ClevelandDotNet

June 2013 Local and Regional Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 02:32:00 +0000

Local Events
6/4: ON SQL User Group (www.ohionorthsqlserverug.org)
6/11: Cleveland .NET User Group (ww.bennettadelson.com/ComingEvents.aspx)
6/14: CLE SharePoint Golf Outing: (http://clesharepointgolfouting.eventbrite.com/#)
6/15: Web SIG: Intro to HTML5 (http://www.gcpcug.org/websig)
6/18: Cleveland WPF User Group (www.ClevelandWPF.info)
6/19: Hudson Software Craftsmanship (hudsonsc.com)
6/25: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group (www.clevelanddotnet.info)
6/26: SharePoint User’s Group (www.sharepointCleveland.com)

Regional Events
6/1: Pittsburgh Tech Fest (http://pghtechfest.com/)
6/8: SQL Saturday – Columbus (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/217/eventhome.aspx)
7/12-13: Codestock – Knoxville, TN (http://codestock.org)
8/12-14: That Conference - Wisonsin Dells, WI (http://www.thatconference.com/)
8/28-30: DevLink - Chattanooga, TN (http://www.devlink.net)

SQL Server Collation

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:23:00 +0000

Question: I was putting together a small bit of SQL code the other day, and I was running into a bug. While debugging it, I was completely shocked to discover:

IF 'a' < 'A'
SELECT 'a < A'

IF 'a' = 'A'
SELECT 'a = A'

IF 'a' > 'A'
SELECT 'a > A'

IF 'a' <> 'A'
SELECT 'a <> A'

displays only 'a = A'.

I investigated and found out that the reason for this result is that the database's collation sequence is set to one of the "CI" values (Case Insensitive). I took a look at a couple of other databases, and they were also "CI". Oddly enough, they were slightly different collation sequence values, but definitely "CI". This includes the [master] database.

Yes, I know it could have been configured the other way. That's not the point of this note. Is "CI" the expected standard configuration?

In addition to the crazy logic implications, I've got to believe that it's at least a bit slower to execute, since all text-based columns needs to be compared in a case-insensitive way. That character set translation can't come for free.

Answer:
The collation setting is specified during the installation of SQL Server. As seen in Figure 1, the default settings used during the installation of SQL Server 2012 are:

Database Engine: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Analysis Services: Latin1_General_CI_AS

Figure 1: SQL Server 2012 Default Collation Settings

Technically, there is no "expected CI standard". It all depends on the collation setting of the database. This is not to say you're stuck with that setting forever. If you visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143726.aspx, you will see the following excerpt:

Setting collations are supported at the following levels of an instance of SQL Server:
Server-level collations
The default server collation is set during SQL Server setup, and also becomes the default collation of the system databases and all user databases. Note that Unicode-only collations cannot be selected during SQL Server setup because they are not supported as server-level collations. After a collation has been assigned to the server, you cannot change the collation except by exporting all database objects and data, rebuilding the master database, and importing all database objects and data. Instead of changing the default collation of an instance of SQL Server, you can specify the desired collation at the time that you create a new database or database column.

Database-level collations
When a database is created or modified, you can use the COLLATE clause of the CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE statement to specify the default database collation. If no collation is specified, the database is assigned the server collation.
You cannot change the collation of system databases except by changing the collation for the server. The database collation is used for all metadata in the database, and is the default for all string columns, temporary objects, variable names, and any other strings used in the database. When you change the collation of a user database, know that there is the potential for collation conflicts when queries in the database access temporary tables. Temporary tables are always stored in the tempdb system database, which will use the collation for the instance. Queries that compare character data between the user database and tempdb may fail if the collations cause a conflict in evaluating the character data. You can resolve this by specifying the COLLATE clause in the query. For more information, see COLLATE (Transact-SQL).

Column-level collations
When you create or alter a table, you can specify collations for each character-string column by using the COLLATE clause. If no collation is specified, the column is assigned the default collation of the database.

Expression-level collations
Expression-level collations are set when a statement is run, and they affect the way a result set is returned. This enables ORDER BY sort results to be locale-specific. Use a COLLATE clause such as the following to implement expression-level collations:

SELECT name FROM customer ORDER BY name COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AI;

For more information on changing collation, please visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179254.aspx.

