Treat People Like People
Steve Jones thinks that the Millennials have the right approach to work. There are many things that are more important than money.
TIME Gentlemen please! The SQL Server temporal datatypes
If you are still using the old Sybase DateTime datatype, it is a good idea to move your code to the more standard datatypes that were introduced in SQL Server 2008. Joe Celko explains why, and walks through some of the history of the TSQL way of storing and manipulating dates and times.
Parsing Log Files and Summarizing Results with PowerShell
This article takes a look at how PowerShell can speed up the process of parsing large log files.
Why and How of being a SQL Saturday Volunteer
Here is how to make the most of being a volunteer for SQL Saturday!
FILESTREAM Design and Implementation Considerations
This white paper is a companion to the information about FILESTREAM found on TechNet. This paper delves deeply into selected topics that should be considered when implementing a solution that uses FILESTREAM, including design considerations, maintenance, and management of a FILESTREAM environment.
Hints Are Not Always Better
This week Steve Jones reminds us that improving performance in T-SQL is not always obvious. Those little nuggets of knowledge can be very handy, which is why you should be regularly looking to acquire more of them.
Negotiating Your Raise Before Your Annual Review
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren. Andy talks about your annual review and how you might want to think about negotiating for a raise in advance.
PATINDEX Workbench
The PATINDEX function of SQL Server packs powerful magic, but it is easy to get it wrong. Phil Factor returns to the Workbench format to give a tutorial of examples, samples and cookbook ideas to demonstrate the ways that this underrated function can be of practical use. It is intended to be pasted into SSMS and used as a basis for experiment.
Upgrade Strategies for SQL Server 2008
If you make the decision to upgrade to 2008, there are a number of tools that make the process easier, but you still need to understand what things you should consider. We have a new article from Arshad Ali to help you understand the process and what you should consider.
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Forums
Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
The Quiet Part
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Quiet Part
Question of the Day
Escaping Strings
The STRING_ESCAPE() function requires 2 parameters in SQL Server 2025. The first is a string of text and the second is the type of escape rules being used. What are the options for the second parameter?
See possible answers