Are You a Good Engineer?
A thread about what it takes to be a good engineer has Steve commenting on those characteristics that are important to him.
2022-01-28
168 reads
Editorials
Defining DevOps
Many people ask about DevOps and what it entails. Steve has a few thoughts on the challenges of adopting DevOps in a company.
2022-01-26
143 reads
Knowing When to Respond
I ran into this quote on the Microsoft Learn site, which I thought was a great way to think about how to administer a system: "Without a baseline, every issue encountered could be considered normal and therefore not require any additional intervention." When I've had users file tickets or complain about things not working well, […]
2022-01-24
134 reads
2022-01-22
69 reads
The Need for 256GB
Today Steve wonders how many of you really need 256GB of RAM in Standard Edition.
2022-01-21
345 reads
Most of Us Are Vulnerable
Security is hard, and while data professionals might not be responsible for network issues, we ought to be aware that there could be vulnerabilities that might attack our systems.
2022-01-19
244 reads
It Isn't Worth Automating
Every year I'm responsible for a portion of the Database Weekly newsletters. I used to do half, but right now Kathi, Grant, and I are on a rotation. Our boss puts out a schedule each year, which tells me the weeks for which I am responsible. Each January I then set up a recurring appointment […]
2022-01-17
185 reads
T-SQL Requires the Right Approach
Some of the most problematic T-SQL code I’ve seen over the years originated because the developer approached T-SQL with techniques more suitable for developing applications. I often saw these issues in my consulting days and always took the opportunity to teach the customer instead of only fixing the problems. One reason is that SQL is […]
2022-01-15
215 reads
2022-01-14
301 reads
Coding for the Future
Writing code that solves problems and adapts to the future is a challenge, but it's something we should think about.
2022-01-12
276 reads
Blogs
Learn Better: Pause to Review More
By Brian Kelley
If you want to learn better, pause more in your learning to intentionally review.
Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-Gen: Bring on the IOPS
By John
If you’ve used Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose, you know the drill: to...
SQL, MDX, DAX – the languages of data
By DataOnWheels
Ramblings of a retired data architect Let me start by saying that I have...
Forums
Two foreign keys to the same table. Can't cascade deletes.
Not sure if this is really a relational theory question but it seems about...
Connecting Power BI to SSAS and effective user not working
Hi everyone, Below is a consolidated summary of what we validated Architecture & data...
High Availability setup - has anyone seen this method?
Hi all, I recently moved to a new employer who have their HA setup...
Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a SQL Server 2025 table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers