Search results matching tags 'DWWTWT?', 'SQL Server 2005', and 'Technical Content'

Why I Didn’t Write an April Fool’s Post

Ward Pond — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:00:00 GMT

I meant to. I really did.

But I got sick last week, and my energy level has been slow enough to come back that my focus was entirely elsewhere until about six last night.

I panicked. I gave fleeting consideration to throwing something hasty together, but everything I came up with struck me as lame, abusive to my audience, or (frequently) both. The fact that most of it also wasn’t funny was also a factor in my silence.

I slept soundly, which is always nice after such a difficult decision. Then, this morning, I found this, an example of what you get when someone who’s smart and funny (which I hope I am, most of the time) has time and energy to spend on a proper prank post..

..and some of the best laughs are in the comments.

Click here. Read the post. Read the comments. You won’t be sorry.

Great post, Michelle!

-wp

this copyrighted material was originally posted at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond.

the author and his employer are pleased to provide this content for you at that site, and via rss, free of charge and without advertising.

the author welcomes and appreciates links to and citations of his work. however, if you are viewing the full text of this article at any other website, be aware that its author does not endorse and is not compensated by any advertising or access fees you may be subjected to outside the original web and rss sites.

I Hate to Bring This Up Again..

Ward Pond — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT

..but, once again, the dark underbelly of human nature has shown itself in my trackback pool..

Back in March of 2008, I went off on a little two-post rant about for-fee aggregators. At the time, I said:

For awhile now, I've been aware that there are several sites out there which are reposting the RSS feeds from several Microsoft blogs, including this one, along with advertising which they have sold. I'm not going to post any URLs, because I don't want to drive any traffic in their direction. I have seen no original content on any of these sites.. all I've found is an effort to gain advertising traffic from search engine hits on our content.

That sucks, but it's not something I've felt compelled to speak out about before now. It bothered me, but it didn't make me angry. I only bring it up now so that you'll have context when I say that this week, I heard about another website that has taken this "entrepreneurial spirit" to the next level. This makes me angry.

It took almost a year, but another morally ambiguous type has surfaced (like last March, I’m not going to publish the URL, but I will share it with any interested parties who contact me privately). This one has cut-and-pasted at least one piece of my content, included some pretty well-focused ads for SQL Server-related services (implying my endorsement of these services), and including the name of my blog (which includes my name) in their URL, yet again implying my endorsement. While their post implies authorship of my copyrighted content (it’s attributed to admin), they at least provide a link to the original post.

As I said last year, if I intended for anyone to be making money directly from these blog posts, I’d be taking steps to ensure that the money-making someone would be me.

I like giving this stuff away. Beyond the modest company branding on the site, I want you to get this stuff for free, without advertising. Moreover, I intend for this to be the case.

So, in response to this latest troll, I’ve decided to add a footer to each new post here from now on. I apologize for the aesthetic and performance impact this will have; I’ve done my best to minimize these.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.. am I being oversensitive? Is reposting, reaping profit from, and implying authorship of my copyrighted content truly the sincerest form of flattery in 2009?

-wp

UPDATED 18 February 2009 for grammar.

this copyrighted material was originally posted at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond.

the author and his employer are pleased to provide this content for you at that site, and via rss, free of charge and without advertising.

the author welcomes and appreciates links to and citations of his work. However, if you are viewing the full text of this article at any other website, be aware that its author does not endorse and is not compensated by any advertising or access fees you may be subjected to outside the original web and rss sites.

Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers Session Schedule Released!

Ward Pond — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:00:00 GMT

Earlier this week, I got my session schedule for my talks at this year’s Tech·Ed EMEA 2008 Developers in Barcelona.

DAT04-IS, SQL Tricks from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Tuesday, 11 November from 1:30pm until 2:45pm.
DAT03-IS, Real-World Indexing Strategies from Microsoft IT, will be offered on Wednesday, 12 November from 3:45pm until 5:00pm.

If enough of you sign up for these sessions, additional offerings will be scheduled. I hope to see you in Barcelona!

