Welcome to Database Weekly

Expert Analysis: A Case for Socialization of Data It's time to integrate social data, enterprise analytics and enterprise data for better social-media strategy. read more... Mozilla's Tab Candy is the first step to sweeter browsing Mozilla's experimental Tab Candy project, which is led by talented designer Aza Raskin, offers a simple and intuitive new twist on tab management. It allows users to visually manage tabs by organizing them into spatial groups. It's far from being a complete solution to tab overflow, but it's a very good step in the right direction. read more... Improving Your I/O Performance As a DBA I have done a lot of work improving I/O performance for on-premise SQL Server installations. Usually it involves tweaking the storage system, balancing databases across RAID arrays, or expanding the count of files that the tempdb is using; these are all common techniques of SQL Server DBA. However, how do you improve your I/O performance when you are not in charge of the storage subsystem, like in the case of SQL Azure? read more... How to unit test SQL Server 2008 database using Visual Studio 2010 Atul Verma's blog does what it says on the packet. read more... Point-in-time restore and knowing where to stop In some disaster recovery scenarios, a database needs to be restored to a point in time before a particular operation has occurred, e.g. before a user mistakenly dropped a table, ran a DELETE or UPDATE with no WHERE clause, etc. If the database is in the full recovery mode and the log backup chain is not broken, then this is can be achieved by using the RESTORE LOG command with the STOPAT clause. read more... Programmatically Changing the Firewall Settings in SQL Azure SQL Azure has two types of access control: SQL Authentication logins and passwords and a server side firewall that restricts access by IP address. This blog post will discuss how to programmatically modify the firewall settings. read more... Software Vulnerability Management at Microsoft Vulnerabilities are weaknesses in software that enable an attacker to compromise the integrity, availability, or confidentiality of that software. Microsoft uses a process to investigate and release security updates that address vulnerabilities in the software it produces. In this paper you’ll learn about this process and how Microsoft uses a multipronged approach to help its customers manage their risks. read more... So I Got Promoted, Now What? Stop Doing Your Old Job Joe Webb presents part 2 in his series of posts about how to effectively transition to your new role after being promoted. read more... 5 Tools I Am Willing to Pay for [And Recommend] to Improve My Blogs Sometimes to take your blog to the next level there can come a time when you need to spend a few dollars. read more... Beware of the New Security Threat: Tabnabbers Businesses need to start worrying about a new Internet security threat. Called tabnabbing, the latest malware fools forgetful users of tabbed browsers into entering their login information (to e-mail, banks, etc.) to a page that looks like a login page but really is designed to steal passwords. read more... PowerPivot for the DBA: Part 3 Wayne Walter Berry continues his brave mission to bring PowerPivot "down to earth for the DBA". read more... Common SQL Server Licensing Myths Which would you rather do, wade through the nuances of SQL Server licensing or a typical tax form? Mike Walsh explains some of the more common myths he has encountered with licensing throughout his career. read more... Refactoring Entity-Attribute-Value Design Plamen Ratchev provides an example of EAV design and then demonstrates the refactoring process to correct it. read more... Removing Partitioning on tables Martin Bell explains, step by step how to remove partitioning from a partitioned table. read more... Gartner, Inc. Publishes Two Important Notes on Microsoft PowerPivot These notes highlight how IT should prepare for and position PowerPivot. They also offer best practices based on real-world customer scenarios and feedback for building business intelligence (BI) and performance management architecture. read more... Security Checklists on TechNet Wiki Rick Byham has posted a series of checklists aimed at helping you secure the SQL Server Database Engine read more... Creating a unique constraint on a column that allows nulls How do you enforce uniqueness AND have multiple NULL values? On SQL 2008 you can create a filtered index that excludes NULL values, but there is also a crafty trick that you can use on SQL 2005, as Simon Sabin explains. read more... Installing SQL Integration Services after SQL Cluster Setup has Completed Eric Burgess describes an issue where SQL Server 2008 SP1 was installed on a Windows 2008 cluster and was working just fine, but SSIS needed to be installed on the two nodes of the cluster. Since SSIS is not cluster aware, it sounded like a simple process of adding features to an existing instance of SQL Server. Unfortunately, it was not that intuitive. read more... Yahoo Japan's Google Deal Godzillas Microsoft Yahoo Japan has apparently agreed to use Google for its back-end search and advertising system, according to online reports. For Microsoft, the news must be something of an unexpected blow, considering that its 10-year search-and-advertising agreement with Yahoo is currently in the midst of implementation read more... Mobile Apps Leak Personal Info on Android, Apple Phones Mobile apps for Android-based smartphones and Apple's iPhone can disclose personal information, two Black Hat speakers warned. They said Android and iPhone users often give the apps permission at installation, but they also warned developers to be more cautious. A free Android wallpaper app sent users' identifying information to a server in China. read more...