John Mandia's Points of Interest

This is just out.

I'm quite happy that msft are offering more services with the express edition (Reporting and Full Text Catalogs) and I'm sure it will help win over more people.

Can't wait until it goes RTM:

SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services (SQLEXPR_ADV.EXE)
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Services is a new, free version of SQL Server Express that includes additional features for reporting and advanced text based searches. In addition to the features offered in SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, SQL Server Express with Advanced Services offers additional components that include SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE), support for full-text catalogs, and support for viewing reports via report server. SQL Server Express Edition with Advanced Services also includes SP1.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=57856cdd-da9b-4ad0-9a8a-f193ae8410ad&displaylang=en

P.S Is it me or is 600GB Hard drive a bit high for system requirements :D

Enjoy.

Hi All,

For those of  you who were waiting for this release you can now grab it from the following url:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5A14E870-406B-4F2A-B723-97BA84AE80B5&displaylang=en


Enjoy!

John

After digging around and finding a solution I decided to post it as an update to the original post in case other people come across the same problem:

Update: See End

Oleg Tkachenko released a .Net 2 xml control in December which offers a nice number of features over the xml control that comes out of the box:

I found some very useful links via Paschal's blog:

Well it's been a while since my last blog post so I would like to thank Rob and Alex for helping me get back into my account!

Well 2005 is nearly over (man did it go fast) and it's been a hectic one at that (The highlight of which was getting married to my girlfriend Maria).

.Net 2 is now out and I've only just started looking at it properly (Yes shame on me :D). There's a lot of things I like so far and a few things I don't (And personally I can't wait for Resharper 2 to be released) but I'm currently working through professional asp.net 2 to get me up to speed (good book although I'm not 100% sure it's based on the RTM version as the section on the wizard control refers to a property that has been renamed).

Have installed FF 1.5 with the del.icio.us extension and I'm quite enjoying the ability to have a central place for all my favourites (Recently set up a NAS device so this helps complete the picture with regards to accessing all my things easily regardless of which pc/laptop I'm using).

Anyway with the wedding planning behind me and the bills paid :D I'm hoping to blog a bit more about interesting things as I come across
 them.

John

Hi All,

Now I've seen a lot of emails go round before offering free laptops, ipods etc but apparently this one is the real deal and has even been covered by the bbc website.

Here is the link:  www.FreeIpods.com

You sign up and then fill in a form and spread the word.

BBC Link is here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3683524.stm

Hope it proves fruitful for you.

John