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02:11
Ah ha haaaa. Sybase ASE, you crack me up.
Why yes, merge joins nested five deep (all on different keys, so all need sorting) is the best idea I've heard all day. Especially when you table-scan an 80-million-row table inside that fifth merge join, then don't apply the restrict operator until you've done all five joins.
In short: Jesus Christ.
 
7 hours later…
09:23
I wish MySQL supported the Oracle (+) join syntax. I'm so used to it :/
@Phil The Oracle (+) syntax is a scourge upon humanity.
3
(Slight exaggeration, but yeah. Why can't we all use ANSI-compliant SQL?)
I rarely use the JOIN ON syntax. modifying an existing Oracle query to add an outer join is as easy as typing (+)
10:05
@Phil unless you want to outer join to more than one table :-)
10:23
True. TBH, the data I work with doesn't often need outers anyway :)
Bah, it doesn't support WITH foo AS () ... ;
MySQL = fail
Of all the reasons to choose to pick on MySQL, you choose not supporting table expressions? :D
That was the "Here's why I hate MySQL this microsecond" gripe :P
@Phil - heard anything back about the job application?
10:42
Nothing back from the recruiter yet. The bloke that was supposed to be interviewing me was ill, so had a video call interview. He didn't ask much in depth. Very high level. Quite an odd one, to be honest. I'll be surprised if they offer me anything - they appear to be after the moon on a stick (asked me about a load of non-DBA stuff)
6
Q: SQL substitution feature in Oracle 10g

Bruno RothgiesserThree or four years ago I read in an Oracle blog somewhere that a DBA had used for an emergency incident resolution an Oracle 10g feature of real time SQL substitution. Basically, he configured Oracle in way that every time that it received a certain query A it executed another query B instead. N...

Hmm
10:58
@Phil That sounds useful, if a bit terrifying
@Phil Ah, yes - the old requirement: "Young, energetic Team player who works well unsupervised with 5 years experience on SQL Server 2012. Experience with OS/360, AOS/VS, DB2/400, RDB/VMS, tuxedo and middleware experience with MQSeries and IMS fastpath also necessary. Recent experience with Netware 3.11, RSX/11, CICS, DG/UX and Dynix a bonus."
I'm imagining a database where in order to find anything you need to slog through five layers of advanced rewrite indirection
11:10
Ahaha nice, we have an IQ server running on linux, and the stop_server script can't actually cope with the server refusing to stop, even though it says "killing server unconditionally" you have to SSH in to another session and kill -9 it yourself
OK, so stupid question time. One of our architects wants to play around with SSIS. I assume we're licensed for it since we have Enterprise versions of SQL Server. A: How do I confirm that we're licensed for SSIS? B: Do I need to install it on a server? and C: What do I install on his machine?
SQL Server licensing includes licenses to use SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, master data services and all the gubbins that come with it. As far as I am aware, a per-socket (i.e. non-CAL) licence lets you have as many users as you want.
You will want to install SSMS and BIDS on his desktop, and possibly the SSIS runtime as DTExec needs this.
If you want to run SSIS at runtime you will need to install the SSIS runtime on any machine you intend to run the SSIS packages on. BIDS comes with a SSIS package debugger that does not need the SSIS runtime, but DTExec (the command line utility to run SSIS packages) does. The SSIS packages do not have to run on the same machine as the database server, and as far as I am aware the SQL Server licence does not preclude you running SSIS on any machine you want to.
Right, and since our maintenance plans are SSIS packages I can assume our servers have the widgets to do SSIS stuff?
Sorry if I sound absolutely retarded, I've been running on 3-5 hours sleep a night for the last two weeks or so
@SimonRigharts If they're running then someone must have installed the SSIS runtime.
@SimonRigharts They're confused about what needs to be installed where here now. I've had to chase down SQL Seerver installers and load bits and pieces on my machine.
You will probably need to install the appropriate service packs as well.
Ok, so SSMS + BIDS + SPs on his machine and he should be good to go, plus logins to a test server to act as a data source?
@SimonRigharts Yes. You may also need to install the SSIS runtime if he wants to use DTExec. Probably best to install that anyway.
When I say 'SSIS runtime' I mean what the installer installs if you select 'Integration Services', i.e. SSIS.
11:26
Thanks
maybe I'll stick a SQL Server Express instance on his sandbox machine for him to screw with too
@SimonRigharts Put developer edition on the machine if you've got that.
... I have no idea. :D
something to find out tomorrow
11:47
Oh, now the MySQL empty string vs NULL thing bites me. Grr
I thought Oracle was the one that didn't make a distinction between null and an empty string?
that's the Oracle back-bite
A transition from Oracle to anything else, will have problems with NULLs and empty strings.
Indeed. MySQL still sucks :P
The fact I'm having to work with it in the first place is distressing me
@Phil: You want more? Try an UPDATE
12:04
No more. Make it go away!
@Phil: is MySQL for the old or for the new job?
Old
Don't mind doing a bit of this - I know I'll have to build an Oracle DWH to whack this data into eventually (if I'm still here)
Somebody has far too much time on their hands: oracle-wtf.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/girl-with-ansi-tattoo.html
12:24
Haha. That's ... a little bit scary.
13:10
> In fact as we pull back for a thrilling query results listing we see the mysql prompt and giveaway use [dbname] connect syntax and over-elaborate box drawing
lol
:D
Did I warp back in time to Monday?
-1
Q: Which tools and libraries should be used to accelerate CSV file correction with the column separator character contained within data elements?

