Posts by Brent Ozar

I’m a big fan of the relatively inexpensive Case Studio as an alternative to the big database design tools. Case Studio does a very competent job at reverse engineering databases, modeling, UML, etc. The reverse engineering just got a whole lot better with the recent InferRI add-in that can infer relationships between tables even when…

The latest newsletter from the excellent SQL-Server-Performance.com had a tip about doing performance tuning on high-powered machines. If you need to test large queries running inside the server room (meaning, the app or web server runs a big query against the db server), you may not get the speed results you’re expecting if you try…

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Raising the dead…servers, originally uploaded by BrentOzar. I’ve blogged about more of the downsides than the upsides of my new Cingular 8125, and it’s time for some opposing views. Stuck in…

For the past few days, I’ve complained a couple of times about the lack of testing on my new Cingular 8125. My troubles continue with the MMS integration. The device has a great digital camera, and it has great email support, but do the two work together? Not so much. STEPS TO REPRODUCE: 1. Take…

After working with my new Cingular 8125 for a few days, I can say it’s a keeper. As soon as my memory card gets here, I’ll probably even stop carrying my laptop home during the week. I haven’t even started putting 3rd party applications on it yet, but I can say that it’s going to…

Take two. It’s hard to write a glowing review of a piece of consumer electronics when the damn thing crashes every half hour or so. As I was saying when I was so rudely interrupted by a frozen screen, my new Cingular 8125 has everything from WiFi to Bluetooth to a full-blown keyboard. Make that…

My new job’s going extremely well, having the time of my life. I’m working with a group of very competent programmers who’ve produced a whole lot of code, but without the luxury of having their own database administrator. As a result, the database is in truly horrendous shape. As an example, I spent about an…

Change of plans. Southern Wine & Spirits, where I’ve been consulting since October, decided at the last minute that they wanted to bring me on permanently to work directly for them. They’re a fantastic group of people, and they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Pictured here is my new cube. It may not…

It’s official: Apples run Windows. Apple’s newest machines use Intel processors, just like regular PC’s from Dell and HP. That meant in theory, we could have Apples that run both Apple software and Windows software. In reality, it took some time and about $13k of bounty money to make the whole thing actually happen. After…

I get a kick out of seeing quarter-million-dollar cars put in completely mundane positions. I’m not talking about things like Wrecked Exotics, a site that features expensive car accidents, but more like day-to-day tasks like a Rolls Royce at a parking meter. Sitting at a traffic light today, watching a man load his dry cleaning…

The Kanbay-Adjoined merger just got finalized, and the IT staff is asking us to prep our laptops for replacements. I figured I’d make a list of the programs I typically install when I first get a new machine. I’m not including the Microsoft stuff (Office, SQL Server, Visual SourceSafe, etc) that every SQL Server DBA…

True story: we were talking entry-level salaries today at work when one of my coworkers said, “I don’t know how anybody can possibly live on $X here in Miami.” My salary: about $5k below $X. I immediately busted out laughing and admitted what I make, because I’ve never been the secretive type. And besides, he…

I dropped out of college over a decade ago without having a personal direction in life. Every now and then, other people ask why I don’t go back to college. Last night and this morning, I had the opportunity to do college homework – albeit somebody else’s. More out of curiosity than anything else, I…