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• The internal storage of a DATETIMEOFFSET value

  - by Peter Larsson

  Today I went for investigating the internal storage of DATETIME2 datatype. What I found out was that for a datetime2 value with precision 0 (seconds only), SQL Server need 6 bytes to represent the value, but stores 7 bytes. This is because SQL Server add one byte that holds the precision for the datetime2 value. Start with this very simple repro declare    @now datetimeoffset(7) = '2010-12-15 21:04:03.6934231 +03:30'   select     cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(0)) as binary(9)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(1)) as binary(9)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(2)) as binary(9)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(3)) as binary(10)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(4)) as binary(10)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(5)) as binary(11)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(6)) as binary(11)),            cast(cast(@now as datetimeoffset(7)) as binary(11)) Now we are going to copy and paste these binary values and investigate which value is representing what time part. Prefix  Ticks       Ticks         Days    Days    Suffix  Suffix  Original value ------  ----------  ------------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------------------------ 0x  00  0CF700             63244  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x000CF700A8330BD200 0x  01  75A609            632437  A8330B  734120  D200       210 0x0175A609A8330BD200 0x  02  918060           6324369  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x02918060A8330BD200 0x  03  AD05C503        63243693  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x03AD05C503A8330BD200 0x  04  C638B225       632502470  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x04C638B225A8330BD200 0x  05  BE37F67801    6324369342  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x05BE37F67801A8330BD200 0x  06  6F2D9EB90E   63243693423  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x066F2D9EB90EA8330BD200 0x  07  57C62D4093  632436934231  A8330B  734120  D200       210  0x0757C62D4093A8330BD200 Let us use the following color schema Red - Prefix Green - Time part Blue - Day part Purple - UTC offset What you can see is that the date part is equal in all cases, which makes sense since the precision doesn't affect the datepart. If you add 63244 seconds to midnight, you get 17:34:04, which is the correct UTC time. So what is stored is the UTC time and the local time can be found by adding "utc offset" minutes. And if you look at it, it makes perfect sense that each following value is 10 times greater when the precision is increased one step too. //Peter

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• Evolution in coding standards, how do you deal with them?

  - by WardB

  How do you deal with evolution in the coding standards / style guide in a project for the existing code base? Let's say someone on your team discovered a better way of object instantiation in the programming language. It's not that the old way is bad or buggy, it's just that the new way is less verbose and feels much more elegant. And all team members really like it. Would you change all exisiting code? Let's say your codebase is about 500.000+ lines of code. Would you still want to change all existing code? Or would you only let new code adhere to the new standard? Basically lose consistency? How do you deal with an evolution in the coding standards on your project?

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• How to promote/market an event that needs many people?

  - by stjowa

  My team is about to launch a new web application, http://wethepixels.com, that requires a lot of people to be on the site at the same time for the concept to be successful. Our team is preparing to promote/market an event for a specific date and time, in order to try to grab a large group of people to the site at once. For those who have gone through a similar web launch, we would love to hear ideas on the best way to market for a large group in a relatively short period of time. We have created a Facebook page and a Facebook event, but it has yet to grab much attention (surprisingly to us). Is there a better way to attract a large number of users in a short period of time? Thanks

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• PASS: International Travels

