If you've been redirected here because you posted on a forum, or asked a question in an e-mail, the person wanted you to know how to get help quickly from a group of folks who are willing to do so - but whose time is valuable. You need to put a little effort into the question first to get others to assist. This is how to do that. It will only take ...

There are several forms of corporate communication. From immediate, rich communications like phones and IM messaging to historical transactions like e-mail, there are a lot of ways to get information to one or more people. From time to time, it's even useful to have a meeting. (This is where a witty picture of a guy sleeping in a meeting goes. I ...

Over the past few months in several semi-formal occasions, I ran into folks from your well-known vendors (minus Microsoft). Some of the folks were from the vendors’ performance labs and were involved in conducting benchmark tests and publishing benchmark results. So naturally they were very happy and eager to talk about performance, I mean any ...

While at PASS Summit 2011 in Seattle, I had a conversation with an attendee from one of the largest US companies. As expected and like any of the largest US companies, this company has multiple DBMS platforms. The conversation then turned to how SQL Server was being used, and the attendee told me that they target SQL Server primarily for their ...

I do a lot of public speaking. I write, teach, present and communicate at many levels. I love to do those things. And I love to get better at them. And one of the ways you get better at something is to get feedback on how you did. That being said, I have to confess that I really despise the “evaluations” I get at most venues. From ...

I read a lot. I mean a LOT. It seems that computer professionals have much in common with medical professionals – we have to read in order to stay on top of our game. For me, this used to mean web sites, magazines, and other print medium, and of course lots of books. I’ve even written several computer books myself and had them published. ...

This is an odd post – I’ll say that from the outset. It really combines two topics, and both have to do with the cloud, at least a little.   Some time ago I posted that I bought an iPad to demonstrate a cloud application. True, anything that runs a web browser is “cloud-ready” – Azure is a platform, and any web ...

Recently I've been working with a lot of code, TSQL, .NET, report design, etc. that has just made me scratch my head and say to myself ''what were you thinking''. Well, after reviewing my own work in the last five years, I feel like a schmuck. The farther back I go through the thing I've done, the more I think ''who wrote this mess'' - with at ...

I’ve been a little “preachy” lately, telling you that you should let people finish their sentences, and always check a problem out before you tell a user that their issue is “impossible”. Well, I’ll round that out with one more tip today. Keep in mind that all of these things are actions I’ve been guilty of, hopefully in the past. I’m kind of a ...

I have no idea why the Marketing group at Microsoft made me into a Bobblehead. Other than this is awesome! I think I’ll call him “Lil Buck”.