桃子视频

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Syndication TSQL Tuesday

桃子视频#008: Gettin’ Schooled

Here we go again with another round of 桃子视频fun this time brought to you by recent SQL Certified Master (MCM), SQL University professor, and my brother from another mother Robert Davis (| ).

This month’s topic is actually a series of really good questions:

We return to our days of youth to take a fresh look at learning. How do you learn? How do you teach? What are you learning or teaching? Or the coup de grace post would be learning something new and telling us about it.

So given that I established and run SQL University this topic is right up my proverbial alley!

How do you Learn?

I love the old adage “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime”. My best learning tool is by doing, which I’m sure many of you can relate to. There’s only so much academic knowledge you can soak up before it starts spilling out. Honestly, if something isn’t relevent to me in terms of real-world application I have a much harder time grasping the concept. For instance a year or two ago when I first heard of PowerShell I looked at it and went “oh that looks cool…I guess, not sure what I’d do with it.” Fast-foward to a month ago and I finally get a chance to re-learn the basics and actually apply it before that lightbulb went off in my head that said “oh WOW, I GET it! I heart PowerShell!”. Without that opportunity to really apply the academic knowledge, the education itself goes to waste.

Thing is not every job you’re in will call for use of PowerShell, replication, mirroring, etc. so the next best step…do it yourself! The wonderful world of technology now allows us to build virtual machines on our laptops with relative ease. So if your shop doesn’t give you a proper sandbox to play around with advanced features then I highly recommend you install , , , or whatever your preferred flavor of virtual platform and get to practicing! If installing and configuring virtual machine’s isn’t your cup of tea (but I highly recommend as you learn lots of lessons by installing/configuring machines from scratch) there’s a free sandbox environment you can experiment with a fully configured SQL Server 2008 virtual machine at . This is a free, no-strings-attached virtual machine complete with AdventureWorks databases installed ready for you to tinker with brought to you courtesy of , and .

How Do You Teach?

Ah : we learn it young and it applies forever. When I learn I like to be entertained a bit as well as soak up good knowledge. I also like to interact as much as possible. This being the case when I do a presentation I try to keep it lively as sometimes straight technical content is…well…boring. I’m sure that sounds blasphemous to some of my fellow geeks out there but you know its true. You’ll be sitting in a session with content that can’t really be demoed (i.e. internals talk). The secret to teaching is making a topic engaging enough that you don’t lose your audience.

听Although there’s a fine line between entertainment and being annoying. I’ve been guilty of this myself wherein in your attempt to keep it light you come off looking like a clown. Make sure you remember your root cause for being there and that’s to teach. Clowning has its place so remember to toe that line carefully…unless you’re Buck Woody then all bets are off!

What Am I Learning?

Anything and everything! I’m like a shark and learning is my water. If I’m not learning, I’m dying. SQL Server is a HUGE product and currently I’m starting to lean towards learning the BI stack. Another key thing that I keep learning and playing with is PowerShell. In all seriousness there’s ALWAYS something to learn and it doesn’t always have to be something as huge as learning an entire product line or feature. Start with baby steps. One cool thing I’ve seen recently is a series of blog posts called “” in which听Jonathan Medd (| )听learns PowerShell one cmdlet at a time. This is a great example of how you can tackle learning something one little bit at a time. In his case not only is he learning by doing so hands on but he’s teaching as well via his blog. It’s a win for everyone!

Categories
DBA Syndication

Exceptional DBA of the Year 2010 Finalist!

This post is a tad overdue as the was a few weeks back but it’s been a topsy-turvy last few months for me. Anyhow this is just a quick post letting you know how absolutely honored and excited I am to be among the finalists for !

This year’s award has 6 finalists as opposed to the regular 5 finalists due to the high quality of nominations. I’m happy to say that I personally know two other finalists: Jonathan Kehayias (| ) and Ted Krueger (| ). Both men are , community speakers, bloggers and all-around absolutely exceptional DBA’s and people. Although I don’t personally know the rest of the finalists (Kevan Riley, John Burnette, and Tracy Hamlin) I’m sure they are equally awesome given their nominations as well. I wish everyone the best of luck and encourage you to go to , read everyone’s profile/bios and vote.

Articles about the award:

Categories
Syndication TSQL Tuesday

桃子视频#007 鈥� Roundup

New hotness

First of all I apologize for this roundup taking more time than usual to appear. This last week was my last week of work at the hospital and trying to get everything turned over as well as prepping for my move to Jacksonville my time鈥檚 been short to say the least. Without further ado, here鈥檚 this month鈥檚 #TSQL2sDAY roundup:

reports in on her love for all things Reporting Services.

fills in the gaps for us with a brilliant (as always) Intellisense post.

gives us some great insight on core database engine improvements. If you don鈥檛 think R2 brought anything to the core product stop and read this post.

merges several answers together with IntelliSense, Resource Governor and the MERGE statement! Also Andy鈥檚 new on my radar and has a so time to add another person to follow on Twitter/add to Reader!

packs a ton of great information in his post about compression.

talks about the new T-SQL and query writing improvements. This is awesome as I wasn鈥檛 aware of some of these new additions! Developers, this is a MUST read! Once again, another great blog added to my reader!

, one of the newest folks to attain the prestigious SQL Server Master certification, brings to our attention something you wouldn鈥檛 really think about: sysprep support! SWEET! Great walkthrough example using a virtual machine on Windows Server 2008 R2. Definitely an administrator MUST read.

takes us for a trip to the clouds with the SQL Azure team and SQL Server 2008 R2鈥檚 SQL Azure integration. If 测辞耻鈥檙别 even thinking about putting your database in the cloud check out this post and subscribe to the .

has plays the dating game in this post where she narrows down three great features (PowerPivot, Data Compression and The Data Collector) and finally comes up with her winning date. Read this post to find out who wins!

hasn鈥檛 been able to play with R2 yet but gives a great and detailed walkthrough of how and why to use User Defined Table Types as Table-Valued Parameters. VERY cool! Added to reader.

, of fame, gives us some great insight on StreamInsight. Honestly this feature also excites me so this is a really nice intro to the feature.

is a man after my own heart by talking about . Also always great to discover another great blog from across the pond.

, who did a fantastic job last week with SQL University鈥檚 HA/DR week, waxes poetic about all of the new changes in SSIS Data Flow Engine. If you care at all about SSIS performance check this out!

, aka , could鈥檝e written a whole book on all the new BI features but instead focused on Reporting Services. Nice breakdown of new hotness in SSRS.

talks about PowerPivot and comparing it to a certain scene in Austin Powers (no, not the hot tub scene with Alotta). Also make sure to give him a as well.

, aka , despite claiming to cheat by referencing one of his old SQLServerCentral posts covers a real nice example of how Data Compression helps you save space.

does a fantastic job of covering MERGE operations as well as showing us precisely how it improves performance over traditional methods. Very cool! Developers, definitely check this out!

walks us through the Resource Governor feature and how it works. Pretty cool feature to help cull down those resource-hungry queries from ad-hoc queries.

throws us for a loop as his favorite part about SQL 2008 R2 doesn鈥檛 even have to do with the features! Check it out.

is excited by what鈥檚 NOT there with his overview of filtered indexes in 2008 and how they helped him solve a specific issue on a homegrown solution.

Categories
Documentation PowerShell Syndication

PowerShell I Heart You

PowerShell = Giggity Giggity Goo

Ok so in the last 48 hours I think I’ve fallen madly in love with PowerShell. My time is limited so I’ll make this short. Last night I wrote a script to copy files from one file share to another and log the process. Luckily PowerShell community guru Laerte Junior (| ) and Ron Dameron (| ) were online and willing to help me out (as always). I aksed him some general questions but was determined to write script on my own and just have him review it and point me in right direction. So after much Boogling I got some code example and spat this PowerShell turd out:听

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]
try {
$a = (Get-Date -uformat "%Y%m%d").ToString()
听Get-ChildItem \servernameextracts_foldertestdata*.001 | ForEach-Object -Process{Move-Item -PassThru -Force $_.FullName -Destination \targetservernametest | Format-Table -AutoSize >> ("\servernameextracts_foldertestlogstest_extracts_copy" + $a + ".log")听 }
}
听catch {
听听"Error occurred on $_" >> \servernameextracts_foldertestlogstest_copyerrors.txt
}
听
try {
听Get-ChildItem \servernameextracts_foldertestdata*.IDX | ForEach-Object -Process{Move-Item -PassThru -Force $_.FullName -Destination \targetservernametest | Format-Table -AutoSize >> ("\servernameextracts_foldertestlogstest_extracts_copy" + $a + ".log")听 }
}
听catch {
听听"Error occurred on $_" >> \servernameextracts_foldertestlogstest_copyerrors.txt
}

[/sourcecode]

Basically it moves the files from one server to another and writes basic information of each file moved to a log file. The log file it writes to is dynamically named based on the date the script is ran. If the script bombs then it writes the errors to another log file the administrator can refer to for troubleshooting.听

Next up this morning I saw an article on ‘s newsletter on how to . 30 minutes? Hell, with PowerShell I think I could knock that out even quicker! And so I have, try 5. First create a text file with a list of all your server names. I’m sure you could get that using PowerShell too but Boogle it. Next try this code out:听

[sourcecode language=”powershell”]

Get-Content ‘c:serverlist.txt’ | ForEach-Object {systeminfo.exe /s $_ } | Out-File c:testserver_reports.txt

[/sourcecode]

ONE line of code and you have a full report of everything on your server. Giggity giggity goo! ALRIGHT!

