My name is Brian Kelley and I used to be a PC bigot. That was back in 1989. I was selected to attend the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics and one of the things about attending there is everyone has a work service assignment. Mine was as… Read more

Most folks I know hate meetings. They especially hate meetings about meetings. Recently I was working with a developer who loves to meet. He's a knowledgeable guy and he likes to talk and share technology. These meetings have often gone down various rabbit trails and they take up a lot… Read more

This topic actually came up at SQL Saturday #70 - Columbia, SC. I spent the first 15 years of my life as a U.S. Marine dependent. Two years later I reported to The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. I spent four years there and then served four… Read more

Cross-posted from the Goal Keeping DBA blog:

In the September 2010 issue of Toastmaster magazine there’s a great article by Chris Witt (blog) entitled Not All Ideas Are Created Equal. Here is the gist of what it has to say with my own take on the points… Read more

SQL Saturday #70 is officially in the books. There's some administrative stuff: I will do a blog post about lessons learned, the committee needs to meet and discuss the event and start planning for the next one (likely .NET related in the fall), and I've got to compile the speaker… Read more

We are in the final stages of prepping for SQL Saturday #70, here in Columbia, SC. We have right around 250 registered attendees, 40 speakers, and a slew of awesome sponsors. If you haven't registered yet, there are just a few slots left before going on the wait… Read more

A very good question was asked about the SQL Saturday #70 session track, and that's "What courses are best suited for beginners?" Here's a list, in no particular order:

Business Intelligence:

• Scott Schledwitz
  How SQL Saved my Business Intelligence Strategy
  
• Julie Smith
  Up and Running with SSIS in 5,4,3,2,…

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This came up on Twitter last night and if you're not very strong on networking, this can be really confusing. First, let's start with the protocols involved:

• ICMP - This is what is used for ping and tracert (traceroute) and it's at a lower level that either of the next…

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I follow the blog of Johnny Long (twitter) from time-to-time, especially as he chronicled his work in Uganda. I know that we in America have it pretty good, even with a down economy and the social issues we are dealing with and the numbers of unemployed folks in… Read more