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Conferences and Classes

Jimmy May explains Partition Alignment (#sqlpass)

Last Updated July 13, 2020

#SQLPass, Storage

Before attending this session, I’ve always gone to KB article 929491 article on partition alignment. I thought I kinda sorta understood what was going on, but Jimmy’s presentation drew on the best graphical illustrations to show it. Not to mention his audio stylings like, “Holy correlated wait stats!” Get your binoculars out Partition alignment is…

PASS Summit 2008 Wednesday Keynote (#sqlpass)

Last Updated February 12, 2017

I’m liveblogging the keynote this morning on here and on my Twitter feed. Go to this page and refresh it periodically to get the latest news as it happens. Updates are at the top of the page to make reading easier during liveblogs, and I’ll reverse it tonight for easier reading later. 10:08 – And…

PASS Summit 2008 Tuesday Recap (#sqlpass)

Last Updated February 12, 2017

PASS Election Update I’m seeing a theme on the interwebz: lots of endorsements for Andy Warren and Tom LaRock: Andy Leonard posted his vote on Twitter for Andy Warren, Lynda Rab and Tom LaRock (SQLBatman). Brian Kelley posted his endorsements on SQLServerCentral for Andy Warren and Tom LaRock. Steve Jones posted his endorsements on SQLServerCentral…

PASS Summit 2008 Monday Recap (#sqlpass)

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Great SSIS Boot Camp by Brian Knight Brian’s a fantastic presenter – really funny, really engaging, and can answer questions on his feet. The one-day presentation was a great way to get started, and I ordered his Professional SSIS 2008 book to answer my questions as I start digging into SSIS. One indicator of a…

More Thoughts on SSIS Twitter Integration at #sqlpass

Last Updated February 12, 2017

Yesterday, Andy Leonard and Jessica Moss announced that their Wednesday 3pm class on SSIS scripting will cover Twitter integration. In today’s SSIS Boot Camp by Brian Knight, I spoke with some DBAs about the Twitter idea. The initial reaction has been, “Why would you want to do that? Twitter is so unreliable.” True: us database…

PASS Summit 2008 Sunday Recap

Last Updated February 9, 2017

I flew in yesterday and spent some quality time with some other folks who were lucky enough to fly in early, and by “quality time” I mean eating and drinking. I only got a handful of photos. Listening In on DBA Conversations The funnier momentos were the things we overheard. If you follow me on…

PASS Board of Directors Election Update

Last Updated February 12, 2017

PASS has posted the list of candidates, but there’s no bio info yet. Fear not – the community is doing a great job of not just keeping up, but getting ahead! I love communities in the age of social networking. TJay Belt is doing a great job of centralizing information about the candidates for PASS…

My endorsements for the PASS Board

Last Updated February 12, 2017

When I was a DBA, before I got this “rock star” job, I didn’t have the time to get involved enough with the SQL Server community to really know the people running for the PASS Board. I had a “real job”, and when I cast my vote, I was basing my decision off a paragraph…

What would you ask Microsoft and PASS?

Last Updated February 9, 2017

What if you could sit down with these guys and ask ’em any questions you wanted: Tom Casey, Microsoft SQL Server BI General Manager. Tom’s giving the Thursday keynote about SQL Server’s business intelligence strategy beyond SQL Server 2008. My guess (and this is only a guess, not based on any behind-the-scenes info) is that…

Live-blogging the Seattle PASS Summit Keynotes

Last Updated February 13, 2017

#SQLPass, Blogging

Whoa – I’ve hit the big time! I got an email inviting me to be one of a handful of SQL Server industry bloggers who’ll get reserved seating with power and internet access during the PASS Summit keynotes. Awesome! That means I’ll be able to post live updates via my Twitter feed and here on…

PASS 2008 Summit Meetups

Last Updated February 9, 2017

If you’re going to the Professional Association for SQL Server summit in Seattle, let’s meet up! Here’s my travel info: Flight in: Houston to Seattle, Continental 1767 – arrives Sunday, 11:41 AM Hotel: Sunday to Tuesday night, Hotel 1000. Rest of week, Sheraton. Flight out: Seattle to Houston, Continental 223 – leaves Saturday, 6:10 AM…

Speaking at PASS Camp 2008 in Germany

Last Updated February 12, 2017

I love my job! When a new version of SQL Server comes out, database administrators want to know what features will make an immediate difference in their lives. They want a very fast recap of what they need to do first, what they need to plan for, and what to tell the rest of their…

Submitted my abstracts for PASS 2008

Last Updated February 9, 2017

The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) group holds an annual summit for their members. I attended last year, and blogged about some of my experiences: PASS Summit 2007 Day One Notes PASS Summit 2007 Day Two Notes PASS Summit 2007 Day Three Notes While I was there, I remember thinking, “Man, I wish they…

PASS Summit 2007: Day Three Notes

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Bill Baker: Keynote on Office PerformancePoint 2007 Bill’s a fantastic speaker, and this is an interesting product, but our organization’s BI isn’t mature enough to take on this product yet. The product has a lot of potential; in a nutshell, it combines the flexibility and agility of Excel with the data safety & consistency of…

PASS Summit 2007: Day Two Notes

Last Updated February 9, 2017

Tom Casey: Keynote Tom covered basic SQL Server marketing slides about the BI stack. Yawn. Good presenter, but couldn’t overcome the dry material. Then he handed it off to a Dell woman to announce that they’ll be selling packaged BI solutions with hardware, software, storage, etc all in one bundle. They’re targeting customers in the…

PASS Summit 2007: Day One Notes

Last Updated February 9, 2017

My notes on the sessions I’ve attended so far: Ted Kummert: Keynote on SQL 2008 I’d already seen most of this PowerPoint deck during a South Florida SQL meeting at Microsoft, but the demos kicked butt. Finally, we have Intellisense in Management Studio! Woohoo! There was other fun stuff, but I’ve already forgotten it. One…

In Denver for SQLpass 2007 Summit

Last Updated February 12, 2017

I splurged and forked over $180 for a first class upgrade for my flight from Miami to Denver. It’s been years since I’ve flown, and it was scheduled to be a four hour flight, so it seemed like a good – albeit decadent – option. Turned out to be a lucky gamble: the plane was…

Registered for the SQLpass Summit

Last Updated February 12, 2017

I’ll be attending the SQLpass Summit 2007 in Denver in a couple of weeks. It’s an annual conference for Microsoft SQL Server database administrators with seminars like “Managing Large Data Warehouses” and “Plan Cache Analysis in SQL Server 2005.” I’m excited because this is the first national SQL conference I’ve been able to attend. I’m…