Vadivel's blog

For the first time, Microsoft has made their MSDN Library freely available for download from Microsoft Downloads. Previously, it was only available for download to MSDN subscribers. Starting May 2006 all future releases would be made free for public. Download details: MSDN Library May 2006 Edition Update: The above link seems to be obsolete. The latest URL for this is http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94596af5-cc58-45af-a14b-df627a31e783&DisplayLang=en Technorati tags: Microsoft , MSDN

One of the very common activities a SQL developer face is to flush records from ALL the tables in their development database. Though “Delete” and “Truncate” commands can be used to flush records in a table the issue is we can’t use them directly if we have constraints attached to some of the tables. One of the solutions is to “Delete” records in the tables in an orderly fashion. Like, “Delete” the child table first and then the parent table. As long as there are limited number of tables in the Database this solution is more than enough. But for those databases where there are lots of tables with constraints this solution would be pretty tough to implement. In those cases, try out my solution which I have explained later in this article. Code snippet to reproduce the foreign key conflict error: Create Table TruncateTblDemo ( [Sno] int identity , [FirstName] varchar ( 50 ), [SalaryBandID] int ) Go Create T able TruncateTblDemo_SalaryBand ( [BandID] int identity primary key , [Ban...

Webcasts by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) -- July 24, 2006 - July 28, 2006 Attend these LIVE Webcasts by experts from Microsoft and get on to the edge of the steep-learning curve. Participate in the Webcast Contest during the Webcast and 2 lucky winners will win a cool Orchid Music Player. Watch Microsoft Experts all this July & August – LIVE. Register Now! July 24, 2006 Data integration in Excel (includes Office 2007) and how to incorporate it into your applications Speaker: Nitin Paranjape (Chairman & MD, Maestros Mediline Sys Ltd ) July 25, 2006 All about WCF “Indigo” Contracts Speaker: Manoj Ganapathi (Cognizant Technology Solutions) July 26, 2006 Get the Power of Microsoft Atlas to your Web Application. Speaker: Saurabh Verma (Co-founder & Chief Software Architect of "The Perfect Future") July 27, 2006 Sharepoint Portal 2007 - Managing your portal with Site Content Types and Workflows Speaker: Saurabh Verma (Co-founder & Chief Software Arch...

Check out my previous experience on installing SQL Server Enterprise and Developer Edition in a Windows XP Media Center box. The error which i was getting all this while is "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition Server Component is not supported on this operating system. Only client components will be available for installation." and "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition Server Component is not supported on this operating system. Only client components will be available for installation." Later I have downloaded SQL Server 2005 Express edition and after some initial struggle I have installed it. Today I was again thinking why am I not able to install the DEV version as it is supposed to be installed on Windows XP professional itself. So I reinitiated the installation process and the results were surprising to me. First I wanted to install MSDE and then try SQL 2000 DEV version. Installing MSDE: Step 1: I downloaded MSDE 2000 from Microsoft and ran ...

In SQL Server 2000, normal way of finding the total number of records in a table is by using Count() function. Though it would give the exact result, it has a performance issue. Its because it would do a table scan on that table. i.e, Select count(*) from Authors --- This would do a table scan on Authors table. The work around is to fetch the number of records from SysIndexes table. But please be adviced that though it would be faster, the number of records returned would not always be perfect. Only if the database has uptodate statistics it would show the exact count. i.e., Select Rows from SysIndexes Where [ID] = Object_ID('Authors') And indid < 2 Moreover it is not advisable to query the Sytem tables directly. It's because if Microsoft changes the schema of this SysIndexes table in future all your existing code won't work. In SQL Server 2005 they have come up Partitioned Table concept. So its pretty easy to find the row count of a table without using Count funct...

At last my blog is accessible now within India too. Thanks to Indian Government and ISP's!!!

http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/19blogs.htm -- According to rediff.com blog blockage would be lifted in next 48 hours! That article was written on 19th of July. Now its 21st July here and still vadivel.blogspot.com is inaccessible directly! I am wondering "Why would one need 48 hours to lift this ban!!!!?" . To my knowledge this move by the Government of India has only backfired. Most of the people wouldn't have perturbed to read those 17 odd actual sites which Govt was intending to block. But now since it is blocked many people would be very snooping to know what is written their :) So in turn Government is driving traffic to those banned sites without their knowledge. Now people across the world know what is India's answer to terrorism --- "Ban Blogs". Great!! Guess what could be the next step towards anti-terrorism policy of Indian Government --- "BAN THE INTERNET" !!!! Let the God save Indian democracy.

