Notice the bluetooth ear piece fashion faux pas? Yes, she's truly a geek.
I’m happy to report that Barbie is now a cognizeti, a digerati, … yes even an IT Professional! This year’s new Barbie is Computer Engineer Barbie.
Several months back, I encouraged all my friends and followers on Twitter to vote for the IT job for Barbie in Mattel’s recent public job selection for the eponymous doll. That encouragement was founded in an experience I’d had years earlier – becoming a dad to a very beautiful baby girl. When I was growing up as a kid, I clearly recall how odd it was for a woman to have a career outside of a handful of “traditional feminine jobs” like teacher, nurse, telephone operator or secretary. It wasn’t until years later, as a new dad, that I realized how asinine this preconceived notion really was (and, in fact, still is in many cultures around the world). I even wrote about this a few years ago in my personal blog, where I mentioned how I’d love to see my daughters grow up and take on an IT career.
Sadly, many IT professional societies report dramatic imbalances in gender demographics. For example, the IEEE Computer Society reports that their membership is only 7% female. Similarly, universities in the USA shows about a 10% representation of female faculty and 14% of their students in computer-related majors.
One of the things I’d always found to be rather amazing about PASS was it’s strong emphasis on Women in Technology (WIT). In fact, as far as database professional societies go, PASS was the first to work hard to make WIT prominent within its culture (although I believe that the International Sybase User Group had a WIT group before PASS). I’d like to also give credit to the women within PASS who made this happen. I can’t even begin to list them all here, but without them, WIT at PASS would not have been possible. A few women who immediately come to mind include Rebecca Laszlo, , Kalen Delaney, Denise McInerny, Kathi Kellenberger, Stefanie Higgins, Lynda Rabb, Kimberly Tripp, and many many more.
All of these outstanding women deserve accolades for making PASS a welcoming place for women. Don’t think that it’s a big deal? You should attend an IT conference without a strong WIT community – you’ll see the difference in 30 seconds flat. (I’m not going to name any names here. But attend the top conferences for certain IT companies headquartered in Redwood City, California or Armonk, NY and you’ll see what I mean).
So, thank you ladies, for making PASS in particular and the overall Microsoft SQL Server community much better for everyone by making it better for women. I hope to see this trend continue and for your contributions to continue to improve our community.
David Straithairn as the great Edward R. Murrow in the 2005 film "Good Night and Good Luck"
Journalists are important. In my opinion, they’re very important. The best journalists, like Old Testament prophets, speak truth to power and reveal the ugly dirt behind the pretty and public veneer of society. Their very presence foils corruption or, at least, helps reveal it, punish it, and make it dive for deeper waters else go extinct. It was for this reason that Thomas Jefferson famously wrote:
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” –Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:57
(I’m red-green color blind, so forgive me if that quote is purple or some weird color like that. I just meant for it to be navy blue. But I digress…)
Sadly, the last couple decades have seen the blurring of journalism and entertainment. So much so that shock jocks now get byline billing as journalists and real journalists, in the search for better ratings and higher SEO rank, debase themselves and their content by injecting shock appeal. (This trend isn’t a new thing, btw. Historically, journalism has had other nadirs in the past, the most prominent being the era of yellow journalism spanning the 1880’s to the early 1900’s.) Of course, we see this every day on our television and hear it all the time on the radio – have any radio stations on your car tuner that you always skip? But I’d hardly expect this sort of thing to insinuate itself into an industry news niche like IT journalism. I mean, c’mon! IT is about information after all, and any distortion should surely become apparent in due time.
(Full disclosure: I’ve never been a journalist, but I do write a couple magazine columns – one, a technical column, for SQL Server Magazine and one, an opinion column, for Database Trends & Applications.)
The News Team the Revealed the Evils of McCarthyism in the 2005 film "Good Night and Good Luck"
So I can only begin to explain how jolted I was by this news story released by ZDNet.
The team at ZDNet has done some crackerjack investigative reporting to reveal that an often quoted “Windows Performance Expert” and CTO of a performance management and monitoring products company, Craig Barth, is in fact a fabrication by a well-known reporter and blogger, Randall Kennedy. Both personalities frequently disparaged Microsoft (not that Microsoft isn’t an easy target, they made BOB after all) and, in some cases, evidently created their own aggregate data, which was then used to identify individuals and broach privacy standards. Kennedy goes on to say that he did this with full endorsement of the companies he wrote for, and I quote “They didn’t want to lose 2+ million page views per year, which is what the shock jock persona they developed for me delivered.”
