In Recovery...

Survey: memory configuration

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:26:00 -0800

Time for another survey - this time around memory configuration.

Here is some code to run if you're on SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 (thanks Jonathan!):

SELECT
    [physical_memory_in_bytes] AS [PhysMemBytes],
    [physical_memory_in_use_kb] AS [PhysMemInUseKB],
    [available_physical_memory_kb] AS [PhysMemAvailKB],
    [locked_page_allocations_kb] AS [LPAllocKB],
    [max_server_memory] AS [MaxSvrMem],
    [min_server_memory] AS [MinSvrMem]
FROM
    sys.dm_os_sys_info
CROSS JOIN
    sys.dm_os_process_memory
CROSS JOIN
    sys.dm_os_sys_memory
CROSS JOIN (
    SELECT
        [value_in_use] AS [max_server_memory]
    FROM
        sys.configurations
    WHERE
        [name] = 'max server memory (MB)') AS c
CROSS JOIN (
    SELECT
        [value_in_use] AS [min_server_memory]
    FROM
        sys.configurations
    WHERE
        [name] = 'min server memory (MB)') AS c2

On 2012, the code is (thanks Bob!):

SELECT
    [physical_memory_kb] AS [PhysMemKB],
    [physical_memory_in_use] AS [PhysMemInUseKB],
    [available_physical_memory_kb] AS [PhysMemAvailKB],
    [locked_page_allocations_kb] AS [LPAllocKB],
    [max_server_memory] AS [MaxSvrMem],
    [min_server_memory] AS [MinSvrMem]
FROM
    sys.dm_os_sys_info
CROSS JOIN
    sys.dm_os_process_memory
CROSS JOIN
    sys.dm_os_sys_memory
CROSS JOIN (
    SELECT
        [value_in_use] AS [max_server_memory]
    FROM
        sys.configurations
    WHERE
        [name] = 'max server memory (MB)') AS c
CROSS JOIN (
    SELECT
        [value_in_use] AS [min_server_memory]
    FROM
        sys.configurations
    WHERE
        [name] = 'min server memory (MB)') AS c2

And on 2005/2000, if you want to participate, send me the amount of memory on the Windows server, plus the min and max server memory configuration for SQL Server. There's some PowerShell in one of the early comments that will help (thanks Eric!).

You can either send me email with the info or leave a comment on this post. I'll editorialize the results in a couple of weeks.

Thanks!

Underwater photos from Indonesia - nudibranchs

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:37:00 -0800

(A pair of Much-Desired Flabellinas mating.)

We spent most of January in Indonesia and as part of the trip we spent 11 days on the fabulous Paradise Dancer live-aboard dive boat diving in the most bio-diverse waters in the world. The reefs were really healthy and there was an overwhelming abundance of life under the waves. I can strongly recommend the Aggressor and Dancer live-aboard boats!

In this post I want to show you the creatures that I like seeing the most - nudibranchs (sea slugs) and flatworms. I photographed an incredible 61 separate species on 36 dives - a record that's going to be hard to beat! Here are my favorite 20 from more than 2000 shots.

Click each image for a 1024x768 version. Let me know if you'd like a full-size copy of any for a desktop background. Enjoy!

Left to right below: Thysanozoon nigropapillosum (Yellowspot Flatworm) and Acanthozoon sp. (Papillate Flatworm).

Left to right below: Long-Cirri Phyllodesmium and Black-Margined Glossodoris.

Left to right below: Tyron's Resbecia mating and Serena's Notodoris.

Left to right below: Giant Hypselodoris and Willan's Chromodoris.

Left to right below: Elegant Phyllidia and Giant Hypselodoris just about to mate.

Left to right below: Serpent Pteraeolidia and Thysanozoon nigropapillosum (Yellowspot Flatworm) free-swimming on a night dive.

Left to right below: Dusky Nembrotha and Pseudobiceros bedfordi (Elegant Flatworm).

Left to right below: Anne's Chromodoris and Loch's Chromodoris.

Left to right below: Celestial Phyllidia mating and Purple-Edged Ceratosoma.

Below: Scalloped Ceratosoma.

