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
Born SQL with Randolph West
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
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
What is a community advisory board anyway?
For those of us who have been involved in the Microsoft Data Platform community for a few years, the events of the last few months have been dramatic, culminating...
2021-03-24
22 reads
T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #012: Why DBA skills are necessary
This is my ongoing series of answering T-SQL Tuesday posts far too late to be of any use. Click here if you want to read previous entries. Paul Randal...
2021-03-17
138 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
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!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Forums
Huge frustration - Database watcher with two elastic pools
Think there's a reason why this is still in preview, but have someone manage...
SQL Server 2025 Query Performance Tuning: Troubleshoot and Optimize Query Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Query Performance...
Is it uncommon for Dev's to have a data model of the source data
This is a generic question. To the moderators, I wasn't sure where to place...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON I
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers