Monthly Archives: May 2012
Frantic Month
The month of May has been frantic in pace and it has only just begun. Today I returned from a 10-hour round trip to pick my son up from college for the summer and bring all of his belongings back to our garage.
Earlier this week my daughter performed in the high school’s spring concert where she won MVP for the choir and color guard for the junior class as well as letters in both activities. Tonight we are at her starring role performance of the Wiz where she will play Dorothy. We also will have two senior honor banquets for our other daughter, Baccalaureate and her graduation in a few weeks.
In addition, next weekend I will drive my son to Tennessee where he will be employed for the summer as summer camp counselor. Then we will round out the month with Project Graduation, my birthday, and a memorial day deep sea fishing trip to my Dad’s house on the coast. This month will no doubt be hectic, but as the moments we spend with our high school and college children wind down we need to savor these last few moments of their childhood. This is what life is all about! Enjoy!
Vendor Crap
Breaking from the week-long geek fest, I felt I needed to rant somewhat about vendor provided databases. Working in my environment, the majority of SQL Server databases are vendor provided. We have a few in-house applications but most of those are on our Oracle infrastructure, for now (insert evil laugh).
More often than not it has been my experience that vendors do not understand security and common accepted best practices for SQL Server not to mention the provided installation documentation is usually horrid. It is not too much to ask for vendors to understand the database environment in which they deploy. I am thoroughly frustrated after trying to install a database today from a vendor who after several phone conversations I began to realize that they do not understand how certain aspects of SQL Server work and that scares me thoroughly! End of rant, enjoy!
Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die from Wired.com
While thinking about my third installment for What Makes a Geek, I was reading an article on the launch of the ‘Novo Geek‘ that referenced the following article: Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die | Wired.com written by Patton Oswalt. What a flashback down memory lane, the article was and what an insightful analysis of our culture today. This is a must read if you are self-proclaimed geek as well as tried and true geek. Let me know what you think? Should our culture die in order to preserve the geek ideals? Something to ponder for sure! Enjoy!
What Makes a Geek? Part Two
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It’s Only a Flesh Wound
Recently, several members of the #SQLFamily were discussing various aspects of geekdom. We came to a consensus: there are many among us who are self-proclaimed geeks who are only geeks because of the coolness factor. This is the second part of our journey revolves around movies. There will probably be a great amount of debate, but I think these movies are essential to the core of what makes a geek. This is not a comprehensive list because there are tons of obscure titles that geeks turns into cult classics and there are many geek books that were ruined by main stream movie versions.
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail – Every geek can quote Monty Python with such memorable phrases as “It’s only a flesh wound” and “What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?” followed by “An African or European swallow?”.
- Star Wars: A New Hope – This goes without explanation
- Hackers and/or Sneakers – what geek would be complete without a movie espousing the virtues of being 1337?
- War Games – Matthew Broderick was the geek I wanted to be in this and Ferris Bueller. I had played around with a lot of the technology he was using so to see him hacking into the government to play games made him our hero.
- Office Space – Stuck in your cubicle? Have eight bosses? Facing outsourcing or a case of the mondays?
- Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn – There are other Star Trek movies, but not many compare to this one.
- The Matrix – “Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?”
- Blade Runner and/or Tron – We are suckers for a good space film, are you seeing a pattern here yet?
- The Princess Bride – “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” followed by “Stop saying that!”
- 2001: A Space Oddysey – “Open the pod bay doors, HAL” followed by “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
I know there are many more excellent geek movies, however this is a list of baseline movies. While compiling this list, I thought of thirty more such as Alien and Pi, but I had to stop somewhere. Every geek should know these movies, end of story. “Share and Enjoy!”
What Makes a Geek? Part One
HHGG
Recently, several members of the #SQLFamily were discussing various aspects of geekdom. We came to a consensus: there are many among us who are self-proclaimed geeks who are only geeks because of the coolness factor. Personally I decided to post a series of blog posts that espouse a minimum set of experiences that make up the persona of a true geek. Granted there are many variations, but true geeks all have a baseline set of experiences that I believe unite us all. In other words, we all share a common set of core values that made us into the uber geeks that you see before you today.
The first installment of What Makes a Geek will be books. Books shape a persons thoughts and personality from a young age. This list is not comprehensive but like I mentioned earlier, it is a baseline.
- Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (aka H2G2 or HHGG) – Every geek should know Forty-Two, DON’T PANIC, and knowing where one’s towel is.
- The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbitt by J.R.R. Tolkien (aka LOTR) – This one might fall of the list thanks to the popularity of the movies, but was a standard for years as evidenced by how many guys named themselves Gandalf and Frodo in chat rooms and online gaming environments.
- Neuromancer by William Gibson – bonus points are given if you played the video game released in the late 80s (I had it on a 5 1/4″ floppy)
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein – All books by Heinlein are awesome, but this is the definitive geek book.
- Anything from Isaac Asimov – I used to always say I, Robot, but the movie ruined that for me. Every child should read Asimov, end of story.
- Any and/or all of the Star Wars and/or Star Trek novels – Geeks have strong opinions about these two universes and I am no different, however out of deference to my friends I will begrudgingly include Star Trek in the list. This does not include the silly movie books, this is the full universe of novels which for Star Wars has over 100 currently. My point is that watching the movies does not a geek make!
