Archive // mattypenny

2024-05-09: Just tried connecting to IP address 15.0.4365.2….which, sadly, is not an IP address, …

2024-05-09: Out dog-walking this morning, and saw a mum and son walking to school, with the mum blowing bubbles …

2024-05-08: One man’s proverb is another man’s ‘wtf?’

2024-05-08: When someone else is screen-sharing, and I’m trying to point them to the right link or button …

2024-05-08: This is very good…on getting physical fitness into perspective “I always regarded …

2024-05-07: Room 101 was a meeting room #TodayILearned, via mastodonapp.uk/@Probertd… that “The original Room 101 was not in …

2024-05-06: Was up in London over the weekend and went to see the now not-very-new statue of George Orwell, at …

2024-05-02: An amusing UK political story The bloke who made it compulsory to bring photo id to your polling …

2024-05-02: We had to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner today. It turns out every one of the candidates …

2024-05-02: I’m slightly worried that Alfie Gilchrist is going to spontaneously combust at full time ⚽

2024-05-02: 📷 photoblogging challenge #mbapr - unputdownable Somewhat negated by the fact that I have clearly …

2024-05-01: I really enjoyed all the hometown photos in the photoblogging challenge. Call me nosey, but …

2024-05-01: This was my April, in #SketchNotes From top left to bottom right Guinesses in the Wig and Quill 🍺 …

2024-04-30: 📷 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - hometown I’m not 100% sure whether this is the photo I …

2024-04-30: 🎙️ Podcast episode in which A.J. Jacobs tries, and largely fails,to live day without plastic …

2024-04-29: 📷 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - drift I’ve got a vague feeling I’ve seen flowers …

2024-04-28: #TodayILearned that ‘scarper’ is rhyming slang, derived from Scapa Flow, rhyming with …

2024-04-28: This podcast episode includes my favourite tale of quintessential British upper middle classness A …

2024-04-28: I got a bit damp last night marshalling for the Salisbury Hospice Midnight Walk.Terrific event …

2024-04-27: Only saw the last half hour, but that half hour was a great Chelsea performance ⚽

2024-04-27: Karaoke doesn’t half make you appreciate professional singers 🎵

2024-04-26: Football has come a long way since ‘Ron Manager’ ⚽ I “created an animation with my …

2024-04-26: This week the powers that be decided to stick with Ofsted’s 4-point scale of assessing schools …

2024-04-26: I’ve been to the theatre a few times since COVID, but I’ve not really managed to get …

2024-04-26: I was standing just now next to someone who stank of cigarette smoke I’ve never been a smoker, …

2024-04-24: There are days when the notion that exercise is good for you is totally counter-intuitive. This is …

2024-04-24: “Drummers are like hockey goalies. No-one knows how to talk to them apart from other …

2024-04-24: I listened to this yesterday. It’s fascinating, ridiculous and disturbing, often at the same …

2024-04-23: 📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - dreamy This is from November 2022. It was a sound and light show …

2024-04-23: In honour of it being Saint George’s Day, this is Ralph Mctell, the ‘Streets of …

2024-04-22: 📸 #mbapr photo-blogging challenge - blue I couldn’t not pick something Chelsea-related for …

2024-04-22: Always stressful watching Child 2 play 🏀

2024-04-22: I enjoyed The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore 📚, although I maybe don’t have a …

2024-04-22: #TodayILearned the phrase ‘gish gallop’. It’s means to create a deluge of rubbish …

2024-04-20: 📸 #MbApr Winter Solstice 2010, in the dawn’s early light, when all was ice and snow

2024-04-20: #TodayILearned that Richard Whittington really was apprenticed to someone called Sir Ivo FitzWaryn …

2024-04-20: #TodayILearned that the TV audience that is most disproportionately Labour voting is Taskmaster, …

2024-04-19: When I’m the first in a one-to-one Teams meeting, and the other person is late, so …

2024-04-19: There’s a photo of a Salisbury road sign in the Guardian today I’m thinking about …

2024-04-18: #OnThisDay in 1930, which was Good Friday, the BBC News Announcer announced, in the evening …

2024-04-18: I enjoyed this combination of headline and photo - Harry Kane reacts to knocking Arsenal out of the …

2024-04-17: This is lovely Frank Cottrell-Boyce talking about how the Queen jumped out of a helicopter for the …

2024-04-17: Chelsea's pre-penalty playground squabble dissected by The Athletic I thought this was amusing The Athletic has a typically nerd-level-detail bit about Cole …

2024-04-16: I got 11 out of 16 Liz Truss quiz: did she really say that in her book? Can you guess which things …

2024-04-15: #TodayILearned that Chris Spedding, who produced the Cramps, and possibly the Sex Pistols, and had a …

2024-04-14: Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham all lost. I just need a Chelsea win tomorrow night and my …

2024-04-14: I had a lovely day out going to Saint Mary’s yesterday It reminded me that, when Child Two was …

2024-04-12: Todays browser wallpaper is pleasantly familiar - I’ve not seen Pulteney Bridge from that …

2024-04-12: I’ve been doing this, after a fashion, for a few years…but I didn’t know …

2024-04-12: “At this point, I’m pretty sure, that if I lost my .zsh_history I probably …

2024-04-12: This used to be the shop next door to the house I grew up in Then it was ‘Spire Models’ …

2024-04-11: I keep looking at my phone and seeing that Strava is open Either I’m opening it by accident, …

2024-04-11: A good article about xz and open source and ‘source-available’ companies The threat to …

2024-04-10: Interesting point in this, at least for politics nerds like myself Famously, JFK performed better in …

2024-04-10: It’s clearly not the main point of my friend Tom’s podcast, but #TodayILearned that …

2024-04-10: Fiona Wilson for PM! “Fictional Labour frontbencher better known than real ones, survey finds …

2024-04-09: Today’s newly-acquired superpower is remembering that, in vim, ‘*’ jumps you to …

2024-04-09: I’ve very much enjoyed everyone’s thoughts about, and photos of, the eclipse. Thank you.

