MCITP: Database Administrator

I passed the 70-443 exam today, and last of the 3 part exams for MCITP: Database Administrator. Pat myself on the shoulder, attaboy!

Exam 70-431
TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Implementation and Maintenance

Exam 70-443
PRO: Designing a Database Server Infrastructure by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Exam 70-444
PRO: Optimizing and Maintaining a Database Administration Solution by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005

No, I am not the guy in the picture :P

Canada Unemployment Rate at 8%, 7-year High. Waterloo region 9.6%

It is scary, 9.6% in Waterlo means every 10 people you know, 1 is unemployed

Another reason to be grateful for my job, and to do better in it every day.

Canada's unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in March, up from 7.7 percent in February.

Statistics Canada says just over 61-thousand people lost their jobs last month. That's more than private sector economists had been forecasting.
They'd predicted about 55-thousand jobs likely vanished in March.
Most of the losses were in full-time work in manufacturing and construction.

Waterloo Region's unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent in March from 9.1 the previous month.
Roughly 4-thousand full and part-time workers lost their jobs in our region last month.

Ontario's jobless rate stayed the same February to March at 8.7 per cent.
In the last 5 months the agency says Canada has shed 357-thousand jobs.

Source: 570news

SQL Server 2008 SP1 Released

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1 Download

We remain committed to our plans to keep service packs contained, focusing on essential updates only, primarily a Roll-up of Cumulative Update 1 to 3, Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) updates, as well as fixes to issues reported through the SQL Server community. While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs:

* Slipstream – You are now able to integrate the base installation with service packs (or Hotfixes) and install in a single step.

* Service Pack Uninstall – You are now able to uninstall only the Service Pack (without removing the whole instance)

* Report Builder 2.0 Click Once capability

For more information about SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1, please review the Release Notes.

System Requirements
* Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista
* 32-bit systems (x86)

o PC with Intel or compatible Pentium III 600 MHz or higher processor (1 GHz or faster recommended)

* 64-bit systems (x64, ia64)

o 1GHz or faster processor

* Minimum of 512 MB of RAM (1 GB or more recommended)

* 675 MB of available hard disk space

FREE e-book: Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans

This is a great book to read about SQL Server Execution Plans, especially free, courtesy of Red Gate

http://downloads.red-gate.com/ebooks/HighPerformanceSQL_ebook.zip

Some of Grant's articles on Execution Plan to show the quality of his work.
They are the best simple-to-understand Execution Plan articles I have read so far, all bookmark'ed for future reference

• Understanding More Complex Query Plans
• Graphical Execution Plans for Simple SQL Queries
• Execution Plan Basics