  - by Bill Graziano

  Nihao!  One of the largest changes PASS is going through is the the expansion outside the US and Canada.  We’ve had international chapters and events in Europe since the early 2000’s.  But nothing on the scale we’re seeing now.  Since January 1st there have been 18 SQL Saturday events outside North America and 19 events in North America.  We hope to have three international SQLRally events outside the US in FY13 (budget willing).  I don’t know the exact percentage of chapters outside the US but it’s got be 50% or higher. We recently started an effort to remake the Board to better reflect the growing global face of PASS.  This involves assigning some Board seats to geographic regions.  You can ask questions about this in our feedback forum, participate in a Twitter chat or ask questions directly of Board members.  You can email me at if you’d like to ask a question directly.  We’re doing this very slowly and deliberately in hopes that a long communication cycle gives us a chance to address all the issues that our members will raise. After the Summit we passed a budget exception allocating an extra $20,000 for Board members to travel to local events.  I think it’s important for Board members to visit new areas and talk to more of our members.  I sent out an email asking where people had attended events outside their home city.  Here’s the list I got back: Albuquerque, Amsterdam, Boston, Brisbane, Chicago, Colorado Springs, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, London, Louisville, Minneapolis, New York City, Orange County, Orlando, Pensacola, Perth, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Redmond, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Sydney, Tampa Bay, Vancouver, Washington DC and Wellington.  (Disclaimer: Some of this travel was paid for by employers or Board members themselves.  Some of this travel may have been completed before the Summit.  That’s still one heck of a list!) The last SQL Saturday event this fiscal year is SQL Saturday Shanghai.  And that’s one I’m attending.  This is our first event in China and is being put on in cooperation with the local Microsoft office.  Hopefully this event will be the start of a growing community in China that includes chapters, SQL Saturdays and maybe a SQLRally or two in the future.  I’m excited to speak with people that are just starting down this path and watching this community grow. I encourage you to visit the PASS Global Growth site and read through the material there.  This is the biggest change we’ve made to our governance since I’ve been on the Board.  You need to understand how it affects you and how it affects the organization. And wish me luck on the 15 hour flight to Shanghai on Friday afternoon.  Rob Farley flies from Australia to the US for PASS events multiple times per year and I don’t know how he does it so often.  I think one of these is going to wipe me out.  (And Nihao (knee-how) is Chinese for Hello.)

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• Why to avoid SELECT * from tables in your Views

  - by Jeff Smith

  -- clean up any messes left over from before: if OBJECT_ID('AllTeams') is not null  drop view AllTeams go if OBJECT_ID('Teams') is not null  drop table Teams go -- sample table: create table Teams (  id int primary key,  City varchar(20),  TeamName varchar(20) ) go -- sample data: insert into Teams (id, City, TeamName ) select 1,'Boston','Red Sox' union all select 2,'New York','Yankees' go create view AllTeams as  select * from Teams go select * from AllTeams --Results: -- --id          City                 TeamName ------------- -------------------- -------------------- --1           Boston               Red Sox --2           New York             Yankees -- Now, add a new column to the Teams table: alter table Teams add League varchar(10) go -- put some data in there: update Teams set League='AL' -- run it again select * from AllTeams --Results: -- --id          City                 TeamName ------------- -------------------- -------------------- --1           Boston               Red Sox --2           New York             Yankees -- Notice that League is not displayed! -- Here's an even worse scenario, when the table gets altered in ways beyond adding columns: drop table Teams go -- recreate table putting the League column before the City: -- (i.e., simulate re-ordering and/or inserting a column) create table Teams (  id int primary key,  League varchar(10),  City varchar(20),  TeamName varchar(20) ) go -- put in some data: insert into Teams (id,League,City,TeamName) select 1,'AL','Boston','Red Sox' union all select 2,'AL','New York','Yankees' -- Now, Select again for our view: select * from AllTeams --Results: -- --id          City       TeamName ------------- ---------- -------------------- --1           AL         Boston --2           AL         New York -- The column labeled "City" in the View is actually the League, and the column labelled TeamName is actually the City! go -- clean up: drop view AllTeams drop table Teams

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• SQLTeam.com Reader Survey

  I'm conducting a survey of the readers on the site. If you have a few moments I'd appreciate it if you could fill it out. It's only nine questions and will take just a few minutes. I'm trying to learn more about what topics are interesting to SQLTeam readers.

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• Day 2 of Oracle OpenWorld 2012 October 1st

  - by Maria Colgan

  Oracle OpenWorld started yesterday and San Francisco is just buzzing with Oracle folks! If you are attending the conference don't miss the opportunity to chat with the Optimizer development team at one of our technical sessions or at the Oracle Demo grounds. Our first technical session(Session CON8455) happens tomorrow at 1:15pm but the Oracle Optimizer Demo booth opens today. We are located in the database demo grounds, in Moscone South, booth number 3157. Members of the Optimizer team will be available from 9:45am to 6pm today, to answer any Optimizer questions you might have and of course to dole out our limited edition Optimizer bumper stickers! The must have souvenir from this years conference +Maria Colgan