Using the "Shrink Volume" Utility

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:47:00 +0000

One of the best kept secrets of Windows 7 is the "Shrink Volume" utility. TechNet Documentation explains it best at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309169.aspx. Although, this link explains how to use it, it does not list all the advantages of using it. That will be my goal for this article.

The utility will shrink the current volume, leaving all files intact, without a problem. Although I used this utility many times in the past without issue, I still highly recommend performing a full back-up before using it. After all, a good backup is always the best insurance against any unforeseen issue.

This free utility allows you to shrink a large volume on your hard drive that is not fully utilized. For example, most developers have large hard drives. In most cases, they probably have more than 100GB of unused space. In addition, they most likely have a need to install additional OS for trial or multi-use purposes. By using the Shrink Volume utility, you can now leverage unused space on your hard drive and install different OS’s.

For example, I have a machine with a 500GB Hard drive and only 1 partition (C :\). This partition has Windows 7 installed on it. With all my other storage on it, I was using about 300GB with the remaining 200GB unused. I needed to install SharePoint and SQL Server for a new client but wanted to keep it separate from work I was doing for other clients. SharePoint 2010 requires 64-Bit hardware so I could not run it in a Virtual PC machine. I tried using Hyper-V but ran into several problems.

I used the Shrink Volume utility (as outlined in the TechNet documentation) to reduce my C: drive by 50GB, thus creating a new 50GB partition. I used the new partition to install Windows 2008, SharePoint 2010, and SQL Server. A few months later, I needed to install Windows 8 so I did the same thing and extracted another 41 GB from C: by shrinking it. Now I have three operating systems installed on my hard drive, each fully utilizing the 64-bit capability of my PC and all of its hardware components without any virtualization.

Boot Manager
After following the directions listed on the TechNet link above, I simply rebooted my PC with a DVD of the new OS inserted in the DVD player. When prompted by the installer, I chose the new empty partition I recently created. The installer then formatted it, installed the new OS, and setup the Boot Manager with all the existing OS’s.
After installation was completed, the PC rebooted once more. After the system check, I was prompted to select an OS from the Boot Manager Menu within a specified number of seconds.

Boot Manager Settings
The settings for the Boot Manager can be changed from two places. First, it can be accessed from the Control Panel > System > Change settings > “Advanced” tab > “Settings” in Startup and Recovery section.
The second method allows for more advanced options of the Boot Manager. It can be accessed from Control Panel > Administrative Tools > System Configuration > “Boot” tab.

Partition Access
Once you select the operating system of choice, the PC will boot normally. The partition with the chosen operating system will become “C:\” and the other partitions will be assigned other drive letters. This happens automatically without user intervention. The other partitions will be exposed and the files on them will be accessible. This allows access to the file system on each partition without having to boot into that specific partition.

Summary
In closing, listed below are all key advantages of using the Shrink Volume utility.
• Free built in utility: The Shrink Volume utility is standard on all Windows 7 machines, as part of the OS.
• Reliable: All files are left in place without corruption. However, a full backup is highly recommended before using this utility.
• Automatically configures Boot Manager menu
• All partitions are always visible and accessible
• Leverages your current investment in hardware by using free disk space
• New OS’s are installed natively on the machine, accessing all hardware without virtualization.

December Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Local Events
12/04: ON SQL User Group (www.ohionorthsqlserverug.org)
12/11: Cleveland .Net User Group (www.bennettadelson.com)
12/18: Cleveland WPF User Group (www.ClevelandWPF.info)
12/19: Hudson Software Craftsmanship (www.hudsonsc.com)

Regional/Online Events
12/04: Training on the T’s SQL Webinars (www.pragmaticworks.com)
12/08: CODODN-Columbus (cododn.wordpress.com)

Area Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:23:00 +0000

Local Events
10/02: ON SQL User Group (www.ohionorthsqlserverug.org)
10/09: Cleveland .Net User Group (www.bennettadelson.com)
10/16: Cleveland WPF User Group (www.ClevelandWPF.info)
10/16: Office 365 Great Lakes User Group (http://www.havilahtech.com/)
10/23: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group (www.ClevelandDotNet.info)

