A private equity (PE) company recently acquired the majority of Redgate Software, the current owners of the PASS Data Community Summit and SQLServerCentral. Everybody in tech has private equity stories, some good, some terribad. Private equity hands money to companies not out of generosity, but because they believe they can turn it into even more money…
This afternoon, PASS announced that their operations will cease in January: We are saddened to tell you that, due to the impact of COVID-19, PASS is ceasing all regular operations, effective January 15, 2021. We encourage you to take full advantage of any access that you have to PASS content between now and January 15,…
You, dear reader, know a lot of SQL Server community names from their blogs, webcasts, podcasts, presentations, books, etc. It can feel pretty overwhelming - there's so many sites to keep up with, so much good technical material.
But even still, you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. There are so many wonderful people in the SQL Server community who lead amazing lives, and they choose to share online the parts of their lives that are even more interesting than the technology stuff.
You’re a developer or a DBA, and you’re comfortable writing queries to get the data you need. You’re much less comfortable trying to design the right indexes for your database server. You've never had a formal database internals class, and you don't really have the patience to read a book on it - but you want a quick foundation.
This week , I was honored to give a session about hacking your career. Here's the abstract:
This is not yet another career session that tells you to be friendly and network. Forget that - this is about using your IT skills to reinvent the way you get paid. I'll explain how I went from DBA to MVP to MCM to business founder.
I spend most of my day tuning SQL Server to make it go faster. I'm usually called in after the fact, when the app has become intolerably slow.
One of the first things I ask is, "What's changed?"
Whether you're just getting started writing a presentation abstract, or whether you want to double-check it, or whether you want to understand why your abstract wasn't picked, it's always the right time to step back and ask some big picture questions about your conference submission. The blessing and the curse of the active database community…
When you're speaking at a conference, try to get the room schedules long before the event day. Right now, the PASS Summit conference schedule is available, and each speaker's room is listed.
Then, check out the building's floorplan - in this case, the Washington State Convention Center's floorplans page. Check out the seating capacity for your room.
If you've never been to a conference before, the PASS Summit and Dev Connections events seem like things that happen to Other People. This year, I wanna help make you one of us. You're a geek, right? Let's break this down into numbers. What It Costs to Attend a Conference People usually think conference attendees…
At big conferences like the Professional Association for SQL Server Summit in Seattle, attendees can pay extra to attend a pre-conference or post-conference session. Select speakers talk all day on just one topic, so the attendees get really deep coverage on it. Competition among speakers is tough for these slots because there's money involved -…
I just got asked for advice on what it takes for geeks to rise up through the ranks of your company and become a manager.
I'm probably the worst person to ask. Check out my wacko career path:
