In the spirit of the season, the SQL Server team give us the third (and probably last before the final release) CTP3 build (version 9.00.3033.0000) for the forthcoming SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2.
The newly released CTP7 of Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals (aka DataDude) now supports bi-directional schema updates. Once you generate the scripts from your database schema, you can choose either the database or the scripts as a source of changes and commit the changes to the target. Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals requires Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition.
The second CTP (Community Technology Preview) build of the forthcoming SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 was released today. Besides bug fixes, SP2 includes major BI features and enhancements including:
Reporting Services
Analysis Services
More information about what's new in SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP2 is available in the readme file.
I learned today that my MVP award has been renewed. This will be my third year as an MVP for Windows Systems – SQL Server.
Download an updated version of the documentation and samples for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
Download the April 2006 refresh of the SQL Server 2005 samples and databases.
SQL Server 2005 SP1 was released yesterday. Kudos to Microsoft for releasing SP1 on time!
As the conventional wisdom goes, one should postpone deployment of production applications until the first service pack has been released. Well, that time has come to pass. May your SQL Server 2005-based solutions be successful!
Today, Microsoft announced that SQL Server Express Advanced will be available publicly instead of distributed as a private beta. The CTP (Community Technology Preview) build could be downloaded here (link will be live soon).
You can post question and comments in the SQL Express MSDN Forum or enter bugs and feature requests on the
Telligent has done it again! Community Server 2.0 is out and it’s too sleek to ignore. I am planning to upgrade Prologika Forums to CS 2.0 tonight. If all is well, tomorrow Prologika Forums will have a facelift and more features. I hope the upgrade process won’t last too long and won’t cause service interruptions.
Nick Barclay from Australia has good things to say about my book “Applied Microsoft Analysis Services in Action”. No, I didn’t sweat blood, but I have to admit that writing this one wasn’t easy! It took me almost twice as long to write it as my previous “Microsoft Reporting Services in Action” book. For the most part, that was because Analysis Services is a focal point of many technologies, including OLAP, data mining, data integration, reporting, performance management, etc. Not to mention that, as Nick said it, it was like trying to hit a moving target because the product was constantly evolving on the way to RTM.
The other main factor for taking so long is that I just can’t write short. I am a firm believer that knowing a product is knowing its limitations. I usually put myself in my reader’s shoes and try to address all possible questions the reader may ask while reading the book. I am committed to point out not only the tool strengths but also its weaknesses (nothing is perfect, right). Of course, this takes time, lots of, lots of time …
