Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004356 More actions · Answer 1

Jan Van der Eecken (5/17/2009)
Since Lynn calls this place the Water Cooler, I thought I'd give it a bash and ask you guys who are in the US a totally off-topic question.
I'm a committee member of a baseball club down here at the tip of Africa. Yes, we do indeed play this All-American sport down here, got a nice league with about 15 clubs running in Cape Town ;-). As you can imagine it is however a bit difficult to source equipment, so my question is whether any one of you has contacts, be it family or friends or just acquaintances, who deal in baseball gear? Balls are not an issue, we can source them here for about 60 Rand (plus-minus 7 US$). What we do need is catchers' harnesses, mits, helmets, bats etc. So if anyone of you can point me to a trustworthy link it would be very much appreciated, especially by the 60-odd kids from the townships that attend our development academy.
Please, don't go running off searching. If you don't know of anyone, just ignore this post.

Have you tried the "Little League" sites? Seems like that would be one of the best places to start. Any sites they recommend would be on the up'n'up.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jan Van der Eecken SSCrazy Eights Points: 9029 More actions · Answer 2

Jeff Moden (5/17/2009)
Jan Van der Eecken (5/17/2009)
Since Lynn calls this place the Water Cooler, I thought I'd give it a bash and ask you guys who are in the US a totally off-topic question.
I'm a committee member of a baseball club down here at the tip of Africa. Yes, we do indeed play this All-American sport down here, got a nice league with about 15 clubs running in Cape Town ;-). As you can imagine it is however a bit difficult to source equipment, so my question is whether any one of you has contacts, be it family or friends or just acquaintances, who deal in baseball gear? Balls are not an issue, we can source them here for about 60 Rand (plus-minus 7 US$). What we do need is catchers' harnesses, mits, helmets, bats etc. So if anyone of you can point me to a trustworthy link it would be very much appreciated, especially by the 60-odd kids from the townships that attend our development academy.
Please, don't go running off searching. If you don't know of anyone, just ignore this post.
Have you tried the "Little League" sites? Seems like that would be one of the best places to start. Any sites they recommend would be on the up'n'up.

Thanks, Jeff for another valuable tip.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (Alexander Pope)
In order for us to help you as efficiently as possible, please read this before posting (courtesy of Jeff Moden)[/url]

Jan Van der Eecken SSCrazy Eights Points: 9029 More actions · Answer 3

Jan Van der Eecken (5/17/2009)
Steve Jones - Editor (5/17/2009)
Jan,
Good to hear you play baseball down under.
I've used Baseball Warehouse, but that's in the US. Not sure about shipping things to SA. You might also try Play It Again sports. They're local stores in places in the US, with a mix of new and used equipment. However they might take a large order from you and send a mix of new and used stuff at a good price. Often it's equipment someone bought for their kids and then their kids gave up the game.
If you come to PASS, I have a kids aluminum bat I'll bring and donate to you.
Heh Steve, the Ozzies would object calling SA down-under. They somehow have a trademark on this term. But thanks for the tips so far. I'm not gonna make it to PASS simply for a lack of funds. But if you are serious about donating a bat, why don't you hand it to Gail? We would surely figure out a way to get it down to CT. And take a pic of the handing-over for the clubhouse picture gallery!

Gail, I must apologize (second time today). Should have asked you first if you were prepared to carry some extra luggage.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (Alexander Pope)
In order for us to help you as efficiently as possible, please read this before posting (courtesy of Jeff Moden)[/url]

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 4

Steve Jones - Editor (5/17/2009)
Good to hear you play baseball down under.

South Africa is not Down Under. That term refers to the rather large continent somewhere to the east of us where some of our bitter rivals in rugby and cricket live. 😉

It's about the same as suggesting that a British person is actually French.

Edit: Left out a smilie.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736255 More actions · Answer 5

British, French, it's all across the water.

Apologies, Jan. I think I meant to write down there, but slipped up.

Bruce W Cassidy SSChampion Points: 12668 More actions · Answer 6

GilaMonster (5/17/2009)
Steve Jones - Editor (5/17/2009)
Good to hear you play baseball down under.
South Africa is not Down Under. That term refers to the rather large continent somewhere to the east of us where some of our bitter rivals in rugby and cricket live.
It's about the same as suggesting that a British person is actually French.

Steve Jones - Editor (5/17/2009)
British, French, it's all across the water.
Apologies, Jan. I think I meant to write down there, but slipped up.

