As I write this, my mind is focused on my big holiday trip, just two days away. It’s a trip I’ve been planning for five years, and it includes our children, their spouses, and our grandchildren – eleven people in all. I’m still debating on whether to take a laptop along, but I’m leaning towards … Read more
At the center of all businesses is a company culture. This culture exists whether the leaders created it or not. If the leaders did not create the culture, then the loudest voices at the company define the culture. Business leaders need to stand up, define, implement and live their company culture. Some view company culture … Read more
You may have noticed a recent flurry of activity in your email inbox as many companies sent out new privacy policies and, in some cases, asked you to opt-in to continue to receive communications from them. This coincides with the deadline to comply with the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This regulation is meant to … Read more
Typewriters have become rare over the past twenty years or so as we began to use computers more often at home and in the workplace. Correction tape, whiteout, and those typing erasers with a brush on the end have been replaced by the backspace and delete keys. Most people welcome this progress or have never … Read more
I was recently asked about which tools I used back when I was a full-time SQL Server database administrator. I had a tool to compress backups and a monitoring tool with licenses for just a fraction of the servers I was responsible for. Over time, I figured out ways to gather information or automate processes … Read more
One big question for software developers and IT departments in small companies is always “should I hire a DBA?” The fact that one is asking this question demonstrates that there are some symptoms that need a deeper diagnosis than you can handle. This may be a concern about backup procedures, database slowness for users, or errors … Read more
About ten years ago, my friends and family were abandoning their Myspace accounts and heading to Facebook. I fought it for a while but eventually assimilated and ended up with over 650 Facebook “friends” at last count. Even my mother embraced the platform, very happy that she could see frequently updated photos of her many … Read more
It was a rough winter for flying in and out of Heathrow as the UK experienced unusually cold and snowy weather. Unfortunately, one of my colleagues and I landed at Heathrow on 10 December during one of these storms. There was just a small amount of snow on the ground, but thousands of passengers were … Read more
We make a special effort in March to acknowledge the accomplishments of women. Women have been making gains in many professions over the past several decades but are still underrepresented in technology. There are several hypotheses about why this is the case, but often women find they are not welcome in the “brogrammer” cultures of … Read more
Time management is simply the ability to plan how and where you spend your time throughout the work day. When you have a proper time management strategy in place, you will be more productive, enjoy your work more and have less stress. The process of implementing time management is really quite simple; it’s all about … Read more
I’ve been fortunate enough to work from my home office for the past six years. My commute is about twelve steps, or, occasionally, a 45-minute drive to the nearest airport. It may not be for everyone, but I think that more employers should let their workers take advantage of an arrangement like this. Since I … Read more
There are many reasons why one would consider hiring a professional database administrator (DBA). You may be concerned about user experience issues such as errors or slowness, or possibly backend items like backups, security or stability. If your database is hosted on a SQL Server, eventually you will run into issues that you cannot solve … Read more
Time is a precious commodity, and so much of our time is dedicated to working. IT professionals often have jobs with good benefits, including generous paid time off. It’s very important to get away from work to relax and recharge, but, sometimes, it’s difficult to take those days that belong to us. Even when we … Read more
There are many things that separate humans from other animals. One of those things is our interest in improving ourselves. Many of us are motivated, especially this time of year, to learn languages, better our health, develop leadership qualities, or increase wealth. There is an entire genre of literature dedicated to self-improvement, also known as … Read more
If you are a fan of the many Star Trek television series and movies, you may have noticed how easily the characters communicate with other crew members and the ships’ computers. Their devices work flawlessly unless the current plot requires that they malfunction, are blocked, or are stolen. While the communication devices we use on … Read more
Depending on what you read, you will find advice to ‘follow your passion’ and, alternatively, ‘don’t follow your passion’. The former assumes you will be able to turn an interest into a career if you just love it enough to do what it takes to make it happen. The latter recommends that you should find … Read more
A couple of years ago, I was at a client site working to fix some SQL Server performance problems. Every three months, the organization received data in a large file and loaded it into a SQL Server database. They then ran queries against this data to provide reports for their customers. My client’s advantage over … Read more
Many professions require college degrees or even advanced degrees, professional board exams, and licensing, but being a developer or IT professional does not, at least not in the US. Specific educational requirements make sense in many fields. Of course, you would not want surgery performed on you by a doctor who did not have the … Read more
A few years ago, I found myself teaching an in-depth SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) class at a local tech center. I had some great students in the class, who were engaged and excited about the material. During the breaks, they talked about their careers, and how what they learned would help them do their … Read more
Why release SQL Server as a Linux, as well as Windows, application? It baffled many DBAs when it was announced, though most shrugged and decided that it must be part of Microsoft’s long-term wrestling match with Oracle. When Microsoft previewed an early version of the Linux SQL Server on Ubuntu and Red-Hat, with ‘core relational … Read more
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