November 11, 2017 at 12:00 am
Jeff Moden - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:52 PMBrandie Tarvin - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:49 AMSean Lange - Thursday, November 9, 2017 2:42 PMdrew.allen - Thursday, November 9, 2017 1:58 PMSo we had a problem updating a record in our third party product. I opened a case on the vendor's website and detailed the steps that I took to create the problem. There was a recent job change and the incorrect hours per pay period were entered in the form for the job change. The steps included correcting the most recent history record to fix the hours per pay period and entering the final annual salary so that the interface would calculate the correct hourly, weekly, and pay period salaries. When the tech assigned to the case tried to recreate the problem, she added a new job history record instead of updating the most recent job history record and entered the hourly rate instead of the annual salary as the basis for calculating the other fields. She was unable to recreate the issue. Is it any surprise, since she couldn't even follow the steps to recreate the issue? :angry:Drew
Sounds like most people in technical support I deal with regularly. They are in support because they can't pay attention to detail well enough to make it as a developer. 🙂
When we were hiring for our contract job, we specified "attention to details" as a must. Then we got candidates who made comments like "oh, but my skills are to focus on the high level stuff, not the little things" when we started asking technical questions on the phone interviews.
Needless to say, none of them made it past that stage.
Heh... I've been through similar... Sr. DBA candidates that complain to their "handlers" that I ask too many questions about SQL Server.
I'd complain if you didn't ask many questions about SQL Server.
November 11, 2017 at 7:17 am
Jeff Moden - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:52 PMHeh... I've been through similar... Sr. DBA candidates that complain to their "handlers" that I ask too many questions about SQL Server.
I received lectures during phone interviews, twice, from two people, on how I was horribly mismanaging the systems under my control because I was overly reliant on non-standard SQL by using functionality only available in T-SQL. "What happens when the company switches to a different RDBMS?" It's about 18 years later and that company is not only still using SQL Server, they've retired Oracle. I don't know where these companies are that switch software every 9 months, but I've never worked with them.
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November 11, 2017 at 11:09 am
Well, I slept pretty well last night. Not sure if the four shots of Fireball had anything to do with that. 😀:hehe:
November 13, 2017 at 5:19 am
Sean Lange - Friday, November 10, 2017 12:36 PMBeatrix Kiddo - Friday, November 10, 2017 7:20 AMI have witnessed a candidate actually answer a phone during a job interview.I am not all that surprised. It seems that many people from the current generation (those in their 20s and 30s) put importance on their damn phone higher than nearly everything else in their snowflake existence. They would rather answer a phone call from their friends as not disappoint them then get through a job interview. This is exactly why I leave my phone in the car when I go in for an interview. Of course my last interview (where I was the interviewee) was nearly a decade ago now. Next August will be 10 years here for me.
Careful there, Sean. You're starting to sound a lot like me when it comes to phones. I think they're aptly named because the "smart phone" makes people act dumb. My favorite is when people drive down the road while paying more attention to a phone than the road. After all, the all-important text is far more important than the car they just rear-ended. :angry::crazy:
November 13, 2017 at 5:35 am
Ed Wagner - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:19 AMCareful there, Sean. You're starting to sound a lot like me when it comes to phones. I think they're aptly named because the "smart phone" makes people act dumb. My favorite is when people drive down the road while paying more attention to a phone than the road. After all, the all-important text is far more important than the car they just rear-ended. :angry::crazy:
If they're using a "smart phone" why are they not using the voice controls? "Ok Google. Text The Boif. Hi babes, I'll be there in 10 minutes! Love you ex oh ex oh ex oh. Send it.".
They're not particularly smart if they aren't using it. Oh... I see... Just because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
November 13, 2017 at 5:42 am
Thom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:35 AMJust because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉
Oh my.... Interesting parallel... probably the same people involved... I was just looking at some threads on LinkedIn (especially the new automatic index tuning feature... holy shades of DTA Batman!) and a couple here on SSC and I couldn't help thinking "Learn to use the main tool for databases" on each of those.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 13, 2017 at 5:50 am
Jeff Moden - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:42 AMThom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:35 AMJust because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉Oh my.... Interesting parallel... probably the same people involved... I was just looking at some threads on LinkedIn (especially the new automatic index tuning feature... holy shades of DTA Batman!) and a couple here on SSC and I couldn't help thinking "Learn to use the main tool for databases" on each of those.
My personal favourite is still "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a better idiot." 🙂
Thom~
Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk
November 13, 2017 at 6:00 am
Thom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:50 AMJeff Moden - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:42 AMThom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:35 AMJust because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉Oh my.... Interesting parallel... probably the same people involved... I was just looking at some threads on LinkedIn (especially the new automatic index tuning feature... holy shades of DTA Batman!) and a couple here on SSC and I couldn't help thinking "Learn to use the main tool for databases" on each of those.
My personal favourite is still "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a better idiot." 🙂
It's hard to soar like an Eagle when you work with Turkeys 😀
Far away is close at hand in the images of elsewhere.
Anon.
November 13, 2017 at 6:21 am
Thom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:50 AMJeff Moden - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:42 AMThom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:35 AMJust because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉Oh my.... Interesting parallel... probably the same people involved... I was just looking at some threads on LinkedIn (especially the new automatic index tuning feature... holy shades of DTA Batman!) and a couple here on SSC and I couldn't help thinking "Learn to use the main tool for databases" on each of those.
