Reed Me

Admittedly being from Mars, my reaction to the this little piece is predictable... I won't bore you with my witty repartee (yes, that's a redundant phrase) involving Emma, my code and a kitchen. (Yes, I'm pretty much overdue for sensitivity training,...

If you weren't already confused by the Microsoft Certification tree that means that you weren't paying attention... ;-) But the new level of certification adds something that's been missing, and I'm glad to see it happen. The new Certified Master levels...

Ah, this brings back memories. The 30 skills every IT person should have (infoworld.com) It's probably funnier to me since over the course of history, I've been: The nerd guy The pizza guy The delivery guy The police guy The computer guy The network guy...

Even if nobody has asked you for an RSS feed of data in one or more of your databases, it won't be long before they do! When they do, you can grab this configurable, easy to use data-driven RSS feed widget. A couple ideas for using this application: Business...

Being the sweet, considerate guy that he is, Steve Jones sent me an email to remind me of a couple of important things last Friday when he found out that my office was being moved into the basement (of Building 35). Not necessarily in order of importance...

At least on Vista, my mouse-hating keyboard reflexes have been stymied for a while. (I don't really hate mice, I just hate having to move the mouse when I shouldn't have to. I'm sorry, I'm old. I was born before computer mice were invented, and I developed...

This cool toolkit went AWOL from the Download Center some time ago and has been hiding on Skydrive for a while now, but it seemed to me that it deserves a better home than that... So I created a resource page for it in the MSDN Code Gallery. SQL Server...

I'm still recovering from three weeks OOF, but my teammates in Redmond and Beijing have done a great job getting the next preview of SQL Server 2008 samples ready for you. The main CodePlex portal for SQL Server Samples has links to all the individual...

It's almost like something you'd read about in The Onion: Mahoney says no charges have been filed but both lanes of traffic remain closed while authorities remove the cookies.   14 tons of spilled Oreo cookies snarl Ill. traffic (breitbart.com) In...

In another demonstration of the fact that I don't live on the same planet as most people, my first reaction to this was, "Doesn't everybody do this all the time?" The Lighter Side - Life is like an analogy (SQLServerCentral.com) We're currently...

I've gotten questions over the past month or two from folks (mostly DBAs and trainers) who have attended FUD dissemination events where various "experts" have declared The Relational Database™ to be dead. Ha! I've had a good laugh at most...

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get out when people start sending me links like this: 10 Signs Your Company Wants You Gone (eweek.com) Why Your Boss Doesn’t Want You to Telework (webworkerdaily.com) If the second one is actually #11 from the first...

In the dim and distant past, I picked up the 5±2 thing rule. I'm sure it has a fancy, academified name... but Tribal Video Game Knowledge™ has edged it into the recycler in my brain. My oldest son is trying to convince me to buy enough copies...

I'm sure there's a Customer Service Law™ on the subject (the 1:10 rule, or whatever), but sometimes you just have to ignore complaints. Sometimes not. Heh. One of the Steves sent this one to me by way of asking who it would make a difference to...

OK, I'll admit it. I'm always very behind in reading industry blogs, rags, whatever. And I'm biased. Heh. OTH, Sean McCown can hardly be called biased toward Microsoft... so when he and I agree on something, I'm glad that he's come around to see The Truth™...

In a striking change of direction, I'm happy to announce that AdventureWorks is being deprecated and abandoned for SQL Server 2008 samples in favor of long-time favorite databases of simple-minded data modelers: Northwind and pubs. Also, I can gleefully...

It was fun AND high pressure when I went through it, so I can sympathize. The study group and board review rehearsals are crucial, especially if you're nervous about talking with execs. (Or people pretending to be execs. Heh.) Like a lot of technical...

Actually, every day is an open source day for me @ Microsoft (since that's what I do -- publish and promote open source SQL Server projects), but tomorrow is a special all open, all source, all day day for us. Tomorrow the bonus for me is being able to...

Since I've never been to an MVP Global Summit, Tech*Ed or the SQL PASS summit, I'm looking forward to going this year. Since I will have T-shirts, I'm hoping that I won't have to be lonely. Heh. SQL Heroes : The T-shirts have arrived. If you don't have...

Just happened across a humorous Twitter. Maybe Twitter's not entirely worthless after all. Was Microsoft SQL Server designed by someone who doesn’t need to use Microsoft SQL Server? Was Microsoft SQL Server desig… (ceejayoz.com) Heh. I couldn...

I'm hoping that I can keep my blogs straight, but for the duration of the contest, I'll be blogging in two places: here and there . Here will be all the normal stuff you don't read anyway, and over there is your chance to convince me to give you a Windows...

The synchronicity is frightening, especially considering that I just made time last night to finish all 45 achievements in Mass Effect for another 1,000 points... It almost like Randall's always there: just watching me. <insert_scary_ghost_noise />...

Wow. Are people with autism trapped in their own world? Or are the rest of us just trapped in ours? The Language of Autism - Well - Tara Parker-Pope (New York Times Blog) At risk of sounding Chomsky-esque: We humans often mistake strong linguistic communication...

I know several database gurus who would say that BI is a chemically induced state of mind since... It's all too easy to get tripped up by technical, training or cultural issues. One challenge is the seemingly straightforward process of agreeing on common...

Very schweet! Congratulations to the team!! SQL Server Performance : ETL World Record! An ETL standard benchmark sounds like a great idea.