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  • Today I talk about you

    - by BuckWoody
    Some time back I posted a blog entry (mirrored here and here) asking you how you design databases. Out of those responses, my own experience, studies I read, and interviews I conducted, I collected a wealth of data. Thanks for your responses. So what am I going to do with that information? Well, all along I had planned for that to be used today. I am giving a presentation at an event called “TechReady” called “How Your Customers Design Databases”. This is a Microsoft-internal event, where technical professionals like myself, salespeople, and the product team get together to talk about what has been working, what doesn’t, what is coming and hopefully (fingers crossed here) what the product team can do to help us help the SQL Server community. I’ve mentioned before that I teach database design as part of a course I run at the University of Washington. I’m also planning to give a mini-lecture from that series at TechEd 2010, so if you’re coming stop by. I’d love to meet you. So today I talk about you – thanks for the input. I hope you and I can make a difference in the product. Might take a while, but it’s nice to know your voice is being heard. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Use Those Schemas, People!

    - by BuckWoody
    Database Schemas are just containers – they aren’t users or anything else – think of a sub-directory on the hard drive. In early versions of SQL Server we “hid” schemas, placing all objects under “dbo”, which gave the erroneous perception that Schemas are users. In SQL Server 2005, we “un-hid” or re-introduced schemas within the database. Users can have a default schema (a place where their new objects go), you can add new schemas and transfer objects between them, and they have many other benefits. But I still see a lot of applications, developed by shops I know as well as vendors, that don’t make use of a Schema. Everything is piled under dbo. I completely understand this – since permissions can be granted to a schema, they feel a lot like a user, so it’s just easier not to worry about both users and schemas when you create a database. But if you’ll use them properly you can make your application more understandable and portable. You should at least take a few minutes and read more about them – you owe it to your users: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190387.aspx Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Backup those keys, citizen

    - by BuckWoody
    Periodically I back up the keys within my servers and databases, and when I do, I blog a reminder here. This should be part of your standard backup rotation – the keys should be backed up often enough to have at hand and again when they change. The first key you need to back up is the Service Master Key, which each Instance already has built-in. You do that with the BACKUP SERVICE MASTER KEY command, which you can read more about here. The second set of keys are the Database Master Keys, stored per database, if you’ve created one. You can back those up with the BACKUP MASTER KEY command, which you can read more about here. Finally, you can use the keys to create certificates and other keys – those should also be backed up. Read more about those here. Anyway, the important part here is the backup. Make sure you keep those keys safe! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • SQL Server 2008 R2: These are a Few of My Favorite Things

    - by smisner
    This month's T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Jorge Segarra (blog | twitter) who decided that we should write about our favorite new feature in SQL Server 2008 R2. The majority of my published works concentrates on Reporting Services, so the obious answer for me is about favorite new features is...Reporting Services. I can't pick just one thing in Reporting Services, so instead I thought I'd compile a list of my posts of the new features in Reporting Services 2008 R2: Map Wizard for spatial data (The World is But a Stage) Pagination features (I've Got Your Page Number) Lookup functions (Look Up, Look Down, Look All Around - Part I, Part II, Part III) Test Connection button (Testing, Testing 1-2-3) Conditional formatting based on format, i.e. RenderFormat (As You Like It) And I wrote an overview of the business intelligence features in SQL Server 2008 R2 for Microsoft Press in the free e-book, Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, if you're curious about what else is new in both the BI platform as well as the relational engine. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Great Example of a Simple Cost-Benefit Analysis

    - by BuckWoody
    I saw a post the other day that you should definitely go check out. It’s a cost/benefit decision, and although the author gives it a quick treatment and doesn’t take all points in the decision into account, you should focus on the process he follows. It’s a quick and simple example of the kind of thought process we should have as data professionals when we pick a server, a process, or application and even platform software. The key is to include more than just the price of a piece of software or hardware. You need to think about the “other” costs in the decision, and then make the right one. Sometimes the cheapest option is the cheapest, and other times, well, it isn’t. I’ve seen this played out not only in the decision to go with a certain selection, but in the options or editions it comes in. You have to put all of the decision points in the analysis to come up with the right answer, and you have to be able to explain your logic to your team and your company. This is the way you become a data professional, not just a DBA. You can check out the post here – it deals with Azure, but the point is the process, not Azure itself: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop/archive/2010/03/19/windows-azure-guidance-a-simplistic-economic-analysis-of-a-expense-migration.aspx Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • More Tables or More Databases?

