No End to Programmers
The idea of chat-oriented programming has led some people to think that AI LLMs will reduce the need for programmers. Steve disagrees.
Unreliable Narrators
Steve has a few thoughts on a interview with Grady Booch, an icon in our industry, who have a great quote on AI technology.
How to use @@ROWCOUNT in SQL Server
I would like to know the number of rows affected by my SQL Server query. I know this is displayed as a message in SQL Server Management Studio, but I have to check the number of rows in an IF statement to verify if everything went alright. How can I do this in SQL Server?
Building a Data Center
A data center is a complex beast. Is it worth building and maintaining your own? Steve has a few thoughts on a data center versus a cloud.
Why you should avoid Implicit Measures in your Power BI model
Learn about the differences and challenges with implicit and explicit measures in Power BI.
Frappe and Laravel: Database Management and Migrations
In this second installment of our series comparing Frappe and Laravel, we probe into critical aspects of database management and migrations.
Words vs Data
Are you clear in your reporting. Steve notes that sometimes we might leave too much up to interpretation by the end user.
SSMS Export to Excel
You’re running an ad-hoc query in a Microsoft SQL Server database with SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and need to further analyze the result set in an Excel spreadsheet. How do you export the data?
Throwing Iron at the Cloud and AI
As organizations move to the cloud, the once essential role of the Database Administrator (DBA) as the guardian of system optimization, has been overshadowed, often viewed as a bottleneck to innovation. Yet, as technology evolves, the one thing I know is history repeats itself, and optimization skills are once again emerging as a critical necessity. […]
Data Debt
The idea of data debt seems both silly and obvious to Steve. We all have too much data and it's out of control.
Blogs
Future IT Roles – Agentic Architect and AI Boom!!
By Vinay Thakur
These days everything is changing to AI World, IT roles are getting changed and...
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them Introducing PlanTrace — a free, browser-based...
A Cloud Dependency Failure from Amazon
By Steve Jones
I went to sleep while reading a Kindle book on my phone. I know...
Forums
SPAM Issues May 2026
We suffered a SPAM attack from May 1-6, which unfortunately corresponded with time off...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
Question of the Day
Creating a JSON Document III
I have this data in a table called dbo.NFLTeams
TeamID TeamName City YearEstablished ------ -------- ---- --------------- 1 Cowboys Dallas 1960 2 Eagles Philadelphia 1933 3 Packers Green Bay 1919 4 Chiefs Kansas City 1960 5 49ers San Francisco 1946 6 Broncos Denver 1960 7 Seahawks Seattle 1976 8 Patriots New England 1960If I run this code, how many rows are returned?
SELECT TOP 2
json_objectagg('Team' : TeamName)
FROM dbo.NFLTeams;
See possible answers