On Writing Blogs
by Tony Davis | 19 March 2010
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3 comments 
Why are so many blogs about IT so difficult to read?
Doug Crockford: Geek of the Week
by Richard Morris | 17 March 2010
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Doug Crockford is the man behind JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). He is a well-known critic of XML and guides the development of Javascript on the ECMA Standards Committee, as well as being the senior JavaScript architect at Yahoo! He is also the author of the popular 'JavaScript: The Good Parts'. Richard Morris was dispatched to ask him which the good parts were.
Ad-hoc taxonomy
by Roger Hart | 17 March 2010
| 2 comments 
Owning the chess set doesn't mean you decide how the little horsey moves
Planning for Disaster
by Rod Colledge | 16 March 2010
| 1 comment | 
There is a certain paradox in being advised to expect the unexpected, but the DBA must plan and prepare in advance to protect their organization's data assets in the event of an unexpected crisis, and return them to normal operating conditions. To minimize downtime in such circumstances should be the aim of every effective DBA. To plan for recovery, It pays to have the mindset of a pessimist.
Mission Critical: Database Design
by Buck Woody | 18 March 2010
| 9 comments | 
There is nothing like a checklist to make sure you've completed all the tasks in designing a database, and there is absolutely nothing like Buck Woody's military-style Critical Task List
Raw Materials: Mirror, Mirror, on the Desk
by Larry Gonick | 17 March 2010
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Seeing ourselves as we see ourselves.
Transparent Data Encryption
by John Magnabosco | 16 March 2010
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Transparent Data Encryption is designed to protect data by encrypting the physical files of the database, rather than the data itself. Its main purpose is to prevent unauthorized access to the data by restoring the files to another server. With Transparent Data Encryption in place, this requires the original encryption certificate and master key. It was introduced in the Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2008. John Magnabosco explains fully, and guides you through the process of setting it up.
Software Piracy in Pakistan
by Alamzeb Khan | 13 March 2010
| 2 comments | 
Alamzeb Khan, our Simple-Talk correspondent in Pakistan, goes undercover to discover the true scale of software piracy in his native country. Shocked by his findings, he interviews everyone from professional software engineers to government ministers in his hunt for potential solutions, and to understand the insidious dangers of letting the current level of piracy continue.
Unteachable Disaster Recovery Techniques
by Matt Simmons | 11 March 2010
| 8 comments | 
There are some skills which are extensions of your instincts, and which you can only learn though years of experience. Matt Simmons has this brought home by the fact that he was recently minutes away from a data-loss disaster, and he doesn't quite know how he prevented it.
Troubleshooting Nonpaged and Paged Pool Errors in Windows
by Ben Lye | 12 March 2010
| 3 comments | 
Ben Lye uncovered a memory leak in the nonpaged pool which was crashing his servers with disquieting regularity. Luckily it was relatively easy to troubleshoot, and he's sharing the tools and techniques he used to get his servers back on track in double-quick time.