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• The JDEdwards EnterpriseOne PreSales University

  - by Julien Haye

  Istanbul NOV 5-9 Wednesday, NOV 7 - It is raining outside and I am sitting in my hotel room (#106) in Istanbul and create my first blog entry. Today this blog was enabled and I am excited to have the ability to share my (first) thoughts with the EMEA JDE Partner Community. I am here in Istanbul because we are currently running the JDEdwards PreSales University Event series. This PreSales University is an established event series which we deliver the fifth time now and the first time in the ECEMEA region. Delegates value the openness and competence from the Product Strategy and Product Development Team from Denver and India. Together with the regional Oracle PreSales team we had very valuable discussions around product features and functions and about the business value of the new delivered applications and tools. Additionally the event provides endless opportunities to exchange ideas with other JD Edwards Partner and the Oracle PreSales Team. With its focus on sharing and learning, best practice, user experience and transforming technologies, delegates will leave this event with an abundance of new ideas and best practices to try for your coming projects and existing customer implementations. A day out of the office gives delegates a chance to gain a new perspective on their business processes. Everybody sees better ways of working just by being immersed in an environment where the focus is on using products more effectively. Apps Track: Highly concentrated participants in Istanbul listening to Jeff Erickson presenting the news about OneView Reporting. Jeff: We believe “The things you said”. The event is organized into two tracks, one for Apps and one for Tech. Everybody was able to learn new features and functions and how to position this products. The focus was on the new Apps release 9.1 and Tools Release 9.1.2 and their Value Propositions. For all topics hands-on exercises has been given to the participants. Even very experienced senior consultants did learn a lot from this event. In total we have 55 people registered and we still have some more content to deliver. By the way: Istanbul is a nice place to be. I already booked my next trip to this beautiful city. In two weeks we deliver the JD Edwards EECIS Executive Forum again in Istanbul. Once again a tough Agenda. I will let you know if I had the ability to have a walk outside and see a bit more of this beautiful city. At least I expect to have a different room number. Many greetings Hartmut WieseOracle Alliances & Channels EMEA

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• UPK & Tutor Customer Roundtable Discussions

  - by [email protected]

  UPK & Tutor Developers are a creative bunch and we hear from lots of customers using our tools in a variety of ways that bring value to their organizations. A large retail organization uses UPK to teach cash handling skills at each of their stores, a national packaging company uses it for their phone system training. A university's technical team uses UPK to capture customizations that are being made to their HCM and FIN applications, building a library of topics purely for the technical team around how customizations were done including who requested them and why. When it comes time to upgrade, it's easy for them to determine if a customization needs to be carried forward and if so, they know exactly how it was done previously. Almost every customer has a story, and we've captured some of them via our quarterly UPK & Tutor Customer Roundtable iSeminar series and we continue to add more. Click this link to hear how customers like you are using UPK & Tutor in their organizations. Who knows, you may pick up some new tricks to wow your colleagues and management!

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• Introducing Agile development after traditional project inception

  - by Riggy

  About a year and a half ago, I entered a workplace that claimed to do Agile development. What I learned was that this place has adopted several agile practices (such as daily standups, sprint plannings and sprint reviews) but none of the principles (just in time / just good enough mentality, exposing failure early, rich communication). I've now been tasked with making the team more agile and I've been assured that I have complete buy-in from the devs and the business team. As a pilot program, they've given me a project that just completed 15 months of requirements gathering, has a 110 page Analysis & Design document (to be considered as "written in stone"), and where I have no access to the end users (only to the committee made up of the users' managers who won't actually be using the product). I started small, giving them a list of expected deliverables for the first 5 sprints (leaving the future sprints undefined), a list of goals for the first sprint, and I dissected the A&D doc to get enough user stories to meet the first sprint's goals. Since then, they've asked why we don't have all the requirements for all the sprints, why I haven't started working on stuff for the third sprint (which they consider more important but is based off of the deliverables of the first 2 sprints) and are pressing for even more documentation that my entire IT team considers busy-work or un-related to us (such as writing the user manual up-front, documenting all the data fields from all the sprints up front, and more "up-front" work). This has been pretty rough for me as a new project manager, but there are improvements I have effectively implemented such as scrumban for story management, pair programming, and having the business give us customer acceptance tests up front (as part of the requirements documentation). So my questions are: What can I do to more effectively introduce change to a resistant business? Are there other practices that I can introduce on the IT side to help show the business the benefits of agile? The burden of documentation is strangling us - the business still sees it as a risk management strategy instead of as a risk. What can we do to alleviate their documentation concerns and demands (specifically the quantity of documentation and their need for all of it up front)? We are in a separate building from our business, about 3 blocks away and they refuse to have their people on the project co-habitate b/c that person "won't be able to work on their other projects while they're at our building." They expect us to always go over there and to bundle our questions so that we can ask them all at once and not waste that person's time with "constant interruptions." What can we do to get richer communication from them? Any additional advice would also be appreciated. Thanks!

