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.

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.

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.

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.

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)?

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.

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. What’s Your Password?

This past weekend I made the journey to Cleveland, OH (Westlake, actually) for SQL Saturday #241. I’ve attended two local SQL Saturdays in the past (helping organize/run one), but seeing the list of speakers and knowing a few of the local chapter members, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit. Friday I packed my bags and hit the road. It’s about a 300 mile trip so I gassed up, settled in with my backlog of podcasts and set the cruise control.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a Windows Update go bad - until this week. I recently upgraded to Office 2013 and late Monday afternoon, decided to check in with Windows Update prior to our company’s normal monthly patching to see how bad the damage would be. Nearly 1 GB of updates, thanks to my fresh Office install. But there were also a couple optional updates, including a .NET Framework update.