http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/ en-us Copyright 2008 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:55:11 -0600 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:56:28 -0600 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.01a http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Although very handy, C#'s foreach statement is actually quite dangerous. In fact, I may swear off its use entirely. Why? Two reasons: (1) performance, and (2) predictability.... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/07/c_the_dangers_o.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/07/c_the_dangers_o.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:55:11 -0600 Good article on using indexed views: Indexed Views Basics in SQL Server. Similar good coverage in Ben-Gan's Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming. Problem: both specify that the hint WITH(NOEXPAND) needs to be used when executing a query against... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/06/mssql_2005_inde.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/06/mssql_2005_inde.html Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:39:35 -0600 Problem: SQL Server 2005 queries that used to be fast are now rather slow. You've already tuned the query with good indexes and optimized structures. You've checked the running jobs with Activity Monitor and don't see anything that should be... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/05/identifying_hig.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/05/identifying_hig.html Fri, 23 May 2008 22:10:08 -0600 Problem: I have an SSIS package, MyPackage, stored on MyServer in the Package Store. I create an Agent to run the package, running under a SQL account hooked up to a proper proxy and credentials for Windows authentication. Works in... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/05/ssis_access_is.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/05/ssis_access_is.html Thu, 01 May 2008 15:57:30 -0600 As a Web developer whose formal programming training focused only on console applications and simple GUI apps, it was not immediately obvious to me how to update a (Windows Forms) GUI while a method was still running. Once I decided... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/04/updating_the_gu.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/04/updating_the_gu.html Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:50:39 -0600 I mentioned using the XML datatype for sparse column support in my recent post on some of the Useful Features in SQL Server 2008. Until today I had never had an opportunity to actually use this feature. I was pleasantly... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/03/sample_code_for.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/03/sample_code_for.html Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:27:48 -0600 SQL Server 2008 will be coming out sometime this summer (in theory). At last week's TechFuse event in Minneapolis, and in blogs I sometimes read, I've started to pick up on a number of useful features and improvements that should... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/03/summary_of_usef.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/03/summary_of_usef.html Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:29:28 -0600 The last two posts have touched on some issues related to Reporting Services and XML transforms. Now I'll go back and put the pieces together, flesh in some more detail, and try to give a coherent picture of what I... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt3.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt3.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:54:25 -0600 Problem: you try to deploy your xslt file from Visual Studio, and get an error saying "Value for the parameter 'MimeType' is not specified. it is either missing from the function call, or it is set to null". Solution: In... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt2.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt2.html Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:29:47 -0600 http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt1.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/rs_and_xslt_pt1.html Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:53:47 -0600 Problem: periodically, one of my SSIS packages was throwing an error saying "The buffer manager cannot create a temporary storage file on any path in the BufferTempStoragePath property. There is an incorrect file name or no permission." The package in... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/ssis_suddenly_c.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/ssis_suddenly_c.html Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:22:39 -0600 I was looking at a query today that has an inline expression in it, something similar to CASE WHEN myTable.myColumn This particular piece of business logic is used in many different places (well, not literally, since I made up a... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/warning_about_u.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/02/warning_about_u.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:57:09 -0600 Problem: In SSIS, you want to update a variable from a Script Component embedded in a Data Transform task. You get an error message reading "the collection of variables locked for read and write access is not available outside of... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/ssis_updating_v.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/ssis_updating_v.html Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:56:08 -0600 Problem: You have some XML, and you need to validate it against a custom schema that you want to deploy with your .Net 2.0 assemblies. Issues addressed: opening the file and handling the schema validation. Solution: The XmlSchema class contains... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/validating_xml.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/validating_xml.html C# Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:30:14 -0600 Problem: you have image data from an HTML e-mail, but don't know what to do with it. When you save it to disk it comes out with a weird string instead of binary data. Solution: pretty simple, you just have... http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/viewing_embedde.html http://www.safnet.com/writing/tech/archives/2008/01/viewing_embedde.html C# Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:10:28 -0600