Links to Software Security Code reviews

January 15th, 2010

Here is a link of helpful links if you want to double check your existing security code process (y’all do have them – right?):

Note as other are suggested, or I find others I’ll update the list.

SQLite updated webpage… now has search! Happy New Year!

January 8th, 2010

It seems the SQLite folks have added a significant, needed and often requested, feature to the SQLite site.  No the change we are talking about has nothing to do with the SQLite engine, but yes I’m talking about the web site. In the top right side of the website there is a new shiny unobtrusive “Search SQLite Docs…” search box.

So for all us who have spent time searching, or had pages pointed out to us :-) , for options  this is an excellent new years present!

Many thanks to the SQLite guys for both their product, and their handy dandy search feature!

Welcome to the Google Wave – what is the wave (and where is the board)…

November 18th, 2009

This weekend I was officially invited accepted to join the Google Wave. While I was feeling fairly happy with myself I was wondering what to do with the 8 invites I got as well. Luckily for me others I know also got the invite at the same time (guess they lowered the requirements :-) ). Ok for those hiding in a cave or haven’t heard about the buzz, here is what Wave is meant to be:

“Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.”

This is the email that hit my in box across the weekend.
Wave Invite Email

After playing with the software me its like a communal no holds barred whiteboard – but with history tracking. However this whiteboard is written text, graphics, videos etc. People can read or help contribute/refine the whiteboard – which is known in Google terms as a “Wave”. People can be invited late into the Wave, and quickly catchup (or back track depending on your perspective) using the history tracking feature. A friend described is as “cross between a wiki/twitter/blog/im/email.” Its certainly an interesting concept and I can actually see it working well in a number of cases.

Playing with it is certainly revealing and you can quickly see the high level implications of it, but you definitely need either a small group of folks needing to solve a “problem” (be it a BBQ cook out that needs organizing, or a technical design) to really benefit from this collaboration tool (at this time), or you need more adoption to get people to use it more.

Frankly this is pretty exciting – I just need to get a reason/project to use it in more anger now :-)

More information can be found at this [About Google Wave], and the key to its success will be its “Add-in” extensions and the underlying API. I believe the most valuable parts of this whole thing is the API backbone used to power “Wave”, and how far browsers can be pushed to support these very dynamic collaborative applications.

The standard warning however is, this is not production, nor it is even “Beta”, this is “Preview”! So dont put all your eggs in the basket without a backup/backout plan!

Gareth

SQL News – and the fact we have to go to 64 bit and more $

November 14th, 2009

Everyone should know now that there has been a massive amount of Microsoft activity. This article will cover the recent SQL activity, however the big one really is that the tipping point for 64 bit is in progress. This is a shame for me as I’m running 32bit OS, and I’m going to have to pave my machine – but that is the price developers are going to have to pay to play!

  • [What's New in SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions]
    • Biggest first – Price increase! To say I’m disappointed is an understatement in this area. Specifically for developers  already have to support 2005 & 2008. Now they have to deal with R2, and persuade their customers to move to R2 if they want certain features.
    • MDS – Master Data Services – more on this one later. Pretty cool
    • Parallel Data Warehouse release
      • The DATAllegro purchase is now seeing the light as a Microsoft product!
      • Support of very large datasets (100Tb-1Pb). This is definitely something I would like to play with, but at $57,496 per processor…
    • Standard now has backup compression – but with the price tag…
  • [SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP – What’s New In Reporting Services?]
    • Report Builder 3.0 is available! Woohoo!
    • Enhanced sharepoint integration
    • Aggregates of aggregates
    • New Data Visualization Report Items
  • [Using Filtered Statistics with Partitioned Tables]
    • Learn to appreciate filtered statistics!
  • [MDS (Master Data Services) is x64 Only]
    • I totally get this, but this is the tipping point for me to repave my machines :-(
    • With this requiring x64 and many new products requiring Windows 2008, Windows 7 or Vista it seems now is the time to move up.
  • [MSSQL End of service dates for Service packs]
    • Support for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2)  will end on January 12, 2010
    • Support for SQL Server 2008 RTM will end on April 13, 2010

More to come!

Gareth