Here’s my bookmarked links for August 23rd through August 28th. I’m using an automatic plugin to build this list, and I can see that this probably isn’t going to work – I just found way too many things interesting in one week, and it doesn’t break stuff out into categories. Blogger fail. Here it is anyway as an example of What Not To Do during my Better Blog Week:
- Dual-screen gScreen laptop gets pictured, hopefully launching this year – The screens slide out sideways. This oughta be a whole lot of fun when used in the middle seat of airplanes.
- The Query Optimizer and Parameter Sniffing – A classic SQL Server performance issue illustrated with clear, easy-to-reproduce scripts in AdventureWorks.
- I Love Getting Stuff In The Mail… Thanks @BrentO and Quest Crew!! – Colin got his new SQLServerPedia t-shirt. I love these, and I’m jealous of everybody who got theirs, because I don’t have one yet, hahaha.
- SQL Server State of the Union – Before your annual review, you need to start thinking about how you can justify your cost and your job. Chris’s list of high-level environment status checks is a good place to start.
- eBay Find of the Day: Gorgeous 1964 Lincoln Continental has a 723-hp secret – This, ladies and gentlemen (well, mostly gentlemen), is the reason why the Buy It Now button was invented. And also, the American Express card.
- Yelp for iPhone’s hidden augmented reality feature – Wow – you can “see” restaurants by looking through your iPhone 3GS. This app is already great even without the augmented reality part.
- People of Walmart – Hint: these aren’t the employees. Pictures of random shoppers. Very, very random.
- YouTube – HIGH SPEED NINJA ACTION – It’s fair to say that when the ninjas are wearing roller skates and the lead actor can’t outdrive them, it’s a low-budget flick.
- Top 5 reasons to run for the PASS Board of Directors – By Joe Webb.
- Iomega’s ix4-200d: A Killer Desktop Storage Array – VMware approved, Windows iSCSI approved, and under $1,000 with four drives – this is going to be a barnstormer. I’m buying one as soon as we get to Chicago. Great storage appliance capabilities.
- Come on 64bit so we can leave the mem…. – Microsoft PSS explains the MemToLeave issue on x64 servers, saying there’s no such thing.
- Adding geo-redundancy to failover clustering – Paul Randal discusses the options to add a disaster recovery datacenter option to your SQL Server failover cluster.
- Why isn’t my SharePoint Environment Social??? – Joel Oleson gives 10 ways that you can tell your environment isn’t social enough, and how to fix it.
- PASS Board of Directors Nominations – Tom LaRock (a current PASS Board of Directors member) sends out his call for volunteers and a list of people he’d like to see run, including me, and it ain’t happenin’ this year.
- Clearing the Windows page file and its effect on server performance – If you set up Windows to clear the page file on every boot, stop to think about how big the page file is and how fast your drives are. It could be the slowest thing in your boot process.
- PASS Call for Nominations – Andy Warren (a current PASS Board of Directors member) puts out the call for volunteers.
- SQL Bacon Nugget of Excellence Award @SQLGal – For the Enterprise Policy Framework, an excellent extension to SQL Server 2008′s Policy-Based Management.
- Web Page Analyzer – free website optimization tool website speed test check website performance report from web site optimization – Checks your web site to see where you need to improve performance. Used when I installed W3 Total Cache on my site. The minify and compression options dropped my page size by around 80%.
- The Dilbert Blog: Champagne Moments – Scott Adams talks about why he never cracked open the champagne – he was always worried about the next step.
- Twitter’s Golden Ratio (That No One Likes To Talk About) – You can’t really follow everybody who follows you. As your social network grows, there’s going to be people who follow you that just don’t interest you. This isn’t a bad thing.
- Tac Bac – Tactical Canned Bacon – The only way we’re going to be able to survive the coming zombie onslaught while holed up in our bunkers: Tactical Bacon.
- Solution to Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Data Corruption – I’m not favoriting this because it’s got Quest Toad, but because it’s a really, really, REALLY well-written blog post. If you wanna be creative with a SQL Server blog post series, David Stein shows how it’s done.
- SQL Server SAN Migration – Things to think about when you change your server’s storage.
- Open Windows Firewall Ports for SQL Server the Easy Way – Use scripts to open the Windows Firewall ports without pointing and clicking.
- Treating The Results of a Stored Procedure as a Table Expression – Awesome trick! Take the output of a stored proc into a table without knowing in advance what the output will look like. Genius.
- VMware virtualization – Where do I start? – Good getting-started article on picking your first VMware platform.
- Getting to PASS on the Cheap | Jeremiah Peschka, SQL Server Developer – Want to go to the PASS Summit in Seattle? It’s the best SQL Server learning event I’ve ever attended. Jeremiah shows you how to convince your boss to pay for it.
- Wikipedia To Require Editing Approval – We’re ahead of the curve at SQLServerPedia – we’ve been using the same “flagged revisions” code to have our editors approve changes before they go live. I’d like to think they took a cue from us.
- Made2Manage Lacks Referential Integrity – David Stein talks about an ERP application that doesn’t enforce integrity inside the database. “Trust, but verify.”
- The Rambling DBA: Jonathan Kehayias : Troubleshooting the SQL Server Memory Leak (or Understanding SQL Server Memory Usage) – More about MemToLeave.
- Overview of Gemini features – Screenshots of SQL Server’s new Excel-based client tools for business intelligence.
- PASS Board of Directors – Call for Nominations – Want to help the SQL Server community in a big way? The Professional Association for SQL Server has a Board of Directors that puts in a ton of work to advance community interests. In this post, Steve Jones lays out some suggestions for folks thinking about running. I think it’s a great list.
- Kickstarter – Like micropatronage: sponsor artists to produce projects (music, visual arts, performance, etc) and you get something back from the artist.
- The Great DBA Schism – Rod Colledge lists the different kind of DBA job titles. He’s 100% right. The cloud will change this over time, but not in the very near future.
- Backup Times – Script to show how long a backup will take to finish. (Disclaimer – I haven’t tested this.)
- Let me Show You Inside a Secret Blogging Alliance – Several bloggers banded together to promote each other. The article explains what they did for each other, and how they gained.
- Think Differential Backups Aren’t Worth The Hassle? Think Again Using LiteSpeed for SQL Server! – Whitepaper I wrote about how painful differential backups are, and how you can make them easier with Quest LiteSpeed v5.1′s new SmartDiff. There’s a video of me talking, and I get a chuckle out of that.
- Pain of the Week: Top 10 DMVs for Easier SQL Server Monitoring – Free hour-long webcast by me and Tim Ford about how to use SQL Server’s Dynamic Management Views to monitor your server.
- ALL, ANY, and SOME: The Three Stooges – Brad Schulz explains the rarely used SQL operators ALL, ANY and SOME. (No, I’d never used them either.)
- PASS Update #13 – Andy Warren discusses changes to the PASS Board of Directors election process. This time, the Board members will be elected prior to the PASS Summit.
- xkcd – A Webcomic – Tech Support Cheat Sheet – Show your friends, family, and neighbors how to be their own computer expert and stop calling you.
- Wibiya – Really slick-looking toolbar that sits at the bottom of your blog and shows info from comments, Twitter, Facebook and more. They’re in private beta, but I signed up for it after I saw it on another blogger’s site.
These bookmarks are automatically imported from my bookmarks at Delicious.com. If you’d like to get up-to-the-minute updates on what I’m bookmarking, you can subscribe to my bookmark RSS feed.
Michael Swart August 28, 2009 | 10:50 am
I can see what you mean. The large volume means that the list starts looking like a slightly modified version of my Google Reader page from the past week.
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 12:45 pm
@SQLServerPedia t-shirt
Cute. How about, “You know #uran arrogant self-important DBA if you dis a technology without context.”
Access is an important technology, but of course you can’t compare it to SQL Server or Oracle. It has great value for small, stand-alone databases. IOW, it doesn’t deserve a ‘snicker’ absolutely. Thinking about it, the shirt really demonstrates a lack of creativity. I don’t think I’d hire you. People that work for me must be open-minded and use the technology that best suits a given situation.
B.O.: couldn’t you come up with something more creative than this?
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 12:51 pm
@SQLServerDeveloper – you left the exact same comment on both my blog and Colin’s, and you’re saying that *I’m* not creative? Niiiice.
Top it off with the fact that you didn’t leave your real name or email address. Think about this one – I’m still willing to approve your comment.
At least one of us has balls.
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 1:25 pm
Brent, I saw it on his blog first, just figured I’d post it here because I wanted to make sure you saw it. It’s nice of you to approve the comment.
Anyway, no *actual* response from you, I guess?
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 1:29 pm
My actual response is the same as the one I left over at Colin’s blog:
http://benchmarkitconsulting.com/colin-stasiuk/2009/08/27/i-love-getting-stuff-in-the-mail-thanks-brento-and-quest-crew/#comment-4185
If you’re looking for a response about you saying I’m not creative, or not open-minded, I got nothin’ for ya. Head back to camp. I’ll see you at Tribal Council.
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 2:34 pm
Sorry I didn’t see the response over there. Perhaps I was a little harsh but regardless you’re sarcasm misses the point. Please see my comments. You’re obviously very vocal and eloquent on certain topics and I’d really like to hear an honest response.
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 2:42 pm
– Thought I’d post it here too, just for kicks. Thanks for approving it.
