"The world's favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May." - Edwin Way Teale This spring, the Portland, Oregon, development community is coming together in a way never experienced before. Using the University of Portland campus, SQL...(read more)

Read more

Database Design. Sounds simple, and at the same time, demanding. I mean, what's to design. You just need a few tables to hold the data for the application you are creating. You just can't really take the time to design -the entire project is agile and...(read more)

Read more

Yesterday, I was able to cause a potential customer to buy a competing product. In fact, according to my tally sheet, it was the 43rd time that I am aware of where my dissatisfaction with this company's customer service directly translated into loss of...(read more)

Read more

Yesterday, Jonathan Kehayias wrote in his blog post " Have you got air in your spare.." about dealing with a flat time. He went on to compare spare tires to HA/DR planning. An excellent article and recommended reading. I wish to expand on Jonathan's discourse...(read more)

Read more

I was engaged in a conversation recently where the topic under discussion was "What defines an "A" class player?" Others in the conversation were trying to get a handle on 'greatness', because they desire to create an "A" class Team in their work environment. They want to lead… Read more

Imagine going to a casino with $100 dollars to gamble. As you enter, you notice a vending machine that sells gambling insurance policies. For a small price, the insurance policy will guarantee to replace any losses that you may incur while gambling. So being a prudent person, you buy one.… Read more

SQL Server allows nesting of Transactions –in a sense. In truth, there is only one Transaction, with each ‘nested transaction’ serving to increase (and decrease) the @@TRANCOUNT indicator. The transaction can be committed or rolled back at any point that the @@TRANCOUNT value is equal to one. Error conditions may… Read more

For many of us, one of the high points of being an MVP is attending the annual MVP Summit hosted in Seattle by Microsoft. Yes, there is a lot of flash and hoopla, good food, and a party or two. But the real value comes from connecting and re-connecting with…

Read more

In Brian Kelly's recent blog post, he makes an excellent case outlining why there are few options but to 'Trust' SQL Server Administrators. And then he goes into excellent detail explaining that it may be impossible to completely 'prohibit' disruptive behavior, and that one should establish a robust auditing of… Read more

Why do folks continue to use outdated and unnecessary naming conventions? Specifically, the ridiculous ‘tbl’ prefix on tables, and the equally meaningless ‘usp’ for stored procedures. I think that it is because that is what they see illustrated in books, magazines, white papers and on-line 'example'… Read more

Why, when you can help others, that's when! 

In my role as a senior Moderator with the MSDN SQL Forums, I am often asked "How do I become a Moderator on the Forums?"

I am quite appreciative and heartened when folks indicate, and then demonstrate, their interest in helping others. Volunteering to assist… Read more

SQL Server as an EAV Database -Good Idea? 

It seems like I am getting more and more inquires from potential clients asking for help solving performance related issues with what, after some investigation, is using SQL Server as an EAV database.

First, for those unfamiliar with the concept, an… Read more