I received a notification e-mail earlier this morning that I’ve been selected as a Microsoft MVP for SQL Server! I’m both surprised and honored by this distinction. This is my first MVP award, so I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, but one thing is for certain – I’m in good company. The SQL Server community just rocks….
Late last year, I blogged about some goals I had set for myself to accomplish during 2009. No goal-setting session is complete until you spend some time reviewing your completion of, or progress toward, those goals. To that end, I’ll address those goals and how well I did for each of them during the past 12 months. Presenting: I give…
There are few things more reassuring for a data professional than having clean, consistent data to back up critical business decisions. The numbers don’t lie, or so they say. But can the right data lead to wrong conclusions? Sadly, yes, and I suspect that it happens more often than we’d like to admit. Recently, as part of a large hospital…
In the previous post in this series, I discussed the obstacles to implementing electronic health data systems. Because of these obstacles, many providers are resistant to replacing their paper-based “databases” with true EHR systems. But assuming the best case scenarios, that all healthcare providers and vendors convert from paper (or quasi-paper) to digital, that stil. doesn’t fully solve the problem…
So now that we’re 7 days removed from the end of the SQL PASS summit, I’ve finally managed to arrange my thoughts and put together some notes about an incredible week in Seattle. This was only my 2nd summit, and the two experiences were vastly different (for my review of the 2005 summit, read “Don’t Be This Guy”). Just a…
The day started off with the Quest Software breakfast presentation, to which I arrived late to find a standing-room-only crowd. I left early to find a spot to sit – after yesterday’s interesting but much too long opening ceremony, I elected to catch up on blogging and attend the keynote virtually via social media. I attended Andy Leonard’s session entitled…
Day two of the summit found me in the keynote, an interesting but much too long (2 hours) for comfort. Among the most notable information was the confirmation that SQL Server 2008 R2 will definitely be released during the first half of next year, along with a couple of new SKUs for the product. Also part of the presentation was…
Day one for me began with a leisurely breakfast at Top Pot donuts with Jack Corbett, Andy Warren, and Don Gabor. We were joined briefly by Robert Cain, and Greg Larsen. We talked PASS, career development, networking, and various other interesting (perhaps even a few uninteresting) topics. Don’s perspective as a nontechnical person was refreshing, and since we’ve spent a…
For me, today was the start of a six-day SQL Server adventure at the PASS Summit in Seattle. The day started off not so well, with my 2 year old finding – and losing – the digi cam’s memory card, which is apparently obsolete and can’t be replaced. Off to an unscheduled trip to Best Buy for a new camera….
I have a sad story to tell you. Sit down and grab a tissue. It was 10pm on a cool night in September 2005. Somewhere in Grapevine, Texas, a junior SQL Server professional was sitting alone in a hotel room watching TV. He was tired but not exhausted, having spent all day learning his trade at the Super Bowl of…