Part of Dorian Software's security event-management package, Event Rover makes it easy to view, sort and mine event-log data. Offering a convenient tree view to facilitate the creation and review of reports, the product sorts and dynamically regroups data from active and saved event logs as well as compressed archives. It provides summary information to the administrator when the log is opened, including log size, the number of events in total and by type, and user-account data. Starts at $249.99 for 10 machines. Dorian Software Creations, (678) 222-3443 internationally, (866) 682-3646 in North America. www.doriansoft.com/eventrover
AppRiver SecureTide
SecureTide, a hosted e-mail virus- and spam-prevention service, addresses concerns about productivity, corporate privacy and legal liability. Through keyword/phrase tracking, SecureTide identifies suspect e-mail messages, then blocks or redirects them. It can also ban EXE, MP3 and WAV files. LDAP mirroring automatically updates e-mail server address changes. Armed with 60 spam-filtering techniques, SecureTide offers multiple antivirus engines and proprietary work- , virus- and phishing-detection systems, as well as perimeter security to guard against denial-of-service attacks. $675 per year for 50 users. AppRiver, (850) 932-5338. www.appriver.com
dtSearch Corp. Network 7.0
This text-search software instantly combs through more than a terabyte of text in less than a second, up from 8 GB in previous versions. Functioning across the desktop, network, Internet or intranet, Network 7.0 can span any number of indexes in a single search. Among its components is dtSearch Spider, which can follow links within a Web site or across multiple sites to retrieve integrated relevancy rankings and other displays of local and spidered content with highlighted hits. Other components include dtSearch Web for Web publishing and dtSearch Desktop for searches on PCs. Starts at $800 for five users, with multiuser discounts. dtSearch Corp., (800) 483-4637. www.dtSearch.com
Bluestream Database Software Corp. XStreamDB 3.2 Native XML Database
This native XML database is among the first commercial implementations of XQuery for XML databases, with extensions for updates and full-text searches. Version 3.2 performance improvements, achieved through precompiled XQuery functions, increased the speed of operations by 30 times in company tests. Security changes include the addition of group security functions, improved system table security and extended operation permissions. $3,000 per copy. Bluestream Database Software Corp., (604) 669-4469, Ext. 102. www.bluestream.com
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Microsoft's SQL Server 2005
It's been about five years since the last major upgrade to SQL Server--time enough for Microsoft to update just about every component of the database platform and incorporate many new features.
T-SQL Developments
On the database development front, SQL Server 2005 provides more T-SQL (Microsoft's extension to SQL) functionality--enhancements that fill in some of the holes found in SQL Server 2000. T-SQL now has a ranking function, for example, that lets you return a specific group of records from a large query. With 2000, developers had to create temporary tables, then filter out what wasn't needed--not very efficient.
XML Support
SQL Server 2005 includes much more support for XML data than 2000, including a new XML data type that can hold XML documents or XML fragments (XML without a top-level element) to be stored in a column, parameter or variable. The XML data can be retrieved or updated with XQuery or XML DML (Data Modification Language).
Integrated .Net Support
SQL Server is now integrated with .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime), which controls tasks such as memory management and code compilation. This gives SQL Server the power of full-fledged development languages like VB.NET and C#.NET to create stored procedures, triggers and user-defined functions.
Keep It Safe
Microsoft's security problems keep it vigilant. The new default installation of SQL Server 2005 disables many services and features that were typically enabled in SQL Server 2000, including remote named pipes, TCP and HTTP connections, OLE automation and the xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure. Although these are disabled by default, Microsoft says an upgrade installation will leave enabled most of what you had enabled. Also, these services and protocols can be managed using the new Surface Area Configuration tool.
T-SQL Developments
On the database development front, SQL Server 2005 provides more T-SQL (Microsoft's extension to SQL) functionality--enhancements that fill in some of the holes found in SQL Server 2000. T-SQL now has a ranking function, for example, that lets you return a specific group of records from a large query. With 2000, developers had to create temporary tables, then filter out what wasn't needed--not very efficient.
XML Support
SQL Server 2005 includes much more support for XML data than 2000, including a new XML data type that can hold XML documents or XML fragments (XML without a top-level element) to be stored in a column, parameter or variable. The XML data can be retrieved or updated with XQuery or XML DML (Data Modification Language).
Integrated .Net Support
SQL Server is now integrated with .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime), which controls tasks such as memory management and code compilation. This gives SQL Server the power of full-fledged development languages like VB.NET and C#.NET to create stored procedures, triggers and user-defined functions.
