2009 June | SQLRockstar

How To Get Hired, Part Deux

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 30, 2009 ⋅ 6 comments

In part one I discussed the four distinct development types that exist for everyone on the planet for any possible project related task. Knowledge of those four types can help you land your next job, providing you know about them before heading into the interview. Armed with such knowledge you can drill into the specific [...]

Microsoft Error Messages

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 26, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

This week I am looking for some examples of error messages that you have seen from Microsoft products. SQL error messages would be good, but I am not being picky. The idea is for me to see if I can perform different types of root cause analysis on the error messages so I will also [...]

Windows Hyper-V Book

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

A few weeks back I had the good fortune to attend a seminar at which John Kelbley was presenting. He happened to mention that he had recently finished a book on Hyper-V (OK, he mentioned it a dozen times), and I made a note to include it in my library.
I have been spending the past [...]

How To Get Hired

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 24, 2009 ⋅ One comment

In the past few weeks I have seen a plethora of blog entries on interviewing, questions to ask a candidate, questions to ask the company, how to make yourself more desirable, etc. Essentially the SQL blogsphere is awash with professional development tips, and that includes some of my own entries. So, what would it hurt [...]

SQLstrology

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 23, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

So the other day I noticed that colorstrology is apparently a real thing and not something that I thought I was dreaming about after pulling an all night bender with ten pounds of double thick bacon. But what has yet to be written, until now that is, would be…wait for it…wait for it…
SQLstrology.
Yeah, that’s right, [...]

Updated Rankings

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 19, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I have updated the rankings page, we had a few people move around since the last update. We also have two new faces to welcome into the tempdb, which is now full and will need to have someone dropped because my disk is not large enough. As always, refer to the FAQ page if you [...]

Thinking Differently

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 18, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Many, many years ago there lived a little boy who showed a great aptitude for numbers. He loved numbers very much and was able to learn how to add and multiply even before he was old enough to go to school.
When he was old enough to enter school he found himself presented with a question [...]

The Silent DBA

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 18, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Today I saw a great post by master blogger Buck Woody that talks about putting DBA’s into two categories: those you see and those you don’t. I have often subscribed to the theory that the best DBA’s are the ones you never see. The idea is that if you do need to see them, then [...]

Root Cause Analysis – Asking Why?

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 17, 2009 ⋅ 2 comments

I have two children, ages six and five (Happy Birthday to the boy today, BTW), and they went through a phase where they would ask “why?” for just about everything imaginable. They either grew out of this phase or grew tired of my circular reasoning which resulted in conversations such as:
“Papa, why [whatever]?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why?”
“Because [...]

PASS Webinar Today

By Thomas LaRock ⋅ June 16, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Are you a SQL Developer? Do you know anything about SQL 2008? Do you want to learn? Well then, I have good news for you as today you can attend this free PASS webinar.
SQL Server 2008 for Developers
Speaker: Mladen Prajdic
June 16th 2:00pm ET
Topic Description: What should developers know about database design so they don’t have [...]