Here's an evergreen question. It's a question that never completely goes away. But lately, I've been getting it a few times per week. So I thought it's time to readdress the question, which usually takes some form of the following: I can't really do effective development on my little dev laptop because our production SQL Server database is 15 gazillionbytes, way too big for my workstation. What's a uber-nerd to do? Well, maybe they didn't use the word "uber-nerd". But you get my drift, right? The production database is really, really big - unmanageably big for keeping a local copy. … [Read more...]
Dev Advice: Make a Tiny Dev Database Act Like a HUGE Prod Database
Filed Under: Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, On-Line Resources, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time, Transact-SQL Programming Tagged With: Best Practices, DBA, Developer, Performance, Transact-SQL Programming
Have You Heard About the Microsoft TechNet Wiki?
Here's another one to add to your list of browser bookmarks! The TechNet Wiki covers Microsoft technologies from writers throughout the community for use by the community. As with all wikis, this grassroots effort needs your help. Microsoft is encouraging everyone to contribute the effort - all you have to do is join. So start a whole new article, add your knowledge or draw from your experience to improve an existing article. You can start small or large... Join in at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/ or simply use the wiki as a new resource to answer your tough technology … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Cool Technologies, On-Line Resources, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: TechNet, Wiki
Why Do IT Pros Make Awful Managers?
I'm being a little bit incendiary with that title. Many IT pros grow into very good managers. But it almost never comes naturally. It takes hard work and many hard won lessons before most of us ever achieve a degree of skill and comfort with managing other people. Thinking about moving into management? Help is here! I've been spending the past several years turning the lessons I've learned as a manager into a set of courses for IT professionals who want to make the leap in to management. I'll be presenting some of these lessons as full-day seminars. I hope you can join me! Details … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Challenges, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Career, Leadership, Management
Accelerate OLTP with HP and Microsoft’s New High Performance Reference Architecture
If you haven't started to read Shashank Pawar (blog), you're missing out. Shashank is part of Microsoft Australia and has been writing some very good content lately. Here's an example from the Reference Architecture for High Performance SQL Server: HP and Microsoft engineering teams have worked together to create a reference architecture to Accelerate Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) database workloads with a fully-flash based HP/Microsoft architecture and achieve significant performance increases, simplified database manageability, and industry leading TCO. The details come in a … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Architecture, Challenges, Cool Technologies, Databases, Hardware, IO, Performance, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: DBA, Oracle, Performance
IT Horror Stories – Managers Run Amuck!
It seems like managers, so often, either go way overboard or go into hybernation and do way to little. This month, I had the pleasure and horror to hear two stories of managers run amuck with power. The first is from a friend and IT professional I'll call Tony. Tony said this: I worked for a firm as an IT manager when it was going through a relocation project. We migrated from a shoddy IT infrastructure in a shoddy, unsecured server area (which had water pipes running around the back of the servers to the coffee machine with rodents visibly running around) to a shiny new office with a … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Ethics, IT Horror Stories, Opinion, Professional Development, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication Tagged With: Humor, IT Horror Stories
Want Another Reason to Hate iTunes?
I'm not one to whine. Really. I'm totally not a whiner. However, I'm going to sound like one with this statement... I fricken HATE iTunes. There, I said it. I'm already starting to feel better. Playing on Elisebeth Barrett Browning and her fantastic poem, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.", I'm going to count some ways that iTunes is filling me with inhuman, Hulk-like rage: Ridiculously frequent updates. Not the "Update Tuesday" sort of thing we get from Microsoft, but the "I'm going to interrupt you all the time, any time sort of upda..." - hold on, iTunes wants me … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Opinion, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: iTunes, Productivity
For Devs – Component Code Challenge and INETA Community Champs
Two quick notes from our friends over at INETA: Component Code Challenge Ever had these two distinct thoughts - "I have a good idea for an application, however what can I get for it?" and "I would love to go to a big conference DevConnections or Tech·Ed, but how would I pay for it?". Haven't we all had thoughts like that at some time or another? Well, you are in luck. The INETA Component Code Challenge for 2012 will send one lucky winner to their choice of those aforementioned conferences for slinging some serious code. All you need to do is create an application using 2 approved … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Coding, Conferences, Contests, INETA, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Community, Contests, INETA, Programming
New on SQLMag Tool Time Blog – Update to FineBuild
Recall back in January 2011 that I profiled the cool tool, FineBuild for SQL Server, which helps you configure and quickly deploy installations of SQL Server. Not only does FineBuild help you install a new SQL Server using the settings and configuration options you desire, it goes a few steps further by ensuring that any additional programs, tools, and utilities are also installed. Ed Vassie, the creator of FineBuild, has revised and improved the tools since I last wrote about it. Ed has naturally added a number of bug fixes and documentation improvements. Several new features... [READ … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Administration, SQL Server, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, Tips & Tricks, Tool Time Tagged With: CodePlex, DBA, SQLMag, Tools, Tools & Scripts
The Year that was – 2011
Looking back on 2011, I'm surprised by two occurances. First, I got a lot of work done, despite myself. My biggest obstacles to high-performance are all self-derived; procrastination, disorganization, and plain ol' laziness. Second, I'm surprised I survived my personal travails. I've had my fill of frowns this year, from wayward children to caring for sick loved ones to self-inflicted injuries in 2011. I'm glad to be closing the door on a few of those chapters and look forward to better times in 2012. Here's a run-down on my professional activities over the course of 2011: Articles: … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Conferences, Interviews, Presentations, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: Career, Professional Development
New in 2012 – IT Horror Stories
I do a lot of public speaking over the course of the year at many different conferences and events. I always try to carve out time during and after the presentation to take questions from the audience. While many of these questions are de riguer, I often get questions that can only be described as "How do I handle this ... <insert IT horror story here>?" These stories often turned out to be more interesting than the question or the answer in and of themselves. For example, it's a common public speaking best practice to repeat a question back to the attendee. This helps ensure … [Read more...]
Filed Under: IT Horror Stories, Performance, SQLMag, SQLServerPedia Syndication, TCD blog post Tagged With: IT Horror Stories