Journalists, and the managers of journalists, should take this as a wake up call. When you’re a trusted person, that trust is often your most valuable asset. I know that the entire media industry is under assault and its revenues are shrinking. But I hope that this has the positive side-effect of reminding everyone involved that quality and credibility are invaluable. Said another way, it’s impossible to place a real dollar value on strong ethics, credibility and trustworthiness, except to know that it’s worth a lot. (Someone remind Toyota and the Wall Street bankers of that too, while we’re at it.)
January 1st, 2010 marked a very special day for me. It was the first time in the past ten years in which I had no official PASS responsibility at the HQ level. (I’m still serving in the local PASS chapter here in Nashville, along with the awesomeness that is DrSQL (blog | twitter) and the whackness that is Joe Webb (blog | twitter). We also have the irreplaceable Shelton Dickson and Roberto Lopez helping us out). I also intend to stay active as a speaker for PASS. I spoke at the PASS 2009 Summit, earning a top presenter spot in the Professional Development track, and plan to speak there in the future. And I’m also already booked for some upcoming Virtual Chapter meetings as well as local PASS chapters and SQL Saturdays.
10 Years on the Job Takes Its Toll
I have to admit that I’ve been surprised by the number of friends and acquaintances who’ve asked if I’ll miss it. Isn’t it obvious? Ten years of long hours with zero pay and a heavy burden on family time don’t rest easily on your shoulders. I’m sure that PASS’ first two presidents, Pam Smith and Guy Brown, can corroborate my story – except that they’ve taken a solemn oath never to speak words that includes the letters S, Q, and L in a single sentence. That makes it really hard to ask their opinion on much of anything these days. The heinous nervous twitch that spasmodically attacks their left and right eye, respectively, whenever they hear the words “Micro” or “Soft” uttered in the same conversation is also telling…
All joking aside, I’m honestly very happy to leave PASS in the hands of the next generation of leaders. For more a much more in-depth discussion about my years on the PASS board of directors, check out Brian Moran’s interview for SQL Server Magazine here. The enthusiasm and passion demonstrated by the young turks on the board of directors will keep the organization in stead for many years to come. I’m also very pleased with the new emphasis on community-connectedness (thank you Twitter!) and openness (thank you bloggers!) sweeping the community. It’s already produced much goodness within PASS, which I expect to see multiplied many times over in the future.
A PARTING BOW
I was amazed and surprised when, during the keynote of Day 3, Bill Graziano called me on to the stage along with el presidente Wayne Snyder. PASS did an online postings in a few locations. The PASS Volunteers page spotlights my award under the PASSion Awards section. Then, on the PASSion Award page, the award is the top featured article. This write-up includes a link to the interview with Brian that I mentioned earlier. Funny story – I’d been working in the PASS ready room on Day 2 of the Summit, feverishly trying to improve my slide decks. At the exact same time, Bill and the staff were also feverishly working on their slide deck a mere two seats away – of the presentation to come on Day 3!
I had hair when I started this job. Just sayin'...
Normally, I don’t care very much about how my slides look and would’ve caught Bill red handed in his sly surprise. But today was different because I’d seen two ominous portents of doom – a ferret consorting with a chicken (on Cartoon Network) and a woolly caterpillar crossing the threshold of the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center lobby. My keen senses as an Oracle DBA kicked off an internal alarm that even 14 years of SQL Serverness could not suppress – eminent disaster at the hands of the demo gods was nigh. So once I got to the PASS ready room, I equipped myself with several diet Mountain Dews, my favorite MP3 tunes via massive ear-buds, and a bag of mixed nuts. Yes – I never knew, not even for a second, that they were talking about me. Several hours later, as if waking from a daze, I realized that I didn’t have any slide decks with demos. Clearly, Graziano had stronger juju than I. Next time, I’ll directly divine the future using turtledove entrails – as all good Oracle DBAs are trained to do – rather than rely on those pathetic woolly caterpillars like MS-Access developers recommend. [All elements of the preceding story concerning divination are a blatant lie.] But I digress…
At the Day 3 keynote, Bill and Wayne surprised me by calling me to the stage and presenting me with the biggest award I’d ever personally seen. I was gobsmacked. On top of that, the attendees gave me a standing ovation for receiving the “Lifetime Passion Award” (no relation to Lifetime “TV for Women”). Again, I was taken aback. Wayne had, evidently, intended on giving me the mic to say a few words. But because he was a bit choked up, he left the stage a bit earlier than he meant and never handed the mic to me. Good thing too – I would’ve blubbered like a baby.