2024-04-08: Chiming podcasts and the importance of any other business I like it when un-related things chime. In this instance, it’s two podcast episodes that I …

2024-04-07: Achievemt unlocked. Wetherspoons breakfast and Toby Carvery, on the same day If you keep believing …

2024-04-05: April 2024 Micro.Blog photo challenge, Day 5: Serene I took this a couple of weeks ago All around is …

2024-04-05: #TodayILearned that the first known use of the word ‘celebrity’ was by Geoffrey Chaucer, …

2024-04-04: I’d buy this as a t-shirt, or a mug, or a tattoo, or something ⚽😃😃😃

2024-04-04: This isn’t perfect, in that it doesn’t cope with the ‘nd’ in …

2024-04-03: I don’t really play vinyl any more, but the card it came in gives me a big hit of nostalgia …

2024-04-03: #TodayILearned that to comment out the currently selected text in VS Code you can do Ctrl + / …

2024-04-02: Neil Young is on Spotify. I bought this as a CD, but the thing wouldn’t play. When I got …

2024-03-30: Liz Truss and Brian Clough I’ve always enjoyed unusual political metaphors - for a while I collected and tweeted a …

2024-03-30: The thing I find slightly tricky with non-fiction audio books is that it’s easy to lose track …

2024-03-30: I rather half-heartedly collect old postcards of Salisbury and Stonehenge There are a few different …

2024-03-29: #TodayILearned that the first Beatle’s concert in the United States was at Boneyard Bocce Ball …

2024-03-29: Good podcast: The Hated and the Dead The blurb says: “Kissinger said that ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent …

2024-03-29: ‘Angertainment’ is a great, and useful, word ‘It got vile very quickly’: how Alex Jones …

2024-03-28: I don’t think I’m going to move off of pinboard, but raindrop.io looks neat …

2024-03-28: I ❤️ the NHS part 103 I’ve been fixed up after a spot of comedy goalkeeping earlier in the …

2024-03-28: Annual-ish tweet/toot/post to say I think it’s amazing that Oxford and Cambridge have both …

2024-03-28: Harry Houdini and the Barrel of Tetley's #TodayILearned that, when he was in Leeds, Houdini was sponsored by Tetley’s Bitter to perform …

2024-03-27: #TodayILearned that the Galway Girl in Steve Earle’s song, but not in Ed Sheeran’s song, …

2024-03-27: “As Mr. Pickwick beautifully observes, it has somehow or other happened, from time immemorial, …

2024-03-25: 9 months until Christmas. 🎄🎅

2024-03-25: How to continuously run a set of Pester tests from the commandline while ($(get-date).hour -lt 19) …

2024-03-25: ”A year ago the Beatles were known only to patrons of Liverpool pubs. Today there isn’t a …

2024-03-23: Currently reading: The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim; Kevin Behr; George Spafford 📚 My main learning …

2024-03-21: #TodayILearned that: Initialisms are made from the first letter (or letters) of a string of words, …

2024-03-21: How to set default parameters for other people's Powershell cmdlets Not exactly #TodayILearned because I vaguely remember learning that you can do this, but had never …

2024-03-19: As an ex-resident, I love this, from Sara Pascoe: “i live in Lewisham, which is brilliant. If …

2024-03-19: #TodayILearned that a ‘wolf tone’ is “an undesirable phenomenon that occurs in …

2024-03-18: To save you looking…..I’m not a member :) “Garrick Club’s men-only members list …

2024-03-17: I was sure Jeremy Clarkson knew the answer to the last question on Who Wants to be Millionaire and …

2024-03-17: Really enjoyed the Bath Half today. Bath is as lovely place…not as good as Salisbury though, …

2024-03-13: #TodayILearned that the lyric is “You don’t have to say you love me Just be close at …

2024-03-13: Mark Steel’s impersonation of George Galloway is worth this year’s license fee on its …

2024-03-13: One of the odd things about being a year behind in my podcasts is listening to people and knowing …

2024-03-13: Four men discussing a threat against a woman MP but not letting her speak is not great …

2024-03-13: I’m wondering whether Google will soft-pedal their ‘best take’ ads after the …

2024-03-13: R.I.P. Freddie. Two years gone. So very sad BBC News - Freddie Fontete-Jones' mother backs …

2024-03-12: Saw this on Facebook…..I’m not a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac, but this happened about a …

2024-03-12: I found this recording of a thing I was at just 43 years ago - Killing Joke playing in Trafalgar …

2024-03-11: #TodayILearned that Charlie, Ronnie and Reggie Kray got £255,000 from the 1990 film 📺📽️🎙️ The …

2024-03-11: I need to decide whether I’m going to use $SplatParams or $SplatParameters….and then …

2024-03-11: Watching a Word in Your Attic video which features a vaguely disappointing David Bowie Monopoly set …

2024-03-11: Being an Elvis nerd of many years standing, in the normal run of the things I don’t often come …

2024-03-08: I got an email about HIMSS24. It stands for ' Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society …

2024-03-07: It’s a beautiful thing

2024-03-07: I really enjoyed G’Wed Like a mixture of Inbetweeners, Derry Girls and Grange Hill, but ruder, …

2024-03-07: Setting up a file-specific (not filetype-specific) colorscheme in vim Setting up a file-specific (not filetype-specific) colorscheme in vim is a two step process. First, …

2024-03-06: #TodayILearned that the word ‘cockamamie’ is possibly related to …

2024-03-05: I’m putting together a chronology of stuff thats happened and stuff i’ve done, or been …

2024-03-05: #TodayILearned that the passengers in the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ got $5,000 …

2024-03-05: Hoping everyone has a super Tuesday

2024-03-04: #TodayILearned that the 1967 Beatles Christmas record was produced by Kenny Everett Danny Baker - …

2024-03-01: The Spotify graphic for Neil Diamond is a bit ‘1984’ 🎵

2024-03-01: There’s something particularly sad about the death of one half of a double act

2024-02-29: The stations on this line sound like they should be in the Lord of the Rings

