Well... I think I had had too much tea that morning ;-). But, as always, chatting with Richard and Greg was great. Here's the specific show link: http://www.runasradio.com/default.aspx?showNum=76.

Oh, and just for the record, I didn't come up with that title. But, I do hope that all your [high-priority and important] queries are indexed!

Enjoy!
kt

OK, I know this post doesn't really apply to most folks but I did want to have the setup instructions on my blog so that I could refer people to it. For the August release we updated all 17 labs and all of the demos for SQL Server 2008 RTM; however, we did use a "security enabled" VPC. And, well, security is bugging people right about now because the password policy in this VPC was set for 42 days. I know all of you run into this on production servers but on a test VPC, it's pretty much nothing more than an annoyance. So... I thought I'd mention how to disable it for the VPC.

(1)    Remove the policy for 42 password expiration

                Local Security Policy Editor (Admin Tools, Local Security Policy)

                Security Settings

                                Account Policies

                                                Password Policy

                                                                Set the Maximum password age to 0 days (which is no password expiration)

(2)    Change the SQLService account to not require a password on next login

Computer Management

                                Users and Groups

                                                SQLService

                                                                Deselect the option "User must change password at next login"

         you might not actually need to set this but it's good to check!

(3)    Windows Update

While you're at it then, you should also consider running Windows Update...

(4)    Shutdown and save changes...

And, here's the full instructions that we usually give out at conferences/workshops: SQL2008Aug HOLs DVD SETUP Instructions.pdf (25.93 KB)

As for accessing this content on the web, it's part of Jumpstart and it will be part of the SQL Server 2008 Resource Kit. Also, I just refreshed the image for the resource kit so that it does NOT have the password policy enabled so you won't need to do that step. Also, the Jumpstart folks will probably refresh the image there so that it also uses this version. Regardless, you might still want to run Windows Update. And, you'll also find a lot of these resources at upcoming events and conferences as well as through these resources.

Enjoy!
kt

OK, in my quest to blog more often, I realized I have the perfect thing to blog about today... stuff I did that I haven't yet told you about. :) :)

At TechEd US, Paul and I were on a panel created to debunk some of the more common questions/concerns when setting up High Availability. It's an interesting panel and I think there are some particularly interesting moments based on the strange turns the discussions take... but, overall, it's expecially good for people seeking a 100-200 level overview of HA (Clustering, Database Mirroring, Replication, Log Shipping) with a few other related topics (Database Snapshots and Backup/Restore). Here's the direct link to the recording: http://mfile.akamai.com/14853/wmv/microsofttec.download.akamai.com/14853/TechEdOnline/Videos/08_NA_ITP_TEOPanel_57_low.asx. And, here's a general link to everything TechNet so that you can check out TechNet Radio, TechTalks, etc. there's some really great stuff out there: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx. Have fun!

Also at TechEd US, I hung out for a bit in the bloggers lounge...when it was just about to end, it turned out there was a "Women in Tech" panel starting - in which I was then asked to join in. I have to admit that I'm sometimes reluctant to get involved in these because my general (and this is *very* general) opinion is that it doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man (wait - wait - let me explain!!). What I mean by this is that the key to ANY job is that you have to enjoy it. You need to find something in it that's exciting. If you can do that - then you'll be good at your job... plain and simple. If you don't like it (regardless of whether you're a man or a woman) then it's never going to be satisfying and/or you're never going to get ahead. Having said all of this, I do have to admit that I find it especially exciting when I do find other women that can geek out and really enjoy doing this whole IT thing (like MLB, Kate Gregory, Stacia Misner, Julia Lerman, Kalen Delaney, Eileen Brown). So, I don't really intend on actively trying to get more women into technology but the fun part about this panel was the fact that a lot of us talked about how children these days are already way more into IT - without realizing it (our girls asked what film was recently because we were scanning a lot of negatives... and, can you imagine any of our lives without cell phones??). And, my hope, is that if people find ways of getting more into IT (and computers/digital stuff - in general) at an earlier and earlier age... then maybe more kids (girls as well) will find a passion in IT. Here's a link to the panel from TechEd: http://mfile.akamai.com/14853/wmv/microsofttec.download.akamai.com/14853/TechEdOnline/Videos/08_NA_ITP_TEOPanel_67_low.asx.

