Chris Shaw posted a question on his blog and tagged me:
Do you feel like you are being treated fairly at your current or past employers? The question stems from the fact that very few people today stay at a company 20 to 30 years like they did when I was growing up. Do you feel like the company feels a loyalty toward the employee or do you think that they look at you just as head count? No reason to get yourself in trouble, so you can refer back to past employers.
My first job was right out of College. It was kinda a sweatshop for developers. But we were all glad to work nearby the school we had just left. We were all happy to be in the real world. I learned a lot of things at this company. Not all of them good. One of my team leads would typically pack up everything he needed between 430 and 5pm, and sit quietly at his desk. I noticed this once, when I turned around, he was just sitting there, staring at a blank screen. His machine was off. He awaited that 5pm bell; and as soon as he heard it, he stood up, and walked out. This was a habit I learned I didn't want. Amongst all the habits that I learned there, some where good and have helped in my career, but I was fired from that place. Not exactly sure why, but I was. This let me realize that no matter how hard I worked, or how I thought I worked harder than others, I was always expendable.
This has left a rather large scar on me that has been with me for a long time now. I don't know if I will ever truly be rid of it. But from this scar, I have tried to make myself stronger because of it. (did you know that wood that is glued together with a wood glue, is often stronger than the rest of the wood surrounding it). I realize now that no matter what the employer says, it can change at a moments notice. My second job was with a small company, a family run business. My boss once stated that I had a job for life with him. 5 years into working there, this was no longer true. It happened on a Friday afternoon, and I no longer worked there, with very little explanation as to why. I recently ran into him (10 years later) and asked him why. He could not remember. We had a great chat, I got caught up on the company, his family, it was like it was when I worked for him. Cozy, friendly, and familiar. But he had fired me. Was I treated fairly by him? By the company? I did learn a lot there, and some of the skills were used elsewhere to better myself. So, remember, no matter what the employer says, it can change at a moments notice.
This is the same for me. I may be entirely loyal to one employer, and in an instant, this can change. I have to be true to myself. I have to be true to the employer too, but ultimately, I am the only one that truly wants to keep my best interest at heart. For short and hopefully long periods of time, both you and your employer will have your best interest at heart. But this will not be an absolute. So, beware of the signs. Set yourself goals. Realize the direction you want to head. If you and your employer can go there together, than you are truly blessed. If not...
This leads me to another point. I worked for a small group within a large at one time, where I was the most technical person on the team. Since it was a semblance of an IT shop, I stood out with knowledge that most others didn't have. This lead my manager to treat me differently. You would think it would be well, but it wasn't. The helpdesk people were treated often above all else. And this endeared them to the manager. I say 'helpdesk people', not in a derogatory term, but in this case, they were the lowest paid people in the group. I don't expect that since I made more than them, that I should be treated better. What I did expect was that we would all be treated with the same respect, regardless of our position or station. I do not consider myself better than another. Regardless of pay rate, years experience, job title, etc. We are all along this path of life and career, and are at different, rotating stations. One day, I am the noob, the next, I have more experience than most. But in either station, I deserve respect, just like the others on the team do. Long story short, I ended up leaving this job of my own will, because of the lack of respect I received, and lack of growth I currently perceived. In retrospect, I could have sat back, gotten an office, and chilled in this job for many, many years. But it didn't satisfy me. Did they treat me fairly?
So, in this last example, I was the highest paid employee. Yet, I didn't get treated fairly in other areas. In my first job, I didn't get treated fairly in areas other than money; I was a noob and made little money. It's not all about title, money, whether you have an office, and so on. There arealways many facets that make up a job, and you can be treated unfairly in or many of them.
Unfortunately, each time i have felt i have not been treated fairly, I have had to really dig in and look. Sometimes, it is entirely my perception. Other times, its entirely my fault. Other times, it is the employer's fault. But these are rarely absolute across time as well. They peak and valley.
Its important to review your station, position, demeanor, mood and so on, on a regular basis. Not too often, but often enough to make the slight course corrections needed to get back to where you need to be. And realize that no matter what it feels like, it may be your fault. I often wonder why the guy on the road cut me off. But in looking at that statement, I am attributing intent and foreknowledge to a complete stranger. Why would they cut me off? It has nothing to do with me, it just happened. But I feel slighted. This same scenario holds true often in the workplace. You may feel slighted, but are not, its just you think you are. So, be honest with yourself.
Have these little one-on-ones with yourself from time to time, and evaluate your place in life. If its time to move on, then do it. If you can fix some small habits or even large ones, then by all means, work on these and get them fixed. But its rarely as cut and dried as "I'm not being treated fairly". Get all the variables in the open and evaluate them. You may be surprised at what you find out.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Index Maintenance
I'm prepping a presentation for SSWUG on index maintenance. I have had experience with this in most of my jobs. some, I have even had to create systems to perform the maintenance. One such shop was ready to purchase hardware to upgrade their servers, but I started maintaining indexes periodically at night, the worst performing indexes, and it improved performance enough, that we didnt have to upgrade hardware, like they had previously intended. This little system was improved upon over the years, but would basically perform ShowContigs to get the status of indexes, then maintain them as needed.
In my current job, we have the need for maintenance after some ETL processes on a monthly basis. Tonight is one of those nights. After a couple parts of the process have been run, then we have to maintain the indexes. I've written an automated script that helps me out by dumping the results of the ShowContig to a temp table, performss maintenance on the worst performing indexes, and then runs another ShowContig. These results are gathered, and shared with the team to prove that things are in good working order.
Back to the SSWUG presentation. I have a virtual server that i am creating temp data for, so i can show off the steps of this system. I created a table, and was adding random names to cause an index on the names to get out of whack. Initially I found a sql script that had a ton of names in it, that I had used before to create tons of random names. After all that effort, I realized that adding my families names, in order, would produce an fragmented index.
My name is TJay. Starts with 'T'. My wife is named Christy. 'C' is before 'T'. So, alphabetically, these are not in order. Next is Kylie. Then Alyssa. And finally Treyson.
I created a simple table at work. Inserted 100 records for each name, in that order, and check the table afterwards, and its density, as reported by ShowContig, is not near 100, and indicates its out of whack.
I just thought it was pretty cool that the names of my family was in such an order that it could be easily used for a scenario for testing fragmentation. Obviously, its a better test scenario to add tons of distinct names. I just thought it was cool.
In my current job, we have the need for maintenance after some ETL processes on a monthly basis. Tonight is one of those nights. After a couple parts of the process have been run, then we have to maintain the indexes. I've written an automated script that helps me out by dumping the results of the ShowContig to a temp table, performss maintenance on the worst performing indexes, and then runs another ShowContig. These results are gathered, and shared with the team to prove that things are in good working order.
Back to the SSWUG presentation. I have a virtual server that i am creating temp data for, so i can show off the steps of this system. I created a table, and was adding random names to cause an index on the names to get out of whack. Initially I found a sql script that had a ton of names in it, that I had used before to create tons of random names. After all that effort, I realized that adding my families names, in order, would produce an fragmented index.
My name is TJay. Starts with 'T'. My wife is named Christy. 'C' is before 'T'. So, alphabetically, these are not in order. Next is Kylie. Then Alyssa. And finally Treyson.
I created a simple table at work. Inserted 100 records for each name, in that order, and check the table afterwards, and its density, as reported by ShowContig, is not near 100, and indicates its out of whack.
I just thought it was pretty cool that the names of my family was in such an order that it could be easily used for a scenario for testing fragmentation. Obviously, its a better test scenario to add tons of distinct names. I just thought it was cool.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Google Analytics
I started blogging back in November of 2008, just prior to the PASS Summit in Seattle. During the summit, I discovered Google Analytics, and applied the code necessary to my blog to allow it to be tracked. Every few days I'll go out and check it out, usually after a blog post. Its interesting to see the progress and see that people are actually hitting my blog. I don't pretend to be very widely read, but I have had a few comments from kind folks that they enjoy my writings. Thats the point of why I blog. To help someone out there with my particular opinion, view, experience. When I am no longer accomplishing this small task, I will cease the activity. Sometimes the person that it truly helps is myself.
So, Google Analytics. I thought it would be interesting to show off a couple images of the dashboard, that were recently snapshotted of my blog.
This first pic is a simple timeline, with the high points being quantity of hits to the blog. Its rather up and down. As expected, most of the down times are on a weekend. However, I've had some weekends with 15-20 hits on them. Odd.
I have had a few peaks, when a particular blog post got a lot of attention. I am grateful for those periods.
The next image shows the timeline, along with some other helpful data, along with a map. This I find fascinating. I've had many hits from Europe, Africa, even 3 from Iran. A lot of hits from USA and Canada, as expected. Its interesting.
In any event, I just wanted to share this interesting information. I do think it would be interesting for others to do the same thing, and report their analytics of their blog. I find it fascinating.
So, Google Analytics. I thought it would be interesting to show off a couple images of the dashboard, that were recently snapshotted of my blog.
This first pic is a simple timeline, with the high points being quantity of hits to the blog. Its rather up and down. As expected, most of the down times are on a weekend. However, I've had some weekends with 15-20 hits on them. Odd.
I have had a few peaks, when a particular blog post got a lot of attention. I am grateful for those periods.
The next image shows the timeline, along with some other helpful data, along with a map. This I find fascinating. I've had many hits from Europe, Africa, even 3 from Iran. A lot of hits from USA and Canada, as expected. Its interesting.
In any event, I just wanted to share this interesting information. I do think it would be interesting for others to do the same thing, and report their analytics of their blog. I find it fascinating.
My First Computer
I was tagged again, this time by Mr Denny who wants me to try to remember my first computer.
My brain went back to my first computer as an adult. I recall having to get a loan from mom and dad to pay for it, as it cost me $3800. I recall that each computer after that purchase dropped half in price. We seemed to get a new computer each time we had a kid too. It just worked out that way. For the kid's first birthday, they would be surrounded by computer parts, and photos were taken. They had no idea, and the family needed a computer. So, we've had 3 kids, and had 4 computers as they were raised. Each kid was about 3 years apart from their siblings, so were our computer upgrades. We finally had to start simply buying new computers, and stop having kids for the last few upgrades.
