Pirate Code: They're more like guidelines really...

The last few weeks we’ve watched the drama unfold in regards to the PASS BOD elections. We’ve seen people attack criticize the NomCom, the board, PASS itself, the process and the decision of feeding of Gremlins after midnight. Thankfully the fireworks have died down and we can take a look at everything that has happened and make strides to move forward in a positive (and more importantly) constructive manner. Given that, I’ve been asked by my good friend Kevin Kline (Blog | Twitter) to respond to the following:

Many in the community seem to think that the PASS election process is badly broken. Do you think that PASS needs to implement fundamental and far-reaching changes to its election process, or does it only need some fine tuning? Please explain your thoughts?

I’m not going to recap the entire reality series-type drama that unfolded regarding the final slate of candidates but you’re more than welcome to read it yourself here. While I could rail on about how I believe Steve was slighted, unfortunately there’s nothing more to be done about it now so let’s look forward, shall we? The issue here is that the NomCom chose (and rightly so from my perspective) to follow the processes set in place for them and acted accordingly. Okay, fair enough. What we need to ask ourselves now is: “Is this process still appropriate for our organization?”

All together now…IT DEPENDS! Just kidding. Seriously though, up until now the entire (or at least much of) the process involved in electing someone to the board was hidden behind a veil of secrecy. Thankfully after last year’s elections issues the folks at PASS (and yes this includes both the board AND headquarters) worked extremely hard to change things for the better. This year we now have the PASS Elections Portal which offers much more transparency into the whole process than we ever had before. I think this move was a huge step in the right direction however much like Uncle Ben warned young Peter Parker, “with great power comes great responsiblity”. Now that we have this transparency it introduces a new issue that wasn’t prevalent before: accountability. Prior to this year’s elections we, the community at large, didn’t have easy access to things such as the NomCom scores, process documentation, direct/easy/clear communication lines to those involved. That being the case this year you’re seeing the results of a very PASSionate community demanding answers to outcomes that quite simply don’t make sense to the masses. I think the one of the best posts/discussions to show this fact was Stuart Ainsworth’s (Blog | Twitter)  post addressing issues raised directly. As a small aside, HUGE kudos to Stu for meeting the community head-on and not being afraid to answer questions. I think we all owe him a big ‘thank you’ along with the other NomCom folks who openly communicated and helped clear up what they could.

While Stu’s post somewhat answered lingering questions the problem remains that there were things with those scores that simply “didn’t add up” when viewed publicly. This is where the danger in transparency comes in. People are going to question your methods and motives. Now that I’ve rambled on for a couple of paragraphs though we need to come back to the question of the process. The official process can be found from the elections site (pdf) so you can read the wording yourself. Ok finished reading it? Good, we’re all on the same page now. So far we’ve heard NomCom folks state that they had a very specific procedure to follow. Ok…well I’m looking at the procedure wording and it still doesn’t explain what happened this year. Unfortunately this is where the arguments start breaking down due to the only answer starts becoming “can’t talk about it due to privacy”.  Again the veil impedes the view. So how can we improve “the process”?

The process currently states that the NomCom is as such:

Finally, the NomCom meets to pick the interviewees on the list they think should be the candidates. This is the slate. The NomCom must always strive to put a minimum of (n+1) candidates on the slate, where “n” = the number of available slots – that means the slate should contain at least 4 (3+1) candidates. However, if the NomCom is in strong agreement that n or <n (“n” or “less than n”) candidates are of sufficient quality to go on the slate, it has the right to present n or <n candidates to the Board of Directors. (e.g. If the NomCom has good reason to believe that only 2 candidates are good enough to serve as Directors – where 2 is clearly less than 3 – it has the right to put only 2 candidates on the slate.) The responsibility for this decision falls on the Chair of the NomCom. This situation is less than ideal and the NomCom will strive to avoid at all costs.

