The Bit Bucket

Hi Folks,

My next article for SQL Server Magazine is out now. I’ve decided that New Year is the time that most people discuss diets and databases don’t have to be an exception.

I’m discussing one large client who had a database that really needed to be trimmed down. That involved a whole range of mechanisms and the outcome was great: major size reduction and significant performance improvement.

I’ve decided to discuss this across a series of articles, each covering part of the story about how the reductions were produced and the rationale for each.

2016-01-28

This one is here so that I don’t forget it in future.

I’ve been writing Powershell again all day today and I spent ages trying to find this error when instantiating a particular object.

Bottom line is that there was a valid constructor that took a single string argument. However, I was passing an empty string to the constructor. Let’s just leave it at “The error message returned is interesting”.

2016-01-17

Just realised that book icons are another one that will probably lose meaning over time. That’ll apply to book icons for dictionaries and thesauruses too.

Phone icons are already pretty odd as many kids would never have seen a phone that looks like those icons.

And the Save icons that are a picture of a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk are basically meaningless now.

I had to laugh when I heard a kid who saw a 3 1/2 inch floppy for the first time comment that someone had made “a actual save icon”. I suppose that’s how it seemed to him.

2016-01-01

Hi Folks,

We’ve taken a fairly long break but now back into the swing for SQL Server 2016 and Power BI.

The first of the new series of shows is a show on the current state of Power BI with Jen Underwood.

You’ll find it here: SQL Down Under Podcast

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2015-12-27

Hi Folks,

The fifth in my Data Tales series has been published at SQL Server Magazine. It’s the Case of the Rogue Index. You’ll find it here:

http://sqlmag.com/database-administration/data-tales-5-case-rogue-index

Enjoy!

2015-12-17

Hi Folks,

Couldn’t make it to Ignite? The team from Microsoft Australia recorded all the sessions and they are online now.

Here are the three sessions that I delivered:

Azure Datacamp Power Hour:  NOTE: This event is now closed

Things I Wish Developers Knew About SQL Server: NOTE: This event is now closed

Working With SQL Server Spatial: NOTE: This event is now closed

Enjoy!

2015-12-11

I’ve posted another in my Data Tales series for SQL Server Magazine.

It’s “The Case of the Phantom Duplicate”. You’ll find it here: http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/data-tales-4-case-phantom-duplicate

Enjoy!

2015-11-09

Hi Folks,

Another of the Data Tales series that I’ve been writing for SQL Server Magazine has been published. It’s The Case of the Stubborn Log File.

You’ll find it here:

http://sqlmag.com/sql-server/data-tales-3-case-stubborn-log-file

Enjoy!

2015-09-29

AzureCon is the main #Azure related conference each year, and of course, it’s an online conference.

It’s coming up at the end of this month (September).

It’s time to register to see what ScottGu and the people from the Azure team have to tell us.

NOTE: This event is now closed

2015-09-10

Hi Folks,

Another of the Data Tales series that I’ve been writing for SQL Server Magazine has been published. It’s the Case of the Exploding Table.

You’ll find it here:

http://sqlmag.com/sql-server-2012/data-tales-2-case-exploding-table

Enjoy!

2015-08-18