Applied Visual Studio Team System : ...about Andy

At the 2007 PASS Summit!

andy — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:19:00 GMT

I'm at the 2007 PASS Summit!

I was wandering around the Colorado Convention Center earlier today in shorts, unshaven, tired... looking like I'd been rode hard and put up wet. But I caught the last half of Gert Draper's excellent presentation on Team Edition for Database Professionals! Gert is the man.

I'm presenting on the same topic tomorrow (yeah, I know - great move there, Andy...) and then on SSIS Development practices Thursday. This promises to be the geekiest week I've had in a long time!

:{> Andy

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Getting Ready For The PASS Summit!

andy — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:31:00 GMT

The PASS Summit is less than two weeks away!

I'm getting ready for my presentations. I need a couple laptops to host virtual servers for the demos, so I bought some new gear to take with me.

Check out my Network-In-A-Bag!

It's a power strip, a couple CAT6 cables, power supply, and a NetGear 1G 5-port switch - all in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag.

:{> Andy

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Priorities

andy — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:32:00 GMT

... note the smudged laptop screen... the pacifier... the nearly-finished bottle...

The smudges are from Emma showing me things on my screen. The bottle and pacifier are Riley's. The manuscript is an upcoming e-book on Team Edition for Database Professionals. More on that in a later post.

Juggling priorities is part of many lives - especially if you're a working parent. I've written about 75% of this current work between the hours of 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM. I was up anyway with Riley (Christy and I have "Riley shifts") - might as well write when he's snoozing.

Tonight is Stevie Ray's first soccer practice, so I won't be making the Richmond .Net Users Group meeting as earlier planned. I encourage you to attend if you're available this evening, Matt Harvell is one of those scary-smart people. Trust me, you'll learn stuff!

I will be speaking at next week's meeting of the Richmond SQL Server Users Group talking about Database Testing. I didn't mention it in the abstract online, but I'm planning to break out the Orcas Beta 2 version of TFS during the presentation - there's just way too much cool stuff in the new version!

Things are busy, that's true. And most work is done on flexible schedules. But life is going well for the Farmville Leonards.

Time to run - Wigglin' Boy needs to burp...

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: Richmond Developer Community User Groups Writing Team Edition for Database Professionals Work-Life Balance Farmville

On Government Regulation...

andy — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:34:00 GMT

Steve Jones has an(other) interesting editorial this morning in which he toyed with / proposed the idea of the government forcing Microsoft to release patches on some regular basis.

I like Steve a lot. We have a lot in common. We're both husbands and fathers. He's a Virginia boy like me and we both like database work. We haven't met, but we plan to meet at the PASS Summit in a couple weeks.

Meeting Steve face-to-face is something I'm looking forward to.

Mostly I agree with Steve's editorials. I read them every day they are published. They are a cool part of my morning routine. I strongly disagree with the idea of any government involvement in industry - period - and stated as much in a response to Steve's words.

I'm not here to beat a dead horse. We may disagree with how to fix the issue of delayed and poorly tested service packs, but we agree they're a problem for us and our clients.

What I find fascinating about the idea and exchange is this: This is exactly how good organizations go bad. Allow me to explain:

A couple months back, I posted Gatekeeper or Roadblock? Part 2 in which I rambled about an (hypothetical) evil conspiracy between a network admin and an executive. Most scenarios of good organizations going bad lack the level of intentionality or malice described therein. Some do, but most don't. What happens to those lacking malice? How do they go bad?

I'm glad you asked.

Normal day-to-day business issues arise. And they are responded to poorly.

What do I mean by "responded to poorly"? I mean companies mired, tangled, and snarled in bureaucracy didn't get there overnight. It's a slippery slope if ever there was one. And it begins innocently enough: with a business need.

The simplest, most elegant solution appears out of nowhere: just create a tiny teentsy-weentsy bit of bureaucracy - no one will mind and few will even notice. Look at all the good that will come out of it. How can this be wrong and bad when it will create so much good? That's the logic.

And the djin escapes.

Somewhere, someone senses satisfaction. Things are finally clicking into place. Making sense. Order is evolving out of chaos. Resources are being managed. Good is arriving.

