Pursuing postgraduate education

I'm on a mailing list for the Albany Business Review, and I get correspondence from them regularly. This morning, I received an email from them advertising an advanced certificate program in data and analytics from Siena College. It got my attention, and I filled out the form link, saying that I was interested in more …

Give Hugs

Another article reblog today, this time by Steve Jones…

Voice of the DBA

Tomorrow I fly away again. Next week is our first 2019 SQL in the City Summit and I need a couple days to adjust to the time and prep, hence the trip starting tomorrow to get to the UK by Sunday. I’ll ensure that I say good bye to my wife and kids, and give them hugs before I go. I’ve done this dozens of times, and things always work out well. I’ll be back Wednesday and more hugs will ensue.

I don’t usually worry about travel, or really any major issues affecting my family. They do happen, and we’ve had our share of ER visits because of something, but I don’t worry about the potential issues. I do, however, appreciate every day I get with family as I have seen tragedy befall others. I have had too many friends die in their 40s to not respect the wonderful life…

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SQL Saturday #835, Philadelphia — 5/4/19 (a week from this Saturday)

I just received an email from the organizers of SQL Saturday #835, saying that I should 'blog about the upcoming event. Okay, I will oblige! This is the fourth consecutive year that I am speaking at Philadelphia SQL Saturday, and they've all been fun experiences! (Last year, I even wrote an article in which I …

Diversifying your skill sets

Years ago, I remember reading a Wall Street Journal interview with Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams who said something to the effect of, "the way to be successful is to know as much as you can about as many different things as you can." The article came out sometime in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, I haven't …

Security: Close isn’t good enough!

I am reblogging an article written by my friend, Greg Moore. Hopefully, we all have our data locked down, but I felt that what he wrote was important enough that it was worth passing along.

greenmountainsoftware

I was going to write about something else and just happened to see a tweet from Grant Fritchey that prompted a change in topics.

I’ve written in the past about good and bad password and security polices. And yes, often bad security can be worse than no security, but generally no security is the worst option of all.

Grant’s comment reminded me of two incidents I’ve been involved with over the years that didn’t end well for others.

In the first case, during the first dot-com bubble, I was asked to partake in the due diligence of a company we were looking to acquire. I expected to spend a lot of time on the project, but literally spent about 30 minutes before I sent an email saying it wasn’t worth going further.

Like all dot-com companies, they had a website. That is after all, sort of a requirement to…

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Earth Day

I understand that today is Earth Day. So happy Earth Day! I am not a tree hugger per se. Having said that, I do try to do my part. I do my best to minimize how often I use single-use plastic bags (and honestly, IMHO, plastic grocery bags are one of the worst things ever …

Symphonic/concert band performance, 4/27/19

For those of you who are interested in seeing me do something other than a SQL Saturday presentation, the concert band in which I perform will be performing at the Association of Concert Bands (ACB) Convention in northern New Jersey on Saturday, April 27! We will be performing at 3:00 at the Woodcliff Lake Hilton …

I network. What’s your superpower?

I had some things happen just within the past week that reminded me about the power of networking, and just how well-connected I actually am. At my CrossFit gym last week, one member of the racquetball club (which occupies the same building as the CrossFit gym) and whom I knew from a previous job, told …

Attending SQL Saturday? Why you need to register

You say you're attending SQL Saturday? Great! If you're looking to learn more about SQL Server, data topics, BI, professional development, or just want to network with database and technical professionals, it's a great event where you can do exactly that. But make sure you register. While it may sometimes be possible to just show …

My first road race

A while back, I wrote that to be successful, you need to step out of your comfort zone. I just stepped out of it in a big way. I just registered for my very first road race: the 2019 CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge. I have never run any kind of registered road race* before. This …