Change Tracking - 2008
Change tracking in SQL Server 2008 enables applications to obtain only changes that have been made to the user tables, along with the information about those changes.
The Certification Debate
Today's editorial was originally published on Aug 7, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday. Is it worth getting certificated? Steve raises the question today.
The Redmond Agenda
Is there an agenda in Redmond that looks to the cloud first for new versions of the platforms? Steve Jones thinks if there is, it might be a good thing.
Using ASCMD to run command line scripts for SQL Server Analysis Services
Sometimes it would be helpful to run scripts from a command line for Analysis Services. This would be useful for things like creating backups, processing data or running other tasks. Is there a command line tool like sqlcmd for multidimensional databases and Data Mining?
Creating Indicator and Gauge Report in SSRS - SQL Server 2008 R2
SQL Server Reporting Services allows you to embed indicators and Gauges in your report to analyze the data and its state. Indicators are minimal gauges that convey the state of a single data value at a glance and are mostly used to represent state value of Key Performance Indicator (KPI).
After X Years
Dave Winer has been programming for a long time, and he plans on continuing for some time to come. Steve Jones talks about the important things Dave realizes and how we should also be considering them.
SSC Clinic: Can Implementing "Optimize for Ad Hoc Queries" Boost Performance for the SQLServerCentral.com and Simple-Talk.Com SQL Servers?
With the introduction of the instance-level option “optimize for ad hoc workloads” in SQL Server 2008, DBAs have a tool to deal with a problem known as plan cache pollution, or plan cache bloat. It’s often caused when one-time use ad hoc queries are sent to SQL Server from Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) solutions, such as LINQ, NHibernate, or Entity Framework. The problem can prevent SQL Server from using its available memory optimally, potentially hurting performance.
Stop Food Waste - OS Open Data & SQL Azure
An attempt to use Ordanance Survey OS Open Data, SQL Server and SharePoint in the construction of a system for supermarkets to supply expiring food to nearby homeless shelters.
SQL Server Prefetch and Query Performance
Prefetching can make a surprising difference to SQL Server query execution times where there is a high incidence of waiting for disk i/o operations, but the benefits come at a cost. Mostly, the Query Optimizer gets it right, but occasionally there are queries that would benefit from tuning.
A SSIS Design Pattern for Change Data Capture
The design pattern described in this article can be used to develop very efficient CDC operations in large scale implementations.
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
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...
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
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