Supporting the LGBTQ #SQLFamily

September 23, 2019 Andy 0

I won’t be at PASS Summit this year, so unlike last year, I won’t be organizing an LGBTQ Meetup at PASS Summit. I’m hoping that even without the meetup, all my LGBTQ #SQLFamily friends will still get together for some fun and networking. Keep scrolling … [Read More]

When to put a non-clustered index on your clustering key

September 3, 2019 Andy 1

There is a corner case where it makes sense to have a non-clustered index “duplicating” the clustered index. If you have a query that frequently scans the table, and ONLY makes use of the clustering key column, the query optimizer will prefer to use the non-clustered index.

Why does ALTER let me DROP?

August 28, 2019 Andy 3

I was recently chatting with a coworker, discussing why there is no discrete DROP permission for tables, procedures, etc. The conversation actually came from a #SQLHelp question on SQL Slack that was asked along the lines of “What if I want to let a user … [Read More]

Data Blogger Resource Kit

May 27, 2019 Andy 1

When I started out blogging 5 years ago, there was a lot that I didn’t know. I figured things out as I went. The FreeCon helped give me a giant push in the right direction. But there are some things that nobody ever tells you. … [Read More]

Year 5: May 2018 – May 2019

May 22, 2019 Andy 3

In my last few posts, I’ve walked down memory lane, and talked about a ton of great successes I’ve had in my five years as blogger & speaker. It’s been fun to reminisce about how far I’ve come and brag about some success. Today’s post … [Read More]

Year 4: May 2017 – May 2018

May 21, 2019 Andy 0

In Year Three, I had a pretty big year. I kind of felt like I had peaked. I had received the Community Influencer of the Year Award and Microsoft MVP Award. Where do you go from there? Mostly, I just wanted to keep up what … [Read More]

Year 3: May 2016 – May 2017

May 20, 2019 Andy 0

In Year Three, my goal was to keep focused on what I learned in the FreeCon the year before, and keep moving forward with speaking and blogging. I was putting a bit more effort into my speaking (and thus easing off on the blogging some).

Year 2: May 2015 – May 2016

May 17, 2019 Andy 2

In Year 1, I only wrote 6 blog posts. In Year 2, I decided to take things seriously, and kicked things into high gear. During this 12-month period, I wrote 36 blog posts–my best 12-months as far as pace & productivity in these five years.

Year 1: May 2014 – May 2015

May 16, 2019 Andy 0

I’ve lost my blog stats for that first year, so I can’t say exactly how many visitors I had. I can say that the number of views was so low that it didn’t matter. If I were going to offer a generous estimate, I would guess I got whopping 100 page views in year one (mostly from me). I wrote a total of six blog posts that year. Let’s look at two of my favorites.

Blogging on a whim

May 15, 2019 Andy 0

On May 16, 2014, I bought a domain on a whim. I’d been sitting in the NOCC at my employer, helping with maintenance. I was waiting on another team to perform their task, and champing at the bit. Over the next week, I set up a Blogger website, tied my domain to it, and thought about what I’d done at work recently that might be worth sharing.