I profiled Adam Machanic’s (blog | twitter) excellent stored procedure, SP_WHOISACTIVE, back in August of 2010 in my monthly SQLMag column, Tool Time. Adam has been diligent about maintaining the tool and adding new features. Read the details on my SQLMag Tool Time column.
Archive for the ‘SQLServerPedia Syndication’ Category
Funny Things You’ll Hear at the “Leadership for IT Professionals” at the 2011 SQLRally
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Register now! WWW.SQLRALLY.COM
The 2011 PASS SQLRally is just about one month away and it’s high time I highlighted some of the important things you’ll be hearing about in my precon seminar Leadership and Team Management Skills for the IT Professional. Just to set the context, many of us IT people got to our lofty career positions because of our keen use of technology. It takes a lot of smarts to get where we’ve gotten, but they are a very specific set of smarts that can’t always be used in every business setting. And, since so many of us have topped out in our potential salary as long as we stay in the trenches and the only do technology work, a lot of us are starting to eye those middle manager positions so that we can continue to see our career grow. The only problem is that all of those skills that enabled us to become top tier technologists don’t transfer into the management arena.
I’ll be teaching a wide variety of soft skills and specific management checklists to help you survive those early transitional days. And if you’re not a manager? You’ll still want to attend because the wide variety of communication skills we’ll cover will help you stay on top of many other real life situations, from leading the local Girl Scout troop to taking a role on the local PTA organization.
You can read the full and pedantic session description at the link I provided up above. But here’s a list of Five Funny Things You’ll Hear in the Precon:
- “Here’s where we get out the whips and chains…”
- “In this section, we’re going to learn how to manage our managers…”
- “And then I was, like, OMG. And she was, like, LOL. And her cousin was, like, ROFL. But then I was, like, meh…”
- “Darth Vader would be proud…”
- “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”
And one bonus:
- “That’s what she said…”
Did I put these in context, heck no! But it’s a fun session, with some practice labs and LOTS of content to help you make that transition from full time technologist to part- or even full-time leader!
I hope to see you there.
-Kevin
Twitter at kekline
And the winner of the SQLBits8 Pub Quiz is… [drumroll please]
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Wow – what a great trip through Europe! SQLBits8 was in beautiful and sunny Brighton, which everyone local to the area assures me that it’s not usually either. The crowd was large and enthusiastic.
We did two rollickin’ fun lunch time vendor sessions, one being the SQL Pub Quiz. (I’ll tell you about the other one tomorrow in a separate blog post). We used a bingo pub quiz approach and, I have to say, a form of bingo I’d never before seen in my life. We managed to extract quite a bit of fun out of it any way, presentation hiccups and all.
Our giveaway winners were Mark Dodd (at top) and Dave Wimbush (at bottom). Congrats!
Enjoy!
-Kev
SQLBits and Events in Dublin, Koln, and Malmo
Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
MVP Rob Farley Channeling the Inner Viking at SQLBits, Oct 2010
SQLBITS
One of the top highlights of my year is when I get to visit the great cities of Europe and meet with the great IT professionals there. Last October, I was able to visit several cities in Europe, including my first ever stop in Stockholm and Malmo, Sweden. Last year’s SQLBits event was in the lovely city of York, England.
The Level of Attendees Has Come Up a Notch. See?
This spring, in fact the next two weeks, I’ll be on a whirlwind junket. In just a few hours, I fly out to London and then drive down to Brighton for a couple days of SQLBits. SQLBits has a great lineup of speakers and content this spring.
I’m looking forward to many of the sessions going on as well as the innovative CIO-oriented event that will include facetime with Fusion-IO executive and industry legend, Steve Wozniak.
This Crew Is Crazy!
Our lunch time sessions on Friday and Saturday are ALL ABOUT FUN! If you attended last year, you’ll know to get there as early as you can because it will be standing room only. Bring a good horror story to tell about your experiences in IT because we’ll have some fun prizes to hand out as well.