Code to list potential cluster key space savings per table

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:20:00 -0800

Back in January I posted the results of the cluster key size survey I ran in 2011 and explained how the larger the cluster key is on your table, the more space is being wasted in all the nonclustered index rows. Check it out if you haven't already.

I've finally put together the code that will run through all your databases and give you a per-table indication of how much space is being taken up by cluster keys in nonclustered indexes, and the potential space savings if you converted the cluster key to a single 8-byte bigint. You can get it below or from here: KeySpaceSavingsSingleResultSet.zip (1.57 kb)

You can mess around with the code to do what you want. And I'm continuing to use sp_msforeachdb because it's the fastest way for me to knock out code for you, and it continues to irritate my good friend Aaron Bertrand :-)

Enjoy!

/*============================================================================
File: KeySpaceSavingsSingleResultSet.sql

Summary: Potential cluster key space savings

SQL Server Versions: 2005 onwards
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by Paul S. Randal, SQLskills.com

For more scripts and sample code, check out
http://www.SQLskills.com

You may alter this code for your own *non-commercial* purposes. You may
republish altered code as long as you include this copyright and give due
credit, but you must obtain prior permission before blogging this code.

THIS CODE AND INFORMATION ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF
ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
============================================================================*/

IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM msdb.sys.objects WHERE [name] = 'SQLskillsIKSpace')
    DROP TABLE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace;
GO
CREATE TABLE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace (
    DatabaseID SMALLINT,
SchemaName SYSNAME,
ObjectName SYSNAME,
    ObjectID INT,
    IndexCount SMALLINT DEFAULT (0),
    TableRows BIGINT DEFAULT (0),
    KeyCount SMALLINT DEFAULT (0),
    KeyWidth SMALLINT DEFAULT (0));
GO

EXEC sp_MSforeachdb
    N'IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM (SELECT DISTINCT [name]
    FROM sys.databases WHERE [state_desc] = ''ONLINE''
        AND [database_id] > 4
        AND [name] != ''pubs''
        AND [name] != ''Northwind''
        AND [name] != ''distribution''
        AND [name] NOT LIKE ''ReportServer%''
        AND [name] NOT LIKE ''Adventure%'') AS names WHERE [name] = ''?'')
BEGIN
USE [?]

INSERT INTO msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
(DatabaseID, SchemaName, ObjectName, ObjectID)
SELECT DB_ID (''?''), SCHEMA_NAME (o.[schema_id]), OBJECT_NAME (o.[object_id]), o.[object_id]
FROM sys.objects o
WHERE o.[type_desc] IN (''USER_TABLE'', ''VIEW'')
    AND o.[is_ms_shipped] = 0
    AND EXISTS (
        SELECT *
        FROM sys.indexes
        WHERE [index_id] = 1
            AND [object_id] = o.[object_id]);

UPDATE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
SET [TableRows] = (
    SELECT SUM ([rows])
    FROM sys.partitions p
    WHERE p.[object_id] = [ObjectID]
    AND p.[index_id] = 1)
WHERE [DatabaseID] = DB_ID (''?'');

UPDATE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
SET [IndexCount] = (
    SELECT COUNT (*)
    FROM sys.indexes i
    WHERE i.[object_id] = [ObjectID]
    AND i.[is_hypothetical] = 0
    AND i.[is_disabled] = 0
    AND i.[index_id] != 1)
WHERE [DatabaseID] = DB_ID (''?'');

UPDATE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
SET [KeyCount] = (
    SELECT COUNT (*)
    FROM sys.index_columns ic
    WHERE ic.[object_id] = [ObjectID]
    AND ic.[index_id] = 1)
WHERE [DatabaseID] = DB_ID (''?'');

UPDATE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
SET [KeyWidth] = (
    SELECT SUM (c.[max_length])
    FROM sys.columns c
    JOIN sys.index_columns ic
    ON c.[object_id] = ic.[object_id]
    AND c.[object_id] = [ObjectID]
    AND ic.[column_id] = c.[column_id]
    AND ic.[index_id] = 1)
WHERE [DatabaseID] = DB_ID (''?'');

DELETE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
WHERE
([KeyCount] = 1 AND [KeyWidth] < 9)
OR [IndexCount] = 0 OR [TableRows] = 0;

