Randolph

A quick primer on binary and hexadecimal

A few years ago, I wrote that a CPU is “a hot mess of on-off switches.” There’s more to it than that when you get… Read More »A quick primer on binary and hexadecimal

In February 2011, Pat Wright invited us to talk about Automation: So the topic I have chosen for this month is Automation! It can be… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #015: Automation

At the end of 2010, Sean McCown (blog | Twitter) invited us to talk about resolutions: Things like getting certified, or perfecting a process, or… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #014: Resolutions

There comes a time when we heed a certain call. The call is to avoid dangerous undocumented DBCC commands in SQL Server, especially those that… Read More »Ambling through undocumented DBCC commands may result in boredom

Next week on Wednesday is the Calgary Data User Group’s second event for 2021, and the second event as a member of Microsoft’s new Azure… Read More »Calgary Data User Group with Deborah Melkin and Andy Yun

Click here to read previous retrospective entries. From Steve Jones (blog | Twitter) in December 2010 comes the question “What issues have you had in interacting with the… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #013: What the business wants

The last time I presented a session was at the final PASS Summit in November 2020, so it is time to get back on the… Read More »Upcoming speaking engagements

I’ve been doing SQLskills training recently, and Paul Randal (blog | Twitter) reminded our class that zeroing out a transaction log file does not use… Read More »Zeroing out a transaction log file does not use zeroes

For those of us who have been involved in the Microsoft Data Platform community for a few years, the events of the last few months… Read More »What is a community advisory board anyway?

This is my ongoing series of answering T-SQL Tuesday posts far too late to be of any use. Click here if you want to read… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #012: Why DBA skills are necessary

(If you would like to read the previous T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective entries, visit this link.) In October 2010, Sankar Reddy asked us which misconceptions we’ve… Read More »T-SQL Tuesday Retrospective #011: Misconceptions

SQL Server is a complex beast, with many configuration options that can range from recommended to completely avoided. Since the release of SQL Server 2016,… Read More »Which configuration changes in SQL Server require a restart?

After the Professional Association of SQL Server (PASS) unceremoniously closed down in January this year and its video library & brand names were bought by Red… Read More »Welcome to the Azure Data Community, empowered by Microsoft

This Wednesday, from 5pm to 7pm Mountain Standard Time, the Calgary Data User Group is presenting two sessions for your virtual attendance. 15 minutes: A… Read More »Calgary Data User Group – 24 February 2021 at 5pm MST

(Thanks to Erik Darling for reviewing this post. Check out his training materials.) One of the bigger clichés in the data professional vocabulary (behind “it… Read More »How does the buffer pool handle low memory conditions?