@Brent Based on the t-shirt I figured you would miss the point. The issue has nothing to do with *your* skills or MS Access in particular. It has to with the attitude the slogan conveys. My point, which is not so subtle, is that it takes resourcefullness, creativity and most particularly an open mind to use the best tool for the job, regardless of your preference towards, or myopia with, a certain technology. To say that a particular technology can *never* be used demonstrates the lack of creativity and resourcefulness. And that is what your t-shirt declares. It’s just funny to me how people bash a certain technologies, when they are just tools for us tech people to use. I wouldn’t use a jackhammer to hang a picture when a small claw hammer would do. You are obviously very focused on SQL Server with your blogging and all, but remember that a technology is a means to an end, not the end itself.
@SDC, Your sarcasm actually reinforces my point. You’re giving context (development work) to a technology (notepad). Of course noone would normally do that given today’s IDE technologies. But notepad is great for simple text documents, no? What if that’s all your client wanted or needed? Would you tell them to pay for and use MS Word? I wouldn’t, or I wouldn’t be getting paid.
And just for fun, what if your high volume web site was down and your boss told you it needs to be fixed in the next ten minutes and you had to make a damn quick edit to an html or config file? And you were visiting your mother in Madison who has an old Compaq 486 with no RDP client? In that case, maybe I’d ftp the file down and use notepad. Who knows. I hope you get the point.
And sorry to go on like this, but just to get back to Access for a second, I’m not a fanboy of any particular technology, including Access (I mainly develop with SQL server), and I haven’t personally used Access in years, but you can’t argue that there are many small products that use it every day on millions of computers. So it’s not quite obsolete yet. Perhaps you don’t yet have have enough real-world experience to realize that there are many businesses or consumers that simply can’t or won’t install a ‘real’ database like SQL Server.
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 2:52 pm
@SQLDeveloper – when you say, “you can’t argue that there are many small products that use it every day on millions of computers,” that reminds me of the old saying – “Billions of flies can’t be wrong – eat poop!”
About the high volume web site edit – yes, if I had nothing else available, I’d use Notepad. And if my arm was caught in a rock while I was out hiking and I didn’t have any tools to get free, I’d gnaw my arm off. That doesn’t mean surgeons should start using their teeth to accomplish their daily job.
I don’t drink instant coffee, I don’t eat gas station burritos, I don’t buy one-ply toilet paper, and I don’t use Microsoft Access. There’s a difference between having standards and being open-minded, but that difference is lost on you. I’ve got some advice for you that’ll help: double up on the TP, go easy on the gas station burritos, and learn about SQL Server Express Edition, the free alternative to Access:
http://www.quest.com/events/listdetails.aspx?contentid=9562&technology=34&prod=&prodfamily=&loc=
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 4:19 pm
Sorry – one more, just couldn’t resist
.
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Exactly right! Poop does work for billions of flies. But not for most humans. Thanks for very succinctly clarifying my point!
K. Brian Kelley August 28, 2009 | 3:05 pm
I’m going to weigh in here as a SQL Server DBA *AND* a member of infrastructure operations that have had to support Microsoft Access databases. Let me say that if you’ve got to use a small database where a full fledged SQL Server installation won’t do, avoid Microsoft Access. SQL Server Express and MySQL are far more preferable and MySQL can embed nicely.
Why do I have a particular recommendation against Micrsoft Access? Is it because I’m close-minded? No, it is because I care about the end customer. I don’t even want to think about how many times I’ve seen an MS Access database corrupt and we had to restore from a file system backup … with data loss. I also don’t even want to think about the number of times I’ve had to go in and kill connections to a particular Access database because one user had it locked and others needed to get into a shared Access database. Too many times to count. And my experience isn’t a while ago, unless you count through the end of December a while ago. Both of these scenarios mean the customer can’t work. And that’s not good. Perhaps for some these kinds of issues are acceptable, but not for me.
So I’m going to have to side with Brent on this one. It has nothing to do with being close-minded. It has everything to do with taking into account the end customer.
SQLServerDeveloper August 28, 2009 | 4:07 pm
Geez, I knew I shouldn’t have started this. Sorry Brent about the double posts, I’m not a seasoned poster.
@K. Brian Kelley – Thanks for the serious post. There is absolutely no question that access has problems when used incorrectly or beyond its capabilities, and dude, it’s certainly not multi-user – what are you thinking
?. And I probably wouldn’t use it in most situations anymore. But my point, which was obviously lost, was not to discuss Access in particular but rather the attitude about being focused so intently on “your” area of expertise that you miss the point of solving problems for the customer in the cheapest, most efficient way. And to bash any one particular technology misses that point.
