Links for the week of 2008-12-26

SQL SERVER

Best practices for taking on the DBA role as a developer – Armando Pratocovers the basics of what it takes to go from developer to DBA. This is a good article and one that’s very near and dear to my heart since I’m pulling myself away from the development world and into the DBA world (I’m almost there!). Auto generated SQL Server keys – uniqueidentifier or IDENTITY – Armando Prato (who gets a double dose of link love) wrote a pretty well-balanced article about a subject that is often a source of contention between DBAs and developers – primary key types. I have a very strong bias towards using IDENTITY columns, but this article presents both sides of the argument. Graphical Exeuction Plans for Simple SQL Queries – Grant Fritchey has had an excerpt from his book, Dissecting SQL Server Execution Planspublished on simple-talk.com. It’s a great read, especially if you, like me, have often wondered how to read an execution plan. I can’t claim to be an expert after reading this article, but I can claim to have a much better understanding.

DEVELOPMENT

Composite Architecture – The Open Close Principle as applied to system architecture – Ayende Rahien weighs in with his opinions on unit testing and talks about how it’s possible to architect and build a system that doesn’t really need to be unit tested, well not nearly as much as a standard system. Early Christmas Present from PowerShell Team: Community Technology Preview-3 (CTP3) of Windows PowerShell V2 It’s just what it says: PowerShell 2 CTP3 is out. Get it while it’s hot!

GENERAL

Your idea sucks, now go do it anyway – Jason Cohen talks about starting a company. Many companies start out with a completely different idea than the finished product. Oddly enough, he mentions a game that I used to play online – Game Neverending – which eventually became flickr. Nuclear Urbanism – Geoff Manaugh highlights a cool Google Maps mash up that lets you see what an atomic weapon would do to your home city. This really brings the scary power of these things to light. Just some food for thought. Web Persona and Your Career – Tom LaRock makes some great points about how to present yourself on the web. Ultimately it comes down to being yourself. As I’ve started writing more for this blog I’m finding more of my voice as an author and I’m getting comfortable enough to start trying different things. Time will tell, but the important part is to just be yourself. A brief note: Due to the holidays and work there will be no real blog post this week. I’m working on several post ideas and should be fleshing them out over the 5 day weekend and returning with more content in the new year.