[Sorry I have been a little absent over the past couple of weeks. Returning from the Olympics just a little over a week ago meant some busy catch-up and a heavy lead-in to today's event.] Today I spoke at SQL Saturday #33 in Charlotte, NC. My presentation...(read more)

I've been invited to speak at SQLSaturday #33 in Charlotte at the beginning of next month. There are 9 tracks and a total of 54 sessions, with a great variety of sessions and a superb speaker lineup. You can check out the schedule here: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/33/schedule.aspx...(read more)

Simon Sabin has asked for better usability in the SQL Server Agent log viewer: specifically, to allow you to get to job / step properties directly from the history viewer. #531889 : Allow access to job details from the log file viewer to improve manageability...(read more)

Upgrading a database with read-only filegroups Earlier today, I complained that I should be able to upgrade a database with read-only filegroups. In this case an upgrade from, say, 2000 to 2005 is blocked because the engine can't update the system schema...(read more)

Today I presented ''Management Studio Tips & Tricks'' at SQL Saturday #34 in Waltham, MA. I had an audience of close to 100 (my biggest talk yet!), and unless they were stroking my ego, I achieved my primary goal for the session: to make sure that every...(read more)

Give us easier to read execution plans Michelle Ufford ( @SQLFool ) recently asked for help pinpointing the most expensive node(s) in a complicated execution plan. Mladen Prajdic ( @MladenPrajdic ) has a useful workaround; he coded up a quick query to...(read more)

Control over procedure cache We are still waiting for more control over procedure cache. Adam Machanic wrote up this blog post highlighting a Connect item which he opened in 2007. It is currently closed as ''won't fix'' but it's been shown time and time...(read more)

I am putting together a presentation on SSMS Tips & Tricks, which I will debut at SQL Saturday #34 . I already have a pretty full slide deck, but I am not the be-all and end-all of SSMS, so in the interest of distributing this information as widely...(read more)

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 here . This is version 10.50.1352.12. The full version is an evaluation...(read more)

Here is your weekly helping of Connect goodness. I added two items from the Connect connection, and an item from the Visual Studio connection. ================================================= #500228 : Default Data Location Not Being Written To Registry...(read more)