It was an interesting week in news this past week related to SQL Server. It seems that certain trends will come in waves, not necessarily from similar sources, but for some reason I'll see lots of people writing about similar topics at one time. Strange how that works, but it seems to happen regularly.

This past week there were quite a few pieces about importing data into SQL Server. I found an article on the fastest way to use BCP, a comparison of 6 ways to import data, and another on SSIS Package Templates. There were others, but these stood out to me. I think the 6 ways to import data is a great article that you want to pass on to friends and co-workers that are new to importing data. It gives them some quick and dirty ways to get data into a SQL Server table.

Mathew Roche's package template blog is great. He highlights the good and bad ways a technology can be used, and gives you some good advice about how to avoid issues. The basic Microsoft advice falls down quickly, and Mathew points that out. He's a great SSIS developer, and one worth reading or seeing speak.

In hardware this week, Intel had a few announcements. First they released their fastest laptop chips yet.  I don't know who cares, but if you're looking for a new laptop, I guess it's good to be aware that there's a faster chip coming. That means lower prices for older chips, or a new speedy beast if you want the latest and greatest.

However on the laptop front there were two interesting announcements. The first is Microsoft's "tablet" was leaked. I've put an image up here. It's like a book, which could be really handy for meetings, and working more naturally with a pen to manage things. I used to think I always needed a keyboard, but my experiences with the iPhone make me think I might be able to get by in many situations without one.

The second new laptop was a four screen version from Intel. The only picture I've seen is shown below, where you see the 3 small screens above the keyboard. This seemed a little silly to me at first; how practical are those little screens? However since I have Twitter, music, etc. running at times, maybe they would be useful. I could change songs, or check my feed without interrupting my windows on the main screen. I supposed you could even drop watch windows of other programming items in there at times as well.

There were a few new hard drives announced as well. With our ever-growing need for data storage, and speed for accessing it, having a fast SSD or a large 2TB drive might be handy.

Steve Jones

Steve's Pick of the Week

115,000 jobs lost - The tech industry lost 2% of its jobs from January to June this year, which seems bad until you compare it with the rest of the US. They were down 5%. Another good reason to be a geek.