But that wasnt the point of the blog requested. What was my first computer?
In college, i recall my loving parents sending me to BYU to study Computer Science, and shipping me off with a typewriter. It made an excellent foot rest. When my parents asked if I was using it, I would inevitably reply, 'Every day'. This was true. I often put my feet up on it. I do not think I ever used it. I did purchase an 8088 while in school. Monitor was 2 colors. Off=Black and Purple. We used to do all kinds of crazy things with that machine, like goto bbs's. Wow, we were insane with it... I remember upgrading my modem from a 2400 baud, to 9600, then 14.4. Wow, so fast, what would I do with all that speed.
Wait, that wasn't my first computer either.
Back in the day, I remember my mom, who was a budding romance novel writer, coming home with a computer. An Apple IIe. It lived on our dining room table for the longest time, as an office space did not exist in our home. She had set it up, and was trying to get it useful to writing her books. Later she moved to a Kaypro, as it was easier.
So, I wonder into the dining room one day, see the computer and manuals. I pick up the manual, and start reading. I come across a command 'init home' and attempt it. I figured that this would get the computer thing going and doing stuff. I entered the command, and nothing seemed to happen. The next thing I recall was that feeling i have grown to not be able to live without. That feeling of utter despair that I screwed something up. Nothing was happening on the machine. It just whirred and whirred. I hollered out to my Mom. What did I do? All I did was this command, 'Init Home'. What did that do? Well, it erased the disk that was in the drive. Making it new and shiny. So, my first action on my first computer was to wipe away all its storage.
From there, its been a downhill battle. I still love working with computers. I love using them to solve problems. I love the creative process that is involved with computing. I love to work with databases.
But, from time to time, I get that feeling in my stomach. I retrace my steps. Sure enough, I did another 'Init Home' command.
I’m going to tag Pat Wright, Tim Ford, Louis Davidson
To ensure that this keeps moving, I will contact the above via twitter, so that they can read my blog, and move it along.
My brain went back to my first computer as an adult. I recall having to get a loan from mom and dad to pay for it, as it cost me $3800. I recall that each computer after that purchase dropped half in price. We seemed to get a new computer each time we had a kid too. It just worked out that way. For the kid's first birthday, they would be surrounded by computer parts, and photos were taken. They had no idea, and the family needed a computer. So, we've had 3 kids, and had 4 computers as they were raised. Each kid was about 3 years apart from their siblings, so were our computer upgrades. We finally had to start simply buying new computers, and stop having kids for the last few upgrades.
But that wasnt the point of the blog requested. What was my first computer?
In college, i recall my loving parents sending me to BYU to study Computer Science, and shipping me off with a typewriter. It made an excellent foot rest. When my parents asked if I was using it, I would inevitably reply, 'Every day'. This was true. I often put my feet up on it. I do not think I ever used it. I did purchase an 8088 while in school. Monitor was 2 colors. Off=Black and Purple. We used to do all kinds of crazy things with that machine, like goto bbs's. Wow, we were insane with it... I remember upgrading my modem from a 2400 baud, to 9600, then 14.4. Wow, so fast, what would I do with all that speed.
Wait, that wasn't my first computer either.
Back in the day, I remember my mom, who was a budding romance novel writer, coming home with a computer. An Apple IIe. It lived on our dining room table for the longest time, as an office space did not exist in our home. She had set it up, and was trying to get it useful to writing her books. Later she moved to a Kaypro, as it was easier.
So, I wonder into the dining room one day, see the computer and manuals. I pick up the manual, and start reading. I come across a command 'init home' and attempt it. I figured that this would get the computer thing going and doing stuff. I entered the command, and nothing seemed to happen. The next thing I recall was that feeling i have grown to not be able to live without. That feeling of utter despair that I screwed something up. Nothing was happening on the machine. It just whirred and whirred. I hollered out to my Mom. What did I do? All I did was this command, 'Init Home'. What did that do? Well, it erased the disk that was in the drive. Making it new and shiny. So, my first action on my first computer was to wipe away all its storage.
From there, its been a downhill battle. I still love working with computers. I love using them to solve problems. I love the creative process that is involved with computing. I love to work with databases.
But, from time to time, I get that feeling in my stomach. I retrace my steps. Sure enough, I did another 'Init Home' command.
I’m going to tag Pat Wright, Tim Ford, Louis Davidson
To ensure that this keeps moving, I will contact the above via twitter, so that they can read my blog, and move it along.
Monday, February 16, 2009
SSWUG VIP Code
I have received a discount code for the SSWUG Virtual Conference. You can register for the conference here and make sure you use my code 'SPVTBESP09'.
The discount is for $10 off the registration price of $125, and can be used in conjunction with other discounts, such as the Early Bird ($80).
I have not attended this event in the past, but have heard great things about it. I hope you will think of attending, and learning from some of the greats out there in the SQL Community. And stop by my presentations as well. I hope to help someone out there with my experience.
The discount is for $10 off the registration price of $125, and can be used in conjunction with other discounts, such as the Early Bird ($80).
I have not attended this event in the past, but have heard great things about it. I hope you will think of attending, and learning from some of the greats out there in the SQL Community. And stop by my presentations as well. I hope to help someone out there with my experience.
SSWUG Virtual Conference Presentations
For the first time, i will have the honor of presenting a few topics at the SSWUG Virtual Conference on April 22-24th.
It was suggested by my handler (Chris Shaw) that I submit as many topics as possible, to ensure that I get at least 1 accepted. So, I submitted a slew of them, and had 4 regular sessions accepted, and 3 uplink sessions accepted.
Now, I am going thru them, making sure that they are in a good state to present, and practicing. One of the topics I presented at my UG last month. I will present another one in March.
vConference abstracts
Auditing your Users
Periodically, an auditor would stop by my desk and ask me to show them all the users and their permission’s on a particular database. Most of us know how to do this, and it is easily gathered. Typically, the next question is ‘What has changed?’. After a couple iterations of this, you will realize that you need to devise a way to store this information to adequately respond to this question. A snapshot of the user information needs to be gathered from time to time, and stored. In this presentation, we’ll discuss reasons for storing this information, show code for tables, and explain processes that will enable you to quickly and effectively answer the auditors requests in a consistent and timely manner.
Best Practices
Having worked with databases for some time now, I felt it important to get some best practices documented. This presentation will touch on the simple things that we often take for granted while using our favorite database systems. From naming conventions, to cursors, to temporary, derived and variable tables, to the use of dynamic sql. We’ll touch on a great many different ideas and hopefully further cement your own best practices, making you a more exceptional DBA or Database Developer.
Job execution system
In a production environment, as a DBA protecting the environment, you do not want to give out Admin rights to many, if any individuals in the company. Granting the least possible permissions needed is the desired route. This is a protection for the system you have a responsibility to care for. However, people often need to gain access to perform their job functions. When folks need jobs to be executed outside of the normal execution times, how do we solve this dilemma? This presentation will detail a system that solves this problem.
Monitor Index Fragmentation
As our databases are being used, our index fragmentation can tend to increase. Having an automated system that defrags or removes the fragmentation is necessary. Even a rarely used system will peak the fragmentation with their periodic executions. Keeping track of the level of fragmentation prior to and after fragmentation has been removed will help gather metrics on your systems. Automating this process will relieve pressure on your on-call staff, pressure on your database system, and even increase performance. Let’s discuss ways to accomplish this task.
ITUplink sessions
SQL Server Profiler and Tracing
We have all needed to know what is happening in our database systems. We have often been tasked with finding poor performing queries. Maybe we are being hit with Auditing and Compliance needs. All these and many more issues can be resolved with SQL Server Profiler. Maybe with SQL Server Trace. But which one, and when?
Auditing databases can be tiresome, but a good trace and supporting reports can really help out.
This presentation will show you some of my own ideas, along with others' ideas on best uses for Profiler and Trace.
Once armed with this knowledge, you should be able to take it back to your shops and implement systems that assist you track down these issues more easily.
Auditing & Compliance and the DBA
Sarbanes-Oxley laws are changing the way companies collect, retain, and manage information. Database Administrators need to understand what is happening in the corporate business world, what auditors will be seeking and how it will directly impact their job role. What do auditors want? And how can we help?
This is one DBA’s tale of auditing his databases for modifications. There will be many different ways that you can approach this task, and reach a solution. I will explain how I reached my solution, and give you some good ideas of how to accomplish a similar task, for your own systems.
I am excited to participate in this event. I hope that my sessions go well, are informational, and help people out.
It was suggested by my handler (Chris Shaw) that I submit as many topics as possible, to ensure that I get at least 1 accepted. So, I submitted a slew of them, and had 4 regular sessions accepted, and 3 uplink sessions accepted.
Now, I am going thru them, making sure that they are in a good state to present, and practicing. One of the topics I presented at my UG last month. I will present another one in March.
vConference abstracts
Auditing your Users
Periodically, an auditor would stop by my desk and ask me to show them all the users and their permission’s on a particular database. Most of us know how to do this, and it is easily gathered. Typically, the next question is ‘What has changed?’. After a couple iterations of this, you will realize that you need to devise a way to store this information to adequately respond to this question. A snapshot of the user information needs to be gathered from time to time, and stored. In this presentation, we’ll discuss reasons for storing this information, show code for tables, and explain processes that will enable you to quickly and effectively answer the auditors requests in a consistent and timely manner.
Best Practices
Having worked with databases for some time now, I felt it important to get some best practices documented. This presentation will touch on the simple things that we often take for granted while using our favorite database systems. From naming conventions, to cursors, to temporary, derived and variable tables, to the use of dynamic sql. We’ll touch on a great many different ideas and hopefully further cement your own best practices, making you a more exceptional DBA or Database Developer.
Job execution system
In a production environment, as a DBA protecting the environment, you do not want to give out Admin rights to many, if any individuals in the company. Granting the least possible permissions needed is the desired route. This is a protection for the system you have a responsibility to care for. However, people often need to gain access to perform their job functions. When folks need jobs to be executed outside of the normal execution times, how do we solve this dilemma? This presentation will detail a system that solves this problem.
