Why I’m Blogging Less
Filed under: Business Intelligence, Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
I’ve received a few questions asking why I’ve been blogging less frequently, and even one inquiry after my health. Rest assured, I’m completely fine. But there are 2 perfectly good reasons why I’ve been blogging less these days.
East Iowa SQL Saturday:
I’m the event organizer for East Iowa SQL Saturday, which is eating up a lot of my free time. If you haven’t yet heard about our SQL Saturday event, let me give you a brief overview. It’s a FREE, one-day training event geared toward SQL Server professionals and anyone who wants to learn more about SQL Server. We have 22 sessions planned covering a variety of topics, from Business Intelligence to Disaster Recovery to SQL Server 2008 topics. And if you’re a .NET developer, we also have some .NET-related presentations, including PowerShell and MVC.
We’re very fortunate to have snagged an excellent set of speakers. Jessica Moss, Louis Davidson, Timothy Ford, Jason Strate, and Alex Kuznetsov are just a few of the great speakers we have lined up.
There’s only a handful of spots left, so if you’re interested in attending, you should register soon. To find out more details about the speakers and sessions, or to register, be sure to check out our website at http://sqlsaturday.380pass.org.
The Other Reason:
Yes, that’s right, I’m with child. Expecting. Eating for two. Bun in the oven. In the family way. You get the idea.
So when I’m not at work, planning SQL Saturday, or playing Civilization Revolution, I’m sleeping. For those who remotely care, I’m due around Super Bowl time in February 2010.
2010: The Year I Make Contact
Rest assured, this blog isn’t going away. And hopefully once I get through SQL Saturday and then PASS Summit, I’ll have more free time again. 
PASS Summit 2009
Filed under: PASS, Performance & Tuning, Presentations, Syndication
My abstract for PASS Summit 2009 was accepted! Woot! You may not be able to see it from where you’re sitting, but I’m doing the happy dance.
In case you missed my original post on my abstract submission, here’s what I’ll be presenting on:
Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look at Performance Tuning for VLDB’s
Few DBA’s have the opportunity to experience a real-life load test in their production environment. Michelle Ufford works for GoDaddy.com, a company that has experienced phenomenal success with its Super Bowl ads. These ads are designed to drive traffic to the company’s websites, which puts the database servers under high load. In her presentation, Michelle will explore the performance tuning techniques that have resulted in an 80% reduction in server response times and allowed her VLDB’s to reach rates of 27k transactions per second. Topics will include vertical and horizontal partitioning, bulk operations, table design, and indexing.
Do you read my blog? Do I read yours? Do we exchange weird messages on Twitter? Do you have free cookies? If you’re going to to the PASS Summit and answered “yes” to any of these questions, then I want to meet you! Make sure to say “hi” to me in Seattle.
East Iowa SQL Saturday – Call for Speakers!
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
The Call for Speakers is now open for the East Iowa SQL Saturday! This is our first time hosting a SQL Saturday, and there’s a lot of excitement and interest from our local SQL Server folks. There’s some interest from local speakers, but we’ll probably also need to pull in speakers from outside of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to support the number of tracks and attendees we plan to have.
The event will be held on October 10th, 2009 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Special thanks to Russ Allen for his help with securing a location for us!
For those who are not in the immediate area but would be willing to travel, here’s some general travel times from major cities in the area:
- Chicago – 3.5 hours
- Omaha – 3.5 hours
- Milwaukee – 4 hours
- Kansas City – 4.5 hours
- Minneapolis – 5 hours
- St. Louis – 5 hours
- Indianapolis – 6 hours
- Columbus, OH – 9 hours (hint, hint, Jeremiah!)
So if you’re in the general area, please, PLEASE consider speaking at our SQL Saturday. Pretty please with sugar on top.
You can find out a little more information and submit sessions at our SQL Saturday website.
sp_WhoIsActive
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Presentations, Syndication, T-SQL Scripts
For those who attended the webcast I did with Brent Ozar today, “Getting Started With SQL Server Management Studio,” here’s the link to Adam Machanic’s excellent sp_WhoIsActive stored proc:
Thanks for attending!
Webcast Tomorrow!
Filed under: PASS, Presentations, SQL 2008, SQL Tips, Syndication
I’m excited to be doing a webcast tomorrow with the infamous illustrious Brent Ozar for Quest’s Pain-of-the-Week. The title is “Getting Started with SQL Server Management Studio,” and as you’ve probably gathered, it’s pretty entry-level stuff. If you read my blog, then chances are you don’t need to watch this webcast. But if you know anyone who’s trying to learn SQL Server or is trying to make the upgrade from 2000 to 2005/2008, this may be a good webcast for them.
I’ve also got a few other speaking engagements coming up:
June 2nd: Cedar Valley .NET User Group
I’ll be reprising my Iowa Code Camp presentation on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer” for CVINETA. This presentation focuses on what you need to know about good table design, indexing strategies, and fragmentation… you know, what you wish every .NET developer knew about SQL Server.
