Data Driven

This episode is entitled "This, Too, Shall Pass" and it was recorded Tuesday the eighth of September in this foul year of our Lord two thousand twenty. 

Frank and Andy tend to wander off the old conversational trail. 

But you knew that already. 

Thanks for listening to the Data Driven podcast.  Visit us on the web at datadriven.tv and be sure to like us on Facebook. 

(Bonus points to you if you caught the Hunter Thompson reference in the intro)

Recorded Live:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tevc7Wr68OE

Transcription Coming Soon

In this DataPoint, Frank examines whether or not the new AI voice over tech really replaced a human or did it open up new creative options instead?

Transcript 

Speaker 1 

Hey, what's up? It's Frank here. 

Speaker 1 

From data driven the podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data science machine learning and artificial intelligence, so the title of this data. Point is did AI take just take away someone's job. Well, yes, and no so here's an example so. 

Speaker 1 

So rather, quantum answer, isn't it right? It's both yes and no at the same time. See what I did there? So this is actually in regards to the voice over artist that we used to have on the show, but for both data driven and. 

Speaker 1 

Impact quantum but. 

Speaker 1 

I just recorded something today for impact quantum, so this isn't this isn't just a cheap kind of product placement for the other show. This is a serious thing, so if we go and we listen to this. 

Speaker 2 

Hello and welcome to this episode of impact quantum. This episode is titled freaking cubits how do they work? 

Speaker 1 

So basically that is an artificially an AI generated voice that we've been using. 

Speaker 1 

Probably since the three year anniversary prior to that we used someone an voiceover artist I found on fiber called shifty pop. Awesome work that she does. 

Speaker 1 

Um and her turn around is pretty quick too, but. 

Speaker 1 

She also doesn't do voiceover work anymore. She just singing kind of stuff which is still cool. So definitely check her out and tell her data driven center sent you. But the key here is that. 

Speaker 1 

We would love to be in a position where budget Wise. We could have a voiceover artist custom do this. But just was never practical right for every show, however, with the AI. 

Speaker 1 

I can. 

Speaker 1 

Create a custom intro for every show and eventually a custom outro outro at the end too. 

Speaker 1 

See we've done that were on data driven a few times an every episode of impact quantum has been that now part of that is just you know, practical right so I can type up what I need to type have the voice over artist say tweak the voice settings or whatever, although we have kind of a setting we like. 

Speaker 1 

And hit generate and I have a wave file right away for MP3 actions. What generates. 

Speaker 1 

Right away, right? So I have that instantaneous feedback, right? So there's the time and it doesn't cost me anything extra to do that. I I I spent $30 or something on some web based platform so it can actually pull in voice wave voice generation capabilities from Google, Amazon as well as as Azure so I have. 

Speaker 1 

All that ability kind of depict the voices. Pick the accents. I can even do a child's voice a man's voice. I mean, it's obviously a lady's voice. I can do that. I can do that right away. I paid for it basically one time and I can get that. So in a sense. 

Speaker 1 

I was actually having a discussion with my manager. Actually, wow, you've put somebody out of work. 

Speaker 1 

And yes and No. 

Speaker 1 

So I hired a voiceover artist three years ago. 

Speaker 1 

Yeah, 3 1/2 years ago an I paid her I think was like ended up being $50 or so. So for less than the cost of re engaging her to do a voiceover I now can create custom voiceovers with different voices, different accents, different gender. 

Speaker 1 

I can do all sorts different ages. I could do all sorts of things there, where as before I, I guess. I guess I could go through fiber and find that selection, but I can't do it on demand and a lot of case you haven't figured this out by now. A lot of what Andy and I do is ad hoc. We don't really do we do preparation, but not to the degree that I think. 

Speaker 1 

We present it, we do so I think that what what? This gives us the agility an the cost point. So in a sense yes. did I replace a human being with an AI generated voice? Yes I did, but I wouldn't say that. 

Speaker 1 

I put her out of work because I wasn't going to engage her anyway because it $30 to $50 or more per engagement. 

Speaker 1 

Wasn't going to do it anyway. 

Speaker 1 

Right, so this gets into that. That real question have I replaced? 

Speaker 1 

A person and the answer is yes and no. In in, in the strictest sense, yes. But honestly, I really wasn't going to engage her for at least another year to do another voice over. 

Speaker 1 

You know the podcast isn't well monetized right now. Speaking of monetizing. 

Speaker 1 

You can check out this cool shirt I'm wearing. If you're watching the video, it's the data graffiti shirt. Just search for it on Amazon data graffiti. It looks an awful lot like the obey stickers you might have seen up and down East Coast, and I think I've seen it in London a few times. 

Speaker 1 

Once you see it, you'll kind of. It'll trigger your memory. Also, we are looking for sponsors, so if you want to sponsor this show, hit me up. 

Speaker 1 

But so in a sense. 

Speaker 1 

AI has opened up an opportunity for us that was really kind of closed before. 

