May 18, 2016 at 8:44 am
Brandie Tarvin (5/17/2016)
So just came across this interesting article on girls vs boys in technology and engineering[/url].The most interesting line of the article (IMHO) is "The test was particularly difficult for students learning English as a second language: Five percent of them scored proficient."
I like the way Emma Brown chalks up the bad scores to a probable language barrier rather than making the blanket assumption that ESL students aren't proficient (like some reporters would).
This hits home for me. I've seen people do something trivial over and over, day after day, because they thought they were creating job security.
And, when I tried to help, I usually got stares like I had a hippopotamus sitting on my head.
I once had to fill in for someone when they went on vacation. He manually copied an Access database of about 40 MB to 12 different file servers in various offices around the world every morning at 8:00 AM EST. One file at at time.
I did it manually once, and automated it. Prettied it up to send out emails on success or failure.
He nearly fainted when he came back from vacation. He was so worried that he wasn't going to have anything to do if we kept doing things like this.
He of course killed the process, and continued to manually copy one file at a time every morning.
Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/
May 18, 2016 at 9:02 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/18/2016)
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
So, are you a minion / button pusher, or are you in charge of your destiny?This article over on The Register[/url] is rather interesting. It's aimed more at the Server / Network / Application / Storage admin types, but I think it also resonates for DBA types.
The implication that basic admin type functions are going to get steadily automated away, so you either automate them and focus more on "big picture" items, or you'll be out on the street. The tools are there, used to be you needed a team to monitor the server farms, now you need a couple people and something like one of the System Center products. Used to be you needed a team (or a couple really, really busy people) to support your desktop users, now it's all remote and tools to monitor the desktops.
Storage arrays used to require wizards and witches (no, seriously, actual wizards with long cloaks, magical staffs, and pointy hats with stars and moons on them, or witches with similar accoutrements,) now any Tom, Dick, or Jane can set up a storage array themselves with a pretty good chance of a working array when they're done (note I didn't say a WELL PERFORMING array!)
Even in the SQL world, I think this is coming. Look at all the various and sundry monitoring tools available, some of which can (I believe) be set up to take action to deal with some issues. Even MS is working towards this, with Central Management Servers and Policy-Based Config tools...
Leads me to think, if you don't know what your company is doing, even in general, with your data, at some point, you'll be automated out of a job in favor of the person who does have an idea, and uses that knowledge not to push buttons, but to push things forward...
Tend to agree, but this will be slow change. There are still people doing things like checking logs and backups daily, and manually building servers. Less, but still jobs. Fare more than I would have thought.
Inertia is hard to resist, especially for management that often doesn't want change either.
This is the trend, but not necessarily at any individual enterprise.
The thing about trends is, eventually they become the way of doing things all around...
I'd honestly expect smaller businesses to be the ones that will take longer to move to automation like this, for several reasons. One would be the most obvious, the manpower issue. If you've got two server / network / storage / database / domain / DNS / DHCP / phone system admins, letting them take the time to set up some sort of monitoring / automation solution doesn't *look* like effective use of their time. Another reason would be the cost of the products that would accomplish the monitoring / automation. Using a previous employer as an example, it was felt that the cost of a "off the shelf" SQL backup solution that offered all the features they thought they'd need was too much (RedGate SQL Backup, FWIW,) so the powers-in-charge decreed instead using an open-source solution. Which took more time to get working as needed, means that the only available support is Google, means that when it didn't work as expected the end-users called my employer for help (tying up a support tech,) etc.
It looked like the right choice in the short-term, but in the long-term I'd suspect not-so-much...
As for the change happening at larger companies, I'd think it would happen somewhat organically. Division A (who has their own IT team) rolls out something which saves on their IT teams costs, so Division B starts looking into it or a similar solution, and so on. It would still take a while, but eventually it's done.
May 18, 2016 at 9:09 am
Michael L John (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/17/2016)
So just came across this interesting article on girls vs boys in technology and engineering[/url].The most interesting line of the article (IMHO) is "The test was particularly difficult for students learning English as a second language: Five percent of them scored proficient."
I like the way Emma Brown chalks up the bad scores to a probable language barrier rather than making the blanket assumption that ESL students aren't proficient (like some reporters would).
This hits home for me. I've seen people do something trivial over and over, day after day, because they thought they were creating job security.
And, when I tried to help, I usually got stares like I had a hippopotamus sitting on my head.
I once had to fill in for someone when they went on vacation. He manually copied an Access database of about 40 MB to 12 different file servers in various offices around the world every morning at 8:00 AM EST. One file at at time.
I did it manually once, and automated it. Prettied it up to send out emails on success or failure.
He nearly fainted when he came back from vacation. He was so worried that he wasn't going to have anything to do if we kept doing things like this.
He of course killed the process, and continued to manually copy one file at a time every morning.
Was he this guy: https://youtu.be/nV7u1VBhWCE (Tom explains to Bob & Bob what he does at IniTech)
:hehe:
(Edited because I'm a numpty who forgot to make the link a link...)
