I was thrilled to host TSQL Tuesday this month (#127) and I my prompt was non-SQL tips and tricks. Now I have to admit when I said that I was thinking specifically technical stuff, but I didn’t specify and I’ll be honest I’m really glad I didn’t.
This blog has always been strictly technical. That’s a choice, and it’s my choice to make. I’d debated saying anything about current events in this post and decided in the end that I just want to state that I am firmly behind Black Lives Matter, the LGBTQ+ community, and any other groups who are breaking down the barriers to equality. To that end I’m going to put front and center Andy Mallon’s (blog|twitter) post
Racism is our problem to solve
The title really says it all. There are lots of links and information about what’s going on and what we can be doing. While I’m at it here is a link to his post from the day before Pride is a riot.
I recently heard a piece of a poem by Langston Hughes called Let America be America again.
O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
So here’s to those are working hard to make America the country it promised it could be.
Before I continue I want to point out two important things. First, there are a lot of links in this post. The chances of me getting them all right, particularly given the amount of copying and pasting I did, is astonishingly small. That said let me know and I’ll fix whatever needs fixing.
And along those same lines, I’m not the most organized person in the world. If I missed your post tell me. You will have my abject apologies and I will get you added as fast as I possibly can.
Cloud
— Arun Sirpal (blog|twitter) Gives us a great tip on how to do a SELECT TOP 10 (a quick view of the data) when working with Azure Databricks in his post Tips and Tricks Azure Databricks.
— I’m going to admit, when I started reading T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Create your own Azure DevOps organization by Kevin Chant (blog|twitter) I was a bit intimidated. I haven’t started with Azure DevOps yet, but I need to. And after reading Kevin’s post I now know where to go to get started.
Coding
— The title of David Fowler’s (blog|twitter) post (T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips and Tricks, Referencing Multiple PowerShell Array Elements) tells us exactly what it’s about. And don’t feel bad David, I’m new to PowerShell too and I only learned about this one recently as well.
— Shane O’Neill (blog|twitter) says he started his post late but he still managed to share some really useful tips on working with Powershell. Not the code particularly but the tool. As a Powershell newbie this is some helpful stuff. Read about it here: T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips and Tricks
Presenting
— Some guy named Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) did a post on How to Make Online Presentations Fun and Interactive with OBS Scenes. It looks like he has some experience on the subject and might even know how to write a pretty engaging blog post too. Couldn’t hurt to give it a read.
— I’ve seen of Todd Kleinhans’ (blog|twitter) sessions before, and I have to tell you the VR is a really interesting way to present. In his post The Empathy Engine and My First Presentation in AltspaceVR Todd talks about a new tool he’s using and some of the problems he ran into. Even if you have no interest in VR you should give this a read because it will help you understand that even an experienced presenter can run into problems.
Social/Other
— In his post A tip about shortcuts Rob Farley (blog|twitter) talks about fluency, the idea that learning a language or anything else is just the beginning. Over time you gain a fluency and start learning all the little shortcuts that only come with deep knowledge and experience. Which come to think of it was what I was hoping for this month. People sharing a few of those shortcuts they’ve learned.
— After reading Kevin Feasel’s (blog|twitter) post (The Non-Technical Life Tip for Getting More Things Done) I decided he is productive and busy. Read his post to see how he manages his time. I’ve been through some of the same things he has although I’m not nearly as ambitious as he is.
— Hugo Kornelis (blog|twitter) is another busy person. His solution for staying organized is completely different than Kevin’s though. Read through his post (T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL tips and tricks) to see exactly what he’s doing. I decided against any kind of spoiler here because you really need to read this. Well .. one hint. When you are done reading this there is a post you need to read by one of the Kevins.
— In his post Linkedin performance: TSQL Tuesday – Improve your Linkedin Performance Gethyn Ellis (blog|twitter) talks about something he’s done to dramatically improve his reach on LinkedIn and how you can join in too.
