Cathan Kirkwood

Started working with databases in 1984. Clients have kept pushing me into front end programming over the years, giving me a widely varied background in VB, ASP, HTC, SQL, DHTML, COM, RPG, Cobol, Fortran (how many people know what .HTC is anymore...grin). I've worked with SQL Server in particular since version 4.2 was released. I've worked with DB2, AS\400's, Sybase, Oracle, Informix, Alpha4 & 5, Access (all versions to date.) (Boy, I almost didn't even mention that one.), and a lot of databases which people still debate as to whether they were even databases or not. Hold a lot of different certificates I got before I realized how little they matter.

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PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI

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I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...

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...

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Delta Lake: The Definitive Guide: Modern Data Lakehouse Architectures with Data Lakes

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Databricks Data Intelligence Platform: Unlocking the GenAI Revolution

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Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!

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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)

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