Send us a text In this episode, we're joined by Sam Debruyn and Dorian Van den Heede who reflect on their talks at SQL Bits 2025 and dive into the technical content they presented. Sam walks through how dbt integrates with Microsoft Fabric, explaining how it improves lakehouse and warehouse workflows by adding modularity, testing, and documentation to SQL development. He also touches on Fusion’s SQL optimization features and how it compares to tools like SQLMesh. Dorian shares his MLOps demo, which simulates beating football bookmakers using historical data,nshowing how to build a full pipeline with Azure ML, from feature engineering to model deployment. They discuss the role of Python modeling in dbt, orchestration with Azure ML, and the practical challenges of implementing MLOps in real-world scenarios. Toward the end, they explore how AI tools like Copilot are changing the way engineers learn and debug code, raising questions about explainability, skill development, and the future of junior roles in tech. It’s rich conversation covering dbt, MLOps, Python, Azure ML, and the evolving role of AI in engineering.

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. In this episode, we delve into the big topics shaping our digital landscape: Car Expo - Brussels Motor Show: Highlights from Europe’s leading auto show, including Tesla’s Cybertruck debut and an innovative AI-powered car configurator that personalizes your vehicle experience.Biden Admin’s New AI Chip Export Rules: Exploring restrictions aimed at national security and their impact on global markets, with industry reactions from Nvidia.Meta and Microsoft’s AI Development Plans: From Meta’s goal to replace mid-level engineers with AI to Microsoft forming a dev-focused AI organization, we unpack their strategies and implications.Developer Productivity in 2025: How AI tools are changing workflows, boosting efficiency, and introducing new challenges.UV’s Killer Feature: Discover how ad-hoc environments are transforming development, courtesy of Lukas Valatka's insights.Doom in a PDF: Yes, you read that right—Doom running inside a PDF! Here’s the source code for all the geeks out there.Marimo: An exciting new project redefining collaborative development.AI and Everyday Life: A witty meme highlights AI’s direction—should it help with art and writing, or chores like laundry and dishes?

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don’t), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you’re a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let’s get into the heart of data, unplugged style! In this episode, join us along with guests Vitale and David as we explore: Euro 2024 Predictions with AI: Using Snowflake's machine learning models for data-driven predictions and sharing our own predictions. Can animals predict wins better than ML models?Tech in football: From VAR to connected ball technology, is it all a good idea?Nvidia overtaking Apple and Microsoft as the biggest tech corporation? Discussing Nvidia's leap to surpass Apple and Microsoft, and the implications for the GPU market and AI development.Unity Catalog vs. Polaris: Comparing Unity+Delta with Polaris+Iceberg and their roles in data cataloging and management. Explore the details on GitHub Unity Catalog, YouTube, and insights on LinkedIn. Databricks Data and AI Summit recap: Discussing the biggest announcements from the summit, including Mosaic AI integration, serverless options, and the open-source unity catalog.Exploring BM25: Discussing the BM25 algorithm and its advancements over traditional TF-IDF for document classification.

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style! In this episode, we dive deep into the fascinating and complex world of AI with our special guest, Senne Batsleer: De Mol + AI Voices: Exploring the use of AI-generated voices to disguise the mole in the Belgian TV show "The Mole". Our guest, Senne Batsleer, shares insights from their experience with AI voice technology. Scarlett Johansson vs OpenAI: Delving into the controversy of OpenAI using a voice eerily similar to Scarlett Johansson's in their new AI model. Read more in The Guardian and The Washington Post. Elon Musk’s xAI Raises $6B: A look into Elon Musk’s latest venture, xAI, and its ambitious funding round, aiming to challenge AI giants like OpenAI and Microsoft. OpenAI and News Corp’s $250M Deal: The implications of OpenAI’s data deal with News Corp.  Google AI Search Risks: Examining Google's AI search providing potentially dangerous answers based on outdated Reddit comments. Find out more on The Verge and BBC.  Humane’s AI Pin Looking for a Buyer: Discussing the struggles of Humane’s wearable AI device and its search for a buyer following a rocky debut. PostgREST Turns Databases into APIs: Exploring the concept of turning PostgreSQL databases directly into RESTful APIs, enhancing real-time applications. Risks of Expired Domain Names: Highlighting the dangers of expired domains and how they can be exploited by hackers.  The 'Dead Internet' Theory: Debating the rise of bots on the web and their potential to surpass human activity online. 

