Correction: my office smelled like pee. Past tense. The problem has been resolved.

Owning Up to the Problem

Admitting that you have a problem is the classic first step. The real lesson here for me is this: complaining is not the same as admitting that you have a problem.

Let me introduce you to Carl.

Carl is a Giant Flemish Rabbit. He’s been sharing my office with me since May. He’s adorable. He hops about, he waggles his ears, he eats carrots. He chomps his teeth happily when you pet his ears. He’s a really friendly little guy, and I’m really fond of him.

Carl is litter box trained, for the most part.

There’s a problem or two here. Maybe that “for the most part” tipped you off. I’ve had Carl for a while, and I’d built up a system where I could keep him pretty happy— and where a system of rugs and plastic linings keeps the carpet perfectly clean as well, and everything can be changed out and washed.

The issue is this: whenever Carl goes in his box, the smell gives me a big old headache for a few minutes. If Carl slips up and goes outside of his box, the smell gives me a headache until I can clean out his whole area.

I could mostly cope with this. When I am working at home with a client, I’m always immersed in that and hardly notice anything else. But I would find my head hurting at the end of a long day, and I’d look for excuses to work in the dining room, the living room, or other places.

The Problems With Complaining

I’m just as much of a complainer as anyone else— and more than some.

The problem with complaining, I’m learning, is that it prevents me from solving problems.

Complaining helps relieve some stress for me, but it typically doesn’t make me any happier. And even worse, it puts me in a mindset where I’m not thinking about solving a problem. Instead, I just got to where I didn’t look forward to coming into my office very much because I associated it with having a headache.

The Solution: Think Like a Consultant

One of the things I like best about being a consultant is that my focus is on finding solutions and moving forward.

As a consultant, I need to approach a situation in a way where I’m not thinking about complaints. I need to think about how to move the ball forward and help my client achieve their goals.

Guess what? I can do this in my personal life, as well. I just wasn’t doing that because I liked the idea of having Carl in my office, and I really didn’t want to move him out into the garage. I just needed to think constructively about what I should do and whether or not there were options I hadn’t considered.

How My Office Smells Better

It’s really pretty simple: we have a large laundry room. It even has an easy to clean linoleum floor, which is now covered with one of Carl’s rugs. He has just as much space as he used to have, and a little gate lets everyone visit him and still keep the door open. His litter boxes are even under a little overhang, which he surely loves—- because as far as I can tell, Carl’s top priority is to always have a place to hide from eagles. (Seriously, he hates the sound of birds.)

As for me, I have a roomier office, which feels a lot less cramped. And I have no headache.

So happy new year to everyone, from me and from Carl. And may you all be safe from eagles, too.

I’ve been on stage at SQL PASS before– last year I gave a chalk talk and a lightning talk. And I’m a seasoned presenter from other events. However, giving a full session at SQLPASS is still something special and unique to me. That’s because I love the SQLPASS Summit as a conference.

How I Learned about the SQL PASS Summit

I first learned about this conference from production DBAs. My team of DBAs all knew about the conference, and it was an honor to get to attend. Each year they would each start bargaining with their management about how many people could go. Each DBA would negotiate not only for him or herself, but also for their peers: they believed that having more people attend made the whole team stronger and more knowledgable.

This year was my third SQL PASS Summit, and it was a great event. Each year I grow along with the conference, but I find there’s always material to challenge me.

What I Learned from Speaking: About the Audience

The audience at the SQLPASS Summit is full of smart people. They know a lot, and they can ask a lot of smart questions.

I prepared heavily for questions. I recommend doing this in three ways:

• Give your presentation to live audiences at least three times before the Summit, and pay close attention to questions and your timing;
• Study your slide decks and demos at least twice in the week before you present to make sure you are fresh on them;
• Re-read product documentation and the basics several days before you present.

How Was My Session?

My session was great.  I was rocking an insidious cold last week, but my voice held up throughout my talk and I got lots of great questions and comments afterward. People kept eye contact with me while I was speaking, which was great. I was really honored to see tweets like these afterward:

Thanks @drsql and @whimsql! And thanks to everyone in the audience for your questions, comments, and tweets. I look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Want to Learn More About My Session?

You can. Head on over to http://brentozar.com/go/dates

I recently got a direct message on twitter from the fantastic Karen Lopez (b|t), who let me know my blog was redirecting to another site — a site called ‘programmpower.ru’.

I don’t know about you, but there’s something strange and just icky about that URL.

Karen is super savvy, so she let me know right off that she was only seeing this when using Firefox when she didn’t specify the www. So while ‘http://littlekendra.com’ was up to no good in Firefox, ‘http://www.littlekendra.com’ was standing strong, and other browsers weren’t having the issue.

Where do you start?

It’s been a while since I’ve worked with stuff like this, but it was a fun challenge.

The first thing I wanted to verify was whether or not people were getting to my site at all when the issue occurred. Were they actually getting to http://www.littlekendra.com and then being redirected afterward? Or were they not even getting there?

This was probably my first question because I know from experience that it’s very easy to answer.

I decided to crack open Fiddler, my favorite old http debugging proxy. “Http debugging proxy” may sound pretty fancy, but this is really just a simple, friendly little tool you can open up which will show you everything your internet browser is hitting.

Then I realized that Fiddler only runs on Windows. I was sad, but this is clearly the very definition of a first world problem (nerd edition). A little searching and I found a Firefox add-in called TamperData that’s quick, free, easy, and did the trick on my Mac.

TamperData said: you’re getting to www.littlekendra.com before you get redirected off to the land of evil.

Oh my. I’ve been hacked.

Maybe I’m getting older and wiser. Maybe once you break something enough times you just stop getting upset. (My description of someone who’s an MCM is “someone who’s gotten into trouble, and then had to fix it. A lot.”)  But I didn’t really mind.

These things happen— if you have a website long enough, it’ll probably get hacked. And these things are usually pretty easy to fix with a little searching.

Is it JavaScript?

If the issue was happening after reaching my site and only with one browser, I thought perhaps there was some JavaScript being executed that was only impacting Firefox. Well, that’s easy to check too– just disable JavaScript in Firefox and see if you can reproduce the issue. Thanks, Rob Farley!  (b|t)

I did that, and the issue still happened.

I guess it’s time to ask the internet…

Sure enough, I did a little more searching and I found that I was very likely the victim of an .htaccess hack.

This is a very powerful little file that you can do all sorts of tricks with. And people can play tricks on you with it. The most common hack is to add a bunch of spaces after what looks like the end of the file, and then to put in a bunch of code that redirects traffic— down where you’ll never think to look. Oh, how devious.

But how did it get there?

Before I fixed the issue fully, I wanted to try to make it difficult for it to happen again. It wasn’t a super-emergency (there aren’t THAT MANY of you reading this live– I know you love your RSS feeds), so I spent a little time looking at fixing the root cause before the issue itself.  Normally I’d do the opposite order in a production environment, but it’s my own website so I do what I want!

I checked with my theme provider, and sure enough there’s a recent fix for a vulnerability that can allow this kind of hack to happen– the Woo Themes Timthumb bugfix. In no time at all I got my site updated by following the guide to update the Woo Framework and my theme.

How do you confirm if it’s a .htaccess hack?

You need to take a look at your .htaccess file. You can’t look at this through the WordPress UI in a web browser, you need to either log onto the host (if you’re running your own), or just connect via the magic of FTP.

I fired up my trusty FireFTP add-on, and got to the difficult task of remembering my user name and password for FTP access. This was easily the hardest part of the fix.

After you connect with FTP, save yourself a little frustration by enabling your FTP program to show hidden files. in FireFTP this is under Tools/Options on the General tab.

Then head on down to the root of your website. This can be configured in different ways, but it may be at web/content. Just cruise on around until you find a .htaccess file, which will probably appear to be grayed out because it’s a hidden file.

FTP that file down to a place on your local system and open it to give it a look. Don’t forget that hacks of this file normally put in a bunch of white space, making it look like the file is normal— scroll down to the end of the file. If this is your issue, you should see a bunch of redirects down there.

