Ready or not
When is the right time to move to new technology? Andy Leonard asks about balancing new features and proven technology. And certainly the challenge is real. I see new features…
Interview questions
At LobsterPot Solutions one of the things we often do for our clients is participate in job interviews, to help get a feel for the technical ability of the people…
AI and SQL
Pinal Dave (@pinaldave), who might always exist in my mind as the person who took me to a KFC in Bengaluru, asks us about how AI has helped our roles…
Hekaton – the bad and the good, and a misconception
The SQL Server platform is a robust system, designed to handle data in a relational system through the “ACID” properties of transactions. That is, to ensure that any piece of…
My last ticket
There are a bunch of different things I do for clients, so it’s a bit strange to try to think what to write about in response to a question about…
Kelly Broekstra, MVP
It's not hard to see why Kelly has been recognised as a Microsoft Most Valued Professional, as she did last week. I think everyone who meets her understands right away…
Responding to cancelled projects
This month (welcome to 2024, by the way) Reitse Eskens (@2meterDBA) asks us about our failures. Our abandoned projects. More specifically, what we’ve learned from them. Thanks Reitse. My failures…
A time for gratitude
First a quick disclaimer. The timing of this is because saying thank is the theme for this month's T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by Kay Sauter. But the content is something that…
Tuning Using Window Functions
Sometimes query tuning involves taking a different approach to a problem. And given that other tuning options might be creating index(es) or redesigning tables - both of which are much…
How encrypted is encrypted?
Encryption is a funny thing. Since the dawn of communication, whenever people have wanted to keep their secrets secret, they've used some sort of encryption. I'm sure parents started spelling…