The Oatmeal created a comic which you really should check out. It can be found here . The comic tells the story of a plane crash, in which the 25 year old co-pilot goes back into the burning plane to rescue passengers and lead a group of survivors through the desert to find help. The co-pilot was named Gene...

I use SQL Server Management Studio all the time for writing queries, getting data and general SQL development. I have enjoyed seeing the improvements that each new version of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) introduced. One great improvement was intellisense. This feature saves typing and reduces errors by...

Over 50% Off this Black Friday! Yes your heard it correctly even www.funkysi1701.com has amazing offers. It is like the whole world has gone “Black Friday” mad, with every company in the world offering amazing and unmissable deals. So in an attempt to cash in on all the Black Friday fuss I will write a quick blog post...

I recently read a blog post by Pinal Dave about how you can backup straight to Azure Storage. The procedure he described is only available for SQL Server 2014 or later. I won’t go into detail of this method as Pinal describes it better than I can, but the basic of it requires setting up credentials and then running a...

I use git as my source control system. Here are some of the most common git commands in no particular order. Check Out a git Repository git clone /path/to/repository Add files to commit git add Commit files to git git commit -m “Commit message” Push changes to server git push origin master Show status git status Create...

For the past few years I have volunteered on the technical team at my local church St Michael le Belfrey . For the church to function well it requires volunteers in all sorts of roles, people to welcome visitors, people to pray, people to play music, people to look after children and many other roles. My natural...

For historical reasons I use Microsoft Access as the front-end for all my line of business databases. Access allows you to create an ADP file that can connect to your SQL Server database. However Office has dropped support for this, so the last version of office that I can use is Office 2010. Before I start hating on...

Today is my day off, but I wake up and have a quick look at nagios to see if there is anything I need to worry about. Yes there is, SQL Server has run out of disk space on its data disk. I race downstairs and VPN onto the server to find out what has happened. One of my monitoring databases has had runaway log growth...

For a while now I have been at the door of describing myself as a developer, but I think I have finally gone through that door. It is all a state of mind, its not about having x amount of knowledge, its just about saying “Yeah, I’m a developer now.” One thing that pushed me through that door, was an application form...

Rubber Duck is a process in development where you talk through an issue with an inanimate object such as a Rubber Duck. It gets its name from the book The Pragmatic Programmer where it was first used. I am the only programmer where I work and often I find myself with a question that I can’t find the answer to. I do...