END';
GO

SELECT
DB_NAME ([DatabaseID]) AS [Database],
[SchemaName] AS [Schema],
[ObjectName] AS [Table],
    [IndexCount] AS [NCIndexes],
    [KeyCount] AS [ClusterKeys],
    [KeyWidth],
    [TableRows],
    [IndexCount] * [TableRows] * [KeyWidth] AS [KeySpaceInBytes],
    ([IndexCount] * [TableRows] * ([KeyWidth] - 8)) AS [PotentialSavings]
FROM msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace
ORDER BY [PotentialSavings] DESC;

DROP TABLE msdb.dbo.SQLskillsIKSpace;
GO

Photos from first part of Indonesia trip

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 17:28:00 -0800

We decided to escape the wintery weather in Seattle this year by coming to Indonesia for January (our third trip here), including a long dive trip in the remote Raja Ampat region near Papua. Before heading out there we spent a few days in Bali and yesterday we hooked up with our good friend Ketut to drive around some of the places we haven't seen (we've been here a few times before). We decided to head out to the western portion of the island where Ketut's village is, and after visiting his family we headed up into the mountains to check out the rice fields and the incredibly lush and verdant foliage. Btw, the monkeys are Macaques and hang out by the side of the road on the way down the mountain.

All the photos were taken with a Canon EOS5D on aperture priority with an EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS lens (except the one obvious fisheye shot which was using an 8-15mm f/4.0L fisheye).

Click each photo for a 1024x683 enlargement.

Enjoy!

Survey results: How cluster key size can lead to GBs of wasted space

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:46:00 -0800

Back in November I kicked off a survey that had you run some code to get some details about your cluster keys, nonclustered indexes, and table size. I got results from more than 500 systems across the world, resulting in 97565 lines of data - thanks!

The purpose of the survey is to highlight one of the side-effects of not adhering to the general guidelines (i.e. there are exceptions to these) for choosing a clustered index key. It should be, if possible:

Narrow
Static
Ever-increasing
Unique

The survey and this post are intended to show how not adhering to Rule #1 can lead to performance problems.

Both Kimberly and I have explained in the past the architecture of nonclustered indexes - where every nonclustered index row has to have a link back to the matching heap or clustered index record. The link must be a unique value as it must definitively match a single record in the heap or clustered index. For nonclustered indexes on a table with a clustered index, this link is the cluster key (or keys) as these are guaranteed to be unique. Ah, you say, but what about when the clustered index is NOT defined as unique? That's where Rule #4 comes in. For a non-unique clustered index, there will be a hidden 4-byte column (called the uniquifier) added when necessary as a tie-breaker when multiple clustered index records have the same key values. This increases the clustered index key size by 4 bytes (the uniquifier is an integer) when needed.

But I digress. The crux of the matter is that every nonclustered index record will include the cluster keys. The wider the cluster key size is (e.g. a few natural keys), the more overhead there is in each nonclustered index record, compared to using, for instance, an integer (4-byte) or bigint (8-byte) surrogate cluster key. This can mean you've got the potential for saving huge amounts of space by moving to smaller clustered index keys - as we'll see from the data I collected.

The survey code I got you to run returned:

Number of nonclustered indexes
Number of cluster keys
Total cluster key size
Number of table rows
Calculation of bytes used in all the nonclustered indexes to store the cluster keys in each row

I did not take into account filtered indexes in 2008, or variable length cluster key columns, as to be honest although these will make a difference, for the purposes of my discussion here (making you aware of the problem), they're irrelevant. It also would have made the survey code much more complex for me to figure out :-)

Now let's look at some of the results I received. To make things a little simpler, I discarded results from tables with less then ten thousand rows, and with clustered index key sizes less than 9. This dropped the number of data points from 97565 down to 22425.

The graphs below show the estimated amount off savings that could be had in GB from moving to an 8-byte bigint, plotted against the first four factors in the list above.

