This year I was really looking forward to going to the PASS Summit. It's worth every penny in the knowledge you'll gain and the networking opportunities you'll encounter. You know, a lot hasn't been said on the later, but let me throw my two cents worth in here (since we're talking about pennies). The friends I have made and the relationships I have expanded on through the one PASS Summit I was able to attend have been extremely rewarding to me personally. I tweeted about how I consider a few folks my unofficial mentors in Steve Jones and Andy Warren. Being able to meet them and really get to know them at the PASS Summit was the main highlight of that conference for me. It's where I learned a lot more about them personally, where they come from, what their backgrounds are, and that time spent, along with other opportunities over the years, has been the reason I so value their wisdom and advice. But I've met and built relationships with other folks, too, through that conference and you know, if you were to sum up the hours I've spent talking, trading emails, getting technical advice, bouncing ideas, etc. off at a regular consultant's bill rate, I've come out way ahead. It's not about bill rates for me, don't get me wrong. But a lot of folks are not going to be able sell their manager on "relationships" in a lot of cases. So we need to take something that business uses. So if we're talking about something business can use to understand the benefits of sending its people, that's money. If I added up the bill rate for all those "consulting" hours that no one paid for versus what it costs to go to one conference, travel and accomodations included, business comes out incredibly ahead. Maybe that's another way to approach asking to go to the Summit or any other major conference like TechEd.
So back to what I was saying, I was looking forward to going to the Summit. There are a lot of folks I want to meet in person. There's a lot of stuff I want to learn about. This year was the first year I had a topic selected. And I'm a SQL Server MVP this year, and while I hope I'll be renewed come January, I know that's not a given. Plus, the recent PASS elections and some comments made by folks I respect (Andy Kelly, Adam Machanic, to name two) have made me realize that there PASS is a community and it's a professional organization, but it needs cash flow, too. So I wanted to talk to folks and see how I might help in that regard. Being a gopher and making phone calls and sending emails is something I can do, even if I don't have the business background of some folks. It's a way I can contribute to help PASS get better. And I figured the Summit was a good way to talk face-to-face with the right folks. So there were a lot of things saying, "Go west, young man!" But ultimately, it's about choices and priorities. I blogged about how I was impressed with a statement Brian Moran made. Here's his statement again:
"I’ve learned over the years that there are a lot of things that I can delegate to other people. I can’t delegate being a good husband or father. I prioritize those jobs on a daily basis even when I’m super busy with other professional responsibilities."
I'm of the same mindset. I can't delegate being a proper husband and father. I also won't abdicate or shirk those roles. Yesterday, when my wife and I went for our 20 week ultrasound, they noticed twins. Yeah, we were shocked. So were the nurse and doctor. Nothing previously had indicated twins, including the initial ultrasound and some of the screenings that have been done. As they examined using ultrasound, they could only see one placenta (which likely means identical twins). So that kicked us into "high risk" and we've got a referral working to doctors at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. I make fun of USC all the time due to their repeated futility in college sports, but their high risk pregnancy docs are great. I know, because the previous pregnancy we had to see them for a different matter (which has repeated itself in this pregnancy). The referral appointment may reveal that there are two placentas. And we drop back out of high risk. But it may also mean additional tests and checks, because they weren't able to get all the things they wanted to get on baby B (who was starting a trend of being uncooperative with the doctors... repeating the behavior of our 4 year-old daughter) even though what they were able to get on both, everything looks good. At this point we just don't know. The referral appointment should come in the next week or so, but most likely during the week of the Summit.
So as disappointed as I am, it wasn't a very hard decision as to what to do. I had already thought of this back in June because of a question Brad McGehee asked with regards to SQL Connections, when they were no emotions and no concerns and I could think through it in a coldly logical fashion (like Lori Edwards does). But even without that prior question, we're talking family. We're talking my wife. And that makes it a no-brainer of a choice. I've talked about my faith and that will always be first. But she's next on the pecking list. In fact, my faith says that had better be the way it is in my life. So while I will lament the fact that I can't be at the Summit this year, I won't lose any sleep over making this decision. For those who were looking to meet me, the couple of you out there, I hope we'll meet at other venues soon.
