I've just received notice that I will be a presenter at the upcoming SQL Saturday event in Jacksonville, Florida. I'll be speaking about the SQL SMO object namespace and how this powerful set of classes can be used to administer SQL Server instances programmatically.

I'm looking forward to this opportunity. I've not had much experience delivering presentations to those outside my own places of employment, so this should be a learning experience for me. I'm also the last presentation of the day, so I'll get to attend many other sessions as well.

So if you can get to Jacksonville the first weekend in May, I encourage you to come out to SQL Saturday. Hope to see you there!

There has been a great deal of wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the scuttlebutt that SP2 will be the last service pack for SQL Server 2005.  I, too, am excited about the release of the next version of SQL Server later this year, but SQL Server 2005 is likely to be around for a long while.  C'mon, it's 2008 and I still have SQL Server 2000 boxes running in production (not by choice, but I digress...).  I believe it was Steve Jones who suggested that there be a new SP every six months as long as the product is fully supported; I don't necessarily think we need service packs that often, but I concur that there should be a commitment to continue with full support - which includes regular service pack releases - as long as the product is mainstream. 

There is a feedback poll on Microsoft's website to allow us to weigh in on the release (or nonrelease) of Service Pack 3.  I've never voted on one of these polls, so I don't know how seriously the Blue Badges take these things, but at least it's worth voicing my opinion....