06Nov 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

More on Andy Warren’s PASS Board Application

PASS
He's continuing to post about it, so I'm going to keep linking to it. I may be able to drive a hit or two his way. See, Andy already provided a service for the community. I had no idea how the nominees were selected. Now we at least have a sense of some of the inner-workings and it's interesting stuff. Not too much of that "inside baseball" tang either.
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27Oct 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Andy Warren for PASS Board?

PASS
Andy posted the question more than a week ago. I need to pay more attention to his blog. In my opinion, the answer isn't yes and it isn't hell yes. It's **** YES! For cryin' out loud! I totally respect his feelings of being overwhelmed and busy. I'm there too. I've completely overcomitted, so I understand. But Andy Warren just strikes me as one of those really smart, capable guiys. You know who they are. They walk in to situations and things just improve. I think he can do two things, only one of which I could do. I think he'll help PASS deliver on it's promise, working with the other board members. I also think he's likely to have a few good ideas (something I'm extremely short on) that…
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09Oct 2008 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

PASS Schedule Posted

PASS
Finally, the PASS Summit schedule has been posted. I'm presenting on Wednesday afternoon from 3pm to 4:15pm. Unfortunately, Gert Drapers is presenting at the same time. So my one hope/fear that he would be in the audience is gone. I did a dry-run on the presentation last night at the SNESSUG meeting. It went over well, but it was a bit short at 53 minutes. I realized after I was done that there was a bit structure missing from the presentation, so I was able to add a couple of slides that allows me to describe the methods I'm going to employ and why and then summarize at the end of each section. It seemed to be well received. No one fell asleep or walked out. I even saw a…
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01Oct 2008 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

PASS Summit T-Shirt

PASS
Apparently, if you write a friends name in who is also registered for the PASS Summit, you can both get nifty t-shirts. Well, doggone it! I want a nifty t-shirt. So someone, please, click this link and include my name in your registration in the Friend-To-Friend box. Assuming you know my name.
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01Oct 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Simple Talk Editorial on PASS

PASS
If you don't subscribe to the Simple-Talk newsletter, why not? This month's newsletter is chock full of interesting stuff, a DBA checklist from Brad McGehee, a workbench on keys, an article on how covering indexes are faster than clustered indexes (they are too), and an article on why one DBA is learning PowerShell (I want to, but my spare time is taken up with writing a new book). All great stuff and worth reading. I'm going to be reading all these articles, but the most fascinating piece of the current newsletter is the editorial by Tony Davis. I was actually a little shocked by it. I'm a PASS volunteer for the Special Interest Groups and the Editorial Committee. I've attended the last three PASS events. I'm the current president and…
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29Sep 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans at PDC

PASS, SQL Server, T-SQL
I just got word that Red Gate has printed more copies of the book that they'll be distributing at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference that's taking place in LA. I just wish we had a 2008 version of the book now because, while most of it is still applicable, there's more that can be done with execution plans now. Have I mentioned I think the missing index information that's displayed with the statement text in the graphical execution plan in SQL Server 2008 is pretty slick? Well it is. I hope they're going to distribute it at the PASS Summit this year too. I think they are, but I don't know that for a fact.
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10Sep 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

PASS Summit

PASS, Tools, Visual Studio
It looks like this year is going to be pretty good. They've expanded the program. If you're not going, you should consider it. Personally, I'm pretty excited. I'm presenting our build and deployment process using Visual Studio Team System Database Edition. I've got the first half of the presentation down cold because it's how we've been doing our deployments for a couple of years now. The second half concerns me a bit. I'm showing the new release that works with SQL Server 2008. Unfortunately that new release isn't done and I keep having to update my code and slides as the new versions come out with different functionality. I'm more than a little bit nervous about that part of the presentation. I wish there was a way to bounce it…
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07Jul 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Words of Wisdom

PASS
Every week the Database Weekly Update comes out from SQL Server Central. There are always good things to read there. Links to interesting tid-bits of information posted by really smart people. One of them that jumped out at me this week, to the point that I read it out of order, was a blog entry by Andy Warren. If you ever get the opportunity to listen to Andy speak, jump on it. He's great. His writing is wonderful too. Anyway, he wrote an entry giving advice on how to break in to the national scene as a speaker. I know I dwell on this WAY too much, but I've been given the opportunity to speak at PASS this year. Notice I said "been given." I don't think I earned it…
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