And here are the top 20 in terms of potential savings so you can see how the rough table schema:

NCIndexes ClusterKeys KeyWidth TableRows      KeySpaceGB SavingsGB
--------- ----------- -------- ------------- ---------- ---------
6          4            72        891,751,171    358.8       352.1
6          3            16        3,189,075,035 285.1       261.4
1          5            45        4,479,327,954 187.7       154.4
6          4            72        453,251,463    182.4       179.0
4          3            16        2,766,814,206 164.9       144.3
4          2            89        371,745,035    123.3       120.5
2          4            774       76,337,053     110.1       109.5
2          4            774       76,331,676     110.0       109.5
2          4            774       75,924,837     109.5       108.9
2          4            774       75,533,539     108.9       108.3
5          4            72        318,217,628    106.7       104.3
7          1            60        269,590,810    105.5       103.4
22         3            13        389,203,725    103.7       100.8
22         3            13        329,772,049    87.8        85.4
2          2            509       90,311,271     85.6        85.0
17         1            510       9,334,362      75.4        75.3
22         3            13        267,380,864    71.2        69.2
2          7            172       219,929,560    70.5        68.8
22         3            13        261,967,851    69.8        67.8
6          5            31        395,800,250    68.6        65.6

Wow - that's some pretty amazing stuff - and that doesn't even account for the space taken up by page headers etc.

You might be thinking - why do I care? There are plenty of reasons:

If you can save tens or hundreds of GBs by changing the cluster key to something much smaller, that translates directly into a reduction in size of your backups and data file disk space requirements.
Smaller databases mean faster backups and restores.
Making the nonclustered indexes smaller means that index maintenance (from inserts/updates/deletes) and index fragmentation removal will be much faster and generate less transaction log.
Making the nonclustered indexes smaller means that consistency checking will be much faster - nonclustered index checking takes 30% of the CPU usage of DBCC CHECKDB.
Reducing the width of nonclustered index records means the density of records (number of records per nonclustered index page) increases dramatically, leading to faster index processing, more efficient buffer pool (i.e. memory) usage, and fewer I/Os as more of the indexes can fit in memory.
Anything you can do to reduce the amount of transaction log directly affects the performance of log backups, replication, database mirroring, and log shipping.

As you can see, there are many reasons to keep the cluster key as small as possible - all directly translating into performance improvements. For those of you that think that moving to a bigint may cause you to run out of possible keys, see this blog post where I debunk that - unless you've got 3 million years and 150 thousand petabytes to spare...

One thing I'm not doing in this post is advocating any particular key over any other (although bigint identity does fit all the criteria from the top of the post) - except to try to keep it as small as possible. Choosing a good cluster key entails understanding the data and workload as well as the performance considerations of key size that I've presented here. And in some very narrow cases, not having a cluster key at all is acceptable - which means there's 8 bytes in each nonclustered index record (just to forestall those who may want to post a comment arguing against clustered indexes in general :-)

Changing the cluster key can be tricky - Kimberly blogged a set of steps to follow plus some code to help you on our SQL Server Magazine blog back in April 2010.

Later this week I'll blog some code that will run through your databases and spit out table names that could have significant space savings from changing the cluster key.

I won't be blogging or tweeting much in January as we'll be in Indonesia diving, but I will be posting photos later in the month.

Enjoy!

2011 review: the year by the numbers

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:44:00 -0800

The last post of the year! It's been an excellent year all round - I thought that instead of doing a long post about goals etc, I'd again count down the numbers that have been my life this year.

