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Links for the Week of 2009.10.30

Oct 31, ’09 4:00 PM

These are a day late. Sorry about that. It’s been one helluva week.

Also, November 1st marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month. So, if you’ve had a story inside you waiting to get out, wait no further!

SQL Server

Development

Stuff & Things

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Card Games

Oct 26, ’09 1:00 PM

If you’re going to the PASS Summit this year, and I suggest that you do, you should be playing twitter bingo. How do you play? You go out of your wait to meet people at the Summit. If you meet someone who is on your card, you get their ‘code word’ and write it on your bingo card. The rules are explained over at SQL Server Pedia, but, basically, it’s just like playing bingo.

You can print out your cards at http://www.sqlseverpedia.com/bingo/ or pick one up at PASS at the SQLServerPedia/Quest booth.

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Links for the Week of 2009.10.23

Oct 23, ’09 9:00 AM

I came across a lot of great links in the last week. So many that I had to cut about 40% of them to make this list.

As always, you can check out the firehose at my delicious bookmarks page.

SQL Server

Development

Stuff & Things

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Links for the Week of 2009.10.16

Oct 16, ’09 8:30 AM

SQL Server

Less Than Dot – Blog – How to Monitor Database Mirroring – Monitoring database mirroring is more than just running scripts to email you ever X minutes. Paul Theriault shows how to monitor mirroring (and other aspects of performance) using alerts.
How to get the whole group of duplicate rows – CTEs are great for more than just replacing views. Mladen Prajdic shows how they can be used to find duplicate data quickly and efficiently.
Bad habits to kick: making assumptions about IDENTITY – A great discussion from Aaron Bertrand about how IDENTITY actually works as well as solutions to make it work the way people want it to work.
Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Extended Events

Stuff & Things

A Softer World: 490 – I don’t know what it is, but I like it.
SCOUTING NY – www.scoutingny.com » New York, You’ve Changed: Taxi Driver – Part III – It's interesting to note how the world changes over time and how tiny pockets of it still stay the same. This is a look at the NYC of Taxi Driver then and now.
2001: A Space Odyssey Program – During the original theatrical premier of 2001: A Space Odyssey a program was handed out. This is a beautiful example of design that conveys the mood of the film and serves to prepare the audience as well as amplify their experience.
Flickr Photo Download: 50 Years of Space Exploration
In pictures: Graffiti artists transform Scottish ghost town Polphaill – The Scotsman – Transforming the rural crapscape into a work of art.
The Pomodoro Technique – an interesting approach to solving problems and managing your time effectively.
The Gentlemen’s Guide to Dressing – Some people are born with an innate sense of style. The rest of us all need to a little bit of help.
@font-face and performance – There are some new techniques coming out for better font rendering on the web. Steve Souders goes over some of the pitfalls of these techniques to users can be aware of the downside while they’re making their choice.

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Pragmatic Thinking & Learning Reviewed

Oct 8, ’09 9:00 AM

From the moment I started reading this book, I had a hard time putting it down. I read it far into the night. I read it waiting for oil changes, tattoos, and computer reboots. I re-read parts of it while I was still reading it. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I took a lot away from it.

Overview

First of all, what is this book all about? After all, we all should know how to think and learn by now, right? Well, that’s the big kicker, as it turns out. A lot of the things we were taught about learning might have worked growing up. And a lot of that was wrong, too.

There are a lot of websites, blogs, books, magazines, articles, and wags out there who claim to have the secret to make you a more effective person if only you follow these ten guidelines. Pragmatic Thinking & Learning isn’t one of those books. It’s not a how to book. It’s not a tutorial or instruction manual. It’s a reference manual.

How Does it Work?

This book is endorsed by cheesy DBAs everywhere.

This book is endorsed by cheesy DBAs everywhere.

Pragmatic Thinking & Learning is based on copious amounts of research on learning backed up by real world results. This is more than one lone programmer’s ideas on how we should learn. It’s based on research across a number of fields – from nursing to the cognitive sciences – and references are provided to all of the source material. If you were so inclined, this would be a great introduction to a variety of theories.

One of the most important things that Pragmatic Thinking & Learning stresses is that, just like programming, we need to constantly be refactoring our thought processes. Instead of focusing on something that works, Andy Hunt stresses the importance of looking at how something works, why it works, and what could be going better. As much of the process of effective learning comes from unlearning bad habits while learning good ones. While many authors leave it at that and let the reader decide how to unlearn, Andy provides strategies, backed by research, to make change possible. He stresses the importance of engaging the whole brain and provides ways to do so. This book is chock full of exercises that are designed to get the reader geared up and refactoring their thought processes in no time.

Verdict

Pragmatic Thinking & Learning is a great book. It’s going on my shelf next to Getting Things Done and I plan on re-reading both books in six months to see what I’m doing wrong, what I’m doing right, and what I can be doing better. This book will be a distinct asset to re-working my process. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to rethink how they’re doing things and thinks that there is a better way.

