In recent months, I’ve been brushing up my R skills. I’ve had a few areas of interest in this:
* R in Azure Machine Learning
* R in relation to Power BI and general analytics
* R embedded (somewhat) in SQL Server 2016
As a client tool, I’ve been using RStudio. It’s been good and very simple but it’s a completely separate environment. So I was excited when I saw there was to be a preview of new R tooling for Visual Studio.
2016-03-10
Hi Folks,
My series of articles for SQL Server Magazine continues. Last month, I started a short series about a large database that needed to go on a diet. This month, I look at a bit of the internals of row and page compression, to see what happens with you use this.
http://sqlmag.com/database-administration/data-tales-7-case-database-diet-part-2
Enjoy!
2016-03-09
We normally run our Power BI Core Skills class as the 2nd day of the week in our 5 day BI Core Skills.
We’ve had extra demand for the Power BI day so we’ve added an extra one in Melbourne on May 10th. Details are here:
Early bird pricing ends April 26th.
2016-03-05
I love it when I get queries that are actually easy to answer.
Today, one of my developer friends asked me if it was better to use BETWEEN or to use >= and <= when filtering for a range of dates.
From a logic perspective, I like the idea that a single predicate expresses your intent rather than needing two predicates to do the same. For example, consider the following two queries:
2016-03-02
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
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