Monitor Index Fragmentation
As our databases are being used, our index fragmentation can tend to increase. Having an automated system that defrags or removes the fragmentation is necessary. Even a rarely used system will peak the fragmentation with their periodic executions. Keeping track of the level of fragmentation prior to and after fragmentation has been removed will help gather metrics on your systems. Automating this process will relieve pressure on your on-call staff, pressure on your database system, and even increase performance. Let’s discuss ways to accomplish this task.
ITUplink sessions
SQL Server Profiler and Tracing
We have all needed to know what is happening in our database systems. We have often been tasked with finding poor performing queries. Maybe we are being hit with Auditing and Compliance needs. All these and many more issues can be resolved with SQL Server Profiler. Maybe with SQL Server Trace. But which one, and when?
Auditing databases can be tiresome, but a good trace and supporting reports can really help out.
This presentation will show you some of my own ideas, along with others' ideas on best uses for Profiler and Trace.
Once armed with this knowledge, you should be able to take it back to your shops and implement systems that assist you track down these issues more easily.
Auditing & Compliance and the DBA
Sarbanes-Oxley laws are changing the way companies collect, retain, and manage information. Database Administrators need to understand what is happening in the corporate business world, what auditors will be seeking and how it will directly impact their job role. What do auditors want? And how can we help?
This is one DBA’s tale of auditing his databases for modifications. There will be many different ways that you can approach this task, and reach a solution. I will explain how I reached my solution, and give you some good ideas of how to accomplish a similar task, for your own systems.
I am excited to participate in this event. I hope that my sessions go well, are informational, and help people out.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Things I wish I had Known When Starting my IT Career
I was tagged by Tim Mitchell in the latest get-to-know-you question. This one asks, “What do you wish you had known when you started?”
Sometimes I think I may have forgotten more than I have learned. But I always feel like we can learn more and more every day. In fact, its one of my driving forces. I always seem to be trying to learn more things and get the things I learned more perfectly implemented.
Being open to helping
Many moons ago, I was excited to be in the IT industry out of college. I’d imagine with a similar enthusiasm as a fresh IT degree grad. I felt I had a great...
Sometimes I think I may have forgotten more than I have learned. But I always feel like we can learn more and more every day. In fact, its one of my driving forces. I always seem to be trying to learn more things and get the things I learned more perfectly implemented.
Being open to helping
Many moons ago, I was excited to be in the IT industry out of college. I’d imagine with a similar enthusiasm as a fresh IT degree grad. I felt I had a great...
Many moons ago, I was excited to be in the IT industry out of college. I'd imagine with a similar enthusiasm as a fresh IT degree grad. I felt I had a great quantity of knowledge, and often didnt share it with other coworkers. Regardless of the knowledge I may or may not have had, the point here is that I had a hard time sharing it and helping others out. I tended to gaurd the information that I had for job security. Later, I learned, that I needed to be more open with info and share with others. Of course, I often will go to the other extreme and share way too much. Its a fine science to find that middle ground of not being selfish with knowledge, but not overwhelm when not needed.
We all work with people that have a variety of information in their brain stores, and some will appreciate being taught, and others will not. And I need to remember that I too am on that sliding scale, and I need to accept knowledge that I do not currently have.
User Community
I have seen others mention this, and I felt it warranted a mention in my list of things I wish I had known. When I was in college, there was a community of people that were surrounding me, learning, willing to learn, and so on. We all tended to help each other out in class and study sessions. This group effort seemed to buoy us all up a bit more. When I entered the job force, it seemed that I hadto stand on my own. After all, I went to interviews alone. Went to work alone. Granted I had coworkers, but in the end, I felt like I had to stand up and prove my skills. At this point, looking back, I wonder what would have happened had I entered into the SQL Community...
I have benefited so much from attending Community events, and volunteering. Networking is a great benefit, and the knowledge that comes these interactions has added to my own. I suggest to all to partake in this opportunity.
Be yourself
As I am surrounded by people much smarter than myself, I need to remember that I to have a level of smarts. I have different skills that others, and bring different opinions and perspective to the table. Its often difficult to remember that one has a distinct set of skills that others. When you begin to compare yourself to others, you tend to loose yourself and your own skills in the mix.
Remember that you have abilities that others may not have. Expand your knowledge. Learn from others. But do not try to be just like them. Find your own path to SQL Stardom, or wherever your career journey takes you.
These are the first items that pop into my mind that I wish i had known. Most of them are things I am still working on.
I’m going to tag Pat Wright, Tim Ford, Louis Davidson
To ensure that this keeps moving, I will contact the above via twitter, so that they can read my blog, and move it along.
We all work with people that have a variety of information in their brain stores, and some will appreciate being taught, and others will not. And I need to remember that I too am on that sliding scale, and I need to accept knowledge that I do not currently have.
User Community
I have seen others mention this, and I felt it warranted a mention in my list of things I wish I had known. When I was in college, there was a community of people that were surrounding me, learning, willing to learn, and so on. We all tended to help each other out in class and study sessions. This group effort seemed to buoy us all up a bit more. When I entered the job force, it seemed that I hadto stand on my own. After all, I went to interviews alone. Went to work alone. Granted I had coworkers, but in the end, I felt like I had to stand up and prove my skills. At this point, looking back, I wonder what would have happened had I entered into the SQL Community...
I have benefited so much from attending Community events, and volunteering. Networking is a great benefit, and the knowledge that comes these interactions has added to my own. I suggest to all to partake in this opportunity.
Be yourself
As I am surrounded by people much smarter than myself, I need to remember that I to have a level of smarts. I have different skills that others, and bring different opinions and perspective to the table. Its often difficult to remember that one has a distinct set of skills that others. When you begin to compare yourself to others, you tend to loose yourself and your own skills in the mix.
Remember that you have abilities that others may not have. Expand your knowledge. Learn from others. But do not try to be just like them. Find your own path to SQL Stardom, or wherever your career journey takes you.
These are the first items that pop into my mind that I wish i had known. Most of them are things I am still working on.
I’m going to tag Pat Wright, Tim Ford, Louis Davidson
To ensure that this keeps moving, I will contact the above via twitter, so that they can read my blog, and move it along.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Twitter Rocks or how Data tweeted me
Today, after lunch, I had the need to do some research on a Replication issue we are facing at work. So, I did a couple google searches. I found my way to BOL from Microsoft on the command, as well as an article on SQL Server Central. Both of which were great assistance to me. However, I had the need to communicate with humans to see their experience. So, I looked at my Instant Messenger, looking for a DBA buddy that has a lot of experience with Replication. He was not online at the moment. So, there I sat, with questions and concerns and no where to turn.
That's when I remembered Twitter. Yeah, I use Twitter a lot. I tell my tweeps that I am at the gym. I tell them some random thoughts as they cross my mind. I recently quoted a U2 song via Twitter. I'll often send out random tweets about random things. But I tend to forget the reason I joined Twitter. It was to link up with fellow DBA's and gain from their experience.
So, I posted the question. Almost immediately I got a couple responses and follow-up questions. A dialogue ensued between a few Tweeps (@SQLFool, @SQLDBA). I was able to glean from their experiences and lend them to my own. This is one of the amazing things that come out of a simple question on Twitter.
Later that night, I was showing this off to my wife, amazed at the power that resides here. Not long after showing off Twitter, I received a random tweet from someone not of the DBA world. A while back, I started following @BrentSpiner and @LevarBurton, from StarTrek fame. It's been interesting to see into the tweets of these celebraties. So, a tweet comes across my screen from @BrentSpiner about work he is doing. I respond with a question. I have responded to tweets from both these folks, but never expected a response. @BrentSpiner has nearly 18000 followers. Since he mentioned working with other folks in show biz, I had asked him what his favorite Celeb encounter was. And he responded. There I sat at home, staring at my computer screen with a tweet from Data from StarTrek. How cool is that? Of course, I could only sit for a bit, before I ran upstairs to tell my wife how cool that was. I'm sure I'll pull this little gem out on various times and show off that @BrentSpiner responded to me.
The best thing about twitter is making connections. Not all the tweeps you follow will talk to you. Just like you will not talk to all the tweeps that follow you. But here and there, a connection will be made. A thought shared. A joke told. And maybe you too will have an encounter that can become a story to tell others. Maybe Twitter will help you out or just raise your mood. I goto bed tonight having spoken to Data from Star Trek. Just once. Briefly. But Twitter Rocks!!
That's when I remembered Twitter. Yeah, I use Twitter a lot. I tell my tweeps that I am at the gym. I tell them some random thoughts as they cross my mind. I recently quoted a U2 song via Twitter. I'll often send out random tweets about random things. But I tend to forget the reason I joined Twitter. It was to link up with fellow DBA's and gain from their experience.
So, I posted the question. Almost immediately I got a couple responses and follow-up questions. A dialogue ensued between a few Tweeps (@SQLFool, @SQLDBA). I was able to glean from their experiences and lend them to my own. This is one of the amazing things that come out of a simple question on Twitter.
Later that night, I was showing this off to my wife, amazed at the power that resides here. Not long after showing off Twitter, I received a random tweet from someone not of the DBA world. A while back, I started following @BrentSpiner and @LevarBurton, from StarTrek fame. It's been interesting to see into the tweets of these celebraties. So, a tweet comes across my screen from @BrentSpiner about work he is doing. I respond with a question. I have responded to tweets from both these folks, but never expected a response. @BrentSpiner has nearly 18000 followers. Since he mentioned working with other folks in show biz, I had asked him what his favorite Celeb encounter was. And he responded. There I sat at home, staring at my computer screen with a tweet from Data from StarTrek. How cool is that? Of course, I could only sit for a bit, before I ran upstairs to tell my wife how cool that was. I'm sure I'll pull this little gem out on various times and show off that @BrentSpiner responded to me.
The best thing about twitter is making connections. Not all the tweeps you follow will talk to you. Just like you will not talk to all the tweeps that follow you. But here and there, a connection will be made. A thought shared. A joke told. And maybe you too will have an encounter that can become a story to tell others. Maybe Twitter will help you out or just raise your mood. I goto bed tonight having spoken to Data from Star Trek. Just once. Briefly. But Twitter Rocks!!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Words Words Words and Wordl
A few folks have been putting up Wordl images about their blogs.
