Rob Farley : community

Useful SQL Question and Answer sites

Rob Farley — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:14:00 GMT

There are so many places to ask a question these days. I get plenty of questions via MSN Msgr and email, and do my best to answer those of course. But there are many others too. I figured I’d list some of the ones that I frequent, and challenge some of the readers here to check some of them out.

The MSDN Forums are terrific. Lots of really good people hang out there, including many Microsoft staff. They’re effectively the new version of the public newsgroups. It’s definitely worth asking (and answering) questions here, and I should probably choose this option more for answering questions myself.

Experts-Exchange is a much-maligned site, largely because to ask questions you need to have points. You can get points through a paid subscription, but you can also get points by answering questions. If you answer just a few questions each month, you can become a recognised Expert on the site, which lets you ask as many questions as you like, and also gives you the option of a “ad-free” environment. Many people still joke about the way that the site reads if you ignore the hyphen, but if you are an expert, this site is definitely worth hanging out on. You can register for free (getting you no points to ask questions until you’ve started answering them) at http://www.experts-exchange.com/registerFree2.jsp, so why not go there and register, so that you can start answering questions. They have a facility so that Designated Experts can get emails for neglected questions, giving you a much better chance of an answer than many other sites around. (Note – if you are a SQL MVP, or a MS employee, and you want to be fast-tracked into receiving the Neglected Questions notices, drop me a line and I’ll see what I can do for you)

Stack Overflow is a current favourite amongst many, because of the number of people that seem to frequent the site. It’s clean (very few adverts hanging around), and people seem to rush to answer questions as soon as possible. From a purely SQL perspective, I find that there is too much weighting on the iterative languages there, so many of the SQL responses seem to be provided by people who aren’t really SQL specialists. But it doesn’t mean that you won’t pick up some good tips there. I got started there by answering a question that has even ended up in the source for the site – which I’m still hoping will reach the magical “100 up-votes”, and I’ve continued to keep my eye out for questions there that need answering.

Server Fault is the system administrator cousin to Stack Overflow. If you have DBA-style questions rather than developer-style, then this site is very useful.

Using the same interface as Stack Overflow and Server Fault, but purely focussed on SQL Server is Ask SCC, run by the guys from sqlservercentral.com. It’s a new players on the scene, but I think will turn into a very useful site. The Stack Overflow engine isn’t bad at all, and the quality of answer at Ask SCC is excellent. I would love to see more people hang out there, as it serves a useful market for SQL specialists. At the moment it doesn’t do much traffic, but many of the people there are good SQL experts, and I’m convinced that you’ll get an excellent answer if you ask a question there. At the moment it doesn’t seem to be collecting poor answers as much as many of the other sites, so the ratio of good answers to poor ones puts you in a good position as an asker. I’ve posted my Ask SCC and Stack Overflow ‘flairs’ here, so that you can compare the two. If the numbers on the Ask SCC one have reached as high as the Stack Overflow one, then you’ll have a good indication that the traffic on Ask SCC has increased nicely.

In many ways, I tend to find that my efforts are focussed more on the questions that aren’t getting answered, rather than trying to catch the newest questions. On many of these sites, I’d rather find the one that the asker has had trouble with, hoping to provide the elusive answer rather than the obvious one. That question that got me started on Stack Overflow was an exception because I didn’t feel like any of the previous answers had really solved the question properly, but on the whole, my approach to Stack Overflow doesn’t really fit with most of the answerers on the site. I like EE because there really seems to be a focus on getting those elusive answers for people, and I know that Microsoft really focuses on getting answered questions sorted on their forums.

My challenge to you is to give back to the community this Christmas. Make it a resolution for 2010 if you will. Why not try to answer a question every week? And better still, make it one that everyone else has had trouble answering. Go to the lists of unanswered questions, and help someone out. Next time it might be you asking, and you’ll hope that someone takes the time to find your elusive question.

Plus, you might learn something!

StreamInsight talk coming up at SQLBits

Rob Farley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:47:24 GMT

My talk on StreamInsight is up next. I’ll try to blog more about that later. For now, I want to mention more about SQLBits itself. This is by far the largest SQL-only conference I’ve attended (I haven’t been to SQL-PASS yet), and it’s great to be involved.

Yesterday I had an all-day seminar about the new items for Developers in SQL 2008. It was a good time – the delegates responded very positively, and many of them have caught up with me since.

But for me, the conference is being a great way of catching up with (and meeting for the first time) a bunch of SQL people that I rarely see. I’ve met people that lived only a few miles from where I grew up, and people that read my blog (Hi!), discovered people who have connections to Adelaide, and even found that my Adelaide friend Martin Cairney (who is also here) has a strange connection to Donald Farmer (of Microsoft), that their parents shared a back fence or something… Now Trevor Dwyer tells me a colleague of his knows me from somewhere… the world is very small here.

My StreamInsight talk will be interesting I hope. I have some stuff to show off, and I plan to involve the audience a little as well. If you’re at SQLBits and feel like being involved in an interactive session, then definitely come along. I want to hear from people in the audience who have dabbled with StreamInsight and also other vendors’ Complex Event Processing offerings. This is a brand new technology from Microsoft, and there will be a large range of adoption levels in the room.

SQLBits V, in Old South Wales

Rob Farley — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:23:24 GMT

I recently gave a talk in New South Wales, so now I’m going to give one in Old South Wales. In Newport, to be precise.

As I’ve written before, I’ve been a big fan of the SQLBits conferences that is run by many UK-based friends of mine. Unfortunately for them, they had a presenter pull out recently, and unfortunately for them, I’m going to fill in.

Weather-wise, it’ll be a nice change from the scorching weather we’ve had in Adelaide recently. We’re setting new records for days over 30C here, the streak which will be broken on Monday if the temperature drops to 28C, before climbing again after that. I’ll be going to temperatures which are more like 40F than 40C. I think I’ll be the one wearing two jumpers and a coat.

I’ll be involved in all three days of the conference, doing a full day of SQL 2008 for Developers on the Thursday, and hour-long sessions on the next two, on the topics of StreamInsight and Query Simplification respectively.

It’s a great opportunity to be involved, and I’m sure it’ll be a good time. There are several tracks, and the quality is bound to be high. I’m planning to attend sessions by friends, lots of people I’ve never heard present before.

If you’re going to be in the UK on Nov 19-21, make sure you get along, and say hi! I’ll also be receiving delivery of my (signed) copies of the SQL Server MVP Deep Dives book, which is going to be good too.

A Tripp to Melbourne?

Rob Farley — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:53:07 GMT

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve been to Melbourne (although I did pass through the airport there on my way back from Wagga). I don’t know when I’ll be there next, but I have felt tempted to try to get there this week.

Partly it’s because my mum is about to turn sixty, but also because my friends Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal are in Australia this week, and speaking at the Melbourne SQL Server User Group tomorrow night.

I won’t be there, but if you’re going to be in Melbourne, then make sure you register and get yourself there. It’s bound to be quite packed, as these guys are the world experts in their areas – so be early and tell them hi from me!

A busy month – a new book, a new car, a new phone

Rob Farley — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:50:00 GMT

I don’t know why Septembers are always busy. This one feels like it’s been interesting, and I’m not sure life will be the same again.

But first, some of the biggest news – the book that I wrote a couple of chapters for is now available for purchase!

A challenge was put out a while back for SQL MVPs to write a book for charity. Paul Nielsen spearheaded it, and I’m pleased to say that there was a massive response. I wrote two chapters, and this week we have had the notice that the book can now be purchased from Manning Press. If you go to http://www.SQLServerMVPDeepDives.com you will be able to buy the Early Access Edition, which will get you updated electronic copies as the chapters become available (final layouts, images, etc still appearing). All the royalties for this book go to charity rather than the authors, so buy up! I promise to sign any copy put in front of me, but if you go to the PASS conference in November, you can probably get at least 40 or so of the other authors to sign it instead.

I’m planning to get a signed copy brought back from the US, and will auction it off to members of the Adelaide SQL Server User Group, giving the money to charity too.

It feels good to have the book finished!

September has also busy for a number of reasons. The company is growing nicely, celebrating a year this week, and keeping my time somewhat occupied. We achieved Gold Partner status with Microsoft at the end of August, and are ticking along well. On a more negative note, the winter has taken its toll with flu in the family, which is lousy – but we also bought a new car (finally got the people mover we’ve been promising ourselves). I replaced my old phone with an iPhone (part of me thinks that I’ll go back to Windows Mobile next time), and bought my wife one too (plus a DS for her birthday). I feel like we’re more gadgety than ever!

Not to mention TechEd Australia, which was a fun time. Grant Paisley surfing at Dreamworld was a sight to behold, and I hope there are photos somewhere! I gave a talk on SQL Azure, which gave me a number of headaches leading up to the conference, finding new things I wanted to mention on a daily basis! I also gave a talk on the danger of scalar functions in SQL Server, which I will be repeating in just over a week at Wagga, a couple of days after presenting at the Albury/Wodonga .Net User Group. An email arrived about half an hour after my scalar functions talk, saying that someone in the audience had just applied the principles I showed and made some vital queries run thirty times faster! Terrific news I think.

Bringing another laptop (an HP Mini) home from TechEd has also added to the number of gadgets in the house…

Tomorrow I hope to be able to write that I have been awarded MVP status for another year, which will be a tremendous honour. I keep wondering how much longer I’ll be able to remain in the company of such a fantastically skilled and helpful crowd. Every time I receive the award I’m both humbled and proud, and feel amazingly blessed.

More SQL Conferences coming up, including SQL Bits and SQL Down Under

Rob Farley — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:06:33 GMT

I know I won’t be there, as I’m a million miles away in Australia, but being from the UK myself, I always have an interest in the UK SQL community and in particular, events like SQL Bits.

This is the fifth SQL Bits conference, and they keep getting larger and larger. I’ve heard it’s now the largest SQL-focussed event in Europe. It’s going to be in South Wales (that’s OLD South Wales, not New South Wales), in November. I’m sure the area is lovely, good beaches ‘n all that… but considering it’s late November in Wales, I think you’ll be going for the SQL content, not the scenery.

Of course, if you are in New South Wales, then you ought to be thinking slightly earlier, in particular, the second weekend in October. The third SQL Code Camp is being held in Wagga, with many regular speakers (like myself) and quite a few new ones too.

These two events are clearly the significant SQL events in the last quarter of the year. I’m sure no-one cares about SQL PASS, after all. (I do wish I was going to this one, but I won’t be. I plan to go one year, but I was in the US that week last year, and I don’t plan to be away from home for two birthdays in a row. Maybe next year. It is the biggest SQL event in the world, with great speakers from everywhere, including many good friends of mine.)

No matter where you are in the world, there are SQL events that you should be going to. Professional development is really important for your career, and you shouldn’t neglect it. That being said, make sure you find me at TechEd Australia.

Four speaking engagements coming up

Rob Farley — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:55:20 GMT

I’m just going to list them…

This Saturday (July 18th), at Code Camp SA. I’m going to be talking about functions in SQL, particularly those that involve BEGIN and END.

At the end of the month, at the ACS Branch Conference. I’m going to be part of a panel discussing Open Source v Closed Source.

In August, I’m going to be speaking at SharePoint Saturday (Adelaide), about the integration of Reporting Services and SharePoint.

In September, I’m going to be a presenting at TechEd Australia, about SQL Azure.

Be nice if there was more of an overlap in topics…

Big events every month this quarter

Rob Farley — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:23:47 GMT

A new Financial Year in Australia, and a bunch of technical events coming up.

Of course there’s the usual monthly user groups, but there’s more – particularly if you’re in Adelaide.

July sees CodeCampSA in Adelaide on the weekend of July 18/19. I’ve put my name into the hat for speakers, and will try to be there for a chunk of Saturday (Sundays are too busy for me). I’m sure at least one of my sons will want to come along as well, which will be fun. Big thanks to David Gardiner for putting the website together.

August sees SharePoint Saturday come to Sydney (8th) and Adelaide (15th). You may not agree with Aaron about what SharePoint is, but if you’re into SharePoint, I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of these events.

September brings Australian geeks to the Gold Coast again for the Microsoft’s annual TechEd Australia, this year with the added incentive of an HP Mini for attendees (conditions apply of course). It’s the 2140, which is a discontinued line, but that doesn’t make it any less attractive a machine. I’m sure this will help persuade people to get themselves over to Queensland.

And in case you hadn’t realised, I’ve recently discovered how easy it is to put maps into blogs using Windows Live Writer… just so that you can all see the beach, and understand how poorly attended the sessions would be if they ran TechEd Australia in the summer.

Things You Know Now

Rob Farley — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:44:00 GMT

This blog meme is doing the rounds… I’ve been tagged at least twice now (Jason Strate and Greg Linwood), so I suppose subconsciously I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a few weeks already.

Since I do a lot of training, I tend to explain these things to my students anyway. I have a lot of opportunity to stand up in front of people and tell them important stuff – so this kind of thing definitely comes up now and then.

Things I wish I had known years ago (career-wise that I would teach new people in the SQL field)

The Importance of technical communities

I remember when Craig Bailey wrote about his ideal role. It wasn’t new stuff – I had heard it all before, but it certainly got me thinking about how people can influence where they are in that Venn diagram. For Craig, he wanted his ideal role to be a job that he was good at and that he enjoyed. Obviously to be a job, someone has to be prepared to pay him sufficiently too.

Being good at something you enjoy isn’t hard, and you can invest your own time (outside of the job that you don’t enjoy) developing your skills. For people in IT, I suggest they pick a particular area they find interesting, and start getting their skills up. If they can become expert-level in that area, then great.

The next problem though, is moving that skill into something that lets you can earn money. Community can help that. Community can help you develop your skills, because you’re spending time with other people in your field. But as you become an expert, presenting at community events, developing a profile, you find yourself being differentiated from the rest. If nothing else, people know you have presentation skills. Every presentation can become like a job interview – showing your skills and ability to communicate information to clients, colleagues, whoever.

Presenting isn’t easy, but there are plenty of other communities that can help develop those skills. You can get along to a ToastMasters group, or offer to do presentations in a group to which you already belong.

You might be the best in the world at what you do – but you need to get out there. I enjoy the technical communities, and run the Adelaide SQL Server User Group because I enjoy it. But I can’t deny that it’s been useful for my career. Now, I’m wishing that I had got involved many years ago.

Enjoy public speaking

According to the old saying, more people are afraid of public speaking than death (so at a funeral, they’d rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy). But it’s a useful skill to have, so learn to enjoy it.

Keep in touch with old friends

This isn’t quite so career-related, but is actually very important for your career nonetheless.

There are people that I haven’t seen in years, who I have no idea how to contact. Facebook (and the internet in general) has proved very useful for that, but still there are many people that I wish I could find. Most of them are just people I would like to spend time with now and then, but some are people that I’d happily offer to do some work for. And perhaps some of them would contact me to do some consulting if they knew how to reach me (clue, there’s contact information to the side of my blog site!).

Far too many people fall out our lives, and it’s sad. I’m still not great at it, but I do think I should take the time to write people letters now and then (emails, Facebook comments, Instant Messages are all fine too – I’m just talking about touching base to keep the contact there).

Certifications aren’t worth studying for (but they are worth taking)

I used to study for exams. I first became a Microsoft Certified Professional back in 1998, passing an exam called “Architecture I”. Since then I’ve passed over 30 exams, and earned plenty of certifications. But a few years ago I worked out at that it’s just not worth studying for these things.

A MCP exam is not like high school or university. If you fail, you can just try again. Fails don’t appear on your transcript, only the passes do. It’s like your driving test – if you fail, you just try again. Once you pass, you get access to the roads like everyone else.

If you spend weeks studying for a MCP exam, you probably won’t even improve your chances of passing – you’ll just be spending precious family time trying to learn those things to get you past the line. You might even start losing sleep over it.

Nowadays, I tell my students (and myself) to care less. Plenty of people say “No, you don’t understand – I can’t fail at anything.”, and I understand that. I’m not particularly good with failure either. But I’ve learned to not care so much. I don’t want to waste time sitting an exam only find that I fail (or spend $180 on the privilege), but I also don’t want to waste time studying for an exam that I could probably pass anyway. With the Second Shot offer that is often around you’ve paid for two attempts, so go into the first one blind.

The amount of time you invest in getting a certification is largely the study time. So if you can reduce that, the certification becomes a lot cheaper – in which case, it’s probably worth taking the few hours to give it a try. If you do fail, you know you have a weak area, so you can improve that with study – just don’t bother studying before the first try.

[Edited: I should make it very clear that I definitely approve of learning new skills, and preparation for an exam is a great prompt for this learning. Better still is learning for the sake of getting those new skills, with the focus being an upcoming project or new role. My advice above is focussed on people who have the skills necessary to pass an exam.]

Reading execution plans, and understanding indexes

I’ve always been good at solving problems with T-SQL (or PL/SQL for that matter) – I just took to it naturally when I got into databases. But it took me several years to actual venture into understanding what the query is actually doing when it runs. Now, I look at the execution plan for every query I write, as default behaviour, and I consider the indexes that I want up front.

Perhaps it’s because I was a programmer first, but I had always trusted the compiler to do things the right way. I had looked a bit past my code when studying Prolog at university, but it took me a long time to make that my default behaviour.

So when I find people who are just getting into T-SQL, I encourage them to look at the execution plans, and start getting a feel for what’s going on behind the scenes. You can often improve a query without looking at the execution plan, but if you want to write really good T-SQL and have well-performing queries, you need to make the execution plan part of the process.

The significance of BI to businesses

I was involved in data warehouses in some of my first projects when I left university, I just didn’t realise at the time. I first got involved in SQL Server in version 6.0, and quite early on I migrated a system to 6.5, and created a data warehouse to allow for various reports. In hindsight, I was making a data warehouse. I had an ETL process, calculated aggregates, considered the dimensions and granularity, all that. But it wasn’t called a data warehouse, and I only realised a few years later that it really was one.

If I had’ve realised, then I’m sure I would’ve jumped into the BI space much earlier. Companies love BI – it’s one of the most empowering areas of database technology for any business.

I’ve picked a few things here – and I hope people somehow get some benefit from reading it. I have put it in my ‘must read’ list to find other people’s responses, because I’m sure there are things that I’m still to learn.

Tagging some other people: Simon Sabin, Jamie Thomson, Deepak Kapoor, Grant Paisley

A reason to visit Manchester

Rob Farley — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:27:58 GMT

I shouldn’t knock Manchester – I’m sure it’s a great place. Being from the London area though, I’ve always had to find reasons to consider visiting Manchester. Now that I’m living in Australia, finding reasons to go is even harder.

Manchester’s stock has risen recently, joining the ranks of Reading, Birmingham and Hatfield to host a SQLBits conference. Definitely a trip worth making if you’re in the UK. It’s on the last Saturday of March.

Registrations are now open, so get along to the site and plan to be at this event. One day I’ll end up being in the country on the right day and make it to one of these events.

The guys behind this event are all good guys, and the content will be very high quality again (and even more sessions - the number of sessions has increased by about 50%). The last event had nearly three hundred people attend, and this one event has over three hundred registered so far.

Lots more information (including registration) at: http://sqlbits.com – or on Simon Sabin’s blog.

Jamie’s SQLMesh

Rob Farley — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:27:16 GMT

Jamie Thomson is a useful guy. He’s a SQL MVP, generally considered one of the world’s authorities in Integration Services (SSIS), but also very keen on the Live space.

So it makes sense that he’s now combining the two – he’s gone and created a Code Repository on Live Mesh. Seems very useful, and I’m feeling like I need to keep my eyes open for things that I think are worthy of upload. Why not do the same? The more people involved (currently it’s about 40), the stronger the repository will be!

Check out Jamie’s post to learn more, and drop him a line to get an invite.

Running a user-group meeting on a hot day

Rob Farley — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:37:06 GMT

It's 44C here today in Adelaide. Yesterday made it to 43.2C, and my lunchtime session of the Adelaide SQL Server User Group had its lowest attendance for a long time. There were a few influencing factors which I will need to learn from:

1. The heat. When the forecast says 41C and you're hoping that people will leave their air-conditioned offices to come to a meeting (albeit in another air-conditioned office), you're probably hoping for a miracle. Mind you - I'd happily be there today. I'm waiting for a plumber before I can turn my the water back on after a shower tap died last night. Once the water's back on, the aircon can come back on. Next time, I'll have to buy ice-cream for everyone.

2. The day of the week. We have recently moved our meetings from the second Thursday to the fourth Tuesday, for reasons beyond our control (venue hassles which are now sorted). So people will still be adjusting to that. Some people may have found that Tuesdays just don't work for them, other people will have dismissed the group a few years ago if Thursdays didn't work for them. Changing the days just doesn't work, and the sooner people get used to the new day, the better.

3. The public holiday. No, I didn't run the group on a public holiday - that would be crazy. But Australia Day was on the day before, which effectively made the user-group run on the acting-Monday. Lots of people will have been playing catch-up from the weekend.

4. First day of the school term. Most schools in South Australia started the new year yesterday. My boys didn't - they started today. In fact, Samuel came along to the UG (again - he's been to three or four meetings now), and even helped in a quick demonstration of Windows 7.

5. The presenter. I presented. I talked about PowerShell and SQLPS - showing the types of things that seem appropriate uses, and the types of things that don't really. I doubt that my presenting would've worked against the attendance much, but there is a degree to which people hear me speak and give the odd tip or two every month, and so wouldn't've been quite as keen as if someone were coming from interstate.

6. The short notice. I didn't end up advertising this meeting until very late in the piece. January wasn't that good a month for me - my back had been playing up (even spending half a night in Sydney Hospital when I was there), and I'd even spent a bit of time on Valium (which helps my back, but makes me fall asleep like an old person). I guess I'd been a bit distracted, but that's no excuse for not getting things done.

I'm sure that there were things I could've done to help my January meeting. Without shifting the day to something irregular, there was nothing I could do about the public holiday or school going back. I also think having me present was probably the right thing to do - I wouldn't want an interstate visitor to have the smaller January crowd. But yes, I should've adverised it sooner, and organised ice-cream. I honestly think that if I had've kept my eye on the weather forecast, and bought ice-cream for everyone, then attendance would've been better.

I've been to less attended groups before - but I've got used to having a larger crowd at the Adelaide SQL Server User Group than yesterday. Next year Australia Day falls on the 4th Tuesday, so that meeting will have to be moved. Oh well, can't win them all...

Presenting at ADNUG this week

Rob Farley — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:03:41 GMT

I haven't been to ADNUG for a while. I love that the group is there, but over the past year or more, I haven't prioritised getting to the meetings. I've been to meetings of equivalent groups in Melbourne and Sydney, but not to the Adelaide .Net Group for a while.

But this week I will! I've offered to be a stand-in presenter, and will present a few tips around T-SQL. I'm presenting a similar talk in Wagga this coming weekend, so it'll give me a chance to work out my talk in advance. I regularly present and teach T-SQL things, so I'll be picking a few of the more useful suggestions (particularly those that get a good response from the audience), and showing some of them. People who at one of my recent presentations may have heard bits before, but definitely not all of them.

Congratulations, Mitch

Rob Farley — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:13:56 GMT

A good friend of mine from Perth got awarded MVP status this past week. Mitch Wheat runs the .Net User Group over there, and does a terrific job. He does a lot for the community, and is incredibly smart. I'm really pleased for him.

PS: There are a bunch of other new MVPs this October as well (plus I got rewarded) - I'm just mentioning Mitch because he's a good friend and I'm so pleased for him!

Improving Your T-SQL Arsenal - slides

Rob Farley — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:46:16 GMT

I've given this presentation a couple of times at user-groups now - last week in Adelaide, and this week in Melbourne. I posted the scripts to my blog recently, making them available to people who heard this talk at TechEd Australia at the start of the month, so now I've got around to uploading the slide deck as well.

I actually plan to blog about many of the tips too, so watch for that over the next month or so. I'll try to do at least one a week for a while, if not more. Obviously some will become longer articles, while some will be quite short. Much of the material gets covered my Advanced T-SQL Querying and Reporting course too - so feel free to check that out some time if you can.

UNICEF Australia project at TechEd

Rob Farley — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:13:53 GMT

It was unfortunate news when I heard that the UNICEF Australia site was hacked a little while ago. An old colleague of mine called me to let me know, and to ask if I knew anyone who could help them out. I used to work at a hosting company with this guy, and had seen quite a few websites get hacked one way or another (the typical methods being SQL Injection or Cookie Poisoning).

