Twitter and the SQL Server community

Let me share with you the power or Twitter and the SQL Server Community. In a post I wrote about a year ago, Social Networking for Dummies – nay, Beginners Part 2, I explain the uses for Twitter. When I joined a new firm last summer, I knew some of my new skills needed sharpening. To make matters worst, the firm’s applications were on .Net 2003 and SQL Server 2000. At the time, I had worked with only .Net 2005 and SQL Server 2005 but not on a production environments. So it became my goal, and my job, to migrate applications and databases to 2008 platforms accordingly. I’m the developer, that becomes the accidental DBA, and still program .Net applications. I had to do research on our current databases and do performance tuning, check the current disaster recover plan and not to mention develop BI. I was in dire need for help.
Enter the social media assistance. I don’t recall who I followed first, but it could of been @BrianKnight or @PatrickDba when I first found a Pragmatic Works webinar. From then on, my list grew, following DBA’s like @SQLChicken, @SQLVariant and alas, @BrentO, MVP, MCM. Yes, there is a form of DBA Rock stardom in the SQL Community, and in that class, there are only 3 major Rock Star DBA’s. Any DBA that wants to know the best resources, or what a Rock Star DBA has for lunch, reference Tom LaRock’s SQL Rockstar hierarchy page.
I created a Twitter list of Database Experts I follow on a day to day basis. Via these tweeps (Twitter Peeps), it made my learning a lot easier. A lot of these experts have been published by RedGate and Wrox books, just to name a few, so their microblogs are not dull. I don’t care to follow people telling me they “ate a sandwich”, or they had to “visit the dentist”, unless you’re Brent, Paul or Kim. I follow technologist that have a career like mine, and follow the #1 community rule, “share”.
Many of these tweeps have turned me on to books I read and webinars I took. On a daily basis, you see articles they recommend, or blog posts they shared, all of which hold valuable SQL Server information, tips, techniques and news. I must say, this past year has been an experience, that I have been to a TechFest in Dallas and am planning a few more visits to Dallas if SQLSaturday #56 BI Edition opens the waitlist again, all thanks to tweets from my DBA Twitter List. Lastly, there is a hash on Twitter, the #sqlhelp hash, it is like the Batman beacon, you use it when you are in need of an answer to a particular question, use it wisely, “with great power comes great responsibility”. Wow, two superhero comic referenced in one sentence. I have to say, the SQL Server community is very helpful and resourceful, if this is not your cup of tea, this works well with any technology or trade you might want to follow.
I can’t seem to thank ever DBA I follow for I’m sure I have referenced a link or a blog post to help me at one point, but those I remember I’d like to put it out there for others to hopefully follow as well.
Jorge, thanks for SQL University, and great resource.
Patrick, keep those SQL Luncheons going, hopefully audio won’t be a problem on my end soon.
Jen and Sean, I’m still watching those Midnight DBA Videos.
And finally, If you want to start on Twitter properly, I suggest this free PDF, The Simple Twitter Book by @BrentO.

Social Networking for Dummies – nay, Beginners Part 2

Twitter

In continuation to my original Social Networking for Dummies (Part 1), Twitter is a broadcasting tool for social networking. Much like Facebook, you follow people or brands and post your status, also known as a tweet, to those following you. It's an effective tool for sharing information, such as an interesting news article, or even a funny YouTube video. However, you do not want to become a statistic where studies proved that the majority of tweets are meaningless chatter. I will admit, out of 100% of my tweets, maybe 4% to 6.5% fall into that category (don't ask how I got that number). Yesterday, ZDnet release a list of 100 technology experts on Twitter, it was a part of a three part series I recommend reading. I plugged in a few of my favorites that I know of that I hadn't added to my list, and to my dismay, I came to the conclusion that a good amount of higher ranked "Tech Experts", had many meaningless tweets. Which is surprising, and perhaps ZDNet generated the list based on the quantity of tweets, not quality, tech relative tweets. You can judge for yourself on a page I built that links to the users tweets.
I leave you with this, Twitter, as described in the picture below, is a young social networking tool, but smart nonetheless. Of course, as part of this series of Social Networking for Dummies, the almost popular comic by ~elontirien, stereotypes the social network sites. MySpace being the obnoxious, albeit, jokey site, versus Facebook, smart and cool, Wikipedia is the nerd with no style and without a girlfriend, while Google is the “know it all”. Finally devianArt is the creative type and YouTube, ruthless future drop-out.

