Down Tools Week
Sometimes it's important for a developer or DBA to be given the opportunity to 'shake up their brain'. What falls out is almost always worth having.
2010-04-05
276 reads
Tony Davis
- Interests: football, modern literature, real ale
Double-Entry Bookkeeping for SQL Programmers
All defensive programmers should, in general, avoid unsupported techniques. However, there is a balance to be struck between adherence to 'best practice' approaches to SQL programming, and the need to get the job done. Perhaps certain critical code would benefit from use of the age-old practice of double entry bookkeeping?
2010-03-22
979 reads
Democratizing the Microsoft MVP Award
Tony Davis believes that it's time for a little more openness and democracy in the MVP award. In short, it's time to introduce community voting.
2010-02-08
137 reads
How Oslo can you go?
Some developers have reacted with dismay to the recent news that Microsoft’s Oslo project is being integrated into the SQL Server platform and renamed SQL Server Modeling. The overwhelming feeling seems to be that their DSL dream is being snatched away.
2009-11-30
92 reads
A Wish list for the Microsoft Flying Squad
Microsoft is very willing to lend its ear to new feature requests, but sometimes forgets to finish off the ones we've got.
2009-10-19
55 reads
DBAs and the Fear of Maintenance Plans
The Maintenance Plan wizard offers a quick and simple route to make sure essential database maintenance tasks are performed and scheduled. However, it needs to be used with a lot of care, and is no substitute for the judgment, experience and common sense of a flesh and blood DBA.
2009-10-05
376 reads
Did Oracle buy MySQL by accident?
The wording of the statement about MySQL that came out from Oracle after the merger was downbeat. The implication was "Oh no! Another Blooming Database to deal with". But surely they don't plan to just let it drift?
2009-08-17
347 reads
Music for DBAs
Tony Davis explains his theory on why developers and DBAs listen to very different types of music, while working, and offers his list of "classic tracks" for all DBAs.
2009-07-07
320 reads
The Busman's Holiday
It's a holiday weekend, but for some DBA's it's hard to escape the unwanted clutches of IT...
2009-07-06
78 reads
What is the Best Way to Test SQL?
Over the past five or so years, encouraging progress has been made with regard to testing .NET application code...I wish I could say that the same progress had been made with testing SQL.
2009-07-01
548 reads
Blogs
SQL, MDX, DAX – the languages of data
By DataOnWheels
Ramblings of a retired data architect Let me start by saying that I have...
Setting PK Names in Redgate Data Modeler
By Steve Jones
A customer was testing Redgate Data Modeler and complained that it auto-generated PK names....
Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions
By Steve Jones
With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...
Forums
Connecting Power BI to SSAS and effective user not working
Hi everyone, Below is a consolidated summary of what we validated Architecture & data...
High Availability setup - has anyone seen this method?
Hi all, I recently moved to a new employer who have their HA setup...
Semantic Search in SQL Server 2025
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Semantic Search in SQL Server...
Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a SQL Server 2025 table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers