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• Join Me May 19th for 24 Hours of PASS

  - by KKline

  Check out all the great SQL Server sessions you can attend for FREE in this on-line event....(read more)

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• You Probably Already Have a “Private Cloud”

  - by BuckWoody

  I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of the word “Cloud”. It’s too marketing-oriented, gimmicky and non-specific. A better definition (in many cases) is “Distributed Computing”. That means that some or all of the computing functions are handled somewhere other than under your specific control. But there is a current use of the word “Cloud” that does not necessarily mean that the computing is done somewhere else. In fact, it’s a vector of Cloud Computing that can better be termed “Utility Computing”. This has to do with the provisioning of a computing resource. That means the setup, configuration, management, balancing and so on that is needed so that a user – which might actually be a developer – can do some computing work. To that person, the resource is just “there” and works like they expect, like the phone system or any other utility. The interesting thing is, you can do this yourself. In fact, you probably already have been, or are now. It’s got a cool new trendy term – “Private Cloud”, but the fact is, if you have your setup automated, the HA and DR handled, balancing and performance tuning done, and a process wrapped around it all, you can call yourself a “Cloud Provider”. A good example here is your E-Mail system. your users – pretty much your whole company – just logs into e-mail and expects it to work. To them, you are the “Cloud” provider. On your side, the more you automate and provision the system, the more you act like a Cloud Provider. Another example is a database server. In this case, the “end user” is usually the development team, or perhaps your SharePoint group and so on. The data professionals configure, monitor, tune and balance the system all the time. The more this is automated, the more you’re acting like a Cloud Provider. Lots of companies help you do this in your own data centers, from VMWare to IBM and many others. Microsoft's offering in this is based around System Center – they have a “cloud in a box” provisioning system that’s actually pretty slick. The most difficult part of operating a Private Cloud is probably the scale factor. In the case of Windows and SQL Azure, we handle this in multiple ways – and we're happy to share how we do it. It’s not magic, and the algorithms for balancing (like the one we started with called Paxos) are well known. The key is the knowledge, infrastructure and people. Sure, you can do this yourself, and in many cases such as top-secret or private systems, you probably should. But there are times where you should evaluate using Azure or other vendors, or even multiple vendors to spread your risk. All of this should be based on client need, not on what you know how to do already. So congrats on your new role as a “Cloud Provider”. If you have an E-mail system or a database platform, you can just put that right on your resume.

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• SQLSaturday #69 - Philly Love

  - by Mike C

  Thanks to the Philly SQL Server User Group (PSSUG) and to everyone who attended SQLSaturday #69 in the City of Brotherly Love yesterday. It was a great event with a lot of great people. My presentations are available for download at the links below: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/viewsession.aspx?sat=69&sessionid=3333 http://www.sqlsaturday.com/viewsession.aspx?sat=69&sessionid=3334 I just went through my speaker evaluations, and I'm happy to report the response was pretty positive across the...(read more)

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• Some Insight on the Field of Knowledge Representations

  - by picmate

  I started following an MS in computer sciences after about two years of work for a software company. I worked primarily in data warehousing and business intelligence related software development during my previous occupation. There is a high chance for me to select a research in knowledge representations, ontologies and reasoning, as there are no other research available in any other interesting fields, such as pattern recognition and navigation. I developed an interest towards knowledge representation with what I learnt from the courses I am taking currently. But I do not have a deep understanding of it in terms of which areas such a field would have an impact in a real life scenario, and how it will help me when I am hunting for a job in the near future. Some thought about this would be greatly appreciated.

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• How do you motivate peers to become better developers?

  - by Brian Rasmussen

  In my experience there seems to be two kinds of developers (if we simplify matters a great deal of course). On the one hand we have the developers, who may do a perfectly acceptable job, but who do not really care about the computer science part of their craft. They usually know few languages / technologies and are happy to let things stay that way. For whatever reason, they don't try to improve their computer science skills unless this is required in their current position. On the other hand, we have the geeks or the pragmatic programmers if you subscribe to that idea. They play around with other languages and technologies and usually have knowledge about several topics outside the technical domain of their current job. I would like to see more developers, who are enthusiastic about software development. If you share this point of view, what do you do to push your peers in that direction? Edit: follow-up question inspired by one of the answers: As non-managers, should we really care about this? And why/why not?

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• Is Data Science “Science”?

