It’s Monday and if getting a start on the week is as exciting for you as it is for me, it’s time to take a quick break.  For the break, here’s a summary of the most popular links and content that I shared out in the past week through this blog and twitter.  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

The most popular shared link last week was Denny Cherry’s (Blog | @mrdenny) on the new pricing model for Windows Server 2016.  For those familiar with SQL Server licensing this is all pretty obvious, but for those that aren’t used to it, it’s quite enlightening to take a look at.

Last Week’s Popular Posts

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

1. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (687)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (331)
3. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (330)
4. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (323)
5. Looking to SQL Server 2014 High Availability In Standard Edition (157)
6. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Value (147)
7. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (139)
8. Security Questions: Removing Logins From Databases (134)
9. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (124)
10. 31 Days of SSIS – Generating Row Numbers (23/31) (99)

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. Just how bad is the new Windows 2016 pricing? [46 clicks]
2. SQL 2016 Perform Volume Maintenance Task [24 clicks]
3. 3 Things I Wish I’d Learned Earlier as a SQL Server DBA [23 clicks]
4. Faking Read and Writes in SQL Server’s Index DMVs (Trainer Resource) [22 clicks]
5. Speaker of the Month: December 2015 [18 clicks]
6. Designing Product Catalogs in SQL Server 2016 using JSON [17 clicks]
7. SQL server column store indexes [16 clicks]
8. Hot It Works: SQL Server SuperLatch’ing / Sub-latches [16 clicks]
9. Solving Session Management Database Bottlenecks with In-Memory OLTP [15 clicks]
10. Never drag and drop files between servers again! [15 clicks]
11. Demonstrations of Transaction Isolation Levels in SQL Server [15 clicks]
12. How to Check if an Index Exists on a Table in SQL Server [14 clicks]
13. SQL Server’s YEAR() Function and Index Performance [12 clicks]
14. Perfmon – Your SQL Server’s Vital Stats Video [12 clicks]
15. Query Store and Recompile [12 clicks]
16. SQLServer 2016 in 15 Minutes – R Integration [11 clicks]
17. Performance Surprises and Assumptions : DATEDIFF [11 clicks]
18. Introducing a simplified configuration experience for SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines [10 clicks]
19. Power BI Week [10 clicks]
20. Fundamentals of Storage Systems, Understanding Reliability and Performance of Solid State Storage [9 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. Analyze This – Your Indexes Analysis – Part 1 (2009-04-19)
2. Analyze This – Analyze Your Indexes – Part 2 (2009-04-20)
3. Analyze This – Analyze Your Indexes – Part 3 (2009-04-21)
4. The Power of N (2010-04-22)
5. What is the size of your index? (2009-04-23)
6. Analyze This – Analyze Your Indexes – Part 4 (2009-04-23)
7. 5 SQL Server White Papers Every DBA Should Read (2013-04-25)

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. J.J. Abrams Just Revealed a HUGE Clue About Rey’s Parents | Nerdist [38 clicks]
2. In 2004, Prince played the greatest guitar solo of all time. Here’s how it happened [33 clicks]
3. Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents? [22 clicks]
4. By The Hoary Hosts Of Hoggoth! The First Official Trailer For ‘Doctor Strange’ Is Finally Here [20 clicks]
5. Men Passing Out On The Slingshot Ride – Part 2 [14 clicks]
6. Dad loses it when daughter passes out on an amusement ride [14 clicks]
7. Men Passing Out On The Slingshot Ride. [13 clicks]
8. Men Passing Out On The Slingshot Ride. [10 clicks]
9. Never again Grace [9 clicks]
10. Feds Paid $600K To Learn Why People Cheat On Their Taxes [8 clicks]
11. Harriet Tubman will be face of the $20 [8 clicks]
12. Amazon now lets you separately subscribe to Prime Video for $8.99 per month [8 clicks]
13. SpaceX Falcon 9 Development Supercut [5 clicks]
14. AC/DC Confirm Axl Rose Is New Lead Singer, Joining Band on Tour [5 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?