#SQLPass

Woohoo!  I’m presenting three sessions at the PASS Summit in Seattle this year.  I’m doing one with Jason Massie (Twitter – Blog) on Social Computing for the Database Professional (I don’t have the abstract handy for that one), and these two: Session: Yes, I’m Actually Using The Cloud Security in the Cloud There’s a lot…

I went to my first Professional Association for SQL Server Summit in 2007. I’d gone to a few local SQL gatherings, talked to other area DBAs, and worked on some pretty cool projects.  I really liked what I was doing, and I thought I was doing a decent job.  I knew I wasn’t a rocket…

I got an awesome group of responses for the initial PASS Virtualization Virtual Chapter.  I wish I could have taken everybody, but you know what happens when you have a committee with too many people: nothing gets done.  (Come to think of it, nothing gets done on committees period…) Meet the Hypervisors, also known as…

The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) has several sub-groups for specialized groups of people: Application Developers – people who code applications that store data in SQL Server. Auditing and Compliance – people who need to secure their SQL Servers and be compliant with regulations. Business Intelligence – people who write reports, design cubes, and…

Kendal Van Dyke is a Senior SQL Server DBA from Florida, and he’s been blogging since last year.  He’s syndicated at SQLServerPedia, and his recent series on RAID performance is a must-read.  I’ve talked back and forth with him a lot lately, and I figured I’d try something new: a virtual interview.  I emailed Kendal…

PASS is on the ball this year!  They’ve got the web site and spiffy logo up and running for the 2009 Summit in Seattle. PASS Summit 2009 Logo Looking through the site, one change jumps out at me: the schedule this year will be Tuesday through Thursday, with pre-conferences running on Monday and Friday.  In…

The Professional Association for SQL Server Summit is being held again this November in Seattle, and the Call to Speakers is now open.  You can only submit 4 sessions, which seemed very small to me until I realized that I do entirely too many presentations. In Twitter, somebody mentioned that it’d be a good idea…

In Twitter, when you put a pound sign or hash tag in front of a phrase, that makes it easier to search for the phrase in past Tweets. If you want to alert your fellow SQL Server peeps about what’s going on at the Professional Association for SQL Server summit or at their regional events,…

Jay Grieves (aka Big Swinging Developer) gives 3 steps to manage developers: Find out what success means to your team. Determine how each team member can be a valuable part in making that happen. Monitor. For me, this was the most important part of the article: The secret to being a Big Swinging Developer is…

Yes We Can! Congratulations to Tom LaRock, aka SQLBatman, and Pat Wright, aka SQLAsylum, who just got into the PASS Board of Directors!  Two board members had resigned, and Pat & Tom was appointed to one of those two positions.  I’m excited because I believe these guys will make great board members, and I’m even…

Microsoft’s keynotes and sessions catered to the business intelligence sector of the audience.  In Tom Casey’s keynote on Thursday, one slide said: “You are on your way to becoming a BI expert.” I know what you’re thinking, dear reader.  If you’re a DBA, whether it’s a production DBA or a development DBA, you’re thinking, “That’s…

Dear Mr. or Mrs. Manager, Someone’s sending you this because they want to go to the PASS Summit conference. I’m Brent, a guy who’s active in the community and I’ve been to a couple of Summits, and they want me to explain why it’s worth the money. What’s the PASS Summit and How Much Does…

George Box said, “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.”  Donald illustrated this point with a brief history lesson.  Early models of the universe said the sun revolved around the earth, and with that model, marvelous things were possible in architecture, celestial navigation and science.  Even though the model was wrong, it was…

Updates It’s Friday, it’s 8:30 AM, and it’s time for another keynote. 8:30 AM – Bill Graziano just rode out on a trike! 8:40 – Two sessions will be repeated today due to high demand. At 10:45 in room 604 they’re repeating the clustering session, and 2:30 in room 6E is SQL Server on SAN.…

PASS Board Election Results Dribbling In Andy Warren is in!  He talks about it on his blog, and I got a huge chuckle out of this part: I didn’t have any idea what my chances were, I really didn’t do a lot of campaigning (hard to figure out a way to do it that didn’t…

I’ll be liveblogging this morning’s keynotes at the PASS Summit.  Refresh this page for the latest news. 10:02 – Tom’s focusing on the ROI of BI, and suddenly I get it.  The database engine works great.  Now we’re bolting things on top of it to make every end user in the company see the value…

Aside from my liveblog of Ted Kummert’s keynote this morning and Jimmy May’s presentation on partition alignment, a few other things caught my eye today. I talked to JC Cannon about his SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide.  I’ve written here about it before, but it bears repeating.  If you’re not here at PASS, and you…