Then there's that pesky physics and nature of the universe stuff. Equal and opposite reactions, unintended consequences and the like. What of them?

Sadly, they too follow.

Bureaucracy is a creativity-killer.

Please do not take my word for it. Read every classic on industry in print. Good to Great, The Executive in Action, First Break All The Rules, The Mythical Man-Month - I could go on, but you get the picture.

Stifle innovation - especially in the software industry - and you are months away from corporate death or worse "re-organization", "re-branding" or just plain old-fashioned "re-hemorrhaging-talent".

It's not this way because Andy says it's this way. This is just the way it is. You don't have to like it or even like me saying it, but you do have to deal with it. It's right up there with E=mc^2.

Nature abhors a vacuum. You step (or worse, lead your company) out of the path of innovation and it's merely a matter of time.

Pretty grim? Yep. Accurate? Yep.

So what's the solution?

I'm really glad you asked!

There are two possible solutions:

Build a time machine. Travel back to when you first thought of the bureaucratic idea. Scream into your own ear "THIS IS A BAD IDEA!" If that fails to work, try to occupy the same space at different times, thus annihilating yourself before you destroy something so cool.
Stop. Go back. Turn around. Return to the older way. Do so as quickly as possible, with humility, and making all necessary apologies.

Both of these suggestions are equally likely to occur in the experience of a bureaucrat. One of them sounds ludicrous - the other violates our current understanding of the laws of time and space.

To me it's pretty clear. You don't call the IRS and ask them if you paid enough taxes last year and you don't invite bureaucracy.

Democracy is inherently sloppy. It resembles herding snakes down an interstate with a cane fishing pole. Does this mean chaos is good? Not if it's simply chaos for chaos' sake.

Freedom is good... and just happens to be chaotic.

Don't take my word for any of this. Ask the Xerox executives that successfully marketed all the cool technology produced by PARC.

:{> Andy

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Penny's Blog!

andy — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 07:28:00 GMT

My daughter Penny started a blog: From the Help Desk!

I love the first entry, and not just because I'm in it. :)

Penny stopped by this weekend to meet her new brother Riley Cooper and we got some cool pictures. My favorite is below!

From left to right there's Stevie Ray, Penny, Emma Grace up top (aka "Mini-Penny" - she looks just like Penny when Penny was 2), and Riley Cooper with his I-love-my-big-sister face (also seen here).

Congrats on the new blog Penny!

:{> Andy

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Getting Lucky

andy — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:28:00 GMT

I was recently reminded how lucky I am.

It's true, pure luck has played an important role in my life, defining where I am today personally and professionally. Well, maybe not an important role, but it's been there.

How?

Mostly in the form of opportunities. But I then had to act on these opportunities to get the most out of them.

This is starting to remind me of a joke a pastor once told:

A local minister rides out to visit Farmer Brown one fine summer day. As he pulls off the main road onto Farmer Brown's acreage, he admires the tall corn and plush rows of tomatoes and beans. When he greets the old farmer, the minister says "You and the Lord are running a fine farm here!" To which Farmer Brown replies "You should've seen it when the Lord was running it Himself."

I can show a direct correlation between the number of 75-hour weeks I work and how lucky I am.

I can also demonstrate an inverse proportion between the number of mornings I awake completely rested and how lucky I am; as well as a positive ratio of 20-hour days / "luckiness".

So yep, I'm a pretty lucky guy.

:{> Andy

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More About the Hospital Maternity Experience

andy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 10:55:00 GMT

Having five kids has its advantages - even if they span a quarter-century. For one, you learn your way around the hospital and get to know what to expect.

You also learn what to avoid, which brings me to Lactation Consultants.

Lactation Consultants ostensibly help new Moms learn more about breast-feeding. My experience with them has not left a positive impression.

From my experiences, the information they share can be categorized as either insults or inaccurate. If you're not insulted, the information is likely inaccurate.

Christy's first experience with a Lactation Consultant left her in tears. And it was completely un-called-for. There's more to this than just the Mom - there's the baby and lot of physiology.