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that flow like your morning coffee, where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just curious about the digital age, pull up a chair and let's explore the heart of data, unplugged style!

Stack Overflow and OpenAI Deal Controversy: Discussing the partnership controversy, with users protesting the lack of an opt-out option and how this could reshape the platform. Look into Phind here.Apple and OpenAI Rumors - could ChatGPT be the new Siri? Examining rumors of ChatGPT potentially replacing Siri, and Apple's AI strategy compared to Microsoft’s MAI-1. Check out more community opinions here.Hello GPT-4o: Exploring the new era with OpenAI's GPT-4o that blends video, text, and audio for more dynamic human-AI interactions. Discussing AI's challenges under the European AI Act and chatgpt’s use in daily life and dating apps like Bumble.Claude Takes Europe: Claude 3 now available in the EU. How does it compare to ChatGPT in coding and conversation?ElevenLabs' Music Generation AI: A look at ElevenLabs' AI for generating music and the broader AI music landscape. How are these algorithms transforming music creation? Check out the AI Song Contest here.Google Cloud’s Big Oops with UniSuper: Unpack the shocking story of how Google Cloud accidentally wiped out UniSuper’s account. What does this mean for data security and redundancy strategies?The Great CLI Debate: Is Python really the right choice for CLI tools? We spark the debate over Python vs. Go and Rust in building efficient CLI tools.

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style! In this episode #42, titled "Unraveling the Fabric of Data: Microsoft's Ecosystem and Beyond," we're joined once again by the tech maestro and newly minted Microsoft MVP, Sam Debruyn. Sam brings to the table a bevy of updates from his recent accolades to the intricacies of Microsoft's data platforms and the world of SQL.

Biz Buzz: From Reddit's IPO to the performance versus utility debate in database selection, we dissect the big moves shaking up the business side of tech. Read about Reddit's IPO.Microsoft's Fabric Unraveled: Get the lowdown on Microsoft's Fabric, the one-stop AI platform, as Sam Debruyn gives us a deep dive into its capabilities and integration with Azure Databricks and Power BI. Discover more about Fabric and dive into Sam's blog.dbt Developments: Sam talks dbt and the exciting new SQL tool for data pipeline building with upcoming unit testing capabilities.Polaris Project: Delving into Microsoft's internal storage projects, including insights on Polaris and its integration with Synapse SQL. Read the paper here.AI Advances: From the release of Grok-1 and Apple's MM1 AI model to GPT-4's trillion parameters, we discuss the leaps in artificial intelligence.Stability in Motion: After OpenAI's Sora, we look at Stability AI's new venture into motion with Stable Video. Check out Stable Video.Benchmarking Debate: A critical look at performance benchmarks in database selection and the ongoing search for the 'best' database. Contemplate benchmarking perspectives.Versioning Philosophy: Hot takes on semantic versioning and what stability really means in software development. Dive into Semantic Versioning.

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style! In episode #39, titled "Microsoft, Musk, and Extremely Fast Image Gen using SDXL Lightning," we take a spin through the latest tech tremors and thought nuggets. Oh, and don't forget to give a warm welcome to Alex, our enthusiastic intern stepping into the podcast spotlight! Elon Musk's Legal Drama: Musk takes on OpenAI and Sam Altman over a philosophical fallout.Microsoft's Smart Bet: Investing a cool $16M in Mistral AI sparks curiosity.SDXL Lightning Unveiled: A breakthrough in image generation that might just redefine speed.GPT-Script Evolution: The rise of GPT-Script signals a coding renaissance.pkgx Drama: Unwrapping the GenAI layer over OSS packages stirs the pot.Database Dilemma: Questioning the database abundance echoes a common tech gripe.Sticky Table Headings: A plea to make web table headings sticky finds its voice.Intro music courtesy of fesliyanstudios.com.

