I hope your sabbatical turns out to be all you hoped it would be, Steve -- and then some!

I thought the title "Don't Accept Defaults" might be about life in general, or in a business/corporate setting.

Either way, it's good advice. 🙂

How appropriate that this editorial is running (almost five years after being written) while Steve is on vacation.

This is a message that has an indefinite shelf-life.

Thanks Steve and I...

Mike -

I also found the Comments very interesting. I first read this story several weeks ago and now I...

On that note, this is quite an...

Both written and oral communication skills are important to have and you will make yourself more valuable to your company if you can communicate well.

Sometimes the oral communication is one-on-one,...

As I understand it, you want to make things as easy as possible for your execs and you are using SQL Server relational tables as data sources.

You can achieve...

I agree with what Steve is saying and would take it a step further to extend that cost-saving logic and focus-on-your-core-business logic to not just small companies, but mid-size and...

The movie "Moneyball"* is about this same topic, except in the realm of professional baseball. Basically, Moneyball is about the application of Business Intelligence/Analytics to baseball.

One interesting thing the...

Whenever you can take your IT skills and apply them in a more direct way to helping the business either solve it's problems or identify and capitalize on new opportunities,...

On the topic of exercise in life's margins: rather than spend 5 minutes cruising a huge parking lot for the closest parking space, park further away and walk.

But it's...

I find that each week has its own share of challenges as well as satisfying accomplishments and new opportunities.

So which of those am I going to focus on, dwell...

Rod at work (3/12/2012)

Oh, tough question,...

Count me as another who really enjoyed Moneyball.

Not only is it a true story, it's also an excellent example of Business Intelligence - as applied to professional baseball.

It may...

I thought DBAs did "joins" and "unions" all day long. 🙂