Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Computational Biologist

    I saw this job in a NYT times piece and was intrigued to see the mention of a computational biologist at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center. This is a job that couldn’t have existed in past, as throughout most of history we haven’t had computers that could do work in the way we do it today. I suppose we could possibly have had large numbers of people performing these tasks, but I’m not sure that would have been practical. I’m not even sure it would be feasible as the amount of resulting data might have easily overwhelmed any attempt at organization and understanding by a few individuals.

    What I found interesting in the piece is that the “team does not do the basic science. … His group works on the computational pipeline. They try to improve the affordability and effectiveness of cancer treatments through automation. Their goal is to help scientists and doctors tailor treatments to an individual’s situation in a way that should increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.”

    This use of data science and analysis is tackling quite a challenge here. The treatment of diverse humans is challenging, where each person can be slightly different in their biochemistry. What’s more, these diseases are still not well understood, and this doesn’t allow for a simple pattern that can be easily discerned from mounds of data. However bringing more analysis to the problem could have huge rewards for people suffering in the world.

    I have hope that in the future data will continue to solve more problems like this and make the world a better place.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 1.8MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • The Worst Comments

    I was watching a presentation recently on refactoring C# code and was amazed by some of the comments that the speakers showed in the code. The example was a real application that had been obfuscated and simplified a bit for the talk. The comments, however, had only been changed when they might disclose a specific person or company. The speakers pointed out a few of those changes, but also noted that most of the comments were verbatim from the original code.

    Comments like “Dave changed this from the old way”  or “Bug 445: as per the operations group” were good examples of bad comments. These items don’t really help a developer understand the code. The comments in application code should be there to add to the code itself, helping someone understand a reason for the code, not an obscure reference or an obvious statement (“this code adds two balances together).

    With that in mind, I’m sure many of you have come across some comments in code that have evoked a wide range of emotions. I’m sure you’ve been frustrated, annoyed, or something else. Perhaps even from your own comments. With that in mind…

    What are the worst comments you have found in code?

    I hope you don’t have examples in your current application, but perhaps you do. Perhaps you have even committed your own code recently without really taking the time to accurately describe the change. Maybe you want to go look in your VCS and see what you’ve entered lately.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • Data Breach Danger

    Recently a court in the US ruled that there was no imminent danger from a data breach at a Texas hospital. This is good news and bad news for the world, and I’m a little torn about how I feel. On one hand, it’s good for us as data professionals that we aren’t necessarily going to be liable for the immediate effects from lost data. While the losses aren’t always our fault, we certainly could feel pressure from management if companies faced immediately legal or financial penalties.

    However it’s bad news because I think there’s little else that data breaches do than cause harm to those whose information is lost. It can be incredibly hard to link a specific breach to a specific identity theft incident, and I see this as a way of allowing companies to escape liability for their poor security practices.

    In reality, however, I have no solution to propose. As a data professional, I try to keep data safe, but it’s very, very difficult. One small hole in your technical infrastructure or human employees and you can lose a ton of data very, very quickly. I know it’s not lost, but copied, however you have lost control of it.

    We will face more and more security incidents, and as those tasked with protecting data, I’m not sure what we can do, or should do. However, I do think that organizations can’t take all responsibility, nor can they take no responsibility. The balance of how to deal with losses and issues is certainly something I hope we work out.

    Soon.

    Steve Jones

  • Data Breach Danger

    Recently a court in the US ruled that there was no imminent danger from a data breach at a Texas hospital. This is good news and bad news for the world, and I’m a little torn about how I feel. On one hand, it’s good for us as data professionals that we aren’t necessarily going to be liable for the immediate effects from lost data. While the losses aren’t always our fault, we certainly could feel pressure from management if companies faced immediately legal or financial penalties.

    However it’s bad news because I think there’s little else that data breaches do than cause harm to those whose information is lost. It can be incredibly hard to link a specific breach to a specific identity theft incident, and I see this as a way of allowing companies to escape liability for their poor security practices.

    In reality, however, I have no solution to propose. As a data professional, I try to keep data safe, but it’s very, very difficult. One small hole in your technical infrastructure or human employees and you can lose a ton of data very, very quickly. I know it’s not lost, but copied, however you have lost control of it.

    We will face more and more security incidents, and as those tasked with protecting data, I’m not sure what we can do, or should do. However, I do think that organizations can’t take all responsibility, nor can they take no responsibility. The balance of how to deal with losses and issues is certainly something I hope we work out a a society.

    Soon.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.