About a belle

Who am I?
- Donabel Santos
- SQL Server Developer/DBA/Ninja at Black Ninja Software in Vancouver, British Columbia
- Instructor at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Computing and Academic Studies. Currently teaching Web Development, MySQL and SQL Server
- MySQL Core, MySQL Professional
- MCP, MCTS, MCITP-Developer, MCITP-DBA and most recently, MCT!

Resident SQL Server Ninja at Black Ninja Software

I am the resident SQL Ninja at Black Ninja Software. Black Ninja Software is a forward thinking, proactive SharePoint/ASP.NET/SQL Server consulting company in Vancouver, British Columbia.

What does a SQL Ninja do, you ask?

As a SQL Ninja, I work on the SQL projects for clients – remote administration, configuration, reporting, optimization, profiling, and a whole lot of querying. I also do SQL Server training.

I enjoy working a lot with SQL Server. And at Black Ninja, I work with some of the coolest, smartest people around town.

Here is my shameless plug. If you need any SQL Server help, don’t hesitate to ask. Call me, email me, post a comment in my blog. Don’t worry, I don’t bite. Contact details at the Black Ninja Software Contact Page.

What is this blog for?
This blog contains some of the things I learn about SQL Server, some of the gotchas that got me, and some of the gotchas I escaped from thanks to other people’s blogs, articles and what nots.

These are my own discoveries as I work with SQL Server. Everyday, I learn a new thing or two about SQL Server. I learn a lot from colleagues, students, and other books and blogs. I am using this blog as a medium to retain a little fraction of this learning, and to share it in case it’s useful to someone else.

Geeky as it sounds, I *really* love working with SQL Server and I *really* love teaching SQL Server. I am excited to learn more about this product, be it development, reporting, administration, SQL on the cloud, SQL clustering – the sky is the limit.

In a previous job, I worked as a DBA for one of the biggest advertising companies in Canada (for their real estate and automotive vertical). I also used to work a lot with MySQL and SharePoint (both WSS and MOSS), so you will find tidbits about MySQL and SharePoint in this blog. I used to actively blog about SharePoint in sharepointmusings and have been involved in administration, customization (branding, web parts, features, BDC, SSRS integration) of SharePoint projects.

SQL Server Connection

Did I mention yet that I *love* working with SQL Server?

My experience in SQL Server 2000/2005 includes:
- user defined functions (UDFs), Stored Procedures, Triggers
- general administration
- security and user/permission management
- backup/restore
- general troubleshooting
- high availability strategies (log shipping, database mirroring, replication)
- query optimization, indexes
- Reporting Services and Notification Services (SSRS, SSNS)
- integration with SharePoint 2007
- training/teaching

Currently, I am engrossed with:
- Powershell
- SMO (SQL Management Objects)
- Windows Server 2003/2008
- SQL Server 2008
- SQL Server on the Cloud
- SQL Clustering

My previous positions include:
- SQL Server Developer/DBA (database administrator)
- SharePoint/SQL Server/C# developer/consultant
- MySQL/PHP/Perl developer
- Linux sys admin
- Web developer (HTML/XHTML/CSS/Javascript/XSL)

Previous Talks/Speaking Engagements:

I also like sharing what I learn either in classroom lectures, or speaking engagements within the development community.

Victoria Code Camp
SharePoint 101, Advanced SharePoint (Presentation Materials)

DevTeach/SQLTeach
SharePoint 2007 Integration (Web Parts, Business Data Catalog (BDC), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Notification Services (SSNS), SQL Server) (Presentation Materials)

VANTUG
SharePoint 2007 Integration (Web Parts, Business Data Catalog (BDC), SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS), SQL Server Notification Services (SSNS), SQL Server) (Presentation Materials)

SQLPASS
SQL Server Notification Services (SSNS) 101 (Presentation Materials – look for Sep2007)

Additional Stuff About Me:

belle’s BCIT Profile 1 2
belle’s SharePointMusings
belle’s LinkedIn

Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT)

Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professrional (MCITP) - DBA, Developer

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

*Postings in this blog are provided “AS IS” with no warranties

*avatar by faceyourmanga (http://www.faceyourmanga.com)

Free Software and Books for Unemployed Developers (thanks to Microsoft MVPs!)

July 15th, 2010 by belle

Arnie Rowland just sent me an email informing me about this great give-back-to-the-community initiative. Many MVPs, including Arnie Rowland, Denny Cherry, Bill Graziano, Bill Simser, Paul Turley (whose sessions I attended last SQLPASS 2009)

Here is a quote from Arnie’s blog post :

“We are inviting unemployed or underemployed developers to propose a software project for a non-profit agency, school, or church.

The idea is that we will provide a package of the latest software, tools, and training resources to help you improve your skills, get up to date with current technologies, gain practical experience, potentially earn a recommendation for your efforts, and in general, enjoy the feeling of accomplishing something useful for others.

We are not giving out a ‘free lunch’, just supporting your efforts to personally gain from your own ‘sweat equity’.

The software, books, training and development tools are valued at over $15,000!

I think this is an excellent initiative, and will definitely help motivate developers to improve their skills and their toolsets. Think about it. If you’re an aspiring developer, you can also get the chance to have hands on practical experience – at the same time having the chance to get geeky feel-good goodies! C’mon, free books? Who can refuse that? (not me. I always have room in my bookshelf for free books. @BrentO (twitter | blog), by the way, I will need your autograph in my SQL Server Internals and Troubleshooting book. I will bring it in November!

So here’s what you need to do:
1. If you’re unemployed or underemployed, start looking for a non-profit project (see requirements in Arnie’s blog), and join.
2. If you’re neither unemployed nor underemployed – help spread the word.
3. If you’re neither unemployed nor underemployed – and you’re an MVP – sponsor
4. If you’re not interested, or you don’t care – just spread the word too. You’ll earn brownie points – somewhere.