Friday, June 29, 2007

Is there a way to find out when a stored procedure was last updated?

Simple answer is 'No'. The crdate column in the sysobjects table always contains the stored procedure create date, not the last updated date. You can use Profiler to trace ALTER PROC calls to the database, but you can't really afford to run a trace for ever, as it's resource intensive. Here is a simple idea! Whenever you have to alter your stored procedure, first drop it, then recreate it with the updated code. This resets the crdate column of sysobjects table. If you can make sure your developers always follow this plan, then the crdate column of sysobjects will always reflect the last updated date of the stored procedure. For example, if I have to modify a procedure named MyProc, instead of doing "ALTER PROC MyProc", here's what I would do:

- Use sp_helptext to get the current code of MyProc.
- Change the code as needed.
- Run the following code to drop the existing version of MyProc:

IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM sysobjects WHERE name = 'MyProc' AND type = 'P' AND USER_NAME(uid) = 'dbo')
BEGIN
DROP PROC dbo.MyProc
END


- Run the updated code to recreate MyProc

There is a much more powerful way out, if you can use Visual Source Safe (VSS). VSS is a version control software, that lets you manage your code. With VSS in place, you will have to maintain all your object creation scripts as script files and check them into VSS. When you have to modify a particular stored procedure, check out that script from VSS, modify it, test it, create the stored procedure, and check the script back into VSS. VSS can show you when a script got modified, by who and a whole lot of other information.

Advantages of using VSS
- You can version control your software, as VSS maintains all your changes as different versions
- You can go back to a previous known good version of your stored procedure, if a developer makes a mistake
- Using the labelling feature, you can revert back to an entire set of scripts at a particular point in time
- You can control access to your source code by configuring permissions to your developers
- By maintaining backups of VSS database, you can secure all your code centrally, instead of worrying about individual script files

For more information on VSS, visit
Microsoft VSS website.

read More..


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Thursday, June 28, 2007

Google Desktop for Linux!

Yesterday, Google released a (beta) version of Google Desktop for Linux. Check out their blog for the announcement! It includes indexing for PDF, PS, text files and source code, HTML, OpenOffice documents, Thunderbird email, Gmail, web history, man pages, images, music, and it also includes the Quick Search box. It doesn’t (yet) include the sidebar or support for any gadgets.

Screenshot from Google:

Google Desktop for Linux


This is hopefully the first of many “significant accomplishments/releases” for Linux this year from Google, according to their presentation at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit a couple weeks back, which was actually hosted at Google’s Mountain View Campus. Google already has official Linux versions of some of it’s popular applications, such as Google Earth and Google Picasa (though Picasa uses WINE).



Here’s to hoping that Google Talk is next!


On a side note, Google Docs & Spreadsheets also recently unveiled new changes to their user interface, which also benefit Linux in the sense that it is a web-based (i.e. cross-platform) option for basic office applications.



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Google Docs and Spreadsheets Updated

Ron Schneider announced a new look for Google Docs and Spreadsheets today.


This
is a good example of changing the feel for an app that you use daily,
and adding some nice Ajax effects and features, such as the good 'ole
left side folder list. I wonder if anyone will be confused that these
folders map to tags, and there is a difference (think 'delete').


What's new


  • Looking pretty - The entire document list has
    been given a complete visual overhaul - new icons, more content, and
    better organizational controls. We know users spend a lot of time here
    and we aim to make it feel more like home.
  • Getting organized
    - Almost from the day we launched people have been clamoring for
    folders. They're here! Even cooler, our new folders continue to work
    like the tags they've replaced - your old tags are automatically
    converted to folders and documents can live in more than one folder at
    a time. Organizing your documents is as easy as dragging and dropping a
    document to a folder. We've also included special controls for seeing
    only those documents created by you or shared with a particular person.
  • Search that thinks ahead - If you've ever tried Google Suggest,
    you know how cool it is when a search engine offer suggestions as you
    type. Google Docs & Spreadsheets now works the same way - we offer
    dynamically filtered results from your document list as you type,
    saving you time and getting you to your documents more quickly.

