Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Grant Fritchey (12/27/2014)


    Lynn Pettis (12/23/2014)


    Okay, I have a question about PASS 2015. I can save a lot of money by registering for PASS 2015 now. My question is when do I make my hotel/flight reservations?

    Depends on the hotel you want to stay at. If you're looking to stay at the Sheraton, with all the cool kids (I don't stay there), make your reservation now.

    I think if I suggest the Sheraton again, I'll be told to pay for it myself. Company didn't much appreciate hotel bill > flight costs. 🙁

    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
  • GilaMonster (12/27/2014)


    Grant Fritchey (12/27/2014)


    Lynn Pettis (12/23/2014)


    Okay, I have a question about PASS 2015. I can save a lot of money by registering for PASS 2015 now. My question is when do I make my hotel/flight reservations?

    Depends on the hotel you want to stay at. If you're looking to stay at the Sheraton, with all the cool kids (I don't stay there), make your reservation now.

    I think if I suggest the Sheraton again, I'll be told to pay for it myself. Company didn't much appreciate hotel bill > flight costs. 🙁

    With this being my first trip to PASS, I have no idea where to stay.

  • Lynn Pettis (12/27/2014)


    GilaMonster (12/27/2014)


    Grant Fritchey (12/27/2014)


    Lynn Pettis (12/23/2014)


    Okay, I have a question about PASS 2015. I can save a lot of money by registering for PASS 2015 now. My question is when do I make my hotel/flight reservations?

    Depends on the hotel you want to stay at. If you're looking to stay at the Sheraton, with all the cool kids (I don't stay there), make your reservation now.

    I think if I suggest the Sheraton again, I'll be told to pay for it myself. Company didn't much appreciate hotel bill > flight costs. 🙁

    With this being my first trip to PASS, I have no idea where to stay.

    I'll see if I can find the place I stayed. The rooms are very nice (I've seen the rooms at the Sheraton and they're just as nice IMHO), the bed was wicked comfortable, and it's just as close (maybe even a little closer to the entrance) as the Sheraton. It's not the "top shelf" lobby like what the Sheraton has but, then again, you don't sleep in the lobby. And the concierge at the place ("John" if IIRC correctly) is an older and very helpful/informative gentleman's gentleman with some pretty good inside tips on the area. I've not been there since 2011 but the prices were a lot better than the Sheraton, as well. Might be because they don't have things like an indoor pool or a weight training room, etc, but it's a nice place to stay. They do have free WIFI, as well.

    --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)

  • Lynn Pettis (12/27/2014)


    GilaMonster (12/27/2014)


    Grant Fritchey (12/27/2014)


    Lynn Pettis (12/23/2014)


    Okay, I have a question about PASS 2015. I can save a lot of money by registering for PASS 2015 now. My question is when do I make my hotel/flight reservations?

    Depends on the hotel you want to stay at. If you're looking to stay at the Sheraton, with all the cool kids (I don't stay there), make your reservation now.

    I think if I suggest the Sheraton again, I'll be told to pay for it myself. Company didn't much appreciate hotel bill > flight costs. 🙁

    With this being my first trip to PASS, I have no idea where to stay.

    I don't recommend the Sheraton. Too many phantom charges for too many people. They are rather pricey. Plenty of lower cost options within 3-4 blocks away.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • ... Mark one off, 62 days on the calendar to go. 62 days on the calendar to go, 62 days to go, ...

  • Stefan Krzywicki (12/22/2014)


    Steve Thompson-454462 (12/22/2014)


    Stefan Krzywicki (12/22/2014)


    When did we all start calling rewriting/reworking code "refactoring"?

    I'm using that term here to describe changes to a code base that affect/improve the implementation but do not change the result/output. Per Martin Fowler (http://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html) it usually consists of a series of small changes so maybe applying it to large overhaul of a system is bit of a misnomer.

    I'm just hearing it all the time now about any code rewrite or mod & I don't remember hearing it before this year.

    The term "refactoring" has been around since the early 90s; I guess calling it "refactoring" became popular gradually over the next few years, and was quite widely used from the late 90s onwards.

    If I remember correctly it was adopted, in the same way as much other new new jargon was, by people who wanted to have a new name for stuff we had been doing since the 1960s, as if it were something new and different. Actually I believe people had been doing "refactoring" since the 1950s or maybe even the 1940s, but I have no first hand experience of computing that far back so I can't be 100% certain; I do know that I "refactored" stuff to make it easier for other people to understand, to get a clean base onto which I could subsequently add functionality, and to reduce complexity back in the 60s, and I did it because people I respected advocated doing it - we just didn't call it "refactoring".

    In computing inventing a new name for something old is a common practise and dates back at least to the introduction of "object oriented" in the 1970s, although MacCarthy (Lisp), Sutherland (Sketchpad) and others at MIT (AED), Markowitz and Hausner (Simscript), Hoare (classes), Dahl and Nygaard (Simula 67) had introduced all the concepts over the period 1958 to 1967, long before Kay and his colleagues at PARC had started their work that led to the very fast adoption of the term "Object Oriented" when they finally published their work (in 1981) after the release of smalltalk 80, and of course even longer before Soustrup started on "C with classes". No-one was claiming that classes, objects, methods, virtual methods, subclasses, coroutines, and garbage collection were anything new, but of course all those things quickly became associated with the term "object oriented" and the length of time (ranging from 14 to 23 years) they had existed before the term was publicised was forgotten.