A Special Word of Thanks
Honestly, I can’t thank you enough for your kindness as a community. I never got into PASS for any form of praise or profit. To have a hand in the making of something bigger than me which reflected my own values was all I ever hoped to achieve. And thank you again to all the bloggers who had a kind word about the award as well:
Brian Egler at Network World also mentioned it here.
This year was also a great year for photoslikethese. If you know of any other mentions about the award that day back in November 2009, please post a comment here.
There I was, just a couple weeks back, whining that I wasn’t getting tagged by friends when a new meme comes out. Sure enough, when my friend, Paul Randal (blog | twitter), starts a new meme with me as one of the first handful of people tagged, it’s taken me a full ten days to get a response out the door. Yes – I deserve a wedgie.
In Paul’s initial post, I saw that he’d asked for three events that were pivotal in why I’m where I am today. To be honest, I’ve been noodling over my response ever since Paul first tagged me. So, in a sense, I’ve been writing this blog post for about twelve days now. Not that I’m off the hook or anything.
What Didn’t Make the List
Still, I have to admit it’s taken me some time to get to a point where I could write about the events that have brought me where I am today. Because, when I give a truly honest accounting of some of these major life changing events and pivotal decisions in my life, I’m not always proud of what I see. Like item #4 on my list of life-changing decisions. Don’t you DARE ask about #4. I mean it. If you do, there will be blood (see picture below)…
There are also a couple other non-events that also had a huge impact on my life’s direction. By non-event, I mean these things didn’t have a specific date and time. But they were enormously influential about how I handled opportunities or even helped make opportunities happen. First, I’d be remiss not to mention the impact that my personal faith has had on my life. Countless decisions were steered by that faith. Second, my upbringing naturally had a huge impact on shaping my personality, preferences, fears, and joys. (My mother is Italian, so I can honestly say that Parmesan cheese is one of life’s greatest joys.) Finally, my immediate family -marrying very young and having a rather large family- also meant I made a lot of decisions in certain ways, such as opting not to move for a better job so that the kids could have greater stability. Things would be very different if I’d put my own desire and ambitions ahead of them. With that said, let’s hit that top 3 list.
Add 1/5 Beefeater Gin + Article of Lingerie + Collegeboy Prank at a Zoo = Lifetime of Regret, a.k.a #4 on the List
Event #3
Pivotal, life-changing events shouldn’t come knocking on your door every day. In my case, one of the first and most pivotal events for me happened about 3/4 of the way through my senior year in high school, just a few months before graduation. Like my brother from another mother, Buck Woody (blog | twitter), money was a huge issue in my household. (I’ll save you the sob story. But trust me, there were many tears.) So whatever college and career I chose had to provide the most upward mobility as quickly as was humanly possible within the boundaries of the law (that meant no drug dealing). This is where my analytical side kicked in. Looking over my college scholarships, I examined the undergraduate catalogs at the various universities in one hand and the salary survey about their respective careers in the other.
I came up with a two-column list. The first column contained college majors that I would really enjoy career-wise, though not necessarily big money careers. Column #1 contained entries like teaching, writing, farming, and being a stoner. Notice how entries in column #1 were all among the most noble of professions and yet virtually guaranteed a life of penury? Yeah, I noticed that too. The second column contained college majors that I could tolerate, but had much better money prospects. Column #2 contained entries for engineering, medicine, law, becoming Hugh Hefner’s protege, and … computers.
I’d lived with computer since before I could read or write. My father was an analog computer engineer and, I still remember with great clarity, the desk-sized analog computer we had in our house in the 1970’s. It had 4K of memory, used punch cards, created a flurry of discarded chads when it would write data out to a punch card. My dad taught me about binary, octal, and hexadecimal, and the joys of vacuum tube computing. Unfortunately, he did not teach me how to throw or catch any sort of ball, which had dramatic repercussions throughout my school year (refer to wedgie picture above) – but I digress. Suffice it to say that by the time college rolled around, I was already well versed in 8-bit computing (I used Kaypro’s for you Osbourne and Sinclair snobs out there) and could envision that being a good career.
My Initial Career Choice - Stoner
Right about the same time I was choosing a future career, just before I graduated from high school, IBM launched an exciting new business computer called the IBM PC. It was a hugely successful product with the ultimate killer application – a spreadsheet. (The spreadsheet was an amazing innovation in its day. VisiCalc was the one I remembered being all the rage at the time.) These personal computers were also hugely expensive – a nicely loaded IBM PC or XT could routinely cost $5,000 and that’s in 1983 dollars, friends. So that’s when I started a part-time business, which I maintained all through college and a short while after, building and selling IBM PC clones. I learned a lot from that experience – how to pay taxes like a responsible business owner, a lot about salesmanship, quite a bit about business accounting, business law, and the goodness of being an entrepreneur. One surprisingly good outcome from all of this was that I didn’t have to sell out my love of writing and teaching. That’s probably 40% of what I do today, just with computers.
Event #2
Another major turning point in my professional life occurred in the early 1990’s. By that time, I’d held a couple professional jobs of the programmer/analyst variety working with Unix-based CAD/CAM tools, dBase, Fortran, and very early versions of Oracle. While my skill in these technologies was growing by leaps and bounds, this particular event isn’t about technology. You see, my first three professional jobs (outside of my own little business) all held in common the fact that I worked for terrible bosses. (I wonder if it’s any coincidence that these bosses, all male, were from the John Wayne school of management?) I then had the opportunity to move from those smaller businesses to a fairly large company called Nichols Research Corporation, now a part of Computer Sciences Corporation. I gleefully clapped my hands because my title was “Research Scientist” and, get this, I was actually working on NASA and US Army missile projects. I was literally a rocket scientist! However, the thing that truly amazed me about this new work environment was that my bosses were women. Great women. Women (like Liz Kennedy, Pat Burns, and Bev Meeler) who were collaborative, consensus-driven, and encouraging. They made me wonder why my male bosses never figured out that cussing an employee for 15 minutes at a time might not be the best way to motivate staff. These excellent business leaders taught me my first real world lessons in the difference between the autocratic style of management versus the coaching style of management. It was a lesson that I carried with me the rest of my life and try to instill in others whenever I get the chance. (Blatant Plug – Attend my top-rated professional development sessions at the next PASS Summit and read my professional development column in the PASS Community Connector e-newsletter!)
Event #1
She was my sugar-mama, and I was her lovin' cabana boy. She put me through college...
The number one event that changed the course of my life came up quite accidentally. I’d set my sights on earning a Master’s degree and, as the truly lazy know, you can complete a Master’s degree two semesters early by writing a thesis rather than sticking strictly with classes. Laziness (or perhaps it’s creativity?) raised it’s head once again with this thought “Why not write my thesis as a dual-purpose document? One that will earn the advanced degree and be published as a book?” That’s when I saw a rather small advertisement in the back of one of my favorite computer magazines of the day, a now defunct mainframe-oriented publication called Datamation, calling for authors for a new IT series they were starting. I pitched my master’s thesis and was shocked that I was accepted. I find it funny that I finished the book, Oracle’s Cooperative Development Environment, but never finished the Master’s degree. That book helped me land a new job in Nashville, TN at a prestigious Big 3 accounting firm, which helped me get another book deal with O’Reilly & Associates, which earned me a seat as a founding board member of the Professional Association for SQL Server, which helped me land my current, wonderful job at Quest Software. And which will eventually earn me a place in history for being the first database expert to dance on the bar at Coyote Ugly.
What Others Are Saying
Let me be honest with you. I really enjoyed this meme. And it’s one of the things that I’ve really enjoyed seeing happen with the SQL Server community in the last year or so – people opening up and sharing. This is what community is all about. One hundred years ago, I would’ve been thrilled to live in a town with as many supportive and encouraging friends who were just down the street from me. But thanks to the technology we work with and the willingness of all of these people, it’s almost like a small, friendly (Southern!) town all over again. I intend to read more in the meme thread, but here are just a few others that I’ve already read and enjoyed:
Brent Ozar (blog | twitter): I loved BBS’es too, amigo!
Kim Tripp (blog | twitter): She taught the first SQL Server class I ever attended!
Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter): He’s Mr Popular, being tagged 4 times. But who doesn’t love chicken, I ask?
Donabel Santos (blog | twitter): She’s a ninja, but a very nice one who’s not likely to cut your arms off.
