SQL, Code, Coffee, Etc.

05/03/2013
by Marlon Ribunal
Comments Off on Visionary: Seeing Through Defects

Visionary: Seeing Through Defects

Joe Lacob bought the struggling Golden State Warriors NBA franchise in 2010. He has been the most hated man by the Warriors fan base since then.

Lacob promised the fans he would turn the franchise around and get it back to the winning edge.

To set the wheels in motion, the Warriors traded their well-loved guard Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks. The fans hated that move. Who wouldn’t?

Monta Ellis is at his prime. He is a winner. He gives any team a better chance at winning. For the fans, that was an F move – “F” as in Failure.

As if that move wasn’t crazy enough, Lacob and the Warriors Management decided to trade Ellis for an unproven, injured – yes, injured – center Andrew Bogut.

Warriors chance of winning has never looked bleaker. Lacob reputation has gone from “promising” to “idiot” in sixty seconds.

That season the Warriors did not reach the NBA playoffs.

But all that negative reputation was destined to change in one night – the Warriors have won their first playoffs series under Lacob against the feisty Denver Nuggets in the 2012-2013 NBA Season, and Bogut played a big role in that success.

Joe Lacob is a visionary. He saw something that others didn’t, and many others wouldn’t, see. He was ten steps ahead of everybody else.

The Popular Belief Is Not Always Right

Lacob stood by his decisions. He had a vision he wanted to pursue, and acted upon it against the odds. He looked stupid. He earned ridicule. And the fans never believed the Warriors could play past the regular season again under the ownership of Lacob.

The courage to go against the tide of popular belief is never easy. But the visionary just knows what to do – stick to the vision and make himself callous to the ridicule and just move forward and not regress towards defeat.

The Right Decision Is Not Always Popular

It may not have made sense on the onset, but the decision to trade Ellis for the injured, immediately ineffective Bogut has conveyed its intended outcome – Warriors is back on the winning track.

Being right is not the same as winning approval. And, “being right” does not necessarily mean “perceived as being right”. Being right transcends common sense in most cases.

The visionary has the capacity to bear the pains of an ebbing reputation – and the loss of respect of those he perceived to be the benefactor of his decisions – as a result of his unpopular decision.

Vision Is More Powerful Than The Perceived Limitation

Taking risk is stupid. Now, taking calculated risk is brilliant. For the visionary, his chance at success is increased by banking on the strength of potential regardless of the perceived limitations.

For the visionary a winning plan is just that – a plan that happens to have an adjective called “winning”. Success is never won until – brace yourself – you win it.

Giving in to perceived limitations allows taking lesser risks and, and thereby, lesser chances at success. As they say in the investment world, “the lesser the risk, the lesser the profit.”

Selling Vision With Results, Not Words

Selling one’s vision is not about winning the adversary to one’s side. It’s not even about making others see with the same lenses through which you see things in your own perspective.

The visionary does not sell his vision with impressive eloquence but by powerful results.

12/04/2012
by Marlon Ribunal
1 Comment

My Writing Toolkit for the book project

I’m in the middle of writing the first chapter of my book. I’m not just ready to announce the working title yet. I’ll probably wait until I finish the 5th chapter (total of 10 chapters).

I thought it would be fun if I open up my writing process so that you could ride along with me in this journey. Hop in!

Let’s start with the tools. In my recent post, I’ve shown you some of the tools that I use to study SQL Server. I’m using the same tools for this book project.

What I’m going to share this time is my writing toolkit:

Technet Subscription Pro

I need full versions of the software I use for development for one reason – to make sure that everything in the book will work in your development and production servers.

One year of Technet Subscription Pro is not cheap (Retail Price of $349). But I think it’s all worth it. I have access to critical Microsoft technologies – Windows 2012, SharePoint 2013, SQL Server 2012, Office 2013, etc. Real tools, real experience.

Of course, I can’t use them in production but I have the privilege of using the greatest and latest software as they become available.

SkyDrive

I am using SkyDrive as my cloud storage for this book project. DropBox might be a better option but I’m OK with SkyDrive for now. As long as I can sync my local files to the cloud, I’m fine.

Office 2013

I haven’t upgraded to Office 2013 yet as of this writing but I am planning to. I cannot just ignore the improvements in Office 2013. Cleaner and less clutter in the interface? Yes, I’m in!

OneNote

I love OneNote. You can argue that EverNote is better in more ways than one. But I like OneNote’s simplicity and its, again, clutter-less interface. It’s just clean. And it automatically and seamlessly syncs to my SkyDrive.

SnagIt

I use SnagIt for convenience. The publisher has some requirements on the size and quality of the images I need for the book. SnagIt just works every time. I can set different “profiles” for different projects.

What’s your writing toolkit (for blogging if you haven’t written a book)?

11/26/2012
by Marlon Ribunal
Comments Off on Choose specific folders to sync with OneDrive

Choose specific folders to sync with OneDrive

Every time you run the OneDrive Client on your device, a laptop in my case, all your files from the cloud are downloaded to your device locally. That is cool because you can still work on your files even when you’re offline.

The thing is I don’t need all the files I have on my OneDrive downloaded locally. I have files on OneDrive that I don’t really need on my laptop. Storage is cheap, yes, but that’s beside the point.

You can set your OneDrive Client to only download/sync specific folders. Here’s how (I’m using Windows 8 10 Pro here):

Pull up the hidden icons in the task bar. If you don’t see the Cloud icon, make sure your OneDrive Client is running. I set mine to run automatically when I sign in to Windows.

Right-Click on the Cloud icon to pull up a context menu for your OneDrive. Aside from getting access to the setting, you can also launch storage management from this menu.

Once you click “Settings”, the OneDrive Properties Dialog Box pops up. Go to the “Choose Folders” tab and click the “Choose folders” button.

Now you’re given the option to choose specific folders to sync with OneDrive.

If you’ve previously synced everything between your OneDrive and your device, all other folders not chosen to sync with OneDrive will be removed from your device.