Yesterday it was Monday, which is when I usually aim to post a weekly blog and twitter round-up.  But since I slept-in and went to Valleyfair yesterday, I got an excellent reason not to get this finished.  So instead of a Monday morning post, we’ve got a Tuesday evening.  But hey, let’s get this going.  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 another of Brent Ozar’s (Blog | @BrentO) posts on interview questions.  This is a great series of posts.  All of them are worth reading, especially the comments.  From the comments, you can usually get a good guess on the types of problems that commentators have had in the past and where they usually expect to solve future problems.  Anyone who has a set way of solving performance issues, should read the comments for other perspectives.

Last Week’s Popular Posts

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

1. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (667)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (320)
3. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (296)
4. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (211)
5. The Side Effect of NOLOCK (144)
6. Security Questions: What permissions are required to create temporary tables? (128)
7. Looking to SQL Server 2014 High Availability In Standard Edition (123)
8. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (122)
9. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (107)
10. 31 Days of SSIS – Generating Row Numbers (23/31) (93)

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. SQL Interview Question: “Tell me what you see in this screenshot.” [32 clicks]
2. Updating Statistics in SQL Server: Maintenance Questions & Answers [26 clicks]
3. Deliver modern reports with SQL Server 2016 Reporting Services [21 clicks]
4. PASS Board 2016: Update #3 [19 clicks]
5. Locking sa [18 clicks]
6. SQL Server 2016 Polybase Setup [17 clicks]
7. Name the schema when you create an object (or else) [15 clicks]
8. Real-Time Operational Analytics: Memory-Optimized Tables and Columnstore Index [15 clicks]
9. Code to analyze the transaction hierarchy in the log [13 clicks]
10. Utility function: dbo.JobName(@job_id) [12 clicks]
11. SQL Server 2016 cloud backup and restore enhancements [10 clicks]
12. Moving your Azure SQL Virtual Machines to a different resource group [10 clicks]
13. Speaker of the Month: April 2016 [10 clicks]
14. How to Measure Your Career (SQLSaturday Israel Keynote) [10 clicks]
15. Announcing updates to the SQL Server Incremental Servicing Model (ISM) [10 clicks]
16. Query Store and Optimize For Ad Hoc [10 clicks]
17. Are you running SQL Server 2005 Express? (Are you sure?) [10 clicks]
18. Columnstore Index: Scan and parallelism [9 clicks]
19. Announcing the Availability of the Linux Data Science Virtual Machine [9 clicks]
20. SQL 2016 – It Just Runs Faster: SOS_RWLock Redesign [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. Security Questions: Differences between “Grant” and “With Grant?” (2013-05-23)
2. Doing Something About Auto Generated Names (2010-05-26)
3. Security Questions: Difference between sysadmin and CONTROL SERVER Permission (2013-05-27)
4. Security Questions: Authentication Performance (2013-05-28)
5. Security Questions: Accessing SQL Server Securables (2013-05-29)
6. Security Questions: TRUNCATE TABLE Permissions (2013-05-30)

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. Your beliefs are wrong. Are you willing to change? [50 clicks]
2. Why Scarlet Witch’s Sexy Comic Costume Was Never An Option, According To Elizabeth Olsen [49 clicks]
3. Valedictorian not allowed to walk at graduation [43 clicks]
4. True Superfan Spends His Tax Return On Photoshoots With The Original ‘Star Wars’ Cast [20 clicks]
5. Fmr. McDonald’s USA CEO: $35K Robots Cheaper Than Hiring at $15 Per Hour [17 clicks]
6. Netflix Will Have Exclusive Rights to All Disney Movies Starting in September | Nerdist [12 clicks]
7. Want to Eat Less? Imagine Eating More [8 clicks]
8. Netflix to adapt a Blade, Ghost Rider, and Moon Knight series? [6 clicks]
9. Mixing Alcohol With Diet Soda May Make You Drunker [5 clicks]

Upcoming PASS Cloud Virtual Chapter Meetings

As co-leader of the PASS Cloud Virtual Chapter, I figured it would make sense to start including a list of the upcoming meetings.  If you are looking to learn more about cloud technologies for data platforms, check out these upcoming webinars:

• Beginning Azure with Tom Norman – June 1, 7 PM CST
• Flying Through the Clouds–Performance Tuning in Azure with Joseph D’Antoni – June 7, 7 PM CST
• Best Practices for SQL Server on an Azure VM with John Milner – Jun 15, 7 PM CDT
• Powering your application reports with Azure Power BI Embedded with Thurupathan Vijayakumar – Jun 28, 7 PM CDT
• Azure SQL Database for the Production DBA with Tim Radney – Jul 13, 7 PM CDT
• Azure Active Directory – Hybrid Architecture Identity Management and Much More with Jared Zagelbaum – July 28, 7 PM CST

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?