The Bit Bucket

I haven’t posted up any book reviews recently so it’s time to catch up a bit. For some reason, it had taken me ages to get to read Kalen’s latest book in the Inside SQL Server series: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Query Tuning and Optimization .

As expected, it’s a great piece of work. I very much enjoyed the chapters written by other authors as well, particulary those from Adam Machanic and Craig Freedman. Ron Talmage, Sunil Agarwal and Lubor Kollar have also made strong contributions to this work.

2008-06-07

This is another one of those books I picked up in an airport when I ran out of reading material while travelling. One of the key criteria I applied when choosing the book was whether or not I’d finish reading it by the time we landed. We had a bit of a delay boarding so I’d definitely finished it by the time we’d landed. It’s in the quick reads series and it is just that.

2008-06-07

Hi Folks,

I’ve posted show 36 for SQL Down Under with guest SQL CAT team leader Lubor Kollar up at the site ( https://sqldownunder.com ). In the show, Lubor discusses the SQL CAT team and some SQL Server 2008 features such as the resource governor and compression.

Enjoy!

2008-06-07

It was great to see an announcement from Francesco Ballena today that his VB to VB.net conversion tool has finally hit the market. It’s at www.vbmigration.com and looks like the sort of tool that was needed when VB.NET was first released. It sure would have avoided a lot of angst in the community. I was particularly impressed by the discussion in Carl’s podcast . I’d have to say I could definitely relate to the sentiment expressed in it. Congratulations Francesco!

2008-05-28

I was so pleased today to finally get my new geek tool installed. I bought a Rode Podcaster mike a while back but didn’t get a chance to install it till today. I love the balanced (PS1) arm that lets me get it positioned so well while still able to type. And then I can just push it out of the way. It’s a broadcast quality mike and is in a shock mount. I’ve already noticed a major difference in the sound quality, including vastly reduced background noise. I’ve got a pop-filter for it which I might end up using too.

2008-05-19

I was on a flight from Houston to Washington via Dallas today. We seemed to sit forever on the tarmac in Dallas, in fact just over 1.5 hours from leaving gate to taking off. It was amazingly silly. The captain warened us that if he had to stop and restart the engines one more time, we’d have had to return to the terminal for more fuel. And we hadn’t even left.

2008-03-31

I was really sad to hear that Arthur C Clarke died today. For those that enjoyed his work, it’s worth watching his “goodbye” video he made on the occasion of his birthday in December 2007. He knew at that time that the end was near. I particularly liked his choice of a Rudyard Kipling poem to read at the end. You’ll find the video here:

2008-03-19

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 35 with guest SQL Server DPE Evangelist Roger Doherty is now available for download from https://sqldownunder.com .

In the show, Roger discusses what developers are looking forward to in SQL Server 2008.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-03-14

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 34 with guest SQL Server MVP Geoff Hiten is now available for download from https://sqldownunder.com . In this show, Geoff discusses SQL Server clustering, SANs and magic SAN dust.

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-03-07

Hi Folks,

SQL Down Under show 33 with SQL Server MVP Allen White discussing the automating of administration using SMO and Powershell is available for download from https://sqldownunder.com .

Enjoy!

Regards,

Greg

2008-02-29