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A HAPPY RETIREMENT
January 1st, 2010 marked a very special day for me. It was the
first time in the past ten years in which I had no official PASS
responsibility at the HQ level. (I'm still serving in the local PASS
chapter here in Nashville, along with the awesomeness that is DrSQL (blog | twitter) and the whackness that is Joe Webb (blog | twitter).
We also have the irreplaceable Shelton Dickson and Roberto Lopez
helping us out). I also intend to stay active as a speaker for PASS.
I spoke at the PASS 2009 Summit, earning a top presenter
spot in the Professional Development track, and plan to speak there in
the future. And I'm also already booked for some upcoming Virtual
Chapter meetings as well as local PASS chapters and SQL Saturdays.
 10 Years on the Job Takes Its Toll I
have to admit that I've been surprised by the number of friends and
acquaintances who've asked if I'll miss it. Isn't it obvious? Ten
years of long hours with zero pay and a heavy burden on family time
don't rest easily on your shoulders. I'm sure that PASS' first two
presidents, Pam Smith and Guy Brown, can corroborate my story - except
that they've taken a solemn oath never to speak words that includes the
letters S, Q, and L in a single sentence. That makes it really hard to
ask their opinion on much of anything these days. The heinous nervous
twitch that spasmodically attacks their left and right eye,
respectively, whenever they hear the words "Micro" or "Soft" uttered
in the same conversation is also telling...
All joking aside, I'm honestly very happy to leave PASS in the hands
of the next generation of leaders. For more a much more in-depth
discussion about my years on the PASS board of directors, check out Brian Moran's interview for SQL Server Magazine here.
The enthusiasm and passion demonstrated by the young turks on the board
of directors will keep the organization in stead for many years to
come. I'm also very pleased with the new emphasis on
community-connectedness (thank you Twitter!)
and openness (thank you bloggers!) sweeping the community. It's
already produced much goodness within PASS, which I expect to see
multiplied many times over in the future.
A PARTING BOW
I was amazed and surprised when, during the keynote of Day 3, Bill Graziano called me on to the stage along with el presidente Wayne Snyder. PASS did an online postings in a few locations. The PASS Volunteers page spotlights my award under the PASSion Awards section. Then, on the PASSion Award page,
the award is the top featured article. This write-up includes a link to
the interview with Brian that I mentioned earlier. Funny story - I'd
been working in the PASS ready room on Day 2 of the Summit, feverishly
trying to improve my slide decks. At the exact same time, Bill and the
staff were also feverishly working on their slide deck a mere two seats
away - of the presentation to come on Day 3!
 I had hair when I started this job. Just sayin'... Normally,
I don't care very much about how my slides look and would've caught
Bill red handed in his sly surprise. But today was different because
I'd seen two ominous portents of doom - a ferret consorting with a
chicken (on Cartoon Network) and a woolly caterpillar crossing the
threshold of the Sheraton Hotel and Convention Center lobby. My keen
senses as an Oracle DBA kicked off an internal alarm that even 14 years
of SQL Serverness could not suppress - eminent disaster at the hands of
the demo gods was nigh. So once I got to the PASS ready room, I
equipped myself with several diet Mountain Dews, my favorite MP3 tunes
via massive ear-buds, and a bag of mixed nuts. Yes - I never knew, not
even for a second, that they were talking about me. Several hours later, as if waking from a daze, I realized that I didn't have any slide decks with demos. Clearly, Graziano had stronger juju than I. Next time, I'll directly divine the future using turtledove entrails
- as all good Oracle DBAs are trained to do - rather than rely on those
pathetic woolly caterpillars like MS-Access developers recommend. [All
elements of the preceding story concerning divination are a blatant
lie.] But I digress...
At the Day 3 keynote, Bill and Wayne surprised me by calling me to
the stage and presenting me with the biggest award I'd ever personally
seen. I was gobsmacked. On top of that, the attendees gave me a
standing ovation for receiving the "Lifetime Passion Award" (no
relation to Lifetime "TV for Women").
Again, I was taken aback. Wayne had, evidently, intended on giving me
the mic to say a few words. But because he was a bit choked up, he
left the stage a bit earlier than he meant and never handed the mic to
me. Good thing too - I would've blubbered like a baby.
A Special Word of Thanks
Honestly, I can't thank you enough for your kindness as a community.
I never got into PASS for any form of praise or profit. To have a hand
in the making of something bigger than me which reflected my own values
was all I ever hoped to achieve. And thank you again to all the
bloggers who had a kind word about the award as well:
This year was also a great year for photos like these. If you know of any other mentions about the award that day back in November 2009, please post a comment here.
With a grateful heart to call you all friends...
-Kev
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Whiners and Whingers Get Wedgies
 Yes, I deserve a Wedgie There I was, just a couple weeks back, whining that I wasn't getting
tagged by friends when a new meme comes out. Sure enough, when my
friend, Paul Randal (blog | twitter),
starts a new meme with me as one of the first handful of people tagged,
it's taken me a full ten days to get a response out the door. Yes - I
deserve a wedgie.
In Paul's initial post, I saw that he'd asked for three events that
were pivotal in why I'm where I am today. To be honest, I've been
noodling over my response ever since Paul first tagged me. So, in a
sense, I've been writing this blog post for about twelve days now. Not
that I'm off the hook or anything.
What Didn't Make the List
Still, I have to admit it's taken me some time to get to a point where I could
write about the events that have brought me where I am today. Because,
when I give a truly honest accounting of some of these major life
changing events and pivotal decisions in my life, I'm not always proud
of what I see. Like item #4 on my list of life-changing decisions.
Don't you DARE ask about #4. I mean it. If you do, there will be
blood (see picture below)...
There are also a couple other non-events that also had a huge impact
on my life's direction. By non-event, I mean these things didn't have a
specific date and time. But they were enormously influential about how
I handled opportunities or even helped make opportunities happen.
First, I'd be remiss not to mention the impact that my personal faith has had on my life. Countless
decisions were steered by that faith. Second, my upbringing naturally
had a huge impact on shaping my personality, preferences, fears, and
joys. (My mother is Italian, so I can honestly say that Parmesan cheese
is one of life's greatest joys.) Finally, my immediate family
-marrying very young and having a rather large family- also meant I
made a lot of decisions in certain ways, such as opting not to move for
a better job so that the kids could have greater stability. Things
would be very different if I'd put my own desire and ambitions ahead of
them. With that said, let's hit that top 3 list.
 Add 1/5 Beefeater Gin + Article of Lingerie + Collegeboy Prank at a Zoo = Lifetime of Regret, a.k.a #4 on the List
Event #3
Pivotal, life-changing events shouldn't come knocking on your door
every day. In my case, one of the first and most pivotal events for me
happened about 3/4 of the way through my senior year in high school,
just a few months before graduation. Like my brother from another
mother, Buck Woody (blog | twitter), money was a huge issue in my household. (I'll save you the sob story. But trust me, there were many tears.)
So whatever college and career I chose had to provide the most upward
mobility as quickly as was humanly possible within the boundaries of
the law (that meant no drug dealing). This is where my analytical side
kicked in. Looking over my college scholarships, I examined the
undergraduate catalogs at the various universities in one hand and the
salary survey about their respective careers in the other.
I came up with a two-column list. The first column contained
college majors that I would really enjoy career-wise, though not
necessarily big money careers. Column #1 contained entries like
teaching, writing, farming, and being a stoner. Notice how entries in
column #1 were all among the most noble of professions and yet
virtually guaranteed a life of penury? Yeah, I noticed that too. The
second column contained college majors that I could tolerate, but had
much better money prospects. Column #2 contained entries for
engineering, medicine, law, becoming Hugh Hefner's protege, and ...
computers.
I'd lived with computer since before I could read or write. My
father was an analog computer engineer and, I still remember with great
clarity, the desk-sized analog computer we had in our house in the
1970's. It had 4K of memory, used punch cards, created a flurry of
discarded chads when it would write data out to a punch card. My dad
taught me about binary, octal, and hexadecimal, and the joys of vacuum
tube computing. Unfortunately, he did not teach me how to throw or
catch any sort of ball, which had dramatic repercussions throughout my
school year (refer to wedgie picture above) - but I digress. Suffice
it to say that by the time college rolled around, I was already well
versed in 8-bit computing (I used Kaypro's for you Osbourne and Sinclair snobs out there) and could envision that being a good career.
 My Initial Career Choice - Stoner Right about the same time I was choosing a future career, just before I graduated from high school, IBM launched an exciting new business computer called the IBM PC. It was a hugely successful product with the ultimate killer application - a spreadsheet.
(The spreadsheet was an amazing innovation in its day. VisiCalc was
the one I remembered being all the rage at the time.) These personal
computers were also hugely expensive - a nicely loaded IBM PC or XT
could routinely cost $5,000 and that's in 1983 dollars, friends. So
that's when I started a part-time business, which I maintained all
through college and a short while after, building and selling IBM PC
clones. I learned a lot from that experience - how to pay taxes like a
responsible business owner, a lot about salesmanship, quite a bit about
business accounting, business law, and the goodness of being an
entrepreneur. One surprisingly good outcome from all of this was that
I didn't have to sell out my love of writing and teaching. That's
probably 40% of what I do today, just with computers.
Event #2
Another major turning point in my professional
life occurred in the early 1990's. By that time, I'd held a couple
professional jobs of the programmer/analyst variety working with Unix-based CAD/CAM tools, dBase, Fortran, and very early versions of Oracle.
While my skill in these technologies was growing by leaps and bounds,
this particular event isn't about technology. You see, my first three
professional jobs (outside of my own little business) all held in
common the fact that I worked for terrible bosses. (I wonder
if it's any coincidence that these bosses, all male, were from the John
Wayne school of management?) I then had the opportunity to move from
those smaller businesses to a fairly large company called Nichols
Research Corporation, now a part of Computer Sciences Corporation.
