Coping with a working life as an imposter
It is not existing knowledge but the skill of acquiring new knowledge rapidly that will help you overcome imposter syndrome.
2026-05-27 (first published: 2020-09-19)
527 reads
Phil Factor
- Interests: Motorbikes, Beer, gardening, conservation, Local history.
The Wild Developers of SQL Server like Wildcards
Phil Factor explains the enduring attachment of database developers to wildcards, despite their current deficiencies.
2025-03-17 (first published: 2018-12-17)
606 reads
On Looking and Acting the Part
Phil Factor's offers tips for longevity in the world of IT consultancy: listen well, humiliate no-one and convince others that it was their expertise that solved the problem.
2024-12-27 (first published: 2020-01-18)
474 reads
Idempotent DDL Scripts That Always Achieve The Same Result - Making Changes Only Once: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 6
Idempotence is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science, that can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the first time they are run. When you are making changes to a database to deploy a new version, you need to be sure that certain changes aren’t made twice, or in the wrong order.
2023-10-04 (first published: 2016-12-21)
20,043 reads
Potholes in the Road of Progress
Phil Factor looks at some technologists more famous for thwarting progress than for their own creations.
2022-09-02 (first published: 2017-07-17)
365 reads
Reading and Writing your Database's Documentation using JSON
One of the problems to which I keep returning is finding the best way to read and apply documentation for databases. As part of a series of articles I'm doing for Redgate's Product Learning, I've been demonstrating how to maintain a single source of database documentation, in JSON, and then add and update the object […]
2021-06-28 (first published: 2021-05-28)
3,722 reads
Malleable Source Control
Git has proved to be a better fit to the needs and workflow of a database development team than anything that came before. Git is valuable because it encourages branching and merging, giving more choice in the way that your team can work. Due to the ease with which you can adapt Git, there is […]
2021-04-03
211 reads
Exploring Facts About SQL Server Tables: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 5
Now that we've explored, in preceding levels, some of the information that is available about indexes, triggers, keys and distribution statistics, we can concentrate on the tables themselves and their columns.
2021-01-13 (first published: 2016-12-07)
6,327 reads
Spoofing Data Convincingly: Text Data
Learn how to generate some convincing data for your development databases.
2021-01-05
2,983 reads
2020-12-12
363 reads
Blogs
A New Word: Gnossienne
By Steve Jones
gnossienne– n. the awareness that someone you’ve known for years still has a private...
Exploring DiskANN: Part I: Understanding the Algorithm before the disk
How I used AI for this postChatGPT to generate images based on info specifically...
Learning Tool – Deepstash
By Brian Kelley
A few months ago I started using Deepstash. Deepstash breaks books into the key...
Forums
When the Token Meter is Zero
Comments posted to this topic are about the item When the Token Meter is...
Understanding Temp Tables and Table Variables in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Understanding Temp Tables and Table...
The Data API Builder MCP Server Tools
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Data API Builder MCP...
Question of the Day
The Data API Builder MCP Server Tools
The Data API Builder MCP Server, v2.x, includes a number of tools. What actions can these tools perform in your database?
See possible answers