New Google Docs







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Monday, June 25, 2007

Could AJAX Replace Flash?

In at least some applications I think the answer is yes.



The animation control included with the ASP.Net AJAX Control Toolkit is pretty impressive. Animate OnMouseOver, OnMouseOut, OnClick, OnDoubleClick and more. Transition effects, movement, visibility screening and the whole thing is controlled by an XML document.



Here's a 20 minute video (unfortunately only available in .wmv) on using the Animation Control packaged with the Toolkit.





I'm going to try using it in place of Flash in my next application.





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Popfly is top website to watch!

PCWorld named Popfly as one of it's top 25 websites to watch and I guess is #1 as it's right at the top of the list!

popflylogo

Here's the blurb on what PCWorld have to say:

"If you haven't already discovered the world of mashups, Microsoft's Popfly is a good place to start. Mashups combine multiple Web-based sites or applications to produce all sorts of useful things, such as an overlay of traffic information over Google Maps. With Popfly, you can create your own mashups--and you don't have to know a lick of code to do it. Just drag prefab building blocks, connect them, and you have an instant mashup that you can add to an existing Web page or turn into its own site. For example, you can easily produce a mashup that grabs pictures from a site like Flickr and then displays them in a rotating cube"

This is great news as the site has been built on Silverlight but even more than that for me is that a very good friend Andy Sterland is one of the Program Managers on the team. I'd like to say I had a small part to play in the success of Popfly as I recommended Andy to his boss John Montgomery after knowing and working with Andy here in the UK. With people like Andy on board I know the Popfly service is going to rock!

I wrote an article on Popfly for our MSDN Flash (go sign up if you are a professional developer, it's getting even better!) - Popfly: the mash-up revolution

Congrats to the Popfly team!

 





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Learn how to build an Ajax Chat in 5 minutes

This is a small video tutorial from ideAjax.com on how to build an Ajax chat with Prototype, Java, and HTML. High res video is available here: http://ideajax.com/blog/?p=25


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How Do I: Add ASP.NET AJAX Features to an Existing Web Application?

Learn how easily you add Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX functionality to an
existing ASP.NET application. This video shows that there is no need to
change your server controls or data access code — just add and
configure a few ASP.NET AJAX controls. Simple!

Presented by Joe Stagner

Duration: 7 minutes, 20 seconds



Link : http://asp.net/learn/videos/default.aspx?tabid=63





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Friday, June 15, 2007

eBay Week: Titanium rings

Now here's a smart eBay seller. Meet Titanium Knights, a husband and wife team that has been making and selling beautiful titanium rings and wedding bands for 5 years.

Their lens doesn't just try to sell you a bill of goods... instead the Titanium Knights take the time to provide you with historical background and information (and even a video!) on how these rings are made. They dispell popular myths about titanium rings and share their favorite feedback and testimonials from buyers. Putting so much context around the items they're selling establishes trust, and gives potential new customers enough information to comfortable take action...and buy!

Making of a titanium ring
This video clip shows my husband programming the computer on the lathe for the specific ring style he is making. Each ring style/size/width has a different program in order to let the machine know how to cut the ring to the correct specifications. Next, he sets the titanium bar in the machine.





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Windows users download 1 million copies of Safari


Safari was an early hit with Windows
users, who have downloaded 1 million copies of the browser since
Monday, according to Apple.

One million copies of Safari have been downloaded for Windows since Monday.

(Credit: Apple)


CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Windows version of the browser
as a beta release Monday during his keynote speech at the Worldwide
Developers Conference. Safari makes up around 5 percent of the browser
market, trailing Internet Explorer and Firefox with its 18.6 million
users, a figure Jobs used in his speech Monday.


Cynical colleagues at CNET wonder how many of those downloads were
started by hackers and security professionals probing for weaknesses,
which is probably a fair point. Nine security vulnerabilities have already been discovered in the Windows beta, and Apple released an updated version of the browser in the wee hours of Thursday morning to plug some of the flaws.


Still, there had to be more than a few downloads from outside the
security community. The 1 million copies are of the initial beta
release, tagged 3.0.

U Can Download it From http://safariforwindows.net/


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