-wp

La Font de Canaletes Works Its Magic

Ward Pond — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 07:00:00 GMT

La Font de Canaletes is a public fountain near the head of La Rambla de Catalunya in what it currently the center of Barcelona, Spain:

When I was in Barcelona last November, I reported that I "drank generously from the fountain, hopefully sealing my fate." The fate to which I referred is the local legend which holds that visitors to the city who drink from the fountain will one day return.

I got confirmation earlier this week that I'll be returning to Barcelona November 10-14 for Tech·Ed EMEA Developers 2008. I'll be presenting the SQL Tricks presentation I was scheduled to give in Orlando last spring, as well as a new presentation on indexing strategies which is still under development.

More as the date approaches, but suffice to it say I'm excited to be returning to Barcelona, to renew both my acquaintance with the city and with the many wonderful people I met there last year. I'll even spend an hour and a half in France when I change planes at Charles de Gaulle airport northeast of Paris.

See you in Barcelona!

-wp

Ack! I Just Deleted Four Comments Accidentally!

Ward Pond — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:00:00 GMT

If you've left a comment here since June 4th, please repost it with my thanks and apologies. I tried to do a bulk approval and I did a bulk deletion by mistake.

One of them was a question about TOP with ORDER BY that I'll attempt to reproduce in a few minutes. One was a get well message from my colleage Kyle Schoonover (thanks, Kyle!). The other two have slipped my exhausted mind..

Further proof that sick people should stay away from heavy machinery. More soon..

-wp

Are You Paying To Read This Post? You Don't Have To!

Ward Pond — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:00:00 GMT

In the age of the blog, it may well be that republishing is the sincerest form of flattery. The same RSS technology that many of you use to read the blog through wonderful rollers like this one also can be turned to far more nefarious purposes. I'm going to rant a bit about one particular instantiation of this nefariousness.

One of my favorite things about http://blogs.technet.com is that there are no advertisements on the site (other than the Microsoft branding, which it seems to me comes with the territory, since the company sponsors the bandwidth). I'm very proud to work for a company which encourages me to interact with you this way. I've worked at companies where internal communications had to be passed by several committees before they were transmitted. The idea that I can post to the web, freely and unfettered by anything beyond a hopefully well-honed sense of responsibility and the company's admonition to be smart about what I'm doing, is just too cool for words.

For awhile now, I've been aware that there are several sites out there which are reposting the RSS feeds from several Microsoft blogs, including this one, along with advertising which they have sold. I'm not going to post any URLs, because I don't want to drive any traffic in their direction. I have seen no original content on any of these sites.. all I've found is an effort to gain advertising traffic from search engine hits on our content.

That sucks, but it's not something I've felt compelled to speak out about before now. It bothered me, but it didn't make me angry. I only bring it up now so that you'll have context when I say that this week, I heard about another website that has taken this "entrepreneurial spirit" to the next level. This makes me angry.

There's a site out there which is charging people to read this content. Not driving revenue from a free-access site by selling advertising (inventive and perhaps morally ambiguous activity), but ASKING YOU TO PAY FOR SOMETHING THAT MY COMPANY AND I ARE GIVING AWAY!

Of course, I'm not going to post a link to that site either. I'm just going to syndicate this post on all of my most active RSS feeds and hope they're as negligent as they are sleazy. Then perhaps this message will get through to the people who are paying to read the content from this site:

You can get this content for free at http://blogs.technet.com/wardpond!

When you pay to read this content, its authors receive NO compensation.

Please don't encourage or reward this sleazy repackaging of our content. Visit the source and get it for free!

I have no idea how many people this affects, but if just one of you escapes the clutches of these bums, then I feel comfortable spending bandwidth on this message.

Fellow bloggers, do you have any opinions about this issue? Feel free to chime in..

-wp

TechEd Developers 2007 Barcelona: Day 2

Ward Pond — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:00:00 GMT

Day 2 of TechEd Developers was also the only day of the conference during which I had no presentation obligations. Since I slept through my first intended tourist interval on Sunday, today was the day to see things that don’t involve hotels, convention centers, or airports.

