December 14, 2010 at 2:47 am
Hi Steve
My suggestion is actually not for myself, but rather for our local politicians in my country (Denmark), who make heavy use of paperwork.
My company has developed an iPad app which takes an agenda with lots of documents to the iPad. Look in AppStore for "eDagsorden", which would translate to "eAgenda" in english.
One of the main features enables you to make comments and share/sync with the others before and on the meeting.
If I were a politician I would love this because
- I get an iPad...
- We would save lots of $ in not printing
- At home in my sofa I could play games and tell my wife "I'm working on this meeting tomorrow..."
Best regards
Kim
December 14, 2010 at 3:18 am
My mains requirements and how iPad can solve them so that I can work offsite are:-
•Outlook functionality. I.e. track appointments and respond to emails.
iPad has got the calendar and email applications
•Monitor SQL Server for any problems and receive alerts
Red-Gate SQL Monitor has got all the configurable functionality required to moniter SQLServer. SQL Monitor sends alerts via email to your iPad.
•Respond to the alerts and resolving them.
For this I will need a RDP tool like TeamViewer which will allow me to remotely resolve the problem and also administer the SQL Server. I will also have access to all the SQL tools via TeamViewer.
•Have access to learning resources.
I can always use the iPads browser to access quality sites like sqlservercentral and simple-talk. Also I will have access to ebooks via iBookstore.
•Access my desktop files using iPad.
This can easily be achieved by using Dropbox.
December 14, 2010 at 4:39 am
I'm a SQL Server DBA/Developer at a large acute NHS Trust in the UK, i.e a big hospital. There are many ways an iPad could make me do my job better.
A user may have a problem requiring a visit to their office. An iPad would enable me to fix the problem on the spot - rather than back at my office - and wait while the user confirmed the fix, at which point I could update the Change Control app and close the job. When finished I could check my email for other jobs, saving me time as I wouldn't need to go back to the office; hospitals are big places and this benefit alone would improve efficiency. The users get on with their jobs more quickly and patient care is improved.
Having an iPad in meetings would allow me to easily demonstrate the new BI system, by passing around the device so everyone can see, which is better than crowding round the office PC. The Finance Director could simply walk into the Chief Executive's office to show them the BI on the iPad. This ability is priceless as engaging executives is difficult given their time constraints; an instant iPad demonstration would put the development on the exec's radar. The iPad could also be used in any meeting to connect to the Trust's intranet reports and provide information on demand, rather than waiting for a return to the office and a follow-up call. This improves not only my efficiency - as I don't have to provide the information later - but also improves the meetings for everyone as all necessary information is available during the meeting. Better meetings with better information means patient care is improved.
I'd be able to visit wards and talk to patients, showing them their information and updating where appropriate. This would improve data quality, which is increasingly important now for the purposes of receiving payment from the funding bodies. An iPad is also hygienic in this setting as it is easy to wipe down the device to comply with current health and safety standards. This is a great benefit as hospitals are under increasing pressure to reduce the occurrence of infections and face financial penalties for not doing so. Improving data quality by patient engagement in a very hygienic way means patient care is improved.
Ultimately, my job is about the patients. Everything I do is to further improve the care and safety of the patients in the hospital. And an iPad would make me do that job better than ever: quicker fixes for users; executive level engagement and therefore more support for projects; better data quality and therefore more revenue and therefore improved patient care.
December 14, 2010 at 5:53 am
WiFi on a Plane!
Pulling out the bulky 15.6'' laptop and praying that there is enough battery life left to check on my DBs while flying isn't much fun... Ever pulled out your laptop to check on SQL Server and receive a "low battery" warning?? Scary stuff!
...enter the iPad.
With the easy to use form factor and fantastic battery life of the iPad, my anxiety level would drop considerably. Not to mention a much more pleasant user experience.
iPad on a plane for me please!
December 14, 2010 at 6:25 am
In darkest africa things are a little trickier than the rest of the world, we have really fight to keep our heads above water.
Having an iPad will undoudbtly increase my productiviy because it will allow me to engauge in another means of connecting to the internet; thus allowing me to keep in touch with my clients and monitor thier websites and database on the go.
Below is a recent letter I sent to my ISP, kind of proof of how bad it can be here, I’ve remove thier name because I’m such a nice guy, but hey, if I can get away from using TELKOM (our local telecoms company) productivity will more than double instantly.
