The Cult of Mediocrity

This guest editorial from Michael Coles was originally published on Aug 1, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is on vacation. Today Michael talks about the potential for reward for taking risk.

A Google-like Full Text Search

Implementing searching in your database is always a challenge and MVP Michael Coles brings us a method of building a Google-like search for SQL Server.

XML Query

XML Storage

Name Spaces

SQL Server XML

The Hazards of IT

Are you taking care of yourself as an IT professional? We try to cover all aspects of your SQL Server career here, not just the technical stuff. Longtime SQL Server guru Michael Coles brings us some health tips in an interview with Dr. Jerry Sanders

Free Encryption

Free SQL Server 2000 Encryption for your data!!! Author Michael Coles has put together a tolljit and some XPs that you can use to encrypt your data with the Blowfish algorithm. It is hard to write good applications that encrpyt data and manage the keys and security. This will give you a great headstart on protecting your data.

Gotcha! SQL Aggregate Functions and NULL

Working with NULL functions can be tricky in T-SQL and SQL Server 2000. If you add in aggregates, you need to be sure you understand what the behavior will be or you might report incorrect values to a user. Michael Coles has written a new article that talks about how NULL affects your results.

Four Rules for NULLs

In SQL Server 2000 or any relational database, the concept of NULL can be both confusing and hazardess to your employment. Not understanding how to work with NULLs can lead to incorrect responses to queries and poor business decisions being made. New author Michael Coles brings us four rules that can help you work with NULL values in your tables.