This time, when asked if we'd like to meet with one Christy answered "No" and I added emphasis to my "No."

There are probably fantastic folks out there in this field, it's just been my misfortune to meet some of the less qualified or friendly types...

:{> Andy

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The Birth of Riley Cooper Leonard

andy — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:21:00 GMT

From the day we learned the due date for our third child was 10 Aug 2007, we pretty much knew the baby would be born 3 Aug 2007. Why? We live in the sticks - Farmville, VA. Although Farmville has a regional hospital with a brand new birthing center, I did not want my wife and child to patronize the facility. Bad reputation is one thing, bad experience is another. My father nearly died at Farmville Hospital while doctors debated whether he had a kidney stone or appendicitis (he had both).

So we knew we were going to Richmond or Lynchburg to have this baby.

Our first two children - Stevie Ray and Emma Grace - were born in Jacksonville, Florida. They were delivered by the same doctor at the same hospital and, as fate would have it, in the same delivery room.

We got everything at the house ready in the two weeks before Riley's scheduled arrival. I am very fortunate to work with the people I work with. Solid Qulaity was awesome about understanding our schedule. I worked from home starting 23 Jul 2007, planned paternity leave for three weeks, followed by a couple / three more work-from-home weeks before returning to the road.

Christy is such a great organizer. She had ideas about what needed to be done when and a logical flow and order. It was easy for me: get one thing done, then find out what was next. :)

We got a room ready for her mother, who is staying with us for a couple weeks. We re-arranged the car-seats in the Odyssey. Stevie Ray went from behind the passenger seat to the third row. Emma moved from behind the driver to behind the passenger - a "promotion" to Stevie's old spot. Riley's seat sits behind the driver. Odyssey's have the frame-mounted clips for car seats - even in the third row for Stevie's seat - gotta love that for safety.

I slept maybe 2 1/2 hours the night/morning of 2/3 Aug. I awoke at 2:30 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. I blogged some, worked a little, and mostly tried to keep busy waiting for 5:00 AM when we would leave for the induction in Richmond.

5:00 AM arrived and we loaded up and left. We arrived around 6:20 AM - early for our 6:45 AM appointment. The nurses ushered us to a quiet corner birthing suite in The Atrium - a newer part of Johnston-Willis Hospital in Richmond.

I overheard someone say there were seven inductions scheduled for this day - it was gonna be busy!

We got settled in and Christy was IV'd and ready. In no time at all, a doctor popped in and broke her water. Next the Pitocin started and we were off to the races. Christy had a nice measured labor for a couple hours and then the pain started, so we paged the anesthesiologist for the epidural. After that, things slowed down a bit and Christy even napped some.

I was also able to catch a nap and eat a bit. At lunch I was able to catch up on a little business (not everyone realized I was at the hospital today) - making a few calls in between bites of a Subway turkey sub.

Pushing time started around 4:30 PM. Christy did a great job, but the baby wasn't moving past station 0. He would move down some, rather, then retreat. After 20 good minutes of pushing this way, the doctor decided to use suction.

Have you ever seen the suction device? It's small - about 1.5 inches in diameter at the suction end. That end is attached to the body by about 1/4-inch a steel cable surrounded by a vacuum hose. The suction end is attached to the head of the baby. And then there's pulling.

Riley "rounded the corner" after one suction-assisted contraction. The reason for the lack of progress became clear nearly immediately - the cord was draped around the front of Riley's neck, and very tight.

The doctor tried to work with it, couldn't, and cut it right there. Riley was born about 10 seconds later.

But he was ash gray from head to toe.

And he wasn't breathing.

The baby nurse took over and started suctioning out his airways and some fairly vigorous massage. After about a minute of this work - while maintaining a focused, non-panicked expression - the baby nurse brought Riley around.

That was, hands down, the longest minute of my life to date.

Christy got to hold Riley for less than a minute and I got a few pictures while they were wiping him down, and then he was rushed out of the room.

Christy is amazing. My oldest daughter Manda stopped by to visit a few hours later. She looked at Christy and said "You just had a baby?!?" Christy is the strongest person I know.

