I needed to move several medium size MySQL backend apps to SQL server 2005 and did not have a cool tool for doing it. I found a way that was suprisingly easy... To do this you will need to install the ODBC drivers for your version of MySQL; I'm using MySQL 5.

Then in your SQL Management Studio, modify and run the following code.

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
    @server = N'MYSQL',
    @srvproduct=N'MySQL',
    @provider=N'MSDASQL',
    @provstr=N'DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver}; SERVER=127.0.0.1; DATABASE=db_name; USER=user; PASSWORD=pass; OPTION=3'

Then write seperate scripts that contain an instance of the following pieces of code per table in your MySQL db. In my case I had about 40 tables, so I wrote a ColdFusion job to do it smartly and added SQL to drop the target table if it existed.

SELECT * INTO [target_mssql_db].dbo.[target_mssql_table]
FROM openquery(MySQL, 'select * from mysql_db_name.mysql_tablename')

One of my apps had some tables with LOTS of rows, so I also set my script up to only run 5 conversions at a time to avoid timing out MSSQL locks. This should also work on MSSQL 2000 and I'm sure at least a few versions back of MySQL.

I know many of my readers are more technical and I haven't blogged\r\non anything non-motorcycles in a while but I had to post about the Red\r\nBull U.S. Grand Prix MotoGP race on Sunday. After some marked\r\nimprovements to Casey Stoner's\r\nDesmosedici GP9's electronics the 2007 world champion has been\r\ncompletely unstoppable in the last 3 races. Seven time world champion Valentino Rossi even joked before the Laguna Seca round began that he would have to shoot Stoner in order to stop him.

In\r\nan amazing show of talent and aggressiveness from both riders, Rossi\r\nwas able to finally stop the train that is Stoner. Knowing full well\r\nthat if he let Stoner stay in front for long that he was pull away,\r\nValentino made multiple daring and aggressive passes in order to\r\nmaintain his lead providing for some of the most exciting and breath\r\ntaking racing the sport has seen in many years.

The wheel to\r\nwheel race was brought to an end though when Casey Stoner ran wide in\r\nlap 24 of 32 and dropping his bike in the gravel. However the duo had\r\nbeen racing so hard that they had already obtained more than a 25\r\nsecond lead on third place. So while Stoner was unable to re-challenge\r\nRossi, he was still able to retain second place.

If you've ever wanted to check out a MotoGP race, I would highly recommend looking into this round and if you follow the \"Read More\" link you can view some video from YouTube.

In\r\nshort: The Dark Night continues what I think Batman should have always\r\nbeen: Dark, gritty, sadistic and ugly. Heath Ledger steals the movie\r\nwith an amazing representation that makes Jack Nicolson's version look\r\nlike a cotton candy parody.

Soon after Ledger's passing and\r\nreading early reviews of \"The Dark Night\" I was sure that his acting\r\nwas being exaggerated as some sort of tribute to him. After all, the\r\nacting and storyline in Brokeback mountain won tons of awards and\r\naccolades; but in truth it sucked and if wasn't for the premise and\r\nsocial mind job would have been straight to video...

At\r\nfirst I was not in favor of Heath's voice, but after several short\r\ndialogues I was convinced it was just what was needed... Ledger’s\r\nphysical acting was immense; his ever so slight facial adjustments, the\r\nway he walked and even held a knife was phenomenal. He even pulled off\r\nsome full theater audiance laugh grabs while never leaving his dark\r\ncharacter. The storyline behind the Joker was also perfect. No BS story\r\nno cause to fight for... nope he just enjoys to fuck with humanity and\r\ntest people and their limits!

So while Christian Bale plays to a T the tortured hero and Aaron\r\nEckhart plays a nailed Harvey Dent / Two-Face and Michael Caine plays\r\nmy favorite butler; the movie is definetly stolen by the lead villain\r\nThe Joker!

My only bad comments pick out two things that matter not to the story or movie that much…

\r\n
• Christian Bale’s voice when he is in Batman persona is too gruff\r\nand altered. Next to the Joker he sounds overplayed in a number of\r\ndialogue exchanges.
\r\n
• Maggie Gyllenhaal has stepped in to replace Katie Holmes as Rachel\r\nDawes… To be honest I don’t think she pulled it off. She didn’t have\r\nthe elegance that Katie did and somehow she managed to look horribly\r\naged (she's only 30) and kind of ugly in a number of scenes.
  
\r\n

In May 2008 my desire to get chest protection was heightened after a fatality at the race track involving a bike Vs rider collision. I did lots of looking and finally settled on a couple of products by a company called SixSixOne that seemed to meet most of my criteria

• SixSixOne Core Saver
• SixSixOne Pro Bomber Shorts

My initial reactions to the Core Saver were positive. Professional construction and good seems, It felt comfortable to wear and didn't seem to affect my riding position or any body movements. The shorts feel a bit odd at first; you wear them high to protect your hips. While they look a little funny, I have found them comfortable to wear and they do instantly appear to give me protection in places where I feel the thin hard armor in my Alpinestar suite lacks.

Crash Testing
This past weekend (7/4/08) I crashed during practice at Summit Point T4 in the rain/wet. Speeds were estimated between 90-100mph in the downhill slightly off-camber right hand sweeper. I downshifted a hair to late and after several tank slapper Esq wiggles/save attempts I was fairly violently thrown to the pavement about 10' short of the apex.

I took the full weight of the crash with my right shoulder and top right portion of my chest. After looking at my MRI images I feel fairly confident in saying that my new SixSixOne Core Save is what kept me from doing significantly more damage to my self. I was able to Instead walk away with only a broken scapula (shoulder blade) and some minor fluid build ups in my chest and shoulder... I'm also pretty sure I would have a bruised keester and hips since I ended up hitting both pretty hard. I ended up leaving the track backwards in an upright position. Due to track conditions there was a drop off and my tail bone hit the ground pretty damn hard. Aside from a swollen thumb and my shoulder I have no other injuries.

A feature not highlighted on the spec sheet very highly is the padding on top of the shoulder. It’s a very think and firm padding that I know worked with the shoulder armor in my suit to help dampen my fall. Between this padding and the chest protection that I had no intention of testing out so soon, I definitely feel much safer at the track and on those weekend mountain runs. This armor will definitely be seen on me every weekend going forward.

The Bad / Areas of improvement

• The Core Saver's back protection is not as full length as I think it should be. That is why I believe I would only recommend this to racers who also plan on wearing the Pro Bomber Shorts in junction with the Core Saver. The Pro Bomber shorts have a continuation of the back protector that meet up fairly closely. It Provides fantastic tail bone protection. That said, I still think SixSixOne should increase the back protector length
• While there is a kidney belt, some improvements could be made in this area. For road racing I don't think it's much of an issue, but for cross use, such as off-road, snowmobiles and motocross, it would be a nice addition.
  
• Venting: I don't get it, there are these nice vents on the front of the Core Saver, but you just cover them up with the strap for the kidney belt? This doesn't seem to have any ill effect, just a "duh" kind of comment...

Review Low Down

• Highly recommend the Core Save to any street rider and the Core Saver + Pro Bomber Shorts to any racer.
• Won't win you sexiest racer if you get caught wearing just the shorts.

Maybe everyone just knows all these, but for some reason I forget from time to time.