This week I have been at the SQL Connections conference in Las Vegas. With 7 to 9 hours of classes and presentations every day, all on Microsoft SQL Server. The classes included the Next Generation of SQL Server, Distributed Applications with Service Broker, Building High Availability Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Virtualization, Installation and Migration Strategies, Logging and Recovery, Minimally Logged Operations, Building the Right Backup Strategy, Securing and Hardening a SQL Server, iPhonify your Web App, Memory, Analyzing with SQL Trace and RML utilities, Sparse Columns, Structures, Storage and Speed, and Indexing for Performance. It has been a very busy week.

Friday was a really interesting all day class on "Indexing for Performance" presented by Kimberly Tripp with some help from Paul Randal. The thing that I realized in this class was that I knew what indexes did, not how they worked internally. Now I understand how the indexes actually do their jobs using a B+ tree, and how a non-clustered index is actually just a clustered index on a small subset of columns.

Now if I ever get that interview question of "Can you tell me what a database index does?", my answer would be "Do you want the high level 10 minute explanation of how an index can be used, or do you want the 4 hour explanation of how SQL Server actually implements indexes, how they work, and the differences between SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 indexes". I think that at this point I know far more about indexes than I ever thought possible.

The whole week was really amazing.

Recently I tried out VS.Php 2.7 for Visual Studio 2005 which appeared to be a really slick Visual Studio extension which allowed for color coded PHP editing with intellisense, auto-complete, and integrated language help.

Overall it was a pretty pretty cool product if you wanted to work on PHP with visual studio. There was just one exception... Visual studio would crash several times a day when this component was installed and editing PHP files.

After doing some research a better solution for editing (and debugging) PHP in a Windows IDE is Aptana Studio 1.5. Aptana takes a bit longer to start up, but once it is running it is much faster than Visual Studio, and no crashes when editing PHP code. It is free, and it has great debugger integration for PHP, including support for debugging PHP running in Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server).

VS.Php 2.7 for Visual Studio 2005 was created by JCX Software Corp.

For months I have been hearing about the MagicJack phone service on the Clark Howard Radio Show.

So after being fed up with my previous VOIP provider, not being able to change my 911 Service Address when I moved, I decided to fire the old VOIP company and go with MagicJack.

MagicJack Pricing

The magic service is $19.95 per year, that's right, per year. I purchased the MagicJack device at a local Wallgreens Drug Store. The total cost before tax for the unit and the first year of service was $37 and change.

This is by far the cheapest VOIP service that I have tried. Other that I have used have been between $20 and $35 per month.

Installing MagicJack

I had some difficulty installing MajicJack. After the install I received the following message:

Please restart your magicjack and try again [error 401]

After several restarts with no success, I went to Google, and found several articles that said that magicJack wouldn't work on Windows 7. So I installed MagicJack on another computer that I had running Windows XP, and I received the same error message. I then tried it on another computer running Windows Vista, and received the same message.

I then found an article suggesting to open several outgoing UDP ports on my firewall, so I tried this next with no success.

At this point I tried the live chat on the magicJack.com website, and the person on the other end did something to "reset" my account. They then asked me to restart magicJack, and suddenly everything was working. I don't know what they did, but it fixed my problem, and I now have magicJack working at my home.

Here is a screen shot of the magicJack application when it is running.



I have used the blue scribbles to block out things like my 911 service address, my phone number, and the last number called.

Advertising

Even though majicJack is a paid service, they include lots of advertising in the application.
1. The large block on the left 1/3 side of the application.
2. The Weather, and Yahoo links above the keypad.
3. The Google link on the bottom right which doesn't actually go to Google, it goes to a MagicJack page that looks like Google, which then redirects you to Google.

Turning off Powersaving Sleep Settings in Windows 7

One recommendation to ensure that you have uninterrupted phone services is to set your computer to never sleep as shown in the Windows 7 power settings dialog box.

Sleep is a power down condition on your computer where after a certain amount of time your computer shuts off. If your computer goes to sleep your magicJack device will not place or receive calls.

Voicemail in your Email

One of the most convenient features of some VOIP system, including MagicJack, is the ability to have your voicemail messages delivered to your email. You can configure MagicJack to send an email to your email address with each voicemail message attached as a .wav file. This .wav media file can be played on your computer without having to dial into the voicemail system.
I took this one step further, I configured my voicemail to be sent to an email address that I read on my iPhone. Now voicemail messages left when I am not at home will show up on my iPhone email account and can be played from the iPhone.

One great feature that will save some time. If you are considering another VOIP provider, check to see if this feature is available before you sign up.