Speaker 1 

And I'm sure there's a fancy economic word or economic model for this, but this is just something AI has enabled that really wasn't going to spring the money for a custom voiceover. 

Speaker 1 

For every show. 

Speaker 1 

So I don't know. I think this is worth further discussion, but I also think you know it's not exactly. 

Speaker 1 

It's not as a clear cut answer yes or no. It's it's very quantum if you will. 

Speaker 1 

So with that. 

Speaker 1 

I'm going to. 

Speaker 1 

Wish you a good day and hope you have a great weekend. 

Like Star Trek in the 90s we are creating a spin off series.

The new show is called Impact Quantum and will focus on quantum computing.

Additionally, Frank and Andy explain how they keep creating content despite having full schedules.

In this episode, Frank and Andy talk about why Data Engineering may be the next hot career, how Microsoft's culture has changed, and Frank's solar power experiments.

Transcription & show notes coming soon.

In this episode Frank and Andy talk about the "three Rs" of the 2020s: robots, retail, and reskilling.

Original live stream link:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/frank-lavigne_data-driven-live-robots-data-and-retail-activity-6687056930667548672-tVKq

coming soon

In this Data Point, Frank sees a robot patrolling the aisles of his local Walmart and gets excited.

The robot scans shelves and helps identify what needs to be restocked and what's out of place.

https://www.businessinsider.com/walmart-adding-robots-help-stock-shelves-to-650-more-stores-2020-1

In this episode, Frank and Andy share their thoughts on three years of podcasting, stoicism, and climbing Mount Royal.

This is the first show that we recorded via live stream. It also marks the debut of our AI voice over talent.

Get a free audiobook on us at http://thedatadrivenbook.com/

The following was generated by YouTube's caption system.

0:00:03.200,0:00:15.540

hey Andy how it's going good how are you

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good I'm seeing a black screen and for

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some reason the audios being piped

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through you know are you input should be

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my my camera does on the pair of B let

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me try turning it off and back on again

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I know you have a call so for those of

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you joining us on YouTube and our

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Facebook live page Andy and I are doing

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an experiment and what's data science

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without experiments right Andy so true

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so how's my audio your audios awesome

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okay could you hear

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all right I've turned my camera on main

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using the app that came with it so the

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software that we were explaining for

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folks and for you Andy I'll bring our

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listeners into this the image we haven't

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started three years ago plus or minus a

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few weeks we wanted to hold off on the

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celebrations for a number of reasons and

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we originally envisioned this show to

0:01:30.060,0:01:37.110

become a video podcast so technology and

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costs have come down that if Sumi Annie

0:01:37.110,0:01:45.360

gets his camera going we will be able to

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do there we go I see yeah I am here I

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found the Settings button awesome so

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this is good this is good so we have the

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ability now to kind of do something more

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long a lot to think what we were

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originally envisioned so as awesome as

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you may think the show has been we

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actually had even we had even grander

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plans so this is just an experiment

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might even put this live on the feed is

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kind of like a

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call it a data point how about that Andy

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I like it I like that a lot because the

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advantage is that because I'm using a

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product called restream that I can pipe

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two different output so this is actually

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going to Frank's world TV YouTube

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channel our Facebook live feed and

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because of the magic of automation this

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is also going to be I'm actually going

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to once this ends will see that it

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should pick up the arm the video feed

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from Facebook and then pipe that into an

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mp3 file which should be ready for

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upload to the scene so again it's data

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science right in data magic it's not

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science

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I told that to customers a lot like you

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know it's ok to fail because it's called

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data science it's not in Dean in the

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perfection so you know and and silently

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calling it science what you say well it

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failed but you know we weren't sure it

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was gonna work so it's kind of so how's

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it going I know you have a call in like

0:03:20.600,0:03:27.380

five minutes but yeah it's I'm I'm

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waiting on someone and if they if they

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don't show up that that's ok they're

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busy it's a regular call with with

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someone who subcontracts with me and

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he's older but he is a data scientist as

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well and he sometimes gets distracted

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heads down that's why you pinged me

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about five minutes till the call I was

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like well I got a call in five minutes

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five let's do it

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I was upstairs drinking coffee when I

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messaged you and I'm glad you did

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this is our oh I like this Frank this is

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you're right this is our vision that's

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why we registered data-driven dot TV so

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okay there's another reason we want to

0:04:02.960,0:04:07.340

register theirs right there's a reason

0:04:04.700,0:04:08.930

why we're distr dot TV but the real

0:04:07.340,0:04:13.340

reason we didn't do coms because it was

0:04:08.930,0:04:16.460

taken so well there was that full

0:04:13.340,0:04:18.020

transparency minor and convenience minor

0:04:16.460,0:04:19.670

inconvenience I turned it into a

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potential opportunity to make it into a

0:04:19.670,0:04:25.070

video podcast but the and

0:04:21.950,0:04:28.010

look here we are so don't give up on

0:04:25.070,0:04:29.450

your dreams kids that's right no things

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are things are going good here today