Keep It Safe
Microsoft's security problems keep it vigilant. The new default installation of SQL Server 2005 disables many services and features that were typically enabled in SQL Server 2000, including remote named pipes, TCP and HTTP connections, OLE automation and the xp_cmdshell extended stored procedure. Although these are disabled by default, Microsoft says an upgrade installation will leave enabled most of what you had enabled. Also, these services and protocols can be managed using the new Surface Area Configuration tool.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Mambo Templates - Make sure it's legal
It's great to see so many people out there designing templates for Mambo Open Source...indeed, MOS is surely becoming one of the most usable and popular Content Management Systems available on planet Earth.
However, it would be helpful if we all observed some basic principles when desigining templates for Mambo, to make sure we do not get stung in the future (remember Serence?)...
It is extremely tempting to take key graphics and layout from a well known website and create or modify into a template for Mambo. We have been there - we look at many sites on a daily basis to see what features and mods we can add to make our templates more exciting and fun. How easy? Just browse to the website you like and save the page from IE or Navigator - simple, easy, quick, and against the law (if you create a template from those files).
We looked at Qarbon (www.qarbon.com) - the guys behind ViewletBuilder - and we really liked their site - so much so that we were going to make a template called 'Qarbon Copy' and run it on the site - then we had a reality check and realised that this was in fact an infiringement of copyright, and that we, and anyone who downloaded and used the template, could get in serious trouble for doing so.
Here's what the legal blurb says on the Qarbon site:
Intellectual Property; Limited License to Users The Materials and Services on this Site, as well as their selection and arrangement, are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, and/or other intellectual property laws, and any unauthorized use of the Materials or Services at this Site may violate such laws and the Terms of Use. Except as expressly provided herein, Qarbon.com, Inc. and its suppliers do not grant any express or implied rights to use the Materials and Services. You agree not to copy, republish, frame, download, transmit, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, assign, distribute, license, sublicense, reverse engineer, or create derivative works based on the Site [emaphasis mine] , its Materials, or its Services or their selection and arrangement, except as expressly authorized herein. In addition, you agree not to use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction methods in connection with the Site.
We quickly dropped the idea and realised that in order to be sure that there would be no legal implications regarding our templates, we desinged them from scratch and had the files to prove it.
All of the images used are from paid stock, or authorised by our clients.
The message here is please be careful - using someone's brand to make your template look good is probably in breach of copyright and ultimately serves a harsh penalty - in the UK or US (or anywhere in the world for that matter).
However, it would be helpful if we all observed some basic principles when desigining templates for Mambo, to make sure we do not get stung in the future (remember Serence?)...
It is extremely tempting to take key graphics and layout from a well known website and create or modify into a template for Mambo. We have been there - we look at many sites on a daily basis to see what features and mods we can add to make our templates more exciting and fun. How easy? Just browse to the website you like and save the page from IE or Navigator - simple, easy, quick, and against the law (if you create a template from those files).
We looked at Qarbon (www.qarbon.com) - the guys behind ViewletBuilder - and we really liked their site - so much so that we were going to make a template called 'Qarbon Copy' and run it on the site - then we had a reality check and realised that this was in fact an infiringement of copyright, and that we, and anyone who downloaded and used the template, could get in serious trouble for doing so.
Here's what the legal blurb says on the Qarbon site:
Intellectual Property; Limited License to Users The Materials and Services on this Site, as well as their selection and arrangement, are protected by copyright, trademark, patent, and/or other intellectual property laws, and any unauthorized use of the Materials or Services at this Site may violate such laws and the Terms of Use. Except as expressly provided herein, Qarbon.com, Inc. and its suppliers do not grant any express or implied rights to use the Materials and Services. You agree not to copy, republish, frame, download, transmit, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, assign, distribute, license, sublicense, reverse engineer, or create derivative works based on the Site [emaphasis mine] , its Materials, or its Services or their selection and arrangement, except as expressly authorized herein. In addition, you agree not to use any data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction methods in connection with the Site.
We quickly dropped the idea and realised that in order to be sure that there would be no legal implications regarding our templates, we desinged them from scratch and had the files to prove it.
All of the images used are from paid stock, or authorised by our clients.
The message here is please be careful - using someone's brand to make your template look good is probably in breach of copyright and ultimately serves a harsh penalty - in the UK or US (or anywhere in the world for that matter).