This past Saturday I was able to participate in the Carolina Code Camp, help just outside Charlotte, NC. I was there for the morning part, spending time with family in Charlotte for the afternoon. So let me go over both the good and the bad, starting with the bad first. There are lessons to be learned in the bad.
The Bad
Let me start by saying that the bad with CarCC had nothing to do with the Code Camp itself. They are just reminders for me as an individual. Hopefully, if they aren't things you've thought of, you can learn vicariously through my mistakes.
The first bad was not taking the time to email some folks beforehand to see if they were going and to try and connect with them before I got there. While code camps, SQL Saturdays, and conferences should be about learning, to a certan extent they should be about networking, too. For instance, ASP.NET MVP Chris Love (who I only know through Twitter) and SQL Server MVP Paul Nielsen were both at Carolina Code Camp. But I missed out on meeting them in person because I didn't get my ducks in a row ahead of time. I'll not make that mistake again. I also missed out on seeing Boyd Evert from the Charleston PASS Chapter and a couple of local developers I used to work with but who have moved on from AgFirst. Next time, I'll do better.
The second bad was not going through my checklist when I was done speaking. I was looking forward to hearing SQL Server MVP Alejandro Mesa present, and since we were in the same room (him right after me), I wanted to clear out the space to give him time to setup so he wouldn't be rushed. As a result, when I was packing my equipment back in my laptop bag, I left my power adapter on one of the tables there. I didn't realize it was missing until after I had gotten back home, almost 2 hours away from the venue, and long after the event had finished up. I ended up ordering a replacement from Dell Saturday night, but for the second order in a row, it looks like it has gotten lost in their system. I've filed a customer support ticket with them, haven't gotten anything back but the automated email, and I don't expect anything different than, "We're sorry, it's us, not you. Can you place the order again and cross your fingers it will actually go through this time?" So I'll probably be running down to an office supply store looking for a universal one because I'm quite fed up with Dell. I used to be a big fan, but the experiences I've had with them over the last two years means I'm likely done with them as a customer until I hear from peers that things have substantially improved.
The Good
The first was finally being able to hear Alejandro present. He's done some other venues, but I've always had a conflict. When you hear him talk and go through the topic, you understand why his presentations have been highly regarded. I enjoyed the talk immensely, learned a few new things, and enjoyed talking with him. If you haven't met Alejandro, you should. He's a humble guy that knows a ton, is very helpful, and cares about his craft and the community.
The second I was able to meet Jeff Schroeder, another active SQL Server type in the area. His presentation was at the same time as mine, but he came to Alejandro's, and we were able to talk a bit afterwards as a group. Jeff's another knowledgeable guy who has seen some interesting vendor packages and had to come up with creative solutions to attack the issues they cause. So I'm going to follow back up with Jeff, because he's a nice guy, knows his stuff, and brings a different perspective because of his experience that I could learn from.
The third was the venue, the Levine Campus at Central Piedmont Community College. They have a very nice setup that was very conducive to a code camp. I was very impressed with the facilities. I think Alejandro indicated they may be trying to do a SQL Server centric activity there, and the college has agreed to lend the space. Apparently there are some very good, community minded folks there in addition to the awesome setup. We would love to have similar access to facilities half that nice here in Columbia, SC.
The fourth good were some of the ideas that were bounced around in a very short time. Alejandro was making a comment about how hard it is to present on query tuning and optimization on an hour, because to understand what you're seeing, you've got to understand the theory. But to make any sort of headway is hard, because there's more than an hour of material in there. Alejandro was only focusing on plan caching and re-use. He said up front that he wasn't touching recompiles because there was simply no time. One of the things I thought about is having a deep dive track or two during the SQL Saturdays. Where you'd get a topic like query tuning and optimization for the morning and another deep dive in the afternoon, maybe on peformance tuning. I think it's something worth approaching Andy Warren about, so I probably will, especially when both Alejandro and Jeff seemed to think it was a good idea. Some topics just need more time.
