A long time ago I can remember wondering what happens when you try to update a value by setting it equal to itself – whether the database engine will actually carry out the update or just ignore it. At the time I didn't think much of it, but it popped into my head again last week and I decided to find out. I'm sure I'm …

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This was the first non-database related book that I've read in a long time, and its full title is actually "Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese About Quality". I was expecting to read about the life of W. Edwards Deming, but instead the book was more of a summary of his teachings and management …

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This Month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic comes from Sankar Reddy (twitter) and he’s asking for SQL Server myths and misconceptions to be de-bunked. I’ve got 2 myths I’d like to set the record straight about. They’re rather closely related, and concern the "Lock Pages in Memory" setting. What’s it do? Without getting into an …

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When I started this blog I had zero intention of reviewing movies. I wanted to stick to technical topics with perhaps a few book reviews in-between. That goal hasn’t changed, but after seeing “The Social Network” this past weekend I decided an exception would be appropriate. In my opinion, the SQL Server community gets …

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Most T-SQL guides and tutorials I've seen concentrate on the following transaction commands: BEGIN, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK, which I'll henceforth refer to as the "big three". While they're certainly very important, there's also a fourth command, SAVE, which is typically treated like a distant cousin who's only …

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I had the immense pleasure of speaking at SQL Saturday #50 in Iowa City this past weekend. To say it was an awesome time would be quite the understatement. Special thanks to Michelle Ufford (blog | twitter), Ed Leighton-Dick (twitter) and Jeff Belina (twitter) for all you did to make this event possible. Also a giant …

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This post is my contribution to T-SQL Tuesday #10, which is being hosted by Michael J. Swart (blog | twitter) Each year my Boy Scout troop has a rummage sale as a fundraiser. All the scouts and their families gather up their old clothes, books, toys, electronics, and any other treasures they no longer need and donate …

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Let's say you're starting off in a new environment (new job, department, client, whatever) and after being shown your workspace and meeting with your supervisor, you sit down to start figuring out their databases. You send an email requesting the name of the development database, and the reply you get is as follows: …

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I feel extremely honored to have the chance to speak at SQLSaturday #50, which is taking place in Iowa City on September 18th. The organizers have put together a great schedule consisting of some amazing speakers and somehow I got on the list too! I'll be giving a talk called "Application Coding Sins." As …

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In my previous post I looked at 4 reasons to learn the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (DSK). I'll now take a look at the other side and give you 4 reasons why you might not want to.

1. You're Already A Good Typist If you're reading this, chances are pretty good you're a DBA, developer, consultant, or someone else who makes …

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