Tips & Tricks & Best Practices with Multithreading and .NET CF
This article will discuss various multithreading techniques for improving user experience on a Mobile Device. We will start off with calling web services asynchronously, updating the UI from a separate thread and creating a search progress screen. We will finish off with putting all the techniques together and creating a sample application to access the GoogleTM Search APIs from a PocketPC.
For the further details go through http://msdn.microsoft.com/canada/btl/apr_winner.asp
For the further details go through http://msdn.microsoft.com/canada/btl/apr_winner.asp
MSSQL and Security
When planning a secure MS SQL-based computer system you have to focus on several key elements: an appropriate installation with proper access rights, well-set rules for MS SQL users and a mechanism which would register all the operations performed in a database so that in case of problems the administrator could take closer and easier guesses about their real source. Moreover, do not forget that you have to design emergency procedures, such as data recovery and transferring them to another server, and test them, too.
For the Further details please go to http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/MSSQL-Security.html
For the Further details please go to http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/MSSQL-Security.html
EMS MS SQL Manager
EMS MS SQL Manager™ is a powerful graphical tool for Microsoft® SQL Server and MSDE administration and development. It makes creating and editing MS SQL Server database objects easy and fast, and allows you to run SQL scripts, manage users and their privileges, build SQL queries visually, extract, print and search metadata, export data to 15 available formats and import them from most popular formats, view and edit BLOB fields, and much more.
Key Features
Microsoft® SQL 2005 Support
Powerful and easy-to-use graphical user interface
Rapid database management and navigation
Easy management of all Microsoft® SQL objects
Advanced data manipulation tools
Powerful security management
Excellent visual and text tools for query building
Impressive data export and import abilities
Easy-to-use wizards performing Microsoft® SQL administrative tasks.
Available Versions
EMS MS SQL Manager Professional for Windows
EMS MS SQL Manager Professional is a powerful graphical tool for Microsoft® SQL Server and MSDE administration and development. Its easy-to-use graphical interface and a lot of features will make your work with the MS SQL as easy as it can be!
Compare Download Buy options
EMS MS SQL Manager Lite for Windows
EMS MS SQL Manager Lite is a light and easy-to-use freeware graphical tool for MS SQL/MSDE administration. It has minimal required set of instruments for those users who are new to MS SQL server and need only it's basic functionality.
Compare Download
Related Products
MS SQL Data Export
MS SQL Data Import
MS SQL Data Pump
MS SQL Data Generator
MS SQL DB Comparer
MS SQL Query
Key Features
Microsoft® SQL 2005 Support
Powerful and easy-to-use graphical user interface
Rapid database management and navigation
Easy management of all Microsoft® SQL objects
Advanced data manipulation tools
Powerful security management
Excellent visual and text tools for query building
Impressive data export and import abilities
Easy-to-use wizards performing Microsoft® SQL administrative tasks.
Available Versions
EMS MS SQL Manager Professional for Windows
EMS MS SQL Manager Professional is a powerful graphical tool for Microsoft® SQL Server and MSDE administration and development. Its easy-to-use graphical interface and a lot of features will make your work with the MS SQL as easy as it can be!
Compare Download Buy options
EMS MS SQL Manager Lite for Windows
EMS MS SQL Manager Lite is a light and easy-to-use freeware graphical tool for MS SQL/MSDE administration. It has minimal required set of instruments for those users who are new to MS SQL server and need only it's basic functionality.
Compare Download
Related Products
MS SQL Data Export
MS SQL Data Import
MS SQL Data Pump
MS SQL Data Generator
MS SQL DB Comparer
MS SQL Query
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Google plans to commercialize library content
The University of Michigan library was aware that Google has a commercial interest in obtaining digital copies of its copyrighted material.
There is a PDF file at the University of Michigan website that was created by John Wilkin on December 13, 2004. In this file he includes a screen shot that demonstrates how Google plans to display snippets from copyrighted material. Notice the Google ads on the screen. Google is acquiring the U of M library for the purpose of making money, and that's just fine with the library.
However, it is also violates Section 108 of copyright law, which says that libraries can make copies under certain restricted conditions, one of which is "the reproduction or distribution is made without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage." This is just one of several apparent violations of copyright by the library.
The Regents of the University of Michigan should immediately instruct the library to withhold all copyrighted material from Google.