Internet University Cast by ~elontirien on deviantART

Facebook Agrees to Acquire Sharing Service FriendFeed

Breaking News from Mashable states that Facebook has acquired Friendfeed. This is a perfect example of the Grasshopper becoming the master.
News Release from Facebook.com:
PALO ALTO, Calif. — August 10, 2009 — Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.
“Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” said Bret Taylor, a FriendFeed co-founder and, previously, the group product manager who launched Google Maps. “We can’t wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we’ve developed at FriendFeed to Facebook’s 250 million users around the world.”
“As we spent time with Mark and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they’ve built and their desire to have us contribute to it,” said Paul Buchheit, another FriendFeed co-founders. Buchheit, the Google engineer behind Gmail and the originator of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto, added, “It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook’s engineers are about creating simple, ground-breaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group.”
Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they’ve brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.
“Since I first tried FriendFeed, I’ve admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. "As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use."
FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.

Vark! Then next method of search

You hear of Bing, and of course Google and Yahoo. Of course, each have their own algorithm of searching, and for the most part, many of the search engines return similar results. These search engines are considered the three major search engines, battling out to return top web sites. At times, you might need a more specific answer, or in many cases, suggestions. Where the big three search engines return web sites, sometimes you need real answers. In comes Aardvark. at Vark.com.
Aardvark, or Vark, works unlike any other search. When you join, you configure your profile to search your questions via instant messenger including Google Talk, AIM, iChat, MSN Messenger and even Twitter. You may also be configured to receive questions and answer back, you are not going to be spammed with IM's all day. When you create a profile, you will be asked for topics you may fit in to answer question when necessary. Topics range from Theater to Psychology and jQuery and Engineering to my favorite, computer programming. You may even ask about animals or even math homework. The way this works is the network you are part of will be consulted first on your questions on the search. For each questions, six people will be contacted based on your questions category or topic. Not all six will accept your question, however, you may receive up to two answers, and within five minutes. All this is done via your instant messenger of your choice. When you configure the IM on your profile, you will receive a member or contact, Aardvark. You enter your question as a message to Aardvark on your IM, and will receive the answer from there as well.
I highly recommend Aardvark. If you find yourself in forums asking question with no results in days, or you sometimes want to get a suggestions form live persons rather that a search engine, you defiantly need Aardvark. Join here, Vark.com.

Apple Microsoft Partnership Anniversary and Twitter is Down

What a day! On this date 12 years ago, big Redmond (Microsoft) invested $150 Million worth of market priced non-voting shares of Apple, Inc. If you fallowed the Yahoo-Microsoft story, or what people are calling Micro-Hoo, it seems like déjà-vu to the Apple-Microsoft partnership.

In other news on this date, Twitter was hit hard by a Denial of Service attack, bringing Twitter.com to it's knees. The service has been down all morning. Oddly enough, I added my Twitter feed to this blog yesterday and I haven't been able to view it at all.

