Archives for August 2012

60 Years of American Economic History, Told in 1 Graph

August 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

A very interesting news story accompanies this graph - CLICK HERE to read it.-Kev … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Secure Your Spot at the Nashville SQL Saturday!

August 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

PASS SQL Saturdays are free 1-day training events for IT professionals interested in Microsoft SQL Server, providing a variety of high-quality technical sessions, all happen through the efforts of local volunteers.  The leadership team of the local chapter of PASS here in Nashville (Facebook | LinkedIn) have worked hard to make this year's SQL Saturday a day of great training and networking. The local NashSQL leadership team includes yours truly (blog | twitter), Joe Webb (Twitter | Blog), Louis "Dr SQL" Davidson (Twitter | Blog), Christina Leo (blog | twitter), and Shelton Dickson … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferences, Cool Technologies, Databases, Nashville SQL Server Users Group, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Resource Center for Microsoft Office

August 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

Every now and then I go off on a tangent away from databases and try to improve some of my other important skills, like maximizing my knowledge of the various Microsoft Office products I use in-and-out everyday.  (Let me tell ya, a good shortcut cheat sheet is worth its weight in gold!  Let me know where I can find some of those for the Office products, if you know of any.) Anyway, I learned about some new(ish) resources on my latest productivity expedition that I thought I'd so that you can take advantage of them too.   (Let me know if any of these links go dead). Microsoft Office Social … [Read more...]

Filed Under: On-Line Resources, Professional Development Tagged With: ,

Two New Slide Decks. Plus, the Week in Colorado.

August 20, 2012 by 3 Comments

I had the honor of traveling the great state of Colorado last week, speaking at the PASS chapters in Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver.  At all three events, we had a stellar attendance and, at least in Denver, broke all the records in recent memory both in terms of overall attendance and in first-timers.  Denver, in fact, was standing room only and had nearly 30 first time attendees.  Great news!  I also want to give a special shout-out of thanks and appreciation to Chris Shaw (Twitter | Blog) whose hard work and tenacity ensured that all of Colorado got to see me speak. From left to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, IO, On-Line Resources, PASS, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Video Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Do You Have One of “the Three W’s” to Sit on a Board of Directors?

August 13, 2012 by 5 Comments

Let’s get one thing clear right off the bat – I’m not typing “Board of Directors” repeatedly throughout this blog post.  It’s just too much typing.  BoD will have to do.  Live with it. Perhaps, you’ve been paying attention to the PASS Twitter feed, read the newsletters, or otherwise stay abreast of happenings within PASS.  If you haven’t, here’s a news alert – it’s time for a new round of the PASS leadership cycle.  And since this is the season of PASS nominations, I thought it’d be an appropriate time to share some of my lessons learned about effective BoDs. Having spent over a decade … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Ethics, Governance, PASS, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , , ,