Update See the round up post here.
I was asked to host T-SQL Tuesday this month, T-SQL Tuesday #52. This marks my second time hosting and I’m happy to do it again.
Your writing assignment for March 2014 is to
pick a popular opinion and argue against it.
… or at least qualify it. Given any issue, people drift to two kinds of crowds. There’s the “it depends” crowd and there’s the “never ever” crowd. We tend to fall in with one crowd or the other. This month, I want you to find an “never ever” issue and argue for it (or conversely, find a “always” issue and argue against it).
I wonder how this month will go. It takes guts to go against common wisdom.
You don’t necessarily have to argue against a universal opinion, but it should at least be popular. I think that your choice of opinions is practically limitless:
- Bob Duffy had a list of 10 interview questions that annoy SQL professionals. With some great topics there including GUIDs, Cursors, and heaps.
- Google results for “SQL.Server should.never”
- Fair’s fair. Here are the results for “SQL.Server should.always”
- Does anyone want to have a shot at redeeming Microsoft Access?
- Foreign Keys, SchmoreignKeys.
- Check it out. SQL Server supports varbinary(max)! Ideal for json documents and xml documents (or both!)
- Shrinking databases and/or log files (because of the fragmentation! God save us all from fragmentation!)
Here’s a little secret. This month’s topic is not for you. It’s for the readers. It’s a chance for you to give them a more nuanced understanding of a topic that they may not have given a lot of thought up until now. I’m a little curious myself.
The rules are the same as always:
Follow These Rules
- The post must go live on your blog between 00:00 GMT Tuesday, March 11, 2014 and 00:00 GMT Wednesday, March 12, 2014.
In other words, set your sql server date, time and timezone properly and run this script:IF GETUTCDATE() BETWEEN '20140311' AND '20140312' SELECT 'You Can Post' ELSE SELECT 'Not Time To Post'
- Your post has to link back to this post, and the link must be anchored from the logo (found above) which must also appear at the top of the post
- Leave a comment here (below) or I won’t be able to find your post.
That’s it! Good luck! Can’t wait to see what you have in store.
Your humble host,
Michael J. Swart
Oh, wow, great topic. I’d do fragmentation but I feel like I’ve been beating that dead horse a lot lately:
http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2012/08/sql-server-index-fragmentation/
Now to think of something else….
Comment by Brent Ozar — March 4, 2014 @ 4:47 pm
Let’s kick things off. Here’s mine:
https://michaeljswart.com/2014/03/dont_mind_select_star/
Comment by Michael J. Swart — March 10, 2014 @ 11:52 pm
Here is mine, Michael -> http://borishristov.com/blog/t-sql-tuesday-52-argue-against-a-popular-opinion/
Comment by Boris Hristov — March 11, 2014 @ 12:56 am
[…] and out-numbered in a fight. Hosting Adam Machanic’s rolling blog party this month is Michael J Swart – great topic Michael – great […]
Pingback by T-SQL Tue #51: Eye Heart You Dee Effs | Russ Thomas - SQL Judo — March 11, 2014 @ 2:12 am
Thanks for hosting Michael – great topic. Here is my post. Eye Heart You Dee Effs. http://wp.me/p2TlyL-es
Comment by Russ Thomas ( @SQLJudo ) — March 11, 2014 @ 2:18 am
[…] post is part of T-SQL Tuesday #52, which is being hosted this month by Michael J. Swart (@MJSwart). Michael is asking us to argue […]
Pingback by Why I Hate Row Compression | Bob Pusateri - The Outer Join — March 11, 2014 @ 8:17 am
Ken Fisher asked me to link to his entry (since he’s away today or something)
Here you go Ken: http://sqlstudies.com/2014/03/11/keep-your-head-down/
Comment by Michael J. Swart — March 11, 2014 @ 9:13 am
Posted… http://sqlblog.com/blogs/rob_farley/archive/2014/03/12/scans-are-better-than-seeks-really.aspx
Thanks for hosting. 🙂
Comment by Rob Farley — March 11, 2014 @ 9:25 am
And here’s mine:
Stop Tuning with Wait Stats Percentages:
http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2014/03/t-sql-tuesday-stop-tuning-wait-stats-percentages/
Comment by Brent Ozar — March 11, 2014 @ 9:33 am
And here’s mine (since my static HTML blog won’t generate pingbacks): http://jeremiahpeschka.com/2014/03/11/what-use-is-an-average.html
Comment by Jeremiah Peschka — March 11, 2014 @ 9:43 am
[…] Many people see CXPACKET at the top of their waits and start trying to fix it. I know this topic’s been done before, but people ask me about it enough that it should be done again, and again. In fact, Brent Ozar wrote an excellent article about it, and Jonathan Kehayias wrote an article about tweaking it using the cost threshold of parallelism. Even with those, it took Grant Fritchey warning us to be careful about giving guidance to lead me to Bob Ward’s take on it. After all of these people and more saying CXPACKET isn’t what you think it is, enough people have it all wrong to the point that I felt this was the biggest piece of public opinion to speak out against for Michael Swart’s T-SQL Tuesday #052. […]
Pingback by Worry about CXPACKET | Simple SQL Server — March 11, 2014 @ 1:05 pm
[…] invitation this month for #52 is to argue against a popular opinion. He asking us to find a "never ever" issue and […]
Pingback by T-SQL Tuesday #52 – Arguments | Voice of the DBA — March 11, 2014 @ 1:22 pm
[…] month’s T-SQL Tuesday, a grand tradition started by Adam Machanic, is being hosted by Michael J. Swart(@MJSwart). Great […]
Pingback by #tsql2sday 52: Stop depending on "it depends" | Art of the DBA — March 11, 2014 @ 3:03 pm
[…] T-SQL Tuesday! This month, Michael Swart has challenged us to argue against a popularly-held opinion about SQL Server. “Arguing Against Popular Opinion” sounds like the title of my […]
Pingback by Less Than Dot - Blog - T-SQL Tuesday #052 – Why Back Up System Databases? — March 11, 2014 @ 5:29 pm
Thanks for hosting, sir! Here’s my take on Why Back Up System Databases? http://blogs.lessthandot.com/?p=2498
Comment by Jes Borland — March 11, 2014 @ 5:30 pm
Thanks for hosting, great idea!!!
http://clarkcreations.net/blog/tsql-tuesday-052-argue-against-a-popular-opinion/
Comment by Tammy — March 11, 2014 @ 10:06 pm
Well do to some weird technical issue my page wasn’t loading in Firefox at all and wouldn’t load properly half the time in ie. I change the URL for it
http://clarkcreations.net/blog/tsql-tuesday-052/ and now it just works.
Thanks!!
Tam
Comment by Tammy — March 12, 2014 @ 3:34 pm