Stack Ranking
This Friday Steve Jones talks performance reviews. The system in place at Microsoft is a tough one, which allows some to thrive, and some not to. Is it one you'd like to have in place?
2012-07-20
222 reads
Editorials
Using Technology In New Ways
An interesting reuse of technology in a completely new way caught Steve Jones' eye. See if you agree that this is rather amazing.
2012-07-19
151 reads
Geeky Books
Today Steve Jones talks about one of his pastimes: reading. He recommends you read more, and share the books you enjoy.
2012-07-18
245 reads
Time Zones
Today Steve Jones complains a bit about time zone support in SQL Server and why it seems so cumbersome. Shouldn't it be easier in 2012?
2012-07-17
312 reads
A Cool Job
Today's editorial was originally published on August 21, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is traveling. What a cool job it must be to try and tune and get the most performance out of a system.
2012-07-16
165 reads
Write Better Code
Better security can be achieved by writing better code. Steve Jones agrees, but doesn't think it's as easy as it sounds.
2012-07-16
276 reads
Kill a SPID
This editorial was originally published on Sept 5, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is traveling. Today Steve talks about the potential problems with killing SPIDs in SQL Server.
2012-07-13
320 reads
One Single View
This editorial was originally published on Oct 9, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is traveling. When I worked at JD Edwards, one of the goals of our business intelligence system was to house a single view of the truth. I recently saw a blog post by Andrew Fryer that does a good job of explaining what this actually is.
2012-07-12 (first published: 2007-10-09)
545 reads
Why It's Good To Be Wrong
Today we have a guest editorial from Hakim Ali. Being wrong is not as bad as you may think.
2012-07-11
466 reads
It's the Journey...
The story of how Shawn McGehee's journey to becoming a DBA started is just one among many thousands, so let's hear yours too!
2012-07-09
149 reads
Blogs
Microsoft announces new cybersecurity AI multi-model
By Brian Kelley
Yesterday, July 27, 2026, Microsoft announced a new cybersecurity effort called Project Perception. Included...
Getting the SQL Server MCP Server Running
By Steve Jones
If you’ve wanted a SQL Server MCP server for your databases, it’s available. The...
Introducing azsql-migration-test: Test and Validate Azure SQL Database Migrations
Introducing azsql-migration-test, a small open-source CLI that validates your Azure SQL Database migrations against...
Forums
Symmetric Key Encryption
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Symmetric Key Encryption
The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why Your Login Auditing Strategy Might Be Hurting Your Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The “Successful Login” Dilemma: Why...
Building Your Own Software
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building Your Own Software
Question of the Day
Symmetric Key Encryption
If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?
CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256, KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase', IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value' ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7'; GOSee possible answers