Manda is a chaplain at the hospital where Riley was born. She made sure we knew we could visit him in the nursery any time we wanted, we just may not be able to touch him or hold him. They had been in a hurry when they left with Riley, and left us thinking they would get back to us when we could see him, but it may be 12 hours or more.

No one came back to tell us anything.

The nursery nurse brought Riley in around 1:00 AM the next morning and we got to hold him for the first time. He'd just had his first bath and his hair was brushed and he had that baby smell. We got to visit with him for about 90 minutes.

I got to hold him for the first time and Christy took this picture of the event.

(Yes, I'm wearing a ThinkGeek t-shirt: the "Select * From users Where clue > 0" one...)

Riley is fine now. In hindsight we got all worked up for nothing, but at the time we didn't know if it was all for nothing or if our son was going to have trouble breathing for the rest of his life. Not hearing anything from the folks who knew didn't help.

Manda really helped. She actually called her Mom (my ex-wife) who also works at the hospital. She told Manda to let us know we could see Riley anytime we wanted.

Other than a touch of jaundice Riley's fine now. He's busy spoiling his grandparents and learning to get along with his brother and sisters. He has a good disposition and likes to sleep a lot - thank goodness.

:{> Andy

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Waiting on Riley...

andy — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:13:00 GMT

As I type in my upstairs office, Christy's downstairs experiencing pre-labor (if not the real deal labor). I'm up here battling the company that administers our COBRA health insurance, seriously considering a letter to my representative in Congress - but that's a topic for another blog...

I can hardly wait to hold Riley and look into his little eyes! I'm sure they'll be blue like Christy's eyes - Stevie Ray and Emma have Christy's beautiful eyes.

I get to be upstairs battling because one of the two coolest Nanas on the planet is here for the next couple weeks to help out. Thanks Nana!

:{> Andy

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The Date is Set

andy — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:45:00 GMT

Christy and I had another prenatal care visit today. On this visit we set an induction date: 3 Aug 2007.

If you regularly read this blog, you've noted the rcent decline in post quantity. It's the baby's fault!

I hope to pick it back up soon - there's so many cool new things out there to blog about.

:{> Andy

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A Special Day

andy — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 04:52:00 GMT

Today was a special day.

Date: June 22, 2007
Location: Briery Creek Lake, Farmville, VA
Equipment: Cars Fishing Pole (purchased at the Farmville Walmart).
Tackle: Swivel and small hook.
Bait: Worsham Worms

After a trip to Richmond to get my picture taken for the Microsoft Press book followed by lunch with some friends; Stevie Ray and I decided to stop by Worsham Store, pick up some of their famous Worsham Worms, and head on down to Briery Creek Lake for some fishing. Stevie had decided to go with me to Richmond for the day, and we always keep our fishing poles and tackle box in the car (for whenever the mood strikes).

The mood struck today.

Stevie Ray caught his first fish ever! He caught five in fact. He was so excited I was worried about him injuring his ears from all the grinning.

They were all about the size of the one shown but that didn't seem to matter. :)

:{> Andy

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Back in the Saddle...

andy — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:01:00 GMT

Monday, after a five-month hiatus, I return to SSIS training.

I really enjoy training whether I'm attending or leading it. It killed me last week to miss both Tech Ed and the Richmond .Net Users Group June meeting, but a client needed me on-site and I try to never leave a client hanging.

I roll out around 6:00 AM tomorrow to head for the airport, and it's 1:40 AM as I type this - another day when it's good to not need sleep! :)

To the good folks at New Horizons in Edina, MN: I'll see you Monday!

:{> Andy

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Snake In The Office!

andy — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:01:00 GMT

I have had it with these _______ _______ snakes in this _______ _______ office!

/SamuelJackson

So I'm tooling around downstairs a few days ago while Stevie Ray is at school and Christy and Emma are napping, and I hear this sort-of metallic thwacking sound. I wasn't sure where it came from, but it was in a room different from the room I was in - and I was downstairs in the living room.

