October 2005 - Posts
I wrote the editorial today about this, but SQL Server 2005 RTM'd yesterday!!!
If you an on MSDN Subscriber, you can download it now with general release coming in a couple weeks.
My editorial
this past week had to do with a great uproar on the interviewing piece
that ran Monday. I felt I should apologize a little in not editing as
much as I think now I should have for the article. But I didn't want to
censor the style or thoughts of someone else. I am certainly not the
most knowledgeable person on interviewing, but I've had my share of
them and I think I have learned a few things.
First on the cursing thing. I curse, not all the time and certainly not
uncontrollably, but in the heat of crisis or emotion, I have been known
to drop four letter bombs here and there. But in an interview I think
you should completely avoid it. I have a couple of good reasons here
and it certainly doesn't mean that you have to maintain a G rated mouth
if you get the job.
One reason is somewhat job specific. If you are interviewing for any
sort of client facing job, internal or external clients, you want to
present a non-offensive and professional image, which would be no
profanity. Even if the client curses, you should avoid it. If I were
interviewing you and you cursed, it would seriously hurt your chances.
Another reason is that even if the person interviewing you cursed, that
doesn't mean they want you to. I have been know to "bait" people in an
interview, just to see what they will do or how they will react. That
might be happening to you.
Second, on the religious aspects. Everyone has the right to their faith
and their beliefs. That means everyone, meaning, don't push yours on
them. I'm an atheist, but I don't bother anyone with my beliefs, or
lack thereof in this case :). I'm not offended by someone saying "God
Bless You", "Praise Allah", etc., but it does bother me and makes me
look at them a little funny. Whenever I receive an email with a
signature referencing God or someone makes a statement it colors my
view of them, especially if I don't know them that well. Religion is a
very personal thing and you should keep it close to you. Not in the
business world. And especially not in an interview.
The exception here is contextual. I had a friend go interview at the
Catholic Hostpital for a position. A reference to God there would not
be inappropriate. In fact it might help, but don't say it if you don't
mean it (more on that later). The point is that religion should be kept
in the appropriate settings.
I think a personality fit is critical to a good hire and so I urge you
to be forthcoming and honest and present yourself in a manner
consistent with how you will behave if you get the job. I had another
friend interview at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. I
laughed when he told me because he is one of the most foul mouthed,
shortest tempered people I knew and I couldn't belive he thought he
could fit in. But he needed a job and this was a good career
progression for him. He even got the "pastoral reference" that he
needed despite the fact that his wife usually attended church with
their children without him. He interviewed and was offered the job, but
turned it down because he'd found another job in the meantime. That was
just as well because I firmly believe he would not have lasted more
than a few months there.
The best advice I can give you is to be honest so that you can ensure that both you and the employer make a good decision.
Why is that? My Database Daily editorial for this week focuses on that and I thought it would be interesting to save it here:
Not that it's hard to do, I mean, run a browser, connect to your blog,
click a button or two to bring up a form, type something, then click
another button and Whala! A blog entry.
</p><P>
Blogs are supposed to be to writing articles what Instant Messaging is
to email. A quick and dirty way to get some things, thoughts, ideas,
etc., out there. So why is it so hard?
</p><P>
When I first added blogs to Database Daily, it was exciting to see so
much information out there being written about SQL Server 2005. And it
was cool to stumble on an ever growing list of blogs to include, mainly
from folks at Microsoft. But that excitement has cooled as I've grown
my list to 50 or so blogs, most of which are not updated each week. In
fact, it seems that I've got a few, from some fairly prominent people
on the development team, that haven't been updated in months.
</p><P>
Now I personally have 2 blogs, one personal and one on the
SQLServerCentral.com site. I know how hard it is to keep up with them
and honestly the SSC one suffers with only a post a week to it. But I
also know that it's somewhat of a responsibility and worth taking a few
minutes to throw something out there, especially something related to
the site or SQL Server.
