Monthly Archive: November 2009

My career While I am no Kalen or Paul or Itzik or Erland (or… the list could go on and on), I am very thankful that I have been able to shape a moderately...

Can we improve on CHECKSUM()? Mike C# is not happy with the reliability of CHECKSUM() and asks for a better function that has less (or no) chance of collisions. #513376 : A Better Collision-Free...

SSMS needs to support today's (and tomorrow's) number of cores Apparently when you try to get to the server properties page where CPUs are displayed, the UI is not equipped to handle 96 cores. ...

In our environment, we run the task scheduler as a cluster resource, so that scheduled tasks always run on the active node.  (In ancient history, we would have scheduled tasks that weren't cluster aware...

I see a lot of people trash-talking the EAV (entity-attribute-value) model.  If you want the full story on EAV, I recommend you read the Wikipedia entry.  Basically this is the situation where instead of...

For those of you watching over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed an out-of-band, mid-CU-cycle update to SQL Server 2008 SP1.  The fix to a cluster issue was available only for...

If you are using SQL Server 2005 or 2008 Analysis Services, and have been keeping up to date with hotfixes cumulative updates, you may have been adversely affected by a previous round (and your...

Cart before the horse Last week, a fix for SQL Server 2008 SP1 CU #4 was quietly slipped into the CU4 download page.  CU4 was build 10.0.2734, but you could have easily grabbed 10.0.2740...

I posted earlier that the Express Edition of Management Studio for SQL Server 2008 R2 (November CTP) is now available for download. During the first few pages in the setup wizard, I was certain...

For those of you that have been wanting to try out SQL Server 2008 R2, you can download the November CTP of Express here (posted yesterday) and the full version of the November CTP...

Having just returned from PASS, I needed to play catch up on a few things in a stored procedure that was being developed before I left.  Being a little frazzled still, I could not...

Back on September 21/22, Microsoft released its most recent cumulative updates for SQL Server 2008.  For RTM, this was Cumulative Update #7 (10.00.1818), and for SP1, this was Cumulative Update #4 (10.00.2734). However, if...

Wow, what a week!  I am just settling in back home after a week away, most of which I spent at the PASS summit in Seattle.  Whether you were there or not, you might...

This week I've been at PASS, so haven't spent a whole lot of time digging into new Connect issues.  There was one raised today where the new += syntax in SQL Server 2008 can...

Bill Graziano took the stage and promised us the shortest keynote yet.  He started by giving thanks to outgoing board members Greg Low, Pat Wright and Kevin Kline.  Wayne Snyder took over and gave...

Rushabh Mehta, PASS President of Finance What makes PASS run?  He mentioned CA and Microsoft as founding members.  But the overwhelming response from the crowd: we're more interested in free drinks. Stressed financial transparency...

Highlights We were told that there is going to be a November CTP of SQL Server 2008 R2.  There are two new editions planned for the RTM release: DataCenter Edition (256 logical processors, unlimited...