The VSS Mess
by Tony Davis | 02 September 2010
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1 comment 
Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe (VSS) will soon cease to exist. Mainstream support will end in April 2011, and so users will be forced to make the leap to an alternative: But which one?
The DIS-Information Principle, Part II
by Joe Celko | 01 September 2010
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Database design simply involves populating a schema with tables that model sets of entities and relationships. A table will contain Columns that model an entity's attributes and contain scalar values. What could go wrong? Plenty, unfortunately, when these simple principles are misunderstood or flouted, and Joe continues to itemize bad design practices that can cause subsequent grief for the application developers.
Minesweeper in T-SQL
by Auke Teeninga | 02 September 2010
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Whatever happened to the idea that programming in TSQL can be fun? A Simple-Talk reader contributes an article to remind us all that there is more to TSQL than wrestling with DMVs and pummeling recalcitrant correlated subqueries.
Switching from Selenium 1.x to WebDriver/Selenium 2 and HtmlUnit
by Ben Adderson | 26 August 2010
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Recently I became aware of the work that is being done to merge the WebDriver and Selenium codebases. The result is Selenium 2, a project that aims to offer the best bits from both.
The MERGE Statement in SQL Server 2008
by Robert Sheldon | 27 August 2010
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When the SQL MERGE statement was introduced in SQL Server 2008, it allowed database programmers to replace reams of messy code with something quick, simple and maintainable. The MERGE syntax just takes a bit of explaining, and Rob Sheldon is, as always, on hand to explain with plenty of examples.
Setting up your own free Virtualized test environment
by Sean Duffy | 26 August 2010
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If you need to test new software, configurations, or operating systems, a virtual machine saves time, risk and hardware. You can set up a virtual Test environment for free with some products such as VMware Server 2. All you need is a simple set of instructions about how to set it up; and here it is, thanks to Sean Duffy.
OUTPUT Clause Saves The Day
by Johnm | 28 August 2010
Frank and Kyle were commiserating in the pub about their latest coding challenges. With a significant air of resignation, Frank described his conundrum with @@IDENTITY - complete with dramatic use of waving hands and sound effects. Kyle, with cool confidence, took a sip of his tall glass of Sam Adams and said "Did you try the output clause of the INSERT statement?"
Raw Materials: Healthy Caution or...Something Else?
by Larry Gonick | 01 September 2010
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Derek slips a cog.
DMVs for Query Plan Metadata
by Louis Davidson and Tim Ford | 17 August 2010
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Before you can tackle any performance issues with a working database, you need to know which queries to work on first: The ones that are taking the most time in total, and which are the most expensive in terms of cache, CPU and disk. Although SQL Server Management Studio can help, it isn't long before you need an armoury of DMVs to provide you the statistics to find the culprits.
Josef Richberg: DBA of the Day
by Richard Morris | 20 August 2010
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As the winner of the Exceptional DBA Awards 2010 is announced, we take a moment to recognize last year's winner Josef Richberg. We sent Richard Morris to meet Josef to find out what has happened in the past year, and if life has changed for the Exceptional DBA of 2009.