Instead of the January meeting, we are hosting SQL Saturday #104 on January 7th, 2012. If you haven't already, register now!

The Holiday Party is here! Sign up now! It will be Wednesday, December 7th at Mr. Biggs. We'll have VIP lanes reserved for Bowling! With special thanks to RedGate, we will also provide an actual dinner (not just appetizers) and Laser Tag! Bring your family! We'll have tons of fun! Sign up here: sqlchristmas.eventbrite.com

Wednesday, November 16th at 5:30 pm

101 Session: "A Journey Through the Metadata Catalog" by Troy Ketsdever
In this interactive session, we will explore the system catalog views that tell us about the schema and structure of your database. Navigating the views via their logical relationships, we will examine representative queries and their utility for learning about your db design.

Bio: Troy Ketsdever is a data architect with over 15 years of commercial software development experience, and has maintained a love/hate relationship with SQL Server since version 4.2. In addition to his "day job", Troy enjoys writing articles and presenting at user groups on a variety of database design and implementation topics. His main objective and vision is “making the right information available to the right people at the right time.

Main Session: "SQL Server Performance Tuning" by Mark Halstead
SQL Server performance tuning with an emphasis on finding the bottlenecks, Query design problems and database design problems.

Bio: Mark Halstead is the SQL Server technical lead dba for Xtivia working in the Virtual-DBA group. He had been with Xtivia, Inc. for 5 years and has worked with SQL Server for more than 15 years. He has worked in IT for 20+ years specializing in database administration.

 Wednesday, October 19th at 5:30 pm

101 Session: "This is SQL Jeopardy!" with your host Rebecca Mitchell

The category is “Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group”. The clue is “A thrilling, mettle-proving battleground of fun in which knowledge of SQL is proven amongst peers in 20 glorious minutes!” If you said “What is SQL Jeopardy?” you are absolutely right!  Join our very own T-“Do Not Call Me Alex” SQL Princess in our first ever SQL Jeopardy as we set our members against one another to determine who will be crowned the SQL Jeopardy Champion!

Bio: Rebecca is currently a database administrator with six fun-filled years of experience in SQL Server administration and development. With a background in a variety of technologies, she possesses over twelve years of notable success in providing and implementing technology solutions in an assortment of industries including aerospace manufacturing, container shipping, and local government. Sometimes referred to as the “T-SQL Princess,” she is also the Vice President of Marketing for the Colorado Springs SQL Server User Group and an overall goofball.

Main Session: "Devs are from Mars, Report Servers are from Venus" by Doug Lane

Do you remember what it was like to fall in love? Wasn't it wonderful? Lately it just hasn't been the same. You've been stuck in the same old routine, doing the same old charts and tables. Maybe Reporting Services doesn’t tell you what’s wrong. Maybe you're even thinking about seeing other reporting products (!) In this session, Doug will re-ignite your passion for RS by showing you how to design for better performance, explaining what RS has been trying to tell you through logs (but you haven't been listening), and demonstrating some new -- and easy -- tricks you may not have known RS can do. After this session, you'll want to spend some time alone with your new old flame.

Bio: Doug (MCTS) is a business intelligence, database, and sometimes ASP.NET/C# developer with ten years experience using Microsoft web and database products in the agriculture, insurance, taxonomy, and healthcare industries. He currently works for University Physicians, Inc. as a BI developer.Contact URL: http://www.douglane.net

Wednesday, September 21st at 5:30 pm

101 Session: "10 Things I Wish I Knew Then" by Chris Shaw

Have you ever looked back at your life or decisions you have made and said….  I wish I would have known that 10 years ago.  In this short but quick session I will share with you the 10 things I wish I had known then, that I know now.

Main Session: "Detecting and Correcting Database Design Anomalies" by Troy Ketsdever

It's nice when, as database developers, we have a clean slate to work with. Most of the time, however, we inherit and must support existing designs and implementations (or, perhaps even worse - revisit a design we deployed long ago before we "knew the ropes"). To add to the challenge, more often than not documentation of the database doesn't exist or is out-of-date with respect to the production system.In this session, we'll look at some tools, techniques, and scripts that will accelerate your understanding of that beast you're now in charge of supporting and extending, with a focus on identifying and correcting design and implementation anomalies.

 Bio: Troy Ketsdever is a data architect with over 15 years of commercial software development experience, and has maintained a love/hate relationship with SQL Server since version 4.2. In addition to his "day job", Troy enjoys writing articles and presenting at user groups on a variety of database design and implementation topics.
His main objective and vision is “making the right information available to the right people at the right time”.

When not attempting to wrangle logical conundrums (aka, constraint-less dbs), he enjoys empirical testing via field trials of various aspects of fluid dynamics, particularly with respect to gravitational interactions on deformable dynamic structures in gaseous mediums.

Wednesday, August 17 at 5:30 pm

101 Session: Intro to "Denali" SQL Server Security

Get up to speed on the new security features in "Denali", the next version of SQL Server. Disclose the new permissions, roles and encryption added to Denali. You'll discover some commonly overlooked practices in securing your SQL Server databases. Learn about physical security, passwords, privileges and roles, and preventative best practices. I'll demonstrate auditing and .Net code samples to use on your applications to prevent vulnerabilities.

Originally from El Paso, Texas, Gabriel has over 10 years’ professional developer experience using Microsoft technologies. Gabriel is an MCPD, ASP.NET Developer and an MCTS in SQL Server 2008 Database Development. He has developed desktop, web and database systems for the medical, retail, imports distributors, and automotive industries. Gabriel recently moved with his wife and three kids to Colorado Springs, where he works for a small ISV developing software for the big-ticket retail industry.

Main Session: Utility Databases

If you were asked what average runtime was of your slowest stored procedure, could you provide the answer? What if you needed to provide that information for last month? Do you review your error logs each day? Do you know the growth percentages of your databases for the past year or even the past month? If your database has an unusual growth event will you know about it?  In the utility database that we create during this session we will track stored procedure information along with information about the hard drives such as free space. We will look at how you can have the errors in your error logs emailed to you each day. The goal of this session is to help you automate and centralize as many of your day-to-day tasks as you can.  

Chris Shaw started his database career while in the Marine Corps working with Lotus Ami Pro databases somewhere in 1993. From there he went on to companies such as Wells Fargo, Pulte Mortgage and Yellow Pages Inc., and later consulted with insurance companies including Anthem Blue Shield. Chris has enjoyed writing and speaking about SQL Server over the last 10 years at events such as SQL Connections, Pass and SSWUG Ultimate conferences. Chris received the Microsoft MVP award.