The DBA Game

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The DBA Game

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

SSC Guru

Points: 736063
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November 23, 2005 at 3:52 pm

#60300

Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/thedbagame.asp

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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Kalen Delaney Old Hand Points: 373 More actions · Answer 1

Great job, Steve! I bet you had a lot fun putting this together. And of course, if you have my name in it, I have to rate it excellent.

One comment .... I've worked with DBAs who have at least 2 indexes on every table, but I definitely would not give them positive points for that, because they have indexes on every single column! I've seen 30 or 40 indexes on a single, sometimes heavily-updated, table. And they call me in to help find out why their inserts and updates are taking so long. I then have to figure out which of these indexes are really not needed. I'm really looking forward to the new SQL 2005 DMVs to help with that.

Can I use this quiz in a private class I'm teaching for DBAs next month?

Thanks!!

Kalen

Ric Sierra SSCrazy Points: 2260 More actions · Answer 2

Very funny, is almost a true history.

All of us sometimes happend one of this issues.

Hello from Guatemala,

Ricardo

ITBandits SSC Rookie Points: 42 More actions · Answer 3

I find it somewhat amusing what you give positive points for some things, and also your apparent dislike for developers. Some of us do both. The people you should REALLY rail on are users who think they know how databases work and insist changes should be made to fit their twisted view. You speak of chastising a developer for an opinion, but personally I'd chastise anyone who promotes sending HTML mails. HTML mail, rich text mail, anything other than plain-text mail is wrong. Other than those points, good amusing quiz.

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 4

You don't like developers do you? Personally the idea of chastisng a developer because they don't agree with you strikes me as arrogance that really doesn't belong in an IT environment.

I'm a database developer, not a dba

Most of the others are fun. at reference to Celko.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736063 More actions · Answer 5

Just a joke. Some of my best friends are developers and I like to give them a hard time.

The game was mostly for fun, picking fun at developers is a stereotypical thing for DBAs, not necessarily the real world.

barkers1221 Valued Member Points: 56 More actions · Answer 6

Steve, I always enjoy your columns. They seem to be right on target with us in the real world. This one, the DBA game is very funny. I laughed out loud on a number of them. Each item had an element of truth. What was even more funny were a couple of the responses you received. I particularly like "..strikes me as arrogance that really doesn't belong in an IT environment." Please, give me a break. A developer that codes a view as SELECT * FROM [Very Big Table]...that is what does not belong in the IT environment.

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 7

Yeah, I guessed much that. I like to give the .NET develpers here a hard tme too, even though I'm also classified a developer

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 8

A developer that codes a view as SELECT * FROM [Very Big Table]...that is what does not belong in the IT environment

True, but neither does a DBA who assumes that they know everything about databases and that all developers are ignorent lusers.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398872 More actions · Answer 9

What? No one is posting scores?

Assuming either full positive, full negative or zero, I got an 82.

Fun article. Thanks for putting it up.

As to those who don't like the developers getting poked in the ribs... "Lighten up Frances"

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Mike Labosh Valued Member Points: 53 More actions · Answer 10

Embarrassing how badly my company failed this one. It was so awful, I didn't bother to add up the results.

Mike Labosh, MCSD

stevehindmarsh Ten Centuries Points: 1130 More actions · Answer 11

Blank sa password only scores -10 ! Surely this should be -100 or instant dismissal

Developer having sa rights on dev server gets -12.

Surely a recount is needed ?

Ninja's_RGR'us SSC Guru Points: 294069 More actions · Answer 12

100 SQLServerCentral.com <===== =====> Answering at least half as many questions as

posts, all questions you ask on SQLServerCentral.com

- 2 points +4 points

How much should I get for this one >>> I'm sure I'd be getting over 100 just because of that question .

Thomas LeBlanc SSCrazy Eights Points: 8085 More actions · Answer 13

Good article!!!

Scored 39 at new job.

ThomBeaux

Thomas LeBlanc, MVP Data Platform Consultant