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.
SSIS Basics: Adding Data Flow to Your Package
Annette continues her popular series for SSIS beginners by showing how a data flow task can be used in a package to move data from a SQL Server database to an Excel file, and insert an additional column into the Excel file that’s based on derived data.
Geeky Books
Today Steve Jones talks about one of his pastimes: reading. He recommends you read more, and share the books you enjoy.
Checksum Transformation
The Checksum Transformation computes a hash value, the checksum, across one or more columns, returning the result in the Checksum output column. The transformation provides functionality similar to the T-SQL CHECKSUM function, but is encapsulated within SQL Server Integration Services, for use within the pipeline without code or a SQL Server connection. As featured in The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit by Joy Mundy and Warren Thornthwaite from the Kimbal Group.
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?
Implementing SQL Server's Change Data Capture
When SQL Server 2008 was released the Microsoft product group came out with a new feature called "Change Data Capture" that allows you to track the changes that occur to a table. Greg Larsen gives you a primer of how to implement change data capture and how to review the captured information to produce an audit trail of the changes to a database table.
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.
Storage - A meeting of minds
Even if you are not an infrastructure guy a good grasp of storage basics will stand you in good stead
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.
Provisioning a New SQL Server Instance
Before you even install SQL Server, there a number of preparatory steps you need to take in order to get a new machine with a fresh copy of the operating system completely ready to install SQL Server properly. This is to maximize performance, reliability, and security.
Blogs
ISACA AI Material/Exam Prep Discount (May 18 – June 30, 2026)
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A Fabric solution can be very cost effective
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Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log
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Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log If you...
Forums
We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn
Comments posted to this topic are about the item We Are Eating Our Own...
Before Using AI with Business Data, Read This
Artificial intelligence tools are quickly becoming part of daily business operations, from document analysis...
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines...
Question of the Day
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
In the Database Engine, when a deadlock is detected, what does the detection interval shrink to (in time)?
See possible answers