Pedro PalhotoWhich tools and programming libraries are you aware of that can help accelerate CSV manual correction process when column separator characters are encountered within data elements? I'm currently not able to correct the generation of source CSV files, such as adding quote delimiters. Manual verif...

<smacks forehead>
JNK
JNK
13:32
Why don't you want to register your .exes, @AaronBertrand?
Do you hate freedom?
@AaronBertrand Do you guys get all the crappy questions on mondays too?
We were all newbies once but sometimes I'm amazed at the low IQ bar to get into the tech field
JNK
JNK
@AaronBertrand We are in a transitional period now I think
All the hiring managers are old enough to be impressed by basic technical prowess since most people didn't have it when they were coming up
Meaning it's going to get worse?
JNK
JNK
and all the entry level folks have been immersed in tech all their lives so they can bluff
no it'll get better
once people in my generation get to be hiring managers
bullshit detection will get a lot better
its a generational thing basically, is my belief
13:36
I just feel bad for companies that have numbskulls responsible for their technology
JNK
JNK
there's a LOT of them
It's their own fault, I guess
JNK
JNK
looking at all my past jobs, I think everyone was basically clueless
The network admin at the last place I worked was an auto mechanic who liked computers
I've been lucky ... I've worked with some morons, sure, but I've also worked with some of the brightest people I think I'll ever know.
JNK
JNK
and was friends with the owners
13:37
Hey, sorry if this is already known by everybody, but since Nick Chammas said he wasn't gonna be the moderator, is it clear who is gonna be?
JNK
JNK
he was a smart guy but he really had no business running the network and setting up all the PCs
@Lamak I'm wondering myself
Assuming it's COTW or myself
I didn't download the results to check
@JNK That's my assumption too
@JNK Ok, I thought there was an announcement or something that I could've missed
JNK
JNK
nope not to my knowledge
I've been watching :)
You can go to dba.stackexchange.com/election too
will do
JNK
JNK
the participation was almost exactly double the last election
13:41
@AaronBertrand I feel bad for me taking after numbskulls...I'm continuing several projects from someone who learned programming and database work entirely on the job...and not very well
JNK
JNK
@BenBrocka I think it's not necessarily bad if someone learns on the job
@BenBrocka Hey, I have a mm friend that learned about database almost entirely on the job. It's a friend, a completely different person than me ;-)
JNK
JNK
I didn't go to school for IT, I was a business major
@BenBrocka Don't learn from them :-)
@AaronBertrand It is nice to work with bright people, but such a rarity in the financial services racket. Really I only stick in this industry out of bloody mindedness.
JNK
JNK
13:43
passion/interest I think is more relevant
@JNK I was Economics
JNK
JNK
someone who is passionate about what they do will learn and improve on their own
I did computer science.
@JNK Would you hire someone to maintain multiple software systems in multiple languages who had never programmed before in their life?
JNK
JNK
no
But if they had some industry experience I would hire them as an entry level person
I started in restaurants as a food service manager
then worked on POS systems
and now work in pure IT doing DB development
13:45
If this was like, mom and pop stuff I could understand, but this is our company intranet and ERP software...
JNK
JNK
yeah that's not cool
One of the best technical architects I know never went to university. He's entirely self-taught and now working as a senior architect for a major telco.
@AaronBertrand I'm an electrical engineer
JNK
JNK
Passion > education, at least over the long run
most of the folks I know who are mediocre were IT majors who are now stuck in a career they don't care much about
Sometimes it doesn't hurt to do something that really drums the basics in. Plenty of self-taught developers who really have no clue about basic stuff like computational complexity.
JNK
JNK
13:47
@JackDouglas any idea on when we will know the moderator results?
I'm still slowly undoing the damage. He left several dozen logging statements in production, there were over 5 GB of log files (variable dumps mostly) on the production server when I got to it.
None of it was actually doing anything...
Unfortunately the PHP monkey stereotype has quite a substantial grounding in reality.
And I don't mean error/apache access logs, just home brewed logs
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells I look at SO and I'm sad that those are programmers. And I'm more sad that my questions don't get answers :( I can make sentences...
JNK
JNK
A lot of the Qs on SO make me concerned for the IT industry
I have a working theory that incompetence goes up to about the 90th percentile of I.T. professionals, and spinelessness gets a significant fraction of what's left.
JNK
JNK
13:52
Especially when they are of the form I need to do <something> for a client. How do I do it? which basically means they are getting paid to do something they have no clue about.
