Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

Back to Pensacola and SQL Saturday #132

This will be my fourth trip to Pensacola for SQL Saturday #132. I’ve enjoyed going every time and I usually take a day or two off from work on the trip to spend with my daughter. Last year we both got shirts, and had a good time at the event, and at the beach.

This year I’m giving three talks, which is a lot, but they’re spread out throughout the day. I have the Early Bird morning session, at 7:30, which is really there for the people that arrive early. I’ll be talking about Unstructured Data in SQL Server, going over the Filestream and Filetable options you have for storing binary data.

At lunch I’ll be doing a Preparing for Disaster Recovery talk at the vendor session where I’ll talk about how some of the Red Gate tools can help you prepare for disaster.

In the afternoon, I’m then talking Encryption at 4:30. It’s a beginner session, but I’ll show the various options you have and how they work in SQL Server. There’s a ton to learn about encryption, and I scratch the surface, but if you want to know what’s available, come see.

If you’re anywhere near Pensacola, I’d urge you to register and come by on June 9th. This is a free day of training on all different parts of SQL Server and you get the chance to improve your career for the price of a car trip and a little time on a Saturday.

If you’re not coming, cancel so others can atttend. It’s not sold out yet, but attendance is always good at this event.

June 4, 2012
The Standing Desk – Week 1
I finally got my standing desk working last weekend and started on Tuesday (after Memorial Day) working at it on a regular basis.

This was the initial setup

I used a box of books, with 4 more under the keyboard and another box for the mouse. I had two monitors working due to a lack of cables, but this would allow me to essentially duplicate what I had upstairs. I added a short barstool (round, no back) and I was ready to go.

I wrote a bit about this the other day, but this is a more detailed post after almost one work week (3+ days) of working.

Tuesday when I came downstairs, I was tired, and it was chilly, and I didn’t really want to go in the basement. I spent an hour with my laptop at my regular desk before deciding to go stand downstairs. It wasn’t bad, but I realized quickly that the keyboard and mouse were too low. The ergonomic position is slightly above the elbow, so I added another box, more books and raised things up. Books make a great experimental platform for raising lowering to different heights to see what works.

I also realized that I needed to get all four monitors going and see if I liked that. So I ordered two new cables, and kept working. I stood for 5-6 hours on Tuesday, taking a few breaks to go upstairs, run, and handle other non-desk tasks.

Wednesday I felt better and I sat at my desk for an hour for our weekly department conference call. I don’t have a webcam on the desktop and with the books, no desk to set the laptop on. However afterwards I went downstairs and worked. My round bar stool was too short, but I did find an older, tall barstool to use. The height is just high enough that I have to raise up an inch or so to sit down. Or sit up.

I didn’t love sitting down, but taking 10-15 minutes on the stool was nice.

Thursday my cables came, and I hooked everything up. I got all four monitors situated in the right position in Windows 7, though I am tempted to raise my bigger monitors up to the top and put the smaller ones below. Right now I feel like I’m looking down when I’m working. It’s not too bad, and it’s similar to how you might work with paper on a desk.

My legs feel a bit more tired, but not much. I notice it most when I’m running. It’s that they’re slightly more tired than normal. I suspect that I’m adapting better than most since I run every day (1370 days and counting), so I’m used to some amount of work from my legs every day.

I do find that I take more breaks now. I can’t sit with an empty coffee cup and get lost in work for 90 minutes. Every hour or so I get up and move upstairs. It’s also changing my eating slightly. I’m eating smaller meals, and planning on going upstairs every hour for a small snack or piece of fruit. I’m not sure of the long term health effects, but I can’t think of a reason why this would be bad.

On the extra plus side, my regular desk is fairly clean now

So far I like the experiment, and I do feel like I’m burning more calories overall. I’ll give it a couple more week and then set about re-evaluating my move back upstairs.

A few things I need to consider fixing
- flooring – Buck talked about padding and I think I need something. I have carpet, but otherwise this is cement and I know that will take a toll. Upstairs I have wood, but probably need more padding.
- Monitors – The smaller two of my monitors are older and dimmer. I don’t use them as much, but I don’t love looking down so much at the newer ones. I need to reverse the positions.
- Desk space – I’m used to having space for a bottle of water and a coffee cup, plus my phone, a plate if I eat, etc. I need to consider that as I move to a more permanent setting.
- Monitor mounts – My desk doesn’t have a lip to clamp on. Do I cut a hole in it or move this one upstairs? Decisions, decisions, and permission from my wife.
This is cross posted to both my personal blog and the Voice of the DBA.
June 1, 2012
I’m Going on Tour
I’ve done quite a bit of speaking over the last few years, which has required a lot of travel. I had 15 events that I attended last year, only one of which was in Denver, so I spent quite a few days on a plane.

