PASS Community Summit 2004 CD-ROM Compilation

PASS Community Summit 2004 CD-ROM Compilation
Copyright 2004
Professional Association for SQL Server

With their busy schedules, it is often hard for DBAs to get away to attend conferences. On the other hand, it is very important for DBAs to keep up with the latest in SQL Server technology and best practices, and conferences are one of the best ways to accomplish this. So here is the paradox, how can busy DBAs who can't find time to get away keep up? One way is to take advantage of the PASS Community Summit 2004 CD-ROM Compilation, that includes 53 of the about 100 sessions presented at PASS 2004 in Orlando last fall. This set includes over 60 hours of live presentations.

This three-disk CD-ROM compilation includes live sessions recorded at PASS 2004. These are not video recordings, but voice recordings that also include the PowerPoint slides and live demonstrations. When you play back the recordings (which use IE and Windows Media Player), you hear and see exactly what the attendees at the actual sessions saw, including all questions and answers.

The screen shot above shows you what the screen looks like. On the left you see the PowerPoint slides or live demonstrations, and on the right you see a breakdown of each slide. You can choose to watch and listen to each session from beginning to end, or you can skip about, only listening to those topics of direct interest to you.

Here are the sessions included with this compilation:

• On beyond AdventureWorks …’Real World’ usage of SQL Server Reporting Services

• Unifying Business Intelligence and Content Management with SOA

• Analysis Services Solution Architectures in Microsoft SQL Server 2005

• Using SQL Execution Plans For Performance Optimizations

• DTS Performance in SQL Server 2005

• Self-service, end-user, ad hoc reporting: drilling deeper into ActiveViews tech

• What's new for SQL Server 2005 with DTS and Tools

• Developer Productivity and Server Extensibility with SQL Server 2005

• Implementing Snapshot Isolation in SQL Server 2005

• Waits & Queues: A Performance Methodology

• High Availability with SQL Server 2005

• Tools for Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

• SQL Server Locking Internals and Troubleshooting

• Managing Resources when Consolidating SQL Servers

• Tuning Analysis Services 2000 - Spotlight

• Built to Last: Building on DTS 2000 investments in SQL Server 2005

• Improving Performance with Effective Transaction Management

• Using SQL Server Notification Services

• Understanding Concurrency

• Profiler and Trace in SQL Server 2005

• The Case of the Missing Delete/Archive Strategy

• The complete, integrated, end-to-end BI platform: How it's done in SQL Server

• Part 2 of 3 The complete, integrated, end-to-end BI platform: How it's done in SQL Server

• Part 3 of 3 The complete, integrated, end-to-end BI platform: How it's done in SQL Server

• Prescriptive Guidance on using the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR

• Transactional Bi-directional Replication

• Working with Unstructured and Semi-Structured Data in SQL Server

• Relational Data Warehousing with SQL Server 2005

• SQL Server Memory Management Internals and Troubleshooting

• SQL Server Query Performance Internals and Troubleshooting

• Practical SQL Server

• Diagnostic Data Collection for SQL Server using Microsoft's PSSDIAG Tool

• DBA 101-Microsoft SQL Server 2005:Transferring Existing Skills to a New Platform

• SQL Server 2005 Disaster Recovery Enhancements

• Enhancing Your SQL Career by Making a Name for Yourself

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Question & Answer Panel Discussion - Business Intelligence focus

• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Question & Answer Panel Discussion - Tools / Engine focus

• Leveraging SQL Server and Analysis Services for Sarbanes Oxley Compliance

• Calling All Options: Paging SQL Server Data

• Improving SQL Server Database Performance with Partitioning Solutions

• Extending Reporting Services for Integration

• REAL world experiences working with SQL Server 2005 Beta2 BI Components: Tips and Tricks

• A Brave New World: Aspiring, Hiring and Inspiring

• Intro to Speaking at PASS – Creating a Winning Abstract (If I Can Do It, Anyone Can)

• DTS and Data Mining: Expanding capabilities with analytics
  M219: Notification Services Development, Debugging, and Troubleshooting Techniques

• SQL Server and Data Recovery Internals and Troubleshooting

• Managing Very Large Databases with SQL Server 2005

• Security in SQL Server 2005

• SQL 2005 Tools for SQL 2000 Users

• Put the business world in your pocket with SQL Server CE and .NET technology

• SQL Server 2005 Partitioning – The Rolling Range

• DBA Toolkit for Performance Tuning

With this long list of sessions, you are bound to find many which you will find very useful.

Just as with live music recordings, these live recordings include everything, including every speaker's cough. Overall, the quality of the sound is very good, and the quality of the slides is very readable. The only downside is that the live demos are a little fuzzy, and small type on the screen is often hard to see.

So who should consider this compilation? I think this falls into several different groups, two of which are people who attended PASS. When I attend sessions, one of the problems I run across is that I just can't absorb everything I hear. Even if I take notes, I miss out on some of the content. So, first of all, I would recommend these recordings for those people who attended the sessions and who want to review them to absorb every last detail of information.

Another thing that I run across at conferences is the inability to attend all the sessions I want to attend due to scheduling conflicts. This CD-ROM set allows those attendees who missed sessions to get to see many of the ones they missed.

And last, if you weren't able to attend the conference, you now have access to more than half of the sessions presented at PASS, along with the convenience of viewing them when your schedule permits. Now, you don't have excuse about not keeping up with the latest in SQL Server.

If your company has multiple DBAs, this compilation is a good investment that can be shared among everyone in your department at a very reasonable cost.