As you’ve no doubt heard or read, the call for nominations for the PASS Board of Directors is open until September 3.  If you’re active in the community, have leadership skills, and are committed to growing the SQL Server community, a position on the board may be right for you. … Read more

Well, perhaps not a whole new identity, just a consolidation of multiple facets of my online persona.  For several years now, I’ve maintained a personal website (www.timmitchell.net) and a professional website (www.bucketofbits.com).  The personal site, an old Community Server install, consisted of a neglected personal blog… Read more

I wrote last month about purchasing a new Toshiba netbook to supplement my mobile computing arsenal.  Forty days later, I’m still quite happy with the purchase, and have gotten as much out of this unit as I had hoped.

My biggest surprise was battery life.  It was rated at 9… Read more

Baton Rouge SQL Server group leader and recent SQL Saturday host Patrick LeBlanc is putting together a new learning series.  Starting in September, the SQL Lunch series will commence, providing brief (30 minutes or so) online presentations on various SQL Server-related topics. 

I am currently scheduled to present at the… Read more

I ran into a situation this week that brought to light a subtle syntactical error I’d made in creating an SSIS package.  I’ve got a client that has given me access to their development server to create some complex extraction queries, which will eventually be rolled into SSIS packages.  Since… Read more

The North Texas SQL Server User Group (NTSSUG) monthly meeting will be held this Thursday, August 20th, at the Microsoft campus in Irving.  The speaker for the evening will be my friend Brian Knight, a well-known author, co-founder of SQLServerCentral.com, and principal of Pragmatic Works.  He’ll be… Read more

For SSIS developers, the need for proper documentation is crucial.  However, the built-in object for documentation, the annotation, is difficult to use.  It doesn’t wrap text, doesn’t support varying font styles in a single instance, and doesn’t offer spell checking.  Further, all annotations are “at large” and are not attached… Read more

In a previous blog post, I began writing about how one might start a career as a database professional, and agreed to share my own experience in doing so.  Since every person and every situation is different, I don’t declare my experience to be a recipe for success, but… Read more

I received my evaluation summary from the SQL Saturday event in Baton Rouge earlier this month.  This was the first event in which I did more than just one session (and back-to-back sessions at that), and I’d just gotten over the flu as well, so I was a little nervous… Read more

In a blog post a few weeks ago, I wrote about social networking in the SQL Server community.  I was inspired by being witness to a colleague posting on Twitter about being unexpectedly and suddenly thrust into the open market of looking for a job.  His network responded immediately, rebroadcasting… Read more

I’ve published my materials from both of my sessions from SQL Saturday Baton Rouge on August 1.  You can find the slide deck and code samples from my website, under the “Conference Publications” header. Read more

Are you an active SQL Server blogger?  Do you blog regularly about the greatest database technology available?  If so, you should join the newest group on LinkedIn specifically for SQL Server bloggers.  A subgroup of the PASS LinkedIn group, this directory intends to maintain an up-to-date listing for SQL Server-related… Read more

After a long weekend of travel and speaking, I’m finally able to put my feet up and get a little time to catch up on things.  This weekend I travelled to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to speak at SQL Saturday 17, and was pleased with how well everything was… Read more