Hundreds of Free Data/Database Models

Database Answers - Data Models

"... I design these Data Models for free to give something back to the Database community that has provided me with a good (and interesting) living for the past 15 years.

Each Model is usually what I can do in the 20 minutes each day of voluntary work that I allocate from my consulting work.

My intention is to provide a wide range of ’Kick Start’ Models that anyone can use as a starting-point, and could extend cleanly and logically, with appropriate reference to the Business Rules.

It is not my intention to provide Models that can be used off-the-shelf to meet the requirements of a large commercial organisation.
After all, that is one of the things I do for a living !!!

None of the Models is the complete and final solution in its area, but any of them can be added to easily and quickly to meet a specific requirement. The logic in each Model is correct and contains the minimum Entities for the area being modelled. It is easy to create a complex Model by combining these Kick-Start Models because they all follow the same design approach and standards.

..."

Hate the feeling that you are re-inventing a database model? Knowing that someone must have done this before? New at data modeling or database design and want to see a number of examples? Been doing it for years, but interested in seeing what another professional designer thinks?

Well then the above site is for you...

I think this is one of the more (most?) compressive list of data models I’ve seen online. From Evidence Tracking, to CD Catalog to Nursing Home to ERP and more... I mean, wow, "Ton’s O Model’s" is not an understatement.

Sure there’s no actual build scripts and the model files (ERWin files, SQL, etc) do not appear to be downloadable (like the guys says he IS in the data model design business so that’s understandable) but having a diagram of the model is almost as good, at least IMHO.

Just being able to see someone else’s thought processes/models is huge for me...

(via Fabrice’s weblog - Library of free data models)

MS UK Enterprise Solutions Build Framework (SBF) Updated

Microsoft Services (UK) Enterprise Solutions Build Framework (SBF) - Latest Version of SBF and Tasks Uploaded Today

"The latest version is v2.0.060707.000 and includes the following changes:
Support for Team Foundation Server (Source control integration only)
Support of Biztalk 2006 configuration (includes improvements to Biztalk 2004 support)
Improved documention for the build framework
A new tutorial project to demonstrate setting up continuous integration builds, automated deployment and testing." (Post leached in full)

Also released was the C# source...

Related Past Post XRef:
More on the Solution Build Framework (SBF) (MSBuild Tasks) From MS UK
MS SDC.Tasks, a MSBUILD tasks library with over a hundred new tasks...

Technorati Tags: MSBuild, SBF, Solutions Build Framework

Krypton Toolkit (Free WinForm UI Controls) 2.0 Released

Component Factory - Krypton 2.0 Released

"...
New KryptonLinkLabel control
New KryptonNavigator control
Collapsable KryptonHeaderGroup ability
New custom palette styles
Renamed existing palette styles
Palette upgrade tool
Updated documentation
More tutorials
..."

The very cool (and still free) Krypton Toolkit has been rev’ed to 2.0

Related Past Post XRef:
Krypton Toolkit 1.0.0 Released
Krypton Toolkit 0.9.0 (Free Office-Like UI Controls)

Technorati Tags: WinForm, Krypton Toolkit

Microsoft Private Folder 1.0

Microsoft Private Folder 1.0

"Microsoft Private Folder 1.0 is a useful tool for you to protect your private data when your friends, colleagues, kids or other people share your PC or account. With this tool, you will get one password protected folder called ’My Private Folder’ in your account to save your personal files. Download and have your private folder today!

The following hardware and software are required to run Microsoft Private Folder 1.0:

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Professional Edition and Media Center Edition with SP2

..."

Truthfully, I’m not too sure how I feel about this utility.

A) As a parent I don’t want anything on any PC in the house my son uses to be hidden from review (My son and I have had a number of talks on this subject and he is fully aware that all our PC’s are "family property" and there is no expectation of privacy for any PC in the house or any PC connected to our network. Call me a hard ass, but I know all to well the dark side of the Net...)

B) Isn’t this just as easily done with a password protected ZIP file? (And with a good password encrypted zips can be a real pain to crack)

C) I want more details on just how the My Private Folder works. Is it an encrypted zip? Is it just a wrapper for NTFS ACL’s? Is it something that will truly keep the data in it private or just a lame facade?

C) It seems this is a utility for the "general masses." (i.e my Parents, Wife, Daughter, etc). People who I have to routinely help with lost passwords...

D) I do like the fact though that it IS an easy tool for the masses. I think I’d rather my wife, parents, daughter keep their stuff "locked" in something like this than to not secure it at all... (that’s besides all the other "safe PC" practices I try to preach [and follow myself])

I guess I’ll have to finish up the install (sigh... reboot seems to be required and it seems to install a service, shell extension, etc) and just see. But the included Help/CHM is only 37K (there’s no technical implementation details included)...

Here’s a snip from the help file:
"Microsoft Private Folder 1.0 is not intended to provide security against hackers. It is a utility that limits access to selected files by other people that you trust and share your computer with, such as at home with your family. Users must make sure they remember the password. Without the password, they cannot unlock the private folder and cannot access any of the files or folders it contains. Microsoft is not able to retrieve the lost files if users are unable to enter the correct password. ..."

In looking at the help a little more, I’m still not too sure what to think about it... Guess time (and what other bloggers say) will tell.

(via The Road to Know Where - Microsoft Releases Password Protected Folder Tool)

Sysinternals Video Library - Windows Troubleshooting Topics on DVD from Sysinternals

Sysinternals Video Library

"The Sysinternals Video Library is set of six DVDs that cover essential Windows troubleshooting topics. Each video is personally presented by Mark Russinovich (cofounder of Winternals and Sysinternals) and David Solomon (noted Windows internals expert and trainer), authors of the official Microsoft Press book on the Windows operating system, Windows Internals. They are known from past Microsoft conferences to be especially informative and entertaining when presenting together.

The entire Tour of the Sysinternals Tools video as well as samples of the other titles are available for free download. For more information on each title, or to view or download a sample, click on the links below or scroll down.

Tour of the Sysinternals Tools
The history of Sysinternals, an overview of the site, and a fast paced tour of the major tools

Troubleshooting with Process Explorer
Identify malware, account for CPU usage, solve hung and runaway processes, and locked files

Troubleshooting with Filemon and Regmon
Solve application and system problems with these key troubleshooting tools

Troubleshooting Memory Problems
Understand process and system memory usage, identify memory leaks, and properly size your paging file

Windows Crash Dump & Hang Analysis
Learn why Windows crashes and how to analyze crash dumps and hung systems

Troubleshooting Boot & Startup Problems
Learn how Windows boots, troubleshoot errors during logon, and fix unbootable systems..."

Windows troubleshooting videos from the group that could arguably be ranked among the Windows Masters.


The $299 (pre-order price) seems like a pretty good deal...

(via Lances Whiteboard - Sysinternals Troubleshooting DVDs!!)

OneSnap - A Cool OneNote PowerToy that Snap's an IE Page Into OneNote with One Click

OneSnap

"OneSnap is a web page capture tool for OneNote that simplifies and optimizes importing web pages to your OneNote notebook.

Features

• Quickly import web pages as bitmaps from Internet Explorer into any OneNote section
  
• Change the title of the new page from within your browser
  
• Add a comment to the new page from within your browser
  
• Optionally limit web page width - OneSnap will scale the page if it’s wider than your specified "max width"
  
• Import as background image
  
• Optionally navigate to the new page after import
  
• Advanced functionality: Customize your import targets
  
  
  
  • Create virtual import folders (see Advanced tab for more info)
    
  • Hide folders or sections from showing up in OneSnap
  
  
• Tested with OneNote 2003 and 2007, and IE 6 & 7 (beta)

OneSnap is all about enabling you to import web pages without interrupting your workflow!
..."

This is a pretty cool OneNote PowerToy.

I can see where it could be a great "I want to blog this" or "I want the remember this site, but need a more than a Favorite Link" tool.