@JNK I've been on more than one project cleaning up the mess after big-5 consultancy firms who were learning on the job.
@JNK Oh yeah, those are bad. Yahoo answers bad.
Fortunately most people don't know what UX is so mostly only people reasonably knowledgeable find their way to UX
Occasionally I relent and take pity on the OP. Around half of the time they can form a coherent question with a bit of assistance. The rest just never learn.
Though we still seem to have certain...outsourcing related...users that can't make a good question
@BenBrocka One key thing to understand about outsourcing companies is that they are bottom feeders. Most competent people in those regions can get a better job.
The economics of outsourcing work thus:
(a) the saleable product is billable hours
(b) You want to minimise the cost of those billable hours
(c) You want to maximise the number of billable hours charged.
On this basis there is actually an economic disincentive to hire good people.
13:57
In my experience (previous job), outsourcing has been great for tasks that use a defined script and no outward thinking is required (think QA or running load tests). We had horrible luck with actually outsourcing development work... we spent more time fixing their garbage than we would have spent writing it from scratch.
Sadly it took several engagements, where we constantly "learned our lesson," before we finally really learned our lesson and stopped doing it.
I'm sure there are some competent people over there in some of these firms, but we never found them.
I find that outsourced development teams need to be treated something like a malicious genie that will try to twist your wishes. You really need to spec out the work in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination, although @MarkStoreySmith has a quite interesting approach to this using sprints that might work.
@AaronBertrand The thing about competent people in consulting firms is that they're much more valuable to the firm in a pre-sales capacity than they are in actual production. So the firms are structurally set up so that you will almost never see their A-list staff in anything but drive-by advisory roles. In fact you know the project is in trouble if you do have their A-listers hanging about, because it means that the project or account manager is really shitting bricks about something.
@AaronBertrand Yeah, QA and stuff might be okay... definitely not anything that requires creativity or planning
My issue with SO these days is that people posting questions on there have usually done little to no research, go straight to SO, then post a completely incoherent string of nonsense that doesn't explain the requirement/issue clearly
@Phil Trouble is, it's got a lot of brand recognition these days, so it will attract people as a first stop, rather than attempting google-fu.
It doesn't help SE's search kinda sucks
14:03
Also, I suspect when you don't really understand your problem domain enough to form a coherent and specific question, the only thing some people can think of is to write a 'plzsendthecodez' level question.
Given my experience, education & the fact I have some common sense and am good at troubleshooting/firefighting, I could answer lots of questions on there that have nothing to do with my day-to-day job. All it takes it a bit of patience and research. 2 things that 99% of SO posters can't be arsed to do
A better analysis of your current question could really help with the "possible dupes" list it gives you when you ask (for the users that even look at that)
@AaronBertrand That depends on your perspective.
I find that by the time I'm asking stuff on SO I've already exhausted what I can find through simple google-fu, so often I'm getting to fairly obscure stuff by the time I get to SO. Unfortunately many people don't even bother.
Speaking of low IQs ... I have a question that may be quite simple but I may not be phrasing it correctly for the self-aware Google knowledge base to understand
14:06
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells same here. If I have to ask on SO it sort of seems like there's no answer out there
SO is apparently much more concerned over whether you should use arrays stackoverflow.com/questions/10718061/should-arrays-be-used-in-c
I like helping people and all, but I'm getting a little fed up with the same nonsense every day on SO
Sadly dba.se doesn't have enough traffic in and of itself to keep me engaged
@AaronBertrand Yeah, lately it seems better to just vote to close as a duplicate than bother to answer again
@AaronBertrand Maybe you can be a bit more ruthless with VTC and broaden your subjects of interest a bit. Like @Phil said, anybody who's any good probably has a good set of general problem solving skills.
I'm really a bit of a jack of all trades and a master of none, but I've been able to answer a pretty broad portfolio of stuff on SO, SF and DBA.SE, often through a little background knowledge and some google-su
@Lamak you mean like this?
1
Q: Date / Timestamp to record when a record was added to the table?

