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July 2009 - Posts

Friday, July 31, 2009 6:32 AM

Quote of the Day: On Fairness

Life is not always fair - sometimes things don't go the "right" way, even when it's supposed to. I love this quote about expectations of fairness: "Expecting the world to treat your fairly because you are good is like expecting a bull not
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Thursday, July 30, 2009 9:45 AM

Code Collapse and Expand Feature in SQL Server Management Studio 2008

In SQL Server Management Studio 2008, whenever you have a "block" of code (BEGIN....END, etc) SSMS will put a little plus-sign in the margin and allow you to "collapse" that block of code so you only see the BEGIN, not stuff underneath.
Posted by Buck Woody | 2 Comments
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 8:06 AM

Commenting your Code

You should always add descriptive comments to any code that will live longer than a single event. It's useful not only for the other unfortunate souls blessed with your code, but for yourself, years later, when you say "what was I thinking here?"
Posted by Buck Woody | 7 Comments
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 9:11 AM

Should I stay or Should I Go?

I'm writing this post on a bus headed towards the Seattle Convention Center, where the technical folks in the field meet once a year to hear from the product teams about all the new features coming in the future. I used to present at this conference (and
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Monday, July 27, 2009 9:14 AM

Complaining versus Negotiating

If you've worked in the IT industry for any length of time, you've probably had someone that is unhappy with your (or your team or company's) services or products. Begin at Microsoft, my audience is pretty wide, so I hear back from a lot of folks that
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Friday, July 24, 2009 5:21 AM

Quote of the Day - Power Corrupts

Isn't it a shame that we see this play out every day in politics: "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Thursday, July 23, 2009 6:29 AM

SQL Server Management Studio Tips and Tricks

Are you getting everything out of your SQL Server tools that you can? I’ve given you lots of tricks and tips here on my blog, but nothing beats an on-screen demonstration. My good friend and former teammate Bill Ramos did a session on SQL Server
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 3:22 AM

Latest Updates for SQL Server 2008 are Out

There are two new updates that I need to pass along. Hopefully, you have another source for learning about updates, but it never hurts to point out new updates. The first is a Cumulative Update for SQL server 2008 if you have SP1 installed: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2009/07/20/cumulative-update-3-for-sql-server-2008-sp1.aspx
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 7:51 AM

Replacing the Books Online Search Feature

Some time back, the Books Online team at Microsoft made a very cool macro on Live.com that would search within the on-the-web version of Books Online – a very handy feature indeed, since the search for the installed version of Books Online is, well,
Posted by Buck Woody | 3 Comments
Monday, July 20, 2009 7:32 AM

Bad Flights and Customer Service Lessons

I am in Atlanta, Georgia today, which is normally around a 7-hour flight from Seattle. I won't go into all the details, but after almost every issue you can face on an airplane, it took my 21 hours to get here. Needless to say, I'm a little sleepy as
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Friday, July 17, 2009 8:06 AM

Quote of the Day: The Requirements for a Successful Project

Everyone needs a motivator - some folks wait until the evening of the test to study, just to provide a little extra urgency: "To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time." -Leonard Bernstein
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Thursday, July 16, 2009 8:08 AM

Moving the "Debug" Button

We made a tremendous amount of improvements in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for SQL Server 2008. Some of them you can see, such as being able to add different columns in Object Explorer Details, and others you can't, such as the speed improvements
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 8:54 AM

SQL Server Licensing De-Mystified (Sort Of)

I once heard that "sort of" is the worst thing you could possibly hear: "you're going to live....sort of". Anyway, many of us struggle with licensing, so I wanted to point you to a resource that has really helped me out - it's a new
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009 8:16 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Install the Latest Service Pack after Testing

Although this one might seem obvious, I've come into quite a few shops lately that don't have the latest service packs. No software goes out the door flawless - regardless of what a vendor tells you!  Microsoft comes out with three or four kinds
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Monday, July 13, 2009 8:12 AM

Getting a Job: The Catch-22

A "Catch-22" is a term coined from a book about World War Two, and it involves what DBA's would call a "Deadlock" - one thing depends on another, and both must be complete before either will let go. In the case of a job as a DBA, it's
Posted by Buck Woody | 3 Comments
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Friday, July 10, 2009 8:00 AM

Quote of the Day: The Value of Television

I don't watch a lot of TV - I catch some of the financial news in the morning, a cooking show at night, and occasionally I'll watch something on the History Channel. But it does have its uses. A wise man once pointed out how it can make you smarter: "I
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Thursday, July 09, 2009 8:46 AM

Read a Web Page from PowerShell, Make a Web Page from a Database Query From PowerShell

I presented at the Pacific Northwest SQL Server User Group here in the Seattle area last night, and I was asked at the break about reading a web page in PowerShell, and being able to do something with the data it has. There are actually a few ways to
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, July 08, 2009 8:14 AM

ODBC Drivers Are Updated in Windows 7

One of the first exposures I had to an ODBC driver was NOT a good one - the particular behavior for ANSI NULLS ended up causing some issues in a database application that I had inherited, so I tend to keep my eye on these things. Mind you, it was back
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
Tuesday, July 07, 2009 8:12 AM

SQL Server 2008 Books Online Update is Released

I try not to post things that others have already discussed, but I make a few exceptions. I'll (re)tell you about security issues and service packs, and I'll also mention when Books Online is updated. I run into so many issues that are already covered
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Monday, July 06, 2009 8:00 AM

Consolidation Strategies: Profiling Your Systems

Many shops are considering consolidating their SQL Server Instances onto fewer boxes, as I've blogged about before. There are lots of ways to think about consolidation, from placing more databases on one Instance (Database Stacking), putting multiple
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Friday, July 03, 2009 8:07 AM

Quote of the Day: On Keeping Ease in its Place

I admire people who have overcome difficulties to achieve. I find so few people today that can stand any adversity - people whine and complain at the slightest inconvenience. In the past character seemed to matter more, and Helen Keller was one such person
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
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Thursday, July 02, 2009 7:27 AM

PowerShell and SQL Server: Script all Tables

This is a script that I found/put together/re-arranged that will script out all of the tables from a database - in this case, Adventureworks2008. You need to change the BWOODY1 part to the name of your server, and the SQL2K8 part to your Instance name.
Posted by Buck Woody | 0 Comments
Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:08 AM

SQL Server Best Practices: Auto-Shrink Should Be Off

SQL Server is one of the easiest databases to maintain because of all of the automatic settings it has, but as I mentioned with Auto-Close, some of them should be left off. The Auto-Shrink setting is another. That might surprise a few people. You might
Posted by Buck Woody | 1 Comments
 
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