Current Events

SQLTeach - Writing better queries presentation

Joe Webb — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:37:38 GMT

Here's a presentation that I gave yesterday afternoon at DevTeach/SQLTeach. It's called Tips & Tricks for Writing Better Queries. It's very similar to the presentation I gave a month or so ago at the Nashville SQL Server User Group meeting.

To everyone who attended the session - thanks for spending a part of your day with me. I hope it was worth your while. Please feel free to email me if you have any additional questions or comments. And please remember to login to your SQLTeach account and submit your session evals.

Cheers!

Joe

Identifying Performance Bottlenecks

Joe Webb — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:47:51 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended my "Identifying Performance Bottlenecks" session this morning at DevTeach/SQLTeach. As promised, here is the PowerPoint slide deck I used during the presentation.

Regarding the question of on the performance of LINQ, Bob Beauchemin recently posted a series of blogs entries on the topic. Here's a link.

And here's a link to series of posts on the Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) that Louis Davidson authored.

Cheers!

Joe

SQLExamples: A great new SQL Server resource

Joe Webb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:36:04 GMT

I hope that everyone that works with Microsoft SQL Server is aware of the MSDN SQL Server Forums. If not, you should really go check them out. They're a great resource when you're staring at a tough SQL Server-related problem.

Now, some of the Moderators, Answerers, and MVPs have gotten together to create a new resource to supplement the Forums; it's called SQLExamples. We just started it a few weeks ago so it's still very much in its infancy and somewhat sparsely populated. But it's growing quickly. I think it'll be a boon for SQL Server professionals the world over before long.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

Joe

SQL Server Security Vulnerabilities

Joe Webb — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:31:53 GMT

At the 2007 PASS Community Summit in Denver, a keynote speaker made a passing comment about how there has not been a security bulletin released for SQL Server in over three years! I forget which speaker made the statement, but I found it utterly amazing. Not a single security bulletin released in over three years! Could this be true?

If you've worked with SQL Server for a while, you'll undoubtedly remember SQL Slammer, the worm that hit thousands of SQL Servers around the world in 2003. It's effects were nothing short of devastating for many companies.

I made a mental note to do my own research into what the speaker stated as fact; but promptly forgot about it while sitting in session after session, soaking in as much good technical content as my brain could absorb.

In a recent blog posting however, Jeff Jones did the research that I forgot to do. His posting, entitled SQL Server - Fact Checking Recent Vulnerability History, details the most recent security bulletins released for Microsoft SQL Server.

Jeff found that SQL Server 2000 hasn't had a security bulletin released since January of 2004, and even more amazingly, SQL Server 2005 has never had a security bulletin released! He goes further in his research, though, and compares these figures to the numerous security-related critical patch updates for Oracle.

It's an interesting read that I thought you may like to see. Check it out.

Cheers!

Joe

Tips & tricks for writing better queries presentation

Joe Webb — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:30:16 GMT

Thanks to all 60+ people who braved the flood warnings in Nashville to attend the SQL Server User Group meeting earlier today. I hope you found it to be worth your while. Some of your questions and comments at the end gave some some great ideas for future presentations. Thanks!

And thanks to Quest and RHT for sponsoring our meeting meeting today. If your in the Nashville areas, I'd encourage you to come on out for our next meeting, most likely sometime in May.

As promised, here's a link to the presentation materials, both the PowerPoint presentation and the demonstration code.

Cheers!

Joe

The SQL Server 2008 February CTP is here

Joe Webb — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:23:08 GMT

After blogging yesterday that you can try the latest Microsoft SQL Server 2008 CTP online for free on the SqlServerBeta site, Microsoft has announced the release of a new CTP.

The February CTP available! And it's feature complete. If you have the bandwidth, head on over to the download site and get it while it's hot.

Note: at the time of this posting, the download page indicates that it was last updated in November, but it will take you to the February CTP download.

Cheers!

