Cool New Features in SSMS – Recent Expensive Queries

Depending on whether you are more of a developer or more of a DBA you may care more or less about this next feature.  However, anyone can benefit from it.  SSMS 2008 makes it very easy to crack open the Activity Monitor as there is a noticeable button right on the toolbar.

Once inside you get [...]

JSON Lives

It has always been interesting to me how long it can take a technology to become truly rooted in the minds and toolsets of the software development community.  This mandatory waiting period for technological stability seems to be just long enough that most of the fads fall through the cracks.  Many tech buzzwords get thrown around, and there [...]

Data in the Cloud? Not For Me…

As I was cheerfully driving into work and auditorily inhaling my daily dose of .NET Rocks, I heard a rather compelling discussion between Scott Cate and Carl Franklin/Richard Campbell.

The site mentioned in the podcast was called Shoope, which I have to say is kind of a stupid name.  Partially, I may be thinking that name sucks [...]

Do Not Use the StringBuilder

I know there are plenty of people out there that will disagree with me, but I urge you to not use the .NET StringBuilder class in 99% of the cases you would be tempted or recommended to do so.  Here is why:
 The StringBuilder class does perform better than basic string concatenation.  However, it is really [...]