Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • Book Review – The Checklist Manifesto

    77693778[1] Andy Warren recommended The Checklist Manifesto to me and after seeing his review, I decided to grab it. It’s written by a surgeon, and starts with a few stories of how people were saved in the ER by some amazing teamwork.

    The book then goes into a discussion on how complex the world is and how we have so much knowledge that we constantly struggle to apply it correctly. Many mistakes in medicine, law, and other fields are often the result of the inability of professionals to apply this knowledge at the right time. We have a data deluge, and he proposes a solution.

    A checklist.

    Not a step by step process, but more a few simple things that you should be sure to do when an event occurs. Using the complex processes of flying planes, building skyscrapers, and even investing, he shows that this doesn’t just apply to medicine, and really makes you rethink the way complex systems should be implemented.

    It’s a great books, and one that I highly recommend you read, especially if you deal with complex systems.

  • I’m a Midnight DBA

    Well, not really. However when I was recently up in Seattle, Jen and Sean McCown contacted me about being on their show and doing an interview. I agreed, and we met late, as in starting around 9:30pm one night, to do a sit down and interview.

    It was totally off the cuff, and I had fun with it. You can check out out here: Steve Jones in the House

  • A Couple Interesting Talks

    At the PASS Summit a few weeks ago, the keynote talks and the WIT luncheon were streamed live to the world. I watched most of the talks from my house, and some of them were very interesting.

    I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the first two days, which were full of too much marketing for me. There are some cool demos, but I’ll let you decide if it’s worth checking out. However the third keynote, from Dr. David Dewitt, was amazing. Just as it was last year, it was mind blowing, and I’m not completely sure I understood it, but it’s worth watching.

    David Dewitt Keynote

    The Women In Technology luncheon that I thought was interesting as well. I know that not everyone wants to take this on as a cause, but if you think that we should help promote technology to women, check it out.

    WIT Luncheon

  • Quiet Time

    It’s vacation week for me. Everything’s scheduled for SQLServerCentral, and my family is taking our annual ski break for Thanksgiving. We left on Sunday, after I returned from SQL Saturday #59 and are not due back in town until Fri or Sat. I’m not even sure how “wired” we’ll be, though I will be tweeting/FB’ing a bit from the slopes.

    We typically have gone skiing on Thursday to Sunday, but this year we managed to book a whole week in Winter Park, CO. So we took advantage of it, and I’m leaving work behind.

    It’s a good break, and while I’m worried about coming back to tons of articles to edit, I need to break. The last few months have been slightly crazy, and we have lots of stuff in the pipeline for next year, so I need to step back, relax, and then spend December looking to find ways to manage the work life balance.
    Hopefully everyone has a great holiday, and if you don’t get a response from my this week, you’ll know why.