Recently, I have had to install a named instance of SQL Server 2005 along side a default instance of SQL Server 2000. The 2000 server had the following collation configured: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. For testing purposes, we had to make sure the new instance had the same collation setting.

(more…)

If you want to determine the Collation setting for a particular database in SQL Server:

1. Open Query Analyzer (or SQL Management Studio)
2. Select your database
3. Execute the following query:

SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX(db_name(), 'Collation') SQLCollation;
Hope this helps.

I have needed to check my SQL Server Collation settings recently. Here is a SQL Query to find your server’s collation setting.
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('Collation') AS 'Collation'
Hope this helps.

So Brian alerted me to an Internet fad that I was unaware of… the creation of my own fake band. Here are the details:

So, the latest internet meme (fad) that’s going around is the band album cover theme. You pick random words and pictures from Wikipedia and Flickr and combine them to create your custom band album. It goes like this:

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles Page is the name of your band.
2. The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random Quotations page is the title of your album.
3. The third picture in Flickr’s Interesting Photos From the Last 7 Days is your album cover.

I now present you my new fake band:

1. Band: Sabrina Heaven
2. Album: Ruled by Frankenstein Logic
3. Album Cover:

   

Mix it all together with some Photochop (thanks, G)… and you get:

I’d love to see what you come up with, so please — post a link to you creation in the comments!