A Toast: To the Demise of Indecision, Indifference, and Insanity

Presenting at Techdays

10/3/2008 3:33:40 PM

What is Techdays?

The Canadian IT Pro Team would love to call it a Tech-Ed of the north, except on tour. Check out the site: www.techdays.ca to get the info, but the dates are:

Date	City	Venue
October 29/30	Toronto	Toronto Congress Centre
November 6/7	Montreal	The Palais des Congrès
November 27	Ottawa	Mariott Hotel
December 4	Winnipeg	Delta Hotel
December 10/11	Calgary	Calgary Stampede Roundup Centre
December 17	Halifax	Halifax World Trade Centre
January 21/22	Vancouver	Vancouver Convention Centre

I will be doing a presentation in Montreal and Ottawa entitled Microsoft SQL Server: Essential Database Maintenance for New and Seasoned DBAs. The synopsis is:

Every DBA knows that managing a database using SQL Server requires dealing with a key set of components of SQL Server in an optimal in order to make their lives easier. But what are the elements of SQL Server that you need to really focus on to get the best bang for the DBA buck, and what best practices should be followed to ensure an optimally-running an instance in SQL Server? In this session we will walk through the Top 10 List of DBA techniques and best practices to ensure a smooth running database and instance. You’ll learn: how to optimize data files and transaction logs; why TempDB is special and how to treat it properly; indexing strategies dealing with corruption; and much, much more.

Should be fun. See you there!

Toronto...

8/24/2008 1:57:21 PM

Well, all my stuff has been officially moved in. Most of the junk is organized and put away. All of the necessities are in place. Now all thats left is to get the posters and pictures up onto the walls, and to hang my white board.

Ohh...and I need to buy a desk. I'll be at the PAL show tomorrow, and have orientation on Tuesday, so maybe I'll go on Wednesday. We'll see. Should be fun.

PAL Showcase in Toronto August 24th-25th

8/11/2008 2:17:42 PM

Should be fun. Register! There are some great businesses that will be there.

Meyer Sound M'elodie Rigging Animation

8/5/2008 12:25:29 AM

Now this is cool:

OttawaSQL.net Member of the Year Award

8/2/2008 4:03:56 AM

It's old news, but seeing as I forgot to write about it when it happened, its new old-news. Anyway...

During the Ottawa area's user group blow out bash two sets of awards were given out. You had the Partner of the Year award and Member of the Year award where each IT Professional group recognized an individual that stood out for their contributions to the success of the group. These individuals are awarded the ‘Member of the Year’ for voluntarily sharing their time, a deep commitment to community, and a willingness to help others succeed.

Turns out I was one of them. Surprised the hell out of me. Check it out http://ottawa.sqlpass.org/.

To quote David Myers:

Steve demonstrated both leadership and a commitment to get the job done. Starting a new user group requires a lot of support from many individuals. Steve was there when we needed him and he provided this support in spades!!! From helping with the executive meetings, working at the Heroes Happen Here launch, present at user group meetings, leading the study group with the first exam pass, and volunteering time to work on the soon to be released website, Steve has made exceptional contributions to the OttawaSQL.net community in the 2007-2008 season.

Congratulations to Joseph and Peter from the other two groups, and Microsoft and CTE Solutions for the Partner Awards.

2008 Summer Reading List

7/26/2008 4:21:28 PM

Over the course of the year I pick up books because I think they'll be interesting to read. Because of the amount of time I have when I pick up new books, I don't usually get a chance to read that book immediately. I'm usually a book or two (or six) behind. With summer vacation rearing its ugly head I've found time to read some of these books.

SQL Server 2005 Implementation and Maintanance Exam Cram (98% done)

SQL Server 2008 Admin's Pocket Guide (50% done)

MCTS 70-431 Study Guide by Sybex (100% done)

SQL 2000 tSQL Fundamentals (75% done)

Fundamentals of Algorithmics (99% done)

T-SQL Programming (65% done)

T-SQL Querying (65% done)

C# Databases (90% done)

Problems on Algorithms (99% done)

Object Oriented Data Structures (100% done)

ASP.NET 3.5 (40% done)

Forgotten Calculus (1% done)

Yamaha Handbook for Sound Reinforcement (5% done)

Sound Engineers Handbook (100% done)

Some of these books I have been finished recently so they deserved to be on the summer list, and some have just been started. All in all a good lot. Should keep me busy until September...

