It’s Monday time for this week’s weekly blog and twitter round-up for last week. If you haven’t already, follow me on twitter (@StrateSQL). This is a good chance to catch up on data platform technology and career related information I’ve shared in the last week and activity on this blog.

Most Popular Article Shared

Last weeks most popular link is an article from Business Insider on how ‘like’ and ‘um’ can kill your credibility and what you can do to remove them.  This is a great article for anyone that has to ever talk to other people… so mostly, everyone can get some value from it.  Check it out.

Last Week’s Popular Posts

The most popular posts on this blog in the week are:

1. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (709)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (407)
3. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (312)
4. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (306)
5. Looking to SQL Server 2014 High Availability In Standard Edition (170)
6. Security Questions: What permissions are required to create temporary tables? (141)
7. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Value (134)
8. Security Questions: Removing Logins From Databases (133)
9. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (128)
10. The Side Effect of NOLOCK (127)

Last Week’s Top 20 “Reading” Links

Along with the most popular 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. Here’s the trick to removing ‘like’ and ‘um’ from your vocabulary [39 clicks]
2. Why Sarcastic People Are More Successful [26 clicks]
3. 8 Drawbacks to Working in a Cubicle [Infographic] [24 clicks]
4. My Six Month Plan, Post Brent Ozar Unlimited [24 clicks]
5. Troubleshoot AlwaysOn Availability Groups Configuration (SQL Server) [24 clicks]
6. Always Encrypted Performance : A Follow-Up [24 clicks]
7. Performance Analysis Methodology [23 clicks]
8. Statistics Starters Presentation: Scripts, the Database, and Some Answers [23 clicks]
9. Actual “Number of Rows Read” in SQL Server Execution Plans [22 clicks]
10. The Essential Guide to Crafting a Work Email [15 clicks]
11. ACL added security for Availability Group Listener in Azure [13 clicks]
12. SSAS Scale-Out Architectures [13 clicks]
13. 21 Time-Management Lessons Everyone in Their 20s Should Know [12 clicks]
14. Why Attitude Is More Important Than Intelligence [12 clicks]
15. Accountability: If It Is To Be, It’s Up To Me [12 clicks]
16. Sometimes, what SQL Server really needs is more work to do (surprise ending) [11 clicks]
17. SQL Server 2016 – Introduction to Stretch Database [11 clicks]
18. 20 of the most misguided beliefs about InfoSec [10 clicks]
19. Programmers, Let’s Earn the Right to Be Called Engineers [10 clicks]
20. What You Are Missing by Sticking with SQL Server 2005: Data Architects Version [8 clicks]

Last Week’s Posts From Previous Years

Sometimes the most useful content on a blog wasn’t written in the past week, it’s often other articles shared in the past that resonate with readers. Check out the following links that I published in past years over the past week:

1. Can You Dig It? – The Plan Cache (2010-12-08)
2. The #Meme15 On Social Networking (2011-12-08)
3. Can You Dig It? – Parallelism in the Plan Cache (2010-12-09)
4. SQL Server 2008 R2 System View Map (2010-12-10)
5. Blog Under Some Repairs (2010-12-10)
6. One Piece of Advice For the Aspiring DBA #DBAJumpStart (2013-12-10)
7. T-SQL Tuesday #025 – Share Your Tricks #TSQL2sDay (2011-12-13)
8. Can You Dig It? – Missing Indexes (2010-12-14)

Other Items 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. The Loading Screen Game Patent Finally Expires [20 clicks]
2. Watch Will Ferrell and Billy Eichner yell at New Yorkers about Christmas [14 clicks]
3. …AND STAY DOWN [14 clicks]
4. Retail in Real-Time [14 clicks]
5. I never forget a face [13 clicks]
6. Take A Bold [12 clicks]
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny – Trailer – Netflix [11 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?