It came as a surprise to many of us when Microsoft pulled from it's hat a rabbit in the form of an exciting, radical, language that offers an effective alternative to the Object-oriented orthodoxy. The creative force behind this language, F#, turns out to be a brilliant Cambridge-based Australian called Don Syme, already well known for his work on generics in .NET. F# has taken the specialised power of ML and OCaml and developed a versatile general-purpose .NET language. We sent Richard Morris across the road to investigate.   Read more...

or our first feature on working DBAs and their lives, we selected Grant Fritchey, the self-styled Scary DBA, who has been so successful in the past year with his books and presentations. How does he manage to pack so much into his life? We sent Richard Morris to find out.  Read more...

A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.  Read more...

A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.  Read more...

A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.  Read more...

A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.  Read more...

With Halloween so near, we thought it would be a good time to find out more about the so-called Scary DBA, Grant Fritchey, who's been working in IT for 20 years now. He writes for SQL Server Central, Simple-Talk and SQL Server Standard, and was awarded MVP status earlier this year. We sent Richard Morris to meet him.  Read more...

Hiring a new employee can be a hit or miss proposition. We often don't learn much about how someone will work from an interview. Steve Jones talks about an alternative way to hire someone by taking them for a test drive.  Read more...

Many famous geeks work away at their programs without considering the wider implications of what they, and others, are doing. Richard Stallman isn't like that. Richard (rms) is one of the great brains behind Linux distros, as he wrote the GNU compilers and GNU debugger. He is driven by strong opinions about the nature of free software, and the restrictive nature of software copyright. We sent our intrepid reporter, Richard Morris, to find out if Richard Stallman really required journalists to read parts of the GNU philosophy before an interview, for "efficiency's sake".  Read more...

When you start applying for jobs, and face competition from other candidates, who do you think gets the interview? Is it the middle 50%? The bottom 20%? I bet you're thinking the top 5-10 candidates are granted interviews, which in today's world...   Read more...

think the hardest part about the job search is interviewing and not being selected. You keep saying “why” with rarely a good answer. It’s not fun to be rejected. I don’t think I can change that with any spin, but  Read more...

Getting a job is hard. If you’ve been lucky enough not to struggle for a job, don’t make the mistake of thinking it will always be easy. Equally, finding a good job is harder still. Some more tips for you to consider: Leverage your recruiter. They know..  Read more...

Part 1 discussed ways to find opportunities, Part 2 was about how to get more interviews, and today we’ll cover some tips from the employer perspective. Don’t use an AOL.com email address. Seriously. Gmail, Live, Yahoo, all are good, but AOL.com makes...  Read more...

Yesterday I posted Part 1 containing five ideas for those looking for work. Today I’m going to focus on what to do when you’re struggling to get interviews. Your chances of getting hired for any given job once you interview are perhaps 1 in 10 (an unscientific...  Read more...

How can you measure someone's DBA skills? Steve Jones comments on a new technique that someone suggested to him.  Read more...

How can you measure someone's DBA skills? Steve Jones comments on a new technique that someone suggested to him.  Read more...

How can you measure someone's DBA skills? Steve Jones comments on a new technique that someone suggested to him.  Read more...

How can you measure someone's DBA skills? Steve Jones comments on a new technique that someone suggested to him.  Read more...

Continuing the interview with Brad McGehee, Robert Pearl asks about the new features in 2008 and his books.  Read more...

MVP Brad McGehee, director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software, sat down recently with longtime author, Robert Pearl. In this interview, learn a bit about how Brad got started in the SQL Server world.  Read more...