Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Privacy Problems in Apps

    Software is a great equalizer, in that almost anyone can build an application and make it available for others. The app stores from Apple, Google, and others are great examples of where individuals or small teams have made some incredible applications that people all over the world use on a regular basis.

    This year, a pandemic changed the world. One of the main things that many scientists and governments have desired to help control the spread of disease is contact tracing. One would think this is a great situation where technology can help.

    It can, but many apps built for contact tracing aren’t respecting privacy. Researchers examined a number of apps in use around the world and found many aren’t using the privacy friendly notification systems that Google and Apple have built. There are a variety of permissions and practices in use, which is a little disconcerting. How can someone really understand the implications of choosing one over the other?

    As with any situation, it’s likely that some developers have good reasons to request additional permissions and collect more data. Lots of governments and universities built apps because they didn’t feel the Google/Apple frameworks collect enough data. It’s also likely some malicious actors built apps to collect data, and certainly a few have been built with advertising or some other money making scheme integrated with the app.

    If you choose to use some sort of app, you might spend a bit of time understand how it works, what data it collects, and if there are any policies or ability to control this. While we want to control and eradicate this pandemic, many of us don’t want lasting control of some data about us to be in the hands of others.

    Steve Jones

  • Database DevOps Deployment to Azure–Webinar

    You can register now, but on Dec 3, I have a webinar with Microsoft on database devops and Azure. This is a joint effort with Redgate, so I’ll be showing some of our tools.

    In the webinar, which I recorded last week, I walk through the idea of Database DevOps in general, showing how we evolve our database development to incorporate automation, use Azure DevOps, and deploy code to an Azure database.

    Register today, and I’ll be ready for questions on Dec 3.

  • Daily Coping 24 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 look at life through someone else’s eyes and see their perspective.

    In today’s world, in many places, I find that people lack the ability to look at the world through other’s eyes. We’ve lost some empathy and willingness to examine things from another perspective. This is especially true during the pandemic, where politics and frustrations seem to be overwhelming.

    I have my own views, but I had the chance to hang out with a friend recently. This person sees the world differently than I, but I decided to understand, not argue or complain. In this case, the person talked a bit about why they agreed or disagreed with particular decisions or actions by the state or individuals. I asked questions for clarification or more detail, but allowed this person to educate me on their point of view.

    It was a good conversation, in a way that’s often lost in the media or in larger groups. I didn’t agree with everything, and did feel there were some emotions overriding logic, but I could understand and appreciate the perspective, even if I disagreed with portions.

    I like these conversations and I wish we could have more of them in small groups, in a civilized fashion.

  • Rough Consensus

    The IETF has a document, RFC 7282, also called ” On Consensus and Humming in the IETF”, in which they describe how the body makes decisions. This is their philosophy:

    We reject: kings, presidents and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code.

    That is a process that I can get behind. Overall, I don’t like authoritative leaders. I don’t like to be one, though I do recognize as a manager there are times I need to make some decision. Overall, however, I like consensus.

    Someone was discussing how to choose approaches when developing software and brought my attention to that quote. With us being remote now, and unable to hum, this person talked about how to solve problems without humming.

    This individual talked about identifying solutions in a team, but not taking a vote, or rather, no immediate vote. Instead, they devised a rating system allowing everyone to look at all solutions and rate them from 5 (best solution ever) to 1 (this would be a terrible mistake). They then produce a histogram of the results for each solution.

    Once they’ve done this, they can then have people raise issues and debate them. I assume time limited, which is important, but often when we see different levels of support, we may rethink our rating or the merits/detractions of an approach. At some point, they re-rate the solutions and try to develop consensus.

    We won’t always agree completely with an approach, but I do think that we can often come to some decision we can support, especially with some rational arguments and reasoning. I’d like to think that I rarely had to overrule an entire group. Building a team means finding ways to discuss, debate, and decide together.

    Steve Jones