Running SSMS as a non-domain user

Every so often, I have to run SSMS against a host (or a VM ) that's in a different domain than the current PC/client that I'm on.

runas.exe /netonly /user:domain\username "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\ManagementStudio\Ssms.exe"

Since, in whatever environment that is, I have to do this repeatedly, I create a shortcut on the desktop for it, and use the shortcut as the text above.

Editing a resume

A couple quick thoughts on resume editing:

Don't include your salary history.
It's nobody else's business what you made. Even if you were government-employed, and your pay is a matter of public record, make people ask you for that information. Think of it this way - if you don't include it, and they ask, and they already know the answer (maybe they had that same job at that same pay grade, for example), and you tell them what they already know, then you've proven once again how honest and upstanding you are!

Don't include your references.
This is putting the cart before the horse, and exposes your friends and contact list to potentially needless phone calls, *especially* if you put your resume on a publically searchable website.

Employers care about the five W's , yes, but only after they've either skimmed your information or had it electronically scored, or both. I do suggest you address these things in your resume, sure, but do it as story telling, not as facts and figures.

• who
• when
• why
• where
• how much

So, what's the point? Why do any of this at all? Why not just keyword up a version? Well, yes, and I recommend a keyword heavy version from a text-only resume point of view where you know your information is going to get scanned by searches (e.g. Monster, etc.).

But in general, think about it from a hiring manager's point of view. He wants to know within seconds whether or not you can

• stop his pain
• stop his groups pain
• solve a problem
• save the business money above what it costs him to hire you

If you're going to craft a traditional resume, in any of its forms, then consider how you can tell a 2-3 sentence story for each position you've held, that answers one of these things.

That said, the most important resume I have is my satisfied customers and my testimonials on my LinkedIn profile.

The social network portion of your job hunt can't be overlooked - you know you're getting Googled before the interview, so make that work for you !

Not in college anymore

So the other day, a friend says to me "... and it's just time to stop living like I'm in college, you know?"

In their particular case, I did know. I knew exactly, from having lived through a very similar circumstance once, and I could readily empathize with them. That said, it still made me think, quite a bit, on what that means.

In my case, it meant things joked about years ago as kids were now quite real:

• If you don't pay your bills, mommy and daddy won't save you.
• You really do have to get up every day for work.
• Life is short. Eat dessert first.
• You really do have to go to bed on time every night to get up the next morning.
• Be nice to people, and in general, they'll be nice back.
• Source control (and the processes like it in non-software careers) look like a lot of work, and can be, but actually are there to protect you. It's like insurance for your continued employment.
• Investing is non optional. There will come a day where you don't want to or can't work anymore. Then what are you going to do?
• Always, always, always buy the best shoes you can afford.
• Invest in yourself - train yourself. Don't expect other people to get you places.
• Do what you love, sure, but realize that the definition of "professional" says more about what you do when the fun is no longer fun.

Task Scheduler Error 2147942667

Cause

Error code 2147942667 indicates that the directory name is invalid. In most cases, this is caused by placing quotes around the "Start In" directory.

Resolution

Remove the surrounding quotes from the "Start In" path.

The path of the program to launch must be surrounded by quotes if it contains spaces; the "Start In" path must not be surrounded by quotes.

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2452723?wa=wsignin1.0

http://www.arcomit.co.uk/support/kb.aspx?kbid=000058

VMWare, Virtual Machines, and Viruses, Oh My!

So I'm building a new set of lab machines again. They're going to be using Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 as guests inside of VMWare's VM Workstation 9.

I don't need virus protection for my VMWare based virtual / lab machines, because:

1. The lab machines are virtual, and
2. The lab machines, after activation, have no internet access, and
3. If my host PC has a virus that transmits to my lab machines, I have bigger problems that an infected lab machine

So, I went in to my anti-virus program, and added read/write/execute exclusions for the following files types:

• *.iso 
• (Granted, ISOs are not really a part of the lab, per se, but I get better throughput when loading into the VMs if the source images aren't being scanned. For pete's sake, they're read only anyway.)
• *.vmdk
• *.nvram
• *.vmsd
• *.vmx
• *.vmxf
• *.vmem
• *.vmss

What I did NOT exclude were the files that I know are also file type extensions used elsewhere, such as:

• *.lck
• *.log

Sometimes, it's the little things

Visual Studio 2013 editor highlights the current line by changing the background color of the current line.

By default, it's this hideously impossible to see also-black that looks like crud on my LED screen. Also, the fact that I'm using the dark theme means that also-black doesn't help when the highlight value is a grey value of 80% black.

So I changed it from the default to Navy for Active, and Olive to Inactive.

It's found in the Visual Studio 2013 menu at

• Tools\Options\Environment\Fonts and Colors\

The ones to edit are

• Highlight Current Line (Active)
• Highlight Current Line (Inactive)

Change all the SSIS package's protection levels, all at once

So, I have a scenario where I'm working in SSIS 2012 on SQL Server 2012 with SQL Server Data Tools 2012 (SSDT), and in order to ensure all the packages are both coming to me and going to others with the same level of protection and level of editability, I need to change all of the protection levels of all the packages in my solution, all at once. Somehow, somewhere, one or more of them got reset to a non-default value - or maybe, we need to pull one back from some other source - either way, at anything above about two packages, this gets to be a real pain.

I found two options:

Before you do anything else:

1. First things first, commit everything to source control, close SSDT, and make a zip backup of the whole project folder. 
2. Verify the backup.

Then:

1. Set or Change the Protection Level of Packages
1. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc879310.aspx
2. Now, open a command prompt at the folder with the packages you want to modify.
3. Next, create either a command window, or a command file (AKA batch file) with this:
1. for %f in (*.dtsx) do dtutil.exe /file %f /encrypt file;%f;2;strongpassword
4. What I wanted instead was to set them to DontSaveSensitive, plus, I have spaces in the file names (radical, I know), so I used this:
5. for %f in (*.dtsx) do dtutil.exe /file "%f" /encrypt file;"%f";0 /Q
6. The /Q doesn't prompt to overwrite the existing package
7. You can find more about the DTUtil syntax here
1. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162820.aspx
2. Open the .dtproj file using your favorite text editor, and do a find and replace on some strings like
1. me="ProtectionLevel">3

So, for me, it was 

me="ProtectionLevel">3

and replace with 

me="ProtectionLevel">0

last, reopen and build