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Web Log
13 Aug 2008
I finally sent out an update notice today describing the SSIS
to RS linkage system that allows you to invoke a set of RS reports as
part of your standard SSIS ETL system. It was an incredible
struggle because I tried to install SharePoint 2007 on the server during
the same timeframe. I finally ended up uninstalling the 3 versions
of SharePoint I had and just getting back to stand-alone Reporting
Services. I'll take another shot at SharePoint next time I have a
few weeks to blow.
16 Jun 2008
The Seattle class was great -- lot's of good questions and
student interaction. About 30% of the class was Microsoft employees,
which we took as a strong vote of confidence! I finally finished
upgrading the dimensional modeling spreadsheet so it will allow you to
enter a database schema, and to include the source table names on all role
playing dimensions when it draws the model (it didn't fully label the the
first one originally). These were both user requests. It's
posted now and I'll send out a notification later today.
--Warren
20 Apr 2008
We've finally carved out some time to complete a few updates for
the Tools and Utilities page. The first one is an improved version
of the data profiler report set so it is no longer dependent on stored
procedures. We should get it posted in the next few days.
31 Mar 2008
The New York class went quite well last week. We had a full room at
the AMA conference center in mid-town Manhattan. Everyone seemed
pleased with the class content according to the evaluations. On to
our next class in May in Seattle.
3 Jan 2008
Happy New Year! We are proud to report that the Microsoft
Data Warehouse Toolkit has certainly done well this year.
Our 4 day class has proven itself to be very popular, and we did a whole
series of 1/2 day sales events sponsored by HP, Microsoft and Intel.
We also did some seminars and webcasts with local Microsoft tech folks in
Ohio, Detroit, and Boston.
We refuse to make any resolutions on postings and updates, but we
do look forward to hearing about your successes and suggestions.
11/13/2007
We've received several good suggestions and corrections from
alert readers over the last few weeks. We'll get those up here on
the website in the next week or two.
The HP Seminar series is almost over, with only two more
cities to go. This really is a useful session if you need to get an
enterprise perspective of the Kimball Approach. Some of the HP demos
show the impact of technologies like partitioning, very large memory, and
soft NUMA partitioning. Besides, you get a free lunch. Check
it out on the Classes and Events page.
9/4/2007
OK, so we totally failed on our New Year's resolution.
In our defense, Joy and I have been working on the second edition of the
Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit. All of us at the Kimball Group
have been working hard to update this perennial best seller that
originally came out 10 years ago. It has been a lot of work, but we
all we have left now is to review the page proofs.
Meanwhile, I uploaded a set of instructions on how to create use
Analysis Services to create a Date table in the relational database.
You can find this on the Tools and Utilities page down at the bottom of
the page under Examples not described in the book.
1/3/2007
Happy New Year! One of our New Year's resolution is to
publish a couple of guides and examples we've been working on. Hopefully
this resolution will be easier to keep than some of the others.
10/19/2006
We received a reminder today that we need to make backups of
everything. Our website host was having problems with their access
security and we couldn't get to our website directory. For some
reason, they reinstalled FrontPage extensions, which, again, for some
reason, blew away our shared borders setup. The end result: all you
could see was the welcome page -- no site navigation at all.
Fortunately, a kind reader sent us a note and we were able to rebuild the
missing pieces. We now have our full website back up, and a full
backup of our website.
10/17/2006
We finally uploaded the additional interview summaries mentioned in
the requirements definition section of Chapter 1. We created a list
of analytic themes and associated data sources that ties in with the
interview summaries so you can see the flow from the interviews to the
themes to the bus matrix. (If this doesn't make any sense to you, go
back and read Chapter 1!)
8/16/2006
We uploaded scripts you can use to create and initially
populate the business metadata schema from Chapter 13. Again, please let
us know if you find this useful, or if you make any improvements you'd
like to share.
8/7/2006
We put up a new version of the Excel data modeling spreadsheet today.
