The Evil Empire
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I hear that moniker for Microsoft from both supporters and detractors. I've even used it myself, in a half joking manner. I do like Microsoft products and especially SQL Server, which has helped me build a nice career. Otherwise this would be PostgreSQLCentral.com.
But like any large company, especially a publically held one, I think they get full of themselves, they get a little arrogant, and they become a little evil as they try to force their model on more and more people and they require more and more adherence to a strict set of guidelines of their employees. Google is no better, with all their secrecy and strong-arming the world in their own way.
But I noticed something recently. I've seen some reports that Microsoft is really declining, especially with the less than enthusiastic response to Vista. I've seen that perhaps with Google's online offerings along with the move by many country's goverments to Open Source software, that maybe Microsoft will eventually fail. It's possible as IBM used to rule the computing world and ATT the telecom industry, and now both of them are large, strong players, but they don't overwhelm the market like they used to.
However I'm not sure Microsoft is at that point. I still remember the 1995 turnaround of Microsoft that brought them into the Internet world. And now I'm seeing more signs that Microsoft is still a very strong player. Ray Ozzie is changing the company, they've reported record earnings, and now the OLPC Project might use Windows.
It seems to me that Microsoft is still an extremely powerful company and I think your career as a SQL Server DBA is something you can count on for a long time.
No software without services, is the pronouncement by Ray Lane last week. His speech at an event talks about software becoming more of a commodity and that services are really required along with selling software. Mr. Lane is a venture capitalist, so they're concerned about their investments, not necessarily what's best for the customer, but he does raise an interesting point about how software is evolving.
I also saw this link about Steak n Shake beefing up security. They are looking to meet the new stringent requirements for credit card processing as they crossed the 6 million transaction mark last year. They've reworked their IT setup to handle the load and they have a few good ideas for all of you to think about.
Lastly, I'll give myself a short congratulations. I passed the 70-431 exam on the 27th. I'm now an official MCITP in both the Database Developer and Database Administrator categories. A word of warning: it's pretty hard. Make you sure are comfortable actually clicking on things and accomplishing tasks in SSMS. You'll be asked to do so.
Steve's Pick of the Week : Inside the Microsoft TFS experience
I've been a little skeptical of how valuable the TFS is. It's expensive and I'm sure it requires you to spend some time figuring out the ins and outs of how your team will work with it. But this is an interesting look at the how Microsoft "dog foods it" with quotes from Brian Harry, a TFS engineer, and includes links to his blog. With 1.3TB of active data and 3,823 users on a weekly basis, that's quite the installation.
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RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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Steve,
Congratulations for passing all those exams. I would not say Microsoft is evil, as your recent post shows most of the money is generated by Windows which is crowding out would be innovations in other areas. Amazon was written off but they did it the American way by sending money to Arkansas to buy 25 Walmart Calculus employees, as expected Walmart sued in Federal court the next day, but in the end it was settled Walmart got another Calculus this time logistics from Amazon and web infrastructure.
Microsoft does not have web community open to all and inclusive, Yahoo and Google did not have either but both bought some and kept the communities as is.
We use Team Suites not Team Systems because we connect to Vault instead, I would like a decent Difftool that can let me save both files as HTML to a file system any where on the network.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
A little off topic, but the OPLC project is not considering Windows. (Not to say that Redmond won't try to show one of the laptops running Windows).
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MS has mixed grades. SQL Server is great, Outlook awful, and Word & Excel somewhere in the middle (Word 97 was the best)
The best thing that could happen to MS is some signicant threat, enough cometition to keep the 'honest' and focusd (that has been a positive side effect of Linux, even for Windows users).
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-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
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They might not be planning on Windows for the OCPL, but they did alter the specs slightly to meet the Windows min. I think it's good that there's an option for people to use Windows, but I'm not sure I'd like to see MS get a stranglehold on the project either.
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Was the 70-431 actually hard, or the whole SQL2K5 certification process? I'm a SQL2K MCDBA, so I took 70-431 and thought it was pretty easy. Most of the stuff was independant of SQL2K vs. SQL 2K5. You're right, the hardest part was the simulations.
I'm studying for the Upgrade skills exam (70-447), and then I'll be a MC-ITP: Database Administrator.
You took the other tests (70-443 and 70-444, for database administrator) in Beta, right?
I've really got to buckle down and get this 70-447 out of the way before grad school picks back up 🙂
TIA,
Chris
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I thought 431 was hard because it covered a wide variety of topics. For me the questions in some areas took some guessing, since I wasn't sure. The sims were hard because a few of them (linked servers), I hadn't done.
I took 441 in Beta and I didn't think it was too hard. The case studies make it easier since most of the info is in them. I took 443 and 444 as regular exams and they weren't as hard for me as 441, but I was also writing books on those topics.
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When I took 431 I must admit I found it pretty easy. But it has such a wide scope it means you need to know a lot. However if you have covered all topics none of the questions are actually that challenging.
Admittedly I spent months going through the syllabus
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