Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Copyright

    This is actually amazing. A talk on what YouTube does with copyright and how they view it, from TED. It’s interesting, and there are two things in there to watch. Note, that I caught this link from Jeff Atwood (@CodingHorror) on his blog.

    The first thing is that YouTube scans over 100 years of video every day. 100 years! That’s freaking amazing. That is an incredible amount of video processing that’s taking place, and a low of power being spent to enforce copyright. Forget about the legal issues for a minute and think about the technology. That is just amazing.

    The second thing in the talk is that content owners can, and are choosing, to not block this content, but rather use it to generate some benefits from them. They ought to be able to receive some benefits, and I agree, but knocking down some kid’s video because he used a copyrighted song seems silly. Especially as in the case of the wedding video, you never know what will go viral and what benefits you’ll get. Including selling more copies of your stuff.

    However the thing that worries me is that we are now not looking out for Fair Use. If a copyright holder wants to block their content, can we still get our 30sec of use of it in a video we make? Or a mashup?

    7231[1] The copyright office doesn’t necessarily define the fair use guidelines, but I think they need to. We ought to have some idea of what portion of audio, video, imagery, and text can be used, with citation. Even with automatic citation, that may benefit the copyright holder.

    We publish books here through Simple Talk Publishing. We typically offer books for free as marketing materials here on the site, and also sell them on Amazon and other retailers. Regularly I find these republished, or even for sale, on the Internet on other sites. I understand people wanting to share, but ultimately it’s a problem for us if all our books become too widely distributed for free. I know there are a lot of debates on piracy, and I’m not completely sure where I stand. I don’t actively worry about piracy, but I do act to have things removed when I find it.

    We need to do something here to both protect the copyright holders, but also allow people to reuse ideas and build on them. I certainly wouldn’t mind someone republishing portions of my work, or building their own knowledge publications based on it, just don’t wholesale copy what I’ve done without giving me any credit.

    I think YouTube has a good balance here, though I’d like to see more efforts from content owners to share and allow others to build on their work.

  • Kindle v iPad

    I don’t have either, but I ran across this comparison on the devices. It says get both, if you’re a consumer of media and culture. To some extent I do think that it’s got a perspective that makes sense, and if you can afford a $500 iPad (or more), then you can probably add in a $140 Kindle without worrying about it.

    I had a Gen 1 Kindle, and I have an iPhone that is my primary way to read. I read on flights, and while I do take breaks and play some games, I think it’s a matter of attention span. Books that are really, really good hold my attention, and I won’t move on to anything else.

    Books that I struggle with, or require more thinking, I switch off at times. When I read business books, I sometimes need to think about something, so I’ll close the Kindle app for a minute, maybe play a game, and let my mind wander with what I’ve read.

    There definitely is a difference in reading on an LCD and e-ink. It doesn’t bother me, or it doesn’t appear to, but I understand that it might bother some people, and if that’s the case, a Kindle/Nook/eReader makes more sense.

    I’m not sure if I’ll get an iPad. It has to function in my life and add something to it, and I’m not sure it’s that much better than an iPhone. Talking with someone recently that carries an iPhone, iPad, and laptop, they tended to use the iPad regularly, but it didn’t remove the need for the other devices. We’ll see if I make a case in my mind to get one.

    However you do it, go read. It’s good for you.

  • Risk Analysis

    I saw a post recently that talked about disaster recovery being an important part of your company’s systems and that you needed to be sure that you could recover everything in the event of a disaster. That’s a common perception we all have, but I noticed that another person had replied that we shouldn’t necessarily make DR a huge priority. Our DR spending ought to be inline with the risk of a disaster, and the actual costs, or losses, resulting from downtime.

    The decision on what to spend for DR can be answered by the classic DBA response, “it depends,” but I thought this Friday I might ask anyway.

    What do you spend on DR?

    I am asking as a percentage of your budget, or even the cost of running your large systems. Do you know what is spent? Do you know how to find out?

    I’m curious how involved many of you are in the DR process? Do you consider it a part of the application development? Do you think about the failure when the system is being put together and ensure that the setup or rebuild is easier in the future?

    This is an area that I think many companies ignore and count on things going their way. That’s not a great strategy, but it works for many companies. Most of us never have major disasters, and can usually fumble through small ones.

    I think that over time there will be less tolerance for the bumbling, keystone cops efforts of most IT shops. Our systems are  more integrated into businesses and there’s less possibility of even rolling back to non-computerizes systems in many cases.

    Thinking about DR earlier, and making the investment to ensure some level of DR is in place is the sign of a more mature business. And a more mature IT professional.

    Steve Jones

  • SQL Saturday Advice – Speaker Communication

    Recently I was at an event and a speaker wasn’t able to make a session. There was a minor scramble, and the session ended up being cancelled, which is fine, but it got me thinking about what I would do if I had an emergency.

    I don’t always have the contact information for organizers, and it’s not easily available. In some cases, I’m not sure how I’d get in touch with someone. I usually have an email, but not always, and I think my emergency solution would be to “tweet” that I wouldn’t be there with the hashtag for the event and hope someone picks it up.

    However I think there’s a better solution. In the speaker communication the last week before the event, let all speakers know that they are expected to meet their commitments and give them 2 or 3 phone numbers to call for issues. Make sure those people keep their cell phones handy and can respond.

    I’d also be sure you have address, phone, and map links for all the locations for speakers. I know most should be local, but spending a few minutes including links in the emails will help ensure that speakers have a smooth event and are happy to come back again.