Of course, the biggest fun for me is time spent with other SQL Server people. Lots of great speakers and Microsoft SQLCAT team members will be on hand, too numerous to name them all, in fact. And of course, I always enjoy a visit with my colleagues at Quest, such as Iain Kick (at left).
We were so inspired by winning a Trivia Pub Quiz that we decided to do one at SQLBits!
DUBLIN
After SQLBits, I head out for a day long session in Dublin on Monday, April 11th with my old friend Niall Flanagan at the Microsoft European Development Centre, South County Business Park, County Dublin starting at 09:30 am. If you’re in old Eire, I hope to see you there! Registration details are HERE.
COLOGNE (KOLN)
At the conclusion of the Irish event, I head directly to the airport for a flight to Cologne, Germany. The next day, on April 12th starting at 09:30, we’ll do another day with the expert. The agenda is a bit different, but all the details including registration are available HERE.
MALMO
My final stop before heading home is on Wednesday, April 13 in Malmo, Sweden. The user group in that area is lead by the very talented Johan Ahlen, whose blog is located HERE. I especially enjoyed his posts about FileStream late last year. I’m looking forward to more good sessions and, again, to learning as much from the attendees as they do from me. Be sure to register for the event HERE.
How Do You SKU?
Friday, March 25th, 2011
I’d like your opinion here.
Follow my logic here for a moment as I walk through a couple rhetorical questions. Have you ever had a friend developed an application entirely on SQL Server Developer Edition? (Not that YOU would ever do such a thing, but maybe you know someone who has. Right?) And has your friend’s IT department actually deployed said application only to discover that they’re only licensed for Standard Edition in their production environment? And then was your friend’s IT management team is horrified to learn that they’ve either got to go through the very expensive process of extracting all of the Enterprise and/or Datacenter Edition features for the production application in order to remain in compliance, upgrade to the more expensive SKU licenses, or risk a potential future audit?
I’m not saying that this has happened to any of us. We’re too smart for that, after all. But have you ever known anyone who’s had this experience?
Having worked with a lot of customers another commercial RDBMS platforms (which I’ll euphemistically call “SEER” from Redforest City and “IB4” from Upstate City), I can tell you that auditing is a fun and exciting way for those platform vendors to make a LOT of money. This is especially true because a production application, once successfully deployed, tends to be too valuable to disable or otherwise compromise because high-end features slipped in to the development cycle even though the production environment only a “standard edition” SKU in place. Ouch! Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. Now, keep in mind that this is a strategy used by SEER and not by Microsoft. But Microsoft could implement the same sort of licensing audits if they wanted to. (Please leave a comment here if you have ever been audited. I’d love to hear your experiences, at least as much as NDA’s allow).
So if you use SQL Server Developer Edition (DE), of any version, would you like to see a feature that enables you to run DE not in its default “full featured mode” but at another SKU level, such as good ol’ Standard Edition? I know I would.
If you’re on the same page as I am, there are a number of suggestions logged on Connect about this very feature! Make your voice heard! Check out:
Of course, the more skeptical reader might say “Hey, that’s their tough luck. Developers should know the difference in the SKU licensing options and feature sets of whatever SKU they’re developing on compared to what they’ll deploy on.” And I wouldn’t fault you for saying so.
But I would go on to point out that much of Microsoft’s success in enterprise IT settings can be traced back to their very strong relationship with developers. And anything that Microsoft can do to empower developers to save time, money, and resources during the development phase of an IT project in turn energizes that relationship between developer and Microsoft.
It also makes the life of the DBA that much easier, because they don’t need to imply that those cowboys on the development team went off half-cocked again. So what’s your opinion? Should SQL Server Developer Edition include a feature that sets the SKU-level of the database engine?
How Much Data is a Lot of Data?
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
It’s always interesting to see the guestimations of the big brains about figures and facts that are hard to verify. Here’s an example – how much data is computerized today? I’m not talking about ancient stuff, like the Codex Synaticus (which, incidentally IS on-line at www.codexsinaiticus.org). I’m talking about the new and really important stuff, like the fourteen pictures that my step-daughter posted on her FaceBook account from our recent trip to Rock City.
