Various Musings About Writing, TechEd 2009 North America, and Training
Writing
If you’ve ever wondered how someone can work their normal job along with things like writing a book, it’s not easy. For example, one of the chapters I recently finished for my new SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering book pre-editing in Word weighs in at 117 pages. That’s more than most people write at all, let alone one chapter! Granted there are a fair amount of screen shots, but still. I do it because at the end of the day, it’s my name on it and I want it to be as good as it can be and very useful for everyone who buys it.
What takes the longest, ironically enough, isn’t the writing part. It’s setting up all of the test environments to be able to do the writing. You’re looking at potentially hours worth of setting up a test to get just one screen capture.
I’m just about 50% done the wrirting of the book and it should, if all goes well, be fully written and through editing by April. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that it will be out on shelves by TechEd North America in May, but realistically it may be out just after.
As if I didn’t have enough on my plate in terms of writing, I’m happy to annouce that I’m updating the SQL Server 2000 consolidation whitepaper I wrote in 2003 for SQL Server 2008. That should be out late Spring 2009 if all goes well. I’ll post the link under Resources and put a note here when it is posted. I’m also most likely going to do a webcast for it as well.
TechEd North America 2009
Speaking of TechEd, I’m happy to announce I’ll be presenting one session this year – DAT322 Tips and Tricks for Successful Database Mirroring Deployments with SQL Server. I’ll also most likely be in the SQL Server area of Microsoft’s booth a lot, so you can visit me there as well.
Training Update
Last, but certainly not least, I’m finally getting serious about putting my training together (who needs sleep!). My clustering class should be done in the near future. I’m currently sorting out my delivery methods. I’m thinking there may be multiple ways to get it:
1. Traditional classroom-type setting
2. Course delivery online
3. Computer-based training
While #1 will always be an option, the reality is that a) I don’t have my own training space so I’d need to be hosted (unless it was a private training where that would be taken care of anyway) and b) while it offers the most interactivity, when people are cutting budgets, it may not be possible for people to travel anymore. I’m definitely going to be doing it live … no question. Stay tuned on this one.
#2 is intriguing to me. It would allow me to have a “virtual classroom” where people wouldn’t have to travel, but get live training. I’m looking into the cost and if this is not only a viable option (which I think it is), but how much it would cost, and quite frankly, if anyone would want this over #1.
#3 is something I’ve been toying with for awhile. This would obviously be a more “canned” thing, but would contain the same material. I do have the ability to have labs, quizzes, etc. for you to do using special software. The cost would be cheaper than #1 or #2 per person, but you lose some of the obvious interactivity. I’m trying to sort out a pricing model for this as well as some options for interactivity with me if you purchased the Failover Clustering CBT.
Let me know your thoughts. Ultimately, you guys are my audience for this class.