OverAchiever

Blog

  • In Memoriam: Robert L. Davis – @SQLSoldier

    No one’s life works out exactly as they want it to – or goes exactly as planned.

    We all have our struggles, challenges, triumphs, and sorrows – our good days, and our bad.

    Which is why, in the end, the thing that matters most is how you live your life – what you do with the time you’re given; how you fill your day.

    Day in and day out – through the thick and thin of Robert’s Life he could ALWAYS be found genuinely helping people.

    Always.

    Not only am I grateful and lucky to count Robert as a friend, but I’m truly a better person for having known him.

    His steady example of kindness, help, and service to others is something I cherish and strive to honor by living my life in service to others – as Robert did.

    To me, the world just isn’t the same without Robert. I miss you man.

  • The Selkirk Crest from Myrtle Peak

    selkirkcrest_myrtle_small

    Late this summer I embarked on a ‘Solo’ backpacking trip through the Selkirks. The plan was to start up Myrtle Peak, bush-wack my way over to Ball/Pyramid Lakes, then hike over and up to Trout and Big Fisher Lakes, back round again past Long Mountain Lake and then out through Parker Ridge.

    That was the plan – and the expectation was that I’d be tackling about 40 miles in roughly 2.5 days – where around 10 of those miles would be bush-wacking (i.e., off-trail and on my own). The hike ended up being spectacular – even though some foul weather pushed me into a contingency plan that cut off about 10 miles out of my trip (more on that in subsequent posts).

    The View from Myrtle Peak is Spectacular

    Today, though, I just wanted to share what’s been my desktop background for the last 2 or 3 days – the view from Myrtle Peak (and by using an iOS Panorama, this view captures what you’d see looking south, west, and north).

    There’s more granite and beauty in this shot than I can cover in a single 3 to 9 sentence post. Crack it open, and take a look. It’s not a great photo by any stretch – but the landscape it captures is just plain gorgeous.

  • Enchantments – 2016

    This summer, my brother, his son, and my oldest son, and I decided to do a hike-through tour of the Enchantments – which Wikipedia describes thusly:

    The Enchantments is regarded as one of the most spectacular locations in the Cascade Range.

    In my estimation, Wikipedia is underplaying The Enchantments quite a bit.

    A Grueling Hike – But Well Worth It

    It’s easy to get to and even hike into the Enchantments – but permits to camp are allocated on a lottery basis every year. And, since we didn’t have a permit, we decided to do the entire 22 mile hike in a single day – which is a bit of a beast when you count in the 4500+ feet of elevation you’ll pick up during some parts of this hike.

    Here’s what the hike looked like from my Fitbit’s perspective (note the number of stairs it estimated – thanks to the huge ascent we took up Aasgard Pass):

    enchantments_fitbit
    More Triple4KBackgrounds

    Otherwise, I’ve uploaded just a couple of the gorgeous Panoramas I was able to take on this trip – in case anyone wants them as #triple4k backgrounds:

    ColchuckLake_LookingTowardsAasgard_Small
    Colchuck Lake – Looking towards Aasgard Pass (which is just to the left of that massive block of granite right in the center of this pic).

    UpperEnchantments_WatermelonSnow_Small
    Some ‘watermelon’ snow in the upper Enchantments (with little Annapurna left-of-center in the background).

    BackOfDragonTail_Small
    The back-side of Dragontail Peak (with the summit of Aasgard Pass right in the center of the image).

  • A Favorite Undocumented T-SQL Snippet

    While there are tons of undocumented T-SQL commands out there, one of my all-time favorites is this little gem:

    SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('ErrorLogFileName');

    It’s not much, but it will show you default details on:

    • Where the SQL Server Binaries have been installed
    • Where you can find SQL Server’s log files (as .txt files)
    • Where the default trace (.trc) files are located
    ErrorLogFileName

     Arguably, there are better ways to retrieve some of this information (like SELECT * FROM sys.dm_server_registry;).

    But SERVERPROPERTY(‘ErrorLogFileName’) works just fine when looking for low-level details.

    The only real problem I have with this particular snippet of T-SQL is that I can never remember EXACTLY what the property is to ‘search’ for (i.e., ‘ErrorLogFileName’) – which is part of why I’ve blogged about it (so that I’ll be able to more easily find this snippet in the future).

  • Triple 4K Monitors – Backgrounds

    As part of a workstation upgrade in January I grabbed a video card (that was more than) capable of driving 3x 4K monitors simultaneously – along with 3x Dell P2415Q Monitors. I’ve now been using 3x 4K monitors for over half a year (previously I was using 3x 1680×1050 monitors – so this has been quite the upgrade), and I’ve got to say that after all of this time, I’m still totally and completely, head-over-heals in love.

    Two Minor Issues

    I have, however, run into two very MINOR issues running these monitors (and one huge problem that I’ll cover in a subsequent post as it’s not so much a 4K problem as a Windows/Display Port problem).

    1. Where’s my Cursor? In a sea of nearly 25 million pixels (each 4K monitor sports 3840 x 2160 resolution – or 8.29 million pixels each), I’ve found myself chuckling a few times at the few seconds it can occasionally take to find a tiny 32 x 32 pixel cursor hiding amongst one of my 3 monitors.

    2. Backgrounds / Wallpaper. Unsurprisingly, there just aren’t that many great backgrounds that remain crisp and non-pixelated when being displayed on 3x 4K monitors running side by side – or at 11,520 x 2160 resolution.

    Some Options

    Happily, I have found a a site that provide ‘good enough’ resolution backgrounds or wallpaper that have helped provide me with some options or backgrounds.

    More importantly, I’ve also found that iOS Panoramas typically provide for fantastic triple-monitor backgrounds – they’re easy enough to take, and provide plenty of pixels to keep everything very crisp and vibrant when running triple 4K monitors.

    To that end, I’ll be sharing a few of the #triple4K backgrounds I’ve taken during my own adventures – starting with this panorama (of Upper Ball Lake – in Northern Idaho’s Selkirk Mountains) I took last week while on my Solo 2016 backpacking trip.


    Early Morning on Upper Ball Lake

  • An Introduction

    Scott Hanselman (blog|twitter) is right, it’s time to stop ‘pouring’ our ideas into closed systems (i.e., social media) that usurp ownership of our thoughts and sap our ability to share things of value with one-another.

    In short: I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and it’s time I got back to regular blogging.

    A big part of what’s kept me away from blogging for so long though, is that I tend to be a bit too verbose – which means that blogging can too easily become a tedious affair where I spend too much time word-smithing my way through long, overly thought-out, posts.

    That, and no one these days seems to have much patience for more than a bit of content at a time anyhow.

    So, I’m trying something new: regular, concise, blog-posts – to the tune of roughly 3 to 9 sentences per post. (If I find something that I really need to ‘rant’ about (or want to cover by means of a tutorial), I’ll set up a ‘long-blog’ and tackle details there.)