SQL Server Gotcha

So apparently, when you setup a SQL Server its default maximum allotted memory value is a ridiculously large number. I wasn't aware of this until someone pointed it out. It is good to know information.

You should not use the default value obviously because doing so will suffocate the server it is on. So it is recommended to give the SQL Server as much as you can, but leave the OS 2-4 GB of memory. If the OS can't do its job, SQL Server is going to suffer too. So you get a performance gain by doing so.

The next part only really matters on physical machines and not VMs, the number of CPUs given to the SQL Server should be n-1, for the same reason as the memory. You need to let the OS do its job.

Childrens

So today was bring your kid to work day. Although all of the kids were very nice, I noticed they couldn't help being kids. I think it stems from the fact that they are kids... so on to my inevitable complaints. Children are loud, I don't understand why their prepubescent voices get so high pitched and whiny when they talk. They also are awkward to deal with because of their inexperience with people in general, adults anyhow. Then for some reason there is this smell that follows children around that I will never get used to. It is a nauseating stench that follows them around because I think it is attached to their back packs or something. It reminds me of the smell of cafeterias and the smell inside of lunch bags. Not any lunch bag though, the insulated kind that is flexible, that has a plastic lining. I hate that smell. It makes me feel ill. The other odor that I hate the most is the smell that forms on the scalps of white people with dreads. The lunch box smell is up there. That smell will actually make me puke. If people can't wash their fucking hair, please don't do dreads. Especially white people, it reeks goddamn it.

RTFM Ettiqutte

I don't think it is appropriate for people to always (or at least it seems like always) tell other people to RTFM or read the fucking manual or in nicer terms "google it". I think that people are becoming a little too arrogant when it comes to the usage of the Internet. First off the Internet is still a new thing.

There was a time when there was no Internet and you asked questions or looked information up in a book when possible. This new wave of, "why are you asking me? Look it up!" To me is a real shitty thing that is happening. First off some people are more adept to "googling" or searching things on the net. It all comes down to phrasing. If you can't phrase something properly because you are unsure of how to, then I am pretty sure it is okay to ask a question!

People are making it sound like it is wrong to speak to one another.

Forums are a fantastic place for information. The way I see it is if it is a free forum, no one is obligated to answer your questions, so don't demand it. If you do ask a RTFM or google it question, then deal with the trolling that will inevitably happen.

Pay for forums, you are fucking obligated to answer my questions no matter how goddamn stupid they are.

This leads me up to my complaint. I am taking a new horizons class on TFS Administration. I asked a very specific question about a specific error I was getting to the instructor. The instructor trolled me and said to google it (RTFM). This is not acceptable. My company PAID and sent me here to nag him and ask questions and learn. I asked the fucking question to get any wisdom or insight he might bestow on me, but instead he trolled me. I told him afterwards, "I know i can google it, but have you seen this problem before?" Basically, any tips? Any pointers? Can you guide me oh guru?

Ultimately, he could have just said, "I apologize, I do not know, you can try to google and share with the class later." If you don't know, then fucking say so.

I think he needs to google his job description. Dick.

Open Source vs. Closed Source

First I just want to state that I don't think that one is better than the other and I don't think that you can only use one tool for the job, each tool has its purpose.

So I think it would make more sense for developers of all types to stop hating on each other specifically because of the choice of language or which suite of framework they subscribe to. Here are the differences I have seen so far.

Open Source

Open source software and development tools are fantastic! I use quite a few of them and I feel guilty when I don't make a donation to the people who develop the software for free. I would like to name a few:

Notepad++

Pidgin

Gordian Knot

Rip-it-for-me

DVD-Decrypter

Winamp (free to use, not open source)

Micro Torrent

TFS Sidekick's

Redgate's .net Decompiler

Pheonix labs protection thingy

Apache Web Server

That is a lot of free software that I either use or used to use. The point is someone or a group of people put a lot of hard work into a product that no one really pays for except makes a donation every now and again. The main benefit being that it is free to use and doesn't have a lot of strings attached to it. The downside though is it is free and if there is a bug of some kind, there is no guarantee that there will be a fix in place or any kind of support.

There are the various free languages and frameworks:

Python

Java and everything else that was formerly sun's

Ruby and Ruby on Rails

PHP

They have their benefits, I started with Java and gradually switched to C#. I learned and did C programming too.

Open source coding is great for learning, for businesses (not all) that have flexibility, for people who cannot afford the expensive licenses that Microsoft offers etc... Open source lets the community decide the direction to take a project into and it isn't about money. Open source is nice because there are a bunch of people out there that put a lot of time and effort into a free product for you to use, or give you tools to use to make your life easier.

