Is Empowerment Good?
Today Steve Jones notes that we use computers to enable others to handle their own work without help. But is that always a good idea.
2012-05-30
111 reads
Editorials
Create Your Own Intense Interview
Today Steve Jones talks about interviews and the way in which he approaches them to make sure that the job is the best fit for both the company and the candidate.
2012-05-29
279 reads
Happy Memorial Day 2012
It's Memorial Day in the US and Steve out is paying tribute to our soldiers and cutting grass on the tractor. He's left you a blooper reel to enjoy.
2012-05-28
70 reads
A Break from Data
This Friday, before the Memorial Day holiday in the US, Steve Jones wants to know how you would spend your break from work.
2012-05-25
120 reads
Making New Infrastructure Investments
One of the areas where the cloud may have the most impact is with new infrastructure improvements. Steve Jones talks about a few companies that are using the cloud in different ways.
2012-05-24
118 reads
The TCO of the Cloud
When is the cloud right for your databases? Steve Jones talks about some metrics and ways you can measure your usage to determine when it makes sense.
2012-05-22
117 reads
Continuous Releases
The idea of continuous development, integration and release can be a way to get your software in use by clients quicker. Steve Jones talks about releases, and some benefits you might get.
2012-05-21
165 reads
Password Handling
A system administrator can set a good example with the passwords they give to users or a bad example. Which one do you set?
2012-05-18
257 reads
Do Interviews Work?
Interviews are the way we primarily make hiring decisions but as Steve Jones notes, we don't really end up doing a very good job of picking good employees in many cases.
2012-05-17
329 reads
What is Big Data?
The definition of Big Data is rather murky, despite all the press and attention given to it. Steve Jones talks about what Big Data means for relational databases.
2012-05-16
763 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