Daily Coping 17 Apr 2020

Posted on April 17, 2020 by way0utwest

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, 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 have a tech free day. Stop scrolling and turn off the news.

That’s not so easy for many of us. We’re embedded in technology and if we communicate with others, things leak through, whether on social media, bulletin boards, or even internal company communications.

I struggle with this, but I have gotten better on the weekends. I’ll tackle projects around the house or do things with family and try to avoid the news and ignore tech. I don’t know I can ignore it completely, as I read on my phone, but I’m going to try tomorrow and just put my phone away and have an analog day.

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The Conferences of the Future

Posted on April 17, 2020 by way0utwest

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend many technical conferences during my career. I’ve gotten to many Microsoft shows, most of the PASS Summits, and been lucky enough to go to my favorite, SQL Bits, quite a few times. I look forward to SQL Saturdays every year in locations all around the world, and I get to help plan and present at Redgate’s SQL in the City shows.

Microsoft has rebooted their conference strategy in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, with no plans to have a live event before July 2021. That’s amazing for a company that hosts the large Ignite, Build, and Inspire events, as well as many other events. I saw recently that Agile+DevOps event has gone virtual as well, with reduced costs. I imagine Microsoft will follow suit as well. SQL Bits moved their event to September, and PASS has announced the Summit will go on, but I wonder if either of these will be live events.

I recently got a note from a SQL Saturday that had initially cancelled, informing me that the event had gone virtual and I could still present. While I’m happy to do so, what’s the difference between SQL Saturday Denver and SQL Saturday Oslo if they go virtual this fall? Not much, in my opinion, though I do hope anyone holding a “local” event gives priority to local speakers. I’m happy to present, but I shouldn’t get more engagements at events when there are others that would like opportunities.

More virtual events are good in one sense: more people get access to presentations that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend. We also dramatically increase the equality of access to learning, inspiration, and the other value that speakers deliver to audiences. At the same time, there are plenty of downsides. Organizers may struggle to fund their events because nothing is free and the value of a virtual event is less, sponsors and vendors will see less value.

Many speakers may struggle to get exposure and speaking slots. If you can choose Paul Randal, Denny Cherry, Andy Leonard, and Brent Ozar to present at your event, would you pick me? Or many of the other speakers that submit to SQL Saturdays? Maybe, maybe not, but there is a tendency to stick with the best if you can get them.

Maybe the biggest losses in my mind are the lack of networking and the inability to focus. I went through the Microsoft MVP Summit from home, with 3.5 days of sessions all day. I struggled to stay focused, I was distracted by not being in a room with less of my life around, and I still had other things on my mind. It was hard, and I got less from it than an in person event. How many people will get a ticket to a virtual event from their boss and not have to come into the office? How many are willing to sit in front of a screen for hours at a time? It’s hard, and I don’t know if it’s the most sustainable model.

Maybe in-person conferences are an anachronistic way of gathering together a group of people for an event. Maybe the virtual event is better, and I do think it is for some. It’s also worse for some. Personally I hope live events make a comeback in the future, but I’m curious what the rest of you think. Let me know today.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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Hiding Data Isn’t Always Easy

Posted on April 16, 2020 by way0utwest

There is an article about redacting data in a report done poorly. A consulting firm hired by Frontier Communications wrote a report and redacted lots of information. However, they apparently didn’t do a good job as all the information they blacked out could be read if the data were copy and pasted elsewhere. Something that’s much easier in digital reports than analog ones.

This was a PDF document, and I checked it. On page 25, there is this sentence: ” Annual capital expenditures for Frontier’s West Virginia local exchange carrier companies have averaged over XXXXXXXX for the past nine years.” The XXX is blacked out, but pasting it into a document shows this is a $70mm amount. It pays to know your tools.

This certainly isn’t a good technique for hiding information, but it’s not far off from what some people do when trying to mask or obfuscate sensitive production data in development environments. There are lots of cases where people use scripts that change data in one table, but not related data. Or that the changes are incomplete and don’t do a good job of ensuring there isn’t sensitive data leakage.

To be fair, this is a hard problem, and there are no perfect solutions. Anyone masking data likely needs to take a few passes at the problem, making adjustments over time to try and ensure that the data is protected from unauthorized disclosure. There also isn’t a perfect solution, as many researchers have found ways to reconstruct the original data after it’s been anonymized.

This is an area that I think is still somewhat immature, with relatively few best practices available for anyone to look at. While I have seen some guidance, I don’t see much on how one could verify they had done a good job. I hope we find ways to do better in the future, with more knowledge that helps data professionals ensure they are doing a good job. Otherwise, we won’t be able to protect data the way we want to protect it.

Steve Jones

Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

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Daily Coping 16 Apr 2020

Posted on April 16, 2020 by way0utwest

I’ve started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter, 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 put your worries into perspective and try to let them go.

Easier said than done.

Much easier said than done.

I think part of the problem for me is that I’m just always on uneven footing. One day I think things are fine, the next I wonder if the world is really going to crash around me.

I really, really try hard to keep things in perspective. Getting to talk to other people has been good. We had a great, 4-5 person call for T-SQL Tuesday Live this week, and apart from some technical discussions, we got to help each other keep perspective on the world as it is today.

Which is vastly different from two weeks ago, even more different from Mar 1, and an almost indescribable different from last September.

Putting things into perspective is hard. As an example. I go to the grocer every 3-4 days, mostly to get more fresh fruit and veggies. Since Mar 15 or so, every time I walk into the store, I feel like I’m getting sick. My throat starts to feel dry or sore. My nose might run. Eyes itch more. I feel like I’m breathing thick, germ filled air. It’s eerie.

I leave, and I mentally chastise myself for the silliness.

I’ve started wearing a bandana, and I’ve felt slightly better, but still it’s disconcerting, and all in my head. I tell myself to keep perspective, but I still struggle.

Writing this helps. Maybe it helps some of you. Maybe you can say something that helps me, other than “just stop.” I don’t need that and neither does anyone else right now.

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