Andy Leonard (blog | twitter): We’ve got to Mrs Leonard and Mrs Segarra to cook a big ol’ dinner for us. Then we can all die happy.
Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter): You’d think it was a movie based on real events, with a little extra drama added in, but it was ALL real.
There are so very many other good ones that I could go on for several more paragraphs. The reason I mention them, though, is that I somehow feel closer to all of these people. And at the end of the day, our lives are really and truly about the people we have touched and the friendships we have made. Everything else stands for naught.
I’ve always been intrigued by our process for allowing creative content, such as songs or movies, to become public domain. A common usage for public domain might be to create a short family video and, seeking a peppy and familiar piece of background music, you settle on “The Entertainer”, by Scott Joplin. (If you’ve never heard of it, listen here. You’ll recognize it.) Since the music is past the 75 year limit of copyright protection, it is now public domain – meaning that you don’t have to pay or seek permission to use it for your family home video.
Now, it seems that many old media companies are deliberately destroying great old celluloid video footage rather than allow it to become public domain. Of course, there’s plenty of old TV programming that don’t have a single living fan, but we’re talkin’ about classics here like Jack Benny and the BBC’s Dr Who. Read this news story and this one for an example.
So, what do you think? Is this a misuse of private ownership of aging IP? Is this just another example of old media putting their finger in the dike of digital entertainment for the sake of a dying business model?
I find this to be particularly ironic since old media companies are the first to exploit public domain material for their own uses. Case in point, what’s the last Disney animated film you’ve seen (no, not Pixar – Disney) that wasn’t adapted from an age old story?
A neat new administration and configuration management tool for the SQL Server set. I especially like the Run Book features, because Run Books are the way us “oldtimers” like to run our IT infrastructure. My pal, Buck Woody, also likes Run Books (and really big explosions by the guys on MythBusters, but that’s another discussion). Find all the details about the new tool, created by Bill Wunder, here.
"Richard, wasn't that an awesome interview?!?" "Carl, I could've danced, er, talked all night!"
In addition, I’m honored and amazed that the team at RunAsRadio invited me to participate in interview #143. These are the same guys who also put together one of the best and longest running IT podcasting shows – .NETRocks. Unlike a lot of interviews, it seems like we had too little time to cover all the topics. I’d love to hear your feedback!
I’ve been really intrigued by a meme making the rounds of the blogsphere concerning goals for the coming year and picking a theme word, rather than the usual New Year’s resolution.
As in all memes, one blogger starts it off and then others are tagged, spreading the chain outward. So Tom tagged several other good friends of mine, all of whom also chose to ignore me including: Brent Ozar (blog | twitter), Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter), Tim Ford (blog | twitter), and Jason Massie (blog | twitter) in their respective blog posts. So here’s the chain of the mem a couple levels deep:
Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter), whom I -DO- know, responded in his blog post called “There’s Going to be Some Bank Robbing in My Future“. Jorge in turn tagged: Ron Dameron (Blog | Twitter), Jonathan Gardner (Blog | Twitter), Tim & Lori Edwards (Blog | His Twitter – Her Twitter) whom I just had the pleasure of meeting at the last PASS Summit and, in a sacrilegious move sure to enrage the High Church for inviting a non-SQL person, his own wife, Jessica Segarra (Blog | Twitter). Actually, I really want Jorge to bring Jessica to a PASS or SQLSaturday event – WITH MANY OF HER INCREDIBLY YUMMY RECIPES READY FOR US TO EAT.
Since I know only Lori Edwards out of this group of taggees, you can read her (and Tim’s) blog entry here. The Edwards, however, tagged no one else.
Andy Leonard (blog | twitter), close friend and fellow Nashvillian Joe Webb (blog | twitter). Neither of these picked up the meme.
Possibly the coolest Canadian not sporting hair, Colin Stasiuk (blog | twitter) wrote his goals bloggery, “Comment Crazy and the Nasty Red Fonts of Doom“, and in turn tagged Andy Leonard (introduced earlier), Jorge Segarra (introduced earlier), and a new (but quite significant) blogger, Michelle Ufford (blog | twitter). Sadly, Michelle hasn’t blogged since last November. But there’s still time Michelle!
Jason didn’t pick up the meme and, honestly, I can’t tease him since I don’t know him that well. However, I do hear he can wax poetic about bacon much the same way my Dutch friends get misty-eyed about certain strains of cheese.
Where’s the love, I ask?
