Daily Coping 13 Apr 2022

Posted on April 13, 2022 by way0utwest

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to eat some healthy food. Try something new today.

I am trying to be healthier and eat better. I’m also like cooking and am regularly looking for new recipes. As a part of my diet, I limit the things I eat most days, which sometimes get hard for the family. I was making a ground turkey meatloaf each week for dinner, and I knew others were getting tired of it. So I looked around.

I found this recipe for a turkey zucchini meatloaf with feta and gave it a try, changing up the normal broccoli for asparagus. It was a slight change, but it was more moist and tasty to everyone.

I also made some homemade baked french fries for everyone else. None for me.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Daily Coping 13 Apr 2022

T-SQL Tuesday #149–Advice about T-SQL to a Younger Me

Posted on April 12, 2022 by way0utwest

It’s that time of the month again, when we have the T-SQL Tuesday blog party. This month we have a new host, Camilia Henrique with an invitation on advice you would give to your younger self, but in the area of T-SQL. That’s a good one, and it focuses on a technical skill that many data professionals need.

Participating in T-SQL Tuesday is a good way to practice your writing, your skills, and show your thoughts on some aspect of your job. Even if you miss the party one month, feel free to write a post later and link it to the main post on the T-SQL Tuesday site.

Practice, Practice, Practice

I learned SQL first as someone working with dBase, FoxPro, and Clipper. I moved to SQL Server and T-SQL later, with a basic grounding on how to query for simple sets of data, but I quickly learned performance can matter a lot.

As I’ve tried to keep up with the language, one of the things that has struck me is that T-SQL can be complex to structure because it’s relatively simple with few keywords. You can unintentionally create cross joins or row-by-row (RBAR) structures that perform poorly and waste resources on your system.

I’ve found that practicing with programming exercises and solving problems to be the best way to improve my skills. I don’t do it enough these days, and when I answer questions on SQLServerCentral, invariably one of the experts there will post a solution that performs better and I learn something new.

If I were talking to myself, I’d say to look more deeply into APPLY and the OVER() clause right now. Make sure you understand tally tables and their uses, and work through exercises like the Advent of Code, Exorcism, Project Euler, or something similar. Heck, just answer questions in a forum for yourself, with your own solution.

Learn how to create queries that can efficiently gather together, filter, and aggregate your data in ways that are helpful for clients without taxing server hardware. In the era of cloud computing and pay for data moved or data processed somehow, this is an invaluable skill.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Daily Coping 12 Apr 2022

Posted on April 12, 2022 by way0utwest

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag.

Today’s tip is to spend as much time as possible outdoors today.

The weather is getting better in Denver. I’m still expecting snow sometime this spring, but last week we had a number of days that were sunny and 50x, 60s, and 70s. Need some moisture, but while we don’t have it, I’m trying to take advantage of things and enjoy a little more outside time.

I write these ahead of time, so this is for Saturday, 9 Apr.

I had an interview with DotNetDave in the morning, so I caught up on some work before that. I went outside around 12, planning to get a few things done around the house. First was replacing generator battery cables. Slightly unnerving, but something that needed to be done.

20220409_125622

Next I worked on some landscaping around the generator, which I’ve been meaning to clean up before everything starts growing like crazy. Hard work, but good to be outside.

20220409_133342

Finally, I spent a little time cleaning up the area around the water hydrant in the field. We had it replaced a little over a week ago. I had helped dig part of it up and then filled the hole when I was done, but before I could tamp down the dirt more, we went out of town. Today was cleaning up that area and removing panels.

20220409_144605

I also had a helper (not really)

20220409_144210

Around this I slipped into town and lifted weights, but I took a walk around the area near the gym to warm up instead of riding the bike to enjoy the outside world.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Daily Coping 12 Apr 2022

Moving Away From MySQL

Posted on April 11, 2022 by way0utwest

I like SQL Server as a database. I think it’s very complete, solves most of my problems, and is easy to use in work. It costs money, but less than some others. It’s also more complete to me than some of the open source databases out there. That being said, I think most of the top five or six relational platforms would work for me and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.

I ran across a post from Steinar Gunderson, who worked at Oracle on the MySQL team. It’s on his last day there, and it’s a bit of a why did he leave. I like that he notes he found a better opportunity, but he digs in deeper. Why did he look for a new opportunity?

The answer seems to be that MySQL was a shockingly primitive piece of software, according to him. He felt there was lots of room for improvement and change, but people seem to like and accept what MySQL is and does. He is proud of what he has done, but felt that this was a product that was vastly inferior to other database platforms.

That’s interesting, because I think MySQL works fine and is in use in many situations. While there might be plenty of things that can be improved, I’m a practical guy. If the technology meets my needs, and those I can foresee, I see no reason to change. That being said, I wouldn’t reach for MySQL to start a project. If it wasn’t SQL Server, I’d lean towards PostgreSQL.

There are a couple of examples in the post, and it’s certainly a good post to write on your last day. If you published it when it wasn’t your last day, it might quickly move in that direction.

If you use MySQL, I’m curious what you think. If you don’t, would you if SQL Server weren’t available? Would you learn MySQL for a new job? Or are you a die-hard, this is my platform kind of person?

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

Posted in Editorial | Tagged , | 1 Comment