The Cowboy Way

It's not specifically about databases, but since I'm a huge Cowboys fan, I had to mention this. They're implementing a new ERP system to run the football franchise and they've chosen Dynamics AX from Microsoft.

The Cowboys franchise is a billion dollar business, but it's also a small operation in many ways. It's a family owned business that doesn't employ huge numbers of people. Lots of billion dollar businesses have quite a few more people involved. And with over 30 businesses, not just the football club, this is a complex operation.

I'm a big Cowboys fan and now maybe now I've got a chance to go run the SQL Server systems for them. That's if my wife would ever move to Texas.

Windows v Linux

There was some noise about Windows Server growing faster than Linux. I read through some of the analysis and studies and you can read them as well if you like, but here's the deal. Coverage here and here.

People don't switch platforms.

I've felt for a long time that people using *Nix tend to stick with Unix and people running Windows tend to stay there. I've watched a lot of new companies make the fundamental J2EE v .NET decision and that's the way the company runs forever. The same thing with larger companies. If they primarily run Unix, they tend to stick with it and the same for Windows. Mixed shops will go back and forth, but I think they're the minority of companies. Most IT groups focus on one or the other.

So it's no surprise that Linux adoption is slowing; they're running out of Unix shops to convert over.

Some Quick Hits on News

You've got to be kidding me. Suing because 1GB isn't 1B bytes? Apparently it's not only happened and won, with Seagate losing and offering free backup software to everyone that bought a drive during 2006 and 2007. Apparently because 1GB is not 1,000,000,000 bytes people were deceived. Grow up, people.

Only in America (sign, shrug, and a little disgust inserted here)

Deja Vu

Apparently it's not just the Rockies baseball club that has trouble selling tickets. The Olympic ticketing system in China crashed as well. I'm assuming the web application was overrun, but it could have been the database.

Someone at ESPN or Victoria's Secret, or one of these large scale places should start a consulting business.

It's simple: if you haven't ever built a high performance system, you'll make mistakes. And it will go down if it ever reaches a high level. Get some help.

Yankee in the News

Since it's a bit of a sports week, I thought I'd include this slideshow on Yankees baseball. It's a suggestion for the new Yankee's manager to use technology to help them win a championship.

Only in the US, and probably only with the Yankees would 12 trips in 12 years to the playoffs be considered a failure. With 26 championships in 104 years, however, that means they need to win in one of the next 4 years to keep that streak going.

It's not a great slideshow, but it does have a few items that I think make some sense. Baseball is a long game, 9 innings, 162 games a year, 400-500 at-bats per hitter, 3,000+ pitches for more pitchers, and more. This is a great place for BI to

Lastly, don't forget DST this weekend in the US! You should be patched, but check and be sure.

Steve Jones

The Voice of the DBA

Today's podcast features music by Incompetech, written and performed by Kevin MacLeod.

The podcast feeds are now available at sqlservercentral.podshow.comto get better bandwidth and maybe a little more exposure :). Comments are definitely appreciated and wanted. You can get feeds from there.

Podcast Feed:

• Video - 10MB, Quicktime
• Audio - MB, MP3

If you like the podcasts, have suggestions, ideas, or want to see better equipment, tell the boss!