So that wraps up my experience for Carolina Code Camp 2009. It was a great code camp and I'm looking forward to going back again next year. Hopefully, Midlands PASS will be able to help out in the organization of it in 2010. We'd certainly like to be included along with the .NET user groups.
I'll be doing three talks this week, starting tomorrow (Tuesday).
If you're able to make it out for any of the three talks, I'd love to meet you. Whether your new to the crowd or an old hand in the community, relationships are what make it work.
For Charleston, I'll likely have my family with me. I'm a Citadel graduate and my wife is a College of Charleston and The Citadel Graduate College graduate (she has an M. Ed., which makes her the smartest one in our household), so we get back as a family whenever we can. At some point I'm going to get my oldest son involved in helping with the presentations because he loves doing things with me and he's about the right age to be able to help out. But that will probably be starting next year. I need to start his SQL Server education properly, but that means starting with the idea of set theory and functions and building from there.
And if you can get out to the Carolina Code Camp in Charlotte, you won't be disappointed. Each block is chalk full of great sessions and the only problem you'll have is deciding which session you want to go to the most. There isn't a single block where there isn't at least two sessions I would like to be at, so it looks like I'll have to do some random determination if I can't decide. So come on out, meet others who are in the same field, and start building connections and bonds with others who are passionate about technology.
I was in a presentation last week where the presenter was talking about the ANSI/ISO SQL standards. For the most part the information was correct, but one of the things that was left ambiguous was whether or not the old INNER JOIN syntax was valid (and thus, the audience would be left to assume that it wasn't):
SELECT C.FirstName, C.LastName , E.Title FROM Person.Contact C, HumanResources.Employee E WHERE C.ContactID = E.ContactID AND C.LastName = 'Smith' ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;
The old syntax is where the tables are specified in the FROM clause but the JOIN clause is specified in the WHERE clause, like the query above (WHERE C.ContactID = E.ContactID). It is valid ANSI/ISO SQL, and you can find a bit of confirmation for this in Books Online. The reason it's valid is because it's not ambiguous, unlike the OUTER JOIN syntax that was previously used. Now most DBAs and DB developers that I know much prefer the new syntax where the JOIN clause is specified explicitly in the FROM clause using the ON operator like so:
SELECT C.FirstName, C.LastName, E.Title FROM Person.Contact C INNER JOIN HumanResources.Employee E ON C.ContactID = E.ContactID WHERE C.LastName = 'Smith' ORDER BY LastName, FirstName;
The reason I prefer the new syntax is it's cleaner and easier to read, at least IMHO. I can immediately tell there's an INNER JOIN operation going on and I can clearly see the JOIN clause. When the JOIN clause is in the WHERE clause, I have to sift through that portion to determine which exactly is the JOIN clause. On the first query I've given above, that's not terribly difficult, but when the WHERE clause has a lot more to it, it can be a chore to piece together the query properly.
When I queried on Twitter to see who was using the old syntax, I got back a lot of "Kill it! Kill it!" type of responses like someone had just seen a cockroach headed for the 2 year-old's birthday cake. Others pointed out that they see it, but in legacy code, because there's a standing ban on the old syntax for new code. A few acknowledged that it still goes on in their shops (and they were usually quick to point out that it drove them nuts). I'm interested in seeing if there's anyone that still codes using the old syntax and if you do, is there a reason you haven't moved on to the new syntax? Is it because it's an ingrained habit? Or maybe that way is more clear to you because it's what you're used to? Another reason?
