Tag: syndicated

Advice I Like: Training Employees

Train employees well enough that they could get another job but treat them well enough that they never want to. – from Excellent Advice for Living

This one is close to my heart. I firmly believe that you need to find good employees and invest in them. Employees can make a big difference in how well you succeed as well as how efficiently you can run an organization. If you trust employees, you can get a lot done, but takes work.

There’s an old joke that expresses a similar sentiment. Here it is as a quote attributed to Peter Drucker, a well known management consultant.

Perhaps one of the best reasons to train people is time. Time is a valuable resource, and the more it’s wasted, the less you get done, the less competitive you are, and the less your employers earn their pay.

Train them and benefit more.

If you worry about training those that might not be worth investing in, that’s hard to know. Train everyone, but hold them accountable to use that training and improve. If not, cut them loose and move on.

I’ve been posting New Words on Fridays from a book I was reading, however, a friend thought they were a little depressing. They should be as they are obscure sorrows. I like them because they make me think.

To counter-balance those, I’m adding in thoughts on advice, mostly from Kevin Kelley’s book. You can read all these posts under the advice tag.

October 24, 2025

Creating a Striped Backup Set with AI

I needed to test a striped backup, so I decided to ask the AI’s for help.

This is part of a series of experiments with AI systems.

The Problem

A customer wanted to know if we could handle a large striped backup set. In this case, 20 files. I didn’t want to try and do this myself because I was busy at the time, so I thought I could get the AI’s to help me.

I started with this prompt: for a sql server database called “Sandbox” can you generate a backup command that will stripe the backup across 32 files with “sandbox” the current date/time, and a number for the backup file name?

Local Gemma3 LLM

I started with a local model because I had that open. I got a result that looked OK.

Below this I had PowerShell code to help me:

-- Using PowerShell (example):
# $i = 1
# while ($i -le 32)
# {
#   $filename = "D:\Backups\Sandbox\_" + REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR, GETDATE(), 112), ' ', '_') + "_" + $i.ToString("D3").PadLeft(3, '0') + ".bak"
#   # Execute the backup command:
#   Invoke-Command -ComputerName <ServerName> -ScriptBlock {
#       & "backup.exe" -Database "Sandbox" -BackupFile "$($filename)" -BackupType "D" -Init -Format "MEDIANAME = \"Sandbox\""
#   }
#   $i++
# }

This won’t work, proving that there isn’t enough database training in some of these small models. The model does warn me this won’t work as is.

Claude

Since the local model was slow, and didn’t get me what I wanted, I tried Claude. Same prompt, and I got this code, which is nice in that it handles the current date time whenever I run it.

DECLARE @BackupPath NVARCHAR(500) = 'C:\Backups\' -- Change this to your backup directory
DECLARE @DateTime NVARCHAR(20) = CONVERT(NVARCHAR, GETDATE(), 112) + '_' + REPLACE(CONVERT(NVARCHAR, GETDATE(), 108), ':', '')
DECLARE @BackupCommand NVARCHAR(MAX)

SET @BackupCommand = 'BACKUP DATABASE [Sandbox] TO '

-- Generate 32 striped backup files
SET @BackupCommand = @BackupCommand +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_01.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_02.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_03.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_04.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_05.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_06.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_07.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_08.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_09.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_10.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_11.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_12.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_13.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_14.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_15.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_16.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_17.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_18.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_19.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_20.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_21.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_22.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_23.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_24.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_25.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_26.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_27.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_28.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_29.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_30.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_31.bak'', ' +
     'DISK = ''' + @BackupPath + 'sandbox_' + @DateTime + '_32.bak'' ' +
     'WITH COMPRESSION, STATS = 10'

EXEC sp_executesql @BackupCommand

I could easily then test this by adding a SELECT and commenting out the Backup command. When I do that, I see these results.

Note I’ve started adding some line breaks to the results so I can check things.

Prompt AI

I decided to try Prompt AI as well. I started with this code:

BACKUP DATABASE sandbox
TO DISK = ‘sandbox_20251013_x.bak’ WITH INIT

Then I opened Prompt AI and entered this: expand this backup command to create a striped backup of 32 files, replacing the x with a number for each file

You can see this below:

This got me a quick and dirty backup test.

Then we need to correct the syntax.

Now I have a command.

However, this doesn’t work as I can’t use string concatenation inside the backup command. I asked Prompt AI to generate a string for this instead (from this code) and then sp_exeutesql and got this code:

DECLARE @DateString VARCHAR(8) = CONVERT(VARCHAR(8), GETDATE(), 112) -- Format: YYYYMMDD

DECLARE @BackupCommand NVARCHAR(MAX)
-- Build the backup command as a string

SET @BackupCommand = 'BACKUP DATABASE sandbox TO '
-- Add all backup file destinations

SELECT @BackupCommand = @BackupCommand + CASE
                                              WHEN LEN(@BackupCommand) > 25 THEN
                                                  ', '
                                              ELSE
                                                  ''
                                          END + -- Add comma except for first item
     'DISK = ''sandbox_' + @DateString + '_' + CAST(number AS VARCHAR(2)) + '.bak'''

FROM master.dbo.spt_values

WHERE type = 'P'
       AND number
       BETWEEN 1 AND 32
-- Add WITH INIT

SET @BackupCommand = @BackupCommand + ' WITH INIT'
-- Execute the dynamically built command

--EXEC sp_executesql @BackupCommand

SELECT @BackupCommand

That works.

Summary

Both Claude and PromptAI worked, though Claude worked well with a first prompt. I continue to like the Sonnet model and find it really helpful in saving time.

It took me longer to write this post than generate the code in 3 places and test it. In terms of saving time, Claude would have saved me at least probably ten minutes, maybe more, as I’d spend time making decisions. With Claude, I got the code in under a minute and then needed to test it.

Always test your code. Including your AI-generated code.

October 22, 2025

The End of Year Vacation Burn

It’s been a good year for me. With my sabbatical, I felt like I’ve gotten away from work quite a bit this year. I’ve had a few vacations around that, but I still find myself with quite a bit of time off to use this year.

So today is the start of that. I’m taking a number of Mondays off, as that’s my wife’s day off. I will also schedule a few other days around the holidays.

I don’t know if I’ll get rid of all my days, but I’ve gotten down to 4 days with my schedule and might see if I can get a few more gone before Dec 31.

Hopefully you’re doing the same thing and not saving any days for next year unless you have big plans to use them.

October 20, 2025
The Book of Redgate: Don’t be an a**hole

This was one of the original values:

The facing page has this text: No matter how smart you are, or how good you are at narrowly defined tasks, there is no room for you here if you’re an asshole.

This is a similar value to that I’ve seen at a few companies, such as Google’s: Don’t be evil.

I think this is one of those values that has held true over time. We try to be professional and respectful with each other. We don’t want to offend others or treat them poorly. The Oxford dictionary has this definition: “a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.”

I probably stretch the limit of this at times, but I’m not trying to be out of balance with my pressure on others to do better work alongside my respect for them and my desire to be positive. I might not always get the balance right, but I am willing to apologize if I’ve stepped over the line.

I don’t think of anyone at Redgate as being an a**hole, which is a nice feeling. Hopefully, I’m not one.

I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.

October 17, 2025