General

If I want accounting advice, it’s unlikely that I’d ask my dentist for that advice.

Accountants and IT

Many years ago, I created applications for food wholesalers. When the owners of these businesses decided to get a new or better computing system, invariably they’d speak to their accountants. I understand the reasons why that might seem logical to them at first, but what I saw when these clients did this, is that they invariably ended up with the wrong systems.

2026-07-19

Just after I was born, my mother and father called me Gregory. Ever since then, everyone has called me Greg. And that included my parents. To the day she died, my mother called me Greg and so did my dad while he was alive (miss you both).

I have friends who tell me that the only time their mothers used their full names was when they were in trouble for some reason.

2026-07-17

I’ve pointed out in previous blog posts that I’m not a fan of ORMs. What I’m even less of a fan of is code-first design, particularly in combination with an ORM like the Entity Framework.

It might seem cool and shiny and if you are just whipping up a small proof of concept or test app, please feel free to do it, but the minute you think of doing it for enterprise systems, please just don’t. And if you have colleagues wanting to do this, just say no.

2026-07-15

I work with data. I understand that for most organizations, that the data they own is the most valuable asset the company owns.

One thing I’ve learned from working with data is that unlike application software, data generally outlives generations of applications, is often used by many different applications, and typically just morphs from shape to shape over time. It almost never gets totally refreshed.

This is a good thing.

2026-07-09

I’ve ended up with a number of Microsoft figurines over the years. It all started with Nine Guy:

Then it went on to the whole Source Force team:

It was interesting to see how they evolved over the years. Here are the SQL Server ones:

SQL Server 2005 had a demure little lady that was all Red. She morphed into an orange version by SQL Server 2008 (shown in the header with me at TechEd USA) in 2008. Later she took on a Neo look from the Matrix. More recently, there was a guy, the Query Controller.

2026-06-17

When you visit websites, you may or may not have noticed the small icons that appear in the title bar areas. These are called Favicons. Here’s an example of one in Chrome:

In browsers, they appear in several places:

    

They are only a small visible aspect of your website but they greatly improve how professional the site looks in a browser. In some browsers, they also appear when you open a new page:

2026-06-11

This is more for my own reference than anything else but I needed to enter a backslash key while using a US keyboard but with UK keyboard settings.

After trying pretty much every key on the keyboard in all combinations, I realised there was no key combination that would do this directly. Curiously it’s a common problem and I found untold blog and forum entries that were not helpful. They basically said to change your input to US when using a US keyboard.

2026-05-30

Why learn ?

I was listening to one of Scott Hanselman’s awesome podcasts with Miguel de Icaza and during the show they discussed things that you really should invest in. One list that came up was a good bed, a good chair, and learning to type. Most of us spend 1/3 of the day in a bed and 1/3 of the day in a chair, so they seem like no-brainers. Typing is an interesting addition to that list.

2026-05-14

On June 15-16, I’ll be participating in @MS Tech Summit 2026! Each year, @MSTechSummit is a great event.

Join me for my session How AI Features Improve Search in SQL Server 2025 , where I’ll be discussing how the addition of AI-based capabilities in SQL Server has changed the game for search.

Use the code MSTS26SP20 to get 20% off Standard or Exec passes.

See you at DSS!

Find more details about the event here: https://ml.dssconf.pl/en/

2026-05-12

I was wondering today how often EULAs (end user license agreements) get tested in courts, and in particular, EULAs that appear in consumer-grade applications.

While most sound quite official, it’s hard to imagine most of them being very enforceable. Does anyone EVER read them?

Fair Cop !

I was amused a few years back when I was installing an application, clicked over the EULA and the application said “how could you possibly have read that in 1.076 seconds?”. Yep, got me there; that’s a fair cop.

2026-05-02