SQL Server experts Kevin Kline, Brent Ozar and Microsoft insider Buck Woody, will give you tips and tricks to take the pain out of tuning performance for your databases. You’ll walk away with mad skills and unique insight that will make your job easier than you ever imagined.

Event: Virtual Training for SQL Server – Performance Monitor and Wait Events
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Time: 7:45 a.m. Eastern (4:45 a.m. Pacific/ 12:45 p.m. United Kingdom/ 1:45 p.m. Central Europe)
Duration: Eight sessions to choose from, each 45-60 minutes
Cost: FREE

Can’t make it to the live training day? Be sure to register and you’ll be eligible to view the sessions on-demand for 30 days.

Registration is FREE>>>

Denny

P.S. If you can’t make it to the actual event, the conference will be available on demand until August 21.

However everything isn’t all roses and puppy dogs…

Working from home does have its downsides.  You’ll probably have to trust me on this as not many people actually get to work from home full time.  When you work in an office you talk to your coworkers all day long, or at least for a good portion of the day.  When you work from home all you get is the occasional phone call or IM message.  While this sounds great, and it is when you are busy and just need to get lots of stuff done, the occasional distraction is nice when you haven’t had it in a while.

Now it gets worse when your other half has a job, then you are at home working alone all day with no human interaction during the day.  Now my wife is home during the day so when she’s home during the day I get some interaction which is very nice.  Until I worked from home full time I never realized just how social a person I was, and how much I liked talking to people.

When working from home you can break up the monotony a bit by getting out of the house.  Grab the laptop and hit a bookstore or coffee shop and work from there every once in a while.  If you don’t, and you aren’t careful you’ll end up like I was a few weeks back; sitting there trying to figure out when the last time you actually left the house was, for the record the answer was 5 days.  If I didn’t have to eat I wouldn’t have gone downstairs for that same amount of time probably.

So while working from home sometimes is great, I think a combination where you actually go to the office and working from home is probably the best combination.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not volunteering for that 63 mile drive (each way) any time soon, but it work was closer say 20-30 miles I’d probably go in and sit on the couch and work every once and a while.  There is just something that you get from being their with your co-workers.  Working remotely you miss some information that comes out of the hallway meetings and the quick side discussions.

For those of you that work from home, Brent (@BrentO) I’m talking to you here since I don’t know to many people that blog often that work from home, post your thoughts on the topic.

Denny

I to have had my share of shoestring budget projects that I’ve had to deal with putting together.  The one that I’m probably the most proud of was when I worked at EarthLink.  We had a rather large call center, at the time it was a single office, but over time it grew to 7 offices and 3 outsourced call centers, but I’m skipping ahead here.

On the things which our call center supervisors were supposed to do was grab the call center queue stats every 4 hours and email them to management’s pagers.  Needless to say this seemed like a rather big waste of time to actually have a person sum up these numbers in Excel and then send out an email.

So I built a quick VB app which would log into the PBX, gather the required numbers and send out the email.  This was cool and all, and took about a day to put together.  After this I decided to put the data out on a web server so that everyone else that didn’t have access to the rather expensive Lucent PBX software could see the data.  So once everyone thought that was awesome, we look it to the next logical step and started exporting all the call center data and created web pages which would allow anyone to see the data.

Now these weren’t fancy dynamic pages.  They were just static HTML files that refreshed themselves every few seconds and were rewritten by the app I wrote every few seconds.  Now on the server side of things the PBX server that I had to connect to was a closed system meaning that my only option to connect to it was via the management tool.  At the time there was no scripting support in the app, so I had to write an app which would send keystrokes to the client app and export the data to flat files, then process the files into the needed html files.

This lasted for a couple of weeks until we started adding more groups into this mix.  It would end up taking several minutes to process everything.  I then started loading the data into an Access database and using classic ASP to allow the users to select the data that they wanted to see.  After a couple of weeks of loading data into Access every few seconds Access blew up so we upgraded to SQL Server.

After some time we added more and more call centers to the company we added more and more computers doing processing.  Now when all this started we were running on old P2 400Mhz workstations all running like 128 Megs of RAM for each machine.  By the time we were done with this we had a view computers all these crappy workstation class machines except for one rack mount server (see the picture of my desk below).

By the time I left EarthLink (more specifically I was tossed out kicking and screaming as all our jobs were off-shored) we had equipment in 5 offices in additional to all the machines running under my desk.  There were somewhere around 4000 internal users accessing the web app and we were actually feeding hold time information to the customer facing website so that customers could see what the wait time would be in real time.  By the time everything was said and done we had saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in Lucent/Avaya licensing fees as each new Lucent PBX we brought only the server and only needed the default 5-10 licenses that came with the PBX system.

