Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • The Dream Machine

    I could replace my desktop since I have a similar setup

    Hardware is usually important to techies. I see now shortage of discussions and debates about this laptop or that. I see people asking about this machine or that ( the W530 looks niiiiiiiccccceee) and as various Surface tablets are announced, I often find people blogging about what they like or debating the merits on Twitter. In the SQL Server world, there are a few very impressive hardware setups at people’s homes.

    I ran across this post about life at Stripe and there was one benefit listed that caught my eye. In the post, the author says “New employees are asked to send in specifications for their dream machine, which is then built and waiting for them on their first day.” I think that’s a great benefit, and it shows that the company values their employees and wants to ensure they start off with a little excitement.

    This Friday I wanted to ask you what you’d do if that were offered to you. Most of us working for corporations get the same type of machine as all other technical employees, but imagine that isn’t the case.

    What machine would you specify if your boss gave you the choice?

    Personally I like my MacBook Air. It’s small, light, comes on instantly, and I find myself really enjoying OSX. The one thing it lacks is some horsepower, and if I need more I’d have to look at either one of the new Macbook Pros or the Lenovo 530. The former is very tempting right now, but the latter would allow me to replace my desktop as well since it can drive four external monitors.

    If you could spec out your machine when starting a new job tomorrow, what would you want?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Privacy

    Privacy icons
    We may be classifying all our data like this at some point.

    If you gamble online, you might be gambling in more than one way. It’s not surprising to me, but many online gambling businesses are located in places where the legal protections are more relaxed than in other places. However it’s not just the laws around the games themselves, but also the laws around data protections.

    Whether or not you have any sympathy here, or you think that companies engaged this this activity are worse than others, consider the fact that more and more companies in general are ignoring, flaunting, or just failing to keep up with data protection laws in other countries. What’s even worse, in my opinion, is that many of our laws are ill suited to dealing with the digital world and often don’t provide any protections for data that is more accessible, and greater in scale, than that which has ever been available.

    I have rarely known about data law changes, and have found myself ignorant of the laws in other countries at times. Not because I am looking to avoid any compliance, but because I’m too busy to keep up. I suspect many data professionals are in the same situation. We are unaware of problems in our data handling until there’s a complaint or someone notices.

    Privacy is important to many people in the world, despite the fact that all too often people aren’t sure how they would define the rules of privacy for their data. It’s a complex subject, and I understand the problems of passing or updating laws when various companies, advocacy groups, and even friends of lawmakers have opinions. I don’t know how things may evolve over time, but I do suspect that privacy and data handling will become more of a part of data professionals’ jobs in the future.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Rogue Algorithms

    Rogue Brewery
    If our systems go rogue, it’s not good for anyone. Keep those people around that understand them well.

    I have always thought that computers do some amazing things, but they tend to do what we tell them to do, even if what we tell them to do is not what we want them to do. In those cases we usually find computers are helping us make mistakes faster than ever before. As we automate and link more and more systems, this can become a bigger and bigger problem in the world.

    I ran across this short link on a rogue algorithm that caused a fluctuation in a number of stocks. It looks like this was a case of poor analysis and poor QA at one firm, bunt imagine if we had some type of “update” released to a large number of companies? This type of problem could cause a dramatic short term fluctuation in the stock market, which shouldn’t affect most of us in the long run, but you never know. If this caused a company to go out of business, and they were the company holding your retirement savings, you might feel differently.

    This isn’t necessarily a problem that affects just financial institutions and their custom software. This is potentially a problem in any business that writes its own algorithms. That includes many of our companies, and many of us. We write queries, reports, and develop algorithms that help “the business” analyze data and make decisions that can affect our companies.

    This is worrisome to me, especially when we have companies that press for more and more analysis, with algorithms written more and more quickly to respond to business events. Success in this area often depends on an understanding of the nature of the business and the meaning of data, and strong working relationships with the business analysts. That comes over time, and is easily lost when employee turnover is too high.

    I hope that companies are learning that there is value to retaining employees, especially those that work with data and have invested effort in learning more about their business. Unfortunately I think that it take a disaster like this for some managers to understand the value of retaining employees and their knowledge. Even more unfortunate is the fact some managers never learn that.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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

  • Ridiculous

     

    respect
    We should all remember to respect others in our community, especially at professional events.

    An excellent post from Bruce Schneier, based ona post by Valerie Aurora. Valerie’s post just pisses me off. She should never have had to write it. Bruce’s is a good reminder that we should recognize the value of a diverse group in our industry. I’vewritten about this before, and unfortunately, I’m not surprised I need to write about it again. This is a male dominated industry, for now, but that doesn’t excuse behavior like that talked about at DevCon.

    I haven’t seen that level of disrespect at any of the SQL conferences and I hope I never do. I have seen women placed in uncomfortable situations, which isn’t any better. We are all human, and some of us are attracted to others, which is natural. However in a professional environment, even at a social gathering in the evening, I think that as a man I should be very respectful of the fact that many of the women attending are doing so as colleagues and not anything else.

    It’s a challenge for women in this industry, and probably for many minority groups. That’s one reason I support the Women in Technology events and discussions. Education, understanding, and knowledge of problems is the best way to combat the issues, and ensure you don’t make the same mistakes twice. We all know this helps us when working with SQL Server. We should know this will help us in our interpersonal communications as well.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

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