The SQLARTIST Blog

SQL 2012 - MySemanticSearch Demo with Tag Clouds

sqlartist — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:28:00 GMT

Excellent demonstration of the new SQL Server 2012 Semantic Search feature available at http://mysemanticsearch.codeplex.com Just tried it out on a large Business Intelligence related Microsoft Word collection and also the health related DMOZ collection...(read more)

Denali CTP3 - Semantic Search 2 (Lots of documents)

sqlartist — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:18:00 GMT

Hi again, I thought I would improve on the previous post by actually putting a decent about of content into the Filetable - this time I used the opensource DMOZ Health document repository which contains 5,880 files inside 220 folders. The files are all...(read more)

Denali CTP3 - Semantic Search features

sqlartist — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:59:00 GMT

Long time since I posted but the last post I did mentioned the Semantic Search feature potentially coming in SQL Server. Well its finally here and I finally got to test it out on the Denali CTP3 build. It is not feature complete and only allows Key terms...(read more)

Microsoft Semantic Search

sqlartist — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:56:00 GMT

This is something I really get excitied about - Microsoft Semantic Search. There is an excellent PDC demo and presentation here - http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/SVR32 . Intially I didn't think this was SQL related but I read that it may be included...(read more)

Business Intelligence in SharePoint Server 2010 (Outstanding Poster)

sqlartist — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:01:00 GMT

I have been blown away by the high quality of architecture diagrams and process posters from the SharePoint team back from the beta of 2007. Now SharePoint 2010 is coming I have just come across the work they have been doing for this release and is of...(read more)

Mapping the Brain using SQL Server 2008 Spatial Features

sqlartist — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:37:00 GMT

I have had a problem with my brain for the past few years now and about 3 years ago had a ‘Brain Pacemaker’ fitted – now without going into the gory details (check my facebook for the pictures J ) this involves placing a couple of electrodes into the...(read more)

MapPoint Add-in for SQL Server (Updated with Example)

sqlartist — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Nice :) If you have MSDN you can download MapPoint Europe or US or get the trial from the link below - will be trying this out tonight View and edit your SQL data on a map. It’s quick, low cost, and doesn’t require special training. To get started you...(read more)

Live Meeting: Creating a Star Schema and OLAP Cubes

sqlartist — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:06:00 GMT

Hi, I just finished my first live meeting for the UK SQL Server user group on the subject of creating a star schema and OLAP cubes. I think it went well, it was recorded so Ill let you all be the judge of that - presentation to follow. I spoke way too...(read more)

Thinking outside the box - impressive

sqlartist — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:13:00 GMT

I cant believe I have missed this blog for so long but I came across a site last night that is just plain exciting for people who love Transact-SQL. "Thinking outside the box" - http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/peterl/Default.aspx has some of the...(read more)

Avanade & Princes Trust Business Intelligence Training

sqlartist — Wed, 20 May 2009 13:51:00 GMT

During the past two weeks the company I work for was asked by the Princes Trust to provide a training course to them to explain the entire Microsoft Business Intelligence software stack. My company agreed to donate my time and a colleague’s time to put this training material together. Our remit was to provide novice to advanced training over two weeks on Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server. So basically a minimum of 8 weeks worth of training material given over 2 weeks written in just over a week – no mean feat J

Because of the worthwhile causes that the Princes Trusts supports and the fact that talking about the entire Microsoft SQL Server product family is something I love doing this was a fairly exciting but somewhat overwhelming challenge. I called in some old friends back from when I was a SQL server MVP and asked Itzik Ben-Gan and Kalen Delany if I could use some of their content to assist me in my training plan – they both very kindly agreed to let me use some of their material and Itzik sent through a large number of his books to distribute and Kalen is sending through some of her SQL Server Architecture and Metadata training DVDs. The generosity of the SQL community never fails to amaze me.

So I have just finished my part of the training and am assisting my colleague with the Sharepoint and Performance Point stuff. I’m not a official Microsoft trainer but I do love seeing people excited by SQL Server and hearing people spending their own time over the weekend downloading SQL Express on their home machines and trying out some of the labs we developed for them to further understand the product.

So I would like to thank Audrius Pranckevicius, Igal Greenberg and David Haigh from Avanade for giving their time for free - obviously at the request of Avanade J and to Marina Rumyantseva and Richard Chadwick at the Princes Trust for making the whole experience very enjoyable and rewarding.

Extra special thank to Itzik Ben-Gan, Kalen Delany for their kind offer of materials and to Tony Rogerson for validating my entire two weeks’ worth of content.

"These views are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Avanade."

http://www.princes-trust.org.uk

http://www.avanade.com