A Domain for Data
A SQL DDL statement that Steve never knew about is the subject of today's editorial.
Windows Clustered MSDTC and SQL Server 2019 mishap
Introduction As you may know, in the early days of SQL Server Clustering, Microsoft advised to provide each clustered SQL Server instance with its own Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) resource. Since SQL Server 2012 this advice has been withdrawn. Microsoft now recommends to provide your instance with its own MSDTC resource, once you notice the […]
DAX CASE Statement Functionality using IF, SWITCH and SWITCH True
If you don’t know, DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a language for creating custom calculations and aggregations in Power Pivot, Power BI, and other data analysis tools. Two functions in DAX come close to replicating the functionality but come with limitations. Which one of these functions should you use?
Database DevOps Metrics
DevOps includes the idea of measuring how code flows through your organization and looking for ways to improve your software development process. Steve has a few thoughts on the four main metrics many developments use.
Scales & Measurements
If you’re going to work with databases, you probably ought to know something about data. In particular, we don’t put data directly into a database; we have to encode it and represent it in a format which a machine can handle.
DeepSeek: What is new with this AI technology?
Learn how the DeepSeek GenAI LLM works and see how it produces SQL code.
Is GenAI Coming Faster Than You Think?
GenAI technologies have created a lot of concern among many tech workers. Steve has a few thoughts on how these technologies might impact data professionals.
Finding Out What Changed in a Cumulative Update
Over the last several years, Microsoft has been putting less and less effort into Cumulative Update documentation. We used to get full-blown knowledge base articles about fixes, but these days, we get a collection of footnotes with deceiving hyperlinks that look like they’re going to lead to more information – but they simply lead back to themselves.
Fantasy baseball and old habits
Old habits are hard to change sometimes. Time and again, regardless of what the task or query for information might be, my go-to source of information is Google. Whether on my phone or computer, my muscle memory instinctively opens a browser window or clicks into the search widget and starts typing. My “google foo” has […]
Implementing Fuzzy Search in SQL Server Using New Inbuilt Functions
Learn about the new string similarity functions in Azure SQL Database.
Blogs
Moving On-Prem PostgreSQL to the Cloud: Picking the Right Path for Big Tables
Every PostgreSQL migration eventually hits the same fork in the road. The database is...
A Spread of Vacation
By Steve Jones
I’m off on vacation today. Which is a little weird as I just got...
How AgentDBA Identifies Backup Failures
By Arun Sirpal
Every DBA has a box like this. Sitting untouched for months. Nobody’s proud of...
Forums
Have you done a Mid year check in?
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From SQL Server On-Premises to Claude Desktop: How I built a Full MCP Pipeline
Comments posted to this topic are about the item From SQL Server On-Premises to...
Independence Day 2026
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Independence Day 2026
Question of the Day
Independence Day 2026
In the original Independence Day movie (1996), what type of computer did Jeff Goldblum use to connect to the alien mainframe? Take a guess, don't look it up or ask AI.
See possible answers