The Voice of the DBA
Steve Jones has spent the majority of his career working with technology and computer databases. His show brings you a look at some aspec...Technology
Video Episodes:
0 Views
21:52:50 05/17/12
Password Handling
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:52:50 05/17/12
I thought this article on Best Buy PC setup was amusing. Here's a company that's trying to provide a service. They're offering to set up most of your new machine for you. To make sure that things work right away for you, they ask you to provide your password, so they can set a login password to your Windows/Mac. However the form has password below email, which might imply they will set up your email as well. That's something I know many non-technical people might appreciate.
Consumers probably think this is a good idea. Computer gets set up for them, and they pick a password. Technical people cringe. Password written down, given to stranger, stored by large company. What could go wrong? You can guess, or read the comments in the article.
Read the rest of " Password Handling " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
17:48:00 05/16/12
Do Interviews Work?
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:48:00 05/16/12
It's hard to hire good people in the technology business. I know good people get hired, and many of us work with good people that know their jobs. However it seems there is no shortage of people that complain about the lack of knowledge their co-workers display, and the dismal performance of interviewees. I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle, but it does seem that the various methods of attempting to choose the best hire from a group of potential candidates is not the science many people think it is.
"Choose the best person for the job" is a mantra that so many people espouse, but we never have a repeatable, logical method for determining who the best person is, in any industry. Most of us use some type of interview to choose a new employee, with mixed results.
Read the rest of " Do Interviews Work? " at SQLServerCentral.
1 Views
15:51:04 05/15/12
What is Big Data?
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 15:51:04 05/15/12
This industry is full of some very smart people. We tend to get some very strong opinions, and some rather snarky comments at times about the way the technologies that we use are presented. Karen Lopez ( @datachick | blog ) recently made headlines with her comments on big data . "What the heck kind of definition is that?" she asked when looking at the Wikipedia definition of Big Data . If "big data" is data that is "awkward to work with" then I know lots of people that have had to deal with big data anytime they had to work with outer joins.
While I'm not sure big data is well defined, I do know that there are large data sets which can overwhelm relational databases, both in scale and the speed at which the data is collected. Microsoft added StreamInsight to SQL Server to help deal with the speed problem, but I'm not sure that relational databases can handle the size issues at the same time. Some large computing and analysis problems don't lend themselves well to non-relational soluttions, and other technologies are needed.
Read the rest of " What is Big Data? " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
22:33:38 05/14/12
Self Service SQL
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:33:38 05/14/12
I was looking over the Microsoft Virtual Academy recently, and went through one of the courses they have on SQL Server for the private cloud. I was curious how this solution is being both implemented and presented. It was interesting, and I learned a few things, including the fact that Microsoft is looking to build self-service into this idea, where users can build a virtual machine from a template, with Windows, SQL Server, and more already setup. They receive a SQL Server they can use as long as they like, and can delete it when they are done with it.
There are a few problems here, and they are similar problems that we've seen in the past as we pushed out more capabilities to individual users. The first one is that allowing people to create their own SQL Server instances can be problematic as they don't do a good job of setting up maintenance. SQL Server is easy to set up, but a little more complicated to manage over time. I suppose templates could potentially have backups and maintenance built in, but if you do this with any scale, you might end up with storage and space issues as well. There's only so much automation can do with limited resources, and I could see this ending up causing more infrastructure problems over time for IT staffs.
Read the rest of " Self Service SQL " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
19:45:00 05/13/12
Is Software Engineering Dead?
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:45:00 05/13/12
Is Software Engineering dead? It's a premise that's in this article from Bloomberg . It calls the job a career dead end where job prospects decline after one reaches 35 years of age. I think that's a naive view of the industry, despite the quotes from Craig Barrett and Mark Zuckerberg. While the best of the best might peak in their careers at the same age as many athletes, that doesn't imply that the career choice is a poor one.
