Kevin S. Goff: Life in Detail w/Microsoft Database Tools

1/1/2012 – SQL Server MVP Again!

Got my MVP Renewal email from Microsoft this morning - SQL Server MVP for 2012!  That's always a nice way to start the New Year.

This is my eighth consecutive year. From 2005-2009 I was a C# MVP, and have been a SQL Server MVP since 2012.

I owe a big thanks to SQL Saturday and community event organizers where I've done community presentations - also a big thanks to SetFocus (where I'm a SQL instructor and Practice Manager) as well as Rod Paddock/CoDe Magazine for publishing my articles.

In (hopefully) a few days I'll post my speaking schedule for the first few months of 2012. Things are up in the air at the moment, but it looks like I'll be speaking at the Central PA .NET User Group and Philly SQL Server User Group in mid-January (both on SQL Server 2012), and possibly the Lehigh Valley .NET User Group (also on SQL Server 2012) in February. I'm already slated for SharePoint Saturday in Philadelphia on February 4^th. Also, for anyone in the PA/NJ/NY area, Philly SQL Saturday is tentatively scheduled for June 9^th in Malvern. There are a few more possible ones, which I hope to lock down very soon.

Happy New Year!
KG

1-1-2011 - SQL Server MVP for 2011!

Got my MVP Renewal email from Microsoft this morning - SQL Server MVP for 2011!  Definitely a nice way to start the New Year.

I owe a big thanks to SQL Saturday and community event organizers where I've done community presentations - also a big thanks to SetFocus (where I'm a SQL instructor) as well as Rod Paddock/CoDe Magazine.

Happy New Year!

08/01/2010 - In memory of Kent Tegels

This evening I was deeply saddened to learn that Kent Tegels passed away this weekend.  Many people in the industry either know Kent, or at least know of his work.  Kent was a SQL Server MVP for a number of years, a database developer, instructor, writer, and lecturer.  In recent times, Kent became a University Professor at Colorado Technical University. 

A quick search of Kent's name will take you to numerous blog entries, presentations, code samples, etc, on SQL Server.  Kent exemplified what it means to be a community leader.

I knew Kent personally back in the 2006 and 2007 time period and learned a number of things from him, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to learn from him.

There is a Facebook site decided to Kent: I encourage everyone to check it out:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114921935225253&v=app_2373072738&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=114921935225253&v=wall&ref=ts

Kent was an amazing and exceptional individual.  He was extremely gifted and intelligent, and put his gifts to good use.  He was clever and a bit sarcastic at times, but as someone described, not in a mean or hurtful way.  Everyone who knew Kent was always proud to say that Kent was a top-notch guy, who expected greatness out of himself and of others.  He was also very colorful - a character with character. 

Normally someone (understandably) say, "let us never forget" a person.  There's not much chance for that happening - Kent gave us too many good things for us to ever forget. 

KG

1/1/2010: Hello, 2010 SQL Server MVP! (and a very fond adieu to my .NET MVP)

First, Happy New Year!

From 2005-2009, Microsoft awarded me the Microsoft MVP award in the .NET/C# area, mainly for the articles/book I wrote and community events where I presented many sessions.   Each year I felt incredibly fortunate to receive the award - and will always be indebted to people like Bonnie Berent and Rod Paddock / CoDe Magazine for their help and support.  

I've always been an applications developer, so my work efforts and areas of study have been both in development languages and database platforms (and the integration of the two).  For many projects, my knowledge of C# and .NET as well as Transact-SQL, analytics, and reporting served well in providing additional value. 

Over time, I found myself developing/speaking/writing more on the database end and somewhat less on the .NET end.   It is certainly not because of lack of interest in .NET/C# - I just saw more opportunities in the SQL Server area.   The ultimate turning point was in 2007, when I began training and writing courseware for SetFocus in their SQL Server/Business Intelligence area.

Through 2008 my community work was roughly half .NET and half SQL/BI.  In 2009 it was almost all SQL/BI.  In 2009, I taught approximately 450 student/weeks for SetFocus in the SQL/BI area, wrote numerous custom courseware modules for them, and did over a dozen user group / CodeCamp presentations in the community in different SQL categories. 

