Look at all of them fixin’ to jump in the pool! Heh. Not to minimize the difficulty that they’re embarking on, what with a 20% pass rate and all, but it’s great to see more people diving into the deep end of the SQL Server pool. Let’s hope as many Certified Masters as possible emerge from the other end...

I’m spending some time this weekend dusting off skills that I haven’t used for a while. After staring @ this MOF circle for waaay too long, I suddenly got the urge to jump on the bike, ride home and play darts with the kids. Heh. I’m sure you’ll see the connection. Although a MOF dartboard might not...

What’s the problem with software architects? Besides the fact that they think everything can be described in PowerPoint and Visio? With maybe a couple hundred pages of Word documents? Heh. It is problematic that “they” think things can be reduced to simple lists... or covered in one book. I’m not saying...

JP Morgenthal put together a brief care-and-feeding guide for managers of enterprise architects for CIO magazine. Back when I was an enterprise architect (or pretending to be one as a consultant), these are all things my management knew. Knew as in: I wish they did more than just be aware that I wanted...

Brian Walker has a good pair of articles on Thou Shalt Nots™: I had the chance to examine three business databases in five weeks and I'm still staggered by what I found. These are SQL Server databases serving as critical business foundations for companies generating millions of dollars in revenue per...

Since I'm going to be sitting as a panel member on an MCA review board soon, I'd like to think I can, but apparently some researchers are having trouble... Highly capable designers have an incentive to choose somewhat more difficult designs to better prove their talent, while less-capable designers have...

Vote early and often for your favorite implementations on your favorite platform! (Hint: your favorite platform is SQL Server.) Have you completed a data warehouse or business intelligence implementation that you think other organizations could learn from? Would you like some recognition for your accomplishment...

I'm sure it didn't tell him to stop and leave the car there, but... A computer consultant driving a rental car drove onto train tracks Wednesday using the instructions his GPS unit gave him. Man using GPS drives in front of train (Yahoo! News) Sometimes it's fun to see where you'll end up following inexplicable...

As I'm getting ready to roll off the current engagement, I've been having conversations with the next vic-, er, person in line to "Assume the Position"® who was lamenting the lack of Rules of Engagement. Statement of purpose. Or even general direction. When the conversation reached the...