I’ve overheard the SQL Server folks talking about the challenges of support applications where the NOLOCK (or is it NO_LOCK?) hint has been deployed to make transactions and queries go faster. This probably causes more problems than it solves, and rather trying to rehash what I’ve heard second hand, I suggest you go listen to a MSFT MCM talk about it. Brent Ozar PLF co-founder Kenda Little does an excellent overview on it here. That…
Sit back and relax as I take you through one of my favorite Toad features: Data Compare. In less than five minutes see how to: Set your data comparison target and source Configure which columns to compare Use WHERE clause filters to limit data compared View the results Synchronize the data (optional)
I’ve been blogging in one form or another for about 5 years. Since I published that first story, I’ve spent more than a little bit of time waiting for comments to start flooding in. And they haven’t really flooded in. If I compare my posts to folks that I follow (Mark Schaefer and Brent Ozar), my 6 comments looks puny to their 337. I have a pretty good idea why a blog post may or…
It’s one of the most iconic scenes in American film – Roy Schneider’s character is chumming the water and sees the shark they are hunting. The massive size of the fish causes him to comment, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!” It’s shark week, and I was struggling with inspiration for blog posts, so apologies if this metaphor is stretched beyond your imagination. When Oracle (and SQL Server) need to do some expensive math operations,…
Someone asked me yesterday where do I get my blog topics and ideas from. Usually it’s from watching too much TV, but often it’s an actual question or topic that is raised by a co-worker or customer. Yesterday I was asked by my boss about how to find out when TRUNCATEs have been issued because I know that truncates cannot be rollbacked from so they wouldn’t be in the redo logs Now, in my boss’…
I used to love getting my essays handed back to me from my teacher. I would quickly look for the red ink comments scattered throughout my paper. I was looking for approval – ‘Yes Jeff, you are truly a genius!’ I do not get the impression that developers either enjoy reviewing co-worker’s code, or having their code reviewed. Does your organization perform code reviews? When I poll audiences, it’s pretty rare to get a lot…
Disclosure: I manage a blog syndication site, OraDBPedia. Part of my job involves looking for compelling bloggers in the Oracle database space and convincing them to let us syndicate their content. Syndicate: (Communication Arts / Journalism & Publishing) (tr) to sell (articles, photographs, etc.) to several newspapers for simultaneous publication — from FreeDictionary.com The general idea for a blogger is to get their content to as many different sets of eyes as possible. The more…
I am noticing a very disturbing trend in the Southeast US – the local Oracle User Groups are withering away. One of the questions I like to end a presentation with is to inquire about the presence of a local Oracle User Group. More frequently than not, the answer is, “Well, we used to have one.” Now before I jump up onto my soapbox, I have a very big confession to make – I have…
We moved a few years ago, to a wonderful home in the heart of Cary, NC. Lots of things to love about the house, but the geek in me has been eyeing these sets of in-ceiling speakers littered throughout the house. The previous owner was a huge fan of classical music and NPR, and wanted to be able to listen in the bath, the yard, the garage, even the kitchen. When we moved in, I…
People are always asking me, ‘Jeff, what’s going to be in the new version of X?’ or ‘Jeff, what’s new in X?’ or ‘Jeff, what’s wrong with you?!?’ If I’m feeling particularly chippy, I’ll reply something along the lines of ‘How well do you think you’ve mastered the current version of X?’ If you haven’t seen something before, that means it’s new for you, right? I think that was a NBC promo ad back in…