2024-02-29: #TodayILearned that Cinderella’s slippers may have been squirrel fur (‘vair’) …

2024-02-29: This is definitely better than the view from the M5

2024-02-29: Sir Keir/Kier Starmer needs to be Prime Minister for at least 10 years for me to have any hope of me …

2024-02-29: When Kier Starmer gets on the blower and asks me what he should do in government, I shall tell him …

2024-02-29: #TodayILearned the phrase "cheese it-the cops!" #TodayILearned the phrase cheese it-the cops! “A warning that the police were coming. …

2024-02-29: If you squint hard enough, and use your imagination, you can just about make out the ruins of …

2024-02-28: #TodayILearned that one way of getting a list of data available from Microsoft Graph API is to type …

2024-02-27: I bought an old postcard of my chums from Salisbury Museum - the Giant and Hobnob. I’m just …

2024-02-27: Agree with virtually every word of this A more sympathetic take on Chelsea’s defeat #cfc …

2024-02-27: Vim commands to write out parameter list Executive summary :) For each line 0 D PP From the colon prompt: %s/^ */ write-dbg "` %s/ …

2024-02-27: #TodayILearned that in 1929, the USSR replaced the 7 day week with a 5 day week, with a fifth of the …

2024-02-26: Lee Anderson MP thinks that Sadiq Khan is “controlled by Islamists” I think Lee Anderson …

2024-02-25: That was a shame….could have easily gone the other way. We’ll be back⚽

2024-02-24: I just saw Wicked Little Lies….absolutely adored it. It won’t be everybody’s cup …

2024-02-24: We had a lovely, long lunch yesterday at the Lahore Kebab House, just off the Commercial Road …

2024-02-21: On 10cc I listened to the Word in your Ear podcast about 10cc and it occurred to me that I really like one …

2024-02-21: #TodayILearned that Lloyd Cole, of the Commotions, and Perfect Skin, is Chelsea 🎵⚽ …

2024-02-20: I’ve been told that, ergonomically, the top of your monitor should be level with your eyes. …

2024-02-20: I think my work laptop is being converted to Windows 11 I think ‘trepidatious’ is the …

2024-02-20: Watched Catch Me if You Can. I really enjoyed it, and my enjoyment wasn’t at all marred by …

2024-02-19: The crocuses (croci?) are out

2024-02-19: The Smiths' first album came out 40 years ago this week 🎵 40 years 🫨 …

2024-02-18: How to post to a test micro.blog from powershell Sorry about the formatting of this post…I’m having trouble getting markdown not to …

2024-02-18: How to post to micro.blog with powershell Get the token Go to the account page in micro.blog, scroll down to the bottom where there is …

2024-02-17: So obviously I’m hoping for and expecting a win for Chelsea, but I’d settle for another …

2024-02-17: People who followed me on Twitter may remember this quote, which I tweeted both before and after …

2024-02-16: I finished Trigger Point last week. It’s a cracking show and ‘her off Line of …

2024-02-16: What I learned in 2018 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 18, 2018 #TodayILearned that (the) Buzzcocks' song ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ was …

2024-02-16: #TodayILearned that for #Powershell’s Get-ADUser, using -identity will return an error: $ …

2024-02-15: Listened to this discussion of Juan Peron. Interesting stuff EP67: Juan Perón The Hated and the Dead

2024-02-15: My slightly late-in-the-day New Year’s Resolution is to use #Powershell’s Out-GridView …

2024-02-14: Terrible news Piece of London’s Jewish East End feared lost as Beigel Shop shuts

2024-02-14: Listened to this 🎙️ Made me realise how little i know about Irish history Although tbf i dont know …

2024-02-14: Saw this in the paper the other day. I think its a bit misleading in that whereas Jose, for example, …

2024-02-14: “No” is no to one thing. “Yes” is no to a lot of things. I’m not big on self-help-y type stuff, or the associated slogans, but I liked this: “No” is …

2024-02-14: I love Irish folk music but I can’t get on with Lankum or John Francis Flynn or any of those. …

2024-02-14: I love the idea of Steve Wright travelling to New York, and just sitting in a hotel room for a week …

2024-02-14: What I Learned in 2019 (according to my Twitter archive) Nov 25, 2019 #TodayILearned that Tony Fitzgerald adopted the name ‘Christie’ after …

2024-02-13: Watched Assault on Precinct 13 Quite enjoyed it. The soundtrack sounds a bit Kraftwerk-y which seems …

2024-02-13: Roll on Christmas! Gavin & Stacey to return for Christmas special after five years

2024-02-12: I had access to Github Copilot over the weekend. I’ll type up some thoughts about it …

2024-02-12: Another injury at Chelsea.☹️ I dread to think what the injury list would have been like if …

2024-02-09: I don’t want any DDOS attacks, but I did like the idea of a toothbrush-based botnet ”Near as I …

2024-02-07: Do remember to keep your toothbrushes updated Millions of hacked toothbrushes used in Swiss cyber …

2024-02-07: Charles Dickens on my hometown On the occasion of his 212th birthday, this is from Martin Chuzzlewit Mr Pinch had a shrewd notion …

2024-02-07: it’s one of those mornings when I’m doubting the wisdom of a 50-something continuing to …

2024-02-06: i love this. Noddy Holder says he had more number one singles than yhe rest of the chaps in Slade …

2024-02-06: Function to return markdown link for a URL This function accepts a URL and returns a markdown link for the URL: function …

2024-02-06: “I look at it and think what an awful job I did retouching the horizon. It looks like I did it …

2024-02-06: #TodayILearned that there’s a Coney Island in County Down, in the North of Ireland as well as …

2024-02-04: What I learned in 2017 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 27, 2017 #TodayILearned that Morrissey is a cousin of Robbie Keane …

2024-02-03: TodayILearned that the Egyptian pyramids were built by people doing something like National Service …

2024-02-03: This is a great long read from the Guardian, and a great collection of photographs. I particularly …

