Neal Waterstreet

Speaking at SQLSaturday #806 Charlotte 2018!

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On Saturday, October 20th, I’m speaking at SQLSaturday #806 Charlotte 2018! I’ll be presenting my session “Master Data Management with SQL Server 2016 MDS”. If you’re able to attend the event, stop by and say hello.

Want to know the position Master Data Management and MDS play in an organization’s overall data strategy? We’ll review the key concepts and the different roles and responsibilities to help you get your organization moving forward with MDM. We’ll then take a look at the features of SQL Server 2016 MDS that make it an excellent tool for MDM. This demo-packed presentation will cover architecture and installation, different ways of processing data, hierarchies, security and many other features that will get you up and running with MDS.

Bose Headphones

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My Logitech h800 headphones finally died a few weeks ago courtesy of the kids. I liked them, especially for the price, but they were missing a few features I wanted. First, for some reason, I always had a problem pairing them with my phone. The Bluetooth issue was with by my phone, or it may have been with the headset, I have no idea. Second, they didn’t fit well. They were comfortable, but the foam was never fit tightly. Finally, I need something that is noise canceling. Noise canceling is a nice feature to have in noisy work environments.

I started by looking for a simple headset. I initially purchased the Jabra Evolve 40 UC to replace the h800. The 40 UC worked well, but I didn’t particularly enjoy having a wired connection. I kept pulling my phone off the desk or trying to stand up and having them fall.

I finally settled on the Bose QuietComfort 35 Series II. They cost more than most of the other options, but they solve all of the problems I was looking to solve. They are very easy to pair, and they can be paired to multiple devices at once. They’re also pretty comfortable and fit over the ear. I haven’t had them fall off yet either. One area that did need a few days to get used to was the noise canceling. Now that I’m used to it I’m able to work and have calls with background noise. It helps in areas where there are multiple people on the phone at the same time. I’ve also tried them on a couple of flights, and they work very well in the air.

Switching back to streaming…

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Well, today is the day… After a couple of years with cable, I’ve decided to again go the streaming route. Having cable was sufficient but I think streaming will work a little better for me now.

Here are my three main reasons for switching back:

  1. Gigabit Fiber. We have more consumers now than we did a few years ago. I’m seeing some evidence that we need more bandwidth.
  2. Channels. Just like everyone else, we watch less than 10 channels. All the rest are not needed. Now that almost everything is available this is an easy choice. This is one space that has significantly improved since we switched back to cable.
  3. Access control. We have a Circle to control access to the internet at home. It’ll be much easier to control television access without cable.

Here is the setup I’ll be using:
AT&T Fiber for internet. This is a big difference from what I currently have. Several of my neighbors have it and are happy with it. The price is a little bit more than needed for streaming but we wanted the extra bandwidth.

Roku for the main access point. There are other alternatives here but we will stick with this for now. We can always switch over to Xbox or just use the TV itself.

SlingTV for television. There are many choices of services now and it’s really hard to decide which one to go with. We chose SlingTV since there are international options. I did look at Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV too. DirectTV Now would have also been an option but there wasn’t a way to bundle with Fiber. I also selected the optional DVR. I haven’t used that yet.

Plex for local media. Plex is perfect, no complaints there.

One are I don’t have a solution for is local channels. Looks like I’ll need to set up the antenna again. This isn’t a big concern and I’ll need to dig up my old antenna.

T-Mobile announced they will get into television. I’ll take a look at what they offer. They usually make a big splash when they jump in.

This set up should work pretty well for us for now. I’d like to see what others are using though. The big test will come next year when GoT starts back up.

Atlanta Modern Excel – July Meeting

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Topic: Friends & Foes: What does it mean to be an Excel power User?

Summary: As an Excel Pro, you’ve got lots of friends – all of those people you support with your fast reporting, the accountant down the hall who you showed a pivot table to for the first time, your boss who you introduced to slicers, etc. But as an Excel Pro you also have lots of enemies that you might not even know about (or maybe you do know about them!). This session is all about learning to make new friends as you step up your game with the new “Power” tools in Excel. To everyone else you’ll become much more than “just an Excel user” although deep down in your heart Excel will still be your first love. We’ll “touch on” Power Pivot, Power Query, Power BI, SSAS Tabular, & DAX – this will not be a technical talk.

Speaker: Austin Senseman, Lead Consultant, Ten Thousand Things

When: Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Where: Microsoft Alpharetta Office, 1125 Sanctuary Pkwy #300, Alpharetta, GA 30009