http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aAFgqtwU4K2Y

I’ve mapped out a quick plan to achieve my goals of MCITPs for Database Administration and Business Intelligence in both SQL Server 2005 and 2008.

MCTS - SQL Server 2005 - Exam 70-431

The first step on my path, and my introduction to many of the technologies that I’m weak with.  This one will take me a few weeks of study and practice.

MCITP - Database Administrator - Exam 70-443 (database design)

This one should be pretty easy.  Designing DBs is what I do, and I don’t think I’ll have much of an issue here.

MCITP - Database Administrator - Exam 70-444 (optimizing and maintaining)

 Basic database administration here, simple stuff.

MCITP - Database Administrator 2008 - Exam 70-453

 The upgrade to 2008, I’ll likely spend more time on this one, since it will cover the new technologies in SQL 2008 that I haven’t had much exposure to in the real world.  I’ll be forced to learn things like geospatial and temporal data handling, filestreams, and other bleeding edge technology.  I expect this to be one of the more enjoyable studies, but it may take me 2 months to get a hold of the material.

MCTS - Business Intelligence  - Exam 70-445

 This one should be difficult, as I am quite well versed in reporting services, but have almost no experience with SSIS and Microsoft’s ETL.

MCITP - Business Intelligence - Exam 70-446

 More of the same here, lots of new technology to learn with respect to Data Warehousing and Data Mining.  I don’t even know how much MDX I’ll have to learn to pass this one.  

MCITP - Business Intelligence Developer - Exam 70-455

 Since I’ve been quite interested in the capabilities of SQL 2008’s data warehousing, this one should be a really fun study.

MCAS Excel 2007 - Exam 77-602

The cherry on top of my certification stack, this will give me the basic Excel chops to extend my BI work on the desktop.

Once these are complete, we’ll have a look at the MySQL CMA exam, and possibly the Database Developer MCITP track.  Someday, maybe even the $20,000 3 week Master Certification for SQL Server 2008.  Has anyone looked deeply into this certification?  I’d be very, very interested in talking with you!

Born December 16th, at 5:35am, 7 lbs 12 oz, Mara Isabelle Harris, my lovely new daughter!

Wrong.

DLNA doesn’t really stream every format (MKV anyone?) and it has issues with large libraries of MP3s, which are becoming quite common these days.  It also doesn’t support Internet content like youtube videos, or hulu.com.

There are a few things you can run on your server that can help with this issue.

The first is tversity.  This amazing product allows for podcasting, vidcasting, live transcoding, and support for big libraries and custom folder interface on your PS3.  This product runs on windows, and streams to any device, invluding your cell phone, any web browser device, your Wii, your PS3, and on and on.  You can use it to stream out to the Internet, too, getting full access to your entire media library from anywhere in the world.

The second product is a new one, right out of beta, which supports Hulu, CBS, ESPN, Netflix online streaming, and Youtube.  This one is great, and I’m really excited to see it.  It will cost you $30, and is worth every penny.  It is called PlayOn, head on over to MediaMall’s site and check it out!

Another neat one is uSirius, a neat little app to interface your tversity software with Sirius satellite radio’s streaming online content.

Update : check out Krynsky’s post, which is everything mine should have been!

Enter starplayr, the UI can use some work, but it allows for nice features like auto login, quick stream changes, links and artwork based on the artists, and a panel of “favorite” channels. 

It works with XM, too!!

iheartgames is a new way to schedule console games with your friends and family. If you’re tired of playing with strangers, or not having enough people online to get a great multiplayer experience, then iheartgames has you covered.

iheartgames lets you add your list of games on any console from our complete and updated database of games from metacritic.com. It also manages a fully featured friends list with tons of contact methods, so you know your friends will always know when you want to play.

You, or any of your friends, can schedule game times for any game in your list. Notifications (twitter, SMS, etc.) will go out automatically to any of your friends owning the game. They will then be able to reserve their spot in your game until all available spots are filled. With iheartgames, you are guaranteed a full house with people that you trust across all platforms. Pickup games are a thing of the past with iheartgames.

Change the expression for the filed to the code below :

=System.TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.ToLocalTime(Fields!DateTime.Value)

This converts your UTC datetime field to the local time zone value.

