Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • The Avalanche Upgrade

    Reprinted from Database Weekly.

    Microsoft logos
    The avalanche of products coming this year

    This year, 2012, is quite a year for Microsoft. We saw SQL Server 2012, Systems Operations Center 2012, and released earlier this year. Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 are due for release later this year. Office 15, Exchange 15, and Sharepoint 15 should enter beta this year, and IE 10 is certain to release at some point. We may even see a new version of Visual Studio in 2012. It is certainly a busy time for the developers up in Redmond.

    However that means that those of us that are working in IT are faced with a blizzard of upgrades. Even if you aren’t planing on performing the upgrades this year, I’m sure there will be requests and no shortage of stealth upgrades taking place in your company. There will certainly be Windows 8 installations coming on new PCs, which means wiping and reimaging.

    One one hand I like seeing Microsoft align the release dates of their products closely. This helps to ensure that the newest features are supported by the other platforms. It also means that we don’t have strange service pack/hotfix combinations of patches needed to get SQL Server to work with Windows or Visual Studio. That doesn’t help us with past products, and there’s already no shortage of compatibility issues between a few of the technologies.

    However this does mean that a lot of new learning and understanding is required in a short time by much of the IT staffs that must support these technologies. With many people dealing with multiple platforms, this means an even busier fall and winter as they try to understand all the changes that they will be tasked with supporting. My advice is that they start working with a product or two and reading about the changes now. That way you will have some background and context for the actual testing you’ll need to do next year.

    I don’t know how many people will upgrade this year, but even if you delay until late 2013, you’ll still have a lot of potential upgrades to plan, test, and schedule.

  • Career Engagement

    Just another day at work, sketching myself.

    I’ve read and heard from many of you that the IT business has been in a slump the last year or two, with relatively few jobs out there and workers more than a little concerned about job security. This has led to people spending more time at work, and accepting poorer working conditions than they might otherwise choose to accept.

    This Friday, I’m curious about your situation. Which of these applies for you?

    a) happy with your job and looking to stay
    b) content in your job, but willing to consider other opportunities

    c) Get me out of here ASAP

    Personally, I’m almost always in positions b or c. I am built to be a little insecure, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It drives me forward, but it also means that I perpetually am anxious about any changes at work or conflicts. Being a fairly paranoid DBA, I always want a backup plan, or two, or three. Both with databases and with my employment.

    I saw a great quote recently on a LinkedIn profile: ” I’m not actively looking for a new position. Ridiculous salary offers always thoughtfully considered. ;-)”

    I’d hope that describes most of your jobs, but I suspect that more than a few people would describe their situation like c) above. Let us know this Friday, and if you’d like to respond anonymously, send me an email (sjones at this domain) and I’ll post a note for you, without your name.

    I have the best job in the world, at least for me, and while I hear about and get offered other jobs, I have a hard time thinking that any position would be better for me. I’m not looking to leave my gig, and not sure I ever will voluntarily.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • The Standing Desk – Week 1

    I finally got my standing desk working last weekend and started on Tuesday (after Memorial Day) working at it on a regular basis.

    This was the initial setup

    Photo May 27, 4 35 10 PM

    I used a box of books, with 4 more under the keyboard and another box for the mouse. I had two monitors working due to a lack of cables, but this would allow me to essentially duplicate what I had upstairs. I added a short barstool (round, no back) and I was ready to go.

    I wrote a bit about this the other day, but this is a more detailed post after almost one work week (3+ days) of working.

    Tuesday when I came downstairs, I was tired, and it was chilly, and I didn’t really want to go in the basement. I spent an hour with my laptop at my regular desk before deciding to go stand downstairs. It wasn’t bad, but I realized quickly that the keyboard and mouse were too low. The ergonomic position is slightly above the elbow, so I added another box, more books and raised things up. Books make a great experimental platform for raising lowering to different heights to see what works.