Well, IDC figured that overall digital data was up to 1.2Zb (Zetabytes!) at the end of 2010. My mind is boggling. Ok, so that’s only 1.2 trillion gigabytes! Doctor Evil, please put your pinky to your mouth and say this huge number . . .
1,319,413,953,436 Gb
Another way to say it is that it’s about 1,228 Exabytes.
You can get other numbers by extrapolating from storage purchases from the major storage vendors. Of course, not all of their storage sold is actually filled up right away. But it’s still an interesting number to hear. So just on scuttlebutt from a friend of a friend of a friend I heard numbers like this:
Online data back in 2002? around 5 Exabytes
Online data expected in 2011: around 700 Exabytes
And, again we’re surmising these values based on published storage sales from various vendors, this data growth is hurtling along at ridiculous speed, with data doubling every fifteen months or so. Who knows where this will take us, but if we assume a constant rate of data growth (which is a bad bet, IMO), we’ll have 996,000 Exabytes of data online by 2020. Hey, but that’s 8 years after the Mayan calendar, and the world along with it, is supposed to end, right?
Innovation and Invention: Whose Method Is Best?
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
My Favorite Magazine
There are a lot of reasons why I love The Economist magazine and pay over $100 per year for a subscription. First of all, it summarizes all of its news articles, big and small, in the first 4-5 pages of the magazine. Don’t have time to read the entire issue? No problem, how does 20 minutes work for you? Second, it reports news from around the world as if the rest of the world actually matters, whereas every American news magazine I read looks at the rest of the world as an afterthought. You probably know me well enough to know that I travel internationally at least a couple times each year (not Greg Low levels of international travel, but still) and it always surprises my friends abroad that I know whose in leadership in their home country, what their biggest internal issues are, and so forth. Thank you Economist. Third, I like the external viewpoint the Economist brings to American politics. Although it’s has a moderately conservative political leaning, it doesn’t mind poking a finger into the eye of stupid ideas and positions held by any party or politician. Simply put, the Brits behind the Economist don’t have a dog in our fight and so are free to speak their own very well informed mind.
I count the subscription expense towards my professional development because I’ve had no other input that was quite as effective at broadening my horizons, so to speak.
Gosh – I did NOT mean to make this blog post sound like a commercial! My apologies!
What I was getting at in the heading points to another thing I really like about the Economist – very intelligent and well structured debates which the hold on-line every week or two. These debates follow the Oxford style of debate (I didn’t even know there was an Oxford style of debate) with open commentary from us, the public. In their words, “The format was made famous by the 186-year-old Oxford Union and has been practised by heads of state, prominent intellectuals and galvanising figures from across the cultural spectrum. It revolves around an assertion that is defended on one side (the “proposer”) and assailed on another (the “opposition”) in a contest hosted and overseen by a moderator. Each side has three chances to persuade readers: opening, rebuttal and closing.”
An Excellent Book for New DBAs and Those Who Want to Become Better DBAs
One recent debate caught my eye as particularly significant for the IT industry (the heading is a hyperlink):
Innovation Models
This house believes Japanese “incremental innovation” is superior to the West’s “disruptive innovation”.
Wow! That’s a broadside if ever I saw one. But a very worthy discussion, especially for me since innovation and creativity in the development process are some of my favorite pet topics. I’ve long believed that DBAs and Developers are much more akin to artists and “makers” than to engineers, so the innovation process is a big deal to me. I wrote about this at length when I was given the opportunity to write a forward to Tom Larock’s (blog | twitter) book, DBA Survivor.
I encourage you to push your intellect a little further and harder. Take a look at this debate and, since their free to the public, subscribe to the RSS feed and see what else comes down the pipeline. There’s a new one just around the corner.
~~~
Come Aboard. We’re Expecting You
Monday, February 28th, 2011Those of us over a certain age (read – old as dirt) can remember the theme songs to certain TV shows better than we can the National Anthem. Try these lines out and see if you don’t immediately remember the tune that goes along with them:
- Come and knock on our door | We’ve been waiting for you …
- Makin’ your way in the world today | Takes everything you’ve got …
- Just some good ol’ boys | Never meaning no harm …
- Thank you for being a friend | Travel down the road and back again …
So when I got the news that my employer, Quest Software, wanted to send one of the team to an upcoming SQLCruise put on by Brent Ozar (blog | twitter) and Tim Ford (Blog/Twitter), another nostagic TV show song popped into my head -
- Love, exciting and new | Come aboard. We’re expecting you …
I’m really excited about this trip and for a lot of reasons. First, I’m not going to lie – I’ve never been on a cruise. So this factor alone is pretty awesome. Second, Brent and Tim are two of my favorite human beings. I’m looking forward to the chance to see them. Third, SQLCruise is also about community and I’m looking forward to making some new friends. I’ll also be an hand to provide as much free training and demonstration on any of the goodies we’re giving away to the attendees.
Finally, I’m looking forward to learning. Brent and Tim know their stuff. So, getting a chance to actually attend training under such skilled teachers is a treat I didn’t expect!
Captain Stubing, At Your Service
Adventures in the Land of CloudDB/NoSQL/NoAcid
Friday, February 18th, 2011
Cloud, Bunny, or CloudBunny?
Last year, some of my friends from Quest Software attended Hadoop World in New York. In 2009, I never would’ve guessed that Quest would be there with products, community initiatives, as a major sponsor and with presenters?
There were just under 1,000 attendees who weren’t the typical devheads and geekasaurs you’d normally see at very techie events like Code Camps, SQL Saturdays, Cloud Camps and or even other NoSQL events such as the Cassandra Summit. We’re talkin’ enterprise customers with active Hadoop projects underway.
Some observations from the show that may be of interest to you:
- Hadoop World was a trending topic on Twitter during its duration.
- Hadoop has “arrived” with an average cluster of 66 nodes weighing in at 114TB. (For the philosophers among us, how much does a terabyte weigh?) The most famous Hadoop cluster is FaceBook with a trifling 30PB in storage – that’s petabytes. That’s more written information than has ever been written by man, cumulatively, including the Advice on Men column from Cosmo Magazine. Unfortunately, that’s only a few hundred thousand pictures of teenagers pursing their lips at themselves and holding a digital camera while standing in front of the bathroom mirror. They’re expecting about 60PB by the end of 2011.
- HP was there, creating a lot of buzz, from a hardware perspective. Quest was there as the leading independent tool maker for cloud apps.
- Oracle OraOop got attendees pulse’s racing, since many want a high speed, scalable connector between Oracle and Hadoop to fill a necessary gap. I’m not sure if there’s something in place for SQL Server and I’m not currently aware of any high-speed connectors built in to SQL Server Integration Services.
Some other good coverage to check out about the show as well:
- http://www.ctoedge.com/content/helping-oracle-get-along-hadoop
- http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/10/12/oraoop-sounds-like-a-basketball-trick-but-its-really-an-oracle-apache-enhancer/
- http://www.marketwatch.com/story/quest-software-and-cloudera-unveil-first-release-of-oraoop-at-hadoop-world-2010-2010-10-12?reflink=MW_news_stmp
Why Should You Care?
All of this is very important because NoSQL in general and Hadoop in particular are picking up speed and momentum. Even if your organization isn’t using NoSQL technology today, chances are very good that your CIO will be asking you for details on how and when it should be deployed. And if you don’t think it should be deployed, the natural response of the CIO is “Why not?”. So you’d better get your ducks in a row, Mr SQL Server DBA.
There are lots of great sites to get Hadoop information, but I invite you to take a gander at Jeremiah Peschka’s (blog | twitter) blog for much NoSQL goodness. Start with Jeremiah’s blog post here, and ignore all indications that you might be in a biker bar or a San Francisco tattoo parlor. That’s just Jeremiah’s style.
His Hadoop writings are here, though lately he’s been writing a lot about RIAK - which sounds like a euphemism for vomiting, as in “Jeremiah spent a lot of time riaking after chugging that bottle of cough syrup.”
More content at http://KevinEKline.com
