Archive for August, 2005

It was most excellent to receive a message this evening from Derek Hatchard regarding Atlantic Canada’s First Code Camp. This is awesome! So if you are in NB, Nova Scotia, PEI and heck even Newfoundland, you should totally get your butt over to Moncton on October 15th for what I suspect will be an awesome code camp. Code camps are gaining hugely in popularity due to the massive value that developers can get out of them so I really couldn’t be more impressed to see one get started here in Atlantic Canada. Great stuff Derek!

From Derek’s Message:

I am very excited to announce the first ever Atlantic Canada CodeCamp to be held Saturday 15 October 2005 in Moncton, NB. A CodeCamp is a community-driven, all-day event for developers. Speakers are local or regional developers. Topics are based on community interest. Sessions are original and feature a heavy technical focus (no marketing fluff). And best of all, it is FREE!

We are looking for speakers from the Atlantic region to submit session proposals for this unique and exciting event. An official Call for Speakers with a submission template will be coming very soon. In the meantime, if you are interested in presenting or know someone who would be a great speaker, please email me at CodeCamp@ardentdev.com.

We will also have an online registration process in place soon. Until then, it would be a tremendous help to hear back from you with a response (Yes, No, or Maybe) to the question “Will you attend the Atlantic Canada CodeCamp on October 15?” If your answer is “No”, it would be great to hear why you are not interested in attending. Thanks so much!

For more details, watch the Web site at http://www.atlanticcodecamp.ca/. We hope to have times and location nailed down later this week.

How many of you have run into this when setting up the SQL Server Reporting Pack for SharePoint?

Steve found this post today when he ran into the same problem setting this up. Not a whole lot of documentation on the issue so I figured I would point to this post as well to pass the word.

SYMPTOMS
After you have installed and configured the SQL Report Pack for SharePoint on a SharePoint Portal webserver and started extracting the WSS and IIS logfiles, you encounter the following error when running the DEP tool RPDataExtraction.exe.

Copying data from the staging database to the reporting database… Data extraction failed at 99/99/9999 99:99:99 AM

Details:
System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException
String or binary data would be truncated.
The statement has been terminated.

CAUSE
This problem is caused by some field size truncation of temporary tables when they are initially created and rows are inserted that exceeded the size of the field. Specifically, it can be traced to two stored procedures inside the dbSPSReporting database:

The usp_Insert_FactFileStorage stored procedure creates a temporary table called tblTempFileStorage_toFactStorage where the field FileType is wrongly defined as nVarChar(25). It needs to match the DocType field from the dbSPSReporting.dbo.tblDocs table.

The usp_Insert_FactWSS stored procedure creates a temporary table called tblTempWSS_ToFactLoad which have 3 fields that are defined incorrectly. The WSSDate, WSSUser, and WSSDoc fields need to match the corresponding fields from dbSPSReportingStaging.dbo.tblWSSLogData table.

RESOLUTION
To resolve the issue, edit the stored procedures that are causing the error inside the dbSPSReporting database

Modify usp_Insert_FactFileStorage
In line 48, column 20, modify the field size definition of FileType to be 255
Modify usp_Insert_FactWSS
In line 45, column 11, modify the field type definition of WSSDate to be smalldatetime
In Line 47, column 20, modify the field size definition of WSSUser to be 255.
In line 48, column 20, modify the field size definition of WSSDoc to be 255

Wow thanks guys for all of you who took a moment to let me know what you think regarding the best aggregators on the market right now. Some suggestions I have received so far include:

FeedDemon
Bloglines
RSSBandit
Omea Pro
Attensa
Pluck

So I guess I have a bit of testing to do. Both FeedDemon and Bloglines come highly recommended as they were the most popular suggestions by far that I received from those who emailed in past 24 hours. But I want to work my way down the list and try them all.

Once I get through the list I will report back on how my experience went. It might take some mind shifting for me to get used to a web based aggregator although part of me feels that might be exactly what I need.

Also I have to give credit to Newsgator for following up with me within 24 hours on the trouble I reported that I was having with their product on my blog. Nice to see they are keeping that close a watch on the pulse of the community. I respect that. I also didn’t realize they had purchased FeedDemon until some others told me about it. Perhaps I need to pay closer attention to what is going on.

Thanks again everyone! With my comments disabled I was after forgetting about how great a conversation can be through a weblog.

I already blogged about this a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to give a quick reminder to everyone that topic submission and voting for the Birds of a Feather sessions for PDC is about to close.

You have until August 28th to get your topic in or vote on the sessions you would like to see. Please don’t procrastinate and miss the deadline.

I really encourage those of you in the development and SharePoint communities that are registered to attend PDC to get involved. It’s a great way for you to be a part of an amazing conference and lead a discussion on a topic you are passionate about.

Submit a Proposal or Vote Now!

This is a handy release for those looking for more info on deploying SPS. An area somewhat difficult to tackle for the newly appointed SharePoint admin. Looks fabulous! Notice the reference to how to use the SQL Service Report Pack that was released some time last month.

SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit

The SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit includes a series of discovery labs that go beyond learning about a particular component of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 to understanding how to build a divisional portal site solution, how to deploy Web applications that integrate tightly with the portal site environment, how to use SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services to track and analyze portal site usage, and lastly, how to customize the portal site user interface.

There are 6 labs in the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Discovery Kit. The lab manuals includes a description of the business scenario that is addressed by the lab, the teaching objectives of the lab, step-by-step instructions, dependencies for each lab and the expected amount of time needed for the lab assuming a basic familiarity with Windows SharePoint Services and limited SharePoint Portal Server 2003 experience.

This looks pretty interesting. Apparently Microsoft are planning to release all 2 Halo games plus the map pack in a compilation package according to a listing on EBGames. Personally it wouldn’t interest me much but might be nice for those who don’t have either Halo and are looking to get playing.

Speaking of Halo I haven’t played in ages. Maybe its time to start up since they are working on a movie now. That was pretty much expected after the books and massive success of the game. Should be entertaining.

I have been playing a bit of Forza the past couple of nights however. Fun game – unforgiving at times – but fun. If you are up for a race, my gamertag is PunchingBoot.

Funny how racing games never get old for me. Especially considering I drive like a 90 year old in real life.

So what is everyone using as their RSS Aggregator of choice these days? I have am officially fed up with Newsgator due to some performance issues that seem to be bugging me more and more everyday. I was a major fan of the application for the past couple of years but it is just too much of a hog for me lately. I loved the Outlook integration due to the fact I was able to forward posts easily and utilize the Search Folder functionality in Outlook to track my favorite topics. But it’s time for a change so I am looking for some suggestions from the experts. Let me know! My comments are disabled due to spam so just drop me a line please.

And the blogging is boooooring! From my blog anyhow. Between a couple of exciting projects at work, lots of community related stuff with INETA & SharePoint and what appears to be the first signs of summer here in Paradise (only by name) – I am having a very hard time keeping up with regular posts. Forgive me.

Luckily others are on the ball such as Bil Simser with his initative for collecting site and list templates as well as allowing people to view the templates released by Microsoft a couple of weeks ago. Bil always impresses me with his attitude towards community involvement.

Tariq has started blogging more too. Tariq is the ultimate SharePoint contact aggregator. His weekly msn chats where he invites all of us to meet and greet have become a favorite of mine – even when I’m too busy to talk, the lurking is fun. Yesterday Tariq brought along Andrew Connell and Heather Solomon to meet everyone. I have been following their blogs for a while but it was nice to finally connect “in person” (So to speak).

Shane has even revived from his hiatus and is punching away on another segment of his SharePoint design tutorial on creating SharePoint templates. The start of a lot of great things to come from him. If you need templates, themes and site definition advice, I assure you he is the man. He did the design and construction of our SharePoint Nation site for the virtual user group. Maybe if I am nice he will let me post some screencaps.

Jan Tielens appears from a brief disappearance in an Officezealot podcast on SharePoint. I haven’t actually checked this out yet but I am looking forward to it.

Also remember if you are looking for a good list of SharePoint bloggers, be sure to check out Mark’s list here. It rules! He even has an opml that you can download and import directly to your aggregator.

Major Nelson has posted information from Microsoft’s announcement of the price and package details of the Xbox 360. The $399 package looks pretty sweet if I do say so myself. Let the preorder madness begin! I couldn’t justify a pre-order without knowing how much something would be and what it would include.

The $399 USD Package

The $299 USD Package

Two of the guys I have the pleasure of working on the INETA Community Activities division with are Matt Ranlett and Brendon Schwartz. These guys are community machines. Seriously though – you should see them in action. I met them originally in Orlando through fellow Canadian (and very cool guy) Rob Zelt and have been continuously impressed ever since.

Anyhow one of the many cool ideas that I have seen them come up with lately has been their SharePoint 123 training series. It’s a series of training presentations aimed at the 100, 200 and 300 levels. Amazing stuff and I am hoping to collaborate with them a bit to see if we can get their idea rolling with our soon to be released Virtual User Group site. Stay tuned!

I so could not resist pointing to Greg’s post on an application called Temptation Blocker that lets you lock yourself out of certain applications that may cause distraction during times when complete concentration is required. What cracked me up is the method to unlock a program – it requires you typing a 32 character string into a text box. It is so perfectly thought out. I mean who is going to slack off if it requires such an annoying effort to do so.

Funny stuff! Now if I could just find something similar for my refrigerator.

Have you ever wanted to be an important part of a GREAT event?!?

My INETA colleague, Stuart Celarier is chairing the Birds of a Feather sessions at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles this September. Stuart did a fabulous job organizing things for Tech Ed in Orlando this past June and I suspect that PDC will be even better. You can now propose a topic to present yourself or vote on topics that you would like to see. Get involved – I did in Orlando and had a great time doing it.

From Stuart’s weblog:

Join us for the community-driven Birds of a Feather sessions at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles this September. Birds of a Feather sessions are open, moderated discussions on topics of shared professional or community interest. The idea is simple: no presentations, no lectures, no slides; just join in a discussion with people who share your interest in a topic.

I am chairing the Birds of a Feather track at PDC05 on behalf of INETA, and I’d like to invite you to take part. After all, Birds of a Feather sessions are all about community involvement — which means it’s all about you. You propose the topics. You vote for the session you want to see. You attend the sessions. And you can even volunteer to help run the sessions. That’s four ways you can get involved!

1 – Propose. You don’t need to be an expert on a topic to propose it at a BoF session, just have a passion for the subject and a willingness to moderate a discussion with people who are interested in the subject. Submit session proposals here now through August 26, 2005. Requires signing in with the Passport you used to register for PDC05.

2 – Vote. How will we know which proposals to select if you don’t tell us? There are seven timeslots for BoF sessions, so you can vote for the seven session you’d most like to attend. Vote for your favorites here now through August 28. You can update your choices as proposals are received. Requires signing in with the Passport you used to register for PDC05.

3 – Attend. Over 1,700 people attended the Birds of a Feather sessions at Tech·Ed 2005. Here’s one comment that sums it up nicely.

[The moderator] was brilliant. Keep getting guys that know their stuff. Also, the open, conversational format was great. I was so tired of looking at PowerPoint by the end of the day that just sitting and talking was a nice break.

4 – Volunteer. Help make the Birds of a Feather sessions a success by volunteering. Be a session host or help us coordinate and provide information. It’s a great way to give back to the community. Write bof@ineta.org with the word ‘Volunteer’ in the subject line if you can help!

For more infomation about the Birds of a Feather sessions, see Community Programs at the PDC05 website. If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you at bof@ineta.org.

Birds of a Feather really do flock together! See you at PDC05!

My dad has consolidated a great page full of links that feature a little something for everyone. I have discovered a couple of great Newfoundland related sites from it including a page featuring some pics of the castle / fortress that is being built in Logy Bay. This building is quite remarkable and impressive to see when flying into St. John’s for landing. The view of the ocean available from this building will in itself make it a priceless location. Often a topic of conversation, it’s great to finally have a link to send people when they are looking for pictures of it.