Work has been pretty interesting for the past two days. Primarily cos I had a chance to some things which were pretty new to me! The biggest perhaps being, learning to use SQL Server Reporting Services for SQL Server 2005. I learnt it within two days and deployed some pretty complex reports. In fact, there is one report which I had done in Crystal Reports that had TERRIBLE performance (its a heck of a complex report!!!), I mean searching through it and printing it were just extremely time consuming and just utterly frustrating to the users. In fact, it was this very problem that drove me to SSRS in a bid to handle the situation. The long and the short of it is that the report that was so complex and that had initially taken me more than 3 days to do on a familiar reporting engine took only a few hours to do and deploy which. And not only is it rapid-fast in comparison but also the users really loved the new interface and it’s ease of accessibility via a simple browser. I did notice however that the report does not render properly on firefox, but comes out well on IE, there is some ActiveX component that was needed on the browser to enable printing, and there is something about date formatting (i needed to have filtering on the report by dates), the issue is that the date format in the BI Development Studio is natively American (m/d/y), this gave me a bit of trouble cos i did not realize it, but apparently once you deploy it IE takes the set date formatting on the PC’s regional settings…. I think I should do a tutorial on the Tech section. Now, that I have leveraged SRSS in reporting I am going to try it out to do some other interesting reports I have to do. I love challenge so this is not just about work any more, its about leveraging the power of a new technology learnt to the solution of some interesting and challenging information manipulation problems (Mmmmuhahahahaha)!!!
I am also currently learning some other stuff on my own and I have a promising opportunity to make some cash, in fact, two different opportunities… and I really need the money for my school fees and to pay off some land I bought recently, yes land! In African culture and especially where I come from land is pretty important! And I am thankful to be able to obtain a parcel. (Damn, at this rate,… !)
I just finished watching the Lord of the Ring trilogy, yet again. What can I say, it’s an awesome story, an epic of courage, determination… And last night I watched ’300′ about the Spartans, I love epics, I think I will re-watch it. It was really awesome, except for the fact that some scenes did not sit well with me, especially at the beginning. There is something about me, when I watch movies, I don’t just get entertained, I sort of put myself in it and somehow experience it, that’s one reason why I am so picky about the movies I watch. 300 was cool not just cos of the awesome war scenes but because of some values I saw in it, courage, determination, teamwork, solidarity, loyalty, freedom, valor… love, the total belief in something much bigger than the self, something you would give your life for and that you live for, the loss of which is a more painful thought than death! (maybe I just read too much into things), and I asked myself, how much more having faith in what is real, true and not only lasts this lifetime but beyond! Sparta, in all it’s glory fell, eventually, but there is a principle that will never fall, how much more that which will never fall!!! (OK, sorry if I sounded speechy, just consider it my two cents!!!)
There’s a time a good mentor of mine (an more of a father-figure to me) asked me what my life metaphor is… the answer I gave was this, ‘it’s a war’. Some see it as a race, others as an adventure, others as maybe just fun and passing by!
Filed under: adventure, research, technology, tool, work
