It’s Monday and time for this week’s 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 by Ben Nevarez (Blog | @BenjaminNevarez) on how he understands the inner workings of the SQL Server query optimizer.  It’s a good place to start if you are interested in gaining a better understanding of the optimizer.  Check out the blog post if you haven’t already.

Last Week’s Popular Posts

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

1. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (555)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (216)
3. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (198)
4. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (195)
5. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (88)
6. The Side Effect of NOLOCK (77)
7. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Value (74)
8. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (67)
9. 5 SQL Server White Papers Every DBA Should Read (53)
10. Restoring Azure SQL Database to a Local Server (52)

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. Query Optimization Research Papers [42 clicks]
2. This Animated Data Visualization of World War 2 Fatalities Is Shocking. [40 clicks]
3. Inside the Query Optimizer Memo Structure [40 clicks]
4. Proactive SQL Server Health Checks, Part 3 : Instance and Database Settings [29 clicks]
5. HammerDB and The New SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator [22 clicks]
6. The SQL Server Query Store [21 clicks]
7. Stored Procedure Execution with Parameters, Variables, and Literals [20 clicks]
8. Hekaton: Transforming Query Plans into C Code [19 clicks]
9. Batch Sort and Nested Loops [19 clicks]
10. T-SQL Tuesday #49: My Go-To Query For Waiting Tasks [19 clicks]
11. Recommendations and guidelines for the “max degree of parallelism” configuration option in SQL Server [17 clicks]
12. SQL Server – Configuring custom Load Balancing in SQL Server 2012 and 2014 using Read-Only Routing [17 clicks]
13. Loading data to SQL Azure the fast way [17 clicks]
14. Botched database leaks records for 191 million voters [14 clicks]
15. 9 Step Blog Checklist to Make Sure Your Posts Get Maximum Exposure [13 clicks]
16. Cloud SaaS: Machine Learning with Azure ML [11 clicks]
17. TPC-H: Schema and Indexes [11 clicks]
18. The SNAPSHOT Isolation Level [11 clicks]
19. Using Extended Events with SQL Server Analysis Services 2016 CPT 2.3 [10 clicks]
20. Processing XML Showplans Using SQLCLR in SQL Server 2005 [10 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. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (2011-01-01)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (2011-01-01)
3. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (2011-01-02)
4. 31 Days of SSIS – Data Flow Breakpoints?! (3/31) (2011-01-03)
5. Data Reset Trick (2006-01-04)
6. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Binary Values (2011-01-04)
7. 31 Days of SSIS – Folder Structures (4/31) (2011-01-04)

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. Ctrl+Alt+Del – The Force Awakens [63 clicks]
2. Belgian soldiers and police ‘held orgy’ during Brussels lockdown [43 clicks]
3. Is It Bigger Than A Borg Cube? Check Out This Comparison Of The Most Famous Ships In Science Fiction [42 clicks]
4. Will Ferrell And Mark Wahlberg Trade Playground Insults While Trying To Keep A Straight Face [24 clicks]
5. Your body wasn’t built to last: a lesson from human mortality rates [23 clicks]
6. Merry ex-mas to you, too! Man puts all his former girlfriends in a single WhatsApp group chat to send festive greetings (what could possibly go wrong?) [23 clicks]
7. Man dies after blowing up condom machine, says German police [16 clicks]
8. ‘Star Wars’ Fan Spends A Year Making Own Millennium Falcon From 7,500 LEGOs [15 clicks]
9. Star Wars Video Games Generate Over $1 Billion in Sales [14 clicks]
10. EA ‘Surprised’ By GameStop Claim That Star Wars Battlefront ‘Underperformed’ [13 clicks]
11. Chick-Fil-A Customer Starts All-Out Brawl Over Waffle Fries [13 clicks]
12. Congress Wants NASA To Create A Deep Space Habitat By 2018 [12 clicks]
13. A Basement Dedicated to Extreme LEGO Building [11 clicks]
14. Officials: ‘Affluenza’ teen remains in Mexico, mom deported [10 clicks]
15. Disneyland is closing attractions to make room for ‘Star Wars’ land [10 clicks]
16. Straczynski bringing sci-fi classic Babylon 5 back to life with movie reboot in 2016 [10 clicks]
17. Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister dies at 70 [9 clicks]
18. Fiber Optic Glowing Hoodies for Men Burning Man Rave Party Glow in the Dark Clothing [6 clicks]
19. The R2-D2 Humidifier [4 clicks]
20. Anon Explains: How to Bank at Gamestop [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?