There's a discussion on Slashdot as well, and I was struck by a few of the comments, which seem to suggest that if you are still just a "software engineer" at age 40, you aren't very good at your job. It seems that some people seem to think that everyone in this business is constantly looking to move to a new job and advance into management or they aren't successful . I saw analogies with other industries thinking that same thing, that experienced people would not still be doing the same job after 20 years.
Read the rest of " Is Software Engineering Dead? " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
21:42:00 05/10/12
Time for Your Career
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:42:00 05/10/12
When I was at SQL Saturday #131 recently, I attended Will Sisney's ( @HanSQL | blog ) talk titled "6 Steps to a Stellar Performance Review" . It was a very interesting session and I agree with most of the advice that Will presented. A lot of it feels like common sense, much like my Branding presentation, but it's helpful to have someone talk you through the ideas and get you organized. I'd recommend you attend this session if you get the chance to do so.
However there was one thing in the session that struck me. One of the steps is for you to take control of your own training and make an active effort to learn more about your craft, tracking your time and efforts to present to your boss. Will says that he spends an hour a day on professional development, which sounds like a lot at first glance, but it's only 12.5% more than a 40 hour work week.
Read the rest of " Time for Your Career " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
21:03:00 05/09/12
Teambuilding and Bonding
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:03:00 05/09/12
It's a joy for me to go to work. Of course, I have the advantage of working at home, and with my wife, someone whose company I enjoy. In all of the places I've worked over the years, it's been refreshing to go to work with people with whom I get along, and distressing to go see those I don't like. In places where I have a preponderance of the latter, the job is a grind that wears me out. I only keep going until I can find another place of employment.
Recently I was in Cambridge, UK for a meeting with my group at Red Gate Software . I go over once or twice a year and spend a few days with my department and a few days in the office. This time one of the days I was planning on being in the office was a "day out" for our part of the company. Twenty-some people took a bus to another town where we etched a picture and printed it during the first half of the day, and then toured the GainsBorough house and museum in the afternoon.
Read the rest of " Teambuilding and Bonding " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
17:46:00 05/08/12
SQL Server on RDS
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:46:00 05/08/12
A database service in the cloud. Imagine being able to connect to SQL Server on a remote machine, without having to administer the underlying OS, and without having to change the database code that you build against your local instance? Amazon has provided that with it's Relational Database Service (RDS) for Oracle and MySQL, and has just added SQL Server 2008 R2 as well. Red Gate Software and SQLServerCentral are happy to partner with Amazon to announce the launch of this service.
Read the rest of " SQL Server on RDS " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
21:22:01 05/07/12
The Colocated Dangers
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:22:01 05/07/12
We went down.
It was quite a surprise for me, and something that hasn't happened in a long time. It wasn't for long, but a month ago, there was a period of time when SQLServerCentral was down. It's also one of the very few times it's happened since I was in charge of the servers. The exact reason was something to do with out hardware, and it was fixed relatively quickly by our hosting provider.
Read the rest of " The Colocated Dangers " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
21:36:30 05/06/12
Mobile Password Protection
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:36:30 05/06/12
I recommend people that have smartphones install a password on their phones. Not that it provides a lot of protection, but it does limit the access that a casual phone-picker-upper gets if they take the phone as a target of opportunity. I'd like to think that the average smartphone thief would wipe, or throw away your phone rather than mess with the password, and move on to easier targets.
However thieves that target your phone as a different story, and for them, getting past a four digit lock on your phone might be trivial. There are firms that help police get past codes , and I'm sure there are plenty of instructions and utilities around that a thief with decent computer skills could use. It's also likely that there are more than a few utilities available to duplicate this functionality.
Read the rest of " Mobile Password Protection " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
19:25:00 05/03/12
The Best Way to Learn
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:25:00 05/03/12
I constantly see people asking the question about how they should learn more about some aspect of SQL Server. We have lots of articles here on SQLServerCentral, and there are any number of other sources on the Internet, but I've typically recommended that people buy a book. I've been an author, and I like to support authors, but that isn't why I recommend books.
