A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Chris Brown notes some changes:
I was doing some analysis work with R today (don’t get to do that very often anymore) and R wasn’t playing with VS Code nicely.
Turns out there has recently been a major update to the VS Code R editor extension.
So if you are having issues, check out the Extensions page for setup instructions.
Click through for some of the major changes and for some thoughts on Positron versus base VSCode. H/T R-Bloggers.
Leave a CommentWhile a valid cryptographic digital signature ensures the authenticity and integrity of a compiled binary, targeting dynamic database runtime components—such as In-Memory OLTP (XTP) directories—presents a severe attack vector if integrity controls are bypassed.
Because database services like SQL Server frequently operate under high-privilege service accounts (such as NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM or a high-privileged virtual account), an adversary who achieves local administrative access could attempt to substitute or hijack dynamic runtime DLLs. A successful payload injection into the SQL Server process memory (sqlservr.exe) would inherit the service’s privileges, facilitating arbitrary code execution, local privilege escalation to SYSTEM, or the establishment of an outbound reverse shell.
Click through for a demonstration and Microsoft Security’s response.
Leave a CommentChris Webb deals with management:
As you’ve probably seen in the blog post for the September 2026 release of Power BI, Import mode and Direct Lake mode semantic models now support the ApproximateDistinctCount() DAX function. I tested its performance on a Direct Lake semantic model with a 1.4 billion row fact table based on the NYC Taxi sample data and as you would expect, it was a lot faster than doing a regular distinct count in most cases.
Chris notes that the primary challenge is human: getting people to understand that, for their purposes and at the scale in which approximate distinct counts makes sense, non-biased approximations are just as good as actuals. That’s because 119,374,399 and 118,998,706 generally aren’t distinguishable in practice for things like monthly unique user counts. In both cases, the actual business user would still write “120 million” (or maybe “119 million” to be more precise).
Now, in cases in which the precise number does matter? Absolutely use the real distinct count. But those scenarios are rarer than you’d think.
Leave a CommentHugo Kornelis continues a series on storage internals:
To understand spatial indexes, we first need to understand a process known as “tessellation”. This is a process where a shape is divided into smaller elements, that then can be recursively divided even further, to result in a list of cells with, for each, an attribute that indicates whether the object partially or fully covers that cell.
Read on to learn more about the concept, how SQL Server uses the idea of tessellation to convert shapes into a practical tabular form, and why it’s so valuable to have an index over this form.
Leave a CommentChad Timms lays out some benefits:
Flexera’s 2026 State of the Cloud Report found that estimated waste in cloud infrastructure and platform spend rose to 29% this year. That is the first increase in five years. Managing cloud costs remains the top challenge for 85% of respondents. Your database estate sits inside that cloud bill through licensing, capacity, and the people who keep it running. It is rarely examined line by line. Database cost optimization seldom fails for lack of effort. It fails because the spend gets treated as a purchasing problem when it is really an operating one.
Renewals get negotiated. Cloud service tiers get compared. Meanwhile, the decisions that actually set the number are made on the ground, often by whoever is on call that week. Below are seven questions a finance or IT leader can put to their own team, or to a provider, along with what a strong answer and a weak answer sound like.
The target of this post is more for managers versus line employees, but it’s good to think about how you would answer the questions in the post.
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