Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Starting the year out right

    It’s the end of another year, and thus the beginning of the next one. Whether you had a successful 2009 for your career or not, now is the time to set a goal and make a plan for the new year. Take an hour over the next day and think about your career and where you want to go, what you want out of your career in the next year, or even next three.

    Then make a goal.

    A resolution to do something along those lines. It could be blog more (or better), learn a new skill, take on a new responsibility, or something else, but make an effort in 2010 to add something substantial to your modern resume. Add something that will build your brand and make it more attractive to your current, or a potential new, employer.

    Something besides another year of work.

    cross posted to The Modern Resume

  • Where’s My Laptop

    It’s been almost 4 weeks without my laptop. I mailed it back to Toshiba and they received it on Dec 4. They then worked on it, and I got a few updates before they shipped it back on Dec 13, which was within their 7-10 business day window. I got a great lack of data about what was wrong in the package with a blank tech report. I did get some updates on the web, which listed a replacement system board and graphics board.

    I had it for about 12 hours, having it blue screen while booting up on Dec 16th at night. I even pulled the memory chips out one at a time, replacing them back in to check on those being bad. I also tried to reload the OS, none of which worked. It constantly core dumped before loading Windows.

    So I immediately took it back to the UPS store after calling Toshiba on Dec 17 and shipped it out. The Depot had it on 12/21, and since then I’ve had one note on 12/23 that says "diag – error code 0x0000009C""

    No idea what that means, and I can see the tech having the 24th and 25th off, but today? Nothing?

    Shoddy service, and it’s a huge pain. On the 12th I almost bought a new laptop from Amazon thinking that it would be good to have a spare. Then this past weekend, being unable to write upstairs, I started looking again.

    I remember Glenn Barry talking about his PDC gift, and I checked out the specs. It’s a nice machine and has one thing I think is pretty cool: it will connect with broadband by inserting a SIM. That might be handy, and easier to use the tethering, which still seems immature. I found one for sale on Craigslist and I’m tempted to get it, but I want to be sure the keyboard isn’t too small.

    I also tried out the 11” laptop I got my oldest and that seems like the keyboard might just work, so if I don’t get the Acer tablet, I think I will get a spare 13” or 14” laptop just in case.

  • Who Uses Rules?

    Someone submitted an article recently that walked through how to find the rules in your database, which columns they were bound to, and then how to remove them in order to replace them with Check Constraints. It was interesting because it had been a long time since I’d worked with rules.

    Actually I never used them in any databases I designed, though I did run into them with some third party products. For those of you not familiar, a rule functions like a CHECK CONSTRAINT, and determines what is a valid value to put into a column. You use sp_bindrule to link a rule (like a default) to a column. As that page says, however, rules are deprecated and shouldn’t be used.

    In fact, they ought to be replaced with check constraints, which function in much the same manner. It’s fairly easy to do, although determining where the rules are bound isn’t. Look for the article soon at SQLServerCentral.

    And start replacing those rules with constraints. It will save you some work down the road as likely SQL 11 or SQL 12 won’t upgrade with them.

  • I have pens!

    We usually stuff stockings with little things for each other in the family. Sometimes it’s junk, or candy, but this year I tried to be a little better. I aimed for funny and practical, and cheap.

    My wife got some wiper blades since her truck needs them. My oldest got deer whistles since he’s worried about hitting a deer out here. All the kids got little flashlights, and there were a couple book lights in there.

    Me? I got pens! Nothing fancy, just a pack of cheap Bic clicker pens.

    It’s funny since I am always complaining that I can’t find pens. Despite all the stuff on my desk, I have lots of pencils, sharpies, and other desk instruments, but not pens. So finding them in my stocking was pretty funny for me.