    Tom

  • TomThomson (12/28/2014)


    Stefan Krzywicki (12/22/2014)


    Steve Thompson-454462 (12/22/2014)


    Stefan Krzywicki (12/22/2014)


    When did we all start calling rewriting/reworking code "refactoring"?

    I'm using that term here to describe changes to a code base that affect/improve the implementation but do not change the result/output. Per Martin Fowler (http://martinfowler.com/books/refactoring.html) it usually consists of a series of small changes so maybe applying it to large overhaul of a system is bit of a misnomer.

    I'm just hearing it all the time now about any code rewrite or mod & I don't remember hearing it before this year.

    The term "refactoring" has been around since the early 90s; I guess calling it "refactoring" became popular gradually over the next few years, and was quite widely used from the late 90s onwards.

    If I remember correctly it was adopted, in the same way as much other new new jargon was, by people who wanted to have a new name for stuff we had been doing since the 1960s, as if it were something new and different. Actually I believe people had been doing "refactoring" since the 1950s or maybe even the 1940s, but I have no first hand experience of computing that far back so I can't be 100% certain; I do know that I "refactored" stuff to make it easier for other people to understand, to get a clean base onto which I could subsequently add functionality, and to reduce complexity back in the 60s, and I did it because people I respected advocated doing it - we just didn't call it "refactoring".

    In computing inventing a new name for something old is a common practise and dates back at least to the introduction of "object oriented" in the 1970s, although MacCarthy (Lisp), Sutherland (Sketchpad) and others at MIT (AED), Markowitz and Hausner (Simscript), Hoare (classes), Dahl and Nygaard (Simula 67) had introduced all the concepts over the period 1958 to 1967, long before Kay and his colleagues at PARC had started their work that led to the very fast adoption of the term "Object Oriented" when they finally published their work (in 1981) after the release of smalltalk 80, and of course even longer before Soustrup started on "C with classes". No-one was claiming that classes, objects, methods, virtual methods, subclasses, coroutines, and garbage collection were anything new, but of course all those things quickly became associated with the term "object oriented" and the length of time (ranging from 14 to 23 years) they had existed before the term was publicised was forgotten.

    How on Earth do you remember all this stuff? I have a hard enough time remembering changes in the different versions of SQL Server! 😛

    --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)

  • I use the terms "refactor" and "redact" as politically correct terms to explain what the effort will be when I'm going to fix some crap code. "Refactor" means that I'm going to fix a part or parts of the code. "Redact" means that it's a total POS and that I'm going to rewrite it so that it's actually suitable for production. 😀

    --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)

  • Eirikur Eiriksson (12/26/2014)


    Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár!

    Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

    Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo!

    Frohe weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahr!

    Glædelig jul og godt nytår

    God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

    God jul og godt nytt år!

    Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta!

    The second, third, and fourth are rather easy for me: English, Italian, German.

    Four of the other 5 are obviously North Germanic, and the use of "ð" in the first one makes me think it's Icelandic, which would make the 5th one Danish (because it looks more like the Icelandic than either of the others). The 6th and 7th then must be Swedish and Norwegian, but I haven't a clue which is which (could very easily find out, or course, but that would be cheating). The 8th is Finnish, I think - firstly because of the geography - where Finland is and where four of the other languages are from, secondly because I've seen things with many doubled vowels and doubled consonants before and they were Finnish, and thirdly because joula looks as if it might be a borrowing from jul/Jul/jól/yule and Finland is close to places with Germanic languages so its language will probably have taken in many Germanic words and I can see that the language is not anything celtic, slavic or romance which eliminates the other languages having a germanic neighbour.

    Here are some more languages people can guess at:-

    Nollaig chrìdheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr

    Nollaig faoi shéan agus ath-bhliain faoi shonas

    Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa

    Bonan Kristnaskon kaj felican novan jaron

    Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda

    Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth

    Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat

    Bon Nadal i un bon any nou

    Tom

  • Jeff Moden (12/28/2014)


    TomThomson (12/28/2014)


    If I remember correctly it was adopted, in the same way as much other new new jargon was, ......

    How on Earth do you remember all this stuff? I have a hard enough time remembering changes in the different versions of SQL Server! 😛

    Well, I remeber it for two reasons:

    (i) language design was my first specialty in computing, and although I didn't have that as my main field for very long my first 25 years (and a few more) of working with computers involved it a lot - I produced several special-purpose languages that were used quite a bit, including one that was used by quite a few companies, and supervised the design and implementation of some more. I stayed in touch with what was happening in that field until the late 90s. So of course I remember the languages that really changed the game. And in particular I remember the languages that were the essential predecessors of the OO languages, because I resented the hijacking of the earlier techniques by people who couldn't design language features to save their lives (not people like Kay or Soustrup, they always acknowledged their debt to those who had gon before, but the rabble who jumped on the bandwagon). I don't remeber exact years, but knowing the language names makes those easy to look up, especially now that we have an internet.