0:04:29.450,0:04:35.170

Franco a little busy it's um it's an

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interesting time to be an entrepreneur

0:04:35.170,0:04:42.410

right in technology it's it's usually

0:04:38.900,0:04:46.520

feast or famine but there's a lot of

0:04:42.410,0:04:47.690

factors kind of weighing in on all of

0:04:46.520,0:04:50.480

that today

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I think 2020 has been that kind of year

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where it's just been you know one thing

0:04:53.990,0:05:02.000

after after another but Frank you and I

0:04:58.040,0:05:04.070

are both people of faith right and what

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I say when it's good times and bad times

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is you know we're in God's hands and a

0:05:07.070,0:05:13.760

lot of people don't like us mixing that

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kind of stuff that way if you're if

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you're don't believe in God then you

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know you can take the stoic approaches

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um anyway I mean well and we have you

0:05:22.940,0:05:27.410

know we had I remember a couple of

0:05:25.100,0:05:29.090

people that we interviewed brought that

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up brought up the stove approach Brent

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those are stands out right right

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Raven the last one so and in Bob Ward

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spoke a lot about his face right all

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right at the end of it and I'm gonna go

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I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I

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still believe this room I mean something

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I read it might have been from talev but

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wasn't in one of his books it might have

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been like a tweet or something like that

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you know that wars and plagues happen so

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frequently in human history yet we're

0:06:01.880,0:06:06.350

still surprised when they happen yeah

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and that kind of that kind of stuck with

0:06:06.350,0:06:10.820

me and and you know if you are person of

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faith Amen that's cool if you're not

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that's cool too we all have to live on

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the same planet we did until Mars is an

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option then we'll share too but I mean

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you know as someone you know you all

0:06:27.230,0:06:31.850

know I mean I don't not everyone knows

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but you know I was at the World Trade

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Center I had PTSD

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and one of the lasting legacies is a

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PTSD is kind of the the overreaction to

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stress now to say the 20/20 has been

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stressful here both for family reasons

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I'm kind of side this is an

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understatement and you know I you know I

0:06:59.870,0:07:07.220

it's it's it's very easy to cower and

0:07:05.210,0:07:09.200

kind of like just zone out and I've done

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that like you can figure out when that

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happened when if you would look at the

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blog when kind of the post kind of

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dipped as well as the podcast when we

0:07:15.290,0:07:21.760

didn't record but kind of I had this

0:07:18.620,0:07:25.370

moment of of clarity that you know

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reading reading uh things you know about

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stoicism it was a really good book

0:07:27.140,0:07:32.990

called the obstacles the way yeah and

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you know there are two things in this

0:07:32.990,0:07:36.230

world right there's one way to look at

0:07:34.670,0:07:38.480

I'm paraphrasing but basically things

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you can control and things you can you

0:07:38.480,0:07:43.490

know so things you can control

0:07:40.310,0:07:48.050

well you know laying in bed all day it's

0:07:43.490,0:07:49.220

not kind of fix it right and things you

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can't control

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you can't do anything about it so at

0:07:51.680,0:08:00.560

some point I kind of this thought that

0:07:55.180,0:08:03.110

how can I make this how can I be a

0:08:00.560,0:08:06.160

better person despite all this how can I

0:08:03.110,0:08:08.000

be a better father how can I be a better

0:08:06.160,0:08:09.590

technologist not gonna be better like

0:08:08.000,0:08:14.270

human being just in general right

0:08:09.590,0:08:15.890

because you know I I've listened to a

0:08:14.270,0:08:17.750

lot of Tony Robbins over the years and

0:08:15.890,0:08:20.270

some people like him some people hate

0:08:17.750,0:08:21.560

him but one of the things he says that

0:08:20.270,0:08:23.750

the quality of your life is largely

0:08:21.560,0:08:28.880

determined by the questions you ask

0:08:23.750,0:08:32.930

yourself and we're really off topic here

0:08:28.880,0:08:35.120

that's okay we live in a very odd year

0:08:32.930,0:08:37.219

but I mean you know if you ask yourself

0:08:35.120,0:08:39.740

constantly why is this happening or why

0:08:37.219,0:08:44.390

is this being allowed to happen by you

0:08:39.740,0:08:46.550

know some divine entity you you're going

0:08:44.390,0:08:49.500

to get answers that lead I think to

0:08:46.550,0:08:52.950

despair but if you ask your

0:08:49.500,0:08:54.900

self questions of how can I use this to

0:08:52.950,0:09:00.180

be a better person what can I learn from

0:08:54.900,0:09:02.490

this you're gonna put your head in a

0:09:00.180,0:09:05.250

better place now I'm not saying that's

0:09:02.490,0:09:09.570

gonna magically solve everything but

0:09:05.250,0:09:10.520

honestly and if falling apart isn't

0:09:09.570,0:09:14.640

going to help anyone

0:09:10.520,0:09:18.620

it's interesting the where you know

0:09:14.640,0:09:22.080

where the euler's overlap between

0:09:18.620,0:09:24.270

stoicism and and faith and where they

0:09:22.080,0:09:25.830

don't right and I think it's you know

0:09:24.270,0:09:27.030

it's a it makes it's important

0:09:25.830,0:09:29.820

distinctions and I think there's

0:09:27.030,0:09:31.980

different flavors of both stoicism enter

0:09:29.820,0:09:34.380

or is it a Venn diagram well I think

0:09:31.980,0:09:39.300

this would that you could probably get

0:09:34.380,0:09:40.650

away with a ban on this although since

0:09:39.300,0:09:44.070

we're doing experiments let me try this

0:09:40.650,0:09:49.440

let me try this yeah do your pen thing I

0:09:44.070,0:09:51.180

see your pen I got my pen and let me

0:09:49.440,0:09:53.820

make sure customer notes I had a huge

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customer engagement yesterday which is

0:09:53.820,0:09:58.440

why my LinkedIn live feed yesterday was

0:09:56.190,0:09:59.670

kind of like it was short because I had

0:09:58.440,0:10:02.850

to pick up the one of the kids from

0:09:59.670,0:10:05.670

daycare but okay I leave my frame was

0:10:02.850,0:10:08.250

pretty much melted I miss Frank and and

0:10:05.670,0:10:09.960

while you're bringing that up no I don't

0:10:08.250,0:10:13.860

know if the our listeners know it or not

0:10:09.960,0:10:17.160

but I've been doing twitch yes oh you

0:10:13.860,0:10:20.250

see that screenshot I said I I think I

0:10:17.160,0:10:22.410

did well you send me a bunch Frank let

0:10:20.250,0:10:24.180

me finish this fuck I spend I spend a

0:10:22.410,0:10:26.760

while stop forehead let me scroll up the

0:10:24.180,0:10:31.320

one I think I said there whose is it's

0:10:26.760,0:10:33.480

not the profile one is it no let me

0:10:31.320,0:10:36.120

finish this is one of you on art there's

0:10:33.480,0:10:38.040

another view on live there you are

0:10:36.120,0:10:41.610

alright update assurance I want to do a

0:10:38.040,0:10:44.280

joke okay do a joke so this is your

0:10:41.610,0:10:46.200

right I think it is ven em no no I

0:10:44.280,0:10:56.790

spelled it I spilled it all out because

0:10:46.200,0:10:57.270

you'll see okay bad movies diesel it's a

0:10:56.790,0:11:00.310

joke

0:10:57.270,0:11:06.320

I don't know

0:11:00.310,0:11:09.470

yeah it is it is actually then and I

0:11:06.320,0:11:12.020

think it's to ends but this is cool so

0:11:09.470,0:11:17.060

we can actually do we can go further the

0:11:12.020,0:11:18.230

original vision in terms of you know

0:11:17.060,0:11:19.240

doing architectures and stuff because

0:11:18.230,0:11:21.590

when you're talking about data

0:11:19.240,0:11:24.560

engineering aspect especially in some of

0:11:21.590,0:11:28.820

the more esoteric kind of mathematical

0:11:24.560,0:11:31.490

concepts around data science in AI I

0:11:28.820,0:11:33.830

think having that whiteboard will...

In this episode, Frank and Andy talk with the legendary Bob Ward.

Sponsor: Audible.com - Get a free audio book when you sign up for a free trial!

On playing the "plague or pollen" game. (02:30)

Regarding sportsball... (05:30)

Virtual is the new norm. (06:30)

Bob and Azure (07:30)

Frank caught Bob in person at Microsoft Ready (08:15)

On sharing code...(9:30)

Bob on SQL Server 2019 Big Data Clusters (11:00)

... and PolyBase (12:30)

"Keep the data where it lives, access it through the language you're familiar with." - Bob on PolyBase (13:48)

Regarding Synapse (14:48)

...even for AS/400... (18:20)

PolyBase as an incremental migration strategy... (19:30)

COBOL, and more COBOL, and Y2K (20:30)

"Buck Woody works with me..." - Bob Ward (21:00)

An aside about NFL Football teams and rivalries. (23:00)

We all miss baseball. (23:50)

"Did you find data or did data find you?" (25:00)

How Bob was recruited by Microsoft 26 years ago (26:45)

Anna Hoffman... (28:15)

Bob's Book: SQL Server 2019 Revealed (31:00)

"So this Bob Ward guy... he's kinda a big deal..." - Frank (32:45)

"I have people like my wife to keep me humble." - Bob (34:00)

"There's always somebody smarter..." - Bob (34:45)

"The Silverlight apocalypse..." (35:30)

"When I'm not working, I enjoy ____." (36:30)

Some Good News (37:30)

A Quiet Place (38:15)

