MeasureUp 2016
I’m heading down to Austin next weekend for MeasureUp 2016. This is a Microsoft stack conference that looks to help people build custom business software. There are over 20 sessions, most of them...
View ArticleAdding the ReadyRoll Extension in VSTS
As I’m doing a little development with ReadyRoll, I’m documenting some of the things I learn about the product. A few weeks ago I needed to do a demo with ReadyRoll for Redgate Software. I built a new...
View ArticleDid My Dev Changes Get to Production?
One of the things that people don’t think about often is whether the changes made in development actually get to production. Usually this is because most changes go, and unless it’s a big change that...
View ArticleA Python SQL Server App
I got a link recently from Microsoft on building apps easily for SQL Server. At the top of the page, they ask you to pick a language and OS. Since I’ve done a little Python and I used Windows, I …...
View ArticleProject Euler
I like having problems to practice solving in computer science. It can be a fun hobby, and it exercises your mind. I have enjoyed the Advent of Code, though some of those are complex and hard to focus...
View ArticlePractical Refactoring
Today I hosted a webinar with Gene Kim (@RealGeneKim) and we had a fantastic discussion. I was slightly star struck since I’ve been reading his work and quoting him for years in talks about Database...
View ArticleLots of Scaffolding–T-SQL Tuesday #107 The Death March
It’s an interesting topic for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday, and while I think this isn’t necessarily a SQL Server project, because usually SQL Server isn’t the problem with building complex software, my...
View ArticleSQLServerCentral Design Decisions–Forum Threads
It’s been a long couple of weeks. Almost two weeks ago we cut over from our older, v2 version of the site to the new (and current) v3. Lots of bugs, lots of disruption, and lots of unexpected items. As...
View ArticleSQLServerCentral Design–QotD
This is part of a series of posts that look at the changes to the SQLServerCentral design, bringing us to v3 of the site. You can see the other posts with the SQLServerCentral tag. We’re a few weeks in...
View ArticleGetting Started with Spawn
I’m excited that the Redgate Foundry is working on some cool projects. The Future of DevOps is one and part of that work is with Spawn. I’ve played with this a little, and I wanted to write about a few...
View ArticleCollecting Toxic Waste
I was listening to someone talk about software development recently and they used this phrase: “are you collecting toxic waste?”. In this case, they were discussing technical debt, but I found the...
View ArticleBuilding for Scale
This year’s pandemic has moved a lot of business to the digital world. We see that with increased ecommerce from many companies, including lots of local business, like restaurants, that have embraced...
View ArticleMarkdown Links– Remembering the Basics
For some reason, I can never remember how to do markdown links. I know to use the hash symbol (#) for headings. I know that asterisks do bold, or italics, though I can’t remember one or two without...
View ArticleRough Consensus
The IETF has a document, RFC 7282, also called ” On Consensus and Humming in the IETF”, in which they describe how the body makes decisions. This is their philosophy: We reject: kings, presidents and...
View ArticleA Technology Collapse
This past week the Arecibo radio telescope collapsed, with cables and instruments falling into the massive dish. You can see images of the devastation, which saddens me. I doubt this will be rebuilt,...
View ArticlePractice Your Skills with the Advent of Code
It’s that time of year, when the Advent of Code goes live. It started this week, with a few exercises released last week. You can still join in, and even go back and look at previous years (2019,...
View ArticleSpeaking: Tech Community Day 2020
Delivered a Keynote talk on the Future of Database Development. Local schedule link
View ArticleThe Responsibility for Bugs
Most software has bugs. Actually, maybe all software has bugs, but often we can live with some of them. Over time, vendors regularly issue patches to fix things, and despite these issues, many of us...
View ArticleRemembering the Past
Just a short time ago, the SQL Family lost Gareth Swanepoel. It was fairly sudden and sad to have someone I knew fairly well pass away. He was the first person that I directly knew that was lost to...
View ArticleConFoo–The Future of Database Development in Containers
I delivered a talk at the ConFoo conference. I’ve never been to this live, and when I submitted last year, I was hoping this would somehow be a live event in Montreal. It didn’t happen, but I joined...
View Article