The Conference Benefit
Why attend a conference? After the PASS Summit and SQL Connections, Steve Jones shares a few thoughts about the benefits of attending a conference for employees.
2009-11-17
560 reads
Editorial - WMV
Testing at Scale
It seems that many companies don't have the luxury of working with a variety of hardware configurations to test their architecture before deploying their applications. Some of the issues involve time and some involve tools. Steve Jones has an idea that could help with the latter today.
2009-11-16
699 reads
Is C# Better?
This Friday Steve Jones has a poll for the programmers and hybrid DBAs out there. If you work with code, why do you use C#? Or why not?
2009-11-13
329 reads
Consolidating Again and Again and Again
Virtualization is touted as a great way to save money, but it's a one time event. Once you've consolidated a server, you can't do it again. However consolidation isn't necessarily the same and Steve Jones tells us why.
2009-11-12
527 reads
A Better Way To Install Updates
The decisions to install service packs and cumulative updates is often confusing to new DBAs. Many of them install every update, often without a good reason. Steve Jones asks why we might not have a better way to install updates, maybe even helping us decide if we need them.
2009-11-11
346 reads
Is Unit Testing Important?
Testing our applications is important, but at what level do we need to test? Steve Jones talks about unit testing today, and wonders if this is prevalent for SQL Server developers.
2009-11-10
696 reads
A Bad Litmus Test
A litmus test is a way of determining your answer to a question based on a single issue or response. Steve Jones sees this as a bad idea, especially when looking to hire technical people.
2009-11-09
646 reads
Is The PASS Summit Worth It?
Steve Jones has attended the PASS Summit annually, and found value. But for this Friday's poll, did you find value this week? Or have you in the past? Let others know.
2009-11-06
788 reads
Why Is It So Complicated?
One of the very common things that is needed in SQL Server is performing a restore of a database. It's also one of the most important things that needs to take place. So why isn't this a simpler process? Steve Jones wonders why we can't make this a simpler process.
2009-11-02
546 reads
Sharepoint Growth is Good
Sharepoint is a product that many IT people despise, but it's a popular seller for Microsoft. Steve Jones thinks that Sharepoint's growth is a good thing for DBAs as well.
2009-10-28
630 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
When SQL Server Central Went Down
Comments posted to this topic are about the item When SQL Server Central Went...
The String Distance I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The String Distance I
How Database Professionals Sent a Million Emails a Day from SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Database Professionals Sent a...
Question of the Day
The String Distance I
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
Assume preview features are enabled. See possible answers