Category: Uncategorized

One of the things I heard recently from someone was that they clicked some of the links in the newsletter and the front page, expecting to read some information, and got sent to an event instead. That was annoying, and I can understand that. I do try to put in good descriptions, but perhaps that’s not always clear.

  So I decided to experiment with some images. I remember Slashdot using some images for articles, and I always liked that. Didn’t use them a lot myself, but they were funny at times, especially the Bill Gates one. That one with the Borg was always humorous to me.

So I searched around after a few failed attempts to build my own icons, and for a few dollars, I grabbed some icons and added some text.

I built this one for technical articles:

and this one for events

I also have a couple that I’m working on for webinars and perhaps other things as well. We already have the Raw Materials comic icon:

Let me know if you think this is helpful, and if I should mark other article types, perhaps by subject, or even with a globe or arrow to denote articles not on SQLServerCentral.

My oldest son graduates high school today. After a long journey, he’s the first of my wife’s and my three kids that is moving on. It’s a big day, and we have almost all our family in town to watch the first of our next generation becoming an adult.

I’m on vacation from work, but I wanted to post this and reflect a little on this transition. I remember my graduation, almost as an anti-climax since school essentially ended a few days prior, and I was already looking forward to leaving my house, heading to college and moving on with my own life, separate from my family’s.

I think my son is feeling a lot of that. School ended earlier for him, he’s independent like I was, often away from our house, enjoying the freedom of a car. Like me, he’ll graduate before he’s 18, but he’ll be an adult in a little over a week and then truly responsible for himself. He’s heading to college, though close to home, at UC-Denver, in downtown Denver.

For me it was a time of huge optimism. I was excited about getting to college, learning a few things and then embarking on a career. I suspect it’s similar to my son, and I hope it is. He’s more compassionate and considerate of the world than I was, volunteering his time to help others and hoping to change the world for the better. I just wanted to make money.

It’s inspiring, and exciting to think about him moving on, and I have hope for the next generation to see someone that is more idealistic, and wants to do the right thing to help others. To make this world a better place and not just advance his own interests. I had worried that most of his generation would embrace consumerism, and they might, but he doesn’t and realizes there is more to life.

He’s technologically savvy, but he’s not a geek. He’s a linguist and hoping to be a teacher some day. I wish him luck in his journey and hope he enjoys it.

A few days off, with family in town, so the blog will be quiet.

I saw this blog about a report from CITA (wireless industry group) that people tend to use their cell phones more for data (text, email, etc.) than for phone calls.

I know that I do a lot more data, primarily through wi-fi, than I do phone calls on my phone. At least on a daily basis. I have some long calls to my business partner and family at times, but most of the communications that I do through my phone are data comms (sending pictures, Twitter/Facebook, texts with family, etc.)

In my mind this means that data is becoming more important, and that as data professionals, we ought to be aware and finding ways to integrate or read these data streams. Things like StreamInsight, to me, are going to become more important.

I also think that the wireless industry needs to figure out new models of business. Rather than trying to change habits of data consumers or incenting them to use less data, they ought to embrace it and build their networks to deal with it. They need to plan for, and charge appropriately, for data usage.

And in some sense, I think that means warning people about their data usage. I know I can check what I’ve used, but I don’t know what that means in terms of “what” I do. When I check tweets, what does that mean? Or send a series of emails. Better reporting and education for people, and perhaps warning them of large transfers, rather than trying to stop it.