Oh, and just to whine a bit more – you can read some other good entries in this meme by Kendal Van Dyke here and Tim Mitchell here.
THEME WORD, I HAZ IT.
Not Nefarious. Multifarious!
I love it that so many of my friends are focusing not only on their technology skills and professional stature, but also on their family life and spiritual life. I’ve long believed that specialization was for insects, but we – as human beings – are multifaceted and have manifold skills and traits that need to be cultivated. There’s no reason an educated and urbane 21st century American can’t be physically fit, in tune with their family and significant other, able to write a cheesy line of verse, sing a few bars of a popular song, take a decent picture, repair a broken toaster, and do some on-line banking. As others have said before me, our parents and grandparents had one career and one employer. That’s not our lot in life.
So my theme word for 2010 is MULTIFARIOUS.
Pretty weird, eh?
When I first encountered the word multifarious, I thought of the word nefarious. Nefarious means “bad or evil”, so I thought multifarious meant “lotsa bad or evil”. In fact, they’re antonyms. Multifarious, in its Latin roots, means “many” plus “goodies” while nefarious means “negative or not” plus “goodies”.
So if you can think of another word that means “having many different parts, elements, or forms; numerous and varied; greatly diverse or manifold”, then I want to use that one. In the meantime, my theme word is multifarious because 2010 is my year of focusing on many elements, some long-neglected, in my life.
GOALS, HAZ DEM TOO.
Like many of the other folks I teased earlier, I have a variety of goals – some related to work (and therefore technology) and some not.
Every child needs a little 1-on-1. Even Little Critter by Mercer Mayer
Personal Goals: In 2010, I’m working on some entirely non-technology goals because I frankly feel a little too much dehumanized by technology. I want to put some humanity back into my life. So here are a few quick hit goals:
Fresh berries are very expensive, but berry bushes are not. The strawberries are already in and blackberries are a goal this spring. There’s something very primal about digging in the dirt that reconnects us with the earth and our agrarian roots.
I used to be a very accomplished Spanish guitarist – about 20 years ago. Twenty years of abstention puts the ol’ guitar skills at zero. I’m going to pick up the guitar and get at least three of those back.
I intend to master at least a half-dozen knots. Knots? Yes, knots – the kind you make with laces, rope, or twine. Hey, I’ve got seven kids in the house and you never know when a half-hitch sheep-shank will come in handy to lash several of them to a chair, the stair rail, or in a moment of dire need, a toilet.
I intend to spend at least one weekend of one-on-one time with each of my kids and step-kids. I don’t really believe in the concept of quality time, since as many learning moments come when dad bangs his thumb with a hammer as from any other so-called special time. But in this unusually large family with distractions nearly every waking moment, I still want to set aside a little time under the label “Just Dad and Me”.
Zero consumer debt except for the mortgage. (Dave Ramsey is my hero!)
Somehow – some way – I want to get a worm-eye-view photo of any man wearing a kilt at the PASS 2010 Summit. Strictly for blackmail purposes. (Grant and Steve, you’re on notice!)
Diversification Goals: Here are a few goals for 2010 that relate to my livelihood, but are not part of my day job.
At least one major new book for this year. I frequently gripe about the ROI of book writing these days. However, there are still a few powerful topics to address. So, with that in mind, I have one technology book ready to pitch and, believe it or not, one non-technology book.
Improve my personal productivity – somehow, someway. Maybe more caffeine?
I developed a lot of new personal skills in 2009, like wiring and electronics. I’m continuing that because I’m also very close to filing my very first provisional patent (non-IT, believe it or not). I’ll blog about that whole process in much greater details when the time is right. But this is my biggest diversification goal for 2010.
Retool my presentation style to be story-driven, rather than bulletpoint-driven. I felt like I’ve given some useful and informative presentations over the years. But I can do better and I know it. I’ve always been drawn to the old Southern tradition of story-telling and I’d like to bring that to life in my presentations. That goal starts immediately since I have presentations almost every week and, while it might get easier with time, it’ll never go away as a goal.
So that’s a wrap for me. I don’t have any specific goals about number of presentations, blogposts, or podcasts (though I want to do as much as I can). Sure, I want to continue to actively present, blog, write, tweet, digg, scribble, podcast, and otherwise excrete goodness into both print and the Internet.
ANYTHING ELSE?