In this presentation we'll look at the use of triggers for added database security. We'll start with the typical DML triggers used to audit changes to data and best and worst practices with their implementation. Then we'll move into SQL Server 2005 and 2008 with the use of DDL and Logon Triggers which allow us to prevent changes to the database schema, to report on certain types of login behavior and to even block logins if we see them from unauthorized applications. In addition, we'll briefly consider the Audit object, a feature of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, which allows us to finally perform audits on SELECTs against critical tables without having to resort to SQL Server traces.
In a recent forum thread, someone asked to see who created/altered a particular object. Starting in SQL Server 2005, this information is contained in the default trace, provided that the default trace is enabled and the information hasn't rolled out of the trace files. The catch is how to report on the information easily. If you've used it before, you're likely thinking of the Schema Changes History report. The catch is that if you're using SQL Server Management Studio from SQL Server 2005, this functionality wasn't available until Service Pack 2. So if you have just installed the workstation tools and you've never applied a service pack, you won't see the option for the reports because it's not there. The same is true if you have a full SQL Server installation that's still RTM or SP1. The only way you see the change to SSMS is to apply SP2.
Which brings up a good point. You should be applying service packs to your client systems as well. This was a lesson we learned the hard way on SQL Server 7. It seemed like with every new SQL Server service pack, the definition of DTS packages changed. The only exception was if you encrypted your DTS packages with a password. That didn't change. And so what it meant was if you had different SP versions between your servers and your client systems creating said packages, you had a problem. Because ones with later service packs could read packages created with older service packs, but not vice versa. And as I'm writing this, Aaron Bertrand has just put out a blog post talking about an SSMS issue that is fixed with a hotfix, which you should take a look at, especially if you're dealing with mixed environments. So the point here is that in addition to keeping your SQL Servers up to date. you also need to plan on keeping your SQL Server client tools up-to-date as well. Not only are new features provided, but fixes are included with the updates, too.
I meant to write this earlier, like in July, but I suppose it's better late than never. I'm halfway through this year as a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server and I certainly hope it won't be my last. I wanted to reflect a bit on what I've seen thus far being a newly minted MVP. I'll talk about some of the things that being an MVP helps one realize. And then I'll discuss a couple of points about what being an MVP is not.
Being an MVP Makes You Realize That There Are Some Seriously Smart People in the Field:
Everyone knows the big names if you spend any time in the community. These are the people who you follow. When they write something, you read it, because you know you're going to learn something. You may not understand it all, but making the effort means progress. When they speak, you try to get into their sessions. And prior to being an MVP I realized how smart these folks were, right? Wrong. There has been talk about the private MVP newsgroups and when you get to be a part of them, you see them discussing and debating in areas that aren't necessarily what we know as their fields of expertise. Take, for instance, Erland Sommarskog. Is there anything this guy doesn't know? And you see that they are just as strong and knowledgable in those areas as in areas they are well known for. It's a humbling experience. And we won't even get into Steve Jones and Paul Randal and their immense reading habits, much of it outside of technology.
Being an MVP Makes You Realize That There Are Some Seriously Hard Working People in the Field:
Like with the smart people, you find some incredibly hard working folks within the MVP ranks. It's not that they aren't brilliant. They are. But their work rate, especially towards the community, is immense and leaves you in awe. You see some of it on their blogs and forum posts, but in a private setting like the newsgroups, you really see how involved they get, especially as they try to bring problems and issues to the attention of the MVP audience and to Microsoft. Folks like Aaron Bertrand and Jonathan Kehayias immediately come to mind in this respect.
Being an MVP Allows You to Take Stock and Set Higher Goals:
After seven months in, I really feel like they lowered the bar to award me an MVP award. When you see what folks are doing, the kinds of challenges they are taking on, it's yet again rather humbling. Whether it be working with VLDBs, complex ETL, or having such a detailed knowledge of the inner workings of the product (and this includes some who have not having worked for Microsoft), you can see how far the gap is between you and them. Case in point, a conversation I was having with Andy Kelly when he visited Midlands PASS and he's casually talking about VLDBs and performance work on them. It's inspiring and challenging at the same time.
Being an MVP Allows You to See More Areas Where You Can Contribute:
There's a ton of places to contribute within the community: from community sites like SSC, to dedicated forums, to SQL Saturdays to serving as a volunteer for PASS. But there are other areas like Microsoft's Thrive campaign where we see folks like Grant Fritchey and Joe Webb contributing. And it seems like Microsoft is always asking for input, especially on new initiatives. I've been able to take a look and offer some comments in projects that aren't directly related to SQL Server. It's been an exhilarating experience.
Being an MVP Isn't About SWAG:
There are a lot of benefits to being an MVP, both from Microsoft and from 3rd parties. I know folks have tried to estimate the value of being an MVP. I've taken advantage of a few of the offers, but truth be told, as good as they are, they pale in comparison to what I've mentioned above. If your goal is to become an MVP to get the SWAG, you're really going to miss out on the true value of the MVP community.
Being an MVP Isn't About Self:
Becoming an MVP is supposed to be about community support. You contribute to the community because you have a passion to do so. And somewhere along the line Microsoft recognizes you for the work you're doing. It may be worthwhile to have as a measurable receiving the MVP award, but that should not be the goal in and of itself. The goal should be about helping a community grow. Because as the community grows, everyone benefits. I've had great career opportunities and made awesome friends because of the community. There are a lot of times when I really feel like I need to be doing more, especially when I see how active some folks are on the forums, like Gail Shaw and Jeff Moden here at SSC. If you're pursuing an MVP for yourself, you're going after it for the wrong reasons. Contribute to the community. Draw satisfaction from helping others.
Not too long ago the developer community got a fantastic resource called Stack Overflow. It's a question and answer site, so it's like forums, only it's not. The interface is well done, finding questions to answer is easy because of the tag system, and the site has in place a capability to give people who are active more and more capabilities to help manage the site. It's a really neat idea. The issue with Stack Overflow is it is development-centric and by design. So the powers over Stack Overflow have created a sister site called Server Fault which is for IT professionals - Same interface, same tags, and same increasing ability to help be responsible for the community site.
Now Server Fault is currently in "private" beta, but that should last only a week or two based on the post about Server Fault in the Stack Overflow blog. If you've been somewhat active on Stack Overflow, check out that blog post, because it tells you how you can get active on Server Fault right now. It is actively being used. If you don't meet the criteria, don't worry, one or two weeks go by fast.
Does this replace technology centric sites like SQL Server Central? Not really, it's just another resource. The great thing about SQL Server Central is it covers all things SQL Server. So there are a lot of great SQL Server pros at SSC and at SSC you don't have to worry about going to a different site if you have a programming question or a system administration/SQL Server administration type of question. SSC covers it all with respect to SQL Server. And you'll see a lot of us on both sites. I'm a bit more active on Server Fault right now only because I'm trying to stay ahead of Brent Ozar on reputation and to get a chance to answer some questions there. Brent is a question hawk who will snatch out your prey right from under you! If you post there on a subject related to SQL Server, SANs, or virtualization, do it quick and do it thorough, lest Brent swoop down from on high! Okay, I'm kidding about that. When he's on, he's just trying to help, just like the rest of us, and he has a very great in-depth knowledge of multiple technologies. He also helps support the actual Stack Overflow site as their DB performance expert.
A question on the forum asked how to find all the database mappings for a particular login. If you're on SQL Server 2000 or below, the tables you want to use are syslogins in the master database and sysusers in each database. The key to tying the login to a user is the SID. So if you know the login's SID, you set up your WHERE clause against sysusers and if you get a match, that login has a user mapping in that database. With SQL Server 2005 and above, you'll need to use sys.server_principals and sys.database_principals, respectively. The code I'll include shortly is the SQL Server 2005 and above example.