[font="Verdana"]Ah well, I suppose it's understandable that the Canadians can be a little geographically challenged. :-P[/font]

john.arnott SSChampion Points: 11882 More actions · Answer 7

Paul White (5/17/2009)
Lynn Pettis (5/16/2009)
O Please great and wise gurus, for what reasons may SQL Server not allow me to create a nonclustered index?
Deja vu!!!
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/transactsql/thread/a4df3bda-331f-4cc3-ba62-3ef8e0ff2e17

Good find, Paul. I couldn't stop myself from posting this link to the SSC question thread asking the OP what he/she is up to.

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150467 More actions · Answer 8

john.arnott (5/17/2009)
Paul White (5/17/2009)
Lynn Pettis (5/16/2009)
O Please great and wise gurus, for what reasons may SQL Server not allow me to create a nonclustered index?
Deja vu!!!
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/transactsql/thread/a4df3bda-331f-4cc3-ba62-3ef8e0ff2e17
Good find, Paul. I couldn't stop myself from posting this link to the SSC question thread asking the OP what he/she is up to.

It really was deja vu: I switched tabs from MSDN to SSC and this was last post I read on MSDN and one of the first posts I saw in The Thread!

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi

rodjkidd SSCoach Points: 15916 More actions · Answer 9

Tom Brown (5/15/2009)
GilaMonster (5/15/2009)
Tom Brown (5/15/2009)
http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=52.43613,-1.798496&spn=0.044948,0.066948&t=k&z=14
I was born not far from there.
So you're a Brummie?
How long did you stick around before heading off for the sun
Its still raining by the way.

Hi guys, just catching up with The Thread...

Tom, spooky, I live just up the road from there and work in central Solihull - just over a one mile walk!

http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=52.43613,-1.798496&spn=0.044948,0.066948&t=k&z=14

Hopefully the rain will hold off now...

Lynn, I'm orginally from Norwich, so I've had many a fun day driving along that stretch of the A14! Still do when I visit the folks...

Cheers,

Rodders...

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 10

Tom Brown (5/15/2009)
So you're a Brummie?
How long did you stick around before heading off for the sun

Yup. Family came to SA when I was 4

Its still raining by the way.

Isn't it always?

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 11

Jan Van der Eecken (5/17/2009)
Jan Van der Eecken (5/17/2009)
But if you are serious about donating a bat, why don't you hand it to Gail? We would surely figure out a way to get it down to CT. And take a pic of the handing-over for the clubhouse picture gallery!
Gail, I must apologize (second time today). Should have asked you first if you were prepared to carry some extra luggage.

I'm usually pretty heavily loaded coming back from PASS, assuming that I'm even going this year, which is not a certainly yet.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Alvin Ramard SSC-Forever Points: 41190 More actions · Answer 12

Steve Jones - Editor (5/17/2009)
British, French, it's all across the water.
Apologies, Jan. I think I meant to write down there, but slipped up.

Get your terminology straight Steve. It's all across the pond.

🙂

Alvin Ramard
Memphis PASS Chapter[/url]

All my SSC forum answers come with a money back guarantee. If you didn't like the answer then I'll gladly refund what you paid for it.

For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]

ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 13

David Burrows (5/15/2009)
here
No mountains only a few hills

Blimey, small world...I was born in Wroughton in the old RAF hospital - and shoot every saturday now at Roves Farm, a couple of miles from the Supermarine roundabout. Here's where I grew up.

Gail - I'm so sorry to hear about another bloody burglary.

Cheers

ChrisM

^{“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw}

For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

john.arnott SSChampion Points: 11882 More actions · Answer 14

🙁 Perhaps someone here with more experience than I can help with this one on the 2K/TSQL forum. I asked for more data after the original post and it was posted right away, but I don't know which way to go with it now...... My last post was a summary of the problem:

I'll ask around on this. To summarize: You have a stored procedure that gathers data somehow, then loops with a cursor to insert that data into table run_stats. The procedure tests the error code from the Insert and, if it's either a duplicate key or NULL in a non-nullable column error, inserts the data with a time stamp and the error message to table run_stats_err. When you run this proc in the query analyzer, it works as expected, putting out error messages and inserting data to the appropriate table. When, however, you run this same proc as a job, it handles the first six (of seventy-eight in your test data) duplicate keys and then stops.

I'm hoping that the key word "CURSOR" excites some interest.....

David Burrows SSC Guru Points: 65142 More actions · Answer 15

Blimey, small world...I was born in Wroughton in the old RAF hospital

Both my sons were born there. Alas it is no more 🙁

Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.
Anon.