Wise Owl's monthly (ish) news tweet | Issue 47 - July 2021
The items included in this newsletter are listed below. Our newsletter go out about once a month - if you'd like to subscribe, just let us know!
If you've been trained by Sam, you'll be familiar with the enthusiasm, passion and humour he brings to his training courses. We're excited to announce that we've now managed to bottle this energy in a series of short videos explaining single topics (Sam's hoping to add at least one a week initially, and other owls will be contributing too over time). The shorts are designed to complement - not compete with - our longer video tutorials. Let us know if you want to buy the Wise Owl Shorts T-shirt Sam is modelling!
At the end of each of our SQL courses we give out a USB stick containing a copy of the database used so that delegates can practise their query-writing skills at home, but if your company won't let you install SQL Server Management Studio (or you're using - God forbid - a Mac), this won't be much use to you. However, there's now a browser-based tool called SQL Fiddle which allows you to practice your SQL skills online. Watch this short video or for how to install and use this great tool, or try out some of this series of 15 exercises.
This month's Power BI update won't change your world, but our list of hidden short-cut keys that you can use in DAX might. For those learning Power BI Sam has compiled a list of his most visited YouTube channels. Finally, to cheer yourself up why not add some emojis to your Power BI tables, as shown by this short?
After a few challenging puzzles, an easier one this month. You can pinpoint your location anywhere on earth using just 3 words, so we're asking you to find 4 places, work out what they have in common and let us know which one is missing. There's the usual fifty pound Amazon voucher for the first correct answer picked out of our randomised sorting hat. Congratulations to Corin Lee of Macquarie Leasing for winning (again!) last month's logic puzzle competition (you can see the answer here).
Did you know that you can now choose to show your happy smiling face on top of any screen that you share in Teams? You could take this a step further by using OBS to create layered screens, with dinosaurs rampaging in the background and any other effects you desire (then show these in your meeting using the Teams virtual camera). It's worth watching our short on how to do this to see how much fun you could have.