My love of collecting data isn't limited to work, I'm just as happy doing it at home. From the typical digital keepsakes such as documents and photos to geekier things like detailed utility records and 10 years of fuel consumption info for my car, I've got quite the little hoard. The usefulness of some of the data I …

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I am very fortunate to have been accepted as a Friend of Red Gate for a second year! If you're not familiar with "FoRG", Friends of Red Gate work with the Red Gate development and product teams to provide feedback on existing products, new tools, and feature enhancements. You can also find us speaking at …

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Two weeks ago I decided to kick off the holiday season by asking people to write about what they were thankful for. I was very fortunate to get three great responses, which I am happy to share in no particular order (which just so happens to be the order I received them in). Chris Yates (@YatesSQL) says that after …

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I'm also grateful for my grandma's homemade gravy Back in the early days of this blog, I wrote about what I was thankful for in response to Jason Strate's post asking about it. Now, 4 years later, I am hosting a redux, and your contributions are very welcome! In looking back on the past year, I feel like I have an …

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It's almost Thanksgiving time here in the United States – that wonderful holiday where families and friends gather to share a meal and give thanks for all our many immaterial blessings. (And then for maximum irony, we head out the following day to battle each other in stores for heavily-discounted electronics while …

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My marathon week of #SQLFamily is through, and that means it's time to start writing about it! First up is Red Gate's SQL in the City in Seattle. Having been an attendee when they came to Chicago back in 2012, I was especially honored to be able to return as a presenter! SQL in the City was held at Marion Oliver McCaw …

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It's my favorite time of year again – Autumn. It gets colder, the days get shorter, leaves change colors, and there's that little annual event called PASS Summit. This year I have even more reasons to love it because I was able to work 2 more events into my trip: SQL Saturday Oregon and [Red Gate's SQL in the City][3] …

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This post is part of the DBA JumpStart series being written by myself and 19 other professionals from the SQL Server community and coordinated by John Sansom (@SQLBrit). It has been compiled into a free eBook, which can be found here. Be sure to download a copy! If you could give an aspiring DBA just one piece of …

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Just a quick note that the PASS Summit 2014 Early Bird rate of $1095 ends Friday 6 December. You don't have to look very hard to find lots of [blog posts][2] about how PASS Summit is an [amazing experience][3] at any price, but this is a great opportunity to save $1200 off the full registration rate. Starting Saturday …

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Imagine you had the chance to get together with other data professionals in your area in a setting outside of a training session or user group meeting. There's no formal agenda, just an excellent meal and some great conversation. Perhaps a respected expert is available to answer questions and bounce ideas off of. Does …

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