I guess we’re back to 2000s. Somehow. Honestly, I’m pretty much torn between wanting to relive these times – and at the same time, being fully aware I am 20 years older from reliving it. But the music from that time is still great (just check https://www.whenwewereyoungfestival.com/). Which also pushed me into – successfully – restoring an old iPod Video. I will do a separate series of blog posts on this 🙂

Unlike my previous blogs (which are, thankfully, lost in the archives and services that do not exist), this one will actually have a straightforward purpose – sharing the insights into the Microsoft Data Platform (mostly), and other hobbies that my engineer ass finds interesting and are driven by “The knack“.

Sidenote: There are several great quotes from that clip (Description of the knack – followed by my favorite, and most amusing and correct quote “Can he live a normal life? No, he’ll be an engineer”).

There will also be a one where I will try to follow up all my recent research on academic topics that are in my focus. That means I will try to recreate the way I did the research for each paper, a blog post at the time, and once the paper gets published, a series of deep dives will follow up on that topic.

Shameless self-bragging announcement

Apparently, I did not do very bad last year on PASS on my first proper speaking engagement after almost 5 years (my last Microsoft-related conference were Windays in 2019, and unfortunately Windays were purely online in 2020 and did not continue at all). And then – out of the blue – I got accepted to PASS last year. And even more unexpectedly – this year. So, for the fourth November in a row – Seattle, here I come, this time to talk about data hipsters. And I really, really love Seattle 🙂

OK, and why the data pug?

My (now) wife and I kinda snuck away on 1st of January 2019 to meet – and adopt – this wonderful face and soul, without any proper equipment for him and only (some) food prepared, not knowing from that moment on our lives will be pretty much ruled by 9(ish) kilograms, fur (over)manufacturing, white noise producing, Tibetian-ancestry royalty, with a most wonderful personality – Piko (find him on https://www.instagram.com/pikopug/):

And since we have internally create his own (virtual) character, I got an idea to materialize him in a digital version as well. In all the upcoming conferences you will meet his digital version, the data pug that is his nerdy alter ego and acts as a storyteller to the whole presentation. And sometimes a big obsession on food. Piko and I have not discussed paying royalties for his engagement, although I do believe we will easily agree on snackies and treats.

For those of you who will come to Data Saturday in Zagreb in 2027, I will try to make sure he will be there to greet the precon attendees – and maybe the main con ones as well.

That’s all for now – next posts will definitely be about Microsoft Data Platform, with occasional introduction of new electronics that appear in our home and somehow end up being automatized.