Database Geek of the Week - Shawn Wildermuth

Shawn Wildermuth is the “go-to guy” for information on ADO.NET. He is the author of Pragmatic ADO.NET: Data Access for the Internet World and numerous articles, is a Microsoft MVP, and works as an independent consultant in Atlanta.

Shawn’s web site, The ADO Guy, is a good resource for developers looking for answers to questions about ADO and ADO.NET. The site also lists interesting blogs, books and sites that are among Shawn’s favorites.

Michael Rys on XML in SQL Server 2005

Michael Rys is one of two program managers responsible for the XML features in SQL Server. He also represents Microsoft on the W3C XQuery Working Group, and on the ANSI working group for SQL. I asked him what is distinctive about the XML support in SQL Server 2005, as opposed to that found in rival database management systems. As Rys acknowledges, "all the three major vendors, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, are moving towards second or third generation suppor

SQL Server Spotlight - Euan Garden

Who builds SQL Server? It's an interesting collection of individuals and we're looking to bring you some profiles of them all. In the first installment of this series Steve Jones interviews Euan Garden, longtime member of the team.

TechTalk: Kimberly L. Tripp on Developing for SQL Server

Kimberly L. Tripp talks about indexing best practices and what developers should know about SQL Server management. She also discusses stored procedure and parameterized queries caching, the new availability features in SQL Server 2005, and the SQL Server CLR.

Database Geek of the Week - Bob Beauchemin

Bob Beauchemin is a developer who not only writes code and develops databases, but also teaches other developers to create applications and databases, often using the latest Microsoft technologies.

Bob has more than 25 years of experience working with IBM mainframes and Unix boxes, as well as Windows-based PCs. He has taught a number of database courses for DevelopMentor, a hands-on training company for experienced developers, and has given instruction on writing .NET web services and creating applications and components using C#.

Featured Interview with Gert Drapers from Microsoft

An interview with Gert Drapers, SQL Server MVP and valuable SQL Server contributor.

An interview with Ken Henderson

I have never met Ken Henderson, but I have followed his career, read his books, and even reviewed one or two of them for Dr. Dobb’s Journal. When I first saw Ken’s The Guru’s Guide to Transact SQL I almost did not pick it up. As a general rule, I don’t pick up the guru’s guide to anything. I’m glad I overcame this, since the book is little short of amazing.

Ken surprised me again with his latest book, The Guru’s Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals . About 400 pages into it, I was impressed by the introduction to what is involved in creating a server-based application, but wondered about its inclusion in a SQL Server book. The next 400 pages made it clear that understanding how servers work on Windows is critical to understanding the implications of how SQL Server runs.

Simon Says

Most of us have probably worked with some third party tool at some point in our SQL Server career. But how many tools have been written by a rocket scientist? Steve Jones had a chance to interview Red Gate Software's Simon Galbraith about a variety of topics. An interesting look at the software world through Simon's eyes.

An Interview with Idera CEO, Rick Pleczko

I was talking with the people over at Idera a few weeks ago and they mentioned that their CEO would be happy to give us a few minutes of his time. So I took them up on the offer and built a list of questions about Idera and SQL Server 2005. Take a moment to learn about the vendor view of the world and the impending release of SQL Server 2005.