Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • It’s the Bits

    This was a very interesting book years ago to read.
    This was a very interesting book years ago to read.

    This editorial was originally published on Mar 3, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is traveling.

    Years ago I read Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte and while I enjoyed the book, there was one very interesting story in there. Dr. Negroponte was crossing the border from the US to Canada and customs stopped him, checked his computer, and asked what the value was. He responded with “$2,000,000”, which is a lot of money. The customs person seemed taken aback and had expected some sort of value closer to $2000-5000. He responded that the bits inside, meaning his writings and other data, were way more valuable than the hardware.

    That’s how I feel about my laptop and why I love my 1GB and 2GB flash drives. I rarely travel, but I back up my documents, which are mostly text documents, before I go and keep the flash drive separate from my laptop in case of problems. I can always buy a new laptop if I need it, but I can’t easily replace the data.

    Some of you might have seen this article where a woman is suing Best Buy for US$54M because they lied about her stolen laptop and deceived her. Now I think this is an outrageous amount and it’s like the woman that received millions from McDonalds for being burned by their coffee. both ladies deserve compensation, but it should be in line with what happened. You can make the point without suing for an outrageous amount. Even $1M would make the point, and that would be too high. Sue them for $100,001 if you want attention. That might be more in line with the cover up that occurred.

    This really brings to mind two different things to me. First, keep good backups of your important data. I try to organize my stuff into a few areas and then get that to fit onto media that I can physically separate from my first machine. My wife used to go so far as to keep a 2nd laptop hard drive in her suitcase that contained copies of everything. That way if her laptop was stolen or damaged, she should plug the second drive in another laptop and be off and running.

    It’s easy to think of the physical device as being valuable, but I think for most of us the digital information inside is way more valuable than the hardware. And I think this is a trend that will continue over time, with the bits value dwarfing the electronics.

    And if you haven’t backed up your data recently, you might want to stop and make a quick copy of the important stuff.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    Everyday Jones

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  • The Load Poll

    Hopefully this isn't the load you see on your servers, but do you know what level of tps would cause this?
    Hopefully this isn’t the load you see on your servers, but do you know what level of tps would cause this?

    I was taking to someone recently and this person had a large transaction load on their SQL Server. At least, I thought it was a large load. This person said they experienced 1000tps most of the time and this made maintenance, DR planning, and more a challenge. That’s a lot lower than the TPCe performance system that has 4,614tps, but it’s nothing to sneer at. That feels like a significant load to me.

    However it’s been awhile since I worked on a variety of systems as a consultant. I often see the forums at SQLServerCentral showing only tens of transactions/sec, based on the performance data that you can see at monitor.red-gate.com. This is the actual data from our servers and it seems like a low number to me.

    This week I was trying to decide what 1000tps really means. Is this a busy system, maybe even an edge case if this is the average for your system over a week or month? Is it a representative system for many companies? I wanted to see what others report from their systems this week:

    What are your average and peak tps for most of the systems you manage?

    I’d like to hear about 1 or 2 systems that you consider to representative of the loads in your environment. Taken across your business time, whether that’s 9-5, 24×7 or something else, can you get the average and peak values for your transactions/sec and disclose them? You don’t need to let us know about your application or company, though industry would be nice.

    I’m curious how busy systems are for some of you and whether this presents you with challenges for migration, upgrades, virtualization, DR, maintenance or more.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • The Auto OS

    Will we see more integration of computers and cars in the future?
    Will we see more integration of computers and cars in the future?

    Those of you who have followed SQLServerCentral for a long time know that I like cars. I used to do car updates periodically, and still get in car debates on times over Twitter. I love my cars, and despite the age of a few of them, they’re all doing well. My Prius still gets 47-50 mpg (depending on weather) and it’s proven itself to be a great investment. It’s even paid off, and as gas prices rise, I use it more and more.

    For much of automotive history, the advancements have taken place under the hood or in the mechanical systems of the car. Computers have been a part of design and even operation for a long time, but primarily to keep the mechanical systems operating at a high efficiency. The interactions with drivers have mostly  come from entertainment or climate systems.

    That changed a little with the introduction of navigation systems, that allow a driver to spend less time finding destinations and concentrate on driving. I know that hybrids that surface efficiency information to the driver have changed the way I drive, even when I’m in another car. I suspect the same is true for many people that purchased cars with the idea they would save money on fuel. I suspect in the future we will get more interactions with cars in new ways, perhaps even in ways we hadn’t considered before.

    Cars are becoming more complex, and many have their own OSes inside. This might be the next OS war, after the mobile phone competitions that are ongoing between iOS, Android, and Window Phone. I suspect that these two are closely intertwined as I think integration between a mobile vehicle and a mobile phone is essential and I hope there are good APIs and standards that allow any phone to work with any car.

    Data integrity and security will become more important in the mobile platforms as we use them for more services. I hope that companies are paying attention to these issues, and ensuring they not only hire great developers and software engineers, but also good data professionals to help them build their systems. I suspect that isn’t the case, but perhaps a few of you will find jobs in the automotive industry and become strong advocates for data security.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Those Who Can, Do

    Getting a certification like this is good if it teaches you new skills and you use them.
    Getting a certification like this is good if it teaches you new skills and you use them.

    There was a time I considered staying in college, getting a masters or PhD and teaching others. I still might follow that path at some point since I enjoy speaking and teaching others how to better work with SQL Server. At some point, however, I became frustrated with the theoretical approaches many teachers had. Like many 20-something-old students I tended to subscribe to the mantra “those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.”

    I was reminded of that by this piece: Those Who Can Do, Those Who Can’t, Get Ceritified. It compares IT workers to the computer systems they manage, and it points out that if all that’s required is to pass a test, that’s something a computer can do very well, perhaps even replacing those that can just answer questions in their daily work.

    There’s some truth to that. I always wonder about a person that has 3, 4, or more certifications; do they have actual skills with the product?. Have they actually used the knowledge from those certifications in their work? Is the certification the goal, or is it a way to learn skills and knowledge that can be applied at work? If it’s the former and not the latter, then I’d say your efforts to advance your career through certification are poorly aimed.

    However if the certification gives you structure and focus, if it allows you to improve the skills you have, and bolster the weak areas in your knowledge, it can be beneficial to your career. If you are taking that knowledge and using it in your daily work, or even in your spare time, then the certification is merely a stepping stone to something greater.

    I don’t think that people who are certified are somehow incompetent at their jobs, but they have to showcase more than just the certification for me to believe they are valuable employees.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.