Ok well what I’m reading here is that the NomCom still has the power to submit more or less people to the slate than is needed/asked. That being the case this reads more like Pirate Code from Pirates of the Caribbean wherein Captain Barbossa explains, “the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner .” Maybe we should follow Captain Barbossa’s sage advice and realize that some of the wording we try to stick to are more guidelines. Perhaps we need to just really re-word the official documentation rather than the process as the process itself makes sense in the grand scheme (for the most part). Are there tweaks we can make? Absolutely!

I believe Andy “The SQL Godfather” Warren (Blog | Twitter) wrote in a recent PASS update post about his view and how things could change for the better. In there he states that the NomCom followed procedure and anything less than that would open things up to a new world of trouble and I agree with him. So again, is it the process or the WAY the process is worded that is causing issues here? There are things that could definitely stand to be reworded for clarification. For instance, in the ranking for interview we’ve got Steve Jones being ranked in the average of 2 for Leadership. Really? Okay, I’ll bite. We need a CLEAR definition of what exactly they mean by “leadership experience candidate has demonstrated”. In my eyes being the community leader for the largest SQL Server community website on the planet tends to hold weight. I’d like to know what it is about this category that would cause members to vote so low (or so high in other cases). To be fair and balanced let’s look at another category and candidate. Under education Douglas McDowell comes in at perfect 4.0. What exactly are they looking for in terms of “education”? Does Douglas hold a PhD and everyone else is lower? Does this relate strictly to academia or other areas?

Earlier I mentioned this process isn’t broken and works for the most part and I feel I need to explain that a bit further. As of now the process is that we have a NomCom that sifts through all of the potential candidates and weeds out the weaker applications and comes up with a batch of candidates they feel (again based on given criteria worded in existing process documentation) are strong enough to move forward with. From there they take that batch and interview them with another ranking formula. After the interviews the applicants are ranked, sorted and based on those rankings another smaller batch emerges as those up for candidacy. Now this is where breakdowns occur, in my opinion. Here the NomCom is able to modify the batch of candidates to be either more or less than is stated in documentation (again we should defer to the Pirate Code on this). Here is where NomCom could say “numbers don’t add up, let’s talk” and fix this. Where this year’s rancor is coming from is that we seem to be missing the piece of the puzzle where (or if) this occured. Now we have a final slate presented to the board. Again, here, the board can look at the slate and say “good, good…errr this doesn’t seem right, you sure?”. Once more we haven’t seen anything from the black box of the board on this, all we know is that they approved the submitted slate. This final slate is what will be presented to the community and from there a general election will be held.

Now the process itself makes sense and potentials are vetted multiple times before we finally get our final candidates but something kind of seems “off”. Maybe it’s me but maybe there needs to be a more balanced check system. As it stands you only have two bodies that ping-pong a decision back and forth. Would adding a third body like our government system be a better way to check this? Perhaps that third body can get results scrubbed of personal data (e.g. name, employer, location) and only be presented with answers and they do rankings based on those. This blind ranking system can then be matched up with what NomCom finds and the board can make decisions based on aggregation of those results? This third branch could be made up of purely community folks so there is no percieved bias of board influence. Barring that we COULD have a board member on in that group but with no voting rights and their role is simply to moderate. Again, just bouncing ideas. Would this be too much to deal with? Do we really need to go to these lengths to please the masses? Only time will tell.

Outside of the election process itself I’d also like to take this time on my digital soapbox to encourage the board members as well as HQ to please PLEASE don’t be afraid of communicating with the community. Blog, Tweet, interpretive dance. Take a note from Andy Warren and see that it’s OKAY to publicly state your thoughts and opinions. Even if you feel your ideas may be “less than popular” at least you’re doing something more than the percieved nothing. In this age of transparency and numerous communication avenues (blogs, twitter, forums, mailers) there really is no excuse for not reaching out.

After all of this ranting and word vomitting, I’d like to 1) commend you if you’ve actually gotten this far and 2) Invite you to voice your own thoughts. If you’d like comment here on this blog or take the talk to the elections portal forum. It’s a new day in PASS and with the right people in place and the support of this amazing community I think we could transform this organization into something truly wonderous (as if it’s not already awesome enough). Thanks for your time, I’m going to go ice my fingers down now from writing this mess…

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I think the shirt says it all

If you’ve been under a rock the last few weeks you may not know that PASS is currently undergoing their board elections process. I’m not going to rehash the entire saga here but this is just a quick post to let everyone know about a great resource PASS has put together for the elections: The elections portal.