How’d I fix it?

First, I saved a copy of the file under a different name. Any time you make a change like this, you want to keep a copy if you can just in case things go from bad to worse.

Then I cleared out all the evil redirecty code and saved the file on my local machine.

I then overwrote the file in my root directory with the modified copy.

Presto-chango— after clearing the cache in Firefox, I could no longer reproduce the issue. The whole thing took less time than it took to write this blog post. And strangely, it really was kinda fun!

Don’t forget to back that up

Now’s a good time to export all your WordPress content (Tools -> Export), dontcha think? I think I’ll go change some passwords for fun, too.

Update

It looks like I missed a step! Here’s a handy WordPress.org FAQ: My Site Was Hacked. There’s a sequence you should follow in your cleanup:

• Change  your passwords;
• Regenerate Wordpress keys and update them in your wp-config.php file (details on how to do this in the FAQ linked above);
• Then change your passwords again.

It's OK to be yourself. Even if you're this guy.

Want to meet new people?

If you’re returning the the SQL PASS Summit and would like to volunteer, send an email to OC_DL@sqlpass.org.

If you’re new to the SQL PASS Summit and you’d like a jump start on learning how to make the most of the conference and an opportunity to meet new people right away, drop a line to newcomer@sqlpass.org.

Know what? If it’s your second or third Summit, but you’ve mostly stuck to just going to sessions and you’re not sure how to branch out and meet new people— go ahead and email newcomer@sqlpass.org. This is all about helping people make the most of the conference, it’s not just helping people find the convention center.

How can you support the orientation committee?

If you don’t have time to volunteer, you can still help out. Share a story with me about how you found ways to break the ice and meet new people.

I’m going to do an online edition of orientation

I plan to blog here and follow along with the process. I won’t include every communication I send to my orientation team, but I’ll blog about what topics we’re talking about, what tools are available, and options for getting in on cool events.

In the spirit of getting started, here’s the first email I sent out to my team:

Hello!

I’m emailing you because you’re attending the SQL PASS Summit this year (hooray!) and you signed up for orientation for first-time attendees.

At least, I think you signed up. If there’s been some sort of confusion and you’re not interested in getting oriented for whatever reason (anything from “I meant to register for a sock convention” to “I just thought there’d be free food, I don’t want to read email*”), just let me know and I can unsubscribe you from my newsletter. No worries at all.

A Bit About Me
I’m Kendra Little and this will be my third SQL PASS Summit. I lived in Seattle for five years, so I mostly know my way around town– although I usually check a map to keep from getting lost. I’m a Microsoft Certified Master in SQL Server, a DBA and database developer of many years, a giant rabbit owner, and I love to draw. I’ll be a presenter at this year’s Summit (yahoo, Community Choice!) and I’ll also be attending sessions, catching up with old friends, and meeting new people. It’s going to be a really great time: it always is.

How can you get started?
You’ve done the perfect thing right off by joining orientation— this is a great way to start breaking the ice and meeting new people at the conference. Even if you already know lots of people in the SQL Server community, meeting new people can’t be beat. Great conversations make the best memories, and they also can produce the biggest results back at work.

Here’s what you can do now…

1) Respond and let me know if it’s OK to share your name and email address with this group. There are eight of you and one of me, so it’s a small group, but don’t feel pressured if you want to keep your info on the BCC. I’m not here to judge.

2) Send a quick biography for yourself. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy– just a couple of lines about what you’re looking forward to and where you’re from. You can include whether or not you’ve been to Seattle before. Bonus point: if it’s OK to share this with the group, let me know— that’d be fantastic.

3) Check out my Seattle 101 information to help with any questions about how to get downtown from the airport, where to get coffee, or good places to eat.

4) Send me any questions you have about the Summit, burning or otherwise. I should be able to either answer your question or help you find someone who can.

What can we do before the Summit?
My goal is to help answer your questions and help you plan your Summit experience. I’ll provide links and information to Summit events and planning tools and share which have been helpful for me.

Once we’re at the Summit, you can always come to me to help you figure something out. I’d also love to hear how your experience is going while you’re there.

Don’t have time to respond?
It’s OK. We’re all busy. I’ll be sending mails out prior to the conference and blogging and tweeting. Feel free to play along at home at whatever rate makes sense to you— you’re welcome at orientation even if you don’t have time to get connected before the conference.

Kendra

* There may or may not be free food– we’re going to have to wait and see. I *can* tell you how to score an upgraded breakfast, if nothing else.

(NOLOCK) or YESFUN? The Right Approach to Transaction Isolation

Tuesday, Aug 9, 2011
8:00 PM Eastern / 7 PM Central / 5 PM Pacific

NOLOCK or YESFUN?

AppDev Virtual Chapter
Attendee URL: LiveMeeting Link

Understanding transaction isolation is critical if you want to write highly concurrent software, administer databases like a pro, and impress your neighbors. We’ll discuss the benefits and problems of each isolation level in SQL Server. We’ll talk about practical changes you can make to provide the right level of concurrency for your users. We’ll focus on how to identify applications which are good candidates for optimistic locking, and how to plan, execute, and monitor changes in your default isolation level. A poster will be available for download to keep your knowledge fresh after the session.

You should. A speaker resume is an easy tool to grow your career and get better speaking engagements.

Conferences care about your speaking history

If you submitted a presentation to the SQL PASS Summit this year, you were asked to enter your speaking history.

Why?

When you run a large conference, it’s hard to know every single speaker who applies. If speakers provide their history and a biography, it’s easier to recognize people. If speakers provide a biography that lists their blog and an online speaker history, it’s much easier to get a sense of how long the person has been speaking.

Future employers care about your speaking history

Do your future self a favor– record all the hard work you’re doing now. If you’re presenting on one or more topics at online events or conferences, that says a lot about you.

Your speaker resume helps the community get to know you

We meet a lot of people at conferences, and we read a lot about people online! It’s hard to keep people straight, especially for new people entering a community.

Keeping a public record of what you speak on and where really will help community members understand who you are and what you’re interested in.

Your speaker resume will help promote conferences

When you’re going to appear at an event, you should blog about it and link to the event. This gives a little extra search engine mojo to the event creators, and it may help out people figuring out if they should attend, as well.

Don’t have a blog? Create one just for this.

Good news: you don’t blog about other topics if you don’t want to. If you’re a presenter, you should at least have a simple blog listing where you’ll be. It’s free, it’s quick, it’s easy. You can make the title your name and the subtitle “The Presenting Adventures of a Database Addict,” or something more reasonable to let people know you’re only blogging about your speaking dates.

How to create a speaker resume

If you’ve already got a blog and you write posts on different topics, here’s how to create your speaker resume:

• Create a page called “Events”
• Add heading that says “Upcoming Events” and one heading that says “Past Events”
• Enter in your upcoming events
• After you complete events, move them down to “Past Events”.

Optional items for your speaker resume

• Add a summary paragraph at the top of the page explaining what topics you speak on, how long you’ve been speaking, and what groups you speak for.
• If you have dates and locations for past events, put those in.
• If not and you can summarize a year or a set of years with a general number of presentations, audiences, and topics, that’s great, too.

This is all icing on the cake. You’ll notice I’m a slacker and I haven’t done all this– I just started my page last year and have done my best to get things on it after that point. But you can certainly outdo me.

Don’t make maintaining your speaker resume too difficult

Use abstracts and content you’ve already written, and do your best to keep it updated— design the page so it isn’t very time consuming.

I like to remove some information from past events and just keep the title, topic, location, and some comments on the event, but this is more effort than you really have to put in.

Do you keep a speaker resume?

Do you have tips to share which I’ve missed?

(Do people still use the word webinar? Was that just incredibly uncool?)

There’s still spots open, so register today. Here’s a drawing from my slide deck and what I’ll be talking about.

Note: This is part of Triage Tuesdays, a set of free weekly sessions from Brent Ozar PLF. Look for more good stuff coming soon.