    I also realized that I needed to get all four monitors going and see if I liked that. So I ordered two new cables, and kept working. I stood for 5-6 hours on Tuesday, taking a few breaks to go upstairs, run, and handle other non-desk tasks.

    Wednesday I felt better and I sat at my desk for an hour for our weekly department conference call. I don’t have a webcam on the desktop and with the books, no desk to set the laptop on. However afterwards I went downstairs and worked. My round bar stool was too short, but I did find an older, tall barstool to use. The height is just high enough that I have to raise up an inch or so to sit down. Or sit up.

    I didn’t love sitting down, but taking 10-15 minutes on the stool was nice.

    Thursday my cables came, and I hooked everything up. I got all four monitors situated in the right position in Windows 7, though I am tempted to raise my bigger monitors up to the top and put the smaller ones below. Right now I feel like I’m looking down when I’m working. It’s not too bad, and it’s similar to how you might work with paper on a desk.

    Photo May 31, 4 31 55 PM

    My legs feel a bit more tired, but not much. I notice it most when I’m running. It’s that they’re slightly more tired than normal. I suspect that I’m adapting better than most since I run every day (1370 days and counting), so I’m used to some amount of work from my legs every day.

    I do find that I take more breaks now. I can’t sit with an empty coffee cup and get lost in work for 90 minutes. Every hour or so I get up and move upstairs. It’s also changing my eating slightly. I’m eating smaller meals, and planning on going upstairs every hour for a small snack or piece of fruit. I’m not sure of the long term health effects, but I can’t think of a reason why this would be bad.

    On the extra plus side, my regular desk is fairly clean now

    Photo May 31, 12 52 10 PM

    So far I like the experiment, and I do feel like I’m burning more calories overall. I’ll give it a couple more week and then set about re-evaluating my move back upstairs.

    A few things I need to consider fixing

    • flooring – Buck talked about padding and I think I need something. I have carpet, but otherwise this is cement and I know that will take a toll. Upstairs I have wood, but probably need more padding.
    • Monitors – The smaller two of my monitors are older and dimmer. I don’t use them as much, but I don’t love looking down so much at the newer ones. I need to reverse the positions.
    • Desk space – I’m used to having space for a bottle of water and a coffee cup, plus my phone, a plate if I eat, etc. I need to consider that as I move to a more permanent setting.
    • Monitor mounts – My desk doesn’t have a lip to clamp on. Do I cut a hole in it or move this one upstairs? Decisions, decisions, and permission from my wife.

    This is cross posted to both my personal blog and the Voice of the DBA.

  • Is Empowerment Good?

    I remember my boss having a secretary that used to take his dictation down.

    When I started working in business, PCs were just coming to use in the company where I worked. Not everyone had a computer, which may shock some of you. We had shared computers in some places, and there were people whose jobs didn’t require computers, if you can believe that. The world has changed since then, and having access to some computing device is almost required at every level of business these days, from delivery drivers to warehouse workers to the CEO.

    One of the anachronistic events you might see in older films or book was the idea of an executive calling a secretary into their office to dictate a memorandum or letter. I’ve actually witnessed that event, though it’s a faded memory that I barely recall. As technology evolved, we found more and more people could handle their own work, typing and proofing their own letters, calling up their own reports, and reading their own correspondence. That seems to be much more efficient, allowing one person to do the work that two might have done before, but is that correct?

    When you ask for a report, or dictate a letter, you are delegating that work. You can let it go, and spend your time thinking about the content or analyzing the data without worrying about the mechanics. It’s easy to pick up a report, but it’s also easy to get bogged down in worrying about which options to pick, or experimenting with a few options, going back and forth. I shudder to think of how much time someone spends formatting, changing fonts, or customizing their work in Word, Powerpoint, etc. when they could be applying knowledge to a process.

    Technology is a great enabler, but too often we think that just enabling someone with more options, choices and settings is a worthwhile exercise. Technology ought to make things easier, and allow us to concentrate more on the work we need to do. If  it requires more work from us, especially because it’s given us too many choices, I’m not sure it’s been implemented well.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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