What happens in Seattle doesn’t stay in Seattle. I could not take pictures during the day because <nda> and <nda> cannot be announced yet. However, database diapers is fair game.
Anyway, here is part 1. Video next.
Click.
Here is the link the the original post if it doesn’t syndicate right.
I am just saying... I read the comments and I thought I should post. If he followed everyone on this list and this list with a real client he would see the value. NNTP = Dead except for those who do not understand search engine syntax. Blogs are not status updates any more.
So I challenge Adam and you if you are not on twitter to follow these people for a month with a real client and post your status.
Make sure you get me @statisticsio.
To follow Rob Boek’s lead, I have publically shared all of my google reader SQL subscriptions(RSS) in addition to my shared items(RSS).
Here are the SQL feeds I currently read. Post your RSS link if I am missing out!
I compiled a pretty big list of SQL people on twitter. Mainly out of loneliness ;) It seemed like there were quite a few more Dev’s. Mac fanboys and unix people than SQL people. I tried to give people a head start so they could have a good experience before the interest waned.
Here is the list. Sheesh, it got 7500 page views.
I just added the 3 last new people to that list.
It is was a large undertaking and now I do not have to do it anymore :)
There is a better resource.
http://sqlserverpedia.com/wiki/twitter
If you are not on the list, add yourself and follow everyone on it.
P.S. Don’t forget to follow me: http://twitter.com/statisticsio
I was going to try to go through my google reader shared items from this year and try to come up a list to end all lists. However, who am I to decide? On top of that, narrowing it down to a top 25 favorites was going to be a enormous task given the huge growth in quality SQL bloggers this year.
However, instead of giving you a list, I will give you a tool to find good SQL blog posts based on the collective conscience on the internet. Hopefully, you will see the value and join in making this tool better.
Popular Posts on “SQL Server”(RSS) from RSSMeme.
Behind the scenes in a nut shell
Blog software syndicates via RSS. Readers subscribe in google reader or their favorite reader but only google reader applies here. When a user in google reader finds a post interesting, he\she can share it. All of the shares are indexed by RSSMeme. The idea being is a human actually recommends the post. More shares the better. Sure, there are also sites like Digg and Dotnetkicks but the down sides to those make them less appealing to me.
A side effect
Using this link you can find recently shared items containing “SQL Server”. This can help you find new interesting feeds. You can also use it to find breaking new on SQL Server or whatever tickles your fancy. However, it may not be quite as real time as twitter.
Start sharing
So if you use google reader and don’t use the share functionality, start! And maybe, you too can be part of the Internet SQL Mafia ©. Westside.
Top Sharers
P.S. Congrats to the Detroit Lions for their perfect season.
I tried to create cool web 2.0 blog roll. It worked for a while but it is hosed.. It would take me too much time to recreate it. Not to mention blogs come and go so I am going to do three things.
So post interesting things and you get a link from me in several place. Woohoo. Yah, big deal, right? If I am missing you, let me know. The amount of good SQL blogs is growing exponentially and it is hard to keep up.
NOTE: IF YOU ARE ONLY POSTING AN RSS SUMMARY, I AM PROBABLY NOT READING YOUR BLOG!!!11WON
And not just cause my name was dropped. I have said it before and I will say it again... Twitter\Facebook\FriendFeed has made the internet interesting for me again. The flame has been rekindled.
'A New Look at New Technology' Or 'How Brent Ozar Made Me Buy A New Phone'
by Tim Benninghoff
Got tagged again. Here are the details:
So here are the rules, please answer the question with at least two answers, once you have completed the answer please tag 2 people that you know to answer the questions as well. If you get tagged by this Quiz please let me know I would like to add all the results to the bottom of this blog so all the answers are in one place.The Questions for this quiz…What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those?
So here are the rules, please answer the question with at least two answers, once you have completed the answer please tag 2 people that you know to answer the questions as well. If you get tagged by this Quiz please let me know I would like to add all the results to the bottom of this blog so all the answers are in one place.
The Questions for this quiz…
What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those?
