By Karen Lopez on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:49:39 GMT

I realize that our website and forums are primarily about technical "stuff" and we don't often exchange thoughts about the more personal sides of our work and life, but I thought that on the eve of US Thanksgiving I'd share some thanks for all of you who help make these communities work:

For all of you who take the time to answer questions of other subscribers on our forums, THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  Your willingness to help others be successful is a benefit to many more people than you realize.

For those of you who post questions, THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  Your questions are probably much more common than you think.  And for those of you who post questions with sufficient information, many more thanks.

For all of you who lurk (read and generally don't post), THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  Just reading the posts makes you a part of our community.

For those vendor staff who lend a hand on these independent boards, THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  Your willingness to be part of our community is a great help.  For those of you who provide prizes for our contests and sponsorship for job postings, THANK YOU.

For our moderators, THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  We couldn't provide on-topic, spam-free communities without your help.

For those who comment on these blogs, THANK YOU, MANY TIMES OVER.  I do enjoy knowing that some one out there is reading and responding to my rants, raves, and theories.

Thank you all.  And even if tomorrow isn't Thanksgiving where you are (like here in Canada), remember that somewhere out there, someone is thankful that you are part of their lives.

By Karen Lopez on Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:52:08 GMT

Just in time for some pre-Tofurky day goofing off:

A SQL query goes into a bar, walks up to two tables and says, "Can I join you".

Thanks to Peter Ward of sql-server-performance.com

I can't believe I've never heard that one before.  Am I a clueless newb?

By Karen Lopez on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 8:14 PM

Chris Kanaracus has written a glowing description of the Data Modeler / Data Architect job in Hot Jobs: Data Modeler at Network World..  He has some great quotes:

If database administrators are jet pilots, then data modelers are aerospace engineers, performing the initial design work that enables production systems and applications to use data and drive business processes [David Van De Voort]

and

[E]limination round: There is a sure-fire way to weed out the phonies, according to Stephens. If a data modeler can't demonstrate what they can do with an established modeling tool, "then they're a pretender, [Jim Lanzalotto]

I've been interviewing data modelers for year and I can say that about 90% of the candidates supposedly screened by agencies have never authored a data model in their entire career.  The market is definitely in short supply of qualified data architects and modelers. 

and don't miss this:

salary range: US$90,000 to $130,000

It's a good article.  Check it out:

Hot Jobs: Data Modeler - Network World

 

By Karen Lopez on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:22:00 GMT

 

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By Karen Lopez on Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:00:36 GMT

The National Institute of Health has an excellent web site on their Enterprise Architecture program.

NIH Enterprise Architecture

One of the more interesting techniques is the presentation of information about their EA program in terms of Bricks.

What is a "brick"?

A brick specifies NIH adopted technical standards and protocols or technologies and products. They define current and future standards. They also define products or standards in the current environment that are to be retired or contained. Figure 1 is a template for bricks at NIH:

There are hours and hours of great reading on this web site.  Information about their Enterprise Service Bus, SOA, Business Architecture, Data Architecture, Information Architecture, Integration Architecture -- all kinds of great information.