Hidden Blocking Blocking occurs when you program must discontinue execution while waiting for a resource shared by another process. As our CPUs continue to grow the number of available cores and/or processors, this issue continues to grow. SQL Server takes advantage of multiple processors, and may be susceptible to blocking. Built into SQL Server Management Studio are a number of […]

DMVs to the Rescue Recently I had a database server performance drop dramatically. Query times were three to four times longer than previously with no apparent cause. It was as if someone flipped a switch, and everything starting running really slowly. This is on a windows machine running Microsoft SQL Server. When this kind of thing happens there can be […]

If you’ve never attended a "real" virtual conference, you’re in for a treat. I’m sure you’ve attended other webinars, other "virtual conferences" where you are surprised to find out the sessions are all about sales, all about pushing products. Not so with the SSWUG.ORG virtual conference. I guarantee it! (Literally) We have no sales in our presentations. None. These are […]

How Efficient is Your Application? One of the things I find energizing about software development today is the possibility of massive deployment. No longer are we restricted to a specific platform for everything we write. It is possible to write code, and with some forethought and a little tweaking have it able to run on phones, pads, pods, tables, PCs […]

How Many More Programming Languages Do We Need? When I was learning to program there were few languages from which to choose. The languages did not tend to follow the platform or base OS as much as the purpose of the language itself. Fortran was known for performance, math and engineering. COBOL was known for the documentation of the syntax […]

How Many More Programming Languages Do We Need? If you were to as Rockerfeller of Standard Oil how much money was enough legend has his reply as, “just a little more.” Somehow it feels like that is our answer with programming languages and frameworks. Rather than complete them, we find the holes, and simply start a whole new plan of […]

Microsoft is letting the cat out of the bag at last with specifics about the upcoming release of SQL Server. So many interesting and good things to think through and many are focused on the core engine this time around, which is exciting as well. First up – in-memory processing for OLTP type workloads. Pretty incredible. I’ve seen some nearly […]

TypeScript…Will it Catch On? TypeScript is a language sponsored by Microsoft making it easier to write JavaScript code while using more structured language constructs. Some of the features it supports are: Type annotations and compile-time type checking Classes Interfaces Modules Abbreviated "arrow" syntax for anonymous functions You can write native JavaScript that emulates some of these concepts; but not in […]

Continuous Integration and Other Tips I keep talking about continuous integration because I have come to rely on the feedback it provides. As you commit changes to your version control, the continuous integration engine gets a fresh copy of the code, builds the code, and runs tests against the compiled results providing the team with a quick picture of the […]

I spent some time talking with Microsoft about the upcoming releases and one thing is very clear. The view you take of the environment will soon be quite different. Today, it’s all about on-premise vs. public cloud (yes, I realize there are options). But, the new releases here, or on the way will make it so "where" isn’t important, it’s […]