February 21, 2009 at 8:23 am
GilaMonster (2/21/2009)
After yet another case of someone just posting a query and asking why it was slow (If I could tell, I'd have some really, really happy clients), I'm contemplating writing a sequel to Jeff's "Forum etiquette" article on what and how to post performance problems.Thoughts, comments, suggestions, contributions, ... ?
I think that's a great idea. Once I find out what the URL for the new article is, I'll add a link to it in the introduction of the "Forum etiquette" article.
--Jeff Moden
February 21, 2009 at 8:28 am
Grant Fritchey (2/21/2009)
Lynn Pettis (2/20/2009)
David Webb (2/20/2009)
Hmmmmm...So many AD&D players.
DM: The OP has just sprung from behind a large pile of unread MSDN Library DVDs, wielding an update query with no qualifiers.
Cardinal Moden (15th level Palladin): I raise the Holy Porkchop catapult and fire.
Well, you can see where that could go...
Though playing only on the forum might stretch the game out quite a bit...
I actually started playing D&D with the original 3 books back in high school. Does that give away my age as well?
I was in Jr. High. I saw the original three books, but back then I was a war-gamer and looked down my nose at those silly role playing freaks... till I played once...
Anyone remember Squad Leader? City Fight? Air War? Anyone else lose three entire days of their lives to Wacht Am Rein fueled by quart cokes and packs of sweetarts from the Quick Trip or was that just me?
Loved playing war games. War in Europe, Wellingtons Victory, Invasion America, Air War (wife gave that one to the Goodwill several years ago, ticked me off), and manu others.
Also did Napoleonics (15mm) which was also fun.
February 21, 2009 at 8:34 am
GilaMonster (2/21/2009)
Kit G (2/21/2009)
I got hooked in high school, played in college and have kept it up sporatically afterwards. And while I can't say that I lost any days... I do remember one evening to the next morning session fueled by a liter of coke and a two pound bag of peanut M&Ms. It's amazing I didn't just self-combust from the caffiene and the sugar or go diabetic. But then, my metabolism could take a lot more punishment back then.The longest I've played in one go was 3pm to about 10pm. We were supposed to finish at 8, but the guys were enjoying the haunted house so much they wanted to finish it that game.
Lotsa chips and coffee, I don't drink coke.
In high school, I remember when games would start at 12:00 PM Saturday, last until 5:00 AM Sunday, pick-up again at 12:00 PM Sunday and go until 10:00 PM. During the summer or breaks, we'd go even longer.
February 21, 2009 at 9:23 am
Wow, never played that long. We might have gone 8 or 10 hours some days, but definitely not all night.
Maybe I'm not as much of a geek as I thought 😛
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/way0utwest
Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help
My Blog: www.voiceofthedba.com
February 21, 2009 at 9:53 am
In high school and before, we'd play a bazillion different card games... mostly Poker, Spades, and HiLoJack. At home, it was Pinochle, graph paper battleship, graph paper road race, building models (both kits and from raw wood stock), gardening, building forts out of scrap lumber in the summer and out of snow in the winter, and some good comic books. BB Gun target practice was a lot of fun... even Mom got involved in those competetions once in a while. There were also some mighty long Monopoly marathons. When Dad needed to do something around the house, he'd teach us what he was doing. I drove my first 16 penny nail at 4 (took half the bloody day) and sweated my first pipe at 6. Mom taught us things about the kitchen... I cooked my first breakfast (scrambled eggs, of course) at the age of 5 (Mom was working, Dad was real sick with the mumps... made him breakfast in bed just from watching Mom in the morning) and canned my first batch of wild-blackberry jam at the age of 7.
Of course, there was fishing, swimming, treeclimbing, diving for Quahogs, spearfishing, boating, sailing, camping, rebuilding cars, catching frogs, turtles, snakes, and lizards for pets, and even a little sanctioned drag racing. There were Tinker Toys, the original Lego's, electric and wooden train sets, slot cars of all sizes, and tooth-pick models. There were bicycles, unicycle basketball, Naval Cadets, museums, go carts, kites, Este's Rockets, and a whole bunch of other fun things to do. I was also cooking 350 pounds of roast beef at day at a Lums restaurant by the age of 16, helped build 6 houses between the age of 15 and 18, and did all sorts of other neat stuff.
In the Navy, I played the greatest game of all... sub vs sub... heh... Like they say, "There are only two types of ships in the oceans... submarines and... targets."
The game has changed a bit since then... T-SQL (gotta love it because the game keeps changing), keeping up the house, gardening, pool league on Sundays, and the most fun of all... tinkering with stuff. Then, there's the motorcycle. Debbie won't go near it, so all the rides are solo. A warm Sunday night on the bike is the best. Pool league is over by then so after a great day of doing stuff around the house, I'll shower up, jump on the bike, and ride to one of my favorite restaurants about 40 miles away. Then, I take the long way home down a road that has some nice straightaways way out in the boonies where I can open 'er up basically without fear (just gotta watch for deer and road kill). About halfway through, there's a place with about 4 miles of some real nice curves that you gently go through at about 35 miles an hour. It's not the speed that's fun... it's the lean. Then, about ten miles more of back road "highway" (two lanes of well paved road, very little traffic), a couple of highway miles to open 'er up on, again, and then a quiet two miles back to home. I love it... just me, the purr of the engine, and some great time to just think without consequence.
