Last Friday I posted about turning my first pen on a lathe, this week I'm discussing my other recent project, a playhouse for my two daughters. Hopefully by the time you see this the paint job will look a little more complete. It's based loosely on a plan I found… Read more

SQLTeach (a part of the larger DevTeach event) will be held in Vancouver, BC this June 8-12, 2009. It will offer 136 sessions in 8 different tracks, including 37 SQL Server sessions, 17 Agile sessions, 17 software architecture sessions, and 57 .NET sessions. In addition, there are both full-day pre-con… Read more

If you are a current, or aspiring Microsoft MVP, you can keep up with what other MVPs are doing by reading the MVP Award Program blog. For the most part, the blog focuses on individual MVPs and their contributions to their respective communities.

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May 21

I will be teaching a half day course on SQL Server security and auditing for the Midlands Chapter of ISACA.This is a course intended for auditors and will be a technical deep dive on the SQL Server security features and how to audit activity properly. The purpose… Read more

The Midlands PASS Chapter will be meeting next Thursday night, May 7, at Training Concepts. We have the privilege of welcoming the head of our sister group, the Columbia Enterprise Developer's Guild, Chris Eargle. Chris is a C# MVP and INETA Community Champion.

Bio:

Chris Eargle began… Read more

I have read quite a bit about Vampire energy over the last year, and it seemed like leaving your XBOX, laptop, etc, plugged in was a bad idea. Based on a few things I have read, it seemed that I was losing a few dollars a day from having my… Read more

I serve on the PASS Board of Directors, but this post reflects my personal views and not an official PASS position.

One of the things that has always interested/amazed me is how many people wait until the last minute to register for PASS, and that wait typically results in spending… Read more

When creating a table with a column that will hold the name of a stored procedure that feeds an EXEC command, make sure the data type of this column is sysname. The data type of this column should not be VARCHAR(50) or some other arbitrary data type that should… Read more

Suggested Reading: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Administration with Windows PowerShell

My earliest forays into writing powershell for SQL Server found me scrambling for help. I found several resources online that covered some specific topics, but I still had trouble finding what I needed.

Ultimately, I found a lot of great… Read more

My friend Brian Knight is leading the 2nd annual SQLSaturday in Jacksonville on May 2nd. Right now it looks like 37 sessions scheduled and over 200 registered so far, but there should still be plenty of room if you want to attend. I'm trying something different this time, doing a… Read more

I had a great time at SQL Saturday Atlanta last weekend. I drove from Orlando to Atlanta on Friday with Andy Warren and took advantage of the long ride to talk about PASS, user groups, volunteering, blogging, networking etc. Andy's a great guy to talk shop with because of… Read more

Thank you, Lynn, for your previous post. I have reinforced in my first blog posting on SSC about certification as a good method to keep up with technology.  Instead of commenting directly to your post, I’m elaborating here below.

Absolutely, as you’ve said, share(!), it's the best way… Read more

Self-Discipline

Yes, I've said it: self-discipline.

I'm reading a book called Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes. Now as might be suggested by the title, it is a book that has at its basis, a focus on improving oneself spiritually. However, Hughes doesn't start out the book… Read more

The Best 10 IT Certification
Every IT Technology has the importance and positive values to use for the business.So the people who will work with these technologies must have strong skills and hardworking. And sure they need technology updates like Certifications, Conferences, Technology events etc. So if we take a… Read more

Well it didn't take long. On a conference call a couple weeks ago, trying to juggle the phone, the laptop, and grabbing a cup of coffee, the phone slipped out of my hand and hit the hardwood floor. I ended up with a crack in the screen, but it hasn't… Read more

If you haven't already, start with Part 1 and Part 2. In Part 2 I mentioned that I have hired Don to coach me on networking, and this week I'll share some results from our first 1.5 hour session.

Prior to the call Don asked me to identify 3… Read more

The 2009 European PASS Conference, which was held April 22-24, 2009, had 254 attendees from 22 different countries. In spite of a difficult economy, attendance was up from 187 attendees last year.

The event was held at the Swissôtel Conference center, which over looks the Rhine river, in Neuss,… Read more

If you own a business, I believe that you have a right to make more money than the rest of your employees. You are taking on a risk, and greater risk should result in greater reward, at least that’s how capitalism is supposed to work.

But what about management? Often… Read more

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In my security presentations, another basic I talk about is defense-in-depth. The idea here is to produce multiple layers of protection against a particular attack. For instance, imagine malicious code against your home computer. This is a case where you likely already practice defense in depth, as this illustration shows.… Read more