Friday, August 9, 2013

The Man Who Thinks He Can

Hello Dear Reader!  I got a lot of great questions during the 24 Hours of PASS last week and I'm working on several blogs to line those up.  The silence this week, was more due to getting busy with work and some personal things cropping up.

Life is full of ups and downs.  In my down moments I will often look for inspiration.  One of my favorite places to draw from is the poem "The Man Who Thinks He Can" by Napoleon Hill.

My Grandma Schroeder was a wonderful lady.  I loved her very much.  She used to clip out coupons from the newspaper and send them to me at college.  She would send me checks.  And then she would give me hell, because I was an 'ornery little shit'.  You see I didn't use them.  Or cash the checks (unless I was really super COLLEGE BROKE).

I'm kind of sentimental like that.  I still have movie stub's from when I was a teenager, and most of the movie stubs from any of the shows that the kids and I have sat threw.

I loved it that she cared for me so much that she would clip a coupon and send it off to me in the mail.  I could see her sitting at the kitchen table, paper spread wide, Sudoku and crossword filled out, and smell the coffee that she had brewed.  I could see the light streaming in the sliding glass door behind her in the morning.  I could see her spot a deal and think "Bradley could use this", and clip a coupon.

She would get out an envelope and a stamp from the same drawer that held the playing cards, the dice, and the Wrigley's DoubleMint gum in the green case.  I could smell the mint as she opened it.  She would, look up my address from her address book.  Fill out the envelope, and later in the day she would walk it down to the mail box.

As a child I played there, and it would always surprise me how small everything seemed when I returned.  Looking down at the table instead of up at her.

When I close my eyes now I'm still looking up, and I see her in the bright sunlight.  I see the front yard that Grandpa kept so neat.  I remember looking down at the back yard and Grandpa's rose bushes from a big red porch on the other side of the sliding glass door.

I would hold those moments whenever the road seemed long, whenever I felt very far from home, or anything that resembled victory seemed equally out of reach. In those moments. I would close my eyes and be back in Illinois, looking at Grandma at the table.

Those coupons were worth far more to me than if I had ever used them.  I think I still have a couple.  The prized possession arrived one day in the mail.  It had been a very hard year.  She had clipped out of the Peoria Journal Star the poem "The Man Who Thinks He Can".

I re-read it today and thought that it would be worth sharing.



If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't.
If you'd like to win, but think you can't
It's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you've lost.

For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow's will:
It's all in his state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are:

You've got to think high to rise,
You've got to be sure of yourself before
You'll ever win that prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or the faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.


I hope you enjoyed it.  I know I do.  Thanks Grandma.


Thanks,

Brad

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

24 Hours of PASS Deck and Demo's Live!

Hello Dear Reader!  Another very quick blog.  Thank you to all of the people that tuned in to see me present on SQL Data Internals for the 24 Hours of PASS tonight.  I truly appreciate you spending your hard earned time with me.

My Deck and demo's are now live on the resources page.  I've added a list of all the presentation's that I used as references.  Any Scripts not in the deck you can find at the following links.

Click Here for the Slide Deck and Click Here for the Demos.  Now the links to all the other material.

Paul Randal MCM Video Series Data Structures http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/gg313756.aspx

Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 1: Tag Bytes http://bidn.com/blogs/SQLBalls/ssas/2776/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part-1-tag-bytes

Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 2: Null Bitmap Offset http://bidn.com/blogs/SQLBalls/ssas/2781/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part-2-null-bitmap-offset

Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 3: Fixed Length Columns http://bidn.com/blogs/SQLBalls/ssas/2785/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part-3-fixed-length-columns

Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 4: Null Bitmap http://bidn.com/blogs/SQLBalls/ssas/2789/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part-4-null-bitmap

Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 5: Variable Offset Array http://bidn.com/blogs/SQLBalls/ssas/2791/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part-5-variable-offset-array

Bradley Ball Differences in the Null Bitmap between SQL 2005 and SQL 2012 http://www.sqlballs.com/2012/07/differences-in-null-bitmap-between-sql.html


Bradley Ball SQL Internals Reading Data Records Part 6: Variable Length Data http://www.sqlballs.com/2012/07/sql-internals-reading-data-records-part.html



As always Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks,

Brad

I'm Presenting Today for 24 Hours of PASS!!

Hello Dear Reader!  This is just a very quick blog to let you know that the 24 Hour's of PASS is currently going on.  Brent Ozar(@BrentO | Blog) started things off Strong and Alan Hirt(@SQLHA | Blog) is working his magic as we speak.

This year I was extremely honored to get to introduce Joseph D'Antoni (@Jdanton | Blog) in the 6 am slot tomorrow.  It would also work out that I could be a backup presenter as well.  So Tonight at 6 PM East Coast Time, following the one and only Brian Knight(@BrianKnight | Blog) is SQLBall presenting on Data Internals.

This is a mere glimpse into the 90 minute Spotlight Session I'll have at the Summit this year. So come join me for some Spelunking around the Data Internals tonight!  Here's the link to sign up and Here is the Abstract.



SQL Internals

Duration: 60 minutes
Track: Enterprise Database Administration & Deployment
Often as DBAs, we learn backwards. You get a DBA job, and you have databases that have tables, which have data in them. Nobody tells you that there are records, stored on pages, grouped in extents, assigned by allocation bitmaps, with IAM pages and allocation units that span partitions and filegroups.

Today is your lucky day! This 24 Hours of PASS session will cover byte swapping and bitmaps and dive a little into decoding Hex and binary, working to give you an understanding of database internals and how you use them every day!  




Alright Dear Reader, I'm off to practice!  I'll see you at 6 pm.

Thanks,

Brad