Fixed-position data formats will seemingly be with us forever. Despite the relative ease of parsing CSV (or other delimited formats), or even XML, many data exchanges require a fixed-position input. Characters 1-10 are X, characters 11-15 are Y and if the source data is fewer than 5 characters, we have to left-pad with a filler character, etc. When you’re accustomed to working with data that says what it means and means what it says, having to add “extra fluff” like left-padding your integers with a half-dozen zeroes can be a hassle.

I didn’t intend for last week’s digest to also be my post for week two of the challenge, but life got in the way and I wasn’t able to complete the post that I really wanted in time. So, that post will be written much earlier in week three and completed well ahead of the deadline.

Here are the posts collected from week two of the SQL New Blogger Challenge. It’s been compiled the same way last week’s was.

Watching all of the tweets as people posted their first entries in the SQL New Blogger Challenge earlier this week, I quickly realized that keeping up was going to be a challenge of its own. Fortunately, there are ways to reign it in.

My first stop was IFTTT (If This Then That). IFTTT allows you to create simple “recipes” to watch for specific events/conditions, then perform an action. They have over 175 “channels” to choose from, each of which has one or more triggers (events) and actions. I have IFTTT linked to both my Google and Twitter accounts, which allowed me to create a recipe which watches Twitter for the #sqlnewblogger hashtag, and writes any tweets that match it to a spreadsheet on my Google Drive account (I’ll make the spreadsheet public for now, why not?).

This post is part of Ed Leighton-Dick’s SQL New Blogger Challenge. Please follow and support these new (or reborn) bloggers.

I’m working with a number of SQLite databases as extra data sources in addition to the SQL Server database I’m primarily using for a project. Brian Davis (blog|twitter) wrote a blog post a few years ago that covers setting up the connection quite well. In my case, I’ve got nine SQLite databases to connect to, and that gets tedious. PowerShell to the rescue!

On Thursday, February 26th I presented “Easing Into Windows PowerShell” to a packed house at the Rochester SQL Server User Group meeting. Thanks to Matt Slocum (blog | twitter) for being my semi-official photographer.

Presenting Easing Into Windows PowerShell at the Rochester SQL Server User Group February 26, 2015

We set a chapter attendance record! I had a lot of fun presenting this (my first time speaking outside my company) and we had some great conversations during and after the meeting.

On Thursday, February 26th at 6:00 PM EST I will be speaking at the Rochester PASS chapter meeting. The topic is “Easing Into PowerShell - What’s It All About?”.

You’ve been hearing a lot about Windows PowerShell, but you’re wondering if it’s something you should be looking into. In this introductory session, we’ll talk about what PowerShell is, where it came from, how it works, and what it can do for you. Whether you’re a junior DBA or seasoned veteran, you’ll find something that PowerShell can help you do easier.

Wayne Sheffield (blog|twitter) is hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday and his topic is Giving Back to the SQL Community. More specifically, he’s asking how each of us is planning on giving something back to the SQL Community in 2015. He offers up a few suggestions, so I’ll start by addressing those and then move on to additional ideas.

• Are you going to start speaking at your local user group? Yes, I expect that by the end of 2015 I will have spoken to our local chapter at least once. I spoke to various groups at work in 2014 and plan to continue doing so in 2015 as well.
• Perhaps step up and help run your local user group? I was named the Vice President of our local chapter a couple months ago, and I will continue in that capacity.
• Do you want to start becoming an active blogger – or increase your blogging? Yes! At the time of this writing I’ve only published 7 posts here, and I have 6 others in various stages of preparation. I have some ideas brewing, I just need to get things written and then actually press that Publish button. Part of it is fear/insecurity, and I need to get out of my comfort zone a little and Just Do It.
• Do you plan on volunteering your time with larger organizations (such as PASS), so that SQL Training can occur at a larger level? If I have the opportunity to attend PASS Summit in 2015, I will volunteer at the event. When the call for pre-event volunteers go out, I’ll look at what’s needed and try to step a little out of my comfort zone & do something there as well.
• Other ways of contributing
  • For the 3rd year, I will be helping to organize and run SQL Saturday Rochester in 2015. If you’re reading this, you probably know about SQL Saturday, and have probably even been to one. Next time, bring a friend!
  • I’ve been promoting PASS and our local chapter for a while at work and will be a more vocal in 2015. There are a lot of people with knowledge and experience they can share who aren’t even aware that PASS and the local and virtual user groups exist. I want to help bring those people into the community.

We’re already in the early stages of preparing for our 2015 SQL Saturday. One thing that was missing from this year’s event was local speakers; we just didn’t have many, and I’m hoping we can change that the next time around.

For a lot of people (myself included), getting into speaking can be intimidating. Do I even have something interesting to say? What if I can’t fill an entire hour (or 75 minutes)? What if I get everything all wrong?

PASS Summit is nearly upon us. I’m excited to be attending my second Summit in Seattle and cannot wait to get there to see everyone. With one Summit and a few SQL Saturdays under my belt I’ve got a laundry list of things and people I can’t miss, and very little time to pack it all into.

Let’s Meet!

The greatest part of Summit (and SQL Saturday) for me is meeting people and exchanging ideas. If you haven’t experienced it, #SQLFamily is amazing. When I reached the convention center two years ago, the first feeling that hit me was “I finally found my people!” We’re all friendly, I swear. Just say “hi, I’m .”  I guarantee you will find people who are into the same stuff you’re into, and I’m not talking just talking about SQL Server. Music, dance, outdoor activities, all kinds of stuff. We have a common thing that brought us together, but that’s not what keeps us together. It is an amazing community and it just keeps getting better. On Sunday, as you’re decompressing from the event and travel, you will miss these people who you didn’t even know a week before.

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic is passwords. I’m neither a DBA nor server/system admin, so the only passwords I get to manage are my own. But there’s still lots to talk about. Passwords (or rather, weak passwords) have been in the news a lotover the past two weeks, so it’s timely.

This is the password story I’d like to tell my kids, but they’re too young to understand yet.