Thursday, February 26, 2004
My Lunch with Joe Celko
(updated 2/27/04, 7:06am) Anyone that has been doing databases for any length of time knows who Joe Celko is. Last Tuesday night, I was looking at the web site for the local .NET user group, then clicked over to Northface University, their meeting location. I was shocked to see that Joe was a member of the faculty and living right here in Salt Lake City. WOW! What a great speaker for the Fox user group. So, I emailed him. Today, Joe and I had lunch.
We met at Joe's work, Northface University. He wore a black, three-piece suit with a white shirt and black tie. I later learned that the shirt pocket held a plastic pocket protector. Nice to learn he's a true geek. He took me back to his office and showed me his slide rule collection (more evidence of geekness) mounted on the wall and the abacuses from different parts of the world that he has yet to frame and hang. The windowless office was jammed with books and with the desk in one corner there was barely room to walk.
At lunch, I learned much about Joe's life, the work he does and how he ended up in Utah. I told him about my life and work and how I returned to Utah. We talked about people that post stupid questions on newgroups. He asked me about the state of VFP at Microsoft and about Crystal Reports. After all, he's a data guy and rarely peeks over the wall to see what happens with the data. Joe will be presenting at the Fox user group in April.
For those of you who may have never heard about Joe, here's a blurb from his web site,
When I dropped him off back at his office, he said, "Thanks for a great afternoon." I should thank Joe.
We met at Joe's work, Northface University. He wore a black, three-piece suit with a white shirt and black tie. I later learned that the shirt pocket held a plastic pocket protector. Nice to learn he's a true geek. He took me back to his office and showed me his slide rule collection (more evidence of geekness) mounted on the wall and the abacuses from different parts of the world that he has yet to frame and hang. The windowless office was jammed with books and with the desk in one corner there was barely room to walk.
At lunch, I learned much about Joe's life, the work he does and how he ended up in Utah. I told him about my life and work and how I returned to Utah. We talked about people that post stupid questions on newgroups. He asked me about the state of VFP at Microsoft and about Crystal Reports. After all, he's a data guy and rarely peeks over the wall to see what happens with the data. Joe will be presenting at the Fox user group in April.
For those of you who may have never heard about Joe, here's a blurb from his web site,
"Joe Celko joined the ANSI X3H2 Database Standards Committee in 1987 and helped write the ANSI/ISO SQL-89 and SQL-92 standards. He is one of the top SQL experts in the world, writing over 700 articles primarily on SQL and database topics in the computer trade and academic press.
The author of five books on databases and SQL, Joe also contributes his time as a speaker and instructor at universities, trade conferences and local user groups."
When I dropped him off back at his office, he said, "Thanks for a great afternoon." I should thank Joe.
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