Git forked
Forgive me for the title. Mentally I’m 12. When I started my current day job, I certainly didn’t expect to write this many blog posts about Git. I don’t fancy myself an expert by any…
More fun with Git: git restore
The setup My day job involves babysitting a lot of Git repositories hosted on GitHub. The vast majority of the commits, merges, and squashes I run on a daily basis involve short-lived branches, and I…
Run SQL Server 2025 and SQL Server Management Studio on macOS Tahoe
Short version (Edit 2025-11-26: If you still want to use containers, Anthony Nocentino has the answer for you here: https://www.nocentino.com/posts/2025-11-26-sql-server-2025-docker-desktop-avx-issue/) You want to get this running as fast as possible. Do these four steps, and…
macOS Tahoe breaks SQL Server on Docker containers on Apple silicon
The honeymoon is over, and macOS 26 Tahoe broke the Rosetta 2 emulation layer with SQL Server 2025 RC 1 running in a Docker container. I know it was Tahoe, because it worked the day…
Get required permissions for DMVs
Part of my job at work is to update Transact-SQL reference content. System dynamic management views (DMVs) have permissions that are managed in the SQL Server Database Engine source code, so it’s a little tricky…
SQL Server Management Studio uses the Visual Studio installer
Yes, SSMS 21 uses the Visual Studio installer. No, you don’t need to download it every time. No, you don’t need a Visual Studio license to use it.
What’s new in SQL Server 2025 CTP 2.0
Three years ago, when the first public preview of SQL Server 2022 (CTP 2.0) was announced, I was a few months in at the SQL Docs team, and had very little to do with that…
The hell of Git line endings and the (not so) simple fix
I wrote a stream-of-consciousness post a few months ago about what I do in my day job at Microsoft, working in the Database Docs team. Basically we spend most of our day in an obscure…
Don’t run CHKDSK while SQL Server is running
On behalf of every database administrator everywhere, I implore you not to run CHKDSK on a system that has a live database installed and running. This includes, but is not limited to: SQL Server PostgreSQL…
How do you restore a SQL Server 2000 database in the year 2024?
A discussion on LinkedIn led to this hypothetical “real world” question: Problem statement: I have a SQL Server 2000 database backup that I need to restore to a supported version of SQL Server (preferably SQL…
What I actually do at Microsoft
I started working at Microsoft in January 2022. I enjoy it. I even wrote a stream-of-consciousness post about it last year. A significant part of our job in the Database Docs team, is to resolve…
I can no longer recommend Liquid Web for hosting
EDIT: 2024-04-30 I have closed my hosting company, and this site now lives on a Hetzner server in Germany. Original post continues below. I’ve had a really disappointing experience with the Liquid Web sales team,…
Hello Microsoft Entra ID, good bye Azure Active Directory
A couple of months ago where I work, a major product started undergoing a rebrand. I don’t pretend to understand marketing folks, but a change this big needed to be well-coordinated. As of this writing,…
You should be running on SQL Server 2022
It’s me again with my apparently semi-annual blog post. This time we’re going to talk about which version of SQL Server you should be on, now that we’re at the end of 2023. Which version…
I don’t blog anymore, but not because I work at Microsoft
Last year I had a health scare that got my blood pressure at 200-and-something over 100-and-something, soon to be wired up to an IV drip, put through a CT scanner, and a couple of weeks…