Did you know that the MSSQL Tiger Team has a GitHub repo?

I just found out that the Microsoft SQL Server Tiger team has a GitHub repository where they host a bunch of SQL Server scripts

It is called the tigertoolbox. In the image below, you can see what is in this repository

You can find that repository here: https://github.com/Microsoft/tigertoolbox

If you want, you can watch this repo, you will then be notified for any changes to any of  the files

Also make sure to follow the @mssqltiger twitter account to stay up to date with any news from the MS Tiger Team.

Finally, make sure to add their blog to your favorite rss reader: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sql_server_team/

SSMS Tools PACK 1.0 is now available

Mladen Prajdić just released SSMS Tools PACK 1.0. SSMS Tools PACK is an Add-In (Add-On) for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express.

Here are some of the features

Uppercase/Lowercase keywords.
Run one script on multiple databases.
Copy execution plan bitmaps to clipboard.
Search Results in Grid Mode and Execution Plans.
Generate Insert statements for a single table, the whole database or current resultsets in grids.
Query Execution History (Soft Source Control).
Text document Regions and Debug sections.
Running custom scripts from Object explorer's Context menu.
CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) stored procedure generation.
New query template.

Check it out here: http://www.ssmstoolspack.com/Main.aspx

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (January 2008) Available For Download

This download is the January 2008 release of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer.

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DA0531E4-E94C-4991-82FA-F0E3FBD05E63&displaylang=en

Retrace : A SQL Profiler Trace Swiss Army Knife

Have you ever needed to find your most expensive queries and quickly grew weary of writing T-SQL against trace tables to try to ferret them out? Have you ever had to wade through gigabytes of trace data just to find one ill-behaving query? Have you ever struggled to decide what performance metrics really matter when analyzing Profiler traces: duration, reads, writes, etc? Ken Henderson's post is about a new tool Bart and Ken wrote to help you do all this and more.



Check it out here: http://blogs.msdn.com/khen1234/archive/2007/12/12/a-sql-profiler-trace-swiss-army-knife.aspx

Check Your SQL For SQL Injection Vulnerabilities By Using These 15 Free SQL Injection Scanners

Memorial day is over, back to work. Your first task is to check for SQL Injections
Securiry Hacks has listed 15 of them, that list is here:

SQLIer
SQLbftools
SQL Injection Brute-forcer - SQLibf
SQLBrute
BobCat
SQLMap
Absinthe
SQL Injection Pen-testing Tool
SQID
Blind SQL Injection Perl Tool
SQL Power Injection Injector
FJ-Injector Framwork
SQLNinja
Automagic SQL Injector
NGSS SQL Injector

Read the details and get the download links here: http://www.security-hacks.com/2007/05/18/top-15-free-sql-injection-scanners

If you are using a lot of dynamic SQL then don't forget to read The Curse and Blessings of Dynamic SQL written by Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP.

30 + Tools and Hacks for Gmail

This makeuseof site has some cool Gmail hacks and tools. There are FireFox Extensions, GreaseMonkey scripts,Desktop APPS & Web TOOLS and plain old tips and hacks. The ones that I like the best are Gmail attachment icons and label colors. below is an image of all these things in action

Link: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gmail-craze-30-tools-to-make-your-gmail-better/

Google Buys Gapminder

If you work with data and are trying to visualize this data then you will appreciate Google's latest purchase Gapminder. Gapminder and Google share an enthusiasm for technology that makes data easily accessible and understandable to the world. Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software unveils the beauty of statistics by converting boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations. I found Human Development Trends, 2005 the more interesting application (two screenshots are at the bottom of this post). This application shows you visually that the number of poorest people continues to increase while the richer are getting richer among other things. There is also another application available: Gapminder World, 2006. You can see a screenshot of that app at the top of this post. Click on the images to see a bigger image or better yet visit the URL to see these apps in action. Also make sure to visit http://www.gapminder.org/links/data/. this URL contains links to the following sites:

GeoHive - the World in Regions
Nationmaster
OECD Data
Social Watch
Statistics Sweden (Satistiska Centralbyrån)
Sustainable World
The World Factbook
United Nations Common Database (UNSCB)
UNESCO Institute for Statistics
World Bank: World Development Indicators
WorldHistory.com

These two images below are from the Human Development Trends, 2005 app.

Don't Know What To Say In Meetings?

So you have these boring meetings and you want to say stuff that sound smart but no one will understand what you talking about. What do you do? Well you use the Web Economy Bullshit Generator of course. This tool mixes a bunch of predefined verbs, adjectives and nouns. The result are gems like these


grow collaborative deliverables
disintermediate ubiquitous web-readiness
seize intuitive users
orchestrate integrated portals


So go ahead and give it a try: http://dack.com/web/bullshit.html

I could have sworn I saw some of these phrases in books ;-)

GMail Storage Will Be 3560 MB on April 1st 2012

Gmail's quota will continue to increase in the following years.

What to expect in the future:

2835 MB on April 1st 2007
2980 MB on April 1st 2008
3125 MB on April 1st 2009
3270 MB on April 1st 2010
3415 MB on April 1st 2011
3560 MB on April 1st 2012

As you can see, Gmail's storage will increase with 145 MB a year. Great for storing all that spam. Now I wish they could increase the message size to 20MB from the current 10MB.

More detail here: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/03/gmails-updated-quotas.html

SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports Available For Download

The SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports are Reporting Services report files designed to be used with the Custom Reports feature introduced in the SP2 release of SQL Server Management Studio. The reports allow a database administrator to quickly identify whether there is a current bottleneck on their system, and if a bottleneck is present, capture additional diagnostic data that may be necessary to resolve the problem. For example, if the system is experiencing waits for disk IO the dashboard allows the user to quickly see which sessions are performing the most IO, what query is running on each session and the query plan for each statement.

Common performance problems that the dashboard reports may help to resolve include:
- CPU bottlenecks (and what queries are consuming the most CPU)
- IO bottlenecks (and what queries are performing the most IO).
- Index recommendations generated by the query optimizer (missing indexes)
- Blocking
- Latch contention

The information captured in the reports is retrieved from SQL Server's dynamic management views. There is no additional tracing or data capture required, which means the information is always available and this is a very inexpensive means of monitoring your server.

Reporting Services is not required to be installed to use the Performance Dashboard Reports.

Keep in mind that the SQL Server instance being monitored must be running SP2 or later.
So what are you waiting for? dowmload it and read the details here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1D3A4A0D-7E0C-4730-8204-E419218C1EFC&displaylang=en

SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (February 2007 CTP) Available For Download

As if you did not download enough in the last 3 days here is one more: SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (February 2007 CTP)

The SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) gathers data from Microsoft Windows and SQL Server configuration settings. BPA uses a predefined list of SQL Server 2005 recommendations and best practices to determine if there are potential issues in the database environment.

This download is the February 2007 Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2005 Best Practices Analyzer.