Just had a note from John Magnabosco, the schedule for the event on Oct 4, 2008 has been published. I'll be there doing a presentation on Replication, Steve Jones is doing one on Green Computing, and I see Kevin Kline has two on the agenda as well.

This is… Read more

I was looking for editorial content and ran across The Planet Blog, from The Planet, a hosting company. I was struck by the variety of posts on all types of topics. The blog makes the company seem fun, a place that I might like to work. If I were… Read more

Automatic Failover - an incomplete solution

Automatic failover with Database Mirroring is great, but what about all of the other things that you need to happen when the database fails over? There is no built-in support in Database Mirroring for anything external to the database. This is where automatic activation… Read more

Paul Waters and team from the SQL Server Innovators Guild have decided to host a SQLSaturday at ECPI Greenville, SC Campus on October 11, 2008. Registration and call for speakers is now open! Read more

"Culture", according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture, has one definition as

"the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization".

I am not sure how many CIOs or senior managers, who are responsible for a DBA team, have considered to build a healthy database administration culture… Read more

The Charlotte SQL Server User Group meeting will be held online on August 20th at 12 Noon (EDT). They'll have as the speaker SQL Server MVP Brad McGehee. From the front page:

Don't miss our August 20th online meeting with renowned SQL Server MVP, Brad McGehee. Brad is an…

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 I'm glad I'm not this slow, or maybe it's timed for the SQL Server release, but my TechEd Online panel, or one of them is online. Read more

Part of running a businness is deciding when and where to spend your hard earned cash. It's interesting to look at those decisions as a consumer and wonder what goes into them - is there a lesson that I can apply somewhere?

For example, if you buy gas and pay… Read more

Like a lot of folks my age (in their 30s), I grew up on comics, both comic strips in the newspaper and comic book magazines. Here are the "geek" comics I follow nowadays on-line:

• UserFriendly.org
• xkcd
• Dork Tower

I used to follow the Heroes Happen Here {Comic Series}, but… Read more

Recently I needed to make a call and the only number I had was a mnemonic one. I get why they are useful, you want something easier to remember than numbers and perhaps just memorable in general, but my phone doesn't happen to have the letters on the keys (BlackBerry curve).… Read more

The following events are for August 21, 2008, in downtown Columbia, SC.

• Morning - Momentum: IT Execs
• Morning - TechNet: Vista, PowerShell, Group Policy
• Afternoon - MSDN: WPF, Vista (for Developers), Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Afternoon - TS2: Partners

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1. Component Services -> Computers -> My Computer -> DCOM Config -> MSDTSServer
2. Right click on MSDTSServer
3. Click properties
4. Click on the Security tab
5. Select Customize and add the…

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My first blog post, The Decison to Advertise, is up on the Business of Software blog.  Read more

With all the options we have for viewing query plans I still prefer the graphical view. Combined with tooltips and the occasional journey to the properties dialog it solves the problems I work on. The only downside is that the plan view tends to be verbose and the zoom options… Read more

I had to install the RTM version of SQL Server 2008 a few days ago since I'm tech reviewing a book on the product and it's rather important that the code works on the final version ;)

It was actually an interesting process. I had RC0 installed, had downloaded RC1… Read more

My friend Jonas Stawski just sent me a note about the upcoming Code Camp in Argentina on October 24, 2008. They have a goal of 1000 attendees - yes, one thousand. Ambitious! It's their second time running this so I expect it to go well. I'm not planning to attend,… Read more

I've just posted minutes of the August 2008 user group meeting. We had two great presentations, a short one from Dolores Tofel on how she uses Access with SQL Server, and a longer one from Amy Styers of EMC on the Top 10 Storage Mistakes. Details at http://opass.org/content/showcontent.aspx?contentid=509.

Attendance… Read more

There are many technical conferences available for SQL Server professionals, such as PASS.  I have been lucky enough to go to the last five PASS conferences, spoke at a couple of them, and am the current Program Manager. The energy, educational sessions and networking opportunities found at PASS are just… Read more

I read Andy's post Changing Jobs - Should You? today with great interest. I think it is good topic in the sense that by fully exploring/researching this topic, both employers (usually represented by HR and senior management) and employees (like us IT people) will better understand each other, and thus… Read more

I think most people fall into two groups, the ones that change jobs every year/every time they can make another dollar, and the ones that stay in one place long past the point when it makes sense for their career. What's interesting about the frequent job changers in our industry… Read more