Regional Events
10/05: SharePoint UG Golf outing at Quail Hollow (www.SharepointCleveland.com/)
10/06: SQLSaturday 171-Pittsburgh (www.sqlsaturday.com)
10/25-26: m3 conference (www.m3conf.com)
10/27: SQL Saturday 174-Charlotte (www.sqlsaturday.com)
11/8-9: Dogfood Conference (www.dogfoodcon.com)
11/17: 1DevDay-Detroit (1devdaydetroit.com)
12/08: CODODN-Columbus (cododn.wordpress.com)
12/08: SQL Saturday 173-DC (www.sqlsaturday.com)

Intellisense not working

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Fri, 27 May 2011 21:53:00 +0000

Q: While editing Script.PostDeployment.sql in a database project, intellisense stopped working. How can I fix this?

A: In Visual Studio 2010, intellisense has a defined limit on the file size. If the file gets too large, intellisense will no longer work on that file but the file will continue to build in the solution. Also, a message will appear in the Error List window explaing how to resolve this. The message will state "The script exceeds the Transact-SQL IntelliSense maximum script size setting. You can change the setting on the Text Editor/Transact-SQL/IntelliSense Page in the Tools/Options menu."

Array of Tuples

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:26:00 +0000

Q: How would use tuples in C# 4.0 to create an array of tuples containing various types of data (i.e. Employee Name, Employee ID#)?

A: Listed below is a sample code snippet to implement an array of tuples.

//Array of Tuples (i.e. EmpName, EmpIDNum)
Tuple[] EmpRecs =
{
Tuple.Create("Sam Nasr", 891),
Tuple.Create("Jim Smith", 358),
Tuple.Create("Lisa Jones", 962)
};

string FirstEmpName = EmpRecs[0].Item1;

string SecondEmpName = EmpRecs[1].Item1;
int SecondEmpIDNum = EmpRecs[1].Item2;

More information can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd413854(VS.95).aspx

MVVM Resources

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:17:00 +0000

Tonight's Cleveland WPF User Group meeting will continue last month's discussion on MVVM. For those who missed June's meeting, the following resources are available to help prepare for tonight's meeting:
• MVVM Overview (June’s Presentation): http://www.clevelandwpf.info/presentations/MVVMOverview.ppt
• MVVM, a WPF UI Design Pattern(17min video): http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Continuum/MVVM/
• Problems and Solutions with Model-View-ViewModel: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ff798279.aspx
• WPF x FileExplorer x MVVM: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/WPFFileExplorer.aspx

For directions to the Cleveland WPF User Group, please visit www.ClevelandWPF.info

Local & Regional Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:24:00 +0000

Local Events
June 22: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group Meeting (http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/)
June 23: Cleveland SharePoint User Group Meeting (http://www.sharepointcleveland.org/)
June 24: Cleveland IT Martini (http://www.itmartini.com/)
July 16: Cleveland Give Camp (http://www.clevelandgivecamp.org/)
July 24: TechNic 2010 (Heidi Hooper - Heidi@BoundlessFlight.com)

Regional Events
June 26: SQL Saturday-Columbus (www.sqlsaturday.com/42/schedule.aspx)
June 25-26: CodeStock (http://www.codestock.org/)
August 5-7: DevLink (http://www.devlink.net/)

Toughest Developer Puzzle Ever

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Sat, 29 May 2010 13:22:00 +0000

So you think you're a hot shot developer able to resolve every problem that comes your way. Put your skills to the test by visiting www.toughestdeveloperpuzzleever.com. The site offers 100 levels of varying difficutly. To maneuver through the levels, you have to examine the page for cllues that will allow you to go to the next levels. Some pages have a hidden link, others require you change the URL manually, etc.

The site is scheduled to launch on May 31 and offers great prizes for the first 100 people to complete it, with excpetionally great prizes for the first 5! Put your thinking caps and visit www.toughestdeveloperpuzzleever.com!

T3CHn!c 2010 - Bringing the Northeast Ohio Technical Community Together

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:21:00 +0000

The 2nd annual TechNic will build on the camaraderie of the boundless IT community of Northeast Ohio with the support of companies and organizations by providing a free event for attendees to simply enjoy a summer day of classic picnic fun and activities.

