September 14, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Jack Corbett (9/14/2011)
Congratulations to Jeff, well-deserved, although don't you call yourself a developer, not a DBA?:-D
That's actually spot-on, Jack. Yeah, I've got one foot in the "System DBA" camp and have helped a lot with reconfiguring the servers at work, but I prefer the T-SQL side of the house.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
September 14, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/14/2011)
Congrats, Jeff! I'll owe you a beer at PASS.
I'm definitely looking forward to THAT! It'll be good to see you again. This is all your "fault"... you had to go and have the best damned SQL site in the world and I couldn't resist getting involved. Thanks for all the you do and all that you've done, Steve.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
September 14, 2011 at 4:48 pm
A little late, been fiddling with a fault power supply, but as I was once told "Better late than never"
CONGRATULATIONS JEFF
September 14, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Gosh... I still can't believe this is actually happening to me nor the number of posts and emails that I'd like to answer individually especially since that might help me keep me stay ahead of Gail on "total number of posts" for an extra hour or two. 😀 I can't do it, though... I've got a major time crunch on (it's been that way all month) and I'm giving two presentations at SQLSaturday this coming weekend. One of the presentations is brand new and I have to put the final wraps on it tonight and tomorrow.
I can't believe the extreme good fortune I've had in "meeting" all of you through SQLServerCentral. I've learned from all of you. There's no place else on this good green Earth where I could have learned so much. Thank all of you for what you have done and continue to do. This is one hell of a tight community and I'm truly honored to be a part of it.
For those going to PASS this year, I'll be checking into the hotel at about noon. I'll be going to the "Networking party" that Andy and Steve have set up for Monday night and I'll definitely be at the SQLServerCentral party on Tuesday night (I missed it last year because I had to make an "emergency" presentation overnight because they came up short).
You folks are the best. Thanks again.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
September 14, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Jeff Moden (9/14/2011)
On that note, the developers at work use some sort of Visual Studio "wizard" to make tables... all character based columns are automatically set to NVARCHAR(4000). When I asked why they allow the defaults to prevail, I was told they don't believe in "premature optimization".
Perhaps they need some special medication called "Varchargra" to deal with that problem?
But congrats Jeff. This is the second time in as many months I've found myself offering congratulations. If you keep up the successes the internet will start to groan under the weight of all the "Congrats Jeff" messages. 😎
Steve.
September 14, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Late the other night I was walking home when I noticed something I'd never seen before: the moon had a rainbow around it. Not a moonbow, but a Moon Corona I believe. This is the first time I'd seen anything like it and it was completely unexpected.
I tried to take a picture but my mobile phone just wasn't up to it, and by the time I got my decent camera it was gone. So sadly I can't share.
Steve.
September 14, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Jeff Moden (9/14/2011)
On that note, the developers at work use some sort of Visual Studio "wizard" to make tables... all character based columns are automatically set to NVARCHAR(4000). When I asked why they allow the defaults to prevail, I was told they don't believe in "premature optimization". Maybe that's why the dust bunnies recently built me a rare 3-band Pork Chop launcher.I'd also like to see someone talk about one of the worst things ever... the belief that "Set Based" somehow means "All in One Query".