___________________________________________________________
From: Justin Porteous
Sent: 07 December 2010 11:46 AM
To: 'support@MYISP'
Subject: FW: Client Code XXXX
Dear MYISP Support,
My Client Code is XXXXX, my line (000 000 0000) has been down since I requested it was moved to MYISP and upgraded to 4mbps.
After having no internet at home for nearly 4 weeks now my girlfriend wants to leave me as she feels that me not being able to provide internet is a gauge as to if I’m capable to provide for our kids.
My gold fish is getting withdrawal symptoms from not being on his weekly youtube video and is worried that his fans will find another fish to watch on youtube.
My Claustrophobia, Eremophobia, Meteorophobia and Myctophobia are getting worse, but I feel this is because I haven’t been able to consult with my online psychologist in the evenings when I get home.
I feel like taking a Telkom technician hostage until Telkom actually fix the line, but I fear that he will die under my care as I don’t have internet at home and will not be able to Google what one should feed hostages.
Last night while sitting in the lounge, watching the glow of my modem’s led dancing, I had a sudden urge to log my dissatisfaction on Hello Peter!
This impulse was quickly crushed when I realised I wasn’t online.
For the sake of my girlfriend, my fish, my (in)sanity and the wellbeing of Telkom technicians country wide, please advise me who we can bribe to get our line back online.
December 14, 2010 at 7:07 am
The Data center where I work we are actually in the process of assessing different monitoring tools. Management finally realizes we need tools to be able to do our jobs better and more efficiently and the end result will make them look good to their managers. Given this fact we are tasked with looking/testing different tools and submitting our findings.
I am in the process of testing several monitoring tools. I am doing one at a time and documenting what I like/dislike about each and will submit my finding when complete.
SQL Monitor is on my list but I have not started assessing it yet. Using it from my new iPad would be an excellent way for me to demonstrate the advantages of SQL Monitor to colleges and managers alike. Not only would this be a great way to be "proactive" in monitoring our servers it would make me really cool too.
Thanks for the opportunity to enter the contest.
______________________________
AJ Mendo | @SQLAJ
December 14, 2010 at 7:11 am
Monitoring, Alerting and Reporting(metrics) is my job...
My current position requires me to monitor and setup alerts for everything including Prod Oracle/SQL databases, infrastructure devices(server, switches, routers, mainframe), Enterprise Applications(and the services they depend on), Critical Services, Windows event logs, Production Websites(and their respective backends), etc... The list goes on and on. If something needs to be monitored, it is my job to setup monitors and alerts/corrective actions(restarting services, creating new log files, execute stored procs, etc.). I am also the application owner of several monitoring apps, their respective db's, reporting and metrics.
My position affords me the flexability to work remotely 20% of the time so i typically work from home 1 day a week from my laptop(not a company sponsored pc).
I also use a company laptop(loaner) when i visit other sites so that i can rdp to my regular workstation to keep up with everyday work while i am away in meetings, etc..
Laptops used to be compact and convienient for me to use as i would have all my tools installed there so i could do anything i needed to do at work as long as i could get an internet connection.
Times have changed a bit in the admin world where i no longer require a heavy-weight full function laptop pc to do my work making the small convienient laptop seem like an over sized over powered device that i only use to run a citrix session and a IE window on.
After writing this i realized that with Citrix, RDP and Ipad, i could use an Ipad for most of my daily duties.:cool:
I dont think i would want to scratch out any new reports on it though:-)
scott
December 14, 2010 at 7:13 am
Hi. I've found that this recent recession has had a negative impact on me and on my company's ability to spend the time and dollars on fundamental SQL monitoring tools. I don't think I'm alone in saying we all have to make more happen with fewer resources. A gift of this kind would give me additional insight into my SQL server performance that I do not get with the built-in performance metrics. As for the iPad as a remote monitoring tool, I'd be able to shave two pounds off of my carry-on at the airport and not have to open my bag for security! Two benefits I don't have now!
December 14, 2010 at 7:25 am
I'm a data jack-of-all-trades for a small software and service company. My roles include developer, backup sysadmin, third tier support, data analyst and human ETL machine. My current monitoring system consists of various Python, PowerShell, JScript and Visual FoxPro programs held together with spare bytes of baling wire and DuctTape 3.1415v9. I often dream of enterprise monitoring software or even a new laptop that isn't required to be hooked to mains power or could even run SSMS without dying. But Santa was hit by the recession too, so I'm currently writing GUI wrappers around the GPG command line to save some corporate dollars on user friendly encryption software.