2024-02-02: #TodayILearned that Phil Bowdery, who was one of Mud’s roadies who did the “Tiger Feet” on Top …

2024-02-01: #TodayILearned that “In the year 2000, the average house deposit was £9,865. In 2023, it was …

2024-01-31: What I learned in 2016 (according to my twitter archive) Dec 23, 2016 #TodayILearned that Angelina Jolie has a Christopher Marlowe quotation as a tattoo …

2024-01-31: There’s a chap in this bit in the Guardian who says American football is rigged so that Taylor …

2024-01-30: The only thing more nostalgia-inducing than old TV adverts are TV adverts for companies you once …

2024-01-30: Some good news in the news [BBC News - Northern Ireland: Sinn Féin hails ‘day of …

2024-01-30: #TodayILearned that here are whole books about the Beatles in Bath, the Paul is Dead nonsense, and …

2024-01-29: M’young friend Tom refers to Putin’s eventual successor as ‘he or she’ The …

2024-01-29: #TodayILearned that “With VS Code release 1.30 you can type Shift + Enter in the search box to …

2024-01-29: #TodayILearned that the first two lines of Billy Bragg’s A New England are taken from Simon …

2024-01-28: Spring hasn’t yet sprung….but it’s on its way in the Shire

2024-01-28: Call me a nerdy pedant but the football pyramid.is shaped more like the Eiffel Tower than a pyramid, …

2024-01-27: I think I might struggle to score 73 points in 48 minutes even if I was alone on the court 🏀 Doncic …

2024-01-26: Commentator just said there’s a battle developing between Sterling and Cash I don’t know …

2024-01-25: Only eleven months to Christmas

2024-01-25: I always hoped I’d get a cheque meant for poor old Matthew Perry, but sadly it never happened …

2024-01-24: As a constitution geek, I absolutely love this “Lord Cameron, the UK foreign secretary, should …

2024-01-24: Chelsea FC are returning to Stamford Bridge North 😃⚽

2024-01-23: Commentator just referred to cole Palmer as cole porter Well, did you ever? ⚽

2024-01-23: Words of the day Before Elon Musk got his hands on twitter, I tweeted ‘my word of the day’ for the best …

2024-01-22: In which David Owen refers to the Department of Health and Social Security as ‘the Department …

2024-01-22: This is good, from Austin Kleon’s newsletter: On the asshole who lives in our brains: “Were …

2024-01-21: There’s a book of the punk rock fanzine that was local to where I live. Something to ask …

2024-01-21: Finished my run tonight and discovered I’d forgotten to press ‘Start’ in Strava. …

2024-01-20: I meant to post this while it was actually a hit….but Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam …

2024-01-20: Haiku is terse verse

2024-01-19: if the beatles used adele's naming system for their albums... Adele has so far used her age as the title of her LPs. So, her LPs have been called: 19 21 25 …

2024-01-19: I can only ever remember git add, commit, diff, rm and push...and I couldn't be bothered to rtfm (Confessions of a powershell numpty, #1) I don’t use git much, and I’m far too lazy to consult the docco so to find a command …

2024-01-19: 20 House Points to whoever it was at Record Collector magazine who came up with the headline for …

2024-01-19: #TodayILearned that in YouTube, you can “press the comma key to go back one frame and the …

2024-01-18: The NHS is wonderful ‘Waddle like a penguin’: NHS shows how to walk safely in icy conditions

2024-01-18: I worked at Sony at the time that HD telly was coming in, and I thought that a good cheese-y …

2024-01-17: I did a one page ‘‘What is Powershell?’ slide I’m happy enough with it, but …

2024-01-17: #TodayILearned that if you type a cryptic crossword clue into a search engine, you seem to typically …

2024-01-16: I don’t use the ‘Close Others’ option enough in VS Code….and I end up with …

2024-01-16: I really, relly want to stick with Poch….but could Jose be a latter day Dick Whittington, …

2024-01-16: A year ago yesterday we went up to Stamford Bridge for the first Chelsea match since the death of …

2024-01-15: The Telegraph breaks down its latest poll by constituency I don’t think it’s to be taken …

2024-01-15: Dickens on the lamentable necessity of ghost stories I read this in Pickwick Papers. He’s describing pubs in The Borough. Great, rambling queer …

2024-01-15: I very much like the phrase ‘the depths of winter’

2024-01-15: #TodayILearned that Windows-. (i.e. the windows key and the full stop together) bring up all the …

2024-01-15: I’m hoping this means Chelsea aren’t being charged…but I’m not optimistic …

2024-01-13: Chelsea v Fulham - thoughts Thoughts on today’s game Willian is still a good player ….but I’m glad he …

2024-01-13: I enjoyed Wonka last night. If Hugh Grant doesnt get an Oscar then there’s no point in Oscars

2024-01-12: #TodayILearned that the ‘Naga’ in Naga Munchetty means ‘snake’ - she says …

2024-01-12: There is supposed to be a shortage of dart boards, after Luke Littler’s progress to the Darts …

2024-01-11: Out running tonight. It was still Christmas-y in Salisbury Cathedral Close, which was lovely, but …

2024-01-11: Doing a sketch note about processing of joiners, movers and leavers (and inactives).

