Search results matching tags 'Conferences', 'Education', and 'Review'

Rick Review: SQLTeach - SQL345 - 10-Mar-2010 - Kimberly Tripp

RickHeiges — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:17:00 GMT

SQLTeach (Part of the DevTeach Conferences in Canada) has enjoyed success for many years. I enjoyed the opportunity to speak at and attend SQLTeach at various times over the years. Since SQLTeach is part of DevTeach, the "feel" of the event is very different from PASS or SQLRally or even a SQL Saturday where SQL is the primary focus. It does however afford an opportunity for me to understand the challenges of those who need to work with SQL either in a direct or indirect manner. SQLTeach / DevTeach records sessions and post them on the web for anyone to consume (login required, but a login may be created for FREE). Here is where I found this video: http://www.devteach.com/DevTeachVideo.aspx?NoVideo=45

The session that I selected to review is by one of my favorite speakers, Kimberly Tripp. In this session, Kimberly once again simplifies a concept that is often treated as black magic. The session is entitled "Optimizing Procedural Code". This demo-heavy session covers many different options that are available to impact optimization. Do you know the various options to force out a cached plan? Is recompiling bad? What else can I control to help optimization?

Check this session out and consider attending the next SQLTeach/DevTeach (especially if you are already in Canada).

Enjoy!

Rick Review: Day 3 Keynote PASS Summit 2011 - Big Data-What's the Big Deal?

RickHeiges — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:00 GMT

I recently did a Rick Review of the Day 3 Keynote from the 2008 PASS Community Summit that featured Dr. DeWitt speaking on new technology that ended up in the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) edition of SQL Server 2008 R2. I decided to also listen again to the Day 3 Keynote from the 2001 PASS Community Summit. While I listened intently to the keynote on Day 3 of this past summit, something seemed to be somewhat familiar. Had I heard some of these concepts before? The keynotes from the most recent PASS Summit may be found here. The theme of PDW and Map/Reduce seem to be similar (at least at a high level) where data is split up into smaller chunks and selected sets of data are then combined to answer the query. Once again, Dr.DeWitt is entertaining as he simplifies a complex topic for the audience. Having access to this recording is great, but being there first hand was even better with a sense of respectful awe in the audience. It is no wonder that the Day 3 Keynote is a favorite of the PASS attendees. If you haven't had the chance yet, I invite you to view the recording and perhaps learn something new.

Rick Review: Day 3 Keynote of the 2008 PASS Community Summit

RickHeiges — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:04:00 GMT

Am I stuck in the past? Not really, but I like to blog about the recordings that I have recently watched. There are a lot of recordings out there on the PASS website and other places.

Recently I have had the good fortune of exploring some of the neat technology behind the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW) in SQL Server 2008 R2. In order to get myself grounded in some of the basics around what PDW was all about, I decided to review the Dr. DeWitt keynote (Day 3) from the 2008 PASS Community Summit. The link to the WMV file is near the bottom of this page. As I watched the recording, I could recall the excitement of learning about this new technology. Whether you were fortunate enough to see this live or not, this recording demonstrates how a very smart person can explain such a new technology in a simple manner. I believe that once you watch this session, you'll want to watch the other keynotes by Dr. DeWitt as well.

Rick Review: SQLBits7: Consolidating Data Collection with SQLDIAG and SQLNexus

RickHeiges — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:54:00 GMT

I ran across this recording about 3 months ago. It is a recording that is open to everyone. It was recorded at SQLBits 7 with Christian Bolton as the speaker for a session entitled: "Consolidating data collection with SQLDIAG and analysing it all with SQLNexus". I found it very informative and hope that you will too.

SQLBits is a UK based conference that occurs twice a year and I can't wait to attend one personally from the stories that I have heard. They record the sessions and make each one available for FREE access - AMAZING! You can find this session at the following URL: http://sqlbits.com/Sessions/Event7/Consolidating_data_collection_with_SQLDIAG_and_analysing_it_all_with_SQLNexus. The imbedded video has both a video of the speaker speaking to the audience as well as a full screen capture of the presentation to make the replay even more vivid.

Christian walks through the basics of using SQLDIAG for Data Collection initially. He then turns his attention to SQLNEXUS as a tool to analyze the data collected in SQLDIAG. He goes through how to configure SQLDIAG to collect the necessary data (perfmon and SQLTrace data) with the SQLDIAG process in order to discover the items needed for further analysis. If you need to perform a relatively quick analysis of a server, check this video out to discover your "pain points" for a particualr server.

After viewing this webcast, I am positive that you will find that using SQLDIAG along with SQLNEXUS will make your job easier.