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Better late than never…

GMail has recently added the virus scanning feature to their email service.

Quoting from their website:

How does anti-virus scanning work?
Each time you send and receive attachments, Gmail automatically scans them for viruses.
If a virus is found in an attachment you’ve received, our system will attempt to remove it, or clean the file, so you can still access the information it contains. If the virus can’t be removed from the file, you won’t be able to download it.

If a virus is found in an attachment you’re trying to send, you won’t be able to send the message until you remove the attachment.

updated 11/30/2005

SANS released the 2005 edition of their Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerability list.

This new edition is definitely a welcome change due to fact that aside from including the usual vulnerabilities for Windows and UNIX, they have also included 2 more categories the Cross-Platform Applications and the Networking Products.

The list does not include all the vulnerabilities but rather ranks the vulnerabilities in order of their critical level. So if you think your systems are still vulnerable to some attacks on this list… better patch it up before somebody or something breaks-in. But don’t fret. The list also guides you how to patch the vulnerability.

Check it out @ SANS Top20

The Feature Pack is a collection of standalone install packages that provide additional value for SQL Server 2005. It includes:

- Latest versions of redistributable components for SQL Server 2005
- Latest versions of add-on providers for SQL Server 2005
- Latest versions of backward compatibility components for SQL Server 2005

Grab a copy of the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - November 2005

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. SSMA automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation. Companies such as Motorola and Simon & Schuster have used SSMA to migrate their business-critical databases quickly, easily and accurately.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server’s exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

Licensing

SSMA is a FREE download, and is available for use by any customer or partner with no charge or any obligations. However, the product requires a license key for activation. The key can be obtained after quick and simple registration. Microsoft reserves the right to use an e-mail address or phone number provided during registration in order to contact a customer regarding his/her SSMA experience.

Grab a copy of the SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle V2.0

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) provides a graphical management tool for SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Server Express) instances. SSMSE can also manage relational engine instances created by any edition of SQL Server 2005. SSMSE cannot manage Analysis Services, Integration Services, SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition, Notification Services, Reporting Services, or SQL Server Agent.

Disclaimer: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express - Community Technical Preview November 2005 is unsupported pre-release software.

Try out Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express CTP November 2005

I just stumbled on a certification called the CIPP and is for privacy.

For more information, see: http://www.privacyassociation.org/html/certification.html

Quoting their website:

“Certification is an essential way to demonstrate your understanding of privacy as a discipline and as a business. It validates your knowledge base as well as your value to your organization and to the marketplace as a whole.

The IAPP is pleased to offer the privacy industry’s first-ever, broad-based certification program, the Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP). The CIPP is the essential foundation course in information privacy; it addresses the fundamentals of privacy law, technology, operations and information management. It is made possible through founding grants from HP and Microsoft.

We are also excited to announce our newest program, the Certified Information Privacy Professional/Government. The CIPP/G is an extension of the CIPP program and is designed exclusively for employees of U.S. Federal government agencies and state and county governments as well as vendors and suppliers who serve government clients. The CIPP/G is made possible through the generous support of IBM. ”

You need to be a member of the IAPP - International Association of Privacy Professionals, which for an individual is $250 per year, before you can take the exam. Then add $245 for the certification exam, and you have another $495 certification.

I was reading an email from the guys @ Mannasoft when I saw a website mentioned in their email signature.

It said “Looking for a reliable address book and an accurate City Map at the speed of the Internet? well, look no more… check out www.directorymanila.net and simply BE AMAZED!”

Well true enough they do provide a pretty decent flash based city map of the metro. A quick search here and there mostly provided me with satisfactory results although some streets were mispelled.

I wonder where the other city map websites have gone.

When it comes to new features, SQL Server 2005 has enough oomph to get almost a third of database users to consider switching from another DBMS platform, according to a new report.

Edgewood Solutions LLC surveyed 462 IT pros between August and September, 95 percent of whom said their proficiency with SQL Server is medium to high and 80 percent of which were database administrators or developers.

The next-generation database packs a slew of new, enterprise-grade features, including scalability and performance boosts such as 64-bit support and partitioning. Other new features include high-availability features such as database mirroring (not expected at RTM but due at a later date) and failover clustering; security enhancements such as data encryption and key management; and programmability benefits such as T-SQL enhancements and integration with CLR (Common Language Runtime) and .Net. Also included are XQuery, native XML and Web services integration, and one of the tastiest slices of the pie, the business intelligence capabilities and integration with Office 12.

The new feature list, according to the survey, was enough to make 31 percent of respondents consider switching from another database. That will hurt feelings the most at Oracle Corp., since Oracle was the most prevalent database used, by 36 percent of the respondents. As far as speed to adoption goes, high-impact systems will be the first to jump to SQL Server 2005, with 46 percent of respondents saying it would take one year or more to trust their mission-critical systems to the database newbie.

Continue reading @ eWeek

SSEUtil.exe is a tool that lets you easily interact with SQL Server. Among other things, it allows you to:
• Connect to the main instance or user-instance of SQL Server.
• Create, attach, detach, and list databases on the server.
• Upgrade database files to match the version of the server.
• Execute SQL statements via the console (similar to SQLCMD).
• Retrieve the version of SQL Server running.
• Enable and disable trace flags (for example, to trace SQL statements sent to the server by any client application)
• List the instances of SQL Server on the local machine or on remote machines.
• Checkpoint and shrink a database
• Measure the performance of executing specific queries.
• Create and playback lists of SQL commands for the server to execute.
• Log all input and output.

Grab a copy of Microsoft SQL Server Express Utility

This version of SQLH2 supports SQL Server 2005 RTM collection.

SQLH2 collects four main types of information:
1. Feature Usage – What services/features are installed, running and level of workload on the service.
2. Configuration Settings – Machine, OS and SQL configuration settings, SQL instance and database metadata.
3. Uptime of the SQL Server service
4. Performance Counters (optional) – Used to determine performance trends

Grab a copy of SQL Server Health and History Tool (SQLH2)