This week saw the release of Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013. It was also the week of PASS Summit 2013, but surprisingly this is possibly the week where more SQL Server related posts are included.

• If you are using or considering Windows 8.1, Microsoft Press made available a free e-book, Introducing Windows 8.1 for IT Professionals, authored by Ed Bott.

• If you are interested in Visual Studio 2013, I have compiled a list of the links I found most interesting in Visual Studio 2013 Resources.

• Robert Sheldon’s SQL Server SQLCMD Basics provides a detailed description of the features available witthe SQLCMD utility. A very good read.

• Aaron Bertrand’s Use Caution with SQL Server’s MERGE Statement addresses some of the bugs that have affected the MERGE statement since it was made available with SQL Server, some of which seem to be present even in the preview releases of SQL Server 2014. It’s a comprehensive analysis and a must read for anyone considering the use of MERGE statements.

• Brent Ozar’s Announcing sp_AskBrent™ for Troubleshooting Slow SQL Servers announces the offering of sp_AskBrent, a stored procedure to help diagnosing performance issues on SQL Server. The article includes a link to the download page, where the code can be obtained.

• John Sterrett’s SQL Server Performance Root Cause Analysis in 10 Minutes is the introduction to a series of posts that address analysis of performance problems in SQL Server. The article includes links to several articles that include scripts covering multiple aspects of performance analysis.

• Glen Berry’s SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for October 2013 includes links to updated versions of his SQL Server Diagnostic Queries for SQL Server versions 2005 to 2014.

• Jared Ko’s SQL Server: Variables, Parameters or Literals? Or… Constants? address the use of ‘pseudo-constants’ in SQL code, as a possible replacement to the lack of database level constants and compares its use with the use of literals, both from a performance and a code quality point of view.

• Madhan Arumugam Ramakrishnan’s Microsoft SQL Server Hybrid Cloud Blog Series includes links to several posts that may be of interest to anyone who plans to use SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines.

• Moving to responsive design, Syed Fazle Rahman’s Building Responsive Websites Using Twitter BootStrap provides a detailed guide to developing responsive websites using the popular Twitter Bootstrap. It also includes a link to a previous article from the same author, that addresses the use of Twitter Bootstrap for complex designs.

• Jake Rocheleau’s Popular Web Design Trends for Responsive Navigation analyzes several techniques found in great responsive websites. It’s a very interesting read on several of the ways that can be used to design navigation elements in responsive websites.

• Peter Traeg’s Best Of Both Worlds: Mixing HTML5 And Native Code proposes mixing HTML5 with native code as an answer to the ongoing debate on the best way to develop a mobile solution.

• Carlos Cessa’s Mobile First With Bootstrap 3 provides an analysis of the changes in the recently officially released version 3 of Twitter Bootstrap.

• Jessica Enders’s Flat UI and Forms addresses some of the issues that affect forms as a result of the move to flat user interfaces and proposes some solutions to improve affordance, better distinction between form elements and a more clear hierarchy between form elements.

That’s all for this week.Thanks for reading.