I forgot how bad drivers are down here

7/19/2008 7:27:10 PM

I was walking down the street and noticed a driver turning into a parking lot. She was driving an SUV and slowed down like crazy as she was turning. She did it to prevent the bottom of her car from bottoming out as she crossed the line. But seeing as she was driving an SUV, she couldn't bottom out even if she tried.

As she enters the parking lot she makes a right turn and roles over the curb. The edge of the curb had a crop of rocks, so she went over the curb and the rocks. As she gets over the edge, she guns it and speeds off into the middle of the parking lot.

It was the middle of the afternoon. California instated a new law on July 1st preventing people from driving while talking on their cell phones. So she wasn't drunk cuz it was the middle of the afternoon, and she wasn't on the phone. Baffled was I. Laughing my ass off followed.

Thoughts from Vacation Part 2: Human Nature Pisses me Off

7/19/2008 5:33:37 AM

Human nature pisses me off. A lot. To start off, I have fairly good intuition. I can read people really well. To put a number to it (two actually) I would say I can accurately read 97 out of 100 people. It works great in business meetings, and it's very helpful when helping friends with relationship issues.

With business, I can usually tell when someone is trying to screw me. With relationships I can usually understand the friends' better half after listening to the complaints. Although biased, you can factor in the friend's current state of mind, split the difference and get a pretty good picture.

With this I offer my thoughts and advice. If they follow through with my advice, great. If they let my words get stuffed away into the Prefrontal Lobe and ignore the suggestions, thats cool. These people are intelligent, it's their own life, and it's their perogative to accept my suggestions.

But when against all linear logic, against all common sense, these people blindly ignore the hard truths of the situation, it boggles my mind. To use a metaphor, consider a woman who is beaten by her husband/boyfriend. She knows it is wrong, and she has been told countless times to leave him. But she never does. This seems to be a part of evolution that went awry.

When you are getting the sh*t kicked out of you, what do you do? You either fight, or get the hell out of Dodge as quickly as possible. but in the previous situation, the woman stays. She knows it is more logical to leave, but she doesn't. you gotta have one damn good reason to stay. The problem is, amongst many, many others, is that there exists an emotional bond between the two people.

This is the part of human nature that pisses me off. Our emotions have final say in our actions when compared to logic.

Freud's Id has failed us. I've studied psychology for a long time, and it still doesn't make sense. I've had psychologists explain it to me countless times, and it still doesn't make sense to me. I understand the subconscious processes involved, but I just can't understand why we have allowed ourselves to allow such things to occur. Evolution failed us on this one. Stuck it's thumb to nose and waved. Existential karma maybe?

Man human nature pisses me off.

Thoughts from Vacation

7/18/2008 9:43:10 PM

I'm a little annoyed to find out my right arm is sunburned while my left isn't. Random tan lines on my legs suck too. I'm not vain by any means...just look how I dress...but ugly tans on me piss me off for some reason.

Might be the bruise on my head. Not completely sure how it got there, but it hurts like hell. Go figure...can't remember how I got the bump on my head.

A good vacation all around actually. I'm usually doing something stupid (read: fun) when I get hurt...so all I can figure is I've been having a lot of fun...just can't remember it.

Sitting in the Airport part 2

7/10/2008 9:46:05 PM

I'm not a big fan of New Jersey. Reeeeaaaaallly not a big fan of Newark International Airport. We arrive on time, no problems there. We get on the plane no problem. We sit at the gate for an hour and a half, while on the plane! They didn't give us a taxi time before we were supposed to take off, so we couldn't taxi out to the strip. We missed our take off time and then needed to reschedule that. Then we needed to get a new taxi time that worked for our take off time.

Man I hate Newark.

