Author: Sean McCown

We had many lovely Letters from our Friends. Sean takes issue with “you don’t have a backup until…”

Also: Are SQL coders real coders? Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.10 – Try it Sometime”

I think we had a lot of fun this week. We talked about useless superpowers, rules for presenting to techies, and stuff we got Continue reading “Useless Superpowers”

This is probably our best show to date. Not only do we crown a new MVP, but we have so many HUGE gueses Continue reading “Hottub of Bellydancers”

This week Sean tells a fun story about being sarcastic at work. We also go into the topic of DR plans and talk about Continue reading “Now with temp tables”

Tonight we talk about a big downtime at Pilgrim’s Pride, 24-HOP sessions, a yearly downtime report, ownership chains, cross joins, and much more.

Here we are on the back end of SQLSaturday #57 in Houston. We decided to make a party out of it and bring along Continue reading “You got munkey lips”

We’ve got an excellent show tonight. We have an excellent discussion on an update statement gone horribly wrong and how to prevent it. Continue reading “Slapping the dog”

We talked briefly about Egypt’s revolution, and then got onto the techie stuff: Companies We Love poll results, Un-SQL Friday, King 5 Fingers, Sean’s NetworkWorld Continue reading “They kept felons”

This week we’re all about sa passwords, buying software you don’t need, our new ringtones, and troubleshooting code errors.

Our botched commercial, the new Infragistics MVP, resume review and much more on this week’s episode.

Tonight we talked about the magic tables, a cool clustering problem,orphaned windows accounts, cross join madness, and more.

Don is our special friend, but more importantly he’s the head of the BOL team. This is such an interesting interview you’ll just die.

Today we’re talking about database hacks, getting rid of problems, Denny Cherry’s new book, and more.

Here we are on the back of the 2011 MVP Summit, and we’re gonna give away some Denali secrets. For those of you who Continue reading “Leaking MVPee”

This week we talk about the Denali release date, Sean’s big new shiny SQLSaturday session on interviewing, and much more. There’s even a new Continue reading “Pimp-A-Thon”

This was a fun night. We talked about Yoda’s naughty shower habits, did a lot of bitching about SAN guys, company loyalty, and much Continue reading “The Peeping Jedi”

Jen got to visit with Itzik Ben Golly and get some answers to some coding questions, and I presented 2 awards. There was also Continue reading “Itzik knows all”

Wow, what a good show this week. We talked about setting max server memory, how to get ready for cert exams, massive feature packs, Continue reading “Installed Anally”

Allan Hirt actually cam into our studio and played the base for us. And while he was here we thought we’d ask him a Continue reading “Allan! Allan! Allan! Allan! Allan!”

This week we cover Sean’s mainframe story, twitter updates, Allan Hirt’s new whitepaper, and Itzik is here again.

This was a fun week because we talked about xlocks on tempdb, nested views, and new SQL languages.

Another season comes to a close. We give a nice recap of the entire season, a strange DB problem, and adding NULLs. And Continue reading “Season 2 Finale”

Terrible phishing attempts, bad puns, nice allegations, a PASS Suummit recap..this week’s episode has it all. As usual!

We have Minion recommendations from the world, a good-bad RegEx pun, the interview tip of the week, a story of a rescue at sea, and Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.7 – Seven of Nine”

Letters from our Friends, the stupid interview answer of the week, a letter from all women, more irritated wordgasms, a poorly rehearsed song, and another Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.6 – Say You’re Sorry”

We have punful letters from our friends, a letter from Elon Musk (not to us). We talk about the Equifax breach. Sean sings a brand Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.4 – Invisible Mask”

In this show:

A skit
A song
MARVELOUS things
“It was spontaneous when I rehearsed it!”
What is a basic?
Good interviewing advice
And, of course, more

Part 3 of Sean’s Rub-n-Tug

Part 4 of Sean’s Rub-n-Tug

Part 5 of Sean’s Rub-n-Tug

Here we talk about an extremely bad cluster install done by one of my DBAs.

Part 2 of Sean is Petri’s Dish.

Part 3 of Sean is Petri’s Dish.

Part 4 of Sean is Petri’s Dish.

The finale of our 1st season. Some good discussion here.

Our first show of season 2. We catch everyone up on what’s been going on since we left and throw in some SSIS discussion Continue reading “Aristocratic Corn”

This week we talk about Freddie bringing our site down, we unveil a new award, and we had a near cornhole of the week. Continue reading “Sean’s Man-crush”

This week we’re talking about all kinds of things, the main one being people getting started as speakers and community leaders. There’s lots of Continue reading “Polishing Dung”

This week was pure fun as we talked about building clusters, Sean’s Scripting Guys article, and whether or not you should rally people to vote Continue reading “The Unnamed Episode”

What a fun episode this was. We talked about sexual harrassment and many other things. Come have a few laughs and maybe even Continue reading “Hot Tubbin With Bob”

This week we talk about sex week on MidnightDBA as well as big production problems, crappy vendors, and more.

Sorry, I don’t remember what we talked about here cause I’m uploading so late. You’ll just have to come see.

I suppose this is officially our Halloween episode. Come along as we discuss whatever it is we talked about here.

I suppose this is officially our Halloween episode. Come along as we discuss whatever it is we talked about here.

We hooked up with Steve Jones of SQLServerCentral.com in an empty ballroom we hijacked the night before PASS. He’s so laid back we decided Continue reading “Steve Jones in the House!!”

Denny is one of our best friends at PASS. We were all so tired that we cut the talk short and meant to get Continue reading “Denny ‘Five Fingers’ Cherry”

What can we say about Grant that isn’t already in the police report? He’s just an interesting guy. Come see us discuss query Continue reading “Grant Fritchey is our Hero”

This is our show at the end of PASS 2010 and we have Nic Cain in our hotel room. Come have a look while Continue reading “Merkin Glue”

This is our post-Thanksgiving episode. Today we talk about why Bing sucks, jr. DBAs, and the cloud.

We love talking to Adam. He’s such a cool dude and it just so happens that he really knows his stuff too. I Continue reading “Adam Machanic has soft hands”

We’re back with another DBAs@Midnight. This week we’re talking about how companies don’t really care enough about their employees to keep them. We Continue reading “Companies don’t Care”

Part 2 of Resumes.

Part 3 of Resumes.

This is another one that I just love. We ramble on a bit I think, but overall I think we give some good info Continue reading “Breaking up with your Boss: 1 of 4”

Part 3 of Stuff Auction. Priorities and important questions on the first day of your job, a quick recap, we wander for a bit after Continue reading “Stuff Auction: 3 of 3”

This is a fun vid where we talk about evangelizing SQL in your company, getting devs to take part in code reviews, and much more. Continue reading “Evangelizing SQL Part: 1 of 3”

Part 2 of Evangelizing SQL

Part 3 of Evangelizing SQL

Part 2 of How to Spin a Firing.

This is a nice film with a few good laughs and we also get in our first on-film fight. However, come with us to Continue reading “No Religion at Work: 1 of 4”

Part 2 of No Religion at Work.

Part 3 of No Religion at Work.

Part 4 of No Religion at Work.

This is a fun one we did in Redmond while waiting for the SQL Server R2 TweetUp event at MS. We’re here with Denny Continue reading “Plagiarism: 1 of 4”

Part 2 of Plagiarism.

Part 3 of Plagiarism.

Part 4 of Plagiarism.

While playing with our SQLChickens, we’re trying to top the plagiarism video from last week in Redmond. So after messing around a little bit, Continue reading “Adopting New Features: 1 of 4”

Part 2 of Adopting New Features.

Part 3 of Adopting New Features.

Part 4 of Adopting New Features.

This week we talk about the death of Database Underground, Jen stealing at work, and much more.

Part 2 of Fire the Samurai.

Part 3 of Fire the Samurai.

Part 4 of Fire the Samurai.

We talk about a few things here, one of which is parameter sniffing. I know we’ve covered this before, but it keeps coming up Continue reading “Sean’s Rub-n-Tug: 1 of 5”

Part 2 of Sean’s Rub-n-Tug

This week we have a nice talk about how to handle a DBA who isn’t performing like he should (No, not like that!!). We Continue reading “Firing DBAs: Part 1”

Part 2 of Firing DBAs.