It sounded a lot like one of the mouse-traps going off. We haven't had mice since winter, so I checked the trap in the kitchen - no mouse. The other traps are upstairs in the walk-in part of the attic (we live in a cape, so the back quarter of the house upstairs is a storage area - kinda nice). My office is the only room used upstairs, and it has the door to the attic in the back corner.

As soon as I entered the office, I saw a two-foot black snake curled up on my window's screen insert. The screen insert had been propped against the wall by the window, but the snake had climbed it and tipped it over against a bookshelf. That was the metallic "thwack" I'd mistaken for a mouse-trap.

I went back downstairs and grabbed some work gloves before returning to catch the snake. I brought him downstairs as quietly as possible (how much fun would it be to bump into a 7-months-pregnant redhead who just woke up from a nap with a 2-foot black snake writhing around my right arm? I didn't want to find out so I was quiet...).

Black snakes are good to have around out in the country. They eat mice and moles and generally keep to themselves. They're not usually poisonous, although there are rural legends (the country version of urban legends) that they have been known to cross-breed with poisonous varieties to produce poisonous black snakes.

(I wasn't in the mood to find out with him wriggling around my arm...)

I have a pretty simple rule about wildlife: Live and let live. If you kill it, you better be planning on skinning it and eating it... unless it is threatening you. We don't hunt for sport on Leonard land. And when we fish, we either eat them or catch and release. We're not animal rights folks - we're just responsible participants in nature's food chain.

That said, showing up inside the house when Christy is pregnant, with our two current children residing here outside the womb and another about to make the transition in a couple months, the snake is a threat. Or rather, was a threat.

My neighbor said he caught one about the same size in his house last week. He caught him and released him in the woods behind both our houses. I'll bet real money it was the same snake.

:{> Andy

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On Getting Older

andy — Wed, 30 May 2007 07:01:00 GMT

Maybe I should title this post "On Growing Up"... but I don't think I've grown up yet, so I will let it stand.

I am getting older. The Christian Apostle Paul wrote "When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am a man my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me." (1 Corinthians 13:11, Phillips). My (44th) birthday's not for a couple months so I don't know why I'm thinking about this now. But I bet Paul figured this out before he reached my age...

I remember telling a good friend in high school (circa 1979) we would know we were getting old when Rush albums were sold by K-Tel Records.. That happened about a decade ago, so there's now plenty of evidence to convict me in a court of law of "oldness".

But the oddest thing about it is - it's all good. I don't feel bad about getting older at all. Today I'm pondering why...

I entered my 30s all full of piss and vinegar - ready to take on the world and thinking "Finally I've arrived." I now think that thinking "Finally I've arrived" is an indication of trouble ahead. So I don't feel that way about anything any more.

My 30s are second only to my teens on the list of Worst Decades Of My Life (So Far). Don't get me wrong - things weren't that bad, it's just the other decades were much better.

Surprisingly, my 40s have already blown the doors off all the other decades combined in the coolness category. Why?

If all goes as planned in a couple months, my beautiful bride Christy is going to give birth to our second son, "Wee" Leonard.
Classical music is cool, but so is Van Zant.
Sleep is optional. I've caught myself slipping into alternate universes to avoid contact with melatonin molecules.
I'm patient.
I'm a better planner.
I can still learn new things. The current new thing is Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
Landscaping is bunches of fun. I've been truncating trees, decorating bush classes with mulch descriptors, and instantiating new grass objects.

Ok, I seemed to have confused my last two items there... but you get the point.

Life is good at 43 and I'm thankful. I hope your life is good too.

:{> Andy

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The Heart of Virginia Festival 2007

andy — Sun, 06 May 2007 06:58:00 GMT

We attended the 25th annual Heart of Virginia Festival in Farmville earlier today and had a great time!

They close off some streets downtown for the day-long festival each year.

There's a race, bands, hand- and face-painting, and lots of good food!

Stevie and Emma enjoyed the hand-painting - both got "boogs" painted on their little right hands.

They also rode the bears...

Emma smiled a lot...

... and gave her Mama kisses.

Here's a video (10.6 MB) we shot with our digital camera (I don't know how to embed video controls yet...).

A good time was had by all. :)

:{> Andy

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