I was working on a slide deck and did something I don't normally do – I added a photo. Usually the graphical content of my presentations involves diagrams or other vector art – I don't often have the need for actual photos. But this time I did, and I was really surprised to see that PowerPoint generated a text …

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After months of hard work on the part of volunteers and PASS HQ, the session schedule for PASS Summit 2019 is live! You can find it here. My hat goes off to the fine people who put this together – building conference schedules is not for the faint of heart. Now that session times and locations have been determined* …

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SQL Saturday Indianapolis is coming up quickly – it's in less than two weeks! I am very happy to be returning to Indy on Saturday, August 17 to deliver my session Dipping Your Toes Into Azure Data Lake for DBAs. Abstract: As a data professional, you know what data is, and hopefully know what a lake is too. But what's a …

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In the past few months I've had not one but two shining examples of how having a backup strategy meant absolutely nothing when it came time to restore from a disaster. All the backup planning in the world is completely useless if you can’t successfully restore your backups. The Ransomware I had a client that was hit by …

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As an attendee, deciding which sessions to attend at conferences can be a daunting endeavor. With so many choices available and the impossibility of being able to attend every interesting session, it really can make sense to buy recordings if they are available. One of the ways PASS is trying to help for Summit 2019 is …

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This year, PASS is introducing the PASS Summit Official Blogger program, and I'm very happy to announce that I'm a part of the inaugural group! For many years there has been a bloggers' table at PASS Summit keynotes, where community members can live blog all the latest happenings and announcements. This year, PASS is …

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The Call for Speakers for PASS Summit 2019 has just closed, and now the Program Committee will begin the task of evaluating speakers and sessions and using those results to build a schedule. It's not easy. Really, it's not. I've served on the Program Committee numerous times and there's a lot of effort that goes into …

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Another SQL Saturday Chicago has come and gone, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we have spent the last 11 months planning. It truly was our best SQL Saturday yet, with 422 attendees. We also ended with 130 on our waiting list, which is another record. Even with this larger venue it appears our demand …

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With SQLBits coming up quickly (it's next week!) I wanted to take a few moments to write about what very quickly has become my favorite conference. It's an awesome experience and I am so grateful that I am able to attend, volunteer, and present there for a second year. It's Not PASS Summit I love PASS Summit – no …

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Azure Data Studio continues to grow on me. I previously wrote about getting my favorite keyboard shortcuts to work, which made me very happy, but now for a feature I love even more – saving result sets to Excel! Yes, I know, spreadsheets can be evil. They can even be places where good datasets go to die, but it's …

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