And, here are a few resources regarding Women In Technology:

• WITI - Women In Technology International: http://www.witi.com/
• Women in Technology Organization: http://www.womenintechnology.org/
• Womin in Technology (a government funded project): http://www.womenintech.com/
• Girl Geek Bloggers: http://www.geekgirlblogs.com/Home.aspx (which has a lot of links to other orgs - including the City-based "Girl Geek Dinners" like London Girl Geek Dinners, etc.)

And, I think that's it for now...

Thanks for reading,
kt

I first posted an update to sp_helpindex here. My version of sp_helpindex was solely to expand what sp_helpindex showed and adds 1 or 2 things based on version: for SQL2005+ it adds included columns and for SQL2008 it also adds the filter predicate. So, there were two versions of sp_helpindex2 depending on which verison you're using. A lot of folks like the changes to this sp but, alas, it had a bug (or two :) and in fact, I found a few others when I went back over this as well. So, thanks to Josh (who commented here) and to a private email (thanks Vasco!), I have an updated version of sp_helpindex2:

For SQL Server 2005, here's your new sp_helpindex2 script: sp_helpindex2_2005.zip (2.89 KB)

And, here's a simple test script for 2005:

DROP TABLE tbl1
GO

CREATE TABLE tbl1( c1 int, c2 int, c3 int, c4 int)
GO
CREATE INDEX ix_1 ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2)
CREATE INDEX ix_2 ON tbl1(c1)
CREATE INDEX ix_3 ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2, c3)
CREATE INDEX ix_4 ON tbl1(c1, c3) INCLUDE (c2)
CREATE INDEX ix_5 ON tbl1(c3) INCLUDE (c1, c2, c4)
CREATE INDEX ix_6 ON tbl1(c1, c2) INCLUDE (c3, c4)
go

sp_helpindex2 tbl1
go

index_name	index_description	index_keys	included_columns
ix_1	nonclustered located on fg1	c1	c2
ix_2	nonclustered located on fg1	c1	NULL
ix_3	nonclustered located on fg1	c1	c2, c3
ix_4	nonclustered located on fg1	c1, c3	c2
ix_5	nonclustered located on fg1	c3	c1, c2, c4
ix_6	nonclustered located on fg1	c1, c2	c3, c4

And, here's a simple test script for 2008:

DROP TABLE tbl1
GO

CREATE TABLE tbl1( c1 int, c2 int, c3 int, c4 int)
CREATE INDEX ix_1 ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2)
CREATE INDEX ix_2 ON tbl1(c1)
CREATE INDEX ix_3 ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2, c3)
CREATE INDEX ix_4 ON tbl1(c1, c3) INCLUDE (c2)
CREATE INDEX ix_5 ON tbl1(c3) INCLUDE (c1, c2, c4)
CREATE INDEX ix_6 ON tbl1(c1, c2) INCLUDE (c3, c4)

CREATE INDEX ix_1f ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2)
WHERE c3 IS NOT NULL

CREATE INDEX ix_2f ON tbl1(c1)
WHERE c4 > 2

CREATE INDEX ix_3f ON tbl1(c1) INCLUDE (c2, c3)
WHERE c4 > 2 AND c1 < 50 AND c2 = 12

CREATE INDEX ix_4f ON tbl1(c1, c3) INCLUDE (c2)
WHERE c4 IS NOT NULL AND c1 = 12

CREATE INDEX ix_5f ON tbl1(c3) INCLUDE (c1, c2, c4)
WHERE c1 > 5

CREATE INDEX ix_6f ON tbl1(c1, c2) INCLUDE (c3, c4)
WHERE c4 < 20
go

sp_helpindex2 tbl1
go

index_name	index_description	index_keys	included_columns	filter_definition
ix_1	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2	NULL
ix_1f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2	([c3] IS NOT NULL)
ix_2	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2	NULL
ix_2f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2	([c4]>(2))
ix_3	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2, c3	NULL
ix_3f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1	c2, c3	([c4]>(2) AND [c1]<(50) AND [c2]=(12))
ix_4	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1, c3	c2	NULL
ix_4f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1, c3	c2	([c4] IS NOT NULL AND [c1]=(12))
ix_5	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c3	c1, c2, c4	NULL
ix_5f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c3	c1, c2, c4	([c1]>(5))
ix_6	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1, c2	c3, c4	NULL
ix_6f	nonclustered located on PRIMARY	c1, c2	c3, c4	([c4]<(20))

