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. 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! Bookmarklet Maker: Discover how to automate tasks with the Bookmarklet Maker, a tool for turning scripts into handy browser bookmarks. RouteLLM Framework: Explore the RouteLLM framework by LMSys and Anyscale, designed to optimize the cost-performance ratio of LLM routers. Learn more about this collaboration at LMSys and Anyscale. Q for SQL on CSV/TSV: Meet Q, a command-line tool that lets you run SQL queries directly on CSV or TSV files, simplifying data exploration from your terminal. DuckDB Community Extensions: Check out the latest updates in DuckDB's community extensions and see how this database system is evolving. Apple Intelligence and AI Maximalism: Explore Apple's AI strategy, their avoidance of chat UIs, risk management with OpenAI, and the shift of compute costs to users. Being Glue: Delve into the challenges of being "Glue" at work. Explore why women are more likely to take on non-promotable work and how this affects career progression and workplace dynamics.

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: Slack's Data Practices: Discussing Slack's use of customer data to build models, the risks of global data leakage, and the impact of GDPR and AI regulations.ChatGPT's Data Analysis Improvements:  Discussing new features in ChatGPT that let you interrogate your data like a pro. The Loneliness of Data Scientists: Why being a lone data wolf is tough, and how collaboration is the key to success. Rustworkx for Graph Computation:  Evaluating Rustworkx as a robust tool for graphs compared to Networkx.Dolt - Git for Data: Comparing Dolt and DVC as tools for data version control. Check it out.Veo by Google DeepMind: An overview of Google's Veo technology and its potential applications.Ilya Sutskever’s Departure from OpenAI: What does Ilya Sutskever’s exit mean for OpenAI with Jakub Pachocki stepping in?Hot Takes - No Data Engineering Roadmap? Debating the necessity of a data engineering roadmap and the prominence of SQL skills.

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're joined by special guest Maryam Ilyas as we delve into a variety of topics that shape our digital world: Women’s Healthcare Insights: Exploring the Oura ring's commitment during Women's Health Awareness Month and its role in addressing the underrepresentation of female health conditions in research. A Deep Dive into the EU AI Act: Examining the AI Act’s implications, including its classification of AI systems (prohibited, high-risk, limited-risk, and minimal-risk), ethical concerns, regulatory challenges & the act's impact on AI usage, particularly regarding mass surveillance at the Paris Olympics.The Evolution of Music and AI: Reviewing the AI-generated music video for "The Hardest Part" by Washed Out, directed by Paul Trillo, showcasing AI’s growing role in the arts.Hot Takes on Data Tools: Is combining SQL, PySpark (and Python) in Databricks the most powerful tool in the data space? Let's dissect the possibilities and limitations.Don't forget to check us out on Youtube too, where you can find a lot more content beyond the podcast!

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 #38, "Open Source AI, SQL Dialects, and New Terminals," we've taken a slight detour from our usual live format to bring you an exceptionally pre-recorded session, packed with the same insightful discussions and a touch of geeky humor. Tested Midjourney Alpha UI: A first look at the new user interface. Midjourney Alpha UIWhen should you give up on a project that doesn't work?: Exploring the fine line between persistence and practicality. When to give upThe Open Source AI Definition – draft v. 0.0.5: Navigating the evolving landscape of open-source AI. Open Source AI DefinitionGhostty: Delving into the latest development logs. Ghostty DevlogSQL standards are like toothbrushes: Discussing the universal challenge of SQL dialects adoption. SQL standardsMojo vs. Rust: Comparing performance, Pythonic syntax, and the learning curve. Mojo vs. RustRemember, this episode was not broadcasted live but was exceptionally pre-recorded to maintain our tradition of bringing you the most engaging and relevant tech discussions. Intro music courtesy of fesliyanstudios.com

Send us a text We are joined by Hannes Mühleisen, the co-founder of DuckDB and CEO of DuckDB Labs. DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP databases management system that is highly simplifying data processing without compromising anything in terms of performance.

Check out more on DuckDB and Hannes here: DuckDB websiteDuckDB Labs websiteHannes' LinkedIn