I saw this a while back, and our family put in a bunch of words that were important to us. Goals, interests, and so on. We came up with some interesting word jumbles that described our family. After it was generated, I had no idea what to do with it, but it was sure fun to do anyways.
So, I plugged in my blog to Wordl to see its result. I was expecting to see some words in there that I did not see. And some were more prominent than I expected. Odd. But like any good report, it only shows what it can show. Reality. So, here it is... my blog Wordl representation.
Blog Wordl
So, this got me to thinking, what about twitter? What about my hobby blog? What about my live space that has family trips recorded in it? What about my resume? What about... what other things can we think of that we can use this word jumble on?
Twitter
Hobby Blog
Live Space
Resume
All Articles I've written
Scary stories I wrote the past 2 Halloweens
Google results of searching my name
I saw this a while back, and our family put in a bunch of words that were important to us. Goals, interests, and so on. We came up with some interesting word jumbles that described our family. After it was generated, I had no idea what to do with it, but it was sure fun to do anyways.
So, I plugged in my blog to Wordl to see its result. I was expecting to see some words in there that I did not see. And some were more prominent than I expected. Odd. But like any good report, it only shows what it can show. Reality. So, here it is... my blog Wordl representation.
Blog Wordl
So, this got me to thinking, what about twitter? What about my hobby blog? What about my live space that has family trips recorded in it? What about my resume? What about... what other things can we think of that we can use this word jumble on?
Hobby Blog
Live Space
Resume
All Articles I've written
Scary stories I wrote the past 2 Halloweens
Google results of searching my name
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
How long until the db shrink process is done?
Before I answer that question, I have to give some history with my association with database shrinkage. As a Developer DBA, i often needed to shrink databases. At first i would simply use the GUI. But I often grew impatient at the apparent lack of progress. I would grow ever increasingly uneasy at not knowing what was going on, how long it'd take, etc. As I learned DB skills, I realized that shrinking is not all it cracked up to be, and I often didn't want to shrink the files down. Maybe the log, but leave the mdf alone, and let it stay a size, so it doesnt have to grow next time it needs too. However, in certain situations, it's important to shrink away.
So, I profiled the gui, grabbed the actions performed and made myself a proc. This proc would be used for many years. The proc would not only do the actions for me, if I asked, but it would report to me as well. This became the default execution path; I would run this proc to report the database filenames with the appropriate shrink commands. And then I could pick and choose which ones I wanted to do. Thus allowing myself the ability to do only parts. My unease decreased, and all was happy.
Except that, on occasion, I would still be uneasy, when even one of the simple steps seemed to take longer than expected. I would start to panic. I often imagine rogue processes growing wings, taking on a life of their own, and starting to remove data, corrupt pages, etc. Of course this is only my imagination as I sit and watch the spinning wheel mesmerize me.
So, fast forward to today. A developer comes to me and asks me if his shrink process should take as long as it is taking. Its been running for 30 minutes so far. I sigh, and reply, yeah. Sometimes, it takes days. And all the while, I believe nefarious actions are being taken without my knowledge by this seemingly rogue process. How can I tell how long it should take? Without actually doing it, and remembering? How long should it take? Can it take a long time?
Well, I let him know that it can take a long time, and I have no idea how to check or know. He leaves thinking less of me, I'm sure.
At this point, I turn to the Twitterverse, and posed the question there. A very simple question.
#sqlquiz you are shrinking a database. its taking a while. how do you check progress?
I received quite a few responses. Some folks seemed to think like I did, simply sighing and wishing. However, AaronBertrand responded with this.
@tjaybelt I forget if shrink is one of the tasks that reports percent_complete in sys.dm_exec_requests. Somehow I doubt it.
This spurred others on, and tweeps started trying it out. Success was found, and we had a way to determine the percent complete on the shrinkage. Yeah. Hazzah!
So, when I got back in touch the developer, we tried it, and alas, it reported 86%. Yeah. We knew that it was doing what it had originally set out to do, and was not off removing indexes or truncing tables. It was still doing its shrinkage, just taking a very long time. But hearts were lightened, smiles increased, and laughter soon ensued. We knew! Had numbers!! And with those numbers, could guess execution time to completion.
So, if you read this far, or skipped down, I'll summarize.
To determine the percent complete of an operation, such as shrinking a db, you can use sys.dm_exec_requests to pull this value out, and feel better about everything.
Yeah!!
So, I profiled the gui, grabbed the actions performed and made myself a proc. This proc would be used for many years. The proc would not only do the actions for me, if I asked, but it would report to me as well. This became the default execution path; I would run this proc to report the database filenames with the appropriate shrink commands. And then I could pick and choose which ones I wanted to do. Thus allowing myself the ability to do only parts. My unease decreased, and all was happy.
Except that, on occasion, I would still be uneasy, when even one of the simple steps seemed to take longer than expected. I would start to panic. I often imagine rogue processes growing wings, taking on a life of their own, and starting to remove data, corrupt pages, etc. Of course this is only my imagination as I sit and watch the spinning wheel mesmerize me.
So, fast forward to today. A developer comes to me and asks me if his shrink process should take as long as it is taking. Its been running for 30 minutes so far. I sigh, and reply, yeah. Sometimes, it takes days. And all the while, I believe nefarious actions are being taken without my knowledge by this seemingly rogue process. How can I tell how long it should take? Without actually doing it, and remembering? How long should it take? Can it take a long time?
Well, I let him know that it can take a long time, and I have no idea how to check or know. He leaves thinking less of me, I'm sure.
At this point, I turn to the Twitterverse, and posed the question there. A very simple question.
#sqlquiz you are shrinking a database. its taking a while. how do you check progress?
I received quite a few responses. Some folks seemed to think like I did, simply sighing and wishing. However, AaronBertrand responded with this.
@tjaybelt I forget if shrink is one of the tasks that reports percent_complete in sys.dm_exec_requests. Somehow I doubt it.
This spurred others on, and tweeps started trying it out. Success was found, and we had a way to determine the percent complete on the shrinkage. Yeah. Hazzah!
So, when I got back in touch the developer, we tried it, and alas, it reported 86%. Yeah. We knew that it was doing what it had originally set out to do, and was not off removing indexes or truncing tables. It was still doing its shrinkage, just taking a very long time. But hearts were lightened, smiles increased, and laughter soon ensued. We knew! Had numbers!! And with those numbers, could guess execution time to completion.
So, if you read this far, or skipped down, I'll summarize.
To determine the percent complete of an operation, such as shrinking a db, you can use sys.dm_exec_requests to pull this value out, and feel better about everything.
Yeah!!
Friday, January 09, 2009
So there I am
So there I am, in the middle of some SQL problem. Trying my best to solve it. But it seems to be getting the best of me, when I hear the most unusual noises. The first one sounds like a fire drill noise. Its alarming to me, and I stop working on my problem for a second to orient on the new noise. When, suddenly, it stops. So, back to my problem I go, but for some reason, I can't quite remember what the problem was. Now this is truly odd, as I often have little mental lapses, but not to this degree. Not even being able to remember the issue I was so intent upon only moments ago, seems wrong. At this moment, I realize there is another noise disturbing my calm. It's a dog barking. And not just once in a while, but an almost turrets style stream of canine cacophonies continually spewing forth from his clean mouth. Its almost a constant outcry. On and on he barks. Why won't he shut up?
It's about this time that I realize the SQL problem never really existed, except in the shadowy recesses of my own mind as it had been concocted from my dream state. The reason I must have been struggling with an unseen, undefined SQL problem must have been the result of my mind trying to interpret the inane caterwauling of the neighbors dog into something my dreamed encased brain could understand. Why not an unsolvable, unknown SQL problem?
In any event, I struggled to regain sleep, as almost anything would be a reprieve from the continual noise emitting from next door. But all my attempts were in vain, and I finally arose. As I stumbled around the darkened room, I was increasingly annoyed at the dog, and the loudness of his bewailing the cold while he awaited some human caretaker to let him back into the house. Apparently his only recourse was to attempt communication with the neighbors, as his warden was not giving him any attention or love at the moment, having imprisoned him in the cruel and cold outside world.
I tried to go on with my morning duties, but it was soon apparent that I was not the only one suffering from the boisterous neighbor. All of my family were now up, and the children where asking what was wrong with that dog. Actually it was me, acting like one of the children, begging the only other adult in our home to fix this thing, make it stop, I'm going crazy. So, my good wife picks up the phone, and calls the neighbor to let them know that their dog is trying to gain their attention for something, and could they please attend to its needs? As usual, the neighbor lets us know nicely that it's not their pet that is causing the boisterous commotion. This is the typical response, as their animals never make noise, never invade others property, never use the sandbox as a toilet, and so on.
After the phone call, I asked my wife what had transpired, and while she related the conversation, the dog barking ceased. That was it. No more. We were once again, inside our own home, with our own morning preparation noises to bother us. That, and the voices in my head taunting me with SQL problems I would soon face.
It's about this time that I realize the SQL problem never really existed, except in the shadowy recesses of my own mind as it had been concocted from my dream state. The reason I must have been struggling with an unseen, undefined SQL problem must have been the result of my mind trying to interpret the inane caterwauling of the neighbors dog into something my dreamed encased brain could understand. Why not an unsolvable, unknown SQL problem?
In any event, I struggled to regain sleep, as almost anything would be a reprieve from the continual noise emitting from next door. But all my attempts were in vain, and I finally arose. As I stumbled around the darkened room, I was increasingly annoyed at the dog, and the loudness of his bewailing the cold while he awaited some human caretaker to let him back into the house. Apparently his only recourse was to attempt communication with the neighbors, as his warden was not giving him any attention or love at the moment, having imprisoned him in the cruel and cold outside world.
