Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Check the .NET Framework Version Installed

    I haven’t ever worried about this, but I had the need recently to check. I was looking a SQL Sentry’s Plan Explorer and the instructions mentioned that you need the .NET Framework v4.0 installed.

    So I decided to check my machine. First I hit Control Panel

    NetFramework1

    However that doesn’t say .NET 4.0 install. Instead it has a “client profile” listed. What does that mean?

    I wasn’t confident of this, so I Google’d for the question. I found this blog on How to Check. It lists a Javascript call that you can paste into IE or Firefox.

    javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

    I get this from Firefox:

    NetFramework3

    and this from IE:

    NetFramework4

    Again, .NET4 is listed, but not with a CLR component. So I’m not sure what I have.

    Then I went over to Stack Overflow to check. I would this answer, and it lists registry keys. I checked mine and I see this:

     NetFramework2

    So do I have .NET 4.0 or not? At this point I’m still not since it’s hard to determine if I really have the CLR needed. So I decide to just install Plan Explorer and look for error messages.

    NetFramework5

    Pow! Apparently the client profile isn’t enough. So I downloaded the .NET 4 Framework from the link at SQLSentry and then saw this:

    NetFramework7

    .NET Framework extended, which matches the result from IE:

    NetFramework6

    Now I can go play with SQL Sentry’s Plan Explorer. It certainly look cool!

  • Automated Driving

    In the book Red Thunder (highly recommended), the highways are under the control of some computer system. You approach a highway, get into some merge lane, and then a freeway computer takes control of your car, disconnecting the steering and foot controls and drives you along. When you want to get off, you signal, the computer moves you to an off ramp, and then releases control. It’s efficient, with the computer putting cars bumper to bumper, with a few inches between them since everything is under control.

    It sounds great to me, but I’m not sure we’ll ever want to completely put our transport under so much computer control. However people are trying, with automated subways and trains, but many of these still have an operator. There are quite a few projects looking at bringing this type of control to cars, though I’m not sure if we’ll ever get approval for something like this without some type of closed track that only allows automated cars.

    Think about all the issues you see in computer software, even supposedly well-written software. There are always bugs and unexpected code paths or even demands being made of the software. There’s also not enough testing to convince many people that we can really write extremely high quality, complex software that can handle something like traffic maneuvers.

    Then there’s the security. Whether it’s a central system that controls flow on a road or a distributed system in each vehicle, can you imagine the possible consequences if there were some security breach? What if someone finds a way to do some sort of SQL-Injection like attack, such as the one I show above?

    As much as I’d like to be able to ride in my own car, but have it handle the driving chores sometimes, I’m not sure our technology is anywhere close to the level it would need to be for me to trust it.

  • Android Tablet

    I was in Best Buy, actually returning a couple iPads the other day. I had gotten a few for a Red Gate giveaway and left them at home. I purchased two on the road, and when I got back, I took these back to Best Buy.

    I’m still debating if an iPad is worth it for me. I like to read electronically, and I think that I could use some of the features on the iPad to better understand how people are publishing content, as well as do presentations. However it still feels like an electronic toy more than a tool, and I’m not sure if it’s worth the cost.

    While I was at Best Buy, I noticed that there was an Android based tablet there, and decided to check it out.

    It’s the Huawei Ideos 7″ tablet and it runs Android v2.1. That’s what most Android phones run, though a few have v2.2. I had enjoyed my Android phone in the past, and at $299, this seemed like this might be a good buy.

    So I tried to do a few things. It was rather annoying that the Internet wasn’t connected. To me that’s a major failing on the part of Best Buy. You’d think they’d enable a wi-fi link so that you could test a few things.

    However it really didn’t matter. I opened the dictionary and tried to look up a few words, and I was amazed by how slow it was to respond, especially with touch on the screen. I don’t remember my phone being that slow to catch a touch, but this took a good half second to pick up a touch, so after the iPhone, it felt like I……..was………typing……..really………slowly…….

    Just to check, I popped open the calculator and tried two problems. 9*8 and then 96/12. It took me easily 8-9 seconds each to enter those problems. For comparison, I walked over to the iPad and entered the same problems, both of them, in about 3 sec. For comparison, it was about 8 sec on my Win 7 tablet using the stylus.

    That was enough for me. I was hoping that an Android tablet might be a nice alternative, and stack up well at a reduced price, but this isn’t even close. I wouldn’t pay $100 for this one as it’s so slow and annoying to use. The iPad is pricey, but it’s smooth, refined, and it works well. I was looking forward to seeing the Galaxy from Samsung, but after this review from some Red Gate folks, it doesn’t look like it deserves to cost the same as an iPad.

  • Back Home

    And glad to be there. I was gone almost 7 days, home only for 24:15:00 before back out on another trip. Between SQL Connections, and a little setup for the PASS Summit, I was beat.

    And behind. I had scheduled out newsletters and editorials, but I came back to over 20 articles submitted in the last week along with a dearth of editorials and blog posts. I had hoped to write some while I was gone, but the days get so long and busy that I really didn’t. An attempt on the planes didn’t really work either, and I was actually too burned out from the travel to even get coherent thoughts out.

    I’ll be back with more tomorrow, talking about my impressions of Connections, and a few notes from the pre-PASS Summit as well.