  - by BuckWoody

  I hold the term “science” in very high esteem. I grew up on the Space Coast in Florida, and eventually worked at the Kennedy Space Center, surrounded by very intelligent people who worked in various scientific fields. Recently a new term has entered the computing dialog – “Data Scientist”. Since it’s not a standard term, it has a lot of definitions, and in fact has been disputed as a correct term. After all, the reasoning goes, if there’s no such thing as “Data Science” then how can there be a Data Scientist? This argument has been made before, albeit with a different term – “Computer Science”. In Peter Denning’s excellent article “Is Computer Science Science” (April  2005/Vol. 48, No. 4 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM) there are many points that separate “science” from “engineering” and even “art”.  I won’t repeat the content of that article here (I recommend you read it on your own) but will leverage the points he makes there. Definition of Science To ask the question “is data science ‘science’” then we need to start with a definition of terms. Various references put the definition into the same basic areas: Study of the physical world Systematic and/or disciplined study of a subject area ...and then they include the things studied, the bodies of knowledge and so on. The word itself comes from Latin, and means merely “to know” or “to study to know”. Greek divides knowledge further into “truth” (episteme), and practical use or effects (tekhne). Normally computing falls into the second realm. Definition of Data Science And now a more controversial definition: Data Science. This term is so new and perhaps so niche that the major dictionaries haven’t yet picked it up (my OED reference is older – can’t afford to pop for the online registration at present). Researching the term's general use I created an amalgam of the definitions this way: “Studying and applying mathematical and other techniques to derive information from complex data sets.” Using this definition, data science certainly seems to be science - it's learning about and studying some object or area using systematic methods. But implicit within the definition is the word “application”, which makes the process more akin to engineering or even technology than science. In fact, I find that using these techniques – and data itself – part of science, not science itself. I leave out the concept of studying data patterns or algorithms as part of this discipline. That is actually a domain I see within research, mathematics or computer science. That of course is a type of science, but does not seek for practical applications. As part of the argument against calling it “Data Science”, some point to the scientific method of creating a hypothesis, testing with controls, testing results against the hypothesis, and documenting for repeatability.  These are not steps that we often take in working with data. We normally start with a question, and fit patterns and algorithms to predict outcomes and find correlations. In this way Data Science is more akin to statistics (and in fact makes heavy use of them) in the process rather than starting with an assumption and following on with it. So, is Data Science “Science”? I’m uncertain – and I’m uncertain it matters. Even if we are facing rampant “title inflation” these days (does anyone introduce themselves as a secretary or supervisor anymore?) I can tolerate the term at least from the intent that we use data to study problems across a wide spectrum, rather than restricting it to a single domain. And I also understand those who have worked hard to achieve the very honorable title of “scientist” who have issues with those who borrow the term without asking. What do you think? Science, or not? Does it matter?

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• Starting this week: Dublin, Maidenhead, and London

  - by KKline

  This might be most most overcommitted four-week period of time ever in my life. I’m tired just thinking about it! Not only am I traveling internationally and speaking over the next few weeks, I’m also helping on two book projects, learning some new applications from Quest Software, and helping on a small Transact-SQL refactoring project. Swag on hand? I’ve got a special printing of 500 video training DVDs for this trip: SQL Server Training on DMVs Performance Monitor and Wait Events Plus, I’ll have...(read more)

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• Using the @ in SQL Azure Connections

  - by BuckWoody

  The other day I was working with a client on an application they were changing to a hybrid architecture – some data on-premise and other data in SQL Azure and Windows Azure Blob storage. I had them make a couple of corrections - the first was that all communications to SQL Azure need to be encrypted. It’s a simple addition to the connection string, depending on the library you use. Which brought up another interesting point. They had been using something that looked like this, using the .NET provider: Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase; User ID=LoginName;Password=myPassword; Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True; This includes most of the formatting needed for SQL Azure. It specifies TCP as the transport mechanism, the database name is included, Trusted_Connection is off, and encryption is on. But it needed one more change: Server=tcp:[serverName].database.windows.net;Database=myDataBase; User ID=[LoginName]@[serverName];Password=myPassword; Trusted_Connection=False;Encrypt=True; Notice the difference? It’s the User ID parameter. It includes the @ symbol and the name of the server – not the whole DNS name, just the server name itself. The developers were a bit surprised, since it had been working with the first format that just used the user name. Why did both work, and why is one better than the other? It has to do with the connection library you use. For most libraries, the user name is enough. But for some libraries (subject to change so I don’t list them here) the server name parameter isn’t sent in the way the load balancer understands, so you need to include the server name right in the login, so the system can parse it correctly. Keep in mind, the string limit for that is 128 characters – so take the @ symbol and the server name into consideration for user names. The user connection info is detailed here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee336268.aspx Upshot? Include the @servername on your connection string just to be safe. And plan for that extra space…  

