21Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Server Standard: Volume 7, Issue 3

Misc
FINALLY! It's not like Don Gabor had the article done in January or anything...oh wait. He did have the article done in January. However, it looks like we might be breaking the log jam and we'll be publishing a number of SQL Server Standard issues. Anyway, do you want to learn how to talk techie to non-techies? You do? That's excellent because I've got a fantatic article by Don Gabor (blog), just for you. Please go and read it.
Read More
14Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey 23 Comments

The SQL Server Community

PASS
I attended, and spoke at, the inaugural meeting of the Seacoast SQL Server User's group last night. There were about 60 people in attendance. An excellent turn-out and congratulations go out to Mike Walsh (blog | twitter) and the other organizers. I was curious about something after watching Mike present the PASS monthly slide-deck. He asked how many people were PASS members. Approximately a third of the audience raised their hands. When it was my turn to speak, I asked how many people had heard of Buck Woody (blog | twitter). I was honestly shocked when only about 6 people raised their hands. Then I asked how many had heard of Paul Randal (blog | twitter). This time I had about 9-12 people. Finally, I asked about Brent Ozar (blog…
Read More
06Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

24 Hours of PASS v2.0

PASS
The kids over at the Professional Association of SQL Server Users have done it again. They're hosting 24 Hours of PASS: Celebrating SQL Server 2008 R2. That's 24 hours of free training by top names in the business, providing you with the information you want and need. I'm not presenting this year (I may cry), but who cares. This is going to be a great chance to get some serious learning. I'm sure going to attend as many sessions as I can. First one that I've already got marked is Andy Leonard's on database development patterns. That's a topic that's near & dear to my heart. So follow the link, look the offerings over, and register right away.
Read More
11Mar 2010 by Grant Fritchey 9 Comments

Location of the PASS Summit Follow-up

PASS
I got a little distracted after lunch and was reading through some of the various bloggers reactions to the decision to keep the Summit in Seattle for the forseeable future. I enjoyed Brent Ozar's take on the situation, but the thing that struck me square in the eyes and inspired me to add one more post of my own, was a comment on Brent's post by Aaron. Scroll down and read it. Here's the part that really made an impact: This whole situation is making me less interested in supporting the organization. As a relative newcomer to PASS and having never attended a Summit, I’m turned off by the “come talk to Microsoft employees” stance. I’d rather them say come and talk to (or sing Karaoke with?) cool guys like…
Read More
10Mar 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Location of the PASS Summit

PASS
There has been some discussion recently around the location of the PASS Summit. The debate was centered on the results from a recent survey hosted by PASS. Today's Community Connector has an editorial by the PASS President, Rushabh Mehta, explaining why those of us on the East Coast will be flying to the other side of the continent for the next two years, and supplying the results of the survey I get why they're doing this. Microsoft really will commit more resources to an event that is in their back yard. I get it. I also understand, that those of us who consider the PASS Summit a big part of our "community" are actually in the minority. Most people attending the Summit aren't involved in the community, aren't interested in…
Read More
06Jan 2010 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

PASS Summit Evaluations

PASS
The big day has arrived and all the speakers are poring over their PASS Summit 2009 evaluations, me included. These things are always a mixed bag. On the one hand you get nice positive reinforcement. On the other, you wonder how you may have fallen short to not get even higher marks. I'd say I take them as guides and move on, but I don't. I really sweat them and worry about lower marks and ways I could improve... makes me a bit crazy. Be that as it may, here are the evals from my two sessions. Best Practices for Working With Execution Plans (AD-419-S), 59 evaluations Usefulness of Session Poor:0 Average:2 Good:19 Excellent:38 Speaker's Presentation Skills Poor:0 Average:2 Good:18 Excellent:39 Speakers's Knowledge Poor:0 Average:1 Good:12 Excellent:45 Accuracy of Session…
Read More
23Dec 2009 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

A Lack of Excitement

PASS, PowerShell, SQL Server, T-SQL, Tools
I usually use all the problems, crashes, and issues that I run into at work as grist for my mill, aka, material to blog about. But lately, we haven't been crashing & burning much <knock wood, turn three times, throw salt over my left shoulder, spit>. But it was suggested that may be I should mention why that is. The fact of the matter is that I've been spending a lot more time working on methods for monitoring our systems so that we avoid more of the stupid stuff, full disks, failed backups, long running agent jobs, etc.. I've blogged before about our use of Microsoft's Operations Manager for monitoring our servers and how we've built custom rules and monitors to keep an eye on things. I've also mentioned how…
Read More
05Nov 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2009 Key Note 1

PASS
Wow, the bloggers table is empty today! Nice intro! Good photo's. I love the Summit! Bill Graziano is introducing Day 3. He acknowledged Twitter and the bloggers. We rock! Outgoing board members are Greg Low and Pat Wright. These are great guys who've busted their butts for the community. Kevin Kline is completely off the board now, finishing his time as the immediate past-president. I'm pretty sure that's the first time he won't be on the board. Yep, I'm right, he's never been off the board since PASS was a organization. He really has done a lot for the organization. Thanks for your time Kevin. A review of all the other board members including the new president Rushabh Mehta and Wayne Snyder as the immediate past president. April 21-23,2010 the…
Read More
05Nov 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit 2009 – Day 2

PASS
Day 2 of the Summit was extremely busy. I missed a breakfast on DMV's that evidently was one of the hits of the show. Day 2 was kilt day. I wore mine and there were two others, Steve Jones and Bill Fellows. They were a hit. Next year I'd like to see more. There are pictures all over the place. Track one down on your own. I set up at the bloggers table and blogged & tweeted my way through the key note. Except for the hyper-sexy Windows 7 touch screen computer, it wasn't the most exciting key note I've ever seen. The new technologies coming out for data manipulation on the client machines in Office 2010 are impressive, no doubt, but something seemed lacking and I'm not sure what it…
Read More
04Nov 2009 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Summit 2009 – Day 1

PASS
YAAAAAH! The PASS Summit is pretty amazing. Yesterday I sat through the key notes from Microsoft. I was at the bloggers table where I could hear the speaker and lots of typing. I used to consider myself a blogger, but then I watched Brent Ozar doing and learned that I was doing it all wrong. Anyway, the key note was pretty interesting. They talked about future plans and directions of the information platform (note, not data). Right after I presented my first session, Execution Plan Best Practices.  The room was darned full and I only had one, very minor, glitch. After that I RAN to the Birds of a Feather lunch to host a table discussing developing databases on a team. It went all right. I don't think my table…
Read More