Windows 10 – Mobile Hotspot

A few weeks ago, I was doing a demo on a couple of Alexa skills that I've developed using Amazon Echo Dot. However, the place where I have to do the demo use enterprise class Wi-Fi (it is where after connecting to the Wi-Fi network, we need to authenticate using web browser). Unfortunately, at the moment, as far as I know, Amazon Echo Dot doesn't support enterprise class Wi-Fi. To make matter worse, my cell phone signal was very weak in the meeting room, so I was unable to use my cell phone as hotspot.

T-SQL Tuesday #99 – Work-Life Balance

This month T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Aaron Bertrand (blog | twitter). For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, we are given two options. The first option is to write about something that we are passionate about outside of SQL and tech community. The second option is to write about T-SQL bad habit. Mr. Bertrand has a long list of them. For this entry, I choose to write about activities that I do outside SQL or tech community #sqlibrium.

Books in Review - 2017

One of my personal goal for 2017 was to read more books. I was gunning to read 2 books a month. In 2017, I read 25 books (1 more book than the yearly target goal). I am not a fast reader. Normally, I read books when I commute to and from work. Most of the books were rented from local library. I used to prefer hard copy books than digital books. However, a couple of years ago, for non technical books, I made the transition to get digital (Kindle) books whenever possible. It felt awkward at first, but after reading several books on my kindle, I am starting to get used to it. The good thing is that my local library also has a good selection of books in digital format. Since 2017 has just ended, I think it would be good to inventory the books that I've read in 2017. It seems that I read various genres of books from fiction, self-help, autobiography, etc.

PASS Summit Video Recordings

PASS (Professional Association for SQL Server) Summit is the largest conference for data professional working with Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence stack. Typically, PASS would have the Summit once a year (in the fall) in Seattle, Washington. PASS Summit offers a wealth of knowledge. Each year, there are hundreds of sessions on various SQL Server and Business Intelligence topics presented by industry experts and also Microsoft employees. If you are a data professional, who are working with Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence, PASS Summit is a great event to learn and network with fellow data professionals. If you were unable to attend the past PASS Summits (or if you attended the past PASS Summits and want to relive and review those sessions), you can go to SQL PASS site and watch the past PASS Summit Session Recordings for free. As of the writing of this blog post, you can view recordings for PASS Summit 2015 and older for free (you need to be a member of SQL PASS but the registration is free). Even though they might be a few years old, they are excellent learning resources.

By the way, if you can attend PASS Summit in person, I would recommend it. PASS Summit 2018 is going to be in Seattle, Washington, in November 2018. You can get more information from PASS Summit 2018 site.

T-SQL Tuesday #97 - 2018 Learning Goals

This month T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Malathi Mahadevan (blog | twitter) and it is about 2018 learning goals. Given that we are at the end of 2017, this is a timely topic. As data professionals and technology enthusiasts, we are living in an interesting time. There are a lot of opportunities to learn, so much so that we might feel overwhelmed by them. Goals can certainly help to focus our learning efforts.