Bill Fellows

Independent consultant on the mostly Microsoft stack. SSIS, SQL Server, Azure, C#, python, etc. Coming to you live and in person from Kansas City, MO, USA, Sol
Likely to talk about #Chickens (egg layers acquired May 2025) my #dog (Vizsla of unknown age but at least 12 years old) attempts at #GlutenFree baking (family member with celiac disease) and my attempt to learn the Irish language #Gaeilge

Pronouns
he/him
Location
Kansas City, Missouri, USA, Sol
Formerly of
dataplatform.social/@billinkc
2026-02-02

@TheBreadmonkey This is the internet sir, we're very serious.
Here's the first egg from my chickens back in September - banana provided for scale

A brown eggs with fine white speckles is resting on a black, circular waffle pattern trivet. A large yellow banana rests there as well to provide "scale" per my eldest child's guidance
2026-02-02

Azure Data Factory, ADF, is a software as a service offering from Microsoft that allows for moving data from one place to another.

It is an 11 year old product and dear reader, I just do not enjoy using it. If it solves your needs, then great, continue using it.

I just have this uncanny knack for wanting to something that is not intuitive to the tool.

In today's edition, I needed to trigger a run that wasn't on a schedule. As we started to go down the route of using the management API, which looks the easiest because it's just a POST. Oh, except now we need to deal with Entra and registering app and stuff to get secrets. Hmmmm, what if we go a different route. We can try these File triggers and have the source process dump a sentinel file when it's ready.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Oh, except no. Azure Storage Account is 4 entities - Containers, File Share, Tables and Queues. Cheap, easy and already in use as the data is going to the Containers. Except, a File Trigger is not a file trigger. Directly at least. Instead, you need to first create an Azure Event Grid (a queuing technology) and then you can associate the file trigger with that.

But why? You have a queue built into the storage account, why not use that?

Anyways, ADF makes me angry for all the silly little crap that should not be a thing and yet, where I am yelling at clouds.

Bill Fellows boosted:
Smartphone PhotographerAverageS@pixelfed.social
2026-02-02
A year ago in Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny. Sun was blazing on a fine winter’s day. Looking forward to returning to that beautiful little town to do the river walk again soon!

#Inistioge #Kilkenny #RiverNore #LoveIreland #IrishHeritage #Bridge #HistoricArchitecture #photography #EastCoastKin #TeamPixel
A low-angle, eye-level shot of a historic multi-arched stone bridge stretching diagonally from the left foreground to the right background. The bridge is made of weathered grey stone, with decorative vertical columns between the arches and ivy growing along the top and sides. The river below is brown and choppy, flowing rapidly. In the background, bare winter trees and a small white cottage sit beneath a bright blue sky. Sunlight illuminates the face of the bridge, highlighting the texture of the masonry.
Bill Fellows boosted:
2026-02-02

What do you mean "I don't remember signing up"??? I remember perfectly, my memory works great. I DID NOT subscribe to your promotions you gaslighting piece of shit

2026-02-02

If you enjoy Honey Baked Hams but don't have enough mouths or the funds to drop 75 bucks on a quarter ham, check their freezer case for a soup bone. Despite the name, it's got plenty of meat ready to slice off.
I think I spent 13 bucks on this bone and got a meal, two sandwich bags of slices and tonight was my favorite: ham and bean soup.

Bill Fellows boosted:
2026-02-01

`

Or, despite all evidence to the contrary, maybe Iowans actually like polluted water and soil erosion. For the sake of argument, I’ll concede all of Monte Shaw’s bullshit just so I can enter into evidence this massive sledgehammer: 1 acre of solar panels produces as much energy as 100 acres of corn grown for ethanol. And guess what? The first thing (solar) doesn’t require Des Moines to ration drinking water, and Iowa DNR to post “Unsafe for Swimming”...

riverraccoon.substack.com/p/th

#energy

Screenshot of this test:

Does anyone really know anymore why we’re still doing corn ethanol, other than it makes oligarchs like Bruce Rastetter more wealthy? You can talk all day long about jobs, GHG emissions, home grown fuel, foreign oil, and clean air (probably the most laughable one). Or, despite all evidence to the contrary, maybe Iowans actually like polluted water and soil erosion. For the sake of argument, I’ll concede all of Monte Shaw’s bullshit just so I can enter into evidence this massive sledgehammer: 1 acre of solar panels produces as much energy as 100 acres of corn grown for ethanol. And guess what? That first thing (solar) doesn’t require Des Moines to ration drinking water, and Iowa DNR to post “Unsafe for Swimming” signs at state beaches. It also doesn’t help drive the second-in-the-nation cancer rate, kill an ocean 1500 miles away, and lend an assist in the extermination of Monarch butterflies and 3 billion prairie birds. No need to spray solar panels with insecticide and herbicide, so they also don’t cause fish kills and a decline of oak trees, bee hives, grapevines, and vegetable crops.
Bill Fellows boosted:
Ciara | Ciaraíoch 🎨Ciaraioch@mastodon.ie
2026-02-01

For the uninitiated, these are Irish Throwing Stars, an ancient weapon wielded by St. Brigid during the 1916 Rising, striking fear into the hearts of the British, and responsible for the eventual smiting of both Cromwell and Thatcher.

