Advice I Like: Respect
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” – from Excellent Advice for Living This is an interesting piece of advice. It’s easy to...
2026-06-26
10 reads
Blog Posts
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation project. We were replacing an existing non-Oracle system with an entirely new Oracle database application...
2026-06-26
8 reads
EightKB 2026 – Schedule and Registration
Hello Hello, We. Are. Back! The schedule for EightKB 2026 Edition has been announced! We’re kicking off at 1pm UTC on August 20th…here’s the schedule: – N.B. – If...
2026-06-26 (first published: 2026-06-15)
88 reads
From SQL Saturday to Day of Data
A behind-the-scenes look at Day of Data Jacksonville 2026, the transition from SQL Saturday, and everything that went right—and wrong—along the way.
2026-06-26 (first published: 2026-06-06)
107 reads
KDA: Echoes of Deception - Case 5
A deleted podcast episode, 17 million archive log entries, and KQL's time series analysis to find the backup that was never supposed to survive.
2026-06-25
4 reads
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac with Apple Silicon is genuinely one of the best machines you can have as a...
2026-06-25
16 reads
The Joyful Craftsmen and the Revolt BI join forces
The Joyful Craftsmen has become the new owner of Revolt BI. The merger creates one of the most significant independent groups in the field of data analytics, business intelligence...
2026-06-25
11 reads
Want to look at cloud reporting but not sure what the costs will be?
Have you been thinking about migrating your reporting to Microsoft Fabric or Snowflake but you have no idea what it would actually cost? ?? That’s the scariest thing, and...
2026-06-25
16 reads
Creating a SQL Stored Procedure to Load a SCD2
This is a blog that I am writing for future me and hopefully it’ll help a few of you save some time too! It’s not often that I get...
2026-06-24 (first published: 2026-06-11)
308 reads
Fabric for Operational Reporting & SQL Endpoint Trap
With Fabric Mirroring, Microsoft is promoting a nice and appealing story for operational reporting build entirely in Fabric where you can have almost live data in reports. The pitch...
2026-06-24 (first published: 2026-06-23)
24 reads
Blogs
Advice I Like: Respect
By Steve Jones
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” –...
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation...
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
locking down agent for new user on our dev machine
hi , a new user wants to be able to add sql agent jobs...
SQL Server Enum Implementation: A Single-Row View Strategy for Avoiding Magic Values
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Enum Implementation: A...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT I
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37What is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 3;See possible answers