October 17, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Working with PASS
October 18, 2007 at 8:31 am
I just Faxed my application. I make it a policy not to critique an organization in which I have not held membership. :Whistling:
Besides, this looks like a good thing.
ATBCharles Kincaid
October 18, 2007 at 9:11 am
Hey! One new member.
Good for you Charles. Let the criticism flow 😉
October 18, 2007 at 10:43 am
With the topics being covered at PASS this year and last, and the opportunity to only attend one conference during the year, TechEd and the MS BI conference seem like a much better use of my time. If PASS had more relevant topics and speakers it might be worth considering as an option.
Joshua Perry
http://www.greenarrow.net
October 18, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Joshua, Im curious what your current role at work is? Im guessing its not a standard DBA type role?
October 18, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Andy,
I'm not sure what you mean by "standard DBA type role" since I've seen everything from a web developer maintaining the MS Access based "data warehouse" to the systems analyst running the SQL enterprise cluster called a DBA. I've worked at both ends of that spectrum and everywhere in between. If you're asking about my level of experience with SQL Server, I worked with the product since the early 90s when it shared code with Sybase and since that time I've successfully built and run enterprise class systems based on SQL Server for a few Fortune 500 companies. That requires knowing a whole lot more than just the basic administration of SQL Server.
My official title is system database administrator, so I'm officially responsible for installs, backups and restores, upgrading from 2000 to 2005, server consolidation, and other typical administration duties. I have also spent a great deal of my time on the "developer" DBA side of the house working with ETL and reporting, integrating with other technologies like SharePoint, and designing a homegrown CMDB.
I do have skills in related areas such as AD and Exchange, VB coding, Cisco network devices, SAN storage, and even a past history with AIX 4.3.3 / Ingres II / C shell (and I can even still write assembler for the 6502), but 90% of what I work with on a daily basis today is SQL Server.
My point in my previous comment is that for my dollar I would much rather go to TechEd and pick the brain of the Microsoft developer that worked on the latest release of SQL Server, or go to the MS BI conference and meet the ultimate MDX expert from Microsoft rather than attend a presentation by someone that is an "end user" like myself. Ted Kummert and Bill Baker are great guys and I'm sure they gave interesting presentations, but I wold much rather dig into the guts of how SQL 2008 will handle GIS/Spatial data or how to deal with the massive amount of deprecation created by LINQ.
I have nothing bad to say about PASS, I just don't see it as a leader, though the potential is there. If PASS was a little more focused on future technologies and actually spent the time to develop local chapters, I see nothing but opportunity for growth, and probably my membership in the organization. I just can't see myself investing my time to educate the next generation of SQL DBAs through an organization whose website looks like this:
http://wisconsin.sqlgroups.com/
PASS could be a great organization, but it needs to do two things. First, it needs to view Windows Server, SQL Server, and Visual Studio as one integrated platform and embrace the entire platform since that is where we are headed. Second PASS needs to reach out and develop local communities just like the Web 2.0 world is starting to do. PASS really needs to focus on the local community before Microsoft figures it out, and Microsoft is getting close to figuring it out.
By the way, is there anyone else that remembers this little gem from back around 1983, or am I just getting old?
[font="Courier New"]ldy #0
beq in
loop:
jsr $ffd2
iny
in:
lda hello,y
bne loop
rts
hello: .tx "Hello World!"
.by 13,10,0[/font]
Joshua Perry
http://www.greenarrow.net
October 18, 2007 at 5:48 pm
My question - though badly stated - was just in surprise, I've heard few complaints from those that have bene to the summit.
I think the 'end users' that speak bring more value than you give them credit for, and I also find a significant MS SQL contingent at PASS each year. I've been to Teched several times and enjoy it, but find that PASS is just much more focused on SQL Server without the noise of other topics. That said, you can't beat TechEd for the pure value per day/dollar if you look at total sessions, free twinkies, etc! But my goal is not to convince you to attend the PASS Summit! I'll be attending both next year if I can.
To be fair your comment about Wisconsin (and a bunch of others) is my fault (along with Steve & Brian). They used to be hosted in DNN and in August we moved them to free up some hardware as we consolidated following the sale of SSC to Redgate. What you see at sqlgroups.com is a very early version of a project we've got under way (and under staffed at present). You'll see more content at http://www.opass.org (the group I manage) but without a doubt it's vanilla. I think web content tends to be lowest priority for user groups and in many cases I think we'd be better off if we just had a page that listed the next meeting, less visual disappointment!
I agree about local chapters, but not about broadening the scope of PASS. On the latter I think PASS might actually do better if it became a more DBA centric organization than it is, focusing on the unique career pathing we all suffer through. I don't want to alienate or disregard the many many developers that do data access, but for them data access is just one small skill among many required to be a good developer. We're in the age of niche magazines, web sites conferences, because most people like sharply focused events. For all that I'm up for a deeper discussion on scope, though I have no power to change it!
October 18, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Joshua Perry (10/18/2007)
...By the way, is there anyone else that remembers this little gem from back around 1983, or am I just getting old?
[font="Courier New"]ldy #0
beq in
loop:
jsr $ffd2
iny
in:
lda hello,y
bne loop
rts
hello: .tx "Hello World!"
.by 13,10,0[/font]
Never did anything with the 6502 chips. I do remember the shortest machine language program for the IBM 1130 mini-frame.
[font="Courier New"]
F000
D000
[/font]
Drop that little goody into the first two words in memory and run it. (It sets every position in memory to hex D000 effective locking up the machine.)
ATBCharles Kincaid
October 19, 2007 at 7:53 am
Charles, you bad boy! Students should never do things like that, at least I never remember having thought about trying to maybe consider hacking my prof's machine. Yeah, that's it.
I actually started to trace that code above and then shuddered after a minute and asked myself what I was doing. I left that area for a reason.
.
October 19, 2007 at 8:16 am
Steve, man of hidden talents. I had no idea that you had been infected with the IBM 1130 "virus". I did that at the CPA firm. The 1130 used real core. You could inspect memory right after power on (a feature we used after a power failure.)
But then you might not have had the "joy" of writing COBOL programs on a teletype terminal.
ATBCharles Kincaid
October 19, 2007 at 9:50 am
Never did COBOL, but when I got to college at Syracuse, everything was remote terminals on IBM and VAX machines. We had a central print center in one building to get all your printouts and I thought it was cool in my second semester when I got my 300 baud modem connected and could work in my room instead of walking through the snow 🙂
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply