A bit of old news, as I return to the blog in earnest after some time away.. Last summer, in the posts Database Programming: What I’ve Learned About SQL Server 2008 (with a little on SQL Server 2005 thrown in) and Database Programming: Why I Like MERGE , I commented that I’d been able to build a MERGE...

Thanks to yet another kick-in-the-pants from Jimmy May (did he play soccer as a youth?) the Pond’s Laws Home Page is now live. Jimmy wanted to find all of Pond’s Laws in one place, and now he (and you) can. There’s also a link to the new page in the A Bit More From Me section to your left (if you...

And I remember what she said to me How she swore that it never would end I remember how she held me, oh so tight Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then Bob Seger, Against the Wind All you need is love Love is all you need John Lennon and Paul McCartney, All You Need is Love My pal Jimmy May apparently...

In light of the current state of the economy (not to mention recent news in my own back yard (I can still call it that since we continue, against our deeply held wishes, to own a house in Redmond)), I make it a point to count my blessings every day.  A loving and supportive family is primary among...

The law of unintended consequences is an amazing thing. When I posted Dirk Gubbels’ holiday greeting last week, I very quietly snuck in a new format for displaying source code, a formatting plug-in that was recommended in an internal discussion group.  It was decidedly not what I was looking for...

I had a couple of extra minutes today and found this post on Linchi Shea’s blog ; I wanted to commend to all of you who’ve taken in the programming methodology and set-based thinking discussions in this little corner. While I disagree some with the point in the main post about views (JOINing views...

Fulfilling my promise at TechEd , I’ve finally completed a self-directed demonstration of the database versioning techniques I first presented at last year’s TechEd and which was alluded to during this year’s TechEd SQL Tricks presentations. It’s published here on my resource page at MSDN Code Gallery...

If you live long enough and lead a certain sort of life, you end up writing a lot of correspondence that you don’t really want to write when you start writing it. If you’re lucky enough, more of those missives relate to happy things happening in peoples’ lives than sad things. If you’re not wanting to...

No, that's not "moron machine translation", but if you read Hugo Kornelis' candid and very helpful comments on Tuesday's Windows Live Translator post , you're certainly aware that machine translation (MT) has its pitfalls. The pun in the paragraph above is a good example of the challenges faced by...

This is the coolest thing I've seen in quite awhile.. Microsoft Server and Tools (the group that brings you, among others, the MSDN , TechNet , Expression , and CodePlex sites) is leveraging the latest translation technology from Windows Live and Microsoft Research teams to bring you Windows Live...

Marc left a great question on a Pond's Laws post from July of 2006 : Hi, I have a flashcard system that randomly pulls a word from the database. I also have a testing module that allows a user to test him or her self on words. For each word the user answers incorrectly it is flagged. I want...

We are 32 days in Florida as of today, and so far it's been a marvelous experience. All three boys are thriving in school. I haven't seen so many A's since my mother's book club read The Scarlet Letter. * Good on you, boys! Connectivity in the home office is stable and strong, the result of a two...

Now the story can be told..  the last couple weeks have not been pretty around here, connectivity wise.  Think of a duck..  paddling like the dickens underwater to keep things going while looking calm and serene from above. Note that if I appeared calm and serene to you, it’s only...

Almost three years after the post was originally published in October of 2005, Mark Johansen, author of A Sane Approach to Database Design (an approach I trust it's clear I favor) has left a terrific comment on the Do Not Fear NULLs article which is worthy of your attention. The "money quote" comes...

One of the comments I accidentally deleted earlier this afternoon posed the following question (paraphrased): I understand that TOP with ORDER BY makes no sense, but what about when I use different values for TOP and I ORDER BY a column that has duplicate values? I don't get the same results every...

Yesterday was a big day in our household. In addition to our two resident mothers, we also commemorated our eldest son's sixteenth birthday. Earlier in the week, after a delicate negotiation, we agreed on a blended celebration dinner at the Benihana restaurant in downtown Seattle. In addition to being...

Kalen Delaney has one of the most consistently informative SQL Server blogs in all of the Internets, and unless I miss my guess, it was also she who left the first of the very supportive comments I've received in the wake of my recent series of personal posts. Thank you, Kalen, and everyone else for...

Every once in awhile, you get a piece of news that sets you looking at where you are and where you've been. Today is one of those days. There will be no technical content in this post, and it might ramble some. Bear with me; it's been a contemplative night.. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= When I was a young...

It's an especially Good Friday when we can close the loop on a technical conversation, and I believe that our modifications to The Technique That Lance Found , also discussed here and here , are complete.  Scott Whigham left a comment on the most recent post offering an XML implementation that will...

When last we checked in on The Technique That Lance Found , Adam had noted that the method entitizes XML special characters, a state of affairs which limits its utility somewhat.  I tried to leverage Tony Rogerson's technique , which Adam passed along in his comment, but it was late and I was tired...

One more post before I turn in.. Blogging is about passion and community, which may well be two sides of the same coin.  Our passion makes us a community.  Even though I don't read the output of my fellows in the SQL Server blogosphere nearly as much as I should, I know they're out there. ...

A find shared by one friend leads to correspondence from another.. The redoubtable Adam Machanic left a comment on The Technique That Lance Found which points out that special XML characters in a string will get entitized. As usual, Adam is correct. If we make a subtle change to the contents of...

Courtesy of my good friend and once-and-always colleague, Lance Larsen, who writes: I recently ran into this little trick. Joining two tables having a one-to-many relationship and stuffing a set of column values from the many side into a single column on the one side. Works only for one base row...

The comment space for yesterday's rant about the web site that's charging for access to MSDN and TechNet blog content is busier than any has been for awhile.  I also got this email via the contact mechanism on the blog: I was just about to ask you where I should send you your money! ha ha Blogging...

In the age of the blog, it may well be that republishing is the sincerest form of flattery. The same RSS technology that many of you use to read the blog through wonderful rollers like this one also can be turned to far more nefarious purposes. I'm going to rant a bit about one particular instantiation...