The first day is done here in Denver. It was longer than expected, but as always it was full of information. I started my day by heading over to registration with nothing in my hands except for a piece of paper that said I had paid for the conference. Every year I lug around way too much stuff, so this year I am focusing on traveling as light as possible. So, without even a pen in my hands, I made it to the registration booth and was handed a bag (a saddlebag, actually), a lanyard, and a ribbon that said ‘SPEAKER’. Inside the bag was, among lots of fliers, a notepad and a pen. Success!
After registration I attended a pre-conference seminar on T-SQL querying by Itzik Ben-Gan. Itzik is one of the leading experts when it comes to T-SQL querying and the application of set theory. His talks are very well organized. The only downside for me is trying to understand his accent. There are times when I find myself focusing on a word said previously and I lose the message he is trying to convey.
Itzik covered the use of the OVER clause in SS2K5 and how it can really save a lot of extra code being written. I lost count of the number of times he would point out a problem by saying “…the problem here, of course, is performance.” He would give an example of something in T-SQL that would technically work, but not scale. So, for 1,000 rows it is fine. but for 1,000,000 it is less than desirable. Then, with a few simple lines of code he shows the way that he has found to work best. Unfortunately I am not certain if and when I will ever be able to use a lot of his techniques, but I hope to over time.
Itzik also went over some of the new features in Katmai, such as the MERGE statement. And he finished up with some interesting uses for Common Table Expressions and recursive queries as well as some words about error handling. All in all, the day had enough little nuggets contained to make me feel the talk was a real value. Any time you get a chance to have Itzik demonstrate how to think in sets and apply some T-SQL tricks, it is worth the time.
After the seminar I headed over to the Hyatt lobby to meet with some colleagues. We stayed there for a while, then headed out to a place called the Hi-Dive on South Broadway. I have an old friend who tends bar there a few nights a week, so I wanted to stop by to say hello. Plus, he promised us some karaoke, and we know that Kathi loves karaoke. Unfortunately, there was a live band playing and the karaoke did not get started until too late. We left without singing a note. Oh well, there is always tomorrow.