June 11th: PoTW: Time-Saving SQL Server Management Studio Tips & Tricks
I’ll also be doing this webcast with @BrentO as a follow-up to our webcast tomorrow. It will focus on how to save time and improve your sanity by using some neat little tricks in SSMS 2008.
Iowa Code Camp Resources
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Presentations, Syndication
Thanks to everyone who attended my session on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer” at yesterday’s Iowa Code Camp! I hope you found the session informative. Here’s the materials from the presentation:
- SQL Server for the .NET Developer Slide Deck
- Index Defrag Script
- Error Handling Example
- Missing Indexes Process
Special thanks to @underwhelmed and @peschkaj for traveling to attend the Iowa Code Camp!
Open Giving
During the Iowa Code Camp, I had a chance to get involved with the Open Giving project. From the CodePlex, here’s a brief overview:
An effort to create a complete registration system to create events and for volunteers to register for those events. Helps make it easier for organizations to enable people to give back to their communities.
Basically, it’s an open source software project to create a *free* event management system for volunteer organizations. This is a really great cause and I’m glad I’ve had a chance to help. If you’re interested in helping, please leave me a message and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate folks.
Iowa Code Camp – Tomorrow!
Just a reminder that the Iowa Code Camp is tomorrow! The camp is being held at Kirkwood College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and starts at 8am. There’s a lot of great sessions, and attendance is free! You can find more details on their website at http://iowacodecamp.com.
I’ll be presenting on “SQL Server for the .NET Developer.” I’ll be covering the basics of SQL Server, such as good table design, indexing strategies, and efficient queries.
The esteemed Jeremiah Peschka (@peschkaj) will be giving his presentation on “A Dynamic World Demands Dynamic SQL.” If you missed his AppDev SIG presentation, here’s your chance (and mine!) to see what you missed.
If you come to the Code Camp, make sure to stop by and say hi to me!
PASS Summit – My Abstract, Deadline Extended!
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
PASS has extended the deadline for abstract submissions to Friday, 24 April at midnight.
If you’re even thinking about submitting an abstract, just do it.
In related news, yesterday I received the green light from GD legal to submit my abstract. This is my first-ever abstract for PASS, and I’m pretty excited about the topic. After some technical difficulties that resulted in SQL statements being displayed in the error message on-screen (tsk tsk), I finally submitted and received my confirmation number. Here’s an overview, just in case you plan to speak on the same topic…
Super Bowl, Super Load – A Look at Performance Tuning for VLDB’s
Few DBA’s have the opportunity to experience a real-life load test in their production environment. Michelle Ufford works for GoDaddy.com, a company that has experienced phenomenal success with its Super Bowl ads. These ads are designed to drive traffic to the company’s websites, which puts the database servers under high load. In her presentation, Michelle will explore the performance tuning techniques that have resulted in an 80% reduction in server response times and allowed her VLDB’s to reach rates of 27k transactions per second. Topics will include vertical and horizontal partitioning, bulk operations, table design, and indexing.
Source: http://sqlfool.com/2009/04/pass-summit-my-abstract-deadline-extended
Iowa Code Camp – Call for Speakers
Filed under: Miscellaneous, PASS, Presentations, Syndication
This is a little late, but I want to mention that the Iowa Code Camp has put out a call for speakers. I’ve spoken with Greg, and he told me they’re still looking for 2 or 3 more SQL-related sessions. If you have a topic you’d like to speak on, please send him an e-mail!
I’ll also be speaking at this year’s Code Camp on May 2nd. Here’s a brief overview of my planned topic:
SQL Server for the .NET Developer
Most .NET developers will inevitably work with SQL Server in some form or another. Many will even be asked to create tables and stored procedures to support their applications. This session will focus on what every .NET developer should understand about SQL Server. We’ll cover the basics, such as good table design and efficient queries, and we’ll touch on some indexing concepts, too. Then we’ll wrap up with some strategies for developing high volume SQL Server applications.
Lately I’ve been trying to work on my speaking skills. So if you’re within a 4-5 hour radius of east Iowa (Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, etc.) and would like me to come speak at your next SQL event, please send me an e-mail at michelle @ sqlfool dot com.
PASS Update
SQL PASS
Hi folks. If lately you’ve noticed a few less blog posts than normal, it’s because I’m spending a lot of time starting up a brand new PASS Chapter. In fact, we’re only one week away from our first meeting! For those who haven’t been following the updates, we’re starting a PASS Chapter in east Iowa (Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Davenport, etc.). Our first meeting will feature a presentation by Brian Duhn, Senior DBA, MCITP, on server-to-server service broker.
Any and everyone is invited to join us. More information can be found on http://380pass.org.
Pain of the Week Webcast
I’ve also been asked by Quest Software to give a webcast on index fragmentation next week. The webcast will air on Thursday, 12 March 2009, at 10AM CT. This will be my first webcast, so be gentle! More information can be found on Quest’s Pain of the Week website.
SQL Challenge
If you haven’t heard of it yet, Adam Machanic has posted a T-SQL challenge. Check it out… the winner gets a 1-year subscription to MSDN!
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