Installing SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services

My First Impression

Even if you don’t upgrade your older SQL database (2000 or 2005) to SQL Server 2008 Express, I see lot of benefits using the new SQL Management Studio that comes part of the SQL Server 2008 Express. The New Management is free and backwards compatible with older SQL Servers.

The Advanced Services also includes the Reporting Services and Visual Studio (SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio) for developing reports.

Code Completion

This is very good compare to nothing, but I still feel it could have been better, may be the basic feature limitation.. the code completion appears only on the TSQL Statements, I mean it could be nice if I type SET and shows the possible SET options like NOCOUNT ON/OFF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DTS

DTS is back and it is good for simple export/import, but unfortunately, we can’t save the DTS package.

IceRocket Tags: SQL Server 2008,DTS,Express,Reporting Services

TSQL – Getting every day of the Current Month

This came handy, when i wanted to get all dates of the current month when joining with mutiple tables… and not all the tables  had all dates of the month

;WITH
   CTE0 AS(SELECT 1 AS c UNION ALL SELECT 1),
    CTE1 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM CTE0 AS A, CTE0 AS B),
CTE2 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM CTE1 AS A, CTE1 AS B),
CTE3 AS(SELECT 1 AS c FROM CTE2 AS A, CTE2 AS B),
  SeqNumbers AS(SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY c) AS SeqNumber FROM CTE3)

SELECT SeqNumber,CONVERT(VARCHAR(12),(GETDATE()-(DAY(GETDATE())-SeqNumber)),101) AS ReportingDate
FROM
    SeqNumbers
WHERE SeqNumber <=    DAY(GETDATE())

Fake House Rental Ad in Craigslist

This Monday morning I got a call from a lady claiming to be renting my house and she saw my ad in the Craigslist and if I still in USA or Africa?

The ad which i was not totally aware. and she confirmed that she is working with her Aunt a realtor. Though i told her, we are not looking for tenants now and if required she can talk to my Property Manager. and Then I talked to my property Manager, he said he did get calls asking how authentic we are in renting the house.

I got to know more from my property manager, that that lady is a MBA student and had already sent $800 twice!!!. Which I still wonder how someone would send money without meeting in person or any kind of information, I could not get hold of them to get more details.

Anyway, I am now worried there is someone using my name, created a fake email address with my name. and renting my house in Craigslist.

What Can I do?

Nothing. I searched all over the internet, I could report in www.ic3.org, and talk to my friends. and that’s it. There are several other news similar to rental scam like this, and apparently largely from Nigeria.

 

I had someone investigate this and give me more details on this:

1. A Yahoo email created using my name: vontlinsriprabuc@yahoo.com   — of course you can send email to the person who is running this scam.
2. IP Address used to send email communication for those who responded to the ad:

The result of WhoIs:

Location: Nigeria (high) [City: Lagos, Lagos]
[Caching always on for search engines and InfoPath]
% This is the AfriNIC Whois server.

% Note: this output has been filtered.

% Information related to ‘41.219.226.0 – 41.219.226.255′

inetnum:        41.219.226.0 – 41.219.226.255
netname:        ORG-SA57-AFRINIC-20050513
descr:          Assigned to Lagos dial-pool customers
country:        NG
admin-c:        NS4-AFRINIC
tech-c:         CM9-AFRINIC
status:         Assigned PA
mnt-by:         STARCOMMS-MNT
mnt-lower:      STARCOMMS-MNT
source:         AFRINIC # Filtered
parent:         41.219.192.0 – 41.219.255.255

person:         NAVNEET SINGH
address:        Plot 1261, Bishop Kale Close, off Saka Tinubu
address:        Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria
phone:          +2347028000725
fax-no:         +234-1-811-0301
e-mail:         ********@starcomms.com
nic-hdl:        NS4-AFRINIC
source:         AFRINIC # Filtered

person:         Catalin Miclaus
address:        Plot 1261C, Bishop Kale Close, off Saka Tinubu
phone:          +234-7028000733
fax-no:         +234-1-8110301
e-mail:         *******@starcomms.com
nic-hdl:        CM9-AFRINIC
source:         AFRINIC # Filtered

3. Email from to who responded to the Craigslist:

Hello Dear,

Calvary greetings to you,also to your house hold..Thanks for the email and it is my gladness  hearing from you.i am the owner of the house you are making enquiry of.Actually I  resided in the house with my family,such as my wife and my only daugther before and presently we had packed due to my transfer from my working place and now situated in the (West Africa Nigeria) and presently my house is still available for rent ..including the utilities like hydro,washerand security,it is furnised but  if u which to move in with your furnishes no problem..
Pls i want you to note that,i am a kind and honest  man and also i spent alot on my property that i want to give you for rent,i will want you to take absolute maintenance of my house and want you to treat it as your own,i,it is not the money the main problem  but i want you to keep it tidy all the time so that i will be glad  to see it neat when i come for a check up.
 
SO IF YOU ARE REALY INTRESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE  RENTAPPLICATIONS FORMS BELOW
RENT APPLICATION FORM
 
Also,Pls let me get this answer.
 
FIRST NAME:__________________
MIDDLE NAME: _________________
LAST NAME: __________________
PROFESSION: ________________
HOME PHONE (____) __________
(CELL)PHONE (____) __________
(WORK)PHONE (____) __________
KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________
PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________
CITY: _______________
STATE: ______________
ZIPCODE: ____________
HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________
WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________
HOW SOON CAN YOU HAVE THE DEPOSIT PAYMENT SENT TO ME___________________________
HOW SOON DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE KEYS AND DOCUMETS OF THE HOUSE___________________________
DO YOU HAVE A PET: _____________
NAME OF PET: _____________
KIND OF PETS: _____________
DO YOU SMOKE? ______________
DO YOU DRINK? ______________
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that i can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you,Note that the keys and documents of my house is with me here in west africa.please we are giving you the house base on trust and again i will want you to stick to your words,you know that,we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand,so please do notl et us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this..

You will only be able to drive by the house for now but not have a look at the interior until i have sent the keys and documents of the house to you..and the requirement for getting the keys and documents of the house is a fully refundable payment of $700 USD,which is the security deposit. Please note that the deposit made is fully refundable should in case you finally gain entrance into the house after receiving the keys and documents and feel unsatisfied or uncomfortable with the interior,but i am giving you a benefit of doubt that you will love everything about this lovely home..

PLEASE NOTE THAT YOUR RENT ONLY STARTS COUNTING AFTER YOU HAVE FINALLY MOVED INTO THE HOUSE, SO YOU NEED NOT TO WORRY ABOUT MAKING THE DEPOSIT PAYMENT NOW AND NOT MOVING IN IMMEDIATELY,ALL YOU’RE DOING IS SECURING THE HOUSE IN YOUR FAVOR IN ORDER NOT TO LOOSE IT TO OTHER INTERESTED APPLICANTS..

YOU CAN CONTACT ME ON +234-808-398-0705  Or  011-234-808-398-0705.
Thanks And God Bless You

Samsung Omnia – Verizon Wireless

I recently changed my phone  to Samsung Omnia, amazingly it  has lot of cool features and performs decently without disappointing too much.

What is good.

1. Phone with a laptop style mouse, comes handy when it is hard  to press keys in virtual keyboard
2. Side bar like in VISTA – another  cool feature, comes handy with limited widgets!!!
3. FM Radio
4. About 4 types  of virtual keyboards, not all the best.. but once you get used to it, can’t complain much
5. WIFI – I think this is windows mobile – very easy to configure and pops up whenever it finds a network
6. Opera browser is nice, but  it is  much better with www.skyfire.com  – generally on any windows  mobile
7. Camera – never had  such a good experience in a Phone camera before.. really nice.. see some pictures I took

this is a one click – point and shoot panorama photo without much effort..

View Full Album

 

What is not good!