Sitting in the airport part 1

7/8/2008 5:41:22 AM

It's 5:30am. Sitting at the Syracuse International Airport. I arrive in California at 12:00pm. It's gonna be a looooooooong day.

On a plus side they have free WiFi here. And it's pretty fast too. Could be that I was using it during the whee hours when any normal self-respecting person would be asleep...but I digress. Let's see what happens when I get to Newark in about an hour.

Vacation!

7/7/2008 3:47:59 PM

I should be packing right now. I was! But I heard the Outlook ding. And well, it snowballed. Luckily my clothes are packed. All I need to do now is pack up the laptop and all my important documents. Maybe grab some dinner.

So where am I going? Home, sorta. California to be exact. Should be fun. One of these days I'm gonna realize how stupid it is to go to such a place in the middle of summer for vacation. But not this year! Stupid is as stupid does. I'll just be wearing a lot of shorts. Not at once mind you...that would defeat the purpose. Maybe I'll be able to get a tan? Bets are taking place a week before I get back. Odds are in favor of me not getting a tan. We'll see...

Pictures to follow!

The 71-432 has been extended!

7/7/2008 3:42:05 PM

The 71-432 has been extended! According to Todd Lamothe's blog the exam has been extended until July 31st. Check out Gerry O'Brians blog http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2008/07/01/sql-server-beta-exams-extended-open-invitation.aspx for the details.

Basically, sign up to write the exam as you normally would on Prometric and put in a promo code that Gerry has posted on his blog. Cool beans...wish I knew that before I wrote it though. Would have had more time to study! Ah well.

70 vs. 71

7/5/2008 8:22:02 PM

Some people noticed I use 70 and 71 interchangeably when refering to exams. The idea is 70 refers to the release exam, and 71 refers to the beta version of that exam.

Sooo...in August a new exam called 70-432 will be released, and on June 30th exam 71-432 was retired.

Shortly thereafter I suspect exam 70-431 will be retired as well.

Now you know!

71-432 Revisited...

7/2/2008 2:58:46 PM

On Monday June 30th I wrote the 70-432 beta exam for Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance. See, the thing with beta's is that you don't find out about how well you did until about 8 weeks after the beta period is finished. I suspect I will be finding out mid-August as the final release of the exam will be towards the beginning of September-ish. So without breaking the NDA I signed here's what I've learned:

70-432
For the love of god, make sure you know the 70-431! Everything about managing SQL Server is the same, except for product feature differences...the steps are extremely similar.

Make sure you know about the new main features of 2008: Performance Studio, Resource Governor, Policy Management etc...

High Availability has changed some what. Mirroring is fully functioning. It's ready out of the box. Whereas with 2005 you had to enable an internal feature, pre-SP1.

You need to know about the different types of backup procedures: Full, Bulk-Logged, Simple.

Finally, do NOT stay up all night studying and then drink the entire pot of coffee before you take the exam...your bladder will not forgive you, nor will the examiners!

With that, good luck and have fun.

Marketing terms explained oh so perfectly...

6/20/2008 6:05:53 PM

I cannot take credit for this, but it makes so much sense!

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"
That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, "He's very rich. Marry him."
That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me."
That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm very rich. Will you marry me?"
That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, "You are very rich, I want to marry you."
That's Brand Recognition.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me!" She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.
That's Customer Feedback.

Dynamics of risk management

6/17/2008 7:32:28 PM

I've been contemplating putting together a presentation on risk management. Except, not one of those boring, talking head lectures. I was thinking of making it interesting. I've always perceived a corelation between Sound Engineering and Information Technology.

Except, with sound engineering, the risks are soooo much higher. You're dead if the speakers die during the middle of the concert. You're not that screwed if the Exchange server goes down at lunch. Certain things are easily fixable like the Exchange server. Certain things are not as easily fixable, like the speaker. With these two industries, the risk is managed completely differently. I think I just might create a presentation on this. Perhaps I'll have a chance to present it at one of the next up coming events. Keep an eye out for it!