    - by BuckWoody
    I got an e-mail from someone that has an interesting situation. He has 15,000 customers, and he asks if he should have a database for their data per customer. Without a LOT more data it’s impossible to say, of course, but there are some general concepts to keep in mind. Whenever you’re segmenting data, it’s all about boundary choices. You have not only boundaries around how big the data will get, but things like how many objects (tables, stored procedures and so on) that will be involved, if there are any cross-sections of data (do they share location or product information) and – very important – what are the security requirements? From the answer to these types of questions, you now have the choice of making multiple tables in a single database, or using multiple databases. A database carries some overhead – it needs a certain amount of memory for locking and so on. But it has a very clean boundary – everything from objects to security can be kept apart. Having multiple users in the same database is possible as well, using things like a Schema. But keeping 15,000 schemas can be challenging as well. My recommendation in complex situations like this is similar to a post on decisions that I did earlier – I lay out the choices on a spreadsheet in rows, and then my requirements at the top in the columns. I  give each choice a number based on how well it meets each requirement. At the end, the highest number wins. And many times it’s a mix – perhaps this person could segment customers into larger regions or districts or products, in a database. Within that database might be multiple schemas for the customers. Of course, he needs to query across all customers, that becomes another requirement. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Observable Adapter

    - by Roman Schindlauer
    .NET 4.0 introduced a pair of interfaces, IObservable<T> and IObserver<T>, supporting subscriptions to and notifications for push-based sequences. In combination with Reactive Extensions (Rx), these interfaces provide a convenient and uniform way of describing event sources and sinks in .NET. The StreamInsight CTP refresh in November 2009 included an Observable adapter supporting “reactive” event inputs and outputs.   While we continue to believe it enables an important programming model, the Observable adapter was not included in the final (RTM) release of Microsoft StreamInsight 1.0. The release takes a dependency on .NET 3.5 but for timing reasons could not take a dependency on .NET 4.0. Shipping a separate copy of the observable interfaces in StreamInsight – as we did in the CTP refresh – was not a viable option in the RTM release.   Within the next months, we will be shipping another preview of the Observable adapter that targets .NET 4.0. We look forward to gathering your feedback on the new adapter design! We plan to include the Observable adapter implementation into the product in a future release of Microsoft StreamInsight. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • With Choice Comes Complexity

    - by BuckWoody
    "Complex" may be defined as "Having many steps, details or parts." Many of Microsoft's products, including SQL Server, can be complex. I'm stating what most data professionals already know - there's usually multiple ways to do things in SQL Server. For instance, to import some data into a table you can use graphical tools, SQLCMD, bcp, SQL Server Integration Services, BULK INSERT, even PowerShell, just to name a few tools at your disposal. That's really not the issue, though. The bigger issue is that there are normally multiple thought-processes, or methods, that you have available for a task. That's both a strength and a weakness. If things were more simple, you would have fewer choices. Sometimes that's a good thing. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. However, your particular situation may not fit that tool or process, so having more options increases your ability to get your job done the way you need to do it. On the other hand, that's more for you to learn, which is harder. There's another side of this benefit/difficulty that you need to be aware of. Even if you're quite good at what you do, keep in mind that the way you know how to do something may not be the only way to do it. Keep your mind open to new possibilities, and most importantly - to new knowledge. SQL Server professionals teach me something new every day. So embrace the complexity - on balance, it's a good thing! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • More than one way to skin an Audit

    - by BuckWoody
    I get asked quite a bit about auditing in SQL Server. By "audit", people mean everything from tracking logins to finding out exactly who ran a particular SELECT statement. In the really early versions of SQL Server, we didn't have a great story for very granular audits, so lots of workarounds were suggested. As time progressed, more and more audit capabilities were added to the product, and in typical database platform fashion, as we added a feature we didn't often take the others away. So now, instead of not having an option to audit actions by users, you might face the opposite problem - too many ways to audit! You can read more about the options you have for tracking users here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280526(v=SQL.100).aspx  In SQL Server 2008, we introduced SQL Server Audit, which uses Extended Events to really get a simple way to implement high-level or granular auditing. You can read more about that here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392015.aspx  As with any feature, you should understand what your needs are first. Auditing isn't "free" in the performance sense, so you need to make sure you're only auditing what you need to. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Data Movement and the Decision Matrix

    - by BuckWoody
    Maybe it’s my military background, or maybe I’ve always had this predilection, but I like to use two devices when I need to make a complex decision: A checklist and a decision matrix. I like to use a checklist because it ensures that I remember the big bits of what I need to do, and brings up questions or areas that I didn’t think about when evaluating options for the decision. And the decision matrix – that’s the thing I use to actually lay out those options. It’s simply a spreadsheet-like grid (I use Excel, but paper and pencil works as well) that lays out the requirements or advantages for the decision across the top, and the options I have on the left-hand side. Then in the “cells” I put whether or not that option on the left will meet the requirement in that column. I then simply “weight” each cell to organize the choices by best-fit. The right answer (or answers) will float right to the top. I was asked yesterday about options for moving data in SQL Server to another system. There are just dozens of ways to do this, from bcp to Replication, each with certain advantages and costs. But asking the questions for the top row first helped me show the person that it isn’t a particular technology that is important, it’s laying out those requirements and thinking about which elements are more important than the other. For instance, is it more important to have the data moved all the time, or is it OK if that happens once in a while? Does the data have to move in two directions or just one? All of these will help that answer jump right out. Try it sometime – it’s a great learning exercise, since it will force you to focus on filling out the matrix. The answer is out there, Neo. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • TechEd 2010 Day Four: Learning how to help others learn

    - by BuckWoody
    I do quite a few presentations, and teach at the University of Washington, and also teach other classes. But I'm always learning from others how to help others learn. At events like TechEd I have access to some of the best speakers around, so I try to find out what they do that works. I attended a great session by allen White, in which he demonstrated a set of PowerShell scripts. He said that Dan Jones of the Microsoft Manageability team told him while he demonstrated a script he needed to provide some visual way to represent the process. Allen used one of the oldest visualizations around - a flowchart. It was the first time I'd seen one used to illustrate a PowerShell script, and it was very effective. I'm totally stealing the idea. All of us are teachers - we help others on our team understand what we're up to. Make sure you make notes for what you find effective in dealing with you, and then meld that into your own way of teaching. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Process Improvement and the Data Professional

    - by BuckWoody
    Don’t be afraid of that title – I’m not talking about Six Sigma or anything super-formal here. In many organizations, there are more folks in other IT roles than in the Data Professional area. In other words, there are more developers, system administrators and so on than there are the “DBA” role. That means we often have more to do than the time we need to do it. And, oddly enough, the first thing that is sacrificed is process improvement – the little things we need to do to make the day go faster in the first place. Then we get even more behind, the work piles up and…well, you know all about that. Earlier I challenged you to find 10-30 minutes a day to study. Some folks wrote back and asked “where do I start”? Well, why not be super-efficient and combine that time with learning how to make yourself more efficient? Try out a new scripting language, learn a new tool that automates things or find out ways others have automated their systems. In general, find out what you’re doing and how, and then see if that can be improved. It’s kind of like doing a performance tuning gig on yourself! If you’re pressed for time, look for bite-sized articles (like the ones I’ve done here for PowerShell and SQL Server) that you can follow in a “serial” fashion. In a short time you’ll have a new set of knowledge you can use to make your day faster. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • DevWeek & SQL Social @ London

