SQLMag = SQL Server Pro. Goes all-digital!

April 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I was recently chatting with Megan Keller, my long-time editor for the Tool Time column and Executive Editor at SQL Server Pro, DevProConnections, and SharePoint Pro. I've subscribed to SQLMag ever since it was first put to print back in the late 1990's.  (That's a pic of me, on the right, in the shirt given my by SQLMag's first publisher way back in the day).  I have many bookshelves in my office, but SQLMag consumes more than half of the shelf closest to my desk.  It's that good.  Some of my personal favorites and perpetual must-read content are the columns SQL Server Questions Answered … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Databases, On-Line Resources, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tool Time Tagged With: , , , ,

Starting this week: Dublin, Maidenhead, and London

March 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This might be most most overcommitted four-week period of time ever in my life.  I'm tired just thinking about it! Not only am I traveling internationally and speaking over the next few weeks, I'm also helping on two book projects, learning some new applications from Quest Software, and helping on a small Transact-SQL refactoring project. Swag on hand? I've got a special printing of 500 video training DVDs for this trip: SQL Server Training on DMVs Performance Monitor and Wait Events Plus, I'll have a few posters, stickers, and other goodies.  Come see me!   SQL Saturday … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conferences, Databases, Presentations, Professional Development, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Dev Advice: Make a Tiny Dev Database Act Like a HUGE Prod Database

March 16, 2012 by 1 Comment

Here's an evergreen question.  It's a question that never completely goes away.  But lately, I've been getting it a few times per week.  So I thought it's time to readdress the question, which usually takes some form of the following: I can't really do effective development on my little dev laptop because our production SQL Server database is 15 gazillionbytes, way too big for my workstation.  What's a uber-nerd to do?  Well, maybe they didn't use the word "uber-nerd".  But you get my drift, right?  The production database is really, really big - unmanageably big for keeping a local copy.  … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: , , , ,

Everybody Needs a Test Harness

October 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When you're developing new Transact-SQL code or modifying some existing code, do you just launch directly into programming? I know that I did just that, for years.  It wasn't until I was trying to performance tune some existing code that I realized I hadn't actually taken caching of data and execution plans into account.  So all those modified stored procedures that I was so proud of might not actually be faster than the first generation of procedures because I hadn't checked to ensure that I was testing cached programs against uncached programs (and, by extension, the data used by those … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Databases, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: , , , , , ,

New on “Database Trends & Applications”

August 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In last month's column, "2012 Might Really Be the End of the World as We Know It," I described a number of major developments in the IT industry that are likely to disrupt the life of database professionals everywhere.  I categorize those four disruptors - virtualization, cloud computing, solid state drives (SSD), and advanced multi-core CPUs - into two broad groups.  I'm going to continue an analysis of these disruptive technologies in inverse order.  Today, let's discuss SSDs. [READ MORE ON DATABASE TRENDS & APPLICATIONS ] … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, IO, Opinion, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Virtualization Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Microsoft SQL Server Internals & Architecture Matter!

August 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

EPIC FAIL!  This was supposed to go out last week.  But I didn't schedule it properly, so I'd just like to point out that there are lots of other great webcasts to watch at the Pragmatic Works webcast URL below.  Plus, my session will be available via streaming by the end of the week.  And thanks the the 1600 folks who registered!   -=-=-=-   Come join me on Tuesday, August 2, 2011 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT for a free webcast covering the internals and architecture of Microsoft SQL Server.  It's not everyday that a dry topic like this is presented in a fun and easy to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Databases, Presentations, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Microsoft Windows Platforms Blog Watch

July 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Remote Desktop Services Component Architecture Poster Grab your own poster! A visual guide to key Remote Desktop Services technologies in Windows Server 2008R2   Virtually Free Get the latest update rollup package for the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2008 R2 and be sure to bookmark the Windows Virtualization Team Blog.  Be sure to check out blog World Simplified is a Virtual World. And doncha evah neglect application virtualization, such as the goodness at the App-V Product Team Blog.   Let's Optimize Some Desktops (Assuming You Have Gone Full Cloud … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Cloud, Cool Technologies, Databases, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

From SQLMag Tool Time Column: SSMS Plug-in News

May 12, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I first wrote about Mladen Prajdic's excellent tool in my Tool Time column at SQL Server Magazine HERE.    The tool is a nice plug-in to SSMS and definitely worth having.  If you’ve never installed it or have only installed an older version, but sure to pick up the newest release.  Here’s Mladen’s press release complete with hyperlink for the tool: SSMS Tools Pack 1.9.4 is out! Now with SQL Server 2011 (Denali) CTP1 support. As Mladen says: ...this release adds support for SQL Server 2011 (Denali) CTP1 and fixes a few bugs. Because of the new SSMS shell in SQL 2011 CTP1 the SSMS Tools … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Databases, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tool Time Tagged With: , , , ,

Toad for Sybase Beta and Webcast Now Available

May 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Toad for Sybase webcast is now available on-demand.  Don't have Toad for Sybase?  Get it HERE while it's a free beta. There are two ways to access the webcast: 1. Quest.com - requires a username/password and gets tracked 2. ToadWorld - for quick viewing Go with option two if you don't wanna be tracked.  Lot's more Toad for Sybase goodies HERE. Enjoy! -Kev Twitter at kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Databases Tagged With: , ,

Pulling real-time data from Twitter using StreamInsi​ght and Other Scandinavian Treasures

May 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

On my recent trip to SQLBits with subsequent visits to Dublin, Cologne, and Malmo (southern Sweden), I enjoyed a chance to meet several SQL Server MVPs, including Peter Larsson and Thomas Ivarsson. Among them, I enjoyed Johan Ahlen's article on Pulling real-time data from Twitter using StreamInsi​ght.  You can Find Johan's blog here.  I also enjoyed several other conversations, such as the one I had with Feodor Georgiev (blog).  I particularly enjoyed Feodor's guest post on SQLAuthority.com about waits in the round-trip loop from client to server back to client available HERE. There's a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Challenges, Databases, Presentations Tagged With: , , ,
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