Brent, your sarcasm, like SDCs comments, does nothing to address the topic. Of course a surgeon would not use his teeth for surgery, but he would to eat his burrito, right? I’m not asking, in particular, for you to use Access, of course that’s up to you. Please don’t focus on that. Tools are just tools, and there is no one single technology for us tech people to make a living. It has absolutely *nothing* to do with standards. We all have high standards in building our products. I seriously enjoy working with SQL server, it’s an awesome product. I love the express edition. I loved MSDE. I love oracle and mysql and whatever. I love(d) dbase and btrieve (sniff).
I’m sure you’re very tightly focused on SQL server. That’s cool, it’s an awesome product and it’s not going away. I’m just saying in the real world there are other options and other tools that may be used to solve problems. It is completely dependent on the problem being solved. And to not see that is short sighted. And the t-shirt communicates that to me.
’nuff said!
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 4:10 pm
@SQLServerDeveloper – again, you’re wrong. Neither K. Brian Kelley nor I are very tightly focused on SQL Server. My whole day today has been spent examining the CPU scheduler in vSphere v4.0. Yesterday, I was working on MySQL and PHP. Earlier this week, I was finishing my book chapter about storage performance.
Just because we don’t like Access doesn’t mean we only like one tool. It just means we don’t like Access. That’s the only thing the t-shirt says, and if you’re reading more into it, then *you’re* reading more into it. (shrug)
SDC August 28, 2009 | 12:57 pm
I for one want one of those t-shirts.
I might edit it to say ‘blow chunks’ instead of snicker, but then I might be engaging in hyperbole, and we can’t have that.
Jeff Smith August 28, 2009 | 1:44 pm
You’ve just been powned! Nice one brento
Grant Fritchey August 28, 2009 | 3:06 pm
All I can say is “Lighten up Francis”
Steve Jones August 28, 2009 | 3:18 pm
I’m not a fan of Access for the same reason that Brian Kelley has listed above. Most of the time it isn’t appropriate.
Can it be used well? Sure. Is it by millions of people? No. Lots of them use it without knowing how to do so and they have regular problems. Lots of Access apps work fine in small situations.
Making fun of Access, which is the point of the shirt, isn’t saying that it’s a bad product. It’s not arrogance, it’s humor.
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 3:20 pm
Thanks, Steve! Although to be fair, I *am* arrogant, but the shirt is just meant to be funny.
K. Brian Kelley August 28, 2009 | 3:40 pm
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 3:43 pm
Bwahaha…
Gail August 29, 2009 | 12:24 pm
I was an MS Access developer for close-on 3 years, I still found the shirt funny.
Some people need to find a sense of humour.
Jeremy Lowell August 28, 2009 | 3:32 pm
So, what is going to happen with the explosion of BI with SQL Server 2008 R2 and the tight integration with Office… (read MS Access)?
This is a great conversation (validity of Access in the enterprise) that has been lost on MSFT for years, imho.
Brent Ozar August 28, 2009 | 3:33 pm
I haven’t seen anything about integration with Access yet – only Excel – but I’m not in the Office CTP, so I don’t have a good answer for that. If there’s a role for Access in SQL 2008 R2, I haven’t seen it.
K. Brian Kelley August 28, 2009 | 3:37 pm
All the demos have been around Excel, unless I’m mistaken. The idea isn’t to bring the data down, but to manipulate it for business use.
K. Brian Kelley August 28, 2009 | 3:51 pm
And to inject a bit of humor in all of this, when I think of Microsoft Access in an enterprise environment, I think of this little bundle of joy.
Jeremy Lowell August 28, 2009 | 4:05 pm
I’ve also seen the demos around Excel… Time will tell, but I fear a new breed of Access DB’s coming about.
Great video… “make it stop!”
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SQLRockstar August 29, 2009 | 9:43 am
Brent,
The shirt says something about snickering when you hear the words “access database”. Nothing more. I snicker when I hear “Cornholio”, “Respect my au-tor-e-tay”, and “MVP-ness”. Is that wrong?
I snicker at “Access Database” because i do not consider it to be a database. it is an application. it comes with microsoft office. there is no buffer cache. and when i think about the business applications around the world that run with an Access back-end, I snicker, I shake my head, and I hope they don’t expect me to come in to fix their application code in short order.
Stop wasting your time with this nonsense.
Stuart Ainsworth September 18, 2009 | 4:03 pm
I wish I could put this thread on a t-shirt; would that bend the laws of time and space?
Jonathan Gardner October 29, 2009 | 2:41 pm
I just read all of the comments and have come to 3 conclusions.
1. I am hungry for a burrito
2. @SQLRockstar is right, I giggle like a little school girl at fart jokes. They are just funny. If you can’t understand that some things are meant to be a joke and not a serious political argument or statement of personal or professional positions find someplace else to go.
3. I want one of those shirts.