It’s Monday and time, finally, for a weekly blog and twitter round-up for last week.  It’s been a while since I’ve published this summary post, but hey that’s what life is for, getting in the way of things that you sometimes want to be doing.  If you haven’t already, follow me on twitter (@StrateSQL). This is a good chance to catch up on data platform technology and career related information I’ve shared in the last week and activity on this blog.

Most Popular Article Shared

Last weeks most popular link is an article from Wired on Dropbox’s cloud journey.  If you aren’t aware, they went from hosting on the Amazon cloud to building their own cloud, including designing hardware and building the OS.  It’s a very interesting story and for those working in the cloud a good read.

Last Week’s Popular Posts

The most popular posts on this blog in the week are:

1. 31 Days of SSIS – The Introduction (647)
2. 31 Days of SSIS – Raw Files Are Awesome (1/31) (257)
3. 31 Days of SSIS as a Book (225)
4. XQuery for the Non-Expert – Value (133)
5. Security Questions: What permissions are required to create temporary tables? (127)
6. Get Just The Tools: SSMS Download (112)
7. Security Questions: Difference Between db_datawriter and db_ddladmin? (110)
8. 31 Days of SSIS – Using Breakpoints (2/31) (102)
9. Security Questions: Removing Logins From Databases (101)
10. The Side Effect of NOLOCK (82)

Last Week’s Top 20 “Reading” Links

Along with the most popular link, here are the top twenty items relating to SQL Server, technology and careers that were shared last week. If you missed them throughout the week, here’s the opportunity to get caught up on some items that other’s read after I linked them out.

1. The Epic Story of Dropbox’s Exodus From the Amazon Cloud Empire [21 clicks]
2. Test: The Top Two SQL Server Problems I Find Everywhere [21 clicks]
3. In-Memory OLTP Performance Demo Available for Download [12 clicks]
4. Creating your first data model in Azure Analysis Services [10 clicks]
5. Capacity Planning Using Performance Data [9 clicks]
6. Microsoft releases the latest update to Analytics Platform System [9 clicks]
7. Table Pattern: Rotating Log / Ring Buffer [9 clicks]
8. Addressing large memory grant requests from optimized Nested Loops [8 clicks]
9. SQL Server 2016 SP1: Know your limits [7 clicks]
10. Evolution of the Netflix Data Pipeline [7 clicks]
11. 17 Bad Habits You Need to Get Rid Of in 2017 [7 clicks]
12. 7 Reasons Your Best People Might Quit After the New Year (and How You Can Stop Them) [7 clicks]
13. Stored Procedures Are Not Faster Than Views [6 clicks]
14. How I prepare for a presentation [5 clicks]
15. Who are the Women Leaders we Should be Looking to and Supporting? [5 clicks]
16. Technical Preview: Database Experimentation Assistant [4 clicks]
17. Intel Speed Shift Support in Windows Server 2016 [4 clicks]
18. Data Science and the Lytro Camera [4 clicks]
19. General availability for Azure Search S3, S3 High Density, and new regions [4 clicks]
20. R Misteaks -Episode I [3 clicks]

Last Week’s Posts From Previous Years

Sometimes the most useful content on a blog wasn’t written in the past week, it’s often other articles shared in the past that resonate with readers. Check out the following links that I published in past years over the past week:

1. 31 Days of SSIS – Override Variables (9/31) (2011-01-09)
2. Determining Default Trace Location (2013-01-09)
3. The DBA That Practices Database Restores (2014-01-10)
4. 31 Days of SSIS – Pivot Transformation (10/31) (2011-01-10)
5. 31 Days of SSIS – UnPivot Transformation (11/31) (2011-01-11)
6. 31 Days of SSIS – UnPivot Alternative (12/31) (2011-01-12)
7. Find Duplicate Foreign Keys (2009-01-13)
8. 31 Days of SSIS – Create XML Document (13/31) (2011-01-13)
9. 31 Days of SSIS – Instant Excel Spreadsheet (14/31) (2011-01-14)
10. 31 Days of SSIS – Every Which Way Outputs (15/31) (2011-01-15)
11. 31 Days of SSIS – 10 Things About Expressions (16/31) (2011-01-16)

Other Items Shared

Of course, no week would be complete without a few off-topic links. These have nothing to do with technology or your career, but they are interesting and worth a second look.

1. Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite books – Business Insider [32 clicks]
2. 13 things mentally strong people avoid – Business Insider [28 clicks]
3. This guy does something really amazing! – YouTube [26 clicks]
4. How I became a morning person (and why I decided to make the change) [25 clicks]
5. Why bad ideas refuse to die | Steven Poole | Science | The Guardian [13 clicks]
6. His Coke Habit Was the Tip of the Iceberg – Scientific American [12 clicks]
7. 3 Little-Known Reasons Why Morning Rituals Are Freaking Awesome [10 clicks]
8. Guccifer 2.0 Emerges To Slam Intelligence Community’s “Fake Evidence” | Zero Hedge [8 clicks]
9. MongoDB Databases Held for Ransom by Mysterious Attacker [8 clicks]
10. Leaked Kerry Audio Shows Hidden Syria Backstory – WhoWhatWhy [8 clicks]
11. BJ Fogg: How to stick with good habits even when you’re lazy – Business Insider [8 clicks]
12. Three Things You Can Do to Grow More Brain Cells [6 clicks]
13. Is the Senate GOP really setting a new speed record on presidential nominations? – The Washington Post [6 clicks]
14. The Four Stages of Life [6 clicks]
15. Five Useful Cooking Techniques No One Teaches You [3 clicks]

Got something you think I should read and share, leave a comment below. Also, if you want to see all of the links that were tweeted out last week?