Really cool circuit tester

6/16/2008 1:06:08 PM

So in my spare time I like to work with electronics (surprise, surprise). One of the things I've been looking for is a circuit builder, with options for showing electron flow path and what not. I have found such an app. It's from falstad.com, and it's a java app, but woo...it's cool. the link is http://www.falstad.com/circuit/index.html.

Screenshot

Rush in Montreal...woah

6/14/2008 6:45:21 PM

Mmmm....Rush.

By far one of the best concerts I've been to. It was actually only my second time in Montreal so it was awesome. Very awesome. I saw them in Ottawa last summer and was disappointed by a few things. First, I heard feedback a few times...and thats never good. Second, the vocals weren't clear at all. And third the mix was completely off. Couldn't hear the guitar over Geddy's bass most of the night.

Not in Montreal though! Floor seats are amazing. Everyone should experience floor seats. Lots of low end vibrating the floor. Very clear vocals, and Neil's solo was sweet. Only complaint was that for three beers it cost ~$22. Gah!

TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance (70-432)

6/8/2008 4:01:59 PM

After passing the certification for 2005, I've been given the opportunity to write the 70-432 beta exam. It's the same basic exam as the 2005 version, except, naturally, for 2008. I would hazard a guess that it's going to cover much of the same material, and cover all the new stuff for 2008. Luckily from a management perspective there aren't too many life-altering differences. For the complete rundown of whats going to be covered on the actual RTM exam (couldn't think of a better way to differentiate between the two :)) you can find information here: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-432.mspx.

However, seeing as most people are lazy (Myself included) I'll give a quick rundown of what to expect.

***NOTE*** This information may be outdated by the time the exam is released. It falls under the same category as beta API's.

Installing and Configuring SQL Server 2008 (10 %)

Installation: File Locations, default paths, service accounts
Configuration of Instances: mostly sp_configure
Configuration of services: Configuration Manager, SQL Browser
Configuration of Components: SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Replication
Setting up and using SQL Mail
Enabling/Disabling and creating indexes

Maintaining SQL Server Instances (13 %)

Managing SQL Agent jobs
Managing SQL Agent alerts
Manage SQL Agent operators
Implementation of the Declarative Management Framework
Backup and restoration of SQL Server environment (OS and database levels)

Managing SQL Server Security (15 %)

Logins and Server Roles
Users and Database Roles
Instance permissions
Schema and object permissions
Auditing of SQL Server instances
Transparent data encryption
Surface area configurator

Maintaining a SQL Server database (16 %)

Backup databases
Restore databases
Manage/configure databases: files, filegroups, recovery models, etc
Database snapshots
Maintaining database integrity: DBCC, CHECKDB, suspect pages
Maintence plans

Performing data management tasks (14 %)

Importing/Exporting data: BCP, BULK INSERT, COPY ROWSET, etc
Managing data partitions
Data compression
Maintain Indexes
Manage collations

Monitoring and Troubleshooting SQL Server (13 %)

Identify SQL Server service problems
Identify concurrency problems: locking, blocking, etc
Identify SQL Agent job execution problems
Locate error information

Optimizing SQL Performance (10 %)

Implement resource governor
Database engine tuning advisor
Collect trace data by using SQL Server Profiler
Collect performance through Dynamic management views
Collect performace data through System Monitor
Use Performance Studio

Implementing High Availability (9 %)

Implement database mirroring
Implement clustered instances
Implement log shipping
Implement replication

I have set up my exam for June 30th. Time to study my butt off. From what everyone else has told me, who have taken beta exams in the past, they tend to be much harder than the final exams. The idea is that they chop off the easiest questions and the hardest questions from the beta exam and from that they do some mathematical reasoning to pick and choose from whats left over. In the end they have a fully working exam. Unfortunately, Microsoft forces us to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements when we take the exams so no details of what I actually found on the exam will be posted. Let's hope it's not that scary. ;)

Apparently I'm More of a Geek than Garth Jones

6/8/2008 1:43:03 PM

Good 'ole nerdtests.com has proven that I, Steve Syfuhs, am more of a geek/nerd than Garth Jones, leader of the Ottawa Windows Server User Group. Proof:

I am an Uber Cool Nerd King and a Supreme Nerd. Garth is a Cool Nerd King and low-rank nerd. Whoo!