I gleefully clapped my hands because my title was "Research Scientist"
and, get this, I was actually working on NASA and US Army missile
projects. I was literally a rocket scientist! However, the
thing that truly amazed me about this new work environment was that my
bosses were women. Great women. Women (like Liz Kennedy, Pat Burns,
and Bev Meeler) who were collaborative, consensus-driven, and
encouraging. They made me wonder why my male bosses never figured out
that cussing an employee for 15 minutes at a time might not be the best
way to motivate staff. These excellent business leaders taught me my
first real world lessons in the difference between the autocratic style
of management versus the coaching style of management. It was a lesson
that I carried with me the rest of my life and try to instill in others
whenever I get the chance. (Blatant Plug - Attend my top-rated professional development sessions at the next PASS Summit and read my professional development column in the PASS Community Connector e-newsletter!)
Event #1
 She was my sugar-mama, and I was her lovin' cabana boy. She put me through college... The
number one event that changed the course of my life came up quite
accidentally. I'd set my sights on earning a Master's degree and, as
the truly lazy know, you can complete a Master's degree two semesters
early by writing a thesis rather than sticking strictly with classes.
Laziness (or perhaps it's creativity?) raised it's head once again with
this thought "Why not write my thesis as a dual-purpose document? One that will earn the advanced degree and be published as a book?"
That's when I saw a rather small advertisement in the back of one of my
favorite computer magazines of the day, a now defunct
mainframe-oriented publication called Datamation,
calling for authors for a new IT series they were starting. I pitched
my master's thesis and was shocked that I was accepted. I find it
funny that I finished the book, Oracle's Cooperative Development Environment, but never finished the Master's degree. That book helped me land a new job in Nashville, TN at a prestigious Big 3 accounting firm, which helped me get another book deal with O'Reilly & Associates, which earned me a seat as a founding board member of the Professional Association for SQL Server, which helped me land my current, wonderful job at Quest Software. And which will eventually earn me a place in history for being the first database expert to dance on the bar at Coyote Ugly.
What Others Are Saying
Let me be honest with you. I really enjoyed this meme. And it's
one of the things that I've really enjoyed seeing happen with the SQL
Server community in the last year or so - people opening up and
sharing. This is what community is all about. One hundred years ago,
I would've been thrilled to live in a town with as many supportive and
encouraging friends who were just down the street from me. But thanks
to the technology we work with and the willingness of all of these
people, it's almost like a small, friendly (Southern!) town all over
again. I intend to read more in the meme thread, but here are just a
few others that I've already read and enjoyed:
- Brent Ozar (blog | twitter): I loved BBS'es too, amigo!
- Kim Tripp (blog | twitter): She taught the first SQL Server class I ever attended!
- Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter): He's Mr Popular, being tagged 4 times. But who doesn't love chicken, I ask?
- Scott Gleason (blog | twitter): Does Mr. Gleason watch Glee?
- Donabel Santos (blog | twitter): She's a ninja, but a very nice one who's not likely to cut your arms off.
- Andy Leonard (blog | twitter): We've got to Mrs Leonard and Mrs Segarra to cook a big ol' dinner for us. Then we can all die happy.
- Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter): You'd think it was a movie based on real events, with a little extra drama added in, but it was ALL real.
There are so very many other good ones that I could go on for
several more paragraphs. The reason I mention them, though, is that I
somehow feel closer to all of these people. And at the end of the day,
our lives are really and truly about the people we have touched and the friendships we have made. Everything else stands for naught. So on the off chance that others have not yet been tagged, I'd like to loop in these folks from far-afield: Simon Sabin (UK), Henk Van Der Valk (Netherlands), Edwin Sarmiento (Philippines), and Charlie Hanania (Switzerland).
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I've always been intrigued by our process for allowing creative
content, such as songs or movies, to become public domain. A common
usage for public domain might be to create a short family video and,
seeking a peppy and familiar piece of background music, you settle on
"The Entertainer", by Scott Joplin. (If you've never heard of it, listen here.
You'll recognize it.) Since the music is past the 75 year limit of
copyright protection, it is now public domain - meaning that you don't
have to pay or seek permission to use it for your family home video.
Now, it seems that many old media companies are deliberately destroying
great old celluloid video footage rather than allow it to become public
domain. Of course, there's plenty of old TV programming that don't
have a single living fan, but we're talkin' about classics here like
Jack Benny and the BBC's Dr Who. Read this news story and this one for an example.
So, what do you think? Is this a misuse of private ownership of aging
IP? Is this just another example of old media putting their finger in
the dike of digital entertainment for the sake of a dying business
model?
I find this to be particularly ironic since old media companies are the
first to exploit public domain material for their own uses. Case in
point, what's the last Disney animated film you've seen (no, not Pixar
- Disney) that wasn't adapted from an age old story?
Thoughts?
-Kevin
Twitter @kekline
More content at http://KevinEKline.com
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A neat new administration and configuration management tool for the
SQL Server set. I especially like the Run Book features, because Run Books are the way us "oldtimers" like to run our IT infrastructure. My pal, Buck Woody, also likes Run Books (and really big explosions by the guys on MythBusters, but that's another discussion). Find all the details about the new tool, created by Bill Wunder, here.
 "Richard, wasn't that an awesome interview?!?" "Carl, I could've danced, er, talked all night!"
