Learning SSIS

So one new thing I've had a chance to learn at work is Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS). SSIS is a platform to build high performance data integration solutions, including extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) packages for data warehousing. SSIS replaced the old Data Transformation Services (DTS) that was introduced in SQL Server 7.0.

The project I work on uses several databases when processing client request. These databases range from 100,000 rows to over 170 million rows. We are using SSIS to make it easier and faster to load the raw data sources into these databases.

As I go through my learning curve with the platform I will post some things I have learned. Stay tune for the first sample.

Another big catfish

Last weekend I drove up to my parent's to go fishing with my brother-in-law. Since I did not get there until late on Saturday we only got a couple hours of fishing. We did not catch anything on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. On my first cast I hooked a nice size catfish (see below). I was using light tackle this time; 6'6" Shimano rod and Shimano open face reel with 6 lb line. I was fishing with my favorite fresh water live bait, night crawlers. It took some time to get this one in. Every time we would get him close to bank him would take off, taking 20-25 feet of drag.
After we got the fish out of the water it weighed in a little over 8lbs. I also caught 5 small (1/2 - 1 pound) catfish that day, but I threw all those back. I gave the big catfish to my brother-in-law, and he got 2 really nice flillets.

Deep sea fishing

For father's day my wife gave me and her dad tickets on the Thunderstar. Last Thursday the two of us took our trip. The boat was crowded, but it was still a lot of fun. We both had really good spots on the boat. We left Shem Creek in Mt. Pleaseant, SC around 7AM and headed out 50 miles to the Gulf Stream.

People were catching a variety of fish, but most were Vermillion Snapper. I only caught Vermillion Snapper, and by the end of the day I was ready to catch something else. We both caught our limit before the day was over. When we returned we weighed the fish and had a total of 29 pounds. Now it was time for a fish fry, which we had Friday night. Here are a few photos from our trip.

Heading out to sea

Sunrise

The water was very calm that day

My father-in-laws catch