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• How to Build Your Own Siri App In a Browser

  - by ultan o'broin

  This post from Applications User Experience team co-worker Mark Vilrokx (@mvilrokx) about building your own Siri-style voice app in a browser using Rails, Chrome, and WolframAlpha is so just good you've now got it thrice! I love these kind of How To posts. They not only show off innovation but inspire others to try it out too. Love the sharing of the code snippets too. Hat tip to Jake at the AppsLab (and now on board with the Applications UX team too) for picking up the original All Things Rails blog post. Oracle Voice & Nuance demo on the Oracle Applications User Experience Usable Apps YouTube Channel Mark recently presented on Oracle Voice at the Oracle Usability Advisory Board on Oracle Voice and Oracle Fusion Applications and opened customers and partners eyes to how this technology can work for their users in the workplace and what's coming down the line! Great job, Mark.

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• ClearTrace Supports Statement Level Events

  - by Bill Graziano

  One of the requests I get on a regular basis is to capture the performance of statement level events.  The latest beta has this feature available.  If you’re interested in this I’d like to get some feedback. I handle the SP:StmtCompleted and the SQL:StmtCompleted events.  These report CPU, reads, writes and duration. I’m not in any way saying it’s a good idea to trace these events.  Use with caution as this can make your traces much larger. If there are statement level events in the trace file they will be processed.  However the query screen displays batch level *OR* statement level events.  If it did both we’d be double counting. I don’t have very many traces with statement completed events in them.  That means I only did limited testing of how it parses these events.  It seems to work well so far though.  Your feedback is appreciated. If you ever write loops or cursors in stored procedures you’re going to get huge trace files.  Be warned. I also fixed an annoying bug where ClearTrace would fail and tell you a value had already been added.  This is a result of the collection I use being case-sensitive and SQL Server not being case-sensitive.  I thought I had properly coded around that but finally realized I hadn’t.  It should be fixed now. If you have any questions or problems the ClearTrace support forum is the best place for those.

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• Tell me a Story

  - by Geoff N. Hiten

  I recently had a friend ask me to review his resume.  He is a very experienced DBA with excellent skills.  If I had an opening I would have hired him myself.  But not because of the resume.  I know his skill set and skill levels, but there is no way his standard resume can convey that.  A bare bones list of job titles and skills does not set you apart from your competition, nor does it convey whether you have junior or senior level skills and experience.  The solution is to not use the standard format. Tell me a story.  I want to know what you were responsible for.  Describe a tough project and how you saved time/money/personnel on that project.  Link your work activity to business value.  Drop some technical bits in there since we do work in a technical field, but show me what you can do to add value to my business well above what I would pay you.  That will get my attention. The resume exists for one primary and one secondary reason.  The primary reason is to get the interview.  A Resume won’t get you a job, so don’t expect it to.  The secondary reason is to give you and the interviewer a starting point for conversations.  If I can say “Tell me more about when….” and reference an item from your resume, then that is great for both of us.  Of course, you better be able to tell me more, both from the technical and the business side, at least if I am hiring a senior or higher level position.  As for the junior DBAs, go ahead and tell your story too.  Don’t worry about how simple or basic your projects or solutions seem.  It is how you solved the problem and what you learned that I am looking for.  If you learn rapidly and think like a DBA, I can work with that, regardless of you current skill level.

