I demoed this small, simple and free tool to the team today.  SQL Search from redgate

This is an add on for SQL Server Management Studio.  It supports/works with SQL Server 2005 & 2008 instances.  I won’t index or search databases under a SQL Server 2000 instance.  We migrated a SQL Server 2000 database and ran it under a 2008 instance in compatibility mode and SQL Search worked on it ok.

Once the install is complete, you’ll notice a new toolbar button:

Select your database within your object explorer and the click on the button and SQL Search will open up in a tab with the database selected on the left as the default selected database.  Of course you can select a different database to search within using the SQL Search interface.

Within the search box, type the name of the object (table, column, constraint, variable… whatever) you want to search for, and SQL Search does an immediate search on matches to partial names displaying the results in the grid below the search & selection criteria section.

Once you find what you are looking for you can “double-click” on it and it will find and select the object within the object explorer for you (mine is on the left).

An even more productive feature is that within the results grid itself there is a preview, read-only pane that displays the body of stored procedures as you select them on the grid above.  Want to mess around with it?  Double click it and navigate directly to the object from where you can proceed as you would within SSMS to “Modify” it.

Instant sensation with my team of developers & DBA.

Did I mention it is free?

Get it here.  And while you are there, watch the 3min video on where and how they went about building this tool.  Pretty neat.  “Coded by the sea”.

I love these as a quick, hands on way (my favorite) to get up to speed with skills and technology you may otherwise miss or take longer to catch up to.

Here is the training kit from the horse’s mouth:

The .NET Framework 3.5 Enhancements Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, demos, and event materials. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the .NET 3.5 Enhancement features including: ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Dynamic Data, ASP.NET AJAX History, ASP.NET Routing, ADO.NET Data Services, ADO.NET Entity Framework, WCF 3.5 SP1, and the .NET Framework Client Profile.

Download the kit from here.

I recently came across Microsoft StyleCop, that analyzes the code, within the IDE for style.  This includes things like naming conventions, formatting and other matters of visual appeal.  It differs from FxCop in that it doesn’t check for use patterns, it simply checks style. 

I’ve been looking at this tool in order to implement it at work, where we have a pretty consistent and adhered to coding standard, who’s style enforcement could be done by a tool and save some people some time.

In any case, I am sure most of you are familiar with it but I deemed it worth noting, writing about and referencing.

The team’s blog is a great resource for help, release announcements, and general information about the tool.

The tool itself is available here in its latest 4.3 release. 

Me and my addiction to books, especially FREE books.  Sorry.

Go to the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Learning Portal, click on Special offers (or scroll down a bit), and follow the link.

Via the author's blog post.

Draft version, PDF delivered, Free.  I don't need to "sell it" to you do I?

DSA Book

Quick note to link to the training kit released with the advent of .NET 3.5 SP1.

Complete kit with presentation & events materials, hands on labs and demos on:

• ASP.NET MVC
• ASP.NET Dynamic Data
• ASP.NET AJAX History
• ASP.NET Routing
• ADO.NET Data Services
• ADO.NET Entity Framework
• WCF 3.5 SP1
• .NET Framework Client Profile

Mainly just as a quick reminder to self of the tools I've found to be worth the time to install and learn.

The Tools listed here are mainly utilitarian, and not at all focused on anything in particular. All of them, as stated in the title of the post, are free. I love free software, oddly enough given I make my living writing software.

.NET/Development

• Lurz Roeder's Reflector, I am not the first (by a loooong mile), nor the last one to list this MUST HAVE. Just go get it if you don't have it and don't ask, just use it. Period. 'nuf said.
• Krypton Toolkit. If you do any Windows Forms development in this WPF new world, you HAVE to get these Free Components, use them and love them. Great looking, practical, easy to use. Check out the tutorial screencasts on their website.
• Fiddler. Look at your stuff... look at everyone else's stuff... the stuff that is really coming down, ya' know!
  
• Sysinternals Suite. With tools like DebugView as a given, and many others that add incredible value to any developer's arsenal, this is a no brainer must have.
  

Firefox Extensions

• ScribeFire, I am writing this post using it. Nice, simple, integrated, powerful.
• foxmarks, Keeps my bookmarks synchronized between my home PC(s) and my work PC. Priceless. Literally.
• TwitterFox, The easiest and least intrusive way to keep up with an addiction. It is not the most powerful or feature rich Twitter client... by a mile... but it works!
• SiteAdvisor, Free browser extension from McAfee. I'll make this disclosure: it works for me. In an unsafe world I use common sense first and foremost, but many get past my gut feeling, data backs this service up which is better than nothing.

Editors

• NotePad2, I use the installer Brennan created that adds an "Open with.." to the right click context menu.
• LINQPad, great way to learn and teach. At this point it is not a tool of daily use, but its awesome, so I list it.
• Windows Live Writer. Hands down the best blog post editing tool. Although ScribeFire is convenient and very good, Windows Live Writer is great for offline editing and also has tons of plugins available.
  
• Cayra. Mind Mapping tool. Cool to use, ideal if you can actually make it an "everyday" thing. Handy to have right now for me though.
  

Other Tools

• Pidgin. All your IM accounts in one client. Lightweight, simple, so bells and whistles.
  
• Picasa. Simple photo organization and editing. Love the feel of it. Direct upload to Picasa's online web albums (free up to 1GB of storage), and also to photo printing services (my main reason for using it), like KodakGallery, SnapFish, WinkFlash, Shutterfly, Walgreens, Walmart and many others.
  
• 7Zip File Manager. Awesome compression, great compatibility.
  
• CCleaner. The first "C" is for CRAP. Yep, that's right, it cleans crap out of your PC.
  
• SyncToy.I tend to want to keep some folders in sync. In the end each one is its own world, but this has been the tool I've resorted in my attempts to keep them the same.
  
• FeedDemon. From NewsGator, my favorite desktop RSS reader. Although it does "synchronize" with an online OPML, it only works between a given instance of the reader (say the one you have a home) and the online version they provide. It does not keep two desktop instances and as such it has proven inadequate by itself.
  
• Virtual Clone Drive. Great ISO management tool. It works as a driver to mount .iso files as a local drive. Awesome and indispensable.
  
• AusLogics Disk Defrag. Better than the built in defrag, great performance.
  

Anyone not like free?  Those of you who raised your hands… GET THE HECK OUT OF MY BLOG.. :)  In all seriousness, this is your chance to enter a drawing for some cool swag! generously hosted by Max Pool at his blog {Codesqueeze}.

He was able to get vendors to pony up some nice (and pricey) software that would make an excellent addition to any developer’s toolbox.

Me myself I am hoping, going for Bamboo 2.0 CI Server.  No I will not resell it on eBay, I have actual plans for it.  Coincidentally I am in the middle of (call it, what you will) a project to setup a CI solution using CruiseControl.net & SVN at home.  The SlickEdit tools would be a nice to have, and believe me, there is nothing like a good editor to make you productive above and beyond the powers of Notepad.

On Deck: Guillermo, get you ass in gear and evaluate "the Bamboo"!

 

A simple note and mention for Tadalists.   My very well deserved kudos to 37signals for making easy, simple software that works.  All of their offerings are no nonsense, no bloat web applications that are very straight forward without sacrificing a much appreciated elegance and that now so familiar web 2.0 feeling and functionality which makes its way into their tools without shouting it in your face.

I've been using Tadalists for the better part of a month now, and keep one list and separate account for work and a different one for home.  In hindsight, in redo mode, I'd get just one account and manage separate lists, but I was eager and jumped the gun on my vision of how I wanted to leverage the tool.

Worth mentioning is that this is a free service, so you can't go wrong for just trying it.  I like the process better than keeping [to-do] lists using outlook, email reminders (as I used to do) or even whatever more archaic approach to keeping lists you can think of.  For the mobile personality, they have targeted support for the iPhone.

As I mentioned above, the interface is clean and simple and the functionality straight forward.  To begin with, you will create a list (as many as you'd like and I don't really know if there is a limit), and then when in your list you can edit it by:

• adding an item
• "checking" off an item as done
• sorting/rearranging the items by drag 'n dropping the items to their new place within the list.

You can also share the lists and make them "public", as in accessible by whomever you wish to notify.  You can configure access to shared lists as read-only or edit.

One very cool feature is that your list will be a "sub domain" (at least the URL) in the *.tadalists.com domain, and so it is very easy to remember "where" to go to access your list.

Your particular list would be available at http://<yourAccountOrUserName>.tadalists.com

I personally think that is a pretty neat touch!