Tim Mitchell

Speaking at Ft. Worth SQL Server UG on Wednesday

Tim Mitchell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:30:47 GMT

If you’re in the Ft. Worth area next Wednesday, November 18, please join me at the Ft. Worth SQL Server User Group meeting at 6:30, where I have the honor of presenting my session entitled Intermediate SSIS. This will be my first trip to the Ft...(read more)

SQL PASS Summit 2009 – Parting Thoughts

Tim Mitchell — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:22:00 GMT

So now that we’re 7 days removed from the end of the SQL PASS summit, I’ve finally managed to arrange my thoughts and put together some notes about an incredible week in Seattle. This was only my 2nd summit, and the two experiences were vastly different...(read more)

SQL PASS Summit 2009 – Day 3

Tim Mitchell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:41:00 GMT

The day started off with the Quest Software breakfast presentation, to which I arrived late to find a standing-room-only crowd. I left early to find a spot to sit - after yesterday’s interesting but much too long opening ceremony, I elected to catch...(read more)

SQL PASS Summit 2009 - Day 2

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:41:00 GMT

Day two of the summit found me in the keynote, an interesting but much too long (2 hours) for comfort. Among the most notable information was the confirmation that SQL Server 2008 R2 will definitely be released during the first half of next year...(read more)

SQL PASS Summit 2009 – Day 1

Tim Mitchell — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:19:00 GMT

Day one for me began with a leisurely breakfast at Top Pot donuts with Jack Corbett , Andy Warren , and Don Gabor . We were joined briefly by Robert Cain , and Greg Larsen . We talked PASS, career development, networking, and various...(read more)

SQL PASS Summit 2009 – Day Zero

Tim Mitchell — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:32:00 GMT

For me, today was the start of a six-day SQL Server adventure at the PASS Summit in Seattle. The day started off not so well, with my 2 year old finding – and losing – the digi cam’s memory card, which is apparently obsolete and can’t be replace...(read more)

Don’t Be This Guy

Tim Mitchell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:16:00 GMT

I have a sad story to tell you. Sit down and grab a tissue. It was 10pm on a cool night in September 2005. Somewhere in Grapevine, Texas, a junior SQL Server professional was sitting alone in a hotel room watching TV. He was tired but...(read more)

Electronic Health Records – What’s the Big Deal? (Part 2)

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:16:34 GMT

In the first installment of this discussion , I talked about the challenges facing database professionals and others with respect to healthcare data integration. In this post I’ll talk about the first part of the problem: a lack of adoption of the...(read more)

PASS Board of Directors Election

Tim Mitchell — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:05:16 GMT

Anyone who has an Internet connection has kept up with PASS-related news during the past couple of weeks is keenly aware of the fallout surrounding this year’s Board of Directors election. I’ve been associated with PASS for a number of years now...(read more)

I’m a Bingo Square!

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:51:29 GMT

If you meet me at PASS, you can win prizes! OK, so maybe there’s a little more to it than that. Quest Software is hosting a SQL Bingo game , where players will meet various “squares” and log each person’s code word onto a randomly generated bingo...(read more)

Electronic Health Records – What’s the Big Deal? (Part 1)

Tim Mitchell — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:29:10 GMT

Last week, I had lunch with an old friend who is, by his own definition, technologically ignorant. While we caught up, he asked me to explain in terms he could understand what I do for a living. I went through one of my spiels (the one usually...(read more)

SQL Lunch Recap

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Earlier this week, I delivered a presentation entitled “Deploying Report Builder 2.0 for Self-Service Reporting” as part of the new SQL Lunch series. This was my first presentation for this series, and I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout...(read more)

Do You Blog? The FTC May Be Watching

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:06:00 GMT

If you are a blogger and you post product reviews on your blog, you may have to answer to the FTC starting in December. An article in the New York Times earlier this week outlines a new Federal Trade Commission regulation currently under review...(read more)

Upcoming SQL Developer Training Course in Ft. Worth

Tim Mitchell — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:07:59 GMT

If you are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and are interested in SQL Server developer training, there is an opportunity coming up later this month. Mike Hotek is delivering a 4-weekend course on SQL Server development in Ft. Worth. The $25 course...(read more)

Eliminating Empty Output Files in SSIS

Tim Mitchell — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:28:00 GMT

So you’ve got some packages that regularly extract data to one or more text files, but you know that from time to time some of the queries will not return any data. However, you find in SSIS that, in a flat file export package, the output file is created...(read more)