My personal favourite is still "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a better idiot." 🙂
Heh... a similar saying is "If you make something idiot-proof, only idiots will use it".
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 13, 2017 at 6:36 am
Jeff Moden - Monday, November 13, 2017 6:21 AMThom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:50 AMJeff Moden - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:42 AMThom A - Monday, November 13, 2017 5:35 AMJust because the phone is "smart" doesn't mean the user is. Standard 1st world problems. 😉Oh my.... Interesting parallel... probably the same people involved... I was just looking at some threads on LinkedIn (especially the new automatic index tuning feature... holy shades of DTA Batman!) and a couple here on SSC and I couldn't help thinking "Learn to use the main tool for databases" on each of those.
My personal favourite is still "If you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a better idiot." 🙂
Heh... a similar saying is "If you make something idiot-proof, only idiots will use it".
Holy crap! A query I was tuning last Thursday was rendered unfinishable (meaning longer than I was prepared to wait) by a recommended index - I only tested it out to see how slow it would make the query.
For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
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Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden
November 13, 2017 at 6:51 am
TomThomson - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:07 PMSteve Jones - SSC Editor - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 12:29 PM...And code isn't prose.Actually, that's not too far wrong - good code has a lot in common with good poetry (both require skilled creative effort).
But I haven't see much poetry with commas at the beginnings of lines. 😀
My point exactly! @=)
November 13, 2017 at 7:06 am
Brandie Tarvin - Monday, November 13, 2017 6:51 AMTomThomson - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:07 PMSteve Jones - SSC Editor - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 12:29 PM...And code isn't prose.Actually, that's not too far wrong - good code has a lot in common with good poetry (both require skilled creative effort).
But I haven't see much poetry with commas at the beginnings of lines. 😀
My point exactly! @=)
I'm assuming that your preferred poetry style also contains copious square brackets, semicolons and suffers from overuse of the word 'GO'. Haiku has some serious competition.
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
- Martin Rees
The absence of consumable DDL, sample data and desired results is, however, evidence of the absence of my response
- Phil Parkin
November 13, 2017 at 7:18 am
Lynn Pettis - Saturday, November 11, 2017 11:09 AMWell, I slept pretty well last night. Not sure if the four shots of Fireball had anything to do with that. 😀:hehe:
I imagine you did sleep well since you don't drink. How is your dad doing?
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Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
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November 13, 2017 at 7:20 am
Brandie Tarvin - Monday, November 13, 2017 6:51 AMTomThomson - Friday, November 10, 2017 5:07 PMSteve Jones - SSC Editor - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 12:29 PM...And code isn't prose.Actually, that's not too far wrong - good code has a lot in common with good poetry (both require skilled creative effort).
But I haven't see much poetry with commas at the beginnings of lines. 😀
My point exactly! @=)
But poetry doesn't use much (if any) punctuation. This would cause major syntax errors in a query. :Whistling:
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
November 13, 2017 at 7:26 am
TomThomson - Friday, November 10, 2017 7:28 PMSean Lange - Thursday, November 9, 2017 2:42 PMSounds like most people in technical support I deal with regularly. They are in support because they can't pay attention to detail well enough to make it as a developer. 🙂A few decades back, a lot of technical support was competent. The cause was quite simple: developers were expected to do some technical support work as well as development. Then came this strange new attitude from across the pond that said the the developers were the real engineers and technical support was for weak also-rans. So developers in the UK would refuse to do any technical support work, emulating the insance American system. So almsot everybody decided that doing technical support was beneath their dignity, a management attitude that said these people doing this menial technical support stuff didn't deserve decent pay and benefits, and certainly were not worth much training (and as they weren't paid enough to buy their own training the results should be pretty obvious). The software business would have a dar better reputation if companies insisted that developers do stints in technical support, and technical support people do stints in development, but it won't happen while competent engineers both disparage technical support people and claim that doing technical support is not a fit task for real engineers.
I managed - mostly by luck, I guess - never to be involved with development of any products for which the developers didn't do techncal support, so I was never associated with a company whose technical support was useless rubbish. At Neos we went a lot further than that - if customers reported bugs there was a straight-forward escalation procedure (written into the contracts with our customers) which ensured that anything serious meant the customer would have the personal attention of the CEO if there wasn't a working fix to the costomer's systems within 36 hours and that wasn't way back in the good old days, it was in the 2000s. I was for quite a long time the step below the CEO in that contractual esclation procedure (and for a shorter time was at the top level as acting but unofficial CEO) and was occassionally (but rarely - our stuff rarely had serious problems) woken in the small hours of the morning by calls from unhappy customers, so I know the customers took that part of the contract seriously.
Sadly this is much like professors in the technical arena. The "good one's" don't teach because they are making actual money in the field. As such, the less competent ones tend to end up as the ones teaching and providing examples to the students. This is a vicious circle because the quality of instruction tends to drop over time in this model which causes the overall quality of software to decrease as a result of inferior learning. Now if we could manage to find a way to pay our teachers (at all levels) a reasonable salary this would probably level out.
_______________________________________________________________
Need help? Help us help you.
Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.
Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/
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