Have fun!
kt

I started this post while Paul and I were in the TechEd Bloggers Lounge... which, from the number of folks "stopping by" must be more of an online thing :). We did have lots of folks visit with us in the DAT "Green" area but in the bloggers lounge, I thought I'd blog (maybe that's the point?!). But, as luck would have it, I got side tracked at the end and ended up on the Women In Technology panel, then chatting with a customer, and then another... and, well, now it's Friday and time to pack up and head home. This year's TechEd was a combination of crazy busy highs with a very "where is everyone" lows. I asked about YOUR opinion of the split for TechEd this year and I think folks are waiting for the event to complete before they form opinions but for me, I felt like the event was smaller...without as much buzz as in TEs past. I've always really viewed TE as "the biggest US event of the year" where all of the buzz was created. It's where I often learn about new (usually outside of SQL Server :) technologies and where I hear some of the latest buzz. This year, I just didn't feel as though there was as much buzz (or as many people). And, I guess I've complained about how crowded it's felt in years past so I guess both have their ups/downs - but, overall, TE just didn't (in my opinion) have the same energy of TEs past... I'd definitely like to hear more opinions on this. Overall, it was nice to catch up with a few of the usual suspects.

As for a trip (and resources/tips/tricks) report... here I go :)

Monday was our "Overview of SQL Server 2008" precon and that went really well... we were completely exhausted by the end of the day but we had a lot of great feedback. The general feedback was that it was the perfect way to start the week as it allowed people to get a really good more-than-just overview of the new features and help to determine which topics/sessions might be the most relevant for folks to attend. Also, I learned about a Performance Dashboard bug here that I thought I'd pass on as well - it's not likely to happen to everyone and it's related to a potential timeout problem. I didn't find too many references to this problem though so if someone does have a more detailed link - let me know. The end result (a gentleman named Leif sent this script to me) is that you need to tweak the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\PerformanceDashboard\setup.sql file so that the stored procedures deal with the timeout correctly. The change is to line 276:

From:
sum(convert(bigint, datediff(ms, login_time, getdate()))) - sum(convert(bigint, s.total_elapsed_time)) as idle_connection_time,

To:
sum(convert(bigint, CAST ( DATEDIFF ( minute, login_time, getdate()) AS BIGINT)*60000 + DATEDIFF ( millisecond, DATEADD ( minute, DATEDIFF ( minute, login_time, getdate() ), login_time ),getdate() ))) - sum(convert(bigint, s.total_elapsed_time)) as idle_connection_time,

Tuesday, I delivered my Indexing session "Are your indexing strategies working?" and the group really enjoyed some of the things I focused on - from DMVs to DTA to SSMS to Performance Data Collection in SQL Server 2008... there are many aspects to indexing and depending on your environment some are more relevant/important than others. There are definitely a lot of things to talk more about here... INCLUDE columns, statistics... In the interim, I've posted all of my demo scripts to our past conferences page here. 

Wednesday, Paul delivered his Corruption session and it was excellent. He showed a variety of different situations that all have different workarounds - as well as discussed a few that don't. He's posted a few things about these sessions and he's going to slowly detail each of his demos in blog posts.

Thursday, we delivered a Database Maintenance session which was a "Top 10", per se. This was a great session for us but I wish we had done it as our first session instead of our last. I felt like this session was a wider session (in terms of topics) and our other two were deeper sessions (in terms of technical content)... But, it was still great fun to do. The thing that made it the most fun for me is that I decided at about 5pm the day prior that I wanted to tweak my demos a bit... and, 14 hours later, I was done. I decided that I would create two copies of a database - one for each of two laptops and then I would work really hard to create a "best practices database" and a "worst practices database". What was most stunning to me was that the cumulative effect of all of the worst practices was actually a lot worse than I had thought it would be. In the first test run I did on stage my best practices database (before the index maintenance) ran at about 3500 measured statements per second. My worst practices ran at about 71. I absolutely did not expect that large of a difference... and, one of the things I'm truly looking forward to doing is breaking each of the worst practices down and comparing the breakdown of each to find what has the greatest impact.

