The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger

I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that Look Too Easy. I decided to give you a few thoughts from me on the...

Architecting Zero Downtime Deployments–Day of Data Boston

Here are the resources for my talk at Day of Data Boston. Slides – ArchitectingZeroDowntime.pptx Slides also at: https://dayofdata.org/2026-10-03-dayofdata1150/#schedule Code: https://github.com/way0utwest/ZeroDowntime Book: Refactoring Databases Some interesting questions. I’ll write...

Creating a Local Model Chatbot on Windows

After my session at VSLive last week, I had a few questions from the audience. I’m adding some of these into blogs, and this was one: How do I...

Evidence-bound: what AgentDBA will and won’t link

When the evidence names the database, it says so. When it doesn’t, it stops. Three databases have no recorded full backup. One backup job failed. Many tools would link...

The Book of Redgate:A Prehistory

I’ve covered the values in a number of previous posts on the Book of Redgate. Those values came from our founders, Simon Galbraith and Neil Davidson. I am lucky...

To refer and to be referred

Referrals have never been more important in the job market. They’re no longer nice to have; in many cases, they’re what gets your résumé through the door. I’ve been...

Prep data for AI vs. Fabric Data Agent Instructions: What Goes Where?

Making Data AI-Ready, Part 3 (This is the final article in a three-part series on making data AI-ready. Part 1 covered what AI-ready data means, Part 2 looked at...

Keeping Track of my ConEmu CLIs

I use ConEmu for my terminal interface. I’m still on Windows 10 at home, and for consistency’s sake, I run this on my Win11 laptop and the home machine....

SQL Server Transaction Log Forensics: Preserving Evidence During an Incident

SQL Server Transaction Log Forensics: Preserving Evidence During an Incident

SQL Server Transaction Log Forensics: Preserving Evidence During an Incident

This is the companion to Why sys.fn_dblog...

Tell It Once: Setting Up Claude With Skills and MCP Servers

Many of us use AI the same way every single day. Open a tab. Paste in a question. Copy the answer out. Fix what it got wrong. Then tomorrow,...