I tried to go on with my morning duties, but it was soon apparent that I was not the only one suffering from the boisterous neighbor. All of my family were now up, and the children where asking what was wrong with that dog. Actually it was me, acting like one of the children, begging the only other adult in our home to fix this thing, make it stop, I'm going crazy. So, my good wife picks up the phone, and calls the neighbor to let them know that their dog is trying to gain their attention for something, and could they please attend to its needs? As usual, the neighbor lets us know nicely that it's not their pet that is causing the boisterous commotion. This is the typical response, as their animals never make noise, never invade others property, never use the sandbox as a toilet, and so on.
After the phone call, I asked my wife what had transpired, and while she related the conversation, the dog barking ceased. That was it. No more. We were once again, inside our own home, with our own morning preparation noises to bother us. That, and the voices in my head taunting me with SQL problems I would soon face.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Goals Goals Goals
First a recap of last year. I consider last year a banner year in my career advancement and in the community. I met and exceeded a lot of my goals for the year. Others, I didn't do so well. I figured it would be good for my ego to boost it a bit and remind myself what i did accomplish, then list the next set of goals.
Published articles
I was lucky enough to get inspiration a great many times last year, and published articles with
5 articles published to SQL Server Central.
4 articles published to SQL-Server-Performance.
1 article published to Simple-Talk.
1 article published for SQLServerCentral was released in the "Best of SQLServerCentral.com" book this year.
Blogging
Just before the PASS summit of 2008, I started to blog and decided to keep the ball rolling with as much SQL related content as I could muster. I have had quite the surprising interest in the blog, and hope to continue it. To date, I have had 363 visits came from 19 countries/territories to the site. I have been mentioned by other folks in their blogs, and am grateful for it. As the inspiration hits me for items, I will continue to post more. I hope that it can provide a help, in its fashion. I do not consider myself an expert, or that I should be read over anyone else. However, I do have a brain and an insight that may prove useful, and for this purpose, I will continue to produce content.
Speaking
I spoke for the PASS DBA SIG early in the year.
I spoke in brownbag lunch at work.
I spoke at my User Group meetings.
I spoke and help organize 2 CodeCamps.
I spoke and help organize 1 MS Launch event.
Volunteerism
I started up a Special Interest Group with PASS about Auditing and Compliance
I continued to volunteer on the Chapter Committee
I started being a Regional Mentor with PASS
I continued (struggled) to run my local chapter
At PASS, I signed up to a couple volunteer posts
I have spoke and helped run local events
Twitter
On May 13th 2008, I signed up for a Twitter account and started tweeting. My goals here were to talk primarily about SQL stuff. I followed quite a few othe DBA folks out there in the community and soon, it took on a life of its own.
At the PASS summit, there was a huge use for twitter, as i wrote about in my article on Simple-Talk. Before and after, twitter has been a huge help to my career, as well as networking. I have had 150 followers, though some have dropped off from time to time. Over the christmas holiday, I think I gained 30 followers.
So, this avenue for networking has proven worthy of its time and effort. I have forged relationships with many people that I have then been able to use to our mutual advantages.
So, looking back at these things, I have to say I am impressed I was able to accomplish them. A few were not goals, but organic growths on their own that I simply participated in. Writing articles and blogging, these were items I struggled with and tried hard to produce. Luckily I was able to find multiple topics to write about that were interesting to at least a few folks out there.
There have been many personal goals that i accomplished last year that i did not detail here. For example, after tearing my AC joint in my shoulder, I wanted to be able to start exercising it within 1 month, and be back on my dirtbike within a month of that. I accomplished both of these goals. More are to follow as I strengthen it. In my personal life, i have quite a few goals, but let's keep this surrounding SQL and my career path.
Looking forward
1. I want to do more with my local user group.
I have set aside a few months for meetings (we do not meet monthly) and am actively trying to get these organized with content, sponsor and location.
2. Produce presentations.
While at PASS, I set myself a goal to produce 4-6 presentations for the year, with no clear location or event in mind. Simply produce content that can be shared at an event.
3. Speak at SSWUG.
Back in December, I was contacted with a proposal to produce content that may be accepted and used in the next Virtual Conference. This was a huge suprise to me, and I hope that I can not only produce the content, but speak at the event.
4. Perform Regional Mentor Duties.
When I was first assigned to Regional Mentor with PASS, I contacted those User Group leaders under me, and let them know of our goals and my contact info. I have since met and spoke with some at PASS and virtually. I want to better help these individuals with anything they need to keep their User Groups running well.
5. Blog
As the feeling hits me (like now) I want to produce content for my blog that can actually help people. How will this post help folks? Maybe its just meant to help me, and I consider myself part of that group of folks that I intend on helping. Others may find the content useful, and that makes me feel like its not for not. But at the core, I blog because I want to keep a record of things. And I secretly hope that others find it useful too.
6. Articles
As last year has shown me, I can write. I was happy to find this out myself, and am more excited to produce more content. Last year, it seemed easy, because I had specific projects that I could document in the form of an article. Then, when that well ran dry, I had to invent content. This was a tough hump to climb, but I did it. Now I know it can be done, and I want to repeat this as much as possible this year.
7. MVP
I was nominated last year to be an MVP. As another DBA told me, being nominated was a huge step. I was so appreciative of this honor. I did not get awarded the distinction of being an MVP that time around. So, my goal this year is to do what I need too to become nominated again. Since what I ultimately end up doing is judged by a mysterious litmus chart, I do not know if i will ever get the award. So, all I can truly do is do what I do.
As one friend recently said, those that are awarded MVP status deserve it. So, this goal is not to become an MVP, but to be eligible to be nominated.
8. Read
I subscribe to a great many blogs. I want to keep up with them. I am currently about a month behind on a lot of them, and need to close that gap. I would like to have a constant rolling window of only a few weeks of content that I need to read. This means i need to spend more time at nights and on my own after work catching up. I tend to read a little bit during the day at work, but its not enough to clean house. Someday, it would be nice to be at #InboxZero for my blog feeds.
I have lot of other content that I can read as well. Articles published on my favorite sites, books, magazines, etc. I want to read more from these as well. A couple years ago I had a goal of reading an article a night from the "Best of SQLServer Central.com" book that is produced each year. I made it pretty far that year in reading, and got 3/4 of the book read. I would like to do something like that again.
9. Topics
There are quite a few topics that I feel I could know more about with SQL Server. These seem to be on a lazy susan, spinning by me at random moments, to taunt me with the items I have more to learn about. Every once in a while, I want to pull one of these items off of its protected shelf, dig into it, and then permanately place it on another shelf of things I have learned well. I just hope that the last shelf has enough space, and I don't end up moving items between the two locations as I loose knowledge of one, to gain knowledge of another. My HDD seems to be full up these days.
Well, there you have it. A look back, and a look forward. I will have to reference this from time to time to see how I'm doing. After all, metrics need to be gathered, reporting of statuses, etc. Hum, maybe I can devise a database to organize this list, and... ha, there I go on a side project that is not on the list.
So, this reminds me of one that is not on my list.
10. #InboxZero
I want to maintain InboxZero habits, and foster new ones. For both home and work. Becoming more organized will help out tremendously in so many other aspects of my career, life, work, and so on. InboxZero!!!
Published articles
I was lucky enough to get inspiration a great many times last year, and published articles with
5 articles published to SQL Server Central.
4 articles published to SQL-Server-Performance.
1 article published to Simple-Talk.
1 article published for SQLServerCentral was released in the "Best of SQLServerCentral.com" book this year.
Blogging
Just before the PASS summit of 2008, I started to blog and decided to keep the ball rolling with as much SQL related content as I could muster. I have had quite the surprising interest in the blog, and hope to continue it. To date, I have had 363 visits came from 19 countries/territories to the site. I have been mentioned by other folks in their blogs, and am grateful for it. As the inspiration hits me for items, I will continue to post more. I hope that it can provide a help, in its fashion. I do not consider myself an expert, or that I should be read over anyone else. However, I do have a brain and an insight that may prove useful, and for this purpose, I will continue to produce content.
Speaking
I spoke for the PASS DBA SIG early in the year.
I spoke in brownbag lunch at work.
I spoke at my User Group meetings.
I spoke and help organize 2 CodeCamps.
I spoke and help organize 1 MS Launch event.
Volunteerism
I started up a Special Interest Group with PASS about Auditing and Compliance
I continued to volunteer on the Chapter Committee
I started being a Regional Mentor with PASS
I continued (struggled) to run my local chapter
At PASS, I signed up to a couple volunteer posts
I have spoke and helped run local events
On May 13th 2008, I signed up for a Twitter account and started tweeting. My goals here were to talk primarily about SQL stuff. I followed quite a few othe DBA folks out there in the community and soon, it took on a life of its own.
At the PASS summit, there was a huge use for twitter, as i wrote about in my article on Simple-Talk. Before and after, twitter has been a huge help to my career, as well as networking. I have had 150 followers, though some have dropped off from time to time. Over the christmas holiday, I think I gained 30 followers.
So, this avenue for networking has proven worthy of its time and effort. I have forged relationships with many people that I have then been able to use to our mutual advantages.
So, looking back at these things, I have to say I am impressed I was able to accomplish them. A few were not goals, but organic growths on their own that I simply participated in. Writing articles and blogging, these were items I struggled with and tried hard to produce. Luckily I was able to find multiple topics to write about that were interesting to at least a few folks out there.
There have been many personal goals that i accomplished last year that i did not detail here. For example, after tearing my AC joint in my shoulder, I wanted to be able to start exercising it within 1 month, and be back on my dirtbike within a month of that. I accomplished both of these goals. More are to follow as I strengthen it. In my personal life, i have quite a few goals, but let's keep this surrounding SQL and my career path.
Looking forward
1. I want to do more with my local user group.
I have set aside a few months for meetings (we do not meet monthly) and am actively trying to get these organized with content, sponsor and location.
2. Produce presentations.
While at PASS, I set myself a goal to produce 4-6 presentations for the year, with no clear location or event in mind. Simply produce content that can be shared at an event.
3. Speak at SSWUG.
Back in December, I was contacted with a proposal to produce content that may be accepted and used in the next Virtual Conference. This was a huge suprise to me, and I hope that I can not only produce the content, but speak at the event.
