10Nov 2010 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

PASS Summit: Day 2 Keynote

Misc, PASS
Today is Kilt Day at the PASS Summit. We're going to try to arrange a group photo at lunch time. The network connection is extremely slow. I suspect the tweeting about the kilts. Bill Graziano is leading the key note and he started off with having all the kilted stand. Only about 12-15 of us, but that's five times better than last year. Then it was time for the volunteers to stand up. It was excellent to see so many people. The Outstanding Volunteer of the Year was Lorie Edwards. The PASSion award went to Wendy Pastrick, who really earned it. Unfortunately the next segment was on governance... blech! But necessary. Everyone here is a member, so they should know how the money is spent. Luckily Bill is not digging…
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09Nov 2010 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

PASS Summit: Day 1 Keynote, Part 3

PASS
Ted Kummert is still talking. For the cloud, of course, they're talking about SQL Azure. Microsoft really is throwing themselves into the cloud, completely. The emphasis is that they offer both a cloud and an on-premises solution. I don't mind saying, I'm still trying to get the full business proposition for an old school, fat, business like the one I work for. What should we be doing with the cloud. I just haven't seen the magic. I see where smaller businesses, or start-ups, or temporary surge capacity for businesses that may have that type of thing can use the cloud, but... traditional work, it just doesn't seem to jive yet. We're going to see some made-up scenarios for how Azure can manage Contoso Bikes. He shows how the report can…
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09Nov 2010 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

PASS Summit: Day 1 Keynote, Part 2

PASS
Mark Souza from the SQL CAT Team, some of the smartest & most capable of MS consultants in SQL Server, is presenting how his team is offering a health check for people's SQL Server systems. There going to actually be using some technology to do this little event called SQL PASS It On, using Twitter. Twitter is become more and more of a major part of the event. If you're not at least monitoring Twitter, you're missing out. It's a busy day with the SQL Clinic, the Exhibit Hall, Community Learning Center, Birds of a Feather Lunch, Regional Mentors, Book Signing and Exhibitor Reception. That's not mentioning all the sessions. The key notes will be Ted Kummert today, Quentin Clark tomorrow, and David DeWitt (YAY!) on Thursday where he will…
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09Nov 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit: Day 1 Keynote, Part 1

PASS
Sitting at the big kids table at the PASS Summit, ready to rock and roll. The Summit has not officially started yet, but it's been a fantastic ride already. I'm getting to meet a bunch of great and amazing people. I made my very first trip out to the Microsoft campus yesterday. Last night was the SQL Server Central party. This is just a great organization and a great event. Right at the start, the tweeting is hot & heavy. Hmmm... OK, starting off with a Tina Turner impersonator. She's extremely good, but I have to ask, what were they thinking? Her name is Truly Tina. She was outstanding. Just a bit odd. Rushabh Mehta is introducing the PASS organization. He's showing off the Board of directors and the executive…
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20Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Kilt Day at the PASS Summit

PASS
Last year, with the infinite power at my disposal (read, zero), I declared Wednesday, Kilt Wednesday at the PASS Summit. It took off... a little ways. Three people wore kilts. Now, you'd think that three out of 3000 would almost not get noticed, but the three people wearing them... well, each for different reasons, we stand out in a crowd. Heck, I was even told one of us looked good in the kilt (wasn't me, of course). Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, we were noticed (and it might be because I jumped up on the bloggers table during one of the the key notes...) and now, this year, LOTS of people are planning on wearing kilts on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010. If you don't have a kilt, don't panic. You can always…
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14Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Working the Door

PASS
You know those guys that work the door at clubs, seperating the wheat from the chaff, culling the herd, Choosing the Slain, sifting the gold from the dross, telling the difference between the sheep and the goats, winnowing out the weak, tipping the scales of justice... you know, the guys taking tickets. Well, this year, I get to do that job at the SQL Server Central party at the PASS Summit. That's right, I've been given absolute power, the keys to the kingdom, control of the list... you get the point. And best of all, while I was offered money, fame, power & women, I bargained for more and I got it. I'll be wearing one of those nifty Hawaiian shirts (Friday shirts) we always see Steve & Andy sporting. HA! And my wife won't…
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13Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit Birds of a Feather Lunch

PASS
The absolute biggest part of the PASS Summit is the one thing that most people don't take advantage of, networking. And no, I don't mean glad-handing everyone you meet, remembering all their names (although that is a good skill to have) and saying over & over again "Rush Chairman, damn glad to meet you." I mean taking advantage of the fact that you can talk to people that have already solved the problem that you're facing at work, or just might have some insight into that issue, or maybe you can give them insight into a problem they're facing. I'm mean, talking to people. Yeah, I know, we're all geeks, and worse than that, data geeks. That means we like to sit in dark little caves & grumble about our…
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11Aug 2010 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview

PASS, T-SQL
Registration is open for the second 24 Hours of PASS this year. This one is going to be a preview of the Summit itself. So all the sessions are tied, in some manner, to sessions being given at the summit.Here's a link to go and register. I'm very excited to be able to say that I'll be presenting in this 24HOP. One of my presentations at the Summit this year is Identifying and Fixing Performance Problems Using Execution Plans. It covers pretty much what it says, methods for fixing performance problems by exploring the information available within execution plans. But, how do you know you have a performance problem? That's where my preview session comes in. Identifying Costly Queries will show you several ways to gather metrics on your system so that you…
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06Nov 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2009 Day 3

PASS
The day started off with a mixed bag. First we had an honestly tearful farewell with Wayne Snyder saying goodbye to Kevin Kline, leaving the board for the first time since PASS was founded. This was followed by a painfully dull session with Dell all about their commitment to bread & butter DBA concerns. That was followed by Dr. DeWitt doing a deep dive into the history and the future of computing, showing and teaching in ways that only the very best can achieve. It was a fantastic performance, entertaining, enlightening, amazing... Just flat out incredible. It's the kind of understanding that you wish you could get about most things, most of the time. Unfortunately, it came to an end. Today I finally got to hit a lot of sessions. First…
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04Nov 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit Wednesday Key Note 2

PASS
Tom Casey of Microsoft on BI. 20% of people that are decision makers within organizations have the tools and information they need. That means that 80% don't have it. I believe those numbers. Microsoft is very focused on getting BI built into the information platform. You can tell from the stuff released in SQL Server 2008. Part of the proof he's putting out is the PASS Summit itself. There's 2 dedicated BI trackes, 50+ sessions, and 30% of attendees said they were interested in that track. For some information Ron Vanzanten. He's sporting identical clothing to Tom Casey. 4 million card holders and 3200 employees. They'll be working through 600,000 credit card applications in a month. Woof. 24tb of customer data in a SQL Server BI environment. Woof X2. Unfortunately,…
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