I own a Tesla, and I love having a bunch of data about my usage of the car. I can see how much I've charged it, what it costs to power, where I drive, aggregates of my monthly usage, and more. It's especially cool when my wife is coming to pick me up, and I can see where the car is, so I know when to go outside if the weather isn't great. I also like the ability to cool or heat the car in advance of going outside in extreme temperatures. However, all that data also means there are potential issues with privacy and certainly security. I am well aware that location and other data are being captu ..read more

I ran across an article on the best AI meeting assistants, which can help you with note-taking and summarization tasks. Most of these cost money, but there was something that struck me about these tools. They aren't allowed for a lot of my meetings. Read the rest of Data Security and AI ..read more

It's Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when many people kick off their Christmas shopping with big sales at various retailers. That's seemed to get quite crazy at times and a number of companies are not running big sales or events on Thursday. Most are still open on Friday, but hopefully, they aren't running too many early morning, low prices that get people to behave poorly. I'm not a big shopper, and many of my Fridays after the Thanksgiving holiday have been spent running volleyball tournaments for the 10-15-year-old kids. I'm hoping that's the plan today, as it is a day off from wor ..read more

I love the Notorious B.I.G. His music isn't for everyone, but I enjoy it. This piece takes one of his songs (NSFW - Ten Crack Commandments) and applies the list to databases. Each item from the song is listed, along with the way it might be changed for database work. The list is from Ottertune, which is a service designed to help you optimize your use of AWS RDS and Aurora databases, with AI. If you believe their hype, their service will get better performance and lower costs for you. In any case, with regard to databases, I suspect that the author is having some fun with the rules, and a few ..read more

I've spent over 30 years working with SQL Server. I saw a post recently from Bob Ward who is celebrating 30 years at Microsoft, noting this is also the 30th anniversary of SQL Server on Windows. It's been an honor for me to get to know Bob, learn from him, and spend time socially at various events around the world. He's truly been a force in improving the SQL Server platform through the years. While SQL Server has been on Windows for 30 years, I've got a bit more than 30 years working with the platform as I actually started managing a SQL Server instance on OS/2. With the addition of Linux, I ..read more

Many of the services that businesses use are taken for granted. In an office, management expects electricity, water, and heat just work. If they don't, then often a crisis is declared and funds are spent to rectify the situation. I've been in businesses where any of those systems fail and usually, it's very disruptive. I think these days a computer network is often seen as the same type of utility service where we take it for granted, but if it doesn't work, it's a crisis. Is the database seen as a service or is it more important than that? I think many software applications are different, and ..read more

I saw a comic from Kendra Little recently, which reminded me of my first SQL Server crisis. I got hired as a contractor to support a large Novell network. In my first chance to work with SQL Server, a new database server running SQL Server 4.2 on OS/2 1.2 was installed on our network to support a new data entry application. This was mandated by a government legal change on Jan 1. As the junior person, I was supporting the installation by corporate developers on Dec 31 at 5 p.m. We finished getting things set up, ate dinner, and then I watched the developers do some smoke testing and prepping t ..read more

Software development can be a challenge for each of us with lots of demands and the need to ensure your code solves a problem correctly, efficiently, and completely. Juggling the workload by yourself is one thing, but add in a team of developers, and the complexity quickly grows. The real world is chaotic and despite the best efforts of project managers and scrum masters, our software development life cycle doesn't always proceed smoothly. I wonder how many of you run into this situation and how you deal with it. Read the rest of When Work Isn't Done ..read more

I enjoyed my time in college, and I learned a great deal. While I do think that the time helped me grow, I also recognize that I was always a good student and the cost of my working through that degree was far below what today's degrees cost at many universities (even accounting for inflation). What's more, I worked most of the time I was at university to pay for my living expenses. These days I am torn on the value of a degree, especially when the total cost can easily exceed USD$50,000. Even more concerning is the fact that many people have to drop out with substantial debt and no degree. Th ..read more

I find there to be a lot of value in actively managing your career. I've been a technical individual contributor, a manager, a business owner, and a cross-team supporter in my various positions. Each one has challenges, and in each case, I've found ways to build a better career position that not only suits me but makes my life more enjoyable. I hope to inspire others to do the same, and this is part of a series of editorials based on advice I've read from Raylene Yung (Facebook and Stripe) on your engineering career. One of the first things I read was that engineers ought to aim to be valuable ..read more