Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Daily Coping–23 Mar 2020

    I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

    Today is the start of coping, and the newsletter has this in it:

    • Keep Calm
    • Stay Wise
    • Be Kind

    Interesting mantras, and they’re on the front page of the Action for Happiness site. Someone at Redgate pointed this out to me, and I needed it.

    It’s hard to keep calm. I’ve had people with direct contact to me or my family get sick. There are people my family knows firsthand that have gotten sick but can’t determine if they have COVID-19 or a bad flu. It’s a scary time, but I’m trying to remind myself that my family and I are healthy and doing well. This is a new reality to cope with and we need to support each other for now.

    I usually try to avoid news. The world has gotten very excitable, and there is a lot of sensationalism in the news. There’s a very disturbing partisanship online, and for the most part, I think people present themselves in a much poorer way than they do in person.

    However, I also think it’s important to understand what’s going on. I try hard not to get emotional, but just understand more about this pandemic and what makes sense. I try not to blindly accept things, but look for some confirmation that I am better off doing A than B. It’s hard, but I’m trying to get some limited information and make smart choices.

    I do think that this is the time to be more understanding and kind to others. That includes my family, as we’re self isolating for a few weeks. Close quarters bring conflicts, and so I am trying to remember to be kind when I can.

    I think this is especially important online, so if I’m less talkative, it might be that I need to take a few breaths and remember this.

    I’ll continue to talk about my coping mechanisms through this, and try to keep some daily things in the newsletter to think about.

  • Save the Dates for Redgate Streamed

    We’ve got three days of online content coming your way from Redgate on Apr 1-3. There is a great lineup, and you can register for each day here:

    This is a tough time for many of us, being stuck at home, out of our routine, adapting to a new world. At the same time, companies are still trying to get work done, and they are recognizing the need for better software development, especially in remote scenarios.

    We’ve got a lineup of talented speakers, both inside Redgate and from our Friends and partners, that can help you break up your day, and learn about how you might build a more efficient process.

    Check out our schedule and join us when you want to learn a bit more or even just touch base with some other live humans in a similar situation as you.

  • Learning some DAX

    I’ve not done much BI work in my career, other than simple aggregates in reports. I’ve wanted to tackle projects, but I’ve rarely had a chance to spend time in this area at work.

    Recently I had a bit of time and decided to look at some Power BI courses.  At Pluralsight, when searching Power BI, I got a learning path that showed a number of courses from different authors. In the intermediate track, the first course was from Eugene Meidinger.

    2019-12-09 13_40_32-Microsoft Power BI for Analysts Path _ Pluralsight

    I met Eugene last year at SQL Saturday Pittsburgh and decided to give his course on Getting Started with DAX Formulas in Power BI, Power Pivot, and SSAS. Not quite what I wanted, but since I was curious about DAX, I decided to give it a try.

    Understanding DAX

    The intro is interesting. Eugene makes a good case for why DAX is important in the Microsoft stack. I tend to agree as I see this being incorporated into many products, including Excel. I’ve felt somewhat out of touch in that I haven’t known much about it and how it works. Even when I flip through our Stairway series, I’m somewhat skimming and haven’t really understood what it means.

    I think Eugene does a good job of trying to explain DAX as different than, but similar to Excel. Thinking of this as an expression language, rather than a query language, isn’t something I’ve considered. Maybe I’ve heard this, but it didn’t stick.

    He also lets me know this isn’t easy, which is what I’ve thought. I’ve seen Bill Pearson and Reza Rad talk some DAX, and it wasn’t quite clear to me. It felt clear when they were speaking, but not later. I’m hoping Gene teaches me a bit more in my office rather than in a 1 hour session.

    Going Through the Overview

    I went through the first few modules, which give you an overview and basic understanding. Eugene tries to explain the differences between DAX and SQL, which is a good way to approach the problem. Many of us are familiar with SQL, so this is helpful.

    The third module starts to get into data governance and where you use DAX with your data. This is interesting, and it’s a good look at what type of organization you deal with for data. How is your data managed, which is something that most companies don’t really have a good, or consistent, data governance strategy.

    One good thing is that Eugene explains  the different places where DAX is supported for queries. That’s good since I’ve been thinking of DAX as the Power BI language, but it’s not. It can be used in Excel with PowerPivot.

    The fourth module is the one where we start to understand column storage and the value this gives us. Still no DAX, but it’s a good module for analysts and relation people.

    In getting through 4 modules, no real technical stuff that’s helped me, but it’s given me a little better baseline.

  • Folding for Research

    I saw Glenn Berry’s post on Folding@Home and decided to join. I downloaded the client and installed it.

    From there, I set up an identity and added the SQLFamily team of 236388. I also created a passkey for security with my account. I’m online, and I can see my credits.

    2020-03-11 14_02_59-FAHControl - Folding@home Client Advanced Control

    I can track my contribution on the team as well. So far, nothing from me, but I’m guessing once I get a work unit done, I’ll see some contribution.

    Donating Something

    This is a good project for researchers, who are likely short of funds all the time. It’s a small donation of bandwidth and electricity on my part, but if I can help, I’d like to do so.

    If you’re interested in helping out this way, feel free to join this team that Glenn set up.

    One minor caution note, this can use lots of CPU. In the medium setting, at a low priority, this runs about 65% of my CPU power.