Needless to say this was probably the biggest spit and chewing gum project that I’ve ever worked on.  The total cost to the company was only a few thousand dollars (the rack mount server).  Our SQL License was covered under our Enterprise Agreement, and all the workstations were older machines which weren’t in use any more by Tech Support (they liked it when we stole the old machines, it gave them an excuse to order new ones).

Now, as for the people that I’m going to tag I’m going to go with some people that don’t always get pulled into these.

Jessica Moss (@jessicammoss)

Geoff Hiten (@SQLCraftsman)

Tom LaRock (@SQLRockStar)

Jessica and Goeff haven’t been going a lot of blogging recently.  Hopefully this will help them start writing more often.  Tom blogs like crazy, and one more just isn’t going to hurt him.  I picked these three because I’m curious to see what these folks have had to band-aid together with duct-tape over their careers.

Denny

After the blogger in question (Peter) removed all his SQL content (no idea if it was all plagiarized or just some was and taking it all down was easier) everything settled down a bit.

Later that day Todd McDermid posted a blog post giving a bit of an overview of today’s events and his opinions about the plagiarism and our reaction to it.

Before I continue I want to say that I fully respect Todd and his opinions on the subject, even though I don’t agree with them. Anyone willing to sit around and write for other people’s education for little or no money deserves to be respected.

Now as for the DMCA style take down nasty grams (and I like that way better then take down notices for some reason) there are other issues at play than just our giving information away to everyone.

For example, if you dig through Microsoft’s TechNet and MSDN sites there’s plenty in there which says that you can’t republish the information posted without written consent.

“Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services.” *Stolen directly from the TechNet ToS which I found by clicking the Terms of Use link at the bottom of every page on the TechNet site.

As for my articles which were plagiarized, the company which paid for those articles to be written (I’m assuming that it comes as no shock to anyone that people are paid to write articles for websites and magazines) owns the copyright on those articles for as long as they choose to enforce them. Some companies hold a lifetime exclusive on the articles, while others hold a shorter one.

Either the blogger in question or not was aware of the law on plagiarism or not, but he states on his website that he’s a college graduate. Pretty much every college will toss you out for plagiarizing other peoples works, and the students are well aware of it. He should have assumed that in the professional world that plagiarizing was still unacceptable.

Unfortunately for Peter there is a lot of information out there which can be freely read and referenced, but not copied. This blog would be included in that. For those of you reading this on SQLServerPedia.com it took a decent amount of work to get permission to post my blog posts up on the SQLServerPedia.com blog feed. Why did it take so long? Well because I don’t own the copyright to these blog posts. I write on behalf of Tech-Target and they own the copyright to anything and everything which I post on my blog, unless I have posted it somewhere else first (and then they still own the rights to the version on their site).

Would I like to have everyone be able to read what I write? The big reason that I spend so much time writting (especially this last month) is so that people can read it. I have information to share, and hopefully people find the information that I have useful. But a the copyright ownership of information has to be respected for web based articles just like it does for SQL Server Magazine, TechNet Magazine, etc.

These are my thoughts and opinions, on today’s events. Take them for what they are worth, god knows I’m no copyright lawyer. Please feel free to post your own here, on twitter, on Todd’s post (no registration required on his blog, unlike here) or your own blog if you have one.

Denny

My first IT job was actually back when I was still in High School.  I was hired (along with a friend of mine) to upgrade our school libraries server from Novel to Windows NT 3.51 and to install a machine with supported by BNC and Ethernet (the older machines were BNC and still needed to be used, but they also wanted to use Ethernet for newer computers).  All of this was to support the card catalog software and to provide Internet access to workstations in the library so that students could have Internet access.  Pretty progressive for a public school in 1995.

My first professional job was for Earthlink Network, Inc (now Earthlink, Inc).  I started there in the Tech Support department answering calls.  I moved up into the Senior Tech Support group, then moved around the several different teams finely landing in the Call Back department.  Our job was to handle the calls that that the other Senior Support groups couldn’t handle, and to work with customers for as long as it took to get the problem resolved.

This group is where I really got my first introduction to databases.  All the scheduling of calls was handled via paper slips in an in-box on someones desk.  Needless to say we got over scheduled all the time which made for some unpleasant phone calls to customers.  I put an Access database together which would allow the other Senior Tech Support teams to schedule call back agents time for a call.  We even had scheduling in the system so that on days that we only had a couple of people working they could schedule less work for us than on days when we had higher workloads.

