To Specialize or Not to Specialize: that is the $132,000 Question
In a guest editorial, Rodney Landrum reflects on his career path as a an information-hungry generalist.
Simple step by step process to import MS Access data into SQL Server using SSIS
Sometimes we need to import information from MS Access. We could use the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant, but sometimes we need to add custom transformations and it is necessary to use more sophisticated tools. In this tip, we are going to walk through step by step how to migrate a MS Access table to SQL Server using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).
A Break from Data
This Friday, before the Memorial Day holiday in the US, Steve Jones wants to know how you would spend your break from work.
The User Defined Server Roles in SQL Server 2012
This article describes how to create user defined server roles and use stored procedures and queries related.
Backups, What Are They Good For?
We've heard the confessional story from Pixar that Toy Story 2 was almost lost due to a bad backup, but sometimes there is no 'almost'. Grant Fritchey casts a sympathetic eye over some catastrophic data losses, and gives advice on how to avoid what he has termed an RGE (résumé generating event).
Making New Infrastructure Investments
One of the areas where the cloud may have the most impact is with new infrastructure improvements. Steve Jones talks about a few companies that are using the cloud in different ways.
SQL Server 2012 Integration Services - Package and Project Parameters
In SQL Server 2012, Microsoft introduced SQL Server Data Tools to accommodate the dynamic nature of SSIS constructs in the form of package and project parameters. This approach lets you combine multi-package projects into a single unit, eliminating the possibility of breaking dependencies between parent and child packages during subsequent deployments.
Work around for calculating age using the SQL Server DateDiff function
Have you ever wanted to compute age, but the results from the DATEDIFF function seemed to be wrong some of the time? This tip covers why the DATEDIFF function does not always reliably compute age.
New features in SQL 2012, the contained database
This article describe the problems about the migration of the databases and logins and the new feature contained databases
The TCO of the Cloud
When is the cloud right for your databases? Steve Jones talks about some metrics and ways you can measure your usage to determine when it makes sense.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Respect
By Steve Jones
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” –...
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation...
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
SQL Server Still Wins
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Still Wins
DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Question of the Day
DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
When running DBCC CHECKDB on SQL Server 2025, can I include the Resource Database?
See possible answers