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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When designing presentations or writing blog posts, I try to use good looking images whenever possible. When mentioning Microsoft technologies, quality copies of logos or icons are really nice to have, though not always easy to find. Image searches often provide results, but the legality of using images found via that …

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I'm very proud to once again be speaking at SQL Saturday in Portland, Oregon, coming up on November 3! Portland is one of my favorite cities and has long been one of my favorite SQL Saturday events. It also a wonderful way to ease in to a great week at PASS Summit, and the start point of the SQLTrain, both of which I …

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If you've done any amount of work in Linux from Windows, chances are pretty good you've used PuTTY at some point. PuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator that supports a variety of protocols, including SSH. I've been using it since college and have always been very happy with it. It's free, it's tiny, and it …

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I'm very happy to be presenting for the PASS Security Virtual Chapter on Thursday, November 17, 2016 at 10:00am Pacific! I'll be presenting my session entitled SQL Server Encryption Basics. This is an introductory-level session on the encryption capabilities of SQL Server, how they work, and when and where you may want …

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I'm very happy to be making the trek up to Appleton, Wisconsin to speak at FoxPASS next week! I'll be delivering my presentation entitled "Whatcha Doin'? Passive Security for Hostile Environments", which I presented to a packed room at this year's PASS Summit. Here's the abstract: Ideal database security …

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Tomorrow I am making the trek up to Madison to speak at MADPASS! I had a great time there last year and am looking forward to heading back. I'll be giving my talk on SQL Server's data compression feature entitled "The Skinny on Data Compression." I'll be explaining how data compression works and sharing some …

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I am very happy and honored to have been chosen as a presenter at SQL Saturday #206 coming up on April 6, 2013 in Madison, Wisconsin! As I previously mentioned I had a wonderful time there last year and am definitely looking forward to heading back. This time around I'll be giving a new presentation on tuning backups …

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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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This past weekend I was very fortunate to be able to attend and speak at SQL Saturday #118 in Madison, Wisconsin. This was a top-notch event; all the hard work and planning that went into it really showed in how smoothly things ran. My trip began around noon on Friday, which was a great decision because I hit no …

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