"I think the coolest thing in technology today is ____." (38:45)

Bob started at Microsoft in 1993. (40:15)

"There's no way somebody is going to put a SQL Server in the cloud." (42:00)

FranksWorld.com (42:40)

On remote training (44:00)

"I look forward to the day when I can technology to ____." (45:30)

"IoT-ness" - Bob, circa 2020 (46:40)

"Share something different about myself." (48:00)

"We're all screwing up!" (49:30)

Grace is Greater, by Kyle Idleman (50:20)

Bob on LinkedIn (51:30)

aka.ms/bobwardms (51:45)

aka.ms/sqlworkshops (52:30)

Tom Clancy series (53:00)

Sherlock Holmes series (54:00)

Sherlock - BBC (54:45)

"John Krasinski is a great Jack Ryan." - Bob (58:00)

Hello and welcome to data driven,

the

podcast where we explore the emerging

field of data science. We bring the best minds

in data, software, engineering, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Now hear your hosts Frank Lavigna

and Andy Leonard. Hello and welcome back to data driven.

The podcast or we explore the emerging fields of data

science,

machine learning and artificial intelligence.

If you like to think of data as the new

oil,

then you can consider as well like Car Talk and

with me on his epic road trip down.

The information superhighway is Andy Leonard.

Although. I think we are now currently in lock down

so that road ship and has been postponed.

It has and wow what a you know

what an interesting time to live in right Frank.

Right right, we are recording this on April 15th.

You know it's serious when even the government postpones tax

collection.

True, yeah today would have been the day that your

taxes were doing US,

but they pushed it back.

I forgot three months for

months whatever. Yeah, yeah, three months,

but it's in Julies coming up on my birthday.

That's how I remember it.

Like I need another paper.

They give it kind of.

Yeah exactly, but you know it's been an interesting day

here.

This I live in Virginia.

You know? This uh, FarmVille,

VA Ann. I imagine you may have gotten different weather

than I did,

even a little more odd for this time of year.

This late in spring. It is extremely odd to have,

uh, you know, an overnight temperature in the 30s.

Not only that, but we saw flurries this morning.

I believe this is the latest I've ever seen.

Snow flurries. Just crazy.

Well, you're at a higher elevation.

I think I know. Western Maryland had some snow overnight

too,

so.

It could be definitely could be,

yeah. It's hilly here where I am.

I'm a little little East of the

mountains. OK, but it is

allergy season so we're having just loads of fun here

with that.

How's things going with you Frank?

How's the family well? Well,

we're

doing good. We're all

sequestered together, and Fortunately I don't live in New York

City anymore.

In a small apartment. Otherwise,

I think I probably would've lost my mind by now.

Wow, yeah we my have allergies,

and I think my older son is developing allergies,

so we're playing the plague or pollen game.

And so terrible

game to play, isn't it?

Especially when you're outside.

It's like, although I found that wearing kind of like

face masks and stuff does help the sneezing and actually

in watery eyes.

So yeah,

actually does so.

Yeah, I I.

It's funny like I watch TV now and they show

old clips or something and

I'm like they're sitting too close together.

And that's the truth. I've seen it.

I've

kind of noticed that too.

So

enough about enough

about the stuff that's

going on with that. I have an announcement,

Frank.

What's your nationality? I am

so excited about this. My 17 year old son Stevie

Ray has been selected to present at SQL Saturday.

Richmond is going to be a virtual event at nearly

the last Saturday of April to 25th.

He came to me about a year ago.

He's been going to these things with me for over

half his life and he came to him 10 months

a year ago and says I want to do one

of these. I think I can do a presentation.

How do I go about it and I said,

well? You know, pick something shiny as a topic.

And he actually doubled up on that.

He is presenting on how to install SQL Server 2017.

On on Linux, running on a π three a Raspberry

Pi 3.

And I was like, you know,

you could have picked something harder

maybe. No, but he worked on this and it's been.

I would

estimate he's got 4 or 500 hours on it.

I helped him out as much as I could with

you.

Know like technical stuff, but I was mostly kind of

standing back just to see if he was going to

do this and he beat through it.

Frank and he got it to work nice and right

after that he put together.

I think so too and I'm so excited we're I'm

presenting in the first slot a week from Saturday.

He's presenting in a second right behind me and in

that same channel so.

I just I'm so proud of him.

You know these proud Papa moments,

right? You gotta eat.

These are totally, totally. I'll

never forget the day my.

He was nine at the time he went.

He was over to play date a friends house and

he fixed their router.

So yeah,

now so

proud that's awesome. Well, Speaking

of Speaking

of being Super Smart

and probably at a young

age to we are we are very honored today to

have.

I'm going to say the Bob Ward on the show

today as our guest.

Bob works for Microsoft. He doesn't awful lot of speaking

at the major major conferences is usually on the big

stage and in the big room.

And doing keynotes and stuff.

The only bad thing I think I can say about

Bob is I've seen him at the past summit a

few times wearing a Dallas Cowboys Jersey.

