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Dedication...
By
Chuck Heinzelman
Director of Technical
Publications
We
are all faced with deadlines in our daily lives.
Be it a project deadline at work, a critical to-do list
item at home, or even paying your monthly bills -
deadlines are all around us.
There
are times when the deadlines we face cause us to do
things that we wouldn't normally do. I'm not
talking about anything illegal or immoral, just things
that are out of the ordinary.
For
example, I am writing this editorial coming off of an
all-night coding marathon. This isn't something
that I do regularly, nor is it something that I want to
do regularly. But, we have a major deliverable due
next week and I - like most database professionals - had
to have my stuff done before the rest of the developers
could finish their tasks. I was not required to
work all night - nor was I asked to. I chose to do
it because of my dedication and commitment to the team
and project that I am working on.
I'm sure
that some of you are reading this and saying to yourself
"Good. I'm not the only one who does that from
time to time." And some of you are probably saying
"Chuck, you're crazy." I personally find that - in
the roles that I generally fall into - I often
cannot get all of my work done during normal business
hours. It never fails that as soon as I get a few
free minutes to sit down and work someone comes to me
with an issue or a question.
When
I am involved with a team, I don't ever like to be in
the position of letting someone else down by preventing
them from doing their work. Whether my role is to
design a database, write stored procedures or to do
application coding, I like to make sure that my work is
done in a timely manner and that it exceeds the
expectations of my supervisors and
co-workers.
What
kind of workplace dedication stores do you have?
Have you had to pull all-night shifts supporting a
product? Maybe you've had to fly out of the
country on a moment's notice to support a customer who's
having a problem. I'd love to hear anything you
are willing to share. Drop me a line at chuck.heinzelman@sqlpass.org.
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Register
Early to Save!
 Don't
miss the largest event dedicated to SQL Server education
in the world!
The
Summit will draw over 2,000 users, SQL Server MVPs,
developers, Microsoft employees and experts - join your
peers to find out why PASS is the one Conference you
can't afford to miss.
There
will be more than 100 technical sessions on SQL Server
& an Expo that showcases all the latest technologies
and solutions related to SQL Server.
Mark
your calendar for the PASS Community Summit 2007
and join us at the only event hosted for SQL Server
users, by SQL Server users.
Go
directly to PASS Summit Registration - click
here. |
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SIG
Live Meeting to be Held Next Wednesday!
The
third PASS DBA SIG live meeting event will be held
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at noon, Eastern time. Linchi
Shea will give us a preview of his Community Summit
presentation, A Review of SQL Server Storage Practices.
Disk storage is a critical component in any SQL
Server environment. As SQL Server evolves, so do SQL
Server storage practices. From time to time, it is
useful to stop and review how we manage storage in our
SQL Server environments.
In this presentation,
we'll first highlight the concept of I/O path, and
identify the key factors on an I/O path that may have a
significant impact on SQL Server performance. We'll then
discuss and evaluate various practices, opinions, or
folklores with respect to these factors on the I/O
path.
Linchi Shea is a database engineer at a
major Wall Street firm where he is responsible for
evaluating, testing, and benchmarking SQL Server. He
enjoys solving tough SQL Server infrastructure and
architectural problems, and is interested in automating
SQL Server infrastructure in large enterprise
environments. Linchi has been working with SQL Server
for 12+ years, and is a SQL Server MVP.
We are
still new at doing these events, and we need assurance
that we will have an audience! If you plan to attend,
please drop a note to Karie.Honea@stratapult.com.
To
attend the meeting, you will
need:
-- An Internet connection for the
presentation
-- A telephone connection for the audio
The URL
for the meeting is http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livemeeting.com%2Frm%2Fmicrosoft%2Fjoin&id=preview
The
Meeting ID is SIGS
The Meeting Key is
SGISSIGS
Audio Conferencing (Toll-free): +1 (866)
500-6738
Participant Code: 4048733
When
attending the meeting, please observe the following
common courtesies:
- If
you are using a speaker phone, please mute it unless
you are asking a question. That way, other
participants will not be disturbed by the noise in
your environment.
- If
you need to leave the meeting temporarily, please hang
up and call us back, unless your phone is silent when
on hold. Your hold music and/or message is disturbing
to other participants.
FIRST
TIME USERS: To save time before the meeting, check your
system to make sure it is compatible with Microsoft
Office Live Meeting: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.microsoft.com%2Ffwlink%2F%3Flinkid%3D52354&id=preview
If
you have any questions, please contact sharond@voicenet.com.
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Grow
Your Business at PASS!
Exhibitor
Early Bird Discount Expires July 31
The
Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is your
direct link to thousands of highly qualified prospects
that will help you expand your customer base. 90%
of attendees of the PASS Community Summit recommend,
specify, approve and/or authorize purchases for their
companies (source: 2006 PASS Member
Survey).
Participation as a PASS exhibitor and/or
sponsor provides your company with the opportunity
to:
· Connect with SQL Server
experts to promote your products and
services
· Increase exposure and
awareness for your company
·
Achieve sales growth and generate valuable sales
leads
· Cultivate existing
relationships
Join leading industry exhibitors
and sponsors who are participating in the 2007 PASS
Community Summit. A sampling of participants
include:
·
Microsoft
· Computer
Associates
· Idera
·
Quest
·
Unisys
·
Cizer
· Dell
·
SQL Sentry
· Red
Gate
·
Softartisans
· Solid Quality
Mentors
Exhibitor Early Bird Discount expires
July 31 - so act fast! For more information on how
your company can benefit from participation as an
exhibitor and/or sponsor, please visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sqlpass.org%2Fpass2007%2Fexpo.html&id=preview
or contact Al Shuler, Expo Project Manager at (614)
225-1915 or Al@EventMarketingGroup.com.