Perhaps ypou could point your incredibly stupid and uneducated developers (well, anyone who thinks Nvarchar(4000) is a sensible type once you have some idea what you are doing is incredibly stupid and has not suffered enough education to count beyond 11.9658) at Donald Knuth's 1974 Turing Award lecture, which is perhaps where they got that idea from (he said "Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming"), or at his paper "Structured Programming with Goto Statements" (Computing Surveys Dec 1974) where it appears in the somewhat blunter form "Premature optimization is the root of all evil". If they read (and understand - oh, what an optimist I am) those they will see that the idea was something like "the guys writing Visual Studio haven't a clue what your application is, so they are too early in the design process to optimise so they don't try to do it; when you come to design something and you know (at least roughly) what you are doing (at least we hope you do, being optimists) you can do some (at least rough) optimisation if it seems likely to improve code efficiency, and override the defaults. Then as you refine the code and your understanding of how it will all work to meet the requirement, you know more about what is going on, and you will refine that first guess still further whenever it is useful to do so". Of course Knuth claimed the point was not his in the first place, but came from C.A.(Tony)R. Hoare[*] so maybe they should read some of Tony's stuff instead of Knuth's - and I can assure you (and them) that Tony would be outraged at the idea that anyone suggested something he said might mean you could leave off optimisation for ever! Anyway, if you tell them that you know where the statement about premature optimisation came from and that both its originator (Tony Hoare) and the man who popularised it (Donald Knuth) would have been utterly appalled at their interpretation of it maybe they will stop being silly.
Another very famous computer scientist (unfortunately I forget who) said "optimising too early is an unforgivable mistake, but optimising too late is even worse".
Or maybe just point them at Phil Factor's post at SQL ServerCentral on this very topic.
As for all in one query - it's a terrible idea sometimes, a good idea other times. It depends what you are trying to do. Anyone who thinks it's always right is a nutcase.
[*] Hoare says it wasn't him, it was Edsger Dijkstra, but he didn't say it was Dijkstra until a couple of years after Dijkstra was dead so we don't know whether Dijkstra would have disclaimed it. It was so long ago that Hoare might have forgotten he said it, and I think it was probably Hoare who said it first (it seems to me to fit in well with his comments about his work at Elliot, and also with his "here's a way to describe cooperating processes, and here's how to describe a process that does it wrong" approach in his first famous process calculus paper written while he was at QUB)
Tom
September 15, 2011 at 12:26 am
Jeff Moden (9/14/2011)
ALZDBA (9/14/2011)
jcrawf02 (9/14/2011)
Grant Fritchey (9/14/2011)
mtillman-921105 (9/14/2011)
Grant Fritchey (9/14/2011)
Changing the topic for a moment, I'd like to beg some ideas from the group, again.I'm tasked with writing another article. This one is all about the scary, crazy stuff that the uninformed can do because of how SQL Server is setup and documented. As the one HUGE glaring example, the ability to just run DBCC CHECKDB WITH REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS. Not just the ability, but the active encouragement. Another one that immediately comes to mind is the use of the NO_LOCK hint as the RUN_FASTER hint. What are a few others?
Using the FLOAT data type comes to mind.
BTW, way to go JEFF! :w00t:
You combined Jeff & FLOAT. You're going to get the lecture now about the evils of the DECIMAL data type. I'm sorry, but you've brought this on yourself.
alright, little help, what the hell is wrong with FLOAT?
I think a Floating Jeff exception only occurs when a hacker causes a sqlbeer flood :w00t:
Hmmm... maybe I can teach the dust bunnies something new. Anyone up for a "beer float"? YUM! 😛
Count me in.:smooooth:
Oh, just in case they need you to complete a ppt session at the last second, I'll be volunteering to consume your beer coupons 😉 I think you'll first have to join us for this ceremony :w00t:
Johan
Learn to play, play to learn !
Dont drive faster than your guardian angel can fly ...
but keeping both feet on the ground wont get you anywhere :w00t:
- How to post Performance Problems
- How to post data/code to get the best help[/url]
- How to prevent a sore throat after hours of presenting ppt
press F1 for solution, press shift+F1 for urgent solution 😀
Need a bit of Powershell? How about this
Who am I ? Sometimes this is me but most of the time this is me
September 15, 2011 at 2:50 am
bitbucket-25253 (9/14/2011)
...but as I was once told "Better late than never"CONGRATULATIONS JEFF
Seconded
-------------------------------Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden [/url]Smart way to ask a question
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand (the world). There is no such thing as a dumb question. ― Carl Sagan
I would never join a club that would allow me as a member - Groucho Marx
September 15, 2011 at 2:54 am
Grant Fritchey (9/14/2011)
Changing the topic for a moment, I'd like to beg some ideas from the group, again.I'm tasked with writing another article. This one is all about the scary, crazy stuff that the uninformed can do because of how SQL Server is setup and documented. As the one HUGE glaring example, the ability to just run DBCC CHECKDB WITH REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS. Not just the ability, but the active encouragement. Another one that immediately comes to mind is the use of the NO_LOCK hint as the RUN_FASTER hint. What are a few others?