Go petty one-upmenships! :)

Thursday's Slide Deck and Demo

5/30/2008 2:19:34 PM

Here is my slide deck and demo from Thursday May 29th. I'm still waiting from the rest of the team for their resource links, but this should be able to tide you over for a few days anyway. :)

The Link List for Thursday's Presentation

5/29/2008 3:26:55 AM

Here is a list of links that I found useful when putting together this presentation on SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data.

Mike Ormand's Blog
http://mikeo.co.uk/demo/sqlspatial/default.aspx

The Virtual Earth Online SDK
http://dev.live.com/virtualearth/sdk/

Johannes Kebeck's Virtual Earth Blog
http://johanneskebeck.spaces.live.com/

Spatial Data Viewer
http://codeplex.com/SpatialViewer

Klaus Aschenbrenner's Blog
http://www.csharp.at/blog/

More information is on the way. After the presentation I'll upload the actual demo and slide deck.

Sound Theory 101 and What Little I Know About It

5/26/2008 1:58:56 AM

Over the course of the last year or so I started delving into the Sound Game fairly heavily to the point of signing up to study it in college. In that year's time, I have read, and read, and read, and read, and read some more on everything relating to sound. From the history of the first speakers to developing drivers for sound cards. Scary stuff. Worst of all, I haven't even breached the surface. It seems, in this industry anyway, it really falls on experience. Going away to college, or just reading the books, falls on deaf ears in the community when problems arise. Pun mostly intended. Experience is a key part of doing sound.

I could be a Charter Member for the AES (Audio Engineering Society), and nobody would care about what I had to say if I never stepped in front of a mixer during a live concert. (I'm not a Charter Member btw.)

That's not to say Sound Engineers are stuck up assholes, or anything near. My point is that experience is important. So much can change between theory and reality. And when you are working in reality 99.999999999% of the time, experience trumps theory any day.

Theory is there to explain why you can be standing in a sound null while the rest of the hall is getting rocked at 100dB. Experience is there to make you realize you're standing in the null. And for the sarcastic bastard in me: Being able to fix the null, makes you a consultant.

In September I will be embarking on a new course of studies, to which I spent the last year already studying. That's kinda like having the baby before the sex. Damnit!

Teaser to Thursday's Presentation

5/24/2008 5:46:51 PM

Next Thursday a few of us from the OttawaSQL.NET Group will be putting on a presentation on SQL Server High Availability, Windows 2008 Clustering, and SQL Server 2008 Geospatial data. It should be fun.

Register here.

I will be presenting a piece on SQL Server 2008 Geospatial data and Virtual Earth data integration. As it turns out, the data formats used by Virtual Earth are the same used in SQL Server 2008. With this you can interchange data between the two seperate systems fairly easily without too much data washing. Very handy.

You can find my presentation and demo material on this site after Thursday.

Men's and Women's Brains

5/20/2008 5:58:41 PM

Someone sent me this earlier. Explains a lot...

Error: You have to install Adobe Flash player in order to play this video.

Heroes Happen Here - SQL Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008

5/20/2008 5:33:54 PM

May 29, 2008: OttawaSQL.net and OWSUG Presents Heroes Happen Here - SQL Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008

Free Evening Event @ Microsoft Ottawa

Thursday, May 29th 5:30 - 8:30 PM

RSVP: Event Registration

Location: Microsoft Ottawa, World Exchange Plaza, 100 Queen Street, Suite 500, Ottawa

Refreshments: Pizza and Pop

Session 1: SQL Server 2008 & Windows Server 2008 High Availability, David E. Myers and Todd Lamothe
We will explore the range of SQL Server 2008 high availability solutions and see how enhancements to clustering support in Windows Server 2008, such as geographically dispersed clusters expands on the HA possibilities.

Session 2: SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data & Microsoft Virtual Earth, Lynda Rab and Steve Syfuhs
Spatial data types and the related functions are new to SQL Server 2008. We will demonstrate the use this new technology and show how it can be combined with Virtual Earth to visualize the spatial data.

