I just saw this, but you should be aware. There’s a potential Denial of Service/Elevation of Privilege bug in SQL Server. Here’s the bulletin:
There are QFE and GDR patches for versions since 2008, but you need to read carefully to determine which one to install on your systems.
It’s T-SQL Tuesday time again. After missing two months with my sabbatical, I’m back.
The topic this month is hosted by Jeffrey Verheul and it is SQL Family and Community. That’s a topic near and dear to my heart, and I’m glad to participate this month. Jeffrey asks: How do you feel about SQL Family? Did they help you, or did you help someone in the SQL Family?
You can participate as well. Setup a blog, watch for the announcement each month (it varies, so search or follow #Tsql2sday on twitter) and then write a post on the second Tuesday of the month.
Contact Adam Machanic (Blog | @AdamMachanic) if you’d like to host. I also maintain a list of topics.
I have a couple thoughts about SQL Family to tell. There are many of them I’ve been a part of, and my apologies if you think I should have chosen another one, but I have to choose. The SQL Server community, the people in it, are just amazing. It’s a closer, and tighter, and friendlier community than I’ve ever been a part of.
It really is close to family.
A few years ago I was on a running streak. I ran at least a mile a day for over 1500 days. I actually retired the streak, but the milestone that might mean the most was day 1000.
I wrote a bit about the day, where I got a great note from work, and my family ran with me. I got lots of congratulations from the community, as there are quite a few runners who work with SQL Server, and many others who helped support and inspire me to keep going. However the big news came from a phone call.
Jes Borland (twitter, blog, BrentOzar Unlimited), whom I had never met at the time, contacted me and asked me for my phone number. She called and said that she was working on a gift for me: new shoes. With help from Red Gate, Jes arranged for a custom pair of Nike running shoes to be sent to me, customized with “1000” on the rear.
I still have those shoes, though the 1000 is coming off. I even wear them on occasion. Every time I look at them, I remember that phone call, and the really, really special gesture that Jes made.
I was touched, and I’ve been lucky enough to not only meet Jes and develop a friendship, but also run with her in Seattle, Fargo, and probably a few other places.
The one thing that seems to happen over and over again in the SQL Server professional community is that people care about each other. They help each other, and they respect each other. They pull together, working to help everyone be better.
Certainly people bicker. They get upset, and they disagree. However, it seems overall that we really are closer to an extended family, giving of ourselves to treat others well when we don’t have to. SQL Saturday is a great example of that, with tremendous growth in seven years, with events where people seem to be more well behaved toward each other than at many other events.
I see people offering others rides to and from places. I know community members that offer their homes to others to give them a place to stay, or will split a hotel room. We create opportunities to bond and relax with each other outside of events. #SQLRun, #SQLSki, #SQLCruise, #SQLKaraoke and more exist in casual, friendly ways that I haven’t run into when I’ve dealt with other technologies.
I don’t know that why the SQL Server community is different, but I’ve never seen another niche of professionals to whom I’d apply the word “family.”
Today’s editorial at SQLServerCental is entitled: We Don’t Care about Data and IT Security. It’s by Brian Kelley (author, blog, twitter), and I think it’s worth a few minutes of your time to read.
It’s aimed more at executives, and certainly talks about the disconnect between actions and words. People talk about security being important, but rarely seem to make fundamental changes that might improve things.
I tend to agree, though I also think it’s not as cut and dried, and often we have a disconnect in what we really want or need from security. Do we need chip-and-pin cards v our signature ones? It’s arguable that the former are more secure, but there have been incidents, and without a doubt the large scale of the US credit card market would mean more and more attacks. There is an argument that the devil we know is better than the one we don’t.
However there certainly are not great coding practices in many organizations. I think we far, far too often do not train or show new developers how to code more securely. We also don’t require older developers to change their habits to implement new techniques that limit issues. We also don’t bother to review code that consultants write and require security. It’s far too easy to “just get it into production” for many people.
Overall, I tend to agree with Schneier and Brian in that we need to rethink security in our languages, but also fundamentally in how computer systems work. We also need a culture of security, something that won’t take place until we mature as a digital civilization.
My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along. The sabbatical is over, but I’m still catching up on things.
Thursday, July 31. Final day of class for this semester. I knew I was close, and wasn’t too worried. I got to school early to miss traffic and was working on my laptop as a few other students walked by around 5. We chatted for a minute and they were heading in to finish. Around 5:40, I started to feel pressure and closed the laptop and got started.
Most of my table was together, dry fit, but I wanted to pin it, and also needed to clean up shoulders. I walked in early and sharpened a chisel to begin work on the shoulders. Sharp tools make a big difference.
I managed to clean things up so they fit well. Looking back, I should have checked lengths as I ended up shortening a few shoulders more than I wanted, meaning two aprons were different lengths. However I had things fitting well.
Next the instructor showed us how to pin the joints, and gave us the option of pins or glue. He also showed us glue, but I wanted to avoid that. I went back to my bench and got everything fitting well and then started to drill.
Things went quick on the drill press, though once again, I learned something. Good to have an instructor there to help guide and give hints. I might have drilled the wrong edge, which a few students did. Pay attention to the details.
The plan was two pins on one side (each leg) and one pin on the other. I marked carefully and then punched them out. Here’s the pattern. Roughly 3/4” from the top and bottom of the tenon (not apron) and then the one I between those.
With those all cut, and then offset (1/16” holes in the tenons, I was ready to pin. Here’s the first one going on. A dowel, sharpened on one end, driven through.
Once through, I had to cut them off.
The saws don’t get that close. I did borrow a flush cut saw from one guy, but didn’t want to keep using it, so I moved on to the old fashioned method.
It’s slow, and I learned to put the direction of the chisel perpendicular to the grain, and then saw sideways to get things cut. Once I had them down, they were pretty flush.
Next I needed to attach ledgers for the top. Glued on and then stapled to hold them. It seems like less hand tools over time, though another instructor said this is hard in the summer. Things are shortened up, moving at almost twice the speed of the fall/spring semesters.
I continued on, pounding in the long sides with two pins each.
Since this was final assembly, I ended up putting in four, then cutting off and chiseling all four at once. The a repeat on the other side.
With all four sides on, and almost 9:00, I measured and then put the top down with the legs on and screwed things down. This is where I realized that the top wasn’t square, with 1/16” off on two sides. A lesson, but it’s hard to tell with the table that it’s not square. Another lesson.
The only screws (and glue) are holding these ledgers to the aprons and then the top on. Overall, a success.
I set it down in front of the instructor at 9:15, 15 minutes early. Close, but better than most. I was first done, though 3-4 were done in the next few minutes, so not bad. A few people were still getting legs tapered or tops beveled.
To be fair, I didn’t use a plane for the bevel, which a few people did, but I wasn’t overly concerned. I’m confident I can, and I was running short of time with travel for work. I also learned a bit about how I might bevel things on the table saw.
I set the table on the floor, put a glue bottle on it and it didn’t roll. Considering I hadn’t double checked leg measurements, that’s a bit of a success.
Final project done, though I need to sand and finish it this weekend with some poly.
