For those of you that already have some experience with the SQL Server 2005 or even SQL Server 2000, and would like to learn about the new features introduced in the latest version of SQL Server, a good place to start would be the free Microsoft e-Learning Clinics of SQL Server 2008:

• Clinic 6188: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Enterprise Data Platform
• Clinic 6189: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Business Intelligence
• Clinic 6190: What’s New in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 for Database Development
• Clinic 6258: New Features of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

eBook: Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Besides SQL Server 2008 Clinics, Microsoft is also offering the Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 eBook written by Peter DeBetta, with seven chapters dedicated to the new features, including security, administration and performance:

Chapter 1: Security and Administration
Chapter 2: Performance
Chapter 3: Type System
Chapter 4: Programmability
Chapter 5: Storage
Chapter 6: Enhancements for High Availability
Chapter 7: Business Intelligence Enhancements

Download the eBook:
http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urss1q2we6

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Virtual Labs

You can practice in about thirteen SQL Server 2008 virtual labs available at Microsoft web site:

• MSDN Virtual Lab: Using Table Valued Parameters in SQL Server 2008
• MSDN Virtual Lab: Using the new SQL Server 2008 Spatial Capabilities: GEOGRAPHY
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: Building Occasionally Connected Systems
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: Dimension Designer and Best Practice Alerts
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: Hierarchy Id
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: T-SQL Enhancements – Date/Time-Table Valued Parameters – MERGE SQL Statement
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: XML Enhancements
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: Change Data Capture
• MSDN Express Virtual Lab: X-Event Infrastructure
• MSDN Virtual Lab: Learn How to Build Occasionally Connected Applications with SQL Server 2008
• MSDN Virtual Lab: Implementing Change Data Capture (CDC) in SQL Server 2008
• MSDN Virtual Lab: Working with the new DATE data type in SQL Server 2008

Candidates are expected to have experience with writing transact SQL queries, programming the database, troubleshooting programming objects (for example, stored procedures, triggers, user-defined functions (UDFs), user-defined types (UDTs), and queries, database performance tuning and optimization, designing databases at both the conceptual and logical levels, Implementing databases at the physical level, might be involved in designing and troubleshooting the data access layer of the application, and gathering business requirements.

You can find the preparation guide for this exam in the Microsoft Learning web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-451.mspx

This BETA exam is free, as usual in all Microsoft BETA exams, and you just need to use the promotional code 14F65 when registering for the exam in order to get 100% of discount.

The registration is done through Prometric‘s web site (http://www.prometric.com/microsoft), and you can choose the testing center nearest you.

You can take the exam from September 2nd of 2008 to September 30th of 2008, but the seats are limited and usually sell out the first few days, so you should register as soon as possible.

When I decided to start this blog, I spent some time figuring out which CMS / blogging engine would be the best choice for me, and the main constraints was:

• It should be a lightweight system, to run reasonably fast in my mega-cheaper hosting provider.
• It should allow me to easily customize it and/or create extensions for it.

In the past, I had great experiences with WordPress and Drupal, implementing for some customers, and also creating the PDAExpert Community, which is totally based on WordPress. Therefore, going to WordPress would be the natural choice for me, but the thing is: WordPress is developed in PHP, and I’m not that fan of PHP. I certainly would prefer to create add-ins and implementing new features in C# or VB .NET for example, thus, I decided to include the one more constraint: It should be .NET-based. It’s a blog about .NET anyway… Why would I use any other technologies? .

After evaluating lots of good options like SubText, BlogEngine.NET, Community Server, among others, I realized that BlogEngine.NET would be the best choice for me. It’s simple, lightweight, and open-source. Community Server is, by far, the most powerful of them all, and I actually tested it for a few days, but besides being 3x slower than BlogEngine.NET (which is perfectly understandable, given all the features it supports that BlogEngine doesn’t), the idea of having the source-code, and being able to adapt it to do exactly what I need was perfect.

I’ve chosen BlogEngine.NET then, and started to look for a theme to use, and get the blog running. Although there’s good themes available for BlogEngine.NET, Community Server comes with this very nice theme called ‘Paperclip’, which has at least four variations: Cactus, Summer, Fall and Winter. If you are a developer, you probably have seen this theme, as it is used by most of the MSDN and ASP .NET Community blogger’s.

I decided that ‘Paperclip’ was the way to go, and then I adapted the theme to BlogEngine.NET, and finally I’m ready to run the blog with it, and also to share the theme with the BlogEngine.NET community.

You can download the four variations of the Paperclip theme below:

• Cactus
• Fall
• Summer
• Winter

The source code is available on GitHub:
https://github.com/CaioProiete/Paperclip-BlogEngine-Theme

Here I’ll publish posts related to software architecture and development, as well as my personal opinions on products, technologies, services and everything else that I think deserves to be shared.