1. OJT
I did not always used to be an uberguru SQL ninja expert googler. I learned SQL the hard way. I broke production stuff and learned how to it really quick. I didn’t always break but if it was broke, I had to figure out how to fix it fast. It was challenging but a good way to learn. I try to avoid that most of the time now. It is bad for customer satisfaction. :)
2. Evolving beyond an “enterprise manager DBA”
A really smart DBA way back when told me to get out of the GUI and learn how to administer through TSQL. Meh, EM is just generating the TSQL commands, right? It happened slowly over time. I think after I discovered sysprocesses and some of the other system tables, I realized that the GUI wasn’t all that. Picture giving execute permissions to a user on 50 stored procs through the GUI. Yup, I was that guy. Now, I highly recommend doing most everything through TSQL unless it is a couple clicks and even then know what SQL is running.
So who else has responded:
Denis Gobo
Denny Cherry
Brent Ozar
Tim Ford
SQL Batman
Cherie
Who am I tagging?
Well, I’ll tag Kalen Delaney now that I know she reads my blog. :)
Louis Davidson(@drsql) since he squeeked by the first one.
Jeremiah Peschka(@peschkaj) since he was gloating about slipping through the cracks.
K. Brian Kelley (@kbriankelley)Just cause.
Here are the slides from my SQL PASS DBA SIG live meeting today. I thought is was a timely topic with the increase of twitter usage in the SQL Server community after the PASS Summit. A lot of people said they could not get in with the passcode. My apologies on that… I am not sure what happened there. Anyway, here are the slides and .sql file. Please feel to hit me up if you have any questions.
Edit: If you missed the audio too, this post is still valid.
Just a quick vacation post for North BFE, Florida. There is a new attempt at a Ning social network for SQL peeps. There have been a few previous attempts that loss steam after a few weeks. Hopefully, this one will be different. That can only happen if you stop by and participate:
http://sqlheroes.ning.com/
Props to Damon Ripper for starting it.
Edit: Since is was hero themed, I signed up as SQLSilentBob since SQLJackBauer was already taken.
PASS has brought a lot of new SQL folks to twitter and people who were causal users previously have really embraced it. I hope they stick around long enough to “get it”. There are few things you have to do to make the experience good. Ok, one more list.
1. You have to follow enough people with similar interests. “Enough” is relative. 200 is a good number. I need 1000+ but I like to drink from the fire hose.
2. A good start is to follow everyone here, here and here.
3. Search for people with similar interests at http://search.twitter.com
4. Get a real client. I like outtwit. Others like digsby, tweekdeck, twhirl, witty.
5. Use it to update your facebook status.
Related posts:
Social Computing for the DBA
This Update Came from SQL Server
A SQLCLR Twitter Client
SQLBlog on twitter(see video)
Cool SQL People that I Follow on Twitter
Twitter 101
Not sold yet, see all of the SQL and PASS comments. On top of that, you get to know the smart SQL people much greater detail than you would on the forums or newgroups. I will be presenting on Social computing for the DBA December 3rd. Stop by.
I have been to SQL Connections and TechED this year so earlier this year I pointed out to my director that they could get a really good group and early bird discount if we send five people. I graciously offered to hold down the fort while they were out. Dumb me :) The session list looks awesome! All I am hearing on twitter is PASS this, PASS that. Yall have fun, asshats! All shenanigans need to end up on YouTube.
If you want to live vicariously like me, follow along here on twitter(RSS)
I also believe Brent Ozar(RSS) and Joe Webb(RSS) will be live blogging the keynotes.
I am presenting the PASS DBA SIG the 3rd of December at NOON eastern.
Social Computing for DBA
This month, we will take on a "Professional Development" topic after all of the hardcore tech goodness of the PASS Summit. Less face it. DBA's are conservative by nature and this is a good thing. However, this can lead to slow adoption of new services that could help you do your job and interact with other DBA's. In a Web 2.0 world, you have more than NNTP newsgroups, mailing lists and web forums that community is built around.In this session, we will look at these services as they apply to the DBA so we can see how we can best leverage them on the job and professionally. The brave may even want to tie some of these services into the data tier. We will talk about good and bad of doing that. We will also take a look at some up and coming services that we should keep an eye on.
