Fiction. The understudy is the person paid to stay ready. Every night a system settles millions of payments in seconds. Four times a year one person does the same work by hand, on paper, against the clock, so that the ability to do it still exists somewhere in the building.
The SQL Advisor: Seven Answers, All Measured
The SQL Advisor answers seven letters with measurements instead of opinions. Table variables, what each index costs on insert, shrinking after a big delete, SELECT star, ORDER BY in a view, heaps, and whether the order of your WHERE predicates matters.
Deadlock or Just a Queue? Sunday SQL Puzzle
Deadlock or just a queue? Follow three sessions and find the cycle in this Sunday SQL puzzle.
AI in Production Without a WHERE Clause
AI in production without a second pair of eyes is a quick way to lose a table. Cardinal was going to add the WHERE clause. Eventually.
Know Your Wait Types: Six Profiles, All Induced
I caused six wait types on purpose, one at a time, and measured each one for a single session. What each is blamed for, what it actually means, and the numbers it produced on SQL Server 2025. Wait types are the most misread figures in the product.
Why AI Sounds Confident When It’s Wrong
Part three of ten. A wrong answer from a model sounds exactly like a right one. That single fact explains most of the damage AI does at work. Here are five interview answers that prove you already know it. Look at that grid for a second. Three of those four…
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When a GUID Clustered Primary Key Gets Expensive
A GUID primary key can be useful. Learn when a GUID clustered primary key gets expensive, from page splits to index size, and when a bigint key can help.