    - by Davide Mauri
    Yesterday I had my “SQL Server best practices for developers” session at DevWeek and I really enjoyed it a lot. For all those who asked, I’ll put slides and demos online as soon as possible. I’ve just waiting to know where I can put it (on my website or somewhere else), so it should be just a matter of some days. If you attended my session and would like to rate it, please use SpeakerRate here: http://speakerrate.com/talks/2857-sql-server-best-practices-for-developers I also have to thank Simon Sabin for the very nice event he organized for SQLSocial http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/simons/archive/2010/02/16/SQLSocial-presents-Itzik-Ben-gan--Greg-Low-and-Davide-Mauri.aspx A lot of people attended and we really had interesting discussions. And it was my first time doing a session at a pub, and I must say it's *really* funny and enjoyable, expecially when you have free beer :-) Now back to Italy to the “usual” work! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Never Bet Against the Impossible

    - by BuckWoody
    My uncle used to say “If a man tells you that his car squirts milk in his eye when you lift the hood, don’t bet against that. You’ll end up with milk in your eye.” My friend Allen White tells me this is taken from a play (and was said about playing cards), but I think the sentiment holds, even in database work. I mentioned the other day that you should allow the other person to talk and actively listen before you propose a solution. Well, I saw a consultant “bet against the impossible”  the other day – and it bit her. She explained to the person telling her the problem that the situation simply couldn’t exist that way, and he proceeded to show her that it did. She got silent, typed a few things, muttered a little, and then said “well, must be something else.” She just couldn’t admit she was wrong. So don’t go there. If someone explains a problem to you with their database, listen with purpose, and then explore the troubleshooting steps you know to find the problem. But keep your absolutes to yourself. In fact, I have a friend that has recently sent me one of those. He connects to a system with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) version 2008 (if I recall correctly) and it shows a certain version number of the target system in the connection tab. Then he connects to it using SSMS 2008 R2 and gets a different number. Now, as far as I know, we didn’t change the connection string information, and that’s provided by the target system, so this is impossible. But I won’t tell him that. Not until I look a little more. :) Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • More than one way to skin an Audit

    - by BuckWoody
    I get asked quite a bit about auditing in SQL Server. By "audit", people mean everything from tracking logins to finding out exactly who ran a particular SELECT statement. In the really early versions of SQL Server, we didn't have a great story for very granular audits, so lots of workarounds were suggested. As time progressed, more and more audit capabilities were added to the product, and in typical database platform fashion, as we added a feature we didn't often take the others away. So now, instead of not having an option to audit actions by users, you might face the opposite problem - too many ways to audit! You can read more about the options you have for tracking users here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280526(v=SQL.100).aspx  In SQL Server 2008, we introduced SQL Server Audit, which uses Extended Events to really get a simple way to implement high-level or granular auditing. You can read more about that here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd392015.aspx  As with any feature, you should understand what your needs are first. Auditing isn't "free" in the performance sense, so you need to make sure you're only auditing what you need to. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Joining a company to get experience vs. going alone [closed]

    - by daniels
    My goal is to build a successful web startup, say the next Digg or Twitter, and I am in doubt regarding what is the best route to follow as a programmer. I see basically two options: Get an internship/job with an established online company, so that I could get a mentor and learn from more experienced programmers, learn their processes, methodology and so on. I could do this for 1-2 years, and then quit to start working on my own stuff. Start working on my own projects right away, starting with small ones and moving up gradually. This would give me more control on the things I would be working with, but I would lack contact with more experienced people, so I would need to figure basic things on my own. Doing both is not an option in my opinion, cause I would need to put a lot of effort/time into each if I was to learn/improve as a programmer. So is one route definitely better than the other? Is there a third one I am not considering? Background: I already work by myself developing content-based websites and doing SEO, and I am decent at it so money is not a problem. Last year I started learning to program, first by myself and now I enrolled in a CS degree on a good university.

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  • TechEd 2010 Day Four: Learning how to help others learn

    - by BuckWoody
    I do quite a few presentations, and teach at the University of Washington, and also teach other classes. But I'm always learning from others how to help others learn. At events like TechEd I have access to some of the best speakers around, so I try to find out what they do that works. I attended a great session by allen White, in which he demonstrated a set of PowerShell scripts. He said that Dan Jones of the Microsoft Manageability team told him while he demonstrated a script he needed to provide some visual way to represent the process. Allen used one of the oldest visualizations around - a flowchart. It was the first time I'd seen one used to illustrate a PowerShell script, and it was very effective. I'm totally stealing the idea. All of us are teachers - we help others on our team understand what we're up to. Make sure you make notes for what you find effective in dealing with you, and then meld that into your own way of teaching. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • The SQL Server Setup Portal

    - by BuckWoody
    One of the tasks that takes a long time for the data professional is setting up SQL Server. No, it isn’t that difficult to slide a DVD in a drive and click “Setup” but the overall process of planning the hardware and software environment, making decisions for high-availability, security and dozens of other choices can make the process more difficult. And then, of course, there are the inevitable issues that arise. Microsoft supports literally hundreds and even thousands of combinations of hardware and software drivers from vendors you’ve never even heard of. Making all of that work together is a small miracle, so things are bound to arise that you need to deal with. So, to help you out, we’ve designed a new “SQL Server Setup Portal”. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about planning and setting up SQL Server. As time goes on you’ll see even more content added. There are already whitepapers, videos, and multiple places to search on everything from topic names to error codes. So go check it out – and if you have to do a lot of SQL Server Setups – and especially if you don’t – bookmark it as a favorite! Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Never Bet Against the Impossible

    - by BuckWoody
    My uncle used to say “If a man tells you that his car squirts milk in his eye when you lift the hood, don’t bet against that. You’ll end up with milk in your eye.” My friend Allen White tells me this is taken from a play (and was said about playing cards), but I think the sentiment holds, even in database work. I mentioned the other day that you should allow the other person to talk and actively listen before you propose a solution. Well, I saw a consultant “bet against the impossible”  the other day – and it bit her. She explained to the person telling her the problem that the situation simply couldn’t exist that way, and he proceeded to show her that it did. She got silent, typed a few things, muttered a little, and then said “well, must be something else.” She just couldn’t admit she was wrong. So don’t go there. If someone explains a problem to you with their database, listen with purpose, and then explore the troubleshooting steps you know to find the problem. But keep your absolutes to yourself. In fact, I have a friend that has recently sent me one of those. He connects to a system with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) version 2008 (if I recall correctly) and it shows a certain version number of the target system in the connection tab. Then he connects to it using SSMS 2008 R2 and gets a different number. Now, as far as I know, we didn’t change the connection string information, and that’s provided by the target system, so this is impossible. But I won’t tell him that. Not until I look a little more. :) Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • More Tables or More Databases?

    - by BuckWoody
    I got an e-mail from someone that has an interesting situation. He has 15,000 customers, and he asks if he should have a database for their data per customer. Without a LOT more data it’s impossible to say, of course, but there are some general concepts to keep in mind. Whenever you’re segmenting data, it’s all about boundary choices. You have not only boundaries around how big the data will get, but things like how many objects (tables, stored procedures and so on) that will be involved, if there are any cross-sections of data (do they share location or product information) and – very important – what are the security requirements? From the answer to these types of questions, you now have the choice of making multiple tables in a single database, or using multiple databases. A database carries some overhead – it needs a certain amount of memory for locking and so on. But it has a very clean boundary – everything from objects to security can be kept apart. Having multiple users in the same database is possible as well, using things like a Schema. But keeping 15,000 schemas can be challenging as well. My recommendation in complex situations like this is similar to a post on decisions that I did earlier – I lay out the choices on a spreadsheet in rows, and then my requirements at the top in the columns. I  give each choice a number based on how well it meets each requirement. At the end, the highest number wins. And many times it’s a mix – perhaps this person could segment customers into larger regions or districts or products, in a database. Within that database might be multiple schemas for the customers. Of course, he needs to query across all customers, that becomes another requirement. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • QueryUnit 0.0.0.8 – Trust No One

