Not the trip for me, but it might be for you. Enter today.
I had a chance to see a few of the DBA in Space videos before the contest was released and I shared them with my kids. My son’s first reaction was “can I go?” He couldn’t, but it did excite him a little to think about potentially going into space at some point in his life and he thought it was amazing that some average computer worker, like me, would get the chance. It’s an amazing contest and I’m still stunned that my employer, Red Gate Software, is offering it to anyone that works with databases.
And that’s interesting. Developers, administrators, if you’re administering databases in any way, you’ve got a chance to enter the contest. You can get started now by signing up and going through all the videos, answering the questions as you go. The contest ends Friday, November 18, 2011, so there are a few days left to follow Brad McGehee on his space alien adventure and have fun with a few silly questions.
I, however, wouldn’t go to space. I don’t like flying, and I’m not thrilled with heights, and it wouldn’t be my choice for a prize. I do know many people that love science fiction, the space program, and would be thrilled to go. If I could win (I’m not eligible), I’d take the cash alternative, $102,000, and probably take the trip of a lifetime. Maybe take the family and ski in Switzerland, maybe fly to Australia and enjoy surfing and diving down under with the kids, but definitely fly first class everywhere.
Let your mind wander, ask your friends and family where they’re like to go? Would they have the adventure of a lifetime with you or would they think about sending you up in a rocket, as many of the Slashdotters want to do. It could be your choice, but only if you enter the contest this week.
I’ve been looking at some security code in preparation for a few talks I plan on doing next year and there’s one thing I don’t see in many of the samples: backups.
When you get ready to encrypt data in a table, or you enable Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), you will end up creating a key of some sort, or a certificate. Some of these keys, especially the database master key, needs to be backed up. Otherwise you won’t be able to decrypt your database or data later on if you recover this database on another server.
As soon as you create a key for security, make sure you back it up right then. You might forget later, and then it might be too late. A little preparation will go a long way here.
Is it time to consider storing MDFs on NAS devices?
In the two decades I’ve worked with SQL Server, there has been some advice that I’ve always given to people: don’t backup to the network, and don’t try to put a database on a file share. SQL Server hasn’t dealt with either of those situations well for most of my career, and they’ve been a regular source of issues for clients and posters to the forums at SQLServerCentral. Network technology, while quickly improving, was still flaky enough that I always recommend that people keep their data and backups local as a guideline.
However technology evolves, and when it does, it’s time for the advice to change. Lately I have seen more and more people making backups across the network that seem very reliable. Even the tendency of Ethernet protocols to delay packets when collisions occur is mitigated by the increasingly common 1Gbps and 10Gbps network speeds that many companies are using. While I might still be a little nervous about running backups across the network, that’s my personal bias and I don’t know if I would continue to recommend against those backups.
I was surprised, however, to see Kevin Farlee of Microsoft post a blog noting it might be time to reconsider the placement of data files on a network share. He outlines the improvements in technology and protocols that may make this a viable way to store our SQL Server databases in the future. It’s an interesting argument though I suspect that it is slightly premature for most of us.
I do think that as networks become even more reliable, this is one way that we may better manage storage for data in the future, and perhaps see Shared Scalable Databases widely deployed as a way to scale out those read queries on other servers.
I spoke at the SQL Inspire event this last weekend and it was a greart experience. This event was sponsored by Linchpin people (founded by Andy Leonard, Brian Moran, and Matt Velic) and supported by Robert Pearl, Melissa Demsak, and others in the New York/New Jersey area.
The event is modeled after the TED events, which was inspirational and informative talks that bring people together to discuss ideas and thoughts about various topics. In this case all the speakers were technologype focused people, but bringing different points of view or frames of reference to our SQL world.
The event was held at the Microsoft office in Manhattan, the same place as the SQL Saturday event held there last year. I arrived just as the event was starting, and had breakfast. There was plenty to go around, which was good as I’d forgotten to pack the protein bars I normally eat in the morning.
There was plenty of coffee as well, and I had a cup while watching the event start with Robert Pearl talking about telecommuting. He had some good ideas for people that want to work from home, including some data and arguments that you could give to your boss.
The event was structured as a series of 20 minute talks, with a few breaks throughout the day. Tom LaRock had come down from Boston with his daughter. He had a great talk about “Someday”, which as he noted, “isn’t one of the seven days of the week.” Tom cautioned people against waiting too long to do things, or putting off the parts of their career that are important to them, or even the simple things that need to be done in every environment, like making sure you have good backups. He had one point in the talk where he was looking forward to things in the future, and he choked up while mentioning the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding. It was a touching moment, and I was choked up as well thinking about my little girl.
SQL Someday
Michael Coles talked about the job market, Andrew Brust talked about Big Data, and Brian Moran talked about Linchpin people and how he is trying to change the way that people view their work and their business. Michael Corey had a great talk about how he had grown his career from DBA to CEO of a consulting company and how he runs a successful, moral, well balanced place to work. I grabbed a card from him and will keep NTirety, his company, in mind if I ever need a job. They seem to work the way I’d like to work.
My talk was right after lunch and titled “Finding Balance”. My focus was on the ways in which we can all manage to improve our careers, get raises, promotions, etc., while still managing to have a life. I’ll blog about it more, but the main ideas were three things I think are important to balancing out your life.
– Learn to say no
– Play your own game
– Balance
The entire event was video taped and recorded, and I believe that the videos will be available in a few weeks for people to view. There were about 60 or so people there throughout the day, and they seemed to enjoy the talks. Quite a few people came up to me and other speakers at the end to thank us for the information we presented, and they seemed to be making notes or engaged with the speakers during the day.
Video by And Now Video
There were a number of sponsors that helped bring this event to fruition, including my employer, Red Gate Software, along with Confio, Embarcadero, and Microsoft.
This was a much different type of event than many SQL Saturdays. The talks focused on abstract, more soft-skill topics, that were designed to inspire you, and get you to re-think the way that your career is progressing. I hope there are more of these events, or even that they can be held alongside other SQL Saturday events as a change of pace from the strictly technical presentations.
New York City was great, with mild weather on a November weekend. The sun shined as I went for a run out to Central Park on Saturday morning. I stayed at The Pod hotel, which is a hostel, and an ecclectic change of pace from many other places I’ve visited. We had a few people come out after the event to share a few beers and talk about the event, life, and a few other topics.
My thanks to Andy, Brian, and Matt and I hope they are able to run a few of these events in other places in 2012.
