL Server instances for xSQL Profiler and RSS Reporter.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A programmer who knows everything
I got this resume the other day – there was a big section that listed technologies that this guy seemingly had experience with, and the list was long… really long, C#, VB.NET, C++, WCF, WPF, WF, Visual FoxPro, PHP, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Access, T-SQL, PL/SQL, XML, UML, Erwin, Ajax, Flash, J2EE, Spring, Struts, JSP, JMS, JMX, LDAP, SSO, BEA ALUI etc., you name it. I had a hard time recalling any names or acronyms that were missing from his list and believe me, being a manager type, I know acronyms and names, it is my job to know those things exist and to have a good idea of what they are but would I ever dare to say I have experience on them? Absolutely not unless I would be stupid enough to think that having spent a couple of hours on something qualifies me to claim I have experience with it.
After I trashed his resume I started thinking and came to question my reasoning – maybe it is not this guy's fault, maybe it is the stupid recruiters and managers who often make the requirements section a laundry list of technologies and this person, like many others who are trying to find a job, is simply responding to this madness the best he can: by trying to cover all bases. Maybe this guy who has the courage to list everything is trying to convey the message: “I am a programmer. I can deal with any technologies you can through my way.” Or maybe his message is: “since you don’t really know what you are looking for I am as good as any other candidate out there”.
For the moment I don’t have an answer, just questions in my mind. However, one thing I know is that those type of job ads and resumes make for a very inefficient hiring process. When I am hiring a programmer I have two basic cases – case 1: my excellent resource planning provides me with sufficient time and money to find a great programmer and give him/her adequate time to catch up with the technologies he will need to use. If he is already experienced on those technologies all the better but that is not my main concern, my goal is to find the best programmer I can find with the particular technology being a distant second; case 2: due to my poor resource planning I need a programmer “yesterday” who must be productive on day one (like you know who… pun intended) – in this case, unfortunately I may have to sacrifice on the quality of the programmer and go for someone who has experience with the particular technology. So, the requirements section for the case one would focus on degrees, certifications and years of programming experience and I would simply indicate the technologies you are expected to work with. What I care about is that you are a great programmer and that you are willing to work with those technologies even if you have never worked on them before. Whereas the requirement section for case 2 would look something like: x years of hands on experience with C# and SQL Server. In other words just what I need you to work on the first day you come in the office. You may have a PhD in computer science but unfortunately it is not going to do me any good in the short term if you have never worked with C# and SQL Server.
I believe that a well written job ad that tells the potential candidates exactly what you are looking for will significantly reduce the amount of useless job applications while increasing the quality of the applications that come in. So, to all the recruiters and hiring managers out there – please take the time to write clear, concise, fluff-less job ads - you will be doing yourselves, and all those looking for a job, a big favor.
Finally, thanks for reading this and whether you agree with it or not, if you are a programmer and/or database administrator don't forget to check out our cool SQL Server tools at http://www.xsql.com/ - almost all of them have a fully functional totally free version that never expires and never asks you to register or activate - just download and save yourself hours of otherwise tedious work.
After I trashed his resume I started thinking and came to question my reasoning – maybe it is not this guy's fault, maybe it is the stupid recruiters and managers who often make the requirements section a laundry list of technologies and this person, like many others who are trying to find a job, is simply responding to this madness the best he can: by trying to cover all bases. Maybe this guy who has the courage to list everything is trying to convey the message: “I am a programmer. I can deal with any technologies you can through my way.” Or maybe his message is: “since you don’t really know what you are looking for I am as good as any other candidate out there”.
For the moment I don’t have an answer, just questions in my mind. However, one thing I know is that those type of job ads and resumes make for a very inefficient hiring process. When I am hiring a programmer I have two basic cases – case 1: my excellent resource planning provides me with sufficient time and money to find a great programmer and give him/her adequate time to catch up with the technologies he will need to use. If he is already experienced on those technologies all the better but that is not my main concern, my goal is to find the best programmer I can find with the particular technology being a distant second; case 2: due to my poor resource planning I need a programmer “yesterday” who must be productive on day one (like you know who… pun intended) – in this case, unfortunately I may have to sacrifice on the quality of the programmer and go for someone who has experience with the particular technology. So, the requirements section for the case one would focus on degrees, certifications and years of programming experience and I would simply indicate the technologies you are expected to work with. What I care about is that you are a great programmer and that you are willing to work with those technologies even if you have never worked on them before. Whereas the requirement section for case 2 would look something like: x years of hands on experience with C# and SQL Server. In other words just what I need you to work on the first day you come in the office. You may have a PhD in computer science but unfortunately it is not going to do me any good in the short term if you have never worked with C# and SQL Server.
I believe that a well written job ad that tells the potential candidates exactly what you are looking for will significantly reduce the amount of useless job applications while increasing the quality of the applications that come in. So, to all the recruiters and hiring managers out there – please take the time to write clear, concise, fluff-less job ads - you will be doing yourselves, and all those looking for a job, a big favor.
Finally, thanks for reading this and whether you agree with it or not, if you are a programmer and/or database administrator don't forget to check out our cool SQL Server tools at http://www.xsql.com/ - almost all of them have a fully functional totally free version that never expires and never asks you to register or activate - just download and save yourself hours of otherwise tedious work.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
SQL Server 2008 developed with the customer in mind!
“Microsoft developed this release of SQL Server with the customer in mind,” said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft…
What a surprise! So, who did Microsoft have in mind when developing the other releases of SQL Server!?
We all misspeak at times but I find it very surprising (in a bad way that is) that a Microsoft corporate VP would do so on such a major occasion as the release of SQL Server 2008!
