18Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Pass Volunteer Training 2008 – Part 2

PASS
Next year is going to be in Seattle again... Argggh! Another six hour flight. More jet lag. YUCK! Money review. Yawn. But you'd be horrified how much all this stuff costs at the convention center. BTW, I'm pretty excited to be presenting. I know someone else who pointed at their ribbons and said "The only ones that count are MVP and Speaker." I feel the same way about my Speaker ribbon (I don't have the other one). More so because, of 70 or so available slots, more than 500 abstracts were submitted. If you want to thank any particular set of volunteers, I'd go for the program committee. They bust butt. Of course, if your abstract didn't get picked, you might not be too happy with those guys, but look at what…
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18Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Volunteer Training 2008 – Part 1

PASS
While it's called training, the PASS volunteer "day" is much more a report on the current status of the organization and planning for the next year. Today we had good start. Pat Wright went over the org chart, something new to PASS volunteers this year. Kevin Kline went over the history of the organization, including a few stories (ask him about escorting an attendee off site because of way too public a display of self-love). Lots of interesting information has come out. PASS is run under international rules as a non-profit which requires it to maintain ~20% of it's operating expenses in the bank. Regional conferences are under consideration (although, as was pointed out, internationally, they're already underway). The C&C management company performs the day-to-day operations above & beyond what…
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18Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Still no Joy in Mudville: GDR RC0

PASS, Tools, Visual Studio
The guys at Microsoft tried to recreate the problem I was having and were unable to. It probably means I've got a bad uninstall of CTP17 or something. Since I'm running on a virtual it won't affect me in the future since I can toss it, but that doesn't help for the PASS Presentation tomorrow. So, no demo at the end of the presentation, just a bit of tap dancing. It'll be fine, but I would that it were otherwise.
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18Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Report from the PASS Volunteer Party

PASS
I am not here to name names. The organization threw a nice party at a local bowling alley. A lot of fun was had by all. I finally got to shake hands with Gail Shaw. She's almost as tall as I am. My bowling game has seriously deteriorated over the years. Today, the conference gets started for real for me. All day sessions with the PASS organization.  I promise, from here on out the posts will get a lot more interesting. From talking to a lot of people, I understand that Brian Knight's presentation on SSIS, which included a Drug Dealers Datawarehouse or something, was the one to miss. Unfortunately, I missed it. I think there'll be a video of it on the PASS web site.
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16Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

In and Registered

PASS
Finally arrived in Seattle. The airline, to remain nameless (UNITED), didn't get my luggage on my flight (or anyone else flying out of Providence). Yay! Checked in to the hotel and registered at the Summit. The bag this year is disappointing in the extreme. They're clearly cutting costs, but, if it goes towards more speakers, presentations, better food, it's worth it.  Nice shirt though. Not a t-shirt this year, it's a golf shirt. I can wear that to work. Useful. Since I'm presenting, I got a speaker's gift. It's wicked cool. A 128gb mobile drive, engraved with PASS & my name. I expected a clock of some other equally useless chochki. I'm very happy to have something functional. Usual bag full of ads & flyers. The final issue of the…
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16Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

My Bags are packed, I’m ready to go

PASS
Not quite, but I am getting the final preperations done to fly to Seattle. The shuttle service is picking me up at 7:30 this morning. Then it's off to PASS. There's quite a line-up of speakers this year. The Tuesday pre-con's, which I can't attend because of the PASS Volunteer Training, look fantastic. It should be a good conference this year.
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14Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

PASS Board Elections

PASS
Well, the word is out.  Of the six people running, I know five, four of them reasonably well. I can only vote for three of them. Here's the deal guys, I'm voting for all of you. That's right, each and every one of you gets a vote from me. I visited Chicago once, I think I can manage it. Tom, Lynda, Pat, Louis, Andy, and the other guy, best of luck. But, if you're reading this and wondering who you should vote for, I will supply two names that you must vote for. It's up to you to figure out the third (fourth & fifth if you're following the Chicago method with me). In no particular order: Because I think he really can lead positive change in this great organization, I…
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14Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

VSTSDBE GDR RC0: No Joy in Mudville

PASS, Tools, Visual Studio
A few posts ago I outlined the problems I was having getting the RC0 of the GDR to deploy appropriately. I was successful in a deployment, so I thought I was done. Yesterday I went to do a run through of the presentation for PASS and my deploy failed. Despite the fact that I'm running on the same machine with the same project that worked before. I've now gone back through the whole process again, but I'm getting nothing but failures. It's totally hosed. At this point, barring a miracle, I'm going to present the process and then explain that I can't demo it because of failures. I don't know if it's just a configuration issue with my virtual machine or something flawed in the release. Either way, I'm at…
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12Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Still more on Andy Warren and the Pass Board

PASS
This sounds like it might have been an interesting phone call. Just the sound of it points out why I think Andy would be a great addition to the board (along with someone else I know. I'll start lobbying for him when I find out whether or not he's on the ballot this year). He has ideas. Now, I don't mind working. I'll certainly pitch in and help out. I even lead efforts. I don't have ideas. Andy clearly does. If no other concept stood out, the ninety days & out approach to trying out some new stuff in PASS sounded like a great idea. It would have been interesting to listen in to the phone call. I'm also impressed with the method of vetting people for the board. I…
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10Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit

PASS
The PASS Summit starts with the pre-conference seminars in just a week. For anyone interested, I'll be blogging once a day from the Summit. I won't be naming names from any of the drunken revels, so you'll need to go elsewhere for that information. As you can see from the side-bar, I'm presenting this year. If you're attending the Summit, please see my session. I'll be going over how to use the Visual Studio Team System Database Edition to deploy to multiple environments. Yes, it sounds a bit dull but if you need to use the tool, I think you'll find the session very helpful. I'm going on Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:15PM. I was competing with Gert Drapers, but it looks like things have changed and it's going to be…
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