Sander Rossel wrote:

Yeah, we don't have the fastest database (50 DTUs), but it's plenty sufficient for everything else.

I ran some testing of our application with Azure SQL some time ago and found it to be very poor for an OLAP style IO bound workload, and probably checking a big index for uniqueness is similar. 50 DTU's on Basic or Standard tier is no more than 200 IOPS - DTU-based purchasing model - Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Learn[^] For us it was better to use a SQL server on an Azure virtual machine, then we could do optimisations like striping the database across multiple smaller (unmanaged) hdd's using Windows Storage Spaces. Nowadays there are probably better managed disk options with SSD's etc to get you a decent IO performance level. Configure storage for SQL Server VMs - SQL Server on Azure VMs | Microsoft Learn[^]

I am talking about windows 10. They have left the old windows 7 tool in windows 10.

I just use the built in Backup and Restore (Windows 7) to create system image backups. This is the windows 7 tool that they have left in place for the time being. The images are vhd as well so you should be able to mount them if you need to access a particular file. There are probably some limitations compared to a paid product like Acronis, but it works fine for me.

Used to rotate a few, but currently I use this[^] from the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns. Not the finest quality but a good personal memory.

We asked a user to show us a log file once. Instead of getting a txt log file, we got a screenshot of Windows Explorer showing the file. :laugh: So close and yet so far.

Flashblock for Firefox is very good. It lets you open lots of tabs without slowing the browser to a crawl.

I use a variant of VirtualDub called VirtualDubMod which has some extra format support (inc MPEG-2).

The naming scheme in my office is from characters in the Twin Peaks TV show which has the advantage that each PC has 2 initials. Since I've never seen Twin Peaks (I'm UK based) I tried to surreptitiously switch us over to star constellations, but unfortunately the boss has other ideas.

I'll add another vote for Avira Antivir. -low system resource usage -normally does well in tests. -free I use Comodo for firewall but have stuck with Avira for antivirus.

I use Uranium backup. Its quite complicated and not very user friendly, but also fairly powerful considering it is free.

I have a Trust MI-7700R, which has 2.4Ghz (better quality) wireless plus laser tracking (with a high precision mode). It also has some media control buttons. I got it for about £20 so it's about half the price of some gaming mice, but still has most of the same capabilities.

I've used Avira Antivir for a while. Its quite lightweight (until it tries to updates itself), and the price is right for the personal edition. http://www.av-comparatives.org/[^] has useful reviews.