An iPad with SQL Monitor would allow me to keep on top of the servers and have the additional benefit of holding all my SQL Server, PowerShell and .NET books in a portable eformat so I can continue advancing my career without having to carry a large backpack everywhere. I could also study while spending evenings in front of the television with the future wife, since she thinks that sitcoms are an important part of an relationship. She already has a netbook, so an additional iPad wouldn't be needed.
😛
December 14, 2010 at 8:02 am
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of the IPad is this video on Tosh.0.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8KqD2JlzIA
I just laugh and laugh and laugh. Being someone who gets fed up with the holier than tho attitude of most apple people, I was very skeptical. The last time I visited our home office (I telecommute and play the role of project mgr, programmer, dba, and electronic marketing director), I actually just got involved in project for an ipad app for our company. Unfortunately, we only had one ipad device for use by our department. It was assigned to me but because I had other things going on and thought of it more as a toy, I assigned the project to our graphics designer namely because he wanted to learn ipad development and secondly because he has a mac for development and I don't. So I gave it to him along with the specificatiosn for the app that we needed to create. Anyway, when I returned home from my trip, my wife, who also works at home for the same company, was furious with me for not bringing home the ipad. I laughed it off. Now as this project continues to get more involved, I am wishing to heck that I had the device. Besides just having the ability to test our app and getting better familiar with other applications and what is possible, I think having the device would change my life. Much like the blackberry when it came out it freed me from my desk in my basement. It allowed me to not freak out that I was not connected at all times and something may happen at work while I went to go drop my kids off at school in the morning. While I have my issues with Apple in general, I think the device (and devices like it) have alot of potential. If I had one, I think I could find some very innovative ways to be more productive at work and to advance our company's interests in that space. Now, whenever I hear "there's an app for that" I no longer laugh. I take it a bit more seriously. Because if there isn't one, I really thing that one day there might be. And if not, I hear the thing is great for watching movies off of hulu at night in bed with your wife!
December 14, 2010 at 8:03 am
GSquared (12/13/2010)
The iPad would certainly come in handy if I'm ever trapped on a rollercoaster, have a connection and an iPad, and have to connect to a database server to handle an alert I just got, all at the same time. Of course, it needs to be an alert that VPN and the command line can handle, since I don't believe the iPad will run SSMS.But wait! Root the iPad, replace the OS with a more open *nix distribution, and see if I can configure WINE to run SSMS through that ...
Yeah! That's the ticket!
Honestly, I doubt that an iPad will help me in routinely doing my job in any way my smartphone won't already do, while being significantly less "pocket compatible".
But I do intend to get a tablet. Mainly because I think it's going to be good geeky fun to play with one. I've wanted one for years, for just that reason.
(And, no, I don't expect this piece of humor to make it into the top 10 for the contest. If it does, everyone else entering must seriously suck at coming up with more plausible excuses for getting a toy for Christmas. 😀 )
+1
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
December 14, 2010 at 8:08 am
Hello Steve,
First of all, Thanks for posting this kind of contest to encourage the community.
Ipod is a great toy that is having big screen and lots of features of computers. I will have IPad i can take it any where even in my bedroom and work from there. If Ipod is having ability to manage things remotely for my remote sql server with SQL Monitor Software. I don't need to connect to remote server via remote login. Right now We are having email alerts that will tell us how our server are behaving. So with Ipad I can see those emails and I can fix if any thing happens to my server right away without hesitating whether I am traveling, sleeping any where in the world or I can alert other people in organization to do same thing. So it will be a great If I will have Ipad with SQL Monitor.
Best Regards,
Jalpesh,
Microsft MVP (Visual C#),
December 14, 2010 at 8:22 am
It is funny that I came across this contest, more specifically your question, at a time where I am already asking myself this same question.
I am the data architect and senior programmer for the web marketing group of a fairly large company. More importantly, I am the resident problem-solver for our group; kinda like “House MD” only without the limp and less cynical. But I digress.