In addition, I'm honored and amazed that the team at RunAsRadio invited
me to participate in interview #143. These are the same guys who also
put together one of the best and longest running IT podcasting shows - .NETRocks. Unlike a lot of interviews, it seems like we had too little time to cover all the topics. I'd love to hear your feedback! Thanks, -Kev Twitter @kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com/
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NOT A WHINER
I've been really intrigued by a meme making the rounds of the
blogsphere concerning goals for the coming year and picking a theme
word, rather than the usual New Year's resolution.
 Et tu, BrentO? As with all memes, they start with a blogger picking the topic of discussion (in this case, Tara Hunt at HPC) and was picked up by my friend, Tom LaRock ( blog | twitter) in his blog post, Why I Don't Like Kevin Kline and Never Tag Him in Memes.
As in all memes, one blogger starts it off and then others are
tagged, spreading the chain outward. So Tom tagged several other good
friends of mine, all of whom also chose to ignore me including: Brent Ozar (blog | twitter), Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter), Tim Ford (blog | twitter), and Jason Massie (blog | twitter) in their respective blog posts. So here's the chain of the mem a couple levels deep:
- Brent's goals and theme word blog post entitled "I'm Proud to Drink Zima With My Pinky Sticking Out". Brent didn't pass on the meme. Et tu, BrentO?
- Jeremiah's goals and theme word blog post entitled "Those Raspberries on My Blog Page Are Hugely Symbolic..."
- Jeremiah tagged Matt Nowack, Rick Kierner, and Jeff Blankenburg whom I don't know.
- Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter), whom I -DO- know, responded in his blog post called "There's Going to be Some Bank Robbing in My Future". Jorge in turn tagged: Ron Dameron (Blog | Twitter), Jonathan Gardner (Blog | Twitter), Tim & Lori Edwards (Blog | His Twitter – Her Twitter)
whom I just had the pleasure of meeting at the last PASS Summit and, in
a sacrilegious move sure to enrage the High Church for inviting a
non-SQL person, his own wife, Jessica Segarra (Blog | Twitter). Actually, I really want Jorge to bring Jessica to a PASS or SQLSaturday event - WITH MANY OF HER INCREDIBLY YUMMY RECIPES READY FOR US TO EAT.
- Since I know only Lori Edwards out of this group of taggees, you can read her (and Tim's) blog entry here. The Edwards, however, tagged no one else.
- Tim's goals and theme word blog post entitled "I Rocked Her World With Nothing More than a 79′ Chevette and a Rush Mix Tape". Tim, in turn, tagged a few more friends.
- Andy Leonard (blog | twitter), close friend and fellow Nashvillian Joe Webb (blog | twitter). Neither of these picked up the meme.
- Possibly the coolest Canadian not sporting hair, Colin Stasiuk (blog | twitter) wrote his goals bloggery, "Comment Crazy and the Nasty Red Fonts of Doom",
and in turn tagged Andy Leonard (introduced earlier), Jorge Segarra
(introduced earlier), and a new (but quite significant) blogger,
Michelle Ufford (blog | twitter). Sadly, Michelle hasn't blogged since last November. But there's still time Michelle!
- Jason didn't pick up the meme and, honestly, I can't tease him
since I don't know him that well. However, I do hear he can wax poetic
about bacon much the same way my Dutch friends get misty-eyed about
certain strains of cheese.
Where's the love, I ask?
Oh, and just to whine a bit more - you can read some other good entries in this meme by Kendal Van Dyke here and Tim Mitchell here.
THEME WORD, I HAZ IT.
 Not Nefarious. Multifarious! I
love it that so many of my friends are focusing not only on their
technology skills and professional stature, but also on their family
life and spiritual life. I've long believed that specialization was
for insects, but we - as human beings - are multifaceted and have
manifold skills and traits that need to be cultivated. There's no
reason an educated and urbane 21st century American can't be physically
fit, in tune with their family and significant other, able to write a
cheesy line of verse, sing a few bars of a popular song, take a decent
picture, repair a broken toaster, and do some on-line banking. As
others have said before me, our parents and grandparents had one career
and one employer. That's not our lot in life.
So my theme word for 2010 is MULTIFARIOUS.
Pretty weird, eh?
When I first encountered the word multifarious, I thought of the word nefarious.
Nefarious means "bad or evil", so I thought multifarious meant "lotsa
bad or evil". In fact, they're antonyms. Multifarious, in its Latin
roots, means "many" plus "goodies" while nefarious means "negative or
not" plus "goodies".
So if you can think of another word that means "having many
different parts, elements, or forms; numerous and varied; greatly
diverse or manifold", then I want to use that one. In the meantime, my
theme word is multifarious because 2010 is my year of focusing on many
elements, some long-neglected, in my life.
GOALS, HAZ DEM TOO.