Since yesterday I am not able to access my blog. Initially i thought it could be because of some problem with their server! I was able to login to blogger.com and create or edit posts but not able to visit my own blogspace :) As this error wasn't resolved for more than few hours I thought there is something fishy. So I started to look for more information on this with the help of "Google". In that process, I understood that the Indian ISPs have blocked .blogspot.com, .typepad and .geocities domain's completely. It's really strange to know that Govt has issued orders to block it. Government seems to claim that "Terrorists are using this channel to communicate freely amongst themself". No second thoughts on saying "Terrorists links needs to be broken". But the solution they have implemented is totally ruthless. This is something like burning the whole house just because we have too much of mosquitoes in the house!!!! If a site / blog contains ill...

Off late, quite a few people are asking me about interview tips!! Though I don’t have any best prescription to follow before attending an interview, I thought would give it a try. What I used to do when I was attending interviews? I used to maintain a diary where-in I would take notes of imperative points while studying. Also after attending an interview I used to scribble down all those questions which were asked irrespective of whether I already know the answer or not. Later I would sit down and find answers for those questions which I wasn’t aware of. So this diary would contain all important points of a subject and FAQ of that subject (with answers). Once I get an interview call, the first thing I would do is to run through that diary completely. It really worked for me, because I noticed that questions gets repeated after few interviews The next thing I used to do is to collect FAQs from the internet and go through it WITHOUT fail. To my knowledge, for initial level of screening, ...

Check this Interview with Steve Ballmer . In this he touches on topics like "Will Ray fill the shoes of Bill Gates?", "Is Google a threat to Microsoft?", "Why Vista is getting delayed?" etc., I enjoyed reading it. Technorati tags: Microsoft , Steve Ballmer

I am working on an article for ASPToday.com. The article is majorly based on SQL Server 2005 yesterday night I started facing an error "Unable to start debugging on the server". I have already blogged about this error and I tried out all those solutions I know off. But it didn't get resolved!! Let me give you little more detail about my working environment 1. I have SQL Server 2005 installed which internally installs .NET Framework 2.0 2. Yesterday I installed VS.NET 2003 which has installed .NET Framework 1.1 automatically. 3. The Operating System is Windows XP Media Centre with SP2 (which comes with IIS 5.1) Only now it struck me that it has something to do with the Framework. I did it and the error got resolved :) To know the solution check this out " Error while trying to run project: Unable to start debugging on the web server. The project is not configured to be debugged. " Technorati Tags: Microsoft , .NET Framework

To be frank it has been almost 2 years since I either used Yahoo or MSN messenger [Bcoz of the restriction in my office!!]. Once in a while I am using GChat. Its because its embedded within GMail and it helps me not to loose track of what I was doing. AFAIK, people majorly use MSN Messenger (Now called as Windows Live Messenger) for professional interactions and Yahoo Messenger for personal contacts. That means one need to maintain two different contact list and login into two different tool. Its real pain. All of that has finally changed. Thanks to a partnership between Yahoo! and Microsoft, I can finally slim down to just two IM clients. Wndows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger can now communicate with each other. Finally, I can use the IM client that I like the most and still keep my contacts on the other service. In order to share contacts like this you will need either the latest Windows Live Messenger client or the Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 8 beta. Technorati Tags: Microso...

Microsoft is removing an add-on feature to Windows that allowed users to create password-protected folders!! This feature was introducted only last week. The disadvantages of this tool seems to be 1. Managing this tool in corporate environment is pretty difficult. For instance, how to control people who take illegal copies of an important document and store it within their Private Folder? The system admins have no easy way to scan and find out those. 2. If the users forgets their password then data can't be recovered, 3. All boils down to the fact that this tool doesn't come with any documentation. But I still feel that this would be really helpful for home users. More over if Microsoft could redesign this tool to support some basic "Admin features" + decent documentation then I guess people would start accepting this. At the time of writing this post the tool is still available for download from Microsoft site . So if at all you haven't downloaded it yet, grab t...

Check this out to see the Windows ad done @ 1986 featuring Steve Balmer. Really interesting :) Via: VideoSift If at all you feel that the picture quality isn't that good ... try your luck with this link :) Technorati Tags: Microsoft , Steve Ballmer

Six years back on the same day I married Sai Lakshmi (12-July-2000). I know Sai for almost 13 years now :) I fell in love with her during my 12th standard. I know @ 17 yrs any person wouldn't be matured enough to make a big decision like this. But thank God my choice was perfect :) Even now, very often we used to think about the past and laugh at our behaviors/actions then. My love story would be really interesting (at least for me and Sai :)) and I am sure none of you guys would be interested in reading about it so lemme not get into it in-depth. But one thing which I want to share is "Without Sai, I wouldn't have entered into the IT field at all". She was instrumental in convincing me to study my Master's degree in Computer Application. That's the move that changed my career. Till my schooling, my dream was to either become a "big" sportsman (Cricket and Badminton were my favorites at that time.) or an Aeronautics engineer. Unfortunately, my l...

