• Tech Ed US (Day 5)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    D-day! I wondered how many people would show up for my presentation about RS Custom Security. I turned out that about 60 people thought that custom security is just what they needed to boot up after the last night party. I think the presentation was well received. While you are waiting for the Tech Ed DVD, I posted the code on my website.   I got hammered a bit about my presentation skills. Obviously, the tips I’ve learned from the train-the-trainer session weren’t enough. Next time, I will try some of the Steve Ballmer’s stunts. May be they will do the trick. If someone who’s attended my session reads this, please let me know what I can possibly improve to deliver the message more effectively, since I don’t think I can solve this dilemma by myself. BTW, custom security will be available with RS Standard Edition, as Brian Welcker pointed...

  • Tech Ed US (Day 4)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    I couldn’t sleep well last night. My neighbor on the left was talking on her cell phone until midnight and I can hear every damn word through the thin wall. My other neighbor was watching a horror movie. A double impact. Not to mention that the cell phone of my left neighbor  rang and woke me up at 6. Luckily, today is not presentation day.   In the morning, I went to see the Managing Analysis Services 2005 Using Analysis Management Objects (AMO) presentation by Alex Lim. Alex is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. We introduced to each other and talked briefly about South-east Asia. I spent three years in Singapore, so we had a lot in common. I liked the demo code that Alex used for his presentation. For those who are new to Analysis Services 2005, AMO is a .NET-based object library which allows you to manage SSAS...

  • Tech Ed US (Day 3)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    Wednesday. The pressure and fatigue starts building up. So, I am going to take it easy today. Now that I am writing a book about Analysis Services 2005, I felt like I need a pinch of MDX to boost my spirit. So, I went to see theSolving Business Problems with MDX in Analysis Services presentation by Amir Netz and Richard Tkachuk. I didn’t regret at all! It was an excellent presentations which gave me some tips about how to structure the MDX part of my book. Next, I attended the SQL Server 2005: End-to-End Part 3 presentation by Donald Farmer (Product Manager of Integration Services, aka DTS). It was a good presentation as well. In the afternoon, I had a train-the-trainer session which goal was improve the speaker’s presentation skills. I found out that I have to show more energy and articulate every word to captivate my audience. Now I know the secret...

  • Tech Ed US (Day 2)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    First, I went to see the Paul Flessner’s keynote. I learned that Reporting Services will be available in all editions of Yukon, including Express! And, custom security will be available in RS Standard Edition as well! Now, we are talking! For more information about how different versions of Yukon will stack against each other, read this comparison document. Next, I went to see Brian Welcker’s presentation about the new report viewer controls in RS 2005. The presentation was in one of the biggest conference halls and it was almost full (with perhaps some 600 people). This speaks by itself about the traction RS is getting. Brian actually wrote a whitepaper about the new features in RS 2005. It is nice to see Reporting Services evolving! Next, I went to see the real-time OLAP presentation from the Analysis Services Team and shake hands with Amir Netz and Richard Tkatchuk. The presentation...

  • Tech Ed US (Day 1)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    Everyone was rushing in the morning to see Steve Ballmer’s keynote. He said there are some 11,000 folks at the conference. No wonder, all ice creams would disappear even before arrival! Here is some statistics that got posted on the TechEd site:   Feeding the Masses What does it take to feed 13,000 people at Tech·Ed? 117,000 bottles of water 14,300 lattes 15,600 ice cream bars (it’s HOT out there) 4,000 pounds of chips and snack mix 2,300 dozen eggs 8,000 pounds of chicken 52,000 servings of juice You get dizzy if you stay more than 10 minutes in the exhibitor hall area, so I decided to avoid at all cost, or cross it as fast as I can. Otherwise, people will run over me in an endless pursuit to get every possible t-shirt that has been handed out. I got only two but I didn’t have to fight. They...

  • Tech Ed US 2005 (Arrival)

    June 11, 2005 / No Comments »

    Well, here are my “reports” from Tech Ed with some delay thanks to the sporadic internet access.   I arrived in Orlando on Sunday. The flight went fine. I got a bit surprised when I had to wait for a half an hour at the airport to get a shuttle to the hotel. The hotel was Peabody, very close to the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) where the Tech Ed is hosted. I got a room on the 9th floor. The second surprise was when I discovered that for almost $200 a night in the hotel, I would have no Internet access. To get it, I have to pay only $7 a day J Breakfast wasn’t included too. Common folks, I used to stay in a hotel in Orlando for $80 and it had wireless, plus continental breakfast! Isn’t this America? The hotel didn’t even have a proper desk to...

  • A must-read RS blog

    May 11, 2005 / 1 Comment »

    Brian Welcker, Group Program Manager for SQL Server Reporting Services, has started a blog. Join me to welcome Brian to the blog community and for giving us a chance to get the news directly from the source.  

  • Generate Ad-hoc Reports with Microsoft Reporting Services 2005

    May 10, 2005 / 1 Comment »

    If you have followed the RS 2005 roadmap, you have undoubtedly noticed that among the many new features in Microsoft Reporting Services 2005 is one that can truly help reduce the workload for developers—the ability to give end users the power to generate their own ad-hoc reports. My article explains the major components of Microsoft Reporting Services' ad-hoc architecture and semantic model, and walks you through an end-to-end example that demonstrates how to author, manage, and deliver ad-hoc reports. Happy ad-hoc reporting!

  • More Analysis Services Books

    May 4, 2005 / 2 Comments »

    Chris Webb mentions in his blog about more SSAS-related books coming up. It looks SSAS 2005 is catching like a wild fire :-(

  • Upcoming Business Intelligence webcasts

    May 4, 2005 / 2 Comments »

    There are quite a few upcoming Business Intelligence webcasts you shouldn't miss. If you are interested in the Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005 make sure to register and mark you calendar.

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