Event Sponsor: Ottawa Windows Server User Group, Microsoft Canada

Event Partners: TechNet Canada, MSDN Canada

RSVP: Event Registration

Presentation: Introduction to SQL Server 2008

5/20/2008 4:52:42 PM

Back in April I did a very short presentation on whats new in SQL Server 2008. It's a reasonable 1 1/2 - 2 hour presentation, that got shrunk into a little under 20 minutes. Not everything was covered in detail. Here is a copy of the presentation.

SubSonic .NET Project

5/20/2008 4:30:46 PM

Over the last year or so I've been trying to find different methods of accessing data in databases without having to write out all the usual CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) code. In that time, I've come across a number of different ways to do this. Some being auto generated CRUD statements, others being abstracted DALs (Data Access Layers). The purpose of this post is to tell you about the SubSonic .NET Project.

What is it?
SubSonic is a Data Abstraction Layer. It takes your database schema and presents you with usuable classes and interfaces. To access data you do something like:

// Create IEnumerable collection of products from Products table
ProductCollection coll = new ProductCollection().Load();

// Get info on each product
foreach (Product p in coll)
{
     Console.WriteLine(p.ProductID + " " + p.Name + "$" + p.Price);
     Console.WriteLine(p.ShortDescription);
}

You can also create new records fairly easily too:

// Create a new object
Product p = new Product();

// Fill it with interesting information
p.Name = "My Most Awesomest Product";
p.Price = 99.99;
p.ShortDescription = "This product is the end all, be all.  It rocks.";

// Save it to the table
p.Save(Profile.Username);

Now, SubSonic can do a whole lot more than this. But these parts were the selling point for me. Check it out at http://subsonicproject.com/. The greatest part, is because it's a .NET Class, it can be used with ASP.NET or WinForms.

The only downside is that there is a learning curve, and it takes some time to wrap your head around what it does. Good stuff though. Makes your head go dizzy like if you stood up too fast. Check out the source with Reflector too... it's worth a read.

Database snapshots

5/20/2008 4:01:42 PM

During the OttawaSQL.NET study group for the exam 70-431: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Implementation and maintenance, I did a presentation on Database Snapshots. I thought I would post the info.

Database snapshots are point in time representations of a database. They are read only. However, they can be Queried through SELECT statements. To create a snapshot, right-click database and select Script Database To... to get the DB files set up.

Then, modify the NAME and FILENAME attributes on each filegroup, usually just changing the filename to '.ds'

Finally, add 'AS SNAPSHOT OF [DatabaseName]'

*** Fair warning, this will not work in SQL Express ***

USE [master]
GO
CREATE DATABASE [AdventureWorksSnapShot] ON  PRIMARY 
( 
	NAME = N'AdventureWorks_Data', 
	FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
                \MSSQL.2\MSSQL\Data\AdventureWorks_Data.ds' , 
	SIZE = 167872KB , 
	MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, 
	FILEGROWTH = 16384KB 
)
 LOG ON 
( 
	NAME = N'AdventureWorks_Log', 
	FILENAME = N'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
                \MSSQL.2\MSSQL\Data\AdventureWorks_Log.ds' , 
	SIZE = 2048KB , 
	MAXSIZE = 2048GB , 
	FILEGROWTH = 16384KB 
)
AS SNAPSHOT OF [AdventureWorks]
GO

Add some data to the AdventureWorks Database to test this:

USE [AdventureWorks]
INSERT INTO 
	[AdventureWorks].[Sales].[Currency]
	(
		[CurrencyCode]
		,[Name]
		,[ModifiedDate])
	VALUES
	(
		'SSM'
		, 'Steves Currency'
		, GETDATE()
	)

Query Snapshot to verify data wasn't moved:

USE [AdventureWorksSnapShot]
SELECT 
	* 
FROM 
	[AdventureWorksSnapShot].[Sales].[Currency] 
WHERE 
	[Sales].[Currency].[CurrencyCode] = 'SSM'

It is also possible to recover from a database snapshot. One option is to write a query to grab data from the snapshot and INSERT/UPDATE data in the original database.

