Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Why Change?

    I was reading Change is Hard from Jeff Hackert and I started to think about the ways in which I both change and resist change. I then started to think about the ways in which I ask people to change what they’re doing. I do this both at work and in life, with mixed levels of success. The one thing the article got me to think about was the idea that in asking someone to change, I’m implying they are doing something poorly, or wrong, already.

    In some cases, that’s true. When I coach volleyball, I am often telling someone they are not practicing a technique correctly, and they need to change. The trick here is showing them what they are actually doing, since many of us don’t realize when we are moving our body incorrectly. We think we’re doing what we were told, and often it’s only with video evidence do we realize what we’re doing wrong. Once we do, it becomes easier to make corrections.

    In technology, this is often more nebulous. There isn’t often a set way that we should write code. Requirements vary, our schemas and data differ, and we almost always have disparate (and often not enough) indexes. Asking someone to change could very well mean asking them to admit they built something incorrectly. Sometimes we may do that, but often we have confidence in our work. Asking someone else to change how they build or develop software can be hard.

    What can even be harder is getting management to change. We often feel pressure from management, who usually see our systems working well enough. While we may see sub-optimal performance, they see business getting completed. While we see stress and long hours, they see work getting done at the same cost. Changing priorities to improve our applications often becomes secondary when potential new features and functions exist. Telling management they’re wrong is not only difficult, it’s often fruitless.

    Change is hard. Most humans like the status quo to continue indefinitely, even when we know that things can improve with some alteration in our routine. Inspiring others to join in and invest for the future is a skill. It’s one that I’d encourage you to develop, both with peers and management.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • The Pros and Cons of Terabyte Phones

    A few years ago I wrote a piece about the growth of storage in many devices and the large quantities of data that can be kept. I speculated that we might see terabyte mobile phone storage in a decade. That was 2014 and this past week Samsung announced they had created a 1TB embedded Universal Flash Storage chip for phones. You can already get a Note9 with 512GB of storage, so this isn’t a huge leap, but it does feel like a milestone.

    For many of us, that seems like a good move. We can keep all the photos, videos, movies, and more that we want on our phones. I take a lot of pictures in life, and lately I’ve struggled with a 32GB phone. I keep debating upgrading, just because I’d like more storage. There are certainly challenges with keeping all this imagery and video backed up, but that’s a separate discussion. I’d like to just be able to capture data and make decisions about how to protect it later. There are also plenty of transient items (movies, Pluralsight courses, and more) that I just want to keep on temporary storage for a limited time.

    More is better, but it also creates potential problems. With a 1TB, or potentially larger, storage on my phone, what about the problem of data loss and theft by insiders? Very few of us work in jobs where we can’t keep our mobile device with us. Many of us also work with sensitive data, and there is a potential for transferring a lot of data to a relatively innocuous device. These days we might not even need to plug in our mobiles with bluetooth file transfer programs. Even if we plug in a phone, that’s innocent and expected? Modern smartphones often need charging during the day.

    It’s not just us, but also contractors, consultants, and non-privileged users that might be able to move data. Certainly someone might act maliciously, but what about the potential for new types of malware? Android is more open and iOS, and there have been viruses. How long before there are some virus programs that try to connect to every SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc. database when plugged into your laptop?

    That might seem far fetched, and certainly our databases grow larger and larger, but much of the data is text, and more ERP/CRM programs are in use that contain known schemas where worms, virii, and other malware might target specific tables. A terabyte can store a lot of text data, especially if it’s usernames and password hashes.

    I don’t know of any mobile to PC infections yet, but I do know there are lots of smart people out there. It’s just a matter of time before someone starts to try and exploit the capabilities of modern mobile devices, especially those with large storage capacities.

    Steve Jones

  • Enjoying a Down Weekend

    The Oscar nominations were released recently, with quite a few nods to The Black Panther. I did see that one on a plane, and despite the small screen, I enjoyed the story and the visual action. It’s one that I may try to watch again on a larger screen at some point, likely with kids. The family is a group of Marvel fans, and while I’ve mostly stuck to the mainstream movies, the kids have enjoyed some of the series that complete the Marvel Universe. We’ve gone as a group to most of the theatrical movies, and I expect we’ll see the next Avengers when it releases.

    I also saw the best geek movies of 2018, most of which I had not seen. I’m more of an episodic, TV show fan, but I get to a few movies with my wife, who loves them. A good movie is sometimes a great break on the weekend from life, and I wanted to get some recommendations from others. Winter time in Colorado keeps me busy, and I love reading books, but sometimes curling up to watch a movie with the family is something I look forward to enjoying.

    There are more and more movies being released all the time, of all sorts, but it seems the geek, fantasy, science fiction genre has grown quite a bit. As a kid it felt like we had few of these style movies, and settled for the comic book genre to explore amazing imaginary ideas. Now it seems between Amazon, Netflix and other major studios, there are more new sci-fi or tech films than I have time to watch.

    Are there films you enjoyed in 2018? Perhaps there are a few you’re looking forward to in 2019 that you await. Take a minute today and give a quick review of what you’ve enjoyed and what films with technology, fantasy, or just thrilling sections that you think others might enjoy on a night away from work.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

  • Financial Advice for Techies

    I’m not writing a post here on how to manage your money, but I will point you to Troy Hunt’s post. He wrote a great one called 10 Personal Finance Lessons for Technology Professionals.

    Read it.

    I was lucky enough to be born with lots of advantages, not the least of which was some intelligence. However, as many people can attest, intelligence doesn’t mean you can manage money. There are lots of doctors out there that have gone bankrupt and lost their earnings.

    My parents taught me a bit about money and I’ve tried to do that with my kids. I’ve tried to be open and honest and help my kids grow up and at least understand the implications of their decisions.

    Troy has good advice, and I think he’s written a great post. I’ve followed a similar path, investing in real estate, though perhaps not with the focus of Troy. It’s put my wife and I in a good place, and as our kids leave the house, we are prepared to live a comfortable and enjoyable life.

    Read the post. Ask me, or Troy, questions if you are looking for help.