Along with a number of my MVP peers, I received three (3) MSDN Ultimate subscriptions. These were sent to us with the intention of finding someone that hasn’t had the opportunity to use Visual Studio 2010 and provide them with the opportunity to get in and play with it. MSDN Ultimate Subscription If you aren’t … Continue reading What Would You Build? MSDN Subscription Giveaway
In anticipation of today, earlier this week I had declared today Pancake Day and started the day making pancakes. It was a great way to blow through the first hour without wearing out the F5 key on my laptop. Now the waiting is over and I am happy to say my SQL Server MVP status … Continue reading MVP Status Renewed
I was asked to take a look at an issue the other day regarding displaying Microsoft Project Task’s Notes in SSRS 2008. If you’ve worked with building reports for Microsoft Project Server, you have no doubt dealt with the RTF data that is stored in the Task’s Notes fields. With SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services … Continue reading Displaying Microsoft Project Task’s Notes in SSRS 2008
If you talk to Sarah (twitter), she’ll tell you that I like lists. Lists are awesome – they are almost like non-structured data. They are hierarchies of information that I can work with. They are Data. Microsoft must have known I liked lists because over the weekend I discovered (see below) their SQL Server Best … Continue reading SQL Server Best Practice Whitepapers
I’ll be speaking for the SQL PASS Performance Virtual Chapter next week. It’ll be on July 6 at 12 PM Eastern time. The topic will be Performance Impacts Related to Different Function Types. The abstract for the event is the following: User defined functions provide a means to encapsulate business logic in the database tier. … Continue reading Webcast Next Week – Performance Impacts Related to Different Function Types
Have you ever had a SQL Agent Job fail? Of course, just like myself, you have had this happen. When SQL Agent jobs fail, you will want to know why it failed. The problem is that knowing why a SQL Server Agent job has failed can sometimes be a tricky bit of business. The typical … Continue reading Why’d That Job Fail?
Microsoft has released a few new Cumulaive Update for SQL Server. There is an update for each of the supported releases of SQL Server: Cumulative update package 10 for SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 Cumulative update package 8 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update package 2 for SQL Server 2008 R2 … Continue reading Do You Patch SQL Server Regularily?
Today started with some quality time getting to know a deadlock that had occurred. While working through the deadlock, I noticed that there were a number of foreign key relationships that weren't indexed on the parent side of the relationship. I am going to skip over the why to index foreign keys and save that … Continue reading Index Those Foreign Keys
Go get the popcorn and let's get ready to watch some PASS sessions! Last month PASS hosted an event called 24 Hours of PASS. In this event, there were 24 back to back webcasts that focused on SQL Server and more specifically SQL Server 2008 R2. As if that weren't awesome enough, you can now … Continue reading You Thought You Missed 24 Hours of PASS
I like my name. It provides a point of reference to who I am. If I am at work and someone calls for “Jason Strate”… that’s me. If I am at home, the same thing can happen and I still know that it’s me. I know that no matter where I am, my name will … Continue reading Doing Something About Auto Generated Names
Strate SQL 