Tales From The Field Weekly Wrap Up for the Week of 04-24-2023 Steve Martin, Martin Short, & Tacos

 Hello Dear Reader!  I've realized something writting this blog.  I don't like to sit still.  It is very rare that I have a down weekend, and this weekend was no different.  My amazing wife did something really cool for me for Christmas.

You see I'm hard to shop for, or at least that's what I've been told.  I don't mean to be, but I am.  My birthday is in January.  When I was a kid you got presents on your bithrday and on Christmas.  Even though they are in different years, mine are so close together that for 10 months of the year there is nadda, then 2 months PRESENTS!

So with that in mind, if I want something I tend to buy it.  At this point in my adult life I'm just used to
that.  So Sue came up with something cool.  I love giving people experiences be it with food, giving advice or tips on Orlando, Disney, or Universal Studios or even when peoplke come over playing bartender, setting up events with friends (see last week).

Sue got me experiences, and what a time we've had.  That included this Saturday seeing Steve Martin & Martin Short live.  I was laughing so hard throughout the event, but it wasn't just comedy.  They are story tellers, showmen, and presetors. I couldn't help of people I know like Buck Woody (@Twitter | @BuckWoodyMSFT ), Patrick LeBlanc (Twitter | @PatrickDBA), or so many other amazing people in our community.  

The timing and the comfort of doing a show with someone you know well.  That made me think of Josh Ludeman (Twitter | @JoshLuedeman).  There is no one in this world that I've presented with as much as
Josh.  As I enjoyed the banter back and forth you could see the comfort that comes from time and practice.

It was a great time and a great day.  On Sunday we had that unusual down day.  I did some work in the office, getting ready for our soon to be move, and when it came to dinner I wanted out of the house. I snapped a picture while we were out at bartaco.  It has be come more and more rare to have all five of us at dinner together.  Looking at the picture afterwards I realized something importiant.  Serenity is now at the teenage point of making goofy faces in every family photo.

....it'll be a long two years, but I have plenty of her brother's from that period in time.  As the youngest this is the last time I'll have to go through this.  That acknowledgement came with a bittersweet feeling.

All right enough about the weekend, let's get to the round up!

MONDAY 4-24-2023

On Monday Daniel Taylor (Twitter | @DBABulldog) dropped his first video on the channel.  Congratulations Dan!  He had a really great point of view, working with a customer he needed to solve the problem of teaching them how to backup SQL Server via URL.  The twist is the DBA's do not have rights to get SAS tokens, and so he had to teach the Azure Admins how to do that portion. 

 Dan walks through both tasks in this video to break down Backup to URL Seperation of duties.

WEDNESDAY 4-26-2023

On Wednesday I went in a different direction.  I had read a blog recently on how to pass a data frame to an Azure OpenAI model so you could ask questions about the data frame.  We had featured it in our Azure Data Community Round Table two weeks ago.  The blog was Make data more human with Azure OpenAI and Azure SQL by Valentina Alto (Twitter | @AltoValentina)

In this video Use OpenAI, SQL Managed Instance, Python, and VSCode to UNLOCK INSIGHTS About YOUR Data!!!, I walked through how to make this work using a data fram from a Domestic Box Office movie data table I had in a database. This was a lot of fun to walk through and the reception to this video has been really nice.

TUESDAY 4-252023

Of courese on Tuesday we had our Azure Data Community Round Table where we feature your content and it is always the star of the show. 

Here is the content coverd on the show in order of appearance:

Dan

• One Way to Provision an Azure Key Vault by Andy Leonard Twitter @AndyLeonard

Bradley

• Moving the SSISDB Catalog on a new SQL Server instance by Rajendra Gupta via SQLShack Twitter    @rajendragupta16 via @SQLShack

Andres

• Analysing Data with ChatGPT (Data Analysis and ML )  by Jesiel (JCharis) Emmanuel Agbemabiase  Twitter @JCharisTech

Josh

• Use ChatGPT to see multiple perspectives. An example: ORMs and database code  by Kendra Little  Twitter @Kendra_Little

Dan

• Troubleshooting Azure Data Studio by Deborah Melkin Twitter @dgmelkin

Andres

• MLOps on Databricks: A How-To Guide  by Rafi Kurlansik Twitter @kurlare

Bradley

• Data API builder – Introduction by Davide Mauri Twitter  @mauridb

Josh

• How to use the new dynamic format strings for measures in Power BI  by Meagan Longoria Twitter @MMarie

Dan

• PostgreSQL for the SQL Server DBA: The First Four Settings to Check  by Ryan Booz Twitter @ryanbooz

