Each month, for six months, Arnie Rowland will be giving away a package of software, books, training, and development tools, valued at over $15,000, to an unemployed or underemployed developer that takes on a software project of his/her choice with a non-profit.
“The idea is to provide the recipient access to all of the tools needed to improve his/her skills, an opportunity to gain practical experience, the potential to earn a recommendation and/or referral –and to positively contribute to society as a form of ‘give-back’. No free lunch, just sweat equity –the kind that makes us all feel good for the effort.”
If you or someone you know is interested, the specifics are here.
The Modern Language Association hasn’t made up all the new rules yet to govern how one blogger should reverence, er, reference another in their blog posts. But they should! Let’s get that ball rolling for them.
I’m not exactly sure who started this format, but it’s my favorite. When writing a blog post in which you mention another person’s blog, let’s do it like this:
“blogger name (blog_hyperlink | twitter_hyperlink)”
So, we might read a blog post by my friend Kimberly Tripp (blog | twitter) that might look something like this:
“…the Scottish Terrier was so well known in early American society that as recently as the 1910′s, Manhattanite nannies instructed their young charges to be good else the “Scottish Terrier” would eat them, after a lengthy session of slobbery nuzzling and years of canine devotion. It is for this very reason that I’ve given my Scots/English husband, Paul Randal (blog |twitter), several variations of the nickname “Scottish terrier”, “scotty”, “snotty”, and “scotsnots” until such a time as needed for me to roll up the newspaper, give him a good spanking, and stick his nose in …”
Well, you get the point. And didja notice that I worked in not just one, but TWO entire examples of the blog-reference syntax?!? I can hardly believe my own craftiness. I went to university for four years to learn that y’know – and to learn how to funnel beer – but I digress.
The Call To Action
One thing I love about the SQL Server community is our very community-ness. (I also like the fact that you’ll let me invent stupid words on the fly without too much criticism.) So, let’s make the glob, {ah! damned dyslexia!} , blog reference business even easier by having you (yes, YOU) post your own blog & twitter links as a comment here.
I repeat – post a comment here containing your name, blog (with embedded hyperlink to your blog), and twitter (with embedded hyperlink to my twitter, er, YOUR twitter account).
I’ll then repost a brand new shiny article with a full compendium to everyone’s blog & twitter hyperlinks (except Brent Ozar’s (blog | twitter) ) which you can save to some obscure cranny of Outlook or WordPerfect to call up at a moments notice when the urge to both blog and reference other bloggers strikes you.
Thanks and looking forward to seeing your blog reference soon!
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 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!
Quest Software Pain of the Week Webcast: The 5-Minute SQL Server Healthcheck
Join me and Christian Bolton, UK SQL Server MVP and blogger,as we discuss how to quickly evaluate the basic health of your SQL Server environment. You’ll learn about several quick checks you can perform in minutes to determine if critical thresholds are being met—and where you need to resolve issues.
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Time: 8 a.m. Pacific / 11 a.m. Eastern / 4 p.m. United Kingdom / 5 p.m. Central Europe
Duration: 45-60 minutes
Cost: FREE
Presenters: Christian Bolton, SQL Server MVP & Kevin Kline, SQL Server Expert, Quest Software
One lucky attendee will win SQL Server expert Kevin Kline’s new essential reference book, SQL in a Nutshell. The drawing will be held at the end of the webcast, and the winner will be notified by e-mail.
You might remember my Best of the Blogspost back in February of this year. The blog post provided a link to all of the SQL Server MVP blogs that I was aware of at the time and, through the comments, many more were added. I’m fairly sure that you can find almost any good SQL Server MVP on that roll.
However, this got me wondering if there was anything similar on the Microsoft side of the community. Most of us, by now, know about the fantastic resources available from the SQLCAT team. And if you care at all about SQL Server, then you’re probably also reading the SQL Server PSS Escalation Engineers’ blog. But what else is there? Do each of the major components within SQL Server have a representative team blog? While I’m not sure about that last question, I think you’ll be very pleased to take a look at the Microsoft SQL Server Team blogs shown on the MSDN SQL Server Developer Center. I know it does include all extant SQL Server team blogs or personal Microsoftee blogs (Bill Ramos, do you hear me?!), but it’s a great place to start.
