09Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

Using the Surface

Surface
I'm attempting to push this thing. I want it to be a production device, not just a consumption device. Frankly, until there are a lot more apps (which don't crash & burn), this isn't all that attractive a consumption device. Typing with the touch keyboard has gotten radically better as I've worked with it. So much so, it's starting to mess with the way I type on a real keyboard, jut a little. I find a little pause, every so often, after typing quite a few words, resting my fingers, just for a moment, on the home keys (bless my typing class in high school), getting my index fingers reoriented to the little indents that mark F and J. I actually just used that last sentence as an example. Each…
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09Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit Day 3: Dr. David Dewitt

PASS
Two quick points, I'm putting this blog together using the Surface.. ooh... and this isn't a keynote, but a spotlight session at the Summit. Still, I thought I would live blog my thoughts because I've done it for every time Dr. Dewitt has spoken at the Summit. Right off, he has a slide with a little brain character representing himself. But, we're talking PolyBase, and futures. This is basically a way to combine hadoop unstructured nosql data with structured storage within SQL Server. Mostly this is within the new Parallel Datawarehouse. But it's coming to all of SQL Server, so we need to learn this. The information ties directly back to what was presented at yesterday's keynote. HDFS is the file system. On top of that a framework for executing…
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08Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2012 Day 2: Keynote

PASS
Welcome to Day 2 of the PASS Summit! It's been a very exciting event so far. Today I'm presenting two sessions, one on tuning queries by fixing bad parameter sniffing and one on reading execution plans. Please stop by, or watch the one on execution plans on TV as PASS is livestreaming events all day long on SQL TV (which is what I used to call Profiler). The intro video, which can be good or goofy was really good this year. They had people from all over the world talking in their native language, making the point that the PASS organization is a global community. It really is. Doug McDowell is giving us the finance and governance information for the PASS organization. I find this boring and vital at the…
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08Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

PASS Summit 2012 Day 2: KILT DAY!

PASS
Welcome to the fourth Kilt Day at the SQL PASS Summit. It might be a little silly, but it's fun. It's also Women in Technology day with the WIT Luncheon. Guys are invited. A short word about the bloggers table. Last year we were... a little loud. So this year, we were cautioned... well, more like told to be quiet or they'd take away our toys. I agree with the intent of the message, please keep it down. But the delivery... it hurt PASS at the bloggers table and upset people. As I was reminded last night by a dear, dear friend who I accidently hurt, how you deliver a message is as important as the message you deliver. But, that's OK. Let's learn from our mistakes, grow & move…
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07Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2012 Day 1

PASS
We're off and running here at the PASS Summit. New this year is live streaming all day. Bill Graziano is introducing the Summit. More importantly, he's introducing PASS. Further, he's introducing speakers to everyone. He doesn't mean just speakers at the summit, but anyone who has spoken at a SQL Saturday or a user group, and it was a scary large group of people. PASS has created a new web site to make it easier to find local Chapters. Track one down. On the one hand, it's weird that we're sitting at the PASS Summit and introducing the PASS organization, but I think they're right to do it. It's a great organization and I'm always surprised at how many people don't know about it. Bill's big announcement is the all…
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05Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2012: Day -3

PASS
The Summit proper starts on Wednesday, but the Summit starts at registration. I left a little early from work setting up for SQL in the City: Seattle in order to run up the hill and get to the convention center around the time that it opened. Why? Cause I get to meet my SQL Family for the first time this week. Lots of people are there and it really is like a family reunion. Smiles, hugs, catching up, stories. It's the best way to launch the event. Not a lot to report, but I just had to share. I love my SQL Family.
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02Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

More Surface

Surface
I’m continuing to work with the Surface. BOOM I just had my first crash. I was in IE when I tried to switch tabs and the pull down window would not stay open. So I tried closing IE. That didn’t work at all. I tried switching to the Start window or switching apps. No joy. I then did a hard restart, holding down the power button for about 10 seconds. On restarting, the system started updating itself, which was weird since I had made sure to do all the updates when I started. The update finished, I logged in, and noticed that the wifi symbol looked funny (wish I had a screen capture, ooh, is there a utility for that?). No big deal until I tried connecting to the wifi…
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01Nov 2012 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Surface, Surface, Prepare to Surface

Surface
More stuff about the Surface. Web browsing works extremely well so far. I enjoy how you can swipe to move back a page. I like how the tabs work too. I'm not crazy about how long it takes to get the link option window open. You hold on a link and then eventually a little box appears. Then you remove your finger and you get option such as "Open link in new tab". Since I do this a lot while browsing, I need it to be faster, something like a right click. Which, you can do from the pointer on the keyboard, there are two little spaces right below the pointer area that act as left & right click. Cool stuff. But using the touch screen to do it, not…
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