14Sep 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Conference in Florida: SQL Server Live

Misc
This conference is new to me. In case it's new to you, I thought I'd take a moment to point it out. Mostly because I'll be presenting there and I love talking to anyone who has actually read any of the blather I post on my blog. If you want to get together in the land of sunshine in December (don't tell Mrs. Scary but I'm looking forward to this one, winter in New England is awful), then click here to register. If you do it now you save $500, so it's a good time to take care of it. I'll be presenting two different sessions. One is on backups and restores for the accidental DBA. I'll go over the important stuff to get you started protecting your company's data…
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28May 2012 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

Rolling out Windows 8 Client: First Impressions

Misc
A virus found it’s way on to my system through a trojan horse, past all the security & anti-virus software. I went through the process of cleaning up, but I kept finding pieces of functionality that had been negatively impacted. Further, I was getting lots of Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crashes. This was all on my beautiful Lenovo W510 that I use constantly and that I need for demo’s while on the road. It needed a rebuild. When it came to doing the work, I planned on a Windows 7 install. It had been working on the machine for about 18 months without any issues at all so I figured I’d just go back to it… But, Windows 8 is coming out. So, for deep technical reasons that I’ll…
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23Apr 2012 by Grant Fritchey 47 Comments

Comments on Acceptable Behavior

Misc
Here’s the situation. We’re absolutely falling down as men and professionals. Ladies, feel free to read on and comment, but I’m talking to the guys. This blog post has been percolating in my mind for quite some time, but a few new stories have brought it to the fore. The most recent was when I heard that, in front of multiple other male MVPs, a female peer was propositioned using language that I wouldn’t condone when speaking to an animal, let alone a peer. And that’s the point, these women are peers. Yes, they happen to be female, but more importantly, they’re our peers. And you know who I’m most upset with? No, not the individual who acted like a jerk. There’s always a few of those around. No, I’m…
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01Feb 2012 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Learning, Networking & Wine

Misc
Let’s say, you want to spend a couple of days learning about SQL Server. You also want to spend some time networking with others. And, it just so happens, you’re a bit of a wine connoisseur. I have the event with you in mind. It’s the first ever, SQL Excursion. It’s due to take place May 17-19 in Napa Valley. The training is from two of the biggest names in the industry, Denny Cherry and Tom Larock. I learn from these guys all the time and now it’s your turn. But this isn’t going to be 60 minutes in a presentation followed by 10 minutes in the hallway at a SQL Saturday. Not, this is going to be intense sessions with these guys on topics from performance tuning to troubleshooting…
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18Jan 2012 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

Stop PIPA & SOPA

Misc
I’m not going to black out my blog, because, let’s face it, who’s going to notice? But for all six of you who read this (and, of course, you Mom), I do want to point out that these are horrific bad bills. They are sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, so party affiliation shouldn’t enter into this. In this case, they’re all bad guys. And why? Greed, pure & simple. Hollywood donates millions & millions to politicians and they expect these people to stay bought and deliver on their “anit-piracy” legislation. Don’t know anything about this? Here’s an article. Just don’t focus on SOPA. It’s the bill sponsored by the Republicans (which for some reason is the only one called out as evil…grrr). There’s also PIPA, which is the Senate equivalent…
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06Dec 2011 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Connections Fall 2011 Speaker Evaluations

Misc
In keeping with the past, I’m going to go ahead and post my evals for the two sessions I did at Connections in Vegas back in November. It was a mixed conference for me. The first session I had ~80 people. The second session I had 9. Yeah, weird. But there were great speakers there (as usual) so I’m hardly shocked that I had low attendance, but the funny thing is I expected the sessions to be reversed. The low one was the session I lavished love & attention on. The high one wasn’t given as much of my focus. Figures. Here are the evals. I love how Connections shows the high, mean and low so you get a sense of how you fit. SQL Server Optimization Checklist (36 responses)…
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18Nov 2011 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Thank you

Misc
I somehow made the Top 10 Community Choice Bloggers in the SQL Server Magazine 2011 awards (keep scrolling to the bottom). This was evidently a write-in list and some of you who read my rambling attempts to understand this SQL Server stuff thought enough to actually write down this blog. I’m completely and utterly gobsmacked, humbled, surprised… and yeah, happy. #6 …. Wow! Thank you. Gotta go get some posts written now.
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16Sep 2011 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

St. Louis SQL Server Users Group Feedback

Misc
You know I share what feedback I get from conferences. I don’t usually get feedback from users groups (well, I do, but it’s seldom written down and the bruises heal eventually). The St. Louis SQL Server Users Group did collect information. Since I share the other stuff, I may as well share this too. They didn’t have a metric. It was just written down comments. Here are a few, my comments, as usual, will be in parenthesis: Enjoyed the demos; Everything worked (ditto, the enjoying demos working part) Good speaker; just dislike presentations w/ remote speakers.(Me too. I prefer interaction. I like seeing heads nodding or shaking or eyes rolling up so I know if I’m covering things well enough. Remote presentations are hard & can be very boring to…
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08Aug 2011 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Droid Apps

Misc
A friend of mine recently got his first smart phone, an Android. My wife has also recently moved into the world of smart phones, again, an Android. I’ve been working with Android for a year now and loving it, and not even remotely non-vocal about it. I even picked up a Droid tablet, an Asus Transformer (which I LOVE). My advice on apps has been solicited a few times. I forwarded the most recent request to G+, Twitter & Facebook. Funny thing is, I’ve installed a ton of apps and then uninstalled most of them. There are only a few that I’ve found really, really useful. Note, this is beyond the basic stuff that comes with the phone, email, web browsing, maps, navigation, calendar, etc. That stuff is wonderful. I’m…
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26Jul 2011 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Strengths Finder 2.0

Misc
I’ve made the commitment to read and review 12 books over 12 months as a part of continuous personal development. This is my second book. While this is a book review, the first thin you need to know is that the Strengths Finder 2.0 book is actually just a written, in-depth, support document for the test that you take on the StrengthsFinder web site.The core idea to the test and the book is to identify your strengths and work on them instead of spending all kinds of time trying to fix your weaknesses. If you just think about it a little bit, it makes sense that you can spend days and weeks trying to improve in an area where you are not terribly strong while improvement in areas where you…
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