Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Stump the Wizard

    wizard
    Stump the wizard is a fun game for our car trips.


    Today we have an editorial from Aug 3, 2007. It is being republished as Steve is on vacation.

    It goes like this:

    Kendall: “I need a coach…Kyle!”

    They confer in the back seat of the car and in a minute we hear “I’m thinking of a word that starts with a “P”

    Mom: “It is an animal”

    Kyle: “No, it’s not a ‘pig’.”

    Mom: “It is an animal”

    Kyle: “No, it’s not a ‘pelican’.”

    Mom: “It is an animal”

    Kyle: “No, it’s not a ‘parrot’.”

    Delaney: “Is it the word in the military alphabet that starts with ‘P’?”

    Kyle: “No, it’s not ‘Parade’.”

    Delaney: “Is it the word in the military alphabet that starts with ‘P’?”

    Kyle: “Sorry Kendall, I don’t know that one.”

    Delaney (laughing): “It’s ‘Papa’!”

    Kyle: “The next letter is ‘a’.”

    Dad: “Is it something used to carry water?

    Kyle: “No, it’s no a ‘pail’.”

    Mom: “Is it something you do when you’re very scared?

    Kyle: “No, it’s no a ‘panic’.”

    In case you haven’t guessed, it’s a car game we play called “Stump the Wizard”. You try to guess the word by asking questions of the Wizard. If you can ask a question the wizard cannot answer, then you get the next letter. All subsequent answers to your questions must use the letters you have. If the wizard can come up with 3 answers to your question, then he or she is off the hook and the question is discarded. We’ve played this quite often and it’s fun, just hard enough to make it challenging, but it’s not too often that the word can’t be eventually guessed.

    It’s fun and you might want to try it sometime. So for a Friday poll, let’s get off technology.

    What’s a fun game to play with others that passes the time?

    With family, friends, even something to do while that next Service Pack is being applied. 20 Questions used to be our favorite before this one.

    A funny story: we played Stump the Wizard a bunch of times while driving around Cancun in June and of the dozen or so games we played, we were stumped twice. Both times by our 6 year old daughter, Kendall! She uses whoever is sitting next to her as her “coach.” She comes up with the word and they respond to the questions.

    The words? Palace and Vulture.

  • The Cloud

    cloud
    Has cloud computing changed at all in the last few years?

    This editorial was originally published on Sept 11, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.

    I was interested to hear about Microsoft providing some services and storage in the “Cloud.” I remember hearing about Amazon making disk space and computing services available to users.

    So is this the next big thing for us? Microsoft’s push of cloud services including software, storage, and more?

    I’m not sure if it is, and I’m not completely sure what to make of it. Amazon’s storage service might make some sense as a backup of your photos since it’s not likely that you’d lose your hard drive and Amazon would lose theirs at the same time, but it could happen.

    The worrisome thing is that while Amazon or Microsoft might tout their service as reliable, fault tolerant, etc., but the reality is that your 2GB or 4GB of stuff isn’t valuable to them. They’re not going to go through too many hoops to get that data back.

    And if it’s gone, it’s gone.

    Things always fail. Just think about the recent WGA problems, a service that you’d think that Microsoft would make sure is always working.

    I think that the cloud computing makes some sense for a Windows Live type of service. If I could have the latest version of Word or Excel in the cloud, with local (automatic, hint, hint) backups made to my local device, that’s pretty cool. Installing new versions of Office are a pain, especially when I almost never use Access, Powerpoint, or anything really beyond Word or Excel.

    It would probably install some crazy ActiveX type DLLs and make my system just as flaky as it is now. But since I reboot about once a month when I get patches (or lose power ), maybe that isn’t so bad.

    Steve Jones

  • Canceling Customers

    Sprint Fail
    This is not the image you want your customers to think about.

    Today’s editorial was originally published on Sept 4, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.

    Last week’s guest editorial talked a bit about the customer fiasco at Sprint. I certainly don’t think armed services personnel should be penalized and really should be able to get out of almost any contract without penalties if they are transferred. We certainly owe the individuals serving in any of our countries a debt of gratitude and this is the least we can do.

    However this seems like a data mining report gone bad to me. I can just imagine some pinheaded MBA reading a BI report that shows customer services costs are $1M and we can cut that down to $200,000 by getting rid of the 1000 customers that cost the most money. You figure that you have 50M customers, losing 1000 or so isn’t a big deal. You probably lose 10,000 a month anyway.

    So you dig in and see that by manipulating the report variables in your Cognos or Proclarity report, you can find customers that call support more than 25 times a month and customers that roam too much and set a monthly report to auto generate a letter to these people canceling their service. You get this brilliant idea approved and …

    You’re in the Wall Street Journal for incredibly insensitive actions. Anyone want that job?

    I think this would not have been a big deal for Sprint if they would have dug in deeply to the circumstances of everyone they were thinking of canceling. Check customer service logs, listen to some calls, see if they are truly problems that cost you money or if you have broken processes. From the reports I’ve seen on various sites and message boards, there were definitely some problems with Sprint’s customer service.

    If you decide to go into consulting, you will have problem customers. It’s just the law of averages that out of every 10 clients, you’ll have 1 or 2 that eat up most of your time, are a pain, etc. Dropping them isn’t always an option, but neither should you feel that you have to put up with problem customers. Be fair, give them honest effort and service for your charges, and do a professional job.

    But don’t put up with unfair treatment. The customer isn’t always right and sometimes does deserve to be fired.

    Steve Jones

  • The Certification Debate

    MCITPro Logo
    Is certification worth it? I think it can be.

    Today’s editorial was originally published on Aug 7, 2007. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.

    Is it worth getting certified? What do you get out of it? I’ve noticed a few debates on the site, and many threads asking about the exams, preparation, and even requirements for certification. Since we’re primarily a learning site, publishing new information for you on a daily basis, the whole certified v real world experience question is interesting to me.

    I read this interview with the CEO of New Horizons and it kind of annoyed me since the guy has an inherent bias towards certifications. Most of the New Horizon’s classes are “official” classes from Microsoft designed and built to move you along the path to certification, not really to do your job.

    And make both Microsoft and the training company money.

    I have to admit that I have a bias here since I used to own part of a training company that delivers custom training in Orlando. However our intention in starting the training company was to help those with a need for SQL Server training that would teach them things needed in the real world, not just things needed to pass some test. There’s a difference and I might not feel quite the same way if Microsoft offered an SSIS certification, an HA certification, a replication certification and more. Heck, I write the QODs, granted sometimes badly , but I know there’s enough stuff to test people on in each of those areas.

    I think the idea of certification is a good one and it has the potential to really help differentiate those with the ability to perform well in a job and those that won’t do as well. However the testing has to be geared towards that and we need ways to differentiate the skills and abilities. Without some type of internships, residencies, and focus on some specialty, attaining some certification doesn’t really help. And I’m not sure that many of us know what we want to do and are willing to invest 5 years in training in one area.

    Most employers now realize that a certification, or at least most certifications, in the IT industry is one small measure of an employee’s skills. It shows a commitment for someone with experience and shows a desire to work, but not necessarily skill, for those new to an area. It’s usually a filter these days, and a low one at that, with no guarantee of employment.

    I still argue that certification exams are a good thing IF you have experience. You can use them to bolster your claim of skills and show that you care something about your profession.

    That’s if you pass.

    Steve Jones