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  • How to add text to images using Python

    March 13th, 2023 in Blog, Just For Fun, Python, Uncategorised

    In this blog post, I will be showing how to add text to an image in Python. I used this code to generate hundreds of images with different text for one of our clients. The full script is downloadable at the bottom with the required extras. Firstly, install the Python library Pillow. Pillow is a PIL fork, install Pillow using pip and import PIL into the Python script.           In Python, select the image that you would…

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  • Using ChatGPT as a Development Tool

    January 4th, 2023 in AI, Blog, Cloud, DAX, Just For Fun, Other

    As a developer, you are always looking for ways to streamline your workflow and improve efficiency. One tool that you should consider adding to your development toolkit is ChatGPT. What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI that uses the power of machine learning to understand and generate human-like text. It is trained on a large dataset of human conversations, which allows it to understand the context and nuances of language,…

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  • Community Speaking Analysis with Power BI

    September 12th, 2017 in Blog, Community, Just For Fun, PowerBI

    Just a short post. During the SQL Saturday Cambridge speaker meal on Saturday night I was chatting with various people at the dinner table. During this time I got asked the question by an event sponsor “do you speak at many of these things?”. While the general answer I gave at the time was yes. It occurred to me that I didn’t have any accurate means of answering the question with some richer detail. Being a data/business…

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  • Azure Business Intelligence – The Icon Game!

    July 11th, 2017 in Azure, Blog, Community, Just For Fun

    As Azure becomes the new normal for many organisations our architecture diagrams become ever more complicated. Articulating our designs/data flows to management or technical audiences therefore requires a new group of cloud service icons in our pretty pictures. Especially for hybrid solutions. Sadly those icons aren’t yet that familiar for most. So, here’s a very simple blog post to help you recognise what’s in the Azure stack from a…

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  • Wearing Four Hats at SQLBits 2017

    April 13th, 2017 in Blog, Community, Just For Fun, Purple Frog Systems

    I know there are lots of great blog posts already out there from great people sharing their experiences from SQLBits. However, I hope none of them can offer an account quite as unique as mine from this years event. Why? Well, most people go to SQLBits as attendee’s to learn, network and socialise. This certainly applies to me. But ‘attendee’ was just 1 of my 4 hats (roles) at SQLBits 2017. In this post I’d like to…

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  • SQL in Seattle – My PASS Summit 2016

    November 20th, 2016 in Blog, Community, Just For Fun

    This year was my first time at the PASS summit in Seattle. I’d of course been to plenty of other community events and conferences, but this was the big one! Spanning 3x days with 15x tracks to choose from in 4x rounds of sessions per day. Excluding precons. Really words don’t do the event or the venue justice. It’s massive. You basically need to see it for yourself. Which leads to the question, why write a blog post about it?…

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  • My SQL Relay 2016

    October 12th, 2016 in Blog, Community, IoT, Just For Fun, Purple Frog Systems

    In 2015 I attended a SQL Relay day in Birmingham, as a humble attendee with a colleague. I sat on the edge of my seat in every session soaking up all I could from the speakers. I remember being in awe of these technical rock stars that gave their knowledge to the community. A community that was strongly bonded and recognised by many sponsors. In 2016 the humble attendee was long gone. I was now heavily involved supporting operational…

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  • SQL Battleships

    June 2nd, 2016 in Blog, Community, Just For Fun, SQL Server

    When Battleships Met SQL Server, like Bailys meeting Coffee, but better. Do you have an equal love of the classic two player board game Battleship and also SQL Server database development? If the answer is yes (which it obviously should be) then this is the blog post for you! The next question that I’m more than happy to answer for you is; how can I combine these 2x loves?… Well my friend, please continue reading to find out. So, let’s…

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