It’s Monday time for this week’s weekly link round-up.  If you want to catch these links “live” (so exciting), follow me on twitter (@StrateSQL).  And see these throughout the day as I tweet out links of things I find interesting.  While these links aren’t the answer to life, the universe, and everything, they often share a few things about SQL Server and related technology topics that others may find useful. The links included in this summary are those prefixed with “Reading” and are items I’ve read over the past few days, usually after hours when sharing would be less than useful, and spaced out to avoid spamming.  The content of the links usually pertain to SQL Server, technology, and career topics; which I think others would find useful.

The Most Popular “Reading” Link

This weeks most popular link last week is from a blog post written by Ben Nevarez (Blog | @BenjaminNevarez).  He covers a number of trace flags that are useful in understanding what the query optimizer is doing.  If you like to nerd out on the optimizer, this isn’t a post to miss.

Reading: "More Undocumented Query Optimizer Trace Flags" http://t.co/6o14ZDuftj #sqlserver

— Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) June 9, 2014

Last week’s top 20 “Reading” Links

Along with the top 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. More Undocumented Query Optimizer Trace Flags [34 clicks]
2. Top 10 Highly Recommended SQL Server Books [25 clicks]
3. The strangest SQL Server Agent problem you will ever meet! [23 clicks]
4. Parameterization – A quick note on a CSS SQL article [17 clicks]
5. Queries barely over the Cost Threshold for Parallelism [15 clicks]
6. What Would a SQL Server Experience Index Look Like? [14 clicks]
7. A First Look at the New SQL Server Cardinality Estimator [13 clicks]
8. How to reset the SA password in SQL Server [11 clicks]
9. Pragmatic Works Invests in its Own Analytics Platform System [11 clicks]
10. Improving Partitioned Table Join Performance [10 clicks]
11. Reason for Early Termination of Statement [9 clicks]
12. SQL Server 2014 Licensing [9 clicks]
13. Enabling High Performance Power Plan via PowerShell [8 clicks]
14. Indexed Views. Part 1. The Benefits [6 clicks]
15. Killing Sessions with External Wait Types [5 clicks]
16. If Risk Knocks At The Door. Will You Answer It? [5 clicks]
17. I want to be on the PASS NomCom this year [4 clicks]
18. Indexed Views. Part 2. The Costs [4 clicks]
19. T-SQL Tuesday #49: Wait for It … [4 clicks]
20. SQL Server PREEMPTIVE_OS_WRITEFILEGATHER Wait Statistic [2 clicks]

Other Stuff 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. Intense Before-and-After Google Street View Pictures Perfectly Capture Detroit’s Decline [43 clicks]
2. 13 Ridiculous Travel Accessories No One Will Ever Need [24 clicks]
3. High School Principal Cancels Entire Reading Program To Stop Students From Reading Cory Doctorow’s ‘Little Brother’ [19 clicks]
4. One Man’s Night ‘All By Himself’ at the Airport Becomes Hilarious Music Video [17 clicks]
5. The Star Wars Workout: Begin Your Jedi Training! [8 clicks]
6. 5 Things Microsoft’s Smartwatch Needs [6 clicks]
7. California judge strikes down teacher tenure, firing laws [5 clicks]
8. SKRILLEX – Kill EVERYBODY [4 clicks]
9. Pragmatic Works is Named as a Best Place to Work in 2014 by the Jacksonville Business Journal [4 clicks]
10. Ellie Goulding – Burn [2 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?