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• PASS Summit 2011 &ndash; Part I

  - by Tara Kizer

  What an amazing week I had at PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle, WA!  I hadn’t attended a PASS conference since September of 2005 when it was in Grapevine, Texas.  It has grown so much since then.  I am not sure how many people attended back then, but I’d guesstimate about 1500.  They announced that at this year’s conference there were 4000 attendees.  WOW! Here are my favorite aspects of this conference: Networking! – Not only did I meet a lot of new people, but I also got to meet people in person that I’ve known on the Internet for years like Mladen Prajdic (blog|twitter) and Rob Volk (blog|twitter).  I even met someone that I’d recently helped out in the SQLTeam forums.  Learning – I took a lot of notes during the sessions I attended and plan on blogging very soon about them.  It is amazing the amount of things you learn and the things that you unlearn.  Yes I said unlearn.  Some of the stuff that I thought I knew was either out-dated or just plain wrong.  Fun, fun, fun – To say that this conference was fun would be an understatement.  I had a blast!  I attended the “Welcome Reception and Quizbowl” on Tuesday night, the “Exhibitor Reception” on Wednesday night, and the “Community Appreciation Party” at GameWorks on Thursday night.  There were many other after-hours events to attend, but I had to make my kids a priority at night so I had to get back to my hotel room before 9pm so that I could Skype with them.   It was very entertaining reading and posting with #sqlpass on Twitter.  Twitter has changed the conference experience for the better.  I will definitely be able to do my job better due to attending this conference.  The return on investment is HUGE!

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• Some datatypes doesn't honor localization

  - by Peter Larsson

  This bug has haunted me for a while, until today when I decided to not accept it anymore. So I filed a bug over at connect.microsoft.com, https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/636074/some-datatypes-doesnt-honor-localization, and if you feel the way I do, please vote for this bug to be fixed. Here is a very simple repro of the problem DECLARE  @Sample TABLE          (              a DECIMAL(38, 19),              b FLOAT          ) INSERT   @Sample          (              a,              b          ) VALUES   (1E / 7E, 1E / 7E) SELECT   * FROM     @Sample Here is the actual output.                                       a                      b --------------------------------------- ----------------------                   0.1428571428571428400      0,142857142857143   I think that both columns should have the same decimal separator, don't you? //Peter

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• How to calculate the covariance in T-SQL

  - by Peter Larsson

  DECLARE @Sample TABLE         (             x INT NOT NULL,             y INT NOT NULL         ) INSERT  @Sample VALUES  (3, 9),         (2, 7),         (4, 12),         (5, 15),         (6, 17) ;WITH cteSource(x, xAvg, y, yAvg, n) AS (         SELECT  1E * x,                 AVG(1E * x) OVER (PARTITION BY (SELECT NULL)),                 1E * y,                 AVG(1E * y) OVER (PARTITION BY (SELECT NULL)),                 COUNT(*) OVER (PARTITION BY (SELECT NULL))         FROM    @Sample ) SELECT  SUM((x - xAvg) *(y - yAvg)) / MAX(n) AS [COVAR(x,y)] FROM    cteSource

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• What's the most effective way to perform code reviews?

  - by Paddyslacker

  I've never found the ideal way to perform code reviews and yet often my customers require them. Each customer seems to do them in a different way and I've never felt satisfied in any of them. What has been the most effective way for you to perform code reviews? For example: Is one person regarded as the gatekeeper for quality and reviews the code, or do the team own the standard? Do you do review code as a team exercise using a projector? Is it done in person, via email or using a tool? Do you eschew reviews and use things like pair programming and collective code ownership to ensure code quality?

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• Visiting China

  - by Bill Graziano

  This summer I had the chance to visit China.  My brother and his wife are living in China and teaching English.  I spent a little over two weeks in Shanghai, Suzhou and Yancheng.  During that time I wrote some detailed updates for family and a few close friends on the impressions of a good Midwestern kid visiting the Middle Kingdom. I dumped them all into one document, did a little editing and now they’re posted.  You can download it here.  Below you can see my futile attempts to eat using chopsticks and me posing as a tourist on Nanjing Road in Shanghai.  The only thing I can say about chopsticks is that I didn’t starve.

