Chuck Heinzelman and I are on the Advisory Board for the THRIVE Campaign by Microsoft.   The THRIVE campaign is about getting people to use tools that they already own or are FREE to download in order to learn/enhance new skills.  I thought right away about SQL Server Express and how this could help people learn more about SQL Server.  Chuck and I will discuss and demo several features in Express.  I invite youto join us.

·         Title: TechNet Webcast: Enhance Your SQL Skills with SQL Server Express 2008 (Level 200)

·         Presenter: Rick Heiges & Chuck Heinzelman

·         Webcast Length: 60

·         Date/Time: 6/24/2009 10:00:00 AM Pacific

Attendee Registration URL:

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032417593&Culture=en-US

Just last week, the call fro abstracts ended.  At the end of this week, the rates will bump up.  See below for more information on some great reasons to come to the 2009 PASS Community Summit....  Of course the number one reason isn't even listed here - that is you can seek out the SQLBLOG.com bloggers and give them a piece of your mind.  :-) 

Top 10 Reasons You Can't Afford to Miss PASS Summit Unite 2009

1.        Network with over 2,000 SQL Server and BI professionals plus hundreds of Microsoft SQL Server and BI team members

2.        Gain new skills and strategies to optimize SQL Server and BI, with over 160 technical sessions, hands-on labs, and pre- and post-conference seminars

3.        Get the answers you need-immediately-at the "Ask the Experts" Lounge and Microsoft CSS First Aid Station

4.        Learn SQL Server best practices you can implement right away

5.        Meet with key Microsoft executives, engineers, and top SQL Server vendors

6.        Gain insights into new advances, roadmaps, and plans for Microsoft SQL 

7.        Get new ideas, get re-invigorated, and be inspired! Attendees tell us this is one of the most valuable things they get out of PASS Summit, year after year 

8.        Learn how to do even more with what you have and increase the ROI of your SQL Server investment

9.        Bring information and copies of presentations for others in your organization. Attendees can also purchase a DVD set containing all the sessions at a special, Summit attendee rate for in-depth learning all year long

10.     Get the early bird rate of only $1,195 if you register by Friday, May 1!

Connect, share, and learn with the leading SQL Server users from around the world. Don't miss the top SQL Server and BI conference of the year!

Register now for the early bird rate of only $1,195 - a 35% discount off the regular conference rate! Send 5 people from your company and save even more.  

Need to convince your boss for approval to attend? Get ROI Justification.

See you in Seattle!

For the first time in my travel history, I was on a flight on Thursday night that offered Wi-Fi server (after reaching 10,000 feet).  I was on a rather short flight from ATL to GSO, but thought that I would give it a shot.  There are some sites that you can check out without paying a fee like your travel plans at delta.com and some basic news.  I checked my FF activity and the miles for the flight that I was actually on were already posted.  I also checked out some links to news stories that were popular that day.  Without paying, I can't surf around where I want, but I was comfortable with the speed of the connection.  The ads equate it to mobile broadband speeds.  From my experience, I'd say that is a fair assessment.

For a short hop, I don't see the big value in paying about $10 to be connected for such a short amount of time, but on cross-country flights where it may take 4-5 hours or on an overseas flight, this service can be valuable.  Although it is good to be forcible disconnected from time to time, this service will make my time in the sky more productive.  Would you LIKE to stay connected when flying? 

I have been attending Teched every year since 2005. Last year, I really did not like the separation that was "forced" between IT Pro and Dev.  I like to attend sessions from both areas - SQL covers both areas.  I am glad they combined it this year (as it should be IMHO).  Once again, I will be in the TLC area where I LOVE to be. The TLCs (Technical Learning Centers) allow you an opportunity to get questions answered by MSFT and User Experts.  They also give away some pretty good SWAG too.

Another reason that I like TechEd is that it allows me to expand my education on areaa of SQL Server that I usally do not have normal contact with.  This is another reason that I like the combined version.

If you are heading to TechEd, please spend some time in the TLCs and say "HI".

I recently started to work out with a personal trainer.  With some medical issues popping up with my mom and older siblings, I decided to start to make a change.  Like many others, my nutritional habits are perhaps the worst of anyone that you may know.  I am taking little steps to change that.  I have asked myself why.  My mother for years has tried to get me to eat better.  My wife always tries to get me to eat better.  Why now would I start to change due to a personal trainer suggesting some things to try?  It is the same message, but it is a different source.

Another example of this is when I was on the Fencing Team in college.  Essentially, a classic attack in foil fencing is the lunge.  It is natural to move your foot, arm, and hand (tip of the foil) all at the same time (and usually miss or be the victim of a counter-attack).  Our coach drilled it into us the proper way for this attack is Tip, Arm, Foot IN THAT ORDER.  I will not re-hash the reasons why, but that is the succession of a good attack.  Of course, nature tends to foul things up.  One day a nationally ranked fencer was in town and joined us for practice.  For some reason when he told us the exact same message (Tip, Arm, Foot), we all seemed to listen.  Did we not believe our coach in the first place?

So I started to think about how this is related to our work with SQL Server.  How many times has a "Best Practice" been told to you, but the direction was not heeded until another source said the same thing?  How many sources does it take to get an important message across?  Here are just a few examples that come to mind from my experiences with various customers:

• Don't use undocumented DBCC commands
• Separate your data and logs on different LUNs
• Don't use "sa" login, instead grant sufficient privileges to other accounts
• Verify your backups

If these few things are not being followed in your organization, consider this message as another "source".  Perhaps it will be the one to trigger a change.

Last month, I spoke at a SQL Server Firestarter event in Charlotte.  With just about every session that I speak at or webcast that I do since 2006, I always ask for a show of hands on two questions.  The first is "How many people here are running SQL Server 2000 in production?", and the follow-up question that I ask is "How many people here have SQL Server 2000 running in production for a majority of your servers?".  This isn't scientific.  People can interpret the questions/terminology differently (Does server mean physical box, instance, database, etc?), but something has changed - at least anecdotally.  The responses for this particular audience were about 70% were still running SQL Server 2000 and of those about a little less than 50% had SQL Server 2000 as their major daa platform in their production environments.  There was one guy there running 7.0 still (yikes!) and only 2 people in this audience running SQL Server 2008 in production.

This may only be a blip on the screen, but I find more and more organizations that are totally on SQL Server 2005.  There is still a lot of 2000 out there and it will take time to make those a distant memory.  But from this unscientific data point, it looks like SQL Server 2005 is on the verge of becoming the main version out there for SQL Server.  There are all sorts of reasons why SQL Server 2000 is still in use such as a large investment in DTS packages, third-party apps, hassle of upgrading other components/applications/utilities.  At some point, an upgrade will become necessary.

If you are in the process of upgrading from SQL Server 2000 to 2005 and can't (for whatever reason) upgrade to 2008 instead, go ahead and run the Upgrade Advisor for SQL Server 2008 too.  Chances are that there will be little (if any) additional changes taht need to be made and you will for once be ahead of the game.  :-) 

I posted earlier that we are holding an organizational meeting in a virtual world called "Second Life".  Second Life is a Virtual World where you interact with others by voice or typing or gestures.  Here are the details:

Where:  Microsoft User Group Island (Classroom 1) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Microsoft%20Island/190/73/22

When: November 12, 2008 @ 12:00pm Pacific Time

What:  Organizational Meeting for a SQL Server User Group

Leader:  Rick Heiges, Director of (not-so) Special Projects for PASS (www.sqlpass.org)

If you are new to second life, it is free to join and to create yor own avitar.  Come Join us in establising a Virtual Chapter in a Virtual World.