After this I became a database developer for the Tech Support reporting team.  Our job was to design and build apps which the call center group could use to improve productivity and to reduce costs, as well as produce and deliver reports to the management and executives.  We started with Access, but within a couple of months out grew Access, and moved to SQL Server 7.

I bounced around a few parts of the Tech Support department for the next few years always managing the same services and systems, always doing the same thing.  Just reorg after reorg moved our equipment and personal from one manager to another.

After getting laid off as the .com bubble burst I moved on to IT departments in various industries, from video game companies, home finance, auto finance, and social networking.  I’m fortunate enough that my current company allows me the time and freedom to do pretty much as much work with the SQL Server community as I want to.  Which I’ve been able to do a lot of over the last couple of years.

I’ve decided that I’ll tag a couple of friends of mine that I have met through the SQL Community.

Denis Gobo (Blog | Twitter)
Jonathan Kehayias (Blog | Twitter)

The slide decks are hosted via Slide Share and the sample code from my presentation is up on the SQLServerPedia.com servers.

Denny

I found this question rather tough to answer (as I have when I’ve been asked similar questions during interviews), but here goes.

1:  Dealing with some of the developers that I’ve had to work with in the past.

Most of the people that I’ve worked with in the past have been great.  But there are a few out there (who will rename nameless since the IT field is a pretty small group) that were just a major pain.  Never open to anyone’s ideas but their own.  No project is important unless it is their project.  Unfortunately at the time this was the CEO’s favorite employee since he was the one that had gotten the company that far.  It didn’t matter that a new group of people had been brought in to help get the company to the next level.

As far as dealing with the problem, we eventually went to our boss and basically told her that someone needed to bring him back down to earth.  There were other good ideas that deserved consideration and as the infrastructure team we should be listened to at least once in a while since we might know what we are doing.

2: Same company, a year later having to work with (and for) people that didn’t understand half the stuff coming out of my mouth.

After butting my head against statements like “a Table and a worksheet mean the same thing” I took the easy way out.  I just had to, I gave notice and left.  It took me several months of biting my tongue and explaining myself over and over before I had finely had enough.  I ended up moving on to another company which ended up laying me off after 6-8 weeks because they ran out of money.  But all in all it was a good choice.

(I’ll put up a third answer, but only because I’m cheating and stealing Brent’s second answer.)

3: Learning when to tell people “No”.

I love telling people yes.  Sure I can add that functionally.  Stay late and get that done; no problem.  Eventually people start taking advantage of you and planning on you being able to be taken advantage of.  My wife (Kris) helped a lot on helping me fix this one (I still have a hard time telling her no, but that’s something else to work on) and I thank her for that.

Brent Ozar  (brento on Twitter) tagged me for this one.

I’m tagging:

Denis Gobo (DenisGobo on twitter)

Tom Larock (sqlbatman on twitter)

Denny

The keynote showed some interesting uses of SQL, SharePoint, and Performance Point querying a 1+ TB data SSAS database in a second or two.

Bob Ward gave his usual excellent presentation on debugging the memory of SQL Server. I was a bit late to the session, and I had to leave a little before he finished, but he did go way over the time allotted, with so much information to present it’s not much of a suprise.

Hugo Kornelis gave a very interesting presentation on Cursors or Set based processing. Hugo gave an excellent solution to Dennis Gobo’s prime number challenge from a while ago, along with the classic box packing problem.

I got some pictures to share from the SQL Server Hero’s party tonight (click to enlarge).

They were giving away some painted on Tattoos.

Won’t Tom’s wife be proud. He has informed us that the “tramp-stamp” made him feel more powerful.

Brent has some posted as well on his flicker page.

I just had to post the images of Tom. I couldn’t help my self. (He was warned ahead of time.)

Denny

If you are at PASS please go to the voting kiosks to cast your vote.

Congrats to them for being nominated, and hopefully we’ll be seeing them on the board next year.

I was reminded of this by Brent Ozar, so thanks Brent.

Denny

I could go on all day about it, but forunitely I don’t have to because Brent Ozar already has in his post “The answer to SQL Server training problems“.  I highly recommend reading Brent’s post about the site.  It gives some great background and tells all about the site.

I assume you are asking yourself why I’m going on about this site?  That’s because I’m the editor of the Performance and Tuning section of the  Wiki.

I hope everyone will check the site and post all the information that you can about SQL Server so that we can make it the biggest, best resource of SQL Server knowledge on the net.

If you are going to be at PASS be sure to swing by the Quest Software booth.  I’m told that there will be some SQL Server Pedia swag (in addition to the regular swag).  I’ll be hanging out there on and off as well, so fell free to swing by and say hi.

Denny