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PhotoSynth

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Microsoft Live Labs have recently released details of PhotoSynth, an application that takes photo collections, automatically figures out how they relate to each other, and seamlessly stitches them together into a navigable 3D space. I was intrigued because a friend has been working on a similar concept for a several years.

SQL Server Performance Tuning Resources

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Here is a short list of resources for SQL Server performance tuning:

A good place to start is the excellent web site: http://www.sql-server-performance.com/
It covers basics and more advanced issues both from the DBA and developer points of view. Very readable.

SQL Team often has articles relating to performance.

Greg Linwood’s blog is a mine of information on performance tuning: for instance this article on Query Plan Guides (SQL Server 2005 only). Greg gave a great introduction to performance tuning a few months ago in Perth: the slide deck is here.

The SQL Server Query Optimisation Team also has an excellent blog, with articles like this one on Automated Auto-Indexing.

Ken Henderson’s SQL blog is here. Bart Duncan started blogging just recently, he is a recognised master. His weblog is here

Also check out webcasts by Kimberley Tripp, Bob Beauchemin and Bill Graziano to name a few. The main webcast events page is here. There is a whole section devoted to SQL Server here. There are more to watch than I can find time! These are a remarkable free resource.

There are some great books available:

SQL Server Performance Tuning Distilled by Sajal Dam is a good nuts and bolts introduction with examples.

SQL Tuning by Dan Tow is excellent but takes a bit of work to get your head around. Applicable to Oracle and many other databases.

The Guru’s Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals by Ken Henderson. Very thorough treatment of what’s under the hood. Not directly related to solving a particular performance problem but if you want to understand how the internals affect the layers above this book covers it in great detail.

Free Download: Microsoft MSDN Library May 2006

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Microsoft has released the MSDN Library May 2006 Edition as a free download. The MSDN Library was previously only available for download to MSDN subscribers, so if you don’t have an MSDN subscription this is great free documentation. Future editions will be available as they are released:

MSDN Library provides access to essential programming information, including
technical white papers, software development kits and code samples necessary to
develop web services and applications. This is an updated version of the MSDN
Library for Visual Studio® 2005

Creating Smaller Virtual Machines

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If you’re a developer and you are not utilising virtual machines (for things like testing installs, different platform installs, presentations, trialing beta software to name but a few) you probably should be. Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 and Virtual PC 2004 are both free, and VMware server is free.

Here is a very useful article posted by Jeff Atwood: Creating Smaller Virtual Machines showing how to create a minimal Windows XP Virtual PC image.

I Knew There Was a Reason I Never Eat Squid!

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If there are any squid listening, lets get one thing cleared up right away: I never eat squid. So tell your relatives, the Humboldt… This article “It’s Hard Out Here for A Shrimp” from Outside Magazine is absolute gold. I saw it via Bruce Schneier’s security blog:

What about the giant squid, you may ask? “Wimpy,” says Cassell. The giant—which
grows to 60-plus feet and is one of only four squid, out of the 400 or so
species found in the oceans, that are human-size or bigger—is generally
considered to be fairly placid. In any case, it’s so elusive, no modern squid
hunter has ever even seen one alive. No, if you want a scary squid, you want a
Humboldt. And they’re easy to find, teeming by the millions in Pacific waters
from Chile to British Columbia.