Microsoft has recently unveiled their newly updated, public MVP website, that does a great job of explaining exactly what a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) is, along with lots if interesting tidbits about the program, such as the fact the MVPs live in 90 different countries, speak nearly 40 languages, and collectively answer more than 10 million questions a year in public forums about Microsoft technology. Continue reading
If you live in Australia, or are just looking for an excuse for a vacation in Australia, sign up for the free SQL Down Under Code Camp, to be held Saturday, October 10 and Sunday, October 11, 2009. The event is being held at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, which is about a six hour drive from either Sydney or Melbourne.
Speakers include Peter Ward, Rob Farley, Greg Low, Grant Paisley, Ron Dunn, Adam Cogan, Justin King, John Walker, Milind Kukday, Darren Gosbell, Julia Heather, Kasim Wirama, and myself, who will be making two presentation.
The event is being sponsored by Charles Sturt University, SolidQ Australia, Microsoft, and Red Gate Software.
Visit the website to find out more information, and to register.
The first 24 Hours of PASS event will be starting September 2, 2009, and will feature 24 different SQL Server-related sessions by 24 different speakers, and all for free. So if you haven’t signed up for this event yet, you still can at 24hours.sqlpass.org.
I will be presenting on Using SQLdiag to Troubleshoot SQL Server Problems, during session 5, which starts at 4:00 GMT. Hope to see you at my session.
I am presenting a 3-hour session on the SQL Server 2008 Data Collector.
The devLink Technical Conference, held August 13-15, 2009 in Nashville, TN was the largest devLINK event every held, with over 675 attendees. This once a year event, held at Lipscomb University in Nashville, offered over 96 sessions in 9 different tracks, including 1 database-specific track.
The event, which only cost $100 ($75 for early sign-up) drew attendees not only from Tennessee, but from over 30 states and most of the Canadian provinces. The event not only included three days of training, but all lunches, snacks, and a .NET Rocks event with Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell. Continue reading
I used to work at a multi-billion dollar organization and, like most organizations that big, they kept backups of all their databases offsite in case some major catastrophe destroyed the data center. There was only one problem with their otherwise excellent plan; the offsite location for the backup tapes was the building next door, a mere 50 yards from the data center. Any disaster spectacular enough to take out the data center would most probably have damaged or leveled the building next door. Continue reading
To certify or not to certify? That’s one big question that can easily fire up a room of DBAs. In this article I explore the reasons for and against becoming a certified DBA and cover the certifications out there that are of most interest for us in the industry. Read more…
Brad M McGehee 