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PASS
Exhibitor Interviews - Part 2
We
have conducted surveys of past exhibitors at the PASS
Community Summit, and decided to publish the results for
the benefit of all of our members. This issue's
survey response is from ICS-The Microsoft Business
Intelligence Experts.
1)
Tell us about the most exciting product(s) in your
line-up.
RSinteract
- the award winning end user tool for Microsoft SQL
Server Reporting Services.
Winner of 'Best of
Tech-Ed 2006' for the BI category, RSinteract sits
within the Reporting Services component of Microsoft SQL
Server 2000 and 2005. RSinteract opens up the
Reporting Services module to end users.
RSinteract is
integrated seamlessly into the Reporting Services server
architecture and is accessed via a standard web browser,
with no plug-ins or downloads. With its light
non-intrusive install and highly intuitive user
interface it is flexible enough to deliver immediate and
future-proof results, without time consuming support or
costly technical skills. It maximises the return on
existing investment in Microsoft technology, working
with both SQL Server 2000 and 2005 & Analysis
Services and the UDM.
2) Who is it
intended to help and what does it do?
It
provides Business Users and Management Information
Professionals alike with the ability to build, edit and
interact with Reporting Services reports on relational
and cube data without any specialist skills, additional
client software or plug-ins.
For Business
Users:
- Provides
intuitive self-service reporting and
analysis.
- Allows
them to build their own Reporting Services reports
from an intuitive non-technical web browser interface
(with no plug-ins or downloads).
- Provides
the same intuitive interface whether working with
relational data or Analysis Services / UDM cubes from
SQL Sever 2000 or 2005.
- Gives
them the ability to interact with reports directly
without using an abstracted report editor.
- Enables
them to conduct interactive analysis from existing
reports without having to start from scratch each
time.
- Reduces
reliance on IT and latency of information
access.
For
Report Writers / MI
Professionals:
- Speeds
up the creation of Reporting Services reports
dramatically on both relational and cube data from SQL
Sever 2000 or 2005.
- De-skills
the creation and editing of Reporting Services
reports.
- Removes
the need for Visual Studio to build sophisticated
fully interactive Reporting Services reports for
business users.
- Does
not restrict sophistication and flexibility of report
creation, despite simplicity of use.
- Allows
template reports to be built quickly and easily for
business users.
- Provides
end user report interactivity, formatting quality, and
multiple report types that Report Builder and Report
Designer cannot.
- Does
not require report designers to predict every possible
interaction or modification that a business user may
wish to perform to a report, as interactivity is
extended to the end user.
3)
What is the most significant advantage or workplace
change that your product offers to its users and how
does your product go over and above the native tool
offering?
It enhances the Microsoft Business
Intelligence (BI) stack, and specifically the Reporting
Services component, in the following ways:
- RSinteract
allows business users to build new Reporting Services
reports via a standard web browser without any
specialist skills.
- RSinteract
enables business users to change Reporting Services
reports interactively and to create new reports from
existing reports, which can then be saved for re-use
by others.
- RSinteract's
intuitive zero footprint web browser interface works
with both relational data and Analysis Services /
Unified Dimensional Model (UDM) cubes in SQL Server
2000 and 2005.
"If
you're using or thinking of using Reporting Services in
SQL Server 2000 / 2005, RSinteract is a 'must have'
product".
4) What's your vision for this
product? What's it going to do in the future that
it doesn't do now?
Highlights from the
RSinteract product road map
include:
- Report
Builder Models support
- Improved
Native Charting
- Forms
Based Authentication
- Flexible
Report Sections Arrangement
- SharePoint
Enhancements
- Embedding
RSinteract Sections in any Reporting Services
Report
- Support
For Oracle Data Sources.
- New
Reporting Services Custom Controls
5)
PASS is an interested and engaged community. How
can we help you shape and improve your product?
"RSinteract is sponsoring a contest for PASS
members. Go to the http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rsinteract.com%2F&id=preview
homepage for news on the promotion. The winner
will receive a free Standard Edition license of
RSinteract."
6) Tell us about licensing
your product.
RSinteract's
simple pricing model facilitates the employment of a
business intelligence solution regardless of the
organization's size and requirements. Three licensing
models exist. For further details including pricing
please visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rsinteract.com%2Fshop&id=preview.
7)
Where can we find out more about it?
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=ddjelbcab.0.0.shoqy6bab.0&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rsinteract.com%2F&id=preview
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PASS
Organization & Mission
PASS
was founded by Microsoft and CA to provide users of SQL
Server a peer network and to help build a body of
expertise to help educate millions of SQL Server users
around the world.
Currently,
PASS is a global community for more than 15,000 SQL
Server professionals. It is the first
independent, user-run, not-for-profit association
dedicated to providing SQL Server users around the world
with the tools and knowledge to achieve
unparalleled business
results.
- Provide
a forum for SQL Server education
- Build
and grow the SQL Server Community
- Facilitate
member networking & provide an infrastructure
to enable the exchange of information within SQL
Server disciplines- DBA/Developers, BI Professionals,
etc.
- Work
with Microsoft to influence the direction of the SQL
Server product and services
- Publish
high quality technical materials including the
Connector & the SQL Server Standard Magazine
- Build
the largest archive of SQL Server reference material
available to users in the world
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