Some of us take days and weeks to write a blog, while others can take two minutes and write a great blog *cough* *cough* Denny (B|T). Why is that? I think it’s simple, we are thinking to hard about it and over complicating things. Just sit down at your computer and write what’s on your mind. It doesn’t have to be rocket science or something completely mind blowing or life changing. I’ve seen several, as of late, crowd source their next topic, I think this a great avenue to take as it is those people that are likely your readers. There’s nothing wrong with asking others what you should write…
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March is Women’s History Month, to celebrate the PASS Women in Technology Virtual Group (@PASS_WIT) held a webcast featuring prominent woman in the Data Platform community. I had the pleasure of being one of five panelists alongside these amazing women Lori Edwards (B|T), Malathi Mahadevan (B|T), Kellyn Pot’Vin-Gorman (B|T), and Catherine Wilhemsen (B|T). Discussion ranged from direct technical topics to what it’s like being a woman in tech. Women took turns providing advice around having a degree and/or certification to succeed in tech. We discussed how to keep up with advances in the field and skills that technologists should have. Specific to being a woman in tech, we talked about…
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One thing I learned while working as a database administrator over 17 years is the importance of teamwork across departments. Many times, we have to rely on network and SAN administrator to make changes to their environments in order to make SQL Server run more efficiently. There are times where the storage and network create bottlenecks for SQL server and after doing all the possible tuning you can do with your code and configuration you must turn to them for modifications to their hardware. Knowing how to effectively work with other departments without placing blame is crucial. As most do, we take our work personally. After all it’s your hard…
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At the last few events I attended, I’ve gotten into conversations on how to begin as a speaker. So I thought I’d share some of my advice that I provided to them. First and foremost, get your first talk scheduled. Reach out to your local user group and ask to be “penciled” in for a meeting a few months out. Giving yourself a goal and deadline is essential to putting yourself out there to speak. Next, write down ten topics you may want to speak on. Narrow down that list to five by thinking about what you would be most comfortable speaking about. Next look at your five topics and…
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I typically don’t write opinion posts, but given recent events I thought it was important to follow up on one of my tweets. Last week, I tweeted about Stack Exchange and my thoughts on the lack of respect in the responses to those who take the time ask questions in forums. I had many people ask as to what I was referring to specifically, including some Microsoft employees. My response was (and still is) that I don’t believe in mob reactions or smearing anyone’s name and chose not to reveal the details. My reason for posting that tweet was just to remind those in the community that we have all been beginners once and none…
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Ever look back at old work and wonder what was I thinking when I did that? Or even better you mock and get disgusted over some code you stumble upon and then realize you wrote it? Today is one of those days. Lucky for me one of my clients is a company I used to work for. It’s awesome to be able to go back and work in an environment you are familiar with. However, with that, you realize when you worked there you made some decisions or wrote some code that you now shake your head at. On the other hand, it’s a really great way to see how…
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One of my goals for 2018 is to expand the reach of my blog. As a blogger starting out I had my own site I posted to, but my blogs only reached those who followed me on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn. My blog automatically posts to these three sites using a WordPress Jetpack Plugin called Publicize. After a few months, I discovered that syndication could be setup on other sites such as SQL Server Central. This allowed more people the opportunity to read my writing and expand my reach. Many sites, such as these will even send your blog out in newsletters like Database Weekly. Starting last week,…
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Here is a quick blog to show you something I discovered that I didn’t know existed. I was on a Skype call and noted that the presentation I had been watching was no longer audible. I tried messing with my volume, I made sure my sounds weren’t muted and played around with my speakers and still nothing. I could hear the skype call without issues, but I wanted to multitask and continue to listen to the presentation. Finally, a light bulb went off and I thought maybe windows was “doing me a favor” and turning off all noises why I am on Skype. Sure, enough it was. If you look…
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One of the hardest things you can do as a blogger is to come up with a post topic. Do you make it simple for newbies, technical, or something personal? After figuring out a topic, now you have to write. However, there is a difference in what you say and what will people actually want to read. Blogging is not easy, but without it, all of our google searches to help solve problems would be much less fruitful. It’s important to put your experience into written words to help others, and let’s be honest lots of us use out blog posts to remind ourselves of how we did the first…