Letter to the University president: Page 1 Page 2
Letter to a University lawyer: Page 1 of 1
Letter to the Regents' representative: Page 1 Page 2
University of Michigan FOIA request: Page 1 of 1
Letter to Stanford University Library: Page 1 Page 2
Letter to Harvard University Library: Page 1 Page 2
There is a PDF file at the University of Michigan website that was created by John Wilkin on December 13, 2004. In this file he includes a screen shot that demonstrates how Google plans to display snippets from copyrighted material. Notice the Google ads on the screen. Google is acquiring the U of M library for the purpose of making money, and that's just fine with the library.
However, it is also violates Section 108 of copyright law, which says that libraries can make copies under certain restricted conditions, one of which is "the reproduction or distribution is made without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage." This is just one of several apparent violations of copyright by the library.
The Regents of the University of Michigan should immediately instruct the library to withhold all copyrighted material from Google.
Letter to the University president: Page 1 Page 2
Letter to a University lawyer: Page 1 of 1
Letter to the Regents' representative: Page 1 Page 2
University of Michigan FOIA request: Page 1 of 1
Letter to Stanford University Library: Page 1 Page 2
Letter to Harvard University Library: Page 1 Page 2
PageRank: Google's Original Sin
By 1998, the dot-com gold rush was in full swing. Web search engines had been around since 1995, and had been immediately touted by high-tech pundits (and Forbes magazine) as one more element in the magical mix that would make us all rich. Such innovations meant nothing less than the end of the business cycle.
But the truth of the matter, as these same pundits conceded after the crash, was that the false promise of easy riches put bottom-line pressures on companies that should have known better. One of the most successful of the earliest search engines was AltaVista, then owned by Digital Equipment Corporation. By 1998 it began to lose its way. All the pundits were talking "portals," so AltaVista tried to become a portal, and forgot to work on improving their search ranking algorithms.
Even by 1998, it was clear that too many results were being returned by the average search engine for the one or two keywords that were entered by the searcher. AltaVista offered numerous ways to zero in on specific combinations of keywords, but paid much less attention to the "ranking" problem. Ranking, or the ordering of returned results according to some criteria, was where the action should have been. Users don't want to figure out Boolean logic, and they will not be looking at more than the first twenty matches out of the thousands that might be produced by a search engine. What really matters is how useful the first page of results appears on search engine A, as opposed to the results produced by the same terms entered into engine B. AltaVista was too busy trying to be a portal to notice that this was important.
But the truth of the matter, as these same pundits conceded after the crash, was that the false promise of easy riches put bottom-line pressures on companies that should have known better. One of the most successful of the earliest search engines was AltaVista, then owned by Digital Equipment Corporation. By 1998 it began to lose its way. All the pundits were talking "portals," so AltaVista tried to become a portal, and forgot to work on improving their search ranking algorithms.
Even by 1998, it was clear that too many results were being returned by the average search engine for the one or two keywords that were entered by the searcher. AltaVista offered numerous ways to zero in on specific combinations of keywords, but paid much less attention to the "ranking" problem. Ranking, or the ordering of returned results according to some criteria, was where the action should have been. Users don't want to figure out Boolean logic, and they will not be looking at more than the first twenty matches out of the thousands that might be produced by a search engine. What really matters is how useful the first page of results appears on search engine A, as opposed to the results produced by the same terms entered into engine B. AltaVista was too busy trying to be a portal to notice that this was important.
Yahoo! launches health blogs
Yahoo! as launched a range of interesting health blogs, covering topics including yoga, nutrition, diabetes, depression, cholesterol, breast cancer and asthma.
The blogs are written by experts in their field, and include an RSS feed, comments (although Yahoo! registration is required) and permalink options, although the branding is simple and generic across the various blogs under the Yahoo! Health Beta banner.
Steve Rubel suggests that theses new blogs could be part of a strategy by Yahoo! to build their own consumer blog network, however comparing the two is like comparing chalk and cheese. Whilst the Yahoo! blogs have the ability to build traffic through leveraging the Yahoo! brand name, posting a couple of times a week doesn’t normally make for a lot of repeat viewing.
The blogs are written by experts in their field, and include an RSS feed, comments (although Yahoo! registration is required) and permalink options, although the branding is simple and generic across the various blogs under the Yahoo! Health Beta banner.
