Number 42 of this weekly previous week round-up.  If you follow me on twitter (@StrateSQL), you’ll know that throughout the day I tweet out some links of things I find interesting.  While these links aren’t the answer to life, the universe, and everything, they do share a few things about SQL Server and other topics that others might 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.

Most Popular Link

The most popular link last week was from the Zen Habits blog.  This is one of my favorite blogs and often has a lot of good tips for living; which pertain to both career and personal life.

Reading: "15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit" http://t.co/QDVowg7lTf

— Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) July 15, 2013

Last week’s top 20 “Reading” Links

This weeks topics included an item on screwing up at work and a few links related to Windows Azure.  Fortunately, the screw up link wasn’t related to anything that I did, but the Azure one’s touch on a fun new project I’ve been working on to deploy a Business Intelligence environment into Windows Azure.  Without further ado, here are the top twenty links related to SQL Server, technology and careers.

1. Myth Busting Query Optimisation [21 clicks]
2. Beware of SQL Server and PerfMon differences in disk latency calculation [21 clicks]
3. Iterators, Query Plans, and Why They Run Backwards [18 clicks]
4. Microsoft to shut down TechNet subscription service [17 clicks]
5. 6 Ways to Bounce Back After a Screw Up at Work [17 clicks]
6. Read Ahead Read and Scan Count [12 clicks]
7. Unpack an Integer with SQL Server Recursion [12 clicks]
8. Managing SQL Server Extended Events in Management Studio [10 clicks]
9. Did you know that AWS S3 could do that? [10 clicks]
10. Wildcards and Indexes [10 clicks]
11. Calculating the length of a string (Len vs DataLength) [10 clicks]
12. How SQL Server Supports NUMA [10 clicks]
13. Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit 8.5 Now Available [9 clicks]
14. Using PowerShell to discover Reporting Services 2012 in SharePoint [8 clicks]
15. Will Instant File Initialization Really Help My Databases? [8 clicks]
16. Set Windows Failover Cluster Timeout Thresholds [7 clicks]
17. Starting with Azure [7 clicks]
18. On Bobcats per 100 Orders and Other Spurious Metrics [7 clicks]
19. I Could Sure Use Some Windows Azure Code Samples… [6 clicks]
20. 10 things you should know about deploying Windows Azure VMs in a hybrid IT environment [6 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.  Especially since the highest viewed item is included in this list.

1. 15 Great Excuses Not to Form the Fitness Habit [99 clicks]
2. Which Are You… a Linker, Liker or Tweeter? [16 clicks]
3. Comet ISON: A Timeline of This Year’s Sungrazing Spectacle [8 clicks]
4. Delicious ice cream cones [7 clicks]
5. Perils of Social Networking [4 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?  Then follow the links on my tumblr blog or subscribe to it’s RSS feed.