Highguard, a new multiplayer shooter from developers who worked on games like Apex Legends and Call of Duty, launched just over two weeks ago, but developer Wildlight Entertainment is already cutting jobs at the company, according to posts from affected staffers on LinkedIn. Former Wildlight level designer Alex Graner says that "most of the team at Wildlight" was laid off today, which was backed up by former lead tech artist Josh Sobel.

"Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game," Wildlight says in a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

In this episode, Subhajit Paul joins SE Radio host Kanchan Shringi to discuss how enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems work in practice and where machine learning and generative AI are beginning to fit into real-world ERP environments.

Subhajit grounds the conversation in ERP fundamentals, explaining core business flows such as order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and plan-to-produce, and why ERP systems are central to running large enterprises. He then walks through the realities of ERP implementation, sharing examples of both successful and failed projects and highlighting common challenges around testing, process coverage, integrations, and change management.

The discussion also explores how AI is being applied in ERP today, including practical ML use cases such as inventory optimization and anomaly detection, as well as emerging generative AI and agent-based approaches.

Brought to you by IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Software magazine.

Download audio: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/seradio/707-subhajit-paul-erp-automation.mp3?dest-id=23379

In January we released SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 22.2.1 and I commented that it might look like a minor release, but it really wasn’t.  That’s true for SSMS 22.3 as well, which dropped yesterday (February 10).  Read on to learn what’s new and a couple changes that may impact your daily workflow.

Fixes

Our engineers have continued to fix bugs in addition to making improvements around fundamentals (which I mentioned in the last post).  Many fixes for this release come from feedback items, and we thank those of you who log and upvote issues. You can view the full list in the release notes, but it includes:

• Addressing an error encountered when browsing a multi-dimensional model when connected to Analysis Services
• Fixing the error list notification count in the query editor
• No longer prompting to save a file when closing it from the query editor if no actual changes were made
• Ensuring that data shows for the correct time range in Query Store reports
• Restoring the ability for CTRL+R to hide or restore the results pane when viewing an execution plan

In addition, startup performance for the modern connection dialog has been improved, and we made changes to ensure that if you set any of the advanced options when connecting to something like Object Explorer, those options carry over to connections subsequently initiated (e.g. if you open a query editor from OE).

Important changes

In this release we also updated to later releases of Microsoft.Data.SqlClient (MDS) and SQL Management Objects (SMO).  While these updates are invisible and foundational to core SSMS functionality, they are quite impactful to components like third-party extensions that have dependencies on them.  We are aware that SSMS 22.3 does not work when certain third-party extensions are installed, and we are following up with extension owners based on feedback items that have already been opened. If you use a third-party extension, be aware this could happen. If you uninstall the third-party extension and the problem no longer occurs in SSMS 22.3, please file a ticket with the extension owner.  Have questions about extensions in SSMS, please check out our FAQ.

In the event that you ever need to rollback to a previous release, you can do that from the Visual Studio Installer.  From the SSMS 22 entry in the VS Installer, select More > Rollback to previous version.  If you happen to uninstall SSMS entirely, you can find previous versions on the Release History page.  While you can install different major versions of SSMS side by side (e.g. SSMS 21.6 and 22.3), you can only install one version of SSMS 22 GA on your machine.

Database instructions

If you’re using GitHub Copilot in SSMS, this release introduces support for database instructions. Folks that have used GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio or VS Code may already be familiar with custom instructions, which provide persisted guidance for how GitHub Copilot should behave across all your interactions.  Custom instructions are implemented using markdown (.md) files in your repository or user profile, and while helpful for a developer, they may not be readily available to all SSMS users that connect to a database.

The database instructions feature allows you to add database-specific context that describe business rules and leverages extended properties.  By storing this information in the database, it’s available to anyone who uses GitHub Copilot when connected to that database.  The instructions follow the AGENTS.md format to provide context.   Once in place, you no longer need to ask the person who’s supported the application for 20 years what the values 9 and 42 mean for the Status column in the Orders table.

 

EXEC sp_addextendedproperty 
    @name = N'AGENTS.md',
    @value = N'The dbo.Apts table stores information about patient appointments', 
    @level0type = N'SCHEMA', 
    @level0name = N'dbo', 
    @level1type = N'TABLE', 
    @level1name = N'Apts';
GO

No additional configuration or setting is required for database instructions to be available to GitHub Copilot. Extended properties can exist for a host of objects in your database, starting with tables, columns and stored procedures and extending 😉 to functions, constraints, and more.

We recognize the following:

• Not everyone uses extended properties (yet)

• We’ve seen folks mention that it would be great if you could add an extended property as part of the CREATE syntax for an object.  We haven’t seen a feedback item filed anywhere for that…we will need one (and allllllllll your votes) if SSMS users want us to drive this change on the engine side. To be clear, a change in T-SQL syntax happens in the engine, that's not an enhancement to the query editor in SSMS.

• Some companies do a fantastic job of documenting their business definitions, etc. but it lives elsewhere, outside the database.  If that’s your scenario, then please create a feedback item for us (please search in case someone else submits it first) so we can understand where that information lives and in what form (e.g. is it in a Word doc, OneNote, a proprietary system, etc. and stored as plain text, YAML, JSON, something else?).

We expect – we want – this feature to advance, but we need your input to help guide that evolution.  The feedback site is your friend.  Please search first, please add constructive comments, and please upvote.

