Moving SQL table text/image to a new filegroup Apr 18, 2010

Another post for ASP.NET/SQL developers reading this blog. If you think these posts do not belong here, please leave a comment, and I'll consider moving my development articles to a separate blog.

When you move an SQL-table to a new filegroup via the clustered-index recreation procedure, only "elementary" datatypes are moved (like "int", "datetime", "varchar" etc). Text, image, varbinary(max) and similar columns (aka "BLOB-fields") will stay at their current location. If you click the "storage" settings for the table under the "properties" context menu item, you'll see that the "text filegroup" is the same as before!

The "text filegroup" can't be changed without re-creating a table. And I bet you've seen this phrase a million times while googling for a solution, right? Ok, we need to re-create the table and copy all the data into this new table. But who wants to do this manually? Drop and re-create a table with all the indexes, foreign-keys, primary keys, identities... Ain't there an automated procedure for this?

There is. But it took me hours to find it in "SQL Management Studio". Here are the steps:

0. In MS SQL Management Studio click "Tools - Options - Designer" and UNcheck the "Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation" box.

1. Right-click the table and select "Design" for SQL 2008 or "Modify" for SQL 2005.

2. Press F4 to open the "properties" window.

3. Make sure that you have the table (!) selected on top of the "properties" window.

4. Change the "text filegroup" for the table.

5. Wait! DO NOT save your changes. The SQL-server most likely will throw a timeout error for your large table.

6. Instead choose "Generate change script" and copy the resulting text to the new query window.

7. Run the query.

8. Be patient. I just ran this on our helpdesk database, for the table that holds 39 GB of data and it took more than 2 hours to complete.

Nokia Nenya - control your cellphone with a ring on your finger Apr 15, 2010

Unlike Google Motion, this is not an April Fool's Joke, but a real concept product from Finnish cell phone giant Nokia.

Read more »

Alice in iPad-land Apr 14, 2010

Some say they will never give up paper books, the experience of holding a book in hands rivals no other. I somewhat agree. But here's some new experience:

Heading for NYC Apr 13, 2010

I will be visiting NYC in late May. Just booked the transatlantic Delta tickets.

Would love to meet any mISVers, startup-owners, entrepreneurs in the area and grab a beer or two... Send me an email, or a twitter message if interested. I'm free evenings of May 27 and 28.

What's so great about iPad? Apr 11, 2010

Eric Sink has recently posted a great phrase:

We're heading toward two classes of computers: one for people like me, and one for people like my Mom.

Exactly.

Apple's iPad has helped me realize something. Some day, only a couple of years from now, there will be people, who's first computer would be - an iPad.

Some day, 5-10 years from today, there will be people, who won't know what files or folders are.

What does this mean for startups, mISV's, programmers/entepreneurs? I guess - that they should forget about desktop apps in the near future. Target the Web.

Jitbit WYSIWYG-BBCode editor at CodePlex Apr 8, 2010

Our free WYSIWYG BBCode editor is now hosted at CodePlex. Please update your bookmarks and spread the word. Contributions are more than welcome.

WYSIWYG BBCode @ CodePlex

PS. We also consider going open source with other free Jitbit products, like Log2Sql.

[Jitbit Blog]: New server, SSL support for hosted products Apr 5, 2010

1. New server. Good Friday was a disaster. Our main server was down for a couple of hours. It had run out of the non-paged kernel memory. Thank God it was nighttime. And thank God it was Good Friday. But I've had enough. We are done with our current providers and we are in the process of moving to a brand new server, in a new datacenter (downtown Denver), with a new technology (Hyper-V instead of Virtuozzo) and a new operating system (Windows Server 2008 instead of 2003). I hope we'll finish things up in the next few days (fingers crossed) keeping it seamless for our users and customers.

2. SSL support for hosted products we're in the process of adding SSL support for our hosted web-based applications - our Hosted CRM Software and Hosted Helpdesk Software - to protect our customers' sensitive data from unauthorized parties. We already have SSL-certificates installed, so it's the matter of moving to the new server.

Top tools for Startups & mISV's Apr 4, 2010

Here's a short list of handy development tools used in Jitbit and useful for any startup:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition - this edition is free. Just like our next item....

MS SQL Server Express 2005 or 2008 which is a full-blown database server despite of the name. The only thing I miss in the Express edition is jobs, but they can be easily emulated.

Ankhsvn - a free Subversion plugin for Visual Studio. And consider buying some storage from an SVN-hosting provider. There are plenty of affordable solutions, even the free ones.

IcoFX - a great free icon editor. The one built into Visual Studio lacks the alpha-channel compatibility.

TrueCrypt - a free open source disk encryption tool. All our source codes and sensitive customer data for Hosted Helpdesk and Hosted CRM is stored on encrypted drives maintained by this tool. The drives are easy to backup by the way - just make a daily copy of the container file. This great security tool can even crypt your C: drive on the fly.

Microsoft SEO Toolkit which I already blogged about.

Google Street View Goes Stereo

Google street view now features a new icon:



That makes you regret you have no 3D-glasses at home.



(link to this place in Paris)

What if Amazon was based in Cyprus Apr 2, 2010

European leaders reached an agreement with Amazon early on Monday to cut some of the data in all cloud-storage accounts.

They are introducing what the Eurogroup calls "an upfront one-off stability levy" on cloud-storages. The levy takes 6.75 percent from all storage accounts under 100 gigabytes and 9.9 percent of all cloud-storage accounts above 100 gigabytes.

Amazon datacenters are closed on Monday for a scheduled holiday but we will find out on Tuesday whether people are willing to keep their data in the cloud-storage accounts in a country that occasionally imposes “one-off stability levies” – most things that people claim are one-off aren’t.

A Paris-based trader said: "The loss of confidence in the cloud storage system stemming from this crisis will not only weigh on the storage providers but also on the economy of the region."

The long lines at datacenters Saturday disappeared temporarily — mainly because the servers had been drained of data.

Lots of geeks around me (not just my US-based friends, even the EU folks) tend to underestimate the Cyprus problem... You know why? We - the geeks - are used to living in abstract imaginary worlds. Geeks are never motivated by money. For geeks, "money" - anything bigger than paying rent or buying food - have always been some abstract "number". Even when a geek starts a business and makes a million dollars - it's still just a number. He never measures a million dollars in Lamborghini's or houses. Simply because he doesn't give a crap about Lamborghini's. It's just a number. "Look my number is bigger than Joey's... Cool, let's order pizza and play some Playstation"

I just rephrased the Cyprus story in a way any Geek would understand.