Free Poster – SQL Server Dynamic Management Views

I enjoy working at Quest Software partly because we do a lot to give back to the community. Here's one example, a free poster describing all of the SQL Server 2005 and 2008 dynamic management views.  Get it here.  It's the perfect compliment to the free system map poster available from Microsoft here. … [Read more...]

Join O’Reilly on Facebook

O'Reilly Media on Facebook is a place for for anyone who is a fan of O'Reilly, whether you've been following their books, conferences, webcasts, and more since the very beginning or you recently jumped onto the bandwagon. I really enjoy the newsletters and blogs from O'Reilly's various channels, especially Tim O'Reilly's commentary. And, of course, there's my book - SQL in a Nutshell - published by O'Reilly for your consideration.  This book provides a complete reference of the latest release of the ANSI SQL standard, as well as full coverage of support for the ANSI standard from the … [Read more...]

Toad Just Keeps Getting Better

Toad for SQL Server Wins Best of TechEd 2010 in the Database Development Category Toad and I go way back.  I first started with Toad as a user on the Oracle DBMS back in the early 1990's.  When I started at Quest Software back on January 2nd of 2002, one of the first products I tackled as a SQL Server product architect was Toad.  How do we make this very popular Oracle product one that users in the SQL Server world will love too?  And this challenge was made that much harder by the fact that Microsoft SQL Server ships with fantastic tools right there in the box.  I haven't worked directly on … [Read more...]

Join Me May 19th for 24 Hours of PASS

Join Us for 24 Hours of SQL Server Training (with a special focus on SQL Server 2008 R2) Did I mention that your Cohorts in Crime (that be me and Brent Ozar) are presenting?!? The FREE 24 Hours of PASS event is bringing an exceptional lineup of SQL Server and BI experts to your computer starting at 12:00 GMT (UTC) on May 19. Get an in-depth look at the hottest SQL Server and BI topics, including (but not limited to!) - the new SQL Server 2008 R2, with its business intelligence and data management innovations, and much more. When does it start? 12:00 GMT … [Read more...]

2009: The Year in List Form

Before I jump onto the Goals and Themeword meme started by my buddy, Thomas LaRock (blog | twitter), I decided I'd spend a few minutes looking back on both the year 2009. (From a personal standpoint, the 00's were my most difficult decade yet.  Major problems of every stripe beset me on all sides and with alarming frequency throughout the decade.  I was all "Good Riddance" and "Don't let the door hit y'ass on the way out, 2009!" as the ball dropped in Times Square.) Rather than spend a lot of time cooking up my own top 10 lists, I reckoned (that's Southern for "thought", btw) I'd recap a … [Read more...]

Upcoming Seminar and SQL Saturday in Florida, Oct 13-17

Please join me for SQL Saturday #21 coming up on Saturday, October 17th.  There are over 50 sessions on tap with great speakers from the area and across the nation.  Some of the notable speakers include: Andy Leonard (blog here) Andy Warren (blog here) Brian Knight (blog here) Buck Woody (blog here) Chad Miller (blog here) Joe Celco (blog here) Joe Webb (blog here) Jonathan Kehayias (blog here) Kendal Van Dyke (blog here) Ken Simmons (blog here) Not only do we have SQL Saturday coming up, but Andy & company put together five world class seminars the week … [Read more...]

Bitemporal Data

Any IT pro with more than a year or two of experience will have faced the challenges of version control for an application, but what if you have to implement version control for data? The most common way to tackle this problem is implementing something called "bitemporal data". Under this method, each row in a table includes the current valid time and the transaction time. Since two distinct time values are stored, we get the term bitemporal. A great place to start is Adam Machanic's excellent article at … [Read more...]