Joe

Try out SQL Server 2008 without downloading the CTP

Joe Webb — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:54:29 GMT

Had a chance to play with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 yet? If so, you've probably downloaded the most recent Community Technology Preview (CTP). It's not small either. The DVD's can take almost an hour to download at T1 speeds. And the virtual machine version is over 2 gigabytes!

For many, that's not an issue. But for the rest of us, downloads of that magnitude are a bit overwhelming. So what can we do?

Well, three organizations (Dell, MaximumASP, and PASS) have gotten together to create an online, virtualized way for us to test-drive the next version of the RDMS. You can register for free, log in, and create your own user environment to explorer the new features and capabilities of the product. The url is http://www.sqlserverbeta.com/.

Just want to know more about what SQL Server 2008 has in store for us? Here's a link to Books Online.

Cheers!

Joe

The Nashville SQL Server User Group

Joe Webb — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:20:27 GMT

That's right! After a bit of a break, the Nashville SQL Server User Group is getting back together again. Our first meeting back will be this Friday, February 15th at 11:30am. Our own Kevin Kline is presenting a rather timely topic - "SQL Server 2008, Worth the Wait".

Check out our new web site for further details, http://nashville.sqlpass.org.

If you're in the Nashville area, come on by for a free lunch with friends from the SQL Server community.

Cheers!

Joe

PASSing the torch

Joe Webb — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:26:37 GMT

As many of you may know, for the past six years I've volunteered my time and energy to an organization called PASS - the Professional Association for SQL Server. It's a wonderful organization of highly dedicated, talented, and personable SQL Server professionals from around the world.

My time on the PASS board began in January of 2002 when I was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board created when a director resigned mid-term. I really enjoyed working with such a dedicated and enthusiastic group of people and I sought re-election at the end of my first year.

Now, three elections and six years later, I've just completed my final term on the PASS board. I've served in variety of capacities over the years including Director of Community Development, Director of Logistics and Conference Operations, and Vice President of Marketing. My tenure culminated in the role that I just left, the Executive Vice President of Finance.

My good friend Kevin Kline, the immediate past-president of PASS, describes some of the accomplishments of the organization that we've all labored toward over these past years in a recent post on his personal blog site. I admire Kevin's skills as a leader, his knowledge as a SQL Server professional, and his strong convictions as a person of faith. It's been a real pleasure serving along him and the rest of the PASS board volunteers - far too many to name individually.

Serving on the board has been a lot of fun and very rewarding in many, many ways. It truly is one of those ventures where the more you put in, the more you seem to get out. It was also a lot of hard work. I routinely put 12 to 18 hours per week into PASS-related activities.

But I count all of those hours as being very worthwhile. In a small way, I helped to create a worldwide organization of more than 25,000 SQL Server professionals and foster a networking and knowledge-sharing environment from which we all can benefit. And the organization is poised to do even greater things under the new executive leadership of Wayne Snyder, Rushabh Mehta, and Bill Graziano.

So what will I do with all this new found free time? Well, I've found that the tasks I have to do are subject to physics laws concerning gases - the tasks tend to expand to fill the volume of free time available. I plan to get more involved with my local church, my kids scouting activities, and my local SQL Server user group again. I've also taken up another worthwhile volunteer role, one on the Auburn University MBA Advisory Board. And, of course, I'll still be involved with PASS in some way; I love the community too much to simply walk away completely.

But the thing I'm most looking forward to is spending more time at home with my family and working on our little hobby farm in middle Tennessee. If you're interested you can read of our adventure on our little slice of creation over on my personal blog.

Cheers!

Joe

SQLTeach in Toronto, May 12-16, 2008

Joe Webb — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:32:02 GMT

If you've ever attended a DevTeach/SQLTeach event, you already know that it's a wonderful and intimate community-driven event designed to provide top-notch .NET and SQL Server developer education in an up close and personal environment. If you haven't attended and you use Microsoft developer tools, I highly recommend the event. The next event is in Toronto, 12 - 16 May, 2008. Make your plans now.

And, if you're interested in sharing your knowledge by speaking at the event, the call for abstracts is open for one more week. Here's a link with more information.

I hope to see you there!

Joe