Blog Posts

How the Company-Startup Thing Worked Out For Me, Year 11: Massive Changes

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Every year, I post a retrospective about what it’s been like to start up a company. If you want to catch up, check out past posts in the Brent Ozar Unlimited tag. This post covers year 11 of the company: May 2021 to April 2022. Normally I do a blog post that weaves a few things together into a story, but this year, let’s just dump the rollercoaster into a bullet point list: June: Stack Overflow got acquired, and Erika and I had a financial windfall thanks to Jeff & Joel’s very generous stock option grants. We almost built a house…
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Bought a 1964 Porsche 356 Coupe

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I’m madly in love with Sabine, my Porsche 356 Speedster replica built from a VW Beetle. I love the simplicity of the air-cooled engine experience, the looks, the ride, everything. The only drawback has been constantly saying to admirers, “Yes, but it’s a replica.” So I’ve had my eye out for a genuine 356 coupe for a while, something that I could drive in the winter when the open-air Speedster makes less sense. (The Speedster technically has a heater and a top, but you don’t wanna use either one.) This mysterious 1964 356 coupe popped up on BringATrailer, and right…
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Bought a Modified VW Squareback

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This adorable little 1971 Volkswagen Type 3 has such an excellent story. About 20 years ago, it was abandoned at a hotel in Vegas. A towing company carted it away and notified the Californian owner, but the owner didn’t want to bother with it. It was broken down, had a flat tire, dents and dings all over. It sold at auction for $75. Most $75 cars are destined for scrap or being sold as parts, but this one got lucky. Its next two decades were spent under the ownership of VW fanatics who saw its potential. A Porsche 914 2.0L…
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Built a Home Theater

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As I got older, I watched more online streaming, and I went to theaters less and less. I can’t remember the last time I went to a theater in-person. COVID certainly didn’t help. When I was shopping for houses in Vegas, I wanted space to build a home theater. I didn’t want anything fancy like stadium seating, red curtains, or signs. I just wanted a dark room with comfy seating, good audio, and a giant screen. The house I ended up with had five or six bedrooms, depending on how you read the floor plan – way, way more than…
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Using Stable Diffusion to Generate Presentation Art for Free

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This is a brand spankin’ new topic for me here at this blog. Whenever I start teaching something, there’s a struggle to figure out what I’m gonna share first. Should I cover how to install Stable Diffusion? Which toolkit I use? What hardware I use? How I pick a sampler? How to make bigger images in a certain aspect ratio? I can’t cover everything in one post, and even just laying out a table of contents is an impressive amount of work. So here’s the deal, dear reader: when inspiration strikes me, I’m going to share things about Stable Diffusion…
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Bought Another Blue 2013 Jag XKR-S.

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About two years ago, I got a 2013 Jaguar XKR-S hardtop, and I love it. It’s comfortable, fast, loud, useful, and pretty. It’s the definition of what a grand tourer should be: a combination of luxury and performance that make it easy to drive long distances at speed. I do way more road trips than track days, although that might change now that I’m in Vegas. But originally, when I first fell in love with the XKR-S, I wanted the convertible version. So I kept my eye out on the market – mostly out of curiosity – watching prices and…
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Doug DeMuro Reviewed My 944 Turbo.

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After I bought my 1988 Porsche 944 Turbo off Cars & Bids, I contacted Doug to see if he wanted to review it. The video just went live: Doug remarks a lot in there about the car’s amazing condition and originality, and that’s certainly one of the big things that sold me on it. He sums it up with, “This is an exceptional car. It drives well, it’s fun, it’s exciting, and the Turbo version is pretty fast, and I just think there’s a lot to love here.” I agree!
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Bought a Porsche Speedster Replica, Sabine.

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The 1950s Porsche 356 Speedster is iconic. From James Dean to Top Gun to Doc Hollywood to Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe, the beautiful German bathtub has stood for decades as shorthand for cool. Originally Porsche’s cheapest, simplest model intended for racing, today its pure form just screams cool. Porsche only made a few thousand examples. Now, the few that remain trade hands for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sadly, most of them aren’t driven and appreciated – they’re locked up in pristine storage while they financially appreciate. (Matt Hummel is one of the rare exceptions who drives the heck out of his 356s.) Fortunately,…
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Bought a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS.

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I’ve always wanted a 308 or 328, and I finally pulled the trigger on this 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS from BringATrailer. It screams 1980s with louvers everywhere and pop-up headlights. It’s my first car with a gated manual. Normally when I think Ferraris, I think bright red, aka resale red or retail red, typically with a black or tan interior. I love this one because it’s the exact opposite. I’d never seen a black over red 328 before, and I love the deep color of the leather. I won’t be taking this one on any cross-country road trips. It’s only…
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Bought a House in Las Vegas

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When I bought a place in Cabo late last year, I thought I’d transition to spending full time there. However, I quickly realized that I still really love cars, and Cabo isn’t a great place for sports cars. The roads are really, really rough, and you don’t really wanna advertise wealth there. So I wanted to keep a place in the US where I could still indulge in short performance drives and long road trips. Combine that with the fact that Cabo summers are pretty doggone hot, and I figured I’d get a place up north where I could enjoy…
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Hi. I’m Brent.

That's me, Brent.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm on an epic life quest to have fun and make a difference.

I co-founded Brent Ozar Unlimited to help make your SQL Server go faster. I also maintain sp_Blitz® and the open source First Responder Kit repo.

My current car collection includes a 1986 Ferrari 328 GTS, a 1964 Porsche 356, a 1971 VW Type 3 Squareback, and more.

profile for Brent Ozar on Stack Exchange, a network of free, community-driven Q&A sites