Windows
— Have you ever have one of those OMG moments when reading a blog post? Nicky van Vroenhoven’s (blog|twitter) post
TSQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips and tricks did that to me. He has lots of great shortcuts (and I love shortcuts) but my favorite was when he mentioned the windows Task View. Which I immediately put into use. Take a look and see why.
— In his post The under-appreciated Start ? Run Richard Swinbank (blog|twitter) points out that sometimes the fastest way to open a program is just to hit Start -> Run and type out the name of the program. And yea, I do this too.
— Steve Jones (blog|twitter) talks about a common windows performance problem (lack of disk space) in his post T-SQL Tuesday #127–Non SQL Tricks. His idea is to create yourself a small set of files that can easily be removed later to give yourself back some space. Not a bad idea.
— Andy Levy’s (blog|twitter) post
T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non-SQL Tips & Tricks has a couple of different windows shortcuts for us. A built in Windows 10 Clipboard manager (
) and the emoji keyboard.
— Cláudio Silva’s (blog|twitter) post TSQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips and Tricks – Windows has a ton of windows shortcuts. Some you’ll see in other posts, some you won’t.
— This next post by John Spanos (blog|twitter) is more Windows tips but from the point of view of best practices for online meetings. Given the prevalence of online meetings these days these are a good idea, and in fact I implemented a few while reading his post, T-SQL TUESDAY #127: WINDOWS MEETING TIPS.
— In his post (T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips & Tricks) Jess Pomfret (blog|twitter) talks about some shortcuts she uses to manage all of her open Chrome tabs. The nice thing here is that these shortcuts work in other places too.
Random Technical
— As technologists we all love automation. Eitan Blumin’s (blog|twitter) post T-SQL Tuesday 127 – Tips and Tricks to Automate Your Life talks about using Microsoft Flow to automate all kinds of things in our lives. He even goes on to mention a bunch of other options if Flow isn’t the tool for you. (I can think of a few places in my life where this could come in handy.)
— Database diagrams and graphs in general have never been one of my favorite things to work with. Mikey Bronowski’s (blog|twitter) post T-SQL Tuesday #127: Non SQL Tips and tricks has some great, simple, and very useful examples of using Graphviz and DOT. Certainly enough to get started. I’m a lot more comfortable with coding than GUIs so next time someone asks for a diagram I think I may start here.
— Marcin Gminski (blog|twitter) gives us a three-fer in his post TSQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips and tricks. First using the ALT key for multi line typing (possibly the favorite trick I’ve ever learned). Then several ways to lock your computer, including a blue-tooth deadman switch?!? And last but certainly not least a simple way to tell which side of the car your gas cap is. And yes, you know when you’ve been in a rental car you’ve parked the wrong way at a gas station more than once. Don’t tell me you haven’t.
— One (at least) of the earlier posts mentioned a clipboard manager built into Windows. Ben Miller (blog|twitter) talks about a clipboard manager called Clipmate in his post. It’s not built in, but it appears to be far more advanced.
— Glenn Berry (blog|twitter) talks about some tools that are really useful for giving you insight into how your CPU/GPU are doing. Well, Ken, I’m a DBA and not really interested in hardware I can probably skip this one. Nope, you need to know this type of stuff. Aside from the fact that it’s interesting, you will almost certainly be called on to speak with the person/team responsible for the hardware your SQL instance is running on. The more you know the better you will be able to communicate your needs and/or problems. Read his post here: T-SQL Tuesday #127 – Non SQL Tips
— Aaron Bertrand (blog|twitter) did an almost SQL Server post but he did talk about something near and dear to my heart. T-SQL Tuesday #127 : Measure twice, cut once. I learned this one early on helping my wife build things. She loves power tools and wood working and I can’t tell you how many times I would measure, cut, and waste a board. To the point now where I measure, measure again, my wife double checks on me, and then she does the cut. Note: Measuring, and using power tools in general are not some of my stronger skills here.