It’s SQL Saturday season again! I found out this morning that I’ll be speaking at next month’s SQL Saturday event in Houston. This will be my second consecutive year to speak at this event. The crew in Houston is great to work with. Nancy Hidy Wilson, Jonathan Gardner, Malik Al-Amin, and the others event planners did a great job last…
Have you voted yet for my sessions your favorite sessions for SQL Rally? If not, this is a friendly reminder to hop on over and vote now. You have to have a PASS login to vote, but don’t worry – it’s free to get one and takes about 2 minutes. Out of the 60 total sessions to be presented at…
I’d like to share with you a laziness efficiency method I use when developing reports in SQL Server Reporting Services. By using conditional default values in SSRS, I end up saving a significant amount of time during development and testing my eliminating the time required to manually enter parameters. Conditional Default Values in SSRS I’ve found that it’s quite common…
Like many others, I’m planning a few changes for my life for next year. I’m a believer in finding one’s own way, while still abiding the advice of the wise. Often called upon for inspirations are the timeless words of Confucius, the inspiring speeches of Martin Luther King, the controversial yet insightful analyses of Sigmund Freud, and the various authors…
There’s a large group of people that mean a lot to me. Some of them I know well, and others I only know peripherally through their relationships with those with whom I am more familiar. Some of them I like a lot, but with others I rarely see eye-to-eye. Many of them I consider to be friends, and a few…
Ok, I have two admissions that I must bare to the world in this post. The first is that I’ve been a little lazy. I’ve admired – from a distance – this T-SQL Tuesday thing ever since it started. It’s been great! A bunch of people blogging on the same day about their own interpretation of some common topic –…
“Hey man, this is Ty*, what’s happening?” roared the familiar voice in my Bluetooth earpiece. It was a voice I knew well, and briefly brought a smile to my face. After exchanging pleasantries and catching up a bit, Ty revealed the real reason for his call: “Say, dude, I’m looking for a new job, and I was hoping you’d write…
It’s been a busy couple of weeks for SQL Server community and PASS related news. First and probably most importantly is that the location for SQL Rally 2012 has been chosen, and we are happy to announce that it’ll be right here in Dallas! After several months of research and evaluation, PASS awarded next year’s event to this area based…
As I write this, I’m somewhere in the air over Florida, headed back home to Dallas from participating in the first-ever SQL Rally event. The past few days have been an adventure in many ways, and I’m happy to report that the entire experience was both positive and memorable. Wednesday The trip started out in chaos: an immense line of…
Earlier today I read a blog post that compares consultants with corporate staff members. The author unashamedly compares consultants to major league baseball players, while grouping corporate staffers into the minor leagues. While he does make a few valid points, the theme of the post – as well as many of the assumptions he makes – are out of left…