I was encouraged by some fellow MVPs (well, mostly Alexander Kuznetsov) to periodically post a set of Connect items to encourage voting for items that I found relevant but that are maybe being largely ignored.  Saturday is probably my best opportunity to do this, especially ones like today where the weather is crappy.  While I can't guarantee I will do this every week, I did have some time today, so if you're bored and want some pointers to items you might want to vote for, here you are (and, believe it or not, not one of these issues was filed by me):

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SSMS : Allow support for AddIns as in Visual Studio

While some vendors have been able to hack their way into the SSMS shell, it is not a trivial exercise.  Personally I think this should be easier for the mere peon as well.  Simon Sabin created this suggestion over two years ago and it has only received 45 votes to date.  Imagine if we could plug in our own UIs for things like Extended Events, Service Broker, Change Data Capture and several other pieces of functionality that are currently only accessible via T-SQL or DDL. 

#265567 : SSMS : Allow support for AddIns as in Visual Studio
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=265567

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Create globally-scoped metadata views

Adam Machanic created this item recently (and talked about it here), which expresses a need for making DMVs accessible everywhere.  Some DMVs are global, with a database_id column, and others are local to the database only.  This can make it very cumbersome to get troubleshooting information across a system, when some parts of your query or queries need to reach into each individual database to cull stats and other information that is essentially in memory anyway.

#432689 : Create globally-scoped metadata views
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=432689

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Metadata functions should follow same isolation semantics as metadata queries

Here is another gem from Adam, where he hopes that the SQL Server team will allow metadata functions like OBJECT_ID() to follow runtime isolation level instead of being stuck in READ COMMITTED.

#432497 : Metadata functions should follow same isolation semantics as metadata queries
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=432497

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Multi-level controls for Max Degree of Parallelism and Cost Threshold of Parallelism

Joe Chang is asking for finer controls and knobs to manage MAXDOP and Cost Threshold of Parallelism.  Relatively straightforward and sensible.

#433400 : Multi-level controls for Max Degree of Parallelism and Cost Threshold of Parallelism
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=433400

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Allow startup procedures with parameters that have default values

Razvan Socol asks for the ability to use a procedure with default parameters as a startup procedure.  We could do this in SQL Server 2000, but it no longer works in 2005 or 2008.

#430630 : Allow startup procedures with parameters that have default values
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=430630

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Document the locking behavior of each basic SQL Server construct

Finally, Linchi Shea asks for more information on how locking works for various SQL commands, data which is currently missing from Books Online.  I don't really care if it ends up being published in Books Online, or MSDN, or on some MSFT employee's blog, but I agree with Linchi that this information would be very useful.

#430251 : Document the locking behavior of each basic SQL Server construct
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=430251

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Late Entry: Mobile version of Books Online should be made available

Jeremiah Peschka posted his very first Connect item today, asking for a way to view Books Online on a mobile device.  I think this could be very useful even if it simply becomes a series of PDF documents or some similar distribution format.  I think it's unlikely to get serious consideration from the Microsoft folks, but it can't hurt to try, right?

#433498 : Books Online: Mobile version of Books Online should be made available
http://web.archive.org/web/*/https://connect.microsoft.com/SQL/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=433498

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