Last year’s event brought together over 200 attendees and 20 supporting companies from around the globe! Pictures of last year's event can be seen here.

We hope that your organization becomes a part of T3CHn!c TM 2010. Feel free to include your friends, family, employees, customers, clients, partners, prospects, and their friends and families, too!

Logos of supporting organizations will be displayed on all announcements. Consistent mention and messaging on behalf of supporters will be made through social media and other public relations, with a higher level of promotion for top sponsors. Banners and other means of visibility will be displayed at the event.

Suggested donation guidelines:
$200 +.....................................T3CHn!c TM 2010 Sponsorship
$75....................................... Table Rental for Service / Product Demo
$100...................................... Keg
$50....................................... Food & Beverages
$Peerless................................. Prizes, Entertainment
$Priceless................................ Swag, Volunteers

July 24th, 2010, 11am – 8pm (Rain or shine!)
St. Sava’s Picnic Grove
2300 W Ridgewood
Parma OH 44134

For more information, contact:
Heidi Hooper
216-469-1163
Heidi@BoundlessFlight.com
Twitter: @Heidi1163

Regional .Net Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:03:00 +0000

Listed below are upcoming regional events relating to .Net

April 17: Pittsburgh Code Camp (http://codecamppgh.com/default.aspx)

April 20: Cleveland WPF User Group –RIA Services by Chris Woodruff (http://www.clevelandwpf.info/)

April 27: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group - Architecture tools in Visual Studio 2010 by Cameron Skinner (Microsoft) (http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/)

April 28: Cleveland SharePoint User Group (http://www.sharepointcleveland.com/default.aspx)

May 1: Ann Arbor Day of .Net (http://www.dayofdotnet.org/AnnArbor/Spring2010/default.aspx)

May 1: Chicago Code Camp (http://chicagocodecamp.com/)

May 7: Stir Trek (http://www.stirtrek.com/)

June 25-26: Code Stock (http://www.codestock.org/)

June 26: Columbus SQL Saturday (http://www.sqlsaturday.com/42/eventhome.aspx)

August 5-7: DevLink (http://devlink.net/)

Special October Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:08:00 +0000

Stephen Toub from the Parallel Computing Platform team at Microsoft will be presenting at the Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group on Thursday, October 29, 2009. Please note this meeting date is in addition to, not replacing, our regularly scheduled meeting every 4th Tuesday (October 27, 2009).

He will be travelling through our district the last week of October. He will be speaking at corporations during the day, and user groups in the evening. Stephen's goal is to get direct feedback from developers on the products he works on. Your questions and feedback help make .NET better!

Stephen will discuss concurrency and how .NET 4.0 simplifies parallel programming. This is one of the exciting things about .NET 4.0. With Moore’s Law breaking down, software developers need to be able to master multithreading and know how to develop concurrent applications. Historically, this has been very difficult. It’s hard to understand concurrency issues, hard to write good code, and hard to debug when race conditions and such do happen. With .NET 4.0, there are APIs and tools to make parallel programming much simpler.

If you would like to attend this special meeting, please send an e-mail to sam@clevelanddotnet.info with "RSVP" in the subject line.

Typemock Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Typemock is holding a free live webinar (web-seminar) on how to unit test successfully. The webinar will include the following:

· Creating Supporting environment
· Unit testing tools of the trade
· Practices and Pitfalls
· Writing the first test
· Live Q & A

You can get more details on - http://blog.typemock.com/2009/09/unit-testing-net-successfully-live-free.html

Windows Client Feature Comparison

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Microsoft released a chart highlighting the features of Windows 7, Vista SP1, and Windows Xp SP3. It lists features in 5 categories:

File organization and Search
Remote Access
Security and Compliance
Management
Deployment

To download the comparison chart, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=FA0177CC-7E82-4993-B0D6-FEC84216DD9C&displaylang=en \

Cleveland TECHnic

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:11:00 +0000

On Saturday, June 20, 2009, several local technology vendors and user groups will collaborate on hosting a summer picnic, called "TECHnic". The event is scheduled from 10AM-8PM at St. Sava's Picnic Grove in Parma, OH. For more information, please visit www.tinyurl.com/TECHnicPicnic.

