Reed Me : self-referential integrity

To whom it may concern (code comments)

reedme — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:10:21 GMT

I thought I was the only one who left warnings in my code for future maintainers... Or maybe Brian inherited one of my previous projects. Heh.

Funniest code comment ever...

Yes, today’s my last day in SQLBU, and I’ve left more than a few WARNING code comments alongside the TODOs and UNDONEs.

I think I've found my new sport... Chess Boxing.

reedme — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:26:54 GMT

Although I might hold out for MMA Chess, this still sounds like fun. I still play chess online with my Dad and brothers, but this would add a whole new combative dimension to the game... and require a whole new level of commitment.

"I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That's why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king," he said.
AFP: Knights in the ring as chess boxers slug it out

Take my rook, will ya'? Well take that! <insert_kerpow_sound />

Time to start a new Microsoft social club? Heh. Definitely something to add to the kids' training regimen!!

The synchronicity is frightening...

reedme — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:44:49 GMT

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 />

Randall routinely channels my life @ xkcd.com. It's just weird. It adds a lot of weight to Scott Adams' theory that this life is really just a simulation based on [my] previous life aeons ago. (Of course, Scott thinks the simulation is based on *his* previous life, but the evidence clearly proves otherwise.)

Tracking Politicians Like Bugs?

reedme — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 03:17:13 GMT

The suggestion is to track politicians positions like software products and file bugs against them to determine their suitability for installation in office. Nope, not April 1st yet! Whaddya think?

If a candidate takes a position I disagree with, such as calling for corporate windfall profit taxes, amnesty for illegal aliens or an artificial timetable for surrender, a bug is created and assigned a priority. If a candidate has too many unresolved, high-priority defects, I wouldn’t vote to deploy that product into the Oval Office.
Tracking Politicians Like Bugs (SD Times)

Synchronicity being what it is, that little article over @ SD Times actually tracks with a conversation that my wife and I were having last night about how she thinks we might get better candidates to run for office. Having been deeply involved with party politics (as my campaign manager and treasurer), she's starting to have more and more of a Darth Vader mindset about what ails the system: "They should be made to [agree]!" (For those of you who hated Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 & 3, I'm sorry for bringing up painful Jar-Jar-esque memories.)

Seriously, though, I think she's still a little disappointed that I dropped out of my run for Congress this year to move to Redmond and work for the SQL Server product team instead. No, really, I'm in the FEC database! See, this post is database-related after all. Heh.

Hi, Mom! (And everybody else.)

reedme — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:06:55 GMT

"So, what do you do?" It's a common enough question, right? Usually immediately subsequent to "Where do you work?" People ask it to break the ice. They ask it because they're interested. They ask it because they can't believe somebody actually pays me to work @ Microsoft. Heh. Even my eight year-old son asks me the same question. Over and over. Again this morning, before breakfast!

Imagine trying to explain what a Program Manager does to an eight year-old. (Apparently all of my previous attempts at explanation have been lost in the mists of prepubescent time.) Well, actually, I'm still struggling to figure it out myself and I are one (for almost a whole month now!).

So, here goes... For my mother, my oldest son (and everybody else who cares), I've circled below the little corner of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 that is more (or less) my fault in some small fashion. The rest of the team has been doing it for a lot longer than I and they deserve all the real credit! I'm just showing up at the last minute to take the blame. Heh.

With the November 2007 Community Technology Preview (aka CTP5), we added a link from the SQL Server Installation Center to our little home in CodePlex where all of the "official" samples live. You'll also find a shortcut to it after installation under Microsoft SQL Server 2008\Documentation and Tutorials\Microsoft SQL Server Samples Overview. At least it was there with the CTP5 bits... (Let's hope it stays there, eh?)

We've got a lot of cool new stuff coming "real soon now" from the SQL Server Community & Samples team, so stay tuned here, on Bonnie's blog and on CodePlex.com\SQLServerSamples.

Souvenirs

reedme — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 21:58:00 GMT

Bobbie was sure right about the best laid schemes and a' that. I certainly felt about mouse-sized towing a 5x8 trailer in my two-wheel drive minivan crawling through the Rocky Mountains this time! So much for blogging the move from Houston to Redmond in real time, though... I blame that on the streptococcal pharyngitis -- I really meant to be more disciplined about blogging. I did collect some unusual souvenirs along the way (besides the bacteria). I'll spare ye the pictorial account of our drive northward. Heh.

