Rick Heiges

Last night, I saw an episode from StarTrek-TNG which had Captain Picard and an alien Captain facing off against a beast on a planet.  The aliens spoke in metaphors.  This meant that you had to have a common frame of reference in order to understand the meaning or imagery of what they were trying to communicate.  The aliens wanted a common experience so that communication could flourish. 

In any line of work, there are unique terms and vocabulary.  When we interface with people from another department or line of business, we sometimes forget that they may not understand all of our terms just as we may not understand all of theirs.  If a term seems unfamiliar to you, don't be afraid to get clarification.  Liikewise, ask if there is anything that you can clarify for them. This fosters better communication so that everyone will have a better experience and be more productive. 

"His Eyes Uncovered!" means "he understands" or "he sees the point".  "With Sails unfurled" means "to go on".

I was thinking of some metaphors that may drive imagery in our industry which is common to us but not to others outside our industry.  What image comes up when you hear "Steve Ballmer on stage speaking about Developers"?  What about "That solution is 404"?

Perhaps we can get some other metaphors more SQL related:

• His Table Partitioned -> He has broken it up into manageable chunks
• Snapshot on a mirror -> Achieving safety and leveraging resources
• Her data backed up -> She feels safe and is happy
• With Many IOs -> slow

 

Channel 9 always has some cool content.  Recently, there was a segment on the new LINQ functionality that is going into the future versions of the .NET languages.  LINQ stands for Language INtegrated Query.  LINQ my be used against tables/views, but it also may be used for collections as well.  The syntax as you will see in the video is a little reversed from T-SQL, but it does make sense.  The keynote for DevTeach in May was about LINQ presented by Alan Griver.  Check out the video about LINQ by Anders at http://channel9.msdn.com.

I also placed some new content on www.RickSQL.com inthe form of a web presentaion.  The topic is an overview of SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services.  Check it out.

 

Scalability Experts has just released a FREE tool to help with your upgrade to SQL Server 2005.  Is is called the SQL Server Upgrade Assistant.  This tool is based on the tool used by SE Consultants in the Application Compatibility Labs literally around the world to help ISVs verify application behavior with SQL Server 2005.  It works in conjunction with the tool that you probably already have heard about from Microsoft called the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor.  It helps you capture a workload trace from your server and plays it back against a SQL 2000 instance and a SQL 2005 instance so that you can know how your application will behave with SQL 2005.  This tool has been very valuable to the ISVs in the labs and is now available for download from Scalability Experts at http://www.scalabilityexperts.com/default.asp?action=article&ID=317

Note:  I am employed by Scalability Experts.  I wanted to blog about this right away so that folks who read my blog can be among the first to download it. 

DevTeach is now over and so is my travelling for a little while.  DevTeach is a conference in Montreal, Canada focusing on .NET and SQL Server topics.  Although I really enjoy going to PASS, I also enjoy going to a smaller and more intimate conference like this with other well-known names from the .NET world.  I peeked in on a couple of .NET sessions when I was not speaking.  I will definitely blog about the event for next year when the details become available or you can keep checking www.devteach.com. 

I have some favorite websites that I go to in order to find information or learn the latest in the SQL Server Commnity.  I have shared many of these through my blog.  I have decided to put some content on the web.  This content will mainly be in the form of 10 minute web presentations / demos.  Please check it out at www.RickSQL.com and give me some feedback on the feedback form.  My goal is to put some new content up every week, but that is also my goal for blogging which I sometimes miss.  I hope that you find it educational and useful.

I am currently in Mexico on Business and have had the pleasure of meeting an ASP.NET MVP, Haaron Gonzalez.  He has been very helpful in conducting some labs on SQL Server with his technical abilities as well as language.  I speak a little Spanish, but not enough to get all of my points across.  You can read his blog at  http://msmvps.com/blogs/haarongonzalez/ and view an upcoming webcast on May 4th at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032296777&EventCategory=4&culture=es-MX&CountryCode=MX .  This webcast is in Spanish.

Several folks have asked me about SQL 2005 support for Sharepoint.  Here is a link that will answer your questions.  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA100993571033.aspx

Hasta Luego!