The BoiseCodeCamp and TechFest will be held Saturday, March 28th at Boise State University. This free event include 57 one-hour sessions covering a wealth of topics, including software development, networking, Windows virtualization, robotics, project management, OSX, agile practices, web design, C++, C#, SQL Server, and much more.
This is the 4th year this event was been held, and last year it was attended by nearly 300 attendees.
You can register for the event at boisecodecamp.org. If you are interesting at speaking at the event, you can also submit a session at the above URL.
If you are interested in speaking at the devLINK Technical Conference in Nashville, TN, August 13-15th, you need to get your speaking proposals in no later than March 13, 2009. Visit www.devlink.net for more information.
Microsoft has introduced a new website (part of Microsoft.com) called Thrive. It is still in its infancy, but its focus is on Career Care (professional development), Technical Competency (certification and enhancing your skill set), and Business and IT Alignment (how to align company and IT’s goals).
The website includes articles, white papers, videos, webcasts, and much more. If you have some extra time, you may want to check the site out.
If you use Data Dude (Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition GDR), you might want to check out Gert Draper’s new website, DBProj.com. Gert used to be the Software Architect and Engineering Manager of Data Dude, and he has started a new website focused on the product. While the website is in the early stages of development, it still has useful resources.
As some of you may know, I am writing a new book called High Performance Index Maintenance. As an experiment within the SQL Server community, I have been asking for DBAs to provide feedback on the books contents.
In my first blog about this topic, I asked people to provide me feedback on the book’s outline. I got a total of 7 people who reviewed my outline and provided feedback. I found this very useful, and the book will be better because of this feedback.
I want to continue this experiment, by occasionally blogging about what I am writing about in the book, and getting your feedback on it.
For example, as DBAs, we all know what an extent is, or do we? As part of an introductory chapter I am writing for the book, I wanted to give a short, succinct definition of what an extent is.
You would think that this would be easy to do, but I did some digging around (because I like to verify my facts) and got two different answers. For example, the SQL Server 2008 Books Online says that an extent is “a collection of eight physically contiguous pages. Then I went to a well-known reference book on SQL Server internals and found this definition: “An extent is made up of eight logically contiguous pages.”
OK, so which is it? Is an extent a collection of eight physical or logical pages?
Tell me what you think, and why. Once I get your feedback, then I’ll share with you what I think the definition should be.
I have always been of the personal opinion that all SQL Server tables have a clustered index. As part of the research I am doing on a new book on High Performance Index Maintenance, and on heaps specifically, I ran across this SQL Server Best Practices Article from Microsoft.
This article describes a series of tests that Microsoft did using SQL Server 2005 SP1 in 2007. While the article is a little dated, it does a great job of “proving” that every table should have a clustered index. It goes into great detail explaining why using a clustered index instead of a heap is virtually always the best choice.
If you are not already convinced that heaps should be avoided, you will be after reading this paper.
Registration for SQLBits IV, to be held in Manchester, England on Saturday, March 28, 2009, is now open. This free event is billed as the largest SQL Server conference in the United Kingdom, and it offers 28 different sessions, in 5 tracks, on many different aspects of SQL Server. See the agenda here.
What differentiates SQLBits from many other SQL Server events is that users vote for the sessions, instead of some unknown group of people making the selection. This means that the sessions you want to see the most will be presented.
The total number of attendees is limited, so be sure to sign up soon for the event.
I will be attending, so if you have the opportunity, please stop me and say hello.
Microsoft has published a white paper called SQL Server 2008 White Paper: Analysis Services Performance Guide that you might find interesting.
It focuses on:
If you are involved in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services at all, you will want to read this white paper.
Over the years, I have dealt with a lot of third-party applications (and their vendors) that use SQL Server as their back-end databases. It has often been an uneasy relationship, fraught with pain and tribulation. The overriding feeling I have gotten from most of these vendors is that they could care less about the DBAs who have to install and manage their application’s databases.
Whatever excuse third-party vendors have for ignoring the DBAs who tend to their product’s databases, I think it is time that DBAs begin to fight back, and not take their uncaring attitude any more. Below, I have proposed a DBA Manifesto, a list of demands that we need enforce among all the third-party vendors we work with. If we stick together, and take the same stance, then perhaps we can get these vendors to be more helpful and cooperative.
Here are our demands to these third-party vendors:
Do you agree with these demands? Do you have other demands? Will you try to enforce these upon your vendors? Tell me what you think. DBAs, we must unite against the tyranny of third-party vendors!
There are only a few more days before the call for speaker for European PASS ends, on Saturday, February 7th, 2009. If you want to submit a session, visit call2speakers.european-pass-conference.com/.
Microsoft has just released the SQL Server 2008 Books Online (January 2009) update.
To download the 144 MB file so you can install it locally on your computer, visit: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=765433F7-0983-4D7A-B628-0A98145BCB97&displaylang=en
If you just want to access the online version, visit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd408738.aspx
If you are interested in speaking at DevTeach/SQLTeach in Vancouver, BC this June 8-12, you have until February 10, 2008 to submit your speaking abstracts. This event offers 136 different sessions, so there is lots of opportunity for you to speak within your topic of expertise.
Find out more at: www.devteach.com/TechChair.aspx