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• Rules of Holes #5: Seek Help to Get Out of the Hole

  - by ArnieRowland

  You are moving along, doing good work, maintaining a steady pace. All seems to be going well for you. Then BAM!, a Hole just grabbed you. How the heck did that happen? What went wrong? How did you fall into a Hole? Definitely, you will want to do a post-mortem and try to tease out what misteps led you into the Hole. Certainly you will want to use this opportunity to enhance your Hole avoidance skills. But your first priority is to get out of this Hole right NOW.. Consider the Fifth Rule of Holes...(read more)

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• What to expect during an interview with Senior Development Exec?

  - by Umanga

  I passed first two technical interviews at a global e-commerce company for the position of Senior Software Engineer. I was told that there are two more interviews ,one with "Senior Development Exec" and another with "HR". 1) I am wondering what kind of questions I should expect during the interview with "Senior Development Exec"? Is is technical,high level architecture related ..etc? 2) During HR interviews,is it Ok to ask about the work-life balance and actual working hours?

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• Rules of Holes #4 -Do You Have the BIG Picture?

  - by ArnieRowland

  Some folks decry the concept of being in a 'Hole'. For them, there is no such thing as 'Technical Debt', no such thing as maintaining weak and wobbly legacy code, no such thing as bad designs, no such thing as under-skilled or poorly performing co-workers, no such thing as 'fighting fires', or no such thing as management that doesn't share the corporate vision. They just go to work and do their job, keep their head down, and do whatever is required. Mostly. Until the day they are swallowed by the...(read more)

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• portfolio building, working for closed-source vs open-source?

  - by jondavidjohn

  I've currently graduated from my first run at higher education, landed my first full-time gig as a web application developer, and absolutely love it. My question is that in looking for jobs I ran across many jobs that require a certain level of experience and code examples. Much of the work I am doing is both protected by a login, and closed source. How does someone, that is just starting out and needs to be building a resume, go about preparing for the next job. (no matter how much i love my current job, i feel like it's only responsible to always be preparing)

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• Education and Career Resources from Microsoft and the Community

  - by KKline

  Sometimes I'm timely in getting the news out on useful resources. And, other times, I'm a bit slower on the draw. As I told my friends back at New Year's Day, "As an official member of the Procrastinators Club, welcome to 2008!" On the other hand, it's always good to remind folks of great resources that are still available and on the shelf. Why? Well, the Internet hits us with such a deluge of constantly new material, that we often forget about the old(ish) stuff that's still really useful. Darth...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #5: Seek Help to Get Out of the Hole

  - by ArnieRowland

  You are moving along, doing good work, maintaining a steady pace. All seems to be going well for you. Then BAM!, a Hole just grabbed you. How the heck did that happen? What went wrong? How did you fall into a Hole? Definitely, you will want to do a post-mortem and try to tease out what misteps led you into the Hole. Certainly you will want to use this opportunity to enhance your Hole avoidance skills. But your first priority is to get out of this Hole right NOW.. Consider the Fifth Rule of Holes...(read more)

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• CIOs: Stop Mandating Training

  - by merrillaldrich

  I love to learn about new technology, and I especially love a long deep-dive technical session with a real expert or a well-crafted, inches thick technical book. Even if either one is expensive. Learning is probably my favorite thing to do. Yet I stand before you with an appeal: Stop “sending people to training.” Why would I say such a thing? Because failure is baked right into that very phrase: “sending people to training.” Death by Training Most of us in the IT world have probably experienced this...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #2: You Are Still in a Hole

  - by ArnieRowland

  OK. So you followed the First Rule of Holes -you stopped digging yourself in deeper. But now what? You are still in a Hole. Your situation has not changed much, but at least you are no longer making it worse. You need to redirect the digging effort into escape and avoidance efforts. The Hole has a singular purpose -consuming all of your time and effort. AND it has succeeded! But now you are going to redirect your efforts for your own survival. You have encountered the Second Rule of Holes: When you...(read more)

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• Should I expect my peers to read or practice on a regular basis? [closed]

  - by Joshua Smith

  I've been debating asking this question for some time. Based several of the comments I read in this question I decided I had to ask. This feels like I'm stating the obvious, but I believe that regular reading (of books, blogs, StackOverflow, whatever) and/or practice are required just to stay current (let alone excel) in whichever stack you use to pay the bills, not to mention playing with things outside your comfort zone to learn new ways of doing things. Yet, I virtually never see this from many of my peers. Even when I go out of my way to point out useful (and almost always free) learning material, I quite often get a sense of total apathy from those I'm speaking to. I'd even go so far as to say that if someone doesn't try to improve (or at least stay current), they'll atrophy as technology advances and actually become less useful to the company. I don't expect people to spend hours a day studying or practicing. I have two young kids and hours of practice simply aren't feasible. Still, I find some time; perhaps on the train, at lunch, in bed for a few minutes, whatever. I'm willing to believe this is arrogance or naivete on my part, but I'd like to hear what the community has to say. So here's my question: Should I expect (and encourage) the same from my peers, or just keep my mouth shut and do my own thing?

