Google Buys Nest

I was a bit sad to see that Google bought Nest. I like upstarts that see a problem and solve it. I’m highly in favor of them profiting from doing so. I just don’t want to see Google (or Microsoft, or Apple, or Facebook, or Amazon) buy them all up. I wouldn’t have turned down […]

Time to Plan For Running For The PASS Board

I know it’s only January, but if you’re at all considering being a candidate you need to get going now. You need time to figure if you’re eligible, qualified, and have the time and energy for a campaign and then two years of service. You might note that I left out determining if you’re electable, […]

Security, Compliance, and SQL Server Webinar on January 29, 2014

My first webinar of the year! I’m joining forces with the GreenSQL and MSSQLTips to present Security, Compliance, and SQL Server on January 29th at 3pm Eastern. I’ll be talking about how to work with/understand the Security and Compliance teams – what drives them, what they hope to accomplish, and why they sometimes ask you […]

Bradley Ball at MagicPASS on January 15, 2014

First meeting of the year with Bradley Ball presenting Locking, Blocking, Latches, Deadlocks, and Spinlocks. Let them know you’ll be attending by registering at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/magicpass-january-2014-meeting-registration-10105352381?ref=website.

The SQLSaturday Wiki–Revisited

I saw a discussion on Twitter yesterday where Kendal Van Dyke referenced the SQLSaturday wiki as a resource, I thought I’d post a reminder here about it and some thoughts on it as well. The build out of the wiki happened back in July 2010 – here’s my blog post about it. The goal then […]

Schedule Time To Review Your Passwords & Using a Password Manager

I use a password manager and it currently has more than 150 accounts in it, ranging from my checking account and other personal stuff to logins to MSDN, various client VPN’s, and more. Almost all of the passwords are unique. Ideally they would be unique, but sometimes I sacrifice ease of use for maximum security. […]

How To Campaign For the PASS Board

Let’s say you’ve decided to run, good! What do you do next? I’m not going to give you a blueprint (I need to see if you have some game after all), but I have some suggestions that I think will help you run a better campaign and make it a better election too: Build a […]

Two-Factor Authentication

Something you have and something you know – that’s the heart of two-factor, sometimes called multi-factor, authentication. RSA was for years the most common. You use either the key fob hardware device or the software app to get a ‘code’ that you enter in addition to your ID and your (hopefully) strong password. The code […]

Changes to PASS Voting Eligibility

There was a blurb in the Connector today about an eligibility change for voting. The “change” is a requirement to update your profile (or for those of with more than one, all of your profiles). Here are the fields that are now required on the profile: I don’t have a problem with those, […]

Reporting Services Parameter Assumptions

Ran into a new-to-me quirk this week while putting together a couple of reports. I have a summary report (essentially a group by) that is linked to a detail report (that shows the details!) based on a couple of passed parameters. Works fine. I wanted to add a couple of optional filters to the detail […]

SQLAndy

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