4. Perform Regional Mentor Duties.
When I was first assigned to Regional Mentor with PASS, I contacted those User Group leaders under me, and let them know of our goals and my contact info. I have since met and spoke with some at PASS and virtually. I want to better help these individuals with anything they need to keep their User Groups running well.
5. Blog
As the feeling hits me (like now) I want to produce content for my blog that can actually help people. How will this post help folks? Maybe its just meant to help me, and I consider myself part of that group of folks that I intend on helping. Others may find the content useful, and that makes me feel like its not for not. But at the core, I blog because I want to keep a record of things. And I secretly hope that others find it useful too.
6. Articles
As last year has shown me, I can write. I was happy to find this out myself, and am more excited to produce more content. Last year, it seemed easy, because I had specific projects that I could document in the form of an article. Then, when that well ran dry, I had to invent content. This was a tough hump to climb, but I did it. Now I know it can be done, and I want to repeat this as much as possible this year.
7. MVP
I was nominated last year to be an MVP. As another DBA told me, being nominated was a huge step. I was so appreciative of this honor. I did not get awarded the distinction of being an MVP that time around. So, my goal this year is to do what I need too to become nominated again. Since what I ultimately end up doing is judged by a mysterious litmus chart, I do not know if i will ever get the award. So, all I can truly do is do what I do.
As one friend recently said, those that are awarded MVP status deserve it. So, this goal is not to become an MVP, but to be eligible to be nominated.
8. Read
I subscribe to a great many blogs. I want to keep up with them. I am currently about a month behind on a lot of them, and need to close that gap. I would like to have a constant rolling window of only a few weeks of content that I need to read. This means i need to spend more time at nights and on my own after work catching up. I tend to read a little bit during the day at work, but its not enough to clean house. Someday, it would be nice to be at #InboxZero for my blog feeds.
I have lot of other content that I can read as well. Articles published on my favorite sites, books, magazines, etc. I want to read more from these as well. A couple years ago I had a goal of reading an article a night from the "Best of SQLServer Central.com" book that is produced each year. I made it pretty far that year in reading, and got 3/4 of the book read. I would like to do something like that again.
9. Topics
There are quite a few topics that I feel I could know more about with SQL Server. These seem to be on a lazy susan, spinning by me at random moments, to taunt me with the items I have more to learn about. Every once in a while, I want to pull one of these items off of its protected shelf, dig into it, and then permanately place it on another shelf of things I have learned well. I just hope that the last shelf has enough space, and I don't end up moving items between the two locations as I loose knowledge of one, to gain knowledge of another. My HDD seems to be full up these days.
Well, there you have it. A look back, and a look forward. I will have to reference this from time to time to see how I'm doing. After all, metrics need to be gathered, reporting of statuses, etc. Hum, maybe I can devise a database to organize this list, and... ha, there I go on a side project that is not on the list.
So, this reminds me of one that is not on my list.
10. #InboxZero
I want to maintain InboxZero habits, and foster new ones. For both home and work. Becoming more organized will help out tremendously in so many other aspects of my career, life, work, and so on. InboxZero!!!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
16 random thoughts and things...
I originally saw a similar post on a Friend's Facebook, and wanted to join in. I posted my results onto my Facebook, and now copy it here for others to read.
Even though it is not a SQL Blog, or related to IT, or even remotely linked to any of my hobbies or family life, I felt that from time to time, its nice to look behind the curtain of people's lives and see them for people, just like you and me.
When I posted this to Facebook, I also tagged people to do the same. In turn, they have done so and I have learned a lot about some of the folks that I follow on the intertubes.
If you read this and decide to post one similar, add a comment with a link to your rendition, so we can learn about you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you're supposed to create a note about yourself with 16 random thoughts, facts, goals, interesting things about yourself and tag 16 or more of your friends (including the person who tagged you). If you've been tagged, it's because someone wants to learn more about you!
1. I have lived in areas that have suffered from earthquakes (California, Utah, Argentina) but have never felt one myself. All areas i have lived in, have had earthquakes when I wasn't there.
2. I have never eaten a hotdog from a gas station.
3. I grew and wore a beard after getting married for 10 years. Shaved it on a whim, and freaked out my entire family. My children cried that they didnt know who i was.
4. During college, during a computer science hardware course, i successfully burnt up a resistor. I was told i shouldnt have been able to do that.
5. I have been slalom waterskiing for 20 years.
6. I grew up with a dislike for Cheesecake. Having tried it once in college on a date (my date made it for me), and I found it to be not that bad. However, since i had lived so long disliking it, I chose to revert to disliking it and have never had another piece since.
7. I dated a girl from South Africa for a short while.
8. One of my best friends dated and married a girl I dated and went out with for a time.
9. I have fractured my sturnum, and broke my arm, ankle and wrist.
10. I am an avid reader. It started with my parents paying my 25 cents to read a book. Once i got into the habit, they stopped paying me, but i didnt stop reading.
11. All my hobbies have a need for speed. Waterskiing, snowskiing, dirtbiking, racquetball, woodworking.
12. My first name is Todd
13. I will create things with Polymer Clay often. Christmas ornaments, gifts for neighbors, snowmen representing our family for Christmas, earings and pendants, and many other objects as the creative mood hits.
14. I have a great spacial sense and memory. I can revisit a place i was in many years prior and recall it.
15. I love cheese. All forms, all states, all kinds. If a meal is missing anything, its probably cheese.
16. I have read my spanish scriptures daily since serving a mission for my church in 88-90. Having been told by the prophet at that time that if we continue to read the scriptures in our learned language, we'd never loose it. And i consider myself fluent in Spanish, but out of practice. Given the opportunity to speak, i can get back into it easily.
Even though it is not a SQL Blog, or related to IT, or even remotely linked to any of my hobbies or family life, I felt that from time to time, its nice to look behind the curtain of people's lives and see them for people, just like you and me.
When I posted this to Facebook, I also tagged people to do the same. In turn, they have done so and I have learned a lot about some of the folks that I follow on the intertubes.
If you read this and decide to post one similar, add a comment with a link to your rendition, so we can learn about you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rules: Once you've been tagged, you're supposed to create a note about yourself with 16 random thoughts, facts, goals, interesting things about yourself and tag 16 or more of your friends (including the person who tagged you). If you've been tagged, it's because someone wants to learn more about you!
1. I have lived in areas that have suffered from earthquakes (California, Utah, Argentina) but have never felt one myself. All areas i have lived in, have had earthquakes when I wasn't there.
2. I have never eaten a hotdog from a gas station.
3. I grew and wore a beard after getting married for 10 years. Shaved it on a whim, and freaked out my entire family. My children cried that they didnt know who i was.
4. During college, during a computer science hardware course, i successfully burnt up a resistor. I was told i shouldnt have been able to do that.
5. I have been slalom waterskiing for 20 years.
6. I grew up with a dislike for Cheesecake. Having tried it once in college on a date (my date made it for me), and I found it to be not that bad. However, since i had lived so long disliking it, I chose to revert to disliking it and have never had another piece since.
7. I dated a girl from South Africa for a short while.
8. One of my best friends dated and married a girl I dated and went out with for a time.
9. I have fractured my sturnum, and broke my arm, ankle and wrist.
10. I am an avid reader. It started with my parents paying my 25 cents to read a book. Once i got into the habit, they stopped paying me, but i didnt stop reading.
11. All my hobbies have a need for speed. Waterskiing, snowskiing, dirtbiking, racquetball, woodworking.
12. My first name is Todd
13. I will create things with Polymer Clay often. Christmas ornaments, gifts for neighbors, snowmen representing our family for Christmas, earings and pendants, and many other objects as the creative mood hits.
14. I have a great spacial sense and memory. I can revisit a place i was in many years prior and recall it.
15. I love cheese. All forms, all states, all kinds. If a meal is missing anything, its probably cheese.
16. I have read my spanish scriptures daily since serving a mission for my church in 88-90. Having been told by the prophet at that time that if we continue to read the scriptures in our learned language, we'd never loose it. And i consider myself fluent in Spanish, but out of practice. Given the opportunity to speak, i can get back into it easily.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
#SQLFirsts
The other day I blogged a list of 'My Firsts'. Simple things like first kiss, first state I lived in, and so on.
After reading this blog post, a twitter friend replied that he really enjoyed it. This was over twitter, of course. I went on to tell him that I had wanted to do one about SQL Server Firsts, and needed help. He came up with a couple 'Firsts', as did I. We did this on Twitter, and before we knew it, 40 tweets had come in with different ideas on 'Firsts'. All this occurred in the Twitterverse in under 1 hour.
I am sure that more are to come.
So, here are some sample ones i had come up with prior to this Twitter Attack.
1. table created without indexes
2. dropped data
3. dropped procedure
4. dropped table
5. dropped database
6. caused corruption
Now, I will proceed to unveil the ones that came in over the Twitterverse, giving props to the tweeps that tweeted them. Think about these, apply them to yourself. When did you do similar actions? which ones have you not done, thankfully?
