This is the final lecture this week at SQL University. We are covering the topic of capacity planning this week for SQL Servers. In the first lecture we looked at an overview of capacity planning and some general considerations for DBAs. Our second lecture dove deeper into disk capacity… Read more

Last year Brent Ozar interviewed all the candidates for the PASS Board of Directors. I think it went over pretty well, and this year Andy Leonard (blog | Twitter) has taken up the cause and is interviewing each candidate.

I sent in my answers, albeit a little slower than others,… Read more

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This week at SQL University we are talking about capacity planning. I am the guest lecturer for this topic, and covered a broad overview of what capacity planning means for DBAs to start the week. In this installment, we will look specifically at disk requirements and how to plan for… Read more

My nomination application made it through the committee. I got an email yesterday telling me that I needed to schedule an interview, and a list of available slots.

I picked next Friday, August 6th, at 10am PST for my slot and it’s scheduled. It’s a phone interview, according to the… Read more

I realized over the weekend that I hadn’t booked a hotel for my SQL Saturday #28 trip to Baton Rouge. This was one I can’t miss since I’m doing 2 sessions and the keynote. I remembered today, and called the Cook Hotel, a beautiful place on the LSU campus where… Read more

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I am honored to be a guest lecturer this week for SQL University. There have been some amazing professors helping guide you through SQL Server this semester, and I hope that this week meets your expectations.

The topic for this week is capacity planning. While not a critical task… Read more

One of the new products that Red Gate Software has released recently is SQL Source Control. I saw a demo of this product back in March as it was nearing completion, and I thought it was pretty cool. I have struggled with source control for years, and build a… Read more

I have a few people ask about this recently, so I thought I’d blog about it, and maybe get an explanation out there.

When we started accepting bloggers on SQLServerCentral, it was a challenge to get people to move their blogs. We had some people that just started blogging with… Read more

The hardest thing, I think, for most new organizers of a SQL Saturday is the fundraising. A few years ago I heard Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, give his 5 rules for being a good salesman.

Number one is ask for the money. He couldn’t remember the… Read more

I keep seeing lots of debate about Android v the iPhone 4. I have friends talking about how cool Windows Mobile 7 will be, and even some talk about Nokia making a comeback. However it seems that so many people are just missing what’s cool about the iPhone.

It just… Read more

One thing I learned years ago in C programming was the elegance of using operators and simplifying expressions. This sometimes involved doing two things in a single statement, if it makes sense. For example,

x=y++;

Those of you that have done some programming will recognize this as incrementing y and… Read more

The application form mentions that the quite a bit of what you include will be made public. While I won’t want to repeat everything, I’ll include a few of my responses about why and what I want to do with PASS and take some early comments.

I have to… Read more

I send my board of directors nomination application to PASS and asked for a confirmation. I always worry that something like this might get “lost in the mail,” so hopefully I’ll get a response today. I announced it on Twitter as well, just to be safe.

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I saw this on the 37 Signals blog as “I’ve already got the prize" and found it to be both true, and a little annoying. It refers to the Nobel Peace Prize, who Richard Feynman is apparently in consideration for.

The speaker comes across a little arrogant, and… Read more

I’ll announce it here first, along with some reasons why I’m waffling from an earlier post:

I’m going to run for the PASS Board of Directors in 2010.

I am finalizing my application and getting reference letters before I send it to the Nominating Committee.

Why

I’ve always… Read more

Why would you do this?

select distinct(hostname),
(select count(*) as criticalCnt 
 from @temp where severity_guid='0168A833-1732-411E-8205-C2F6CD91737D' 
 and hostname=t.hostname
 group by hostname),
(select count(*) as criticalCnt 
 from @temp where severity_guid='CB2F2B90-2DA4-4075-BCAA-DD5D2CEFBFD5' 
 and hostname=t.hostname

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We are trying to buy another property here at the ranch. My wife had to leave town in the middle of this, and asked me if I could sign the contract and then scan it in to email to the other party. It was late at night, I was tired… Read more

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