Voice of the DBA

Tag: hardware

  • Desktop or Laptop for Remote Work

    When I started working in a corporation, I was assigned a desktop. No choice of hardware and upgrades were extremely rare and limited. This was in the early 90s, and laptops were rare, and they were coveted by those that received them. I was lucky to get to use one when on call, to allow me to remotely dial in when we had issues. Yes, I dialed in after being paged.

    Over time, laptops became more common, and as I began traveling for work, I had one full time. The last few years, I’ve depended on laptops while working for Redgate. I even ask for advice periodically when I look for a new one. Today I have two active laptops that I carry when (and if) I travel.

    However, I also have a desktop. In fact, I’ve maintained a desktop all throughout my time at Redgate and use that for most of my daily work. I like the multiple screens, and I can’t beat the multi-TBs of storage, lots of cores, tons of RAM, and more. I like my desktop, and I prefer using it.

    This week I saw an article on the reasons why a desktop PC makes more sense than a laptop. With the move to more virtual, and solo work, does a laptop make sense? Certainly there is a tradeoff. Being able to move to a different room in your house if others are using the same space is helpful. Having kids pick up your laptop and leave it elsewhere is less helpful.

    These days, I wonder how many of you feel? Some of you have dedicated office space, some do not. Some like the more powerful desktops, some prefer to flexibility of laptops. Some want to control their hardware, some want to just have a pre-assembled package.

    This week, how do you feel? Do you like desktops or laptops more? Have you changed your mind through this pandemic? What about the future, will you change for your next machine?

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • The Ultimate Home Office

    When the pandemic hit, we were fairly well prepared at Redgate. We’ve had lots of experience connecting offices, we have an amazing IT staff that has built a great VPN setup, lots of SSO authentication, and a tremendous KB of info.

    However, many of our staff didn’t have a dedicated space in their residence. Even those that did often had to share with partners, children, and others. That was a challenge. I know because we created a Slack channel for people to share their work space pictures. I saw some creative solutions, and I also sympathized with way some people have had to work during the last few months.

    I’m lucky that I’ve been working from home a long time and have made some changes over the years to build a better home office. I’ve upgraded PCs, added some lights, gotten a standing desk, etc. in that time. The pandemic got me to finally upgrade to a Secret Lab chair and adding a ring light for video calls. I also rearranged the office slightly after refinishing our floors.

    After seeing Troy Hunt’s post this week on his ultimate home office, I’m a little jealous. Not that I want to spend that much time and money on my office, or do all the IoT and other configuration, I am still interested as a geek in what he did. It’s quite a write-up, and if you go through it, those of you that are hardware geeks will probably enjoy it and then frown at your setup. You might also get jealous if you read about some of the systems Glenn Berry has built, Brent Ozar’s home office, or even the studio that Adam Saxton has built.

    For now, I’m pretty happy with my home office, though I still have a few minor things to work on. A little more cable management, perhaps a few small storage boxes/places for my desk, and certainly a little sweeping and mopping. That last one is something that needs to be done on a more regular basis, at least while the pandemic is stuff affecting me.

    Steve Jones

  • Changing Computer Retail

    When I was a child, there were a number of small computer stores, including quite a few that were authorized retailers for Apple, selling Apple IIs, software, dot matrix printers, and the loud 3.5″ external disk drives. I’d go and window shop, dreaming of being able to afford one. I’d walk by Radio Shack, with their TRS-80s, considering a purchase there instead since my high school used those. Over time, my window shopping evolved to flipping through the massive Computer Shopper, trying to decide which mail order retailer I might trust.

    Life has certainly changed, with online retailers dominating many computer hardware sales, though there are still some local stores in that we can visit. I’ve enjoyed wandering through Microcenter in Denver, and even taking my kids to Best Buy for their college machines. I’ve rarely visited an Apple store, though those seem to be quite popular with consumers. I have been to a Microsoft store, and saw recently that there will be fewer Microsoft stores in the future. I wonder if retail computer shopping is becoming a niche market.

    There are lots of choices these days for purchasing new hardware. Many organizations have agreements with particular retailers and lots of data professionals never get much choice in what machine they might use at work. Some companies allow limited choice, some just assign a hand me down to new employees. Relatively few give an allowance, though I wish more did.

    A computer is a tool that we use, but like any other tool, we all have preferences. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to choose most of my machines. I ask for advice, weigh different costs, options, lead time, and reviews. It’s not an efficient process, but it is a nice break from work for a few hours and usually I find myself content with the end choice. I know there are lots of form factors, choices, and even colors these days. If you have the chance to build your own machine, it’s a very satisfying experience, at least once in your life. Glenn Berry has good information on his site and advice on building machines.

    The search for computing hardware can be fun, whether you want to build a machine or purchase something ready to go, it’s one task that I think most technical professionals enjoy.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Life Without a Watch

    A few years ago I got an amazing watch as a ten year gift from Redgate: a Garmin Forerunner 645. Since then, I’ve used this regularly to track my heart rate, log exercise, and wake me up every morning. I’ve gotten used to using this device to help me remain healthy and fit.

    A few months ago, I got a dead area in the watch. A small circle of white appeared near the bottom, preventing me from reading part of the display. This looks like a bit of a burn through, and I wasn’t overly bothered at first. However, this grew into almost a 1-1.5cm circle, which is a decent size on a watch.

    It’s been three years that I’ve owned this watch, and in researching some Garmin support online, a few people have noted the company has replaced some older devices for US$99. Finally, I contacted the company a couple weeks ago, and through a support chat, they immediately offered to give me an RMA and replace the watch. At no charge.

    I was amazed, and while I did have to pay to ship and get some expedited shipping (my choice), the replacement cost me US$30 in total. I shipped my watch off and got a refurbished replacement a little over a week later.

    In those two weeks, I constantly glanced at my wrist, seeing only a tan line. Having to find my phone to get the time was annoying. Not having my workouts tracked and being able to check my heart, or my level of activity, was something I noticed as missing in my life.

    This wasn’t that long, but this one piece of technology, with all the data it just gathers for me, is something I missed. Glad to have it back, and looking forward to getting seeing my data flow again.