SQLAuthority News – A Year Older and 3 SQL Server Books and 3 Video Courses – 33

Today is my birthday. I am 33 today.

33 is an interesting number. There are two 3’s in this number. Curiously, I looked it up in Wikipedia and found out that there is plenty of information about this number. Let me quote a few statements from Wikipedia here.

“33 is the largest positive integer that cannot be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers.”

“The sum of the first four positive factorials is 33.”

When I was a kid , I had a dream of becoming an author. I attempted to achieve my dream in a variety of ways – I wrote poems, short stories, technical content, project documentations, company coding standards, blog posts and so many other things. However, I have always dreamed to write a book. A single book which I can be proud of and feel good about.

Well, it took me all these years for my dream to come true. As I said, I never gave up on my dream and I kept on working hard to get my dream come true. However, the dream took its own time and finally got released last year. In the last 365 days, I have published 3 books. It is a matter of great satisfaction that all the three books have been well-received in the Community and the rest of the tech audience. I must thank my co-authors Rick Morelan and Vinod Kumar for their contributions in my books.

Books I Authored in Last One Year

I acknowledge my co-author and book mentor Rick Morelan who is not only a top-rated SQL Server expert but also a great friend. Without his support and guidance, I believe that I wouldn’t be able to write a single book.

SQL Programming Joes 2 Pros: Programming and Development for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – SQL Exam Prep Series 70-433 – Volume 4

This was my first book and I had a great experience writing it. Rick Morelan is great co-author and he taught me so many things. The very first thing he did was to help me understand the process of writing a book from the beginning. He held my hand and guided me to write this book and after a while OUR book was out and my dream finally came true. This book focuses on learning basics of SQL Server for starters.

SQL Wait Stats Joes 2 Pros: SQL Performance Tuning Techniques Using Wait Statistics, Types & Queues

Performance tuning is my dearest subject of all time. SQL Server Wait Statistics has been a very interesting subject, but not frequently explored. I decided to write a 30-day blog series about this subject. My goal then was to learn more about it myself. While I wrote this series, I was personally spending 24 hours everyday just to delve deeper into this subject. When I felt I have sufficient learning experience, I compiled them in an organized manner through this book. I must thank all of you for loving it and providing your support to my second writing piece.

UPDATE: If you are going to SQLSaturday #158 New York and attend Rick Morelan’s session (Track 8 – Session 1), you will have a chance to receive one of the give aways – a few copies of this book in his session. Send me an email (pinal at sqlauthority.com). If you are one of the first 10 persons, I will reply to you and you can get the books from Rick during his session.

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers : For All Database Developers and Database Administrators

When I go into the industry, I often observe that newly hired developers and DBA struggle to do their job. The common problem is that they had no idea what the job required and the employer also had no idea on how to validate their knowledge. The catch 22 is a very cruel and crucial situation and it should be avoided at any cost. Now the biggest comment I have received from people is that they do not know exactly what to learn. To ignite learning and guide the new learner, this book was created. It is indeed a great reference to refresh one’s memories.

Video Courses I Authored in Last One Year

I acknowledge my co-author Vinod Kumar who is not only top rated SQL Server Expert but a great friend as well while building this video course.

SQL Server Performance: Introduction to Query Tuning

The experience of building this course was fantastic. As I mentioned earlier, performance tuning is my favorite subject. For so many years, I have been working on this subject for my entire career. I included almost all the tricks I know in this single course. I personally liked it and encourage anybody who wants to learn performance tuning to share the learning along with me. Building and authoring this course have given me tremendous satisfaction.

SQL Server Performance: Indexing Basics

Indexing has confused more people than it has ever helped. I have seen lots of people creating index when what they really need is to reduce the number of the indexing in their system. The whole focus behind this course was to build a course which explains indexes in the practical lights. There is enough information out in the world which helps developers understand what is indexes but does not help them understand how to use it practically and appropriately. Indexing is an art and it should be treated as one. In this course, I have taken a practical approach where performance and indexes are kept in the focus.

SQL Server Questions and Answers

This was my first video course and it was based on my latest book. When we were building this course, we wanted to make it interesting. We decided to come up with Questions and Answers format of the course. In this course every module begins with Question and the same follows up with answers. We made sure that each section is like a capsule, bringing good learning experience to every watcher. We have received a very positive response from the audience. Until now, we have a constant demand of such a similar course. While you wait for more, you can visit our SQL in a Sixty Seconds Series.

Today when I look back, I feel proud on every single minute I have spent on building educational materials. It is extremely satisfying; I feel that it has been the best year of my life. When I re-read this blog post, I think I have already got my birthday gift.

Thank you for all of your delightful support!

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)