 Wednesday, May 25, 2005
GrokTalk is Coming
At TechED 2005 US in Orlando, you will not want to miss the GrokTalks. Trust me. They break the mold and do not follow the MS party line. Stay tuned...
Monday, May 16, 2005
Free the Grapes!
24 states have laws barring interstate shipments of wine. This is done to protect state industry. It is foolish. This means if I travel to Napa and visit a vinyard that is small they can't ship me wine unless they are “doing business in New York State”. Might as well move back to the Soviet Union.
Anyway, today the Supreme Court agreed with me and overturned a NY and Michigan law.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Congratulations Ed!
Today at 2 p.m. Nepal time, Ed Viesturs, reached the summit of Annapurna. He has failed in the past, but by getting here he has become the first American to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks (and all without oxygen, having been there I know how hard that is!). In a call from the summit, Ed said that it's "one of the happiest days of my life, one of the hardest days of my life."
Congratulations Ed!
Friday, April 29, 2005
Come see me at TechEd USA!
DBA304 Advanced Querying Techniques, Tips & Tricks Using Transact-SQL
Speaker(s): Richard Campbell, Stephen Forte
Session Type(s): Breakout
Track(s): Database Administration
Day/Time: Monday, June 6 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM Room: S 310 A
Take your querying to the next level! This session gets away from the fundamentals of SQL queries and into the hard stuff. See two experts in SQL Server compare and contrast querying techniques between SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. This session has a series of real world examples to show how creative SQL queries can generate solutions in record time. Some techniques you'll learn include how to do crosstab queries that take seconds to execute instead of hours, exploiting sub-queries and taking advantage of self-joining. Along the way, get some insight into how SQL servers work, as well as how SQL Server 2005 is going to make advanced querying even easier.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Another One Bites the Dust
We are losing another great RD to the mother ship. The great and wonderful Malek (This doesn’t suck) Kemmou will be starting a new job in less than two weeks: he will be the Technology Architect – Application Platform for Microsoft Middle East and Africa based in Istanbul, Turkey. The Middle East and North Africa region is gaining a very talented architect with a background not only in MS but competitive technologies, so he will be able to provide the best solutions in an area desperate for some technological horsepower. Malek brings his tremendous experience to the role and will help revitalize a region of the world where technology is just starting to make an impact.
On Sunday afternoon, Goksin, Malek and I are going have an orange badge to blue ceremony and throw our orange badges into the Bosphorus as a sign of unity with our buddy. (I am not sure how we are going to explain how we need replacement badges to our local office, but that is a problem for Monday.)
Good luck my friend!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Another Successful NDC!
The 2005 North Africa Developers Conference in Algiers, Algeria is over. Boy was it a smashing success. Over 2,200 developers attended and more had to be turned away due to space restrictions. I pushed hard for Microsoft to go into Algiers to make a statement, so I am glad it worked.
I had standing room only in all of my 4 sessions. I met several students, professionals and even lots of open source folks who wanted to see what Microsoft was all about.
While my French has improved since the first NDC, my sessions were still interpreted and all went well. I was the ONLY speaker from the United States, I hope I made a good impression (early feedback says so and I did have standing room only in my talks!)
After the conference we went to the roof of the convention center overlooking Algiers and the beautiful Mediterranean for a reception with government officials and the attendees. I used my limited French to talk with the mayor of Algiers about the tall building in New York and my running and biking in Central Park.
There were several RD there including the very reclusive Frecnh RDs, but some tequila got Pierre (aka ALL CAPS) Couzy to open up some more. We had a blast. All the RDs there were:
Me :)
Clemens
Malek
Goksin
Sylvain Duford
Pierre Couzy (ALL CAPS)
Yann Faure
Eric Groise
Off to Istanbul next.
Friday, April 15, 2005
Back from India, Off to Africa...
Back from India, boy was it hot. Sanjay (RD Bombay) and I had a blast. Off to speak at the North Africa Developers Conference in Algeria this weekend. Seven RDs (including the ones who speak French ) will be there in full force. I plan on making Clemens see the light while I am there. I am doing these 4 sessions:
Writing Secure Code for ASP .NET
Data Controls and Advanced Cache Techniques with ASP .NET
Ranking and Windowing Functions in SQL Server 2005
Using XQuery to Query and Manipulate Data in SQL Server 2005
And: The New York Mets and the New York Yankees have the exact same record. I am enjoying it while it lasts. It seems that the Mets are 1-5 when I am in the country and 3-0 when I am not.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Mumbai Bound
100 degrees and 100% humidity. Can't wait. Going to visit my contractors in Pune, India. .NET is everywhere.
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