Month: July 2007

(completely non-tech) I’ve had quite a few people ask me my opinions on the Arsenal transfers this summer (well, winter here in Australia, but summer for Arsenal). The big question of course is around Thierry Henry. Our champion who left for Barcelona this year. Personally, I think it was a year too late, but if he’d left a year ago, it might’ve been a year too soon. This past season for him was a major let-down, and I wonder if he will ever achieve the same kind of level as the past. As for his ‘replacement’, Eduardo da Silva, I think … Continue reading My views on Arsenal comings and goings

We all know that Adelaide hosted Code Camp SA recently – it was a great success, and some people even wished I was there! TechEd is coming up of course, but now there are two code camps scheduled for October, on the same weekend (13-14) and at the same venue! Yes, that place is Wagga Wagga – one Wagga for each event. Firstly, and most importantly I’m sure, is the second SQL Down Under Code Camp. But the other one is the Security Camp Oz. With me doing the SQL Security talk at TechEd this year, I’m sure I’ll have a … Continue reading Code Camps galore

I should’ve posted that I was confirmed as a speaker at this year’s TechEd Australia. It’s in just over two weeks’ time – August 7-10. Today I uploaded my slide deck, so that delegates may be able to download the slides before they come to the talk. I’m doing the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices talk – code DAT308. It’s on Thursday morning at 9:45. Much better than being on Friday morning, when everyone might be a little bleary-eyed after the party at Movie World. I’m also going to be doing an Instructor-Led Lab, on Database Mirroring. I … Continue reading TechEd slides uploaded

You can only book to do Microsoft certification exams through Pearson Vue until the end of August. From then on, you have to choose Prometric. More information can be read at Vue’s website: http://vue.com/ms/testtakerfaq.pdf Personally, I find this a real shame. It’s good for us candidates to have a choice. I’ve preferred Vue over Prometric in recent years, and it was Vue who provided exams at TechEd Australia. I don’t know the reasons why Microsoft have taken this approach, but will post again once I have found out something (assuming the information I find out is public).

On a trip to Redmond earlier this year (when I was one of 6 people deciding on content for the 70-445 and 70-446 exams), I had the chance to meet Howard Dierking. Howard is the Product Planner for Developer and Database Certifications. It was great to meet him – he has a lot of enthusiasm for certifications, and really wants to do the best he can to make them right. Anyway, during our conversation, we talked about the possibility of getting the community to write questions. In July last year I had spent two weeks writing the simulation questions for 70-431 … Continue reading Certification questions from the community

My almost-ten-year-old son wants to see the new Transformers movie. It’s rated M, which means that it’s not recommended for kids under the age of fifteen. On that point alone, my answer is no. But I was curious about the movie – I remember the cartoon from twenty-something years ago, plus my kids have seen the cartoon themselves. So I went with my brother this week. Before the US release, too. Lucky Australia. Like most movies of TV shows, they seem to want to put the whole plot (or in this case, war) into a single movie. That frustrates me … Continue reading Transformers movie – worth the rating?