</p><P>
It seems like most things, people got excited, jumped in to setup their
blog and then the enthusiasm waned and they were done. I get that, it's
a human response to lots of things. But for most of these technical
guys, that blog should be something they jot notes or ideas in more
often. I know when I was developing software I often had "aha" moments
on little things. And those should be blogged about. I had lots of them
in my personal blog, short things that sometimes turned into longer
articles.
</p><P>
I think many people see the blog the same as a written article and only
well though out and written things should go there. I disagree. I think
small, short, off the cuff remarks are perfect for the blog with the
longer things for published articles. So bug the Microsoft guys and ask
for more, not necessarily longer, postings.
</p><P>
And make my Database Daily job easier :)
</p><P>
Steve Jones
We typically have great weather in Colorado where I live, but we do get
snow. And occassionally it causes issues. Like this week when I
returned home Monday from dropping off my daughter at school. Actually
I also hit the gym, so I left the house around 8:30 am, returning a
little before 10.
Now it had started raining on Sunday afternoon, when I took my 7 year
old to his first father-son Broncos (football) game. It rained all day
and started snowing overnight. As a result, there was a wet, slushy,
heavy snow, about 8 inches or so, all around. A number of tree branches
snapped everywhere, which I'm sure contributed to my problem. The first
clue was when I got home and the garage wouldn't go up. I suspected an
issue, but I parked, went inside and heard the persistent "beep, beep,
beep" coming from my office.
No power. I got my monitor on, checked the Internet and realized it was
down, so the basement UPS was dead. I shut down Outlook and QA and my
computer died. My guess is that power dropped soon after I'd left
because the UPS's are pretty large. Not sure what to do, but I figured
I should hit the co-location at Viawest and work there. So I jumped in
the shower and headed up there.
On the way my wife called. She's run a couple errands to help friends
in the am and didn't want to sit at home, nor did she want to sit at my
colo. So I suggested Starbucks as a place to work. They have
T-mobile Wi-Fi
access, which would enable me to do a few things. We met, got our $4
lattes, and I started working. However it didn't last long. My wife's
ankle is still hurt and wasn't thrilled with the straighbacked wooden
chairs at Starbucks.
So a quick search showed that Borders near our house also has T-Mobile
Wi-Fi, so we drove over there and sat in more comfortable chairs while
I worked on the same account I'd been using at the Starbucks.
I have to say that at $10 a day, it's not the greatest bargain, and the
$6 an hour rate isn't great unless you just need a few minutes. But the
$30 or $40 monthly rate (depending on committment) is pretty
reasonable. At that rate if I headed over 4 or 5 days a month to work
there, even briefly, it would be worth it. Maybe not he best rate, but
it's not bad and getting out of the house, working in a nice
environment, and having books and coffee nearby are pretty cool. I had
a consultant friend that used it for a year or so and it was a great
idea. There was even a bagel place next door where he could connect
from as well.
The T-Mobile service is pretty well setup and works great. And it's a
reasonable price. If you're on the go, it's definitely something to
consider.
I know, I need some stuff posted about PASS and I'll get to it. My wife
was injured (she's ok) while I was gone and this week has been extra
busy for that reason.
I woke up to get the DatabaseDaily newsletter set this morning and I
went to the administration section of the site to generate it.
And it wasn't there? My first thought was we were down here at my
house, but my wife was working fine. Kind of strange, huh, both of us
working early Sun morning? Anyway, I checked a few things, ESPN, etc.
and they were working, just not SQLServerCentral.com. Didn't even need
coffee at that point to get going.
The strange thing was DatabaseDaily was running, so I knew the servers
were up. So a hop over to ZoneEdit, who hosts our DNS, shows that after
a year, we'd used up most of our credits for DNS. I tried to purchase
more with our corporate card, but it's still under Brian's address, so
they were difficult about it. Luckily they like Paypal and prefer it,
so I jumped over there and bought another 25 credits, got my receipt,
and the site was up!!
Now if our accounantant will send that money back to me before my wife notices :)