Articles by AJARN MARK CALDWELL

How to Manage Technical Employees

In my current position as Software Engineering Manager I have been through a lot of ups and downs with staffing, ranging from laying-off everyone who was on my team as we went through the great economic downturn in 2007-2008, to numerous rounds of interviewing...

Broken Views

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

"SELECT *" isn't just hazardous to performance, it can actually return blatantly wrong information.There are a number of blog posts and articles out there that actively discourage the use of theSELECT * FROM \u2026syntax.\xa0 The two most common...

SQL Server Developer Tools – Codename Juneau vs. Red-Gate SQL Source Control

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

So how do the new SQL Server Developer Tools (previously code-named Juneau) stack up against SQL Source Control?\xa0 Read on to find out.At the PASS Community Summit a couple of weeks ago, it was announced that the previously code-named Juneau software would...

Summit Time!

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

Boy, how time flies!\xa0 I can hardly believe that the2011 PASS Summitis just one week away.\xa0 Maybe it snuck up on me because it's a few weeks earlier than last year.\xa0 Whatever the cause, I amreallylooking forward to next week.\xa0 The PASS Summit...

Multiple Line Comments in SQL Source Control

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

Another complaint that I made inPart 2of my previous series on Red-Gate's SQL Source Control tool was that the textbox to enter your check-in comments was only a single-line box.\xa0 I wished it had a multi-line comment area for check-in because I like...

SQL Source Control and Custom Change Scripts

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

Inpart 2of my previous series regarding Red-Gate's tool, SQL Source Control, I warned about an aspect of the tool that could cause you to lose data if you were not careful.\xa0 A few days ago I was allowed a sneak peak* at the upcoming fix which Red-Gate...

The Tipping Point - DISTINCT Causes Timeouts

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

Everything worked fine for the last six years\u2026and then today we hit the tipping point.\xa0 I lost many hours today due to the misuse of DISTINCT which was the root cause of timeout errors in our web application.In one of my most frequently read posts,Why...

Interview Tip: Do Some Basic Research

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

A lot of job candidates out there are wondering how they can set themselves apart from the crowd and increase the odds of landing the job they want.\xa0 Well here's a really easy way\u2026Do your basic research and due diligence on the prospective employer...

Regaining SysAdmin Access after a Lockout

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

Today I had to find a way to regain SysAdmin access to an instance of SQL Server when I technically had no permissions.\xa0 Here is how I did that.Every developer on my team is setup to be able to work 100% stand-alone.\xa0 That is, they have everything on...

SQL Source Control with Vault Support Officially Released

By Ajarn Mark Caldwell

HOORAY!\xa0It is officially here!\xa0Today,Red-Gateofficially releasedSQL Source Controlversion 2.1 with support for Vault.While we have been happily and successfully running the beta version (a.k.a. the Early Access release) of Red-Gate SQL Source Control...