It’s Monday time for this week’s weekly link round-up.  If you want to catch these links “live” (so exciting), follow me on twitter (@StrateSQL).  And see these throughout the day as I tweet out links of things I find interesting.  While these links aren’t the answer to life, the universe, and everything, they often share a few things about SQL Server and related technology topics that others may find useful. The links included in this summary are those prefixed with ”Reading” and are items I’ve read over the past few days, usually after hours when sharing would be less than useful, and spaced out to avoid spamming.  The content of the links usually pertain to SQL Server, technology, and career topics; which I think others would find useful.

The Most Popular “Reading” Link

This weeks most popular item from last week is Ben Nevarez’s (Blog | @BenjaminNevarez) old post on the The Phases of Query Optimization.  Its a good article and one that people new to SQL Server should read, to help understand how the SQL Server query optimizer processes queries.

Reading: "The Phases of Query Optimization" http://t.co/OjxBScF4Wl #sqlserver

— Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) March 18, 2014

Last week’s top 20 “Reading” Links

Along with the top link, here are the top twenty items relating to SQL Server, technology and careers that were shared last week.  If you missed them throughout the week, here’s the opportunity to get caught up on some items that other’s read after I linked them out.

1. The Phases of Query Optimization [19 clicks]
2. Why Hekaton In-Memory OLTP Truly is Revolutionary [18 clicks]
3. String length and SARGability [17 clicks]
4. Business Analytics vs Business Intelligence? [17 clicks]
5. SQL Server T-SQL Tuning – NOT IN and NOT Exists [17 clicks]
6. Can you have too much experience on your resume? [16 clicks]
7. Review: SQL Server 2014 pushes the pedal to the metal [15 clicks]
8. Wrong job or wrong career? Here’s how to tell. [15 clicks]
9. How big data will haunt you forever: your high school transcript [15 clicks]
10. Building a HA/DR Solution by Using Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups [14 clicks]
11. How I Work: A Cloud Developer’s Workstation [14 clicks]
12. Spooling in SQL execution plans [13 clicks]
13. Good News About SQL Server Standard Edition’s Limits [12 clicks]
14. SQL Server 2014 releases April 1 – SQL Server Team [11 clicks]
15. Capturing Attention: Writing Great Session Descriptions [9 clicks]
16. Strengthen Your Strategic Thinking Muscles [6 clicks]
17. Cloud – the forecast is improving [5 clicks]
18. SQL Server 2014 Hybrid: Storing data files in Azure storage – Bizarre or not? [5 clicks]
19. Using Resources the Right Way [4 clicks]
20. Waiting, waiting… [3 clicks]

Other Stuff Shared

Of course, no week would be complete without a few off-topic links.  These have nothing to do with technology or your career, but they are interesting and worth a second look.

1. 11 People Who Lost Their Sh*t After Being Cheated On [62 clicks]
2. Sack cartoon: I spy Congress [27 clicks]
3. 10 facts about infidelity, as divulged by Helen Fisher [18 clicks]
4. What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong [15 clicks]
5. Thanks, Anti-Vaxxers. You Just Brought Back Measles in NYC. [14 clicks]
6. The Communication Deficit in the Airline Industry [13 clicks]
7. ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’ tells tale 30 years after ‘Jedi’ [12 clicks]
8. JRR Tolkien translation of Beowulf to be published after 90-year wait [10 clicks]
9. The Six Things That Make Stories Go Viral Will Amaze, and Maybe Infuriate, You [9 clicks]
10. Lego Doctor Who: the ultimate geek gift? [6 clicks]
11. Inside The Pixar Braintrust [3 clicks]

Got something you think I should read and share, leave a comment below.  Also, if you want to see all of the links that were tweeted out last week?