    (ii) I'm a tad older than you and it's getting so that I remember more of what happened 25 years ago than of what happened 25 months ago; not yet a serious problem, fortunately.

    Tom

  • TomThomson (12/28/2014)


    Jeff Moden (12/28/2014)


    TomThomson (12/28/2014)


    If I remember correctly it was adopted, in the same way as much other new new jargon was, ......

    How on Earth do you remember all this stuff? I have a hard enough time remembering changes in the different versions of SQL Server! 😛

    Well, I remeber it for two reasons:

    (i) language design was my first specialty in computing, and although I didn't have that as my main field for very long my first 25 years (and a few more) of working with computers involved it a lot - I produced several special-purpose languages that were used quite a bit, including one that was used by quite a few companies, and supervised the design and implementation of some more. I stayed in touch with what was happening in that field until the late 90s. So of course I remember the languages that really changed the game. And in particular I remember the languages that were the essential predecessors of the OO languages, because I resented the hijacking of the earlier techniques by people who couldn't design language features to save their lives (not people like Kay or Soustrup, they always acknowledged their debt to those who had gon before, but the rabble who jumped on the bandwagon). I don't remeber exact years, but knowing the language names makes those easy to look up, especially now that we have an internet.

    (ii) I'm a tad older than you and it's getting so that I remember more of what happened 25 years ago than of what happened 25 months ago; not yet a serious problem, fortunately.

    Heh... understood. I still remember some of the stuff to optimize upper memory for Windows 3.1 and the attack vectors for the Michelangelo virus that could be transmitted just by inserting a floppy disk. Up until a couple of years ago, I could still remember the hex code for hand assembly for of machine language for the 6502 uProcessor that I taught myself way back in 1977. What happened 2 weeks ago? Dunno... too much happening now for me to remember... i.e. "Next problem, please". It's why I keep logs... I apparently don't have the ability to create any new folds in the gray-matter or maybe my brain is becoming "smooth". 😀 I don't even remember some of the people I've met in the last month. The really neat thing about that is it means that I get to meet new people every day. :hehe:

    --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)

  • I wanted to take a moment to wish all the forum members a (late) Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

    I've been extremely busy of late so have been of little help on the forums (but I managed to sneak in a few answers in the last week). Projects, etc., etc., not the least of which being a new house that we just completed our move into yesterday (Sunday). This is not something that is as easy to do here in Thailand as it is in the west. Many bits are left unfinished by the builder and simply left for the buyer to handle. Fortunately, my wife was a saint through it all, as she had to handle most of it due to the language barrier.

    Fortunately as it is her house (can't even be part-owner due to rules/laws), she's letting me stay in it at the moment. Hopefully that'll stick.


    My mantra: No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh![/I]

    My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?

    My advice:
    INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
    The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.

    Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
    Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
    Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
    [url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St

  • @Dwain,

    Congrats on the new house and belated Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year to you both, too!

    --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)

  • ... Mark one off, 61 days on the calendar to go. 61 days on the calendar to go, 61 days to go, ...

  • TomThomson (12/28/2014)


    Eirikur Eiriksson (12/26/2014)


    Gleðileg jól og farsælt nýtt ár!

    Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

    Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo!

    Frohe weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahr!

    Glædelig jul og godt nytår

    God Jul och Gott Nytt År!

    God jul og godt nytt år!

    Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta!

    The second, third, and fourth are rather easy for me: English, Italian, German.

    Four of the other 5 are obviously North Germanic, and the use of "ð" in the first one makes me think it's Icelandic, which would make the 5th one Danish (because it looks more like the Icelandic than either of the others). The 6th and 7th then must be Swedish and Norwegian, but I haven't a clue which is which (could very easily find out, or course, but that would be cheating). The 8th is Finnish, I think - firstly because of the geography - where Finland is and where four of the other languages are from, secondly because I've seen things with many doubled vowels and doubled consonants before and they were Finnish, and thirdly because joula looks as if it might be a borrowing from jul/Jul/jól/yule and Finland is close to places with Germanic languages so its language will probably have taken in many Germanic words and I can see that the language is not anything celtic, slavic or romance which eliminates the other languages having a germanic neighbour.

    Brilliant Tom and spot on. A tip to distinguish between Norwegian and Swedish, Norwegian has more of a Danish spelling while Swedish has a little "German" to it;-)

    😎

    Here are some more languages people can guess at:-

    Nollaig chrìdheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr

    Nollaig faoi shéan agus ath-bhliain faoi shonas

    Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa

    Bonan Kristnaskon kaj felican novan jaron

    Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda

    Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth

    Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat

    Bon Nadal i un bon any nou

    I'm going to give this a shot, first the rather obvious ones, one and two are Scottish and Irish, fourth is Esperanto, fifth Welsh and the eight is somewhere between Spanish, Neapolitan and Italian so I'm guessing it's Katalan.

    The third is more like northern Gaelic while the sixth and the seventh have a more southern feel to it, my guess is somewhere around the English Channel.

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