@statisticsio
1. checked "boost priority"
@MichaelDep
1. setup transactional replication
@CompuChip
1. First time you forgot a where clause for an update or delete statement
@DevSQL
1. Delete from XACT --Where XACTId = 102455312
@jcumberland
1. corrected a developers faulty delete script and forgot a parenthesis, resulting in a 56M row delete that then had to be restored
2. Accidentally "Denied All" on SSO users table to to Authenticated Users
@peschkaj
1. 1st time you accidentally deleted the Customers table in production replaced deeply nested cursors with a single set based operation (that was a rewarding day)
2. wrote SELECT * FROM table that made it into production
3. The first time I looked at an execution plan and understood what was going on.
@Jim_McLeod
1. When you dropped a table from production?
2. First time you truly grokked set-based SQL instead of doing things procedurally?
3. Tuned a query from 30 minutes down to less than one?
@sqlagentman
1. Built first sql cluster
2. Locked sql service acct due to rdp w/ a bad pwd
3. Stepped on stage for 1st time to host SQL Quizbowl. May have peed myself a little.
@SQLBatMan
1. rebuilding index during production day
2. manual failover of cluster during production day
3. use ent mgr to reposition a column in table
4. old auditor that you had no idea how logins get added to a server
5. completely filled backup drive
6. pipe trace to table, fill data drive on prod server
7. Passed cert exams
8. attend PASS
9. migrate from sybase to mssql #
10. all developer to the mat because they knew crap about tsql and db design
11. wrote first article (for SSC)
12. presented talk at PASS
13. wrote first article for simple-talk
14. attend first PASS volunteer outing at Billy Bob's
15. server powered down because of routine building power outage would not come back up
16. rebuild master
@tjaybelt
1. started a job, instead of viewing history
2. created a history table on oltp system, forgot PK, clustered and non clustered indexes, just a heap
3. used tsql to perform backup, not the UI
4. created a trigger
5. wrote a cursor
6. then wrote a cursor that never stopped
7. then wrote a cursor that never stopped, and inserted too many records
8. wrote a ShowContig, got the results, and understood them
9. wrote a Show_Statistics, got the results, and understood them
10. performed index maintenance on a ginormous table, in production, during day, during busiest time of day
11. understood coalesce
12. presented on a SQL topic you knew little about to a large crowd
13. wrote first article for SQL Server Central
14. wrote first article for SQL-Server-Performance.com
15. started a transaction. performed an update. confirmed update succeeded. went to lunch. got a phone call...
16. created a Crystal report against SQL Server db
17. created a Reporting Services report against SQL Server db
18. moved master db
19. moved tempdb
For a full list of those that were tweeted, and others not present here, check out the Search feature of Twitter at http://Search.Twitter.com and see how many #sqlfirsts are there. More have shown up since last night. I am sure that more will come in as time marches along.
I will gather more of these, clean them up, and sometime present them as a more cohesive list of SQL firsts. I believe that it's important for each of us to review items like this from time to time, and make a mental note of where we are in our respective career paths. We can then better realize that we all have made mistakes, all have learned different things along the way, and more importantly, can all help each other out. That is why you are reading this far anyway, you have a desire to learn more, to help yourself, and possibly help others. Reflect on how far you have come, and make goals for how far you need to go.
After reading this blog post, a twitter friend replied that he really enjoyed it. This was over twitter, of course. I went on to tell him that I had wanted to do one about SQL Server Firsts, and needed help. He came up with a couple 'Firsts', as did I. We did this on Twitter, and before we knew it, 40 tweets had come in with different ideas on 'Firsts'. All this occurred in the Twitterverse in under 1 hour.
I am sure that more are to come.
So, here are some sample ones i had come up with prior to this Twitter Attack.
1. table created without indexes
2. dropped data
3. dropped procedure
4. dropped table
5. dropped database
6. caused corruption
Now, I will proceed to unveil the ones that came in over the Twitterverse, giving props to the tweeps that tweeted them. Think about these, apply them to yourself. When did you do similar actions? which ones have you not done, thankfully?
@statisticsio
1. checked "boost priority"
@MichaelDep
1. setup transactional replication
@CompuChip
1. First time you forgot a where clause for an update or delete statement
@DevSQL
1. Delete from XACT --Where XACTId = 102455312
@jcumberland
1. corrected a developers faulty delete script and forgot a parenthesis, resulting in a 56M row delete that then had to be restored
2. Accidentally "Denied All" on SSO users table to to Authenticated Users
@peschkaj
1. 1st time you accidentally deleted the Customers table in production replaced deeply nested cursors with a single set based operation (that was a rewarding day)
2. wrote SELECT * FROM table that made it into production
3. The first time I looked at an execution plan and understood what was going on.
@Jim_McLeod
1. When you dropped a table from production?
2. First time you truly grokked set-based SQL instead of doing things procedurally?
3. Tuned a query from 30 minutes down to less than one?
@sqlagentman
1. Built first sql cluster
2. Locked sql service acct due to rdp w/ a bad pwd
3. Stepped on stage for 1st time to host SQL Quizbowl. May have peed myself a little.
@SQLBatMan
1. rebuilding index during production day
2. manual failover of cluster during production day
3. use ent mgr to reposition a column in table
4. old auditor that you had no idea how logins get added to a server
5. completely filled backup drive
6. pipe trace to table, fill data drive on prod server
7. Passed cert exams
8. attend PASS
9. migrate from sybase to mssql #
10. all developer to the mat because they knew crap about tsql and db design
11. wrote first article (for SSC)
12. presented talk at PASS
13. wrote first article for simple-talk
14. attend first PASS volunteer outing at Billy Bob's
15. server powered down because of routine building power outage would not come back up
16. rebuild master
@tjaybelt
1. started a job, instead of viewing history
2. created a history table on oltp system, forgot PK, clustered and non clustered indexes, just a heap
3. used tsql to perform backup, not the UI
4. created a trigger
5. wrote a cursor
6. then wrote a cursor that never stopped
7. then wrote a cursor that never stopped, and inserted too many records
8. wrote a ShowContig, got the results, and understood them
9. wrote a Show_Statistics, got the results, and understood them
10. performed index maintenance on a ginormous table, in production, during day, during busiest time of day
11. understood coalesce
12. presented on a SQL topic you knew little about to a large crowd
13. wrote first article for SQL Server Central
14. wrote first article for SQL-Server-Performance.com
15. started a transaction. performed an update. confirmed update succeeded. went to lunch. got a phone call...
16. created a Crystal report against SQL Server db
17. created a Reporting Services report against SQL Server db
18. moved master db
19. moved tempdb
For a full list of those that were tweeted, and others not present here, check out the Search feature of Twitter at http://Search.Twitter.com and see how many #sqlfirsts are there. More have shown up since last night. I am sure that more will come in as time marches along.
I will gather more of these, clean them up, and sometime present them as a more cohesive list of SQL firsts. I believe that it's important for each of us to review items like this from time to time, and make a mental note of where we are in our respective career paths. We can then better realize that we all have made mistakes, all have learned different things along the way, and more importantly, can all help each other out. That is why you are reading this far anyway, you have a desire to learn more, to help yourself, and possibly help others. Reflect on how far you have come, and make goals for how far you need to go.
Monday, December 15, 2008
My Firsts
I saw this on a friends blog, and thought it was an interesting idea. I will attempt to answer these personal questions.
My Firsts
1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Can't remember her name, remember the red dress.
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
No
3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
N/A
4. What was your FIRST job?
Glass shop in Tehachapi, Ca
5. What was your FIRST car?
Datsun 710 station wagon
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
No one yet.
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
My Wife
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Huff
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane ride?
Utah, to goto the Missionary Training Center
10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with him/her?
Todd Appling. We reconnected recently over the internet.
11. What will be your FIRST thought when you wake up tomorrow morning?
Do i have to really get up? can i snooze a bit more?
12. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
No idea. Probably my cousin Rick's in Simi Valley
13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
My wife
14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My own
15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
snoozed my alarm
16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Beach Boys at summer fair in Bakersfield. Stood on hay and watched them sing 20 yr old songs.
17. FIRST tattoo or piercing?
N/A
18. Who was your FIRST kiss from?
M'Lissa Weeks
19. Who was your FIRST boss?
Everyone at the glass shop thought they were my boss
20. When was your FIRST detention?
Never
21. What was the FIRST state you lived in?
California
22. Who was the FIRST person to really break your heart?
see answer to 18
23. Who was your FIRST roommate?
My cousin Rick at BYU, Hinckly Hall
My Firsts
1. Who was your FIRST prom date?
Can't remember her name, remember the red dress.
2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love?
No
3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink?
N/A
4. What was your FIRST job?
Glass shop in Tehachapi, Ca
5. What was your FIRST car?
Datsun 710 station wagon
6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today?
No one yet.
7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning?
My Wife
8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher?
Mrs. Huff
9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane ride?
Utah, to goto the Missionary Training Center
10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with him/her?
Todd Appling. We reconnected recently over the internet.
11. What will be your FIRST thought when you wake up tomorrow morning?
Do i have to really get up? can i snooze a bit more?
12. Where was your FIRST sleep over?
No idea. Probably my cousin Rick's in Simi Valley
13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today?
My wife
14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time?
My own
15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning?
snoozed my alarm
16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to?
Beach Boys at summer fair in Bakersfield. Stood on hay and watched them sing 20 yr old songs.
17. FIRST tattoo or piercing?
N/A
18. Who was your FIRST kiss from?
M'Lissa Weeks
19. Who was your FIRST boss?
Everyone at the glass shop thought they were my boss
20. When was your FIRST detention?
Never
21. What was the FIRST state you lived in?
California
22. Who was the FIRST person to really break your heart?
see answer to 18
23. Who was your FIRST roommate?
My cousin Rick at BYU, Hinckly Hall
Cloud Computing and me
I was just reading in SQL Server Magazine an article about Cloud Computing, and agree with the premise the author portrayed. Its a new hyped tech, and its something to get excited about. I have been in IT for some time now, and have seen a lot of ideas come to the forefront, and make it big, while others, with excitement behind them, never really went anywhere.
As an IT professional, its important to 'know' about these techs, but not necessarily buy in or follow the crowd. I have tried hard to keep up with these new techs and simply keep myself aware of them. If they seem to have the capacity to impact my career and employment, then I have to learn about it. Otherwise, simple knowledge is necesitated.
So, along comes the latest 'hyped tech', Cloud Computing. As far as it impacts me, its the opportunity for businesses to push their databases into the cloud, which pushes it away from the traditional DBA, and into a service delivery or supscription based business. I would assume that a hosting company that offers 'Cloud' services would retain a few DBA's on their IT staff, so some jobs will simply shift from one company to another. This sucks if you are the DBA that gets nixed because your shop pushed your databases into the 'Cloud'. Its rocks for the DBA at the hosting company that maintans those databases. Its a different gig than most of us are used too, as they would be in charge of many many databases.
