The next in my series of PASS Summit Tips may seem a bit strange, but I assure you it comes from experience: Parts of PASS Summit can be loud. My handy-dandy earplugs I'm not referring to the official events themselves; if you're in a session and feel it's too loud, maybe take a seat farther away from a speaker. What …

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I'm always looking for new and interesting data sets for demonstration purposes. I enjoy using data that people can relate to – not only is it easily understood, but often it can be entertaining as well. This data set of real-world parking tickets does all that. A few weeks ago I came across this blog post by Matt …

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Last week I wrote about SQL Saturday Portland and the SQLTrain. In this week's PASS Summit tip I have another piece of advice for attendees: Get the session recordings. Yes, I know they cost extra. And no, I am not blindly playing PASS marketing cheerleader here. There's actually some really solid reasons to purchase …

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I'm very happy to be returning to Boston this weekend to speak at SQL Saturday Boston 2018. I last attended a few years ago and have been wanting to get back there ever since, so I'm happy the cards fell into place this time around! The organizers in Boston have put together an amazing schedule for the day that I'm …

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It dawned upon me the other day that this will be my seventh year attending PASS Summit, and I'm pretty fortunate to have been able to attend so many times. Over the years, I have also acquired some knowledge about the event and how to prepare for it that may be helpful for others. So this year, I hope to share a few …

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I am very happy to be returning to the [Chicago Suburban SQL Server User Group][2] next week! …Except I won't exactly be talking about SQL Server. Instead I will be speaking about [Azure Cosmos DB][1], a relatively new cloud offering that, while different from SQL Server, is quickly proving to be extremely important in …

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This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Steve Jones, who has asked for blog posts today on experiences we have had with triggers, good or bad. I am not a fan of triggers. While they represent a very simplistic construct of "if something happens, do something else", I've yet to encounter a situation …

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I'm very happy to be presenting at next month's meeting of the Chicago SQL Server User Group! This meeting will take place on Thursday August 9 at the Microsoft Technology Center in Chicago. For a little something different, I won't be speaking about SQL Server. Instead, I will be giving an introduction to Azure Cosmos …

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As a former DBA, it should be no surprise that I am a big fan of keeping data safe, and not just corporate data – this extends to my personal data as well. Early on I realized that the cloud was a great way to protect all my photos, videos, and other digital keepsakes that I absolutely could not stand to lose. As cloud …

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I always feel honored when chosen to present at a SQL Saturday event. Being selected is never a guarantee, especially these days when organizers seemingly have more speakers and abstracts to pick from than ever before. But I am just over-the-moon happy to share that I was picked to speak at SQL Saturday in Oslo, Norway …

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