2024-01-11: Marvellous news TFL considering installing fake steering wheels at front of DLR trains

2024-01-11: #TodayILearned that to remove the two different timestamps I tend to use you can do this in …

2024-01-11: After the Flood I very much agree with the Grauniad After the Flood is about how big global changes play out in …

2024-01-10: Hello, world (again) After running a blog of some description on Bloglines, then Blogspot, then …

2023-05-26: Jakub Jares - Common Mistakes in Pester Tests Probably best to do Right Click, then Open in New Tab to make this legible

2023-05-24: one-liner to create an excel changlog from git commit messages git log --pretty=format:%ad,%h,%an,%s $filename | convertfrom-csv -Header Date,HashThingy, Who, …

2022-08-08: Javascript bookmarklet to create markdown-style link This bookmarklet creates a markdown-style link for the current webpage javascript:function …

2022-07-26: [IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles vs. Get-ChildItem On my laptop, with a fairly random set of files, I found that [http://IO.Directory]::EnumerateFiles …

2022-01-16: Why Powershell

2021-01-01: My $Myvimrc set nocompatible source $VIMRUNTIME/vimrc_example.vim source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim behave mswin set …

2020-06-06: podcasts I listen to - some episodes I’ve split the list into three posts, depending on whether I listen religiously to every …

2020-02-18: Hugo error: execute of template failed: template: _default/list.html:8:23: executing 'main' at <.Pages.Date.Reverse>: can't evaluate field Date in type page.Pages Got this: Building sites - WARN 2020/02/18 18:08:30 .File.Dir on zero object. Wrap it in if or with: …

2020-01-11: Script to Setup Markdown Pages for All the Sketchnotes tbc

2020-01-08: blog

2020-01-08: linux Linux

2020-01-08: other Other Anything that isn’t powershell, sqlserver or other stuff I’ve got as a category

2020-01-08: powershell

2020-01-08: sqlserver sqlserver and related

2020-01-08: Adams, Ryan - Always On

2020-01-08: Agarwal, Sunil - Clustered columnstore index

2020-01-08: Bailey, James - Msrc, Packer, Powershell and Terraform

2020-01-08: Banerjee - Amit -and - Agarwal - Sourabh - Sql - Azure

2020-01-08: Barthel, Esther - Azure Automation

2020-01-08: Bergmeister, Christoph - PSScriptAnalyzer

2020-01-08: Berry, Glenn - Dr DMV part 3

2020-01-08: Berry, Glenn - Dr DMV pt 1

2020-01-08: Bertrand - Aaron -50 - Things - Developers - Should - Know -higher -res

2020-01-08: Boulton, Nigel - Multi-threading in Powershell

2020-01-08: Bourgon, Michael - Tracking changes - real time in your environment

2020-01-08: Brasser, Jaap - ChatOps

2020-01-08: Brasser, Jaap - Powershell, a one-trick unicorn

2020-01-08: Brezis, Noam - SQL the bug talk

2020-01-08: Cain, Robert, Ball, Bradley and Strate, Jason - Powershell and SQL

2020-01-08: Chapman, tim - Troubleshooting like an Ms Engineer

2020-01-08: Colas -gael -devops

2020-01-08: Colas, Gael - Configuration management

2020-01-08: Colas, Gael - Leverage Test Kitchen Develop Dsc

2020-01-08: Cucen, Ebru - Powershell Module Lifecycle

2020-01-08: Cucen, Ebru - Prompts And Customizations

2020-01-08: Dave, Pinal - 7 tips

2020-01-08: Davis, Robert L - Licensing SQL on VMs

2020-01-08: Davis, Tony - Uncovering Sqlserver query problems with Executio

2020-01-08: Ehrenmueller-Jensen, Markus - Simple rules for clear visualizations

2020-01-08: Emad - Hash tables

2020-01-08: Emmett, Ben - Stop your application killing database performanc

2020-01-08: Fernandez, Argenis - Securing sql

2020-01-08: Fritchey, Grant - 3 ways to identify long running queries

2020-01-08: Fritchey, Grant - A partly cloudy future

2020-01-08: Fritchey, Grant - AG Monitoring0002

2020-01-08: Gardner, Chris - Module design

2020-01-08: Glantser, Guy - From Xml to Json

2020-01-08: Gossa, Mark - You can do anything with Powershell but should you

2020-01-08: Hicks, Jeff - powershell v5

2020-01-08: Hicks, Jeff - The ISE

2020-01-08: Hicks, Jeff And Siddaway, Richard And Gavin, Lawrence - Whats New In Powershell V5

2020-01-08: Higgins, Michael - Kemp Products Cloud Deployment Automation

2020-01-08: Hirt, Allan - Availability Groups and Failover Instances

2020-01-08: Hirt, Allan - The SQL Availability story on Linux

2020-01-08: Hofman, Katja - AI and the world of Minecraft

2020-01-08: Howlett, Martin - Powershell And Restful Apis

2020-01-08: Inge-Larsen, Tom - Markdown, PlatyPs, mkdocs

2020-01-08: Jares, Jakub - Legacy scrips and pester

2020-01-08: Jelen, Bill - Mr Excels Favorite Tips and Tricks

2020-01-08: Jones, Steve - A practical approach to version control for sql

2020-01-08: Jones, Steve, Galbraith, Simon and Smith, Alexander - Let Your

2020-01-08: Kamman, Andre - Deploy And Manage Ola Hallengrens Scripts With Powershell

2020-01-08: Kehayias, Jonathan and Stellato, Erin - Extended Events

2020-01-08: Kellenberger, Kathi - Sqlserver data compression

2020-01-08: Klee, David - SQL-Virtualization-499

2020-01-08: Knight, Brian - Tuning SSIS

2020-01-08: Koesmarno, Julie - Powerview

2020-01-08: Kogan, Dan - Data Warehousing with SQL and hAdoop

2020-01-08: Kokkinos, Constantine and LeMaire Chrissy - Powershell loves Sqlserver

2020-01-08: Komo, Darnadi - Sql 2014 Hybrid cloud

2020-01-08: Korotkevitch, Dmitri - Sql Internals

2020-01-08: Krebs, Daniel - Chef Habitat and Powershell

2020-01-08: Krebs, Daniel - Chocolatey and powershell

2020-01-08: Krebs, Daniel - Recap of Powershell and Devops Summit

2020-01-08: Krebs, Daniel - VS Code and Powershell

2020-01-08: Leach, Brandon - Log Shipping

2020-01-08: Learning Tree - Technical Writing Introduction0020(1)

2020-01-08: Leech, Guy - Trouble-shooting windows with Powershell

2020-01-08: Lehrer, Christian - Powershell remoting

2020-01-08: Lemaire, Chrissy - Simplifying Sqlserver Migrations With Powershell

2020-01-08: LeMaire, Chrissy - Sql Migrations with Posh

2020-01-08: Lemaire, Chrissy And Walz, Jon And Rottenberg, Hal - Powerscripting Podcast Episode312

