SQLSaturday Baton Rouge is back!

Looking forward to jambalaya at #SQLSatBR in THIS SATURDAY! Also looking forward to speaking and seeing all of you there, I guess... Register today: https://sqlsaturday.com/2022-08-06-sqlsaturday1026/

After I stepped down from the SQLSaturday Baton Rouge organizing committee lead in 2019, I had no idea what was to come. A pandemic, the dissolution of SQL PASS, and two missed Augusts later, SQLSaturday Baton Rouge is back! One thing I did get right in 2019: other volunteers deserved the chance to lead and organize and network and they've been doing a great job, from what I can tell so far. I'm happy to see the assets and resources we'd built together over 11 years of SQLSaturdays at LSU continue to be put to use.

I am speaking at:

- 9:45am in the Careers in IT panel

- 11am for Tabletop Role-playing Games at Work for Fun & Profit with Stacy Vicknair and Christine Assaf - Presentation available for download

- 1:30pm for How to Think Like a Certification Exam - Presentation available for download

See you there!

Speaking on Ethics in Modern Data at Improving Edge 2022

Christine and I are looking forward to speaking at the Improving Edge conference, co-presenting our session on Monday, June 6th. Our presentation on “Ethics in Modern Data” features topics relevant to modern developers and data professionals, using historical and current events to discuss ethics in data collection and analysis. 

This is an important topic that lives at the crossroads of our careers, Christine's career in organizational psychology and human resources, my career in data, our work and volunteerism in civic non-profits, and our joint passion for history and civil rights. It's important to understand that when dealing with bias: outcomes matter, intentions don't. 

Our slide deck, references, and citations are available for download.

SQL Server linked server to .xlsx Excel files

A question came up recently concerning whether it was still possible to connect to .xlsx Excel files as  SQL Server linked servers.

Short answer: Yes, it's possible as recently as SQL 2019 using ACE.OLEDB.12.0 provider. 

Medium answer: Yes, but linked servers from SQL Server to Access and Excel are only supported when using the deprecated 32-bit Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0 OLE DB provider. 

Long answer: Yes, but this shouldn't be part of any automated ETL process, please please engineer around using Excel file interchange in any automated data ingestion processes. That said...