Coffee And Code

SoCal Coffee and Code was a success

I would have to say that the first SoCal Coffee and Code was a hit.  Only a few people came, but I wasn’t sure if any were going to show, so fora  first event I’d say that a few is a success.

First were a couple of co-workers named Rene and Hattan who stopped by to talk about SQL Server tuning.  We ended up talking about SQL Server tuning, VMware, upgrading their companies SQL Server, crappy VB6 code that they’ve seen among other things.  They are still running good old SQL Server 2000 in their environment.  They have a machine with only a few Gigs of RAM but a 20+ Gig database so we talked about adding more RAM to increase the buffer cache on the machine to decrease the response time.  Hattan had seen me speak at the SoCal Code Camp in January and started reading my blog, which led him to today.

Later Thu came by and we talked about SQL Server 2008, and how to install SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 side by side.  We also dug into using fn_listextendedproperty to problematically retrieve the extended properties of columns on a table.  Apparently a legacy system at her company has some columns which are simply labeled as user defined and it’s been causing a problem not having them correctly documented anywhere.  The most reliable system that they came up with was extended properties.  Makes sense to me.

The last person to come by was Thomas.  He’s a fellow speaker from the SoCal Code Camps and we know easy other fairly well.  We chatted about SQL Server, and a project he’s working on which envolved moving data from mainframe systems to SQL Server.  Thomas was the last person to come over and we decided to grab some dinner together before calling it for the night.

Denny

Coffee And Code in Irvine Tomorrow

Don’t forget tomorrow (Friday the 6th) is our first Coffee and Code in the SoCal area (at least the first that I know of).

We’ll be at the Starbucks at the Tustin Market place (2959 El Camino Real Tustin, California) from 3pm until 7pm (or there abouts).

See you there.

Denny

Coffee and Code coming to Irvine

Recently I found the blog of Joey deVilla (@AccordionGuy on Twitter) who is the Developer Evangelist for Microsoft up in Toronto, Canada.  Joey has started doing something which I think is great for the IT comminity.  He picks a coffee shop in the area, tells everyone that he’ll be there and plants himself there for the part of the day talking with and assisting where he can the local IT Pros and Developers.

Personally I think this is a great idea, so I’ve decided to “borrow” his idea (can’t really say I’m stealing his idea, he told me I should do it) and start doing Coffee and Code days here in SoCal.

Since I know there are more IT Pros and IT Devs in Irvine, there here in Riverside I figure for the first one I’ll head over there.  So, Friday March 6th I’ll be at the Starbucks at the Tustin Market place (2959 El Camino Real Tustin, California) from 3pm until 7pm.  Feel free to come by for a few minutes, or for the afternoon.

The reason that I choose a Starbucks is that the Internet isn’t that expensive and if you have AT&T Internet at home (or on your cell phone I think) you can use the AT&T Hotspot at Starbucks for free.

Now if you go to Starbucks a lot, most of the time Costco has Starbucks gift cards for sale.  You get $100 worth of gift cards for $80.

So if you have some free time and want to come by and talk, code, and/or drink Coffee I’ll be there.  If you are going to be there, please remember to by something from Starbucks so they don’t yell at us for being there.  If need by we’ll move outside and take over some of the patio; weather permitting of course no one wants a wet laptop.  Joey has posted some tips for working outside of the office which I highly recommend for those who aren’t used to using a coffee shop or restaurant as your office.

I may have a spare power strip I can bring, I’ll dig around to see if I do, since they only have a couple of power outlets.

See you at Starbucks on the 6th.

Denny