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• Number of Weeks between 2 Dates in SQL Server and Oracle

  This post gives you queries in Oracle and SQL Server to find number of weeks between 2 given dates Microsoft SQL Server Syntax: SELECT DATEDIFF (ww, '01/01/1753', '12/31/9999'); Oracle Syntax: SELECT floor(              (to_date('12/31/9999','mm/dd/yyyy')               - to_date('01/01/1753','mm/dd/yyyy')              )              / 7) diff FROM DUAL; span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• Rolling Along: PASS Board Year 2, Q2

  - by Denise McInerney

  Eighteen months into my time as a PASS Director I’m especially proud of what the Virtual Chapters have accomplished and want to share that progress with you. I'm also pleased that the organization has invested more resources to support the VCs. In this quarter I got to attend two conferences and meet more members of the SQL community. Virtual Chapters In the first six months of 2013 VCs have hosted more than 50 webinars, offering free technical education to over 6200 attendees. This is a great benefit to PASS members; thanks to the VC leaders, volunteers and speakers who contribute their time to produce these events. The Performance VC held their “Summer Performance Palooza”, an event featuring eight back-to-back sessions. Links to the session recordings can be found on the VCs web site. The new webinar platform, GoToWebinar, has been rolled out to all the VCs. This is a more stable, scalable platform and represents an important investment into the future of the VCs. A few new VCs are in the planning stages, including one focused on Security and one for Russian speakers. Visit the Virtual Chapter home page to sign up for the chapters that interest you. Each Virtual Chapter is offering a discount code for PASS Summit 2013. Be sure to ask your VC leader for the code to save $200 on Summit registration. 24 Hours of PASS The next 24HOP will be on July 31. This Summit Preview edition will feature 24 consecutive webcasts presented by experts who will be speaking at Summit in October. Registration for this free event is open now. And we will be using the GoToWebinar platform for 24HOP also. Business Analytics Conference April marked the first PASS Business Analytics Conference in Chicago. This introduced PASS to another segment of data professionals: the analysts and data scientists who work with the world’s growing collection of data. Overall the inaugural event was a success and gave us a glimpse into this increasingly important space. After Chicago the Board had several serious discussions about the lessons learned from this seven and what we should do next. We agreed to apply those lessons and continue to invest in this event; there will be a PASS Business Analytics Conference in 2014. I’m very pleased the next event will be in San Jose, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley, a place where a great deal of investment and innovation in data analytics is taking place. Global SQL Community Over the last couple of years PASS has been taking steps to become more relevant to SQL communities in different parts of the world. In May I had the opportunity to attend SQL Bits XI in Nottingham, England. It was enlightening to meet and talk with SQL professionals from around the U.K. as well as many other European countries. The many SQL Bits volunteers put on a great event and were gracious hosts. Budgets The Board passed the FY14 budget at the end of June. The  budget process can be challenging and requires the Board to make some difficult choices about where to allocate resources. Overall I’m satisfied with the decisions we made and think we are investing in the right activities and programs. Next Up The Board is meeting July 18-19 in Kansas City. We will be holding the Executive Committee election for the Exec Co that will take office in 2014. We will also be discussing plans for the next BA conference as well as the next steps for our Global Growth initiative. Applications for the upcoming Board of Directors election open on July 24. If you are considering running for the Board you can visit the PASS elections site to learn more about the election process. And I encourage anyone considering running to reach out to current and past Board members to learn about what the role entails. Plans for the next PASS Summit are in full swing. We are working on some fun new ideas to introduce attendees to the many ways to become involved in the SQL community.

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• To My 24 Year Old Self, Wherever You Are&hellip;

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  A decade is a milestone in one’s life, regardless of when it occurs. 2011 might seem like a weird year to mark a decade, but 2001 was a defining year for me. It marked my emergence into the technology industry, an unexpected loss of innocence, and triggered an ongoing struggle with faith and belief. Once you go through a valley, climbing the mountain and looking back over where you travelled, you can take in the entirety of the journey. Over the last 10 years I kept journals, and in this new year I took some time to review them. For those today that are me a decade ago, I share with you what I’ve gleamed from my experiences. Take it for what it’s worth, and safe travels on your own journeys through life. Life is a Performance-Based Sport Have confidence, believe you’re capable, but realize that life is a performance-based sport. Everything you get in life is based on whether you can show that you deserve it. Performance is also your best defense against personal attacks. Just make sure you know what standards you’re expected to hit and if people want to poke holes at you let them do the work of trying to find them. Sometimes performance won’t matter though. Good things will happen to bad people, and bad things to good people. What’s important is that you do the right things and ensure the good and bad even out in your own life. How you finish is just as important as how you start. Start strong, end strong. Respect is Your Most Prized Reward Respect is more important than status or ego. The formula is simple: Performing Well + Building Trust + Showing Dedication = Respect Focus on perfecting your craft and helping your team and respect will come. Life is a Team Sport Whatever aspect of your life, you can’t do it alone. You need to rely on the people around you and ensure you’re a positive aspect of their lives; even those that may be difficult or unpleasant. Avoid criticism and instead find ways to help colleagues and superiors better whatever environment you’re in (work, home, etc.). Don’t just highlight gaps and issues, but also come to the table with solutions. At the same time though, stand up for yourself and hold others accountable for the commitments they make to the team. A healthy team needs accountability. Give feedback early and often, and make it verbal. Issues should be dealt with immediately, and positives should be celebrated as they happen. Life is a Contact Sport Difficult moments will happen. Don’t run from them or shield yourself from experiencing them. Embrace them. They will further mold you and reveal who you will become. Find Your Tribe and Embrace Your Community We all need a tribe: a group of people that we gravitate to for support, guidance, wisdom, and friendship. Discover your tribe and immerse yourself in them. Don’t look for a non-existent tribe just to fill the need of belonging though that will leave you empty and bitter when they don’t meet your unrealistic expectations. Try to associate with people more experienced and more knowledgeable than you. You’ll always learn, and you’ll always remember you have much to learn. Put yourself out there, get involved with the community. Opportunities will present themselves. When we open ourselves up to be vulnerable, we also give others the chance to do the same. This helps us all to grow and help each other, it’s very important. And listen to your wife. (Easter *is* a romantic holiday btw, regardless of what you may think.) Don’t Believe Your Own Press Clippings (and by that I mean the ones you write) Until you have a track record of performance to refer to, any notions of grandeur are just that: notions. You lose your rookie status through trials and tribulations, not by the number of stamps in your passport. Be realistic about your own “experience and leadership” and be honest when you aren’t ready for something. And always remember: nobody really cares about you as much as you think they do. Don’t Let Assholes Get You Down The world isn’t evil, but there is evil in the world. Know the difference and don’t paint all people with the same brush. Do be wary of those that use personal beliefs to describe their business (i.e. “We’re a [religion] company”). What matters is the culture of the organization, and that will tell you the moral compass and what is truly valued. Don’t make someone or something a priority that only makes you an option. Life is unfair and enemies/opponents will succeed when you fail. Don’t waste your energy getting upset at this; the only one that will lose out is you. As mentioned earlier, nobody really cares about you as much as you think they do. Misc Ecclesiastes is bullshit. Everything is certainly *not* meaningless. Software development is about delivery, not the process. Having a great process means nothing if you don’t produce anything. Watch “The Weatherman” (“It’s not easy, but easy doesn’t enter into grownup life.”). Read Tony Dungee’s autobiography, even if you don’t like football, and even if you aren’t a Christian. Say no, don’t feel like you have to commit right away when someone asks you to.

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• My Graduate Experience at Oracle by Mayuri Khinvasara