Like many of the other folks I teased earlier, I have a variety of
goals - some related to work (and therefore technology) and some not.  Every child needs a little 1-on-1. Even Little Critter by Mercer Mayer - Personal Goals:
In 2010, I'm working on some entirely non-technology goals because I
frankly feel a little too much dehumanized by technology. I want to put
some humanity back into my life. So here are a few quick hit goals:
- Fresh berries are very expensive, but berry bushes are not. The strawberries are already in and blackberries are a goal this spring. There's something very primal about digging in the dirt that reconnects us with the earth and our agrarian roots.
- I used to be a very accomplished Spanish guitarist - about 20 years
ago. Twenty years of abstention puts the ol' guitar skills at zero. I'm going to pick up the guitar and get at least three of those back.
- I intend to master at least a half-dozen knots. Knots?
Yes, knots - the kind you make with laces, rope, or twine. Hey, I've
got seven kids in the house and you never know when a half-hitch
sheep-shank will come in handy to lash several of them to a chair, the
stair rail, or in a moment of dire need, a toilet.
- I intend to spend at least one weekend of one-on-one time with each of my kids and step-kids. I don't really believe in the concept of quality time,
since as many learning moments come when dad bangs his thumb with a
hammer as from any other so-called special time. But in this unusually
large family with distractions nearly every waking moment, I still want
to set asidea little time under the label "Just Dad and Me".
- Zero consumer debt except for the mortgage. (Dave Ramsey is my hero!)
- Somehow - some way - I want to get a worm-eye-view photo of any man wearing a kilt at the PASS 2010 Summit. Strictly for blackmail purposes. (Grant and Steve, you're on notice!)
- Diversification Goals: Here are a few goals for 2010 that relate to my livelihood, but are not part of my day job.
- At least one major new book for this year. I frequently
gripe about the ROI of book writing these days. However, there are
still a few powerful topics to address. So, with that in mind, I have
one technology book ready to pitch and, believe it or not, one
non-technology book.
- Improve my personal productivity - somehow, someway. Maybe more caffeine?
- Revamp my personal website. It's visually rather dull at the moment.
- I developed a lot of new personal skills in 2009, like wiring and electronics.
I'm continuing that because I'm also very close to filing my very first
provisional patent (non-IT, believe it or not). I'll blog about that
whole process in much greater details when the time is right. But this is my biggest diversification goal for 2010.
- Retool my presentation style to be story-driven, rather than bulletpoint-driven.
I felt like I've given some useful and informative presentations over
the years. But I can do better and I know it. I've always been drawn
to the old Southern tradition of story-telling and I'd like to bring
that to life in my presentations. That goal starts immediately since I
have presentations almost every week and, while it might get easier
with time, it'll never go away as a goal.
So that's a wrap for me. I don't have any specific goals about
number of presentations, blogposts, or podcasts (though I want to do as
much as I can). Sure, I want to continue to actively present, blog,
write, tweet, digg, scribble, podcast, and otherwise excrete goodness
into both print and the Internet.
ANYTHING ELSE?
Why, yes, there is one other thing. It's a meme, right? So that
means I need to tag a few others. First, I want to beseech those
already tagged to go ahead and share with us - Joe, Andy, Jason, and
Michelle. Please give us your wisdom! Next, I'm going to tag a
few friends in hopes of nudging them into another blog post, cause all
of these folks are t'awesome but don't blog enough:
Ok, team, bring the thunder. Thanks, -Kevin -Twitter @kekline -More content at http://KevinEKline.com
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If you're like me, you've used Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V more than a time or
two, but you've always felt a little dirty afterwards. Yeah, you can
use the command-line COPY or XCOPY utilities. But they're decidedly
20th Century, much like some of the laundry still loitering under my office couch.
So I spent a little time over the holidays cleaning up my file
system by scripting a backup routine using the very cool and very free
ROBOCOPY utility. Now, I've got a regularly scheduled job that, after
the first run which captured all my files, only backs up new or changed
files (and directories) while keeping all of their NTFS attributes. Boo-Yah!
Read all about it on my Tool Time Blog at SQLMag. I'll also show you how to use some other free and powerful alternatives in future entries.
Enjoy! -Kev Twitter @kekline
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Before I jump onto the Goals and Themeword meme started by my buddy, Thomas LaRock (blog | twitter),
I decided I'd spend a few minutes looking back on both the year 2009.
(From a personal standpoint, the 00's were my most difficult decade
yet. Major problems of every stripe beset me on all sides and with
alarming frequency throughout the decade. I was all "Good Riddance"
and "Don't let the door hit y'ass on the way out, 2009!" as the ball
dropped in Times Square.)
Rather than spend a lot of time cooking up my own top 10 lists, I
reckoned (that's Southern for "thought", btw) I'd recap a few others
top X lists that are in the ballpark of my own personal opinion. I
couldn't resist putting together my own list at the end, which I'd love
to hear your thoughts on. In addition, I want to hear about your Top 10 (or 5 or 3) for 2009!
Their Lists
Time Magazine's list of Top 10 of Everything 2009
was a pretty good recap for the year on big ol' cultural touch points
like movies and music. I found at least one thing to agree with in
each of their pop culture lists: movies - The Hurt Locker - check; TV shows - my personal favorite for its brilliant cohesive multiyear storyline and excellent character studies, Lost - check; album - I and Love and You by the Avett Brothers - check; books (sigh - if only I had more time) included the wonderful The Age of Wonders by Richard Holmes.