BettyAfternoon All, Does anyone know of a function as such that i can use to add an automatic date and timestamp in a colum for when a user add a record to the database table? Regards Betty

@AaronBertrand Yeah, or this one
1
Q: Merging a table's rows based on condition

sunil ambigerI have a table. Employee --------------------- EmpID EmpName BookID 1 Mark abc 1 Mark xyz 2 chris mno I want output as Employee --------------------- EmpID EmpName BookID 1 Mark abc,xyz 2 chris mno Any help/Suggestions are greatly appreciat...

14:15
@Lamak yeah the group_concat one is almost faster to answer than to try to vote to close
@Lamak I've answered that same question so many times I can write the whole thing without looking up
But it's free rep if you answer!that seems to be part of the problem, plus finding a dupe is often harder than just answering the post
I realized that, but it just makes searching for the answer on SO so much messy
@AaronBertrand So, it's like training :-)
@Lamak if only I ever had to solve these basic problems in real life. :-)
@BenBrocka And therein lies the crux of the matter: Does SO and the SE network exist to make people feel better about themselves based on the size of their rep score, or does it exist to help folks who have legitimate questions, the answer to which can be trusted based on rep
@AaronBertrand True, you probably won't need it ever
14:19
@swasheck To get people to answer questions by frobbing their reward mechanism with karma?
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells soylent green is PEOPLE
0
Q: Two similar SQL queries returning different results

methuselahHi everyone I'm having a problem. I have two SQL queries that are both returning different results: SELECT name, capacity, $price, licensed, cost FROM venue, catering WHERE venue.venue_id = catering.venue_id AND grade=$grade AND capacity >= $minCapacity AND capacity <= $maxCapacity AND...

I'd recommend TRUNCATE
then both queries return the same results ... problem solved
Answers can also be crap lots of the time. I've seen a fair amount of shit get upvoted on there. The clueless leading the clueless
@swasheck Remember, if the service is free, you ARE the product.
@DavidStratton I'm using SQL — methuselah 6 mins ago
14:33
@swasheck Eh, it does both, and pretty well.
It's one of those "worst system, aside from all the other ones" situations. Not to say it can't be improved, but it's still doing a pretty good job
SO's just too big to deal with itself as well as smaller/middle sized sites IMO
Agreed on all accounts.
I'm almost afraid for Gaming due to the popularity...I love the idea of SO but actually using it is pretty painful compared to other SE sites
the quality/quantity ratio's way off on SO
it's the main site ... and may be better served as a funnel/triage area
buuuuut, there seems to be some issue with that line of thinking
@swasheck I think it's mostly to do with the SO mods getting shit from the 'Why did you move my question to that tape monkey site' crowd. Some people view migration as an insult to their manhood or something.
@swasheck What do you mean?
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells SO does have a very loud populous of whiny users who want EVERYTHING to be on topic on SO because they get more attention...
It's not just DB questions
14:43
@BenBrocka Used as an example, but I also think that the 'gets more attention' argument is spurious. If you're not asking about a pretty mainstream topic on SO your question is just as likely to get lost in the noise. However, it doesn't stop the posters from complaining about it.
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells I was specifically referring to a couple situations where people got in the "hot questions" list or reddited/ect and they got mad that it was migrated away
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells There is a very low S/N ratio on SO. The glut of incoming questions pushes your question out quite quickly.
You get more votes if you're in a hot question on SO aftera ll. Screw the answers, votes!
JNK
JNK
some updated mod election info here for those who are interested
1
A: So who won moderator elections?

Tim StoneAccording to the ballot file from the election page, Nick Chammas is the winner. However, as mentioned in the comments, it seems like he'll be unable to step in as moderator. Based on this, it's likely that the runner-up, JNK, is your new moderator. I'm not sure why the page doesn't indicate tha...

@swasheck I saw that with B.I. questions a couple of years ago, and even posted stuff on metaso about it. That was the main motivation for the Area51 proposal for a B.I. site. Today the ratio of unanswered questions on B.I. related tags on DBA.SE is much, much lower than it is on SO.
14:48
@JNK well congrats!
JNK
JNK
@DTest I won't think it's done til someone official says something :)
@JNK some big responsability now :-), congratulations
@JNK agreed...so tentative congrats
@JNK My mind is still reeling. Tim's comments don't have the same tenor as Nick's chat did.
@JNK I imagine wheels are still grinding somewhere in the SO mechanisms. And, congratulations also.
14:50
TBH I'm very curious about what 'good' happened to @NickChammas
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells Which is why, IMO, SO may be at a place in its lifecycle where it's a staging area from which questions are distributed
JNK
JNK
@DTest me too
Would it be inappropriate to speculate?
JNK
JNK
I'm hoping he got a promotion or something
I say a new job :)
14:51
@JNK it's offical when you get an email and an SE notification
@swasheck Unfortnately that's sort of how it's used. "I know know where to put this so I'll just ask it here"
@BenBrocka except folks get all whiny (as you mentioned) when stuff gets migrated
Or worse, closed
@swasheck Tim isn't an SE employee
For the most part though, those are people who don't care how SE works
they just want an answer...or they just want attention. They don't care about the audience, the system ect. Which is, in part, understandable
@JackDouglas For some reason I thought he was.
Hey, @AaronBertrand guess what ...
14:54
How about the irresistible urge to scream "what have you tried?" on almost every question? How much more hand-holding can I offer this guy>?
(finally)
1
Q: Trouble with Alerts and Notifications on SQL Server 2000

MAW74656I'm trying to set up alerts and notifications in SQL Server 2000, but they are not working. I'm testing them for Agent scheduled jobs, and I get a note saying: NOTE: Failed to notify '[operatorname]' via email. Then in the Current Error log, I see an entry like: [264] An attempt was ma...

The problem is since we want to help more than that one person we really can't just cater to each and every single person, we have to cater to users that use the system well and create questions that are useful to everyone
@swasheck nice. You should get a faster pipe. :-)
@BenBrocka you mean like this?
1
Q: SQL Functions - Logging

ChadThis is driving me crazy. I have a function I am trying to debug, but I can't insert into a table, execute a print statement, or even raise an error from it. SQL returns the message Invalid use of a side-effecting operator 'PRINT' within a function. How can I Debug this, I just want to k...

The accepted answer is to use xp_cmdshell and log to a file from within a function. groan
I think that's a horrible hacky workaround that will get a lot of people turning xp_cmdshell on. It's off for a reason.
@AaronBertrand used to be faster. got acquired by larger company who is messing with network configs in order to get everything set up for the many, many sites
@AaronBertrand Good advice. Don't bother. I remember the frustration of SQL Mail in 2000
15:01
@AaronBertrand that's another problem. Without "canonical" questions, some of the dupes get bad answers, and they get accepted
People complain about SO being offputting, but frankly I think SO's biggest problem is it isn't putting off more of the right people
@BenBrocka sadly it's an uphill battle. The gimme teh codez people looking for the quick answer without any regard to how poor it really is outnumber the sane by at least 20:1
Yeah. It's why I'd rather UX stay small and focused and I think it's a very good idea DBA doesn't accept basic SQL questions. The "experts in" text is a bit exclusive, and it is for a reason
2
Evidently pro decided to downvote an answer because it didn't include a condition for a LEFT INNER JOIN. pro was eventually set straight:
51
A: Left join and Left outer join in SQL Server

Mitch WheatNothing. They are equivalent.

How did that guy get enough rep to downvote???
15:20
@AaronBertrand Chances are that people who actually have two brain cells to rub together aren't actually asking that sort of question.
@ConcernedOfTunbridgeWells well the down-voter wasn't the asker - he was just down-voting people based on what he thought he understood
@AaronBertrand Dunning-Kruger effect in action.
I prefer Depressive Realism
Depressive realism is the proposition that people with depression actually have a more accurate perception of reality, specifically that they are less affected by positive illusions of illusory superiority, the locus of control and optimism bias. The concept refers to people with borderline or moderate depression, suggesting that while non-depressed people see things in an overly positive light and severely depressed people see things in overly negative light, the mildly discontented grey area in between in fact reflects the most accurate perception of reality. Studies Studies by psycholo...
I need a vacation from SO
1
Q: How can i speed up the update on a SQL Script

chrissy pI have written a SQL script below and i'm having trouble with the speed it takes to run. It is fine until the section 'Update Buys with Sales Data'. It is taking far to long to update the @Results table. Is there any way i can speed this up? USE [IV7] GO /*-------------------------------------...

@AaronBertrand I dare say you'll get that in buckets once @AaronBertrand jr. makes an appearance, although 'vacation' probably won't really reflect the reality of the experience ;-}
15:31
:-)
Feeling a bit better now?
I closed my SO window, so yes. :-)
@AaronBertrand :D
Had one last comment for this clown
1
Q: SQL Functions - Logging

ChadThis is driving me crazy. I have a function I am trying to debug, but I can't insert into a table, execute a print statement, or even raise an error from it. SQL returns the message Invalid use of a side-effecting operator 'PRINT' within a function. How can I Debug this, I just want to k...

Way too much opportunity for the "oh, this is the accepted answer? It must be awesome!" phenom to take hold.
I guess I'm a bit more sanguine about stupidity as dealing with it effectively a part of the job in any corporate I.T. function. Scratch the surface of any crusty old cynic and you'll find a frustrated idealist. Working as a contractor I've kind of accepted that but at least they pay me to deal with the stupidity :)
Not that it doesn't stop me from wanting to rip people's heads off from time to time ;-}
One of the reasons I like the product design gigs I've done is that you can (sometimes at least) escape from the stupidity and do something nice.
Although, it's certainly possibly to march straight into PHB land in that racket as well. Everyone's an architect...
Still, no GBH charges. Yet. ;-}
15:47
@swasheck They are equivalent but there is a difference. 6 whole bytes.
May I take a second to reaffirm my hatred for Hibernate?
Yours lovingly, Phil
@Phil You may :-}
@Phil Take two ... they're short
Perhaps a blog posting to go into the queue - 'Oh, Hibernate, how many ways do I loathe thee ...'
"A turd by any other name ..."
15:51
@Phil: Hadn't you replaced "Hibernate" with "MySQL" this morning?
Was just chatting to a dev. I'd rewritten a query to make it faster. "I'm not sure that's possible, given the object model". Grr
@ypercube CREATE SYNONYM HIBERNATE FOR MYSQL;
I wonder how you will deal with a Hibernate-MySQL combo.
16:13
All right, I wonder if it's enough work now to be worthy of an up-vote from this guy
0
A: Trouble with Alerts and Notifications on SQL Server 2000

Aaron BertrandFor SQL Server 2000, I quite honestly wouldn't bother trying to get operators to work. SQL Mail is a royal PITA and requires Outlook or a similar mail client to be installed on the server. I would rather just setup each job to have a step called "mail on failure", which uses a token to identify t...

@ypercube Spontaneous combustion
I feel so dirty having started up SQL Server 2000 and created a stored procedure that used CDO.Message <shudder>
@AaronBertrand ... monitors reporting services too?
uh, reporting services in 2000? uh, yeah, sure...
:-)
@AaronBertrand Sorry. Got my trial copy of SQL Sentry installed. I have some red reports ... which corresponds with an "emergency" ticket I received.
16:25
It monitors reporting service events (e.g. subscription failures, report failures). Performance Advisor itself monitors queries (by default top SQL captures queries > 5 seconds).
There is no generic "here is some reporting services activity that looks suspect"
If there are failures, you should see them on the calendar view
...and be able to drill in from there
Indeed. And I do. Color me impressed.
I'm not an SSRS guy at all, so you'll probably get better help in that area from the support team directly. They're pretty smart folks.
I am just the pretty face.
@AaronBertrand Oh - not asking for support. Just noticing that I had a couple of red reports and was able to diagnose them pretty quickly based on the tool. And then when the "emergency" ticket came in I was able to respond accordingly.
+1
Ah I see. Not objecting to asking support or curiosity questions ad hoc, just wouldn't be able to help much with SSRS, SSAS, SSIS etc.
Because if you ask me something I don't know, I'm just going to be a middle man anyway. :-)
16:55
Is an Index Scan basically a Table Scan?
JNK
JNK
@swasheck it's like a table scan but for an index
a clustered index scan is a table scan since the clustered index is the table
@swasheck almost, if your index covers your entire table
11
Q: What's the difference between a Table Scan and a Clustered Index Scan?

TerrapinSince both a Table Scan and a Clustered Index Scan essentially scan all records in the table, why is a Clustered Index Scan supposedly better? As an example - what's the performance difference between the following when there are many records?: declare @temp table( SomeColumn varchar(50) ) ...

JNK
JNK
otherwise it's a scan of the actual index
I've been reading through the various SO entries. I found a Remus answer that was thorough (on why an Index Scan would be used)
JNK
JNK
In the NC index scan it's probably looking for either a leaf level value OR for a RID or cluster key to point back to the parent row which leads to a key lookup
17:07
This is really interesting:
Joel Spolsky on May 21, 2012

Remember this old picture?

What’s that “Blog” circle supposed to be about, you ask? WHERE’S THE BLOGGING?

Since Stack Overflow launched, we’ve been trying to explain that it’s not just a Q&A platform: it’s also a place where you can publish things that you’ve learned: recipes, FAQs, HOWTOs, walkthroughs, and even bits of product documentation, as long you format it as a question and answer.

As Jeff wrote:

if you have a question that you already know the answer to …

ask + answer at the same time :-)
JNK
JNK
I think that'll help
since that did seem to be pretty common
17:30
@JNK @ypercube et al. Are there some resources that you could recommend to me that would help with understanding QEPs, indexing, and query optimization, in general. I've done some google searching (and went through use the index luke, though it was while at work and i was a bit distracted)
I'm quite poor at that aspect of the job.
JNK
JNK
Not off the top of my head. For me I mostly learned it as I went from various sources
I hit a perf problem on a complicated query and learned exec plans
I took over a massive data load that has like 4 TB of data a month and 3 weeks of builds a month and I learned indexing
Good to know
JNK
JNK
For indexing SQL Skills is good
I guess my question is how you learned indexing. Just dedicated time ... with SQL Skills
JNK
JNK
Kim Tripp has tons of info on her blog
also Gail Shaw (SQL In the wild)
for perf stuff, Quassnoi's blog is good (Explain Extended)
i have like 10 or 15 SQL blogs in my google reader
17:33
Thanks
JNK
JNK
Remus has good info too but it's almost always super deep into internals
17:44
@swasheck Grant Fritchey has a couple of free ebooks on execution plans that are a good starter
Nice. Thanks.
7832 users registered on the site (give or take, excluding community, etc)
726 voters eligible to vote
87 voted
those who voted are the 1% of this site
I mean, ya know, the 1.11% but whatever
JNK
JNK
@jcolebrand that's true
the involved 1%
18:06
Can the SO data explorer tell me the list of users who visited a question today?
JNK
JNK
dont think so
user data is accesible only for POSTS
as far as I know
also its heavily cached
I think like a couple of weeks old
yes that is true
ok well guess no way to prove my theory
really want to catch someone in the "vengeful down-vote" act and out them
JNK
JNK
someone did it to you?
I think so
JNK
JNK
SO or DBA?
i'm assuming SO
18:12
SO. Unless you know why an 8-month old answer like this deserves another down-vote:
1
Q: How do I add a "last updated" column in a SQL Server 2008 R2 table?

Avrohom YisroelI have a table in my SQL Server 2008 R2 database, and would like to add a column called LastUpdated, that will automatically be changed every time the row is updated. That way, I can see when each individual row was last updated. It seems that SQL Server 2008 R2 doesn't have a data type to handl...

JNK
JNK
chet did an edit 30 mins ago
My money is on him
looks like all 3 got DVs
Q and both As
I just upvoted them. Harmony restored
chet...rings a bell. I think I might have been vengefully downvoted by him in the past
@AaronBertrand if they do it to multiple posts at once there's a script that (quietly) catches them and reverses it.
18:15
@BenBrocka most of these assholes seem clever enough to stay under the radar
Yeah, if you only do one or two at a time it won't reverse
Looks like this guy has a problem with down-votes
2
Q: How can I retrieve an image from SQL Server using ASP.NET MVC with the Entity Framework?