Why, yes, there is one other thing. It’s a meme, right? So that means I need to tag a few others. First, I want to beseech those already tagged to go ahead and share with us – Joe, Andy, Jason, and Michelle. Please give us your wisdom!
Next, I’m going to tag a few friends in hopes of nudging them into another blog post, cause all of these folks are t’awesome but don’t blog enough:
Before I jump onto the Goals and Themeword meme started by my buddy, Thomas LaRock (blog | twitter), I decided I’d spend a few minutes looking back on both the year 2009. (From a personal standpoint, the 00’s were my most difficult decade yet. Major problems of every stripe beset me on all sides and with alarming frequency throughout the decade. I was all “Good Riddance” and “Don’t let the door hit y’ass on the way out, 2009!” as the ball dropped in Times Square.)
Rather than spend a lot of time cooking up my own top 10 lists, I reckoned (that’s Southern for “thought”, btw) I’d recap a few others top X lists that are in the ballpark of my own personal opinion. I couldn’t resist putting together my own list at the end, which I’d love to hear your thoughts on. In addition, I want to hear about your Top 10 (or 5 or 3) for 2009!
Their Lists
Time Magazine’s list of Top 10 of Everything 2009 was a pretty good recap for the year on big ol’ cultural touch points like movies and music. I found at least one thing to agree with in each of their pop culture lists: movies – The Hurt Locker – check; TV shows – my personal favorite for its brilliant cohesive multiyear storyline and excellent character studies, Lost – check; album – I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers – check; books (sigh – if only I had more time) included the wonderful The Age of Wonders by Richard Holmes.
Lifehacker’s Top 5 Hive Topics of 2009 is a very interesting list covering lots of topics and pointing out a lot of interesting tools that I hadn’t encountered before. My personal favorite among them was the Top 5 Alternative File Copiers, since the Windows Explorer copy feature reminds me of hungrily awaiting my food in the microwave and just as the counter gets to the T-10 countdown, it goes back up to 30, then down to 8, then back up to 42, then down to 14.
I’m not sure if they meant to be funny but Digg’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009 is hilarious, much in the same way that Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and I were when we put on an unintentionally hilarious performance at the PASS 2009 Summit Quiz bowl. Go ahead – ask Colin Stasiuk (blog | twitter) what he thought of our performance…
Impressed by Our Quiz Bowl Performance?
Speaking of unintentionally funny, have you seen Yahoo’s Top 10 Searches of 2009? Evidently, the median Internet user (at least from their metrics) is hormone-laden, teenage redneck with a thing for fast cars (Nascar), Hollywood hotties (Megan Fox), and an unassailable but secret love for Mormon-influenced Vampires (Twilight).
My List
I usually try to blog at least once per week and, when I can, even more. I still have this deep down urge to post lots of small blog posts of just a couple paragraphs. But for some reason, I always seem to come out with these big ol’ epistles. Despite my verbosity, y’all still read what I write and for that I’m very thankful. Over the last year, these were my top ten blog posts according to your interest:
Looking for Good DMV Database Admin Queries, where you can find just about every good DMV query ever written except those other really good ones that are posted here in the comments.
Things You Know Now, a semi-successful meme I started where I asked participants to tells us about stuff they’d do differently if they knew it way back in the day.
I excluded a few posts that were numerically in the top ten because, well, they’re my blog posts and I didn’t want them in the top ten. So there! But those that I excluded were things like reposting an interview done by another blogger or maybe a product or book that I plugged for some reason or an other.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my blogging and found it valuable. Tomorrow, I’m jumping on the themeword and goals meme. In fact, I’m crashin’ the party because none of my peeps called on me. [pout]
I was honored to be recently interviewed by the crew at Consortio Services. You can find my portion of this particular webcast at http://www.cstechcast.com/podcasts/cs-techcast/episode99/ beginning at 17:24. In the interview, I discuss a number of thoughts and opinions about the future of cloud computing, where our profession is headed, and more.
When I first became aware of the website, they were audio podcasts only. Since then, they’ve changed up their format a bit, and now have a video portion along with the audio. They now included a visual “slide” with your headshot and title (not a pretty sight, in my case). Also, they some scrolling shots of other things I’m involved with such as Quest Software, my blog here, my Tool Time column on SQL Server Magazine, and the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives book, and my personal website.
I encourage you to add this podcasting site to your list of favorites. There’s lots of great information waiting for you there.
Enjoy!