Now this query fails to report access in three specific situations. That's because in these cases the login has implicit rights into the database. Those cases are:
Here's the query. If you've got a lot of databases, it may take a little bit to run.
DECLARE @LoginName sysname; DECLARE @DatabaseName sysname; DECLARE @SQL NVARCHAR(4000); DECLARE @sid VARCHAR(255); SET @LoginName = '<Login Name To Search On>'; SET @sid = (SELECT sid FROM sys.server_principals WHERE [name] = @LoginName); CREATE TABLE #Mappings ( DatabaseName sysname, UserName sysname); DECLARE cursDatabases CURSOR FAST_FORWARD FOR SELECT name FROM sys.databases; OPEN cursDatabases; FETCH NEXT FROM cursDatabases INTO @DatabaseName; WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS = 0) BEGIN SET @SQL = 'INSERT INTO #Mappings (DatabaseName, UserName) SELECT ''' + @DatabaseName + ''', name FROM [' + @DatabaseName + '].sys.database_principals WHERE sid = ''' + @sid + ''';'; EXEC(@SQL); FETCH NEXT FROM cursDatabases INTO @DatabaseName; END CLOSE cursDatabases; DEALLOCATE cursDatabases; SELECT * FROM #Mappings; DROP TABLE #Mappings;
EDIT: The last case I mentioned I was incorrect. If you check sys.database_principals, you'll see that the owner of the database does show as dbo. The dbo user is mapped to the login that owns the database. Now you can go database by database to find out who has access in such a manner or you can query sys.databases to determine the owner.
This past weekend we were moving database files around because we added new LUNs to an existing production cluster. We went at the old tried and true way, we detached the databases, moved the files, and re-attached the databases. That seemed to work well and we thought everything was okay. We found out on Monday we were wrong.
The application that was affected was Microsoft's Office Communications Server (OCS). We had detached and re-attached all the user databases, including the ones belonging to OCS. But none of us realized it had cross-database ownership chaining set for two of its three databases (and these are required):
So naturally, Monday morning they started experiencing issues.Once we understood what was going on it was easy to alter the databases and fix the settings. Why would detaching the databases cause the settings to be lost? In truth, the options are stored in the master database. In SQL Server 2005/2008 you can see the values in the catalog view, sys.databases. If you do an EXEC sp_helptext 'sys.databases' you can see how the information is actually stored. But it's not stored with the database itself. It's in master. So when the sp_detach_db stored procedure is executed, that row is removed. And as a result, the settings that were in place are gone, too. This is a good reason to use ALTER DATABASE if you're on 2005 or 2008 instead if you're remaining on the same instance.
Now this means any of the database options are similarly affected, so I am being a little unfair to cross-database ownership chaining by singling it out. However, cross-database ownership chaining is one of those options, from a security perspective, you only turn on when you have to. And in most cases you can architect your applications where it's not needed. I know there are exceptions; I've built one myself. Now with respect to OCS, I'm not so sure OCS truly had to have it, but that's the way it rolled to production release, so we'll have to live with it.
As part of its advance notification, Microsoft has released the list of security bulletins that should be coming our way Tuesday, Februarry 10, 2009. Among them is a remote code exploit rated Important by Microsoft for SQL Server. The affected software list shows SQL Server 2000 and 2005. It does not currently list SQL Server 2008 as affected, but stay tuned to the actual bulletin just in case because the advance notification is always preliminary and subject to change. You can see the notice here:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for February 2009
There are also two Critical vulnerabilities, one for Exchange and one for IE and another Important one for Visio.
Received my notification via email this morning that I've been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server. It's been a goal of mine for a long time and I'm glad it is finally accomplished. Like Andy Warren, mine wasn't so much posting in forums but probably more so related to the authoring and presenting activities that I was involved in last year and will continue in this year. My family and I did a lot of traveling (for us) last year hitting Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida for SQL Saturdays and Miramar, Florida and Florence, SC for user group presentations. We were on our way to a SQL Saturday in Greenville when Kim got sick. Later in the day the bug hit me, too. So I guess for those attending, it was good we missed, but I still wanted to get there and present and meet up with some folks.
