Failure
This week Steve Jones has a poll to make you think based on Tim O'Reilly's look back at how he succeeded and failed with his company.
RAID and Its Impact on your SQL Performance
This article attempts to explain RAID's impact on SQL performance.
Microsoft Azure Diagnostics Part 1: Introduction
Having a well thought-out plan for diagnostic data is important for on-premises applications, but it is arguably more important for distributed, highly scalable cloud applications. Michael Collier has provided a clear introduction to Microsoft Azure Diagnostics, including the Diagnostics Agent and how to extract the data.
SQL Scripts in SSMS
A new plug in for Management Studio from Red Gate is free. It will give you access to all the scripts at SQLServerCentral, including your own briefcase.
Using Encrypted Backups in SQL Server 2014
This article details encrypted backups and how they are implemented in SQL Server 2014.
Why Don't We Have Better Practices?
It seems as though the quality of much software isn't very good. What is that? Couldn't we do better? Certainly some people write much better code. Why can't the rest of us imitate them?
Validate File Properties with PowerShell Prior to Import into SQL Server
We recently faced an issue where an internal data provider began providing an incomplete or inaccurate files because it lacked the proper length (or didn't exceed a certain size). In our case, we implemented a check on the file before importing using PowerShell, here's what we did.
Stairway to SQL PowerShell Level 7: SQL Server PowerShell and the Basics of SMO
In this level we begin our journey into the SQL Server SMO space. SMO stands for Shared Management Objects and is a library written in .NET for use with SQL Server. The SMO library is available when you install SQL Server Management Tools or you install it separately.
The Performance of Traversing a SQL Hierarchy
Dwain Camps shows that, depending on the size and characteristics of some hierarchical data, six different methods of traversal can each be the fastest at some point. He illustrates the danger in generalizing from just one set of test data, and that it's foolish to assume that just because SQL code looks neat, it will perform well.
Blogs
Questions and Answers from Running a Local LLM
By Steve Jones
I had a few random questions from my Running a Local LLM on Your...
Overview of Claude AI Models: Which One to Choose?
By Arun Sirpal
For those entering the AI space whether professionally or personally I wanted to give...
Houston AI-Lytics 2026–Powerpoint Slides
By Steve Jones
Thanks to everyone for attending my session on running a Local LLM. If you...
Forums
SSIS package failing intermittently on last Excel Component
Good Afternoon, I have a Job which "fires" off an SSIS package (that is...
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: JSON_ARRAYAGG
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Spring Connections and Learning at PASS On Tour
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Spring Connections and Learning at...
Question of the Day
Multiple Sequence Values
How do I easily get the next 12 sequence values from a sequence object?
See possible answers