Jon Baker's Outer Join

Steve Ballmer was the keynote today. SteveB talked business and the future of Microsoft. There was a lot of info about how Microsoft is working to enable the information worker and business people to be more productive. He made the comparison to the days before PCs in the workplace, when cut and paste involved scissors and glue! This all seemed a bit ethereal, until the demo. They showed Vista and Office 2007 integration with Sharepoint, SSAS, and SSRS. This appeared seemless and powerful. Let’s hope it’s really that cool, because it would change how we work, today. The final question for Steve and Paul Flessner’s Q&A was if Steve was going to do a DBA dance (see PDC 2006 – “Developers, Developers, Developers…). Steve turned a bright shade of red, then gave his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression saying “DBAs Baby!”

I saw a presentation on SQL Server for the SOA environment. Marin Mamic is obviously a developer and not a DBA, though his session was listed in the DBA track. He featured HTTP endpoints for exposing SPs as service methods. I like this to some degree, in that it doesn’t require IIS anymore; however, the hard-core DBA in me still has some fears. Marin also displayed Service Broker for some transactions. It was not a deep dive into any of the technologies, but just showing that it is possible. Interesting stuff.

During lunch, I just happened to sit down at a table with Joe Celko.  What an incredible guy!  I love SQL For Smarties, and it was great to talk with one of the fathers of our industry.  I tried not to ask questions, but just listen to what things interest him and how he attacks problems.  He was conversing with a developer from MSFT who had questions about a programming problem.  I thoroughly enjoyed just listening.

Gert Drapers presented Schema management in DataDude (VSTS Database Professional Edition). This is an interesting new tool for compare and schema management, making source code the definitive source. I would like to see a data modeling tool on top of this, but Gert was adamant that he will not develop it. CA apparently is taking that up as an add on for ERWIN. Hopefully other software vendors will jump in to add to DataDude modeling tools (remember, I’m not an ERWIN fan!).

Dave Fackler presentations of Attribute Hiearchies was great. I met Dave at the Detroit Launch event last year. He does a great job, especially making relevant demos. I’m really catching the bug for SSAS. I’ve not spent a lot of real work time on AS, but I’m itching!

Ted Malone’s TDD for SQL developers really appealed to me. I like the ideas behind agile development. I also like that Microsoft is investing in it with DataDude.

For dinner, Jeff Mayer and I went to Benihana.  While we were talking geek stuff, the guy next to us made a couple of interesting faces.  I asked him if he was a technical person.  He said no, but he works for Microsoft in the areas of business products (Office, Great Plains, etc.) He asked about the demo in Ballmer's presentation, which of course we told him was great.  I mentioned one of my customers was looking at GP to replace a home grown accounting system.  He was interested, since the customer has a famous brand (can't share, sorry). I asked him for a card, and Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft Business Products kindly did!  How cool is that!!!

I think my brain is getting full here at the conference. Not sure how much more I can stand, especially since I’m really distracted due to the OSU game this weekend. GO BUCKS!!!!

The day started with Paul Flessner’s Keynote, where he introduced his successor, Ted Kummert. There was also a demo of DB mirroring that bombed miserably. Still not sure I like that feature in its current state.

The sessions were great today. I saw Joy Mundy give a session on SSIS ETL for Fact Tables and source extraction. This was awesome. It dug deeper even than her book.

I also Allen White present on SMO for automation of daily administration. This was interesting to me as I research RMO to replace the debacle that is Replication Monitor 2005. Allen is a great guy, whom I’ve enjoyed connecting with through SQLJunkies and here at the conference. If you are looking for him at PASS, look for the guy that looks like Bill Gates. For those Buckeye Fans staying in Seattle during the game on Saturday, Allen says the Alumni Association is watching the game at a bar near the Space Needle.

Later in the afternoon I saw sessions on improving performance of SSAS and some methodologies (ADAPT and SPINE) for modeling multi-dimensional databases (Dan Bulos). These were great. I spend a lot of time ER Modeling, now I can do the same in the MD space.

Later in the evening was the exhibitor session. Quest is giving away shirts and pins. If you wear their T-shirt, you could win $1000. I thought about wearing the shirt today, but its blue, and well, being a Buckeye fan, I just can’t do it this week. Sorry Mike Walsh!

I also got to meet Adam Machanic face-to-face. We’ve emailed and responded to each other’s blogs, but finally I can put a face with the name. Nice to meet you Adam!

After the exhibit was the PASS volunteer night at Gameworks. I was really tired and everyone else in the room seemed to be, too. I didn’t stay long, but it looked like a good time. Thanks to PASS for recognizing volunteers. This continues to be a first rate organization.