26Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Apress Alpha Program

Uncategorized
Apress has a new program called Alpha where they make available books in progress. You can download, for a price, an e-copy of some of the chapters of the book for early review. It allows you to get in on the action a bit and you can post comments to the author to influence the final work. My new book, SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled, just got added to the Alpha program. They have 10 of the 16 chapters posted. Additionally, they've got a publication date set for March. I've only seen the production copy of three of the chapters and I'm on the second draft of chapter 16, so I think that seems tight, but they're the pros.
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26Jan 2009 by Grant Fritchey 14 Comments

New England Data Camp v1.0 Results

Misc, PASS, SQL Server
I believe that the very first New England Data Camp was a success. We had about 185 attendees. There 18 sessions from 16 speakers. Both the sessions I gave and the one I sat in on were full. Credit goes to to Adam Machanic who did 90% of the work pulling this together. Amazing job Adam. My personal thanks to our sponsors.  First, Microsoft, who provided us with a magnificent facility, nice swag, a full AV suite, coffee and donuts and in the morning, and a lot of help. It wouldn't have come out as well as it did without you guys. Next, the Professional Association of SQL Server Users (PASS), who supplied us with money, without which we could not have eaten lunch, a few posters to decorate the…
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