Last night at the TechNet evening in Reading I was asked if we are planning an upgrade event. I couldn't say last night, but now I'm glad to say yes we are. In the week starting 5th Decemer we are planning a SQL focus day - during which we will cover...

More and more people are asking me about SQL 2005 training courses and certification. I believe the exams will be ready in Q1 next year. In the meantme, how about access to the training courses absolutely free until 1st November @ https://www.microsoftelearning...

The US marketing people for the Visual Studio and SQL Server product teams are pleased to announce the “Escape from Yesterworld” site has launched. In their own words: "Through the fun and interesting links below, people can learn about the benefits...

Here's another blogcast in the SQL 2000 performance blogcast series out of the States - this time 'Using SQL 2000 Profiler'. This one's a bit long at 11mins 8secs. http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0506/24231/TNT1-160_Demo_3.asx

I'm grateful to T.K. Anand for this useful code snippet which is useful if you're writing a web services client that consumes OLAP data. The following Adomd.net code can be used for saving and loading cellsets… Save: XmlReader xmlReader = command...

If you were given an opportunity to create a “cubed” solution for 50,000 different users, would you create one cube with 50,000 roles? Would you create 50,000 cubes – one for each customer? What would you do? This is what Mosha Pasumansky and Dave...

Are you still using @@IDENTITY? It seems many people are. If you are, are you aware that it might not always return what you expect? No? then read on. @@IDENTITY will return the last IDENTITY column value inserted across any scope in the current session...

A colleague of mine in the States, Rob Caron, is very keen to learn how our customers are deploying Reporting Services; specifically with respect to IIS. When we launched Reporting Services (RS) it was all too easy to say it was a ‘free’ addition to...

Not many people know we have a SQL JDBC driver at all, well now we've got a beta version for SQL Server 2005. It works for a wide variety of OSs including: HP-UX, IBM AIX, Linux, Solaris, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP. Apparently it...

Good news for the chap I met on the 'Ask the Experts' desk at TechEd, who was contemplating jumping through all sorts of hurdles to create reports form Sharepoint data. I couldn't really get my head round the (Sharepoint) problems he foresaw, but I was...

SQL Server 2005 Integration Services - Top Reference Site From the people that brought you www.SQLDTS.com we now have www.SQLIS.com . This is a top website for examples, information, news and links to MSDN, MSDNTV and blogs etc covering Integration...

Another blogcast from the States covering performance tuning in SQL Server 2000, this one covers using index tuning wizard. 6 mins 47 secs http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0506/24231/TNT1-160_Demo_2.asx

Tony Rogerson of the UK SQL User group has asked me to publicise the following User Group meeting 12TH July :: SQL Server 2005 The Home Stretch Euan Garden, Group Program Manager, Microsoft, Redmond. Session 1 (6.15pm - 7.30pm) Come and see/learn...

If you'd like to meet with me to discuss any issues arising from my blog posts, anything SQL, or just to say hello, I will be at the Ask the Experts Info desk, here at TechEd at 11:30 - 2pm. Tuesday. And I'll also be at the Ask the Experts stand at 2...