    - by Davide Mauri
    Yesterday I’ve release an updated version of QueryUnit, the version 0.0.0.8. QueryUnit now supports AreNotEqual, Greater, and Less assertions and is more capable of managing strings results. I must say that I cannot live anymore without a proper Unit Testing of a BI solution. Just yesterday happened that one of the unit tests at a customer site failed showing a subtle situation where the release of a new version of custom application would have corrupted the source of BI data with a very low chance that someone would have noticed it before several days. It may happen when you have more the 15 systems that handles the data needed by your BI solution. The key message of this situation is “Trust No One”: if your data hasn’t passed quality testing it’s not trustable. Period. QueryUnit is now officialy an hero :) No superpowers still, but useful above all. http://queryunit.codeplex.com/ Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Seek first to understand, then to be understood

    - by BuckWoody
    One of the most important (and most difficult) lessons for a technical professional to learn is to not jump to the solution. Perhaps you’ve done this, or had it happen to you. As the person you’re “listening” to is speaking, your mind is performing a B-Tree lookup on possible solutions, and when the final node of the B-Tree in your mind is reached, you blurt out the “only” solution there is to the problem, whether they are done or not. There are two issues here – both of them fatal if you don’t factor them in. First, your B-Tree may not be complete, or correct. That of course leads to an incorrect response, which blows your credibility. People will not trust you if this happens often. The second danger is that the person may modify their entire problem with a single word or phrase. I once had a client explain a detailed problem to me – and I just KNEW the answer. Then they said at the end “well, that’s what it used to do, anyway. Now it doesn’t do that anymore.” Which of course negated my entire solution – happily I had kept my mouth shut until they finished. So practice listening, rather than waiting for your turn to speak. Let the person finish, let them get the concept out, give them your full attention. They’ll appreciate the courtesy, you’ll look more intelligent, and you both may find the right answer to the problem. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Don't speak to the DBA while he/she is doing the job?!

    - by Uri Dimant
    Our DBA was very busy today, he helped out our developers to write efficient code,explained to the programmer how to launch the old DTS package on SQL Server 2005 and etc. You know how it is, someone comes in and asking the question and you answer the question at the same time you are busy to do something. So  today answering one of such questions he deleted by mistake very ctitical database. Fortunately, we had zero data loss,thanks to our backup/recovery strategy. I think that is acceptable to say that you are busy right now ,please ask the question later on, what do you think? How do you respond if someone asks you a queston while you are doing something on the server/database and etc.?   Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • Do you have a data roadmap?

    - by BuckWoody
    I often visit companies where they asked me “What is SQL Server’s Roadmap?” What they mean is that they want to know where Microsoft is going with our database products. I explain that we’re expanding not only the capacities in SQL Server but the capabilities – we’re trying to make an “information platform”, rather than just a data store. But it’s interesting when I ask the same question back. “What is your data roadmap?” Most folks are surprised by the question, thinking only about storage and archival. To them, data is data. Ah, not so. Your data is one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable asset in your organization. And you should be thinking about how you’ll acquire it, how it will be distributed, how you’ll archive it (which includes more than just backing it up) and most importantly, how you’ll leverage it. Because it’s only when data becomes information that it is truly useful. to be sure, the folks on the web that collect lots of data have a strategy for it – do you? Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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  • When you’re on a high, start something big

    - by BuckWoody
    Most days are pretty average – we have some highs, some lows, and just regular old work to do. But some days the sun is shining, your co-workers are especially nice, and everything just falls into place. You really *enjoy* what you do. Don’t let that moment pass. All of us have “big” projects that we need to tackle. Things that are going to take a long time, and a lot of money. Those kinds of data projects take a LOT of planning, and many times we put that off just to get to the day’s work. I’ve found that the “high” moments are the perfect time to take on these big projects. I’m more focused, and more importantly, more positive. And as the quote goes, “whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.” You’ll find a way to make it happen if you’re in a positive mood. Now – having those “great days” is actually something you can influence, but I’ll save that topic for a future post. I have a project to work on. :) Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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