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I saw a post recently asking if there was an easy way to find the port a client was using on a SQL Server since someone had multiple instances. I asked for some information since there are actually multiple ports in use.

The port the SQL Server listens on

The port the client server opens a connection on their side

The first one comes from a few places. It’s easily found in the Configuration Manager GUI as shown below:

These are the TCPIP properties for my service.

Finding the client port, which is probably needed for tracing/troubleshooting, is easy to do as well. You can query sys.dm_exec_connections, and see how clients are connected. I don’t have any TCP connections on my instances, since I am local it’s through shared memory, but here’s where you’d find it in the result set:

I’ve typically not worried about port, but the client_net_address has been valuable to me in the past.

I don’t trust ATT.

That’s saying something. AT&T, the company that built US telco, that gave us innovations from Bell Labs, including Unix. They got an exclusive deal for the coolest phone I have ever used, and I don’t trust them.

Their network, despite upgrades, still has me worried. There are so many people I know with iPhones that hate the company. They have constant issues with both voice calls and data access. If I had even 50% of my ATT friends happy with the service I’d order an iPhone 4, switch to ATT and be happy.

Instead I’m at a bit of a crossroads.

Not that T-Mobile is that great. Last night I had to turn airplane mode on/off to get a data connection to sync up. There have been issues with T-Mo in my area at times, and I don’t get data access most of the time I’m near the house. Not a huge big deal as I have wifi at home, but annoying at times.

I have an iPhone 2G, jailbroken and running on T-Mobile. I’ve had it over a year, after having a Google G1 (Android 1.5, 1.6) and a T-Mobile Dash (WinMo 6.0) and the iPhone blows them away. In terms of what I use it for, I have email (so-so), calendaring (crappy), music (excellent), reading (excellent), camera (excellent), lots of special purpose apps for things like banking, travel, etc. that I use. Trying to do things in a browser, even a mobile site on a cell phone sucks. Many times it’s not even usable. However many things that I do need, and use often, have fantastic apps on the iPhone.

It’s not the best business phone, but it’s a great one.

The iPhone wins for me, mostly because of the platform. Music/reading/apps that work for me. Android is getting close, with the Kindle app coming, and (hopefully) Google Music with a desktop sync that works. Android 2.2 looks interesting, but until the platform gets more mature, with more useful apps and capabilities that I need, I won’t move.

So the rest of you, please, please, please, order your iPhone 4s now so that I can pick up a used 3GS, crack it, and upgrade to iOS4 🙂

As the plane was landing the other day for SQL Saturday in Pensacola, I was struck by how amazing my career has gone. 19 years ago, working in a cube in a power station, programming dbase and Clipper applications. A geek at a desk.

Now I’m flying halfway around the country to give a couple talks to database professionals.

That’s amazing to me. Never in a million years when I left college did I see myself as someone that would be giving talks and presenting to people. I did a shared keynote in Charlotte earlier this year, and I’m doing another in Baton Rouge (SQL Saturday #28). When I was younger, these were only for famous people, for people I looked up to. I can’t believe that people are coming to see me at events.

And there are a lot of us. The SQL Server community is amazing, and more than a few other technology niches are looking with awe at all the database professionals that are taking the time to give presentations and go to events like SQL Saturday.

I think it’s cool, and I’m still awed by the place I’ve gotten to, and all the company I have with me. I’m proud to be associated with the rest of those speakers that are out there helping everyone learn more about SQL Server.

A short while ago someone complained that some of the headlines on SSC were deceiving in terms of what they represented. A few people noted that webcasts or other headlines weren’t technical information, and they didn’t want to click through to find that out.

Made sense to me, though I do try to note things like events in the description. So in any case I went searching around for icons and images, and found an icon that I wanted to use for technical articles. I added some text and had this displayed next to some articles:

Not bad, I thought for a non-artist like myself. So I did a few more, one of which was my puzzle icon:

I did this one from scratch since Ii couldn’t find a puzzle piece. Admittedly I could have spent more time in Paint, but that was only slightly less horrifying than working on income taxes to me. I saw the icon this week on the site and thought it looked horrible. So I decided to dash a note off to the Red Gate designer. We have one (or two?) on staff, and they respond to requests sent to a specific email. I included my image, and a day later got this:

That’s why it pays to hire an artist once you have an idea of what is needed. I sent off the other icons I’d made, and while my $5 each investment in a few logos is likely lost, it did get something up on the site, and gave my artist a base from which to start.