How to Win Favor with Australians in the USA

...OK a bit off topic.

Do you work with, or know an Australian who lives in the USA? Don't know what to get them this holiday season? Here's a simple suggestion.

I have just found out that every Australian's favorite cookie, the Tim Tam, is now available in the USA until March next year! You can find them Pepperidge Farm and Target stores. If you've never tried them, you should. Trust me. If you want to make an ex-pat Australian weep with joy or even propose marriage then this is something you can surprise them with.

Some American Tim Tam perspectives:

http://nycfoodguy.com/2008/11/17/nyc-cookies-tim-tams-are-finally-in-the-us-we-want-them-to-stay/

http://nymag.com/daily/food/2008/11/tim_tam_chocolate_cookies_land.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27663260/site/14081545

A change of [employment] scenery

Just under a year ago I got a call from a good friend and former colleague who asked if I wanted to co-author a book with him on Business Scorecard Manager. I accepted the offer and in April this year the Rational Guide to BSM was published. We found that our ability to collaborate on a project coupled with a shared passion for BI and BPM served us well.

A short time ago he called again to ask if I would be interested in working with him on a more full-time basis. Once more I accepted. This afternoon I completed my employment with SDM and on my return from 3 weeks of badly needed vacation will begin work as principal consultant at Adrian Downes' company B(iQ). I'm looking forward to working with both Adrian and his business partner Con on a number of exciting projects we have planned. Naturally I'll keep this blog updated with details on some of the more interesting ones ;)

Dear Mr Architect...

An entertaining post by Peter Koller pondering If building architects had to work like IT architects. Worth a read while enjoying that oh-so-important morning cup of coffee.

If I may, I'd like to add another paragraph to Peter's letter:

"The house will be comprised of three stories. Because the most important rooms for us (kitchen, bedrooms etc.) will be located on the third story we would like you to design and build that one first. You can work on the remaining two stories and foundation further on down the track, they are of lower importance to us."

Someone I admire

I admire a lot of people. They are people who do things that I aspire to or who do things that I can't. I need to add another to my list as a result of a client I worked for this week.

Kenny's a developer/web designer and all-round IT geek. He's passionate about technology and loves to learn. He is an MCSE, MCAD, MCPD among others, he also has a B.Sc in IT. He's developed some great stuff for the organisation he works for and is a font of .NET knowledge to his co-workers. His next goal is to get certified as MCITP DBA. His skills & passion put him right up there with a some of the best developers I have worked with.

Nothing particularly special so far? OK. What stands Kenny head and shoulders above others is the fact that he is vision impaired. A genetic condition left him with nothing but very limited peripheral vision only so his ability to see the screen directly in front of him is literally zero. So from an IT development perspective you could say he's almost completely blind. All he has achieved in IT, solutions he has built, his knowledge, degree, MS certs he has done without the aid of sight. He does his work using his encyclopedic knowledge of keyboard shortcuts and a screen reader called JAWS (Job Access With Speech) which converts text on the screen to sound.

I learned a lot this past week about making software accessible really means. Kenny gives very high accessibility marks to both Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server Management Studio, which was great to hear (apparently SSMS is a monumental improvement over the old Enterprise Manager in this area). However, he did say that there were several areas where simple, but effective, accessibility improvements could be made on both apps. I hope MS gets in contact with him as he would love provide them with feedback about what can be done here.

Before writing this post I thought about developing without being able to see the screen in front of me. For those who are sighted, development is pretty much all visual. I mean how much of the other 4 senses do we really use when developing something? Smell and taste? Not at all. Touch and sound? Maybe a bit of each. I would say that development is at least 90%-95% visual. Even names of some of the products we use to develop remind us of this: Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual Studio. When you think about it like that you get even more perspective on just what Kenny has achieved and continues to do on a daily basis.

Kenny, you rock!

New BI Blogger - Adrian Downes

The man who talked me into co-authoring the Rational Guide to BSM is now blogging. 'bout bloody time, Adrian :)

http://adriandownes.blogspot.com

RSInteract Comment Spam

The catalyst of this post was one Christian Smyth (apparently the CEO of ICS) who thought that a good way to promote the fact that his company's product, RSInteract, had won an award recently would be to post the entire press release text in the comments of a post I wrote recently (I have since removed the comment text). A day later I gained yet another piece of comment spam thanks to another, this time anonymous, ICS employee trying to promote an upcoming seminar. Didn't want to put your name to it this time, Christian?

Hey ICS, if you want to use my blog to promote your products & services wouldn't it be polite to ask me first? My email address is easy to find. Be warned that your comments are only going to be deleted soon after they arrive.

Admittedly I am adding to the promotion of this product by way of this post, but I felt like having a bit of a rant. Have any other BI bloggers out there had their comments defaced by ICS in this way recently?

UPDATE: Just received a comment on this post from Huzmah Ahmed, the head of marketing at ICS.

Thanks for the comment, Huzmah. Contacting bloggers directly is not really that hard. Many have their email addresses posted somewhere on their blogs - I do. If you can't find an email address, Google is a good start. BI bloggers in particular would almost certainly be well aware of RSInteract. We're all in the BI game so the chances of our contact details (or someone we work with) being somewhere in the ICS system may also be quite high.

Australian BI position

I have been quite snowed under during the last couple of weeks so my apologies for lack of recent posts. I have just changed employers and am now working with a new MS gold partner, Strategic Data Management. We are growing fast and are looking for new BI people in Melbourne and / or Adelaide. The ad below will be appearing on-line later this week. If you're interested, drop me a line - nick[dot]barclay[at]gmail[dot]com

Technical Product Specialist (SQL/BI )
- Do you want to work with a Microsoft Gold Partner that is well respected by Microsoft?
- Are you enthusiastic about being at the forefront of technology (SQL2005)?
- Do you want to work with some of Australia's best?

SDM, one of Australia's fastest growing companies, are recognised leaders in the Microsoft software development community. Our team has grown to nearly 60 and we're looking for more technical staff. Our staff are crucial to our continued growth and success, and therefore SDM is strongly committed to being an Employer of Choice.

This position will primarily involve implementing high quality corporate reporting solutions by developing and creating data warehouse and reporting solutions.

Our ideal candidate will be passionate about, and experienced with SQL Server (2 years), and will ideally have had some experience developing with .NET (VB or C#) and Analysis Services.

Working exposure to the following would be desirable:
- SQL Reporting Services
- ASP-based web development
- MCSD/MCDBA would also be a bonus.

You will need to:
- Be an excellent communicator
- Have a strong work ethic, balanced with a great sense of humour
- Have an easy going, friendly manner, and be a valuable team-member
- Be able to manage time and delivery schedules
- Be experienced with MSF software development methodologies