Do a search for “ therapy products “ in Google and see what happens! In the “See results for” section Google suggests searching this in “yahoo”. Source: InsideGoogle Technorati Tags: Google , Yahoo

Somehow I landed into Girgle now. They claim it to be "Google for Girls". I don't really understand the concept. The only point is they have used a girlish background color. Apart from that I don't see anything else to be specifically targetted for girls! I checked out the blog of Javier , the guy who has created this still I am not clear about the concept :) Many people say this has something to do with Adsense!! Anyway I am sure Google would surely bring this site down. Technorati Tags: Google

Resume of Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple Computer is up here http://homepage.mac.com/steve/Resume.html . Lot's to learn from his resume. One thing which I learnt is his education has nothing to do with his career. I was also wondering a big guy like Steve himself have only one page resume whereas I have a 6 or 7 page resume!! Time to have a relook at my resume :) Wikipedia link to Steve :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_jobs Technorati Tags: Apple , Steve Jobs

Is listening to your iPod dangerous when a thunderstorm is near? According to Jason Brunch, a US citizen, it really is. He was mowing the lawn, when lightning struck him, while he was listening to Metallica on his iPod. Next thing he knew, he was in bed, vomiting and bleeding from his ears. He managed to call for help, however. His ears are burnt on the inside, and on his body, wounds were found following the line of the iPod, from his ears to his pocket, where the iPod was. The iPod had a hole in the back, which is I think quite logical... Bruch thinks that the iPod acted as some kind of antenna, and attracted the lightning. Weather experts however say that there is no proof whatsoever that the device is the cause of of lightning hitting the boy. They do say that when someone wearing earbuds, is struck by lightning, the current may run into the ears. "There are stories of current running through telephone wires, and killing the people on the phone", an expert said. In my opi...

Microsoft have released Private Folder 1.0 , which lets you have a folder called 'My Private Folder' which you can password protect. Its completely free and mind you it doesn't come with any product support. When would one require this? There are quite a few places where this would come in handy. For example: Normally I keep my bank account PINs saved in a notepad!! Now I can be bit relieved by saving it within this Private folder. One can save all important documents, credit card information etc., within this. It would really be helpful in home PCs or shared PCs where multiple persons operate a same box. Installation: After downloading, double click on the .msi (Microsoft Installer) file. Usual MS installation with few Next, Next buttons :) Once it is done we need to restart the system. After restarting the system, choose MS Private folder 1.0 from Start >> Program Files menu. This would start the installation wizard. This is the first screen during the installation ...

Glad to let you all know that my short bio is up in Microsoft site now. Check this link http://www.microsoft.com/india/mvp/indiamvp.aspx#VadivelM yourself. Technorati Tags: Microsoft , MVP India

Offlate, 2 out of 10 guys I meet on a day talk about Microsoft Certifications (MCP, MCAD, MCDBA, MCTS etc.,). Though its a good sign, not many have put any real efforts to get certified ... itseems just a overnight study was enough for them!! Are they too brilliant to grasp the subject overnight? Nope not really. Then? they have used DUMPS to clear the exams :( Few years back in CNUG (Chennai dotnet User Group) I have answered to a similar topic. Since I couldn't find that thread now I thought of making a blog post on this. Given a chance will you take up Microsoft certification? Yes and No! Yes -- I am interested in getting certified by studying the materials and after working with the software myself for quite sometime. No -- It's because I don't find any real use of having this certification. What do you mean by "No real use"? To my knowledge, MS certifications doesn't have much of value within India. Almost everybody knows that there are high possibility...

Just now, I received a mail from Abhishek Kant (MVP Lead) stating that "I have been awarded the MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) in SQL Server" . Wow nice to know that I got nominated again. Let me take this opportunity to thank Abhi and all those who were involved in this selection process :) Btw, for those who are not aware, I was a MVP in ASP.NET for 2 years (2003-2004 and 2004-2005) and I lost it last year. Offlate, I was more inclined towards SQL Server and I am glad to receive my nomination on that category itself. A co-incidence is Deepak have also got nominated as a MVP in ASP.NET. If my memory is right, he was also a MVP for 2 years (at that time he was a MVP in C#) and lost it in 2004 or 2005. Congrats for gaining the award again Deepak :) Technorati Tags: Microsoft , MVP India