Worldwide WordPress 5K 2015

Posted on October 26, 2015 by erictummers

Leafs everywhere but still temperature to run in shorts. Rain is pouring straight down. The Autumn vacation has started and it’s time for this years Automattic Worldwide WP 5k (#WWWP5K).

I decided to do my 6K route around town. There I’ll pass a wall with graffiti that has been with me since I started running. The colors are fading and it will be gone soon. Many times I wanted to take a photo, but didn’t. Today I stopped and save it.

The graffiti marks the 3K point on the route I did today. Half way point. Moving on or going back, it’s the same distance. Motivation I use for running and in life.

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Week roundup

Posted on October 23, 2015 by erictummers

Last week recap and links:
Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What are your best reads this week? Leave them in the comments below.

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Azure SQL Server for centralized database

Posted on October 21, 2015 by erictummers

We are doing a project for our Business Intelligence team. For this we need a central database that is always available. This is where Azure comes to mind. I’ll describe here how I managed to configure Azure SQL Server to be available to a WPF application on laptops connected to internet.

First we created a new SQL Database. In the wizard / blades we opted for a new SQL Server instance, provided the database name, the server name, an Admin account name with secure password and waited for the creation process to complete. This is the easy part.

To enable access for all members of the BI team we allowed all ip-adresses in the Azure SQL Server firewall. Some people see this as a security risk, we see this as a business requirement 😉
sqlazure-firewall-settings
Just to be a little prepared we enabled the Auditing of every statement to Azure Tables in a newly created storage account.

From within Visual Studio we created a Login in the master database for every member of the BI team and one for the logging. We used the connection provided by the Azure portal and just changed the database to master. The logging user (and password) will be in the application config in the log4net section.

CREATE LOGIN logging WITH password='******';

Our solution has a SQL Server Database Project for versioning of the database objects. In there we have a PostDeploy script for adding the logging user and granting only INSERT rights on the log table. The script is below.
sql-database-postdeployscript

IF DATABASE_PRINCIPAL_ID ('logging') IS NOT NULL
	DROP USER [logging];
GO	
CREATE USER [logging] FOR LOGIN [logging];
GO
GRANT INSERT ON OBJECT::[dbo].[Log] TO [logging];
GO

Now when we have a centralized database for our BI team that is always available.

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Updating my early 2009 macbook to El Capitan

Posted on October 19, 2015 by erictummers

My Early 2009 MacBook was still running Mac OS X Mavericks and Aperture, but I felt it was time to update. The specs are at the bottom of the compatible hardware list and I was hesitant, but all was fine in the end.

Before you begin: I did a timemachine backup and I advise everybody to do the same on a regular basis and certainly before an update.

I’ve used RoaringApps to find application compatibility issues and found nothing that would hold me back. When their Mac application comes out I’ll be installing it.

yosemiteFirst I updated to Yosemite. The app store makes this easy. After half an hour the setup wizard asked me to log in with my mobileme icloud account and finish the update. Now it’s time to explore.

photosAperture is not working, but I decided before the update to start using the Photos app. On first launch the Photos app imports to Aperture/iPhoto library and offers an iCloud upload. All things in time, first do the import without iCloud upload. Again a process without any hassle.

The upload to iCloud took some time, so I let it complete overnight. With my 12 mbps upload I managed about 1000 photos an hour. In the morning my 19000+ pics were all uploaded and available. In preferences I checked the option to download all originals to my mac, unlike my iTunes Match where I leave all content in the iCloud.

el capitanLast step in my update was El Capitan. Some internet search made me comfortable with another big OS update. This one should help speed up the system. Again updating via the App Store worked as it should. Again I provided the iCloud credentials to finish the update. Even the Trim Enabler was working (Intel 330 180 Gb). After a small optimization period the system was in deed snappier. Remember I have the oldest macbook compatible with El Capitan.

I’ve noticed that the Photos app is real CPU hungry. When it runs the pressure on the CPU goes beyond 100%, where normal usage is about 20%. Maybe it’s time for a hardware upgrade in the near future?

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Week roundup

Posted on October 16, 2015 by erictummers

Last week recap and links:
Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of kanate / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What are your best reads this week? Leave them in the comments below.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment