The Bit Bucket

This is the start of a new series of blog posts dedicated to Microsoft Fabric Real-Time Intelligence or RTI. I think RTI is an important aspect of Microsoft Fabric, yet it is currently underutilized. I hope to try to help change that.

So why, RTI ?

Let’s start with a simple idea. Real time intelligence (or RTI) is about shrinking the delay between when data is created and when you can act on it. In traditional systems, we’re often used to data being collected, stored, and only analyzed later, maybe overnight or even weekly. That’s fine for long term reporting, but it’s too slow for situations where immediate action matters.

2026-01-09

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Development Level: Intro

Question:

You are reviewing the design of a database and note that in the dbo.Customers table, there is a column called CustomerTimestamp that has the timestamp data type.

Can you extract the date from the CustomerTimestamp column by using the CONVERT function?

2026-01-08

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Administration Level: Medium

Question:

You are tracing queries using Extended Events. Two queries have exactly the same execution plan, and the same plan costs. In the trace, one query showed a duration of 2 minutes. The other query showed a duration of over an hour.

2026-01-07

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Administration Level: Intro

Question:

You successfully create a full backup of a database that is in full recovery model.

As part of the backup, is the transaction log shrunk?

Answer:

No — a full database backup does not shrink or truncate the transaction log.

2026-01-06

I can’t tell you how many sessions for developers that I have attended, where the demonstration shows an application connecting to a database as the database owner (dbo) or as a system administrator (like sa). Are we then surprised when developers do this in their own applications?

Please don’t do this.

If you’re running a utility application that’s only used by administrators, and is run within a secure part of the environment, that might be ok. But for normal user applications, it’s just not safe to do so, and it’s really poor practice.

2026-01-05

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Administration Level: Intro

Question:

You are configuring database mail so that applications can send emails.

Does database mail have a dependency on Microsoft Exchange ?

Answer:

No, Database Mail does not depend on Microsoft Exchange.

Database Mail in SQL Server:

2026-01-04

If you are working with really long script files in SSMS, you might need to work on more than one part of the script at the same time. Perhaps you need to work on a function, and also on the code that calls the function.

On the Window menu, there is a Split option.

When you first do this, you’ll see a split window with the same query at top and bottom:

2026-01-03

Even more SQL love for the new year !

Creating reports, analytics, or applications? And need to get data out of Db2? Learn to write SQL queries like a pro !

We have very popular SQL courses, for T-SQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, Oracle, and MySQL. We’ve just added our new course Writing SQL Queries for Db2 and you can enrol in it now. It’s already low cost but even better, if you use the coupon code HNY2026 at checkout before 10th January, you can take advantage of our Happy New Year 25% discount as well.

2026-01-02

So 2025 is done. It was both an interesting and a challenging year for me. I’m so glad for all you who have been reading my blog and hope you’ll continue into the future.

What Will Matter Most for Data Professionals in 2026?

As a new year begins, it’s a good time to pause and look ahead — not with hype or predictions, but with a practical view of what will genuinely matter for data professionals in 2026. Across consulting projects, training course development, and hands-on work with SQL Server, Microsoft Fabric, and modern data platforms, several patterns have emerged that are shaping how teams build and operate data solutions.

2026-01-01

This is a post in the SQL Interview series. These aren’t trick or gotcha questions, they’re just questions designed to scope out a candidate’s knowledge around SQL Server and Azure SQL Database.

Section: Administration Level: Intro

Question:

You are using Object Explorer in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to browse the contents of a SQL Server. In the System Databases folder, there is a database named model. What is its purpose?

2025-12-31