The other option is to RESTORE the database from a snapshot.

The key thing here is any backup made after the snapshot in question will be broken, and any Log data will be invalid.

RESTORE DATABASE [AdventureWorks] FROM DATABASE_SNAPSHOT = 'AdventureWorksSnapShot'

-- After restore, original data added to Currency table shouldn't exist

USE [AdventureWorks]
SELECT 
	* 
FROM 
	[AdventureWorks].[Sales].[Currency] 
WHERE 
	[Sales].[Currency].[CurrencyCode] = 'SSM'

Life Instructions

5/20/2008 3:55:30 PM

I came across this image a few days ago:

Makes sense. I think from the beginning of life we were always taught these basic rules. Over time we lose sight of the basics. We are tought heavier and heavier meanings of these beliefs throughout school, but there is still an emphasis on these main four.

Have Fun: Well duh. Why bother living if you aren't going to have fun?
Do Not Hurt People: Some people forget this early on. I know I have hurt people in the past, and probably will in the future. But the attempt to do good, and not hurt is always a major ideal I've strived to live by. We'll see in the end how well it worked.
Do Not Accept Defeat: Continue to fight for your beliefs no matter what. It could range from simple procedures in the data centre, to beliefs in life. Just be sure to follow the other three rules when fighting.
Strive to be Happy: Plays off the first rule. Work as hard as you can to be happy. As long as you're having fun.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Why did I start Doublenatural ITS?

5/20/2008 1:16:18 AM

At the time, the city I lived in was a very technology-conservative area, laden with open-source guru's looking to make a buck, which is ironic actually. After studying vendor-neutral technologies, I learned of Microsoft-specific technologies, and realized the potential in using their software. After meeting with a few people in the area, a pro-Microsoft movement was underway. Local tech businesses were accepting Microsoft as a powerful allie in Information Technology. During this 'intervention' if you will, I was still in school and working at a National Retailer, selling consumer electronics. One day, a systems tech came in to fix a system, and I had the oppertunity to ask him a few questions. His arrogance was a little overwhelming. His main point to me was that I would never get into the industry with the beliefs I had towards technology - or even knowledge for that matter. Now, this guy worked for IBM, fixing an IBM system, running an IBM specific Unix Operating System. He made the notion that I would need to follow certain steps, go through non-computer science intensive courses, and because I was simply at the level of working in consumer electronics, I didn't have the intelectual know-how to follow his guidelines. And if I wasn't able to follow his guidelines, no company would ever hire me. I would look like chopped liver to them.

Now, I absolutely hate it when someone tells me I am incapable of doing something. Naturally, I took complete offense to what he said and decided to prove him wrong.

The only forseeable problem at the time was that he was right in a certain regard. No company would hire me. I didn't "have the skillset required". After deciding to say 'phooey' to those ideals, I continued on to try and prove him wrong.

And so I did. Within six months after our meeting, I had launched a successful start-up company doing the usual Information Technology bit. Yes, I was a student. Yes, I worked in consumer electronics. No, I was not formally educated. But I succeeded. Did quite well too.

Currently, I have formally certified myself in certain technologies, and am continuously working to increase my knowledge. I am not doing it to fall in line with what the tech guy said years ago, but simply to gain knowledge. My methods for learning are through informal study groups, and lots of off-hour book learning. Yes, I will work for the certification, but if I don't have a chance to take the exam, it wouldn't phase me. The point was to learn.

In the end, it's amazing what one can accomplish when all odds are against them. It's even more amazing how fun it is to actually prove the odds wrong.

I'd say so far so good.

Where did the name "Doublenatural" come from?

5/20/2008 1:12:56 AM

When I was younger, I used to be a huge fan of the TV show M*A*S*H. The characters were always quoted as saying the "Four-Oh Doublenatural" when refering to the 4077th. And it stuck. I was 11 at the time. What can I say?

The second post

5/20/2008 12:35:32 AM

It seems that each and every new blog always starts off with the inaugural "This is my first blog post" post. I refused to do that. Not once did I mention the first post thing, in my first post. So here I am, telling you that this is my new blog. Sigh...

