Just a fancypants name for a linkpost. I originally scheduled a Fusion-IO drive review to go live today, but I’m still working with them to iron out some issues, so that’ll come the week after next. Next week, I’m covering the Microsoft Certified Master program.
Using Perfmon to Capture VMware Host Statistics – I haven’t tried this yet myself, but it looks awesome. I’d love to be able to capture Perfmon stats for my database servers and include the host’s usage levels too. If anybody’s used this, let me know.
Removing Columns Doesn’t Decrease Table Size – I read the title and I thought Michael Swart was pulling my leg. The fact that I learned something by reading this makes me think I’m not ready for the MCM program. I have moments like this whenever I read a bunch of blog posts in one sitting, and I’m glad Michael blogged this.
Presentation Zen: Storytelling Tips from Ira Glass – this guy hosts a really compelling storytelling show on NPR that might just be the best thing on the radio. Just reading the article title alone made me say, “Wow, I know where my presentations are going next.”
Bob Duffy’s Thoughts on the MCM Training – back when it was called the Ranger program, Duffy took a moment mid-course to blog about the experience.
Stephen Fosketts on Vendor Blogs – I work for a vendor, but I never stopped to think about whether people might consider my blog to be Quest-sponsored propaganda. I’m pretty hardcore about transparency, and I’d never dream of being anybody’s sock puppet. Stephen’s excellent series made me stop to think about how I portray myself and my content, and it made me realize that I have to do better. I know I’m not misleading anybody about anything, but if a stranger walks into this blog, how do they know I’m not a typical vendor blogger? I gotta work on that.
PASS Acquires SQLSaturday – okay, see, here’s where I have to do a good job of telling you what I think as a community member versus what I think as a vendor.
- Brent the SQL guy says: “This is great! Now there’s a logical progression to events: we have monthly local events, yearly regional events throughout the year (SQLSaturdays), and a couple of big continental Summits (Seattle & Europe). The local events can promote SQLSaturdays, and they can all promote the Summits! HQ will give SQLSaturdays the support they really needed right? Plus, vendors have just one touch point to sponsor everything in the US SQL community.”
- Brent the vendor guy says: “PASS keeps telling me HQ is overworked, and now they have to manage SQLSaturdays too? Local chapters were already promoting SQLSaturdays anyway. The PASS organization already failed at promoting regional events with the Community Connections program that you probably didn’t even know existed, and there’s the problem. What’s going to be different here? And about that one touch point – we still have to talk to every local chapter who wants money, because money doesn’t flow down evenly to the local chapters. We’re still going to be writing all kinds of checks.”
- Brent’s consensus says: “The reason SQLSaturdays succeeded was Andy Warren, Brian Knight, and Steve Jones. These guys have consistently been able to kick start amazing things and hand it off to other people once it’s up and running. This might work, but it’s up to PASS now to prove it.”
Kevin Kline’s Lifetime PASSion Award – gotta clarify this one too, since Kevin and I are coworkers at Quest:
- Brent the SQL guy says: “Kevin is absolutely, without a doubt, the most friendly and humble community member I have ever met, and he deserves this award and so much more.”
- Brent the vendor guy says: “Kevin is absolutely, without a doubt, the most friendly and humble coworker I have ever met, and he deserves this award and so much more.”
PowerPivot Cookery – Andrew Fryer explains PowerPivot by cooking a meal and cleaning up afterwards. Watch this for two reasons – one, you’ll learn PowerPivot, and two, the built-in links inside the video are really compelling. This one video made me rethink the way I deliver video at SQLServerPedia, and we’re starting to move to YouTube.
Penny Arcade exposes the life of QA testers – yep, it’s pretty much like this. Safe for work.
The Cranky PM exposes bloatware – yep, working at Quest, it’s pretty much like this too. “We can’t get rid of that feature! Someone, somewhere might be using it!” This is how we end up with Toad’s infamous options screen that actually has a search box because there’s so many options. (I’m not sure whether that was coming from Brent the SQL guy, Brent the vendor guy, or both.)
Use One Login to Run DMV Queries – empower your junior DBAs and developers to query DMVs that would normally require a higher level of permissions.
Which Media Center is Right for You? – in-depth comparison on Lifehacker between Boxee, Windows, and XMBC. They didn’t include Apple TV, and they shouldn’t. I’m an Apple fanboy, and I do own an Apple TV, but lemme tell you that it is one seriously niche product. It’s delightfully easy to use, but like many of Apple’s products, it doesn’t do everything the competition does. If you want the absolute easiest way to rent videos, play music, and show photos, and if you organize your stuff with iTunes and iPhoto, then there’s a chance you’ll like the Apple TV. I’ve got a bunch of AV gear, but when we want to watch movies, we inevitably end up using the Apple TV because it’s just so gosh-darned easy to use.
Paul Randal’s Doing Performance Testing – if you’re interested in how he tests table loads and what he looks at for performance metrics, you’ll enjoy this series.
Why the iPad Isn’t Good for Browsing – I died laughing when I saw this. The author is trying to say that the iPad sucks because it doesn’t have Flash, and golly, without Flash, look at all the web sites that won’t render! Unfortunately, that post backfires – look at the sites he’s using as evidence. Me personally, I *hate* sites that rely on Flash, and the sites he’s using are great examples of sites I abhor. Flash is heavily abused in banner ads, games, and other crapware. Farmville? Seriously? I’d pay NOT to see that. (I do wish my iPhone and my upcoming iPad would do Flash though.)
T-SQL Random Sentence Generator – Awe. Some. Brad Schulz is a mad scientist.
Hey, Brent, thanks for the mention of my goofy (er… I mean “mad”) Random Sentence Generator.
When I posted it last week, there was a collective ho-hum and I could hear crickets chirping… there was no traffic to speak of.
Suddenly, though, traffic spiked today, and I found out it was your mention. Thanks again… I’m glad you got a kick out of it.
Hahaha, yeah, that post was AWESOME. I read that and immediately thought, “I could hook this up to Tweet-SQL and do some damage….”
Brent, thanks for the comments and the nice words. I agree it’s up to PASS..in a way. These events happen because someone local decides to do it. Sometimes they need a lot of help, sometimes they just do it themselves, but as long as the web site works and they get some good initial documentation, it’s up to them to do it or not do it – and we’ve had few failures. It’s also dramatically easier the second time a leader does an event, and that helps us maintain momentum.
There are things that PASS needs to do, and I have high hopes that it will get done, or I wouldn’t have taken the risk. I hope to accomplish a quick handover of the technology, but I plan to stay involved for a while on the coaching and evangelism side. It’ll be interesting to see!
Cool, I’m glad to see you’re still involved!
The AppleTV is much better if you put XBMC on it. I put a crystal HD card in mine and it will play back full 1080p now.
Ooo, I hadn’t heard of the Crystal HD trick. I wish I could do that – I’ve got a 1080p TV, but I use the WiFi.
About XMBC – does it have a way to rent movies? Every now and then when I check out these solutions I can’t seem to find information on doing that.