Location	Date	Souvenir
Houston, Tejas	up to Friday 14 December 2007 (when we left)	200+ cartons of household goods, approximately 15,000-pounds gross weight accumulated over 15 years of marriage (seven in the same house). It all fit (surprisingly) in 3/4 of the Graebel moving truck. We only had about 20 cartons of stuff the moving company refused to transport (don't ask) in our little 5x8 Uhaul trailer behind the van.
San Antonio, Tejas (Fort Sam golf course)	Saturday 15 December 2007	I got 3rd place in the 2007 Reed Classic golf tournament (limit to 9 holes due to inclement weather and the early wintertime sunset). Have to schedule this in Yuma, Tucson, Sedona or maybe Prescott next year. In July.
San Antonio, Tejas	Sunday 16 December 2007	New winter coats, gloves and hats for the kids from Burlington Coat Factory (since we know that we'll need them before we get to Denver).
Abilene, Tejas	Monday 17 December 2007	Strep throat (probably contracted earlier and incubated all weekend). Ouch! Didn't make it very far driving in this condition, but I didn't really realize what it was until I woke up the next morning.
Amarillo, Tejas	Tuesday 18 December 2007	Injected and oral antibiotics (taken continuously for the next seven days). Thank goodness for great traveling health coverage from Microsoft!!
Denver, Colorado	Wednesday 19 December 2007	Skipped visiting friends and family to avoid infecting people we care about with streptococcal pharyngitis. No memorable souvenirs collected. Aaron & Steve, I promise to ship the gifts we didn't get to deliver!
Rawlins, Wyoming	Wednesday 19 December 2007	Replacement drive belt for 2004 Toyota Sienna (we were very lucky to find this part 500+ miles from the nearest Toyota dealership). It's amazing how weird the electrical system behaves when the alternator's not turning! We also got our first opportunity to tow the Uhaul trailer through unplowed snow on the streets of Rawlins (where they apparently don't bother plowing side streets). We were very afraid of being stranded in Wyoming over the coming holiday because all but one mechanic in town (there were only 3) couldn't help us until the following Monday! I did get a good view of where I want to put a summer place on Elk Mountain, though. We'll definitely be back to Wyoming!
Ogden, Utah	Thursday 20 December 2007	Raced a snow storm all the way out of Wyoming, but it caught us halfway to Snowville, Utah (that's really what it's called!) and we had to turn around and camp in Ogden for the night. I should've followed the snowplow, instead of passing it in a hurry. Whoops!! The wife is starting to understand why I wanted to buy the 4x4 before we left Houston. C'est la guerre. Had the most expensive bad room service of the entire trip in Ogden. Utah's a lot prettier than my mental image suspected it would be, though. I think I could live here, even though I'm about as not-Mormon as you can get.
Near Juniper, Idaho	Friday 21 December 2007	Decided to brave the snow and the mountains (despite the fact that we can't find anywhere in no-man's land to buy tire chains) and try to push through quickly before the big snowfall projected for the weekend. Shouldn't have. Got stuck for a bit in the snow going uphill just north of Juniper; finally powered out of the snow drift (trailer and all!), but burned up something inside the van -- it never acted "right" after that. I successfully won the "we should've bought the 4x4 before we left argument" but I'm probably going to have to concede the "we should've taken the boring route through California" point. See? We're both right! Heh. Idaho is a lot prettier than I expected, despite the fact that they only run snow plows on the "easy" sections of the road, not on the mountain faces that really need it. Grrr. We're on a first name basis with AAA by now, even though they really haven't been able to help us yet (besides providing a calm voice in a warmer clime on the other end of the phone).
Pendleton, Oregon	Friday 21 December 2007	Really wanted to make it to Redmond today, but after wending our way through the Blue Mountains in the dark (not as much fun towing a trailer as you might expect), we decided to camp and race the projected snowfall in the Cascades tomorrow. Umatilla Indian Reservation is gorgeous; we'll definitely be coming back for some hiking later!
Snoqualmie Pass, Washington	Saturday 22 December 2007	We lost the race. Because the Cascades are so much lower in elevation than the rest of the mountains we've driven through so far, I chalked up the name Snoqualmie to an odd homonym taken from a Native American dialect that just happens to sound similar to frozen precipitation. I was wrong. The snow was coming down by the bucket! And then some. We were less than 90 minutes from our new home when we had to turn around and take a seven plus hour detour back through Oregon; we didn't even bother trying Satus Pass or the others since they're all about the same elevation and the forecast called for snow all weekend. Still no tire chains to be found anywhere. Everyone else has 'em, but nobody knows where we can buy 'em for our van. I promised the wife that as soon as we buy the 4x4, we're coming back through Snoqualmie so that I can thumb my nose at the mountain. It did look like great snow for skiing, too. Samia bought a mug at some interstate truck stop to commemorate our strategic withdrawal from Snoqualmie. Grrr! We got in very late (two days after we'd originally planned to arrive).
Bellevue, Washington	Saturday 29 December 2007	Belated souvenir. Way late, but better late than never own a 4x4. After unpacking all the boxes and starting to get the house in order, we traded in both cars (the Camry that got shipped up from Houston -- the long way, though California -- and the Sienna that barely survived the trip through the beautiful Rockies) on a 2008 Toyota Sequoia Platinum. It doesn't snow enough in western Washington justify the 10mpg monster 4x4, but I do have an upcoming rematch with the mountain. And my wife is starting to believe my threat to buy a summer place on Elk Mountain in Wyoming. Oh, yeah! I won't be held hostage to mere snow anymore. Stupid mountain. Stupid snow. Heh.

Needless to say, I love my wife's new vehicle. It's the best 'souvenir' that we got this trip. I'd never heard of the Platinum trim level, but I do wish (in retrospect) that we'd bought it in Houston. (No, I don't need another car. I'm still planning to bike to the office despite what everyone else thinks. I even bought a new bike to demonstrate my resolve! Heh.) Arctic Frost Pearl is an appropriate color for our new land yacht. The kids are upset about not being allowed to eat (or anything else except breathe) in the new vehicle. C'est la vie. I have to make sure to buy spare everything, though, before we venture back into no-man's land where they don't believe in stocking parts for "foreign jobbies." Note to self: buy tire chains before you need them. Duh. They're probably easier to find from home, with internet access, than interviewing locals who can't understand why I'm not driving a Chevy, Dodge, GMC or Ford.

We're planning to assault Snoqualmie next weekend and go for a hike around Toppenish Ridge or Yakima. The kids are already having flashbacks from the Great Grand Canyon Hike of 2007. Heh. It'll be fun.

Pray for snow!

If you have to look it up more than once, blog it.

reedme — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:51:42 GMT

The corollary of "if you have to do it more than once, automate it" is "if you have to look it up more than once, blog it." So I'm blogging the Data Dude links (so I don't have to look 'em up again later).

Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals Add-on for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite Edition

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals Release Notes

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals Service Release 1

Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals Power Tools

.NET Rocks! - Cameron Skinner and Gert Drapers on DataDude (webcast)

Here's to hoping my Tablet stays up long enough to post this...