So I quit my job last week. As is the practice at most companies, I had to complete an exit interview. Since my former employer was rather geographically distributed and there were no human resources staff in my office, my exit interview was on paper instead of face-to-face. I liked this much better because I had more …
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Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending the SQLskills Immersion Event on Internals and Performance taught by Paul Randal (blog | @PaulRandal) and Kimberly L. Tripp (blog | @KimberlyLTripp). I had been wanting to attend one of these for quite some time, and when it was announced they would be coming to the Chicago …
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Quick thought: I first posted to this blog a year ago today. Since then there have been 62 more posts, hundreds of comments and some readership numbers I'm proud of. My sincere thanks to all of you who have stopped by to read or have offered support here or on Twitter. I love the SQL Server community!

This year I …

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A great big thanks to all who contributed posts to T-SQL Tuesday #18! There were 23 posts in all and they covered a wide variety of tips and tricks that can be done with CTEs! If you're looking to learn a ton, read through all the awesome content below! Without any further ado, here's a quick look at what everyone …
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This month marks the 18th installment of T-SQL Tuesday. T-SQL Tuesday was started in December 2009 by Adam Machanic (blog | @AdamMachanic) and is defined as "a recurring, revolving blog party". Any blogger wishing to participate is invited to write about the given topic, chosen by whoever is hosting that particular …

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This weekend I took and passed Microsoft Exam 70-451 (MCITP: Database Developer 2008). I'm pleased to say my score on this exam was much higher than its prerequisite, 70-433, which I wrote about a few months ago. Much like last time, I am happy to offer my thoughts for those who might be taking this test in the future. …
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This month's T-SQL Tuesday is the brainchild of Matt Velic and was inspired by a quote from Adam Machanic on the importance of understanding the APPLY operator. It's a good trick to have up your sleeve as it can do some nifty things and really save you some keystrokes when used properly.

My first experience with APPLY …

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I'm not a fan of the BETWEEN operator. While the syntax is very easy to understand and requires less typing than my favorite alternative, it can lead to situations where unwanted results are returned. Because of this I've gotten into the habit of avoiding it all together.

If you'd like a refresher on BETWEEN, its …

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My shortest post to date comes as from the inaugural "Meme Monday" as declared by Tom LaRock. Here's my deep SQL Server thought in 11 words or less:

Don't deploy changes until they've been tested in a dev environment.

Tagged:
Jose Chinchilla (blog)
Kendra Little (blog | twitter)

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Another SQL Saturday has come and gone, but for me this one was the best by far. I've now had the pleasure of attending 3 SQL Saturday events but this was the first one I've had a hand in planning. It was a great experience and I can't wait until next year!

Friday

On Friday I spent the day at Brent Ozar's (blog | …

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