09Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Microsoft Thrive

Misc
I was introduced to the Thrive program when my user group held a Thrive event back in March. Since then I've referenced some of their material several times. It's a decent little program from Microsoft to try to help out IT pros in this tough economy. Hopefully this won't create a circular reference and bring down one or more web sites, but I got picked to be the IT Pro of the month for August over at Thrive. Nothing comes with it except ever-lasting glory (measured in weeks).
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08Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Active August #2

Misc
Hrmmm... 198. Up four pounds. That just doesn't seem possible. I did a tabata on Monday. I did have a light workout on Thursday, but I went walking several days this week and I haven't been overeating (except last night at sushi...hmmmm sushi). It may just be last night & a bit of water. However. I will try to be more aware of my intake and try to get an extra workout or two in during the coming week.
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03Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Pain of the Week Webcast

Misc
Thursday this week I get to hang out, virtually, with some of the heavy hitters of the industry, Brent Ozar, Ross Mistry and Kevin Kline. We'll be talking about SQL Server books. Writing them, reading them, reviewing them, finding the right one at the store... It'll be fun. All the details are on the Quest web site.  Come and see why I have a perfect face for radio.
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03Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

SQL Server Standard

Misc, PASS
PASS is relaunching the SQL Server Standard with a wholly new approach and format. I'll put more out about it as it becomes available. I just wanted to get the word out now, as far and as wide as I can. Basically submissions are open for articles. We're only interested in publishing experienced writers who've published in some other tech-reviewed medium (Simple-Talk, books, SQL Server magazine, the old SQL Server Standard, are a few examples).  If you're interested, send me a direct tweet @GFritchey or an email to grant.fritchey -at- sqlpass.org. All the details will be published soon over at the PASS web site. Short info for those interested: experienced writers who are members of PASS abstracts can be 4-6 sentences describing the thrust, scope & length of the article…
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03Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

24 Hours of PASS

PASS
I'm fairly certain Jack Bauer isn't involved with this new initiative from PASS. Just as I'm also certain I won't be the only person to invoke 24 while referring to 24 Hours of PASS. But even without Jack Bauer, I'm on the edge of my seat. 24 different sessions by top names in the industry from all around the world. I wonder if I can do this without sleep? Probably not. I'll still being trying to attend as many of these as I can work in. I'm really looking forward to it.  People you want to hear are going to be there. Jessica Moss is going to talk about Reporting Services. Adam Machanic is going to introduce CLR. Gail Shaw will be presenting (at something like 2:oh my flipping god…
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01Aug 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Active August #1

Misc
I like to blog about technical topics and community, not personal stuff. However, this is a community post. A number of active SQL Server DBA's & Developers on Twitter have decided to make August a self-help, support-group month for eating well and being active, Active August. I'm taking part. I'll be posting updates on my weight and general activity once a week. Today, I start with a weight of 194.5.  I went to sword class this morning and spent almost three hours outside splitting wood (with a splitter, I don't have to use the maul these days).
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31Jul 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS & SQL Bloggers

PASS
PASS is trying to find better ways to reach out to SQL Bloggers. They're going to experiment with taking advantage of the new subgroup features offered by LinkedIn. Membership to the subgroup will come fromthose currently listed in the PASS blog directory. If you're looking to get into a tighter, more direct, communication with the PASS organization, be sure you've got a LinkedIn account and that you get your blog listed on the PASS web site (requirements are pretty simple, blog regularly about SQL Server topics).
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31Jul 2009 by Grant Fritchey 13 Comments

No really. When did this statement start?

SQL Server
I thought I had an interesting answer to the question. Unfortunately Adam Machanic, who has been working in this specific area quite a bit longer than I have, and, let's face it, is a bit smarter, pointed out (in the comments) the possibility that I didn't have this quite right. I ran all his tests and sure enough, it wasn't working the same way that I saw it work. First, I tried modifying his query so that it ran the SELECT statements from the DMV's between the operations, but this didn't change the results, start_time and last_request_start_time were the same. From a scientific stand-point, if no one can replicate your results, the experiment failed. So I went back and tried again. To be sure I got things right and wasn't, somehow,…
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28Jul 2009 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

When did this statement start?

SQL Server, T-SQL
UPDATE: This post is incorrect. Adam nailed it in the comments. I explain my mistake here. A question came up over at SQL Server Central where someone was wondering if it was possible to know when a given statement within a batch started. Immediately I thought, oh yeah, that's easy, use the sys.dm_exec_requests dynamic management view (DMV). Done. Wrong. The original poster pointed out that I had assumed that the values present in the DMV represented statement level values, but they show the batch. While the DMV shows a start_time, that time is the start of the current batch, not the statement within the batch. Now the question was, where else might I get this data? I next tried sys.dm_exec_sessions because it has the last_request_start_time value. Sure enough this worked. Don't…
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