This is going to be a crazy week! I'm very happy to be speaking at SQL Saturday #172 in Portland, Oregon on November 3, 2012.I’ll be giving my presentation entitled The Skinny on Data Compression which covers the different types of data compression available in SQL Server and some of the details behind how they work. …

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Back at the first Chicago Free-Con event in 2011, Brent Ozar was talking about how wonderful the SQL Saturday movement is and prophesized that in the near future we'll be seeing similar free training events put on by individual vendors instead of community volunteers. Eighteen months later I found myself at Red Gate's …

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This year, time seems to be flying by faster than ever. It's October already, and we're up to our 35th installment of T-SQL Tuesday. This time we're hosted by Nick Haslam (blog | @nhaslam). Nick's asking "what is your most horrifying discovery from your work with SQL Server?" The story that scares me the most …

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More often than not, I’ll expand the “Tables” folder in SQL Server Management Studio and browse the list to find whatever table or index I’m looking for. This works well in many situations, but when your database has over 20,000 tables, the results can be overwhelming! As your databases get larger and more complex, you …

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In our formative years we’re taught again and again that one should never judge a book by it’s cover, but when seeking employment that all goes out the window when you create a sheet of paper so that potential employers can judge you by it. Ironic, eh? That’s life, so make sure your résumé represents you in the best …

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Earlier this month Michelle and I visited friends in Virginia, and one of the places we checked out was Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s primary home and plantation. I highly recommend going there if you’re ever in the area. It was very informative on many levels, but my favorite takeaway was learning what a geek …

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Many articles on database backups reference running database backups and maintenance processes overnight. In lots of situations this is a great idea, especially if you’re dealing with a transactional system that has users connecting to the database during the day and minimal activity outside of business hours. But for …

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July 2012 is the thirty-second installation of T-SQL Tuesday – wow that’s a lot! I can still remember reading posts that were part of the first one… This month’s topic comes from Erin Stellato (blog | @erinstellato), the newest employee of SQLskills (congrats Erin!!) She’s asking us to track what we do for a day and …

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To say that I was dissatisfied with my previous job is like saying that the surface of the sun is slightly warm. When I resigned, I resisted the urge to blog about it right away, figuring it would be much better to take some time and reflect on it first. A year sounded like a reasonable amount of time, and I left there …

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Yesterday the Chicago Tribune printed an article on the death of Philip Corboy, a noted trial attorney. I imagine you’ve probably never heard of him, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have either, except I would walk by his law office on my way to work at a previous employer. The story makes it evident that he was a mentor to …

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