Voice of the DBA

Tag: T-SQL Tuesday

  • T-SQL Tuesday #190–Mastering a New Technical Skill

    It’s time for T-SQL Tuesday again and this time Todd Kleinhans has a great invitation that is near and dear to my heart: mastering a new or existing technical skill. That’s been a lot of what I try to inspire people to do at SQL Server Central.

    Make a plan and start learning. And respond to Todd’s invitation and write down your plan and share it. Start a blog, use Linked In, whatever. Spread the word on socials as well.

    If you want to host, I’m always looking for hosts for T-SQL Tuesday. Ping me on Twitter/X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn.

    Mastering a New Tech Skill

    Like Todd, I’m interested in AI and I think it will dramatically change the world in the coming future. I also think it’s a bit of a technical skill that is important to learn. I wrote about this a bit in last month’s post.

    How do I work with a GenAI model and improve my technical skills? The easy answer is more and more. I’ve been having more conversations with Claude, usually looking for ways to help me solve a problem or write code, and then ask the GenAI to explain things.

    However, I wrote awhile ago about an experiment in helping someone else learn something: Can an AI Help Me Find a Job?. For me, I’ve been looking a bit more at DataBricks, as I hear this from clients all the time. I wanted to gain some skill here, so I decided to ask Claude to help me.

    2025-09_0225

    I got a good outline of things to do across a few months. I then asked for references and got some:

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    The next stage for me is to start embarking on this journey a few nights a week and learn some things that might help me both in my job, and potentially in a future position if I need one.

    My Complete Outline from Claude

    Here’s the end result, with links.

    Databricks Learning Outline with Resources

    Phase 1: Foundations (1-2 weeks)

    Understanding the Basics

    • What is Databricks and why it’s used
    • Core concepts: clusters, notebooks, workspaces, and Apache Spark
    • Databricks architecture and modern data stack integration

    Key Resources:

    Phase 2: Getting Started (2-3 weeks)

    Hands-on Basics

    • Navigating workspace interface
    • Creating and managing clusters
    • Working with notebooks
    • Basic data import methods

    Key Resources:

    Phase 3: Data Analysis Fundamentals (3-4 weeks)

    Core Analytics Skills

    • Data exploration and cleaning
    • Working with different data formats
    • Basic SQL and PySpark operations

    Key Resources:

    Phase 4: Intermediate Techniques (4-5 weeks)

    Advanced Analytics

    • Complex transformations and ETL
    • Streaming data and machine learning
    • Performance optimization

    Key Resources:

    Phase 5: Production and Best Practices (2-3 weeks)

    Professional Development

    • Job scheduling and workflows
    • Security and monitoring
    • Integration patterns

    Key Resources:

    Additional Learning Platforms:
    Certification Path:
    Community and Support:
    Getting Started Steps:
    1. Sign up for Databricks Free Edition: Visit the Databricks Free Edition signup page and pick your preferred signup method Databricks Free Edition | Databricks on AWS
    2. Access free training: Free unlimited access to training content on Databricks Academy provides on-demand learning experiences for all skill levels Databricks Launches Free Edition and Announces $100 Million Investment to Develop the Next Generation of Data and AI Talent – Databricks
    3. Join the community: Connect with other learners and experts
    4. Start with sample datasets: Practice with built-in datasets before using your own data

    The great news is that all self-paced training across AI, data engineering, and more is now free for learners Databricks Training & Certification Programs | Databricks, making it easier than ever to get started with Databricks!

  • T-SQL Tuesday #189–AI and your Career

    I’m late to the party this month. Taiob Ali has a great invite for a topic that is likely on most people’s minds: AI and your career. I constantly hear people asking about this (well not lately, I’ve been on sabbatical).

    I love the T-SQL Tuesday blog party and hope more people participate. Spread the word, ask others to write, and help promote this on socials.

    AI and My Career

    I’ve been a bit skeptical that AI would really help me. For the last 15-20 months I’ve been using AI in different ways, experimenting with things and seeing where it might be useful. A lot of my use has been in VS Code and Copilot, where I do some coding, and a lot of markdown/HTML management. Across that time I’ve found AI to be more and more useful with reformatting or suggestions completions.

    More importantly, I’ve learned to “see” the hints and suggestions quicker and have AI save me time in little ways. None of the items are big, and it hasn’t built me a big piece of code, but I have found it to be very useful in saving minutes. Saving minutes multiple times a day starts to add up in the week and months.

    My Outlook

    I think AI will help me in my career in two big ways. First, there is the time saving and assistance it gives me that lets me be more productive. I look forward to more agents that can be configured to handle some tasks for me and just get things done. I haven’t been a big Siri/Hey Google person with setting appointments and small tasks, but I can see some of this starting to be more useful over time. I bet I can get some services and agents to do some work for me with natural language that eases my job.

    I also think this GenAI tech (and other AI) will help me learn new skills and techniques. I’ve seen some people talking about using an AI to help them learn and I need to do some experimenting here. I tried to get it to build some web apps for me and it didn’t go as smoothly as I’d like, but I’m anxious to see if I can get it to help me learn how to better code in new ways as well as generate code for me.

    It’s important to be able to judge if the AI is making good decisions, and that requires knowledge. In some cases, I have that knowledge. In others I don’t, but maybe AI can help me learn.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #188: Growing the Community

    This month we have a great T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by John Sterrett. He has been a great help in multiple communities over the years, and he has quite an inspirational invitation when you read his story. I am honored to call John a friend and enjoy the times we get to sit and chat.

    If you aren’t a part of T-SQL Tuesday, start a blog at WordPress or Medium, or even on LinkedIn. Write a post, leave a link on John’s invitatin, and become a bigger part of our community. If you want to host a T-SQL Tuesday let me know.

    Working in the Community

    Quite a bit of my career has been intertwined with community. When we started SQL Server Central, we didn’t expect the community to grow like it did. We thought we’d help teach people, but the forums have become an amazing community. If you ever need help, there are plenty of people who can help, arguably better than a GenAI.

    From there, my partners, Andy Warren and Brian Knight, and I founded SQL Saturday. I continue to run that today, helping local volunteers run events and fund them.

    However, the things I’ve been most proud of is convincing some of the people in the Denver area to deliver their first presentation, helping to inspire and educate their local community. I’ve made it a point over the years to look for, and listen for, smart people and then encourage, support, and inspire them to try speaking. Getting new people to share information is always exciting and thrilling for me, and it adds to the community aspect of my life.

    I’ve been less successful in getting others to blog, but still, each time I see someone start blogging, I’m grateful they made the time and overcame their fears to share something with the world.

    A rising tide lifts all boats, and a community is an incredible tide.

  • T-SQL Tuesday #187–Solving Problems

    This month we have a great invite from Joe Fleming, a first time host of T-SQL Tuesday. Joe reached out when I requested some hosts and I’m glad he did. He’s got a great challenge for people and I’ll answer in two ways, for work and non-work.

    I manage the T-SQL Tuesday site and I’m always looking for hosts, so if you want to host one month from your blog, send me a note on Twitter, Blue Sky, or at SQL Server Central.

    Troubleshooting SQL Server

    In my career, I’ve had all sorts of issues come up. Here’s a description of one of the stranger issues. This isn’t the exact issue, but it was similar to this.

    A user reported they couldn’t log into the server. They were logged on earlier, but can’t connect now through an application. What could be the problem?

    When looking at this type of issue, I usually think there is some sort of network issue here, or perhaps a service issue. My  thoughts are:

    • Can I connect? Or can others? (trying to determine if it’s this user)
    • Can this user connect with another app that might give an error message?
    • Is the server instance up? (check the basics and isolate if this is networking)
    • Has this login had a change to permissions/password/etc. Perhaps an AD change.
    • Has something else changed on the server?
    • Has something changed on this user’s machine?

    At some point, I’ll isolate where the issue is and determine how to fix it. In this case, I managed to determine the user was a DBA that was playing with a logon trigger and locked themselves out.

    The UTV Won’t Move

    On the ranch we have to learn to handle lots of things ourselves. YouTube has been a boon, but it’s also a bit of common sense and problem solving that we need to get things done. It can be hard to get people out to the ranch, especially for small things.

    Sometimes big things.

    Awhile back I came back home from a trip to find the spare UTV we have in one of the fields. I asked what had happened and a kid said that it died.

    That’s not a good description, so I asked how it died. What was going on? what was happening? This kid said they’d stopped the vehicle to do something and put it park. When they went to shift into drive, it wouldn’t move.

    Did the engine run?

    Yes, but the UTV didn’t move.

    Now that I had a better story, I could debug further. I knew that it ran and went out to start it myself. Sure enough, it starts and the shifter didn’t do anything, but it felt loose.

    Sometimes hands-on helps. I knew immediately a cable had broken.

    First thing, get this out of the field. I knew there was a way to shift it without the cable, I just had to figure out. (YouTube to the rescue). Once I did that, it’s research to figure out how hard this is to replace and where I can get the part.

    I logically move through the steps of how can I practically get things done.

    From here, I saw someone talk about this on YT and show me this isn’t hard. I learned how to shift into Drive with a pair of vice grips, got it up to the house, and I found the part online. I ordered it, send the YT link to the kids, and tasked them with fixing the cable.

    They did, after some problem solving from me.