Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • AI Thoughts on the Build Keynote

    If you haven’t seen the Build 2023 keynote, it’s, well, interesting. At a surface level, it’s focused on AI and delivers some demos that many of us might find to be useful and intriguing. I didn’t attend the event (or watch it live), but I did see it a bit later and I made some notes, pausing the 30-minute talk a few times to think about what I’d seen.

    The opening lightly glosses over some of the AI enhancements to development tools and the environments that can be created quickly in GitHub or Azure. Some of us will like those, and maybe they’ll grow on me, but I tend to prefer a development environment on my own hardware, where I have unlimited compute power at a fixed cost. The first big announcement is then showing Copilot technology, essentially some ChatGPT-like abilities, embedded into Windows 11. The demo shows asking Windows where settings are, with the response including buttons to take actions, like setting dark mode. Minorly useful, though I think Windows search works fine. I can type “env” and get the “edit environment variables” in the results. I still have to click through to change things, but this doesn’t seem like a better use of AI, especially if I need to type “set dark mode” instead of “dark”.

    To be fair, the demo has the user asking for ways to adjust the system to get more work done. The suggestions are for dark mode and a focus timer. I knew about the former, but not the latter. Perhaps being able to ask for general assistance with tasks is useful as there are likely lots of features I know nothing about and wouldn’t even think to look for. There is also the option to drop a document, like a PDF, in the chat and Windows asks if the user wants the system to “explain”, “rewrite”, or “summarize” the document. The user clicks summarize and gets a summary of the document.

    There is also a demo with plugins that developers can write for Bing, such as one that uses a legal package to make a change to a document. While lawyers might be worried about their practices (or paralegals about job prospects), I’m more worried about a fundamental problem that many of us data professionals have seen in the past: garbage in, garbage out.

    In this case, if the AI model isn’t well-trained, can I really trust it to summarize a PDF or change a legal document? How can I tell if it’s wrong, or slightly off? In some sense, this reminds me of a high school report. It might summarize some text at an A level, or a D level. It’s up to me to judge that, and I can’t assume the results are good or bad.

    The important thing to keep in mind, however, is that we aren’t in that place with AI. We can’t just trust the AI. We are in a time when AI is an assistant, where it can help us complete a task or get something done a little quicker. We are still responsible. We still have to verify and do some work, but if the Copilot can automatically launch Jira and navigate to a ticket, or attach a document and create a short message to our team, that saves us time. It saves us tedium. It can make our jobs easier. We are still needed, but we don’t do all the heavy lifting.

    I do worry about some of the opportunities for plugins that developers will write strictly to monetize their efforts. If I want a shopping list, I don’t want it to go to Instacart. I want a list I can use. I realize that doesn’t necessarily make Microsoft or a developer any money, but not all the tasks and advances are about profit. Or at least, I hope they all aren’t. I hope some are here to just make the world better. For a quick view of what that could be, watch the keynote closing video.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • The Best Graph

    Conveying information is a bit of an art and science. Many of us have written reports, graphs, charts, etc. at some point in our career. We’ve likely created some good ones and some bad ones that our clients love or hate. Perhaps if you’re like me, you make a small attempt and then ask someone else to clean it up for you.

    However, visualizations are important. In the modern world, many people want a visualization instead of a table of data, or at least alongside a table. That means we want to ensure we are conveying information well and not just picking the prettiest picture.

    One interesting thing to consider is how different types of graphs affect how we process information. There was a post from Madiera Data that looked at how different graphs helped someone analyze the data. It starts with bar graphs, which have been very popular in the last few years. They are appearing in lots of business dashboards, news articles, and more. They can be useful in some situations, but not all. Especially when trying to compare the different segments.

    Instead, other visualizations can be better. The article shows table graphs are working well. I conducted my own experiment with visuals, and I found a line graph was easier to use. However, that was for my data. Your data might need different visuals if you use it differently.

    I don’t think there is a best graph, but there can be a best graph for a particular data set and a particular client(s). The way someone makes decisions based on a visual could dictate what works best. That’s my advice: work with your clients.

