2009 January | SQLRockstar

Mister Sunshine

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 30, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I am certain that everyone who knows me would describe me as the most optimistic person they have ever met.
What? What do you mean, “no”?
Okay, okay, I admit that there are times that I am not always Mister Sunshine. And apparently this is something that not only hurts me when I interact with others, but [...]

SIG Framework

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 29, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

I am putting together the framework for how to define a PASS Special Interest Group and it suddenly hit me: I love this stuff. This is what I want to do with my career, I want to build things. It could be a product, or a community, but the idea that I have some much [...]

Wayne Manor Cost Cutting

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 29, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Hard times have fallen upon stately Wayne Manor. We have decided to start cutting out some of the services that are no longer required. One such service is TiVo. I will be sad to see TiVo go, but truthfully we do not use the DVR all that much these days. In fact, I often find [...]

SQL Server 2008 Hands On Lab

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 27, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

Today I took part in a SQL 2008 Hands-on-Lab at the Microsoft office in Farmington, CT. I know what you are thinking, “Hey, didn’t that guy already take part in that lab last week? What gives? How many times is he going to skip out on a day in the office for a day in [...]

How to Become a Microsoft SQL MVP

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 26, 2009 ⋅ 9 comments

So this past weekend I got myself an xbox 360 so that I could hook into my Netflix to watch movies instantly. At the same time I decided to ditch my TiVo as well as my old DVD player. So, a consolidation of sorts in terms of hardware, remotes, and monthly budget. While poking around [...]

My Vision for the PASS SIGs

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 23, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

I wanted to share with everyone my overall vision for the PASS Special Interest Groups. My role on the PASS Board of Directors is to coordinate and lead the SIGs to…somewhere. In the past no one has known where that place was, and often times the SIGs were simply left adrift. About two weeks ago [...]

Vision

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 21, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

So last night I wrote about two things. First, that I was somewhat uncertain about what I will do to lead the PASS SIGs in the coming year. Second, about whale bacon (which prompted a comment from the most holy The Bloggess which has lifted my spirits quite high).
Then I remembered about how Obama promised to [...]

Whale Bacon

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 21, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments

So the other night at dinner someone starting talking about how there is a movement to give land rights to gay whales which makes no sense to me because I don’t see how the whales are ever going to be able to maintain any land that they are given. They don’t even have thumbs, but we [...]

PASS Board Meeting, Day 1

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 20, 2009 ⋅ 3 comments

Well, I managed to get through the first day of the PASS Board meeting. I found myself wishing that Tim Ford was there, just so I would not be the dumbest guy in the room. Then I realized that even with him there it would still be me so I didn’t know what else to [...]

SQL 2008 Lab at MTC-Waltham

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ January 19, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

I was fortunate to take part in a two day lab at the Microsoft Tech Center in Waltham last week. The lab was set up to assist people in migration of their SQL 2000 or SQL 2005 database to SQL2008. If you are running a version of MS SQL earlier than SQL 2000 you would [...]