How to Stand Out and Gain Followers on Social Media

How’s that for click bait? Does Unsolicited Stuff Bother You? I have to admit, some unsolicited stuff bothers me. It’s one thing if I sign up for a newsletter or follow an account. It’s different if someone visits a contact form on my site and spams me. I have a personal rule to never, ever, …
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Q & A: Learning ETL. Where Should I Focus?

A viewer on my YouTube channel asked, “Never been too deep into SSIS, but the new role I’ll be taking on involves ETL, should I be focusing on Azure Data Factory, or do you recommend I keep a foot in each of those worlds?” My response? At this time, it’s prudent to cultivate options in …
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PASS Summit 2018 Starts in 10 Weeks!

Can you believe the PASS Summit 2018 begins only 10 weeks from today (27 Aug 2018)? I confess, this is sneaking up on me fast! I will be there. Will you? Where Can You Find Andy at the PASS Summit 2018? Precon! Monday 5 Nov 2018, I’m delivering a full-day pre-conference session titled Intelligent Data …
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“You Do Not Know What You Are Doing”

Peeves make lousy pets. Knowing this doesn’t help; I still keep a few pet peeves. One of my pet peeves is this statement, “You don’t know what you are doing.” Why is this a pet peeve? It denies the obvious fact that everyone one of us, everywhere, is still learning. “My Name is Andy and …
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Stack Overflow Wants to Change

This week Stack Overflow shared a blog post titled Stack Overflow Isn’t Very Welcoming. It’s Time for That to Change. I admire the courage and the transparency a great deal. It takes guts to admit mistakes and serious guts to publicly air the dirty laundry. Kudos to Stack Overflow. Why I Stopped Contributing to the Stack Overflow Conversation I …
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Completed: Microsoft Big Data Professional Program Capstone Project

I’m excited to announce that I’ve completed – with help from my friend and brother and co-host of the Data Driven podcast, Frank La Vigne (Blog | @Tableteer) – the Microsoft Big Data Professional Program Capstone project! The capstone is the last course requirement (of 10 courses) to complete the Microsoft Professional Program in Big …
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I Don’t Just Teach, I’m a Student!

I write a lot about training I deliver: Biml Academy Expert SSIS Immersion Event on Learning SQL Server Integration Services (IESSIS1) I also share about courses I take: Achievement Unlocked: Certified in Implementing Real-Time Analytics with Azure HDInsight Achievement Unlocked: Certified in Implementing Predictive Analytics with Spark in Azure HDInsight Achievement Unlocked: Completed Processing Big …
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Learning for Free

I’ve been blogging lately about training and certifications and it’s generated a fair amount of questions. One question is: “How much does certification cost?” Well, some of it is free. A surprising amount is free, in fact. Biml Academy offers several hours of free training, for example. YouTube is chock-full of learning opportunities. The quality of training …
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