Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Daily Coping 3 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 think of three things that give you hope for the future.

    Today especially, election day in the US, it likely feels hope is elusive for many, but I don’t feel that way. I do have some anxiety, but it’s mostly for the immediate changes in my country, not the future beyond the next year.

    I do have hope and here are three things that I do cling to.

    Individuals are good

    Despite the disagreements I might have with many people about how specific issues, for the most part, I find that people I encounter in life, even in this crazy pandemic world, are good. They have compassion, empathy, and kindness towards others that stand in front of them. It’s important to remember that most of our world is still our live connections, not the digital ones.

    The Next Generations Have Values Beyond Themselves

    I don’t mean to imply that my generation doesn’t think this way, but I find that so many people overall think about themselves more so than anything else. They look at their situation, or their family’s, as much more important than anything else. They have short term thinking, in general.

    Despite the vapid, immediacy of how so many young people view the world, I also find them to more often be thinking about the wider world, other cultures, the planet, and more abstract items, with less concern about money.

    A vague generalization, but one I think is hopeful for the future of many aspects of the world.

    We Locked Down

    As much as a pain as it was, and as much disruption as it caused, regardless of effectiveness, I was amazed the world pulled together to shut down most air travel, most borders, and many businesses.

    It was truly amazing to me that we were able to do this without too much resistance. I know that this has been contentious since then, but in March and April, the world amazed me. Much like I was impressed by efforts like this one.

  • Daily Coping 2 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 start the week by writing down your top priorities and plans.

    It’s the start of a new month, and a new week. Let’s get organized.

    Top priorities and plans:

    1. DPS Presentations
    2. Gym Time
    3. Coaching Decisions
    4. Database Weekly

    These are the big items. The PASS Summit is next week, but two recordings are in, and the one I’m  going live I’ll practice again next week. For this week, I need to get things prepped for the Data Platform Summit, where I have 2 talks I need to record in the next couple weeks.

    After that, I missed a week of the gym, feeling ill. I got back to things last week, but I want to continue to be on track here and take care of my body.

    My volleyball team has been playing 15s and 16s tournaments, but it’s tough, so need to decide on a direction and move forward with that.

    It’s Database Weekly week for me, so I need to keep working on that each day for a bit.

  • Azure DevOps–Using Variable Groups

    I was in a webinar recently and saw a note about variable groups. That looked interesting, as I’ve started to find that I may have lots of variables in some pipelines, and I thought this would keep me organized. However, these are better than that.

    When I go to the variable screen for a pipeline, I see this my variables, but on the left side, I see “Variable groups”. If I click this, I see some info.:

    2020-10-21 14_54_57-Release SimpleTalkDB - Pipelines

    The top link takes me to a doc page, where I see this sentence: “Use a variable group to store values that you want to control and make available across multiple pipelines.”

    Now that is interesting. I have been thinking about different pipelines, so having variables that work across them is good.

    To create a variable group, I need to go to the Library, which is another menu item under the Pipelines area. I get a list of groups, of which I have none right now.

    2020-10-21 14_58_23-Library - Pipelines

    When I click the blue button, I get a form with the group properties, and then a variables section below.

    2020-10-21 14_59_06-Library - Pipelines

    I add a couple variables and add some group info. In this case, I want some secret values that are useful across different pipelines.

    2020-10-21 15_01_38-Library - Pipelines

    You do need to click Save at the end of this.

    In my pipeline, I see I have some variables. On the left, again, is a Variable groups item.

    2020-10-21 15_02_52-Release SimpleTalkDB - Pipelines

    When I click that, I don’t see any, but I haven’t linked any. Here I need to link my group.

    2020-10-21 15_03_26-Release SimpleTalkDB - Pipelines

    When I click this, I get a blade on the right. I can then see my group(s), and I can set a scope. I do need to click the group and then I can click link at the bottom.

    2020-10-21 15_04_23-Window

    Now I see the variables available in my pipeline.

    2020-10-21 15_05_06-Release SimpleTalkDB - Pipelines

    That’s pretty cool, especially as I am starting to see separate pipelines for different downstream environments becoming more popular.

  • Goal Progress– October 2020

    This is my report, which continues on from the Aug report. After that report, I made an effort to work a little harder. This is where I am.

    Reading Goals

    Here were my goals for the year.

    • 3 technical books
    • 2 non-technical books

    Books I’ve tackled:

    I made an effort during some lunches and breaks to work on Making Work Visible and finished it. The middle of the book was hard, but the end got me thinking again. I’ll write a review soon.

    No Power BI or White Fragility. I’ve been a little unfocused and struggling to cope for a couple months and trying to let my brain relax when I can.

    I added the last book after hearing the author talk about poker and how it relates to life and decision making. So far, it’s a mix of poker, fear, and the challenges of imperfect information.

    Project Goals

    Here were my project goals, working with software

    • A Power BI report that updates from a database
    • A mobile app reading data from somewhere
    • A website that showcases changes and data from a database.

    I started compiling some data, grabbing some stats from my life. I’m loading that into a db , as a part of life and some content work, so I’ll write about that. Once I get that loaded, I’m thinking to use that db as a way to kick start some of these items.

    Work is not slowing this fall,but I did take a bit of time and start to build a PowerBI report that has some data in a database. Early days here, and I really think this is about 10% done, but it’s moving.

    Nothing on the mobile app, nothing on the website for now.