7374413 (roughly): the number of page views on my blog as tracked by Google, from 141 countries. 5 times more than last year! WOW!
103659: the number of miles I flew on United
21799: my current tweet total
11985: the number of emails I sent
6500 (roughly): the number of people who've joined our Insider mailing list since February.
4160: the number of people who follow my twitter ramblings
520: the number of books I've bought but not yet read
160: roughly the number of nights away from home
150.4: miles-per-hour we reached driving down the German autobahns in June this year in a rented 7-Series BMW. Zoooooooooooooom!
140: number of feet deep I dove in the Blue Hole in Belize (and I didn't get narc'd at all!)
117: the number of SQLskills blog posts I wrote, including this one
103: the number of photos I posted in travel blog posts (see here)
100: percentage of the 4 technical employees at SQLskills who have taught MCM classes for Microsoft
92: the number of days I was teaching classes or presenting at conferences
53: the number of books I read this year (see my wrap-up post)
45: roughly the percentage of time we were away from our 'vacation home'
44: the number of flights we took
30: the number of posts I did on our joint SQL Magazine blog
26: the number of dives we did (taking my total to 122)
24: the number of different hotels we stayed in
19: the number of multi-day classes I taught
16: the number of large tins of real haggis I ate this year
11: the number of new bird species I saw (taking my total to 407)
10: the number of countries we visited this year
6: the number of new countries I visited (Luxembourg, Germany, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Netherlands, Belize - taking my total to 29)
5: the number of hours I estimate we saved by using Global Entry to skip customs and immigration lines this year
4: number of SQL Server MCMs (and honorary - as Kimberly and I can't take the exams as we wrote them) on staff at SQLskills
4: the number of user group presentations I did
4: the number of squirrels we rescued (long story...)
3: the number of big Lego models I made
3: the number of Nixie-tube clocks I made (see here)
3: the top-10 PASS 2010 position of my Mythbusters 2 session
3: the number of new US states I visited (taking my total to 22)
2: the number of incredible Principal Consultants we hired this year: Jonathan Kehayias and Joe Sack - just the best employees and friends!
2: the number of excellent young girls - my daughters - 10 and 12 - who just passed their Scuba Diver certifications yesterday! Woohoo!
1: the number of kegs of Mac'n'Jacks African Amber we drank on our roof-top deck this year - my favorite!
1: the number of utterly indispensable and fabulous long-time assistants and great friends, Libby Hagen - without whom our lives would be a constant apocalyptic mess - who's battling breast cancer right now. Read her blog about her struggle: Stop the War in My Raq!
1: number of wives who beat me at PASS this year (who else can say that? :-)
Finally, the one and only best person in my life: Kimberly, without whom I would be lost...

Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, follows me on Twitter, sends me questions, watches our videos, comes to our classes, and generally makes being deeply involved in the SQL community a joy.

I sincerely wish you all a happy, healthy, and properous New Year!

Cheers!

(About 40 feet underwater while diving off the coast of Belize in November.)

2011: the year in books

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:14:00 -0800

Back in 2009 I started posting a summary at the end of the year of what I read during the year (see 2009, 2010) and people have been enjoying it, so I present the 2011 end-of-year post. I set a moderate goal of 50 books this year and I managed 53. Next year we have a lot more travel coming up and I'm going to aim for 60 books read. For the record, I read 'real' books - i.e. not in electronic form - I don't like reading off a screen. Yes, I've seen electronic readers - we both have iPads - and I'm not interested in ever reading electronically.

Choosing my favorite book of the year was again easy - there's alway one book that sticks in your mind as being the memorable strongest highlight of the year, among many highlights. This year it's The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. This was easily the most powerful book I read this year - about the lives of several people during the Seige of Sarajevo. Go buy it and read it - you won't be disappointed.

Now the details. I enjoy putting this together as it will also serve as a record for me many years from now. I hope you get inspired to try some of these books - push yourself with new authors and very often you'll be surprisingly pleased.

Once again I leave you with a quote that describes a big part of my psychological make-up:

In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro!

Analysis of what I read

I read 21526 pages, or 59.0 pages a day, and a book every 7 days or so. I'm a fast reader but I don't speed read or skim ever.

The average book length was 406 pages, a good 85 pages shorter than last year - which also contributed to the overall total being lower. I picked my books differently this year too - reading less science fiction and a lot more contemporary fiction. At least I think that's interesting :-)

The ~~Top-10~~ Top-15

Well I really struggled with this as I read a lot of truly *superb* books in 2011. I didn't want to leave any out of my short list and deny you the chance of having them suggested so I present you with my top-15! If you don't read much, at least consider looking at some of these in 2011. It's impossible to put them into a priority order so I've listed them in the order I read them, along with the short Facebook review I wrote at the time. One thing to note is that all three books I read by Gore Vidal are in my top-15 - I have high hopes for the remaining 6 in his Narratives of Empire series.

#3 Wolf Hall; Hilary Mantel; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 2; (Fabulous historical fiction recounting Thomas Cromwell's time at Henry VIII's court during downfall of Wolsey and rising of the Boleyns. Very detailed and extraordinary character development. Very strongly recommended.)

