Thursday, November 10, 2005

 

A Day in Frisco

I had to travel to San Francisco on Sunday night so that I could be there bright and early for a Microsoft product launch that started first thing on Monday morning. (In case you didn't know, I'm an expert in database technology and Microsoft was launching the newest version of their database - SQL Server 2005.)

The day started off with a big flashy presentation by Steve Balmer, the CEO of Microsoft. AC/DC music was blaring "For those about to rock". Flashy images were shooting across all of the screens and monitors. And he was ushered in by Cheap Trick - live and in person. (They were also that night's entertainment.)

There were some interesting and sort'a crazy things going on at the event. For example, there were quite a few show models who were wearing weird Teletubby shirts that had monitors built in that were constantly playing and replaying advertisements for some of the sponsors of the conference. Yes, Charlotte, that picture on the model's chest is not a picture but is actually a flat-screen TV. In the picture with me are one of the Teletubby models and Rushabh Mehta, a fellow member of the PASS board of directors (http://www.sqlpass.org).

Their were lots of other interesting things going on the entire time. Not only were there Teletubby models, there were also lots of celebrity impersonators. I didn't get a picture with Elvis. But I did get pictures with Tina Turner, Steven Tyler, Madonna, and Cher. The Cher impersonator was not a man, btw. I know that because her curly black hair were covering up some big time cleavage.

Microsoft also brought in some cool street painters who painted entirely with paint cans and airbrushes. They started painting when the party kicked off around 7:00 pm and they all finished around 11:00 pm. Here's an example of one of the paintings:






Finally, I was a judge for the SQL Server Chopper contest. In this contest, I got to judge a bunch of entries that were case studies of migrating from Oracle to SQL Server. The winner was the one whose project was the most interesting and high impact for their company. The winner of the contest got a grand prize of a custom made chopper from Orange County Choppers. I even got to meet Paul Sr. Mikey was also there and he was constantly saying mailto:F@#$ on the PA system. I guess that prima donas can do that sort of thing. Oh, and Paul Sr is every bit as muscular as the Hulk and about 3-4" shorter than me. I kid you not that his arms were every bit as big around as my thighs. Yikes!


Well, that's all for me today. I'll share more as soon as I have more to tell.

-Kev

Comments:
That dude's arms are as big around as my waist! If not bigger!
 
Well, your waist keeps getting smaller. So I'm sure it's true, if not today then tomorrow.

-ZM
 
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