• ALTER AUTHORIZATION

    (For my own reference)

    To resolve this issue in Microsoft SQL Server (often observed when you restore a database that came from another server):

    SQL Server Management Studio information dialog

    Run this:

    alter authorization on database::[MyDbName] to sa;

  • MVA Figurines

    In September last year, I took part in the MVA ‘Become a hero’ promotion. By signing up, I got a free t-shirt (and if you know me well, you’ll know that makes perfect sense). In addition by completing a number of online courses from the MVA site, you could then get a novelty figurine (or maybe up to 6 if you did more courses).

    I received my t-shirt, but my figurine never arrived. It appeared the super powers of “DevOps Captain Code” also included the ability to get lost in the mail. “Oh well, at least I’ve got a t-shirt”, I thought.

    But then yesterday I got home to discover two packages from Microsoft. One was another t-shirt (yay), and the other was the full set of 6 figurines.

    MVC Hero Figurines

    So now we have (left to right)

    • SQL Server Query Controller
    • Azure Cloud Ninja
    • Device Management Dr Device
    • Windows Server Solid Server
    • DevOps Captain Code
    • Virtualisation Hypervisor

    They’re now gracing my desk at work, much to the bemusement of my colleagues 😀

    Figurines and t-shirts aside, if you’re after some quality free online training then there’s some excellent resources at the Microsoft Virtual Academy site. Most courses are run as a live event and then are made available on-demand a few weeks later (useful if the live event clashes with your preferred time to be asleep!)

  • In the garden–February 2015

    It’s summer time. We’ve had a bit of hot weather, including today (and more to come in the next week), but also some cooler patches too, which I think the garden has appreciated.

    On hot days when it gets into the high 30’s and 40’s, I’ve taken to putting out shade for some of the smaller fruit trees. Bits of shade cloth and old sheets. The garden probably looks a bit like a weird art installation, but I think the trees appreciate a bit of help surviving the blistering heat.

    I’ve harvested [some cabbages]/2014/10/in-gardenspring-2014.html) (there’s still a few growing), and got some tomatoes just starting to fruit. I was a bit late planting these – my dad is already eating the fruit from his. I had planted some cucumbers and pumpkins but only two plants survived and they’re not really flourishing. I think I should try and get things started earlier next season.

    There’s some corn that’s getting ready to flower, so hopefully we’ll have some corn cobs down the track.

    Gala applesWe’ve got two apple trees that were planted almost 5 years ago. The ‘pink lady’ has fruited for the last couple of years, but this season is the first that we’ve had fruit set on the ‘gala’. Not sure if it just took a while to get ready, or if I pruned the wrong bits in winter previously.

    Unripe QuinceNarelle planted a Quince tree behind our back fence a just over a year ago. It’s got some fruit growing on it, which hopefully will ripen as we approach winter