DBAs, baby!
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DBAs, baby!
Last week at the 2006 PASS Summit I was very tired. I think it was a delayed reaction to stress from the sale bleeding off combined with residual worry from how the community would take the news. Since I'm assuming most of you are still reading this and haven't left for some other community, my worries seem to be unfounded. Suffice it to say that I missed 2 1/2 keynotes last week though I'm hoping to catch up with them on the PASS site.
The one keynote I made was the one I was least interested in. I have seen Steve Ballmer speak a few times and I'd rarely enjoyed it. He's too much of a salesman and the marketing becomes too much a part of his presentation. That's fine in some places, but at a technical conference I'd rather see a technical speaker, someone who can wow us with their ability to do something with databases, or programming, or whatever the focus of the event is.
Not that Ballmer did a bad job or that the demos by his assistants weren't interesting, but they somewhat show the marketing side of things, giving us a flashy demo to solve some reporting or "typical business problem", which some of us may have, but most of us don't. We're technical folks, we're already committed to SQL Server, give us something amazing.
Like importing 1 million rows in a minute or the cool traffic flow monitor using RFID tags I saw at a TechEd. Or some other really neat SQL Server technical solution.
Ballmer did do a better job and I liked the fact that he stuck around to answer some questions from the audience. He fielded some that weren't great questions, but designed to put him on the spot and he didn't back down. I like that he's at least honest that Microsoft is a company concerned with profit. And I did pander to his audience with his parting words as he got ready to leave the stage:
"DBAs, Baby!!"
Steve Jones
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I was there for "DBA Baby!". Overall it was what you would expect from the CEO of the third largest company in the world (at least based on market capitalization). He is nothing short of impressive. His willingness to confront the questions in a straightforward manner was notable.
Chuck
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I agree that it was overall a pretty lame presentation. I also thought the questions were silly considering the audience. Seriously, at PASS, who cares about Linux? However, I want a copy of the 'DBA's BABY!' on video... just 'cause.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Sorry, this is a little off the main topic here but, I have been away for a while so I'm behind. What sale are you referring to?
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Go here, read.
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/pressrelease/2696.asp
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore RooseveltAuthor of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning -
Thanks for the link. That cleared it up.
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"He's too much of a salesman and the marketing becomes too much a part of his presentation"
I don't know whether Scott Adams is a DBA, or even aware of these PASS conferences, however, today's (11/22/2006) Dilbert (http://www.dilbert.com) is eerily topical!!
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Nice cartoon.
Glad I'm not one of those marketing guys.
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