Finding Thanks

Posted on November 25, 2020 by way0utwest

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US. While my family often gives thanks to each other over a big meal in the afternoon, I know plenty of people that make it a point to post about something that they are grateful for during each day of the month.

This year we won’t be having family over. A couple local members of our extended family are worried about COVID, for good reason. Others are out of town and not looking to travel. With a situation worsening in Colorado and a request from the state to avoid mixing households, I’ll have the smallest dinner we’ve had in decades.

This has been a challenging year for many of us, and certainly me. Despite the things that have been bothering me, I have made it a point with my coping tips to look for the good things I can find.

Today I want to acknowledge some career things that I’m thankful for. Apart from my SQLServerCentral founding partners, I am really grateful for the closeness that I have with people at Redgate. My trips over there have netted many friends, thoughtful conversations, memorable events, and tight bonds. As I think back across the last decade, I realize just how many of them have influenced me in life across that time.

I miss being able to visit Cambridge, but I am thankful for the times I have gone and the memories I can call on until I can go back.

I hope you find some things that you are thankful for in your career, your job, your coworkers, or somewhere else. Take a moment and enjoy some of them today. If you don’t have enough, then start working to find a place where you can build some.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

Posted in Editorial | Tagged | Comments Off on Finding Thanks

Daily Coping 25 Nov 2020

Posted on November 25, 2020 by way0utwest

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

Today’s tip is to connect with someone from a different generation.

I used to always view a different generation as an older one. Now as I age, with more life behind me than in front, I tend to think about younger generations more.

We did some speed networking recently at work, as a way to connect and meet other people. I ended up with people I know in two of the three sessions, but in the third, I ran into a former intern that was hired back during the pandemic.

It was a neat 10 minute conversation, hearing some of his experiences on how things are different, his experience and impressions of working with his team inside the company.

I enjoyed it, and it brought me back to my first job after college, and how different the experience was, both in life and at work.

I don’t know if he enjoyed it as I did, but I really appreciated the opportunity and perspective. I hope I get to see him again, and also get to do more speed networking.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Privacy Problems in Apps

Posted on November 24, 2020 by way0utwest

Software is a great equalizer, in that almost anyone can build an application and make it available for others. The app stores from Apple, Google, and others are great examples of where individuals or small teams have made some incredible applications that people all over the world use on a regular basis.

This year, a pandemic changed the world. One of the main things that many scientists and governments have desired to help control the spread of disease is contact tracing. One would think this is a great situation where technology can help.

It can, but many apps built for contact tracing aren’t respecting privacy. Researchers examined a number of apps in use around the world and found many aren’t using the privacy friendly notification systems that Google and Apple have built. There are a variety of permissions and practices in use, which is a little disconcerting. How can someone really understand the implications of choosing one over the other?

As with any situation, it’s likely that some developers have good reasons to request additional permissions and collect more data. Lots of governments and universities built apps because they didn’t feel the Google/Apple frameworks collect enough data. It’s also likely some malicious actors built apps to collect data, and certainly a few have been built with advertising or some other money making scheme integrated with the app.

If you choose to use some sort of app, you might spend a bit of time understand how it works, what data it collects, and if there are any policies or ability to control this. While we want to control and eradicate this pandemic, many of us don’t want lasting control of some data about us to be in the hands of others.

Steve Jones

Posted in Editorial | Tagged | Comments Off on Privacy Problems in Apps

Database DevOps Deployment to Azure–Webinar

Posted on November 24, 2020 by way0utwest

You can register now, but on Dec 3, I have a webinar with Microsoft on database devops and Azure. This is a joint effort with Redgate, so I’ll be showing some of our tools.

In the webinar, which I recorded last week, I walk through the idea of Database DevOps in general, showing how we evolve our database development to incorporate automation, use Azure DevOps, and deploy code to an Azure database.

Register today, and I’ll be ready for questions on Dec 3.

Posted in Blog | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Database DevOps Deployment to Azure–Webinar