1. GPS – I wish it worked better without having to disconnect my phone/broadband – and again, when i do it doesn’t work with google maps or Live Search
2. Even after selecting  not to notify on a wireless network, it keeps notifying – little  annoying
3. Battery Life – it was good until i  configured my email, once i configured my email to check every 5 minutes. i have to recharge twice a day – this is again depends on individual user preference
4. FM Radio doesn’t work on Bluetooth stereo headset

Searching through Stored procedure code using TSQL script

Even if you have a refactoring tool, sometimes i wonder what are all the storedprocedures that uses this table that starts with ‘products_’  or ‘system_’… or all the tables that have a column name ‘status_id’….

so here is the script that scans all the stored procedure code, and check if the table name is found

Note  —this will also return if the table name is in the comment too.. so the logic is, even if you want to search any text (comment) in a stored procedure

 

 

1. ———————————————————————————————–
2. – Parameters
3. ———————————————————————————————–

DECLARE @tableNameLike VARCHAR(100), @columnNameLike VARCHAR(100)

– Filter only stored procedures that uses that table(s) and (optionaly) if it has a column

SET @tableNameLike = ‘enterYourTableName%’ — If you have organized all your tables with

— standard prefix, will be useful to filter

SET @columnNameLike = ‘enterYourColumnName%’ — Only if the table has this column

———————————————————————————————–

– Local Variables

———————————————————————————————–

DECLARE @spname VARCHAR(100),@TABLEname VARCHAR(100)

DECLARE @spnames TABLE(spname VARCHAR(100))

DECLARE @EXISTS INT

DECLARE @sp_start INT, @sp_END INT ,@t_start INT , @t_END INT,@sp_INdex INT , @t_INdex INT

———————————————————————————————–

– DROP before Creating Temporary Tables

———————————————————————————————–

IF EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o

WHERE o.xtype IN (‘U’)

AND o.id = object_id(N‘tempdb..#spnames’)

)

DROP TABLE #spnames

IF EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o

WHERE o.xtype IN (‘U’)

AND o.id = object_id(N‘tempdb..#TABLEnames’)

)

DROP TABLE #TABLEnames

– Get all the Stored procedure names

SELECT row_number() OVER(ORDER BY name) AS rownum,name

INTO #spnames

FROM sys.objects

WHERE type = ‘P’

– Get all the table names that passes the filter parameter

SELECT row_number() OVER(ORDER BY name) AS rownum,name

INTO #TABLEnames

FROM

sysobjects T

JOIN

INformation_schema.columns C

on

C.TABLE_NAME = T.name

WHERE T.name like @tableNameLike AND T.xtype = ‘U’

AND C.column_name like @columnNameLike

– SELECT * FROM #spnames

– SELECT * FROM #TABLEnames

———————————————————————————————–

– Get and Set Loop Index

———————————————————————————————–

SELECT @sp_start = 1,@sp_END = max(rownum)+1

FROM #spnames

SELECT @t_start =1,@t_END = max(rownum)+1 FROM #TABLEnames

– SELECT @sp_Start,@sp_END,@t_start,@t_END

———————————————————————————————–

– Loop through each stored procedure name

———————————————————————————————–

while @sp_start < @sp_END

BEGIN

– Get the stored procedure name

SELECT @spname = [name]

FROM

#spnames

WHERE rownum = @sp_start

– Loop through each tablename to check if it is used in the stored procedure code

while @t_start < @t_END

BEGIN

– Get the table name

SELECT @TABLEname = [name]

FROM

#TABLEnames

WHERE

rownum = @t_start

– Check if the table name exists in the stored procedure code

– I am using the SUM(CHARINDEX(xxx)) since the stored procedure code may span

– multiple rows

SELECT @EXISTS = SUM(CHARINDEX(@TABLEname,[text]))

FROM syscomments

WHERE id = object_id(@spname)

– If it is greater than zero then it is used in the stored procedure code

IF @EXISTS > 0

BEGIN

INSERT INTO @spnames

SELECT @spname

END

SET @t_start = @t_start+1 – Increment the table index

END

SET @sp_start = @sp_start+1 – Increment the storedprocedure index

SET @t_start = 1 – Reset the table index

END

———————————————————————————————–

– To list all the spnames (remember there will be duplicates)

———————————————————————————————–

SELECT DISTINCT * FROM @spnames

———————————————————————————————–

– Drop the temporary tables

———————————————————————————————–

IF EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o

WHERE o.xtype IN (‘U’)

AND o.id = object_id(N‘tempdb..#spnames’)

)

DROP TABLE #spnames

IF EXISTS (

SELECT * FROM tempdb.dbo.sysobjects o

WHERE o.xtype IN (‘U’)

AND o.id = object_id(N‘tempdb..#TABLEnames’)

)

DROP TABLE #TABLEnames

———————————————————————————————–

– END

———————————————————————————————–

IceRocket Tags: TSQL Stored procedure SQL Server 2005/2008 programming

TSQL String Range Comparison with wildcard

A simple note, and couldn’t find straight answer when i googled!!. so here it is..

This is to get result from a table when filtering in string ranges that will have a wild card for ex: ‘*’

declare @sv varchar(17),@ev varchar(17)
declare @sindex int, @eindex int

set @sv = ‘ABCDE11A09′
set @ev = ‘ABCDE11A79′

– Check the * pos if exists,if doesn’t exists return the len +1 , assuming the * at the last
select @sindex = case when charindex(‘*’,@sv)> 0 then charindex(‘*’,@sv) else len(@sv)+1 end
select @eindex = case when charindex(‘*’,@ev)> 0 then charindex(‘*’,@ev) else len(@ev)+1 end

– remove the * from the range strings
select @sv = case when charindex(‘*’,@sv)> 0 then substring(@sv,0,@sindex) else @sv  end
select @ev = case when charindex(‘*’,@ev)> 0 then substring(@ev,0,@eindex) else @ev  end

select @sindex,@eindex,@sv,@ev
select mycolumn,substring(VIN,0,@sindex), substring(VIN,0,@eindex) from mytable
where
    substring(mycolumn,0,@sindex) >= @sv AND
    substring(mycolumn,0,@eindex) <= @ev
ORDER BY mycolumn

IceRocket Tags: TSQL,SQL SERVER,Programming

My Old Photos

I just happened to find my old geocities - my first website.. and all the photos i had .. i guess about 9 years ago…

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Kottayam (Kerala, India) Photos

View Full Album

 

In Madurai (India), 1994

 

 

 

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

At Kodaikanal (India), 1999

With my MCA Classmates…
Here my friends of MCA – Madras Christian College..
Suresh, Parthasarathy, Ruban, Rajkumar, Paul, Sivakumar, Gladson, David, Mallik, Ashok, Sarangan, Damu, Daniel, Prem

Angela Fransica, Naju, Gigy, Golda, Shirin, Nisha, Deanne, Beulah, Ida, Chitra, Nalini, Sujatha, Rajalakshmi, Subhashini, Nathira, Annie, Mahalakshmi, Queeny, Sheeba, Leena

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Madurai (India), 1993

Here my friends – Bsc Physics- Sourashtra College Madurai ..
Surendranath, Balaji, Kishore, Navin, Senthil, Venkatesh C.R., Venkatesh S.S, Pathanjali,
Karthic Babu, Manikandan, Karthikeyan, ManickaRaj, Pathanjali, Santhanakrishnan, Sanjay…    Sheela, Rohini, Aarthy, Roopa, Eswari, Padma, Lalitha, Vanitha, Sujatha, Sujitha, Vimala

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

This is with Naju and Arun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

and here my Room in the Selaiyur hall (MCC) with Ajit abraham and Arun Thomas

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

This is infront of the Selaiyur hall with Arularasn sitting on the rock, arul sekar standing behind him and our college Michel Jackson hanging on the tree.

  ——————————————————————————————————————————————

Selaiyur – Katans — My Hall mates – Selaiyur Hall, MCC.

IceRocket Tags: Friends,Personal,Family

——————————————————————————————————————————————

 

In PSI Data Systems!!!

 

 

 

——————————————————————————————————————————————

DLINK Media Lounge with Media Mall (PlayOn)

I signed up a beta service on The Media Mall to watch NetFlix (www.netflix.com) on the XBox, since I also have a DLINK DSM-520, I thought i will give a try!. First off, for my long waiting, this is an wonderful experience. I had to move all my wireless to the wired setting, otherwise there is a pause every few seconds, it makes for a the quality of video i was getting ranging from 5mbs to 7mbps, (yes you will need at least 6 Mbps Internet bandwidth).

