SQL Server Compact 4.0, the Next Gen Embedded Database from Microsoft

Have you heard about SQL Server Compact 4 yet?

From Microsoft's site: "Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 is the next generation of embedded database from the SQL Server family, and brings all of its goodness to the world of ASP.NET web application development. SQL Server Compact 4.0 will provide an easy and simple to use database storage for starter websites, and the features of Compact that wooed the mobile devices and desktop developers will now be available to the ASP.NET web application developers. In addition, the features and enhancements in SQL Server Compact 4.0 like the new Transact-SQL syntax for OFFSET & FETCH, higher reliability, seamless migration of schema and data to the higher SKUs of SQL Server, support for code-first & server generated keys in ADO.NET Entity Framework 4.0, and the ability to use Visual Studio 2010 to develop ASP.NET web applications for Compact 4.0 etc. will also excite the existing development community."

Check out the SQL Server team's blog for additional information:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlservercompact/archive/2010/07/07/introducing-sql-server-compact-4-0-the-next-gen-embedded-database-from-microsoft.aspx

Happy hosting! 

Is There a New AppleTV Coming? (iTV?)

There seems to be a lot of speculation lately about Apple's plans for their AppleTV product. The latest rumors claim that it will be renamed to iTV (to line up with their other product names), be redeveloped with new hardware and software, and be re-released with a super-cheap price-point of $99 (which I doubt).

I have an AppleTV - the "old" one, not some new fancy beta testing product - and I love it. The movie selection seems way more extensive than Time Warner's PPV or even Netflix's streaming options.

How would I improve it? Here are three suggestions:

• Build-in a web browser so people don't have to hack the system with things like Boxee to view Hulu and other web based services
• Have an HDMI *in* option in addition to the current HDMI output and enable DVR options
• Enable it to accept cable "cards" (whatever they are called) so that it can replace cable company set-top boxes

Do these three things, and even without a lower price, and I think the new device would sell like hotcakes.

Amazon Kindle for $139

It was just last month that the e-reader price wars started and the price of a Kindle dropped to $189. Now Amazon has announced an improved version and a wifi-only model at an even better price point - $139. It's getting close to my previously mentioned sweet spot of $99. In fact, its close enough that I just might get one this year at this new price.

Microsoft WebMatrix Beta Hosting

Have you heard about WebMatrix yet? If not, you should read about it and consider checking it out. You can even test it out with Cytanium's free WebMatrix Beta hosting accounts.

Happy Hosting!

Follow Us On Twitter

OrcsWeb is on Twitter if you want to follow us there: http://twitter.com/orcsweb

I'm there too if you want to follow me directly: http://twitter.com/bradkingsley

VistaDB Ending - SQL Server Compact Starting

VistaDB, an xcopy deployable database platform for Microsoft .Net applications, has announced it is closing up shop.

Thankfully, for developers who understand and appreciate the benefits of an xcopy deployable database model, Microsoft has recently announced SQL Server Compact Edition 4.0. It's still in Community Preview, but initially looks very exciting and certainly worth checking out.

My PC (Windows 7) Boot Speed

My desktop PC boots in 1 minute 14 seconds.

Does anyone have a system that boots faster?

I'm running Windows 7 from an Intel SSD drive.

UPDATE: My desktop gets to the login prompt in about 49 seconds, then takes 25 seconds to load all services and connect to the network. My laptop takes only 23 seconds to reach the login prompt but then takes 34 seconds to load all services and connect to the network. So, it seems that the POST items are what takes so long for my desktop.

UPDATE: It takes 26 seconds just to get through my BIOS POST stuff. I enabled "Quick Boot" in the BIOS and that made it 4 seconds faster.

UPDATE: I manually set my drive connection in the BIOS and disabled the automatic scanning for new drives; that cut another 6 seconds from my boot time.

Internet-Everywhere - Another Multi-Touch Web Table

I mentioned the Microsoft Surface back in 2007 as a new innovative product from Microsoft, but it doesn't seem to have gone anywhere since release.

I recently saw an announcement about a product named mTouch, which appears to be a very similar competing product by Merel Technologies. It will be interesting to see if this catches on.

As a business owner or a web developer, why should you care? As a web host, why do I care?

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iPhone Backups Are Super-Fast!

I posted about issues with the iPhone's backups speeds a few weeks ago. I certainly wasn't the only one experiencing this issue - a Google search returned tons of online discussions by people looking for a way to address the issue.

Well, I've found the solution - or should I say that Apple finally provided a solution - iOS4. Since upgrading my iPhone to iOS4 the backups take about 5 seconds. Literally - I'm seeing 4-5 second backup times when I plug in my iPhone since the upgrade.

So we've moved from several hours down to about 5 seconds. That's quite the improvement Apple. Too bad that it took so long and a full OS upgrade to address, but kudos for making sure it got addressed!

Cloud Storage and IO Requests / Transactions

By definition a public cloud solution is going to have some component of multi-tenant storage. It's that storage, which is accessible by multiple devices at the same time, that allows for node fault-tolerance, resource balancing, resource bursting, affordable scaling, and other cloud features.

Storage devices though have two major resource limits - the amount of storage available (total space) and the amount of sustainable IOPs (total performance).

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