alevyinroc


Blog Post

SQL Saturday Boston 2023 Recap

First Things First Thank you to everyone who attended my session “Answering the Automator’s Call with Automation.” My slide deck and demo code are now available on my Github.....

2023-10-16 (first published: )

63 reads

Blog Post

Speaking at SQL Saturday Boston 2023

I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking at SQL Saturday Boston on October 14th, 2023. This year’s session is Answering the Auditor’s Call with Automation
As DBAs, we’re...

2023-10-02

13 reads

Blog Post

Seeking Home Network Happiness

TL;DR: My home firewall/router is slow, please help me pick out a new one.
After replacing my firewall/router/WiFi access point one too many times, I’m ready to get off the...

2022-12-27

106 reads

Blog Post

PASS Data Community Summit 2022

As I write this, it’s the weekeend before PASS Data Community Summit 2022 and depending upon when I finish, it’ll post either shortly before SQL Saturday Oregon, or in...

2022-11-12

39 reads

Blog Post

Meetings Are Work Too

So Many Meetings I’ve said it. We’ve all said it.
I can’t get any work done today, I’ve got so many meetings.
I need to be reminded on occasion that for...

2022-09-20

119 reads

Blogs

Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!

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Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...

Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview

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One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...

SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS

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Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...

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Forums

25 Years of SQL Server Central

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...

The Decoded Value

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value

Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS

By Sujai Krishna

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...

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Question of the Day

The Decoded Value

In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:

DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!';
DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX);

SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000)));
SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded) 

See possible answers