Just a reminder: you have until this Friday to enter the 2012 Exceptional DBA awards. I’m judging, and looking forward to reading the entries next week, so get them in.
A hint: communication skills matter. Take some time and think about what you want to write for each question.
I came back from vacation to find the home DSL line bouncing up and down a bit. I wasn’t overly worried, and the kids knew to restart the router when it went down, crossing their fingers for a good connection. I suspected the router might be dying, and was getting mentally prepared to go hardware shopping. I figured I’d enjoy the downtime and stay unwired for the last few days before going back to work.
On Sunday night, our connection was down for good, with a red light on the router. I called Monday morning into the Century Link tech support line, and they informed me they knew there was an outage. Good, I thought, they’ll have it fixed soon. I packed up and spent Monday in town working at the library to not fall any further behind.
Tuesday morning had the line still down, despite complaints to Century Link. The people answering the phone apparently are not any more informed by their engineers than I am. I find that hard to believe, but there wasn’t much I could do. I packed up again, and am in town working again.
Broadband access has almost become a commodity, and I’d argue that for many of us, it’s a utility. We pay bills online, get sent all sorts of information online, many of us not even getting newspapers anymore. It’s not longer a luxury, but a necessity for us to make do in the modern world. For me, it’s part of my job, and the lack of a line is a huge impact to me getting work done.
Fingers are crossed that this gets fixed soon as work is piling up.
I took four beta tests earlier this year for SQL Server 2012. I had debated writing another book, and I’ve worked on a few of the cert books in the past, so I thought this would be a good chance to look at the tests. Since I had free invites to the beta program, I also thought, what the heck. The worst that can happen is I fail.
It’s been about two months, and I was waiting for results when someone mentioned that the Prometric site had the results, though they weren’t yet up on the MCP site. I checked, and sure enough I had results for some of my exams. I checked a few days later, and found results for all four of my tests. They were:
All passed, which was cool. I think certification is what you make of it, and I’ve been looking over lots of SQL Server 2012 stuff for almost a year, so to me it says I have some good knowledge of SQL Server 2012. The tests were a good mix of old and new stuff, and not as focused on the new features, which was good.
The MCSA track for SQL Server 2012 needs 461, 462 and 463. I skipped 463 in the beta cycle because I’m not much of a DW person, and I was busy. Fitting in 4 exams across two weeks was hard, and took time away from work that I had to make up at night.
I’m not overly concerned about being certified, but it’s a nice feather to have in your cap. The MCSE for SQL Server 2012 requires the MCSA and 464 and 465, which I have. So one more test and I’d have the MCSE as well.
My goal now is to start studying for 463, after I get a few more presentations built that I need for work. I hope to get to this test in the fall, or perhaps at the end of the year, depending on my schedule. I haven’t done a lot with the DW side of things, so I’ll be working, and likely writing, about a few more DW topics later this year.
Sort of.
I’m off for a week to Camp Alexander near Pikes Peak for Boy Scout summer camp. My 13year old is attending and working his way toward Eagle Scout. He’s a Star scout now, and with any luck, this week we’ll get 3 more of the Eagle required merit badges and be that much closer to that amazing achievement.
There’s no cell service, and no real Internet, so I’ll be completely out of touch for a week.
Everyone behave.
Voice of the DBA 