March 2010 - Posts

• Dear ISV: You’re Keeping Me Awake Nights with Your VARCHAR() Dates

  I generally sleep well and deeply. My wife and I once went to sleep, back when we lived in the Heights neighborhood in Houston, and when we woke up the next day, the house across the street had been removed . We never heard a thing. However, tonight it’s Read More... Posted Thursday, March 11, 2010 6:07 AM by merrillaldrich | 9 Comments

• T-SQL Tuesday #004: Real World SSD’s

  A contribution for T-SQL Tuesday #004 , hosted by the illustrious Mike Walsh! In the past few weeks I had some correspondence with Kendal Van Dyke leading up to his SQL Saturday presentation on SSDs, and he got me fired up to share a little of my team’s Read More... Posted Monday, March 08, 2010 9:22 PM by merrillaldrich | 4 Comments Filed under: san, performance, Storage Design, Solid State Disks

• OT: Thanks to Two Past Mentors

  Today I wanted to take a break from the usual technical posts and give a shout out to two people who took the time to help me out years ago – I am sure embarrassing them mightily in the process! These two guys had a real influence over the arc of my life Read More... Posted Sunday, March 07, 2010 3:48 PM by merrillaldrich | 1 Comments