Voice of the DBA

Tag: misc

  • The End of 2015

    I’m off on vacation, so I won’t be able to respond, but I decided to take a few minutes and look back at 2015 before leaving for the year.

    This was a year that seems to have been marked by lots of data loss and breaches. Certainly these were on my mind as I worked on the SQL in the City keynote, but as I’ve been following Troy Hunt, it seems that every week or two he’s uploading more data to HaveIBeenPwned.com. We had some larger ones, with tens or hundreds of millions of account records released. Despite all the press from the Sony hack over a year ago, it seems that few companies have bothered to update their security. In fact, it seems that until they’re hacked, no one bothers to fix fundamental security issues in their systems. Perhaps some companies are doing so in the background, and aren’t being attacked, but I’m not so sure.

    We didn’t have any SQL Server releases this year, but we had lots of news, and an unexpected Service Pack. Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2012 appeared out of the blue for me. I hadn’t seen much news on it, and had given up on bothering Microsoft about new SPs for versions. Perhaps they’ll continue to build these yearly for supported versions, which is what I hope, but we will see. It does seem that Cumulative Updates have been appearing regularly, with relatively few issues in them, but I’m still wary of using those as the main patching mechanism for critical servers.

    We did have a lot of growth in the SQL Server space, with many features being announced and starting to take shape. If you’re looking to get up to speed, check out our collection of Learning SQL Server 2016 topics, where we try to keep a growing collection of links to help you learn.  I am excited to see some of the growth of SQL Server to include newer features that people want in their data platform. I’m also glad that things like Stretch Database can be used to help manage the ever growing amount of data we have. Of course, encryption is big on my list, and Always Encrypted is something I am hoping gets lots of adoption.

    We’ve also seen Microsoft really pushing the envelope in terms of data analysis. There is a constant set of articles and blogs written about data scientists, and some of us are moving to learn more about how to better analyze data. Microsoft continues to help, with their forays into Machine Learning, the expansion of the Power set of products (Power BI, Power Query, Power View, Power Pivot, etc.), R language integration, and more. I suspect that more and more of us will get the chance to play with some interesting data analysis tools if we want to. Even if you don’t use those to help your business, I have already seen these tools being used to perform index analysis, DBA monitoring, and more. I’d urge you to let your imagination run wild and see what things you might build.

    It does also seem that more companies are starting to realize that their data and its integrity and management are important. Data professionals are becoming more valued, but the skills required are growing. There are more and more services and tools to help us manage systems that I do think the simple DBA that administers backups and security is really on the decline. At some point, our employers will demand more.

    It’s been a good year, and I look forward to 2016. If there are things you want us to help you learn about, leave a comment here, and I’ll review them when I get back from vacation. Have a safe, Happy New Year, and I’ll see you in 2016.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcast

    Listen to the MP3 Audio ( 3.9MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and LibSyn.

  • A Few Days Off in Space Country

    The new Star Wars film opens today, and while I won’t see it then, perhaps I’ll get to it early next week in the shadow of the US space program.

    My middle son is in his last year of high school before he goes off to college and as his birthday present in 2015, I’m taking him down to Florida and Cape Canaveral for 4 days. We leave early tommorrow, not returning to Denver until late Tuesday.

    A couple days of vacation for me, and hopefully some memories for my son. He was there a long time ago, at 2, so he doesn’t remember much. However he’s interested in flight and space, and looking to study aeronautical engineering in college, so this is a treat for him. In fact, when we were talking about where to take him, his eyes lit up when I suggested this trip.

    It will be an interesting trip, with the chance to visit the Kennedy Space Center, meet an astronaut, and study some of the history of US space travel in person.

    I’m also excited to go. Not that I want to go into space, at least not until they get artificial gravity, but I find the subject fascinating and I felt rushed the last time I visited. It will be nice to be able to spend time and not hurry around as we get the chance to vacation together.

    Enjoy your weekend, and I’ll see you briefly next week before I close down for the year.

  • Playing with Themes

    I’m not much of a designer. Indeed, I’m best at just putting up tables and information, not producing visualizations. However I wanted to make the blog look a little better (and SSC, for that matter). As a result, I’ve carved out a few minutes here and there to play with themes for this blog. I haven’t often found one that I liked, but ran across one today that I thought I’d try.

    I’ll see how this looks for now. I don’t love that all my sidebar stuff moved to the bottom, but that’s a cleaner look for sure. I may play around with this a bit, and comments are certainly welcome. I’d like to use a few more images in writing as I think they can break up the text, and certainly some of the scrolling images convey interesting thoughts. I’d like to start using some for code as well, showcasing results as wide images.

     

  • Standing Desk Update

    It’s been a long time since I wrote about my workspace, however I made a change recently. This was the "short term test" situation I set up a couple years ago:

    Photo Aug 24, 9 14 19 AM

    After just using boxes for a few days, I decided I liked things and got monitor stands. However I left my boxes in place for the keyboard and mouse. Mostly because I wanted a few months of playing with heights.

    I actually did experiment, adding and removing books a few times, but mostly I let things languish. I wanted to build my own keyboard stand, but kept finding excuses. I lived with the setup, getting annoyed with no good place to place a mug of coffee or a piece of paper. Precariously balancing my laptop on the books at times.

    A few weeks ago I saw some friends on Facebook mention they were getting standing desks. I’d seen Brent Ozar’s desk, but had no desire to spent that kind of $$. I wasn’t even sure I wanted an adjustable one as when I sit, I usually go to a table or couch with my laptop.

    Someone recommended a simple desk, which I liked, but wasn’t sure I wanted to ask my boss for $700 for a hand crank desk. However I did spend a few minutes shopping when my daughter asked for a desk for her room. She got a normal desk from Ikea as she’s starting high school and wanted a workspace.

    I saw a $400 electric adjustable one, and was tempted, but decided to go for a $40 upgrade for mine. I got a small table, and added it.

    Photo Aug 24, 10 43 42 AM

    This one isn’t perfect as it’s a touch high. I did add a couple more foam mats and raised myself to a good level, but I’m not sure I love this.

    I do, however, like the extra shelf and space for putting a couple mugs down. I usually have two (coffee and water), so this is handy. I also have space for a few pieces of paper if I need to set them down.

    I’m not sure if this is a good move. For now I want to leave things alone as I’m not in a hurry and want to be sure I would use an up/down desk. I certainly have some tasks that work better sitting down, like webinars, so I am tempted to get a chair and work here at times.

    The one good thing I have going for me is Redgate is good about ergonomics and ensuring a good workspace. I am tempted by the treadmill desks, but I think I’d just as soon just walk away from the desk if I need a break.