Ok for someone who doesn’t know what I am talking about, I have Netflix account to get one movie at a time for about $9, and also I get the online video service, which i can watch unlimited movies anytime. I have been watching TV Series and movies, connecting my laptop HDMI to the 50″ Plasma (Home theater). well using the laptop is not bad using a wireless keyboard (built-in mouse), but it is not as convenient as using a conventional remote.

Now, with the Media Mall PlayOn, I can run this PlayOn software on the PC on my home network, and the DSM 520 automatically detects and shows the list of my favorite movies in my NetFlix account, and again this DSM 520 is part of my home theater setup with HDMI and a simple to use Remote. Now I can watch video from Hulu, CBS etc.

IceRocket Tags: DSM 520,Media Lounge,NetFlix,Hulu,Home Online Video

Akshat Vontlin

Akshat, new addition to my family, born on July 30th, 5:40 PM in Houston, TX. 8 pounds, 22 inches….

More Photos :

IceRocket Tags: Family,children

Simple SCRUM with SharePoint 2007 and Outlook 2007 in Agile Product Development

Being in the software development for over 10 years, started working in a software service industry in the first half of my career then moving to a product development, I find myself it is a cultural change or should I say I reinvented myself many times, getting a better process or discipline on delivering Quality Software on time and budget.

I do think every product development has to be Agile, wether you are  part of the product management or product development. You would agree, when you don’t know who is your next customer or you don’t know your next customer want. There is so much goes in a product development at least for simplicity we can say product evolves with (a) tracking the market/customer needs and (b) following Technology evolution

Understanding the nature of the business, and understanding the engineers and managers who involve in getting the product out, and the emotions that goes along during the changes happens that are unplanned and You as a product owner helping everyone to cope up to adopt the changes. it is a challenge and it doesn’t happen easily if you don’t have the right team. The Right team is not just a well qualified and skilled people, but it needs more than that, you will also agree you need a team full of self-responsible individuals  who respects professional ethics and trust between the team members.

Having tried a simple excel sheet to MS Project and writing several documents, I always wanted to keep things simple and by simple I mean, the process should evolve to meet our needs and not the other way around.

I always wanted to just use one single tool to communicate and coordinate and collaborate with all my team members, including product management, support and development. Common to all of us here is Outlook 2007, so I could not think of better tool to implement SCRUM and make it more effective, I wanted the information to reach to the team members instead they have to go for it to know what is changed or make an update.

Also I instituted the daily 5 minutes Stand up meeting – each will get about 5 minutes to state what they are going to work on today and if they need help from anyone and a weekly meeting to do recap of how it went and the plan for the next week. This really brings everyone a greater visibility of the overall picture and also makes everyone feel they are part of a team.

How it Works

This is a solution, you can think of it like, using as it is,  SharePoint 2007 as a back end and Outlook 2007 as a front end for all your cross functional team (sales/marketing/development/support) without writing any custom code.

As I started working SharePoint Server to integrate the reports Reporting Services, I started to explore and discovered the simple project tasks web part, and the “Connect to the Outlook” (you will need outlook 2007),  RSS Feed and Alert Me.

The important thing here to note is this integration with Outlook and ability to add RSS Feeds in Outlook and Alert Me feature.

By setting up the Bucket lists as a RSS Feed in your outlook, so any time, when a new item is added in the bucket lists, you will get a notification and for example, the Sales or Marketing or anyone who gets an idea or finds a need for your product, they can simply post  a new item to the bucket lists using their Outlook, without having to open the browser or searching for a link where to post. As soon as you (Product Owner) get a notification by setting the “Alert Me”, then you can analyze add minimum/required information. 

When you assemble a Sprint/Project Tasks, developers will get an email notification as and when they get assigned to a task. And  the developers on the other hand can configure the Sprint/Project Tasks in their Outlook using “Connect to Outlook”, so they don’t have to open the browser again to update the status or get visibility of the overall status

 

PROJECT Backlog/Bucket Lists

I customized the SharePoint List as a Bucket Lists as a template, so I can capture all the necessary details, as you can see below:

 

Project Tasks as SPRINT

This Projects Tasks Web Part, I use it as a sprint, will show only the active tasks that are being worked

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connect to Outlook, View RSS Feed and Alert Me

IceRocket Tags: SCRUM,Agile,Outllook,Sharepoint