A New Word: Nighthawk
nighthawk – n. a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night – an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming future – which you sometimes...
2023-12-01
86 reads
Blog Posts
Building Upon Your Productivity Momentum: Staying Productive For Life
Note: I found this sitting in my Medium draft. This was a cross-post from my old productivity blog that got lost in oblivion. Productivity is never an accident. It...
2023-12-01 (first published: 2023-11-17)
269 reads
Changing the Data Type of a Primary Key–#SQLNewBlogger
A client asked this question recently: How do I change my numeric PK to a character type? I decided to write a short blog on how to do this....
2023-12-01 (first published: 2023-11-20)
386 reads
PostgreSQL Events – A Newbies Perspective: #PGSQLPhriday 014
For this month’s #PGSQLPhriday 014 blogging event, Pavlo Golub has asked a pretty simple question: What do you think about PostgreSQL events? Prior to this year, I’d never attended...
2023-12-01
72 reads
Using ThinOptics to Read Data
As I’ve aged, I find myself struggling to read many things in my life. It started with difficulties seeing menus, but moved on to other areas. During the pandemic,...
2023-12-01
59 reads
Testing Microsoft Fabric - Part 3
Sorry to disappoint you. In this post, we won't test Microsoft Fabric directly. We will compare Azure Data Factory (ADF) to Microsoft...
2023-11-30
5 reads
Cosmos DB – Monitoring performance
Cosmos DB has become my latest focus and I hope to start sharing more about ways you can use it. Cosmos DB doesn’t provide the same granularity of query...
2023-11-29 (first published: 2023-11-15)
248 reads
Is that the right question to ask?
This is not a “clickbait” title, but an important consideration when it comes to developing technical solutions. Let me give you an example between two questions for SQL Server...
2023-11-29 (first published: 2023-11-17)
255 reads
SQL Prompt Tips–Using $surroundtext$ in a Snippet
A user on the SQL Community Slack was asking about what the $surroundtext$ variable. This post looks at how this can be used in snippets. This is part of...
2023-11-29
88 reads
Force parameterization is powerful-feature
Force parameterization in Microsoft SQL Server is a feature designed to optimize query performance by converting literal values in Transact-SQL statements into parameters. This process helps in plan reuse,...
2023-11-27 (first published: 2023-11-13)
893 reads
Blogs
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
SQL Server Security Hardening Guide Using the DoD STIG Checklist
Security on your SQL Server is important. That doesn’t need any explaining. But where...
EightKB 2026: Registration is Open!
It’s that time of year again! EightKB is back on August 20th at 13:00...
Forums
Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
The Quiet Part
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part
BIT_COUNT in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item BIT_COUNT in SQL Server
Question of the Day
Backing Up a DMK
In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?
See possible answers