About the Size of Things
There have been some noticable failures of big IT projects this week, but are they always a problem?
2014-04-25
112 reads
DaveConvery
2014-02-17
185 reads
Terrifyingly Accurate Technology Predictions for 2014
The end of a year is a time for reflection, but it’s also a time for running full-pelt at the new year with some ill-thought-out predictions under ones belt. It’s with this in mind that I fire up my 100%-accurate Criswell-Brand crystal ball, and peer into next year’s world of technology.
2013-12-23
174 reads
The End of Privacy: Tragically Comical Edition
It’s hard to avoid privacy-based stories at the moment, with growing concern over government snooping and the limits of power. But where I’m based, in the UK, there’s a new, fully-privatised invasion of privacy. One marketing company has created an outdoor wi-fi basestation that grabs your phone’s MAC address as you pass, with the idea […]
2013-08-19
83 reads
How Do We Learn?
With a huge increase in the number of online learning frameworks, Dave Convery wonders how comfortable people are with this new way of polishing their skills.
2013-06-03
224 reads
Excuses Execrating Excel
A bad workman always blames his tools. So does the entire western media, it seems, as poor old Excel gets it in the neck for some appalling calculation errors in economic papers.
2013-04-22
235 reads
Big Data: Cash Cow or Horsemeat?
The big data revolution seems to have failed to materialise, and for good reason - it's really difficult.
2013-02-18
194 reads
The Data We Give Away
We're all used to storing and protecting data, but how often to we consider the data we're generating every day?
2012-11-12
74 reads
Tuning People?
Database people are used to changing the hardware of the server on which a problem database resides, or making changes to indexes and database settings, but humans and their organisations are far more difficult to tune and optimise than databases.
2012-06-11
308 reads
Blogs
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations
Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
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The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
Question of the Day
Symmetric Key Encryption
If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256, KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase', IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value' ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7'; GOSee possible answers