28Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Rally: Performance Tuning Abstract

PASS
I get the call, you get the call, everyone gets the call. "Hey, my app/procedure/query/report is running slow." Now what do you do? You go to my full day session at SQL Rally, that's what. Assuming you vote for it. I didn't post the abstract I submitted for the SQL Rally before because I thought that it would be redudant. However, since it's not right off the voting page (unless they updated it since I voted), if you're interested, here's what I thought I would do for a day. If it sounds good to you, please go here and vote for it. One of the most common problems encountered in SQL Server is the slow running query. Once a query is identified as performing poorly, DBAs and developers frequently don’t understand how…
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25Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Who You Learn From

PASS
Less than two weeks to go until the PASS Summit. I'm excited. I've managed to cram a ton of activities into this Summit, more than ever before. But, I'm still going to try to go to a few sessions. The question asked, which sessions are you going to? Who do you want to learn from. Who can you learn from? I've got a pretty simple answer. Everybody. There's not a single person that I work with on my current team that I haven't learned something from. Sure, there are those that teach you tons and tons, for example, we have a fantastic SSIS guy on our team, that has taught me quite a lot, faster than I could have picked it up on my own. So, you're going to the…
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20Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Kilt Day at the PASS Summit

PASS
Last year, with the infinite power at my disposal (read, zero), I declared Wednesday, Kilt Wednesday at the PASS Summit. It took off... a little ways. Three people wore kilts. Now, you'd think that three out of 3000 would almost not get noticed, but the three people wearing them... well, each for different reasons, we stand out in a crowd. Heck, I was even told one of us looked good in the kilt (wasn't me, of course). Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, we were noticed (and it might be because I jumped up on the bloggers table during one of the the key notes...) and now, this year, LOTS of people are planning on wearing kilts on Wednesday, November 10th, 2010. If you don't have a kilt, don't panic. You can always…
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19Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

PASS
I've got a couple of more sessions before the big two at the PASS Summit. Tomorrow night, October 20th, I'll be speaking at the Southern New England Network Users Group on SQL Server Best Practices. It's the first time I've talked on this topic, so it might be fun to watch. After that I'm previewing one of my two Summit presentations for Brian Knight (blog|twitter) and Pragmatic Works in a webinar on Identifying and Fixing Performance Problems Using Execution Plans. Go here to register. After that, it's off the PASS Summit.
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14Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Working the Door

PASS
You know those guys that work the door at clubs, seperating the wheat from the chaff, culling the herd, Choosing the Slain, sifting the gold from the dross, telling the difference between the sheep and the goats, winnowing out the weak, tipping the scales of justice... you know, the guys taking tickets. Well, this year, I get to do that job at the SQL Server Central party at the PASS Summit. That's right, I've been given absolute power, the keys to the kingdom, control of the list... you get the point. And best of all, while I was offered money, fame, power & women, I bargained for more and I got it. I'll be wearing one of those nifty Hawaiian shirts (Friday shirts) we always see Steve & Andy sporting. HA! And my wife won't…
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13Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit Birds of a Feather Lunch

PASS
The absolute biggest part of the PASS Summit is the one thing that most people don't take advantage of, networking. And no, I don't mean glad-handing everyone you meet, remembering all their names (although that is a good skill to have) and saying over & over again "Rush Chairman, damn glad to meet you." I mean taking advantage of the fact that you can talk to people that have already solved the problem that you're facing at work, or just might have some insight into that issue, or maybe you can give them insight into a problem they're facing. I'm mean, talking to people. Yeah, I know, we're all geeks, and worse than that, data geeks. That means we like to sit in dark little caves & grumble about our…
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12Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

SQL Saturday New England: The New Date

PASS
The real world can get in the way of important things like SQL Saturday. In the case of SQL Saturday New England, the original date was the same time as the Boston Marathon. Unfortunately, that means that Boston's somewhat limited hotel space will be tweaked. Rather than try to compete with that, we moved the date. Please mark it as April 2nd, 2011.
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04Oct 2010 by Grant Fritchey 11 Comments

SQL Saturday in New England

PASS
Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) has put on a SQL Saturday/Data camp event in New England for the last two years. I've helped him both years. It's been very successful. In January we had over 300 attendees, making it one of the larger SQL Saturday events. But, with a single exception (thank you Tim Ford (blog|twitter)), we've only had local speakers. Mind you, we're somewhat lucky with speakers here in New England and have several MVPs and others who are truly excellent when presenting. I'm taking over from Adam to lead the effort for this year, and due to my schedule we're moving the event to the spring sometime. We were thinking about maybe making it the the weekend before SQL Rally. But, I've got a question for all of you who present at SQL Saturday events.…
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20Sep 2010 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

SQL Saturday 46 (#sqlsat46) Recap

PASS
I was privileged to be able to attend and present at SQL Saturday 46 in Raleigh, NC, this last weekend. It was a great collection of people presenting some amazing stuff. I want to say, right off, I think this is the best SQL Saturday event I've been to. I say that despite the fact that I've helped put on a SQL Saturday. I also say that despite the fact that my sample size on SQL Saturday's is fairly low. I've only been to three (including the one I put on). You have to understand, the people who put on #sqlsat46, the Triangle SQL Server Users Group, did an absolutely outstanding job. They had clearly done the early work of getting sponsorships and organizing. This weekend, all that early work…
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