PASS Summit Day 3

The final day of the PASS Summit started off with a great keynote speech by Dr. David DeWitt Ph.D talking about SQL Query Optimization.  

Dr. DeWitt is currently a technical fellow at Microsoft leading the Jim Gray Systems Lab.  He said "Rocket Science is easier than query optimization." So, if you fail at query optimization, they send you to build rockets.  This was one of those presentations that will need to be watched multiple times before all the non-Ph.Ds like me assimilate everything. He did a great job explaining an unbelievably complex topic in terms most people can understand. It'll just take me a few passes to totally understand. I hope.





DBA Mythbusters

A fun interactive session with Paul Randal from SQLSkills.com with Buck Woody playing a supporting role. Buck said the interaction with Paul was not rehearsed. Too bad video doesn't make it on the conference DVDs.





The PowerShell Cookbook for the DBA by Joe Webb

Joe did an excellent overview of how a DBA can use PowerShell to automate repetitive tasks. You can download the scripts from the session here.





Consolidating data collection with SQLDIAG and analysing it all with SQLNexus by Chris Bolton

I went to this session because I need to get more comfortable with these tools.

Chris did a very thorough walkthrough of how to use SQLDIAG and SQLNexus.

I need to read his book next.  





Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2010 by Brian Knight

A very well-rehearsed, entertaining and educational session. The presenters were supposedly doing tequila shots the entire 90 minutes but they were still standing at the end of the presentation so I think something else was in the bottle.





My hope for this series of blog posts is to highlight just a few sessions that I found worthwhile.  I think the PASS Summit conference DVDs are a compulsory purchase when attending.  There are too many excellent sessions to attend in three days. I don't think you get the full value of the conference unless you buy the DVDs.