Microsoft SQL Server 2014

The book I read to research this post was Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Technical Overview by Ross Mistry et al which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. This book is quite long and is a free download on kindle so represents good value. It isn’t a how to guide and hasn’t enough space to cover all the features of SQL Server but is aimed at Database Administrators who want the general picture prior to upgrading. The new version integrates with the cloud product Windows Azure so it is like a hybrid cloud product. In addition you can save data to a URL if you use a 3rd party cloud site or company website. There are several major versions which are Enterprise, Business Intelligence & Standard. In addition there are some cheaper niche products Web, Developer & Express version with Express being a free entry level product. With the Enterprise version you can have up to 2048 processors on the server and up to 8,000 virtual account users. It is very much for large companies. The Express version lets you have tables up to 10 GB so is very much aimed at small businesses. It integrates with Excel which if you get one of the current Professional Plus or standalone versions has features like powerpivot tables for doing statistical analysis on data. They did start to move in this direction with the 2010 version and the 2013 & 365 versions contain a lot of additional features. This will normally have Windows 2012 R2 as the operating system but will also work to a lesser extent with Windows 8. Windows 2012 has many cloud computing features many specific to certain providers. In fact is the main upgrade in that program. I’m not hugely knowledgeable about SQL Server but found this book very interesting and with it being free you can’t go wrong. Microsoft Press are doing free entry level books on the various current Microsoft products for free to help sell them with more specialized publications obviously for sale that you have to buy.

 

Death of the PC

The book I read to research this post was Death of the PC by Matt Baxter-Reynolds which is a very good book which I bought from kindle. Apparently it was the case that every 10-15 years there was a game changing event in computing like Windows or the internet irreversibly changing things. That now in the ever more rapid rate of technological change of things is becoming every 7-10 years. Currently there is an invasion of digital devices mainly tablets and smartphones that threaten take away the Windows PC’s dominance over the consumer computer industry. In business Windows and computers are still very much the dominant force. Microsoft makes most of its income from the Windows and Office products. They very much still dominate enterprise computing. It’s too early to say what the next revolution in computing estimated to be around 2018-2020 will be but we are very much at a junction currently where digital devices are becoming very much lifestyle devices and part of peoples lives. Surprisingly the Chromebook which combines the easy boot up, low risk of virus infection and ability to work from resources like Google Docs on the internet. It has no hard drive and instead uses a cloud service with 100 GB free but has the advatage in common with computers of a keyboard. Currently buyers have been cautious about buying these but that may change as time goes on. One problem is buyers have to learn a new operating system. The dominance of digital devices started with Blackberry which were heavy duty smartphones with minature keyboards ideal for going on the web and answering e-mails. In the future social media is set even more closely with our lives. Android of course dominates the tablet and smartphones probably in part because it is open source and it is possible to buy tablets which are like unofficial products for around $50. Many of these are made in the far east. There are also devices officially endorsed by Google which pay them commision for the privilege.  This book looks at the major products and developments in the digital device industry and I must admit I learned a fair bit from it despite being quite tech savvy. I really enjoyed reading it. It’s around 200-250 pages so is a reasonable length.

Visual Social Marketing

The book I read to research this post was Visual Social Marketing For Dummies by Krista Neher which is a very good book which I read at http://safaribooksonline.com. This book is about marketing your business through visual mediums like photographs, videos and presentations. Slideshare is the biggest social network devoted to presentations which most people do in Microsoft Powerpoint. Video is mostly shown through sites like Vimeo & YouTube although you can use mainstream sites like Facebook. There is a site called Instashare that lets you put on it up to 15 seconds of video. Of course many of these sites have pro packages you pay for and get additional features. There is also Pinterest where you get a tiny program which is a virtual pin that goes into your browser and when you see something you like you click it and it is embedded into your page on Pinterest. There are social bookmarking sites that work in a similar and it is worth bearing in mind a lot of what you see on the internet is copyright and you should embed it rather than copy it which infringes the copyright. This book is quite interesting but didn’t have that much knowledge I didn’t already know although I have read lots of similar books. I think most people would find it interesting. A lot of marketing is done with smartphones and there are apps like Vine for video editing & Photoshop Express for photo editing to help with this. Even laptops are a bit cumbersome so most people use a phone or tablet for this purpose. There is also sites like Google + and Twitter that are mainstream social media sites but have a very receptive audience for photos in particular. I did enjoy reading this book and I think it gives you the nuts and bolts for promoting your business. There is also in the Part of Tens lists of 10 types of photos and 10 types of video you can use for promoting your business. It would work equally well with promoting something like your charity or even song.

