Working With Compliance

Most larger and all publicly held companies will have some sort of compliance team – often a few varieties, ranging from...

How to prevent ‘Select *’ : The elegant way

UPDATE 2012-09-12 For my latest adventures with TSQL Parsers please see this post.
I’ve been doing a lot of work with the...

August 2012 – Monthly SQL Server Checklist

Summer is beginning to wrap up for those of us in the northern hemisphere and were finally to August.  Maybe...

Excluding Schemas in SQL Compare

I saw this question posted the other day and thought it was a great idea.

I haven’t been a big...

Service pack Native Client, SQL XML4 and VSSWriter failed

One of my client accidentally executed a 32 bit service pack on a 64 bit SQL Server, the service Pack...

Forcing network protocol to connect SQL server

Whenever there is a network issue or a SQL server browser issue we might need to connect SQL server in different...

SQLSaturday 159 - KC Can Sure Throw a SQL Saturday!

This past weekend was SQLSaturday159 - Kansas City.  I drove down with my wife and our sons (2 years old and...

Using a Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC) on SQL Server

Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC) allows administrators emergency access to SQL Server via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or via command...

Don't Use Passwords That Can Be Social-Engineered

A Facebook thread by one of my friends brought this one to mind. He was asking about what the current...

Lenovo’s Cancellation Policy is not consumer-friendly

I recently placed an order for a ThinkPad W530 from Lenovo. One day before the estimated shipping date, I noticed...