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Un-SQL Friday #001 – Branding

The MidnightDBA Team (blog/twitter) has created, based on Adam Machanic’s (blog/twitter) TSQL2sDays (which I’ve participated in quite often), with a new community blogging project called Un-SQL Friday.

The Promise

My entry for the Un-SQL Friday #1 – Branding is more of a promise than my thoughts and ideas on it. My promise is that I’ve got to do a better job at branding.

One way I’m going to do a better job is by altering my logo to go with the hot recent news. I’m basically going to follow in Google’s footsteps – with their logo changing every now and again based on the current events.

I got the idea from cigar guy and in fact I changed my twitter logo for awhile. I thought it would be kind of cool to keep a page of these things. For instances, one opportunity I let slip was to put Brian Wilson’s beard on my logo during the world series. Look for things like that in the future.

Thanks to the Midnight DBA team for the idea and the great reading already today.

Top 10 SQL Resources on the Web

The other day I was talking to a guy who is just starting out his SQL career. He asked what are my favorite web sites for SQL Server are. I mentioned a few, but I got thinking about it and decided to come up with my official list …as of now….tomorrow things will probably change.

The Official Microsoft Sites:

Microsoft’s Main Site – This is the top level, all the official SQL “stuff” – from editions to white papers to Learning Resources
Technet’s list of SQL Server Blogs – This is a list of the Who’s who in the SQL world with links to there blogs, team blogs, etc.

The Best Sites/Blogs

Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave – one of my main “goto’s” when looking for code examples.
SQLSkills – Some great articles, I loved Paul Randal’s “A SQL Server DBA myth a day” which he wrote 30 topics in 30 days in April.
Brent O’s Blog – Good articles on SQL, great articles on SQL networking and the SQL Community.
SQLServerCentral – tons of articles and scripts
SSWUG.org – tons of articles and videos.
SQL-Server-Performance.com – my original eye opener of how deep the internet can dig into a topic.

Twitter Links

Brent O’s SQL-Server Twitter List – The most up to date list on SQL tweeps.
#sqlhelp on Twitter – Search Twitter for #sqlhelp – note explained in Brent O’s article here.

As I said, things will probably change, so maybe I’ll do something like Thomas LaRock and keep up the rankings. Which his list if very good as well.

Picture of WWW courtesy of Bull3t

What Do I Do?

I’ve got to give a presentation on my role at Medtronic, so here it is:

SQL and Twitter

One of my goals for 2010 is to get more involved in the SQL server community. A great way to do this is to use twitter. I’ve been using twitter since January of 2009 – you can follow me here. I’ve had my high usage times (where I check it and post to it all the time) and I’ve had my slower times (where I haven’t opened up tweetdeck in a month). Anywho – I’ve been using it now quite a bit and here’s my SQL lists.

If you want to learn the basics of Twitter, here’s the link for BrentOs “Twitter101”. I do suggest you read it and follow him as he’s pretty sharp.

Other Twitter people I like to read are….never mind, I was going to do a list, but there’s so many possibilities with this list – there’s something out there for everybody…..

From SQL Guru’s
to local sports reporters
to celebrities
to athletes
to old college friends
to old co-workers
to cousins
to news
etc…

Here’s a link to follow me on twitter:

The Real Challenge I’m Currently Working On

I’m currently training for the Des Moines Marathon on 10/18/09 and raising money for the American Cancer Society.

The details, along with some fun stuff can be found here:

www.andylohn.com

12 IT skills that employers can't say no to – Network World

12 IT skills that employers can’t say no to – Network World: “Momentum is also building around business intelligence, Ebner says, creating demand for people who are skilled in BI technologies such as Cognos, Business Objects and Hyperion, and who can apply those to the business.”

Where is BI Growing?

Here’s an interesting look at one way in which business intelligence is growing – let the entire company use it and get hooked.

Microsoft sees BI growth beyond dashboards
IT Business: “the business intelligence strategy needs to change from a strategic play implemented among the upper echelon of a company to a company-wide rollout on an operational level.”

Microsoft and ProfitBase Help Retailers Track Performance With New Standards-Based Retail Data Warehouse Template

This caught my eye this morning.

Microsoft and ProfitBase Help Retailers Track Performance With New Standards-Based Retail Data Warehouse Template: “Microsoft Corp and ProfitBase AS, a leading Norwegian business performance management software company, today announced their strategic alliance, aimed at delivering an out-of-the-box, standards-based business intelligence solution for the retail industry. Based on the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS) data standard, the new data warehouse template includes facts and dimensions tailored for the retail industry such as retail-specific key performance indicators (sales, gross margin, sales per customer, and turnover per working hour, among others).”

Industry standards for data warehousing sounds like it would make life a bit easier. This would also greatly reduce time implementing a BI solution. An old boss told me one time that he refused to pay consultants any MORE money to sit in meetings while we defined what “revenue” is.

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Un-SQL Friday #001 – Branding

The Promise

Top 10 SQL Resources on the Web

The Official Microsoft Sites:

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Twitter Links

What Do I Do?

SQL and Twitter

The Real Challenge I’m Currently Working On

12 IT skills that employers can't say no to – Network World

Where is BI Growing?

Microsoft and ProfitBase Help Retailers Track Performance With New Standards-Based Retail Data Warehouse Template

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