-Kevin
P.S. I just got the word that I have been re-granted MVP status for the upcoming year. Thanks to Microsoft and all my fellow MVP colleagues for making the MVP program such an awesome credential!
In the Sequels for SQL series, I point you to sites where you can go beyond the nose-to-the-grindstone resources that we see every day as SQL Server professionals. (My favorite resource for pan-SQL Server pointers is Steve Jone’s Database Weekly email newsletter.) These are the story that comes after and outside (the sequels) of our daily working lives (the other SQL). Let’s broaden our horizons together. If you hit on an interesting but overlooked topic, I’d like to hear from you.
SQL Server: We live it. We love it.
When Jimmy May talks, I listen. Not just because he’s a personal friend, but also because he knows what’s what, if you’ll pardon the expression. So when Jimmy says “I believe xPerf will fundamentally change the way I do my job”, then I want to know what the heck this free xPerf management tool is and how I can best leverage it. Check out Jimmy’s blog entry on xPerf here.
Devices & Gadgets: Usually making our lives better, sometimes not so much.
Ever wonder what’s inside one of those tiny USB hard drives? No? Not even a little bit?!? When I started in IT, hard drives where as big as washing machines and cost $60,000 running at speeds in the 100’s of RPMs. My how times have changed. Here’s a fun hack of a USB hard drive – http://www.dansworkshop.com/electricity-and-electronics/usb-hard-drive-hack.htm.
Futurewatch: Important issues just over the horizon.
There are a lot of standard elements of society being rebranded as the “2.0″ version of itself. The 2.0 moniker was first put forward by visionary Tim O’Reilly (blog | twitter), of the eponymous media company. Whenever you see the 2.0 moniker added to the end of something, most famously Web 2.0, then you know that it will include the characteristics of collaboration, interoperability, and user-centered designs. So, whereas the first go at the web in the mid- to late-1990’s was about enabling information retrieval such as transforming printed catalogs into on-line catalogs, Web 2.0 enables all of its participants to comment on, review, rate, and otherwise participating with each other in the use of such a catalog. In the last FutureWatch blurb, I pointed out work on Grid 2.0, centered on efforts to update the USA’s electricity grid. I’m going to do a much more detailed post in the near future about emerging 2.0 efforts, but one to point out now is Gov 2.0. Under this broad set of initiatives, governments from the lowest to highest levels of responsibility are opening up their public databases for consumption by the public. An example of Gov 2.0 in action comes with the President’s SAVE Award, in which the public is invited to vote on their pick for the best money saving tip put forward by federal government workers. Read all about this year’s SAVE Award here.
Humor: I haz da funny.
Weird products in Japan have their own name – chindogu. Most of these are crackpot inventions that everyone knows will never see the light of day, such as these these featured here. However, some of these products DO get marketed and, more amazingly, purchased. Check out the product reviews of this totally bizarro chindogu here at Overstock.com.
Professional Development: Because there are two words in “database professional”.
There are mountains of great websites with tips on how to be a better speaker. Some day, I’ll write a long blog post about my favorite sites for learning how to improve your oration. But if you’re in a hurry, and who isn’t these days, then this blog post at TechRepublic succinctly sums up the advice you’ll find from many other web sites, articles, and blogs.
Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.
One of the most remarkable things about the USA, as a rather biased citizen, is our ability to suck up our pride, admit a mistake, and try to prevent it from happening again. One way that the USA tries to prevent future occurrences is to convene a commission of some kind. I found this analysis by David Leinweber, a Haas Fellow in Finance and Founding Director of the Center for Innovative Financial Technology at UC Berkeley, on the commission studying banking market reform in the USA to be quite intriguing and, frankly, upsetting.
WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.
I’m always on the lookout for issues related to safe and clean water. If you think people can be grumpy when oil is in short supply, imagine what it’s like when there’s not enough drinking water for everyone. See how India is dealing with enormous water issues in this revealing article from the Economist. And I’d be interested to hear what our Indian blogger friends thoughts are on this topic, folks like Rushabh Mehta, Jacob Sebastian, and Pinal Dave. (Water issues have remained one of my passions ever since my years working for NASA developing the water recycling systems for the International Space Station, in which we made water of the H20 that passes through the human body re-drinkable. And it tastes good. Incidentally, all of the technology we developed for this project, as with all non-classified government projects, became public domain. ECLSS technology is now used in hundreds of commercial products ranging from household detergents to commercial solvents to filtration systems.)