CodeStock 2009

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:10:00 +0000

CodeStock 2009 is a conference for software developers held in Knoxville, TN. The event is aimed at providing the latest and greatest topics in software development across various platforms. In addition, the event also has "open spaces" where fellow developers can gather and discuss any topic on their mind at the moment. This could range from advantages of C# vs. VB.Net to the pros/cons of Agile development to surviving a tough economic period.

This year's event will be held June 26 - June 27, providing a variety of topics for 2 full days. The full list of sessions is available at http://codestock.org/Sessions.aspx with the exact scheduling due out soon. Tickets for the event are $25 if purchased before June 1st, and $45 afterwards.

For members of the Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group, 2 tickets have been provided free of charge to the first 2 people to respond to this blog. To claim your ticket, simply send an e-mail to sam@clevelanddotnet.info. If you're interested in car-pooling to the event from Cleveland, OH, please send an e-mail to the same address.

For more information on CodeStock, please visit http://codestock.org

Set the identity specification on a primary key

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:01:00 +0000

Q: I always used databases provided by Microsoft to practice on. Today I tried to create my own and ran into trouble. Problem is that I cannot set the identity specification on a primary key. The column properties show up as no and I cannot change it to yes. I’m using SQL Server Express 2005 on a Vista machine. Any thoughts?

A: . To change column properties, you must modify the table (right click table and select “Modify”). Select and highlight the column you want to change, then expand the “Identity Specification” in the “Column Properties” pane. Change the “Is Identity” property to “Yes”. Please note the change must be made to the “Is Identity” property, not the “Identity Specification”.

IT Events Sponsored by Sogeti

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

The Cleveland office of Sogeti USA will be hosting the following IT events in April.

April 21: Taking the cost out if IT
Time: 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Microsoft Office 6050 Oak Tree Blvd. Independence, OH 44131
Agenda:
> Introductions Microsoft and Sogeti
> Taking the Cost out of IT
> Break
> Optimizing Microsoft Solution Delivery
> Testimonials
> Open Forum
To register, go to http://www.clicktoattend.com/ then enter Event Code: 137141

April 30: "Me the Media - Rise of the Conversation Society"
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Beacon Place (lower level conference room), 6055 Rockside Woods Blvd. Independence, OH 44131
The speaker at this event will be Erik van Ommeren,who is managing the US branch of the Sogeti InternationalResearch Institute for New Technology. He is an author andpublic speaker on topics such as innovation, collaboration,service oriented architecture, crowdsourcing and new media. You’re invited!
RSVP by 4/27/09 to sue.fellner@us.sogeti.com

April 2009 .Net Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Listed below are .Net related events for April 2009:

April 9: Ann Arbor Cloud Camp (http://bit.ly/a2cc)
April 9: Ohio North SQL Server User Group - Executive Dashboards using SharePoint 2007 (http://www.bennettadelson.com/seat.aspx?sig=sql&ID=141)

April 14: .Net User Group - Silverlight 3.0 Beta (http://www.bennettadelson.com/seat.aspx?sig=net&ID=145)

April 28: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group - IronRuby (http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/)

April 30: ArcReady (www.arcready.com)
April 30: MSDN Unleashed (http://www.msdnevents.com/unleashed)
April 30: TechNet Unleashed (http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032410537&Culture=en-US)
April 30: Cleveland Architecture SIG.

Scripting Q&A

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Q: How can I automate the FTP process so it runs on scheduler without user intervention?
A: The FTP.EXE (File Transfer Protocol) command line utility comes standard with the Windows Operating system. Because it's a command line utility, it allows for many options to be entered at run time (simply enter FTP /? at the command prompt for a complete list). When using the -s:filename switch allows for the commands to be read from the filename specified. For example, first create a text file called myFTP.prm with the following commands:

open www.myftpsite.com
myUserID
myPassword
prompt off
binary
mput myfile*.txt

From a command line, execute FTP -s:myFTP.prm. Please note there's no specific extension for file containing the FTP commands. For more info on this, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/96269

Q: How can I execute a command line utility from with a VB Script?
A: The CMD.EXE is a command line utility used for running other command line applications. Typing cmd /? will reveal a variety of command line options for executing the command shell. Listed below is a sample VB script for doing this:

Option Explicit
Dim return, objShell
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
return = objShell.Run("cmd /C DIR > DirLog.txt", , True)

After saving these commands into a .vbs file, they can be executed by running "cscript myFile.vbs". Please note the file extension must be .vbs.