What a surprise! So, who did Microsoft have in mind when developing the other releases of SQL Server!?
We all misspeak at times but I find it very surprising (in a bad way that is) that a Microsoft corporate VP would do so on such a major occasion as the release of SQL Server 2008!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Tracking database schema changes - why and how
There are many scenarios that highlight the need for tracking changes to the database schema – security, auditing and performance issues often require that you be able to pinpoint what changed when in the database schema. An index may have been dropped, a stored procedure may have been changed, a trigger may have been added and so on, and any one of those changes, however “small”, could have huge un-intended consequences from performance degradation to loss of data integrity and more.
Why can’t we use the daily full database backups to always go back and figure out what changed when – after all the database backup does not only capture the data but it also captures the database schema? Yes, BUT:
- full database backups are in many cases only available for the last few days / weeks and you are not able to go back beyond that period;
- it takes a long time to let say restore 20 different versions of a large database and figure out what changed in the schema from one version to the other
in short, even if it is possible it is not practical.
A nifty feature in xSQL Object called “schema snapshot” addresses this issue in very elegant and practical way – it allows you to take snapshots of the database schema that:
- capture 100% of the database structure – not the data, just the schema;
- have a very small footprint thus enabling you to store them forever – the database itself could be in the tenths or hundreds of Gigabytes in size whereas the schema snapshot could be a few Kilobytes in size;
- can be compared with each other and with the live database instantly without having to restore anything – instead of taking days restoring and comparing trying to track down a change you can do that in minutes using the snapshots.
xSQL Object is free for SQL Server Express with no limitations and is also free for other editions of SQL Server as long as the number of objects in the database does not exceed certain limits that you can find here…
Why can’t we use the daily full database backups to always go back and figure out what changed when – after all the database backup does not only capture the data but it also captures the database schema? Yes, BUT:
- full database backups are in many cases only available for the last few days / weeks and you are not able to go back beyond that period;
- it takes a long time to let say restore 20 different versions of a large database and figure out what changed in the schema from one version to the other
in short, even if it is possible it is not practical.
A nifty feature in xSQL Object called “schema snapshot” addresses this issue in very elegant and practical way – it allows you to take snapshots of the database schema that:
- capture 100% of the database structure – not the data, just the schema;
- have a very small footprint thus enabling you to store them forever – the database itself could be in the tenths or hundreds of Gigabytes in size whereas the schema snapshot could be a few Kilobytes in size;
- can be compared with each other and with the live database instantly without having to restore anything – instead of taking days restoring and comparing trying to track down a change you can do that in minutes using the snapshots.
xSQL Object is free for SQL Server Express with no limitations and is also free for other editions of SQL Server as long as the number of objects in the database does not exceed certain limits that you can find here…
Friday, July 4, 2008
There is still time to get your RSS Reporter license for free
It's about 10 am EST right now which means there are about 12 hours left to claim your free RSS Reporter license.
RSS Reporter for SQL Server is a great little utility that allows you to generate aggregate RSS feeds containing job status information from multiple SQL Servers eliminating the need for the annoying email alert notifications. A really cool feature is also the ability to right any T-SQL query and with a click of a button generate a standard RSS feed containing the results of that query.
To claim your free license go to: --this offer is no longer valid--
RSS Reporter for SQL Server is a great little utility that allows you to generate aggregate RSS feeds containing job status information from multiple SQL Servers eliminating the need for the annoying email alert notifications. A really cool feature is also the ability to right any T-SQL query and with a click of a button generate a standard RSS feed containing the results of that query.
To claim your free license go to: --this offer is no longer valid--
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
4th of July celebration - huge software giveaway
In celebration of the 4th of July we are giving away 1000 RSS Reporter licenses worth $99 each. You can read the details here: --this offer is no longer valid-- but hurry the offer is limited to the first 1000 people and it expires at the end of the day on July 4, 2008.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Script database – schema and data together
Scripting a SQL Server database schema is a fairly trivial task if the dependencies between the objects are ignored. The trouble is that if you generate a schema script on server A and try to execute it on server B to create a copy of that database you will soon realize how critical those dependencies are – the script will simply fail to execute.
That’s where xSQL Object and xSQL Data Compare come in – both of those tools allow you to script an individual object in the database or the whole database schema and the script you get is properly ordered respecting the dependencies between objects so that it executes flawlessly.
Furthermore, those tools allow you to script the data as well or you can script both the schema and the data in one place. Scripting both schema and data together is very cool as it allows you to transfer a whole database from one server to another even if you can’t use a backup and restore. For example, you have a database hosted on a web server somewhere and you can execute T-SQL scripts against the database but you don’t have access on the server to be able to place a copy of your database backup which you can then restore. No worries, you simply generate a schema and data script of the whole database and execute that on the target server and there, you have transferred the whole database.
Best part: the scripting functionality included in the xSQL Object and xSQL Data Compare is completely free – no limitations, no expiration.
That’s where xSQL Object and xSQL Data Compare come in – both of those tools allow you to script an individual object in the database or the whole database schema and the script you get is properly ordered respecting the dependencies between objects so that it executes flawlessly.
Furthermore, those tools allow you to script the data as well or you can script both the schema and the data in one place. Scripting both schema and data together is very cool as it allows you to transfer a whole database from one server to another even if you can’t use a backup and restore. For example, you have a database hosted on a web server somewhere and you can execute T-SQL scripts against the database but you don’t have access on the server to be able to place a copy of your database backup which you can then restore. No worries, you simply generate a schema and data script of the whole database and execute that on the target server and there, you have transferred the whole database.
Best part: the scripting functionality included in the xSQL Object and xSQL Data Compare is completely free – no limitations, no expiration.
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