Get Your Chores Done

I grew up in a pretty rural environment, in the southern US, in what's considered the Old West (Jesse James, reportedly, had a hideout a few miles from my current home, the Daltons, Belle Star, I can keep going, all came through this part of Oklahoma). Here, we call our daily tasks, like taking out […]

A Little Appreciation

I'd like to take a moment and simply voice my appreciation for Steve Jones. Steve's still on sabbatical, so I've been doing some of the work, along with my co-worker, Kellyn Gorman (who I also appreciate, very much). I'm sure you've noticed. Oh, not simply that the editorials are different. That's to be expected. Nah, […]

Planning for the Right Emergency Response

I'm currently testing a pair of POC radios <editor: can no one shut him up about the radios?> No, go away. So, where was I, oh yeah, POC radios. What are they, I hear you asking. <editor: no one asked that> Hush. Push-to-talk Over Cellular. POC or PoC. In short, you get a SIM card […]

Life's Little Frustrations

As with others, I've had to deal with death in the family recently. Some other family members are dealing with cancer (a few friends too). Happily none of us has recently been a disaster zone, but that's happened too. So yeah, big, nasty scary stuff happens in life. However, for most of us, most of […]

Databases and Disasters

I was just reading about how the Philippines are working to update their databases in support of faster and better responses in the case of an emergency. While I do volunteer for some of the local emergency services, I'm right at the bottom of the heap as just a radio operator. I don't have any […]

Sometimes, Troubleshooting Is Hard

I hop in the Jeep the other day and turn on my ham radio. Have I mentioned I'm a licensed amateur radio operator? Yeah, yeah, I know. I won't shut up about it. Ha! My call sign is KC1KCE. I haven't been on HF in a while, but I'm regularly on the air locally here […]

People Make Odd Choices

One of my favorite things about going to in-person events is just the time when we're sitting around chatting, out in the hallway, over at the vendor booths, maybe in the speaker room. Any of them. Inevitably, you start to get what I would call "sea stories" (Navy & Coasties, "war stories" for the pickles, […]

SQL Server Columnstore Index Fragmentation

The Long Weekend

In the US, this is the Independence Day weekend. I had a few spare vacation days, so I tacked one on, making this a four day weekend. My plans are simple. Prep for my family coming over on the 5th for a celebration of the 4th (Ha!). Work on my query tuning book (gotta make […]

Own Your Mistakes

Hello, Grant again as Steve is on sabbatical. My evenings and weekends are currently being used to update my SQL Server query performance book for 2025. I really enjoy it because writing the book forces me to structure my learning on SQL Server 2025, not just hit it in some slipshod manner. Plus, I've got […]