Passed 70-528 Yesterday

Another one bites the dust!

That's my MCPD: EAD.......

SQL Down Under Code Camp (Again)

I've just noticed that my blog on SQL Down Under Code Camp has vanished without a trace. Therefore, here it is again.

My trip to Code Camp started months before the event as I decided to hire a bus and drive a few of the Canberra User Group members to the event. Well, it turns out that only 2 Canberra members (and me which I suppose means three) decided to take the bus, however I got 7 ring-ins from other States that couldn't get direct flights to Wagga Wagga (Well, that's what they told me. I think they decided to tag along because they recon I'm such a great guy and that the bus trip was bound to be a hoot!).

We set off around Friday lunchtime (as we wanted to get there a day early giving us an extra night of drinking) with a bus load of lollies, chips and liquid refreshment (mainly alcohol) to see us (them as I couldn't drink) through the 3 hour trip. About two hours into the trip, and a couple of cartons later, we stopped off at the "Dog on the Tuckerbox" (see picture below) to stretch the legs and to have a well earned toilet break. We ended up arriving at Wagga Wagga at about 4:30pm. Just in time for a quick shower and a few extra beers before we headed out for dinner.

I was going to write a bit on the intellectual content of the weekend, however I can't remember much. (Must have been the margaritas :-) ). Seriously though, the weekend was absolutely brilliant with top notch presentations and social activities. We were also lucky enough to have all 5 of the Australian SQL Server MVP's present at the event which I understand was a first. If you want to know what was presented, pop across to Crucible's Melting Pot as he has put together one heck of a post on the whole weekend.

Before I show you a few happy snaps, I'd like to say a big thank you to Greg Low for putting the event together and for Charles Sturt University for the venue. Also, to all the presenters, thank you for helping make the inaugural event such a success.

Now for some Kodak moments.......

The Passengers

The Attendees

The Australian SQL MVP's (Presented by Rose Stammell - MS MVP Contact)
(Left - Grant Paisley, Rob Farley, Greg Low, Darren Gosbell and Greg Linwood)

The Mascot

The real reason we attend these events!

Two Assignments Down - Four To Go

When it comes to assignment time, I sit back and think "What the hell am I doing!"? Don't I have enough on my plate? How the hell can I possibly do all these assignments and still have some sort of a life. Just when I decide enough is enough, I get an email about a "Doctor of Information Technology" (http://www.csu.edu.au/courses/postgraduate/information_technology_doctor/) and start planning to take this course in 2008. It's true what they say, study is addictive and once you find something you are really passionate about, it's really hard to quit. Anyway, that's another post.

I have just finished handing in Assignment 1 for my Enterprise Design Patterns subject (boy, talk about brain numbing stuff. Perhaps I'll post it once I get my result back), and now I'm preparing to complete Assignment 2 for Principles of Programming Using C# which is due on 20th October. I got my mark back for Assignment 1 and scored 85.5% which was good enough for a HD, but I made some really stupid mistakes that cost me marks and all off them were to do with commenting.

How many times have you had someone on your case reminding you to document your code? Well, you'd think that after years of developing I would have paid more attention and documented my code. Well I didn't. I forgot to include my name, student number and a description of the program in my examples which meant I lost marks. Talk about learning the hard way. I'll not do that again (yeah right!)

Anyway, must go. The kids are asleep, the spa is pumping and I can hear another bottle of champagne calling. Time to spend some quality time with my wife.

Catchya later.
Jeff

P.S. From the 20th October to 3rd November (when I leave for Barcelona) I have some spare time so will be posting Part 3 of my XML and SQL Server post.

Tech-Ed Developer 2006 - Barcelona (Spain)

Just finished submitting my Assignment on Enterprise patterns, so I thought I'd update my blog.

Well, it's official. I'm off to Tech-Ed Developer 2006 in Barcelona (http://www.mseventseurope.com/TechEd/06/pre/defaultdev.aspx) to proctor hands-on-labs and help out on the Ask-the-Experts booth. I'm really looking forward to this event as I had such a great time proctoring at Tech-Ed 2006 in Sydney Australia.

The other thing I'm really looking forward to is the fact that I get a free ticket to attend a pre-conference event (deep dive session) and I have chosen "Agile Development with Team System" (http://www.mseventseurope.com/TechEd/06/Pre/Static/Developers/PCAgile.aspx) as I haven't had much experience with Team System and it will be very interesting to see how it integrates with this style of development methodology. There are also a heap of Smart Client and Windows Mobile sessions that I hope to attend as to put it quite frankly, the sessions at Tech-Ed Australia were limited and pretty bland.

Oh, I must say a big thanks to Maciej Pilecki for organising accommodation for me, and a bunch of other MCT's. From the emails going 'round, it looks like it's going to be a pretty big event.

Cheers
Jeff

Congratulation Rob Farley - SQL Server MVP

Just wanted to say congratulations to a good friend of mine who has just been awarded SQL Server MVP status.

Rob Farley runs the Adelaide SQL Server User Group and is a very active member of the SQL community in Australia (and around the world). Rob also holds a bunch of Microsoft Certifications (Transcript ID: 707979 / Access Code: Adelaide) and has assisted Microsoft Learning with creating some of the new MCPD and MCITP certification exams.

Rob is a big asset to the Developer and IT Pro community and many would agree that he makes a welcome addition to the MVP team.

Congrats Rob and thanks for devoting many hours of your time assisting the community and chatting to me on MSN :-)

Cheers
Jeff