Closed Source

I would like start off by saying, I think using closed source or pay for software and tools is more for people and businesses that need more of a guarantee, almost no open ends in order to get support and features. In open source, there is no complaining, just like there is no crying in baseball. Not to say that people don't complain, they do, its just that they are generally ignored or told to STFU and RTFM. In open source if there is a bug or something is missing, you have several options:

too bad just deal with it

fix it yourself,

report it appropriately, no demands

move to a closed source product or platform

So that last option is why there is a closed source option to begin with. I as a paying customer complain and demand a solution. I prefer Microsoft products because of the flow and integration of all the products. I could list all of them, but there is no reason to, I will mention them as I go. I like C# because it is a strongly typed language and it is easier to deal with than Java in every sense. Java is messy and you have to write too much code to do too little (but hey its free!). I like SQL Server because it is way more developed and easier to use than mySQL. MySQL still has a lot of bugs and very faulty lax syntax and query structure issues (but hey its free!). Lets be frank, open office pails in comparison with MS Office, but hey its free! You see the trend I am going with here. Regular bug fixes and updates for the pay for stuff.

But Microsoft just takes the open source ideas and manufactures them!

Yes. Yes they do and guess what, it doesn't matter because they are just using free concepts developed by the Open Source community and redeveloping them and repackaging them into MS products. In other words it is legal and they aren't breaking any rules. In some respects they even make their versions of the "stolen" products better than the original.

I am a MS whore, I admit it, and the reason is simple, it is the same reason I prefer a windows machine to anything else. I don't need to fuss with the system too much and it just fucking works. Some of you are now thinking, but you can use a Linux box or an apple cause it has a good UI and shell access. To which I will respond, no. I don't want the inconvenience that Linux has to offer and I wouldn't pay that much money for a throw away piece of equipment, aka Macs. Linux is inconvenient because it doesn't work half the time and I have to do too much to use it. Macs are inconvenient because they have the same issues as Linux/Unix and fuck apple. The irony in all of that is most of you use windows emulators anyhow, so STFU.

Bleh

There are so many things I want to do, but I keep getting tripped up by other people's shit. This time I got hit by someone's illness and it fucked me up, not real bad, but bad enough. I had a combination of super soar throat, coughing, fever and major fatigue. The funny thing is I know when I am getting sick and there really isn't much that can be done about it. What really bothers me is how long it lasts. I think I got a sinus infection as a result because my phlegm was thick and green. I have been coughing and sneezing the shit up for days now.

100kg Reading

I don't read very much because I have an incredibly hard time staying A. focused and B. interested in what I am reading. I have realized more and more that the reason for this is because I keep trying to read books that seem and sound interesting, but are immensely boring due to the writing style. The writing style can make or break a book in my opinion.

I tried reading a book the other day that just had too much goddamn detail in it. I hate...HATE books where the author thinks it isn't overkill to take more than a paragraph to describe something. Why is it necessary to use up a page and a half to describe very meaningless things. Especially if it is only relevant to the next few pages?

I usually enjoy reading books that have raw information in them. I feel that I get more out of the book and retain more.

I rather enjoy authors like Susan Brockman, Michael Chriton and Pat Robertson. Not sure about that last one.

Dated Employability

So I went to Orlando Code Camp and I freaked myself out while I was there because I was overwhelmed with how much new technology my company was under utilizing.

I actually wrote a post about this, but lost the whole thing when I tried to save it. I was mad about that, but I then started thinking about what I wrote and realized something which I will get into later...

My company is not up to date on technology, but realistically I don't think we can use most of it anyhow because of the nature of our application. Our application has fixed pages whose appearance hardly change, there are no other platforms that use it, therefore I don't see the use of moving it over to MVC or MVVM. I can't see us utilizing silverlight because it isn't safe to use with our application from what I can tell so far (zap files).

Anyhow there are more issues with some of the technology that is out there. Ultimately I freaked myself out because I saw that tons of people are using the latest technology, but in reality this shit comes and goes. I am using web forms still, but the core of what I do is business layer technology anyhow. I am not a front end programmer, I am a back end programmer. I am better with heavy business process and logic. I like efficiency and that sort of thing. So I realized that even if there is prettier, more fluid looking tech, it really doesn't affect me because I don't really work with that stuff anyhow. Ultimately, if I need to learn that technology I can, so I am not worried about it anymore. I just need to continue practicing at home.