(SFTW) SQL Server Links 20/12/13

It’s Something For The Weekend(SFTW) time, I hope you’ve had a great week!

Some clearly confused SQL community folks have only gone and nominated me in the Tribal Awards category for Best Blog of the Year! They must have been reading some serious tosh these past 12 months.

The Prize for this particularity category is to be featured as a Geek of the Week on Simple-Talk. Now I’m pretty sure that is a good thing but what’s more important are of course the bragging rights chaps. Who knows, there may even be a shiny badge that we can put up on the blog!

The voting is open right now and I would be incredibly grateful for your support.

Don’t be fooled by all those other fiendishly good blogs listed alongside me, charlatans the lot of them, especially that Ozar fellow.  Seriously though, I’m completely over the moon to have even been nominated alongside these incredibly talented community authors. Of course to win the award, now that would be the icing on the cake of a tremendous year. Just look at DBA JumpStart, our free community ebook project having been downloaded by almost 2000 people. Mind boggling stuff!

I really do hope that you’ve enjoyed the blog this year and it would mean a great deal to me to have your vote. Thank you for your support and I look forward to sharing another great year together.

Here’s your weekly roundup of SQL Server Blog Posts, News and Technology Stuff. Enjoy….

• How Would You Change Windows Azure SQL Database? – What’s stopping you from using WASD asks Brent Ozar (Blog|Twitter). Great discussions in the comments!
• 5 Things Every DBA Needs to Say to a Developer – I’m sad to say that “You’re Fired!”, is not on there chaps. Here’s Thomas Larock (Blog|Twitter).
• T-SQL Tuesday #49: Wait For It Roundup – A round-up of all the great T-SQL content from last week with your host Robert L. Davis(Blog|Twitter).
• Introducing Managed Backups in SQL Server 2014 – Are you ready to surrender control of your backups? Grant Fritchey (Blog|Twitter) discusses.
• RECOMPILE Hints and Execution Plan Caching – A closer look at the RECOMPILE query hint and it’s correct usage with Kendra Little (Blog|Twitter).
• How to Survive on Free Tools for Month – Taking advantage of Free SQL Server Tools is one of the 10 Habits of Successful Senior DBAs. Pinal Dave (Blog|Twitter) shares a whole months worth with us.
• Auto-Scaling SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups with Virtualization – A thought exercise on SQL Server architecture this week with Brent Ozar (Blog|Twitter).
• 20% Off + 2nd Shot Exam Offer 2013-2014 – Get your learn on and start the New Year on a high note by taking advantage of the latest Microsoft Certification offer/discount via the Microsoft Learning Blog.
• What a DBA wants for Christmas – A handy festive list of resources  shared courtesy of Jen McCown (Blog|Twitter).
• Can I recover from a secondary replica COPY_ONLY full backup? – Database Backups are an essential component of your Primary Responsibility. You need to know this. Ted Krueger (Blog|Twitter) reveals all in this walk-through post.
• Sharing the Load – Another great post from Mike Fal (Blog|Twitter), this week looking at the distributed nature of non-relational (gasp) systems and why it’s an advantage.

SQL Community Forum

Being discussed right now in the SQLBrit Community Forum by DBAs.

• CPU Selection
• Notify on Success or Failure
• How much time do you spend to self-improvement
• 2012 Features – Who Knew

Misc. Technology Posts from Around the Web

• Working with the Best Developers – Brent Ozar
• 40 million at risk after Target card heist – BBC News Technology
• What Grown Ups Should Do For the Holidays – Kendra Little
• Why The Surface (and Windows 8.1) Makes The Most Sense for Parents and Kids
• Bitcoin sinks after China restricts yuan exchanges – BBC News Technology