Voice of the DBA

Tag: travel

  • The Bicentennial SQLSaturday–#200 Philadelphia

    When Andy Warren (b | t | Li)started SQL Saturday with #1 in Orlando, we weren’t sure it would succeed. After a few events, we dreamed and wondered if we’d ever get to 50 events. Despite our success in the past, we weren’t sure if a free event, supported by advertising (essentially) would survive over time. We also weren’t sure if we could replicate and grow this event in other locations.

    It grew, and prospered, and then exploded, thanks to Karla Landrum (b | t). Under Karla’s guidance and nurturing, we’ve seen a tremendous number of events taking place all over the world. Not only did we get to 50 events, the SQL community blew past 100 a few years ago and earlier this year event #200 was posted.

    It’s somewhat fitting that in one of the cities that helped birth my country, and houses the Liberty Bell, will host SQL Saturday #200 in a little over a week. I’ll be traveling next week, along with Andy for the event. There’s an exciting lineup of speakers, bringing you a wide variety of SQL Server learning sessions.

    I’m looking forward to seeing friends and meeting new people, as we celebrate the bicentennial SQL Saturday. If you can’t attend this event, there are lots of SQL Saturday’s scheduled for the rest of the year. They’re free (other than lunch at a few events) and it’s worth your time to learn something new about SQL Server and network with some of the people in your local area.

    If you’re attending an event, you might even think about bringing kids and perhaps organizing a session for them.

  • Flight Data

    I'm hoping this isn't the flight board when I travel tomorrow.
    I’m hoping this isn’t the flight board when I travel tomorrow.

    I’m getting ready to fly tomorrow, heading to SQL Saturday #175 in Fargo, ND. I have a morning flight, to give me a little time in the afternoon to go see the woodchipper. That’s if I don’t have any delays. I am planning on working in the airport and on the plane, so I won’t be less productive if there are, but I might not get the chance to see the famous machine from the movie.

    I’ll have a quick turnaround after this trip as well, coming home for a little over 24 hours before I turn around and head to the UK for meetings at Red Gate next week and SQL Bits XI next weekend. I’m hoping that none of the airlines have data issues since those can severely impact my travel times. Last week American Airlines had computer issues, and while United hasn’t had any in awhile, my fingers are crossed that this won’t be the weekend their systems go down.

    We have gotten so computerized with many of our transportation systems that problems can interrupt service, usually just causing annoyances, but there is a potential for lives to be lost. Since we don’t often know why the systems fail, it’s hard to know to what extend we have poor coding issues, improper secure development, incorrect configuration, employees susceptible to social engineering or something else. We even had a computer failure in space, though I’m sure the astronauts weren’t annoyed by the alert.

    These days it becomes increasingly hard to roll back to manual processes, not because of the complexity of the systems, but also because the knowledge on how the processes should work is being lost as employees leave the company. This means more delays, but hopefully not important safety rules being ignored or forgotten. I know the airlines have invested heavily in IT, and flights record a lot of data, but I hope they’ve done so in a distributed fashion. Lots of caching, fault tolerance, and most importantly, communication to allow their operations to proceed when the real world interferes.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • SQL Saturday #175–Fargo

    One of the goals early on with SQL Saturday was to spread them far and wide. Andy Warren and I used to chat about how long it would be before we had 12 events in a year, or one event a month, or an event in every state. Karla Landrum (b | t) has made many of those milestones come true and is working hard to try and get an event in every state in the US, as well as in as many countries around the world as possible.

    SQL Saturday #175 comes to Fargo, North Dakota, on Saturday, April 27, 2013. The first event in this state, and also my first time visiting the state. I’ll be heading out Friday morning, and seeing what Fargo has to offer that day before talking on Saturday. I may just have to see the Wood Chipper.

    My talk is The Encryption Primer, but there are some other great choices if you’re looking to increase your SQL Server knowledge. The schedule is up and includes these:

    • Aaron King giving you a complete BI solution in an hour.
    • Powershell from Jim Dorame
    • Dimentional Modeling from Jason Horner
    • Indexing from Jes Borland
    • T-SQL from Kathi Kellenberger
    • and more

    Lots of great sessions, and it should be fun.

    If you’re close to Fargo, consider registering and joining us at the first North Dakota SQL Saturday.

  • Thirty Hours at Home

    This is a busy travel week for me, and one of those times that stresses out everyone in the household. I attended SQL Saturday #197 – Omaha over the weekend, arriving home Sunday morning from my trip. I had a good time at the event, my first time to Omaha, and would like to go back again sometime.

    However it’s a quick turnaround for me. Fortunately I have packing down to a science since I’m leaving today at 2:00 for Las Vegas and the first SQL Intersection conference. I have two talks to deliver on Tuesday and a few sessions I’d like to see Wednesday before I head home again.

    Back in time to cook a couple meals (and extra leftovers) for the family and spend a day with everyone before heading back out of town. These are tough times, and it’s a lot of support from the family that allows me to do this.

    I’ll have the same type of turnaround at the end of the month between SQL Saturday #175 – Fargo and SQL Bits.

    I may have to limit some trips later in the year after this month, so please don’t be offended if I decline any offers to speak.