What a day I had!

I started at the Temple Expiatori de la Sagada Familia (Temple of the Sacred Family). This indescribably epic structure has been under construction since 1882 and is expected to take another 30 years to complete. The main spires are over 400 meters high, and several other features of the building are over 300 meters. I went up to the top (or at least the highest accessible point) despite the warnings that those who suffer from vertigo and claustrophobia should avoid the experience. I won’t say my knuckles weren’t white, but the views both inside and outside the Temple were simply remarkable. There’s also a museum in the basement which offers great insight into architect Antoni Gaudi’s unique approach to his craft. In addition to being totally awed by the scope and ambition of the place (there may be a thin line between inspiration and insanity), I learned an awful lot about architecture and a considerable amount of Spanish history. If you’re ever in Barcelona, you simply must visit this place.

After several hours at the Temple, I then went to the middle of the old city and saw the Barcelona Cathedral, which is on the site of a Roman Basilica. Construction on the cathedral was begun in 1298; the Roman Basilica was built in 343 AD and there are sections of the Roman wall which surrounded the old city which data from before Christ. I touched something man-made today which is over 2000 years old! Another first for me, and another place you should see if you ever get here.

Then I went down to the Olympic Village and walked around for awhile. I didn’t see much evidence of the Olympics (they were fifteen years ago, after all), but I did find a nice sandy beach and stuck my hands in the Mediterranean! Warm water! Nostalgic for home and surrounded by seafood restaurants (seafood, alas, is bad for my digestion), I paid 6 Euros (a little less than $9) for a Big Mac meal (the Subway next door to McDonalds was closed). It was essentially indistinguishable from those made in Redmond, which I suppose is the point; however there were some items on the menu (such as a humus burger) which are not found in the States.

Then I came back to the conference in time to attend Bob Beauchemin’s interactive session, Using Powershell and SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) Together to Manage SQL Server. This functionality will be included in SQL Server 2008, so Bob’s presentation was essentially a teaser; it was nonetheless quite impressive to see Powershell running in a SQL Server context. I’ve wanted to meet Bob for quite some time, so it was a pleasure to introduce myself to him after his session and discover that I was one of the people he wanted to meet here as well.

=-=-=-=-=-=

Yesterday I promised some random observations about things which are different here than at home. As a first-time visitor to Europe in general and Spain in particular, I’m keenly aware that I’m in a place that’s very different than where I’m from:

· The ground floor of both my hotel and the convention center is labeled “0,” while back in the States it would be labeled “1”. So, room number 2303 is, by my math, 24 storeys above the street.

· In authentic local restaurants (not the hotel and not McDonalds), entrée portions are much smaller than I’m accustomed to, all servings of water are bottled and paid for (no waitstaff with pitchers of ice water as in the USA), and dessert is practically a requirement. People also seem to eat much later than in the States; I see crowds of folks in restaurants after 11pm.

· Restaurant workers in Spain are paid a living wage, so tipping is not only not required, it surprises people when it happens.

· I’ve seen two flavors of potato chip here that I’ve never seen before: fried chicken and prawn cocktail. I’m told that seafood-flavored potato chips are especially popular in the Far East.

· This may be simply a technology thing, but the buildings I’m in over here are at least five years old and I’ve never seen this back home, even in new buildings: the escalators have electric eyes at each end. They go very slowly so they’re easy to get on; once you’re on the escalator it speeds up, and then it slows down again when you walk off of it. Pretty slick, although I noticed this because I almost stumbled when I was getting off of an escalator on Sunday.

Overall, I’ve been very impressed with the country and its people. Everyone I’ve spoken with has been very helpful and kind, despite my pidgin Spanish (my previous highpoint en Español was the correct pronunciation of Leo Carrillo). From both a professional and personal perspective, this trip is shaping up to be one of the more remarkable experiences of my life.

More tomorrow, likely of a far more technical nature..

-wp