PASS Virtual Chapters

PASS
If you're not a member of the Professional Association of SQL Server users, PASS, why not? No, I'm sorry. I meant to say, If you're not a member of PASS, you may not have heard about the change between special interest groups and the new Virtual Chapters. What used to be the SIG's has been repurposed, rebuilt and, let's say it, reborn, as Virtual Chapters. There's a whole new energy and all new web sites with content and presentations and more free training than you can shake a stick at. There are great opportunities to begin networking, and we all know how important that is as a means of career building. It's like having a really vibrant, active, useful user's group available 24/7. Get on over and check out the offerings…
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Cape Cod .NET Users Group

PASS
Tomorrow night, Wednesday, September 23, I'm going to present on "Best Practices for Working with SQL Server Execution Plans" for the Cape Cod .NET User's Group.  It's basically a rehearsal for the presentation that I'll be doing at the 2009 PASS Summit in just 5 weeks. Can you believe it's already almost here? I'm so jazzed. This year is going to be a great summit. I can't wait to see everyone again... I... Where was I, oh yeah, come down to Hyannis if you can make it. It should be a fun evening. Not quite as good as the Summit, but a good time.
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24 Hours of PASS

PASS, SQL Server, T-SQL
This was a pretty cool event. The advertising leading up to it seemed to really cover the community very well. There was even a link to 24 Hours of PASS in my team's local web site. Unfortunately, I'm not an iron man like Tom LaRock, watching all 24 hours. I only hit a few sessions. The first session I hit was Allen White's PowerShell for SQL Server. I have attended a couple of  his presentations at the PASS Summit. I think he's done a great job of gleaning better and better examples out of his presentations. This one was good. I loved the way he put together the backup processes for automating backups. It looked good, took into account common issues, it just worked. I was really happy I got…
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24 Hours of PASS

PASS
Or, as you should tell your boss, 24 hours of free training by many of the leaders of the industry presenting original sessions that will teach you about topics from SSIS to Spatial Data to Index Selection to CLR performance to... well, you get the idea. This shouldn't be a hard sell for anyone to their boss. "Hey, remember that problem we had the other day with the database that was in simple recovery mode? Yeah, well, Kalen Delaney is presenting for an hour on just that topic." Your follow-up question to the boss, should then be, not, can I, but "Do you want me to get a meeting room and project this for everyone?" Developers, designers, architects, administrators, and managers are going to be able to find something interesting…
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SQL Server Standard

Misc, PASS
PASS is relaunching the SQL Server Standard with a wholly new approach and format. I'll put more out about it as it becomes available. I just wanted to get the word out now, as far and as wide as I can. Basically submissions are open for articles. We're only interested in publishing experienced writers who've published in some other tech-reviewed medium (Simple-Talk, books, SQL Server magazine, the old SQL Server Standard, are a few examples).  If you're interested, send me a direct tweet @GFritchey or an email to grant.fritchey -at- sqlpass.org. All the details will be published soon over at the PASS web site. Short info for those interested: experienced writers who are members of PASS abstracts can be 4-6 sentences describing the thrust, scope & length of the article…
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Conversations

PASS
Do you know how to start a conversation or how to join one? I usually wait for a pause and then blurt out whatever point I thought was missed, missing, or insufficiently covered. In other words, don't come to me for advice. The fact of the matter is, while the legend of misanthropic, barely washed, hardly lucid, but frighteningly competent IT personnel is alive and strong, in reality, we need to speak to each other, our peers, and worse yet, the business people. Developing social skills is a must. Further, with the economy being what it is (and looks to be for some time to come) you probably need to put those social skills to work building up a network, people you can help and, hopefully never needed, can help…
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Learning Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008

PASS, Spatial Data
PASS just published a new Top 10 list of mine over at the their web site. This one is the Top 10 Articles on the web if you're trying to learn about spatial data. I'm not trying to say that I know what I'm doing with spatial data. I'm still feeling my way forward. These articles have proved to be the most useful in the learning I've done so far. I wanted to publish a little more information than we put into our Top 10 lists over at PASS. Having the list is good, but I thought it needed a bit of commentary to be complete. All these articles are good and all the web sites hosting the articles have good stuff on them. A few of the web sites stand out. Paul Randal's…
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PASS Summit Session Preview

PASS
The Pre/Post Conference Sessions and the Spotlight Sessions for the PASS Summit 2009 have been announced. Go check it out. This is going to be a fantastic conference this year based on the topics and the people presenting (and I'm still humbled to be included with that group). I wasn't aware that they had shifted the structure of the conference so that it takes place from Tuesday-Thursday instead of Wednesday-Friday. I'm not sure I like that. I'm not sure I dislike that. In addition to the Pre/Post conferences, a special new session, and program, has been put together by Andy Warren on networking. Since networking is one of the very best reasons to attend the PASS Summit (although pure geek joy can be had in the sessions), this should be very…
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Pushing Connect

PASS
I have posted multiple times that I think Microsoft Connect is one of the best tools you can use to communicate with Microsoft. It works. Buck Woody is reinforcing my position from the Microsoft side of the fence. Look, Microsoft is not a small nimble company like Red Gate. And again, unlike Red Gate, you might not find yourself in a conversation with the CEO of Microsoft on the floor of a conference like the PASS Summit. And short of going to PASS or TechEd to track down some of the developers and project managers (many of whom attend these conferences), you need to have a mechanism to communicate with the company. You can try standing on your front door step and screaming (trust me, the neighbors just call the police)…
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Publishing at PASS

PASS
I've been working with Andy Warren on several things for PASS through the editorial committee. Some of the work is available now. First, I've searched out all the online SQL Server communities that I could track down. I gathered information about the community and whether or not they published articles and what the contact for publication is. All the information about the online communities is gathered in one place. Please look them over. If I missed someone's favorite community, please let me know. I'll update it. If I've got some bad information up there, again, pass the word and I'll get the changes in. If you're looking for somewhere to go for help, support, or just someone to talk to, I think you can find something to suit you there. PASS is…
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