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's dive into episode #36 titled "Altman's Chips, Mojo Gets Fast and TUIs", featuring Nemanja Radojkovic, an MLOps Lead and Educator, as our special guest. In this episode, we explore a variety of cutting-edge topics: Text-based User Interfaces (TUIs) Rediscovered: Delving into the resurgence of TUIs with Ratatui and gping. Are we witnessing a TUI renaissance? Ratatui | gpingThe Surprising Length of ChatGPT's System Prompt: Unpacking the implications of a 1700 token system prompt. Is there more than meets the eye? Reddit discussionMojo Outpaces Rust in DNA Sequence Parsing: A closer look at how Mojo outperforms Rust by 50% in benchmarks. Is Mojo the new king? Modular's blog postSam Altman's Vision for the Future of Chips and AI: Examining Altman's ambitious plan to reshape the business of chips and AI with trillions of dollars. WSJ article | Reuters on Microsoft's AI chipsThe Real Challenge in Generating Code: Discussing the misconception that generating code is the hard part, with insights into the complexities of software engineering beyond code generation. Nick Scialli's blog Follow Nemanja on LinkedIn and check out his courses.  Intro music courtesy of fesliyanstudios.com

Send us a text Welcome to the cozy corner of the tech world where ones and zeros mingle with casual chit-chat. Datatopics Unplugged is your go-to spot for relaxed discussions around tech, news, data, and society. Dive into conversations that should flow as smoothly as your morning coffee (but don't), where industry insights meet laid-back banter. Whether you're a data aficionado or just someone curious about the digital age, pull up a chair, relax, and let's get into the heart of data, unplugged style!

In today's episode, hosts Murilo and Kevin are joined by Tim Van Erum and Frederik Stevens. And discuss the happenings of last week. OpenAI’s twists and turns https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/22/23967223/sam-altman-returns-ceo-open-aihttps://openai.com/blog/openai-announces-leadership-transitionhttps://www.theverge.com/2023/11/20/23968829/microsoft-hires-sam-altman-greg-brockman-employees-openaiAI exploits https://github.com/protectai/ai-exploitsSport Analytics / Data Storytelling in Sports https://www.nba.com/news/kia-mvp-ladder-nov-24-2023-edition

Send us a text Microsoft announces Python for ExcelAnnouncing Python in Excel: Combining the power of Python and the flexibility of Excel.https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/excel-blog/announcing-python-in-excel-combining-the-power-of-python-and-the/ba-p/3893439AI-powered Coca ColaCoca‑Cola® Creations Imagines Year 3000 With New Futuristic Flavor and AI-Powered Experiencehttps://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/coca-cola-creations-imagines-year-3000-futuristic-flavor-ai-powered-experience40% productivity boost from AI, according to HarvardEnterprise workers gain 40 percent performance boost from GPT-4, Harvard study findshttps://venturebeat.com/ai/enterprise-workers-gain-40-percent-performance-boost-from[…]ewsletter&utm_campaign=ibm-pledges-to-train-two-million-in-aiMicrosoft’s Copilot announcementAnnouncing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companionhttps://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/09/21/announcing-microsoft-copilot-your-everyday-ai-companion/v0 - AI-powered react componentsWhat is v0?https://v0.dev/faq#what-is-v0Microsoft looking for a nuclear energy expertMicrosoft is hiring a nuclear energy expert to help power its AI and cloud data centershttps://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/25/microsoft-is-hiring-a-nuclear-energy-expert-to-help-power-data-centers.htmlIntro music courtesy of fesliyanstudios.com