My Girls (8 and 10) and I wrote a “Guess my number” game in SQL this weekend. Well, the truth is closer to I wrote it and they played with it. Although this is quite simple, and often one of the first projects that a developer will create while learning a language, I will share my creation that took about 3 minutes to create. Read more »
Everyone is in customer service.
Posted by mike
on January 31, 2012
3 comments
During one of my first jobs, my boss, also the company owner, said the following to me.
Your job description is not your job. Your job is to make the customer and the boss happy every day. If that means answering phones or taking out the trash because it is what the company needs done at that moment, well, that is your job.
Of course, this wasn’t aimed at any deficiencies that I had, or needs at that time, it was only a philosophical discussion about how to succeed anywhere. In my lifetime, I have heard at least between 6-10 people say something along the lines of “No, I won’t/can’t do that, it isn’t my job.” Whenever I was the customer on the end of that sentance, I don’t mind telling you that it pissed me off. Read more »
The goat and the GOAT
Posted by mike
on December 27, 2011
No comments
It is easy to be the goat. Anyone can be singled out, and the blame can be laid. We think it is a position that is random, but we put ourselves there by little things that build up in people’s minds. Maybe it is an action item that was missed, maybe it is a habit of clocking in right at the start time and not earlier. Maybe it is defining your work purely by the job description you read when signing up for the job. Know what? The goat is rarely the GOAT. Read more »
Hit by a bus?
Posted by mike
on December 7, 2011
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What would happen if you were hit by a bus? Ok, let’s look past the physical ailments, or even death, but rather let’s look at how would it affect your microcosm? Who would be impacted? Would your loved ones be able to survive as well without you? Would the support system that you have created for others to utilize fall apart? What would your co-workers do? Read more »
The Seattle Seahawks and the power of winning each single game
Posted by mike
on November 29, 2011
No comments
Sunday marked the end of the Seattle Seahawks 2011 season. Not literally the end of their season, but rather the end of any playoff hopes they might have had. For the next few weeks they will only be playing to win single games, and all of the media will be talking about how each win reduces their draft status. Read more »
Playing With Hierarchies
Posted by mike
on November 28, 2011
No comments
In our world of data, often times we come across data that represents a hierarchical structure. I recently was asked to work on a design that would utilize the hierarchyid datatype that was introduced in SQL Server 2008.
Our task was to bulk load multiple nodes of a hierarchy into a single table structure, with the possibility of having multiple parents. Since multiple parents are not supported in the hierarchyid datatype, I had some creative work ahead of me.
Goose!
Posted by mike
on November 28, 2011
No comments
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