Bringing this one out a little early due to the holiday weekend. Things I found interesting this week:
SQL Server Links
Summer Camp for DBAs is Over – Tjay Belt explains how Twitter made the PASS Summit conference much more enjoyable for him.
SSIS Twitter Suite – Andy Leonard and Jessica Moss wrote this toolkit to read and write to Twitter from SQL Server Integration Services.
SQL Server Magazine podcast – Sheila Molnar interviewed Questies Billy Bosworth, Kevin Kline, Douglas Chrystall and yours truly for about fifteen minutes. We talked about some of the Microsoft announcements at PASS and industry trends.
SQL Server 2008 upgrade guide is out – I get a lot of “what’s-the-easiest-way-to-upgrade-X” questions and this guide has those answers.
Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition GDR RTM – Ever wonder why they call it “Data Dude” for short? Every time I look at this product’s full name, all I can think of is the Pizza Crepe Taco Pancake Chili Bag from Taco Town:
Cloud & Virtualization Links
The Death of the DBA Part 2 – Jason Massie analyzes the cloud database announcements that keep comin’ and suggests that DBA jobs will be down 25% in 10 years. I don’t think that’s unreasonable, but it’s predicated on a lack of SQL Server growth. I think SDS as a product will conquer deployments that wouldn’t normally see SQL Server deployed, so I think there could be a net growth of jobs. Just guessing though.
VMware ESX beats Hyper-V performance – In independent testing, ESX smoked Hyper-V by 125% on SQL Server performance testing. I don’t hold this as the final answer – or even a good answer – but more like the opening salvo in a round of overdue conversations.
The Junk Drawer
FAIL and WIN stamp sets – funny gift set for people who deal with paperwork and lolcats.
Smart Car powered by a Hayabusa – take a super-light tiny car and stuff a massively powerful motorcycle engine in it. Toss in a death wish, mix vigorously with power slides and you get this video.