Shandy's Blog

Where Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy rants and rambles on as the fancy takes him

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My name is Andrew Sutton, aka Shandy.

I am currently living and working in the UK as a software developer. This blog contains mainly IT related issues.

I was a Microsoft VB MVP for a couple of years (Apr 2004-Mar 2006) and was a vbCity Leader between April 2003 and June 2007.

If you are looking for my Sri Lanka or Morocco experiences check out Shandy's Sri Lanka Blog or Shandy's Morocco Blog. My personal (Non IT) blog is now at Shandy's Place

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Thursday, May 03, 2007 #

Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio - Full Edition Now Installed

After a struggle I have finally managed to get the full edition of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio installed on my laptop. Initially, it refused to install claiming that it was already installed, despite the fact it wasn't. I believe the problem was because I had previously installed SQL Server 2005 Express and despite not installing Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express something had installed that prevented the full blown Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio from SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition from installing. Fortunately the solution was fairly straightforward. I simply un-installed all SQL Server 2005 express components and installed the SQL Server 2005 standard edition from scratch.

The reason I needed to install full Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio edition was that the express edition did not appear to list the SQL Server Agent in the Object Explorer and so I was unable to access any jobs installed on the SQL servers. As far as I am concerned this is a fairly fundemental flaw in the express edition, rending it useless for the work I need to do.

posted @ 11:29 AM | Feedback (46)

Skype

The company I work for, CMI has recently started to roll out Skype as a method of communicating over our network. We have chosen to use US Robotics USR 9600 USB internet phones running with Skype 3.0. Hopefully this can save us a lot of money with phone calls between our UK and overseas factories. From a personal point of view it will save the company money with me being able to use it to contact my wife, Helen, from abroad once I get her a Skype phone. I always phone my wife every day I am away and the phone bill can be quite considerable by the end of my stays abroad!

posted @ 10:53 AM | Feedback (43)

Trip To Sri Lanka

As posted on my Sri Lanka blog I am due to fly out to Sri Lanka shortly. The main objective is to install a SQL Server 2005 server onto our Sri Lanka network. We have just purchased six PowerEdge 2950 servers; all to be configured to run SQL Server 2005. Four of the servers are to be based in the UK and two in our overseas factories - one in Morocco and one in Sri Lanka.

This is the first part in a major project to upgrade our current systems to .NET. Currently we program mainly in VB.Classic with SQL Server 2000 as our backend database. The first phase of the project will see us migrate our core database to SQL Server 2005 and the second phase will see us upgrade our core applications to VB.NET 2005.

The server for Sri Lanka was shipped out last week and allegedly landed in Sri Lanka last Saturday. Currently our Sri Lanka factories are closed down for the Wesak holiday but should be re-opening tomorrow when I hope to get confirmation that it has cleared customs. One of my colleagues has pre-configured the server so my job will mainly be to plug it into the local network and make any configuration changes to get it up and running on the local domain as well as ensuring we can remotely access it and also to ensure the local IT department are able to support it.

I have a couple of additional tasks to perform at our Sri Lanka factories if I get chance. I have to audit the factory scanning system I developed to ensure it is working as required and also to see if I can get Skype up and running.

posted @ 10:34 AM | Feedback (64)