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As mentioned earlier , my new gig requires a lot more day-to-day work with SQL Server, including SSIS, SSRS, and SSDS. Since most tutorials use either the AdventureWorks  database or the Northwinds database, you ought to have both in place if you want to get hands-on with the tutorials and sample out there. In the last post, we downloaded and attached the AdventureWorks database to our SQL Server 2012 installation . In this post, we'll grab the Northwinds database and attach it to the same server. Follow the steps below to obtain and install the Northwinds database. Open a web browser and go to  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23654 : Click the "Download" button and save the file  SQL2000SampleDb.zip . Click on the file to run it. You'll be asked if you really want to run the installation: Click the "Run" button. Step through the prompts: You'll find that the installation has created a new folder,  SQL Ser

My newest gig requires more day-to-day work with Microsoft SQL Server. In fact, I was told there'd be more SQL than C# involved in this job. I do pretty well with SQL but I figure it wouldn't hurt to reinforce the basics and learn some new tricks. Plus, I want to play in-depth with SQL Server Integration Services ( SSIS ), SQL Server Reporting Services ( SSRS ), and SQL Server Data Services ( SSDS ). Nearly every tutorial out there uses the Northwinds database or the AdventureWorks database. AdventureWorks is pretty easy to install, so it's a good warm up exercise before we get into dealing with Northwinds. Follow the steps below to obtain and install the AdventureWorks database. Open a web browser and go to  http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/ Click on the link " AdventureWorks Databases – 2008, 2008R2 and 2012 " ( http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/releases/view/93587 ). You'll be taken to the following page: Decide which version of the Ad

Seeing as how my new gig will require me to root around some legacy VB.NET code, I thought it might be useful to familiarize myself with the language. Most of us has dealt with classic Visual Basic way back when and, more recently, when you peruse the MSDN documentation there's usually a C# example and a VB.NET example for each concept. So, VB.NET is not a totally foreign language. However, I still found the following web page useful when I wanted to do something in VB.NET and didn't know the specific syntax: VB.NET and C# Comparison http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/vbnet_csharp_comparison.html (And, as a bonus, there's a link to a Java and C# Comparison .) And, since I'm not too proud to admit that I'm going to spend the morning banging through VB.NET tutorials, I'm going to share this link to a so-far-so-good set of video tutorials: VB.NET,  by Nicholas Dingle, 38 videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsJBMeqEdtggJi2khGAjgnQ3ssgzWw_uz As o