This month, we will take on a "Professional Development" topic after all of the hardcore tech goodness of the PASS Summit.
Less face it. DBA's are conservative by nature and this is a good thing. However, this can lead to slow adoption of new services that could help you do your job and interact with other DBA's. In a Web 2.0 world, you have more than NNTP newsgroups, mailing lists and web forums that community is built around.
In this session, we will look at these services as they apply to the DBA so we can see how we can best leverage them on the job and professionally. The brave may even want to tie some of these services into the data tier. We will talk about good and bad of doing that. We will also take a look at some up and coming services that we should keep an eye on.
Meeting DetailsMeeting URL: www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroupsMeeting ID: DBA SIG 20081203Meeting Key: <not required for attendees>Audio Conferencing (Toll-free): 1 (866) 231-6479Participant Code: 304968Please mute your line once you dial-in to the audio portion of the meeting.
<teaser> This is especially timely when you see my next post.</teaser>
Disclaimer:
Just because you can does not mean you should and even if you should, use with care. For example, you will have no friends after a day or so of updating your facebook status every time a tlog backup runs on your farm. There are also many security concerns to consider. That said, I can think of a few uses for SQL Server Web 2.0 mashups and I am not all that creative.
How it works
Sign up at http://ping.fm and then sign up at whatever services you want to update from SQL. Here is a list of what they currently support. From SQL, we could send a message to twitter or even better, yammer via database mail. Here is the obligatory, “Don’t send anything confidential over email”
Possible Uses
Augmenting your monitoring – The keyword is word is “augmenting” except for the smallest installations. For the crown jewel of the company, you might get a call from the 24/7 staff and an email. Why not a tweet too especially if it can add SMS functionality that you may not currently have?
Turn X into an RSS feed – Where X could be, all job executions, any SEV error messages, any trace event or DDL operations, or [your idea here]. You can funnel the RSS into the intranet, your reader or [insert creative idea here].
An insert trigger on your press release table – Blast it to the world. Some companies are already doing similar things http://dell.com/twitter.
Personal updates from the SQL Editor – I don’t know about you but I have spent weeks on end in tsql. Some deadlines don’t allow for time to come up for air. It would pretty cool in a geeky way to tell the world that I just replaced 500 lines of cursor code with a 10 liner or whatever without leaving SSMS.
Example Code:
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;GORECONFIGURE;GOsp_configure 'Database Mail XPs', 1;GORECONFIGUREGOEXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_account_sp@account_name = 'Ping.fm demo', @description = 'Mail account', @email_address = 'jason@statisticsio.com', @replyto_address = 'jason@statisticsio.com', @display_name = 'Jason Massie', @mailserver_name = 'mail.statisticsio.com' ;-- Create a Database Mail profileEXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_profile_sp@profile_name = 'MailAccount', @description = 'Profile used for administrative mail.' ;-- Add the account to the profileEXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_profileaccount_sp@profile_name = 'MailAccount', @account_name = 'Ping.fm demo', @sequence_number =1 ;-- Grant access to the profile to all users in the msdb databaseEXECUTE msdb.dbo.sysmail_add_principalprofile_sp@profile_name = 'MailAccount', @principal_name = 'public', @is_default = 1 ;
-- here is the magic blasphemy. EXEC sp_send_dbmail @profile_name ='MailAccount', @recipients = 'YourUniqueEmail@ping.fm’, @subject = 'Blogged:', @body = 'This update came from SQL Server http://ping.fm/XiEkj'I just updated twitter, linkedin, facebook, plurk, rejaw from SQL!
EXEC sp_send_dbmail @profile_name ='MailAccount', @recipients = 'YourUniqueEmail@ping.fm’, @subject = 'Blogged:', @body = 'This update came from SQL Server http://ping.fm/XiEkj'
In closing
One more time, pay attention to security. There are a few commercial products on the horizon. http://ping.fm and most of these service also have API’s that may be a better alternative than database mail. Finally, database mail was meant for administrative alerts and I suggest you stick with that mindset..