July 26 – The Mystery of Query Timeouts
Brent Ozar PLF Tuesday Tech Triage, 9:30 AM Pacific / 11:30AM Central / Noon thirty Eastern

“People are complaining about query timeouts. I don’t see anything happening in SQL Server, but they always say the database is the problem. How can I tell what’s really going on?”

When your users keep hitting timeouts in their application, they naturally think the database is killing off helpless queries. In this webinar Kendra Little will tell you how to triage treacherous timeout situations and collect hard evidence about whether or not the problem is in the database. Do the right detective work and you can turn your frustrated users and irate developers into raving fans.

This session will be 200-level – you should have familiarity with OLTP concepts and understand what DMVs and Profiler are, but you don’t have to be an expert with them.

Register for the free webcast here.

I've unlocked the MCM Badge on SQL Server!

I don’t typically blog individual links for each of my posts over at BrentOzar.com, but this is a special occasion.

I am thrilled to say I am now a Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008!

Read more in my post here.

This Isn’t a Powerpoint How To. It’s How To Make a Presentation.

The most common mistake in making a presentation is getting started in PowerPoint or Keynote right away.

If you dive in to PowerPoint too soon you will over complicate your slides. Your narrative will be stronger if you start by taking a larger, more strategic view of your presentation. These steps will show you how to make a logical, complete presentation.

1. Write Down Your Presentation Ideas Constantly
Pre PowerPoint / Keynote
(Time: a few minutes each day)

You get ideas a lot. Write them down in Evernote or jot them in a notebook you carry with you. Put down enough specifics so later you have some idea what the details were and why you liked it.

You don't need spellcheck for ideas

This is the most important step in my method.

The key is to write down all your ideas. If it interests you, write it down. Maybe this is a presentation you’ll give in five years, or never– you need to write it down.

When this happens: All the time, whether or not you’re planning a presentation.
Why’s this so important? Writing down ideas helps you have more ideas. It becomes a habit to just think about “what about a talk on X?”

2. Outline Your Talking Points
Pre PowerPoint / Keynote
(Time: 5-10 minutes)

Start with an outline. Outlines don’t need to be numbered or bulleted unless you’re more comfortable that way.

Don’t do this in PowerPoint or Keynote. Use a paper and pen or an electronic notepad.

The initial outline may not look much like the finished presentation. They often don’t– and that’s fine.

If you can put a whole bunch of stuff down easily for ideas of where to go with the talk and how to get there, you know it’s likely to be a good talk. If you have real trouble getting things down in an outline then you may need to do more research. You may need to refocus the topic.

Rough out how long you will spend on each part of the talk. Don’t hold yourself to this, but use it to judge whether you picked a topic that’s too big or too small.

When this happens: Outline once at the beginning of a presentation. You may do this soon after having an idea and then not look at it for a while, until you’re ready to do the talk.
Why’s this so important? This helps make sure the topic is right for you and that the talk is at the right scale. If the subject is too big, maybe you need to pan out a bit and not focus on so much detail. If it’s too small, maybe you need to expand the surface area and cover more.

3. Write Your Presentation Abstract or Executive Summary
Pre Powerpoint / Keynote
(Time: 20-30 minutes)

If you’re submitting to a conference, you’ll usually be required to write an abstract for your presentation. Even if you’re not, it’s extremely useful to have a short overview of your talk, so don’t skip this step.

Writing an abstract or executive summary is an opportunity to really think about your audience. Write down what is interesting in your topic and why it should matter to your audience. Approaching the abstract this way helps you develop the presentation for people.

If you put the right kind of thought into your abstract it makes writing your presentation easier.

This step essentially takes the content you roughed out in the outline and focuses it toward your audience.

You’re still not in PowerPoint yet. If you’re chomping at the bit to get in there, go ahead and do this on a slide, but you’re still just fine with pen and paper or a simple electronic notepad.

When this happens: When you start thinking about submitting a talk.
Why’s this so important? This helps shape your talk to your audience.
Remember:  Have fun with the abstract. Use word association. Tell people what’s in it for them.

4. What’s Your Presentation Title?
Pre Powerpoint / Keynote
(Time: 20 minutes minimum)

This is even more important than the abstract. Lots and lots more people will read your title and need to make a quick decision about whether they want to see your presentation. Do this AFTER you write the abstract, because you can use what you’ve decided about your audience.

Get feedback on your title ideas– ask friends and other speakers what they think. Explain your audience to them.

When this happens: After writing your abstract.
Why’s this so important? This is how to sell your presentation to your audience.
Remember: Sometime the title you thought of first is really the best one. Don’t be afraid of sticking with that title. Just be open to considering others in case you find something great.

5. Submit Your Presentation Topic
Online
(Time: 3 minutes)

If you’re aiming to speak at a specific conference or meeting, this is the point you consider a presentation ready to submit. If you’ve gotten this far and like the talk then go ahead and run with it– submitting means you’re committing to deliver the presentation if it’s selected, not that it’s already complete.

When this happens: When you’re planning your schedule and figuring out what events you’d like to speak at.
Why this only takes three minutes: Unless you haven’t written a bio yet or need to drastically shorten your abstract, this is simple copy-paste.

6. Create Your PowerPoint Slide Headers and Order Your Slides
Now You’re In PowerPoint!
(Time: Varies widely: plan for at minimum 5 hours preparation for every 10 minutes of the talk)

This is where you start building the slide deck.

First, lay out concepts on individual slides by filling in only the slide title. Put one concept per slide, and get them all out there.

Next rearrange the slides and create section headers. Look at your presentation in the slide sorter and examine the flow of the slides and the story you’re telling. You want to shape your talk here, before you spend too much time on any single slide. Reorder the slides until you’re happy with the story you’re telling.

At the end of this step you should only have blank slides with headings filled in.

7. Find Pictures for Your Slides. Source and Cite Your Images Responsibly.

When the presentation has good shape and flow, start diving in and filling out individual slides with pictures, diagrams, or words.

Keep your slides simple– you want only a few words and bullets per slide, typically with only one picture. The worst thing you can do to your presentation is to over complicate your slides.

Use images from the internet responsibly. Brent Ozar tells you how to find free pictures for presentations the right way.

8. Start Your Presentation Strong and Finish BIG

After you have your presentation set up, put it away for a day or two. Then go back in and look closely at your beginning and ending.

Do you have an interesting introduction? Do you have a strong finish? Make sure your audience has the right information at the end of your presentation: are you mandating them to go out and do something? Should they contact you for more information? Are you driving them to a website?

Give your audience a place to go. Give them the information to keep in touch with you.

9. Test and Refine

An important part of making a presentation is taking it for a test drive. You can do this by yourself at first.

• Is your presentation the right length?
• Do you like the way your presentation flows?
• Are there changes you would like to make?

Delivering test runs of the presentation will help you answer all these questions prior to going in front of a larger audience.

10. Be Confident

If you’ve followed these steps, you’ve made a great presentation. Your audience wants to see you and you’ve made a presentation to support you in delivering information. Breathe deeply and use the work you’ve done, and your presentation will be great.
Enjoy yourself.

What You Notice First

If you drive into Oregon you notice two things pretty quickly: there’s no sales tax and you aren’t supposed to pump your own gas.

Come As You Are

It’s OK to dress creatively in Portland– dress however you want. Really. Having tattoos is normal, but people don’t stare if you don’t have them, either. Oregonians seem to accept people as they are unless they cause a problem. It’s like Seattle with 30% more friendly-weird.

Seriously, People in Portland are Friendly

I heard about this before I moved here. People aren’t “nice” in Portland. Instead, they’re really friendly. The difference is subtle but noticeable. People say genuine things, and they take an interest in you. They’re relaxed and happy to see you. People listen and ask questions.

Our neighbors have welcomed us wholeheartedly. They ask about what we’re interested in, they’ve dropped off fresh vegetables from their gardens. Lots of people walk and bike, and it must just put them in a good mood.

It’s Nature-y!

A good friend told me a story about her niece from Southern California visiting Portland. When asked if she would be interested in coming to college here, she paused and then said, “It’s a little too nature-y.”

She wasn’t kidding– it’s really NATURE-Y here. There’s a giant forested park right in town. We’re talking 5,000 acres with 70 miles of trails. I went for my first walk there last weekend and it was just perfect– a little bit hilly with rolling paths, gorgeous trees, birds, ferns. And the occasional fascinating giant slug.

Oddities You Love

The Ikea is near the airport— which I think is a great place to keep your IKEA. The airport is clean and bright, and has free wi-fi and good coffee. With this combination, I’m strangely looking forward to picking people up at the airport. Is your flight delayed? No problem, I’ll stop off and buy IKEA napkins and something with a bizarre name to put in the middle of my kitchen table.

The food in Portland is insanely good, and it’s everywhere on carts.

There’s lots and lots of bridges.

The coffee really is that good.

Your Chance to Visit: SQL Saturday Oregon

SQLSaturday Oregon will be held on October 8, 2011.

This will be directly prior to the SQL PASS Summit 2011, so if you’re attending Summit you can plan for a combo trip– or just come see us.

If you do plan for the combo, you can fly into PDX and then take the train up to Seattle. The train has wi-fi, too.

I follow this guy on Twitter.

Should you call yourself an expert? And what does it take to be an expert?

One day on SQLCruise Alaska I gave a two hour session on Isolation Levels in SQL Server– one hour was slides, one hour was demos, and over the two hours we had lots of input and questions from the cruisers.

After that session we had a breakout panel on brand building. In the course of talking branding, the question of self-description came up: who should describe themselves as experts? And how is that interpreted?

What is an Expert?

I’m pro-expert. I believe that if you have rich experience in a defined area and you’ve done the research and the legwork, there comes a time when you should step back and assess if you’ve progressed past proficiency into the realm of the expert. So if I’m at the point where I’m presenting to Senior level DBAs and database developers on a cruise ship about Isolation Levels, I’m going to call myself an expert in that area.

But the term “expert” can be off-putting to some people. Some people were more comfortable with the acronym SME, or “Subject Matter Expert”. To me, this is too jargon-y— I don’t think there’s any arrogance to simply saying, “I am an expert in this area.”

Experts Don’t Necessarily Know Everything

Saying you’re an expert means you are an authority on a topic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the only authority, and it doesn’t mean you constantly generate new material that’s never been discovered before.

For example, I know experts in problem resolution. These people have mastered triage, identification, research, and troubleshooting methodology. They’re like dive masters– they’re comfortable in scary places not everyone goes, and they can help you learn to go there.

Experts learn all the time. Experts can still be humble.

Researchers can still be experts, but these days they are not the only game in town.

Where Do You Stand Out?

Here’s a thought experiment: imagine yourself in a room with 100 other smart, technical people who work as engineers across a vast range of technologies. You must describe what type of problem you most love to solve. What would you say about yourself?

Think about this problem, and understand that your skills are quite unique across a broad pool of engineers. Think about where you are in your career path– are you a beginner, are you proficient, or have you moved further in your path?

Don’t be Afraid to Be an Expert

Don’t be afraid to recognize yourself as an expert. You don’t have to put “Expert!!1!1!!!11″ in your email signature or on your business card or even describe yourself that way to anyone else. But assess yourself fairly, and put yourself out there as an authority when it’s appropriate by blogging, answering questions online, and giving presentations.

One thing you can do right now is to sign yourself up for the RedGate Exceptional DBA Awards. The contest is a chance to think through your strengths and accomplishments and write them down: that’s a great starting point to map out goals to move your career forward.

It wasn’t exactly writer’s block, it was more like blogging block. I could get down ideas and a few notes, and even big chunks of posts, but I couldn’t post anything. I couldn’t finish stuff up, I couldn’t be satisfied.

Maybe it’s that I got overwhelmed and my brain prioritized for me. Maybe I just got confused about which blog to write for. I did succeed at prioritizing my time for other things, but I didn’t schedule my time properly for blogging.

How I Got Back to Popsicles and Sunshine

I devoted some time this week to getting my writing problem fixed. Here’s what I did:

1. I spent 10 minutes listing topics that I knew would be easy to write about. These are things I’ve already been thinking over for a long time and largely have figured out. Since I’ve been having trouble getting words down, I didn’t want to mix research into the project.
2. I used the Pomodoro technique. I downloaded a free timer and put in some tasks, then followed the advice on the Pomodoro Cheat Sheet. I found this really helped me focus. (Thanks @BuckWoody for sharing this tip on SQLCruise!)
3. I stayed away from Twitter and email while doing my Pomodoros, and only looked at them in my longer breaks. That’s kinda the point, after all.
4. I listened to my “Pop That Makes You Want To Throw Up” station on Pandora. Turns out Ke$ha helps me write. Who knew?
5. I started taking at least one long walk each day. Walking helps me think and it generally helps me feel better. And the weather’s gorgeous.

And there you have it. I’ve churned four blog posts into my queues (here and at BrentOzar.com) doing Pomodoro iterations over the last few days, and I have no visible bruises to show for it. (Editor’s note: eight total now– updated since this was drafted.)

What do I like about the Pomodoro technique? It helps me give the same focus I naturally give to client work to other projects– whatever they are. It helps me estimate my work and track how I do. It also lets me log interruptions, whether they come from my own restlessness or from things that need taking care of.

This all combines into a system where I can make good progress, then leave something for a few minutes or a few iterations. When I come back, I’m in a better position to ask, “am I done yet?”

Table Partitioning: It's A Very Good Thing (sometimes)

A few weeks back, I presented on SQL Server Table Partitioning at the first SQLRally conference. The event was energizing and fun– there were great conversations and I sat in on fun sessions. I particularly enjoyed Todd Robinson’s session on caching with App Fabric.

My session on Table Partitioning was in the first group on Friday morning. People got up bright and early and the room filled right up– there were people standing at the back.

I had a great time giving the talk. People asked really good questions, and their timing was great, too. I love questions that make the presentation more rich and get the audience involved. For me, the talk was a huge success: we got into the key reasons to use the features, the considerations on where to use it, and covered how it works, and we did it together.

But How Was It For You? The Ratings

54 people filled out evaluations, which was about half of the people in the room. Here is the average score I got (out of five) by the survey question asked.

1. How would you rate the Speaker’s ability to convey information and control the presentation? 4.852
2. How would you rate the Speaker’s knowledge of the subject? 4.944
3. How would you rate the accuracy of the session title and description to the actual session? 4.907
4. How would you rate the speaker’s use of the allocated time to cover the topic/session? 4.630
5. How would you rate your ability to follow along with the speaker’s examples/demonstrations? 4.556
6. Please rate the practicality of the information presented. 4.849

The Comments

Participants were asked, “What could the speaker do to improve for future presentations?” This is a great question to have with evaluations.

Many comments were very positive:

• Presenter seems like a leader in table partitioning, great confidence.
• You rock! I learned a lot and want to use partitioning now!
• Well done. Kendra is very knowledgeable and it came across very well.
• Excellent knowledge transfer to audience.
• Well organized and presented.
• Buzzed by scripts
• Very knowledgeable

And comments also offered advice:

• Never used table partitioning. tough to follow for new topic.
• Have longer sessions.
• This session could have been longer
• Talk about log growth when split.
• Highlight color in SSMS was difficult to read and highlighting while discussing code.
• Talk a little fast
• Not speak so fast
• Watch time so not rushed at the end.

Y’all Think I’m Smart!

That’s so great. I think that means I got a lot of information across.

Where To Go From Here?

Based on your feedback, it’s clear that I’m trying to pack too much information into the live presentation. I think you’re right on: My material is top-quality, but I need to edit. I need to slow down.

With a big topic in a limited time frame, I need to focus and convey less information, but I’ll still get more across. It’s just that simple.

I can do that! And I appreciate all the positive comments, too.

Thanks for your feedback, and thanks to everyone who helped make the SQLRally conference possible.

I Don’t Cache, I Just Drive Fast

Software design:
Don’t implement a caching tier– go to the database for every query.

Re-enactment:
Plan to cook a dozen eggs. Go to the grocery store, and on each trip by an egg and a pat of butter. For a while this works if you can drive there really fast. Things get ugly when the store is crowded.

The Anti-Cache

Software Design:

Create a function in your application that runs a query. The query returns a result set with multiple values, but the function returns only one value at any given time.
Call the function individually for each value in the result set.

Human re-enactment:

Create a shopping list with 10 items. Go to the store and purchase all ten items and put them in the car and drive them home. When you get home, take one item out of the car. Throw the other nine items away. Repeat for each additional item.

Tycho Brahe, with Nose (and moustache)

This much we agreed on: Tycho Brahe was a visionary, an astronomer, and he lost a big piece of his nose.

The rest was murky. I thought he died from syphilis, and that possibly his nose had been lost the same way.

Jeremiah said he lost his nose in a duel, and that he died of some sort of toxicity related to refusing to pee.

We were in the car, going somewhere. I think we were going to Portland and it was move-related. This is, you see, because we’re moving to Portland.

That’s Right, We’re Movin’ to Portland

I’ve been living in Seattle for quite a few years now, and there’s lots of things to love. I love my local friends, the bahn mi, and the mountains.

But there’s lots to love in Portland, too. There’s an exciting and innovative tech community and lots of tall trees. And it’s only three or four hours down the road. We needed to move to get a little more space, and we thought we might try our hand at being Oregonians.

The Plan for Data n Waffles

I’ve had some logistical challenges launching Data & Waffles in Seattle. The cool/free location I’d found isn’t available on weekends– it’s too crowded at that time so noise and crowding make it impossible. I know that people are coming from all over and that weeknights would be difficult.

And now I’m up and going to Portland, too.

My thought is to go digital and make it “BYO Waffles, YO.”

I’m really intrigued by 37 Signal’s Campfire tool — it’s a collaboration software that combines conference calling, chat, and filesharing. I may check that out– or there’s more presentation geared tools like WebEx and LiveMeeting. I’m going to set up a few stealth trials and see how things function, then organize our first meeting.

What Happened to Tycho

Seems that Jeremiah was correct on all counts.

Getting the talent to behave was the biggest challenge. The answer: sushi.

I posted a video chat this morning on Facebook.

It’s talking about my blog post, “It’s a Lock: Due Diligence, Schema Changes, and You” on BrentOzar.com.

Let me know what you think about the video. It could be the first of a series. (There will be more blog posts on locking for sure.)

A Word From Our Panel

I’m full of love for the panel discussion I submitted with my cohorts from Brent Ozar PLF. I smell greatness… and it kinda smells like fresh waffles.

“And Then It Got Even Worse”… Great Mistakes to Learn From

We’ve been there went things went from bad to worse— and then things just kept going. Brent Ozar, Jeremiah Peschka, Kendra Little and Tim Ford share stories of human error, machine failure, and how you can stop a bad situation from spinning out of control. There’s no teacher like experience; but the best trick is to learn from someone else’s (barely contained) disaster.

My Sessions

I love to talk about scale and and application design. I’m getting these first two talks booked for user groups in July and August this year.

Seven Strategic Discussions About Scale

Know those apps that need a complete rewrite from scratch, but management won’t listen to you? Kendra Little has been there and she’s figured out how to frame the big conversations. She’ll give you seven strategies to improve scale and change application architecture, and explain concepts from sharding to caching along the way. You’ll get a toolkit for each conversation: how to gather the right supporting data from the environment, who to talk to, and how to speak the right language to drive each change.

You may not have a chaos monkey, but there’s basic things you can do to protect yourself…

The Top 10 Crimes Against Fault Tolerance

Common design mistakes will kill your uptime when a failure occurs. Kendra Little shows frequent real-world choices that will put a permanent chalk outline around an application when trouble strikes, and how you can keep your databases out of danger.

I also submitted my talk on dates and times, which I gave for the Spring 2011 24 Hours of PASS. I’ve picked up some cool new contents to give the deck a fresh edge.

I caught a transaction, and it was THIS BIG

Dates and times seem simple at first. Kendra Little will show you there’s more to it than you think. She’ll give you five best practices that will help you select the right temporal data type, avoid common issues, and use the most effective techniques to aggregate data. She’ll also explain painful problems with query performance and how to avoid them. Choose wisely: the correct types and high performing data access logic will scale like magic.

And I wrapped things up by submitting my Isolation talk. I’ve reworked this talk to come at the topic from a real-world, practical angle:  it’s all about the why.

Performance through Isolation: How Experienced DBAs Manage Concurrency

Do you want to manage highly concurrent software, troubleshoot contention like a pro, and avoid being called in the middle of the night? If so, it’s critical you understand transaction isolation backward and forward and actively make decisions regarding isolation for each of your databases. We’ll discuss the benefits and problems of each isolation level in SQL Server. We’ll talk about practical changes you can make to improve performance while maintaining the right level of concurrency for your users. We’ll focus in detail on how to identify applications which are good candidates for optimistic locking, and how to plan, execute, and monitor changes in your default isolation level. A broadsheet handout will keep your knowledge fresh after the session.

How many rabbits are IN here???

It starts out as part of something else

You’re working on a project and something tangential strikes you as interesting. It’s not blocking or critical to figure out, so you make a mental note to look at it later on your own time. There’s a blog post in that!

You go back later and scribble down a few notes, maybe a little script: you’re going to look at that.

You open it up and start poking at things that night. It’s 8 PM and you look a few things up, write a few more scripts. It seems to make sense, but then you notice something is wrong. This doesn’t work exactly like you thought.

You manage to make it to bed. You take it out the next day and do more research.

It takes on a life of its own

Five days later, you’re on your seventh multi-page script. You’ve gone through countless MSDN links and related blogs. You still haven’t written a word of blog post, and at this point the topic is ten times bigger than when you started.

You’re just not quite there– there’s a better way to think about this issue. And if you’re going to be able to write anything about this anways, you’re going to have to completely refocus it. But you’re not done yet– you’re just Not Quite There.

And then  you can’t sleep

It happens sometimes. I kind of love it, because I know it makes me learn things I’d never find otherwise. But it also makes me appreciate those times when things come together much more easily.

A variety of definitions of “expert” get tossed around — a specialist, someone with comprehensive knowledge, the person who knows more about a topic than anyone else within six feet. Many people go the way of the Supreme Court and say they know an expert when they see it.

You might be an expert if:

• Lots of obscure facts seem obvious . If you’re a bit humble, this creeps up on you– then you realize you wouldn’t expect someone with general knowledge of a topic to know many things you take for granted. Your experience has just grounded you and made you comfortable with complexity in your area.
• You research in a topic for fun, and genuinely enjoy proving yourself wrong. When being wrong changes from being frustrating to being an exciting opportunity, you’ve covered a lot of territory on a topic.
• Looking at a new technical environment is like a trip to a candy store.

What do you call a group of experts?

There’s a mob of kangaroos. A band of jays. A swarm of butterflies. A down of rabbits.

What’s a group of experts?

We’re going to call it: Brent Ozar PLF

I’ve joined up to start a new venture with Brent Ozar (t), Jeremiah Peschka (t), and Tim Ford (t). We’re Brent Ozar PLF. The “PLF” stands for: Peschka, Little, Ford.

What’s special about our team? We have a lot in common and a boatload of technical expertise. But here’s my favorite aspects to our team.

Tim

Tim makes difficult things into a party. He’s saying something so funny you spit water through your nose when you’re talking about dynamic management objects. He’s sneaking up on you with a sea turtle and also with a suggestion for a new way to identify contention in your applications. When you’re working with Tim, you’re learning even when you’re having fun– and the opposite.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah sees the magic in technology. He knows how to do things now, and he also knows how to think about possibilities. Jeremiah likes to imagine new kinds of indexes, new kinds of teams, new kinds of applications — this means when you need to reinvent something, or get unblocked, you should talk to Jeremiah.