Part 3 of Firing DBAs.

Part 4 of Firing DBAs.

We talk about so many things here it’s hard to nail it all down in a summary. Let’s see though, we talk about companies Continue reading “Recompiling and Parameter sniffing: 1 of 5”

Part 2 of Recompiling and Parameter sniffing.

This is kind of a fun video. We talk about Buck’s bobble head along with DNS and DR, and the joy of logon triggers.

Part 2 of Bobble-Head Buck.

Part 4 of Bobble-Head Buck.

Part 5 of Bobble-Head Buck.

Part 3 of Bobble-Head Buck.

We start out this episode with a great discussion on taints. Does it actually ite into IT? You’ll have to come and find Continue reading “Buck’s Taint: 1 of 5”

Part 2 of Buck’s Taint.

Part 3 of Buck’s Taint.

Part 4 of Buck’s Taint.

Part 5 of Buck’s Taint.

We start this episode with the special guest we’ve been talking about. Then we talk about the Latin DB, and all kinds of things.

Part 2 of The Latin DB.

Here we’re discussing some ways of keeping your sanity and your confidence when you’re out of a job so you can ensure you get that Continue reading “Keeping your Sanity when out of Work: Part 1”

We’re continuing the discussion of keeping your sanity while out of work.

Hey guys… here we kick off a discussion about some reasons why you may still not get the job even though you had an excellent Continue reading “Good Interview Still Don’t Get the Job: Part 1”

OK, we’re just continuing our discussion of having an excellent interview.

OK guys, here we’re talking about no moving schema. If you don’t know what that is, then watch this and see not only what Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight: No Moving Schema”

This one was rather fun because it was another one of those nights when were were both rather punchy. HOwever, amidst all the messing Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight: Managing Tasks 1 of 2”

Here’s the exciting conclusion to the 1st one.

We found Itzik at PASS 2009 and decided to keep him. This is a very informative interview on a number of topics.

Part 2 of Itzik.

We’re here at PASS 2009 in Seattle and we caught up with my friend Allen White. We talked about SQL, and Oracle, and even Continue reading “Get Jiggy with Allen White: 1 of 2”

Finishing up with Allen White… good times.

What can I say, Brian is just the bomb. He has more SSIS knowledge under his fingernails than the rest of us do all Continue reading “The Early Bird Gets Brian Knight: 1 of 2”

Brian’s cute, and brilliant, and he’s here for another round.

If you don’t know Bill, he’s on the tools team, so he’s the one you talk to when there’s something you don’t like in SSMS.

Part 2 with Bill Ramos.

We found Grant wearing a dress so of course we had to put him in our sandwich.

Here’s the 2nd part of our talk with Grant.

Here’s the 3rd part of our talk with Grant.

RATED R for language content. Whenever you get Sean and Joe in the same room the language goes out the window. It’s very Continue reading “Buck, Paul, Joe, and Louis: 1 of 7”

Here’s part 2 of the big group interview.

Here’s part 3 of the big group interview.

Here’s part 4 of the big group interview.

Here’s part 5 of the big group interview.

Here’s part 6 of the big group interview.

Here’s part 7 of the big group interview.

We’re very proud to bring you our first DBAs@Midnight video.  Here we talk about how to study SQL books and be effective at learning what Continue reading “How to Study”

SORRY GUYS!!! This was about a 45min video and a glitch with the computer lost the first part of it so you only get the Continue reading “Who Should Manage Backups”

New season, new format! Since it’s been such a rough year, we’re going the “kinder, gentler” route and paying homage to the gentlest, kindest person Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.1 – Irritated Wordgasms”

This week we continue the “kinder, gentler” theme with Letters From our Friends (on the Internet), interviews, and Play Nice with Pizza. We also have Continue reading “DBAs@Midnight 9.2 – Hey, #1”

Letters from our friends! Random songs! Awards, plural! A hashtag game – #ChangeALetterRuinASQLFeature! And this week we have a code review in Make-Believe Land.