The product is TweetSQL. It is not out yet but you can see some details here and follow @rhyscampbell. You probably just uttered a profanity at the thought of it on production server. I did when I first heard of it. I even had a day dream moment where I pictured myself going all street fighter on a jr DBA who installed it prod box. Sure, install it on your test box and tweet when you do something cool like write a custom policy with ExecuteSQL() or write a script to only generate indexes. But production? Hell no.
Later, @AlanBarber made a point.
@statisticsio we're using twitter right now for status and error messages at my company. Surprisingly a nice tool to keep tabs on everything
Hhrmm, I do use twitter to communicate more than the telephone. Maybe not as much email and IM yet but if the bread and butter database fails over, some one better reach out an touch me. More ways the better. Email, SMS, and a phone call from the monitoring already happens. Why not a tweet too? This could be especially important if you do not have SMS capabilities by default. Of course, this is not something you want to go crazy with and pay attention to security. The launch of Yammer whose focus is the enterprise could bring about more usage like this.
I will tell you this… There is not much worse than having your boss call you to tell you there is a major SQL outage. The conversation goes so much better when you call him to let him know there is a problem with the SQL Server and you are on it like a hound dog on a pork chop.
http://SQLBlog.com is now on twitter @SQLBlog. What is so cool about this? They set it up to alert people when new entries are posted but it can also act a psuedo-group for SQL wonks. Chances are that if someone is following @SQLBlog and you are into SQL, you will find this person interesting enough to follow.
If you are still in the dark ages, here are some links to help you get started with Twitter.
Twitter for SQl Server DBA’s
Lame and boring people I follow on Twitter
Cliff Notes: Social Computing for DBA's
More SQL on twitter
A twitter video primer
To bring it back on topic, community and SQL Server is changing. The NNTP newsgroups and MSDN forums have there place but I need more than answering the same question with an easily googled answer over and over.
First, I really hope the damage and loss of life is minimized. It is sounding like Gustav is not as strong as expected but will probably still be very destructive. However, I saw something game changing on CNN yesterday that I want to blog about.
I was watching Rick Sanchez who was the CNN anchor Saturday afternoon and evening. Of course, almost all news was related to hurricane Gustav which was predicted to hit landfall near NOLA as a category 4 three years after Katrina. News-wise, this is about as big as it gets. Just as an example of the gravity of the situation, the republicans had to curtail their convention. This might cost them the election this fall in such a tight race.
What was so groundbreaking was the fact that Rick was taking questions, comments and feedback from twitter and facebook. So? What is the big deal about that? It made the live CNN broadcast real time and interactive. A lot of people followed him and interacted very quickly. Here are the follower stats from http://twittercounter.com
You can use this search to see the real time information and comments that Rick received. He ended his long shift with this comment.
Welcome to the present CNN. Please comeback and take it to the next level. The twitter community usually knows about news as it happens. Take the Chinese earthquake for example. Sometimes the news breaks first on twitter as in Sara Palin's case.
You can read Rick's updates and follow him here. Not to minimize the tragedy but great job reporting, Rick. This is how cable news does not meet the same fate as the newspaper.
I tried to get the message across in char(140) but I think I should expand. It really sucks that we have to resort to circa 1999 lists like this but, alas, twitter does not have any kind of group functionality.
I am going to update this post since there are tons of new SQL people that I have found. However, I follow a lot of different people(1300 and growing) so there is a good chance I may miss you.
Please pipe up in one of the following ways:
If you were included in the original post then nothing is required. Also if your twitter feed is public then it is fair game. If for some reason you are not the social butterfly, let me know to exclude you.
Update: What makes you worthy of this list? A 6.5 hour hands on test over SQL Server 4.21 on OS2. Simply the desire to be included.
These are my stats from FriendFeed, I thought I would share. Here is the wikipedia entry on FriendFeed.
FriendFeed is a social aggregator that consolidates the updates from social websites such as blog entries, social bookmarking websites, and social networks among others. This allows individuals using multiple social websites to have a consolidated stream of details on all their activities across these websites.
To bring it back on topic, follow this(www, rss) and you will have have the latest on all things SQL Server. However, it would be better if you contribute as well!