Social Networking for Dummies - nay, Beginners

Part 1

What is Social Networking anyway? We all know what socializing is, and a network is comprised of individuals or groups gathering or connected together. I’m not here to explain the technical structure of network nodes, and protocols, nay, this post was inspired by a few of my family members that in 2009, have yet to have experienced the likes of Facebook, Twitter, blogging, even instant messengers.
The first question you want to ask yourself if you want to be on social networks is, “Do I want to have a presence online?” The Internet is a huge place, when you’re online, you make the decision whether you want to be personal or professional, fun or boring, be yourself or your alter ego. Social Networks can be used for business or personal, in the sense that you can join groups within a network, for instance, audio engineering, or underwater basket weaving. You can reconnect with old friends or make new ones.
Let me try to put it all together for you now beginning with Facebook. Facebook is a social --- a website, where you can share thoughts, stories, experiences, feelings, so on and so on. As I mentioned, while online, you be or say what you want. I’d be careful though, I’ll tell you why later. You may choose to write about work or hobbies and interests, even studies. Facebook was create by a Harvard student to connect with other students in Harvard, to socialize or assist in their studies. You may create a Facebook account for free. Once you have, you could search for people by their names, emails, or companies. You might be surprised how many people are online, (200 million subscribers). As you look for people, Facebook automatically calls them your “Friends” if you add them even if they’re just acquaintances, you could also search for groups. The groups are where you could find new friends, people who share your interest. When you join groups, you can find yourself chatting with others and it’s your call if you want to add some members of said groups to your friends list.
So for beginners, why Facebook and not MySpace? First of all, that’s the social network. I have a MySpace, but it’s bombarded with spam (junk mail). To prove my point further, MySpace is currently changing their executives, Tom, those who know of MySpace, will be the New CEO while the current CEO will stepping down. This MySpace decision is mainly due to the lack of technology advances made on MySpace compared to Facebook. Moreover, I read an article on TechNewsWorld regarding user participation and how the users participation is part of their business model.
Now you know how to get started on Facebook, what now? Here are a few things you can do with a Facebook account:

• Update your list of friends with comments that you prefer to share. “I’m sleepy” or “I’m hungry” are pathetic updates. The comments could be business, or personal, for instance, “Any recommendations on Firewall Software” or “I hope the Cowboys draft a much needed back-up quarterback at this weekends draft.” Those comments may attract Computer Professionals or Cowboy fans that might likely comment back to you.
• Add pictures you want to share with your friends along with commentary like, “My kids and I caught a 5 lbs. Bass this weekend”.
• There are also online games you can play and share with your friends online as well.
• Share links to interesting websites or interesting articles online worth mentioning.
• And of course, what social gathering can resist an array of barter, sale or favor advertising. Free of charge you can barter, sell/buy or plainly ask for anything.

In essence, Facebook is a tool that you could use for fun or business. I will very gladly walk readers through more if need be by commenting on this blog of on my Facebook.
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Stay tuned for more social networking, Twitter, Blogging and Instant Messaging is next.

Ken Radio and Work Visas

A guy like me, loves technology, I try to be an early adopter of cutting edge technology when feasible, and will share my thoughts or recommendations to friends even strangers. For years I been reading blogs and technology audio or video shows. I think RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is an amazing invention. RSS is the format used to submit a web feed over the Internet. With RSS, Podcasting became possible, and I jumped on the bandwagon to listen to some incredible technologist on subjects from programming, hacking to media entertainment and technology, like Ken Radio.

I listen to Ken Radio’s “World Technology Round Up” and have been for about 6 yrs. now, maybe more. Yesterday’s show, and I think the subject began on April 1st show, disappointed me a little. Ken Rutkowski, the host, talked about Microsoft seeking fewer H-1B visas then in previous years. Of course, due to the recession in the US, the software giants is not the only one seeking employees within the United States in good faith to boost the economy and reduce the unemployment rate. For some reason, Rutkowski mentioned that was a bad move; seeking employees in the States. He claimed that countries like India and Singapore had more qualified candidates to work for a company like Microsoft than in the United States. He gave an example of Singapore mandates their people to be educated in three languages, and made a joke; “What do you call person that speaks two languages – bi-lingual. What do you call a person that speaks one language – American.” I think it was in poor taste for Rutkowski to air what he said. I’m a software developer, have a bachelors degree in Information Technology and an Associates in Mass Communications, and I am bi-lingual, did I mention I live in the United States. I don’t negate the fact the there are great engineers around the globe. I've worked in facilities with engineers from India, China and Nigeria but I have also with Americans from Wyoming, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona.

Earth Hour

Being that today, Earth Hour will be celebrated, I figure I put my two cents in. I still don’t know what I will do at 8:30 tonight. It’s Saturday night, the kids like to sleep late, usually watching new episodes of Zack and Cody or Phineas and Ferb. The good thing is that my boys (6 and 8 yr) are interested in being Green. We recycle plastic bottles, and recently began collecting organic left over's to create our own compost for our trees and plants. I hope our baby (9 mo.) will sleep during that time, but we will turn off all our lights, and TV for one hour. In addition, from work, I will turn off our neon signs, and all the lights from 7 pm. on until tomorrow.