We'll see how this works out. I make no promises of quality, nor should you accept my work as quality anyway. It will be of mindless rambling, rants, and pieces of information that I thought might be handy.

About Me
For those who don't know me, my name is Steve Syfuhs. I am a Software Architect and Developer. I live in Canada. I develop in C#, and prefer ASP.NET. Visual Studio is my mantra.

With that being said, you've been warned.

Indecision, Indifference, Insanity - How this came to be

5/19/2008 7:35:21 PM

In my first week of grade nine, upon meeting my school counscellor for the first time, I was given the label of a Shit Disturber. Not much has changed since then. The reason such a tasteful label was bestowed upon me was due mostly to my indifference to the educational system. Basically I thought it pandered to the 80% of the people who only made up 20% of the intelligence in society. The rational was because my intelligence wasn't being pandered to.

So what does one do in a situation like this? Change the natural order of education, duh. It started with a simple idea: prove that my ideals can prevail in a society so bent on following one single path of enlightenment. The general idea of education is do all the easy stuff first, and then work your way up to the harder stuff. That so didn't fly with me. In grade 9, I studied Calculus. Didn't understand any of it, but I still studied it. I blew off doing mounds of practice worksheets in algebra to read Calculus. I understood algebra, and soon as I realized that, I moved onto the hard stuff. With the hard stuff, I realized the importance of algebra, and it made sense on a higher level. In grade nine, algebra is tought as a "different kind of math". It's not. It IS math. It is a language. It's the language of math. It took 2 calculus books to realize the significance of this. My friends, who by all rights are freakin smart, still have to contemplate the signficance of algebra...why was it important to them? They are engineers in University at the time of writing this. I may not be able to do Nested Trig Functions in my head like my friends can, but I understand their value in trying to decipher the intricacies of the Universe.

This process went on all the way through Secondary School. My grades were poor, and to some, I was considered least likely to succeed. Funny how non-conformance to society brings that out in people.

This non-conformity gave rise to indecision. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with my life. Do I continue down the path of self-rightousness and fly by the seat of my pants, or do I continue on to Post-Secondary.

It seems that during a nasty bout of the flu, I made the conscious decision to go on to Post-Secondary. My other options were to continue working, and self-study. So on to more state-based educational torture it seemed. Following the flu, I registered for school, and passed the interview. Now, as said previously, my grades were utter crap. The interview was my only way in. Someone once told me, a great interview is composed 10% of knowledge, and 90% of life experience. Go figure. Who knew that knowledge wasn't *as* important as other parts of the educational process...? Well, it seems I did. Call it Intuitive Reasoning.

In the timespan of human existance, lets say for the sake of argument 100,000 years, it's really only been in the last 1000 years that what we consider to be knowledge was actually relevant and accurate. Therefore, it took more than knowledge and education to succeed in life... Lets hear another "duh!".

Now here I am, all ready to go off to school, thinking this is what I want to do with my life. Herein lies the irony. Oh sweet, sweet irony, how I hate thee. After swearing off structured educational systems for a good part of my life, I choose to go off and continue in the process for at least another two years. That's not the irony. The irony is after realizing how happy I would be in doing this, I get an email message out of the blue for a request for a job interview.

Never in a million years would I have expected that. It was a phone interview with a company I had wanted to work for all my life. Following that interview, they decided to fly me out to the West Coast for a person to person interview. At the end of the interview, they told me I would know by the end of the following Friday whether or not I got the job. At the time of writing, it is Sunday. I find out in five days.

If I get the job, I'm happy. If I don't get the job, I'll be happy because I'm still going off to school. My indecisiveness in life has brought me to a crossroad that will forever change my life. And I'm not the one who decides me fate! The universe has complete and utter control over the next five days.

In the end, it seems my indifference to the educational process prevailed and I know what I want to do in life. It seems my indecision to choose my fate has led to giving control to the universe. It seems, in the end, I will be doing what I've always wanted to do. It seems, however, that this was in the cards long ago.

Funny how it all started with being called a shit disturber.