When something goes wrong I do the block-and-tackling to figure out the issue. This might include refining queries, working with our web servers, and reviewing the code to figure out what’s gumming up the works. I am not a network engineer, and I am not your traditional DBA but I handle issues on both ends and everything in between.
That said, I face two huge issues in my job.
The first is that wearing a number of hats puts me on-call 24/7 and while I can remote in, I am tethered to my home office to remote in when I am not at work. With a daughter who’s 8 and a son of 5 years, I want to be less tethered or rather; I want my leash to be transparent and limitless. I have been eyeing the iPad for just this reason but I just can’t justify that gift to myself right now. Of course the catch 22 is that December is the busiest time of the year in prep for Q1 and having to stay in proximity of my home office is kind of a downer for everyone even though my family is totally understanding.
The second issue is that I am woefully without monitoring tools for our SQL servers. I am in that uncomfortable position where I am responsible for our databases but I don’t have the “title” to justify investing in the tools to grapple with the big questions so I spend quite a bit of time during and after-hours interpreting what information I can from SQL management studio.
So how will I get synergy out of an iPad? I want work to be a relatively transparent event when I am not “at work”. I want to be Superman who can go into superhero mode in a split second and back again when it’s done versus Batman who has to go back to the Batcave to throw on the costume and then deal with the bad guy. If I need to do research, I can whip out that iPad and get the big picture. If I need to take 30 minutes to tackle a problem, I can pull off at a coffee house, grab the kids some hot chocolate, and address the problems on the spot, without having to completely derail my day.
Santa, I want more time with my family and not have to have my work suffer for it. That would be true synergy in my life.
Thanks for the opportunity,
~Chris Cantley
December 14, 2010 at 8:27 am
My company's BI is lightyears behind where it could be (and should be IMO) and being able to prototype and demo more sophisticated data analysis methods and visualisations to anyone in the business will help me drum up an increased appetite for change. Many of the staff don't know what's out there and what they could have if only they asked and being able to show them in situ can help remedy the situation.
With restrictions on access to the dev environments getting a super portable piece of kit for roving around the business is a significant advantage for me for when I want to show people what they could have, if only they sponsor the work. People don't want to perch at a developer's desk, they want the developer to perch on their desk. I need to be able to go to the people.
Buy in for BI developments means that I can help the company work with the information on hand to make better, more informed decisions. Gut feelings are great but they should be backed up by facts before major actions should be taken. With a poor BI implementation this can't happen, and people don't know they have a poor BI implementation because they don't know what a good BI implementation looks like. Help me show them 😀
I think personal development is a highly underrated benefit of the iPad. Being able to sling ebooks onto it and consume these (or online articles or newsletters) on the go or at home offloads this time from the working day which gives you more time in work and makes it easier to keep up to date. This is the other major reason I want one.
December 14, 2010 at 8:53 am
Seriously, how great would an iPad for Christmas be? Well, let me tell you.
Trying to find time to accomplish something at home can be a challenge when the family computer is shared by my husband, three children, and me. First is the eye-rolling teenager who certainly doesn't feel that my work issues are more important than her electronic social life or the school report that was assigned a week prior. Next are the two younger kids whose time is spent "productively" using online games where subscriptions are sold as code attached to stuffed animals. Finally, my husband may perhaps become a professional card shark by spending his free time playing online pinochle and Texas Hold-em; however, that doesn't really help me accomplish my job.
So the solution is to drag my behemoth laptop home from work every night. Walking through the parking lot to reach my car at the end of a long day, I discover that high heels, heavy laptops, and ice don't mix . . . Bam! I’m on the ground, laptop and all. Was I hurt...not in body, but in pride. (True story!) Arriving home, I am tethered to within six feet of a power outlet as the battery can hold a charge for maybe 15 minutes.
Having the portability of iPad would be such a benefit to me. Would I run through a field of daisies with an iPad whilst proclaiming the joys of remote monitoring? Not likely. But being able to use the iPad anywhere that I can find quiet time would be so desirable. Perhaps I’d be able to do more while waiting at the kids’ sporting events or sitting in the parking lot waiting to pick up from dance or cheer. Perhaps I'd station myself in the peaceful sanctuary of my laundry room or even the floor of my bedroom closet, two places where nobody seems to bother me. So, you see, it's not just about doing my job better or quicker, it's about just having the resources to do my job anywhere. Dear Santa Steve, please send me an iPad for Christmas.
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