People you find interesting
Denis
Robert Scoble
Rob Boek
Louis Gray
michael arrington
Luciano Evaristo Guerche
Alvin Ashcraft
Tim Toennies
Joni Moilanen
People who find you interesting
Richie Rump
Morton Fox
Rhonda Tipton
Mike Reynolds
Andrew Badera
Dillon TenBrink
John Ruth
Friends' top sites
For more info see the wikipedia entry on meme's. Denis Gobo called me out. I think it goes back like this: Denis Gobo > Andy Leonard > Frank La Vigne > Pete Brown > Chad Campbell > Dan Rigsby > Michael Eaton > Sarah Dutkiewicz > Jeff Blankenburg > Josh Holmes > Larry Clarkin
How old were you when you first started programming?
I wouldn't call myself a developer but I walk the grey line that all DBA's must. IMO, a good DBA usually has to administer the OS, write code and troubleshoot the network when the finger is pointed at SQL.
How did you get started in programming?
I really not old(school) like some of these that I have read. ;) My first programing was space invader like program that my lab partner and I wrote(mostly copied from the book.). I don't remember the hardware. The year was '82 - '83 and I was in 3rd grade. I slept through most of my other computer ed classes. I didn't get my own computer until '95.
What was your first language?
BASIC what else?
What was the first real program you wrote?
An online ticketing application in classic ASP\SQL. I wrote it from the ground up in my free time. It was going to be the next ticketmaster.com but after I wrote it I got bored with it. I would rather geek out than market and manage. lol
What languages have you used since you started programming?
BASIC, SQL, VB6, VB Script, ASP, VB.net, powershell
What was your first professional programming gig?
I have never had a proper programming job. I started off doing tech support for Windows 95 and IE3\4. I have been in multiple positions at my current company for the last 9 years. All have been SQL related.
If you knew then what you know now, would you have started programming DBA'ing?
Hell yes. There is no way I could not do it.
If there is one thing you learned along the way that you would tell new developers, what would it be?
The only stupid question is the one you haven't google'd before asking.
p.s. Learn the command line.
What’s the most fun you’ve ever had … programming?
Using @assmilk for a variable. P.S. http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/
Who are you calling out?
Brent O
Peter Debetta
Rob Farley
Arcane Code
Chris Shaw
Kevin Hill
Zain Naboulsi
So you have a healthy subscription of blog feeds. You read the "legacy" NNTP groups. You might even have email alerts set up from google\yahoo! news to email you when SQL is mentioned in any article from sources like AP, Reuters and the other big boys. However, there is a good chance that by the time you get the scoop from those sources it is old or important new blogs or articles are sliding through the cracks.
Here are some good sources to find new feeds or 0-hour info on SQL Server:
FriendFeed (WWW, RSS) - The drunk uncle of all social aggregators. See this post for more info.
RSSMeme (WWW, RSS) - RSSMeme aggregates\ranks Google Reader shares. Why let the media, vendors or single person tell you want is important. Let the collective conscience of the intertubes guide you.
Summize (WWW, RSS) - Everything hits twitter first. Everything. From the Chinese earth quake to the 3G iPhone price, all on twitter way before CNN. The same goes for SQL...
Google BlogSearch(WWW, RSS) This used to be too spammy so I quit using it. Looks like they cleaned it up. I will be using again.
MSDN Blog Search (WWW, RSS) - The web search is flaky sometime you have to submit several times so submit again if nothing comes back. You get noise(to me) results from Japanese or Croatian bloggers but you also find new gems like Microsoft Bob or Moving Mars
Honorable mentions: SQL @ Digg, Spamerati Technorati, Technet BlogSearch
You can apply these concepts to all news. CNN\MSNBC\Yahoo! News could suffer the same fate that they did to the newspaper if the do not stay in touch with technology.
If I am missing a good source, please share!
If you look around, you will notice Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed, Delicious and links to other social sites. So yah, it has made the Internet interesting to me again. It seems like developers adopt these technologies faster than DBA's. I guess DBA's are conservative by nature but sometimes change is good. The Microsoft forums(NNTP and HTTP) are nice and sometimes some meaningful conversation occurs but a lot of it is some dude asking the same easily googled question that someone else asked the day before. They do have their place and will be around for a long time but I am here to tell you there is more out there. I am going to give you a quick break down of the sites I use most often along with tips for the MSSQL DBA.
LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is probably the most widely accepted site by DBA's. There are two types of people on LinkedIn. The type that want to be connected to as many people as possible and the type that just wanted to be connected to the people they know in person. Both have pro's and con's. Two spots of interest for MSSQL DBA's are: SQL Server Professionals group and the Database Answers sections.
FaceBook:
Facebook is all the rage right now. Mark Z. is 23, single and worth 15 billion .com dollars. It must be nice. :) Chances are if you know someone, you know someone on Facebook. The downside, to me, is it seems like it is hard to interact and get to know *new* people. You could join the SQL Server 2008 group or the SQL Server 2005 group but traffic is light. The upside is the fact that they have allowed you import RSS feeds from other services so your friends can see your google reader shared items, flickr pics, YouTube fav's, Digg's etc. Add me as a friend.
Twitter:
This is a very popular micro-blogging service where you answer on question in 140 characters or less. You can check out Brent O's post on it as well. I will add that to get the most out of it, you have to subscribe to enough people. "Enough" is a relative term. You can read this post to get started. To keep an eye on SQL in the twitterverse, I use this search and subscribe to the RSS feed. I also use digsby as the client. This merges IM, twitter, and facebook into one client. Plurk get honorable mention as an up and coming twitter alternative.
FriendFeed:
This is a life streaming service from former google developers. It is simple yet extremely useful. Sign up and then import all of your services like flickr, google talk status and shared items, twitter, YouTube, and other RSS\JSON based feeds. See my page as an example. However, the flip side is what makes this service so useful. Once you subscribe to a 100+ people with similar interests, you have focused stream of new info. There is "noise" but you can also filter. I filter out all twitter messages that are not "liked" or commented on. See this post when your signal to noise ratio gets out of whack.
I am not going to talk about DIGG, del.icio.us, LiveJournal, MySpace. If you are not using those sites already, it is probably because you don't want to. Maybe it is just me but I am beginning to phase out those sites. I spent most of my browser time in google reader and FriendFeed these days.
The million dollar question: What is the next big thing? If you can answer that, you'll have VC's throwing money at you.
Let me know if I am sleeping on anything useful.
Have gratitude. Things could always be worse. TGIF.
FlyingElvis: twitter keeps failing? Shoulda used .net and sql server clusters. Dorks.
tjarrett: SQL - The cause of, and solution to, all of my web development problems
king_pest: the nicest thing about SQL is that one can produce really HUGE selects. and they do sometimes work. sometimes.
praxxis: im pretty sure SQL isnt supposed to do that
dbmynx: Studying 4 three sql exams in the hot tub with a glass of wine. Prolly only remember the name of the wine
twheeler: digging into mounds of sql only to cry
kmwinter: why must MS SQL Server suck so hard. No offset equivalent? geesh.
Encosia: Anyone know of a direct upgrade path from SQL Server 6.5 (yes, seriously) to 2005?
mklopez: Full day spent submerged under an ocean of SQL code. Not as refreshing as it sound, actually quite the contrary: i'm close to drowning!
dr_pete: Just nuked 4 hours of work and 2000 records with 1 careless SQL statement. Fantastic.
aim1159: OMG, я больше не могу писать SQL запросы. Третий день, а конца не видать!..(Editor's note: I don't know what that means but it sounds bad :))
vulgrin: just spent 4 hours trying to get SQL Reporting service to work on Vista - Screw you Microsoft - I want 4 hours of my life back you @#$#@$#@
cstarrett: I am no longer a SQL virgin...and I feel so dirty!
Walk a mile in my shoes: http://twitter.com/statisticsio
I subscribe to a twitter search on the SQL keyword. Geeky but that's how I roll. I have run across some interesting and humorous tweets on SQL(not necessarily mssql). Remember, we are laughing with you not at you. :)
SQL - the Klingon of programming languages.
Best way to store a large bit field in SQL?