Rob Farley

Rob Rob Farley has been consulting in IT since completing a Computer Science degree with first class honours in 1997. Before moving to Adelaide, he worked in consultancies in Melbourne and London. He runs the development department in one of Australia's leading IT firms, as well as doing database application consultancy and training. He heads up the Adelaide SQL Server User Group, and holds several Microsoft certifications.

Rob has been involved with Microsoft technologies for most of his career, but has also done significant work with Oracle and Unix systems. His preferred database is SQL Server and his preferred language is C#. Recently he has been involved with Microsoft Learning in the US, creating and reviewing new content for the next generation of Microsoft exams.

Over the years, Rob's clients have included BP Oil, OneLink Transit, Accenture, Avanade, Australian Electorial Commission, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Royal Borough of Kingston, Help The Aged, Unisys, Department of Treasury and Finance (Vic), National Mutual, the Bible Society and others.

Did you mean to come here? My blog is now at http://msmvps.com/blogs/robfarley



12 April 2006

My time away

I've had a bunch of people ask me how Seattle was. Apparently Seattle is famous for its rain. I know England is too. But I didn't get rained on the whole time I was away.

Seattle was pretty cool, but I'm convinced I went the wrong way around the world. Pacific Time was only 5.5 hours different to Adelaide (before Daylight Savings changed, and with a day thrown in there for fun). But in the evenings, it would feel like the afternoon. So midnight would come and go, and my body would be thinking it wasn't supposed to be up yet. Then morning would come, and I'd be like a teenager and want to sleep until noon.

So I didn't see fish fly, because I wasn't awake at the right times. But I did do other tourist stuff there, until my meetings started - forcing me to get up early. But they were good, and I got to meet a bunch of cool people (Scott, Bryan, Erick, Julian, Alberto, Lars and Fannie plus Microsoft people Greg, Jennifer, Julie and Glennie).

So then coming back to Adelaide, I had a stopover in the UK for a week. Got to catch up with family, friends and Arsenal. :) The score was 5-0, which made it a very nice match to watch. It was great to be at Highbury for one of the last matches there. Many thanks to Jeremy for the opportunity.

London is continuing to improve, I think. They're doing nice things down on the river at Wapping. PaterNoster Square near St Paul's is quite nice too, although not as nice as many of the other squares, like Trafalgar or Leicester.