UNICEF is one of my favourite charities. They work to promote and protect the rights of children all over the world. As a kid I remember a book called "I Like This Poem" on my mother's bookshelf - a UNICEF publication containing poems that were nominated by children (like Alfred Noyes' "When Daddy Fell Into The Pond") that I can't seem to find any reference of online. So I was more than happy to help them get back online. I got in touch with their hosting provider, who could not have done anything to prevent the attack but were very helpful in trying to help resolve the problem. I also contacted the MVP community and got some help from a few friends in fixing up code.

They got back online, and I hope are relatively secure, but I also had a chat to some people at Microsoft about what they could do, and they've come to the party!

A couple of years ago, there was a community project at TechEd Australia to help the Smith Family (in the DevGarten). This year, UNICEF are getting helped.

If you're going to be at TechEd Australia this year, please try to find some time to get involved in the UNICEF project. The idea will be to make sure that they have a great new (secure) website, that will encourage people to visit, donate, find out what's happening with this great charity. I'm sure everyone who donates some time will learn a lot from the experience, and also enjoy the chance to work for the children of the world.

User Groups in Second Life

Rob Farley — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:44:55 GMT

The morning after the Adelaide launch of the 2008 products, I got to enjoy breakfast with quite a handful other Adelaide community leaders, and few of the Microsoft DPE team. Conversation was remarkably varied, and one of the things that came up was Community Credit and the Second Life .Net User Group. I've never done the Second Life thing, and I'm not sure I want to. It's an interesting concept though - the idea of attending a user group within a game. I guess it's a cross between an online community and a face-to-face one. Perhaps it's onlineface-to-onlineface? It's not my thing, but it might suit people who can't do face-to-face for one reason or another. Is there a Second Life SQL User Group?

Melbourne Launch

Rob Farley — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 21:50:57 GMT

So I'm at the Heroes launch in Melbourne today. I'm going to hang out at the Experts booth, so if you're here and have a question about SQL Server 2008, why not come over?

My trip to Perth

Rob Farley — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 11:52:16 GMT

I was in Perth last week, teaching a private course. The course went well, but best of all, I got to meet a good Perth-based friend of mine for the first time. I've known Mitch Wheat for ages online, but he's always just been on the other end of the wire. Now I know what he looks like!

It was great getting to see Perth. The students I had were a great bunch of people, and I got to meet members of the SQL Server User Group when I spoke there on Tuesday night. I presented about ranking functions and windowing - but also spoke about the MERGE statement from SQL 2008. Both talks I'd done before, but this time squeezed in to a single talk. It was lots of fun.

I really encourage everyone to get into public speaking. It's terrifying, of course. But it's also terrifically rewarding. There's nothing quite like standing in front of a crowd of strangers and explaining something to them. With any luck they've come to learn, so they're not actually critiquing you as a presenter - they're just hoping to pick up some of what you know.

If you're reading this and don't even attend a user-group, please get involved. You meet other people who do what you do. You learn stuff you didn't know before. Next time you need to hire someone, you might find that the interviewee is someone you've come across before. But as soon as you stand up and demonstrate that you know your stuff, the quality of candidates who want to work with you goes up, because the smart people in the crowd will feel a certain affinity towards you.

And who knows - perhaps you'll decide that you want to try being a presenter at a Speaker Idol, like my friend Jeff Wharton who runs the Canberra SQL Server User Group. Jeff presented today at my user group in Adelaide, and it was great to be able to advertise him as an Idol Winner. Congratulations again, Jeff, and thanks for today.

SQL and Virtual Earth

Rob Farley — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 09:07:11 GMT

A while back I was talking to Bronwen Zande, of Brisbane-based SoulSolutions and GeekGirlBlogs.

Anyway, she and her partner John are big fans of Virtual Earth. As it's well publicised that SQL Server 2008 will have new spatial types, including fancy ways of integrating with Virtual Earth, I asked her if they were planning a tour of the Australian SQL Server User Groups to demonstrate how this could work. I figure this is something that few SQL Server people will do much investigation into, but may well be asked about by developers who are keen to find out what's possible.

Lo and behold, I guess things are happening, because they're on their way! In Adelaide, this meeting will be on January 10th, our usual time-slot on the second Thursday of the month, and there are other events happening around the country too. All this despite the fact that the latest publicly available version (July still) of SQL Server 2008 doesn't have the spatial types in it. Hopefully by then something will be available for us to check out the demos. Keep your eye on https://connect.microsoft.com/sql for news on that.