GEOCHETI have seen other questions about this, but I have not seen a complete solution for this. I am using ASP.NET MVC with the Entity Framework, and I have a SQL Server database using an image datatype. View: <% foreach (var v in (IEnumerable<MyNamespace.Models.MyObject>)ViewData.Model) { ...

Maybe it's just his way of striking back at the world
-1
A: How can I exclude a specific part of a URL in MVC2?

GEOCHETRewriting the URL seems to have solved my issue: <rewrite> <rules> <rule name="Remove Virtual Directory"> <match url=".*" /> <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:0}" /> </rule> </rules> </rewrite> Article

Ugh WTF. Expertsexchange keeps showing up in my Google results even though I blacklisted them
JNK
JNK
did you mean Expert-Sexchange or Experts-Exchange?
3
He also edited this question, but didn't down-vote any of answers there:
0
Q: Date / Timestamp to record when a record was added to the table?

BettyDoes anyone know of a function as such that I can use to add an automatic date and timestamp in a column for when a user adds a record to the database table?

Which is probably how he arrived at the first question, since I proposed it as a duplicate
18:30
I don't even have enough rep to see these alleged downvotes
Yeah, looks like someone hates everyone involved
The first down-votes happened within the first five minutes. Then another round today. <shrug>
19:00
The rage of the ignorant is truly frustrating
19:20
@swasheck but sometimes you can find humor in it
@jgardner04 In this case, the end user was a programmer who thought he knew everything. I got about 3 emails in all-caps. Turns out, he entered the wrong data.
@swasheck blahaha. I had a client once who sent every email in all caps, no punctuation, and no concept of a paragraph. At least he would end it with "-MIKE" so I knew who it was from.
@jgardner04 It was epic - he's pretty high on the food chain and he tends to get his way through brute force. This time, he was trying to schedule an SSRS report to be emailed to him. It "wasn't working." I asked for clarification on "not working." Got a BUNCH of capitalized email blowback. Turns out ... he was not scheduling delivery to his actual email.
Despite all his rage ...
@swasheck nice. Some people just need to be slapped around with a hose every now and again (myself included) to remind them that humility and patience is a virtue not to be forgotten.
It helps build character
19:53
WTF? He just did it again:
1
Q: Update Random Sample in Large Table

SnowyUsing SQL Server 2012, I have a table with 7 million rows. PK column is a GUID (COMB GUID). I am trying to test the performance of a query and first need to update a random sampling of data, I want to change a column value (not the PK) of 50,000 rows. Selecting Top 50,000 Order by NEWID() takes...

JNK
JNK
The timing matches exactly too.
Did you piss him off?
No idea, I had never heard of him before today. Flagged it because I don't have the patience for kindergarten games.
And if that doesn't work, I'm going to down-vote 2 of his answers a day for the next two weeks. :-)
JNK
JNK
I was going to say flag it
For better or worse he has a reputation
How dumb could he be, to edit the question and down-vote at the same time, multiple times on the same day?
I guess some people are just douchebags and can't help themselves.
JNK
JNK
he was known for poking the bear I think
similar to Evan
20:02
@AaronBertrand Don't fall to his level on this. There are more than one among us that look up to you ;-)
@Lamak I was kidding about the down-voting, of course. That's why I had a smiley. :-)
JNK
JNK
@Lamak No I think it's just one!
But seriously, WTF?
@JNK Ok, you got me on this. I truly do, thoug. I've learned a lot from his answers
While clearly I'm letting it bother me, does he think randomly down-voting arbitrary answers really changes anyone's lives, or makes the site better for anyone?
To be honest, I'm only bothered because a -2 does funky things to my nice, round rep number. I like it to end in 0 or 5 because I'm a nerd.
20:05
@AaronBertrand Oh, if you had said that before, I wouldn't have upvote you, I better downvote four other of your answers
JNK
JNK
@AaronBertrand some people just like to stir the pot
or kick the bee hive
@Lamak well it's corrected itself now (daily cap)
20:29
I wonder, would questions like cs.stackexchange.com/questions/2/… be on topic for dba.SE?
JNK
JNK
@KenLi Potentially. I think if it was asked here it wouldn't be closed or migrated but it got asked in the right place (CS)

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