The Lazy DBA

Index fragmentation is a lot like cholesterol. The bad kind, not the good kind. It builds up slowly. Some deletes occur, leaving empty space in a data page here. Inserts occur, but the target page is packed, so a page split occurs so the record can be inserted in the correct order, yet the other page is now mostly empty. Updates are a double whammy. Over time, your index pages continue to be less and less full, meaning you have to perform that many more reads per query.

Just like cholesterol, it’s not perceptible. Sure, if you compared yourself now to 10 years ago, you’d be able to instantly recognize that you feel tired all the time, or occasionally dizzy spells or have blurred vision. Then all of a sudden — HEART ATTACK!

Ok, so maybe it’s not a heart attack. However your phone is ringing, and your phone never rings. Continue reading

They say that the best way to find success is to find someone who is successful, and to use them as a model.  So yeah, I’m blogging, despite the fact that there’s millions of blowhards that all think that they too are some unique and special snowflake.

Like most bloggers, I have some selfish reasons which prompted the decision, and the primary reason I’ve decided to give it a shot is for my own professional development.

There are folks in every community for every technology that have thousands of regular visitors to their interweb soapbox.  Granted, they have their audience for good reasons: they’re great speakers, have excellent breadth and depth of knowledge, and they provide insightful perspective on problems they’ve experienced that their audience regularly encounters.

In short: They provide value.

To be honest, I originally just intended on changing my email hosting provider, though I decided that an earnest attempt at blogging might not be a terri-bad idea.  I’m always struggling to find some outlet in which to entertain myself.  I also occasionally solve difficult problems in an elegant way, and it’d be great if I had an always accessible reference to the solutions wherever I go.  I’m detail-oriented to a fault, and love to inject my special sense of humor into things, so I figure it couldn’t hurt to make it available to the world in case anyone else was interested.

So I guess this is the point where we watch me post a few piddly articles and then abruptly fade in oblivion, as it is fashionable for one to do on their Spacebook or Myface page, right?  Hey, that’s more common than not!  If it happens I’m trying to avoid breaking the blogger mold.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!