Author: user

For the latest in a (hopefully short) series of Burns screw-ups, I just need to cast my mind back to last Saturday. I’d finished my final on-call weekend at Pythian the weekend before but, in a bid to give my team lead a night’s sleep and take advantage of our different time-zones, I grabbed the… Continue reading Something you never want to see in your Inbox

Yeah, I wish. When I was young, before I saw my first computer, I wanted to be either a journalist or a lawyer 😉 However, Tony Davis (who used to be an editor at Apress) is now responsible for this website and actually paid me real money for this article! It’s based on a blog… Continue reading I’m a writer!

I received this email from Toon Koppelaars yesterday about a book I’d been hearing about for a while. Lex de Haan and myself started writing a book entitled “Applied Mathematics for Database Professionals” (AM4DP) at the end of 2005. Finishing this book took a bit longer than anticipated, but I’m relieved that I can finally… Continue reading A Shameful Attempt to Accept a Bribe of a Free Book

I had a good time one night last week catching up with Thomas Presslie. It’s been a while since we had a chance to spend a good few hours together because we’re both always rushing about. Anyway, he mentioned that Miracle are running a Masterclass in Edinburgh soon and, as soon as he mentioned the… Continue reading Another Miracle Masterclass

I’ve decided to leave Pythian. It’s been one of the more difficult decisions I’ve made in my career and, as people seem very interested in my original decision to work for Pythian (probably because I blogged about it and they’re well-known in the community), it’s only fair that I comment a little on the reasons… Continue reading Leaving Pythian

You probably won’t get most of them unless you’re Scottish, but it’ll be good training for those coming to the MSDBF 😉

(Oh, OK, I just used that subject line to annoy people – and whilst tipping my hat to Tim Hall, who used it a while ago. Deep breath; flame-retardant jump suit on …) For the past couple of weeks I’ve been using my new PC (with Windows Vista installed) for everything, remote DBA support work included.… Continue reading The Wow Starts Now!

I’m sitting having a cold beer, waiting to go out to DFW airport so I thought I’d offer a few closing thoughts on my Hotsos Symposium 2007 experience. It also gives me a chance to fill in a few blanks I left. Highs Receiving Austin, the Armadillo from Bill Thater. (Sadly, I don’t have the… Continue reading Hotsos Wrap-up

At the end of my presentation this week, when I asked for questions, a lady from the middle of the hall piped up to ask something along the lines of. “How can I tell the actual DOP used for my Parallel Query?” (or words to that effect) It was in the context of me saying… Continue reading How can I tell the actual DOP used for my Parallel Query?

(I have to avoid clashing blog posting titles with previous years, so introducing a day.year.fraction convention should solve that problem) This entry is brought to you courtesy of J. Lewis. More on that later. Here it is so far … 8:00 – Downstairs for the usual nice breakfast. I say ‘usual’ but the food at… Continue reading Hotsos – Day 1.07.0