 

Stealth Warplanes

The book I read to research this post was Stealth Warplanes by Doug Richardson which is a very good book which I bought from a car boot sale. This book was published in 1989 so is probably a bit out of date but is quite interesting because there is a whole plethora of aircraft incorporating stealth technology including the quite well known F-117A Stealth Fighter. It does have other aircraft like the U2 & Blackbird but a lot of the aircraft I had never heard of and a lot never made it past the prototype stage. Of course the aircraft we know about are mostly out of service or old and the latest technology often referred to as black ops is mostly top secret. Most of the stealth aircraft fly at less than the speed of sound because things like having quiet engines and appearing insignificant on radar wouldn’t work. Often they are used over fairly short distances for detailed reconaissance although there are some super quick aircraft where the aim is to out run missiles. An example is the SR-71A Blackbird where for many years the only country that could shoot it down due to their incredible speed and flight altitude was the Soviet Union although there were reports the North Koreans did their best to shoot them down. The Stealth Fighter is composed of a low density carbon composite that doesn’t show up on radar. In the Second World War the Japanese Warships painted to resemble smaller less significant ships from a distance and the British painted their Canberra’s camouflage green on top and sky grey underneath so the roots of this go back quite a long way. There are aircraft that have the heat from their engine outlets diffused and often have quietened piston engines. There are various decoy measures to fool missiles and another system is to flood the air defences with decoy missiles so genuine ones can get through. Of course yet another measure is spy satellites but to get the right information often requires a closer look and these satellites can often be fooled. If you see this book being sold cheaply secondhand it is worth reading and I did learn quite a bit from it as well as enjoyed it.

 

 

Eurostar

The book I read to research this post was From the Footplate: Eurostar by Peter Waller which is an excellent book that I bought from a local secondhand bookstore. This book is quite succinct at around 110 pages and much of that is photos but what information there is, is quite interesting. It was also published in 1998 so some stuff might be a bit dated. The Eurostar was built by a French, Belgian and British consortium overseen by GEC-Alsthom with various contractors in the 3 countries. Much of the British work was done at Washwood Heath in Birmingham which I think also did work on the Pendolino’s used by Virgin Rail for high speed cross country travel in Britain. The Eurostar is essentially a form of TGV but is one of the most technologically advanced trains in the world largely because it has to handle 3 sets of voltages in the 3 countries. The supply inside the Chunnel itself is 25 KV the same as in France. All 3 countries have intermediate towns for people not travelling to either London, Brussels or Paris. The 3 destinations it travels between. Of course in Europe there is an extensive TGV network. The intermediate stations are Ashford in Britain, Calais in France & Lille in Belgium. In Belgium & France they have built dedicated high speed line with the result it can go faster. In Britain various work has been done including a cross train train route through London for conventional trains and a new station called St. Pancras International for Eurostar passengers. Previously the trains left from Waterloo but the line overall the Eurostar travels on is slower than on the continent. I think when they upgrade the line for faster speeds the main consideration is allowing for the drivers reaction time to signals at these higher speeds. Obviously he has less time to react and they have to be placed further from where he must stop. The Eurostar cab has no side windows and the driver is centrally located to prevent him becoming disoriented by things passing by the side of him. This is especially the case in the Chunnel. The drivers also had to learn the routes and the systems used in the other 2 countries which was a steep learning curve. I really enjoyed this book and would wholeheartedly recommend it.