Last year the general community voiced their concerns about transparency in the elections process and this year the folks at PASS HQ have poured a lot of hard work in helping make those wishes a reality. The election portal is your one-stop-shop for all things elections-related including:

• Candidate profiles and interviews
• FAQ on how the process works
• Documentation used by the BOD and NomComm during the process
• Official scores and votes
• And last but not least…A FORUM!

Why do I stress that last one? Well in the last few weeks there has been quite a stir in the community over the choices made for the final slate of candidates. In the wake of that decision many have taken to their blogs and stated their thoughts. You can actually see a running list of all those blog posts at elections site as well! I highly encourage you to sign in to the forum and ask your questions. Be active. This year has shown us not only the flaws in the process, but more importantly how PASSIONATE we all are about this community.

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A few weeks ago Andy Leonard (Blog | Twitter) announced that he was stepping down from his position as PASS Regional Mentor. It is with great humbleness and excitement that I can officially say I’ll be taking on the role of PASS Regional Mentor for the Greater Southeast region.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Andy for giving me this great opportunity and I hope to make the best of it. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in to the position, you’ve set a high bar! Until now the RM position has been mainly used as a resource for chapter leaders to help them in whatever way is needed. In the coming weeks you should start hearing more about new ideas and directions the RM program is hoping to take. Recently I was in Orlando with Jessica Moss (Blog | Twitter) and we got to speak a bit about the program and shared some ideas on how we can improve the program and make it more beneficial for chapter leaders and the community at large.

In addition to myself there are a few more new RM’s that have been named. Please welcome the following new RM’s as well:

Patrick LeBlanc (Blog | Twitter) – U.S. South Central Region

Matthew Rigling (Blog | Twitter) – U.S. Heartland Region

Melissa Demsak (Blog | Twitter) – U.S. Northeast

Adam Jorgensen (Blog | Twitter) – U.S. Great Southeast Region

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Just a quick note that today at 12:30 EST (11:30 CST) I’ll be presenting on Policy-Based Management for SQLLunch. If you’re not familiar with SQLLunch it’s an awesome series of FREE webcasts setup by SQL MVP Patrick LeBlanc (Blog | Twitter). Each webcast focuses on a different aspect of SQL Server.

Free training? Can’t beat it, make sure to check it out! To find out latest news on SQLLunch and all upcoming webcasts register on their site for free. You can also join PASS (free) directly from their registration, Win/Win!

Info on today’s webcast:

SQLLunch #29: Policy-Based Management

Topic: #29-Policy-Based Management in a Nutshell
We will be learning an overview of this powerful new feature in SQL Server 2008 and how you can leverage it to help manage your existing SQL environment. This will include plenty of demos, best practices and Q&A so by the end you should be able to walk away ready to take control of your SQL Servers!

Hope to see you there!

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Pirate Cat can haz ur Swag?

Well it’s the first Monday back since this amazing trip and some folks have wasted no time in putting up their posts. I WAS going to do a recap of the week but over at SQLCruise.com Brent has done a great job recapping the week in detail. Instead this post will focus on the value returned from the experience. Before I start I’d like to give a HUGE thanks to the sponsors for making this event possible:

• SQLSentry (Special double-huge thanks to them as I was one of the fortunate four attendees who won this cruise courtesy of them!)
• Quest Software
• Redgate Software
• MSSQLTips.com

It’s hard to talk about SQLCruise without first talking about the SQLSaturday that preceded it. SQLCruise was purposely scheduled to coincide with SQLSaturday #40. As any SQLSaturday event, it was great but what really made this one special was its tie-in with the cruise event. Tim Ford (Blog | Twitter) and Brent Ozar (Blog | Twitter) kicked off the event with a great keynote speech. The general theme of the talk was that the true value of this event was not what you were learning up on screen (which is also important) but the real value is what you learn from everyone around you at the event and the relationships you build. This theme was solidified by Brent and Tim’s personal stories of how they journeyed from being the ones in the chairs listening to speakers to being the ones up front presenting to the crowd. If you ever get a chance to hear these two give this talk/presentation I highly recommend it, especially since it starts off with an especially cool high-wire video.