Bradley

• ChatGPT blew my mind with this Power BI scenario by Adam Saxton via Guy in a Cube Twitter  @awsaxton & @patrickdba via @GuyinaCube w @StephTBruno @shan_gsd

• Call back to Power BI datasets CI/CD (the easy-ish way)  by @StephTBruno & @shan_gsd

Andres

• AutoML Comparison in Databricks VS Azure Machine Learning by Mohammadsaleh Gharehdaghi Twitter @MG_cafe01

Josh

• The Top 10 Features of PostgreSQL Every Developer Should Know by Ajay Patel Twitter @Bond_AJ

WRAP IT UP

Ok Dear Reader!  We have a BIG BIG WEEK!  Not only do we have a video by Josh Luedeman this Monday on how to Set up Windows with Chocolatey for Data Developers in SECONDS!! GIT, WSL 2, PowerShell! and another video by yours truly coming up on Wednesday, but this week is SQL SATURDAY JACKSONVILLE!!

On Friday Neeraj Jhaveri, Daniel Taylor, and myself will be teaching our DBA 101: A Full Day of Fundamentals, but Andres Padilla & Josh Luedeman will be presenting at the event as well.  The whole Tales from the Field crew is together live for the first time at a conference.

This is going to be a lot of fun.  We have 8 sessions on the agenda so come and attend, have a conversation with us, or grab a sticker while we have them!

We hope to see you in Jacksonville, but more than anything Dear Reader thank you for stopping by!

Thansk,

Brad

Tales From The Field Weekly Wrap Up for the Week of 04-17-2023 Jorge, Wrexham AFC, & Guys Night Out

 Hello Dear Reader!  This past week was one I had been looking forward to for quite some time.  A couple of months ago I had started reaching out to my other guy friends.  We all  have busy lives, but we need to take time to spend with one another outside of dinner's with spouses, game nights, or Marvel movies.

Not that those things aren't great, but something that allowed us to just relax.  

Let me back up a bit, I love the podcast The Armchair Expert with Dax Sheppard.  On it they refrenced a study that lead me to this article on How loneliness is killing men.  Which shocked me.

I have this really cool Uncle we all idolized.  He was always taking trips to go golfing, hunting, or fishing with his buddies.  Growing up I thought that was really amazing.  As I got older and had kids, amazing turned into questions.  

How did he find the time to do this?  Shouldn't he be spending this time with his family and kids?  He was a really great Dad and family man, was his life out of balance or did these things matter?

I should have picked up the phone and called him.  I should have asked.  But I never have.  Then my kids got older, and getting their attention and even time with them became more and more scarce.

This lead to another realization.  My buddy Jorge Segarra (Twitter | @SQLChicken) and I were talking.  Jorge is doing the beautiful work of being a stay at home Dad and taking care of his kids.  We were having a great conversation, he was picking up kids from school, they got in the car like a chaos bomb and he said, "I should probably let you go this is going to be too noisy for you".

"I'm good", I replied and we kept the call going.  I've been a single Dad, a divorced single Dad, and a very lucky married man with a great partner.  The chaos of the call reminded me of picking my kids up from school about a decade ago.  We also realized that not many men could talk about some of the issues I faced and he was facing.  We also talked about how men don't talk about these things.  I brought up the podcast and the article.

We talked about the need of having time to go out with friends, re-engergize, and come back in a better head space to be father's and husbands.  For the first time, I understood my Uncle.

That was January.  We started planning.  We would talk more regularly, it had been months since our last phone call.  That needed to change. 

We found a weekend that worked, it took a while.  We set the date.  There were other gentlemen invited who could not make it, but hopefully next time.  It was this past Saturday.  Jorge, Daniel Taylor (Twitter | @DBABulldog), Josh Luedeman (Twitter | @JoshLuedeman), and myself planned a day.

It involved a spa visit for Jorge and myself, a cabbana by the pool for all of us to relax, a nice steak dinner, and watching John Wick 4.  Along the way we listened to Wrexham AFC win PROMOTION and toasted them from afar!!!

The day was perfect and we are all looking forward to the next time.  Long way of saying this, but if you are reading this think of your friends and reach out to them.  It is litterally the best thing you can do for your health.... and theirs.

All right, on to the recap!

MONDAY  4-17-2023

On Monday Neeraj Jhaveri (Twitter | @Neeraj_Jhaveri) and Andres Padilla (Twitter | @nodestreamio) delivered a video on Azure Cost Management!  They have a discussion about different options to save money on a subscription.

