Notes from the system
Notes on systems, development, automation, databases, IT design… and some gaming when it is worth it. Written when there is something worth sharing.
Diablo is a saga I had always underestimated, despite being a big Blizzard fan. Perhaps because of its somewhat retro style, perhaps because we’re so used to FPS games that anything in third-person isometric view ends up feeling “strange”. Anyway: I was very wrong. A Pure Action RPG It only took a few minutes with…
We’ll never stop saying it: choose your games with a little patience and you can find some real bargains. Case in point: Titanfall — one of the flagship titles of the Xbox One launch, found at rock-bottom prices once its sequel came out. What Is Titanfall Titanfall is a multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Respawn…
When you find a good service, it’s worth pointing it out. Today I’ll share my experience with the second-hand game market — specifically with GameStop — and some practical advice for anyone who wants to build a game library without spending a fortune. The Value of Used Games for Console Players The second-hand market is…
This isn’t a gaming hot-news site and I won’t report the release of Civilization VI as a front-page event. Here we talk about titles that leave something behind — or about aspects that make them special. And Civilization VI, released on 21 October 2016, has one aspect that absolutely deserves to be talked about: its…
Blizzard has added a new adventure to its award-winning Hearthstone — and let’s say it right away: it’s a lot of fun. A Night in Karazhan takes players to the opulent party thrown by Archmage Medivh, with a playful atmosphere and fresh, original game mechanics. What Is Hearthstone For anyone not familiar, Hearthstone is the…
I’d been wanting to write about this title for a while, even though I’d finished it some months before finally sitting down to do so. Wolfenstein: The New Order is a 2014 game — a premium title that, with a little patience during a Steam sale, became a practically mandatory purchase. And I have no…
There was something special about the summer of 2016, when No Man’s Sky launched amid enormous expectations and equally enormous controversy. This post isn’t a review — it’s the account of an experience, much like the galaxy it describes: personal, unique, unrepeatable. What Is No Man’s Sky? It’s a space exploration game in which you…
A corrupted or missing transaction log file is one of the most stressful situations a DBA can face. The first instinct is to restore from the last full backup — but depending on the circumstances, SQL Server offers faster recovery paths that minimize both downtime and data loss. This article walks through the two main…
When troubleshooting a slow query or a specific application session, the instance-level wait statistics in sys.dm_os_wait_stats are too coarse: they aggregate wait events from all processes since the last restart. Resetting the view with DBCC SQLPERF is also problematic on busy instances where hundreds of other sessions generate noise. SQL Server 2008’s Extended Events framework…
SQL Server runs a lightweight background trace called the default trace that records a wide range of server-level events: database auto-growth events, object creation and deletion, login failures, server configuration changes, and more. It’s often the first place to look when investigating an incident that didn’t make it into the error log. This article shows…
When troubleshooting a slow or unresponsive MySQL instance, the first step is always the same: find out what is happening right now. These quick diagnostic queries use MySQL’s built-in SHOW STATUS and SHOW PROCESSLIST commands to surface the most useful information in seconds — no external tools required. 1. Active Processes and Running Queries SHOW…
SQL Server Agent jobs are the backbone of automated database maintenance: backups, index rebuilds, integrity checks, ETL pipelines. Knowing at a glance when each job last ran and how long it took is essential for fast daily monitoring, especially when managing multiple instances. This query reads directly from the Agent system tables in msdb and…
IT & Sysadmin
Servers, networks and automation: what I have set up, broken and fixed.
Go to section →AI & Dev
Code written hand in hand with AI: experiments, tools and what I learned.
Go to section →Gaming
Games, hardware and a few thoughts once the credits roll.
Go to section →Projects
Apps and games I have built, from MovieMania! to Time Drift.
Go to section →Archive
Older articles: some dated, all still here.
Go to section →“This is for Everyone”
— Tim Berners-Lee