It’s like the "Send to OneNote From IE" PowerToy but has support for IE7, OneNote 2007 and seems to be a more configurable.

(via OneNote Extensibility & More.. - OneSnap - PowerToy Contest Winner)

Some Royality-Free Photo/Image Sites

David L’s Blog - Web Dev and Royalty-Free Images!

"...while flicking through the latest edition of Desktop magazine (I highly recommend this mag as a good source of digital design info), I noticed a few new ones (well, new to me ;)):

• stock.xchng - Very good site with many quality royalty-free images.
  
• jupiterimages - Another great location of royalty-free images; site is also developed in .NET :)
  
• inmagine - Very large source of royalty-free!
  
• photolibrary - A little bit slow to load, but another good source of royalty-free.

..."

There comes a time, about twice a year, when I need just the right picture...

I hope that the next time that happens I remember I posted this. ;)

"How To: Listen for Team Foundation Server (TFS) Event Notifications using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)"

notgartner.com: Mitch Denny’s Blog - How To: Listen for Team Foundation Server (TFS) Event Notifications using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)

"... decided that I would attempt to host an event subscriber notification service inside WCF as a bit of a demonstration (I’ll probably expand on this a little in my presentation at TechEd 2006 in Sydney).

I wanted the demonstration to do two things, firstly I wanted it to automatically subscribe itself to the TFS event notification services when it started up and clean itself up when it shuts down, but also the specific tweaks that are required to the service endpoint documentation in the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. You can download the demo code from here, but the real active ingredient is the implementation of the WCF service.

..."

This is a cool TFS related project, merging .Net 3.0 (WCF) with TFS’s Event Notifications.

Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server, TFS, WCF

Go Discovery STS-121

My, and my family’s, fingers are crossed that all goes well for you today...

Smart Client Software Factory

MSDN - Smart Client Software Factory

"With the Smart Client Software Factory, architects and developers can quickly incorporate many of the proven practices and patterns of building composite smart client applications. These practices and patterns have been identified during the development of many smart client applications and their components.

By using the software factory, architects and developers can focus their efforts on business opportunities and create smart client applications that effectively address the needs of their organizations.

The Smart Client Software Factory provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating composite smart client applications. These applications have one or more of the following characteristics:

• They have a rich user interface that takes advantage of the power of the Microsoft Windows desktop.
  
• They connect to multiple back-end systems to exchange data with them.
  
• They present information coming from multiple and diverse sources through an integrated user interface, so the data looks as if it came from one back-end system.
  
• They take advantage of local storage and processing resources to enable operation during periods of no network connectivity or intermittent network connectivity.
  
• They are easily deployed and configured.

..."

This is something I’d like to take a close look at...

Download: Smart Client Software Factory - June 2006
Gotdotnet Gallery: patterns & practices - Smart Client Software Factory: Home

(via Brad Wilson - The .NET Guy - Smart Client Software Factory Ships)

MSDN Articles for Customizing Team Foundation Server (TFS) MSF Process Guidance

Visual Studio Team System User Education - Customizing the MSF Process Guidance technical articles are now available on MSDN

"...

For more information on how to customize the MSF Process Guidance, see the following technical articles:

• Customizing the MSF Process Guidance
  
• Customizing Activities, Workstreams, and WorkItemTypes in the MSF Process Guidance
  
• Customizing Roles, RoleGroups, HowTos, HowToProcedures, and WorkProducts in the MSF Process Guidance
  
• Customizing Reports, Queries, Views, and Overview Pages in the MSF Process Guidance
  
• Adding Cross Referencing and CMMI Adherence to the MSF Process Guidance
  
• Building the MSF Process Guidance HTML Content Pages with MSFWinBuild

"

When installing/checking out/playing with TFS for the first time, one of my first questions was, "How do I tweak this stuff." Then when deploying it for production, my next questions were, "How do I tweak this stuff to fit my work environment?"

So this VSTS User Ed post caught my eye...

Technorati Tags: Team Foundation Server, TFS, MSF