#Ireland #MastoDaoine

A pair of St. Brigid's crosses on a countertop, next to a mug.
2026-02-01

@maxleibman She Hulk attorney at law was silly but I enjoyed it. Thirty minute episodes and only 9 of them

2026-01-31

@User47 My favorite feature of #Vivaldi, born back in its Opera roots was "mouse gestures" help.vivaldi.com/desktop/short

I'm reading an article and there's a link in the paragraph that I want to read after I'm done with this. Right click and hold, down up and release - opens in background tab.

Done with a tab? right click and draw a capital L (close tab).

2026-01-31

A tale of two patches of snow: food vs no food

A portrait photograph of a snow scene. The foreground is packed down in random little tufts. The background is smooth unbroken snow. In the center is a black iron shepherd crook holding two bird feeders, thus revealing the difference. The near snow is packed down from a multitude of birds trampling it to get spilled seed while the far snow has no interest for the general bird population
2026-01-30

@tayfonay gag me with a spoon

2026-01-29

Yeah sparkles, go ahead and summarize my 2 sentence email

Bill will not be at the first class on Wednesday because he is at a wrestling meet.
Bill is midwest-nicing his instructor because they can be overwhelmed and forget to send electronic copies of the slides and so he is attempting to not put a burden on them.

(No, I did not click the planet killing sparkles to summarize an email I sent)

Screenshot of an email. A banner runs across it offering to "Summarize this email"

Subject: No show for Wednesday

Context: Bill Fellows writing to Erin 9 days ago

Body: We have a wrestling meet on Wednesday so I'll miss the first class. If you wouldn't mind sending me the slide once it's ready-ish, I would appreciate it.
2026-01-29

@GossiTheDog There is a whole industry for these very prestigious "magazines" that are not real.
A VP at a client was invited to share their thoughts on "niche industry" but the magazine wanted to get an idea of what outside workers thought of the VP, so they shook down all the consulting firms for "sponsorship" of the article (you fly out the interviewer and photographer and pay for them to write a fluff article).
I mean, props to Guerro Media for this racket because people clearly pay and they just keep spinning up magazines and print a trivial amount they send to the VIP.

profilemagazine.com/contact/
hispanicexecutive.com/contact/
americanbuildersquarterly.com/
etc

Looks like Elite Business Chronicles is trying to mimic them.

Back in my day, high school students here were nominated to be in Who's Who publication en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who's_Wh Similar scam

2026-01-29

The teabag was almost in the dog's water bowl because I am very good at multitasking (making tea and refilling his dish) and clearly very alert this morning.
How's your day going?

2026-01-29

@maxleibman Maybe you need a second job?

2026-01-28

@arisummerland Yeah, the muck was the biggest of the annoyance. I had to do a wardrobe change before going in because even though all the poop is probably frozen... probably is not absolutely.

2026-01-28

I thought the egg production was a bit off this week versus last but what do I know? It's my first winter, etc etc.
Topping off the water today, wait what is that? Why is there an egg not in the nesting box? For reference, my coop is a little less than a meter tall/wide and about ten feet deep (mixing units to keep everyone unhappy). So I have to squeeze my 6 foot 2 inch body through the 18 inch half door and crawl/plank my way to reach this egg. Leaving it there is a non starter as you don't want them to learn that they can eat their eggs.

I had hoped it was a today egg and salvageable but the crack warns you it's frozen. Oh and there's another egg in the pine shavings.
If there was any question on how long they've been out, cracking reveals all. This dog's getting a second breakfast, once they thaw

The tight metal fencing is in focus, as is a black and white, barred Plymouth Rock hen. In the distance, a small brown egg is tucked into pine mulchA leather gloved hand holds two brown eggs with cracks running down the long seam. The hand is presenting the eggs to a brown dog who has chosen to lick the egg at the perfect moment for the photographTwo eggs in a black cast iron skillet. They are frozen solid and look like shiny golden eggs
Bill Fellows boosted:
2026-01-28

@RickiTarr Yes, exactly! I blogged about this (as a Gen Xer) a couple years ago!
kleefeldoncomics.com/2023/06/g

2026-01-28

@farah That'd have been cool but no it's the dog breed en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizsla Instead, he's Bolt as in "Oh god, he saw something and is off and running" He has been a fantastic shelter dog and I have no idea why he was there but I'm glad we got him.

2026-01-28

@farah Wait, what? ... That was? *checks the internet* Holy shit, I did not recognize him at the time. He was just locked in my head as like Toph from Indiana Jones just a perfectly cast mendacious little bastard

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