21Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 8 Comments

Learning R: Hard Lessons

Data Science
I've always found the best way to learn a new programming language is to start building stuff, solving problems, using the language. Even if you do things badly or inefficiently, you're figuring out how to put the language to use. I tried the same thing with R. Fair warning, there is no happy conclusion to this story. It's a lesson about learning, not about solving a problem. After poking at the R language for a little while, I decided I was ready to solve a problem. I have a fantastic idea for demonstrating the usefulness of the language specifically for DBAs. I won't go into what it is here because I'm still hoping to solve this problem and it will provide a fantastic blog post. Anyway, I have a very…
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18Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Speaker of the Month: December 2015

PASS, Professional Development
The hardest presentations I've ever given in my life were not to large audiences or in big rooms. They weren't even when I had to present in front of people that I respect and admire (although presenting in front of Paul Randal (b|t) & Kim Tripp (b|t) gives me pause every single time, not sure why). I don't mind presenting all day sessions. In fact, I love the all day format. Nope, the hardest presentations for me are five minute lightning talks. They're brutal. They're unforgiving. You have to stop. You only get five minutes to tell people whatever it is you're going to tell them. Then its over. I've done three lightning talks. One of them, a rant on backup testing, I've given four or five times. The others all died…
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15Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Benefits from Data Lifecycle Management

Database Lifecycle Management, DevOps
I spend a lot of time talking about the need for automation within your databases, especially in support of development, deployment, and through process management. It's because I learned the hard way just how important this stuff is. It took a pretty strong developer (in the sense of abilities, he didn't beat me up) to convince me that I was doing database development the wrong way. However, once he made me see the light, I was like one of the Blues Brothers, on a mission. However, I think this is one of the hardest parts to get people to understand. If you have a mostly, or completely, manual deployment process, you're experiencing pain from the inefficiencies that causes. However, it's a pain that's just embedded into the organization so much, that…
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14Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

One More PASS Board Update for 2015

PASS
Remember that post I wrote about taking on SQLSaturday events as my new PASS portfolio? Never mind.* Instead, it seems I'll be involved with a completely different role. Starting on January 1, I'll be moving onto the executive committee of the PASS Board and taking on the role of Executive Vice President. You can read the announcement here. While this means that I won't be directly involved in Chapters and SQLSaturday on a day to day basis, I will continue my engagement with Chapters until a new Director comes onboard and portfolio assignments are complete. As EVP, I want to stay engaged as possible in SQLSaturday in every way I can within my new role. I love SQLSaturday (and I don't mind saying, I was excited to receive that portfolio…
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10Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 5 Comments

Promote Community

PASS, Professional Development
When I present at any given event, I generally assume that the people attending have heard of the event that I'm at. For example, I don't need to ask people at SQL in the City, "Who here has heard of Redgate Software?" Same thing goes for a SQL Saturday event "Did anyone here know that there's a local, free, event being held that provides free training and networking in your area?" seems like a waste of time while at the event. However, what about the rest of the community? If you're working on your presentation skills, I'd like you to add one more bit of work to everything else you're doing (yes, yes, you're welcome). I'd like you to get in the habit of taking 3-5 minutes prior to the…
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09Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

PASS Board Update: First Year

PASS
This represents my 12th month on the board so I thought I would recap my time there so you know what I've done, haven't done, etc. A year ago I took over Chapters as my area of responsibility, what's known as my Portfolio. Wendy Pastrick had been ably running it quite well, so I had big shoes to fill. The first thing I had to prepare was a set of goals for the Chapters. I've blogged about them and the process and I reported on my success in meeting them (mostly) at PASS Summit this year. Over the year I've welcomed a number of new leaders, new Regional Mentors and new chapters into the fold. I've worked with Carmen and Karla at HQ, and we've done a good job (in…
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07Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Learning R: Foundations

Azure, DevOps, Professional Development, SQL Server 2016
Learning a programming language is largely an act of using that language to do stuff. Done. However, the big thing about R is the mathematical and statistical analyses that can be easily run against your data sets. This means, part of learning this language is learning another, that of data science. I'll be posting about how I'm learning R, but I also should tell you how I'm picking up on Data Science. First and foremost, madman he may be, but one of the few sources of information that I simply trust is Buck Woody. He's been running a series on Data Science. Here's an excellent example on how to pick a particular algorithm. These are must reads. Next, I'm starting a book called Data Science for Business: What you need to…
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03Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey 4 Comments

Changing Course On Learning

Azure, Database Lifecycle Management, DevOps, DocumentDB, Professional Development
With all the new stuff on the Microsoft Data Platform, it's really hard to keep up with it all. I had announced my plans to charge down the DocumentDB road to try to get the basics of that in my head along with learning some JSON so I could get what all the hoopla is about. However, after a lot of thought and some extensive meetings at Redgate, I'm looking to shift my learning in a new direction. First up. Arrrrrrrrr! No, it's not yet "Talk Like a Pirate Day." I'm going to start learning the R language. It's a language for statistical computing and is one of the many underpinnings for what's going to be happening with a lot of the Machine Learning capabilities in the Data Platform. With Azure…
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01Dec 2015 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

It’s Not Too Late

Azure, Professional Development, Redgate Software, SQL Server 2016
You know you want to go on the SQL Cruise. You can. You just have to convince the boss that it's worth doing. It is. I've said it before and I'll repeat it as necessary, SQL Cruise changes peoples lives. I've watched people go on the cruise with a job and come back with a career. People don't just learn on the Cruise. They get energized. They get engaged with the data professional community. How do I profit by promoting SQL Cruise? I don't. Tim Ford is a friend and I'm supporting him. My company, Redgate Software, is a sponsor of the cruise, so I'm supporting them. I could just be doing the bare minimum in support of these parties. However, I'm not getting paid anything special by anyone for doing more.…
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05Nov 2015 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Speaker of the Month for November 2015

Professional Development
A great benefit that I get with my job is that I get to travel all over the place to see people present. This means I can expand out beyond my own country to see good speakers. That's the case this month. My Speaker of the Month, with all the glory it entails, is Rob Sewell and his session "Using PowerBI With My DBA Database" delivered at SQL Relay Cardiff. Rob delivered a very interesting, useful and entertaining session. It was all about how to gather data about your databases and their behavior and then put it into different types of reports in order to be proactive about stuff within your managed environment. I loved the way he put his slides together, the graphics and the lack of bullet points.…
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