--Jeff Moden
February 21, 2009 at 10:44 am
One thing that I would really like to see, is better capabilities for managing, organizing or even just finding forum posts, even just our own previous posts. Great as this site is, this is by far it's weakest point.
The formal search doesn't have many capabilities, external Google never works very well on either copyrighted and "register to access" sites (and this site is both) and the internal Google search finds articles OK, but fails to find 90% of the relevant forum posts.
Simple example: I am giving a presentation on changing Cursors to set-based SQL to the PSSUG/South Jersey SQL SIG on Tuesday night, and I am trying to find some of my previous examples. Now I know that I have at least 30 or 40 examples of this in post's on these forums, but I'll be damned if I can find more than a handful. I either get a zillion hits, with only a few relevant, or if I get too specific, I get hardly anything. And I know that I have loads that aren't showing up in any of my searches... :angry:
[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]
February 21, 2009 at 10:55 am
I agree with that... searchs on this forum, ummm... suck. (Sorry, no nicer way to say it). How can we tell the users to do a search when we know it's not gonna work? And, like Barry, there certain phrases that I know I've written in the past and the internal search engine will frequently not find anything close. For example, I know that I've said "CLR's are for people who don't really know T-SQL." many times... but when I look for "CLR's are for people", I only get one hit and if I look for "CLRs are for people ", I get no hits. And, forget any boolean searches like what is actually available on Google.
--Jeff Moden
February 21, 2009 at 11:09 am
RBarryYoung (2/21/2009)
One thing that I would really like to see, is better capabilities for managing, organizing or even just finding forum posts, even just our own previous posts. Great as this site is, this is by far it's weakest point.
Absolutely. I sometimes want to convert something I've written here into a blog post. If I don't copy the URL, there's a chance I'll never find it again
Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability
February 21, 2009 at 11:40 am
Yeah, the search facility is really awful. I cannot imagine how it hard it is for you, Jeff, with 3 to 5 times as many posts as me!
Example: use advanced search for keywords:"cursor, cursors" and member "RBarryYoung"; No Hits. Why? Apparently, because the "All Forums" option in the forums list is not selected by default, resulting in the appearance that Advanced Search is permanently broken.
OK, re-Navigate to advanced search again, and search for "cursor", member "RBarryYoung" with "All Forums" and what do you get? Three(3) hits! Does anyone seriously think that I have only ever used the word "cursor" three times here?!?
And why did I say to "Re-Navigate" to the Advanced Search page? because backing up to the page does not work: everything's there, but the "Search" button is dead. You could use the "Return to previous page..." link on the No Results page, but that has the same effect. You could try refreshing the page, but that doesn't work either. No, you actually have to re-navigate through the search menu again in order to get it to work a second time, losing all of your search settings. ... 🙁 ...
[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung[font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]
February 21, 2009 at 11:51 am
Ditto for the search... arhem "function". (I actually had to use the IE search function to even find it on the site, but that's another story).
For all who care, you can use google to do pretty good research on this site like this :
site:sqlservercentral.com rbarryyoung cursor >>> that gets me 69 hits. I'm sure it's still missing a bunch, but it's going to be a lot closer than the inner google search or event site search.
February 21, 2009 at 11:51 am
BWAAS-HAA!!! Now you know why I like Tinker Toys... it's real easy to find the red sticks. 😛
--Jeff Moden
February 21, 2009 at 11:53 am
Ninja's_RGR'us (2/21/2009)
Ditto for the search... arhem "function". (I actually had to use the IE search function to even find it on the site, but that's another story).For all who care, you can use google to do pretty good research on this site like this :
site:sqlservercentral.com rbarryyoung cursor >>> that gets me 69 hits. I'm sure it's still missing a bunch, but it's going to be a lot closer than the inner google search or event site search.
Steve, do you guys use an xml map on the site? If you don't, google will not keep the entire site indexed. That's also a great way to get a bunch more traffic to the site to increase the member count ;).
February 21, 2009 at 11:53 am
noeld (2/20/2009)
Can't believe this joke thread is still alive!
Yup it is... and I bet it's going to hit 6000 posts even before you do! :w00t:
February 21, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I know this started as a forum for venting about OPs who do not post enough information or demand answers or other wise become a pain in the you know what.
Now here is the complete opposite. Please visit this forum posting and see how this OP tries to help themself or us to help them
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic661324-169-2.aspx#bm662053
And last but not least chip in with some assistance.
Early in the postings admitted this was a student project, took Steve Jones' initial suggested code, modified it to extend his results and when stuck asked for additional help ... and posted additional information ... note too that help is asked for, NOT demanded ... and he is polite enough to say thanks when you do attempt to lend assistance.
So once again Chip in with some assistance to this OP
February 22, 2009 at 9:59 am
Hey Steve another one that I requested before and it popped up again...
try going to that tread...
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost662201.aspx
I have no idea where this is and how to get there to help if needed.
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