The week was a big success overall and it was great to see a few folks that we seem to only see at these types of events....... see you next year!

Cheers,
kt

Memorial Day weekend we were in Chicago to celebrate my Father's life. We did a "Celebration of Life" memorial and we had a few drinks (celebratory Meyers, Tonic and lime - which was my Father's favorite drink), we (7 of us) gave a few heartfelt speeches, and a few friends wrote a song (and passed out the words - to which we all sang along) and we grieved... but, in a refreshingly-not-overly-depressing way. I have to admit - it was exactly what I'd want as well. It was a wonderful day filled with memories and friends. After that, we visited with my Mom as well as my Grandmother. Paul blogged a couple of pics (yes, that chair is VERY big!). Then, we were back in Seattle for only one week...back to work...and preparing for TechEd 2008 ITPro week.

As for TechEd being spread over 2 weeks, well... I think it offers some excellent logistical options (smaller size means more possible venues AND/OR it means that they could possibly grow the size for each event). And, for some topics, I think there is a very strong separation between developer and ITPro (admin/ops) but for SQL - I think it's hard to get it perfectly right. I think there's a lot of developers who need to know more about admin/ops just so that they can develop more optimal (and even manageable solutions) and I think that DBAs should have a really good architectural overview of a lot of features to better administer them. So, for SQL, I'd *love* to hear your comments on what you think............

For Paul and I, the decision is relatively simple, we came for this second week for ITPro/Ops. But, we've also spoken at the developer events (and sometimes we even write/present sessions specifically targeted at developers at our SQL Connections shows and/or at User Groups (we just did a local .NET user group in Redmond and the discussion around Indexes became so popular that we're going back in August (for Indexes) and again (tbd) for Disaster Recovery techniques). Basically, developers tend to say...oh, that's why I should x or y or z....... so, maybe next year we'll hit both? Regardless, I'd still like to know what you think? Were you at the Developers event? Do you wish you could be at both? Are you at both?

As for what we're doing - Paul's already blogged it here: http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2008/06/05/OffToTechEdUSITProTomorrow.aspx.

But, I thought I'd do a quick recap so that you can get some insight into our week as well as where to find us to come and chat. We'd love to meet you and/or hear your success (or disaster) stories!

Monday

• Full day pre-con seminar: SQL Server 2008 Overview for DBAs

This is ACTION packed (and a very full day!) and will include giving out the updated SQL Server 2008 HOLs DVD. We weren't really sure we were going to be able to do it... we didn't really burn too many of the CTP6 version of the DVDs, nor were we sure that CTP6 would still be the most relevant. But, it's still excellent to learn on and this time our DVD includes 17 labs:

HOL Lab Filename	Length	Lab Name	Lab Abstract/Description
Using Policy-based Management.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Policy-based Management	Security, best-practices, proper configuration settings - how do you control these things on one or more server? These hands-on labs show you how to implement and leverage the new policy-based management framework to define and control your business rules and your server's compliance for one or more instances of SQL Server 2008.
Data Recovery Preventative Techniques.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Data Recovery and Preventative Techniques Hands-on Lab	Can you recover from a dropped table? Can you reconcile tables that have become out of sync due to human error? These hands-on exercises show you how to bring a database back online quickly after a table is dropped as well as how to reconcile the differences between a production environment and a recently restored version of your database - so that you can manually merge the recovered data back into your production database. Once all of the recovery techniques are shown, the last exercise shows how DDL triggers can prevent some of these human errors altogether.
Table and Index Partitioning.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Table Index & Partitioning Hands-On Lab	Table and Index Partitioning allows large tables to be managed more granularly. These hands-on labs show you how to implement and leverage these key features: a partition function, a partition scheme and the sliding window scenario.
Database Mirroring Part I.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring, Part I	Database Mirroring allows you to create a secondary (mirror) database to handle requests either automatically or manually, in the event of a diaster at the principal database. These hands-on labs show you how to implement and leverage as well as when and how to use Database Mirroring. You will setup database mirroring in a High Availability configuration (synchronous mirroring with a witness), see the affects of failover, and see how automatic page repair restores damaged pages in the principal or the mirror.
Peer to Peer Replication.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Peer-to-Peer Replication Hands-On Lab	Replication gives you a scale-out configuration where multiple servers participate in bi-directional transaction replication. Setting up and configuring this topology has a few requirements - many of which are minimized by using the Replication Wizards - but all need to be understood to configure a peer topology correctly. These hands-on exercises show you how to implement a peer topology correctly.
Using Performance Data Collection.doc	75 minutes	Performance Data Collection in SQL Server 2008	Performance Data Collection brings together many key tuning features into one cohesive toolset. These hands-on labs show you how to create a Management Data Warehouse, setup and control the collection intervals and analyze the results of system data collection sets.
Instant Initialization.doc	45 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Instant Initialization	Instant Initialization allows data files of any size to be created instantly - eleminating zero-initialization. These hands-on exercises show you how to configure your server's permissions to leverage instant as well as the security vulnerability created by enabling this feature.
Online Operations.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Online Operations Hands-On Lab	Online Operations are critical to the success of any server that needs to be highly available. These hands-on labs show you how to implement and leverage these key features: online index operations, partial database availability and online piecemeal restore.
Database Development Clients Lab.doc	120 minutes	SQL Server 2008: Database Development Hands-On Labs	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of when to use one or more of the advanced features of SQL Server 2008 Database Development. After completing these self-paced labs, you will be able to: * Set up a Database Project using Visual Studio 2008 Team System Database Edition * Make changes to the database schema and deploy those changes * Create and edit a project that uses the LINQ to SQL Object Relational mapper * Use LINQ to SQL to query and maintain a SQL Server database using the managed classes * Use LINQ to SQL with stored procedures * Create and edit a project that uses the ADO.NET Entity Data Model mapper. * Use the ADO.NET Entity Data Model to model a many-to-many relationship in the database * Use the ADO.NET Entity Framework classes and LINQ to Entities to query and update a database * Use Visual Studio 2008 to quickly get an ADO.NET Sync Services application up and running. * Set up SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking * Use ADO.NET Sync Services with SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking
Snapshot Isolation.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Snapshot Isolation Hands-On Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of the appropriate uses of transaction isolation levels as well as how snapshot isolation affects conflicting readers and writers.
Database Mirroring Part II.doc	120 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Database Mirroring, Part II	Part II of the Database Mirroring HOLs allows you to go through setup, implementation and numerous failover scenarios - step-by-step. While Part I offers quicker setup through SQLCMD scripts, Part II works through the setup process more slowly allowing you to see how things work together. This lab is longer but also goes through changing the mirroring configuration as well as forcing failover. Part I should be completed first and Part II should be completed only if time permits.
Service Oriented Database Architecture.doc	120 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Service Oriented Database Architecture Hands-On Lab Manual	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of how and when to use Service Broker in deploying a service-oriented database application.
Database Snapshots.doc	75 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Database Snapshots Hands-on Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of how to use the Database Snapshot feature of SQL Server 2008. After completing these self-paced exercises, you will be able to: * Understand how to create a database snapshot * Understand how to investigate file sizes and sparse file configuration (using both T-SQL queries and Windows Explorer) * Understand the benefits and challenges with creating multiple snapshots * Understand how a database snapshot is created when transactions are in flight as well as when they're not * Understand how to use database snapshots for testing and reverting databases * Understand the requirements to drop database snapshots and drop databases that have database snapshots * Understand how to create a database snapshot on a mirror database
Dynamic Management Views.doc	75 minutes	Understanding and Using DMVs Hands-on Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of the more advanced new features of SQL Server 2008 that give access to server information that can be used for performance tuning, server health monitoring, and problem diagnosis. After completing these self-paced labs, you will be able to: * Determine what DMVs exist, what their input parameters are, how and where their data is stored, and be able to persist DMV data to your own tables. * Access information from the query plan cache, including determining frequently executed queries and their query plans. * Access physical statistics information about indexes (e.g. fragmentation). * Access information about tempdb space utilization.
Resource Governor in Action.doc	45 minutes	SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor Hands-on Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of when to use one of the more advanced features of SQL Server 2008: Resource Governor.  After completing these self-paced labs, you will be able to: * Understand appropriate uses for Resource Governor * Create Resource Pools * Create Workload Groups * Monitor Resource Usage
Understanding Spatial Data.doc	120 minutes	SQL Server 2008: Understanding Spatial Data Hands-on Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of one of the more new features of SQL Server 2008:  Spatial Data Support. After completing these self-paced labs, you will be able to: * Understand what spatial data is * Understand the different types of spatial data * Create instances of spatial data * Investigate the properties of spatial data * Query the relationships between different instances of spatial data * Integrate spatial data into a managed code application * Move spatial data between managed code and the database * Create spatial data graphically using WPF
Using SQLCMD.doc	75 minutes	Understanding Command-line Management with SQLCMD in SQL Server Hands-on Lab	The goal of these hands-on lab materials is to get an understanding of one of the more new features of SQL Server 2008:  Spatial Data Support. After completing these self-paced labs, you will be able to: * Use SQLCMD with an initialization file, system environment variables and parameters to create customized “master” scripts for automation and administration * Use SQLCMD and SQL Server Management Studio with the Dedicated Admin Connection for troubleshooting * Use SQL Server Management Studio to modify and execute SQLCMD mode scripts * Upgrade databases from SQL Server 2000 using a parameterized script running with SQLCMD