Final thoughts

I’ve seen some recent comments along the lines of “I don’t understand why it takes so long to fix something simple.”  We appreciate everyone’s passion for SSMS and fully understand that in an application that you use daily, certain bugs can be very frustrating and affect your workflow. What’s often going on behind the scenes is:

1. Sometimes it takes time to find the root issue. Logging a feedback issue with an error is only the start of the journey. Very often folks don’t include exact steps to recreate the issue, or even if they do, we can’t recreate it internally because there is a specific configuration that wasn’t captured in the steps to recreate.
2. There are competing priorities that we work to continually balance and re-balance.
3. Issues that appear “simple” are not always easy to fix, and in some scenarios require extensive testing (e.g. those involving connections).
4. Issues can be marked as Fixed - Pending Release but not appear in the immediate next release because of timing.  There are branches, code complete dates, testing, and sign-offs by multiple teams before we get to a release.

As a team, we regularly review the issues and suggestions that have a severe impact on users, and those that are highly voted. There is a perpetual review of what we have planned and what we’re being asked to do, and we continue to adjust priorities as necessary. Thank you for your dedication and support.

VS Code 1.109’s agent infrastructure upgrades enable structured, stateful workflows with rule enforcement, incremental approvals and patch-based edits instead of one-shot AI responses.

One of the things a customer asked recently about Redgate Data Modeler was how to set a FK constraint between two tables. The tool seemed to make it easy, but they encountered a few errors. Here is how this worked for me.

This is part of a series on Redgate Data Modeler.

Adding a Constraint

This might make more sense in the video walkthrough, but here’s the text version. I want to add a constraint to my model that links the Organization and User tables shown below. This is a 1 (Organization) to many (User) FK.

I don’t have a good FK yet in the child table (User), but that’s OK. I’ll click the Add new reference icon in the upper left of the design surface.

Once I do this, I can click on the Organization table and drag to the User table. That will give me this view. Note that this defaults as a 1:n relationship, so you want to start with the parent. There also is a new “Organization_OrganizationID” column added as a FK.

That’s not a bad pattern, especially with modern Intellisense, where I don’t need to type everything out. This lets me know where the join should be. However, for many of us, we prefer having something simpler, like OrganizationID as the column in the child.

If I want to change this, I can look to the right for the Reference Properties. Note the default name below is User_Organization, which I definitely don’t like.

I can adjust the name to meet my standard, which I’ll do. I can also adjust the FK column, but I’ll need to go to the child table, User, to do this. If I rename that column there, I see this.

When I click back on the reference, I see this. My change for the FK table is there, but the Primary has defaulted to OrganizationName. Fortunately, there’s a drop down where I can change this.

Below this, I have other properties. There’s a color (if you care), but also I can set cascading actions. See the drop down below and the options. These can be set for update or delete. There is also the additional property to set this as not for replication.

Once I do this, the changes are saved. If I generate the SQL script, I can see my FK exists inside the script. You can see the relevant portion below.

Summary

Setting accurate FK constraints is an important part of data modeling. I certainly see the reasons why some people don’t like FKs, but if you set them, you want them to be accurate. Redgate Data Modeler supports this, but it’s not as straightforward as I like. Hopefully that changes over time.

I don’t know that the names matter that much, but in case you are concerned about naming, you can customize this.

Give Redgate Data Modeler a try and see if it helps you and your team get a handle on your database.

The post Setting FK Constraints in Data Modeler appeared first on SQLServerCentral.

Today’s reading list had a lot of pieces containing direct truth we need to hear. The professional advice was solid!

[article] Designing Effective Multi-Agent Architectures. This article says its not about craftier prompts, but smarter systems that scale agents through collaborative architectures.

[blog] What to grow. Short post, big wisdom. If you look beyond coding for places to grow skills, you might find yourself thinking more about running a product or business.

[blog] Helping Your Agent Understand Google: Trying the Developer Knowledge API and MCP Server. Very tangible example here of how much better the results are from an agentic tool once you ground it with a good source.

[blog] Product Coaching and AI. Wow. The experts at human product coaching are now advocating for product creators to use foundational models as their personal coaches. Not enough product people have managers who develop them.

[blog] It’s 2026, Just Use Postgres. Straight talk. Odds are you don’t need those dozen specialized database engines. You’re fine with one.

[blog] Delivering a secure, open, and sovereign digital world. Our bets over the past five years are paying off as people around the world now have some of the most unique and relevant options for sovereign cloud solutions.

[blog] Getting the main thing right. Sounds true to me. Those who crush it at work are often doing the “main thing” better and more often than others. That “main thing” may not be what you love, but it’s what matters (right now).

[blog] Gemini Enterprise Agent Ready (GEAR) program now available, a new path to building AI agents at scale. Consider baking some of this in your own learning journey for AI. News coverage here.

[article] How to advance a tech career without managing. Let’s be honest, it’s harder to move up in an organization as an individual contributor. But not impossible! I’m surrounded by many folks who have taken that path.

[blog] 5 Years of Cloud Run: What I’d Tell Myself on Day 1. Cloud Run is low touch and you don’t need to make a “Cloud Run” app. But there are good things to know.

[blog] AI Can Build Your Flutter App, But It Can’t Architect It. Sometimes the app you get from AI prompting is right at 50 users, but would fall apart at 50,000. That said, I’m seeing more ways (MCP tools, Skills) to bring best practices in from the start!

[blog] The purpose of Continuous Integration is to fail. It’s not valuable when it’s always green. What a great point!

[blog] WebMCP is available for early preview. This is all about giving structured tools that browsers can use to interact with websites.

[article] Invest Your Political Capital. I’ve gotten wiser about this as I’ve gotten older. Are you constantly stashing goodwill, and cashing it in at strategic moments?

[blog] Making Gemini CLI extensions easier to use. Smart idea to ensure extensions work correctly right away.

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