Q: Using a VBS script, how can I access registry keys?
A: Listed below is a sample script for accessing registry keys.

Set SysVarReg = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
value = SysVarReg.RegRead ("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\Windows Presentation Foundation\Hosting\Hosts\v3.0")
WScript.Echo value

After saving these commands into a .vbs file, they can be executed by running "cscript myFile.vbs". Please note the file extension must be .vbs.

Another useful example of scripting is to query all the processes running on the current machine and output them to the console.

strComputer = "."
Set objServices = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2")
Set objProcessSet = objServices.ExecQuery("SELECT Name FROM Win32_Process",,48)

For Each Process in objProcessSet
WScript.Echo Process.Name
Next

For more information on scripting, visit Microsoft's Scripting Center at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/default.mspx

What is a Tablix?

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:05:00 +0000

The term "Tablix" can mean different things to different people. However, in the Microsoft realm it refers to the ability of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) to combine a table and a matrix together.

Book Promotion from Packt Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Packt Publishing has recently released a new book titled "C# 2008 and 2005 Threaded Programming". To help promote the new book, they have extended a 15% discount to members of the C#/VB.Net User Group. To take advantage of this offer, simply follow the 3 steps below:

Visit http://www.packtpub.com/books and select any Packt title.
Click the "ADD TO CART" button to add the book to your shopping cart.
Now enter "CD15ug" (without quotes) in the 'Promotional Code' field and click the "Update" button. The discounted price should now be reflected in your order.

Although Packt is based in the UK, they do offer free shipping to the US, with books arriving in only a few days. Packt Publishing has also sent a free copy to be given at an upcoming user group meeting. For more information, please visit http://www.packtpub.com/

March .Net Events

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Mar 10th: .Net User Group (Using TFS). To register, go to http://www.bennettadelson.com/seat.aspx?sig=net&ID=141

Mar 12th: ONSQL User Group. To register, go to http://www.bennettadelson.com/seat.aspx?sig=sql&ID=141

Mar 14th: GCPCUG General Meeting (Switching to a Mac & Windows on a Mac). To register, go to http://www.gcpcug.org/

Mar 24th: Cleveland C#/VB.Net User Group (Writing Secure Code). To register, go to http://www.clevelanddotnet.info/

Mar 25th: Cleveland SharePoint User Group (TBA). To register, go to http://www.sharepointcleveland.com/default.aspx

Mar 28th: Cincinnati Silverlight Firestarter. To register, go to http://cinnug.org/default.aspx.

Straight 2 SQL Server 2008 Webinars

noreply@blogger.com (ClevelandDotNet) — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 20:08:00 +0000

JC Armand is putting on a series of SQL Server 2008 educational webinars. These Live Meeting sessions cover a variety of topics on SQL Server 2008, from both a DBA and a developer's perspective. The sessions occur every Tuesday and Thursday, ending on Thursday, April 2, 2009. Each session is scheduled to start at 11AM EST and last for approximately 1 hour.

2/24/2009: Why SQL Server 2008
2/26/2009: How Windows Server 2008 benefits SQL Server 2008
3/3/2009: Upgrade/Migration strategy & Overcoming upgrade challenges
3/5/2009: SQL Server 2008 based Business Intelligence
3/10/2009: SQL Server 2008 for Developers
3/12/2009: What’s new in Reporting Services 2008
3/17/2009: SQL Server Consolidation Strategies
3/19/2009: Resource Governor
3/24/2009: Upgrade SQL Server clusters to Windows Server 2008
3/26/2009: Database compression & Back-up compression
3/31/2009: Database auditing & Transparent data encryption
4/2/2009: Optimizing SQL Server licensing for your business needs

For more information, or to register, go to http://www.pragmaticworks.com/StraightTo8Webinars.aspx. After registering, links will be emailed for joining each upcoming session, as well as viewing past sessions.