I’ve heard this before, it came up in the Tufte seminar I took, and it also was something that grated on my nerves at TechEd recently. I was in a presentation and saw a slide titled “Agenda” that had bullet points like this:

• History of xxx
• Problem of DIY
• Reference…

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I’ve been a judge in this contest for the last 3 years, and each years we’ve had really good finalists, but typically a couple that stand out above the others. As we’ve gone through the judges’ voting, we usually agree on 3 or 4 of the finalists and then debate…

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If you’re a blogger or a twitterer or a SQL speaker or PASS volunteer, you do it because you have found it to be fun, worthwhile, even challenging perhaps. I bet you remember doubting the value before you started and hesitating to take the leap, and maybe you tried it… Read more

 One of the first roadblocks many developers run into when using SQL Server for the first time is firing off a query that simply selects data, and having the query never return a result. After spending several minutes of their precious life-force watching nothing happen, they get aggravated, cancel the… Read more

A Twitter user asked for a script to remove old backups, and I had one I built back in February, so here it is (use at your own risk): #rmbackup.ps1 # Removes database and transaction log backups # # Change log: # February 2, 2010: Allen White # Initial...(read…

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Today I did a webinar on MDX solutions.  For those of you interested you can grab the slides here and code example here.  If you missed the session you can also download the recording here.

We do monthly webinars so make sure to check view are site regularly…

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I don’t travel a lot, but with the success of SQL Saturday, I find myself heading out on the road more than I have in the past. I’m not what you’d call an experienced traveler, and Brad McGehee, who travels a lot, constantly tells me I’m doing it wrong… Read more

Today we’ll try to finish up by looking at a couple of the semi-interesting parts of the code in this one page application. We’ll start with the page load event. On the first run of the page (not postback) I’m grabbing the two keys I need if they exist and… Read more

Nominations opened today and will run through July 21st. Whether you’re planning to be a candidate or not, I hope you’ll visit the election page and review the documents posted. Those documents reflect a lot of time and effort from Hannes and a lot of others to try to improve… Read more

I’ve been experimenting with stories in the editorial, experiences of my own that are amusing and have some kind of interesting lesson embedded. Stories can be interesting, uplifting, even tiresome, not sure at all where the boundary is yet, or if it can even be defined that way. The good… Read more

Since the release of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has been using what they call an Incremental Servicing Model for SQL Server. This means that every eight weeks, they release a cumulative update (CU) for a particular version and service pack of SQL Server. These cumulative updates typically have about 20-40…

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Microsoft has released SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Cumulative Update 2. It became available for download today, and you can request it here. It includes 18 fixes, (mostly for SSAS and SSRS)

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I received an unexpected but certainly not unwelcome email last night letting me know that I've been selected to present a spotlight session at the 2010 PASS Summit! I'll be talking transactional replication, and while I could spend all day on the subject I'll be sure to make the… Read more

Life in the event leader fast lane, finally got the signs for our upcoming #49 here in Orlando. In past years we’ve gone with the low budget version, but this year since we’ve got ace fund raiser Jack Corbett working on sponsors, we’re investing a little. Ordered 25 of the… Read more

Using the command prompt for stopping and starting services is a very nice possibility and very fast! We know that SQL Server services must never stop, especially the SQL Server core engine service. During the system maintenance sometimes we need to restart the processes and it can be done also… Read more

Microsoft has released SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Cumulative Update 2 (CU2) today. It became available for download today, and you can request it here. This is Build 1720, and it includes 18 fixes, mostly for Analysis Services and Reporting Services.

Below is a SQL Server 2008, SQL Azure,… Read more

SQL Saturday - Columbus, OH, June 26, 2010 I'll be presenting two sessions this Saturday (June 26, 2010) in Columbus, OH - XQuery Basics and Gather SQL Server Performance Data with PowerShell . The event takes place at Goodwill Columbus, 1331 Edgehill...(read more)

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Make sure to check out the comments on this one!

A short conversation on Twitter Monday night reminded me of this topic. SQL 2008 introduced two new features with similar names and similar-sounding functionality, which are actually quite different. I had learned about these once upon a time and then… Read more

I’ve been attending a Powershell fundamentals class with Don Jones (blog|twitter). If you read my blog you might be aware of the fact that I’ve posted a few PowerShell scripts in the past.  So why was I attending a fundamentals class? Because I didn’t know what… Read more

Starting today, you can vote for the 2010 Exceptional DBA of the Year. All of the nominations have been reviewed by a panel of judges, and six have been selected to be voted on by the SQL Server community. The winner will not only receive the recognition of being the… Read more