Today’s out-of-band post is for a very special reason – it’s been two (2) years since I started blogging on BeyondRelational.com and doing my bit to contribute back into the community as a gesture of thanks for all that the community has given me.

Thank-yous

I would take this opportunity to thank the following for their tremendous contribution and sacrifices in making this journey possible:

• Jacob Sebastian (blog), Pinal Dave (blog) and Vinod Kumar (blog) for inspiring and introducing me to this wonderful SQL Server community
• My dear wife, Ami and my respected parents, without whose love, blessings, sacrifices and support I wouldn’t have achieved this
• My friends and colleagues at work who kept providing me feedback on my posts and encouraged me to write more
• Finally, it’s you – the kind members of the community who take the time out from your busy schedules to read what I write – you are the most important contributors in this milestone

A quick snapshot of the last two years…

Here’s a quick summary of the splendid two year journey in the world of SQL Server and the community, in general. As I was preparing this list, I was surprised to see how much I did in these two years in addition to shouldering increased responsibilities at work. It just goes to show the satisfaction and drive that one gets by contributing to the community.

• Blogs
  • 223 posts till date!
  • Approximately 2 posts/week
  • Average of approximately 111 posts/year
  • Topics centered around my learning experiences followed by SQL Server Tools and Utilities and my experiments with T-SQL
  • Visit by blog at: http://beyondrelational.com/modules/2/blogs/77/nakuls-blog.aspx
• Certification
  • Earned Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) certification for SQL Server 2008 (Implementation & Maintenance)
• Conferences
  • Attended Microsoft TechEd India:
    • Tech-Ed India 2011 (Summary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
    • Tech-Ed India 2012 as a “TechEd Rockstar” (Summary: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
• Tutorials
  • Getting Started with SQL Server Profiler
  • Getting Started with SSMS
• Guest articles & Publications
  • Setting TRUNCATE permissions in SQL Server (SQLAuthority.com), December 20, 2010
  • Connection Strings 101 (SQLServerCentral.com), December 24, 2010
  • Deleting a Large Number of Rows from a table and a heap in a VLDB (SQLServerCentral.com), March 24, 2011
  • SQL Server Interview Questions & Answers – My Views on Interviews (SQLAuthority.com), July 28, 2011
  • SQL Server – Thinking about Deprecated, Discontinued Features and Breaking Changes while upgrading to SQL Server 2012 (SQLAuthority.com), May 18, 2012
  • Never update systems tables directly – a study in Agent job scheduling (SQLServerCentral.com), September 17, 2012
• Presentations:
  • Presented an exclusive Microsoft Virtual Tech Days Webcast on the Underappreciated Features of Microsoft SQL Server
    • PPT here: http://beyondrelational.com/media/p/12497.aspx
    • Webcast Download:http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/C/60CBF7F0-5558-4C00-ACC0-ABFF25A92244/Day5_SQLServer webcast.wmv
• Microsoft Connect Cases:
  • Physical file names in the Database Restore wizard should default to logical file names
  • Cannot open/upgrade a solution created for SSMS 2008 in SSMS SQL 11 ("Denali") CTP01
  • Table Designer – "User canceled out of save dialog" message appears – if "Prevent changes that require table re-creation" is checked
  • Ability to import templates (deploy custom templates) into the Template Explorer
  • sp_configure – "allow updates" should be an advanced option
• Tweets
  • 1450+ tweets, 113 followers
• Academia
  • Presented academic research paper on database upgrades at the “National Conference for a Technologically Driven Society” (NCTDS) 2011, a national conference organized by the Computer Society of India (CSI)
  • Worked with leading educational institutions of the region to mentor and evaluate the next generation

Ways to stay in touch with me

Ask Me a Question

You can always ask me a SQL Server Question at: http://beyondrelational.com/ask/nakul/default.aspx.

Please note that this is voluntary assistance, and therefore, I will only provide guidance. I will not do your work or assignments for you.

My Linked-In Profile:

You can take a look at my Linked In Profile here:

Social Media Presence

You can follow me on the following:

Twitter: Tweet to @nakulv_sql

Google+: +Nakul

Concluding…

I would like to hear from you, especially what would you like me to do new in 2013! Keep the feedback coming – I really appreciate it!

Until we meet next time,

Be courteous. Drive responsibly.