If at all possible, I look to get out more this year and my new job position at AgFirst may accomodate that better. Saw some history, had some great family vacations around those trips, and anything I can do with the family, I'll look into doing. Ones in SC, NC, GA, and FL I will definitely look at trying to get to. AL and VA and TN after that, especially the SQL Saturday in Birmingham. Need to swing by Montgomery and see some folks I haven't seen since 2009. Folks from my Air Force days who I've stayed in touch with.
I've been off-line except for hints here and there for the last couple of weeks due to fighting off an illness. One thing I've learned about working with youth, especially during this part of the year, is that I've got to start looking to boost my immune system. Part of that is getting back into a regular exercise program again (I need that for general health) and watching what I eat, but it's also time to do some more research. I've seen anecdotal evidence on the effervescent tablets that have a good dose of Vitamin C and Zinc, but I need to see if there's anything out there that shows they actually work.
Now that I'm feeling better, I've posted a prior announcement about the Midlands PASS chapter meeting tonight. Paul Shearer will be presenting deploying SQL Server on Hyper-V. I'm really looking forward to that because he's bringing real world experience to discuss what his organization did and the success that they saw. Can't beat that. Paul is a smart guy who does a performance tuning presentation each year at the user group, always to high raves because he's not only good at what he does, but also because he can communicate it well. If you're reading this and you can make it, we'd love to have you.
Also, I'll be at the Pee Dee Area .NET User Group this coming Tuesday, December 9th. I'll be presenting Fortress SQL Server, basically security features of interest to DBAs and developers who work with SQL Server. I learned from the last SQL Saturday that the Treasure Seekers presentation, which also tries to have something for sysadmins, is just too long now. I end up rushing through it and while I get a lot of information out quickly, it's not the right way to do it. I'm looking forward to heading out that way. I graduated from the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Mathematics, so me and the family are going to stop in Hartsville for dinner with one of my former professors who I keep in touch with and still look to as a mentor for life, faith, and how to be a great teacher. I'll use the opportunity to pick his brain on how I can be better in all three areas.
And on a job note, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a transfer within my organization back into a SQL Server centric role. I've spent the last seven years on the server and domain side, and as much fun as that area is, it meant I wasn't touching SQL Server every day. I love SQL Server and the continuing growth in the SQL Server family, so I'm looking forward to getting back to the technology I am most passionate about. If the transfer doesn't work out, I still love what I do now. But with a chance to get back to day-to-day SQL Server work, I had to take a shot at it.
Speaker: Paul Shearer
Midlands PASS Chapter - December 4, 2008 Meeting
The Midlands PASS chapter will hold our normally scheduled meeting on Thursday, December 4, 2008. Paul Shearer will be giving a presentation entitled "Virtualization Everything" in which he'll cover virtualizing SQL Server for large scale apps using Hyper-V technology. This is definitely one you'll want to attend and invite your system administrators to as well!
The meeting will once again be held at Training Concepts off of Berryhill Road. We will begin our meet and greet time at 6:15 PM as usual and start the at 6:45 PM. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think would be interested in attending. If you haven’t already done so and plan on attending, please RSVP (kbriankelley {at} acm {dot} org) as soon as possible so. If you have time to help with setup, please email me and we’ll plug you in!
The meeting will once again be held at Training Concepts off of Berryhill Road. We will begin our meet and greet time at 6:15 PM as usual and start the at 6:45 PM. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who you think would be interested in attending. If you haven’t already done so and plan on attending, please RSVP (kbriankelley {at} acm {dot} org) as soon as possible so we can ensure we have enough space and food. If you have time to help with setup, please email me and we’ll plug you in!
I'll send out an agenda, contact phone numbers, and the building code the week of the meeting.
