I was raving about SSIS yesterday and ran in to something that I consider a HUGE oversight.  I think the "script task" is a really neat feature that has been in there since the DTS days and that they have come a long way in updating it to use today's technologies.  The problem, however, is that they got so far and decided to stop right there.  For example, the only language you can use in the script task is VB.NET, even though they have a drop-down to select your desired language (vb is the only option).  It looks like they were considering adding more but for one reason or another, stopped right there.  Oh boy.

As if that wasn't enough, they tout how you can reference your own assemblies for execution which made me all excited... until I learned the limitation.  You *must* copy the assembly to the GAC and/or the Microsoft.NET folder for whatever version of .NET (2.0 only) you are using as the machine default.  In other words, "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727".  They say this requirement is...

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I was recently called upon to learn the SQL Server SSIS (Integration Services) for a project because the client wanted pretty much everything to be done via SSIS and Notification Services.  Of course, the company with which I contract told their client that I knew it and could start working within a week... the problem is, I had only heard of SSIS, but never laid eyes on it.  For that matter, I didn't even have it installed on my development test server at home.

So, I loaded up the copy of SQL Server 2005 Standard that Microsoft gave me for attending their launch event on my development server, loaded up SQL Server 2005 Developers edition on my development machine, and got to work.

Like any task you are interested in beginning, I was immediately beset by an error trying to create my first Business Intelligence project: "Failed to save package file "..." with error 0x8002801D "Library not registered."  Oh boy!  Doing a Google search and looking around a little, I found a simple answer, just reregister...

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Several VMWare appliances, a couple Virtual-PC test runs, a little "live-cd" action, and I have finally decided which Linux distribution is the one for me.  I take back everything I have said the past couple days about how difficult it is to install the OS and the "packages" on them.

I have learned that the port collection is a pain in the bum to learn for all the different distributions out there but is a very effective way to install applications on the variety of Linux out there.  My beef was the ease of installing things on Windows vs Linux, but learned that my beef was only partially founded.  I learned that several different versions out there have their own varieties of ways to ease the pain, even some of them going as far as creating their own "MSI" (windows installer) counterparts.  That's cool!

So which Linux distro did I decide on?  SimplyMEPIS.  It has a graphical install tool which they took a very interesting approach with.  Instead of installing from the disk just after the boot...

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Ok... so I have downloaded VMWare images/appliances (instead of using VirtualPC, though once I select the one I will use, I want to run an install in VPC first before I go slapping it on the real system) of several Linux varieties.  I have loaded several of them up and played around and I like the KDE (Konqueror environment?) that the SuSe and Mandriva VMWare images are using as a front-end... though it definitely takes getting used to.  It appears they tried to model it after Windows to make it easier for Windows users, but it is still different enough to take some learning.

I can't say that I've really delved in to any of them enough yet to say which I like or not, but just that I'm glad to have a GUI.  I will learn the console commands, of course--out of necessity, I'm sure--but I still prefer a GUI to set my options and stuff.  Time to pull out and dust off my book from a class I had 5 years ago (in Unix) and see what I can remember.

One thing I don't like about distribution "x" (fill in the blank there), is that by default it doesn't have a GUI desktop pull up after install.  It goes straight to a bash console first, and since it has been so long since I've used Unix at all (and frankly, didn't learn that much back when I did), it is really not that useful for me.  I no it is my fault for not knowing the stuff, can't really blame it on the OS.  It's just like the good old DOS days.

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Why do Unix/Linux have so many varieties of distibutions? If they want to compete with Windows, they really should narrow it down to a single version and market that one instead of having hundreds of home-grown varieties.

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I learned that Symitar has a decent IDE in the works so while that excites me, that also is a little sad because now I don't have any reason to write one, much less a potential source of additional income.  Oh well.

I'm glad to be home and my family is definitely glad as well.  My daughter had a very difficult time have me gone for a week and has been somewhat clingy and sensitive about my being anywhere but the same room as her.

Anyway, still liking DotNetNuke and hoping I can find some time to really play around with it.  Hoping as I play around with it I can determine it's effectiveness and switch my company intranet from the huddy software we use and replace it with DotNetNuke.

It is the last day of my training out here in San Diego.  While this trip has been productive and I've learned a lot, I am more than ready to get back home and to the "real world".  Frankly I don't have the attention span necessary to sit in class for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  I don't know how I even made it through college.

I have realized something while I've been out here.  While the language is pretty neato for accomplishing tasks in Symitar, it is also rather limited.  It is a procedural language and lacks many functions of even a basic procedural language (biggest downfall is the lack of "functions").  It has procedures (akin to VB) where I can call them without variables, but it really would be nice to be able to set a variable and pass it.  I suppose I "could" do that, but that requires a global variable with is less elegant.

Additionally, they lack a good IDE.  What it really comes down to is they have an embedded text editor lacking any fanfare or help mechanism.  While many people...

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I've been in San Diego for the last few days for a training on Symitar -- the financial database we use at work.  I am a very quick learner, and, as such, I think that has caused me to develop a short attention span when the class (ie., materials) aren't keeping up with the speed I can learn.  Because of this, I have played through several games of solitaire and freecell.

Tonight I am going to meet up with an old buddy from my mission -- haven't seen him in about 3 or 4 years (not since a reunion in Utah that he attended).  We are going to have some good mexican food at what he calls a "hole in the wall," but very authentic.  Should be great!

I'm enjoying playing around with skinning on DNN, but since I suck at graphics, am using a skin by Nina (think that was her name).  She provided it free on her website and I graciously downloaded it.  I'll use it until I can come up with a design on my own that I like and think doesn't look like poo.

*Update* Met with my buddy and had some great mexican...

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General hello to you!