This focus on the relationships you create and foster at technical events became a recurring theme throughout the week. After SQLSaturday the revelry of the presenters, attendees and SQLCruise-ers carried over to the after party at On the Border. The next day was an event that was not officially planned for SQLCruise but Gareth (Twitter) and Jen Swanepoel (Twitter) were kind enough to host the SQLCruise attendees at their house for a bon voyage BBQ. A huge thanks goes to Gareth, Jen and their amazing neighbors for putting on such a great event! Being able to interact with everyone in a relaxed, casual environment made it that much easier for everyone to get to know each other before departing. The funny part about this whole event is that many of us already “knew” each other via Twitter/Facebook/blog interactions but for many of us this was the first time we’d met face-to-face. In addition to meeting all the great SQL folks this was also an opportunity to meet everyone’s significant others which is always great.

Finally Monday rolled around and we got to finally board the Carnival Imagination and set sail on SQLCruise! As I mentioned earlier, and as Brent said in his recap, some of the most valuable things you learn during events like this are not on a slide deck. Be it the gatherings on the back of the ship on the “SQL Lounge” or the intimate classroom settings, it was invaluable to be able to interact with everyone freely. Another great advantage of being out in the ocean the distractions are kept to a minimum as the usual hub-bub of calls from work, email-checking, and A.D.D.-fueled internet browsing was not to be found. Brent and Tim had both mentioned one of their initial plans was to keep the class size to a small size specifically for the advantages a small group provides. One of the great benefits that came out of it in the formal class schedule was the flexibility of changing up the lesson plan. Initially we had a session on “Hidden Booty in SQL Server” scheduled but as conversations developed we all realized that the entire group was more in the intermediate to senior skill level. In addition to the higher-than-exepected skill sets, many of us had lots of questions of Brent regarding the Masters program he had recently gone through. Based on this scenario Brent put together a new presentation on MCM Trivia. I believe he put this together before watching Matlock reruns on his laptop and burning the midnight oil until 7pm!

SQLCruise was an absolutely amazing experience and thankfully this social experiment went so well that there are already plans in the works for two more next year! Not only did I walk away from this class-cation with a wealth of new technical knowledge (now I know what round-robin is/how it works as well as what a merry-go-round scan is!) but also some extremely valuable relationships and friendships. When was the last time you walked away from a training event and actually MISSED the attendees and classes? I cannot stress to you enough how highly I recommend you attend one of these events in the future! I guarantee not only will you better yourself as a SQL professional but you’ll have a greater appreciation for what an amazing community we’re fortunate enough to be a part of. If you’re interested in joining a future SQLCruise adventure make sure you sign up for the mailing list to get all of the latest news and updates. Thanks again to our sponsors and Tim and Brent for putting together such an amazing event!

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I work for a very large company where divisions are spread out literally all over the world. There are many times where I have to confer with someone else remotely in order to get something done or figure out an issue. When working on a server we all know and love using Remote Desktop to connect but did you know there’s a way to share your session so both parties can interact? Well did you know it’s built in to Windows 2003/2008?

To do this is actually quite simple and I’m surprised it’s not more well known. The first step is to remote in to your server as you normally would. Once you’re logged in, go to the Terminal Services Manager by clicking on the Start button, going to Administrative Tools and then opening Terminal Services Manager (NOTE: In 2008, Terminal Services manager is in it’s own Terminal Services folder under Administrative tools)

Once you open Terminal Services Manager you’ll see a box showing which users are currently logged into the system. The icon with the little guy’s green head is your session. Other sessions will show up with a white head (no, not the Clearasil variety).

