Louis Davidson

Why We Write #5–An Interview With Jason Strate

drsql — Mon, 20 May 2013 02:40:59 GMT

My next guest is a person I have known for years, and have worked with on several occasions, Jason Strate ( @stratesql ). Jason is a very active writer and speaker (at my first SQL Saturday event, he spoke four times!), and always seems very busy. His...(read more)

Speaking about Relational DB Design the next two weeks (Knoxville, then Atlanta)

drsql — Mon, 06 May 2013 01:57:54 GMT

On Friday, May 10 I will be speaking for the Knoxville SQL Server User Group, and on May 18, I will be speaking at SQL Saturday in Atlanta. Both days, my session is my old chestnut “Database Design Fundamentals”. It is my favorite session to do because...(read more)

Why We Write #4 - An Interview With Doug Lane

drsql — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:56:22 GMT

My next guest is Doug Lane , who has been blogging for the past few years on his website: http://www.douglane.net/ . Doug is also a speaker who has spoken at SQL Saturdays as well as the SQL PASS Summit , and as I write these interview questions was on...(read more)

Why We Write #3 - An Interview With Rob Farley

drsql — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:04:14 GMT

In the third entry in this series, we take a turn south, not in quality, but in the geography of our next entrant. Rather our interview target is Rob Farley, who is from (well lives in) Australia. Rob Farley is a SQL Server MVP, and is quite a busy...(read more)

Why We Write #2 - An Interview With Mark Vaillancourt

drsql — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:30:12 GMT

My second guest is Mark Vaillancourt (whose last name makes me very happy for the copy and paste feature), who is an Information Management consultant working for Digineer , and is a Regional Mentor for PASS in Canada. Mark is also a speaker at SQL Saturday...(read more)

Why We Write #1 - An Interview With Thomas LaRock

drsql — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:03:00 GMT

I 've been a writer of trade level technical materials for over 13 years now, writing books, articles, blogs, and even tweets for a variety of outlets, almost exclusively about Microsoft SQL Server. While I won't claim to be the best writer in the world,...(read more)

My New Year's Goals 2013

drsql — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 04:17:21 GMT

So, I have completely given up on my new year starting on Jan 1 where blogging/writing/community is concerned. I love the holidays WAY too much, and I love football (of the American variety with the oblong ball, of course) WAY too much, and so, that is...(read more)

One more reason to to understand query plans, not directly performance related

drsql — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:28:00 GMT

One of the things that separates a good programmer from a great one is a firm understanding about what is going on inside the computer. For some programming languages, it is very obvious what is going on inside the computer because you are working at...(read more)

Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices Chapter 8: Release Management Review

drsql — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:06:14 GMT

This past year, I contributed a chapter to an anthology book of best practices for working with SQL Server 2012 entitled Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices ( http://www.apress.com/9781430247708 ). As authors, for publicity we decided to do summary reviews...(read more)

A wee bit exhausted… time to reenergize

drsql — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 02:26:00 GMT

I admit it. I am tired and I have not blogged nearly enough. This has been a crazy year, with the book I finished writing , the pre-cons I have done (teaching is NOT my primary profession so I do a lot more prep than some others probably do), lots of...(read more)

PASS Precon Countdown… See some of you Monday, and others on Tuesday Night

drsql — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 02:06:58 GMT

As I finish up the plans for Monday’s database design precon, I am getting pretty excited for the day. This is the third time I have done this precon, and where the base slides are very similar, I have a few new twists in mind. One of my big ideas for...(read more)

24 Hours of PASS next week, pre-con preview style

drsql — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:53:47 GMT

I will be doing my Characteristics of a Great Relational Database , which is a session that I haven’t done since last PASS. When I was asked about doing this Summit Preview version of 24 hours of PASS, I decided that I would do this session, largely because...(read more)

Utility Queries–Structure of Tables with Identity Column

drsql — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:05:00 GMT

Edit: At the suggestion of a much knowledgable commenter who shall remain named Aaron, I changed from using schema_name() function to using sys.tables. When writing code that is expected to have reuse, it can be safer to use the tables rather than functions...(read more)

SQLPASS DB Design Precon Preview

drsql — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 00:27:13 GMT

It is just a few months left before SQLPASS and I am pushing to get my precon prepped for you. While it will be the second time I produce this on the year, I listened to the feedback and positive comments I have heard from potential attendees, so I am...(read more)

And interview, an online session, a long drive and a SQL Saturday… This week!

drsql — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:38:03 GMT

Later this week I will be doing an episode of the Greg Low’s excellent SQL Down Under podcast ( http://www.sqldownunder.com/Resources/Podcast.aspx ), something I did once before back in 2006. If you haven’t listened to any of the previous editions,...(read more)