Can You Ask for a Raise?
Asking for a raise is a scary event for many employees. Today Steve gives you a few things to think about and some advice on how to go about changing your job.
2025-08-20
93 reads
Editorials
The Next Great Thing
Is AI going to kill off a lot of data professional jobs? Steve doesn't think so, but judge for yourself.
2025-08-18
125 reads
Using Ollama on Windows 11 as an Alternative to Public LLMs
In my ongoing war against shadow AI, I’ve been testing out alternatives that most everyone can use, no matter what your technical expertise. Although somewhat limited depending on your resources available, (laptop CPU/GPU, memory, etc.) If you want to try the newest open models without sending your prompts to the cloud, or you just want […]
2025-08-16
337 reads
Who is Using Standard Edition?
Today Steve is asking if any of you use Standard Edition with the coming of a developer edition that matches it.
2025-08-15
115 reads
2025-08-13
91 reads
Everyone Wants a Piece of the AI Pie
Swiping through LinkedIn feels like watching a campsite suddenly flooded with s’mores. Every other ad, i.e. post, promises the next miracle AI service, platform, or “AI-powered” widget. It’s a frenzy that says: “If buzzwords paid the bills, we’d all be billionaires already.” I can’t fault the reasoning, there’s a lot of buzz out there telling […]
2025-08-09
100 reads
Critical Data and Insomnia
Most evenings I spend some time soaking in the tub and reading articles/watching videos on InfoSec, Data Protection and AI. It may sound like a terrible way to spend some time, but I always find it educational and I’m in shock by the lack of concern around data security, and yet….I’m not. For decades, the […]
2025-08-07
128 reads
The Double-Edged Sword of AI and Data Democratization
Agentic AI is often hailed as a game-changer by organizations, bringing autonomous decision-making, intelligent automation, and powerful predictive capabilities. However, as organizations rush to leverage these technologies, those dealing with critical data in relational databases, documents and datasets, especially personally identifiable information (PII) face a harsh reality: moving AI projects from proof-of-concept to production is […]
2025-08-06
153 reads
The Problem with AI Job Loss Headlines?
Every few weeks, headlines scream about how artificial intelligence is coming for our jobs. The narrative is often the same: white-collar professions are at risk, automation is taking over, and we’re all doomed to obsolescence.
2025-08-05
173 reads
Hack Your Brain
Now, let's be really clear up front, I don't mean getting a surgically implanted chip in your head, done on your kitchen table. Brain hacks are generally either, forming habits that are good for learning and concentration, changing how you do things to help enhance your brains function, eating differently in support of brain health, […]
2025-08-02
116 reads
Blogs
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...
Setting PK Names in Redgate Data Modeler
By Steve Jones
A customer was testing Redgate Data Modeler and complained that it auto-generated PK names....
Forums
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...
Semantic Search in SQL Server 2025
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Semantic Search in SQL Server...
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