The Information Schema and Cross-RDBMS Working
A look at the ODBC standard and how valuable it has been, unlike the Information Schema implementations.
Big Data Architecture
The next few years will be critical for the information technology staff, as they attempt to integrate and manage multiple, diverse hardware and software platforms. In this article, Lockwood Lyon addresses how to meet this need, as users demand greater ability to analyze ever-growing mountains of data, and IT attempts to keep costs down.
Unique Indexes Are Code; Non-Unique Indexes Are Data
Unique indexes are the database developer's responsibility. Non-unique indexes can be more easily maintained directly on the production database by an automated process.
Work to Live
It's important that you remember to live and enjoy your life as it passes by. Today Steve Jones reminds us that we want to work to live, but also plan to live and plan for the future.
SQL Server Reporting Services CountDistinct and Previous Functions
Scott Murray takes a look at what count function variations and related functions are available in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
Promoting Engineers
It seems that often we promote the best technical people into managerial positions, but is that a good idea? Steve Jones notes that a few people think this is a bad idea and there ought to be a technical career path for IT workers.
ASP.NET Core: A More Realistic Starter Kit
ASP.NET Core is a fascinating platform with many good ideas, but in its present form (RC1)there is a culture shock for experienced ASP.NET developers to experience the effort involved in porting a realistic application. There is an obvious advantage on being able to host an application on any web server, but is this enough to compensate for losing the convenience of an integrated pipeline?
Data Mining Part 39: Azure Machine Learning vs Microsoft Data Mining
In earlier chapters, we talked about the Microsoft Data Mining enemies. We will talk now about Microsoft Azure Machine Learning.
What’s in a name?
When a business does not have an agreed set of definitions for their every day terms slow burning chaos ensues.
Blogs
A Cloud Dependency Failure from Amazon
By Steve Jones
I went to sleep while reading a Kindle book on my phone. I know...
Deploying AI in logistics (the unfiltered version)
A conversation with Jan Laš, CIO at HOPI, about what deploying a data agent...
T-SQL Tuesday #198 Invitation: How Do You Detect Data Changes?
It's time for T-SQL Tuesday #198! This month's topic is change detection. The post T-SQL...
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