Lifehacker's Top 5 Hive Topics of 2009
is a very interesting list covering lots of topics and pointing out a
lot of interesting tools that I hadn't encountered before. My personal
favorite among them was the Top 5 Alternative File Copiers,
since the Windows Explorer copy feature reminds me of hungrily awaiting
my food in the microwave and just as the counter gets to the T-10
countdown, it goes back up to 30, then down to 8, then back up to 42,
then down to 14.
I'm not sure if they meant to be funny but Digg's Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2009 is hilarious, much in the same way that Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and I were when we put on an unintentionally hilarious performance at the PASS 2009 Summit Quiz bowl. Go ahead - ask Colin Stasiuk (blog | twitter) what he thought of our performance...
 Impressed by Our Quiz Bowl Performance? Speaking of unintentionally funny, have you seen Yahoo's Top 10 Searches of 2009?
Evidently, the median Internet user (at least from their metrics) is
hormone-laden, teenage redneck with a thing for fast cars (Nascar),
Hollywood hotties (Megan Fox), and an unassailable but secret love for
Mormon-influenced Vampires (Twilight).
My List
I
usually try to blog at least once per week and, when I can, even more.
I still have this deep down urge to post lots of small blog posts of
just a couple paragraphs. But for some reason, I always seem to come
out with these big ol' epistles. Despite my verbosity, y'all still
read what I write and for that I'm very thankful. Over the last year,
these were my top ten blog posts according to your interest:
- Best of the [SQL Server] Blogs and its sister post Great Blogs from the Microsoft SQL Server Teams, also my number one spam generators. Ever spammer on the planet seems to want their comment appended here.
- Microsoft Resources Too Good Not to Share, which I can't honestly remember if they were any good or not. But I bet they were.
- Are We There Yet, Mom? in which I flashback to my childhood road trip experiences when considering Microsoft's overall product strategy.
- Does the Down Economy Have an Impact on Your Job, cuz it sure punched mine in the mouth.
- Why Do I Keep Seeing This Mistake, in which I learn that "Hello World" type applications can lead to massive misunderstandings.
- Microsoft [Corporate] Marketing Throws SQL Server Under the Bus. We can't get no respect, not even from corporate HQ.
- Looking for Good DMV Database Admin Queries,
where you can find just about every good DMV query ever written except
those other really good ones that are posted here in the comments.
- Old Performance Recommendations Die Hard, and when I saw "die hard" I don't mean like Bruce Willis.
- Things You Know Now,
a semi-successful meme I started where I asked participants to tells us
about stuff they'd do differently if they knew it way back in the day.
- Understanding SQLIOSim Output, because no one seems to fully understand this tool, including me.
I
excluded a few posts that were numerically in the top ten because,
well, they're my blog posts and I didn't want them in the top ten. So
there! But those that I excluded were things like reposting an
interview done by another blogger or maybe a product or book that I
plugged for some reason or an other.
I
hope you've enjoyed my blogging and found it valuable. Tomorrow, I'm
jumping on the themeword and goals meme. In fact, I'm crashin' the
party because none of my peeps called on me. [pout]
Be well!
-Kevin
Twitter @KEKline
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I was honored to be recently interviewed by the crew at Consortio
Services. You can find my portion of this particular webcast at http://www.cstechcast.com/podcasts/cs-techcast/episode99/ beginning at 17:24. In
the interview, I discuss a number of thoughts and opinions about the
future of cloud computing, where our profession is headed, and more. When
I first became aware of the website, they were audio podcasts only.
Since then, they’ve changed up their format a bit, and now have a video
portion along with the audio. They now included a visual “slide” with your
headshot and title (not a pretty sight, in my case). Also, they some
scrolling shots of other things I'm involved with such as Quest Software, my blog here, my Tool Time column on SQL Server Magazine, and the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives book, and my personal website. I
encourage you to add this podcasting site to your list of favorites.
There's lots of great information waiting for you there. Enjoy! -Kevin Twitter @kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com
P.S. I just got the word that I have been re-granted MVP status
for the upcoming year. Thanks to Microsoft and all my fellow MVP
colleagues for making the MVP program such an awesome credential!
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Traditionally, the time between Christmas and New Years is a bit
slow. Many people take time off from work and, for those of us still
working, it's a good time to catch up on all of those low priority
projects that have been on the back burner for the last several months.
If you find yourself with a few extra hours, why not engage in some
first-hand learning with the new features of SQL Server 2008 R2? Here
are two great resources to get you started.
First, take a look at betaforsqlserver.com, a partnership between MaximumASP, Dell, PASS, and Microsoft.
When you register, you get your own sandbox SQL Server 2008 R2
including support for .NET and PHP, along with Reporting Services,
Analysis Services, and Integration Services. It almost makes me
believe that there is such a thing as a free lunch!
Second, why not try your hand at one of the most exciting new
features in SQL Server 2008 R2, PowerPivot for Excel? You can play
with it to your heart's content at the new Microsoft Virtual Labs, another great service for learning in real albiet sandbox VM Hyper-V labs.
I know in my own case, it's often tough to find a free server
somewhere where I can set up and install the sandbox environment. On
top of that, even during a slow week, I rarely enjoy spending my time
configuring an entire environment. Why not solve both problems at once
with this fast and easy method of learning the news features?
Hope this helps! Happy New Year,
-Kevin
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In the Sequels for SQL series, I point you to sites where you can go
beyond the nose-to-the-grindstone resources that we see every day as
SQL Server professionals. (My favorite resource for pan-SQL Server
pointers is Steve Jone's Database Weekly email newsletter.) These are
the story that comes after and outside (the sequels) of our daily
working lives (the other SQL). Let's broaden our horizons together.
If you hit on an interesting but overlooked topic, I'd like to hear
from you.
SQL Server: We live it. We love it.
When Jimmy May
talks, I listen. Not just because he's a personal friend, but also
because he knows what's what, if you'll pardon the expression. So when
Jimmy says "I believe xPerf will fundamentally change the way I do my
job", then I want to know what the heck this free xPerf management tool
is and how I can best leverage it. Check out Jimmy's blog entry on
xPerf here.
Devices & Gadgets: Usually making our lives better, sometimes not so much.
Ever wonder what's inside one of those tiny USB hard drives? No? Not even a little bit?!?
When I started in IT, hard drives where as big as washing machines and
cost $60,000 running at speeds in the 100's of RPMs. My how times have
changed. Here's a fun hack of a USB hard drive - http://www.dansworkshop.com/electricity-and-electronics/usb-hard-drive-hack.htm.
Futurewatch: Important issues just over the horizon.
There
are a lot of standard elements of society being rebranded as the "2.0"
version of itself. The 2.0 moniker was first put forward by visionary
Tim O'Reilly (blog | twitter), of the eponymous media company. Whenever you see the 2.0 moniker added to the end of something, most famously Web 2.0,
then you know that it will include the characteristics of
collaboration, interoperability, and user-centered designs. So,
whereas the first go at the web in the mid- to late-1990's was about
enabling information retrieval such as transforming printed catalogs
into on-line catalogs, Web 2.0 enables all of its participants to
comment on, review, rate, and otherwise participating with each other
in the use of such a catalog. In the last FutureWatch blurb, I pointed out work on Grid 2.0,
centered on efforts to update the USA's electricity grid. I'm going to
do a much more detailed post in the near future about emerging 2.0
efforts, but one to point out now is Gov 2.0. Under this broad set of
initiatives, governments from the lowest to highest levels of
responsibility are opening up their public databases for consumption by
the public. An example of Gov 2.0 in action comes with the President's
SAVE Award, in which the public is invited to vote on their pick for
the best money saving tip put forward by federal government workers.
Read all about this year's SAVE Award here.
Humor: I haz da funny.
Weird products in Japan have their own name - chindogu. Most of these are crackpot inventions that everyone knows will never see the light of day, such as these these featured here.
However, some of these products DO get marketed and, more amazingly,
purchased. Check out the product reviews of this totally bizarro
chindogu here at Overstock.com.
Professional Development: Because there are two words in "database professional".
There
are mountains of great websites with tips on how to be a better
speaker. Some day, I'll write a long blog post about my favorite sites
for learning how to improve your oration. But if you're in a
hurry, and who isn't these days, then this blog post at TechRepublic succinctly sums up the advice you'll find from many other web sites, articles, and blogs.
Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.
One of
the most remarkable things about the USA, as a rather biased citizen,
is our ability to suck up our pride, admit a mistake, and try to
prevent it from happening again. One way that the USA tries to prevent
future occurrences is to convene a commission of some kind. I found this analysis by David Leinweber,
a Haas Fellow in Finance and Founding Director of the Center for
Innovative Financial Technology at UC Berkeley, of the commission
studying banking market reform in the USA to be quite intriguing and, frankly, upsetting.
WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.
I'm
always on the lookout for issues related to safe and clean water. If
you think people can be grumpy when oil is in short supply, imagine
what it's like when there's not enough drinking water for everyone.
See how India is dealing with enormous water issues in this revealing article from the Economist. And I'd be interested to hear what our Indian blogger friends thoughts are on this topic, folks like Rushabh Mehta, Jacob Sebastian, and Pinal Dave. (Water issues have remained one of my passions ever since my years working for NASA developing the water recycling systems for the International Space Station, in which we made water of the H20 that passes through the human body re-drinkable. And it tastes good.
Incidentally, all of the technology we developed for this project, as
with all non-classified government projects, became public domain.
ECLSS technology is now used in hundreds of commercial products ranging
from household detergents to commercial solvents to filtration systems.)
Thanks!
-Kevin
Twitter @KEKline More content at http://KevinEKline.com
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Check out my new Tool Time column in this month's SQL Server Magazine. It features some great new PowerShell scripts and information from Chad Miller (blog)
who I had the pleasure to meet in person back in October of this year
while speaking at the SQL Server of central Florida and at SQL Saturday #21. In addition, I'd like to point out a free utility called PowerGUI. If you're like me, the last thing you have time for is learning a new code like PowerShell. So I copped out and got the next best alternative to real code, the fancy and pretty drag-n-drop interface of PowerGUI.