#5 Creation; Gore Vidal; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 17; (Very complex book based on reminiscences of a Persian ambassador to Greece, China, and India around 500BC. Conversations with Confucious, Buddha, and others make for some deep reading. Also paints a wonderful view of the Persian world around that time. Strongly recommended for history fans who enjoy pithy works.)

#10 Surface Detail; Iain M. Banks; 640pp; Science Fiction; May 17; (I take back everything I've said - nothing beats Banks' Culture novels when at their finest for sheer, unbridled rollicking sci-fi. A total page turner with some excellent Ship and Mind goings-on and a mind-bending twist at the end reaching back about ten books and 20 years. If you like sci-fi go buy it and read it without delay. Fabulous. Just fabulous.)

#14 The Club Dumas; Arturo Perez-Reverte; 368pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 10; (The Club Dumas is the basis for one of my favorite movies - The Ninth Gate, although the movie places emphasis on a different part of the plot. Excellent book centered on ancient books - any book about books is an instant hit with me. Follows a book 'mercenary' investigating differences between the 3 final copies of a 1667 book about raising the devil. Excellent - recommended.)

#23 The Cellist of Sarajevo; Steven Galloway; 256pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 11; (Wow - what a powerful book! Sarajevo must have been a nightmare when it was under siege. The book centers around the (true) story of a cellist who plays for 22 days in the same spot to honor 22 people killed by a shell while waiting to buy bread. Imagine having to cross street junctions with random snipers killing people as they do so? Wow.)

#29 Les Miserables; Victor Hugo; 640pp; Fiction; July 29; (Hugo's classic tale is absolutely wonderful - a real tour de force. It's a long and complex book dealing with France from 1820s-1830s and following the life of the convict Jean Valjean and those around him, especially the police inspector Javert. It was also made into an excellent movie with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush playing the two roles, respectively. Very strongly recommended.)

#38 City of Thieves; David Benioff; 272pp; Fiction; August 28; (Excellent story of a young man during the seige of Leningrad being forced to venture into the German occupied hinterland in search of eggs. Really well done and a page turner - read the whole thing this afternoon. Great twist at the end too. Recommended.)

#39 Julian; Gore Vidal; 528pp; Historical Fiction; September 6; (Fabulous book! A biography of Julian Augustus, told as a novel, following his rise to power, apostasy and intellectual persecution of Christianity as a made-up religion, and military endeavors. I found it a page-turner with an excellent feel for the times that Julian lived in and the fragility of the Roman principate. Strongly recommended!)

#41 A Passage to India; E.M. Forster; 416pp; Contemporary Fiction; September 18; (A masterful portrayal of the British Raj in the early C20th - their haughty arrogance as colonialists and their misunderstanding of the Indian society and culture they're in. The characters are involved in a scandal which brings out the heated worst behavior in both sides of the community. Strongly recommended.)

#43 Cleopatra; Stacy Schiff; 400pp; History; October 9; (Fabulous depiction of her life, drawn from the limited sources that survive. Tells the stories of how her life and reign entangles with Julius Caesar's and Mark Anthony's, to invariably dire consequences. I've never read anything in depth about her life before and I'm glad this is what I read first. Strongly recommended.)

#44 Parrot and Olivier in America; Peter Carey; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 24; (Excellent account of the complicated life of two unlikely companions in the early 1800s in America, removed from France after the 100 Days when Napoleon briefly regainedd power. Peter Carey has a great way with words and character portrayals. Strongly recommended!)

#45 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larsson; 600pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 4; (Excellent! Turned into a complete page turner for me. Hard to say much about it without giving away major plot elements, but characters and settingmare very well done. If you've been avoiding this like I had, give in and read it - you won't be disappointed. Already got 2nd and 3rd in trilogy to read. Strongly recommended!)

#46 The Outlaws Inc.; Matt Potter; 332pp; Non-Fiction; November 13; (Excellent non-fiction account of the ex-Soviet air crews and their giant Anatovs and Ilyushins that fly around the world into some of the dodgiest places on the planet. It also shows how many governments and NGOs make use of them and turn a blind eye to the smuggling of all kinds of things that go on beside their legit cargo loads. Well worth reading.)

#52 Olive Kitteridge; Elizabeth Strout; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; December 26; (Excellent book dealing with the life of a cranky old woman in a small town in Maine. It's presented as a series of short story microcosms of people's lives in the town that are linked in some way to Olive. Especially interesting to see how her life changes when major events happen and how she works through them. Kind of reminds me of Annie Proulx's work but not so gritty and heavily written. One of my favorites this year.)

#53 Burr; Gore Vidal; 448pp; Historical Fiction; December 30; (Excellent start to Vidal's Narratives of Empire series. Goes through Burr's reminiscences of his life during the Revolution, Vice-Presidency and treasonous activities in the West. Really looking forward to reading the other 6 in the series.Strongly recommended for history fans.)

The Complete List

And the complete list, with links to Amazon so you can explore further.

Multireal; David Louis Edelman; 522pp; Science Fiction; February 14
Geosynchron; David Louis Edelman; 500pp; Science Fiction; March 1
Wolf Hall; Hilary Mantel; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 2
Zero Day; Mark Russinovich; 336pp; Contemporary Fiction; April 8
Creation; Gore Vidal; 592pp; Historical Fiction; April 17
Transition; Iain M. Banks; 448pp; Science Fiction; April 23
Unaccustomed Earth; Jhumpa Larihi; 352pp; Contemporary Fiction; April 24
The God of Small Things; Arundhati Roy; 352pp; Contemporary Fiction; May 7
Fahrenheit 451; Ray Bradbury; 208pp; Contemporary Fiction; May 14
Surface Detail; Iain M. Banks; 640pp; Science Fiction; May 17
English Passengers; Matthew Kneale; 464pp; Historical Fiction; May 22
Persian Mirrors; Elaine Sciolino; 432pp; Non-Fiction; May 27
The Coral Thief; Rebecca Stott; 312pp; Historical Fiction; June 3
The Club Dumas; Arturo Perez-Reverte; 368pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 10
The Frigates; James Henderson; 192pp; Maritime History; June 15
The Namesake; Jhumpa Lahiri; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; June 25
The Sewing Circles of Heart; Christina Lamb; 384pp; Non-Fiction; June 27
Interpreter of Maladies; Jhumpa Lahiri; 208pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 1
A Place So Foreign; Cory Doctorow; 243pp; Science Fiction; July 2
Pulse; Julian Barnes; 229pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 4
Burtynsky - China; Edward Burtynsky; 180pp; Non-Fiction; July 5
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star; Paul Theroux; 512pp; Travel; July 9
The Cellist of Sarajevo; Steven Galloway; 256pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 11
Bird; Andrew Zuckerman; 512pp; Non-Fiction; July 14
A God Who Hates; Wafa Sultan; 256pp; Non-Fiction; July 16
The Shadow of the Wind; Carlos Ruiz Zafon; 486pp; Fiction; July 22
The Hobbit; J.R.R. Tolkien; 330pp; Fiction; July 24
The Blackwater Lightship; Colm Toibin; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; July 26
Les Miserables; Victor Hugo; 640pp; Fiction; July 29
In Patagonia; Bruce Chatwin; 240pp; Travel; July 31
Arabian Sands; Wilfred Thesiger; 400pp; Travel; August 7
World Without End; Ken Follett; 1024pp; Historical Fiction; August 14
William Rufus; Frank Barlow; 512pp; History; August 21
Out Stealing Horses; Per Petterson; 256pp; Fiction; August 22
To Siberia; Per Petterson; 256pp; Fiction; August 24
The Catcher In The Rye; J.D. Salinger; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; August 26
Reheated Cabbage; Irvine Welsh; 288pp; Contemporary Fiction; August 28
City of Thieves; David Benioff; 272pp; Fiction; August 28
Julian; Gore Vidal; 528pp; Historical Fiction; September 6
The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople; Jonathan Phillips; 400pp; History; September 16
A Passage to India; E.M. Forster; 416pp; Contemporary Fiction; September 18
The Captive Queen; Alison Weir; 512pp; Historical Fiction; September 25
Cleopatra; Stacy Schiff; 400; Historypp; October 9
Parrot and Olivier in America; Peter Carey; 400pp; Historical Fiction; October 24
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Stieg Larsson; 600pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 4
The Outlaws Inc.; Matt Potter; 332pp; Non-Fiction; November 13
My Name Is Red; Orhan Pamuk; 432pp; Historical Fiction; November 18
Endymion; Dan Simmons; 576pp; Science Fiction; November 28
Circle of Reason; Amitav Ghosh; 432pp; Contemporary Fiction; November 29
Beneath Blossom Rain; Kevin Grange; 352pp; Non-Fiction; December; 11
Rise of Endymion; Dan Simmons; 720pp; Science Fiction; December 19
Olive Kitteridge; Elizabeth Strout; 304pp; Contemporary Fiction; December 26
Burr; Gore Vidal; 448pp; Historical Fiction; December 30

