Voice of the DBA

Category: Blog

  • My Weekend Just Got Busy

    I’m traveling to New York City on Friday for SQL Saturday #59 and returning Sunday morning. As soon as I get home, I’m heading to Winter Park for a week’s vacation for the Thanksgiving holiday. We were actually supposed to leave Sat, and my wife still might. So I’m planning on getting home from the airport, having things packed, and be ready to head to the mountains.

    I was expecting to give my Modern Resume presentation and a short lunchtime SQL Source Control demo. As if that weren’t busy enough, I heard from SQL Saturday #59 yesterday that they were going to take me up on a previous offer to do an early morning “SQL Wake Up” at 8, while people are registering and eating breakfast. I also was asked to do a few SQL Saturday remarks during the opening session, so I have a little prep to do.

    With me being gone next week, this already is a busy week, but adding in a SQL Saturday trip means I am going to be really busy this week.

  • Another Plagiarizer

    I received a note today about someone else that is plagiarizing content from SQLServerCentral. It’s a blog on Windows Live Spaces by 岩松 in Peking. I won’t link it here, since it’s not important.

    There are any number of articles copied, with no attribution listed whatsoever. This person is from Peking, and lists their occupation as SE, which I am guessing is software engineer.

    I did try to contact them, as I usually do, but their privacy settings prevented me. So I sent a copyright violation to MSN.

    I read Brent Ozar’s post yesterday on plagiarism, and I somewhat agree, somewhat not. On one hand I get that cultures view this stuff differently, and laws are viewed/enforced differently. However leaving aside all the legal stuff, what about this:

    Do you ever feel that it’s moral for you to take credit for someone else’s work?

    I can’t imagine any culture supporting this. Does anyone want to tell their kids they can copy someone else’s work so they don’t have to learn in school? If your neighbor’s kid cut someone’s grass or performed a chore, would you send your kid out to the person’s house to get paid and take credit for the work?

    I don’t think most people would. But that’s what they’re doing when there’s no attribution or credit. I get that you might want to “share” information, but why not link back to the first site? At the very least it would raise both your search engine ratings and spread the information further.

    Why else would you blog? To get a job? That’s immoral. You’re implying you know how to a) do the task and b) communicate well. At least one of which you haven’t done, and you’re deceiving the person reading it.

    Make money from Google ads? Again, you’re implying you deserve the results from work you didn’t create.

    There’s no good excuse for re-posting someone else’s work and saying that you deserve credit for it. At least Cook’s Source gave people credit, and just violated copyright law.

  • Career Advice – Play Your Own Game

    I get asked this question fairly often. How do I find time to write so much, work on SQL Server, have a family, a ranch, etc. It seems that people often want to blog as much as me, or speak, or something else.

    It’s natural, I often look at others and think, why can’t I do what he does, or think that I should do what someone does.

    I don’t really want to be like someone, however. I don’t want to live another person’s life. I like my life. What I really would like to do is improve my life in some way.

    It’s easy to get caught up in trying to emulate someone that’s successful, but that’s the wrong thing. Really you want to take a piece of what someone else does and incorporate it into your life. We all look at the world differently and what might seem to work for someone else, or make them successful isn’t what wil work for you.

    Or work in your life.

    I try to stress with the Modern Resume that you want to find what works in your life, what you can handle, and what won’t become another stressor. Learn to do what works for you, in your life, and incorporate that.

    Don’t try to blog like me, or speak as often as I do, or write a book because someone you admire in this business has done it. Do it because it’s something that will work for you, and work at the appropriate time in your life.

    Play your own game.

  • How I like to work

    This is a great sign. I see if every time I go to Brother’s BBQ in Denver and it never fails to make me smile.

    brothers

    I snapped a quick picture last week, and in case you can’t see it because of the sun, the sign says:

    OPEN EVERYDAY

    FROM AROUND 10AM

    TO AT LEAST 10PM

    Those are great hours, especially for restaurant. A little flexibility is good, especially if business is good. Why knock off if things are going well, but why commit to longer hours if there’s no business.

    It’s also fun, and fun should be a little more part of our lives.