They also show you how to use the Azure Price Calculator, Cost management and billing in the Azure Portal, how to set a budget, and how to set cost alearts!  Great stuff!

WEDNESDAY 4-19-2023

On Wednesday my video on Azure SQL Space Management for Azure SQL Database came online.  

This was a really fun video to make based off of a customer conversation and our amazing documentation on the subject.

TUESDAY 4-18-2023

The highlight of the week is always the Azure Data Community Round Table.  Josh, Neeraj, Andres, and myself kicked off a review of those articles that we found to be super helpful from the last week.

Here is the star of the show, the content in the order of appearence on the show:

Neeraj

• The Power of AI for Medical Imaging: 5 Key Applications & Use Cases by Katarzyna Rojewska Twitter @k_rojewska, @DLabsAI

Bradley

• Make data more human with Azure OpenAI and Azure SQL by Valentina Alto Twitter   @AltoValentina

Andres

• Integrating Azure OpenAI and Azure Speech Services to Create a Voice-Enabled Chatbot with Python  by Jiadong Chen Twitter @chen_jd

Josh

• Back home, but still a long way to go by Hugo Kornelis Twitter @hugo_kornelis

Neeraj

• How does AI actually work? by Kristina Bravo Twitter @BravoKristina 

Bradley

• T-SQL STUFF – Taking it to the limit by  John McCormack Twitter @actualjohn

Andres

• Using  MLFlow Recipes to refactor messy notebooks by Jeanne Choo  

Josh

• Master Databricks and Apache Spark Step by Step Video Series by Bryan Cafferky Twitter @BryanCafferky

Neeraj

• Can Data and Analytics Help Save the World? by Troy Hiltbrand Twitter @trohil

Bradley

• Using SQL Alerts to Spot Suspicious Activity in SQL by David Fowler via SQL Server Central Twitter @SQL_Undercover  @SQLServerCentrl

Andres

• Next-Generation Computer Vision Capabilities with Project Florence by Adina Trufinescu Twitter @abiramivina

Josh

• Citus Con Reminder (Keynote was at 12-330 ET/9-1230 PT, EMEA tomorrow 9-1230 CEST) by Citus Con Twitter @CitusCon

WRAP IT UP

We've got another great week planned for you, and we hope you can make the time to join us.  On Monday Daniel Taylor is dropping his first ever MS Tech Bits on how seperation of duties requires Azure Administrators and DBA's to work together in order to backup to utilize backup to URL.

On Tuesday at 1 pm EST we have our Azure Data Community Round Table and on Wednesday I will be droping a video utilizing Azure Open AI to read and collect insights on my Azure SQL Data.

Take care of yourself Dear Reader, and as always Thank You for stopping by.

Thanks,

Brad

Tales From The Field Weekly Wrap Up for the Week of 04-10-2023, Taylor Swift, & The Disney 10 Miler

 Hello Dear Reader!  Last week was a really busy week with an even busier weekend.  We will get to the show recap's in a moment but first let's dive into the weekend.

Months ago my wife & youngest son worked together to get Taylor Swift tickets for this past weekend.  I've enjoyed quite a few songs of Taylor's, but live music isn't really my thing.  My wife loves it.  She had a career working in radio and she was the planner & show runner for many many live music concerts.  She "makes" me go with her.  

To be honest I always have a great time, but it is not something I seek out for myself.  So when Sue & William were excitingly explaining to me over dinner how they were able to secure 3 tickets my first thought was they were taking my sister Julie or my youngest daughter Serenity (both of whom would have fought me..... and probably won... to get these tickets).  It was not Julie or Serenity.  It was me.

Don't get me wrong, I was happy to suggest they offer up the ticket to someone else.  Heck, I got us a really great hotel room at the Tampa Edition.  It had a Michelin star chef.  An amazing bar, a welcome cocktail with a lavender spritz and their gin brewed specifically for the hotel, not to mention a Rum bar, and to top it all off an in house spa.

My offer was that they could go to the show, I would go to the spa and get a massage, go to one of the restaurants and eat some food, go to the bar and get some drinks, then head to the pool where they had a pool side bar, take a nap, wake up, go grab some more drinks, and wait for them to get back so they could tell me all about it.

As you can tell from the pictures my offer was refused.  We had a great time.  There were songs we sang along to, that we danced to, and it was a spectacle.  It cannot be said that Ms. Swift puts on one helluva show.  She performed for 3 hours straight and sang 44 songs from 9 different albums and 2 surprisesongs.