This year I’ve cut back a bit, with only 3 events so far this year, but it will get busy this fall. The SQL in the City events last year in London and LA were a big success for my employer, Red Gate Software, and this year we’ve decided to expand and build a mini-tour of events.

We are back in London this July, for two dates this time on July 13, and 14. Friday is booked, but you can still register for Saturday, July 14 and come attend a free training event, which will talk about SQL Server issues and include information about how Red Gate’s products make you more efficient and effective at your job.

This fall, we are going on a 5-cities-in-11-days tour all over the US. We have booked the following dates:
In addition, we’ve added a sixth event in Seattle, on Monday, Nov 5, just before the PASS Summit.

These are free events, and we’ll have some tool tracks, talking about how to better get value from Red Gate tools, but we’ll also have tracks that talk about real issues you encounter as DBAs. I’ll be speaking, along with Brad McGehee and Grant Fritchey on writing better T-SQL, database maintenance, disaster recovery, and more.

This tour is something we’ve talked about for a few years, and we’ve finally gotten the time, money, and permission for a tour. So look for us to be traveling through your part of the US. I’m not sure if we’ll have a real tour bus to travel in style.

With quite a few people coming over from the UK, and a frugal boss, our budget might end up supporting a tour in something like this.

In any case, if you will be in one of the cities on any of the dates above, register today. It’s an exciting experiment, and one that I hope will be valuable for you and us, and something we’ll get to do every year in different cities.
May 30, 2012
The Standing Desk Experiment

I’ve had a few friends using standing desks for sometime. I first heard about Greg Gonzalez (sqlSentry | Blog | @SQLSensei), fellow runner and one of the smartest SQL people using a treadmill desk. I saw it in his office at SQLSentry a few years ago, and was intrigued, but I never tried anything. Then I saw Buck Woody (Blog | @buckwoody) build a standing desk at home, and still didn’t do anything. However a few weeks ago I ran into Buck in San Diego and we talked about it.

And I decided to start.

I bought a 4 monitor stand that clamps to a desk. I have been working with 2 monitors, but I had 3 set up for awhile and when I moved my desk I didn’t hook the third one back up. I’m actually tempted to add the 4th, so this was a good purchase.

However I didn’t look at my desk. It has no rear lip. I tried clamping it to my wife’s desk, which backs up to mine, but it didn’t work well. The weight and torque were a little much. I was slightly stymied, but then decided that I could experiment with my desk in the basement. I use that one for podcasts, and it has a lip. So I started moving things downstairs. I started with my spare monitors.

Once those were up, I shut down my desktop and dragged it downstairs, along with monitors and assorted cables. I hooked everything up and was ready to go when I remembered one thing. No Internet.

We don’t have cables run downstairs, and I didn’t have a spare wireless adapter. Or did I? I “borrowed” the one my son uses for the XBOX, forcing him to deal with the built in one in the slim, which lags at times. However priorities matter, and I told him it would be a week or two and then I’d move back upstairs.

No digital cables, or digital to analog adapters handy, so I’m with two monitors for now. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I decided to just order a few DVI cables so I can actually test this well. I have 2 19” monitors on top and 2 23” ones on the bottom, but I may need to reverse things. I’ll experiment over the next week or so.

I did a little minor work, including a podcast edit on this setup over the weekend, but it was like 30 minutes at a time. Today I added another box of books so the keyboard is above my elbows about an inch or so. Books are nice height adjusters for the test, so I can experiment a bit. I also raised the mouse as well, so it’s level with the keyboard.

Today I’ve worked a few hours, and it’s definitely more work than sitting. I hesitated getting going this am, both because I’d be in the basement, and because I was tired, but once I got started, I actually liked it. Definitely tired, and I need to get some shoes for the afternoon to see how it works, but for now it’s a good setup.

I’ll post more and add a few more pictures. It’s definitely a little out of sorts for me as I don’t have everything from upstairs. No speakers (headphones), limited power outlets until I move my other power strip down, and no office companion

May 29, 2012