Kennie Pontoppidan hosts this month’s T-SQL Tuesday and asks us to write about “the daily (database-related) WTF”. I will admit that occasionally I submit to Schadenfreude. And when I get stuck cleaning up someone else’s mess, my hindsight is 20/20. I can point out all the problems they were too “ignorant” or too “lazy” to fix. And then I remember that “they” was “me”. Continue reading
Last November, PASSMN (the Twin Cities, Minnesota local group of the global Microsoft Data Platform community PASS) held its annual board member elections. Or rather, that was the plan. Continue reading
@RileyMajor @BrentO @way0utwest @sqlstudent144 that sounds way too complex š
— Adam Machanic (@AdamMachanic) February 23, 2017
Yesterday Adam Machanic called for new #tsql2sday hosts. I applaud his continued efforts organizing this monthly blog party. It inspires new bloggers, gently guilts those who have lapsed, and provides a topic and schedule for the uncertain. But it routinely surprised me that there was no canonical list of past events with a link to the current topic. Continue reading
Matt Gordon hosts this month’s T-SQL Tuesday and asks us to write about how we’ve used a new capability of the SQL Server ecosystem to solve an old problem. At first blush, this seems like a good way to show concrete benefits to abstract new concepts. But I wonder if it sets the bar too high. Continue reading
I have to admit, I’ve been pleased with the developments with SQL Server 2016. In addition to all of the new features, they brought SQL Server to Linux and with SP1 they opened all the goodies up to Standard Edition. So when Brent Ozar asked us to scour Microsoft Connect for even more improvements for T-SQL Tuesday #86 (#tsql2sday), I wondered if we wouldn’t tempt fate. But as IT folks we love to complain about our tools, so here goes. Continue reading
“When are we going to see you up there?” Mark Vaillancourt had just finished presenting DANGER: The Art and Science of Presenting at SQL Saturday #238. He and Mike Donnelly had put the question to me as they were packing up. I demurred; surely that was best left to experts like them. They persisted, noting how I was always at our user group meetings and how a novice viewpoint was often more helpful for beginners. Being an audience member was one thing, I protested, and speaking was quite another. They kept on the offensive but I managed to slink away without any firm commitments. Nonetheless, they’d struck a chord. Continue reading
After the dust has settled from our national brouhaha, the PASSMN SQL Server community will hold elections for 3 of its 6 board positions. Paul Timmerman (Board Chair), Jim Dorame (Director of Program Development), and Riley Major (Director of Technology) are ending their 2-year terms. Cecil Spivey (Director of Membership / Treasurer), Eric Zierdt (Director of Corporate Development), and Jim Horn (Director of SQL Saturday) will stay on to finish the second year of their terms. Continue reading
Andy Mallon hosts this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, asking us to reflect on Allan Hirt’s tweet lamenting that “we’re still dealing with the same problems” after 25 years in IT.
I think technology has the paradoxical problem of moving both too fast and too slow. Continue reading
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ou know how every web site has a quick, inspirational video with energizing music, quick takes, and talking heads? Scale that up to over an hour where the product is the Minnesota technology community itself and that’s DocuMNtary. It’s anĀ appropriate analogy because filmmaker Nick RosethĀ said the project was all about “scaling inspiration.” Continue reading
The last session of That Conference is about to begin. Iāve been steeped in technology for three days. I oscillate from confident and excited to overwhelmed and tired. There is so much to learn. I want to play with my nascent Swift app, but another talk beckons… Continue reading