Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Coding With Music

    Lots of developers use headphones and music at work, though I think corporate life in cubes encourages this, just to block out the distractions. When the walls of your office stop at the 5 foot level, you might need all the privacy you can get from a large set of speakers attached to your head.

    I heard a few programmers debating this recently. One of them mentioned that he often uses music, a soothing melody that helps to block out distractions. Another said that white noise is a help. A few others actually mentioned that a private office and silence was more important for them. I know that in the past I’ve often tried to pick more mellow tunes, often jazz or classical music without a vocal component, when I needed to concentrate.

    Another person mentioned that there has been work that shows music is distracting to people, and it can perhaps occupy a portion of your brain and make you less efficient. You might notice less patterns, or consider things differently with music playing. I found that plausible, and decided to ask the question this Friday.

    Would you prefer silence, music, or some other background noise when you are working?

    I often go to a Starbucks or a bookstore and write on my laptop, just to have the white noise of people in the background. I think I get some level of energy from having other people around, but not interacting with me. I might listen to some music, but often I just sit there and focus on my work.

    When I used to work in a corporate environment, I found that I used music, but it was really to block out the distractions of other people nearby. Being in my own world often helped me get into the zone, and having large blocks of time were essential.

    So let us know what works for you, why, and if you’ve tried anything else. If you have good arguments to present to management for achieving your ideal work environment, let us know as well.

    Steve Jones

  • Salary Averages

    I saw this posted on Twitter, yet another reason to have a variety of people you follow. Some very interesting links and ideas get shared there.

    It’s a set of IT salary charts and values from a recent survey on Datamation. The salaries look about where I expected, though the ones for database administrator managers were higher than I thought. Here’s the chart:

    database-administration-manager

    It has a median at $110, which is a nice number. It’s higher than the data warehouse specialist at $92k.

    Note these are national averages, but they ought to remind you that IT is a good industry to work in and we are very well paid.

  • The Need for New Technology

    Do we need specialized technology for the large scale analysis of data? I read a report (registration required) that talks about the need for specialized technologies to handle the needs and requirements of complex data analysis. As often is the case, this report is written by someone that isn’t very technical, and is likely using information put out by the companies who are building these specialized technologies. However that doesn’t change the fact that the premise if valid.

    Just recently the Parallel Data Warehouse edition of SQL Server was released, providing a specialized, and extremely powerful platform for large scale data warehouses. The release of Powerpivot as well as all the BI enhancements added to SQL Server 2008 R2 mean that you have a diverse platform that isn’t just built as a “transaction stack” processor.

    As technical people should we care if about articles like this? Absolutely we should, since these articles often influence executives who are the ones that might end up signing a purchase order for some other technology.  If management is going to be spending more of the technology budget in your  area, don’t you want to try and influence them to spend the money wisely? That means you ought to understand what is being written and be able to intelligently talk about the choices.

    SQL Server isn’t necessarily the best solution for all environments, and it’s not necessarily even the platform on which you want to build your BI system. However SQL Server has an amazing array of capabilities, and it is a product you should consider.

    Steve Jones

  • iPad Update

    I updated the iPad tonight to iOS 4.2. I had no particular reason to upgrade, but I saw a few people posting that they had upgraded, and noticed a few apps people had talked about the productivity upgrades of a few apps that required iOS 4.x.

    It took a long time. I started at 3:10, but it required iTunes 10.1, and then I had to download the firmware, and it was still updating when I last checked around 6. So I left it and went to karate.

    When I got home, it looked the same. The only difference was the addition of “GameCenter” on the main screen. I checked settings, and sure enough it had been updated, but nothing showed multi-tasking, and I couldn’t create a folder.

    However a double click on the home button brought up the multi-tasking window, so I could see what was running. Semi-cool, but not sure how useful. We’ll see as I try to use it more. I added DropBox, EasyReader (for PDFs) and a few more items people had mentioned, including a Twitter app.

    Now I’ll play with it a bit and see how useful it is.

    I also sent a note to a friend to see if they wanted my tablet. If not, I’ll be looking to sell that on eBay and recover some funds. I have the feeling I won’t be traveling with it, and instead I’d like to have the money and look to perhaps upgrade my phone instead.

    One thing I noticed last week was in typing on the iPad. I grabbed it to do a bit of blogging and I was surprised at how fast I could type on the virtual keyboard. The spacing is similar to what I like and the audible clicks were very handy. I can see those as being annoying at a conference, so I’d likely need headphones for the feedback for me, set low enough to let me still here what I’m taking notes on.

    A cooler, and cooler device, the more I play with it.