A quick primer on binary and hexadecimal
A few years ago, I wrote that a CPU is “a hot mess of on-off switches.” There’s more to it than that when you get into the weeds of...
2021-05-31 (first published: 2021-05-19)
431 reads
Randolph West
- Twitter: @_randolph_west
- Website: https://bornsql.ca/blog/
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rabryst/
How I tackle disaster recovery
One of my special interests as an autistic person is understanding mechanical components of a computer, both analog and digital. In the olden days, we had devices known as...
2021-05-26
25 reads
T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #015: Automation
In February 2011, Pat Wright invited us to talk about Automation: So the topic I have chosen for this month is Automation! It can be Automation with T-SQL or...
2021-05-12
11 reads
T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #014: Resolutions
At the end of 2010, Sean McCown (blog | Twitter) invited us to talk about resolutions: Things like getting certified, or perfecting a process, or taking management classes, etc...
2021-05-05
13 reads
Ambling through undocumented DBCC commands may result in boredom
There comes a time when we heed a certain call. The call is to avoid dangerous undocumented DBCC commands in SQL Server, especially those that bypass built-in protections. I’m...
2021-04-28
15 reads
Calgary Data User Group with Deborah Melkin and Andy Yun
Next week on Wednesday is the Calgary Data User Group’s second event for 2021, and the second event as a member of Microsoft’s new Azure Data Community. Since last...
2021-04-21
16 reads
How does the buffer pool handle low memory conditions?
(Thanks to Erik Darling for reviewing this post. Check out his training materials.) One of the bigger clichés in the data professional vocabulary (behind “it depends”) is that you...
2021-04-20 (first published: 2021-02-17)
544 reads
T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #013: What the business wants
Click here to read previous retrospective entries. From Steve Jones (blog | Twitter) in December 2010 comes the question “What issues have you had in interacting with the business to get your...
2021-04-15 (first published: 2021-04-14)
174 reads
Upcoming speaking engagements
The last time I presented a session was at the final PASS Summit in November 2020, so it is time to get back on the virtual conference trail again....
2021-04-07
11 reads
Zeroing out a transaction log file does not use zeroes
I’ve been doing SQLskills training recently, and Paul Randal (blog | Twitter) reminded our class that zeroing out a transaction log file does not use zeroes (0x00). Well, not...
2021-03-31
39 reads
Blogs
Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions
By Steve Jones
With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...
A New Word: Fawtle
By Steve Jones
fawtle – n. a weird little flaw built into your partner that somehow only...
Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets
AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...
Forums
Where Your Value Separates You from Others
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...
Fixing the Error
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Question of the Day
Fixing the Error
On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error? See possible answers