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The Voice of the DBA

The Last iPhone

A few years ago the iPhone 7 was released. This was a big release for Apple, and I knew quite a few people that were ready to plunk down their credit card on day 1 and upgrade. I wasn't, and in fact, I upgraded to an iPhone 6s+ from a 6 a few weeks after the release. At the time, my old phone felt slow and small, and I decided to make the upgrade sooner rather than later to my last iPhone. Why? Really for one main reason.

Most of us reading this work with technology and software. We often deal with upgrades to our tools and systems better than most of our friends, but not without complaint. Quite a few of us have been annoyed, or even angered, by the changes that Microsoft has made to software. From SSMS to Office, what the developers in Redmond might see as an upgrade, we see as a step back. One that interferes with our workflow and forces us to adapt and build new habits. The Ribbon bar in Office and the "Modern" look in Windows 8 come to mind as some of the more disruptive upgrades.

I get it. I work for Redgate Software, and we often struggle if we make significant UI or workflow changes to software. We might have reasons to view a change as better, but without a doubt, there are a percentage of users that always disagree. We try to ensure it's a small percentage, performing a lot of research among customers before we implement a change, but someone will dislike our decision. As a side note, if you care about your software, participate in research with your vendors. You can help them determine if something should, or should not, change.

In the case of my iPhone, I use this device to listen to music quite often. Whether at the gym, in an airplane, or between matches I'm when I'm coaching, I depend on headphones. In my case, I prefer wired headphones and I wouldn't buy a new iPhone because there was no headphone jack. I'm on the go, in various places, multiple vehicles, with different bags, and I don't want to depend on a dongle, nor do I want to have bluetooth devices run out of charge. I also sweat and destroy or lose a few pairs of headphones a year. As I watched rumors, and contemplated upgrades, I decided that the iPhone 6S+ would be my last device.

I've owned 5 Apple mobiles, but I'm moving away from them for good. Not because of software, which I think is similar among both major platforms, but because of hardware here. I ordered a new phone, and I'll say goodbye to the platform. I have liked iOS, and I think there are things it does better than Android, and certainly some conveniences that apps include, but Android is close, and I'll adapt.

Most of us won't do that in our career. We won't change desktop OS or database platforms or even programming languages. We might adopt something new, but we often stick with what works. There are good reasons to do this, especially when we can take advantage of the built up knowledge. However, never say never. If there's a very strong reason to switch, I'd like to think most of us would. 

Steve Jones from SQLServerCentral.com

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The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 5.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn. feed

The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music.

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Question of the Day

Today's Question (by Steve Jones):

What does this return in Python 3.5?

 >>> -81 // 4 

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Yesterday's Question of the Day

Yesterday's Question (by Evgeny Garaev):

I have a T-SQL script like this:

 CREATE TABLE tst ( ProductID INT, ProductName VARCHAR(100), Quantity INT, Price MONEY ); INSERT INTO tst VALUES ( 1, 'SQL Server 2014', 20, 1234.55), ( 2, 'SQL Server 2016', 5, 1234.55); CREATE TABLE tst0 ( OrderID INT, ProductID INT, Quantity INT ); INSERT INTO tst0 VALUES ( 1, 1, 3), ( 2, 1, 1); SELECT [Product].ProductID, [Product].ProductName, [Order].OrderID, [Order].Quantity FROM tst [Product] LEFT JOIN tst0 [Order] ON [Order].ProductID = [Product].ProductID; --[Put the command here] DROP TABLE tst; DROP TABLE tst0; 

Which command do you need to put in place of the comment in order to get the following result:

 {"ProductID":1,"ProductName":"SQL Server 2014","Order":[{"OrderID":1,"Quantity":3},{"OrderID":2,"Quantity":1}]}, {"ProductID":2,"ProductName":"SQL Server 2016","Order":[{}]} 

Answer: FOR JSON AUTO, WITHOUT_ARRAY_WRAPPER;

Explanation:

The only correct answer is - "FOR JSON AUTO, WITHOUT_ARRAY_WRAPPER;" - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/json/format-query-results-as-json-with-for-json-sql-server


» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Featured Script

A Data Dictionary Select

Patrick Slesicki from SQLServerCentral.com

Select the appropriate database and run.

This query creates a data dictionary for all joinable objects in the databases, i.e. tables, views, and table valued functions.

Let me know what you think. This is the revised edition with corrections to the foreign key derivation.

Many thanks to grasshopper for the observation.

More »

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