June 2009, SQL Simantics

Cub Scout Day Camp

Randy Sims Scouting

The week for the Chesapeake Bay Council’s day camp came to an exciting end yesterday. Mona did such a great job with keeping it fun – everything was so piratey, and the kids really loved it! Isaac was in a group of really great boys from around the area. They had their ups and downs, […]

Army Guys Optional Rule: Luck Shot!

Randy Sims Army Guys

I was explaining to one of Isaac’s friends the difficulty (futility, really) of running around the corner of a building, spotting someone on top of a tower, bringing up your rifle and popping off a couple of shots. The odds of successfully shooting someone in that position are approximately 3,720 to 1! (Never tell me the odds!) […]

SQL Server’s oSQL – How to Create a Date-Stamped Log

Randy Sims SQL Server

Use oSQL to run a query and save the output to a file that includes the date in the filename.

Army Guy Miniature Game: The Basic Rules

Randy Sims Army Guys

The following game was created by my son and I. All rights reserved, but feel free to print and play it! This game is playing Army Guys with rules! You will also get quick at doing some basic math, but nothing that’s too big a deal. This is a great introduction to miniatures since the […]

SQL Server’s Max Degree of Parallelism

Randy Sims SQL Server

I’ve been working on performance issues in the production database this week, taking it from a “server” level instead of database/table/index level and also adding some query changes. The database is working better, and I am continuing to keep it heading in that direction. Adding OPTION (MAXDOP 1) to certain queries has increased performance (sometimes […]

Auto-start Defragging a SQL Server

Randy Sims VBScript

A VBScript that shuts down SQL Server and starts defragging the specified drives, assuming the SQL Server backups you want completed are done.

We’re Bears Now!

Randy Sims Scouting

As the school year comes to a close, we had our crossing over ceremony for Pack 54 at our annual Spring Family Camp Out. It was a lot of fun for the kids – they got to practice their orienteering through a course of several skill obstacles and race to the end. And of course, […]