Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Look Beyond the First Result

     

    I'm not sure Orbitz did anything wrong, but this certainly made me re-examine how I look at results when searching.
    I’m not sure Orbitz did anything wrong, but this certainly made me re-examine how I look at results when searching.

    This story about Orbitz was very interesting in the way metadata about users was affects the results of queries on the Orbitz site. It’s slightly skewed to imply Orbitz was charging OSX users more than Windows users, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Instead, if an OSX user was detected, the order of search results was changed to show more expensive options first. Users were understandably upset, as some of them ended up paying more for services than they might have otherwise.

    However is this a valid way to present the data? From the business side of things, this makes sense. If you identify a trend, you may look to exploit it or incorporate the potential results into your decision making. I could even see some sort of business intelligence system making this decisions automatically, without human intervention. As we build more sophisticated software, using a large set of inputs, I could see exactly this type of thing occurring more frequently.

    Is it fair? Is it moral? Those are tough questions. We often want to go where the data leads us, and while many of our human tendencies don’t make any sense, the data sometimes shows patterns in our behavior. In the end, I’d argue this was a very poor model of the data. All Mac users aren’t looking to spend more money on goods or services just because they might have purchased a more expensive computer. There are likely quite a few other qualifications inputs that should be considered as well.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • A Learning Experiment at SQL Saturday #187– Richmond

    dbateamlogoIn a little over a week, SQL Saturday #187 takes place in Richmond, VA. I’m looking forward to going back as I attended school not too far from there (Charlottesville), and even worked on the West side of Richmond for a time. My brother lives in MD and my mother in Virginia Beach, so it’s a good time for an extended weekend visiting family.

    However I’m also extending my trip before the weekend. Red Gate Software is experimenting with a short learning seminar on Friday. After last year’s SQL in the City, large events with hundreds of people, we’re trying something new again this year. We have a free half day set of talks scheduled on Friday, from 1-5, given by Grant Fritchey and myself. We’ll each give two talks, with networking time in between. We are planning on covering four topics:

    • Core Monitoring
    • SQL Server Backup
    • Database Corruption
    • Indexing

    It will be an interesting day as Grant and I have been working on our talks, trying to make them interesting to the attendees. We are linking the content to Red Gate tools, but don’t worry, these aren’t infomercials. We are delivering valuable information to help you in your job, whether you use Red Gate tools or not.

    Afterwards we’ll have a short happy hour as well before we start prepping for the Saturday event.

    You can register today, and there are still a few slots left, but this will be a small event, so my apologies if you can’t get in.

    Saturday is the SQL Saturday event at the University of Richmond campus. There’s a great lineup of speakers from the Virginia area and beyond for you. If you can come, it’s a free day of SQL Server information and training with tons of networking opportunities.

    Come join me if you can.

  • The Dark Side

    I went to the Dark Side recently and enjoyed it.
    I went to the Dark Side recently and enjoyed it.

    Recently I was invited to speak at the Rocky Mountain Oracle Training Days. It was part of some cross platform talks that have happened in Denver, with some Oracle professionals coming to our last SQL Saturday in Denver. I was happy to oblige, and ended up spending part of two days at the small conference. I was a little nervous beforehand, unsure of how SQL Server talks might be received at an Oracle event. There’s a fair amount of animosity between the companies and that seems to bleed over to the professionals working on these platforms. I’ve made my share of Oracle jokes in the past, though all in fun.

    It was interesting to sit and talk with some of the Oracle DBAs attending. For the most part, they have the same problems as SQL Server DBAs, and seem to approach things in a similar manner in terms of indexing, tuning SQL and more. They have the same types of problems, with similar solutions, though the details are different. And, of course, the Oracle solutions tend to be more expensive. I did hear about one thing that I wish was a part of SQL Server: mirroring of log files. I haven’t had many issues with log files, but as databases get more critical, this seems like an enhancement to SQL Server that would make sense.

    One of the interesting things I did hear about was from a cross platform DBA who didn’t have a unified directory services structure and struggled with the SQL Server authentication when clients came from non-Windows systems. This person loved the integration of the Microsoft stack, but moving outside of their technology resulted in lots of challenges. This is one of the areas where I think Microsoft has fallen down in the past, in not supporting a variety of clients well. Even today there are issues when you leave the IE browser in some applications.

    It was a good conference, with so many people facing the same types of concerns over limited resources, technology changes, and job security. Most of the attendees just want to learn more, get better at their jobs, and stay employed. I’m glad I had the chance to attend, and hope I get to go back next year.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Speaking – Slide Design

    I’m not sure I love this advice on slide design, but some of it makes sense. Much too often I see people putting lots of information on slide decks, as though readers will be studying the slides. I am working to reduce the amount of letters or “data” on each slide, and increase the information by making things simpler and hoping people will pay attention to me.

    I’m not sure what I would do differently, but I am moving towards more pictures, and less words. The presentation is to hear me speak, not a talking textbook.

    I should write a little about what I am doing differently, and showcase how I’ve reduced the data on some slides. However I’m curious. Do you think the slides matter? Do you refer to them later for information? Or do you want them to highlight things I talk about to keep you on track and give you an idea of what I am teaching?