Your mission, if you chose to accept it, was to share a single tip/hint/fact/something that you wish you'd known about PostgreSQL when you were just getting started learning it. Well, we've got several people who have put together some excellent posts. Let's go over 'em all, in no particular order. First up, Lætitia Avrot has a post all about the PostgreSQL documentation and it is well worth the read. I couldn't agree more with all her points. Plus, I love, love, LOVE the summary list of pointers to documentation broken down by role. Thanks so much for sharing all this. I also wrote a post about the docs. Lætitia covers them better. Next, Andreas Scherbaum has some very cool tips for using psql. My knowledge here is a bit slim.…
Just a suggestion, but I'd say you should look into Chocolatey. Let me explain why. Sabbatical For those who don't know I was recently on a six-week sabbatical from work (thank you Redgate) and I tacked a week of vacation to that. While I did clean out email during that time (can you imagine coming back to seven weeks worth... <shudder>), I didn't do software updates of any kind. In the meantime, Docker was updated. VSCode, SSMS, a whole slew of others. Not to mention, the busy little beavers at Redgate released umpty-million updates. My machine needed love, so I typed the following: choco upgrade all -y Then I went to get some coffee. Why? Because all that software that was out of date, it was getting updated, automatically by…
Redgate Software has a policy wherein every 5 years, employees receive a 6-week paid sabbatical. Well, I'm up to year 11 (I skipped a year my first time), so it's that time for me. First, thank you Redgate. I've loved working for you for 11 years. I'm looking forward to just as many more. Second, I've already written and scheduled a bunch of blog posts, so you'll still be seeing activity here. Third, I'm supposed to completely disconnect, but I won't. I'll be checking email, posts & messages, but I'll be slow on the response. Apologies if I don't get back to you quickly. See you in 7 weeks (I tacked on some vacation time. HA!).
For two years and three months, since April 2020, I've posted a tweet saying "Good Morning!" on every workday. I think I missed one. I was late for a couple. The messages were meant to be helpful. I used the word kind a lot. A lot. I tried to avoid lectures, and still did it sometimes. I tried to always be uplifting and positive, yet was still a downer occasionally. I've received many thanks for the tweets, in public and private. I cherish every one. Thank you! I also received quite a few "how dare you" and "you're not qualified" messages. For those, my answers are simple. I dare fine. You're right, I'm not qualified, doing it anyway. However, I'm drawing all that to a close. See, I'm going on…
While teaching about Extended Events and Execution Plans last week, Jason, one of the people in the class, asked: Is there a way in Extended Events to find queries using a Key Lookup operation? Sadly, the answer is no. However, you can query the Execution Plans in cache or in the Query Store to find this. Thanks for the question Jason. Here's your answer. Finding Key Lookups Since we can't have Extended Events just feed us the information, we have to query the plans. That means pulling out data from the XML. So, to find queries that are using the Key Lookup operator, we can do this: SELECT DB_NAME(detqp.dbid), SUBSTRING( dest.text, (deqs.statement_start_offset / 2) + 1, (CASE deqs.statement_end_offset WHEN -1 THEN DATALENGTH(dest.text) ELSE deqs.statement_end_offset END - deqs.statement_start_offset ) / 2…
Just a little over a year ago, I started posting a "Good Morning!" tweet on Twitter every work day. I've kept it up for over a year and I'd like to take a moment to discuss it. Why did I do it? How has it gone? What are the plans for the future? Why "Good Morning!"? I remember deciding to start doing this. We were barely two weeks into the initial lockdown here in Massachusetts. I was in the dumps. Everyone looked to be in the dumps. My very first tweet, not officially part of the timeline, but let's be honest with you all, was a complaint: So glad my son decided to play videos really loud while getting ready for work. I didn't want to sleep at all. GOOD…
We are all going through some tough times. It's tougher for some more than others. Now is the time when you have to work on being resilient, and it ain't easy. However, there are things you can do to develop resilience. Like most things, it's actually a skill that can be learned. Let's start with a little disclaimer up front. I'm no expert on this topic. However, I do have a few bonafides and I'll share them so you know where I'm coming from. If you don't care, skip to the next section. My Training and Experience In Resiliency Without going into personal details, like everyone, one of my teachers has simply been life. At 57, I've done a few things and been a few places. I've gone through tough,…
With the end of the year, other things are coming to an end as well. Tomorrow, December 31st, will mark my final day as President of the PASS organization. I won't be leaving the board itself for another two years. I'll still be there as the Immediate Past President (IPP). I still have a vote on the board and will take part in supporting the next President, Wendy Pastrick (who is going to be great). While my role shifts, I'm also still a part of the Executive Committee. With all that, I can still act as a conduit into the board. If you have questions on what we do, how we do it, why we do it, please, ask. If you want information passed to the board, I'll be available…
I've received several notes of thanks over the last couple of weeks. I'm not sure exactly what's prompted this sudden outpouring because it's all been about stuff I've done over the years, not anything recent. I've tried to always thank privately those who've sent something along these lines. I may not always do it though. So, just in case, let me publicly state: Thank you for saying that anything I do helps. I freely admit, I'm actively trying to help out. I'm still regularly surprised that any of it's useful. I'm quite humbled by your kind words. I truly appreciate them. I vow to continue to try to be useful. I'll do my best to earn what you've given.
To my Data Family, Redgate Family, #SQLFamily, and Family Family:Thank you!I love you!Keep going!