Video recording of PASS session on communication skills available

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:34:00 -0800

Last week I presented for the PASS Virtual Chapter on Professional Development about Communication Skills and the whole thing was recorded via LiveMeeting. It's 70 minutes of distilled experience with some stories thrown in.

Check it out at https://www323.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/view?id=7KH9ZW.

Enjoy!

PS Many thanks to Mark Caldwell for hosting the meeting!

Photos from Belize dive trip

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:45:00 -0800

(2-foot wide Octopus during a night dive off Turneffe Caye, Belize)

Kimberly and I headed to Belize in November for our first dive trip in well over a year (we're not letting that happen again!) and spent a week on the Belize Aggressor III liveaboard dive boat. Doing liveaboards is the only way to dive - eat, sleep, and dive for 7 days! I did a bunch of courses during the week, including my very-long-overdue Nitrox and Advanced Open Water certifications, and 26 dives to make it up to 122 total dives. I managed to tick something off my bucket-list - diving the famous Blue Hole (down to 140 feet!). I also took a lot of photos!

Here I present my favorites from the week. Click on a photo for a 1024x768 enlargement.

Left to right below: Lizardfish; 3-ft Grouper who liked to be stroked.

Left to right below: Kimberly with her new camera rig; 5-ft barrel sponges.

Left to right below: mated pair of Banded Coral Shrimp; very small (1-inch long) Secretary Blennie that Kimberly found.

Left to right below: juvenile File Fish (about 2 inches) during a night dive; Brittle Star during a night dive.

Left to right below: Basket Star during a night dive - these guys are fun to feed by holding a light just by them and all the little worms and critters in the water swim to the light and and the Basket Star catches them; Brittle Stars in a barrel sponge during a night dive.

Left to right below: Large (9-inch shell) hermit crab; White-Speckled Nudibranch (about two inches long) I was lucky enough to spot in a sea-grass and soft coral forest.

Left to right below: Swimming with 8-ft Black-Tipped Reef Sharks - we really were that close!; looking up at a big shark.

Left to right below: the same shark again; swimming with a school of Jacks.

Left to right below: Speckled Moray warning me off; large (8-ft) Green Moray.

Left to right below: Now the Green Moray has seen me - Morays have terrible eyesight; a Jawfish - these guys live in little burrows in the sand and are very shy - I spent 1/2 hour lying on the sand waiting for this shot.

Left to right below: Lobster during a night dive - with mood lighting; solitary Banded Coral Shrimp during a night dive.

Left to right below: 4-inch Large-Eye Shrimp burrowing into the sand during a night dive; Speckled Toadfish during a night dive - these are really weird looking fish - very flat and wide - and extremely rare!

Left to right below: Octopus (same one as the picture at the start of the post) during a night dive.

December 15th PASS online lecture on communications skills

paul.nospam@nospam.sqlskills.com (paul) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:09:00 -0800

Every so often I do non-SQL blog posts about things and one of the topics that comes up again and again is communication skills.

The PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter invited me to present a lecture for them and so at 10am Pacific Time on Thursday, December 15th I'll be presenting on communication skills. I'll touch on written, spoken, blog, presenting and other forms of communication and tell some stories too.

It should be a good lecture - for once with very little technical information!

The LiveMeeting link is https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usergroups/join?id=7KH9ZW&role=attend

Hope to (virtually) see you there!