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Random Thoughts for Enjoying the PASS Summit

Oct 5, ’09 1:49 PM

Have as many mobile devices with connectivity available as possible.
Have a camera ready and charged.
Charge everything every night. Even if it’s at 95% charge: charge it.
Pick sessions that challenge you.
Pick sessions you know nothing about.
Make back up plans for sessions you want to see, just in case.
Don’t make plans.
Be flexible.
Don’t trust the wi-fi.
Pack light.
Don’t be afraid to ask vendors for swag.
Drink water.
Walk everywhere.
Wear good socks.
Plan to be tired.
Take a backup.
Carry a pen and paper.
Carry a pencil.
Carry business cards.
Don’t carry books – they’re heavy.
Plan on 5 nines of uptime – you can sleep during the maintenance window.
Caffeine is your friend.
Drink water.
Be open to conversation.
Don’t be afraid to start a conversation.
Introduce yourself to everyone.
Don’t loiter – stand and talk instead.
Slide decks are downloadable; conversations aren’t.
Carry snacks.
See the city.
Take time to breathe.
Take time to sit.
Don’t be afraid.
Learn.

I started this in the comments on Colin Stasiuk’s post – 4 Weeks Away from the PASS Summit and thought I would continue it here.

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Links for the week – 2009.10.02

Oct 2, ’09 9:00 AM

SQL Server

Developers, use Profiler to profile yourself John Sterrett goes over how to use profiler to profile your own SSMS session.

Toys and Tools Mike Hillwig put together a list of great SQL Server tools.

The ABCs of Management Studio Shortcuts Glory be to keyboard shortcuts

Development

ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 New MVC hotness has been released. Yes, it’s a preview, but this contains some interesting features. Better get it while the getting is good!

Stuff & Things

Google Search Options Offer More Recent, Personal Results Ever get really frustrated searching for something that you saw online? Ever know that the blog you’re looking for was written a week ago? Google’s new search options will let you narrow down your search with some particularly specific criteria.

Why Good Writing Matters – And How You Can Improve Good writing is incredibly important. There’s a reason why I spent four years of my life studying writing: I knew that learning how to communicate effectively was important and that I could learn most skills (apart from rocket surgery) on the job.

29 ways to ingrain a behavior Forming habits is difficult. Especially when you’re trying to build new habits and get rid of old ones. 29 tips to help you change.

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This is what I believe… about PASS

Sep 30, ’09 4:20 PM

So, I had a video made up when the nominations process started. Then I emailed the unencoded 15MB version to PASS instead of the wonderful, tiny, encoded version. So, that being said, here’s the wonderful, tiny, encoded version. Enjoy:

[media id=1]

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Links for the Week – 2009.09.25

Sep 25, ’09 2:00 PM

SQL Server

There’s a three part series (one two three) on migrating databases. I’m sure many people have been through this before. I know I have. About a week before these three posts were published.

Ever wonder when you should use a filtered index and when you should use an indexed view? Yeah, I have too. The distinction hasn’t been all that clear (to me). Andrew Fryer clears that up a bit in this blog post.

Development

I like the idea of continuous integration. I like testing. I like automating everything until I don’t even have to think about it anymore. It can be done even with the database. Jeffrey Palermo and Eric Hexter demonstrated just how to get CI working with your database project using nothing but pure T-SQL.

Stuff & Things

These first two are for some RSS reader goodness. I haven’t gotten around to trying out Fever for my RSS feeds yet. The idea of paying $40 for an RSS reader is a bit steep. But, the idea of having my feeds add value to one another is intriguing. If you’re feeling a bit cheap, there’s always Helvetireader. This is a set of browser scripts and CSS that add a touch of class to your google reader.

The Personal MBA is a set of reading materials meant to teach everything that you would get in an MBA program. While I doubt that it’s the same as getting an MBA, I do like the idea of a reading list that’s designed to help me, a nerd, get better at something I suck at: business.

Soundtrack for a City Augmented reality – through our phones or sunglasses or our retinal implants – is only beginning. It’s new. Soon sight will be augmented by sound. I love this idea.

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Links for the Week of 2009.09.12

Sep 12, ’09 7:16 PM

SQL Server

Optimizing Queries That Access Correlated datetime Columns DATE_CORRELATION_OPTIMIZATION is some good stuff. If you have an InvoiceDate column that happens to be close to the OrderDate column in a related table, and this setting is on, the compiler will generate what could be a much better optimization plan.

Difference between an index and a primary key Denny Cherry does a great job of explaining this one. I frequently misuse primary key and clustered index as the same in conversation (yes, I do have A LOT of conversations about databases, even outside of work). I need to be better about that. This reminds me why.

Development

Vertical Centering in CSS This question comes up every once in a while. I always forget how to do it. Hopefully this will help someone else get their vertical centering sorted out.

The Unspoken Truth About Managing Geeks I’m not a manager but I play one on TV. There some good info in here. Especially if you only play a manager on TV.

Using Accessibility Modifiers on Auto Properties Auto properties rule. Justin Etheredge demonstrates how to keep that level of awesome rolling forward.

Stuff & Things

Simplified Virtual PC Creation with Differencing Disks I don’t know what to say. The idea is so damn simple I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Thanks to Jonathan Kehayias for this article. This is going to save me so much time and trouble.

20 Tips for Writing for the Web

Flowing Data | Data Visualization and Statistics It’s a blog that’s devoted to different ways of presenting information. Gotta love that. Flat tabular display of data is good, but there’s often a better way. A much better way.

Make Fried Pie in Five Minutes and Kickstart Your Day Fried. Pie.

Monkey on a motorcycle

Think about the different areas of your life Love the quote.

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