Sadly I have seen a lot of the suggestions mentioned here in jest used as real solutions.
Still it keeps us in a job sort out the garbage that we inherit
-------------------------------Posting Data Etiquette - Jeff Moden [/url]Smart way to ask a question
There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand (the world). There is no such thing as a dumb question. ― Carl Sagan
I would never join a club that would allow me as a member - Groucho Marx
September 15, 2011 at 5:30 am
Anybody got deep-ish cardinality / index / stats knowledge?
Not my forte!
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1174681-338-1.aspx
September 15, 2011 at 7:01 am
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
Anybody got deep-ish cardinality / index / stats knowledge?Not my forte!
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1174681-338-1.aspx
I put what I could.
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
September 15, 2011 at 7:04 am
GSquared (9/15/2011)
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
Anybody got deep-ish cardinality / index / stats knowledge?Not my forte!
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1174681-338-1.aspx
I put what I could.
Much better than what I could have done without someone proof reading. I get this stuff at a very high level, but teaching it is another thing! 😉
September 15, 2011 at 7:13 am
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
GSquared (9/15/2011)
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
Anybody got deep-ish cardinality / index / stats knowledge?Not my forte!
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1174681-338-1.aspx
I put what I could.
Much better than what I could have done without someone proof reading. I get this stuff at a very high level, but teaching it is another thing! 😉
It's really just a question of making the words "your own". It's been proven, over and over and over again, that explaining a complex subject in a simple manner is difficult in direct proportion to the degree that the person explaining it doesn't fully "own" the terminology.
It's a great way to tell an "authority" from an "expert". "Authority", in this use, is someone who can talk the talk but can't walk the walk, while "expert" or "professional" means someone who can do both.
Edit: Realized the above might be read in an insulting manner. Not intended that way. You're definitely a pro, just not on this particular subject of stats. Right?
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
September 15, 2011 at 7:23 am
GSquared (9/15/2011)
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
GSquared (9/15/2011)
Ninja's_RGR'us (9/15/2011)
Anybody got deep-ish cardinality / index / stats knowledge?Not my forte!
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1174681-338-1.aspx
I put what I could.
Much better than what I could have done without someone proof reading. I get this stuff at a very high level, but teaching it is another thing! 😉
It's really just a question of making the words "your own". It's been proven, over and over and over again, that explaining a complex subject in a simple manner is difficult in direct proportion to the degree that the person explaining it doesn't fully "own" the terminology.
It's a great way to tell an "authority" from an "expert". "Authority", in this use, is someone who can talk the talk but can't walk the walk, while "expert" or "professional" means someone who can do both.
Edit: Realized the above might be read in an insulting manner. Not intended that way. You're definitely a pro, just not on this particular subject of stats. Right?
Good luck trying to insult me (and make me take it personally). That's probably why I come off as a little too abrasive at times. I can't take a heck of a lot, so my "ok" ranger might be high for most :-).
As I said, I get the basics of stats, how they work and why they exists. Enough to tune most queries, understand why & how they need to be maintained on smaller systems (200GB & less). But I'm not able to write an article on the subject without more research & proof-read.
Ironically enough, my real expertise is jake of all trades and get this done effing now ;-).
I've always worked in shops where I'm the only IT guy (as in programmer / dev / dba / Mouse fixer). So I know enough about a tone of subjects. That's why I can answer so fast to questions... been there & done that most of the time with no time to waste.
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