(Full disclosure: PowerGUI is made by Quest Software, my employer, but
by an unrelated business unit.) Notice that the hyperlink is to a .ORG
website. That's because PowerGUI is not only free, it's also
community-supported. There are tons of free scripts for all sorts of
Windows-related technologies like Exchange, Active Directory, and of
course SQL Server. Give a look and let me know what you think of it. Thanks, -Kev Twitter @KEKline More content at http://KevinEKline.com/
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I've been seeing more and more questions from customers about data
deduplication technologies. I guess that's because I can't open a blog,
website, or email related to technology without some vendor or another
pushing the wonders of data deduplication. Consequently, I thought I'd
take a few minutes to describe what the technology is all about. I'll
sum up my thoughts on the the value of deduplication technology by
saying "It depends". Read my article entry at Database Trends & Applications magazine here. If someone in your company is pushing you to examine this very expensive
technology, please give my article a gander and let me know what you
think. I also encourage you to take a look at Brent Ozar's excellent
post on the topic located here. Remember that when in the right hands, as with all technologies, they can be used to solve tricky business problems. But in the wrong hands, they may be a square peg pounded into a round hole ... or even worse.
Feedback always welcome! -Kevin Twitter @kekline More content at http://KevinEKline.com/
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Just as an FYI, I've added one new slide deck and webcast to http://KevinEKline.com/Slides/, as well as quite a few upcoming user group events where I'm speaking in http://KevinEKline/Upcoming-Events/. I'm starting a new series called Sequels for SQL Server. In
this series, I point you to seven sites where you can go beyond the
nose-to-the-grindstone resources that we see every day as SQL Server
professionals. These are the story that comes after and outside (the
sequels) of our daily working lives (the other SQL). Let's broaden our
horizons together. If you hit on an interesting but overlooked topic,
I'd like to hear from you at http://KevinEKline.com/.
SQL Server: We live it. We love it.An amazing example of explosive growth in SQL Server performance using SSDs from one of the most popular on-line gaming systems, Eve On-Line by CCP Games.
Devices & Gadgets: Usually making our lives better, sometimes not so much.Everyone I know wants the newest best smartphone, InfoWorld gives us a good test run of them all. Ultimate mobile deathmatch: iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Droid vs. Pre.
Futurewatch: Important issues just over the horizon.The reshaping of our national power grid will provide profound benefits to consumers, but it will also bring enormous liabilities that could equal—or even outweigh—the very problems we hope to solve. And this webcast from O'Reilly on Grid 2.0 is also quite good.
Humor: I haz da funny.Witness firsthand a mind-boggling worst practice by a DBA insisting that he's implementing a best practice.
Professional Development: Because there are two words in "database professional".Peter
Drucker, one of the greats in management thought-leadership, would've
turned 100 last week were he alive today. Check out these top 20 quotes from the man who revolutionized management theory.
Society: Important issues to discuss with your friends and family.
Quoting the Motley Fool,
"We spent the latter half of 2008 feeling the wrath of "too big to
fail." Today, banks are bigger than ever. We need to end that. Now."
It's Time to End "Too Big to Fail". Read this thought-provoking article soon.
WorldView: If James Bond knows that the world is not enough, then so should I.
The smartest analyst on international issues out there, Fareed Zakari, discusses US and Indian relations in this insightful article from Newsweek. Thanks, -Kevin Twitter @KEKline More content at http://KevinEKline.com/
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I've opined in the past
about how strongly I think the health care industry in the USA needs a
does of information technology. One profession making impressive
strides in this area is America's nurses. On the one hand, we have NDNQI, the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®).
NDNQI is a repository for nursing-sensitive indicators collected at the
nursing unit level. Since it began in the late 1990's, the program has
added many hospitals as well as additional data points (that is, the
quality indicators). Lots of useful resources and good reading can be
found here. In
addition to NDNQI, we have some excellent work being done by the
Veteran's Administration in their VANOD (VA Nursing Outcomes Database)
project, which you can read about here. VANOD is also discussed in a nice presentation by the program manager here. You can download the PPT file directly here. By
tracking health care practices in aggregate and monitoring their
outcomes, we can find direct correlation or, even better causation, for
better health of patients when multiple practices can be used. For
example, let's say there are a few competing standard practices around
the routine for taking the temperature of patients in a hospital - some
take temperatures manually in the morning, some take temperatures
manually in the evening, and a luck few who can afford the equipment
take temperatures automatically through a sensor on the patient. If
the data in aggregate is able to show that the automated method yields
a measurable improvement in outcomes, then that approach can justified
against the expense because we know patients are doing better. The
American Nurses Association (ANA) reports on such progress here. Additional technologies of interest are being reported, such as this article at www.SmarterTechnology.com and this article
at www.InformationWeek.com. In fact, in indication of the importance
health care information technology, InformationWeek has a really good
portal dedicated just to that at http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/index.jhtml.
Congratulations to the ANA and to the VA for transforming data into actionable knowledge!
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