This is a GREAT resource for playing with a lot of these new technologies and it's exciting that we have enough copies to give away to our pre-con attendees! A few of these are featured as HOLs at this year's TechEd as well and some of these can also be found with our prior Jumpstart resources.

Tuesday

• 13.15 - 14.30 (Room N230) DAT354 Are Your Indexing Strategies Working? (featuring me as speaker/presenter)
• 15.00 - 16.00 (TechEd Online Stage) Panel: Leveraging SQL Server Technologies to Build a Solid High-Availability Strategy
• 16.00 - 18.00 DAT track booth (green)

Wednesday

• 10.15 - 11.30 (Room N220D) DAT375 Corruption Survival Techniques: From Detection to Recovery (featuring Paul as speaker/presenter)
• 11.30 - 14.45 DAT track booth
• 15.00 - 16.00 Blogger's Lounge

Thursday

• 10.15 - 11.30 (Room S230E) DAT363 Essential Database Maintenance (we're co-presenting this one)
• 11.45 - 13.00 Speader Idol judging (I'll do my best to play Paula and I have hopes that Paul won't play Simon but he does have that British thing going for him)
• 14.30 - 18.00 DAT track booth

Friday, we fly home... then, we're going to test all of our dive gear and take a little dive vacation at the end of the month. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a couple of nice underwater shots!

Oh, and I've finally tweaked my Indexing post (the one that survived the drive corruption - oh, but as an update to that post... Even though I got that drive repaired, almost all of the jpgs, some of the pdfs and even a few of the Office files were still corrupt. Office opened a few of them and "repaired" them on open (which was really cool) but I did lose the photos I had taken that weekend (well, all of the ones that I removed from my camera's SD card). Anyway, I plan to (well, hope to) post the Indexing post (part 2 to this one) tomorrow!

Cheers,
kt

PS - It's hot as hell here... and the humidity is NASTY!!! But, it beats the SOLID rain that we've been having in Seattle...

Have you ever written something and then lost it... for whatever reason: your own stupidity (come on we've all accidentally done something at some point where we lost data or a spreadsheet or a document or something...), the software eats it (this might be self-inflicted but I've been in apps that just hang and that's it... there's nothing you can do except power off), or....whatever.

Well, during those times... have you ever thought - I'd do almost anything to get that data (and time) back?

Before I go any further - yes, backups are good. No, let me be clearer... Backups are an absolute requirement of ANY environment!!! 

Even personal/home environments should have something to protect the data. Something to consider is even offsite copies. Burn a DVD or two of your precious family photos and then swap DVDs with a friend... there's your simple/cheap/offsite data recovery. We all focus on critical data when a business depends on it - what about the personal stuff... Paul and I always talk about database backups and this post is not really targeting enterprise systems or even business critical systems... Really, there's NOTHING THAT SHOULD EVER RE