Goodness, gracious Bob. I don't know what

to say about that, but.

Will will let you select.

I'll confess, I'm a

Redskins fan an you know,

understand because I'll

admit it now. On

recording, you know at least you're not an Eagles fans.

I

can, you know, Redskins. Was this rivalry from years ago

in the 70s right now?

Not so much for us.

It's the Eagles pretty much so.

If you're an Eagles fan,

I might have to

drop off the call right now.

But it it please I if you do not know

who

Bob Ward is Gogo, checking out,

popping his name into you know into your favorite search

engine and check him out in my favorite search engine

actually is is Bing so I can say that,

but he's a lot of talks about data you do

a lot of free webinars.

You do a lot of speaking an you know you

do more than just talk about this.

I know you're engaged with the future of SQL Server.

And the data products I want to Azure and we're

just honored to have you here Bob.

Welcome today.

I'm happy to be here.

Thanks for thanks for inviting me

today. Appreciate it. While we sure appreciate your time.

Tell us a little bit about what you've been working

on lately,

what, what's

cool, what's going on? You know?

Of course, these are interesting times as you guys started

off the call,

so a lot of the things that I've been doing

in terms of showing up at a big event personally

have altered and changed obviously quite a bit,

so there's a lot of pivot within Microsoft and even

outside of Microsoft.

But how do we do things more virtual and digital?

I spent over the last year and a half leading

up to the end of last year on SQL 19.

Our latest release of SQL Server.

I mean, I was just immersed from this from the

beginning.

Uh, an, which again landed ultimately in launching of the

product last November,

December. Over the Holidays, I'm up in Redmond when I

could travel back then the Redmond and I'm with my

boss,

but I'm talking about, you know,

what should I focus on in calendar year 20 and

he's like you know what?

It would be really cool if you could spend some

time in Azure,

which I had done a little bit in the past,

but not near as much.

So lately I've been spending a little bit more time

on that space on the Azure Sequel space.

Still doesn't mean that I'm not doing SQL Server,

that's still my my pride and joy.

My passion, right? So I heard you talk here at

the beginning about doing your son doing SQL Linux on

a pie.

I mean, that's amazing. I spent a lot of time

on the Linux side with SQL,

spent a lot of time doing things with Linux from

containers and so forth.

But yeah, doing little cloud work right now actually kind

of a little bit of my focus in the last

few months,

so.

Very. I'm sorry, go ahead friend.

So I may

have the distinction of attending one of your last public

in person talks,

Bob. I was in the session you did delivered it

ready.

Oh

OK it ready. Yes in February?

Well it's funny because I did the ready thing and

that was when the virus situation was all kind of

just just starting a little bit internationally.

And so I was pretty comfortable that ironically I went

to Charlotte,

NC at the end of February and I also went

to Charleston up to that.

'cause my son lives in Charleston,

SC. So I was there in Charlotte.

I did a little bit of an event there in

Charlotte and I did cover sequel 19 in Azure sequel

and so forth.

But yeah, it's it's interesting.

You are ready. When

I was there, OK?

Yeah, great session, great session by the way I I

so for those who don't know ready is on.

I think if they're if they're an active listener of

the show that I did a couple of live streams

from ready.

Outside the building, 'cause it's you know,

super secret of course. It's an internal event for to

get field people ready for technologies that are coming out.

Yeah we even did a workshop there on if you

got a chance to be part of that but um

one of the things I've pivoted on over the last

year and doing more of it again this year as

well is making sure not just doing a talk where

I'm up there just bloviating on slides and just talking

about technology and so forth but some real hands on

stuff so you know we did a sequel 19 workshop

at the past summit last year it all on GitHub

it's all out there and so we kind of did

a mini version of that ready very very popular 'cause

we were teaching people hands on like how to use

the new sequel 19 features how to deploy your own

container was the container what is all this kind of

stuff right.

Um, so we did all sorts of things like that,

and that's a big pivot.

Now for me is to make sure what I'm doing

anything publicly or even internally.

You know, can I get that stuff on a GitHub

site and make it readily available so people can try

it?

That's a fantastic idea and absolutely love all of these

ways.

We can now share code,

especially those of us who've been doing presentations for years.

It's it's awesome when you could stand up there and

talk like you said you could talk about it for

maybe 75 minutes.

There's not usually enough time in a 75 minute slot

to have everybody open their laptop and work through this,

but it's awesome, especially when you can put it on

these markdown sites like GitHub,

an Azure Azure DevOps. I've been using that a lot

now to kind of.

I've got some code in one location,

summon another. Love is that they can go through an.

I've started sticking the slides up there,

Bob Even so they can walk me through.

My slides are for me right?

All the notes are about say this then say this

then do that.

But it's it's incredible that we could do that.

and I know from experience just an watching you speak

at events like to pass on it that you did.

It seemed to me maybe I'm maybe I'm out of

line here but tell me it seemed to be you

focused a lot on.

