I am no Asimov
Rodney Landrum on finding the inspiration you need, somehow and from somewhere, to get yourself out of a tight corner.
2014-09-29
130 reads
Editorial
Database Checkups
It's important that you are watching your databases' health to be sure that you can make changes, as well as rollback patches when issues occur.
2014-09-29
219 reads
Is SQL Server Mature?
This Friday Steve Jones is wondering if the SQL Server platform does the job well enough for most people, or are there holes that need to be filled with new features.
2018-08-03 (first published: 2014-09-26)
240 reads
The Value of Data
Data can be valuable, and there's a new book that compares the value of data today to that of oil in the previous century. Steve Jones has a few thoughts on why we should consider this to be the case.
2018-05-16 (first published: 2014-09-25)
158 reads
Testing in Production
The Apple fall keynote recently didn't work as planned, and it seems as though their systems weren't tested well enough.
2014-09-23
213 reads
Automate Yourself to a Coffee Break
A DBA should be working to automate their tasks, and find time to do things that are really important. Like keeping their coffee cup topped off 🙂
2014-09-22
295 reads
Watson Freemium
IBM has released a free version of its Watson service to help people perform analytics on their data.
2014-09-22
115 reads
No Compelling Reason
Steve Jones wants to know if you have compelling reasons to upgrade or not upgrade this week.
2014-09-19
120 reads
The 10 (.5) Commandments for IT Professionals
A list of the commandments, or at least suggestions, that Simon Holzman sees as important for IT professionals.
2014-09-18
510 reads
Swallowing the Camel
There is a paradox in the nature of the abstractions that many developers want when dealing with databases. They will strain at the gnat, but swallow a camel (Matthew 23:24). Whereas they will recoil with horror when a DBA suggests that an abstraction layer based on views, functions and procedures in a separate database schema […]
2014-09-15
188 reads
Blogs
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them Introducing PlanTrace — a free, browser-based...
A Cloud Dependency Failure from Amazon
By Steve Jones
I went to sleep while reading a Kindle book on my phone. I know...
Deploying AI in logistics (the unfiltered version)
A conversation with Jan Laš, CIO at HOPI, about what deploying a data agent...
Forums
SPAM Issues May 2026
We suffered a SPAM attack from May 1-6, which unfortunately corresponded with time off...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
Question of the Day
Creating a JSON Document III
I have this data in a table called dbo.NFLTeams
TeamID TeamName City YearEstablished ------ -------- ---- --------------- 1 Cowboys Dallas 1960 2 Eagles Philadelphia 1933 3 Packers Green Bay 1919 4 Chiefs Kansas City 1960 5 49ers San Francisco 1946 6 Broncos Denver 1960 7 Seahawks Seattle 1976 8 Patriots New England 1960If I run this code, how many rows are returned?
SELECT TOP 2
json_objectagg('Team' : TeamName)
FROM dbo.NFLTeams;
See possible answers