Simons SQL Blog : Free

Meet the guys that run the SQL Server team–London SQLSocial

simonsabin — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:47:00 GMT

We are fortunate that some of the SQL Server management team are in the UK and so we’ve arranged with them to run an evening social event. The guys we have over are Tom Casey, Mark Souza and Eduardo Rosini. Mark Souza Anyone thats been to SQLBits should...(read more)

Next generation Data Warehouse : Free London Event

simonsabin — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:27:47 GMT

Are you working in Data Warehousing then this event might be for you. Together, Microsoft and HP are engineering an innovative product range that combines our leading edge software and hardware assets into optimized data-warehouse appliances. In addition...(read more)

SQLBits Videos available now available

simonsabin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:53:10 GMT

You can watch all the sessions from SQLBits V now. They are available for download or for viewing online.

If there is a delay then just wait, the videos are high quality and so are very large.

These are the links to all the sessions

A whistlestop tour of SSIS add-ins

Achieve SQL Server 2008 High Availability and Disaster Recovery - technical case study

An introduction to Master Data Services

Building cubes from ODS or Operational Systems

Cache-warming strategies for Analysis Services 2008

Common Integration Services Problems

Creating High Performance Spatial Databases

Data & Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008

Data Visualisation with Bing Maps for Enterprise

Data Warehouse on a Fast Track forwards

Data warehousing features in SQL 2008

Designing for simplification

Designing I/O systems for SQL Server

Excel - An Excellent Data Mining Tool

Getting Dimensional with Data

I need my reports..........Yesterday!

Introducing Project Madison

Introducing SQL Server Master Data Services

Introduction of MS StreamInsight.

Introduction to the Microsoft BI Technology Stack

Let’s make SQL fly – a technical session for developers and administrators who believe in magic!

Lets go more functional - F# WHAT , WHY and BI

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2: What’s New in Reporting Services

Optimistic Concurrency Internals

Powershell – old tricks for a new dog?

Put Your Feet Up : Simplified Management using the Enterprise Policy Management Framework

Real World SQL Server High Availability

Report Builder 3

Self Service Business Intelligence- Project Gemini

Server consolidation with SQL Server

SQL 2008 Development Features

SQL Injection Attacks (and how to prevent them)

SQL Server 2008 - Unstructured Data Storage Solutions and Best practices

SQL Server optimization stuff you won’t find on Google (yet)

SQL, NoSQL, SomeSQL - A look at non-relational databases

SQLDataSources, LINQDataSources and EntityDatasources in Database Design

SSIS in SQL Server 2008

Strapped for cache? - Troubleshooting memory problems in SQL Server 2008

The R2 Duo: Running SQL Server 2008 R2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 Core

T-SQL Tuning with Colin Chapman, Enzo Ferrari, and The Stig

Using Perfmon and Profiler

Virtualising SQL Server

Vital Statistics

What's new in R2 for the DBA

When a query plan goes wrong

SQLBits Early Bird has been extended

simonsabin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:34:27 GMT

SQLBits is not around to make moeny, its here to build the SQL Community. What that means is that when start to cover our costs then there is no point in charging people more. We've reached that point and so what we've done is push back the end of the early bird to the end of October.

This means that if you need a little longer to convince your bos you should go to the best SQL Server conference around then you now have 4 more weeks.

I look forward to seeing you all there and hope you can convince your boss its well worth your while. It must be the best value training you can get for SQL Server.

Oh and if you can't get your Boss to open his wallet then don't forget it's still free to come on the Saturday.

Win a free registration and Hotel for SQLBits V

simonsabin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:45:11 GMT

We've just announced a competition to win a free ticket for all 3 days of SQLBits. Plus we will put you up in the Hotel on the Thursday and Friday night. So you can choose whatever pre con you want to attend, spend the day getting up to speed with SQL 2008 and then spend the Saturday learning about everything else you wanted to know about SQL. Thats all worth £500 +

All you have to do is take a mug shot i.e. a photo of your mug from SQLBits IV. If you don't have a mug then you can download a picture you can stick on a mug, I'll also be giving some out at events I'm doing in September

The prize is for the most interesting picture, maybe your mug flying a plane or skydiving from 13,000 feet. who knows.

To enter post your pics to http://www.sqlbits.com/Competition.aspx

Session videos from SQLBits IV are now available

simonsabin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:37:27 GMT

You can now view the videos from SQLBits A - Manchester

We also have download versions as well

http://sqlbits.com/information/event4/PublicSessions.aspx

We hope you find them useful.

If you are considering coming to SQLBits V then have a look at what you can expect.

Free SQL Server 2008 Training

simonsabin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:07:34 GMT

Do you want some free SQL Server 2008 training?

I you work for a company that has some SQL Server professionals or you know of some that work nearby then we want you to be part of the SQL Server 2008 community launch program.

We want you to hold one or meetings on SQL Server 2008 in return you will get free training on whatever aspect of SQL 2008 you are interested in.

The meetings have to be open to other people from outside your company and you must hold at least 1 meeting before the end of the year.

Places are limited so get in quick.

If you are interested then contact me via my contact page http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons/contact.aspx. I need your name, company, location where you would hold the meetings and number of SQL Server people in your company.

SQL Server 2008 UK Usergroup London Launch event

simonsabin — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:46:00 GMT

SQL Server 2008 UK Usergroup London Launch event As part of the SQL Server Launch wave we are holding a usergroup meeting to celebrate the launch (not RTM). We're going to run this as an open session so you'll be able to ask us to cover the areas...(read more)

SQL Server 2008 - CTP6 is now available

simonsabin — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:52:06 GMT

The next CTP of SQL Serve 2008 is now available for download.

Whats different about this CTP from the others, apart from the new features which there are a lot, is there is a bug bash contest that is opening.

Simply put the people that raise the most nonduplicate reproducible bugs on CTP6 in the next month will win XBoxes. The rules are available here

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=7734

I was suprised at how many XBoxes they are giving away, which shows the commitment to getting bugs ironed out now and not later in the day.

CTP6 is nearest to RTM with very few additional features being added from here on in. So if you fancy an XBox get installing and see if you can find a bug.

Office 2007 iFilters are now available

simonsabin — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:08:59 GMT

The ifilters needed to index office 2007 documents are now available for download from here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=60C92A37-719C-4077-B5C6-CAC34F4227CC&displaylang=en

At the time of writing some of the related KB articles aren't available.

If you use full text and need to index office 2007 documents then you need these iFilters installed and registered