On the clusters of the big data clusters in 2019,

yeah. I mean, it's obviously

one of the hero capabilities

of SQL 19, so I talk about SQL lighting all

up like I'm one of the few people in the

team to just cover everything we do in the product

in 19, right? But one big folks have that in

my colleague Buck.

Would you spend a lot of time in this as

well?

One big focus of 19 is this big data cluster

technology.

This is radical stuff. This is like you know,

people are used to the SQL engine,

which is great obviously. But then all of a sudden

now we're installing Hadoop,

were installing spark. We're combining it with big data technologies

all in a Kubernetes cluster,

and people are like. I'm sorry,

what did you say? Hadoop spark Kubernetes that's not a

sequel thing like?

What do you mean? So for us to come out

there?

And by the way, if you got a sequel license,

you just get this thing like we just allow you

to install this.

So that's that's one of the things I focus a

lot of time on is try to make sure we're

still doing that.

We're still trying to make sure we get the word

out that if you want to start building kind of

your own data Lake within your environment and incorporate these

big data technologies with SQL things like machine learning as

well big data clusters,

this is probably a good solution for you.

So yeah, that was, uh.

Big focus of 19.

Yeah, I will say

this is that I'm really impressed with the kind of

the thinking.

Is it in order to adapt to kind of the

big data world?

How much engineering is got into updating and improving?

Uh, and adapting to kind of this new,

bigger data world that SQL Server is done.

You know that big data cluster technology,

one

thing about it, the heart of it,

is that this technology called Poly base.

You probably heard of right?

And this? This is really us just kind of looking

at the landscape of the industry and realizing,

hey, we'd love for everybody to store data in SQL

Server like right ETL jobs and do all the converted

from all your data sources.

But the reality is customer saying I can't do that

like there's some reasons I really let it really can't

even move the data.

So Poly base which started in 16 we just took

that thing exploded it.

We're like, OK, now you can use Poly based access.

Anything you want. Literally with an odbc driver,

let the day to stay where it is,

but access it through like external tables in SQL as

that hub and then you know quite frankly customer said

like well,

I like that Hadoop thing,

but I don't have a hoe to cluster laying around

were like OK,

will just install one for you.

You know, listens to do for you.

You just copy files in there,

like even petabytes of files.

And you just access them like tables and will just

make it scalable and

queryable. Pretty cool. Yeah, that's awesome.

That mean that excites me,

because that's, you know. As a data scientist Emil engineer,

you know, whatever you know,

you want to call Maine.

Although

keep it PG. Uh, you know.

I mean that excites me.

That kind of that beyond kind of the Relational Datastores.

And you know that SQL Server is definitely catching up.

One point is for those who are not familiar with

Poly base,

what would you be? Your kind of your elevator pitch

for Poly base?

Keep

the

data where it lives, access it through the language,

or use 2T SQL. That's really what it comes down

to.

You know leverage or T SQL skills go access this

data.

Keep it where it lives.

Run SQL queries. Looks like a table results.

You know, brought back to you.

That's really what it's about.

Awesome,

that's a great description.

I would also want to.

I want

to ask you a question.

How does this relate to what we're seeing with synapse?

It's a great question. Synapses,

a complete platform as a service analytics...

In this DataPoint, Frank goes off topic.

Transcript (AI Generated)

Hey, what's up? It's Frank here from data driven.

The podcast where we explore the emerging fields of data

science,

machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

I just wanted to take a minute to say I'm

basically.

Uh. What's going on? The show we we've been both

kind of slammed.

I've had some family issues I needed to take care

of.

I had the chance to release the show,

but even all the Goings on last week or two

it seemed inappropriate thing.

I just take a pause and reflect and I actually

had the chance today.

To unplug, take a day off and.

You know he was very refreshing,

a kind of reconnect with my purpose.

And realize, for instance, right now I'm I'm actually getting

my car washed and it's been a long while and

they're going to do the interior and stuff like that,

but. You know, we pull up in there like how

it's going to be an hour.

It could be an hour or more and I'm like.

It's OK. I mean there's a lot of you know

we went to a restaurant was a week ago.

And,

uh. You know it was pretty clear that they reduce

just to take out,

and I think as things slowly get back to.

Normal. People are adjusting. People are stressed out.

For many reasons, and I think that's the importance of

empathy

right now. Any points of self care,

I mean just I needed to have kind of a

different work schedule this week because of some family commitments.

But the key. Is I didn't have to really be

unplugged today,

but. I felt like I needed to and it definitely

help help me reconnect

with my purpose.

Why we do the podcast all that stuff have an

episode going out,

probably. Midnight or tomorrow. I'll work on getting it,

edit it out and published and dumb.

You know we're gonna. Do that and I've got a

really good gas.

Really great conversation. It was about data about.

It was really. It was a great conversation and poured

it over a month ago an I hate when I

pulled off a show that long.