Categories
Events PASS Syndication Virtual Chapter

Professional Development Event:Taking Control of Your Career

This is just a reminder that this month’s Professional Development virtual chapter meeting we have MVP, PASS Board member, and all-around badass Jeremiah Peschka (| ) presenting on . Here is the abstract of the presentation:

Raises, promotions, and job offers don’t happen by accident; you need a plan. Through careful planning you can create and reach impressive goals. But what’s the point of reaching your goals if nobody notices? “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply when you’re building your career.

In this session Jeremiah Peschka will show you:

  • How to set achievable goals
  • The importance of planning your career
  • Methods for recording and communicating your accomplishments

When: June 16th, 2010

Where:

Time: 1:00 PM EST – 2:00 PM EST (UTC-4) 听 []

If you’re interested in presenting at a future meeting for the PASS Professional Development virtual chapter please feel free to email me and let me know!

Categories
Syndication TSQL Tuesday

桃子视频#007: Summertime in the SQL

Invitation for 桃子视频#007

New hotness

Welcome back to the blog party known as T-SQL Tuesday. I鈥檓 honored to be hosting this month and since its Summer I鈥檝e decided to talk about hotness鈥eature hotness. In the last few months we’ve had the release of SQL Server 2008 R2 which brought along with it a . So this 桃子视频I ask: What’s your favorite hot new feature in the R2 (I’ll be nice and include 2008 in general) release? Got some code that takes advantage of a new feature? Post it! Got an example of how PowerPivot let you slice and dice data you simply couldn’t before due to contraints? Show us! Make sure to apply your SPF 1433 and get to writing.

Cabana Rules

This whole party started when Adam Machanic (| ) decided to start this awesome blogger party where one topic is chosen by the monthly host, everyone submits their posts, and those posts are then rounded up. Catch is these posts must all go up within the same 24 hour period. Here’s a list of the parties held so far:

  • #001 Adam Machanic asked for your favorite
  • #002 Adam followed up by asking for your favorite
  • #003 Rob Farley made the commitment with his topic:
  • #004 Mike Walsh kicked asked for your input on
  • #005 Aaron Nelson asked us to report on ““
  • #006 Michael Coles wanted to know All About

    • So write up your post and make sure to link back to this post for your entry to count.

    To participate your post must go live between 00:00:00 GMT on Tuesday the 8th of June and 00:00:00 GMT on Wednesday the 9th.

    Don’t Run on the Pool Deck

    Here are the posted rules for this shindig:

    ATTENTION: RULES HAVE CHANGED, SEE BELOW

    1. Your post must go live between 00:00:00 GMT on Tuesday the 8h of June and 00:00:00 GMT on Wednesday the 9th. If your post doesn鈥檛 go live in the time limits, it won鈥檛 be included in the round-up post.
    2. Your post must link back to this post (by trackback or comment).
    3. “桃子视频#007” MUST be in the title of the post.
    4. The above rule has been CHANGED! The new rule is that the title of the participating post no longer has to reference 桃子视频(although it’s still recommended). The post still has to link back to the hosting blog, but the link needs to be anchored from the NEW LOGO (found above), which must appear at the top of the post.
    5. It is your responsibility to verify the trackback or comment appears here on this post. If you don鈥檛 see your trackback add your own comment with a link back to your 桃子视频post and it will be included in the roundup.
    6. Don’t feed Gremlins after midnight
    Lifeguard on Twitter Duty

    A lot of the 桃子视频bloggers and bloggees are on Twitter. Follow the hashtag and when your post goes live, tweet a link to it with that tag.

    Hosting

    You too can host this event! Just have participated in at least two previous #TSQL2sDay and let Adam Machanic know you wish to host. That’s it!

    Categories
    Advice Syndication

    Mea Culpa: TweetRandomizer-gate

    If you鈥檝e ever read Spider-Man or spent any sort of time around the Marvel Universe (movies included) you鈥檒l have no doubt heard the immortal words of when he told young Pete Parker 鈥渨ith great power comes great responsibility鈥�. Today that lesson has hit home in the form of being by Brent Ozar ( | ).

    I use this quote from ole Ben because as someone who is prominent on Twitter I should be cognizant of the content I put out there, and that includes the use of auto tweet tools and sites such as TweetRandomizer. For those not familiar with this particular site it 鈥渃hooses鈥� a random follower of yours to be picked as 鈥淔ollower of the Day鈥� and sends that tweet out from your account. While this tweet only gets sent once, if a bunch of other people in your stream begin using the same service it creates a LOT of noise in your stream and the value of it quickly goes down. Not only that but when spam bots auto follow your account, and you don鈥檛 clean them out, they have an equal chance to get 鈥渃hosen鈥� and, essentially, endorsed by you. I don鈥檛 know about you but if @NatalieSpam0103134 gets chosen as your Follower of the Day and there鈥檚 a picture of a young lady doing certain in the avatar 测辞耻鈥檙别 not going to look to good to potential and current followers essentially promoting them. I first started using this particular service out of curiosity after seeing Leo Laporte ( | ) use it during one of his shows to choose a random follower for a contest. I enabled the service, pretty much forgot about it and never took into account how annoying it鈥檇 be on the other end of the stream. Also I never really got much value of it so I probably should鈥檝e disabled it a few days after enabling it. Long story short I apologize for clogging up people鈥檚 streams with crap. Be careful with what you allow into your stream and keep the content under your control. Brent has some good points in his article today about it. Thanks for following along and remember, it could .

    Update: As long as I鈥檓 taking responsibility for this mess I should show how to kill it.

    Step 1: Sign in to your Twitter account on the website at

    Step 2: Click on the Settings link in the top right-hand corner.

    Step 3: Once 测辞耻鈥檙别 in Account Settings click on Connections (see screenshot)

    Step 4: Scroll down the list and locate the application you don鈥檛 want to Tweet from your account anymore and click on the Revoke Access link.

    It鈥檚 probably a good idea to check this list every so often and make sure only sites and programs you want have access to your account. If there are applications or sites that you don鈥檛 use anymore on this list, you should revoke their access.

    Update 2: If you’re really interested in who I recommend, check out

    Categories
    Events PASS Syndication Virtual Chapter

    PASS Professional Development VC Reboot!

    This is just a quick post to let everyone know that this week marks the return of the ! I’ve had the honor of becoming the new VC leader and I’ve got a great group of folks helping me out! Here is your Professional Development Virtual Chapter committee:

    Jason Massie (| )

    Kathi Kellenberger ()

    Mark Caldwell (| )

    Big ups to them as they’ve been absolutely awesome in helping get this chapter back up and running and we’re starting back up with quite a bang!

    Continue reading “PASS Professional Development VC Reboot!”
    Categories
    PowerShell Syndication Tips

    The PowerShell and XML Corollary

    Girl Property Surrounded by Geek Objects

    I’ve just started watching so I figured I’d borrow a naming convention from their episodes with this blog post. This is a quick post as the problem itself is small and doesn’t have an application (yet).

    A co-worker of mine was asked by a higher-up about possibly creating an in-house iPhone application that displays information from an existing SQL Server database. He is currently dabbling in iPhone development and he found that querying SQL Server directly was going to be a bit of a pain so he asked me if we could access the data via other (read also: easier) means such as reading from a data dump file that is in XML format. This limitation comes from the fact that there are no native API’s for Microsoft SQL in Cocoa. As a production DBA seeing anything involving XML gives me the heebie jeebies and I rely on the kindness of strangers, Scarlett O’Hara-style, to help me bridge my ignorance gap. So first thing I needed to find out was what was the easiest way to translate SQL Server data into XML. Now, I’m not completely dense and I know that from SQL Server 2005 and higher there were “a lot of things” put into the product that helped in the XML space but this particular server I am connecting to is SQL 2000 (ewww I know) and I wasn’t sure if it even handled XML the way I needed. I turned on the and asked my Twitter folks to enlighten me on this enigma.

    Continue reading “The PowerShell and XML Corollary”
    Categories
    Events Review SQL Saturday Syndication

    SQLSaturday 31 Chicago: Recap

    Last weekend I had the distinguished pleasure of attending Chicago’s very first SQLSaturday event. Before I begin my recap I’d like to again give a HUGE thanks the organizers of the event: Wendy Pastrick (| ), Aaron Lowe (| ) and Ted Krueger (| ) as well as all of the awesome volunteers that helped out.

    My wife Jessica听(| ) and I arrived into Chicago Friday afternoon. We had time to catch a bite at Grand Lux Cafe with some friends and my sister. Pretty nice place, kind of like a Cheesecake Factory but a little better. My wife’s a foodie so she was loving it! After lunch I got the pleasure of meeting Brent Ozar (| ), Jeremiah Peschka (| ) and Jeremiah’s friend John Jakubowski (| ) as they picked me up and we headed out to the ‘Burbs for the speaker’s dinner. We had plenty of time in car to talk about all things geek such as NoSQL, Ruby on Rails, PASS and a few other choice subjects not fit for print. Let’s just say I learned some strip clubs in Ohio have free steaks for lunch.

    Continue reading “SQLSaturday 31 Chicago: Recap”