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• Rules of Holes #7: Some Will Look Down on You.

  - by ArnieRowland

  I've been extoling the Rules of Holes, hoping to give you both courage to get out of your Hole, and solace for having allowed yourself to get in a Hole in the first place. How about the others, the folks that see that you are up to your neck, the folks that could guide you out, the folks that are secretly glad that it is you down in the Hole instead of them. So this brings us to Rules of Holes #7: When you are in a hole, some will look down on you. Only a few will offer their hand, and of those,...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #3 -A Better Shovel is NOT the Answer!

  - by ArnieRowland

  You stopped digging. You looked around and saw that you were still in the Hole. You needed to get out. AHA! Problem solved, you thought. You'll just get a better and more efficient shovel! Sorry, I have to tell you that switching to a more efficient shovel is unlikely to help you get out of the Hole. Yes, your resumed digging may be faster, more directed, and even well planned and articulated. But you will still be in the Hole, and digging. And that's just not the solution. A new process (scrum,...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #4: Do You Have the BIG Picture?

  - by ArnieRowland

  Some folks decry the concept of being in a 'Hole'. For them, there is no such thing as 'Technical Debt', no such thing as maintaining weak and wobbly legacy code, no such thing as bad designs, no such thing as under-skilled or poorly performing co-workers, no such thing as 'fighting fires', or no such thing as management that doesn't share the corporate vision. They just go to work and do their job, keep their head down, and do whatever is required. Mostly. Until the day they are swallowed by the...(read more)

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• Plays Well With Others - Influence versus Authority

  - by KKline

  Originally appearing on http://KevinEKline.com on Nov 13, 2010 You’ve probably found that the prefix “lead” is a fairly common occurrence in the technology world. We have “lead developers”, “lead DBAs”, “lead architects”, and “lead consultants”. Yet, we don’t have “lead managers”, “lead directors”, or “lead VPs”. Why is that? Well, there are probably a number of different reasons for having “lead” technologist titles depending on who you ask. For example, the HR department might say that adding “lead”...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #6: Don't Draw Others Into the Hole with You

  - by ArnieRowland

  In the Fifth Rules of Holes, you were encouraged to seek help from others in order to extricate youself from the Hole. And it should have been clear in that Rule that you want to seek out those that can actually help you. Not everyone, or just anyone, will be able to help you get out of a Hole. Hopefully, you have a mentor, or will take the opportunity to enlist a mentor. Just be selective. Being selective will help you with Rules of Holes #5: Drawing more people into the Hole with you is not likely...(read more)

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• Rules of Holes #3: A Better Shovel is NOT the Answer!

  - by ArnieRowland

  You stopped digging. You looked around and saw that you were still in the Hole. You needed to get out. AHA! Problem solved, you thought. You'll just get a better and more efficient shovel! I regret to tell you that the Third Rule of Holes applies: Switching to a more efficient shovel is unlikely to help you get out of the Hole . Yes, your resumed digging may be faster, more directed, and even well planned and articulated. But you will still be in the Hole, and digging. And that's just not the solution....(read more)

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• Rules of Holes -#1: Stop Digging

  - by ArnieRowland

  You may have heard of the 'First Rule of Holes'. It goes something like this: " When you suspect you might be in a hole, stop digging. " That seems like obvious, and good advice, but what does it really mean? How does the Rule of Holes apply to you? How does it apply to your job? When things are not going right, stop doing the "same ol', same ol'" You find yourself involved in doing the same type of coding over and over. Maybe it's time to stop, step back, take a little time and learn something new....(read more)

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• What to expect during an interview with a senior development executive?

  - by Umanga

  I passed first two technical interviews at a global e-commerce company for the position of senior software engineer. I was told that there are two more interviews, one with a senior development executive and another with a person from human resources (HR). What kind of questions I should expect during the interview with the senior development executive? Is is technical, high level architecture related, etc.? During HR interviews, is it ok to ask about the work-life balance and actual working hours?

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