26Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Development, Leadership, Age

Professional Development
While I was at the VMWare HQ getting some amazing training a few weeks ago, we had the opportunity to meet a large number of "C" level people from that organization and Pure Storage. In addition, they had multiple development and project management leads come and talk to us. All the attention was nice (but it was the information we were receiving that was truly awesome). But part way through the second day I realized something. I was sitting in Silicon Valley. I was talking to, effectively, the captains of industry and their chief lieutenants. And many, most, of them were at or near my age. Wait a second. I thought the Valley was run by teenagers? I'm constantly told that older people are getting squeezed out of technology by…
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09Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

It’s All Fundamentals

Professional Development
I'm learning how to speak German. Interestingly enough, you don't start off reading dissertations. Instead, you begin by learning the names of things, Teller for plate, Buch for book. The fundamentals. I'm a third degree black belt in Ken Ryu Kenpo. But you don't start that, or continue it, by learning complex kata. Instead, you start with how to make a fist, how to hold your hands up in a defensive stance. The fundamentals. I've been doing crossfit and Olympic weightlifting for a couple of years now. I've been working hard on my clean, standing up tall during the lift, getting my elbows around quick. The fundamentals. Situation after situation, skill set after skill set, you have to get the fundamentals right. And, if you don't get the fundamentals right,…
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05Sep 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Speaker of the Month: September 2014

Professional Development
This month I'm very grateful because I was given the opportunity to present at DevLink in Chattanooga. I got to meet a lot of new people and see presentations by people that just don't hang around SQL Server specific events. It was great. I'm going to apply next year (depending on scheduling of course) and I'm applying for a lot more development conferences. I still get to see friends present, Louis Davidson, Kevin Boles and Kevin Kline were all there. But I get to see new people. Speaking of which, speaker of the month for September 2014 is Josh Lane (b|t) and his presentation AWS vs. Azure, Which One Is Right for You. The thing that I found the most amazing about this presentation was how even-handed it was. Josh Lane…
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21Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Silliness for an Important Cause

Professional Development
I don't mind saying that amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, scares me. A degenerative disease that takes away the minds ability to control the body, leaving the mind intact... words fail me. Add to that the fact that there is no known cure, and that there are at least 30,000 people suffering from this, just in the US, something has to be done. You can give money over at the ALS Association. Please do. Oh, and Aaron Bertrand of SQL Sentry asked me to come over to his house to take part in the ice bucket challenge. Here are the results. Please donate for this important cause. If you see Kevin Kline, Steve Jones or Thomas LaRock, help them mix their ice bucket.
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20Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

The Red Gate Way…

DevOps, PASS, Professional Development, Redgate Software, SQL Server, T-SQL
As companies go, Red Gate is a little different. That is readily apparent in our tools and the philosophy behind them, ingeniously simple. But, we do a lot of other things too. There's the Simple-Talk web site where we publish serious articles on all aspects of development and database administration across platforms and programming languages. There's SQL Server Central, the single largest SQL Server community on the planet. There's Ask SQL Server where you can get direct answers to your direct questions about SQL Server. If all that's not enough, there are all the books, which we give away for free, on, again, all aspects of programming and database administration. But, we like to do more, so we also bring you training, the Red Gate way, at the SQL in…
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19Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Getting the Word Out

Professional Development
A discussion that I've frequently had with organizers of SQL Saturday events, our own people here at Red Gate, authors, MVPs, pretty much anyone interested enough to listen for a few minutes, is summed up by "How do we get the word out about the opportunities that the SQL Server community offers?" The question always comes down to, how do we reach people? We tweet. There's a Facebook page. Discussions are hosted on LinkedIn. Emails are sent out to various distribution lists. Advertising is done on SQL Server Central (with over one million registrants, what else do you have to do?). And yet, at events, I'll ask, who has heard of PASS and will only get a 50% positive response. Heck, I'll never forget that at the Charlotte SQL in…
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06Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 25 Comments

Say Thank You

Misc, Professional Development
I was approached by a man at SQL Bits who only wanted to thank me for blogging. He said, "I know you probably never hear from anyone, but you should. Thanks for what you do." I'm not mentioning his name because he promised me he'd write an editorial for publication, so I'm going to wait on him to get that done so he gets full credit then, not on my silly blog post. But, the idea stuck with me. I realized, that I don't do it. Oh yeah, I have an "Interesting Reading" set of links that I post to Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Sharing is "thanking" in our modern vernacular, right? No, of course not. It's not the same. I really do appreciate the help that I get on…
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01Aug 2014 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

Speaker of the Month: August 2014

Professional Development
Speaker of the Month is now officially one year old. I went back and reread my first post. The goals were for a relentlessly positive experience. Reading back through the twelve posts, I feel like I hit that mark pretty well. Yes, I've always pointed out places where improvements can be made, but I think I've done it in a constructive and positive manner. Plus, I'm picking your session (if you get picked), as the best session that I saw that month, which is pretty darned positive in and of itself. I also promised it would be random and arbitrary. Mission accomplished. I've considered wrapping this up. I did it for a year, just to see what the response would be. I didn't have much more of a goal in…
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21Jul 2014 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Victims of Success

PASS, Professional Development
I took part in the PASS Summit 2014 selection committee this year because I was really curious about seeing how the sausage gets made. I've seen how actual sausage gets made and I still eat sausage.  Despite a few hiccups and communication issues, internal and external, I think the selection process for the Summit went really well this year. But, there was still some controversy. Being a naturally pushy person, I got involved in the controversy, for good or ill, and subsequently have had conversations with many people about the selection process (which, reiterating, I think went extremely well overall). But, the one thing that kept coming up over and over was a simple question: How come I/PersonX didn't get picked? The easy answer is because you/PersonX had a horrible abstract. But you…
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11Jul 2014 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Speaker of the Month, July 2014

Professional Development
Another month another bunch of great presentations. I almost don't want to do this any more. It's hard. I sit through a presentation and I think, "Well, here's the winner this month." Then I go to another presentation and I think, "Well, fudge, now one of these people loses." Then I go to a third and I'm simply blown away. And now I have to pick. Well, it's hard. So let me do this, I'm going to declare two winners this month, but only review one of them. Hey, my blog, my rules. First, I want to award speaker of the month for July 2014 to Wayne Sheffield(b|t) and his presentation Table Variables and Temp Tables that I saw at SQL Saturday 294. What's my measure? That I learned stuff…
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