In celebration of Microsoft Press 25th Anniversary, they are going to offer a monthly free e-book. Till January 28th 2009, they are offering SQL Server 2005 Integration Services Step by Step by Paul Turley, Joe Kasprzak, Scott Cameron, Satoshi Iizuka, and Pablo Guzman for free. Yes, not just a chapter or two, but the entire book! I think you can find the book useful even if you're using SSIS in SQL Server 2008. Though I know they are some changes made to SSIS from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2008, I think that quite a big part of it all stayed the same, so for the very least you'll be able to use part of the book.
So before you miss out on the chance, go and download your free copy of SQL Server 2005 Integration Services Step by Step.
Yes, you read it right, the initials have changed... Though I missed the release over the weekend, I really wanted to note it on the blog as it is such big news.
Microsoft has announced that PerformancePoint Server is no more (though looking at the home page for the product wouldn't reveal anything about it, not at the time of writing this post). Rather, the plan is to release SP3 for Performance Point Server Mid 2009, put the Analytics and Monitoring part of PPS into SharePoint Server Enterprise Edition and turn the Planning part to FRx Forecaster. All of this makes posts about comparisons on creating your Dashboard in SharePoint Server or PerfomancePoint Server seem quite funny in a way...
It's hard for me to say whether this move comes as another way for Microsoft to further strengthen SharePoint Server or Excel as they are planning with SQL Server 2010, or whether it comes as a result of slow adoption to PerformancePoint Server. There has also been quite some criticism on PPS even before which I should imagine didn't help in adding to the product's low popularity...
I admit I feel slightly disappointed though. This may turn out to be a good move for Microsoft economically (which I guess is what counts), but I don't know if it also promises further investment into Proclarity as a cube viewer. There are still problems with Excel 2007 as a cube viewer.
For a complete coverage of all the aspects concerning this matter, I strongly recommend you look into the relevant posts at Chris Webb's blog.
I've recently created a Report Model with a Lookup Entity in it. I saw to it that I had only one default detail attribute for it, and I gave that attribute a ValueSelection of list.
When I used the Report Model, I saw the attribute fine (as if it was inside the main Entity) but when I tried to filter on it I saw the Lookup Entity I was trying to hide and a filtered list. I couldn't understand why that was. I went back to check the attribute. Its ValueSelection was of type list. I went to the role that was created in the main Entity and set it's ValueSelection to list as well. That also didn't help. Finally, I went to look at the Lookup Entity that the attribute originated from. It had an InstanceSelection property of filtered list. Changing that to type of list did the trick.
Friday, the 29th of November, was No Shopping day in Israel. But I still bought myself something. I bought myself a friend.
It has been about half a year since Sheleg died. We moved to a new place, a place where we could take a dog (the previous owner wouldn't allow pets in the house). I admit I had already gotten to the point where I thought about adopting a dog again, but somehow I just didn't go and do it. Something within me hesitated. Lately though, I kept thinking about how I also wanted to feel like I could somehow save a dog from staying in a cold and rainy cage. And now winter is here.
So we went Friday morning to an animal shelter to see who we can adopt. I already thought of two potential dogs that caught my eye on the shelter's web site, but there was this one dog there... When we came to look at those dogs in their cages, he was jumping at the bars on his own cage trying to lick us, practically crying for us to take him. So we did. Strad (short for Stradivarius), who in the animal shelter was called Momo, is really a very big chunk of fur and bones, hardly any meat on him. More than anything else he feels like a big baby, filled with love and wanting to be pampered.
The first day was hard. Not so much physically, but emotionally. The night before and the morning of the adoption, I was still thinking about Sheleg. I had guilt feelings towards him. I was thinking about his last days. And I wanted to tell him he was still in my heart though I was about to let someone new in. Also, thinking about the dogs we left behind, left me a bit torn, as at first I was contemplating of adopting even two dogs, but in the end only adopted Strad.
It's been over a month that he has been getting used to us, just as we are getting used to him. And it's a learning process we're both happy to go through. Because dogs really appreciate the love and attention you give them, and in return, they make you a better person. I truly believe that. They make you more conscious of the tone of your voice, your body language, the energy you put out there. And last but not least, they make for really close, comforting and understanding friends.
So, I thought I would use this stage to urge you to adopt yourself a very good friend - be it a cat or a dog - from the animal shelter close to you. I'm not saying you shouldn't take everything into account - as you should! You should think about having to take them out in the morning and the evening, having to feed them, clean up after them, have them checked every so often at the vet. But then there is also a reward - you'll be amazed at the amount of love you find, in yourself and in them.