Bean Counting to Burnout

Posted on October 14, 2020 by way0utwest

I was listening to a story about healthcare in the US recently. This was an interview with Vivian Lee, the author of The Long Fix, which proposes some ways to improve the system under which I live. I thought it was a good interview, and I am looking forward to reading the book.

There was one stretch in the interview that caught my ear, and that was on the struggles of many modern doctors in the US to avoid burnout. A part of the reason for this is the amount of paperwork they must complete, which takes away from many of the reasons they got into practicing medicine.

I know that many people in IT professions work long hours. We have lots of deadlines to meet, on call responsibilities, and the pressures to ensure that our systems work well for customers and clients. We don’t necessarily have the upside that doctors do, so working harder doesn’t necessarily lead to more compensation.

On top of the work we do, there seem to be no shortage of meetings in many companies, though I don’t hear too many complaints about paperwork. However, with the move to more OpEx and cloud services, I wonder if we will have to deal with more paperwork in the future, more reporting, and more accountability for the financial side of our departments.

I would like to think that we will continue to work with technology most of the time, and I hope that after this pandemic that most managers will cut down on meetings and start to trust more people to get work done without oversight. We certainly have enough of a risk of burnout without the added burden of unnecessary meetings and paperwork.

Steve Jones

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Writing Output from Powershell

Posted on October 14, 2020 by way0utwest

One of the things we often want to do when building a PoSh script is to get some output. I first learned about Write-Host, but I learned over time that this isn’t the best way to do this. Most of the early scripts I saw used this, so I was confused until I went through a few of this post: Write-Host Considered Harmful. This is from Jeffrey Snover, the inventor of PoSh.

In the post, he notes that most of the time we don’t want to use Write-Host, because this means we can’t use the output of a command in the pipeline. For debugging you might think that this doesn’t matter, but Write-Debug is better.

He recommend Write-Output, which is something I want to start to use. That, or Write-Verbose, so the user can get more or less output as needed.

Hopefully this will help me to better write PoSh code that others can easily use.

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Daily Coping 14 Oct 2020

Posted on October 14, 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 do something to overcome an obstacle you are facing.

ob·sta·cle /ˈäbstək(ə)l/ – a thing that blocks one’s way or prevents or hinders progress.

I’ve got speaking engagements coming up. Virtual ones, but still, I have to be ready. To be ready, I need to record the sessions. To record them, I need to practice and prep.

I also lost time because I need to get these things done not by the event, but a couple weeks ahead of time. I also have a vacation scheduled.

I took some time and closed down most things to focus on the main obstacle for moving forward: Powerpoint.

The big issue is getting the outline into PPT with some slides and starting a flow. From there, as I practice, I’ll refine the talk and slides and get ready to record.

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The App Compatibility Promise

Posted on October 13, 2020 by way0utwest

I was listening to one of the Ignite keynotes, and I heard an executive say something about “if your app doesn’t work, we’ll help you fix it at no additional cost, or fix Windows.” I had stop and rewind and check, and then go look around. Sure enough, there is an App Assure promise for Windows 10 and apps.

This isn’t just for commercial software, but it lists custom line-of-business apps, third party apps, and more. Now, this doesn’t appear to be for everyone. The eligibility for at last the FastTrack portion of this is 150 or more licenses of Windows, Office, etc. However, it is a guarantee that they will help you.

There’s also a note that there isn’t a requirement for ISVs building Windows 10 apps. To me, that means there’s no good reason why more companies don’t take advantage of it. I do think, however, that there’s a missing component here.

Big parts of the Ignite keynotes, and in Microsoft’s marketing and messaging, is about data. That should mean that SQL Server and CosmosDB ought to be included in this promise. If there are regressions or bad plans, I’d hope that Microsoft would help them fix things. Or maybe promise that the compatibility mode would insulate apps.

I know that execution plans regress, sometimes on the same version, and guaranteeing performance or a plan across versions isn’t likely possible. However, I do think that Microsoft could provide more guarantees, perhaps with some caveats that if they need you to change code you will.

We all know that we need to test, test, test to ensure we aren’t introducing regressions or other issues. This isn’t a panacea, but it also isn’t a project. It’s an ongoing part of building any software, including database software. Many of us do this, but it becomes harder and more complex for ISVs that often deal with many versions. However, we pay lots of money, and I’d expect that they at least are supporting patches to existing software. I think that’s part of an informal contract that they ought to believe in.

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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