SQL Server
I am a big advocate of distance learning and last week I was teaching a class from a remote location in North Carolina while my students were distributed across the USA at their homes and offices. This week I am doing the distance myself and am teaching a class in Japan. Who knew? 16 hours non-stop Atlanta to Tokyo. 4 movies. So much for my carbon footprint. However, it is always nice to be in the same room as your audience and this week is no exception. Here are some immediate observations of Japan: 1. Everyone I have met is so respectful and friendly. 2. Getting off the plane in Tokyo, we americans took the escalators, the locals took the stairs…coincidence? 3. The escalators in the airport were triggered by sensors as someone approached. An energy saver. Am I missing something? Don’t we have these in the US? 4. You can get hot coffee in a can straight from a vending machine. It tastes great. This would never fly in the US, would it? We like lining up for our Latte. 5. The Japanese really do watch Sumo wrestling. I saw whole families glued to the airport TVs just like americans were doing for the NFL playoffs. 6. When I left North Carolina it was 5 degrees F. When I arrived in Japan it was at least 60 degrees warmer…nice. 7. Japanese cars are so small. I guess if everyone drives small you are not so scared of Hummers barrelling down on you. And you get 50+ miles to the gallon. 8. Some of these new Japanese cell phones are the same size as the battery of mine. A little too small for me…but this is the place for gadgets. 9. The food here is great. Rice and noodles. Seafood. Very healthy. 10. SQL Server supports Unicode! This is a SQL Blog after all… Sayonara, Egler-san
