May, 2010

With all apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, I was up late Friday night on a holiday weekend (which translated into T-SQL becomes “Maintenance Window”) and I got bored in between the two or three minutes I had between clicks. So I started a “Twitter” meme –...

The wise man is astonished by anything. - Andre Gide

I have no idea why the Marketing group at Microsoft made me into a Bobblehead. Other than this is awesome! I think I’ll call him “Lil Buck”.    

Yesterday I posted a blank graph and asked where you thought the labels should go for the most effective learning methods, according to a study they read to me and other teachers here at the University of Washington. Here are the labels in the correct...

After I got done speaking at the SQL Server 2008 R2 Launch Event yesterday I came back to the hotel room for a web-meeting with some of the other teachers at the University of Washington. As teachers we are always looking to improve the knowledge transfer...

I had the privilege of presenting to the Adelaide SQL Server User Group in Australia last evening, and I covered the Data Access Component (DAC) and the Utility Control Point (UCP) from SQL Server 2008 R2. Here are some links from that presentation: ...

I saw this one yesterday, and it was a slam-dunk for this morning: "Those who do not archive the past are condemned to retype it." - Garfinkel and Spafford

I often visit companies where they asked me “What is SQL Server’s Roadmap?” What they mean is that they want to know where Microsoft is going with our database products. I explain that we’re expanding not only the capacities in SQL Server but the capabilities...

I’ve been “tagged” by my friend Paul Randal. It’s a high-tech way of making someone else do what you want, but since it’s Paul, well, I guess I’m OK with that. He’s asked in his recent blog entry “What five things would you get rid of in SQL Server if...

I was reading a blog yesterday about the evils of SELECT * . The author pointed out that it's almost always a bad idea to use SELECT * for a query, but in the case of SQL Azure (or any cloud database, for that matter) it's especially bad, since you're...

The other day I blogged that the version of the SQL Server PowerShell provider (sqlps) follows the version of PowerShell. That’s all goodness, but it has appeared to cause an issue for PowerShell 2.0. the Get-Command PowerShell command-let returns an...

One word: Don't. "Growing old is no more than a bad habit which a busy man has no time to form." - Andre Maurois

I know, I know – what’s a database guy doing reading a book on System Center? Well, I need it from time to time. System Center is actually a collection of about 7 different products that you can use to manage and monitor your software and hardware, from...

There may be some misunderstanding on how the PowerShell Provider for SQL Server works. I’ve written an article or two explaining that you can use PowerShell with SQL Server, without having the SQL Server 2008 (or higher) provider around. After all, PowerShell...

One of the great advantages in my role as a Technical Specialist here at Microsoft is that I get to work with so many great clients. I get to see their environments and how they use them, and the way they work with SQL Server. I’ve been a data professional...

When you upgrade your system to SQL Server 2008 R2, you’ll know that the instance is at that version by using the standard commands like SELECT @@VERSION or EXEC xp_msver. My system came back with this info when I typed those: Microsoft SQL Server 2008...