Notes from the 2011 Orlando Code Camp

Just some quick observations: Nice bright green polos for volunteers (I think about standardizing the color for SQLSaturday) About a dozen sponsors on site out of more than 50 total sponsors The opening address was ok, but I’d remind anyone that does this to practice and polish it, easy to have it turn dull. They […]

SQLRally–Convince The Boss

This week the SQLRally team published some notes to help you convince the boss to send you to three days of great training. It’s good stuff and worth reviewing, and I want to add a couple tips of my own: Make it concrete. Get a copy of the schedule and circle your “A” and “B” […]

SQLSaturday in Hawaii, Portugal, and New Zealand

Just a quick post today for those you who haven’t visited http://www.sqlsaturday.com lately, we’ve got a lot of events coming up including first timers in Hawaii, Portugal, and New Zealand. I know those might be a bit far to travel (but what a trip it would be!), so there are plenty more in the US […]

Firefox and Reporting Services

Not everyone uses IE and that’s ok, but what’s strange is that by default if you point Firefox at a Reporting Services report the display gets chopped to about 200 pixels. The fix, documented on this post by Jon Galloway, is to modify the CSS to force the height (and width if you choose) to […]

Speaking at Orlando Code Camp on March 26, 2011

I’ll be speaking at the upcoming Orlando Code Camp on March 26, 2011, at Seminole State College in Lake Mary. I’ve included a copy of the schedule, a truly awesome array of topics and talent! Jack Corbett & I will also be doing our bit to raise awareness about SQLRally by handing out flyers and […]

SQLSaturday #77 in Pensacola–Call for Speakers

Karla Landrum just announced SQLSaturday #77, coming to Pensacola on June 4, 2011. Pensacola is a great weekend destination, hit Hemingways on the beach for lunch or dinner and visit the aviation museum – and do some tech learning too of course! I won’t make it this year, it’s a couple weeks after SQLRally and […]

Customizing Report Manager Should Be Easier

You might be reading this hoping that I have the magic answer on how to make the Report Manager portal look the way you want it to, but as of SQL 2008 R2 we’re still pretty limited. Shouldn’t it be easy – maybe even part of the install – to put a company logo on […]

IT Camp Saturday

The first ever IT Camp is being held in Tampa on March 19, 2011, organized by cool Tampa guy Chad Miller. I’ll be there as an attendee and then talking for a couple minutes during the closing ceremonies about the upcoming SQLRally. It’s long overdue for more community work in the IT Pro space, I’m […]

Leading Wildcards Aren’t A Good Default

SQL Server has LIKE, which lets us do various pattern matches, but most commonly we use the percent side as a wildcard, such that “where lastname like ‘Smi%’” matches Smith and Smit and Smithy. It’s a useful tool. It can also be used to do a contains type search, something along the lines of “where […]

Presenting in West Palm Beach on March 22, 2011

I’m pleased to be joining the West Palm Beach .Net group on March 22 to do a presentation on SQL Server statistics. It’s part of my effort to participate more in the Florida community and to spend more time with the developers. Always stuff to learn on both sides. I’ll be presenting in person and […]