1. The battery life sucks.  I’m fairly accustomed to not charging my phone for 2-3 days.  I can’t even have a full work day with dinner and drinks afterwards without having to charge my phone.  Why shouldn’t I be able to check my Active Sync e-mail once an hour or so, and take 3-4 calls per day without my battery running out?

2. It is kind of…big.  When I hold this thing up to my face, people stare.  I guess most die hard iPhone fans like this and imagine that the people staring are having gadget envy.  I, however, felt like a trendy jackass.

3. No keyboard?!  WHAT?!  The touch keyboard sucks.  The predictive text sucks.  Training my dictionary was a huge waste of time just to hit a baseline productivity.  For business communication, you just can’t allow typos and mistakes to come through.  These kinds of mistakes cause one to appear sloppy and lazy.  Even without this standard, the mistakes coming through on text messages, e-mails, notes, etc. are really irritating.  I suppose that you could get used to it, or better at it, but I never needed that kind of “training” to use the keyboards on my Blackberrys, or my T Mobile Wing, or my Treos!  It took me so much longer to get out a three sentence e-mail on the iPhone that I often asked myself “why don’t I just go to a computer to finish this?”  It absolutely killed my productivity away from my desk, and irritated me to no end.

4. It isn’t really a phone with entertainment options on it.  It is an entertainment device with a phone built into it.  The primary purpose of the phone is obviously NOT a communications device, and the design of both the UI and the phone itself are a testament to this.

5. It sticks to your face when you talk on it for more than a few minutes.  It is slippery, too, I dropped mine twice.  That being said, it is quite durable. 

6. The signal isn’t that great, side by side, my other phones were often in signal when the iPhone was out, or had a better data connection.

7. Oh the fingerprints.  This device will have you cleaning it 20 times a day, if you have any kind of standards for appearances.

Those problems are really quite…numerous, for something people often refer to as a Jesus phone.  This phone is meant for people that have a primary purpose for a device that they carry with them everywhere…entertainment.  If you are often listening to music, and watching television/movies, reading websites, etc. on the go, then this is the phone for you.   You don’t need a phone to talk to your Apple Store music collection.  You never need to text your downloaded Season 3 of South Park.  You probably don’t need to communicate much at all, just be sweetly and quietly entertained.  For the people who are actually doing business and communicating with friends and loved ones often, this is not the right phone.

Why is it that we, as a country, continue to allow people who deliberately break the law to keep the bulk of their riches even after they’ve destroyed the company they were trusted with?  Why should these compensations be any different than cars, houses, and money seized from drug dealers?  Both are breaking the law on a very large scale and both are damaging communities in the United States.

This latest bailout/purchase of Lehman, sullied by Golden Parachutes once again, is symptomatic of the assumption of entitlement for CEOs and high level management all across the country.  At the very best, these men allowed their institutions to fail, and should not be rewarded.  At worst, they allowed the largest economy in the world to be placed squarely into danger of collapsing.  This kind of activity should not be accepted, and in my opinion the damage caused by the willful profiteering of these men and others like them is much more harmful to many more people than many crimes which are prosecuted much more harshly.

These men need to be held accountable for their actions within the corporation.  As much as the corporation exists to protect the individuals within it from liability, we need to ensure that when there is wrongdoing, there is punishment.  These men do not care about the institutions they ruined, they did not care for the American people (and people all over the world!) who invested in them, they only cared for themselves.  They were able to take this position, because they knew that they would not be punished.  Their powerful and well connected legislators, bought and paid for, would never allow anything to happen to them…and surely the “government” would bail them out. In this case, and in ALL cases, the Government IS the people.  We are forced to pay for a mistake that we never made but there are people responsible.  These people ought to face the American people in court and have an appropriate punishment given to them.  

More and more, it seems that there really isn’t equal protection under the law.  If I am one day late paying my car registration, I am forced to pay a hefty reinstatement fee, and I will be under the threat of being pulled over and more fully punished.  If these men bankrupt a company that is of International significance they are given enormous bonuses.  Is that fair, to anyone?

If we have the resources to enforce jaywalking laws, we certainly have the resources to audit these companies, and not just management, but employees all the way down to loan officers, and even home buyers who lied about their income.