Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Privacy and Data

    Privacy. Security. Encryption. Protection. Responsibility.

    All big words, with many connotations. Unfortunately, the meanings behind the words seem to be dwarfed by one other word: profit. Data brokers and even departments inside various organizations make a lot of money from their data, and I don’t expect they’ll want to see that stop anytime soon.

    So much of our data is being collected, sold, and (arguably) poorly secured. Citizens are complaining and governments are taking some notice. The US Congress has a committee investigating how some of the large data brokers are handling data. The committee compiling the report doesn’t have much power, and I’m not convinced that much will change, regardless of the conclusions they reach.

    However I do think that those of us that work as data professionals should be aware that we may find ourselves bound by new rules and regulations over time. I wouldn’t think anyone would preemptively prepare for more control by changing their systems or processes, but I would expect that data professionals might want to ensure they understand how their data is being handled and secured, just in case anyone asks.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 1.6MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • The Worst Code

    This piece was written awhile ago by Jeff Atwood, but I saw a mention about it recently. It’s about software developers hating software. It’s a fun piece, and written a bit tongue-in-cheek, though with a lot of truth in there. Certainly lots of the “bundled software” that come with gadgets is unnecessary and poorly tested. That’s sad, as there is the chance to add value to products if the software is well written, and perhaps, open sourced.

    However the thing that caught my eye was the ending. Mr. Atwood says that if a developer in an interview doesn’t say the worst code they’ve seen lately is their own, then they may not be a competent developer. I hope that part is also a joke, and I suspect it is. Though I also think that it’s a healthy attitude for people to see room for improvement in most of their endeavors.

    No matter what type of task you are performing, and certainly programming is an area many of us focus, complacency is a poor way to approach your work. We know we won’t be perfect, we know we’ll make mistakes, we know there’s room for improvement, and we know we NEED TO GET THE PROJECT DONE. The balance we strike in moving forward should be accomplishing tasks, learning what we did right and wrong, doing more of the former (and less of the latter) in the future, all while taking pride in the work we do well.

    Certainly some people are obsessive and perfectionists. There’s probably another few choice words some of you have for those individuals, but most of us need to balance our desire to build something amazing, with the necessity of completing work. We also need those little wins that come from having our work solve problems, even if we’d build software better the next time. The important thing is that you try to do better the next time.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 2.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • How Many Passwords?

    How many user names and passwords do you have? If you’re like me, you have a lot of them. Actually I don’t have too many user names, sticking with “Steve Jones”, “sjones” or my well known “way0utwest” for my logins. However I do try to have as many passwords as I have logins. Using my Password Safe utility, I count 265 items in my personal safe and 176 in my business one. Some of those are old and dead, but quite a few of them I use on a regular basis.That’s similar to what Keith Combs notes in his blog post on IDs and passwords. He has 172, though I’m sure that number has crept up since he wrote the post. The piece links over to a few identity discussions from others at Microsoft that are trying to make identifying users and managing security easier. In the Microsoft world I think that works well, but the larger world outside of Microsoft software requires a bit more work for most of us.

    The original piece was written awhile back, and since that time, I’ve come to find that more and more of my logins are authorization links from one of the large companies (Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter), with some sort of token that allows me to login. I have my Live account working on a number of Microsoft based services, but my Google account crossing their platform to Gravitar and StackExchange. My Twitter and Facebook accounts are linked to a few places, though I’m careful about which one of those I link to which application or service.
    Using passwords, moving to application links from a platform, and even now adding two factor authentication with a mobile phone makes me think that we are not necessarily finding a better way of managing authentication. Perhaps we are making things much more complex without creating any more security.

    I don’t know what the future will bring, but I suspect that many of our current methods of providing security will prove to be inadequate. I’m hoping that we find out on some services like Funny or Die or ESPN, and not because people find ways to jump from external applications to internal servers like Exchange or SQL Server.Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.0MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.

  • #sqlhelp

    I know that Twitter is really representative of only a fraction of the people in the world, and arguably it’s not even a good representation of any group because it’s a self-selective group that chooses to share thoughts, ideas, news, etc. with the world. However I do enjoy the medium, and find myself learning about the world, thinking about opinions, and once in awhile, getting help.

    There is a hashtag on Twitter called #sqlhelp. It’s an amazing tool that I’d highly encourage all of you to consider when you want a quick answer to a problem. Hashtags are a way of denoting tweets about a common subject, though there is no official set of hashtags. You can make one up yourself and see if it catches on.

    #sqlhelp certainly did, and I find it useful for many short, quick questions. While I was writing this piece, I saw questions come up on licensing, Oracle->SQL Server conversions, security in a database, and how to read an execution plan. I also saw some noise, with requests for consultants to teach, product advertisements, and a webinar notice. I’m slightly worried that noise level might overwhelm this channel, but if you’re on twitter, you should try using it for your next problem.

    As with any answer you get from the Internet, you should test things yourself and decide how trustworthy the source is. You might get an answer from Brent Ozar or Paul Randal, but you might get some new DBA on his first day of work. Also be aware that 140 characters can severely limit the questions you can ask. If it’s complex, I’d suggest you try the SQLServerCentral forums instead.

    Whether you like Twitter (and #sqlhelp) or not, I do believe that this is a great example of how our community does a great job of helping each other out. We teach, learn, support, and inspire each other, arguably more than any other industry or technological group I know of. It’s a joy to be a part of the community, and I’d encourage you to join us on Twitter, forums, or local events.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.3MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Mevio . feed

    The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. Support this great duo at www.everydayjones.com.