Microsoft (very graciously) allowed me to transition from .NET MVP to SQL Server MVP  (received notification this morning).  So, to MVP Leads P.J. Forgione, Suzanna Moran, and Ryan Bolz, thank you very much!   I also want to say thank you to my friend Andy Leonard, who is a SQL Server MVP and put in some good words for me.  Anyone who knows Andy, knows that he is one of the sharpest and one of the NICEST guys around. 

And most of all, a big thank you to SetFocus for giving me the opportunity to train with them.  My training volume this past year surely had a big impact on being awarded SQL Server MVP.

So what's in store for me, going forward?  Well, my professional plans for 2010 are as follows:

· To continue blogging on this site about SetFocus news and providing different tidbits of what we cover in our SQL Server / Business Intelligence Master's Training Programs.

· To continue blogging about new things that are coming down the pike with regards to SQL Server 2008R2, SQL Server vNext, SharePoint 2010, etc.

· Speak for as many different user groups and weekend community (e.g. CodeCamp and SQL Saturday events) as I can.   I did fewer community presentations in 2009 than past years, partly because of the birth of our daughter.  (Some view me as a workaholic, but trust me, family comes first!)  So I plan to hit a few more events this year.

· I've started on my new book - working title is Expert Business Intelligence Solutions with SQL Server 2008 and other Microsoft Technologies.  It might see the light of day in August/September of this new year.  More details later...

· And hopefully train several hundred student/weeks again!

4/19/2009 - A strange experience with a new machine

My christmas present this year was a Gateway Quad-Core with 8 GB of memory.  It's generally rated as one of the fastest of the quad-core machines in the $1,200 or less price range.

Well, I was so busy after Christmas that I really didn't get a chance to seriously start using it until February.  My first step was to install Windows Server 2008 on top of the OS that came with the machine  (Vista Home Premium 64-bit).  I've done that with my last few machines (including a laptop), with no problems.

Well, all the good fortunate I'd had with new machines and Win 2008 came to a screeching halt - shortly afterwards, the Gateway desktop either would die with the blue screen of death, or would reboot itself in the middle of something.  Figuring it was just a botched install, I did the install again - same problem.

Well, I figured I'd just use Virtual Server on my desktop - but there was no way I was going to use Home Premium.  So I installed Vista Ultimate on the desktop....same problems after the install  (blue screen of death and constant re-boots).  And if you're wondering, I was also formatting the drive to completely start from scratch - but still kept running into the same problems.

At that point, I was really getting suspicious.  So I tried to install Vista Business, which is one level above Home Premium.  Same problems!   (If you're wondering why I dislike Home Premium so much - it comes down to one simple thing - it doesn't support Windows Authentication). 

So there I am - a new desktop (and I mean a SCREAMER of  desktop) that, sadly, did too much screaming with any O.S. other than Home Premium.

HMMMMM?????????  (Do we see a pattern emerging here, Scully?)

Well, after weeks of research, I came across two gentlemen who separately told me something about new Gateway desktops.  I do not know for a fact if this is true, so I'm only repeating what they told me:  Gateway supposedly burned the version of the operating system into the circuitry of the hard disk.  Now, I know as much about circuitry as I know about playing the violin  (ZERO!), so I didn't know if the guys were correct or not. 

But both told me to  go buy a new hard disk and use the new disk.  It was a small gamble, but I didn't have much choice.  Because of the length of time, I wasn't able to exchange the machine,  and so I bought a new 1 TB disk for about $109 and installed it. 

Well, that was almost 3 weeks ago, and I'm happy to report that my screamer of a machine is running perfectly.  Because I'd been reformatting the drive every time I installed a new O.S., it NEVER would have occured to me to go buy a completely different drive.  It's not like the drive that came with the machine was some bizarre brand name - it was a Western Digital - but it seems that putting in a new drive (in this case, a Seagate) took care of everything.  (I'm sure that had I bought a new WD drive, it would have worked as well).

So - all the luck I've had for the last few years, installing a Server-based OS without any issues, finally caught up to me.  But fortunately it had a happy ending - this new machine is FAST.  I've always owned good machines, but this Gateway is the best.    So I'm a happy boy now.  I've got SQL 2005, SQL 2008, MOSS 2007, and VS 2008 all running the way I want them.  Life is good.  :)

Now playing - Wes Montgomery, Smokin' at the Half Note  (of the best live guitarist performances of all time)

KG

1/20/2008 – MVP Again!