Brent

Brent shows you the big picture– and it’s not what you expected. He digs into the details, then steps back and shows you a pattern you hadn’t noticed by emphasizing a few subtle points. He brings together people who ordinarily can’t get along, and he’s more generous than almost anyone you’ll ever meet.

And me!

I’m all about creativity. I like to get a team playing hard together and figuring out how to make the most of a bunch of crayons, paste, and a stack of servers. I’m obsessed with documentation and communication — from clear prose to pictures that help start conversations about things like Isolation Levels.

Learn more about Brent Ozar PLF

We’re taking a new look at technical environments. We go beyond symptoms — read more about what we do.

Read more from this series:

• Brent’s announcement
• Tim’s announcement
• and up next, Jeremiah’s announcement

She's ready for the future. Are you?

In preparing for the SQLPeople event, I thought about the role, motivation, and techniques of a “knowledge worker” in today’s society.

I found Peter Drucker at the library. Drucker lived from 1909 to 2005 and was one of the original writers about management. He was a student of how people live and interact, and he thought deeply about the huge social change of the rise of the modern corporation. Starting his first job with quill and paper, Drucker lived through the era of computing and technology, and studied, wrote, and talked through it all.

You are not interchangeable

Drucker wrote about specialized knowledge workers. He saw that as our labor force becomes more specialized, workers no longer have identical capabilities. Years of training and experience are required for jobs in many different fields. Proficiency with technology is becoming an entry requirement for almost all labor in the western world.

In technology, and working with data management and software development, the breadth of technologies available is creating a highly individualized workforce. A worker can have breadth across different products, working with open source and proprietary platforms.

Or a worker can specialize on a suite of products, focussing in on data storage, processing, and optimization, or business intelligence. Expertise can be gained in operating systems, storage subsystems, or hardware. Schema design, access methods, techniques for scaling up or scaling out, data redundancy and business continuity— it goes on.

The good news is: if you work with data, you are not interchangeable.

In fact, if your’e working with data you have a huge amount of power. You’re in a field which is highly mobile and desired by multiple types of corporations. You can span different industries, and your skills can adapt and change over time.

You must be ready for change

Today, you can work for a company on another continent– and companies in your country can hire workers from other continents. Although workers are not interchangeable, workers are more mobile, and relocation is no longer required.

This introduces fluidity and change into the workplace. As the corporation has grown and evolved, the relationship of workers to the corporation is changing– workers no longer expect to work for a single corporation for most of their adult life.

Instead, we need to do our best work for our company, and also simultaneously expand our reach with technology. Change will be initiated by either your employer or yourself: in many ways it does not matter. What is important is if you have the resources, and confidence, to adapt quickly.

Learning by doing

In 2003, Drucker predicted that education would change, and we would come to view the two most important periods of education in people’s lives as the early childhood period, and the adult period.

Although Aristotle viewed knowledge as being separated from action, in the Ethics he mentions that

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them, e.g. men become builders by building and lyreplayers by playing the lyre; so too, we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

In technology, we find that learning is similar to these things– you may learn foundational skills in the classroom, but you learn to build large scale data repositories by building them. You learn to scale up a high traffic website by building it– depending on where you start from and where you’re going, you may build it several times. We learn a huge amount from experience, and we are constaintly expanding our experience and refining our opinions.

This is related to courage. It takes courage to suggest a significant change or a redesign, to explore a new area, to start a new venture.

See also: Jeff Atwood on Quantity Trumping Quality.

Decisions

The commonality I see between Aristotle and Drucker lies in decisions.

Building software and managing data requires a constant stream of decisions. No single decision is irreversible, but many decisions are very time consuming and difficult to change later. We have a responsibility to make decisions well and to act well in our teams, but at times we are required to make decisions quickly.

Making good decisions– acting well as a technologist– requires practice.

What inspires me: the field of opportunity

The field of opportunity in technology is now global.

Step back from your daily life for a moment. Read about what life was like 100 years ago, 300 years ago, or farther.

Think about the vast changes sweeping the world, and the ways you have to take part in those changes.

If you’re already working in technology in any position, realize that you have huge power and potential to change your own life– far moreso than people who haven’t broken into the field.

Let’s go out there and build something.

I spoke at the first SQLPeople event!

And now SQLPeople events are starting: the first was held on Saturday, April 9 in Richmond, VA.

I am proud to have been among the speakers– it was a thoughtful and inspiring event. Other speakers included:

• Jeremiah Peschka (Blog | @peschkaj | SQLPeople)
• Scott Currie (Varigence)
• Gray Proulx (@GrayProulx)
• Michael Coles (@Sergeant_SQL | SQLPeople)
• Brian Moran (@briancmoran)

SQLPeople events are unique.

Andy simply posed a question to speakers: What inspires you? What is your vision?

What a refreshing question! I love speaking about technical, practical topics, but being asked to step back and take a look at the larger view was a great reminder to also look at the long view. It was a challenge to think even bigger.

The format for the event included talks, interviews, videos, and lots of conversation with the audience.  It was great to have a single track and be able to hear everyone’s talk with the same group– and it was fantastic to see the different things that inspire us, and also the common threads that run through it all.

If there’s one way to describe what made this day different, it’s that it was not directly focused on training, it was focused on thinking.

It was an energizing day.

Learn more

If you like to think about data, check out SQLPeople.net, and attend a future event.

Sam Beckett, revised: Code again, error again, monitor better.

Re: Tom LaRock

Tag: Crys Manson ( b | t ), Yanni Robel ( b | t ), Dev Nambi ( b | t ), and you.

Wondering what to do when you get a break from work email today?

Make your opening move in a fun contest.

What’s to win?

The prize is tempting booty: Idera Software is giving away a free trip to SQLCruise Alaska. And not just part of the trip, it’s the full meal deal: a 7-day cruise for two from Seattle to Alaska (departs from Seattle, WA on May 29th, 2011, returns June 5th, 2011), one seat in the SQLCruise training taking place aboard the cruise, and airfare for two to Seattle (up to $1,500).

Wow. Did you notice that “cruise for two” and “airfare for two” part? You get the training AND you get to take along a friend or loved one. Pretty rad.

The agenda’s been posted for the cruise— it’s going to be unique and amazing. The cruise is full of great technical content and training to build your skills and work with you to find practical changes to improve your work environment. I love how the agenda is laid out to change up the pace and keep everyone thinking and learning.

Check out the awesome training on the Alaska SQLCruise here.

How to enter

Head on over to the contest forum, which also has all the official rules for entry.

There’s a quick registration step (it’s painless, I did it myself), and then here’s how you enter:

• Tell us about your SQL victory. Post an entry describing what horrid SQL beast you encountered and how you vanquished it.
• Post a picture of yourself looking victorious (extra credit for Viking helmets and/or attire)
• Include the phrase “I VANQUISHED THE BEAST!” in your entry.
• Share your submission with your friends.

Worried you might submit now and come up with a better idea later? It’s ok, you can enter more than once, and each entry will be judged individually. There’s no reason not to dive in now.

Tell your story

Getting fitted for my judge's wig

I love this contest because it’s about STORIES, and it’s open to everyone with a story to tell.

Tell a story about your victory. There’s so many people out there in the SQL community who have great passion and do so much. There’s so many of you who love to write and share your experiences.

Think about the things you’ve done to save the day– in the office, on the forums, maybe even on… Twitter???

I’m a judge!

I’m honored to be one of five judges for the event. I look forward to reading about your SQL Victories– let’s hear it!

Careful what you say about cats, lady.

You know what’s crazy?

A comprehensive, technical, well thought-out, and ENJOYABLE document. One written with the occasional interesting diagram and a reasonable use of acronyms, with effective tables and practical advice. A document that’s written for a human being which has helpful links to supporting documentation, but still makes you think.

Don’t get me wrong– a lot of people write very good documentation. And Microsoft publishes a really large volume of helpful information.

It’s just remarkable when you find great documentation that is technical, covers a lot of ground, and yet is very readable.

But I found some! It’s the Fast Track Data Warehouse 3.0 reference guide.

But I don’t have a Fast Track Data Warehouse…

Doesn’t matter, it’s still a really good read. You should read this document if:

• You are interested in SQL Server
• You are interested in Data Warehouses
• You are interested in technical writing

Along the way, this document talks about everything from categorizing workloads, startup options for data warehouses, Resource Governor, creating and configuring filegroups and managing fragmentation, determining optimal table structure, statistics, compression, loading data, benchmarking, and validation. That’s a lot of ground, and a lot of it is useful to think about for a wide variety of systems.

Example: I came across this document while searching for specific use cases for a partitioned heap. The document talks about considerations for large partitioned objects in data warehouses, and when a partitioned heap might be appropriate vs a partitioned table with a clustered index– it does it quickly, neatly, and thoughtfully.

The most interesting thing

This isn’t a sales document, but it makes me want a Fast Track Data Warehouse.

It makes me feel like a Fast Track system is for smart people– after all, smart people took a whole lot of time to write this doc. It just FEELS smart.

To me, that’s really impressive– if I can write a little bit more like that every day, I’m moving in the right direction.

DISCLAIMER: the title to this post does NOT refer to the SQL CAT team, who produce some pretty freaking amazing documents. Instead, it refers to free range clip-art cats, which may or may not have pianos pictured as falling on them in my slide decks. And possibly a Broadway musical which I never saw. And probably to SNL.

Choices, choices

Here’s a little TSQL snack. I picked this up in a presentation by Itzik Ben-Gan at the PNWSQL user group recently, and it’s become a fast favorite.

CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY- another use

The APPLY operator is perhaps more flexible than  you think. You may already know that you can use it to inline a function, or to replace a join.

But wait, there’s more! You can also use APPLY to perform calculations and simplify your query syntax– this is because the APPLY operator allows you to  express a calculation that can be referred to:

• in further joins (which may or may not use APPLY)
• by columns
• in the where clause
• in the group by

This is really helpful, because you can’t refer to the results of a computation in one column from anywhere but the ORDER BY.  This is because of the order of evaluation of parts of the statement.

I know this sounds confusing. It’ll make more sense in an example.

A sample query– the ‘before’ version

Here is a query written for the AdventureWorks sample database. There’s all sorts of examples that are possible for this, but I decided to go with one grouping data by month, using my favorite formula to round dates.

It shows the total quantity of orders by Product for an entire order month, for orders placed on or after 2004-07-01.

SELECT  DATEADD(MM, DATEDIFF(MM, 0, oh.OrderDate), 0) AS OrderDateMonth,
        p.Name AS ProductName,
        SUM(orderQty) AS totalQuantity
FROM    sales.SalesOrderHeader oh
JOIN    Sales.SalesOrderDetail od
        ON oh.SalesOrderID = od.SalesOrderID
JOIN    production.Product p
        ON od.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE   oh.OrderDate >= '2004-07-01'
GROUP BY DATEADD(MM, DATEDIFF(MM, 0, oh.OrderDate), 0),
        p.Name
ORDER BY OrderDateMonth,
        p.Name

Notice that to group the date at the month level, we need to include the calculation in the column in the column list, as well as in the group by clause.

The query rewritten using APPLY for the calculation

This can be rewritten with CROSS apply to move the calculation into the JOIN area and only specify it once.

The benefits: this will simplify your syntax and reduce the chance of typos and errors, particularly when you need to go in and change the calculation. In cases when you’re displaying a sum in one column and showing a percentage using it in another column, this trick is *fantastic*. (Query numbers from the DMVs a lot? you’ll love this.)

Here, the calculation on the date is moved into the cross apply. It can be referenced as oh1.OrderDateMonth in both the list of columns, and in the GROUP BY portion of the query without rewriting the calculation.

SELECT  oh1.OrderDateMonth,
        p.Name AS ProductName,
        SUM(orderQty) AS totalQuantity
FROM    sales.SalesOrderHeader oh
CROSS APPLY ( SELECT    DATEADD(MM, DATEDIFF(MM, 0, oh.OrderDate), 0) AS OrderDateMonth ) AS oh1
JOIN    Sales.SalesOrderDetail od
        ON oh.SalesOrderID = od.SalesOrderID
JOIN    production.Product p
        ON od.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE   oh.OrderDate >= '2004-07-01'
GROUP BY oh1.OrderDateMonth,
        p.Name
ORDER BY OrderDateMonth,
        p.Name

What does the execution plan look like?

Click for a larger image

The execution plan for these two queries are identical.

In this case, the optimizer looks at these two queries and realizes the activities it needs to do will be the same.

Other options

You can create further CROSS APPLY or OUTER APPLY joins that refer to computations in prior joins.

You can also refer to the resulting computation in the where clause.

But be careful….

As with anything, you want to make sure you’re getting a good execution plan, and not shooting yourself in the foot with a new trick.

One big area to watch: although you can refer to these computations conveniently in the WHERE clause, you still want to be careful you’re using appropriate criteria.

For instance, if we were to change the example above to refer to the result from the CROSS APPLY oh1 in the where clause like this:

SELECT  oh1.OrderDateMonth ,
        p.Name AS ProductName ,
        SUM(orderQty) AS totalQuantity
FROM    sales.SalesOrderHeader oh
CROSS APPLY ( SELECT    DATEADD(MM, DATEDIFF(MM, 0, oh.OrderDate), 0) AS OrderDateMonth ) AS oh1
JOIN    Sales.SalesOrderDetail od
        ON oh.SalesOrderID = od.SalesOrderID
JOIN    production.Product p
        ON od.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE   oh1.OrderDateMonth >= '2004-07-01'  ---Don't do this!
GROUP BY oh1.OrderDateMonth ,
        p.Name
ORDER BY OrderDateMonth ,
        p.Name

… then in this case the query would not be able to use an index on OrderDate on the sales.SalesOrderHeader table, if one exists.

This is not specifically because of the CROSS APPLY, but because we are forcing SQL Server to apply the functions to every value to identify if it satisfies the criteria. That prevents a seek.

If the waffle is like the data storage structure, what's the butter?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but the idea started to really take shape yesterday.

After a bit of chat on Twitter, I asked some of my local friends what they think in email– and sounds like this may be a good idea. Check it out and please tell me your opinion in the comments!

The mission

Instigate interesting discussions, develop presentation skills for technologists, foster problem solving. Have fun while doing it. Eat waffles.

The idea

Meet with people interested in working with data for really good nerdy conversation and some breakfasty foods. I’d like this to be a place for new presenters to start speaking AND for experienced speakers to try out new topics, or test new methods of conveying ideas. (Demos, labs, games, exercises, etc.)

I’m most familiar with the SQL Server community in Seattle and I think that community would really take to a regular event like this. People who work with other technologies who are interested in working with data would also be very welcome.

The format

Structured, but flexible. Each meeting would be planned, but different.

The basic ingredients will typically be lightning talks and short presentations. However, we can customize each meeting to be unique and follow people’s interest. The core ideas are:

• Nothing is required to be finished or polished. Total first drafts are OK. Finished works are also perfectly OK.
• Be respectful to the speaker (unless the speaker requests otherwise– ie practice working with a difficult questioner, etc)
• People can choose if they want feedback or not, either on speaking or the technical bits, or both.
• Working on less structured talks is OK, too– for example, bringing an interesting problem, asking questions, and talking through the problem with the group for 10 minutes.
• Need a brainstorming session? Suggest the area you’d like to brainstorm as your topic.

Structure

• Everything is free and open to the public.
• “Meeting” time will be 60 minutes, with time set aside before and after for waffles and discussion.
• Meeting topics will be submitted and posted ahead of time so people can attend based on interest.
• All topics regarding data, administration, and development working with data are fair game.

