Today's live stream was a little different: I demonstrated using the Aiomatic WordPress plugin, ChatGPT, and Azure Open AI to write blog posts. I showed the kinds of content it writes, the kinds of blog post content it doesn't include, and taught you how to identify meaningless word salad blog posts written by people who don't actually know what they're doing.
This week, I published two blog posts:
How Bad Statistics Cause Bad SQL Server Query Performance
How Scalar User-Defined Functions Slow Down Queries
We published a whopping 312 blog posts in 2017! Looking back, wow, there was a lot of fun stuff in here.
It feels kinda arbitrary, but it's a champagne moment:
Thanks to everybody who's ever stopped by, left a comment, and taken part in the discussions. (An extra-special thanks to folks who even addressed us by the right names, and didn't call everybody else here Brent, hahaha.)
Cecil Phillip (@cecilphillip) and Richie Rump (@jorriss) interviewed me for their podcast, Away From the Keyboard.
In the half-hour discussion, we talked about:
On the Monday before the PASS Summit in Seattle this year, we're putting on another one of our FreeCons. The FreeCon is different from a typical conference pre-con - it's free, and it's about the SQL Server community, presenting, marketing, branding, networking, and yes, some technical stuff too.
In the past, they've been invitation-only, but this year we opened up applications to the public. One of the application questions asked, "What's the one thing you want to learn from the Brent Ozar Unlimited team?"
The Simple-Talk Tribal Award Winners are out, and we won in two categories - Blog of the Year for the Brent Ozar Team Blog, and me as the Person You'd Most Like to Have a Beer With.
So three things we need to cover here.
Right now is an incredible time to do what you love.Take this one-minute video from Red Bull:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRWYNUvGohYIt's chock full of people doing cool, crazy stuff that they're absolutely passionate about - skating, dancing, shooting hoops, singing - all the stuff the cool kids do.Red Bull's logo is scattered in throughout the video because they sponsor…
When I first started going to conferences, I thought all the value was up on the screen. I took copious amounts of notes in every session. I asked questions. I paid close attention. When the sessions were over, I packed up and went home, eager to implement what I'd learned. Of course, reality set in…
Happy birthday to my first post from May 7, 2002.
1,782 posts and over 12,000 comments later, I feel like I'm still winging it, but it's time to stop and think about the lessons I've learned over the last decade. This web site has turned into a consulting company that supports three of us, and tomorrow we add our first full-time employee, Jes Schultz Borland.
I'm just like you, except I'm from your future. Lemme rewind a few years and explain.
My Job Search Five Years Ago
In 2005, I was working from home doing database administration, coding, and Classic ASP. I absolutely loved my coworkers, but I was burned out, and the company was in rough financial shape. They'd missed a couple of paychecks, and I decided I needed to make a change.
When I write blog posts or presentations, I want to write posts that will impress people. I want people to say, "Wow, that guy's a rocket surgeon. He really knows his stuff. He's working on the cutting edge." I've talked to other people who want to get started blogging or presenting, and they usually have that same desire.
We need to talk.
You may not know me, but I'm one of your readers. You've become part of my routine. I really like your stuff, but I've never really said anything until now. I don't want to leave a comment, because there's not really a place in your blog to leave comments like this. I know I could email you directly, but I'm too shy.
Mike Walsh (Blog - Twitter) is celebrating his one year anniversary as a blogger by revisiting why he got started, passing on tips to other bloggers, and upping his game. He interviewed me about how I got started blogging, how I've changed along the way, and some tips that I'd recommend new bloggers think about. It's about a half hour long, so pour a hot cup of your favorite caffeinated beverage and turn up your speakers - the audio's a little quiet:
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. So far I've talked about why you should schedule blog posts, how to write a product review, how to spice up your blog with pictures, and how to get people to find you online, and today I'm wrapping things up with a book recommendation. My next series in a couple of weeks will focus on social networking basics.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. So far I've discussed how to build your momentum by scheduling posts ahead of time, the basics of search engine optimization, and how to spice things up with pictures. Tomorrow's post will finish up the series with a book recommendation for bloggers of all skill levels.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. So far I've talked about why you should schedule blog posts and the basics of search engine optimization. Tomorrow's post will cover how to write a product review on your blog.
Your writing is boring.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Yesterday I kicked things off with why you should schedule blog posts. Tomorrow I'll break some bad news to you - your blog is boring.
I blog to help other people.
This week I'm focusing on how you can improve your blog. Enjoy! Tomorrow's post will show you how to get people into your carnival booth - I mean, web site.
The question bloggers ask me over and over is, "How do you blog so often?"
It was bound to happen sooner or later, and this week, it did: SQLServerPedia got its first complaint about plagiarism. We were contacted by a well-known author (we'll call him Author #1) and his publishing firm who had noticed a disturbing similarity between a chapter in their book and a group of SQLServerPedia wiki articles.…
