Featured Article(s)
Hide unused SharePoint webparts
Here is the scenario: You deployed your SharePoint solution and applied your specific themes for all of the webparts and components to look exactly how you wanted them to look. Few weeks later, your users report some pages look different. You discover that out of the box webparts you haven`t styled have been added to pages. How do you limit users to be able to select only webparts particular to your site?
Register Now – We’ll See You There!
Virtual Conference, On Your Computer, Tomorrow!
The SSWUG.ORG Ultimate Virtual Conference starts Wednesday (that would be tomorrow)! 75 sessions, live tracks of learning, demos, scripts and live Q&A.
[Register Here] (use the VIP code SSWUGNL1018 to save $25!)
Virtual Conference – What Questions Do You Have?
I’ll be talking with different presenters over the next several days and would love to have any questions you may want to see answered. It’s a great opportunity to get direct feedback. So, if you have a question, something you’d like to get opinion about, something you’ve seen that’s "odd," drop me a note (swynk@sswug.org) and let me know. I’ll do my best to get them answered.
We’ll also be taking questions over Skype – during the conference we’ll give you the Skype ID to call in to to ask video questions. It’ll be a great experience and we look forward to pushing the technology to the limit again. I think we even made Chris Shaw nervous with this one. 🙂
Be sure to watch the twitter tag #sswugvc for comments, feedback and conference live blogging. It usually gets quite interesting indeed.
Gemini Gets a Real Name…
Gemini, SQL Server 2008 R2’s new fully-integrated BI for the masses functionality has been given it’s real, production name. Power Pivot is the new name you’ll find talking about all of the great new functionality. The official blurb about it is: "PowerPivot provides business users with BI at their fingertips while enabling organizations to efficiently monitor and manage collaboration using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and SQL Server 2008 based management tools."
I really think this is going to change a lot in how we work with information. It’s a huge step forward in how you provide information to end-users. I’m not saying this because it’s the Microsoft line, but rather because I think it’s a very real next "thing" for how people use information stored in our systems. Right now, things are really stopped up trying to get information out of systems. You build reports, you build some extracts of information, sure. But moving the ability to the end-user community, you’ll find people that "get it" and know what to ask for and look for. I really think you’ll be getting some great suggestions for data use that perhaps aren’t overly evident to the people (you and me) that are responsible for managing the systems and data.
You can learn more here at the Power Pivot site, though it’s still pretty marketing oriented, I have a sneaky suspicion that it’ll continue to evolve with additional demos, how-to information and examples of the types of things people are able to do with the new tools.
Did You Know?
Did you know that you should turn off unused functionality with your SQL Server? This can limit access points (a security risk) and improve performance by freeing up resources on your server. In SQL Server 2005, this is done with the surface area configuration tool, with 2008, these are referred to as facets. Either way, be sure you turn off things you’re not using. You can control much of the functionality on an instance-by-instance basis. The "surface area configuration" tool is aptly named; you’re limiting the exposed area of your SQL Server so that there are fewer entry points.
Featured Script
Shrink a Log File
Cleans out and shrinks a Transaction Log file in SQL 7. Can not work on databases with more than 1 Log file. Not tested on SQ… (read more)