Not really what I intended but here we are and.

Just wanted to just say the most important thing you

can do for yourself,

your family, but world is.

Take care of yourself 1st and the second most important

thing you can do is be apathetic towards folks.

Make sure that you know.

Take a deep breath before you get upset.

You know I was like I was like Oh my

God forsaken hour.

He's like I could use it.

Not a nice little shaded place were good and.

There it is.

SalesForce, Microsoft, and Twitter have all extended their work from home policies either indefinitely or for the remainder of the year.

To say that housing is expensive in the Bay Area would be an understatement.

Frank ponders what will happen to the real estate market if you only go to the office once or twice a week? Or not at all?

Why spend money to be near a place you no longer go to daily?

Transcript (AI Generated)

Hey, what's up is Frank here from data driven,

the podcast or we explore the emerging fields.

Data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

So uhm, today this morning.

Actually, I read that Salesforce is allowing their workforce to

work from home for the remainder of the Year this.

Got me thinking. Uh, about other companies that have done

that.

Microsoft has at least last time I checked,

working from home or going into the office is voluntary

through at least October.

It might be extended. Who knows?

Twitter is said that they are going to make remote

work possible indefinitely.

I'm not sure Google stances,

but I think when you see the big tech industries,

the Big Giants in the tech industry is really what

I want to say.

Is they're all embracing work from home that is going

to have enormous.

I think implications across, well,

every industry, but I think one of the ones that

will be particularly impacted.

Given that number of Bay Area Giants have kind of

jumped on,

this will be real estate real estate in the San

Francisco area is notoriously expensive,

and it's the stuff of almost jokes in terms of,

you know, shack and cause a couple $1,000,000 and they'll

be a bidding war for said Shack.

I really wonder. Watt That will do for real estate,

because if you could you could stay in California.

Maybe move 3 four hours away from San Francisco or

the Bay.

And you can get a house that's more affordable.

And if you are going to be working remotely indefinitely,

or even when things kind of go back to normal,

whatever, that will look like.

You probably only be required to come in less than

five days a week.

Uh, you know, maybe a once a week,

4 hour commute. Each way maybe that won't be so

bad.

Uh, maybe maybe? I mean,

that's really going to. I think that's really going to

impact realestate ticular Lee in places like Silicon Valley and

San Francisco,

and possibly other places like New York,

but I'm really curious to see what the data will

say.

So if you have that bad of a commute once

a week,

I think most people would be willing to tolerate that

for more affordable housing an.

You know, I don't know.

I think that's really going to impact kind of not

the high end 'cause I think people are always going

to want to have some property there,

but I really think it's really going to change.

Kind of the lower to mid range of realestate all

over.

Let me not just San Francisco,

but I can easily see this applying to New York,

Seattle. Places where. Technology companies have really driven up the

real estate recently.

I don't know, you know,

and you also have the opportunity that you know if

you don't have to go into the office at all,

why not move to Nebraska?

You know where land is much cheaper than anywhere in

California?

I really think that when the dust shakes out of

this and now that remote work is much more accepted,

I think it's. I think we're going to see changes

or unanticipated changes.

I always like to say that one of the most

powerful forces in the universe is actually.

Unintended consequences, so I'm really curious to see how that

goes.

I can also imagine folks trying to sell real estate

in this environment.

Must be having a difficult time because you're basically asking

people to kind of come and go into peoples homes.

If you are real estate agent and you are dealing

with this,

my heart goes out to you.

But if you like to talk on the show,

kind of about how this is impacting you,

I don't know. I think that would be interesting to

our listeners listeners if you if you're not interested in

that,

please leave a comment and we won't pursue that,

but I think it'll be interesting to see how the

data shows,

kind of the fallout in real estate,

not just immediately, but I think over the long haul.

You know why pay millions of dollars for a condo?

That's five blocks to an office that you're not really

going to have to ever really set foot in.

It's really going to become,

I think, at that point,

a lifestyle choice you want to live on a farm,

or you want to live in the heart of San

Francisco.

I think the same holds true for New York.

You know, any major city,

really. As long as there's good bandwidth.

Doesn't really matter where you are,

and I say this as someone that has worked remotely

for the better part of 15 years now with a

couple of exceptions here and then.

It's interesting to see, kind of how this is going

to shake out.

And originally I was going to post this and talk

about how I'm getting my vitamin D 'cause I'm out

on my deck overlooking a forest and but Facebook did

not. Facebook live did not want to seem to let

me want to post with that.

I'm going to get some more vitamin D from the

sun.

The further protect myself. And you stay safe out there.

And if you have any thoughts about future shows,

I'm dropping a new show on Monday with a very

distinguished guest.

But I will not reveal that name.

'cause I think any and I want to keep that

as a surprise.

But we had a great time talking to him,

so that should drop Monday.

Today's Saturday, May 16th, so that would be Sunday,

May 18th. See just did some math in my head.

Anyway, you have a great day.