Some who have worked with me think I am a really good services developer because I know a lot about SOAP-based Web Services, ASP.NET, WCF, and .NET.  Others think I am a web developer because I know how to build web applications using REST-based Web Services, AngularJS, jQuery, and HTML.  Even more think I am a cloud developer because I know a lot about Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.  A few think I am a HPC (high performance computing) developer because I am an expert at using Digipede and Windows HPC Server.  Friends of mine think I am a mobile developer because I write mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone using Visual Studio, Xamarin, and XCode.  And yet even others think I am a database developer because I know something about ADO.NET, Entity Framework, SQL Server/SQL Azure, PostgreSql, and more.  The reality is that I don’t constrain myself to one technology, platform, or stack.  I am what they call a full stack developer and architect.

However, one thing that many people don’t know about me is that I am a SQL Server Certified Master.  Yes, you heard me, a SQL Server Certified Master.  No, I am not a DBA.  I could certainly do the work of a DBA, but that is not me.  It takes a lot of effort to become a certified master in any of the Microsoft products.  I had to put in 840 hours, 5 weeks straight, nights and weekends studying, taking tests, performing lab exercises, and more to achieve this status.  Even then, if I didn’t have the culmination of my years of experience developing applications on SQL Server I would have not passed.  For SQL Server, there are only a few hundred MCMs in the world.  I feel very privileged to be a part of an elite few.  Unfortunately not many know that I am a SQL MCM.  Of course if you are reading this blog post, you certainly will know now.

So why this blog post?

Just this week a good friend of mine who I have known for about 8 years texted me and then pinged me on Skype.  Something must have been urgent.  He said, “Do you know anyone that can help with a database?”  Of course I laughed when he asked me this question.  I said, “Which database?”  He said, “SQL Server”.  Of course I laughed some more.  I immediately informed him of my status as a SQL MCM to which he said, “Jeez, you do everyone.”  What was interesting is that his need for a database person was something simple that was causing them great stress.  It literally took me less than 30 seconds to understand the problem and tell them how to fix it.  It was the familiar problem where the SQL Server user accounts in a restored database do not match the SQL Server logins on the server.  A quick reference to sp_change_users_login (Transact-SQL) solved that problem.  Any good SQL Server DBA would have been able to fix this in a similar amount of time.

This “Help!  I need a database guy” made me realize that I needed to do a little more advertising of my capabilities, especially around SQL Server, since a friend of mine who has known me for 8 years didn’t know that I knew a great deal about databases or that I was a SQL MCM.  Now you know the reason for this post.

Several months and two orders later, I now have my Apple Watch.  It arrived this past Friday, June 5th.  I ordered the Watch Sport 42mm Space Gray Aluminum with Black Sports Band (see picture).  At first I was very impressed with the watch.  It looked good and it matched my iPhone 6 Plus perfectly.  The watch was a perfect companion right from the start.

After a few hours of use I became aware that it was communicating with me.  Right away I took notice that I was a couch potato.  The watch looked out for my health by telling me to stand and move around.  Later it kept tapping me on my wrist as I drove to my son’s lacrosse game.  Each time my driving directions changed, the watch was there to notify me.

Later on I discovered the watch was keeping track of my health and letting other applications use that information.  Applications like LoseIt, 7M Workout (aka 7 Minute Workout), and more.  Awesome!  Then I looked for applications that I use regularly.  Applications like Yelp, OpenTable, Meetup, Marriott, Fidelity, Starbucks and JetBlue.  All great applications on the watch.

Unfortunately this is all that is great about the Apple Watch so far.  The rest of the experience has been a bizarre mix of odd bugs and flaws.

Lets start with applications that should not be on the Apple Watch.  Applications like MineCraft Skin Creator and Zillow.  I guess the MineCraft Skin Creator got installed because my kids love MineCraft.  Of course my daughter noticed it right away.  Great for her, but for me, yet another icon I want off my watch screen.  Then there is Zillow.  I doubt you would want this on your watch unless you are on the market for buying a house.  Zillow alerts you to houses near you that are for sale.  It is kind of annoying when you are driving to a local restaurant in the next town over and you start getting houses popping up on your watch.  Both of these applications were uninstalled within minutes of their annoyance being known.

The one really cool feature is notifications while driving.  I can completely focus on driving and get turn-by-turn directions without ever looking at my phone or taking my eyes away from driving.  Just a quick glance to my wrist is all that is needed.  This is easy because my hands are already on the steering wheel.  Awesome!  Until today that is.  I got driving directions to a local business.  When I arrived it sent me a notification that I had arrived.  I conducted my business and went on my way.  Then for the next hour I got repeated arrival notifications that I had arrived at my previous destination.  The thing would not stop.  I had to power down the watch and power it back on to get the notifications to stop.  Unbelievable!

The battery life on the first day was awful.  I was right in the middle of standing and moving around based on a notification it sent me when it shutdown due to low battery.  There was no alert, nothing.  This begs the question whether this watch can be used 24 hours to monitor both your daily activity as well as your sleep patterns.  I tried this on the second day after a full charge only to wake up in the morning to a watch whose battery was dead again.  Bad, Bad, Bad!  I hope Apple comes out with an update that fixes this.

The Apple Watch is an okay, but not a great version 1.0 product.  It definitely shows what is possible.  As a developer, I think it is an amazing device to develop apps on and I look forward to working with it.

Thank you to the people at SD Times for allowing me to write an article for them.  The title of the article is “Developing High Quality Code – The .NET Way”.

http://sdtimes.com/developing-high-quality-code-the-net-way/

Stay tuned!  More to come soon.  Promise!