Louis Davidson

2012 Blog Resolutions

drsql — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:20:34 GMT

I skipped last year making blog resolutions, but this year I need to get myself back on the straight and narrow and encourage myself to do a few things. 1. Finish my book quickly and efficiently – Well, duh, I supposed, but the quickly and efficiently...(read more)

Planning my Louisville SQL Saturday Presentation

drsql — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 02:47:14 GMT

So it is Tuesday night, just a few days until my presentation entitled What Counts For A DBA and I am still not completely sure exactly what is going to go on. In fact, I don’t exactly plan to know what is going on until the presentation is over. ...(read more)

PASS Week/Speaking/Doing Schedule

drsql — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:20:08 GMT

Well, we are finally here at what is the secular version of the holiday season for Microsoft SQL Server nerd types, the week of the SQLPASS Summit. This year, I am speaking 3 times and will also be doing the Quiz Bowl at the Welcome Reception, so I am...(read more)

Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12

drsql — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:28:52 GMT

So I have been a bit remiss on my blogging the book duties. The fact is, the first 8 chapters were fairly heavy rewrites and reworkings, and even a good amount of new material. But when doing a new version of a book that has already existed, you...(read more)

MVP Deep Dives 2: Coming Really Soon

drsql — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:49:43 GMT

You probably have noticed that I haven’t blogged all that much these days. Part of the reason has been taking on way too many projects/speaking engagements/writing projects etc. I am generally proud of all of these things, but the most project that I...(read more)

PASS First Timer Advice–Make it worth it!

drsql — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:45:41 GMT

I have seen a lot of other people giving advice about what to do on your first trip to the SQL PASS Conference and I want to give you my two cents worth as well. Many people will be pushing the social aspects of the conference and that is excellent advice...(read more)

Denali Enhancement–Duplicate Key Error Message

drsql — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:12:35 GMT

When I was editing my chapter on implementing a database, I noticed a really nice improvement in the error message I had from the previous edition of the book. Instead of just telling me that there was a value in my modification statement that duplicated...(read more)

Chapter 8–Patterns and Anti-Patterns

drsql — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:29:42 GMT

In this last kind of “creative” chapter, I will look at some of the ways you implement common problems in your relational database, and some of the ways you probably shouldn’t. The “should” sections will deal with: Uniqueness – Beyond the simple uniqueness...(read more)

Chapter 7–Enforced Data Protection

drsql — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 04:36:13 GMT

As the book progresses, I find myself veering from the original stated outline quite a bit, because as I teach about this more (and I am teaching a daylong db design class in August at http://www.sqlsolstice.com/ … shameless plug, but it is on topic :)...(read more)

Speaking at PASS (and a plug for two other conferences)

drsql — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:14:25 GMT

So I was notified a few days ago that one of my sessions was selected, and one is an alternate. Luckily, it was the one that I have the most experience with, and the alternate is my latest session that I am really quite happy with after doing it virtually...(read more)

See you in Columbus Saturday?

drsql — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:32:45 GMT

Assuming all goes as planned, I will be in Columbus, OH this Friday night and Saturday for SQL Saturday 75 . I really love SQL Saturday events the best of all of the events because they are very intimate in nature. As a fairly antisocial person, I sometimes...(read more)

Normalization and How to Know When You Are Done… The short version…

drsql — Sun, 29 May 2011 20:54:15 GMT

A while back, I was working on a short article about Normalization for a book that never got published (admittedly I wasn’t getting paid for the article, and it wasn’t for charity, so I wasn’t that broken up over it.) The task at hand was to, in...(read more)

SQLPASS Submissions

drsql — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:20:14 GMT

So I am a bit hesitant to post this because the past few times I have posted about something I have submitted they have failed to occur. But hey, I might as well. If I don’t I might get all 5 sessions I submitted and have to do them.. and that would...(read more)

Going to Plamen Ratchev’s T-SQL 2008 Coding Skills Pre-con -- Join Me?

drsql — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 17:22:05 GMT

This week I signed up for Plamen Ratchev’s PASS SQLRally pre-con, “ Maximize Your SQL Server 2008 Coding Skills ,” and here’s why you ought to join me. This is a bit of an odd experience because, well, if you readers had voted a few more times for me,...(read more)

Chapter 6–Physical Database Creation Basics

drsql — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:45:50 GMT

Or “Finally getting to use SQL Server like the dang name of the book implies” I am smack dab in the middle of chapter 6 now, and I have finally figured out the concept and how it is going to be. Originally, chapter 6 was going to be the start of a series...(read more)