I enjoyed solving problems and helping people achieve great things. I got a lot of scope to achieve this in my role because our software was pretty awesome – but at the end of the day the measure of my success was how many licences I could help to sell. I wanted the measure of my success to be how…
Fun

Database drift, cheese graters and Elton John
I sang another song. I’m not very good at singing. Or playing the piano. If I’m honest, you probably shouldn’t watch it. The song itself starts at 3 minutes and 10 seconds. Before that is a three minute lightning talk that provides some context. I apologise that the audio for the lightning talk is pretty poor – it’s fine for…

Next week I’m running from London to Cardiff with a few friends
This morning I ran a half marathon. I beat my PB, running it in 1:55:50. (That’s one of my New Years SMART objectives ticked off.) But I wasn’t finished there. An hour and a half later I went out for another run, and I plan to go out again later. That’s because I’m training for London Cardiff 24, a relay race…

Today’s the day… I’m off!
Today’s the day. My sabbatical starts at 5pm. My email account will be suspended and I’ll be locked out I’ve specifically requested this for a few reasons: I won’t be working while I’m away, so I should be clear with people who email me that they will not be getting a response and my out-of-office will explain who else can respond.…

Sometimes I hate TFS
Disclaimer: I was not in the best mood when I wrote this. It is not entirely accurate. I have taken artistic licence. But it cheered me up a bit. The following is a true reflection of my emotions, and a *partly* true reflection of TFS. Also, the last line needs work artistically and context functionally but I ran out of time.…

I’m going away for a bit…
tl;dr Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been busy with many things not software related. And I’m about to take a sabbatical. This means I’m also not likely to post again until May/June. Why I’m taking a sabbatical Because I can. 🙂 One of the perks of working for Redgate is that you get a 6 week paid…

Why new year’s resolutions suck (and what I’m doing instead)
I have a friend who never goes to the gym in January. He complains that it’s crowded, full of people who don’t know what they are doing getting in his way. I don’t really know if he is telling the truth. I don’t have any point of reference because I’ve never really been to a gym in any month other…

Ode to SQL Relay
I’m on the train to SQL Relay Nottingham where I’m giving a session this afternoon. This year, due to scheduling, I’m only able to attend one of the days but I’m nostalgic for last year when I joined the crew for most of Relay. I know from experience and from my friends on the crew quite how big a job…

If Shakespeare had invented DevOps
About a month ago a couple of my colleagues, James Murtagh (twitter) and Becky Amos (twitter), challenged me to write an alternative version of the prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Here is what I came up with. Comments welcome, but only if they are in iambic pentameter. *** Two households, both alike in dignity, In the IT dept, where we…

#iceBucketChallenge
I’m taking a slight diversion from the usual theme of this blog. My wonderful friend, @uongy, to whom I bear no resentment, none at all, challenged my wife and I to do the ice bucket challenge. I would like to take a moment to thank my beautiful sister, to whom I have no bad feelings towards either, none at all, for…