Yesterday was a holiday here in the United States, so I’m starting the week on Tuesday.  For those in the same boat as me, this will be a short week, which means less time to get stuff done.  In short weeks, it’s important to use your time as productively as possible.  Set your goals and then start working on them.

To be successful in achieving your goals, find tasks you can work on that will allow you to get something, or multiple things, done per day.  Set a stake in the ground to define your daily accomplishments and move towards your goals.  As you accomplish these smaller tasks, you’ll see the larger goals chipping away until they are eventually completed.

Success is the sum of small efforts - repeated day in and day out. ~Robert Collier
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Thanks for reading and check out the rest of this weeks’s blog summary.  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 Sanjay Mishra that was posted on the SQL Server Customer Advisory Team blog.  Long story short, SQL Server 2016 is out and it’s pretty amazing.  You should be checking 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 (613)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (311)
3. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (281)
4. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (182)
5. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Value (131)
6. Security Questions: What permissions are required to create temporary tables? (121)
7. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (118)
8. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (111)
9. Security Questions: Removing Logins From Databases (109)
10. Looking to SQL Server 2014 High Availability In Standard Edition (109)

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. Should you upgrade to SQL Server 2016? Yes. Today. Now! [20 clicks]
2. Announcing the Availability of Azure ML Hands-on Lab Content [17 clicks]
3. Microsoft’s Commitment to Azure [15 clicks]
4. How to upgrade to MCSA Windows Server or SQL Server 2016 for FREE [14 clicks]
5. Updated sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks script to add query DOP [14 clicks]
6. How to Run DBCC CHECKDB for In-Memory OLTP (Hekaton) Tables [12 clicks]
7. How It Works: How SQL Server Determines Logical and Physical Processors [12 clicks]
8. Cross Database Query in Azure SQL Database [12 clicks]
9. Using Visual Studio to develop R for SQL Server 2016 [11 clicks]
10. I’m a Data Platform MVP for the third year in a row [11 clicks]
11. Never Ask Two People to do One Person’s Job — Both Sides of the Table [10 clicks]
12. From Analytical Applications to Intelligent Solutions [10 clicks]
13. SQL Server Query Store: Data Storage Options (and a Request!) [10 clicks]
14. Improving temp table and table variable performance using memory optimization [10 clicks]
15. Did You Know?? R Services is in Standard Edition of SQL Server 2016 [9 clicks]
16. What has 2 Thumbs and Deleted a LUN with the Log File of a Production DB on it? [9 clicks]
17. Connecting to Azure SQL Database [9 clicks]
18. Tuesdays with Corey: SQL Bring Your Own License – OH MY! [9 clicks]
19. 7 Ways Successful Managers Interrupt [9 clicks]
20. SQL Server 2016 Temporal Table Query Plan Behaviour [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. Semaphore Timeout Did What? (2010-06-28)
2. When Did That File Get So Big? (2009-06-30)
3. Last Time SQL Server Restarted (2008-07-01)
4. Lost in Translation – Deprecated System Tables – Introduction (2012-07-01)
5. Lost in Translation – Deprecated System Tables – sysaltfiles (2012-07-01)
6. AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC SQL Server Database Configuration (2008-07-02)
7. Lost in Translation – Deprecated System Tables – syscacheobjects (2012-07-02)
8. Lost in Translation – Deprecated System Tables – syscolumns (2012-07-03)
9. Install Windows Server 2012 on VMWare Workstation 8 (2013-07-03)
10. Lost in Translation – Deprecated System Tables – syscomments (2012-07-04)

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. 11 Phrases Intelligent People Say Every Day (and So Should You) [33 clicks]
2. When We Tolerate Others’ Beliefs, None of Us Gets Anywhere [26 clicks]
3. Gender equality in the movies, a screenplay analysis [25 clicks]
4. 40 People Got Burned ‘Firewalking’ in Texas For the Dumbest Reason [24 clicks]
5. Watch these baseball-sized chunks of hail destroy cars in a Chinese parking lot [21 clicks]
6. Helium discovery a ‘game-changer’ [19 clicks]
7. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Proposed [17 clicks]
8. Even scientists take selfies with wild animals. Here’s why they shouldn’t [16 clicks]
9. Who Still Smokes? [14 clicks]
10. Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer [13 clicks]
11. Have Researchers Found What Causes Autism, Even How to Prevent It? [11 clicks]
12. What’s lost when we photograph life instead of experiencing it? [10 clicks]
13. How Little Can You Own and Still Be Really Happy? [9 clicks]
14. Find the Perfect Beer Pairing for Your Pizza With This Visual Guide [9 clicks]
15. ‘Horrific’ First Amphibious Centipede Discovered [8 clicks]
16. Behold the ‘bazooka Vespa’ [7 clicks]
17. The FDA Robs Us Of Small Joys With Cookie Dough Warning [6 clicks]

Upcoming PASS Cloud Virtual Chapter Meetings

As co-leader of the PASS Cloud Virtual Chapter, and an advocate of cloud technologies, check out these upcoming presentations:

• Successfully Migrating Existing Databases to Azure SQL Database with John Sterrett – Jul 7, 7 PM CDT
• Azure SQL Database for the Production DBA with Tim Radney – Jul 13, 7 PM CDT
• Introduction to Azure Data Catalog with Dave DuVarney – Jul 21, 7 PM CDT
• Azure Active Directory – Hybrid Architecture Identity Management and Much More with Jared Zagelbaum – July 28, 7 PM CST
• Consuming SaaS Solutions with Azure Data Factory with Dave DuVarney – Sep 14, 7 PM CDT

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?