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Monday, November 02, 2009 6:28 AM
Win7 – Install SQL Server Native or go Virtual PC?
I have Windows 7 on my laptop, and I also teach, demo and use SQL Server 2005 and SQL server 2008. Should I install this “native” on my outside operating system or use the Virtual PC (VPC) software that comes with Windows 7? Well, there are arguments
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009 8:13 AM
Templates for New Query Window
When I’m in SQL Server Management Studio and I click the “New Query” button, my Query Window comes up like this: /* <ScriptFileName, SYSNAME, ScriptFileName>.sql Purpose: <Purpose, SYSNAME, Purpose> Author: <Author, SYSNAME, Buck Woody>
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Monday, October 26, 2009 6:50 AM
How Normal(ized) Should You Be?
Normalization is the process of removing repeating values from your data design, and ensuring that the values depend on the Primary Key in the table. OK, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but this definition will do for this post. So how far DO you
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 7:14 AM
The 20 Queries
In the book “The Fourth Paradigm” , Jim Gray describes the modeling process he came up with modeling large databases. He was working with scientists, researchers and others, and the data sets they were generating were huge – terabytes of data at a time.
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Monday, October 12, 2009 3:55 AM
DBAs and Metallurgy
Most of the time the business side of the house isn’t that technology-savvy. Sure, they know how to use their systems and even have a computer at home, but it’s not like they could calculate a TCP/IP subnet, nor should they. I was helping with a project
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009 9:18 AM
The Much-Maligned Database Designer
There’s a feature in SQL Server Management Studio called the “Database Designer”, and it’s a strange beast indeed. It’s a mix between a graphical database design tool and an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD). Unfortunately, I don’t think it does either
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009 5:55 PM
The ERD as a Communication Tool
I teach a college course at the University of Washington, and as part of the class I include a series on creating a using an Entity Relationship Diagram, or ERD. An ERD, as I’m sure most of you know, is a series of box and connector shapes that explain
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Tuesday, September 29, 2009 6:45 AM
Great new Whitepaper on High Availability
Paul Randal, he of SQLskills.com fame, has published a new whitepaper on High Availability with SQL Server. If you follow any SQL Server news or blog sites, you’ve probably already see the announcement for it, but I wanted to mention it here in case you
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Thursday, September 17, 2009 8:26 AM
How Microsoft Does IT
One of my favorite ways to learn is through examples. If you’ll explain what something does and a little of how it works,and then give me an example to decompose, I usually come up to speed pretty quickly. I’ve been carrying a DVD (and CD’s before that)
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009 7:45 AM
Table Partitioning isn't the only way to Partition Data
When you have very large data sets that reside in a single table, you can use SQL Server's Table Partitioning to "break" the table on logical boundaries like time, and the system handles "putting the data back together" when you query it. It's a great
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Thursday, August 06, 2009 7:59 AM
The Mythical Silver Bullet
Have you ever sat in a meeting where you either got the distinct impression, or were told directly that you should just use product X or Feature Y to solve a problem? Sure, we have a lot of features in SQL Server, but I don't think any of them is
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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?"
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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
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Monday, June 29, 2009 8:08 AM
Grid Painting and Database Projects
I'm not very good at drawing. My drawings of people and objects with depth usually looks like what your 5th grader does, but not the talented 5th grader. But I found a trick that helps me draw not only depth, but complex things as well. It involves taking
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 7:38 AM
Creating Reports? I'm a DBA, Jim, not a moon-shuttle pilot!
For the SQL Server Central Management System I've been developing , I needed to create a few "dashboard" type reports. I could use just plain old HTML/ASP/ASPX/PHP, but in keeping with the theme of using what I already have available in SQL
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