Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Delivering Patches Quickly

    I love cars. In my life, I’ve owned and regularly driven well over 20 cars. If I count the ones I purchased for my kids and lightly drove, it’s over 30. Just writing this paragraph gets me a little itchy about looking for another car. Actually, I’m looking lightly now, as I expect two kids to move on next year and handle their own expenses. So, next year I’m hoping to add another vehicle.

    Recently I saw a note that there was an exploit against Tesla cars, which are rarely stolen, but there have been a few issues. This one was against the fobs that communicate with the car. Tesla is working on a patch, which is interesting. They’ve not only devised their cars, but also their fobs to get firmware updates. Good, and bad, as this increases attack surface area,

    Tesla can patch their cars in real time, and they do this fairly quickly. I have a 2012 BMW, and I have updated the firmware in it, but patches are rare, and most of them seem to be stuck in the “visit a dealer” paradigm. It seems many other makes of cars fall into the same paradigm, and aren’t built for regular updates.

    In some sense, this reminds me of the way many people deal with the their SQL Server databases. We put code out there, in tables, functions, procs, etc., and often we struggle to update that code quickly. This becomes especially true with applications that use our objects. I often find that changes seem to come slower and slower over time, much like the traditional way that your car is updated by a dealer only.

    Ideally, we’d be able to more quickly update code when there are issues. This is especially true if you have procs or other code that could potentially have security issues. DevOps asks us to move towards this type of flow, making changes, and adjusting quickly. There are certainly still challenges with changing code and adapting applications, but if front end developers and database developers worth together, we can deploy code quicker.

    Our customers don’t care about our challenges we face with writing and deploying code. What they want are new features, functions, better performance, and meeting their needs. DevOps helps, but it’s not easy. You have to automate things, deploy code sooner AND be willing to fix your code mistakes. You not only need testing, but testing that improves over time.

    It is, however, worth the effort.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 30 Nov 2020

    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.

    Today’s tip is to make a meal using a recipe or ingredient you’ve not tried before.

    While I enjoy cooking, I haven’t experimented a lot. Some, but not a lot. I made a few things this year that I’ve never made before, as an experiment. For example, I put together homemade ramen early in the pandemic, which was a hit.

    For me, I had never made donuts. We’ve enjoyed (too many) donuts during the pandemic, but most aren’t gluten free. I have a cookbook that includes and one for donuts. It’s involved, like bread, with letting the dough rise twice and then frying in oil.

    I told my daughter I’d make them and she got very excited. I didn’t quite realize what I’d gotten myself into, and it was hours after my girl expected something, but they came out well.

    20201115_190346

    It felt good to make these. My Mom had made something similar when I was a kid, but I’d never done them until now.

  • Black Friday Wishes

    It’s traditionally Black Friday in the US today, with big sales kicking off the Christmas season. This year, many companies have taken different approaches, with the pandemic and separation. Plenty of online training from SQL experts has been on sale and available, and there are certainly other deals to be had.

    I recently ran across a list on 10 tech holiday gifts that will delight your employees. I don’t know that I want any of these, and some of these are quite extravagant for an employee gift. At least, it feels that way to me.

    Today, I’m wondering if there is something you wish your employer would give you this holiday season, other than a bonus. Is there some tech gift that you’d appreciate?

    I used to manage technical people. At different times in my career, I’ve had different size teams, but I always made it a point to give a small gift at Christmas to my staff. I appreciated their efforts and work, and I felt it was important to let them know. I never gave big gifts, usually setting a limit of US$20-25 per person. With some teams as large as 12, this wasn’t inexpensive.

    I did make an effort to think about each person, and get something slightly tailored to them. Usually I had some theme, and people got similar gifts, but with a bit of personalization. These days, I don’t manage people, but I do help my wife get gifts together for her clients.

    Let me know today if you think there is anything you’d like, and feel free to forward this to your management. Maybe they’ll take the hint.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 27 Nov 2020

    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.

    Today’s tip is to broaden your perspective: read a different paper, magazine, or site.

    Many of us tend to get caught in bubbles of information. Google/Bing do this, bringing us certain results. We have a set group of people on social media, and often we read the same sites for news, information, fun, etc.

    The US election took place recently, and it was a contentious one. Like many, I was entranced with the process, the outcome, and the way the event unfolded. I have some sites for news, and a subscription, but I decided to try something different since I was hoping for other views.

    In particular, I gave CNN a try at CNN.com. I haven’t been thrilled with their television program for years, as I think they struggle to find new and interesting things to day and still fill 24 hours. However, I saw some ratings about how people around the world view the site, and it’s fairly neutral.

    I also grabbed a new book, Dirt, after hearing someone talk about it on NPR. It’s a book by a writer that moves to France to learn French cooking. A little out of my area, and I struggled to get into this book, but eventually it turned a corner, and I enjoyed hearing about how the writer blends cooking, chefs, ingredients, and life in a foreign country.