  - by david.talamelli

  My experience at Oracle. I still vividly remember the day, when my name was announced in the campus hiring list of Oracle at my college. I was proud of myself but at the same time, I was getting goose bumps!!! A new world had arrived before me and the anxiousness of whether I could survive it or not had gripped me. Nervous about moving into an unknown city, I came to visit Hyderabad with my father. One look at the Oracle Campus and I felt some kind of magnetism pulling me towards it. And then, I joined Oracle in June 2009, with a lot of apprehensions in my mind. The HR Rep made us really comfortable in the first week itself. I met so many new people, managers, HR folks and most importantly 20 other Campus Hires like me. Then we had our team bonding sessions, team parties etc. I didn’t realize when the transition from campus to corporate happened. And I had started loving it. The confidence the HR Reps gave us and the bonding our managers imbibed in us, made us all ready for the new life ahead. Then started the rigorous training sessions, the excitement about our new work, new cubicles, new desktops, our first business cards, our first conference call and so on. I made new friends which were now my extended family, the freedom and courage of living alone. I was enjoying all that. As I was getting totally immersed into my regular work schedule I started getting to know the innumerable Oracle products, their functionalities, implementations and realizing the brand that Oracle is. Work pressure started increasing and so did the challenges to understand and deliver. I Didn’t realize how days and soon months passed by. Then came a golden chance to visit the Oracle Headquarters in US for 45 days training in November 2009. Once again, the excitement was enormous about the counter team-mates in HQ, the trainings ahead, the US work culture and my stay there. I felt so privileged for the company I was working. Boarding an international flight for the first time and visiting famous US cities which I had just seen in movies, was now a reality. It was a totally amazing experience. Work pressure kept me really busy, with learning new things every day, the immense satisfaction of delivering something, the nightmares of debugging a mistake, only to realize how silly it was.  I was enjoying the process. Soon a year passed by. I had transformed into this corporate software professional, I couldn’t believe I could be. Today, I complete 1 year and 8 months at Oracle and continue to look forward to the enriching experience I will have here. Truly one of the Top Companies in the World. Mayuri Khinvasara

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• PASS: The Legal Stuff

  - by Bill Graziano

  I wanted to give a little background on the legal status of PASS.  The Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) is an American corporation chartered in the state of Illinois.  In America a corporation has to be chartered in a particular state.  It has to abide by the laws of that state and potentially pay taxes to that state.  Our bylaws and actions have to comply with Illinois state law and United States law.  We maintain a mailing address in Chicago, Illinois but our headquarters is currently in Vancouver, Canada. We have roughly a dozen people that work in our Vancouver headquarters and 4-5 more that work remotely on various projects.  These aren’t employees of PASS.  They are employed by a management company that we hire to run the day to day operations of the organization.  I’ll have more on this arrangement in a future post. PASS is a non-profit corporation.  The term non-profit and not-for-profit are used interchangeably.  In a for-profit corporation (or LLC) there are owners that are entitled to the profits of a company.  In a non-profit there are no owners.  As a non-profit, all the money earned by the organization must be retained or spent.  There is no money that flows out to shareholders, owners or the board of directors.  Any money not spent in furtherance of our mission is retained as financial reserves. Many non-profits apply for tax exempt status.  Being tax exempt means that an organization doesn’t pay taxes on its profits.  There are a variety of laws governing who can be tax exempt in the United States.  There are many professional associations that are tax exempt however PASS isn’t tax exempt.  Because our mission revolves around the software of a single company we aren’t eligible for tax exempt status. PASS was founded in the late 1990’s by Microsoft and Platinum Technologies.  Platinum was later purchased by Computer Associates. As the founding partners Microsoft and CA each have two seats on the Board of Directors.  The other six directors and three officers are elected as specified in our bylaws. As a non-profit, our bylaws layout our governing practices.  They must conform to Illinois and United States law.  These bylaws specify that PASS is governed by a Board of Directors elected by the membership with two members each from Microsoft and CA.  You can find our bylaws as well as a proposed update to them on the governance page of the PASS web site. The last point that I’d like to make is that PASS is completely self-funded.  All of our $4 million in revenue comes from conference registrations, sponsorships and advertising.  We don’t receive any money from anyone outside those channels.  While we work closely with Microsoft we are independent of them and only derive a very small percentage of our revenue from them.

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• SQL Server Version

  I'm continually trying to track down what service packs are installed on various SQL Servers I support. I can never find the right support page on Microsoft's site. So here's an article with all the SQL Server version information I can track down. If you know of any older versions or can help me fill out any missing data, please post in the comments and I'll update the article.

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• Efficiently Reuse Gaps in an Identity Column

  This article will demonstrate an efficient way to reuse gaps in an identity column. Please note that this is something you normally shouldn't be bothered about in a well-designed database or application. However, there are circumstances where you are forced to do this.

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