Rick Heiges

The "Get Ready for SQL Server Road Show" heads to Europe with the first stop in Lisbon.  I have been to four of the seven shows in the US over the past 6 weeks as the official PASS rep to welcome everyone who came to the event to PASS.  I will now be delivering the content for the Administration Track for Scalabilty Experts in Lisbon on Wednesday and also in Iceland in a couple of weeks.  If by chance you are at either of these events, I'd like to meet you. 

Since I have been cramming to learn a few phrases in Portuguese, I hope to make some new friends.  I studied Spanish in school for my language requirement and never thought it would be usefull; however, I found that the "studying" part of a foreign language made my trip to Germany easier because some of the "tricks" used in learning a languagein school lfinally paid off.  I was able to have minimal conversations with some folks in Munich who did not speak English and obtain what I wanted.  Since Portuguese is more similar to Spanish than German (not the same though), I hope to have more words come out of my mouth correctly.  If you see me this week struggling with the Portuguese language, please have patience; I am trying my best.

It sounds great to go to Lisbon.  I know that it sounds exotic and wonderful.  However, most of my time will be spent in the form of preparing for the event, performing at the actual event, and trying to adjust my body clock.  I expect to have very little time to see how beautiful the city really is.

A new interface for the blog.   Change is a necessity.  At the moment, change caused me to look around to start this post.  I have now forgotten the incredibly important message I was about to write down.

In some recent presentations that I have attended (Gert Drapers in Munich, and Joe Yong in Texas), there was a blurb about 64-bit support in SQL Server 2005.  Since I recently had a client that was experiencing memory pressure, I was interested in learning more about 64-bit to see what benefits abound.

One immediate beneift mentioned by both of these speakers was that you could run the 32-bit edition in a WOW (Windows on Windows) session.  Big Deal?  Well, the big deal is that since the OS is 64-bit, it requires ZERO memory in the WOW session.  This means that the entire 4GB of addressable space in the 32-bit environs is available to the user mode - none needed for the kernel.  This may not solve all of the problems in the world, but it might be a good “bridge” to 64-bit processing.

 

I just read Kent's blog about the last week of this 7 city tour.  I was at the first two in Boston and NYC.  I was at Houston yesterday and will be at Dallas tomorrow.  Kent hit it right on the nose about Hoston's event.  It was perhaps the lowest turnout, but the energy level of the attendees was really good and that fed the rest of us who have been on these tours.

If you are registered for the Dallas event, please stop by the PASS booth and say hello.  Don't forget that Dallas has a very active chapter, NTSSUG.  Leaders from the local chapter will also be in attendance to give you information about upcoming meetings. 

Gert Drapers delivered the keynote address in the morning.  There really wasn't any new “news”, but it is comforting to hear that things are going along as planned.  One highlight was the “Upgrade Advisor” CD that attendees could get at the MSFT booth. Gert also mentioned that there should be another CTP out before long.

I spoke with several attendees in the afternoon; all comments that I had heard were very positive about the session content.  I think that there was only one session on Reporting Services, but SQL Server 2005 is a huge release and is difficult to cover new features more than once.

On Wednesday, Kimberly Tripp delivered a pre-conference full day session on “The Next Generation DBA” which of course focused on the key features taht DBAs should know about before upgrading.  Everyone that I had spoken to really enjoyed it.  Kim also was creative in her demos by using a 4-port USB hub with 4 “Thumb Drives” as a way to demonstrate partitioning.  Great Idea!!!

I'll be heading beack home today.  I have several new friends and have strengthened the ties with the old ones.  I always feel a little sad at the end of these events, but I know that I will be seeing them again at another event.  I get to see my family tonight that I haven't seen for a week.  That tempers the sadness.

I will be at the SQL Server Road Show events in Houston and Dallas next week.  The Chicago event  held yesterday was sold out - so go register today for Houston and Dallas.  If you are at one of these events, please stop by and say “Hello” or “Howdy”.

Everywhere you turn around, you seem to see a junkie.  I found out over the past few days that I will be at Tech Ed and be spending a lot of time as a Cabana Boy in the SQL Server Cabana.  It's good to see that both Roman and Michael Rys will be presenting at PASS (www.sqlpass.org) too - that's two more junkies.  We need to get together for a picture!

If you need a SQL Server 2005 fix next week and you are in the Chicago area, the SQL Server Road Show (www.windowsitpro.com) is heading your way.  There has been great response to these shows over the past 2 weeks.  The following week on May 17 and 19, the show is making its final stops in Houston and Dallas respectively.  I'll be at the Texas shows - so stop by and say “Howdy!”.  The end of the day is a Q&A session plus a reception.  It is a great way to end a day with your brain full of new ideas and excited about the future.

I will be blogging about PASS Europe late next week when the event kicks off.  I have been practicing a little German since the event will be in Munich.  I won't be blogging in German, but I will let everyone know the tidbits of info that I can scrape up. 

After TechEd, I wil be going to Iceland to speak on SQL Server 2005.  Did you know that IcelandAir is the only airline that flies there from North America?  I now know.  That price is STEEP!  Within about 6 hours from getting back from Iceland, I will be headed for Montreal for DevTeach (www.devteach.com).    I know that other junkies will be there too!

It's great to see and interact with so many folks excited about SQL Server 2005.  Although I will miss my family during these times, I will be with some really great folks too.