Several months ago I learned how to use LogParser. I put away my normal responsibilities for part of a day and focused on that neat little tool. Check my previous posts if you want to learn more about that experience.
Last week I wanted to know exactly what I'd need to do to move some of my web services to WCF. So, I pushed aside my duties, turned off Outlook, and spent the day delving into WCF. I don't think I have to tell you how sweet that day was!
Today I went to launch DBArtisan and a feeling of dread came over me. I didn't want to wait for the thing to load just so I could run a very simple query on a database. And SQL Management Studio isn't any better performance-wise. They're both great tools and I take full advantage of both regularly. But I wanted something light-weight. I had heard about SQL*PLUS for Oracle, but we're an MS shop, so I needed something for SQL Server. A little digging around uncovered sqlcmd- a command line tool for SQL Server. It's simple, very light-weight, and already installed. That little utility only took a matter of minutes to muddle through and appreciate.
In the next week or so I plan to get in up to my elbows in WF and I expect a great adventure. I've done a thing or two with LINQ, but one of these days I'm going to have to block off the distractions and plug my brain in on that.
Maybe (through no fault of my own, I assure you) I'm a little behind on some of these technologies, but I'll get to them when I get to them. The point is that I will never stop learning. I promise myself never to stagnate because I don't want to suck. We don't all need to be on the bleeding edge of things, but people who say "the heavens are closed" and that the world needs no new programming advancements should just hurry up and retire. Ha!