On Saturday morning we woke up, had a really nice brunch at The Pearl and made our way back to Orlando so I could pick
up my race packet for the Run Disney 10 Miler.  I will be honest Dear Reader, I forgot I signed up for this race until the week before.

I have picked my running back up post injury, but had not been training on longer races.  Normally my long Disney Races are half marathon's, 13.1 miles or 21 K, this was a 10 mile run or roughly 16K.

Those 3.1 Miles or extra 5 K's make a difference.  Seriously.  That is normally the part of that race where I hit a wall.  Not literally.  In running when you hit a wall is a condition of sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.  It makes that the most difficult portion of the race.

By not hitting that wall I was never truly fatigued during the race.  I was able to keep my run-walk-run-walk method going and averaged 8 minutes per kilometer and finished in 2 hours and 11 minutes. 

At home we my lovely wife was home busily preparing for my Mother-In-Law's 77th birthday!!  I love my Mother-In-Law Judy.  She is an incredible woman.  My brother's-In-Law, my nieces, and one of my nephews made it over.  However the star of the show was my baby grand-niece.  No pictures, but she is the most beautiful and adorable little girl.  She is six months old and in a very fun phase where she is not yet walking, but alert, attentive, and very opinionative.  You knew what she liked and didn't like!  The party was great and seeing family was the cherry on the cake.  

Like I said, busy weekend.  Now let's recap last week!!

WEDNESDAY 4-12-2023

On Wednesday we dropped the demo heavy companion to last weeks video SQL Server Internals: HEAPS VS. CLUSTERED INDEXES!. 

This was a really fun video to make, and I'm hard at work on this weeks content which will be a fun video about Azure SQL and how it utilizes space.

TUESDAY 4-11-2023

Tuesday was a great show.  We started off the Community Round Table with a side conversation about being a parent and giving the magic of wonder to our children.  Josh Luedeman (Twitter | @JoshLuedeman) reminisced about Castle Greyskull with me from our childhood.  Neeraj Jhaveri (Twitter | @Neeraj_Jhaveri) talked about when he gave his kids the gift of iPhones!  Andres Padilla (Twitter | @nodestreamio) talked about an AMAZING Christmas where his father hung his the Star Wars ships he received from the ceiling like they were flying!

We also covered AMAZING Azure Data Community content from the creators.  Here's the content in order of appearance:

Neeraj 

Unleashing the capabilities of Azure Synapse Analytics for a healthcare customer  by Prabhjot Kaur Twitter @PrabhKaur 

Bradley 

Using Azure Data Factory to read and process REST API datasets by Rayis Imayev Twitter  @RayisImayev 

Andres 

Announcing registries in Azure Machine Learning to operationalize models and pipelines at scale by Manoj Bableshw  Twitter @manojsb 

Josh 

Common Azure Synapse Link for SQL storage permission issues by Kevin Chant Twitter @kevchant 

Neeraj 

Create a Data Solution on Azure Synapse Analytics with Snapshot Serengeti - Part 1 -  by Josh Ndemenge Twitter @Jcardif254 

Bradley 

EightKB Topics  by Andrew Pruski Twitter  @dbafromthecold 

Andres 

Understanding Chaos Engineering by John Engel-Kemnetz Twitter @jkemnetz 

Josh 

Armchair Architects: Data Mesh Architecture by David Blank-Edelman Twitter @otterbook  

Neeraj 

Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work  by Jared Spataro Twitter @jared_spataro 

Bradley 

How to work with ChatGPT in Visual Studio Code  by Daniel Calbimonte via SQL Server Central Twitter  @dcalbimonte  @SQLServerCentrl 

Andres 

From YOLO to YOLOv8: Tracing the Evolution of Object Detection Algorithms by Abirami Vina  Twitter @abiramivina 

Josh 

Ultimate Guide to Citus Con: An Event for Postgres, 2023 edition Ultimate Guide to Citus Con: An Event for Postgres, 2023 edition  by Claire Giordano Twitter @clairegiordano 

WRAP IT UP

As we wrap things up a quick programming note.  We will be dropping an MS Tech Bits video TODAY on Cost Management by Neeraj & Andres!  Make sure to check that out when it goes live.

Tomorrow we have our Community Round Table show Live at 1 PM EST.  On Wednesday I will be with you for an MS Tech Bits on Azure SQL Database Shrinking Operations for Data & Log Files. 

We hope you have a wonderful week and make some time to hang out with us Dear Reader, if you did anything fun this weekend I'd love to hear from you!

As always Dear Reader, Thank you for stopping by.

Thanks,

Brad