Links for the Week 2009.06.05

Important Note: These are yesterday’s links. Not today’s. That’s why the date is wrong.

SQL SERVER

Really Search Cache for Execution Plans Jason Strate revists his code that finds the last plan that was used for a procedure. Reasons for NOT using Varchar(MAX) Pat Wright brings back the argument of why you should or shouldn’t use varchar(max). You can clearly tell from the title how he feels. I’m quoted in this one, so you probably know how I feel. Read it. Learn it. Love it. SQL! (Yes, I know I said ‘field’ instead of ‘column’. Bite me.)

DEVELOPMENT

Fighting technical deb with the wall of pain Technical debt is an insidious foe. Technical debt is that extra effort you need for future development because you made a quick and dirty design choice at some point in the past. This crap is poison. Coding like it’s 1999 Cameron Moll put together a great overview of why he’s moved back to using the HTML 4.01 DOCTYPE. Just don’t use tables, okay folks? Poor man’s guide to database optimization – by the Marquis de Sade Ever wonder if your code is being really crappy and executing N+1 selects for everything in a collection? WONDER NO MORE! With Ayende’s newest bit of code wizardry you can have a configurable wait time between each query executed. All of a sudden, you too will be dropped into your DBA’s nightmares as you realize that some programmer’s horrible, horrible code is slowly destroying the database!

STUFF & THINGS

Calvinball Projects Calvinball is the greatest game ever. Running a project like it’s a game of Calvinball has to be fun, right? Feng Shui On Steroids: Design Your Space to Achieve Your GoalsJonathan Mead writes about how to use your environment to influence your ability to meet your goals. This looks like a great way to go about hacking my workspace and make it easier to get myself into a working mindset. Lifehacker Pack 2009: Our List of Essential Free Windows Downloads Free software. Good stuff in here. Get it. Links (6/4/2009) Steve PIetrek’s list o’ links from earlier this week has some gems in it, especially for software developers. How to Lose Weight by Eating More Everything in here is true. “Diets” suck. They don’t work forever. There are good ideas in here on how to change the way you eat to be healthier.