Voice of the DBA

Category: Editorial

  • Costing Cool Projects

    I ran across this article on how accounting can kill innovation, basically talking about the issues of applying our standard accounting rules and ROI calculations to innovative ideas. When an idea is too new, or too different, applying estimates of returns and value are often wildly incorrect.

    A study showed that when strict financial controls were not applied at the beginning, but rather decisions were made along the way to continue investing in projects, there were more likely to be positive  returns from the project.

    This approach seems to be one that could be useful in many BI type projects, and to a large extent, seems to be a good use of Powerpivot as a way to prototype projects. Assemble some data by hand, making a limited investment, and then determine if further investment is warranted.

    Companies often follow similar paths, with similar software and the differentiators between can turn out to be the innovation of the people inside the company. Making a case for innovation, with limited investment and small prototypes can be a great way to work on something interesting while potentially making yourself a very valuable employee to keep around.

    Steve Jones

  • Elections

    In the last few elections in the US, there has been concern over the validity of votes. As more and more electronic machines are being used to record votes, and often being built with very little security, how can we be sure that the data is being collected, tabulated, and securely stored for our elections? It’s an issue that most countries face, and will continue to face as they deal with larger and larger elections.

    Developing a secure way to collect, store, and verify data is hard. We struggle with that on a regular basis, and I think we often tend to ping across both ends of the spectrum on how to handle this. We tightly control all access and storage of data,  keeping access as limited as possible, and we still have regular problems with data loss and breaches. Or we may open up our systems to large groups of users, essentially ignoring security. Is there any hope for voting data?

    I came across this idea from David Bismark that explains a fairly simple, and reliable method of both allowing access to data, while also keeping the secrecy necessary for each person’s vote.  It’s in a TED Talk that discusses the idea in a few minutes, and it’s rather amazing.

    I don’t know if there’s something we can learn here to apply to other data issues, but I would guess that any area that needs to distribute data while protecting privacy could use something similar.

    Steve Jones

  • Speed

    We are always improving our computer hardware. It used to be that our CPUs increased their clock speed regularly. Then we started to add additional cores. Along with large increases of memory and disk technology, there has been this quest to lower the response time of our systems. However many of our computers don’t seem to actually be moving quicker.

    Are our database systems responding quicker? We have better search and join algorithms, hardware that transfers data quicker, and more knowledge about how to index our tables. I know all that information might not always be used in many systems, but we can strive to use the DMVs and DMFs to learn more about our databases and tune them better.

    But do they respond quicker? In many cases they don’t, and part of this is the continual growth of data. It seems we accumulate more and more data, at faster rates each year. There is also the ever-increasing level of overhead we seem to add to each piece of software we use. The bloat of software, often with frameworks designed to make the developer’s job easier, result in systems that aren’t any more responsive than they have been in the past.

    I do wish software responded quicker, but I also love the richness of so many applications and web sites that I see. I think overall we’ve improved the experience of working with software by adding new features and capabilities over the years, especially in SQL Server.

    Steve Jones

  • Coding With Music

    Lots of developers use headphones and music at work, though I think corporate life in cubes encourages this, just to block out the distractions. When the walls of your office stop at the 5 foot level, you might need all the privacy you can get from a large set of speakers attached to your head.

    I heard a few programmers debating this recently. One of them mentioned that he often uses music, a soothing melody that helps to block out distractions. Another said that white noise is a help. A few others actually mentioned that a private office and silence was more important for them. I know that in the past I’ve often tried to pick more mellow tunes, often jazz or classical music without a vocal component, when I needed to concentrate.

    Another person mentioned that there has been work that shows music is distracting to people, and it can perhaps occupy a portion of your brain and make you less efficient. You might notice less patterns, or consider things differently with music playing. I found that plausible, and decided to ask the question this Friday.

    Would you prefer silence, music, or some other background noise when you are working?

    I often go to a Starbucks or a bookstore and write on my laptop, just to have the white noise of people in the background. I think I get some level of energy from having other people around, but not interacting with me. I might listen to some music, but often I just sit there and focus on my work.

    When I used to work in a corporate environment, I found that I used music, but it was really to block out the distractions of other people nearby. Being in my own world often helped me get into the zone, and having large blocks of time were essential.

    So let us know what works for you, why, and if you’ve tried anything else. If you have good arguments to present to management for achieving your ideal work environment, let us know as well.

    Steve Jones