2020-01-08: Little, Kendra - Why did my clever index change backfire

2020-01-08: Lopez, Pedro - SQL-2014-Changes-to-Query-Plans

2020-01-08: Martin, John - Get sql server right first time

2020-01-08: Martin, John - SQL Server Setup First Time

2020-01-08: Martin, Mike - Azure and DSC

2020-01-08: Martin, Mike - Getting Your Devops Operating

2020-01-08: Mauri, Davide - Agile data warehouse

2020-01-08: May, Jimmy - Columnstore indexes 2014

2020-01-08: Medd, Jonathan - Ansible

2020-01-08: Medd, Jonathan - devops

2020-01-08: Medd, Jonathan - Going further with github

2020-01-08: Medd, Jonathan - Google Cloud Powershell 101

2020-01-08: Medd, Jonathan - Powershell And Different Types Of Data

2020-01-08: Messina, Chris - Augmenting Conversations

2020-01-08: Mitchell - Tim - S S I S

2020-01-08: Mitchell, Allan - Realtime analytics

2020-01-08: Mitchell, Brian - Polybase

2020-01-08: Mitchell, Tim - SSIS

2020-01-08: Moyle, Jim - Posh Gui

2020-01-08: Murawski, Steven - Desired State Configuration

2020-01-08: Murawski, Steven - DSC

2020-01-08: Nocentino, Anthony - Linux fundamentals for the sql admin

2020-01-08: Ozar, Brent - How to think like the Sql Server Engine

2020-01-08: Ozar, Brent - who needs a DBA

2020-01-08: Ozar, Brent and Darling, Erik - Last Seasons Performance Tuning Techniques

2020-01-08: Penny, Matt - Confluence Shortcuts

2020-01-08: Plesner-Jacobsen, Martin and Shelemin, Alexander - Veeam and sql deep-dive

2020-01-08: Plevsner, Martin and Shelemin Alexander - Veeam and SQL - Always On

2020-01-08: Porteous, Craig - PowerBI and powershell

2020-01-08: Porteous, Craig and Broadwith, Paul - Powershell Standards Agency

2020-01-08: Pot'Vin, Kellyn - DevOps and the Agile DBA

2020-01-08: Potvin-Gorman, Kellyn - Devops and the agile dba

2020-01-08: powershell and rundeck

2020-01-08: Prajdic, Mladen - Optimizing database access and diving into dot Net

2020-01-08: Presley, Chris, Weiss, Richard and Chaves, Warner - Running Sql Server on Linux

2020-01-08: Procida, Daniele - What Nobody Tells You About Documentation

2020-01-08: Purnell, Craig - the professional networking toolbox

2020-01-08: Ricken, Uwe - Analyzing SQLServer Wait Stats

2020-01-08: Robinson, Jay - A guided tour of the sqlclient namespace

2020-01-08: Russo, Marco - Create a PowerBI Solution in one day

2020-01-08: Scruggs, Richard - Getting Started with Sql Server Compliance Auditing

2020-01-08: Sewell, Rob - Making Powershell useful for your team

2020-01-08: Sewell, Rob - PowerBI0003

2020-01-08: Shaw, Chris and Morehouse, John - SQL 2014 migration

2020-01-08: Shaw, Gail - Statistics, Heuristics and Raw Estimations

2020-01-08: Siddaway, Richard - 2018 Keynote

2020-01-08: Sirosh, Joseph - Augmented Decisions

2020-01-08: Sketchnote_visual_vocabulary

2020-01-08: Skinner, Simon - Sql and System Center

2020-01-08: Snover, Jeffrey - Desired State Configuration Day Two

2020-01-08: Snover, Jeffrey - MVA DSC Day 1

2020-01-08: Stad, Sander - Automate Glenn Berrys Dmv Script With Powershell

2020-01-08: Stirrup, Jen - BI Toolkit

2020-01-08: Stirrup, Jen - Data democratization

2020-01-08: Stuewe, Mickey - The Silent Killers Lurking in Your Schema0013

2020-01-08: Stuewe, Mickey - Tsql-habits

2020-01-08: Thomas, Russ - Stress

2020-01-08: Trinidad, Max - The Essential Powershell On Error Trapping

2020-01-08: Tripp, Kimberly - Execution and Plan Cache

2020-01-08: Turkeslan, Selzin - Migration to SQL Azure

2020-01-08: Tuson, Toni-anne, MacLellan, Stuart, Stirrup, Jen - Implementing hybrid acrchitectures

2020-01-08: van Bobaeys, Damien - powershell and rundeck

2020-01-08: Van Der Leek, Rob And Obrenovic, Zeljko - Building Maintainable Software For Sustainable Business Growth

2020-01-08: Van Robaeys, Damien - Powershell with Rundeck

2020-01-08: Vanover, Rick - Advanced VM Backup and Recovery - Veeam

2020-01-08: Vanover, Rick - Veeam and SQL - Backup and Recovery

2020-01-08: Vargas, Luis - Always On

2020-01-08: Verloy, Filip - Automate the boring out of backup - Rubrik

2020-01-08: Verloy, Filip - Rubrik

2020-01-08: Watson, Hamish - Overcoming fearops by adopting devops

2020-01-08: Webb, Joe - Hiring the right people

2020-01-08: Weston, Richard - How not to use plaster

2020-01-08: White, Allen - Baselining Sql with Powershell

2020-01-08: Why Powershell PC

2020-01-08: Wild, Martin - Sqlserver on linux - dont be afraid

2020-01-08: Williams, Dave and Saxby, Antony - SQL 2016

2020-01-08: Winterboer, Lynn - Writing agile user stories and slicing epics for DW-BI teams

2020-01-08: Woodward, JL - keynote0003

2020-01-08: Wragg, Mark - Cross Platform Development

2020-01-08: Yates, Ryan - Whats New In Powershell

2020-01-08: Yungman, Matan - MongoDb for the Sql professional

2020-01-08: Zacharias, Melody - Distributed Replay

2020-01-06: Colas, Gael - Configuration Management Dos and Don'ts

2020-01-04: Yet Another Getting Started With Hugo Post Install hugo PS C:\matt> choco install hugo -confirm Output: Chocolatey v0.10.15 [Pending] …

2019-12-31: What I learned about powershell in 2019 For ease of finding, I’m separated out powershell learnings from general trivia Dec 20, 2019 …

2019-12-02: hello world (for the fifth time) Bonjour tout-le-monde!

2019-05-08: Pester script parameter passing not working Problem I was trying to parameterize a Pester script. The script looked like this: param ( …

2017-12-31: What I learned about powershell in 2017, according to my twitter archive Nov 24, 2017 #TodayILearned that: $Content = get-content somefile.txt | out-string …preserves …

2017-11-14: Get day of week number in cmd (dos) This is a slight tweak to code at: …

2016-12-31: What I learned about powershell in 2016, according to my twitter archive Sep 27, 2016 #TodayILearned you have to: export-modulemember -alias * -function * to define aliases …

2016-06-21: pester: Cannot bind argument to parameter 'Actual' because it is an empty string. I’m just getting started with Pester and I got this error Cannot bind argument to parameter …

2016-01-26: extracting post details from wordpress xml dump with powershell Get the xml into a variable [xml]$xmla = get-content …

2016-01-11: powershell equivalent of linux 'ps -aux | sort -k3n' I’m not entirely sure how I managed to not find out about …

2015-11-20: 'properties' option is greyed out for ssrs instance when you right-click in ssms To adjust some of the properties of a SQL Server Reporting Services instance , for example, how long …

2015-11-20: if the beatles used adele's naming system for their albums... Adele has so far used her age as the title of her LPs. So, her LPs have been called: 19 21 25 …

2015-11-19: powershell error: 'Cannot perform operation because operation 'ReportWrongProviderType' is invalid' I got the following error from a Powershell script I wrote to run SQLExress backups on a remote …

2015-11-11: how to see veeam backups in powershell This allows you to see veeam backups for a specified server over the last week. The code …

2015-11-10: list AD users in powershell This shows all the users with ‘dba’ in their username. Obviously you could leave out the …

2015-11-03: how to get a list of images uploaded to wordpress.com website Go to your media library and switch to the ‘List View’ Then under ‘Screen …

2015-11-02: listing database roles granted to database users in sqlserver The output from this is unlovely, but it does the trick for the time being. $DatabaseUsers = dir …

2015-09-18: Powershell function to get Sqlserver errorlog recent lines I’ve started knocking up a function to return the last few lines of a sqlserver errorlog. This …

2015-06-16: how to edit lots of files and keep a log First I built a list of files FileList=dir -recurse C:\temp\folderx -Attributes !Directory | ? name …

2015-06-09: getting a list of aliases ordered by the aliasee This is fairly trivial…and I’ve no idea if ‘aliasee’ is a real word or not, …

2015-04-16: how to rdp to several desktops one after the other For reasons that aren’t necessarily relevant, I wanted to use Remote Desktop to visit a list …

2015-03-30: how to extract tweets about... This was the Powershell code I used to create the all the podcasts I’ve ever tweeted about …

2015-02-25: show sql errorlog messages since a specified date This almost speaks for itself…but it might be worth noting that: I’m only …

2015-02-17: system databases not included in powershell sqlserver provider 'databases' folder I hadn’t noticed this before. If you do a dir listing of the databases for an instance within …

2015-02-04: penflip markdown cheatsheet This is extracted from Adam Pritchard’s Markdown Cheatsheet. It’s what I would see as …

2015-01-27: sql server 2005 install hangs at 'Removing Backup Files' I’m installing sqlserver 2005, and it seemed to hang towards the end of the installation. The …

2014-12-12: Problem: php commenting out not working in wordpress This was a bit of a ‘Duh!’ moment. I use the following to ‘comment out’ …

2014-09-26: How to do a sql server equivalent of Oracle 'set feedback on' I haven’t been able to find a T-sql equivalent of the Oracle ‘set feedback on’, …

2014-09-01: How to generate the t-sql to disable all your triggers This seems to work: SELECT 'disable trigger ' + USER_NAME(trig.schema_id) + '.' + trig.name + ' on ' …

2014-05-21: How to use t-sql to show SSRS permissions I’m not great at T-sql, and I know that cursors are unfashionable in Microsoft world, but this …

2014-05-19: Problem: ssrs error: 'System.Data.OracleClient requires Oracle client software version 8.1.7 or greater' A quick post on a quick fix. I installed Sql Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 on the report server, …

2014-03-06: Powershell pattern matching to check if a string is hex I’ve been playing with pattern matching in Powershell. I was trying to use …

2013-11-14: notes about wordpress version of salisburyandstonehenge.net This page is a bit of documentation for how I do stuff on the multifarious websites that I’ve …

2013-10-11: Problem: SSIS: 'Hresult: 0x800703E6 Description: Invalid access to memory location' Problem came up trying to connect to a remote Oracle source: Started: 12:03:03 Error: 2013-10-09 …

2013-07-31: 24Hop Notes Clustering Conundrum - Allan Hirt Running some HA classes in Europe. Loose definition - networked …

2013-07-03: Problem: 'Access is denied. [0x80070005]' when changing sql server agent login Trying to change the sql server agent to run as a non-admin user, I couldn’t get Sql Server …

2012-12-07: Mis-spelling in Powershell This was spectacularly incompetent even by my high standards of incompetence. It illustrates that if …

2012-09-25: How to report mp3 tags in Powershell I’m slowly getting to grips with Powershell. # …

2011-11-09: SQLServer Maintenance Cleanup Task not working I set up a Sqlserver Maintenance Cleanup Task, but couldn’t get it to delete the appropriate …

2011-10-13: Sqlserver Management Studio I spent a couple of lunchtimes going through Sqlserver Management Studio’s ‘Object …

2011-07-26: Nid(dbnewid) hangs I had to run nid (also known as dbnewid) on a database as part of a test refresh at the weekend. …

2010-04-19: Mucking about with analytic functions I’ve never really used the analytic functions in anger, so consequently I don’t really …

2010-02-24: ORA-01552: cannot use system rollback segment..... Another post that’s unlikely to be all that useful….but you never know. As per a couple …

2009-03-01: Convert an html table to excel spreadsheet A quick and dirty post for a quick and dirty technique that I used to get the Oracle CPU Database …

2008-01-19: opatch error: Perl lib version (v5.8.3) doesnt match executable version (v5.6.1) at x:/oracle... Got the following error: C:\oracle\ora92\OPatch>perl opatch.pl version Perl lib version (v5.8.3) …

2007-12-31: instType uknown Started getting this error from a batch job which was using oradim to do a shutdown. instType …

2007-12-07: Determining which CPUs have been applied The question of how to determine which CPUs have been applied to a database came up at a couple of …

2007-09-24: Problem: TNS-03505: Failed to resolve name We’re in the process of migrating from Oracle Names to LDAP, and found the following fairly …

2007-09-18: Oracle options - update from Niall Subsequent to the previous post I got a note from Niall, saying that at least in 10g you can query …

2007-05-10: Most used tiddlywiki commands for MainMenu I put this into my MainMenu tiddler to give me a quick reference for my most used tiddlywiki …

2007-04-18: DOS equivalent to unix find -name -print I’m planning to type up a couple of DOS and Windows equivalents of some of my most used unix …

2007-03-29: Bookmarking Oracle Metalink in IE or Firefox This may well be obvious, but…. If you try and save the link to a Metalink note whilst you …

2007-02-20: DOS script to output contents of latest file matching a given spec Some of our batch jobs write log information to standard output. Others create dated log files. Our …

2006-11-09: Moving to netbackup - its case sensitive.... We’re currently migrating our backups from TSM to netbackup. I know TSM quite well, but …

2006-09-22: Missed email alerts because 'Sent' date missing I scripted our backup jobs to send an email to me if there’s a problem. This works well …

2006-08-31: Changing the DOS prompt I’m mucking about with VSS from the command line. To do this you need to be in the VSS …

2006-08-08: How to create a spool file in the format <specified prefix>_databasename.lst This is relatively handy, particularly when running the same thing against multiple databases. …

2006-07-03: How to use sqlplus substitution variables I didn’t know you could do this. Its quite handy! SQL> column name new_value dbname SQL> …

2006-06-26: Query to compare parameter settings between databases Create a link to the remote database then supply the name of the link as &1 set pagesize 1000 …

2006-05-12: SQLserver 2005 New Features Here is some stuff I learnt yesterday evening’s SQL Server 2005 New Features session at …

2006-03-08: Problem: opatch fails with 'The patch directory area must be a number' opatch failed with the above error. Again its really a problem with the wetware (i.e. me), but worth …

2006-02-13: ORA-02074: 'cannot analyze table' calling a package from perl I got this error running an analyze from within a package called by perl: …

2006-02-13: Re-naming the listener - check for dependencies This is a fairly foolish pitfall that I stumbled into last week. One of the recommendations from our …

2006-01-25: opatch - make sure there's no space on the end of TRUE I’ve been having problems with opatch. todo - fix the link Setting ACTIVE_STATE_PERL=TRUE …

2006-01-16: How to record and use keyboard macros in gvim Keyboard macros in gvim are much easier than using the map command. Basically you do: qx - to start …

2006-01-12: Raptor, 10G and Oracle Names So, Raptor seems to need 10G client. I knew there was not going to be a 10G version of Names, as it …

2006-01-11: ORA-29260 because of a problem with the mail server? I think this is because we had a problem with our corporate mail server, because: a) I have a vague …

2006-01-10: Raptor - no ocijdbc10 Having a first look at Raptor, I got an error message to the effect that it couldn’t find …

2005-11-15: Problem: opatch doesn't appear to be doing anything - set ACTIVE_STATE_PERL=TRUE I always used to find it a nuisance that applying the lower level Oracle patches was such a manual …

2005-10-06: Disabling/Enabling wsh Here are instructions for disabling wsh. This is particularly used by DBAs to run RDA (Remote …

2005-09-19: ORA-29850: invalid option for creation of domain indexes I got this error trying to specify the tablespace for my text indexes. I was moving them from a …

2005-07-26: PL/SQL doesnt recognize privileges granted to roles My procedure has a create database link in it: v_exe := 'create database link temp_security_monitor …

2005-06-22: Loss of SQL connectivity - a problem with the wetware The problem I lost SQL connectivity to all databases between about 11.29 and 12.06 today (21st …

2005-05-04: Not got ODBC administrator on the start menu But on my PC its at: C:\WINNT\system32\ODBCAD32.exe On one of the users XP boxes it was …

2005-04-26: Oracle Text - some counter intuitive behavior I had a query from a user about Text not retrieving the expected data for a given bit of Text The …

2005-04-19: SQLServer: 'Cannot generate SSPI context' error message Started getting the error above this morning. The SQL server involved supports our Alteris …

2005-04-18: Synonym resolution oddity Well, it seems odd to me anyway…. If you set up a synonym pointing across a database …

2005-04-12: BJS Jobs going into 'Awaiting Execution' state BJS is the scheduling tool we use on our Windows servers. Its produced by Camellia Software: …

2005-04-08: JDBC fails to connect to 9i Oracle In the course of trying to sort out the problem outlined in the previous post, I hit a problem …

2005-04-08: JDBC: Unparseable date This is a problem we had a month or so back. I’m going to cut and paste from my notes at the …

2005-04-08: Non blocking block-rocking locks Or something….. Blocking locks are easy enough to spot, through utllockt or v$session_waits …

2005-04-08: Oracle's External Tables Looking at Oracle’s External Tables feature, which ‘uses the ‘sql-loader’ …

2005-04-08: Unix for windows Going to try this out: …