I imagine we’ll have at least 15 minutes of general geeky discussion and Q&A at the end– maybe have some goofy game choosing topics or trivia sometimes if people are up for it.

I really like the idea of having each meeting be a little different based on what people are thinking about and working on. This should develop pretty organically.

Frequency

Once per month, Saturday at 11am.

Possible location

There may be other options for this (exciting!), but the location will likely be in the city of Seattle.

One option looks like the Cortona Cafe. Is this a place you would travel to on a weekend morning?

Is this a ‘real’ user group?

Nope. We have a great SQL Server community in the Seattle area, and a fantastic SQL PASS User Group, and I’m not looking to replace that.  Instead, I think we have  enough creative people interested in working with data to start a separate group that’s focused on generating ideas and trying out new things.  This may be working on new ideas with technology, or growing in the presenting or communicating area of your career working with data.

If there’s interest in meeting monthly we may do that. If we have a core group of people who’d like to get together quarterly, that’s cool too. The idea is to try it and see how it develops.

My questions for you…

1. Does this sound like something you’d like to attend?
2. Any suggestions?
3. Is having this on the weekend a good thing, or a bad thing?
4. Have  you tried something like this before? What was your experience like?

Did you notice?

There are actual WAFFLES for purchase at the Cortona Cafe, people. WAFFLES!

But even if there are no actual waffles at every event, wherever we land, I think they may remain in the title.

There’s a lot of dynamic management and system objects to keep track of in SQL Server.

We all sometimes have the moment when we can’t remember exactly which DMV, DMF or other system view/function returns a particular column, or if something even IS accessible from the system objects.

When this happens, remember that it’s easy to query system object and column names. Sys.system_columns and sys.system_objects are here to help.

Exploring the system views and functions yourself will also help you find new things.

This example shows all the system views and functions which are likely to have to do with CPU:

SELECT
SCHEMA_NAME(SCHEMA_ID)+ '.' + o.Name AS SysObjName,
o.type_desc,
c.name AS ColumnName
FROM sys.system_columns c
INNER JOIN sys.system_objects o ON o.object_id=c.object_id
WHERE c.name LIKE '%cpu%'

I like to use this version of the query, which includes the URL to look up more about the DMV. I like to use the browser in SSMS itself to look these up, so I include the shortcut for that in the header.

SELECT
	SCHEMA_NAME(SCHEMA_ID)+ '.' + o.Name AS SysObjName,
	o.type_desc,
	c.name AS ColumnName,
	'http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Search/en-US/?Refinement=117&Query=' + SCHEMA_NAME(SCHEMA_ID)+ '.' + o.Name AS [Help! Ctrl + ALT + R to open web browser in SSMS]
FROM sys.system_columns c
INNER JOIN sys.system_objects o ON o.object_id=c.object_id
WHERE c.name LIKE '%page%'

The output looks like this (click for a larger view):

I’ve started using this lately since it helps me explore as well as remember.

Just when you think you know everything about the system objects, you’ll find something new.

Fun example: look at all the columns like ‘%page%’.

I’ve rolled out some changes to my blog– I’m using a “magazine” format now.

What do you think?

Do I look good in this blog? (I think makes me look taller.)

If you’re subscribing to my RSS feed, things should look pretty much the same. But I’d love it if you clicked through and told me what you think of the new format.

Why the change?

I’d like to post more frequently, including shorter posts with bits of information: the new format will help support that by displaying more posts on the page.

I am my blog

The more time I spent writing about technology, the more I feel like I come through on my blog as who I am. After a couple of years writing this, blogging is part of my life and I would miss it if I stopped. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes like to buy my blog presents and dress it up in new clothes. At least I haven’t tried to take it to dinner yet.

Why blog?

Barry Ritholltz wrote down what he thinks are good reasons to blog. All ten of those good reasons resonate with me– so here’s to blogs, mine and yours.

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” …Isaac Asimov

Update: I’m still really pleased with the magazine format on the Woo Canvas theme a few weeks later. There was only one thing that bothered me– the theme showed all excerpts, and I wanted to show full posts for the 4 most recent posts. Found the resolution in the forums:

Open template-magazine.php and change line 64

<!--?php the_excerpt(); ?--> 

to

<!--?php the_content(); ?--> 

On Tuesday I presented my talk, “No More Bad Dates: Best Practices Using Temporal Data.” It was tons of fun to give, and afterward I was so happy to see that I’d gotten mad love from the SQL Twitterverse.

You guys make me feel awesome. And even more than that, you make me want to research and write a hundred presentations.

Y’all Made Me Promise: Watch this Space for the No More Bad Dates Poster

In the Q & A for the talk, you requested that I provide a sample cheat sheet. I’m plugging in my electronic pen and I hereby promise to roll one of those out to you in the form of a custom poster.

Keep watching this space, it’ll be here soon. (I have a couple technical blog posts I am ITCHING to write. And itching isn’t fun, people.)

Check Me Out In Reruns

Recordings of presentations will be available in about a month. In the meantime, if you’d like to you can download my slide deck. 

I Saw Lots of Cool Stuff

I watched as many sessions as I could manage to fit into my schedule. There was a really cool variety of subjects:  MDX, execution plans, index structures, reporting services, TSQL, SQL Azure and beyond. I made it to at least 10 sessions, and as Jes Borland (b | t) mentioned, I learned a ton about presenting as well as about SQL.

Thanks!

Thanks to all the other presenters for making it such a great two days. And thanks to SQLPASS and our organizing committe, Tom LaRock ( b | t) , Charley Hanania ( b | t) , Rob Farley ( b | t) , and Jorge Segarra ( b | t).

A special thanks to Peter Shire ( b | t) , for moderating my session and for Charley Hanania ( b | t) for helping out and all the encouragement.

The Tweets: Framed

I was serious about framing my Twitter mentions. I crafted together a Google collage mosaic so I can remember them for a long time to come. (Click for a larger version).

SQL Server Pickup Lines Not Included

Next week the Professional Association for SQL Server will be providing 24 hours of free, online training on SQL Server.

Come get your learn on.

Register Now!

My talk will be next Tuesday, March 15 at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern / 5 PM GMT.

It is Session 06: No More Bad Dates: Using Temporal Data Wisely.

Register for sessions here. There are many great sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday– pick what fits you, and you’ll receive a calendar invite with a link to the LiveMeeting for each one. (Timezones are listed in GMT, which can be confusing for the people of North America, particularly since Daylight Savings is coming to some of us this weekend. The calendar invites will help, I promise!)

My session is on best practices for choosing date and time types in schema, with lots of tips for writing queries working with dates and times.

Why are Dates Interesting? How Will This Talk Help YOU?

I love the talk I’m giving on dates and times because I get to cut across different areas– I get to talk about data types, choices in schema design, and how to write T-SQL. I also get to talk about little-known features of SQL Server, and give lots of tips and tricks along the way.

Working on this presentation has been a really fun journey. It began when I noticed in Books Online that the datetime data type is officially no longer recommended for new development– and this has been the case for three years!

This is rarely discussed and, except for DATE, the new types are rarely used. So I began to ask the question: is it ever worth converting existing schemas to the new types? Is there any reason to still use older types, such as SMALLDATETIME? What do you sacrifice if you don’t use the new DATETIME2 type, and are there any issues if you start using it? What are the most common, but least known problems when working with dates?

Dates aren’t as Simple As We Think. I’ve got Answers, and Practical Advice.

It’s fun to give practical, useful advice. I recently gave this talk at SQL Saturday #65 in Vancouver, BC, and had a great audience. I asked them to share with me whether they learned anything new, or were surprised by what I covered.

I heard back from more than ten people in the audience in person or by email, and all but one said they learned something new. Everyone had worked with date and time types before. They were also great at letting me know which topics could use a little more detail and clarity.

Most people commented that they were surprised by the talk, and that things are trickier than they’d understood.