Regular Columnist: Phil Factor

Phil Factor less-than-fond memories of the days of the One True Source Script. However, despite recent advances, he wonders just how much smoother team-based database development really is.  Read more...

Phil factor compares SQL Server 2008's implementation of Window Functions to PostgreSQL and finds SQL Server frustratingly lacking in some of the essentials.  Read more...

Phil Factor initially brooded about being fired from a job he was just doing unpaid to help out. Then he suddenly realized that they were probably right.  Read more...

Phil Factor takes a sideways look at Houston, a new tool for building SQL Azure applications, and is somewhat underwhelmed by what he finds.  Read more...

Phil discusses the pros and cons of the traditional versus stack overflow-style model for forum debate, and wonders whether there is a database model that would support all these different forms of discussion, or cooperative work, so that we can simply fit the 'visualization' to the nature of the particular discussion.  Read more...

Microsoft have been cooking up something for Database Developers in Visual Studio 2010, and Phil Factor has decided it's high time he looked into it. It's not as odd as it sounds, and is actually rather promising, as Phil discovers.  Read more...

Regardless of the speed of your SQL routines there comes a time, for any server-based system, when you need to think "parallel" and "asynchronous". So why, Phil Factor wonders, does there seem to be so little interest in Service Broker?  Read more...

Just because mistakes have become entrenched in the computer languages that we use doesn't mean we have to tolerate them  Read more...

Recent experts in Development techniques don't seem inclined to study the history of programming; There isn't that much that's new in the art of Unit Testing database development work  Read more...

Of course user-defined Schemas are useful in SQL Server, but are you using them?  Read more...

Phil Factor believes that there will have to be further compromises between the pioneers of The Cloud and the regulators, before companies feel safe in entrusting their financial data to such an abstract service, seemingly 'remote from sand and iron'.  Read more...

A guest editorial from Phil Factor that discusses ORMs and how they ca be used, or mis-used, in our applications.  Read more...

This week, a guest editorial from Phil Factor on how SQL Server database documentation falls woefully short of what is required and expected by most development teams.  Read more...

Phil Factor believes that we have become so immersed in the idea that administrators or accountants can run technical enterprises, unaided, that we are in danger of forgetting the vital creative contribution of the technologist.  Read more...

Phil Factor points out the limitations and irritations of Hungarian Notation.  Read more...

In which Phil Factor attempts to justify his iPhones and iPod Touches as a business expense.  Read more...

A guest editorial from Phil Factor today that points out some of the incredibly contributions by women in technology.  Read more...

A guest editorial from Phil Factor looks at the Speed Phreak competition that has been taking place recently and is quite popular. Read about the inspiration for the competition and why you might want to participate.  Read more...

Does a programmer need to know how his code gets executed? Arguably, developers should focus on database structures rather than a particular implementation, and Phil tries to convince us that good programming is not just knowing everything about your programming environment.  Read more...

The English voice of IT reason, Phil Factor, brings us a guest editorial. Today he waxes about the overbearing processes used to build internal corporate applications.  Read more...