Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Open APIs

    The US Supreme Court ruling in Oracle v Google was released recently, with Google winning and removing, or reducing, copyright protection for APIs. That means if you use the same method names, parameter names, etc. as some other software, it is unlikely that the vendor for that software can sue you or force you to change. I think that makes sense, as in many cases, someone might accidentally copy an API in something like PowerShell. Already I’ve seen companies and individuals build “Get-ClusterName” calls.

    I don’t know all the ins and outs of this case. It’s complex, and I’ve seen some notes that Google had permission from Sun Microsystems to use Java. After Oracle bought Sun, apparently things changed, but I’m not sure how this agreement was structured or the legalities of how things evolved.

    In any case, I’m glad Google won. I think the specification of an API isn’t something that should be protected and limited. If a company implements a list of method names and parameters, I don’t feel those deserve protection. The actual code that runs should be protected, but the names in the interface shouldn’t be. This might mean that if I interfaced with, say a piece of retail software that had “GetOrder”, “NewOrder”, etc., and I wanted to switch from vendor A to vendor B, I could without modifying my app.

    This prevents lock-in, which isn’t something I want to see enforced in software. In fact, for things like medical software, I’d want the same API for all of them. This is something that I think will encourage interaction of software, and likely reduce costs for many types of COTS systems that allow connections from PowerShell, bash, and other scripting systems. I think this also helps developers that might work across platforms or systems and could use the same code structures to switch from one to the other.

    This also means that vendors implementing APIs need to do a good job with their software. They can’t hold customers hostage with their system over the cost of reworking code the connects with their software. I think that pressure to be better, whether in features, security, or maybe in all ways, is important for software to evolve and improve.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 26 Apr 2021

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

    Today’s tip is to spend less time sitting today. Stand, walk, move more.

    I ended last week looking to do some activity. Today, it’s just less sitting.

    That’s a challenge for me these days. It shouldn’t be, and I do get some exercise most days, but I find myself sitting for long stretches. I raise my standing desk less often, mostly because I think I’m a bit worn out from life.

    However, I’m making a small effort today. I’m taking more breaks and walking to the kitchen, upstairs, doing a touch more movement in the house. I am also trying to find a few minutes here and there to avoid sitting, and standing while in a meeting or watching some video content from our various updates.

    I know sitting isn’t great, but with life beating me down, I just want to sit. I don’t know I’ll change much, but I am making a bit more effort to try and get above 1000 steps by the end of the workday if I haven’t gone anywhere.

  • Mental Health Day from the WIT Group

    The pandemic of the last year has been a difficult time for many individuals and organizations. I know that I have had a number of ups and downs across the year.

    The Women in Technology virtual group is putting on a one day event, full of talks from a variety of speakers on Mental Health and Wellness. The event is on May 7, 2021, from 8am EDT to 6pm. You can register and attend, as well as view the schedule from the link above.

    I was asked to submit a talk, after publishing a year of coping tips at SQLServerCentral. It was an honor, and an interesting challenge. I’m not an expert in this area by any stretch, but I have had some struggles and worked through my own challenges, often with the help of the tips I published for others.

    I’ll be talking at 11:10am EDT, going over some of how the year has gone for me and the ways that I’ve tried to ensure life is still, well, enjoyable.

    Join me if you want something different. I’m certainly looking to some of the other talks from people that are sharing some of the experiences on the non-technical part of our lives.

  • Office FOMO

    There are plenty of companies that are starting to consider bringing people to the office. A few are tentatively making plans, Microsoft has opened campus with the option of 50% time at home. Google is aiming for Sept 1 and requires you to request remote work for more than 14 days a year. A few other friends are starting to go back 1-2 days a week at their companies, with the idea that this may increase over time.

    Redgate has still extended full time remote to the end of 2021, and I have no idea what things will look like after that. I’m curious, and anxious, as I want to go back to the office. Like mentioned in this piece, I am missing others, along with the interactions and the chance meetings. Grant wrote about things we miss recently, and that was my response. Not necessarily the office, but just missing the chance to interact with adults and talk tech.

    The bigger issue that I see, is that many of us may feel forced back into the office to take advantage of opportunities. The chance to get visibility with people outside our team, especially those that might be in management positions and can impact our careers. The face time, especially casual encounters outside of meetings, are a chance to impress others and give us an advantage over others.

    To me, this is the challenge of remote work when not everyone is remote. Out of sight, out of mind is an apt expression. While you might constantly contact those that you work with, who are the people that may give you a raise, a promotion, or a spot on a project that everyone wants to work on? Or the people that might decide who gets let go? If these are people you contact often, great. If not, that’s a problem, and in my experience, I don’t often get the chance to sell myself to them unless I’m in the office.

    These days I’m not as ambitious in my career, so I worry less about impressing others. I do want to see people, and that is what I miss the most during this pandemic. I do hope I can go back to the Redgate office and see people this fall, and I am hoping some events start to take place in person, perhaps with limited audiences, but in some way that allows us to have those chance, serendipitous interactions.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.