Now right click the other user’s session and select Remote Control from the context menu. You’ll be asked which hotkey combination you want to use to end the remote session. By default the star key on your numeric pad + Ctrl key will end your session. Click OK to accept this default.

Once you click ok the other person will be prompted if they want to share their session. Once they accept you’ll be connected to their session! This allows both of you to control the same session so you can both type, move windows, check out settings, etc. Once you’re done simply hold down the Ctrl key and hit the star (*) key on your numeric pad to exit the session (assuming you used default escape Hot Key combination). This is a built-in function of Windows Server and makes a handy tool when collaborating with co-workers!

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I'M ON A BOAT!

This is just a quick note to say that I’ll be in South Florida this weekend presenting at SQLSaturday #40. This weekend and the following week are particularly awesome for a few reasons:

1. My birthday is Friday!
2. Look at this lineup, it’s PACKED with #awesomesauce
3. SQL BBQ on Sunday
4. SQL Cruise next week!!!!

So…yeah, it’s going to be an awesome week for sure. On Saturday I’ll be presenting two sessions:

• SQL University 101 – Starting the SQL journey
• SQL University 202 – Managing a SQL Server pt 2

If you’re there please come say hi, even better come to my sessions! If not, don’t worry I won’t be offended as I’m going up against some awesome sessions (although I’ve noticed a trend where I always end up in same time slots as Brent!). So if you’re in South Florida area come join us, it’s free! Sessions start at 8:30 and go until about 4:30-5. Also even if you’re not attending you can connect with all attendees and speakers via the networking page. Hope to see you there!

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In cycling each team is made up of nine riders. Each rider on a team can have a different specialization. A careful balance of skill sets on a team can determine if a team will stand triumphant on a champion’s podium at the end of the day or simply fade into obscurity. Today we’re going to talk about how a team works together to reach their final destination successfully.

This is post 2 in a professional development series:

1. Prologue

Specialties

In most careers you typically get a choice for specialization and SQL Server is no exception. In the world of cycling within a team you have riders with very specific specialties. Combining the right group together with a balanced skill set is the formula for a winning team (just ask Johan Bruneel). Listed below are the specialties and what they contribute to the team:

Climber – These riders specialize and thrive in riding in tough inclined environments such as the mountain stages. During these stages these guys really set the pace for the team and help propel your team leader to victory.

In your team of DBA’s you may have some folks who may excel at tougher tasks than others. For instance, we have one guy on our team who is a whiz at clustering. Whenever we have a question or tasks in our projects we either seek his help or defer the task to him as he can knock it out and keep our team moving along.

Time Trialist – These are individuals who excel at sustaining high speeds for long periods of time. Within races you’ll have stages that are designated as either team or individual time trials. In an individual time trial each rider races against the clock rather than the usual pack riding done on other stages. This type of stage is interesting because usual tactics like drafting can’t be used since it’s just the rider going all out by himself on the course.

Sometimes in our careers there are going to be stages where we’re going to have to go all-out for an extended period of time. Just remember this is all part of the race and its only one stage of many so just grit your teeth and give it everything you’ve got! In the end the extra effort produced during that time trial could put you ahead in the overall race.

Sprinter – Sprinters are a special breed of riders that typically finish stages with explosive accelerations. During the rest of the race they conserve their energy for that moment by riding in the slipstream of other riders to conserve energy. In addition to the final sprint to the line there are several intermediate sprint points along the route that give sprinters a chance to gain more points in the sprinter’s category.

As I’ve said, your career tour is not a sprint…until it is. There are times where you’ll be coasting along and then suddenly something will cause you to need to suddenly shift gears and just go for it!

Domestique - Stemming from the French word for “servant”, a domestique’s role is to support the team and more importantly the team leader. They provide support by blocking opponent moves on the road or helping their team conserve energy by riding ahead of them. This causes a slipstream effect which can conserve up to 30% of a rider’s energy (it’s kind of like disk partition alignment bonus!). They may also do other tasks like shuttle food and water back and forth between teammates or help teammates if they suffer a bike failure (e.g. flat tire, broken spoke).

