This Month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Pat Wright (blog | twitter) and Pat is asking about tips and tricks for making life easier through automation using either T-SQL or PowerShell. Recently I have been doing more and more work in PowerShell in order to get familiar with it. So far I've been quite happy. Batch …

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After working with data day-in and day-out for a while, it doesn't seem unreasonable that thinking about the domain and appropriate datatype for storing a set of data would become second-nature. I know it's that way for me. Sadly, I can't say the same for one of the banks I do business with, which shall remain …

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I haven't had a real meat-and-potatoes technical post in a while and for that I apologize, however as you can see at the top of the page, this blog is "on SQL Server and kindred subjects". I'll have to write more about where the "kindred subjects" part came from later, but I'm clearly not limiting …

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It's been a little while since I've read a non-technical book, so I thought I'd give this one a try. This full name of this book is DownTime – A Guide to Federal Incarceration, and that's exactly what it is. It had an answer for pretty much anything I'd ever wondered about federal prison, and a lot of things I hadn't …

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This month is the 14th T-SQL Tuesday (my how time flies!) and it's graciously being hosted by MidnightDBA and newly-minted MVP Jen McCown (blog | twitter). Jen is asking what our techie resolutions are for 2011 – what we hope to accomplish and why. I think this is a great topic, and I'm so glad I hadn't already done a …

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What do you call someone who graduated last in their class? In this case, me! I recently took Microsoft Exam 70-433 (MCTS: Database Developer 2008), and am pleased to report that I passed. I'm happy to offer up some of my thoughts as well as tips for those who might take it in the future. Scoring – Why Bother? So you …

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This month is the (lucky) 13th T-SQL Tuesday and is being hosted by Steve Jones (blog | twitter). Steve is asking about issues we've had interacting with a business in order to get the job done. Specifying project requirements often leads to the classic problem of "do what I meant, not what I said!". In my …

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SQL Saturday #67 (Chicago 2011) has been posted on the SQL Saturday website! Please Join Us! We had an excellent turn out last year, and it's looking like it'll turn out that way again. Registration has been open a little more than a week and we already have over 100 registrations! Our limit is 400, so at the current …

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I'm sure this one's been in SQL Server Management Studio for quite a while, but I never noticed it before now. Let's say you're running a batch in SSMS containing 2 T-SQL Statements. For simplicity's sake, I'll do some selects from my Numbers table: 1SELECT TOP 10 * FROM Numbers; 2SELECT TOP 100 * FROM Numbers; The …

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With Thanksgiving coming up here in the US, I was planning on doing a post like this anyway, but then Jason Strate (blog | twitter) decided to ask everyone, so I'm happy to join in! Thanksgiving is my 2nd favorite holiday (yes, Christmas does take the cake for me). Though it's an American holiday, I like to think that …

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