Benjy's IT Blog

Check out this story where a couple in Oregon was having a private conversation and Alexa recorded and sent the conversation to one of their contacts!  They were not aware until the contact contacted them about what had happened.  The couple contacted Amazon and they verified the series of events.  But what's even more bizarre is the couple wanted to return their Amazon home devices but Amazon has not agreed to return the costs for the devices! Check out the article here  by Bruce Brown on  Digital Trends

So, I've run into an issue with one of my queries because it takes about 40 seconds to run and according to the Recent Expensive Queries section of the Activity Monitor in SQL Server, there is a section of code taking up about 51% of the query.  First, let me say that I've been writing Transact SQL for quite awhile but have never ventured into the Clustered and NonClustered areas of forming Indexes.  I do use indexes on all my tables but that's just the regular Primary Unique key.  We've been using this query for awhile and it does work but when the result set is about 5K records it takes a little while to run.  So here's the actual query itself SELECT PartNo , SerialNo , HeciCode , ScanDate , OrderType , PoNo , po . IssueDate , SoNo FROM ScanHistory sh WITH ( NOLOCK ) LEFT OUTER JOIN trkRWPOHeader po WITH ( NOLOCK ) ON sh . PoNo = po . PONum WHERE len ( PoNo ) > 2 AND ScanDate >

So, one of the topics that came to me the other day was how listening to music affects your performance.  I don't know the exact science but I will say that when I workout, the music I listen to definitely helps me get through some tough exercises, especially during circuit workouts and running.  And you usually see several people wearing their headphones or ear buds while working out. But, how many of you listen to music while coding?  Well, for me I do on occasion, and it really depends on what mood I'm in.  Usually though, when I feel the need to get in a deep focus I do listen to music.  And usually I'll listen to classical music while coding.  It's been a habit of mine since college to listen to classical music while studying or coding.  And if you want some suggestions on some classical music that I really like, check out the songs by Jennifer Thomas.  She has several songs on iTunes such as Etude for the Dreamer, After the Storm, New Life, and many more. I do

So the next book I've just started reading is called  Straight to the Top - Becoming a World-Class CIO  - I choose this as my next book to read because of a few things.  First, I wanted to read something different compared to the last book, which was The New Psycho-Cybernetics (which is also a great book!).  That book was more about improving your self-image, how to work on yourself to be more confident, successful, etc.  Straight to the Top is more of a how to book, with specifics on how to become a CIO.  Secondly, I wanted to read a book that will eventually help me reach my future goals.  Or should I say a book that has a more specific pathway on how I can get there.  Don't get me wrong, The New Psycho-Cybernetics will also help me reach my future goals, and it's actually a book that I will read again.  But the CIO book gives examples of how the author became a CIO, what employers are looking for in CIO's, and also what recruiters are looking for. I've also

If you're trying to prepare yourself for an interview as a programmer, software developer, etc., check out this article by Javin Paul called  Top 50 Programming Interview Questions  - the article breaks down the questions by category such as questions on arrays, strings, and linked lists.  It also has a link to another 50 questions if you want to be even more prepared!

The book The New Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz is truly an amazing book!  This book should be read by everyone!  Whether your self-image is good or bad this book talks about taking steps to improve your self-image, live a longer life, and ultimately be happy! I myself feel like I have a good self-image, my self-esteem is high and overall I'm an optimistic and happy person.  But I can see how a book like this can help me strive for higher achievements and help me to reach those higher goals! For those with poor self-images and low esteem this book will benefit you immensely.  The book talks about several examples where people have been down, sick, lonely.  But have gone through the exercises in the book and come out with a much better self-image and becoming much more happy. There are so many examples in the book its hard to cover them all and that's why I will definitely be reading the book again, as well as a reference for future inspirations.  Towards the end