Mark V SQL

In conjunction with the official release of SQL Server 2012 today, Microsoft has announced a surprise feature that was kept under wraps for three years. Casper Marley, Senior Program Manager for Microsoft’s newly announced Whimsical Products division put it this way, “It’s like Siri…for SQL Server.” “Siri,” Apple’s intelligent assistant that ships with the IPhone […]

I am all kinds of delighted to report that my MDX Trek: First Contact session has been accepted for SQL Saturday 118 in Madison, WI. Yay! Since this is the first SQL Saturday ever in Wisonsin, I must congratulate the organizers of SQL Saturday 118 for boldly going where no SQL Saturday has gone before.

After attending a great SSRS session by Jes Schultz Borland (blog | Twitter) at the 2011 PASS Summit (SQUEE!), I mentioned to Jes that one of my goals for 2012 is to present more. Well, lo and behold, she invited me to present at MADPASS , the PASS chapter in Madison, WI. SQL Community in action. […]

On Monday, Feb 6th, I passed exam 70-452, Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Hazzah. I am really excited about that, not because I get a shiny new MCITP certification, but because it validates how much I have learned. When I started working with SQL Server about 5 years ago, I […]

Doug Lane (blog | Twitter) tagged me in this month’s Meme Monday started by Tom LaRock (blog | Twitter) in this post. This month’s meme is : “Write a blog post in 11 words or less.” Removing the cooling fans from servers to cook bacon: bad idea.

I am the guest blogger on Jason Strate’s 31 Days of SSIS series today. Jason ( blog | Twitter ) has the post up on his site at 31 Days of SSIS – Jim Croce and the Foreach (File) Loop Containiner (28/31). Thanks again to Jason for the great opportunity.

“Dear Mr. VSQL, I am 8 years old. My friends tell me that there are no SQL-themed holiday songs. My Dad says ‘If it’s on the Internet, it has to be true.’ Do you know of any SQL-themed holiday songs on the Internet I can show them?” – Virginia O’Hanlon Virginia, your friends have been […]

As the Y-Wing pilot in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi proclaimed, sometimes there’s too many of them. He was referring to TIE Fighters during the assault on the second Death Star. I echoed the sentiment while querying the system catalog for a client’s database. I was building the foundation for a […]

I attended SQL Saturday Chicago this weekend. I had an awesome time and attended great sessions. While I got something good out of every one of the sessions, I decided to distill the entire experience into a top ten list with some of the highlights. 10. According to Google Maps, the distance from Grand station […]

Some time ago, I was on a project in which we implemented a report model. The data was located in several different databases, none of which were very conducive to reporting. The consequence was that the views upon which we based our entities for the model required lots of joins and performed poorly. We decided […]