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



17 July 2006

Seattle, and driving to Cicely, Alaska

I haven't blogged for weeks. I haven't recorded a podcast for Aussenal 2 months. The World Cup distracted me on the football side, and this trip to Seattle has kept me really busy too. I'm in Seattle at the moment. It's Sunday evening (nearly 7:30pm), but back in Australia it's Monday lunchtime. I know I'd rather have Sunday than Monday... ;)

So I'm in Seattle, helping put simluation content together for 70-431. It's a way that Microsoft can test people's knowledge without using multiple-choice questions. It's really good too. Met some more great guys, and enjoying the summer weather. I've brought the family with me, so when I get back to the apartment in the evenings I can spend time with them. Today we had a relaxed morning, swum, and then went to Downtown Redmond and found a Fred Meyer store - Roslyn liked that. On the way back, the clear day (over 30C, and not a cloud anywhere) meant that Mt Ranier was clearly visible as we came down the 520.

Yesterday (Saturday) was my first full day off. We went to the Boeing factory near Everett, and then came back, and headed into the Cascades. We saw the Snoqualmie Falls, which were really impressive. I've been to Niagara, and of course it's nothing like that - but these are still really cool. From there, we drove down to North Bend and met the I-90 Freeway. Just before the turnoff, Roslyn saw a Nike Factory Outlet store, which turned out to be part of a much larger factory outlet complex. These are great - you're in the middle of a mountain range - huge great slab of rock in front of you as you walk out of the Nike or Adidas shops, and they're proper factory outlet stores, much better than the ones near us in Adelaide.

So then we continued down the I-90 to a town called Roslyn, which is actually Cicely, Alaska (from Northern Exposure). My Roslyn liked the show, and got a kick out of the fact that the town shared the name with her. The town seems really quaint, but it looks like everyone's leaving it. Lots of businesses for sale, although The Brick pub seemed to have a remarkably good trade going on.

Definitely worth the drive - and it's definitely nice to be in summertime for a few weeks.

Posted by Rob Farley at 11:52 am