Ten years ago, I published a blog post with the top 10 most highly upvoted requests for Microsoft SQL Server as shown on their feedback site at the time, Connect.Microsoft.com. That site has gone out to a nice farm upstate, but let's revisit that top 10 list to see whether Microsoft actually built what you wanted.
This week, I'm back in Vegas, spending time in the home bar to recover from jet lag. I'm not saying booze is the best way to recover - but - it helps me fall asleep after a 16-hour-time-zone-jump, and it makes the career answers a lot more colorful. Let's go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Wanna play some Texas Hold 'Em style poker and make a pile of Query Bucks? Wanna watch other database people playing?
Fire up SSMS and connect to:
What's the difference between SQL Server's row compression and page compression, and when does each one make sense?
Row compression turns every fixed-length datatype into a variable-length datatype, using as little space as possible to store it
Page compression does that, AND adds a dictionary of repeated data on the page, getting more compression at the cost of more CPU
I've got a special treat for you today! I was cleaning out my garage and you'll never guess what I found!
That's right: it's an original SQL Server debugger console!
I'm back at the People's Park in Zhengzhou, Yves' hometown, watching retirees be active while I lounge around and take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
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When the new MiniMax H3 image-to-video model dropped this month, I was really impressed with how quickly and easily it was able to make 5-10 second videos from a starting image - not in the cloud, mind you, but on my own home computer gear:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Dbl8udOEq_d/
You've probably heard of the setting Max Degree of Parallelism. I hate that name: it should really be called just plain ol' Degrees of Parallelism, and here's why. There are a lot of conflicting opinions out there about how to set it, and Microsoft has official guidance about it in that article above. It's basically set…
Your queries won’t tune themselves. My 2027 Live Class Season Pass is $995 (normally $4,395), with live Fundamentals and Mastering classes plus recordings. Register by October 31 to join Fundamentals Week, November 2–6. See the pass.
Common Table Expressions are awesome because they let SQL Server reorder processing in whatever way it deems to be the most efficient for your current data distribution, on your current version of SQL Server. Default to CTEs.
Today I'm hanging out in the dining room, or what would normally be a dining room, but we use it to store a 1992 Honda Beat. I explain why, and then take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. The audio on this one is a little tinny - the room is super-echo-y and I don't think the camera picked up my lapel microphone. Sorry about that!
Your queries won’t tune themselves. My 2027 Live Class Season Pass is $995 (normally $4,395), with live Fundamentals and Mastering classes plus recordings. Register by October 31 to join Fundamentals Week, November 2–6. See the pass.
Over the years, tables - like your waistline - tend to get bigger. We keep tacking on more and more columns, one at a time, in order to handle app needs. It's easier to add "just one more column" than it is to break things off into a whole separate table.
Is your company hiring for a database position as of August 2026? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let's make a love connection.
If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules:
Every SQL Server performance tuner eventually faces the same question: is this normal, or is something wrong?
The answer starts with 3 numbers about your SQL Server:
I'm in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area today, hanging out in the triple-digit heat, to answer your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.
Prefer listening to this via podcast? Good news! You can now subscribe to Office Hours on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and anywhere else fine podcasts are sold.
Over the past couple of years, I've been using the bejeezus out of AI. I don't really feel like an expert by any means - it's so hard to keep up with the advancements - but I've been enjoying reading Grant Fritchey's series on building stuff with AI, and I thought you might enjoy some of my lessons learned as well.
So your company read my post about 5 reasons you should hire Richie Rump, and you checked out his web site and his LinkedIn. Now, your HR department wants to do a reference check with me. Alright, let's get it over with!
Would you hire him again?
Got a few minutes? Close that dating app and pay attention.
Check out this little SQL swipe quiz: "Well, Actually..."
This week's top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento finds us opening ChatGPT multiple times! It's fun to show how I use it, and what it thinks of me.
Prefer listening to this via podcast? Good news! You can now subscribe to Office Hours on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and anywhere else fine podcasts are sold.
You've heard that page splits are bad, and they're an indication that your table design is making your storage work too hard. You've heard that the right answer to fix it is adjusting fill factor lower, or doing regular index maintenance.
Before you watch the below animation, you'll wanna get up to speed with how index seeks work. Then, let's explain page splits with an animation:
For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, I invited y'all to tell me how you know a query's gonna be bad when you open it. Riccardo Perico and Shane O'Neill says WHILE loops and/or CURSORs are pretty good indicators. I agree, because especially when you're opening code in the year 2026, and someone still hasn't figured this out…
