Do You Still Use CHAR?
When designing a database, choosing good datatypes is important, but not necessarily all the time. Today Steve wonders if you still use fixed sting data types.
2022-02-11
230 reads
Editorials
The Cloud as a Foundation
The innovations and possibilities of cloud computing are exciting to Steve.
2022-02-09
163 reads
Speedy Break Fix
Is DevOps and Agile better than waterfall? Steve has a few thoughts after a recent experience.
2022-02-07
234 reads
Please include your DDL
I haven’t done it much the past few years, but I would answer some programming questions posted in forums back in the day. In the late 90s, I answered Visual Basic questions and eventually switched to SQL Server questions here on SQL Server Central as my career progressed. Answering questions not only assisted someone else, […]
2022-02-05
115 reads
The Great Developer Resignation
In 2021, many companies had employees leave positions. The number of people resigning from their jobs was so high that the term "The Great Resignation" began appearing in many publications. A number of industries were affected, and there are no shortage of pundits and experts analyzing why. This happened primarily in the US, but the […]
2022-02-04
259 reads
Think Marathon, not Sprint
DevOps is a journey, not a project. Today Steve reminds us that while we want to work across time and constantly improve, we also need some urgency. A marathon is the balance.
2022-02-02
138 reads
Making Video Chat Better
Video chat is how many of us see our colleagues every week. It's not a great system, but maybe it can get better.
2022-01-31
94 reads
Model Good Behavior
I'm answering a question in the forums and I spot something that crawls up my spine: ;WITH... The person was using a Common Table Expression (CTE) which requires that the preceding statement in the batch have a statement terminator, the semi-colon. However, since the terminator isn't required everywhere, lots of people don't use it at […]
2022-01-29
141 reads
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
169 reads
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
144 reads
Blogs
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
The DIY Cost of Masking Test Data For Smaller Organizations
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve tried hard to do in database development situations if...
Forums
XACT_ABORT being set to ON by web services
We have two "identical" instances of an ASP.NET web service (or so I have...
OPENQUERY Flexibility
Comments posted to this topic are about the item OPENQUERY Flexibility
A Full Shutdown
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Full Shutdown
Question of the Day
OPENQUERY Flexibility
Which of these are valid OPENQUERY() uses?
See possible answers