    For good general advice, I think you should lean on https://www.storytellingwithdata.com/, Meagan, and resources such as Edward Tufte, who have spent a lot of time thinking, experimenting, and understanding how to convey information visually. You could learn a lot from them.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Database APIs

    Creating an API and using an API server of some sort has become a very common way of working with modern software, especially distributed systems. Whether developers move to microservices or something else, they often make more use of APIs than ever before. At Redgate, I’ve watched us work on new products, often beginning with a basic API at the command line and evolving from there.

    However, does the database need an API? This article thinks so, though I don’t love the piece. It seems to wander a bit amongst a few topics and doesn’t always fit together. It’s also trying to promote the Stargate API gateway for Cassandra. I don’t know if this is a good idea, or if it really helps make developers more productive, but the idea of having an API for developers makes sense.

    In fact, when I work with clients I often try to get them to think of their tables as an API of sorts. With APIs, we want to rev them, but carefully. After all, we know there are dependencies from various other pieces of software, including other items inside the database. We want to be sure we don’t break anything. At least not for long, which is why DevOps and being able to release work quickly matters.

    Communicating changes and coordinating work is a challenge. I was surprised by a client who used SQL Doc for this reason, to ensure everyone had up-to-date knowledge of what their schema meant. It’s also a reason I’ve taken some of the work I do with clients and built my Architecting Zero Downtime talk. Many developers think narrowly about the requirement in front of them and not about all the other dependencies and impacts. I think a bit more unit testing in databases would help here. In fact, I demonstrate sometimes how to write a test that treats your table like an API to prevent breakage.

    I do agree that databases, especially relational ones can be complex. If we can simplify things for developers, especially developers new to our system, we can get more work done and hopefully, raise code quality. I don’t know that Stargate or GraphQL or anything else is better, though I have started to think LINQ is a better implementation than SQL for working with relational databases. That’s not going to change anytime soon, and plus, I need SQL to remain popular until I retire 😉

    Whether you formally build an API or not, it is helpful to treat your schema like an API and make changes in the same way that you would if there were other teams depending on your interface. That’s because there likely are others who depend on what you build.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.

  • Watashiato

    watashiato – n. curiosity about the impact you’ve had on the lives of the people you know, wondering which of your harmless actions or long-forgotten words might have altered the plot of their stories in ways you’ll never get to see.

    I found this word in the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which is excerpted at this site. This book includes new words that describe emotions in great depth. One of the descriptions was the word above, watashiato. Of the few dozen I read, this was the one that stood out to me, and it’s something I’ve experienced. Maybe more than just being curious, though.

    As someone that does a lot of writing and speaking, I know that my words and actions have an impact on others. I’ve had many people write to me or tell me in person that I’ve affected them. Usually, this is very positive, and I’m grateful for the kind words. I am proud and happy for the positive impacts I’ve had in people’s lives.

    However, I know I must have had negative impacts. I’m sure I’ve written or said something incorrect that upset someone, or messed up their day at work, or perhaps caused an outage and they had to work late. I hope I haven’t gotten anyone terminated, or even chastised from management for something they learned at SQL Server Central, but I don’t know. I try not to dwell on this, but at times I think about whether or not I’ve changed someone’s life for the worse.

    I might have treated someone poorly. I know I did early in my 20s, as an arrogant young man, but I’m sure I’ve done things that meant nothing to me but affected others. Perhaps even deeply.

    My life has gone well, my career is a success, and I am grateful for that. I try to appreciate the small moments in life, and embrace dés vu (the awareness that this moment will become a memory). My wife had trumspringa and made it come true, leaving her corporate job to train horses. I’ve watched others do the same thing.

    These days my goal is to live my life in a way that makes the world better. I work, I need a paycheck, but I try not to be driven by that. I appreciate time with loved ones and experiences. I appreciate the conversations, the handshakes, and the hugs. I look to enjoy the laughter with others and the hard times, appreciating them as a part of life. I try to leave the world a little better than I found it, and hopefully, lessen the chances of future sorrowful watashiato.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher, Spotify, or iTunes.