Steve Rubel suggests that theses new blogs could be part of a strategy by Yahoo! to build their own consumer blog network, however comparing the two is like comparing chalk and cheese. Whilst the Yahoo! blogs have the ability to build traffic through leveraging the Yahoo! brand name, posting a couple of times a week doesn’t normally make for a lot of repeat viewing.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Add-on Components for SSIS
I've just discovered a new 3rd party add-on for Integration Services by Ivolva.com. There is a SSIS wizard http://www.ivolva.com/ssis_wizards.html which simplifies the process of creating a custom task or data flow component.
There is also the Extra Sort component http://www.ivolva.com/extrasort.html which apparently provides enchanced performance for sorting large data sets. I'll take a look at these add-ons and post my comments later.
I've just discovered a new 3rd party add-on for Integration Services by Ivolva.com. There is a SSIS wizard http://www.ivolva.com/ssis_wizards.html which simplifies the process of creating a custom task or data flow component.
There is also the Extra Sort component http://www.ivolva.com/extrasort.html which apparently provides enchanced performance for sorting large data sets. I'll take a look at these add-ons and post my comments later.
Using SQL Server 7.0/2000 in a Hyper-Threaded Environment
I've just read an good article which discusses using SQL Server in a hyper-threaded environment http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322385. To cut a long story short, we recommend that the maxdop (maximum degree of parallelism) setting should remain equal to the number of physical processors that are being used.
Performance
"[]...The performance of hyper-threaded environments varies. Conservative testing has shown 10 to 20 percent gains for SQL Server workloads, but the application patterns have a significant affect. You might find that some applications do not receive an increase in performance by taking advantage of hyper-threading. If the physical processors are already saturated, using logical processors can actually reduce the workload achieved. For example, applications that cause high levels of contention can cause decreased performance in a hyper-threaded environment. We recommend that you test your application thoroughly to make sure that a hyper-threaded environment provides you the performance gain that you want versus the purchase of equivalent physical CPUs. Hyper-threading can be very helpful but hyper-threading cannot replace the full power of an additional physical CPU"
Sneak Peak at Developer Enhancements
The PDC session abstracts have been published, and although they are written in a fairly oblique way (very deliberately I suspect) they still provide an early taster of the fun to come for developers with Office 12.
Forms Server
Creating Browser-Based InfoPath Forms...hosting the server form control in an interactive custom aspx page. [More details on the Forms Server that first saw the light of day last week]
InfoPath 12
...deeper integration with Visual Studio Tools for Office…new all-managed object model...reuse your work through form template parts...integrate InfoPath forms into your own application by hosting InfoPath as an ActiveX or WinForm control [Yes! I know so many ISVs who will love this! ]...extend InfoPath itself through COM add-ins.
User Interface
...new, declarative model for customizing the Office user interface using XML [mmm… a kind of XAML for Office then]
Outlook 12
...fundamental changes that will make 'Outlook 12' a better development platform...more robust, usable and manageable...significant changes in programming the user interaction, the core object model and performance. [This sounds like a big one. Outlook has always had a pretty tricky object model to master.]
Word 12
...takes XML document programmability to a new level, offering new flexibility and intuitive user interaction...enable a greater use of custom-defined schema [Good to see the commitment to XML in Word continuing]
All the PDC session abstracts are available at http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/sessions.aspx.
If you want to get along to PDC this Sept, registrations are still open.
The PDC session abstracts have been published, and although they are written in a fairly oblique way (very deliberately I suspect) they still provide an early taster of the fun to come for developers with Office 12.
Forms Server
Creating Browser-Based InfoPath Forms...hosting the server form control in an interactive custom aspx page. [More details on the Forms Server that first saw the light of day last week]
InfoPath 12
...deeper integration with Visual Studio Tools for Office…new all-managed object model...reuse your work through form template parts...integrate InfoPath forms into your own application by hosting InfoPath as an ActiveX or WinForm control [Yes! I know so many ISVs who will love this! ]...extend InfoPath itself through COM add-ins.
User Interface
...new, declarative model for customizing the Office user interface using XML [mmm… a kind of XAML for Office then]
Outlook 12
...fundamental changes that will make 'Outlook 12' a better development platform...more robust, usable and manageable...significant changes in programming the user interaction, the core object model and performance. [This sounds like a big one. Outlook has always had a pretty tricky object model to master.]
Word 12
...takes XML document programmability to a new level, offering new flexibility and intuitive user interaction...enable a greater use of custom-defined schema [Good to see the commitment to XML in Word continuing]
All the PDC session abstracts are available at http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/sessions.aspx.
If you want to get along to PDC this Sept, registrations are still open.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
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