😉
May 18, 2016 at 9:52 am
Why do people choose to ignore good advice and just push for the answer to their question like that is the needed solution. Not saying their question shouldn't be answered (I know nothing about resource governor), but they shouldn't reject other answers out of hand.
May 18, 2016 at 10:15 am
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Michael L John (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/17/2016)
So just came across this interesting article on girls vs boys in technology and engineering[/url].The most interesting line of the article (IMHO) is "The test was particularly difficult for students learning English as a second language: Five percent of them scored proficient."
I like the way Emma Brown chalks up the bad scores to a probable language barrier rather than making the blanket assumption that ESL students aren't proficient (like some reporters would).
This hits home for me. I've seen people do something trivial over and over, day after day, because they thought they were creating job security.
And, when I tried to help, I usually got stares like I had a hippopotamus sitting on my head.
I once had to fill in for someone when they went on vacation. He manually copied an Access database of about 40 MB to 12 different file servers in various offices around the world every morning at 8:00 AM EST. One file at at time.
I did it manually once, and automated it. Prettied it up to send out emails on success or failure.
He nearly fainted when he came back from vacation. He was so worried that he wasn't going to have anything to do if we kept doing things like this.
He of course killed the process, and continued to manually copy one file at a time every morning.
Was he this guy: https://youtu.be/nV7u1VBhWCE (Tom explains to Bob & Bob what he does at IniTech)
:hehe:
(Edited because I'm a numpty who forgot to make the link a link...)
😉
That's one of the great scenes from that movie. There are a few, but that's up there in rank. It's also hauntingly familiar to earlier today. 😉
May 18, 2016 at 10:31 am
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
Why do people choose to ignore good advice and just push for the answer to their question like that is the needed solution. Not saying their question shouldn't be answered (I know nothing about resource governor), but they shouldn't reject other answers out of hand.
Unfortunately, human nature says that we listen to answers we want to hear, not what we need to hear (and I'll admit to occasionally being guilty of this myself).
If someone can figure out how to do both at the same time, that person would make a lot of money.
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Check out my blog at https://pianorayk.wordpress.com/
May 18, 2016 at 11:11 am
Ray K (5/18/2016)
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
Why do people choose to ignore good advice and just push for the answer to their question like that is the needed solution. Not saying their question shouldn't be answered (I know nothing about resource governor), but they shouldn't reject other answers out of hand.Unfortunately, human nature says that we listen to answers we want to hear, not what we need to hear...
I have a coworker who insists on asking questions but won't listen to my answers unless they are the answers he wants / expects to hear. Anything else means I just don't know what I'm talking about.
Terribly annoying. Very very terribly annoying.
May 18, 2016 at 11:18 am
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.
May 18, 2016 at 11:27 am
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.
Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
May 18, 2016 at 12:15 pm
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Given the complete lack of understanding of some of the posts, then the more recent ones, I'm inclined to agree. At first, I thought they were just being thick and unable to remember things from one day to the next. Now, I'm completely on-board with the theory.
May 18, 2016 at 12:21 pm
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Or a DBA with multiple personalities. Meet Sybil the DBA.
May 18, 2016 at 12:27 pm
Grumpy DBA (5/18/2016)
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Or a DBA with multiple personalities. Meet Sybil the DBA.
Could I get a link? I'd like to see this.
May 18, 2016 at 12:32 pm
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
Grumpy DBA (5/18/2016)
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Or a DBA with multiple personalities. Meet Sybil the DBA.
Could I get a link? I'd like to see this.
thinsk it maybe this thread
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1786309-3411-1.aspx
________________________________________________________________
you can lead a user to data....but you cannot make them think
and remember....every day is a school day
May 18, 2016 at 12:36 pm
J Livingston SQL (5/18/2016)
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
Grumpy DBA (5/18/2016)
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Or a DBA with multiple personalities. Meet Sybil the DBA.
Could I get a link? I'd like to see this.
thinsk it maybe this thread
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1786309-3411-1.aspx
That does not sound like our SS.
May 18, 2016 at 12:46 pm
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
J Livingston SQL (5/18/2016)
Lynn Pettis (5/18/2016)
Grumpy DBA (5/18/2016)
jasona.work (5/18/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (5/18/2016)
Oh, my. SS just rebuked someone for asking what SS thinks is an irrelevant question. And in this case it probably is, but SS is the last person who should be trying to control that particular conversation.Been noticing a lot of rather helpful comments from SS recently. Really starting to believe it's a shared account somewhere...
Or a DBA with multiple personalities. Meet Sybil the DBA.
Could I get a link? I'd like to see this.
thinsk it maybe this thread
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1786309-3411-1.aspx
That does not sound like our SS.
maybe not...will we ever know?
at least ""they"" are not resurrecting old scripts with "Thanks for the script" 🙂
________________________________________________________________
you can lead a user to data....but you cannot make them think
and remember....every day is a school day
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