How fitting that I should close out the A to Z series while I close out the year.  We’ve finally arrived at letter Z and that stands for the CPU-Z utility.  Yes, technically that isn’t a part of SQL Server, but if you hadn’t already noticed by Monday’s ‘Y’ post,… Read more

SELECT 'Happy '+ DATENAME(dw, GETDATE())

Welcome to the penultimate installment of SQL Server A to Z (it’s not often I get to use “penultimate”). Officially, Y stands for Year, but that would be kinda boring, and quite short, so let’s run with it and talk about all sorts of date-parts-related… Read more

Merry Christmas everyone!

DECLARE @hohoho char(100)
DECLARE @bells smallint
DECLARE @tiers smallint
DECLARE @maxtiers smallint

SELECT @hohoho = ' ', @tiers = 1, @bells = 1, @maxtiers = 6
PRINT @hohoho

WHILE @tiers < @maxtiers
BEGIN
	SELECT @bells = POWER(@tiers,2), @hohoho = ' '
	WHILE @bells < 12*@tiers
	BEGIN
		SET…

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I’m sure you’ve heard the story by Stephen Covey about the professor that fills a jar with rocks, pebbles, and sand as a metaphor for time management and prioritization. I’d relate it here, but… Read more

Jason Strate (blog|@StrateSQL) is starting a new blog meme: #meme15.  The overall topic of #meme15 will be social networking, obviously something that’s getting a lot of attention these days, so there should be plenty to write about.  For the inaugural #meme15 post, the subject is… Read more

I can’t believe it’s already December.  This year has just flown by.  The rush of holiday events has already started, everyone at work is pushing to have their projects completed before the end of the year.  It’s a madhouse, I tell ya.  I’ll be honest, though, for all the running… Read more

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Allen White (blog | @SQLRunr ).  The topic:  Share your T-SQL tips and tricks.  And if this post looks familar, like something I might have mistakenly posted, say, last Tuesday, well I have no idea what you’re talking about.

This one… Read more

We’re all busy people.  We have jobs, families, and responsibilities out the wazoo.  Little Timmy needs to be picked up from practice, Fido needs a walk, your boss needs that documentation tomorrow, oh, and your friend needs help moving (again).  It’s easy to let our own personal and professional needs… Read more

So I finally managed to get my hands on a VM with Windows 2008 R2 SP1 so I could install SQL 2012. (Aside: one of the biggest obstacles to progress is bureaucracy.) Anywho, I plan to explore all of the new features and functionality in 2012 and, of course, blog… Read more