I’ve always been suspicious of denormalizing an OLTP database. Denormalisation is a strange activity that is supposed to take place after a database has been normalized, and is assumed to be necessary in order to reduce the number of joins in queries to a tolerable level. C.J. Date is quite clear on this; well, he … Read more
One of the greatest pleasures of programming in C# is that wonderful, giddy, feeling of superiority one has over VB.NET programmers. In C#, one has a vague awareness that what one is doing has elegance and style. It must be the effect of the curly braces. By contrast, VB.NET steadfastly maintains its status as the … Read more
Several parts of SQL Server look as though they were started and then suddenly abandoned. The classic example is the TEXT datatype. Phil Factor has a theory on most things, and in this case it’s that the programmer responsible for implementing the TEXT datatype at Microsoft succumbed to the unbearable pressure of the job, one … Read more
It is strange that two important programming techniques in a SQL Server Database can’t be done in TSQL. The first is, of course, being able to read multiple results from a stored procedure. You can do it in ODBC/ADO and so on, but not in TSQL. The other obvious failing is that one cannot write … Read more
Server Management Objects (SMO) is a very impressive product. SMO (and its previous incarnation, SQL-DMO) is essentially an object-oriented interface into the management of SQL Server installations and databases. It provides an intuitive way for the VB or C# programmer to automate any operation that can be performed via SSMS. We’ve run a few SMO … Read more
The average DBA has to perform many routine checks on his or her servers. There will be daily checks, weekly checks and, probably, monthly checks. A short while ago, we were having quite a debate about what items would be on the DBA Daily checklist. Because we all like lists with ten items in them, … Read more
The Daily WTF recently reported that the Sexual and Violent Offender Registry of Oklahoma had to shut down its website for ‘routine maintenance’. It turns out that this routine maintenance was necessary because 10,597 social security numbers from sex offenders had been downloaded, by SQL injection. Sadly, this is not an isolated case. There has … Read more
I was chatting to Phil Factor the other day about the slow start-up of some CLR applications. He started telling me, with apparent irrelevance, how he once, a long time ago, developed a database system in Z80 assembler code and a large eight-inch floppy disk. The point he was actually making was this: the more … Read more
“That ain’t a database, it’s a spreadsheet!” From the Sayings of Phil Factor There is a world of difference between an enterprise-level relational database and a ‘repository of persistent data’. Until you’ve had the experience of dealing with a high-volume, high-transaction database with large amounts of data, the truth of this doesn’t really hit home. … Read more
It is strange to see the heat generated over arguments about how code should be formatted. With Visual Studio, of course, it isn’t much of an issue, as it is done for you, but the closer you get to the ‘live free and die’ communities of the LAMP platforms, the more contentious it gets. Likewise, … Read more
SQL Server diagnostics are a mess. To monitor the well-being of a server, you need to be able to inspect all logged errors, have a whole raft of performance information, WMI data, and be able to study the history of backups and scheduled jobs. You have to monitor server downtime, low disk space, low physical … Read more
It is always a bit of a strain to program in several languages at once. A simple task like writing a database-driven website will involve you in at least three, maybe more. The experience of diving into JavaScript, VB.NET, and TSQL, all at once, is one that most human brains aren’t, in evolutionary terms, designed … Read more
The history of IT is littered with the corpses of software companies that assumed that a solution that worked well in particular circumstances would necessarily become a generic panacea. Who, for example, now remembers the past giants of the Workflow industry? The Orcas chrysalis is now hatching into the Visual Studio 2008 butterfly. Well, most … Read more
We all have our favourite websites. Not the ones we read as part of our job, but the ones we scan whilst munching sandwiches at the desk or, surreptitiously, during an application build process. I’m hooked on giveawayoftheday.com at the moment. It is a site that gives away licensed software. It features a different product … Read more
MONDAY, 17 September 2007 On a slightly overcast Denver Monday morning, I strolled into the Colorado Convention Centre, intent on registering for the PASS conference. I stared in wonderment at the distinctive blue bear, entered the building, and followed the sign for “PASS registration”. I duly approached the registration desk. “Hi, I’m here to register” … Read more
The real advances in IT are seldom the ones that are heralded by great noise or media hype. So many of the technologies that have become part of our lives, such as browsers, Email and ‘texting’ came surreptitiously, almost by accident. Technologies that come with a fanfare often tend to fade away. In retrospect, what … Read more
Well, no-one can accuse Microsoft of giving out mixed messages. The framework for Steve Ballmer’s keynote this morning was exactly the same as the one used by Ray Ozzie et al. at Tech Ed 2006 in Boston. You’ll be relieved to here that Microsoft are still very much “people ready” and are still trying their … Read more
I just wanted to provide everyone with a “heads-up” on Simple-Talk’s plans for SQL PASS in Seattle. If you’re at the show and are interested in talking – maybe about writing an article, doing a short interview, to tell me how great Simple-Talk is, or just to give me a good slap, then drop me … Read more
Phil Factor’s recent blog on The Joy of IT Meetings contains a lot of good advice, but if you really want your meetings to be productive, I can only suggest you adopt the Simple-Talk approach. All you need are some good people, a traditional local hostelry, some lovingly-brewed real ale and about 2 hours. Here’s … Read more
In a recent blog, Todd Bishop highlighted the fact that Microsoft had hired “more than 10,000 people worldwide in the fiscal year ended June 30, bringing the total to 71,553 (… the biggest annual increase in the company’s history)”. Subsequently, the anonymous Mini-Microsoft blogger duly wondered what exactly these 10K people actually did AT Microsoft – … Read more
