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Month: March 2024

Copilot in Azure SQL Database

Published 2024-03-22 by Kevin Feasel

Joe Sack gets in the cockpit:

We are excited to announce that Copilot in Azure SQL Database is now in limited public preview! Copilot in Azure SQL Database experiences are designed to streamline the design, operation, optimization, and health of Azure SQL Database-driven applications. It improves productivity in the Azure portal by offering natural language to SQL conversion and self-help for database administration.

Click through to see what you can do with it right now. I’d expect there will be more capabilities over time, too.

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An Example of an MD5 Hash Collision

Published 2024-03-22 by Kevin Feasel

John Cook shares an example of a hash collision:

Marc Stevens gave an example of two alphanumeric strings that differ in only one byte that have the same MD5 hash value. It may seem like beating a dead horse to demonstrate weaknesses in MD5, but it’s instructive to study the flaws of broken methods. And despite the fact that MD5 has been broken for years, lawyers still use it.

Click through for the example.

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Postgres Licensing in Light of Redis

Published 2024-03-22 by Kevin Feasel

Jonathan Katz share some thoughts:

(Disclosure: I’m on the PostgreSQL Core Team, but what’s written in this post are my personal views and not official project statements…unless I link to something that’s an official project statement 😉

I was very sad to learn today that the Redis project will no longer be released under an open source license. Sad for two reasons: as a longtime Redis user and pretty early adopter, and as an open source contributor. I’ll preface that I’m empathetic to the challenges of building businesses around open source, having been on multiple sides of this equation. I’m also cognizant of the downstream effects of these changes that can completely flip how a user adopts and uses a piece of technology.

Read on to learn about why Jonathan believes (with good reason) Postgres’s license is a lot more sticky.

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Redis License Change

Published 2024-03-22 by Kevin Feasel

Julia Liuson talks about big licensing news:

Today, Redis, a leading provider of in-memory data store solutions, announced a transition in its open-source licensing approach. Redis is moving away from the BSD 3-Clause License to a dual-license model, offering developers the choice between the Redis Source Available License version 2 (RSALv2) or the Server-Side Public License version 1 (SSPLv1).

Read on to learn what this means for Azure Cache for Redis.

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Using the cut() Function in R

Published 2024-03-21 by Kevin Feasel

Steven Sanderson is about to cut somebody:

In the realm of data analysis, understanding how to effectively segment your data is paramount. Whether you’re dealing with age groups, income brackets, or any other continuous variable, the ability to categorize your data can provide invaluable insights. In R, the cut() function is a powerful tool for precisely this purpose. In this guide, we’ll explore how to harness the full potential of cut() to slice and dice your data with ease.

Read on for examples of how to use the cut() function.

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Ways to Use Sort Order in Bar Charts

Published 2024-03-21 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Cisneros demands order:

When you’re visualizing categorical data, sorting the bars in your chart is usually a straightforward task. Or is it?

In most cases, you probably take the category with the largest value and stick that in the prime spot, the leftmost slot on the horizontal axis. Then, you proceed from left to right in descending order of value. Easy peasy.

But it’s not always that simple, as Mike points out.

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Using Runbooks in Azure Automation

Published 2024-03-21 by Kevin Feasel

Rod Edwards has a process for that:

Nobody likes to do the same monontonous task over and over again. Well, saying that, maybe some out there do in order to look and feel busy…but I don’t, as I nearly always have something else more pressing or fun or interesting to do. By automating those repeatable tasks, it reduces boredom, chance of errors, and stress if you’re already a busy bunny.

This is where Automation comes into play, and in Azure we have a few options. This post focuses in Azure automation.

Read on to see how Azure Automation works and how to build a Powershell runbook in it.

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Calculating Percentages in T-SQL

Published 2024-03-21 by Kevin Feasel

Edwin Sanchez shows a variety of methods to calculate percentages of the whole in T-SQL:

Calculating percentages in SQL Server is like slicing a pie. You need to know the total size (the denominator) and the size of the slice you want (the numerator). To get a percentage, you divide the slice size by the total size and multiply by 100. 

Read on for a variety of methods to calculate this. I wouldn’t use all of the methods myself, as I have certain predilections against subqueries in the SELECT clause, but they do get the job done.

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Database Watcher for Azure SQL

Published 2024-03-21 by Kevin Feasel

Dimitry Furman has a new announcement:

Reliable, in-depth, and at-scale monitoring of database performance has been a long-standing top priority for SQL customers. Today, we are pleased to announce the public preview of database watcher for Azure SQL, a managed database monitoring solution to help our customers use Azure SQL reliably and efficiently.

Click through to see what it offers and what’s on the roadmap for this product.

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