Notes From The January 2012 OPASS Meeting

OPASS meetings are held at Logans Roadhouse in Sanford now, I think the fourth location over the past couple years, but maybe the best so far. Easy access, plenty of parking, the only downside for me is that it’s all the way across Orlando from where I work. Took an hour to make the drive […]

Trying the Nest Thermostat

I’ve had the Nest Thermostat on my wish list for a while. It has looked like an interesting bit of technology, just hard to justify the $249 price. This past week the little plastic nub that changes from AC to heat broke on my not-exactly-high-tech thermostat, so I decided to splurge and try the Nest. […]

Give the Gift of Feedback

I bet if you think about it there are lots of times when people ask what you think about a problem. We in IT are geared for that, we love to solve problems, and getting a new problem sparks the same kind of salivation that your dog does when he sees a new bone land […]

Wrapping Up 2012

Looking back at 2012 I feel like I’ve written less than I planned to, and in some ways done less than I had planned, yet it was a year of tremendous growth for me and not a lost year by any measure. Less travel has been good, if hard to pass up so many great […]

Phones, Tablets, and Even Windows 8

Last year I purchased two Kindle Fires for the family to use. The UI could be just a little bit/slow twitchy at times, but never so much to make you put the device down. Looking at the usage over a year it was mostly games mostly played by kids followed by movies from Amazon Prime. […]

How About a PASS Holiday Ornament?

One of the simpler pleasures in life is having an idea and putting it up for discussion. Not all ideas are good, but good ones are made better by discussion. Will this one be good? We shall see! This post was inspired by two separate events. The first was a friend in my SQLFamily sent […]

What Is Your Mindset?

Steve Jones sent me a link to this post about Intelligence vs Effort months ago, since then I’ve looked at it a few times. I think it does a really good job of getting you to think about how you see the world. Go read it – it’s a quick read. The funny thing is […]

Tracking End of Support/Life Software

I wanted to save this link to the Microsoft Support Lifecycle page and thought I’d share as well. It’s a listing of all Microsoft products and service packs along with the end dates for mainstream and extended support. Most of think about moving to the latest and greatest version because it has new features we […]

Ybor City Farmers Market, Dogs, Kids, and Observations

Last weekend I was in Tampa for SQLSaturday #168 and made sure to make some time for family. The most interesting thing we did this time was to go to the Ybor City Saturday Market. Ybor City is on the north side of Tampa, and the market is maybe a mile from the event venue. […]

Notes from SQLSaturday #168 in Tampa

I made a quick trip to Tampa for #168 this past weekend. It was a “BI Edition” and it felt less intense but still a great value, four tracks of content and about 150 attendees. I arrived in time to sit through most of a presentation by Mike Antonovich, and then gave my own presentation […]