A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
In this video, I cover a powerful ensemble method for classification: random forests. We get an idea of how this differs from CART, learn the best possible metaphor for random forests, and dig into random search for hyperparameter optimization.
Click through to see the video in all its glory.
Comments closedIn this video, we look at how to perform Infrastructure as Code in GitHub. We take a Bicep script and generate new Azure resources using it and GitHub Actions.
The video includes a very brief primer on Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and Bicep, and then gets into how you can use GitHub Actions to keep your Azure resources configured the way you expect.
Comments closedIn this video, we take a look at what GitHub has for project management, reviewing GitHub Projects and Issues.
The upshot is that GitHub has a fair amount of capability for project management. Its notion of Issues definitely feels fairly well fleshed out, which makes sense considering GitHub’s original purpose as a storehouse for open-source code repositories. By contrast, Projects are a relatively new feature and there’s still some room to grow there, especially if you’re used to project management tools like Jira or Trello.
Comments closedI found a solution to an annoying problem:
After updating to the new Microsoft Teams, I could see my camera in the preview screen, but when I was in a meeting, I’d only see a black rectangle as myself. Other people mentioned that they could see me, though sometimes my video would drop off. Also, I was unable to see anybody else’s camera feed, nor could I see when people shared their screens.
Read on for the cause and solution that worked for me.
Comments closedI finish up a series on SQL Server on Linux:
In this video, we will briefly cover the various forms of replication available in SQL Server, as well as what is in SQL Server on Linux. Then, we will create a simple publication and subscription using T-SQL.
As I joke about in the video, this is the video I expect to get the least traction on, if only because DBAs tend to run away from replication. If I were 20% more inclined toward Quixotic endeavors, I’d create an entire series on replication and show that it’s not magic and it’s only 70% as painful as most DBAs think, and even that’s because there’s a relatively limited amount of information out there on how things work.
Comments closedIn this video, we will build out two availability groups for SQL Server on Linux.
This one’s a pretty lengthy video, as I describe some of the mechanisms around availability groups and we build two AGs across three instances from scratch in SQL Server on Linux.
Comments closedIn this video, we install and demonstrate PolyBase running in SQL Server on Linux hosted on Ubuntu 22.04 and get a friendly reminder to read the manual along the way.
In all seriousness, the largest percentage of time I spent on this video was because I didn’t read the manual.
Comments closedI draw the logical conclusion: the opposite of normal forms is, of course, abnormal forms:
This video covers a variety of topics, effectively wrapping up the series on normalization. We look at data warehousing, including why the Kimball-style star schema is a really bad design in theory but a perfectly reasonably design in practice. We cover the chimera of “overnormalization” and I throw out a hot take. And we finally slag on denormalization.
Click through for the video.
Comments closedIn this video, explain what Sixth Normal Form (6NF) is and why it slots in as the third most-important normal form. We look at two separate use cases in which 6NF can make sense and I provide some guidance on when 5NF is good enough versus when 6NF is better.
6th Normal Form doesn’t necessarily make sense all the time, but there are some really good use cases for it.
Comments closedIn this video, we drill into the other most important normal form, learning what Fifth Normal Form (5NF) is, why Boyce-Codd Normal Form is not enough, and examples of why 5NF can be such a challenge to implement.
Until I read CJ Date’s Database Design and Relational Theory (2nd edition), my level of appreciation for 5th Normal Form was somewhat limited, but that’s mostly because I didn’t understand it well at all. I liked the connection trap example in this article, but Date’s book was the first really good explanation of 5NF and just how powerful it is. My hope is that I was successfully able to convey that power to audiences.
Comments closed