I know there are many more excellent geek books, however this is a list of baseline books. Every geek should know these things, end of story. “Share and Enjoy!”
Sunday Funday
Today has not been much fun for me as I’ve been working on a deployment all weekend for our enterprise content management system. This deployment was necessary for two reasons: we have a deadline and I will be busy for the rest of the weekends in May.
However I did miss sending my girls off to their high school prom, but it was unavoidable and it is the sacrifice I had to make. Instead this weekend I am living vicariously through my #SQLFamily and my physical family through Facebook and Twitter.
I hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend. If not go out and have some fun, it’s not too late to spend some time with those you love. Enjoy!
Saturday SQL Schoolhouse
SQL Schoolhouse!
Today’s installment of the Saturday SQL Schoolhouse is brought to you by the fine folks over at PASS, the Professional Association for SQL Server. I discovered this gem yesterday while poking around on their website and was quite amazed that I had never noticed it before. Drumroll please! It is a comprehensive SQL Blog Directory that even has an OPML file to load all of the listed blogs into your RSS feeder automagically.
Curiously, my blog was not listed, which is ok because since I did not know about it then how could I submit my site. My site was submitted via e-mail last night, so hopefully it is there when you read this blog. Enjoy!
Multitasking Is A Myth!
We take the term multitasking for granted these days. Everyone is multitasking all day long. We are checking our cell phones for e-mail while we are driving or in the restroom. We talk on the cell phone while driving or watching television. This has accelerated society to a break-neck speed. I am no different from anyone else as I used to take great pride in boasting in my ability to complete several tasks at the same time. Being a computer guy, it is only normal that I operate like my machines, multithreading!
However, it is at this stage in my career when I have realized the fallacy of this whole philosophy. Technically, it is not possible to multitask most operations unless one of those items does not require any active input. For example, talking while driving or walking and chewing gum. Driving for most of us has become automatic and only requires our undivided attention in heavy traffic or extreme weather. In those situations I usually turn down the radio and give it my full attention. If you add a cell phone into the mix, most people will turn down the radio so they can concentrate on the call and reduce the distraction.
Due to this fallacy, I have realized that in order to perform my best for brain-intensive operations, such as troubleshooting SQL Server, it is best to put on some passive music and tune out the world in order to tune in to the SQL. Think about it and be honest with yourself, it may seem like you are able to do multiple things at one time but you can only process one piece of information at a time. That does not mean you cannot juggle multiple projects at the same time, but you will put one down and work on the other and go back and forth.
When I used to wear a full-time developer hat, I needed absolute quiet in my own office otherwise I was so distracted that I could not code effectively because I kept losing my train of thought. It just was not possible for me to effectively code. Maybe I am not a great developer, but I think that if you are honest with yourself you will see that multitasking truly is a myth!
PASS Summit 2012, Join Me!
With only a week before SQL Rally in Dallas, there has been quite a bit of excitement and commentary in the twitterverse and blogosphere. However, I cannot attend due to other commitments. With all the excitement in the air, I cannot contain my excitement for the PASS Summit in November. I have never been able to attend the Summit in the past and I am not 100% sure that I will be able to attend this year, but the planets are lining up and there is a glimmer of hope for my first Summit conference. Sitting by last year and watching all of the action from the sidelines just about drove me nuts. Here it is six months away and I have already scoped out the hotels in the area, looked around via Google’s man on the street, and my wife is even thinking about tagging along (I think just so she can see those flying fish at the market, no wait that is just me).
I have been to Seattle once before in my youth for the National Mu Alpha Theta math competition. It was there that my skills in advanced math were not as worldly as I thought, even though I placed (no I can’t remember but I think third place) in the state of Florida. But, many schools from Florida and Alabama dominated the competition awards, interesting as I am sure most of the world does not think of Alabama and Florida as math powerhouses but in the late 80s when those respective states were battling neck and neck for last place in education those two states were advanced math geniuses, but I digress.
I know I won’t be able to take another tour of the King Dome and I wonder what else has changed since grunge and coffee took over that beautiful and friendly city some 25 years ago. I wonder if I should ask someone at the hotel if I could walk to Mt. Ranier and have them laugh at me just for old times sake. I am also excited about riding the monorail on the awesome two block journey. Do they still have the theme park at the needle? Maybe I can cross another item off my bucket list: touring Forks and seeing all of the Twilight scenery in person (really just kidding on that one LOL).
Don’t get me wrong, I want to see SQLChicken do his gorilla impression and participate in SQLKaraoke. I want to soak up all that is SQLAwesomeness and bask in the MCM and MVP glory that is PASS Summit 2012. Won’t you join me?
Question of the Day Learning
Watson the Supercomputer on Jeopardy
One of my favorite morning activities when reading various SQL Server e-mails is to answer the SQL Server Central Question of the Day (QotD). These are delivered to me in the daily Newsletter (see today’s for a sample) and I thoroughly enjoy them.
I average around 60-65% correct which sounds low but the average for the site is 59%. Many of these questions are challenging and many are in areas that I have never worked with, but it is interesting and a good learning experience. How do you stack up?
In case you did not already know, you can subscribe to the SQL Server Central Newsletter in your profile when you register on the site. Enjoy!
SQL Swampland 