Is your area of responsibility starved for resources? Is it difficult to get a raise? If so, don't despair. You're not alone - and there's something you can do about it.

Storytelling isn't necessarily the natural strong suit of technical people. That doesn't mean we can't do it - it… Read more

It finally dawned on me why people would bother getting a separate book-reading device like Kindle - and why it might be a good idea especially in a database professional's line of work.

My epiphany came today while at Borders in the Business/Management section and I see a book called… Read more

The Development DBA role, though not as common as the more prominent DBA and Database Developer roles in the database space, has its place too - and I think is likely to become more popular as things evolve. What is the Development DBA role? One could argue that it's at… Read more

I wanted the SCRUM Master certification this year, and could have gone local, but I wanted to get the training from Dr. Alistair Cockburn after watching a video of his training - and noting how great a teacher he is - and also after having read his impressive book Crystal… Read more

The picture I got from public school about evolutionary processes - and the view that I think most people share - has some big pieces missing. One of these pieces has been spotlighted by a nice married couple who are naturalists/scientists. Meet Amtoz and Avishag Zahavi. They developed the "Handicap Principle" in… Read more

SQL Server Training is out there in all sorts of formats, price points and quality. It's time to look at the quality part.

What makes TED Talks (www.ted.com) magic is the digestible format. You take an expert accustomed to talking to their colleagues and writing inpenetrable books -… Read more

Through a circuitous route, I encountered a meaningful, thought-provoking quote lately: "... the best way to predict the future is to design it." That's in the "about" section of the 2010 Cusp Conference web page.

I like the idea of designing not just products, but also designing one's experiences -… Read more

So this week I attended a preview for Visual Studio 2010. In addition to database development, I do ASP.NET development and use Visual Studio 2008 for that. So that's why I was curious about the new Visual Studio 2010 rollout.

Up to this point, I haven't done database development in… Read more

A colleague of mine pointed out a great podcast called This American Life - specifically an episode with John Hodgman (the PC guy in the Macintosh commercials) where Hodgman poses the question to people, what super power would you choose - flight or invisibility? In our tech careers, we are… Read more

Despite the down economy, the 2009 PASS Summit attendance was down only 8% compared to the 15% of other conferences - in large part due to new attendees. 40% of the attendees this year were new - including myself. Will they be back?

I'll be back. The quality of the… Read more

Down on the docks in Seattle there's a shop of oddities and curiosities where one can find things like a chapter of the Bible written on a grain of rice, an aligator boy, a gobblet of glass eyes - you know - stuff like that. So too one can find… Read more

 I'm on a Delta non-stop flight from Atlanta to Seattle for the PASS Summit. This is the first time I've used wi-fi on a plane. Delta's service gogo (which still means something else to some people I suspect) had a free trial that I'm taking advantage of - and the… Read more

Barring any unforeseen issues like sudden death, I'll attend this year's 2009 PASS conference in Seattle. I'll arrive Sunday the 1st and leave Sunday the 8th. Of course, my main quest is to participate at the conference. During conference hours I'll be completely dedicated to gathering knowledge and getting questions… Read more

When deciding what to learn, there's a binary decision. Will you focus on a strength or a weakness?

I think many people focus mostly on their strengths because they have a goal of really standing out in something. They perhaps want to avoid being average. It's common to hear people give… Read more

 A colleague pointed out a site that collects a lot of job posting data and exposes graphs - so I've taken a look and want to post on some of the graphs related to SQL Server.

How is SQL Server doing compared to some of the other big vendors like… Read more

I think the database developer role is on the rise and that it's better suited for agile practices - but guidance is needed make that infusion of agile practices a success. Here's why.

My impression is that fusing agile practices into the DBA role is inherently awkward since administration differs significantly… Read more

The 70-433 will be my first Microsoft certification test. There are two main reasons why I've decided to take on this quest.

The first reason is to "fill in the cracks." Even on fundamental topics I've found myself saying "oh - I didn't know that" while taking a training class… Read more