One of the reasons that I think the PASS Summit fits well in Seattle is the support that they get from Microsoft. The proximity of the conference to Redmond means that many, many more Microsoft employees, particularly SQL Server developers, come over for a day or more during the Summit.… Read more

I've advocated simple design for years, trying to give users less choice, help lead them down paths to get their work done, and allowing limited ad hoc access to data. My feeling is that most people don't know how to deal with large sets of data and end up wasting… Read more

Is employee data theft on the rise? I saw this blog post on the subject, but I had to take it with a grain of salt. The author works for a security software vendor, and even mentions they have software linked in the sidebar. As much as I think… Read more

It's hard to actually put a specific value on networking, and I've been skeptical of it in the past. However as I've learned a bit more from Andy Warren's investigations into the process, and I've thought about my career, I think it works. I'm not sure I've gotten a lot… Read more

I was heading out on a trip to SQLSaturday #17 recently and decided that I wanted to try and travel with only the netbook. My laptop gets heavy, this was a short trip without the need for any audio or video, so it seemed like the perfect chance to try… Read more

Tim Mitchell presented at SQLSaturday #17 on Scripting in SSIS. I thought it was a really interesting presentation, and I’m glad I went. I haven’t done much SSIS work, and very little with scripting, so I learned a few things right off.

Tim is a great contributor here at SQLServerCentral,… Read more

My presentation went well at the Baton Rouge SQL Saturday with about 30 people attending. It was the early morning session, and a few people afterward told me they thought it was a good session with advice they could use.

The poll numbers were interesting, though this was a slightly… Read more

I was asked to do an hour presentation during the 24 Hours of PASS, which takes place on Sept 2, 2009. It will feature 24 presentations, each taking about 45 minutes with 15 minutes of Q&A. Where is it? That's the great part, it's a Livemeeting series of meetings… Read more

One of the bloggers here at SQLServerCentral (and a good friend) posted a note about Active August last week. In the post he talked about the need to get back in better shape, and he made a commitment to do that this month. It actually started with Mike Walsh, another… Read more

I woke up early on Saturday for a run. Staying at the Cook Hotel on the LSU campus, I had a beautiful lake across the street to run around. I completed my 2 mile run to start the day, went back to my room for 30 minutes to cool down,… Read more