Links for the Week of 2009-01-23

SQL SERVER

Top 10 Interview Questions to Ask Senior DBAs Brent Ozar poses some great questions to ask DBAs (and that you might be asked as a DBA) during an interview. These are the good kind of interview questions, not the “how would you do XYZ” kind of questions. (My default response to the XYZ questions is often “Check Books Online”.) Breaking a String into “Words” the CLR way Jonathan Kehayias looks into breaking a string up into discrete words using the CLR instead of pure T-SQL. The CLR is a great tool that many DBAs overlook, hopefully his post will give you more ideas of how you can use the CLR on a daily basis. Temporal Data Techniques in SQL Joe Celko writes about using temporal techniques. There are some great details in this article about building calendar tables and working with temporal data. Definitely well worth the read.

DEVELOPMENT

Database Portability – Asset or Liability? Aaron Alton put together a great discussion about the myth of database portability and begs us to ask the all important question “How important is it, really?”

GENERAL

The Simpsons Archive: Homer’s Mmmm… Lines I’m a big fan of The Simpsons. I’m an even bigger fan of Homer’s stupid lines when he says “mmmm… [insert something here]“. Now there’s a list. Top 10 Fonts of 2008 In addition to The Simpsons, I’m a huge fan of typography. BLDGBLOG: Sky TV Geoff Manaugh looks at unintentional and (possibly) intentional light pollution and how it changes the urban space and how that space might be intentionally subverted for different uses in the future. Interesting ideas abound over and BLDGBLOG.