Jorge Segarra is onto something pretty cool. Head on over to SQL University and check it out. I’m going to run through it myself in the coming weeks because everyone should be trying to polish up on the SQL.
I know I’m a little late posting this as I’m sure you’ve already downloaded the free Ebook and read through it, but if you haven’t be sure to go grab a copy.
It’s got some good stuff in it.
From the site:
24 Hours of PASS is a series of live one-hour webcasts broadcast over a 24-hour period that focus on a host of SQL Server topics. The 24 one-hour presentations will begin at 00:00 GMT (UTC) on September 2, 2009
Be sure to take into account the whole GMT issue. Since I’m on Central Standard Time it would start for me at 7:00 pm on September 1. I haven’t seen whether or not they will archive the sessions but I hope they do.
Session 01 (Dev) – Start time: 00:00 GMT
10 Big Ideas in Database Design
Presenters: Louis Davidson and Paul Nielsen
Session 02 (DBA) – Start time: 01:00 GMT
Using PowerShell to Get the Most Out of SQL Server
Presenter: Allen White
Session 03 (PD) – Start time: 02:00 GMT
Team Management Fundamentals
Presenter: Kevin Kline
Session 04 (BI) – Start time 03:00 GMT
Delivering Good Performance Consistently with SSIS
Presenter: John Welch
Session 05 (DBA) – Start time 04:00 GMT
Using SQLdiag to Troubleshoot SQL Server Problems
Presenter: Brad McGehee
Session 06 (DBA) – Start time 05:00 GMT
The SQL Server 2008 Vanishing Act
Presenter: Peter Ward
Session 07 (BI) – Start time 06:00 GMT
Text Mining
Presenter: Dejan Sarka
Session 08 (Dev) – Start time 07:00 GMT
Tips and Tricks for Writing SET Based Queries
Presenter: Jacob Sebastian
Session 09 (DBA) – Start time 08:00 GMT
Mirrored Databases
Presenter: Thomas Grohser
Session 10 (Dev) – Start time 09:00 GMT
Working with Spatial Data in SQL Server 2008
Presenter: Greg Low
Session 11 (DBA) – Start time 10:00 GMT
Effective Indexing
Presenter: Gail Shaw
Session 12 (BI) – Start time 11:00 GMT
Reporting Services Inside Out: The Things You Should Know
Presenter: Simon Sabin
Session 13 (DBA) – Start time 12:00 GMT
Query Performance Tuning 101
Presenter: Grant Fritchey
Session 14 (BI) – Start time 13:00 GMT
Reporting from Analysis Services Cubes Using Excel 2007
Presenter: Peter Myers
Session 15 (BI) – Start time 14:00 GMT
Data Warehousing: Laying the Foundation to Success
Presenter: Erik Veerman
Session 16 (DBA) – Start time 15:00 GMT
Database Compatibility Settings: What They Really Do… and Don’t Do
Presenter: Don Vilen
Session 17 (PD) – Start time 16:00 GMT
Building a Better Blog
Presenter: Steve Jones
Session 18 (Dev) – Start time 17:00 GMT
Building Flexible Data Services for the Web Using the ADO .NET Data Services Framework
Presenter: Artemakis Artemiou
Session 19 (Dev) – Start time 18:00 GMT
SQLCLR or T-SQL? A Brief Survey of Performance Options
Presenter: Adam Machanic
Session 20 (BI) – Start time 19:00 GMT
Loading a Data Warehouse in SSIS
Presenter: Brian Knight
Session 21 (DBA) – Start time 20:00 GMT
What’s Simple about Simple Recovery Model
Presenter: Kalen Delaney
Session 22 (Dev) – Start time 21:00 GMT
What’s New, Harder, and Easier in SQL Server 2008 Security
Presenter: Don Kiely
Session 23 (DBA) – Start time 22:00 GMT
Analyzing File and Wait Statistics
Presenter: Andrew Kelly
Session 24 (BI): Start time 23:00 GMT
Embed Reporting Services into Your Applications
Presenter: Jessica Moss
Props to Brent Ozar for sending me this link for a comparison of Database tools. If nothing else it’s a good reference.
Came across a twitter post that made me remember how useful these things could be. For the visual learner it can go a long way in understanding how a join works. I’m linking to the one from the twitter post as well as.
For the visual learner:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/Visual_SQL_Joins.aspx
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000976.html
http://www.khankennels.com/blog/index.php/archives/2007/04/20/getting-joins/
I’m really going to have to check into this one. Aaron Alton has a neat idea that might help you retain all that SQL Syntax while you’re studying. All I have is a treadmill so that should be interesting.
I came accross a blog entry by Jason Massie regarding SQL RSS feeds and I decided it would be a good time to check out the RSS Reader in Outlook 2007. Fortunately, Outlook will let you import a list of feeds from an xml or opml file. I took the list from Jason and plugged them into OPMLBuilder to get output I could save. I saved it as an .xml file imported it into the RSS Feeds for Outlook and it worked beautifully. I’ve included the file contents below in case you want to edit yours a bit and skip the OPMLBuilder.
Here are the contents of the xml file:
<opml version=”1.1″>
-
<head>
-
<title>
Generated by FeedShow OMPLBuilder: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:13:05 +0100
</title>
<dateCreated>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:13:05 +0100</dateCreated>
</head>
-
<body>
-
<outline text=”Main Folder”>
<outline title=”blog.sqlauthority.com/feed/” text=”blog.sqlauthority.com/feed/” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blog.sqlauthority.com/feed/”/>
<outline title=”sqlblog.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx” text=”sqlblog.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://sqlblog.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx”/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/psssql/rss.xml” text=”blogs.msdn.com/psssql/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/gertd/rss.xml” text=”blogs.msdn.com/gertd/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/gertd/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/rss.xml” text=”blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/rss.xml” text=”blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”feeds.feedburner.com/SqlteamcomWeblogs” text=”feeds.feedburner.com/SqlteamcomWeblogs” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/SqlteamcomWeblogs”/>
<outline title=”blogs.technet.com/andrew/rss.xml” text=”blogs.technet.com/andrew/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.technet.com/andrew/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/sql/sqldev_en_us.xml” text=”www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/sql/sqldev_en_us.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://www.microsoft.com/feeds/msdn/en-us/sql/sqldev_en_us.xml”/>
<outline title=”feeds.feedburner.com/statisticsio” text=”feeds.feedburner.com/statisticsio” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/statisticsio”/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/sqlsecurity/rss.xml” text=”blogs.msdn.com/sqlsecurity/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlsecurity/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/sql-server/feed/” text=”itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/sql-server/feed/” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/sql-server/feed/”/>
<outline title=”glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/feed.rss” text=”glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/feed.rss” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/feed.rss”/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverue/rss.xml” text=”blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverue/rss.xml” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverue/rss.xml”/>
<outline title=”www.brentozar.com/feed/” text=”www.brentozar.com/feed/” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://www.brentozar.com/feed/”/>
<outline title=”feeds.feedburner.com/SqlInTheWild” text=”feeds.feedburner.com/SqlInTheWild” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/SqlInTheWild”/>
<outline title=”blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/?tempskin=_rss2″ text=”blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/?tempskin=_rss2″ type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/All/?tempskin=_rss2″/>
<outline title=”chrisshaw.wordpress.com/feed/” text=”chrisshaw.wordpress.com/feed/” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://chrisshaw.wordpress.com/feed/”/>
<outline title=”sqlbatman.com/feed/” text=”sqlbatman.com/feed/” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://sqlbatman.com/feed/”/>
<outline title=”sqlserverpedia.com/blog/?feed=rss2″ text=”sqlserverpedia.com/blog/?feed=rss2″ type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://sqlserverpedia.com/blog/?feed=rss2″/>
<outline title=”www.sqlpass.org/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Rss.aspx?TabID=75&ModuleID=494″ text=”www.sqlpass.org/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Rss.aspx?TabID=75&ModuleID=494″ type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://www.sqlpass.org/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Rss.aspx?TabID=75&ModuleID=494″/>
<outline title=”blogs.msdn.com/search/Searchrss.aspx?q=sql&o=DateDescending” text=”blogs.msdn.com/search/Searchrss.aspx?q=sql&o=DateDescending” type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://blogs.msdn.com/search/Searchrss.aspx?q=sql&o=DateDescending”/>
</outline>
</body>
</opml>
I was checking out a new contact I made on Twitter, which I was convinced I should use by Brent Ozar, and Marlon’s post on a free eBook made me think back to some other great finds that I’ve seen on Red Gate. If someone thinks of any others please feel free to post.
Best of SQLServerCentral.com, Vol. 1
Best of SQLServerCentral.com Vol. 5 and 6
You can also download 3 good ebooks from Brad @ Red Gate.. Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008, Brad McGehee’s DBA Best Practices, How to Become an Exceptional DBA.
“Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans” by Grant Fritchey
I’m sure I”m missing some links that I had, but I’ll update if I find them. I hope noone at Red Gate has a problem with me posting them like that because they should drive people to try the products.