This one includes additional descriptive fields that tie into the metadata
model in chapter 13. It also includes a macro to create a simple
bubble diagram of the model (one diagram per fact table). There is a
lot more that could be done to this tool, but we feel like we've gone far
enough. Please let us know if you find it useful. Please also
let us know if you have made any improvements you'd like to share.
7/17/2006
We finally finished the last webcast in a series we did for Microsoft
today. It's interesting to be able to broadcast a presentation to hundreds
of people, worldwide, while sitting in shorts and a t-shirt in my office
(it was hot today). You can view the recorded webcasts by following the
links from the Classes & Events page.
Meanwhile, we uploaded a new, simplified historical load
package that ties to Joy's Integration Services webcast, and a new data
mining solution that ties to Warren's Data Mining webcast. You can
find those at the bottom of the Tools and Utilities page.
We should have a new version of the modeling spreadsheet, the
metadata model, and a script to populate it all by the end of next week.
Sign up to receive updates and we'll notify you when we make the changes
(this is definitely not spam -- we've only sent out two update notices so
far).
6/14/2006
Lots to report:
- Our first two webcasts went great (one was internal to Microsoft, so
it's not generally available). We still have 3 more coming up -- see the
Classes and Events page for more info.
- We've made major changes to the website, including a Corrections page
and an Update Profile page so you can keep you contact information
current.
- We've also uploaded new and updated content to the Tools and Utilities
page. Look for dated, highlighted tags to see what's changed.
6/1/2006
We are working with Microsoft to present a series of Webcasts on special
topics from the book. Please see the new choice on the menu at left
called Classes & Events.
5/30/2006
We had a full house at the Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit class in
Seattle last week, with lots of great interactions among a group of smart
folks. Even the tight security around the visiting president of Mexico,
Vicente Fox, didn't slow us down. We stayed in town for an extra day
to host a party for our friends from Microsoft who were such a making sure
the book was the best it could possibly be. Everyone had a great time,
even though we didn't have enough red wine. We'll know better next
time.
5/12/2006
We've added a User Registration system to let you sign up to receive a
notification whenever we make a major update to this website. Of course,
this is a major update, but we don't have anyone registered yet.
Meanwhile, the Seattle class beginning on May 22 is almost full.
The good news is that makes the class more fun because we hear from a
broader range of students. The bad news is it makes the class more of a
challenge for us to manage, but that's our problem!
3/14/2006
Timing is everything. We did an onsite class in Springfield, IL last week
and got out of town 24 hours before a tornado took the roof off our hotel!
We have a lot of book-related activities going on which we will announce
soon -- stay tuned.
2/24/2006
This was a big week. We sent out the books to the 60 folks who attended
our class last Fall, before the book had been printed. We also sent out a
large stack to industry "influencers" to make sure they are aware of the
book as a resource. We are also trying to figure out a simple way for
people to submit their email address so we can notify people when we
update the website with new material. Hopefully we'll get that out soon.
2/8/2006
We've updated the look of the website and are busily uploading files.
There is a lot of material so it will take us a few weeks to get the main
items in place. Please let us know if there is anything in particular from
the book you'd like to see.
1/30/2006
Good news: it took more than two weeks, but we got the updated
materials for the first class in Atlanta off to the printer's on Friday. Now
we'll really start getting some materials up on the website of the next week
or to. Keep checking because we've got a lot of useful examples.
1/27/2006
Rumor has it that the book was actually printed today. If you took one of
our public classes last Fall, we will be sending you an autographed copy by
the end of February.
1/2/2006
We are back from the holidays and plan to spend the first two
weeks of January updating the
Kimball University Microsoft Data Warehouse in Depth course materials
for 2006. When that's done, we have to get to work on this web site, filling
it in with the rest of the examples and utilities from the book.
10/20/2005
We have completed the
manuscript! Meanwhile,
we've started migrating some of the examples and utilities to this web site
so those of you who have expressed an interest can start making use of them.
Please let us know what you think!
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