mark_wills

  • 4,313,788Expert Points
  • 1,278Points this month
  • Member since: 03/25/2008

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Personal Description

Having endured 3 decades in the computer industry, I am quite possibly the embodiment of the exception which proves the rule "you cannot teach an old dog new tricks".  Whilst some concepts deep down still evade my tireless attempts to learn new tricks, it is probably exactly that which has kept me passionate about computing.

Since joining Experts Exchange at the end of March 2008, I am constantly impressed with the site. The expertise, the range, and the precision are really quite remarkable. I do find it quite frustrating at times in being slow to your responses when compared to the likes of chapmandew, angellll and a few other notables. I do admire their speed, accuracy and dexterity in their responses and impressed with the quality that really should belie their ability to be so responsive. Consumers of this service should feel quite privileged in having ready access to such passionate professionals.

I am interested in helping pure and simple, and appreciate the acknowledgements (though do get a smile when points come this way). I can assure you that I will try my upmost to assist, but it does require your input, and sometimes ask seemingly obscure questions to get to the bottom of things. Please be interactive with your postings, give feedback, provide direction, give examples where possible. Wherever possible, I will recreate and test the answer before posting, hence the slight (?) delays. So, please help me to help you, if I do provide an answer, or if I do raise a question, give it some consideration before moving on.

I would be happy to talk to you outside the EE portal if appropriate to do so. Initial discussions and thoughts are free, but the real work would need a more formal arrangement. I do have customers throughout the world and grateful that computing has made such vast distances merely an inconvenience with time zones rather than preventing doing business remotely.

I can be contacted on mark[DOT]wills[AT]bigpond[DOT]com. If you prefix the subject line with EE, then I will try to respond as quickly as I can. For EE specific contact please use <myusername> @ e-e.com

Humbled and privileged by being awarded Microsoft SQL Server MVP 2009. And renewed Microsoft SQL Server MVP 2010. And, once again, SQL Server MVP 2011.

Articles I have written (would love you to read, and vote "yes", and leave comments) :

Pivot :
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/SQL-Server-2005/A_653-Dynamic-Pivot-Procedure-for-SQL-Server.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Programming/Languages/SQL_Syntax/A_4256-Dynamic-Pivot-Procedure-without-the-Pivot-function.html

Structure (and not just for the accidental DBA) :
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/SQL-Server-2005/A_657-Managing-the-Transaction-Log-for-the-Accidental-DBA.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/A_691-Managing-Fragmentation-for-the-Accidental-DBA.html

Other SQL :
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/SQL-Server-2005/A_651-Making-Sense-of-Index-DMV's-in-SQL-Server.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Microsoft/Development/MS-SQL-Server/A_1221-Fun-with-MS-SQL-spt-values-for-delimited-strings-and-virtual-calendars.html

Consulting :
http://www.experts-exchange.com/ITPro/Consulting/A_3217-The-importance-of-Value-in-Business.html
http://www.experts-exchange.com/ITPro/Consulting/A_3220-Negotiating-Loss-for-a-Win-Win.html
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