Paul Nielsen

The Primary Cause of Failed IT Projects

2010-06-10T13:57:00Z

During my career I’ve been a part of dozens of projects. Some I was on from the start, most I came in to help bail out. Some went smooth and were a pleasure to build and maintain and some projects failed (failed being broadly defined as projects that were not completed, or were completed but were a horrid mess – very complex, impossible to maintain, refactor, and a royal pain to keep running.) While there are a number of factors that can contribute to a failed project, in my career it seems the primary...(read more)

Fresh Voices

2010-06-07T15:00:00Z

The PASS Summit 2010 Call for Speakers is closed. When the call went out I offered to review abstracts for anyone interested, which gave me a view into the content of the next PASS, albeit a filtered view, but what I did see was encouraging. In all I reviewed about 50 abstracts (several of these I found on my junk folder, so I apologize to any that I didn’t see.) The abstracts I reviewed had a mix of new topics and core technologies from new speakers, regulars, and a few MVPs. The observation that...(read more)

PASS Call for Speakers

2010-05-05T21:10:00Z

It's that time again - the PASS Summit 2010 (Seattle Nov 8-11) Call for Speakers is now open and accepting abstracts until June 5 th . personally, I'm on a pattern that on odd years I present what I'm excited about, and on even years I try try to proesent what I expect other are jazzed about, which takes a bit more work. Last year I offered to Coach any Pass Speakers for free and some success. I’m offering that service again startign with your abstracts. If you’d like me to review your abstracts...(read more)

I'm a happy camper

2010-04-30T13:00:00Z

I’m satisfied with SQL Server 2008. It meets my needs and I can build whatever I want in the database. There’s no feature that it lacks that blocking my development. SQL Server 2008 is what I see when I close my eyes and dream. Maybe I’m just pleased with my current projects, maybe I’m being dense, maybe I lack imagination, tell me if I’m being stupid, but I feel no compelling need for an upgrade. If Microsoft didn’t ship the new version for 3 or 5 more years, I’d be ok with that. I’m sure there...(read more)

My first SQL Saturday

2010-04-23T15:23:00Z

I’m leaving soon for an exciting journey with a thrilling destination – my first SQL Saturday. So I decided to do it right and I’m taking the Amtrak Acela Express from Boston to New York. I love New York! If you’re headed to SQL Saturday #39, and you love database design, I invite you to come to my session on Temporal Database Designs – how to design a table so it can be queried as of any pervious point in time. The proof of concept code is posted at http://temporalsql.codeplex.com/ . See you there....(read more)

Hugh Bin-Haad's SQL Rumours

2010-04-01T14:11:00Z

Insider rumours and gossip from the murky world of the Database Industry, and from the colourful characters that inhabit it http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/editors-corner/insider-insights/...(read more)

AutoAudit 1.10c

2010-03-18T03:16:00Z

AutoAudit is a free SQL Server (2005, 2008) Code-Gen utility that creates Audit Trail Triggers with: · Created, Modified, and RowVersion (incrementing INT) columns to table · Creates View to reconstruct deleted rows · Creates UDF to reconstruct Row History · Schema Audit Trigger to track schema changes · Re-code-gens triggers when Alter Table changes the table Version 1.10c Adds: · Createdby and ModifiedBy columns. Pass the user to the column and AutoAudit records that username instead of the Suser_Sname...(read more)

There once was in Dublin a query

2010-03-11T17:00:00Z

For 6 months I’ve have been planning a secret trip to London in May as a surprise for my wife (of Irish heritage and accent) (I love how she says, "Aye laddie, kiss me I'm Irish." but that's for another blog.) The plan was to spend a week in London and then top if off with a visit to Dublin to see the Book of Kells (on my bucket list) and stay at Markree Castle at Sligo, Ireland (on her bucket list). The original plan was to have her boss assign mandatory vacation a few days before the trip (her...(read more)

Twitter will migrate from MySQL to Cassandra DB

2010-03-05T22:48:00Z

Since most of us are active on Twitter, I figured this would be of interest: http://www.dataprix.com/en/blogs/carlos/twitter-will-migrate-mysql-cassandra-db...(read more)

Extensive library of Excel functions for SQL Server

2010-03-02T23:27:00Z

When SQL Server 2000 introduced user-defined functions I predicted that a few companies would release sets of cool financial/mathematical/statistical functions. It didn’t happen. When SQL Server 2005 introduced the CLR, I again predicted that a few companies would release sets of cool financial/mathematical/statistical functions written in CLR. It didn’t happen. Enter www.WestClinTech.com . These guys have done it. They’ve released sets of Financial, Statistical, Math & Trig, Engineering, Unit...(read more)

tempdb in RAM

2010-02-15T23:55:00Z

I’m watching the FedEx page as my shiny new Dell E4300 travels across country – and bummed that I won’t have it in time for the MVP Summit. The first thing I’m going to do is install a Crucial 256Gb SSD drive. I‘ve heard good things about SSD drives, but some have reported that they can get burned out from repeated constant writes. One forum post noted that an SSD drive on a notebook with insufficient RAM can cause lots of swap file paging to disk which might explain some of the dead drive issues...(read more)

MVP Book - Many Thanks!

2010-02-05T21:24:00Z

On behalf of the 53 MVPs who collaberated on the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives book , I’m pleased to say thank you to the many who have purchased the book. Together we have raised $12,400 for www.warchild.org . If you haven’t yet purchased the book, you should: no other tech book is such a win/win proposition. 100% of the author royalties goes helps children traumatized by war, you get 59 great chapters, and MVPs got to share their expertise in a collaborative effort. http://sqlblog.com/blogs/paul_nielsen/archive/2009/09/29/53-mvps-warchild-org-and-sqlservermvpdeepdives-com.asp...(read more)

Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta v2.0 - Denver Feb 27 – Call for SQL Speakers

2009-12-08T22:54:00Z

Regional conferences are becoming increasingly popular as their quality improves. In Colorado, we began organizing the Colorado PASS Camp in 2005. In 2008, the Denver code camps and PASS Camp merged under the leadership of MVP Julie Yack to become the Rocky Mountain Tech Trifecta. The Tri in Tifecta represents the three tracks: Windows Server, .NET, and SQL server. This year there will also be a beginner track for folks new to Microsoft technologies. https://www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=142153...(read more)

Prepping for SQL PASS

2009-10-16T14:53:00Z

PASS is just just a couple weeks away. If you’re speaking at PASS and feeling a bit nervous, I’d like to help. I’m no Jerry Seinfeld, but I have fun speaking in public and I'd like to see you have fun up front too. If you’d like some free coaching, ping me. pauln@sqlserverbible.com This isn’t exclusive, if others want to offer free coaching at PASS, add your pitch as a comment. The goal is to help every speaker have a great time......(read more)

Smart Database Design Seminar - Tucson - Oct 26-28

2009-10-14T17:33:00Z

As I turn my focus toward my SaaS CRM startup, I’m doing less training these days, but Steve WynKoop asked me to present my Smart Database Design Seminar in Tucson – Oct 26-28. I was in Tucson a couple weeks ago for the SSWUG Virtual Conference and trust me – it’s warmer there than up here in the mountains of Colderado. The seminar unpacks my design philosophy – that a well-designed database lends itself to nice set-based queries, which respond well to indexing and create tight fast transactions,...(read more)