Hi, folks – great news for me on the first of the year, I received the .NET MVP award again for C#.

Thanks to all those who have helped me along the way, as well as the people who run the .NET/SQL events where I've spoken!

1/9/07: A new year, MVP again...

Happy New Year to everyone...

2007 started well, I received my 2007 MVP for C# on Jan 1.   I guess I can say it's a three-peat.  Thanks to those who have helped me along the way...

I've been a busy boy as far as writing goes.  I  submitted a large article for the upcoming CodeFocus on moving from VFP to .NET.  Then I wrote my regular CoDe article for the next issue - article focuses on building web pages using ASP.NET 2.0, C#, and T-SQL 2005.  There's some coverage of Generics as well.

Frequently, after I submit an article, I always lament the things I wanted to cover but couldn't fit in....but I didn't feel that way on this latest one.  Not sure if I just got lucky, but I'm really happy about this latest one.  I'm evolving toward a model for every issue - presenting some real-life situation, and demonstrating the use of one more more technologies to build it.  It's very difficult for me to write an article just on one item, so I'll continue to focus on pieces that use multiple tools to put something together. 

I don't make specific New Years Resolutions, just general goals - to cover WCF and LINQ, continue pushing Generics and T-SQL, and maybe, just maybe, a 2nd book???  We'll see.  I turn 42 in a few weeks.  I'm a helluva lot more mellow than I was a few years ago, so I have to learn to channel energies differently.  [ok, i'm breaking my rule of not turning a blog into true confessions]

I'm going to travel a little less this year - just the MVP Summit, DevTeach, and the local CodeCamps.  Of course, that'll be challenged the first time the Atlantic bad-boys [you know who you are, haha] want to do a road-trip up to Boston.

Now listening to...John Coltrane's Blue Train. 

Peace out...KG

Hello, blog-world

Howdy, all...

KG's first blog entry.  I've had this on my 'to-do' list for weeks.  For now, I'm going with a starter service - will probably look at something bigger when I get some time.

Mainly I'll talk about software and .NET, sports, music, entertainment, my best buds, Monty Python trivia, etc.      

Just got back from a week-long client trip, so I'm pleasantly drained.  I consider myself fortunate, I have good clients.

Spent a combined nine hours in the Allentown and Detroit airports last Sunday, due to a series of mechanical problems.   I may have set the world's record for eating airport pizza in one day.

I've been to 2 MSDN CodeCamp events (www.msdncodecamp.com) in the last 2 months.  Went to the CC in Boston, got to meet Rod Paddock and even buy him a steak.  Great guy, excellent speaker.  Then went to Philly CC  (www.phillydotnet.org/codecamp) and gave two presentations, one on distributed database apps, and one on using Crystal with SQL Server and .NET. 

Also met Miguel Castro, and sat in on his WebControls session.  He's a one-man dynamo.  If you haven't met Miguel - he is a BLAST.  Miguel's blog is www.geekswithblogs.com/mcastro.

CodeCamps are fun.  A lot of good ideas and a lot of positive energy - I heard a rumor about a CC in Harrisburg later this year.  I'm originally from Central PA, so I'll try to get into that one.  I hope CC continues to grow.

In the words of Tori Amos, "Pretty Good Year".   I received my Microsoft MVP for .NET/C# in early January, have had 3 articles published, plenty of full-time contract work, and got a new BOSE CD system for Christmas.  ;)   

If you're a music fan and don't yet own a BOSE - they're awesome.  The minute I opened it up, I popped in a Miles Davis CD.  "Birth of the Cool" never sounded so cool...

Of course, you have to take the good with the bad - had some health issues earlier this year.  Birthday #40 was a rough one.  But fortunately things are getting back to normal.

I owe a great deal to many people who have helped me professionally and personally: people like Rod and JVP, on-line community leaders like Bonnie Berent and Cathi Gero, and my first boss (Mike Antonovich, all the way back in 1988..."Michael, you can do that in Lotus 1-2-3???").

Peace out...KG