Usman Tjiudri - Another Microsoft BI bloke

SQL Server Denali CTP is available now.

Uzzie — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:33:38 +0000

It’s been awhile since my last post. I’ve been busy with lots of thing. But today I came across the news that I’ve been waiting for, the release of SQL Server Denali CTP. I am so excited and can’t wait to explore it.
It can be downloaded from here. And the “preview” documentation can be found here.

I will post more about SQL 11 once I start to explore it.

That’s all from me today.

Year 2009 – The bad, good and beautiful

Uzzie — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:02:32 +0000

End of year 2009 is just right in the corner. I am writing this post on Christmas eve. I still have one more day to work then I’ll be on holiday till 11 Jan 2010

From career perspective, this year is not a good year for me. I have changed job twice due to some extreme reasons. Sometimes I almost have no idea where am I going to. But as time goes by, I am getting clearer idea what I want to be in the next 3-5 years time. I have decided to stay on Microsoft BI arena because I believe there is still a room for me somewhere in the arena. IMHO, Microsoft had done a good job in BI arena. There are some many improvements and I am excited about SQL Server 2008 R2 which I’ve been using since first time it’s been released.

From family side, we’ve been blessed with a baby girl in June. We are (I am) so happy…. And we have (finally) bought a house. It’s not a big house. It just a duplex with 4 good size bedrooms and plenty of room for our kids. There are so many things to do within this holiday season, especially gardening. I am looking forward to do my gardening activities.

Above of all, I am confident that Year 2010 will be better than Year 2009 and I am looking forward to see a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a happy and successful New Year 2010.

May God Bless Us All,

Uzzie

The “Pivot” by MS Live Labs

Uzzie — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:59:48 +0000

Have you heard about “Pivot” project by MS Live Labs? I came across this interesting project yesterday from Darren Gosbell’s article. I quickly jumped to the site and requested an invitation from MS Live Labs and they have answered my request with 9 extra invitations.
I recommend to watch the video on the website and I bet you’ll be interested too to play with it.

Hope this info useful.

Cheers,
Uzzied

Converting SSRS 2008 R2 RDL back to SSRS 2008 version

Uzzie — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:59:48 +0000

Hi..it’s been awhile I didn’t post anything. Lots of thing happened since my last post. I know that I have to make some time to my blog

In this post, I’d like to share my careless experience by installing two version of BIDS in my work laptop that cause a delay for my team to deploy the report that I’d worked on. So, if you happen to have SQL2008R2 and SQL2008 installed on the same machine AND happen to modify one your RDL file, I promised that you won’t be able to open it in SQL2008 BIDS, which I thought it should because it’s still SQL2008 (silly assumption).
Anyway, to solve the issue OR to convert the RDL back to SQL2008 version, open your RDL file with any text editor and to do the following two replacements:
1. Schema
Look for:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2009/01/reportdefinition“>

Replace it with:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner” xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2008/01/reportdefinition“>

2. Look for:

AND its pair:

If you found it, remove it.

Save the RDL file and ta-da…you can open it again in BIDS 2008 without losing your work.

Hope this post help you.

Cheers,
Uzzie

QUICK NOTE:
Just be careful when you copy and paste Schema section from here into your RDL because the double quotes will turn to some funny character. You need to replace it with correct double quotes.

Off-topic: Windows 7 – First impression.

Uzzie — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:49:54 +0000

I am one of the earlier adopter of Windows 7. Like everyone else, I’ve downloaded Windows 7 Beta build 7000 and installed yesterday. I’ve played with it for couple of hours. My first impression of this beta version was “It’s great”. I have to admitted that Microsoft Team has done a very good job. There are lot of improvements have been made compare with Vista Ultimate that I use, especially performance and user interface side. I know there are lot of people already making their comments and I tend to agree with them, both pro and contra.

My comments:
- Windows 7 performance in terms of speed when booting and restarting is much better than Vista.
- The user interface looks simpler and smoother.
- I use Dell XPS and with Windows 7, I don’t need to install all drivers manually, especially network card driver. Unlike Vista, I have to install the driver manually.
- Setting up wireless connection is much smoother compare to Vista.
- It’s worth to mention that I like the new four colors animated-shiny logo. Very cool
- I have installed Office 2007, latest Firefox and it’s all OK.
- There are some compatibility issues with some software but understandable. I am having problem installing McAfee Internet Security 2008. It allows me to install but I can’t activated.
- I also having problem with Internet Explorer 8.0. When I open a new tab, the new tab keep flicking around (with tick tick sound) – trying to establish connection even though I haven’t typed any URL yet. It’s kind of weird because I have use IE 8.0 on XP 64 bits and runs fine. I never have this issue before.

Alright, that’s all from me about this off-topic Windows 7

Cheers,
Uzzie

Merry Christmas 2008 and Happy New Year 2009

Uzzie — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:49:17 +0000

Dear Readers of MyBlog,

I would like to wish everyone who read my blog a warm and joyful Merry Christmas – 25 December 2008. May God bless all of us and our family.
And also wish you a all the best and success in this coming New Year – 1 January 2009. May next year will bring us more joy, happiness and success…and more BI/DW projects

Cheers Everyone.
Uzzie

.NET framework cleanup tool

Uzzie — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:31:30 +0000

We all know that sometimes when we install or uninstall .net Framework, we always came across some issues and there’s no easy way to clean it up. But Aaron Stebner’s tool will help us to clean it up. You can download the tool from here.

Cheers,
Uzzie

Microsoft BI + Surface computing

Uzzie — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:23:46 +0000

I just came across this very cool youtube video. I highly recommend you to watch it.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=MAbtc_PZOjs

Cheers…
Uzzie

Multiple datasets and case-sensitivity

Uzzie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:09:29 +0000

Hi All,
It’s been awhile since I promised to post more about SSIS and SSAS and I haven’t done so …been a bit busy lately in the office dealing with Reporting Services issue.
I picked up few tips that I thought worth to share:

When you have multiple datasets in your report, make sure you tick “Single Transaction” option in your dataset, otherwise you will receive a call from your DBA telling that you have too many connections
So, if you don’t think that option, SSRS will establish database connection as many as your dataset, even you ONLY open the report (not preview it).
If you have an expression like below:
=CountDistinct(Fields!myField.Value, “myDataset”)
, just keep in mind that the red color part is case-sensitive.

Now back to my promise about SSIS and SSAS:
I am aiming to post example of each task in SSIS 2008 and some explanation with my best knowledge.
As for SSAS – I will try to post some mini example but reflected on real world scenario with SSAS 2008 and exploring new feature.

Till next time.

SQL 2005 SP3 – CTP

Uzzie — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:41:46 +0000

Hellow…just received email from Microsoft download about long-await SQL Server 2005 SP3, but it still CTP at the moment. Download it from here.