When you try to learn some new topic, say Reporting Services , there is so much information you can find on Google, but it's all unorganized. It can be hard to learn without a plan, and books are usually organized in a way to walk you through a technology. That along can be valuable, and you can supplement chapters with articles you find around the web. This was the inspiration for our Stairway Series of topics, which we'll eventually compile into books at some point. The Stairway on Reporting Services , by Jessica Moss, is excellent, and if you read through it, you'll see what I mean.
Read the rest of " The Best Way to Learn " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
22:41:00 05/01/12
Work to Live
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:41:00 05/01/12
I'm halfway through my career, having spent about 20 years since college working in technology with another twenty to go. The rest of the community is probably spread out around me, some older, some younger. It doesn't matter what part of your life you are in, there are a few things about work that I think always apply. The first is that we work to live, and don't live to work. The second is I like to hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
It's all too common for people in this business to overwork themselves, work very long hours, and neglect the rest of their life. I have rarely seen someone that is retired or late in life complain that they didn't work enough over their lifetime, and I'd caution you to keep that in mind as you go through life. There will always be more work, more things to do, and more requests from clients and customers. Keep a balance in your life, and remember to enjoy it along the way.
Read the rest of " Work to Live " at SQLServerCentral.
2 Views
19:52:55 04/30/12
Promoting Engineers
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 19:52:55 04/30/12
Never, ever promote your best salesperson.
That's the advice that Scott Horowitz got from his father. He talks a little about how this relates to technical people who find themselves looking at management to further their careers, or are sometimes even get promoted just because they're the strongest technical employee in a group. Mr. Horowitz sees the transition as one that rarely works well, though he has some good advice on how you can increase the likelihood of success.
In my career I've moved to management a few times and back again to a technical role, though never at the same company. I am sure it would be a strange move to be in charge and then move back to a contributing employee, but I do know some other people that have done it successfully in their careers. I have enjoyed both roles, and at different times in my career, the different role has fit me better.
Read the rest of " Promoting Engineers " at SQLServerCentral.
2 Views
23:05:00 04/29/12
Being Responsible for Code
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 23:05:00 04/29/12
I read this great account of how Facebook releases new code , and found it to be very interesting. Apparently the entire FB site compiles to a single 1.5GB binary at this time. That in and of itself is interesting, but their deployment strategy caught my eye as well. They use bittorrent to deploy the large file to all their servers. Very creative and interesting look at things from one of the largest web sites in the world.
The process is interesting, but one of the comments caught my eye. It includes a quote from the article:
Read the rest of " Being Responsible for Code " at SQLServerCentral.
2 Views
20:01:39 04/26/12
A Lifetime of Software
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 20:01:39 04/26/12
I've been working with computers and software for most of my life, but it's been a career for a couple of decades now. I don't do as much technical work as I used to, mostly testing and experimenting, but my job is related to SQL Server and software, and I anticipate that's what I'll be doing for the next two decades.
However that's not necessarily the plan for everyone that works in the technology business. I know plenty of people that would like to move into management, or even move into some other career field if they can afford to do so. In the responses to many editorials in the past, I read that quite a few people think the technology business isn't a great choice and wouldn't encourage their children to enter this field.
Read the rest of " A LIfetime of Software " at SQLServerCentral.
0 Views
20:42:05 04/25/12
Security Outside the Database
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 20:42:05 04/25/12
It's 2012. We've known about SQL Injection for years, we've known about the issues with high privilege admin accounts for decades, and poor configuration has been an issue ever since we first started networking two computing devices together. Yet these supposedly well known issues are still problems for databases in many companies.
We have a lot of work to do in the database with regards to security. Auditing, tracking, configuring security, these are all challenges, and while SQL Server is getting better with the enhancements they have in SQL Server 2012, there is still work to do on the platform. I do think that Microsoft needs some help and guidance from us here as well, as we implement new features, find problems with using, scaling, or just understanding them, and I hope you will try out the new features and then submit feedback on Connect and write about your experiences.
Read the rest of " Security Outside the Database " at SQLServerCentral.
07/22/10