But on a larger scale, some folks have predicted the demise of the DBA as we know it, with the advent of the 'Cloud'. This may be true in a small scale, but I do not believe it to be so in the laerger picture. Obviously there will be changes. There are always changes. I remember the day, while as a db developer, I touted the abilities of SQL Server to the tune that you didnt need a DBA to run and maintain it in your shop. Fast forward a few years, and I have based my career direction exactly on top of the opposite of that premise. I have become the SQL Server DBA that maintains your databases, the same ones I told you didn't need a DBA. It just happened that way. So, we have to admit that there have been changes in our career paths over the last 10 years anyway. Most DBA's are not born DBA's. They come from Development or Networking. Meaning that they were programmers/developers/etc that touched the database, and soon became the experts, morphing themselves into DBA's. Or they were on the networking/administration/etc side, and ended up having to install and support databases, and like devs, became the experts on the database, and morphed. While I was in college, I took a database class, and thought, this would be cool to work with, but at the time, my options were to become a developer, not directly a DBA. The experience that I gained from being on the other side of the fence has greatly improved my perspective as a DBA, and I wouldnt have it any other way.
Back to the 'Cloud'. Think about your shop. Your data. Is the data important? It had better be... Is it important that your data is secure? You betcha. Can unauthorized people see or access your data? No way! How many of your shops are constrained by SOX or HIPPA or SAS70 or some other auditing and compliance initiative? How many of your shops encrypt your data to protect it from others? How many of you are actively monitoring your systems for intrusion?
My point in bringing all this up is that simply pushing your entire database into the 'Cloud' does not solve these issues. I believe it opens a can of worms that will be difficult to overcome to secure and contain all these tasks. There may be a way with 'Cloud' computing, but I don't see it yet. I'm sure that there will be work in this direction, but in the meantime, its important to me to see how this may/will affect me.
As I have been involved in many database with Auditing & Copmpliance issues, I don't see this data being pushed into the 'Cloud' right away. Maybe pieces of the application can be broken up, and stored there. Maybe we can have pieces, less secure pieces, out there in the 'Cloud'. Some have suggested that GMail or similar mail apps are likely candidates for the 'Cloud'. With this thought in mind, what parts of your business solutions could be pushed into the 'Cloud'? I bet there are pieces that would reside there happily. Support systems, internal applications, etc. For example, we have a ticketing system that is hosted locally. There are IT staff that are dedicated to its upkeep. If cost is an issue, these positions could be removed and the application pushed into the 'Cloud', fairly easily. Reassign the IT folks to other duties, let them spend less time supporting this 'Other' application, and let it go. I'm betting there are many parts of your business, your daily processing, your web presence, that can happily reside elsewhere. There will be issues with this, and its different. But change is inevitable. Maybe even your core database can reside elsewhere, in the 'Cloud', once some of the problems are faced and fixed. I don't see a shop pushing their entire dbs out there yet. Someday, maybe, but along the way, many changes will occur.
I don't see this as the demise of my job as a DBA, but I do see it as another way to more efficiently run a business, and unfortunately, I am only one cog in the wheel of my business. No matter how important and influential I believe I am, and how vital my position is, I am just one piece of the puzzle. I hope that I can continue to leverage my skills I currently wield, as well as be able to pick up new tricks. In the end, I wanna work with databases. Be it that those database reside in some server room somewhere, supported by an IT staff that maintains the hardware for me and network connections and monitors the SLA's and systems, or in my company, in some server room somewhere, supported by an IT staff that maintains the hardware for me and network connections and monitors the SLA's and systems.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Copy Paste goofed in Remote Desktop
Have you ever been remoted into a server, and your copy/paste seems to be dead?
Not within the Remote Server itself, from from Remote to local. This seems to occur to me ofttimes and i am unable to copy and paste things between the sessions. This can be very aggravating when i am attempting to do certain operations.
Someone at my company (Cybersource), informed us of a process that can be used to fix this issue.
In a command prompt, you can do the following.
taskkill /F /IM rdpclip.exe /fi "USERNAME eq TBELT" && start rdpclip.exe
Each time i needed to execute this, i had to look it up, and copy it to the remote server. Wait, i can't copy it... thats why i am having to do this. So i would bring it up in notepad on my local machine, then retype it. I hope i can hear you growning at this point, because senseless use of the keyboard is a hugely prohibitive issue for me. If i cant copy/paste it, i feel dirty.
So, when i type it in to a new Remote Server, i add in a batch file on my desktop with this code in it. I can simply execute it form the desktop now, whenever i have this issue.
Try it out. It has been a great help to me.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
SQL Quiz Part 2
I got tagged by SQLBatman to take part in Chris Shaw's quiz.
From Chris's original Post :
-----
So here are the rules, please answer the question with at least two answers, once you have completed the answer please tag 2 people that you know to answer the questions as well. If you get tagged by this Quiz please let me know I would like to add all the results to the bottom of this blog so all the answers are in one place.
----
The Questions for this quiz…
What are the largest challenges that you have faced in your career and how did you overcome those?
Here are my Answers…
1. I was employed at my second job out of college for 5 years. It was a small family owned business. In the beginning, I was told that I would have job there for life. Well, 5 years later, my boss called me into his office on an afternoon, and fired me. He stated a few things that were rather random, said he didn’t have time to discuss it, and took off to goto a baseball game.
This was devastating. In an effort to understand, I introverted and tried to see what I could do better. Recalling mentoring discussions from this boss reminded me that I had a hard working well with others. Having always struggled with my confidence, college allowed me to have received a descent education and gain some of that missing confidence. I had overcompensated and become a pain to work with. Always being busy, which lead me to be short with others, especially those that didn’t know the same things that I did. I had gained a feeling and attitude of superiority. And this translated into not working well with others. They were idiots of course, and I was so much smarter.
So in my next jobs, I tried hard to make myself smart, but not at the cost of being superior. I constantly strive to be friendly and helpful and mentor, all the while attempting to learn more myself. I believe I have made great inroads in this skill, and have a long way too go. I have made and kept a lot of friends. I have had groups and individuals express that I am a pleasure to work with. Long way to go to be perfect, but I took a down time in my career, and tried to make lemonade out of it.
2. Being the first DBA in a group that maintained an application with financial data and being forced into SOX compliance with no history of audits. We had to become compliant in short order. No processes existed, no history of data collected. No auditable trails to show off. Some DBA's would cringe at this, and avoid it entirely. Somewhere in the beginning, I think my brain broke, and i accepted the challenge.
I was able to produce documentation for most of the control items in our process for the database. Code was written and implemented that allowed us to monitor and report on activities in the database. Changed jobs, security, permissions, updates, inserts, deletes, ddl changes, failed logins, etc. A plethora of tools and knowledge came out of this scenario. I became quick friends with the internal auditor and gained an insight most DBA's didnt have into the auditing world. I went on to present my learning to user groups and internal customers as well as produce several articles detailing the work and systems produced. Not grand at any scale, just one DBA with an appreciation for SOX, and understanding of how it can help out, an acceptance of its existence, and an agreement between me and it to cohabitate.
I tag Grant and Pat. I may have to let them know via other means to ensure that this keeps going. I would hate to be the deadend blogger that killed the quiz.
Twitter : what do i use?
What tools have i used to better grasp value from my Twitter experience? Let me share them with ya.
Web : http://www.Twitter.com
I used this for the first part of my Twitter life. Became a pain to always be refreshing it. Still use the web when i need short sweet tweets, sitting with my laptop somewhere, in a conference, etc. But I have moved beyond this tool to others.
PC : TweetDeck, Twhirl
Both these apps have their good and bad points.
I tried Tweetdeck first. Love that it notifies me when tweets come in. Love that it has multiple groups, columns of data, etc. Do not like the black background.
I tried Twhirl when I changed my password and Tweetdeck simply stopped working, with no way to alter the password. Twhirl has an interesting transparency feature when you are not active on the app. It also keeps good track of where i was reading, which tweets have been read. It colors them well too, so i can visually see responses, direct messages, etc.
I have both these tools installed in multiple machines, and use them both interchangebly.
Mobile : Twitterberry, Twibble, Blackbird, TinyTwitter.
Twitterberry : by far my favorite app so far for my Blackberry phone. It has a clean crips interface. Links work well. Refreshes occur easily. Upgraded versions, and love new version even more. I can set the start screen up, and always goto friends timelines first.
Twibble, i struggled to like. It started on friends timeline, so i liked that. But tweeting needed to traverse through a few menus to find it. Hotkeys were nice, except i didnt use them all, and would inadvertantly hit one and end up somewhere i had never been before. When i altered the interface colors, i started liking it, since it was previously dark and black, and ugly, in my opinion. The new color scheme is nicer to me. But i still dont like it better than twitterberry.
TinyTwitter: someone suggested this app, so i downloaded it and tried it out. I am simply waiting to remember to remove it from my phone. Enough said.
Web based productivity or reporting tools
http://www.tweetstats.com/graphs/tjaybelt
this is a fun site, and i suggest you visit it often to see how you are doing and using the tool of Twitter. This has information about when you tweet most, during the day, and what day of the week. What tools you have used to tweet from. Who you have replied too most often.
The charts are neat to look at and colored well. A very informative site on your use of Twitter.
Twitmarks - Mark your gender
http://gender.twitmarks.com/g.php?username=tjaybelt
This website lets you put in a username, and it tries to guess whether you are male or female. Not much use beyond the fun factor. But when someone tries your name, and it comes back 64% chance you are a female, you take notice and try to up your 'man' score. Thanks to watching 24 one night, i am up to 99% male. whew!
Super powerful to search all of the Twitterverse. Put in words here, or #tags to find topics. I grew up in a small town in California, and put that name into the search screen. Tehachapi. I was amazed at the people talking about my hometown.
Expand this search capabilities to your minds limitations. Amazing things can come from searching out whats been tweeted.
http://blog.twitter.com/
Take some time to read through some other peoples thoughts on Twitter here. Interesting stuff.
Back Up your Twitterings!
https://tweetscan.com/data.php?error=password
This let me download my tweets. Better than Tweettake did. But i did have to supply my password.
Mr Twitter
A great little tool that analyzes your tweets, connections, etc. Gives you a report of prople you should be following and other influential folks.
This is the list i could find off the top of my head, and from my browser history. I am sure there are more out there. Add them to the comments section and we'll see how big of a list we can provide to folks.
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