As you can see domestiques seem to be the grunts of the team and bear a lot of hard work but not necessarily bask in the glory that their team leader might. In the end, however, it is the hard work put in by good domestiques that allow a team leader to advance in the overall standings as well as the team as a whole. Often in our careers we take a narrow view point and don’t look at the bigger picture. Sometimes it’s hard to see why we work so hard and yet sometimes see little glory or gratitude in return. In cases like this you have to step back and realize that your valiant efforts could mean the difference between your team leading the pack or falling by the roadside.

Lieutenant (aka Super-Domestiques) – If a domestique is a Jr DBA then these guys are your Mid-level/Senior DBA’s. Lieutenants are basically domestiques that are a bit more accomplished and are called upon in more critical situations. Throughout the season there are many races (or Tours) and sometimes your regular team leader may not be racing so a Lieutenant then steps up and becomes team leader for that race.

In your shop when the primary Sr. DBA/Developer goes on vacation or out of the office, there’s always a need for someone to step up and fill his/her shoes when they’re gone. When that moment comes you should be prepared to step up and take the lead. As a lieutenant your skills will continue to sharpen until you’re ready to make the leap to…

Captain (aka Team Leader) – This is the guy everyone’s trying to put on to the podium in Paris. Your team is built with the goal to make your leader win. Now don’t think this guy just coasts to victory without doing his share of the work! To be an effective captain you need to be versed in all aspects: climbing, sprinting, and when needed function as a domestique as well. In addition the captain gives guidance and mentorship to other riders on the team as they are typically the more experienced riders as well.

In order to be the head of the pack  you’ll need a wide variety of skills and traits. So be it a flat stage in life where you’ll just be cruising along or a rocky terrain that’s going to be extra effort, you need to be ready to face it all. Getting to this point takes time but always remember you have team mates and other support staff who are willing to help you out to get where you want/need to go!

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Tour de Career

It’s July and for some that means baseball and bar-b-ques. For me it means my birthday and Tour de France time. For those living in a cave, the Tour de France is the most prestigious professional bike race in the world lasting three weeks. Riders race all around France with the conclusion of the race occurring in the heart of Paris on the Champs-Élysées. Inspired by one of my mentors, Andy Leonard (Blog | Twitter); who wrote a fantastic series of articles about the software business, I have decided to write my own professional development series on career development. In this series of articles I’ll be discussing various parts of career and professional development and how it mirrors the journey of the Tour de France. So strap on your helmet, jump on your career bikes and let’s start pedaling!

Prologue

Since this race spans a three week period, the race itself is broken up into  stages which last one day. Each day the stage is made up of a different route which can vary in distance, difficulty and terrain (e.g. flat areas, mountain, rolling hills). The very first stage of a Tour is referred to as the prologue. This is a short trial which determines who will be the designated leader for the race and wear the coveted yellow jersey.

At the beginning of our professional journey we all sit there at the start line looking at the long road ahead with anxiety, excitement and maybe even some nervousness. That’s okay! The important thing to remember is that this journey is a long tour and there will be many peaks and valleys before you reach that podium in Paris. This first stage is not so much where you set your pace for the race (as you’ll have plenty of chances along the way to change your tempo) but rather where you want to position yourself for the coming stages.

Some of us start our journey slower than others and start off towards the back of the pack while others come bursting out of the gates looking to wear that yellow jersey first. The thing to remember during this time is that this is only the start and you have a lot of road ahead to make up any lost time. Again, it’s important to emphasize that this journey is not a sprint so don’t lose heart if you feel “you’re behind everyone else”. In fact, as we’ll cover later, that position can actually be beneficial!

In the coming weeks we’ll be talking about all sorts of things you’ll face on the your career Tour. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the coming stages:

• Team Tactics – Cycling has many tactics and every member of a team has his role to play. Are you playing yours?
• Cancer Stinks But Your Attitude is what Matters – Adversity comes along what do you? Take a page from Lance Armstrong’s playbook and kick it in the teeth. You can give up or forge ahead and win big, you decide.
• The End of a Stage Isn’t the End of the Race – You can be proud of your accomplishments today but don’t forget that you have more riding to do tomorrow.
• Crashes, Walls and Bad Days – Every day isn’t full of sunshine and smooth roads. Sometimes you’ll crash, sometimes the cobblestones make it a rough ride. It’s how you deal with these obstacles that matters most.

To keep up to date with our team’s progress for the race, subscribe to my blog’s team radio channel (aka RSS feed). Hope you enjoy the ride!

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Here we go again with another round of T-SQL Tuesday fun this time brought to you by recent SQL Certified Master (MCM), SQL University professor, and my brother from another mother Robert Davis (Blog | Twitter).

This month’s topic is actually a series of really good questions:

We return to our days of youth to take a fresh look at learning. How do you learn? How do you teach? What are you learning or teaching? Or the coup de grace post would be learning something new and telling us about it.

So given that I established and run SQL University this topic is right up my proverbial alley!

How do you Learn?

I love the old adage “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”. My best learning tool is by doing, which I’m sure many of you can relate to. There’s only so much academic knowledge you can soak up before it starts spilling out. Honestly, if something isn’t relevent to me in terms of real-world application I have a much harder time grasping the concept. For instance a year or two ago when I first heard of PowerShell I looked at it and went “oh that looks cool…I guess, not sure what I’d do with it.” Fast-foward to a month ago and I finally get a chance to re-learn the basics and actually apply it before that lightbulb went off in my head that said “oh WOW, I GET it! I heart PowerShell!”. Without that opportunity to really apply the academic knowledge, the education itself goes to waste.

Thing is not every job you’re in will call for use of PowerShell, replication, mirroring, etc. so the next best step…do it yourself! The wonderful world of technology now allows us to build virtual machines on our laptops with relative ease. So if your shop doesn’t give you a proper sandbox to play around with advanced features then I highly recommend you install Virtual PC, VMware Workstation, VirtualBox, VMLite or whatever your preferred flavor of virtual platform and get to practicing! If installing and configuring virtual machine’s isn’t your cup of tea (but I highly recommend as you learn lots of lessons by installing/configuring machines from scratch) there’s a free sandbox environment you can experiment with a fully configured SQL Server 2008 virtual machine at http://sqlserverbeta.com . This is a free, no-strings-attached virtual machine complete with AdventureWorks databases installed ready for you to tinker with brought to you courtesy of PASS, Dell and MaximumASP.

How Do You Teach?

Ah the Golden Rule: we learn it young and it applies forever. When I learn I like to be entertained a bit as well as soak up good knowledge. I also like to interact as much as possible. This being the case when I do a presentation I try to keep it lively as sometimes straight technical content is…well…boring. I’m sure that sounds blasphemous to some of my fellow geeks out there but you know its true. You’ll be sitting in a session with content that can’t really be demoed (i.e. internals talk). The secret to teaching is making a topic engaging enough that you don’t lose your audience.

 Although there’s a fine line between entertainment and being annoying. I’ve been guilty of this myself wherein in your attempt to keep it light you come off looking like a clown. Make sure you remember your root cause for being there and that’s to teach. Clowning has its place so remember to toe that line carefully…unless you’re Buck Woody then all bets are off!

What Am I Learning?

Anything and everything! I’m like a shark and learning is my water. If I’m not learning, I’m dying. SQL Server is a HUGE product and currently I’m starting to lean towards learning the BI stack. Another key thing that I keep learning and playing with is PowerShell. In all seriousness there’s ALWAYS something to learn and it doesn’t always have to be something as huge as learning an entire product line or feature. Start with baby steps. One cool thing I’ve seen recently is a series of blog posts called “One Cmdlet At a Time” in which Jonathan Medd (Blog | Twitter) learns PowerShell one cmdlet at a time. This is a great example of how you can tackle learning something one little bit at a time. In his case not only is he learning by doing so hands on but he’s teaching as well via his blog. It’s a win for everyone!

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