Quote of the Day

 I think I just found one of my all-time favorite quotes here:

"You cannot write well without data." (George Higgins)

Look at how all-encompassing that quote is. It's not limited to technical articles, instructional material or journalism. Heck, it's not even talking about SQL!

teAchnology lists the five main types of writing as: Expository, Descriptive, Narrative, Persuasive and Creative. According to the site, creative writing "doesn't necessarily need to follow any line of facts, just as long as it's interesting to read."

So even writing that doesn't rely on facts needs data...interesting.

A Certificate is Not a Touchdown

Kendra Little (Website | Twitter) recently presented a really good Webcast on SQL Server 2008 certification. She told us that a certificate is not the same thing as a touchdown (she didn't use those words, but it helps me get over my Super Bowl hangover).

So, what am I talking about? In American football, a touchdown is a scoring play - a positive end-result. Just like a certificate, right? Wrong!

Attaining certification should be a by-product of your training, not a goal in itself. Kendra points out that if you can emphasize what you've accomplished that led to your certificate, you'll be better off than just waving a piece of paper around (or worse).

In addition to explaining what to study, how to study and why to pursue certification, I took several good points from her presentation, specifically:

Don't necessarily focus on the topics you're worst at.
It may be easier to improve from being 'pretty good' at something to 'really good' at it, than to go from being 'really bad' to 'really good' at it.
 
Of course, don't ignore the stuff that you're really bad at.

Have a lab, and make sure it's available whenever you need it.
Put it on your laptop, or set it up so you can connect to it remotely. Use VM's that can be trashed, discarded and recreated easily. I usually set up one VM with the base OS, and one with a default SQL Server instance running.

After watching the presentation, I'm confident that my studying is on the right path. I plan to discuss the materials I'm using in a later post. 

Thanks to everyone at Brent Ozar PLF for their Tuesday Triage Webcasts!

Meme Monday For December

It's Meme Monday time again. This month, Thomas LaRock (blog|Twitter) wants to know:

What gift do you want Microsoft to leave for you under the tree this year?

Hmm, let's see...Microsoft wouldn't give me an iPhone, would they? I'll guess I'll have to settle for a Windows Phone; I should probably start learning the Metro UI anyway.

Oh, and Santa Bill (or is it Santa Steve these days)? A few vouchers for certification tests would make nice stocking-stuffers, too.

People Are Your Most Important Asset? - I Don't Think So

Our People Are Our Most Important Asset!

Donald Taylor posits here that people are an organization's most important asset.

Personally, I'd hesitate to work for a company that had that attitude.

On this blog, an organization's most important asset is data.

Although I wouldn't argue that a person is, "Something valuable that an entity benefits from, or has use of, in generating income", the complete definition of asset from businessdictionary.com is:

1. Something valuable that an entity owns, benefits from, or has use of, in generating income.
2. Accounting: Something that an entity has acquired or purchased, and that has money value (its cost, book value, market value, or residual value).

That doesn't sound right. Maybe we should dig a little deeper. Maybe people are tangible assets:

...anything that has long-term physical existence or is acquired for use in the operations of the business and not for sale to customers. 

A tad Orwellian, perhaps, but not too bad. Continuing:

...can be destroyed by fire, hurricane, or other disasters or accidents.

Gruesome, but true.

...can be used as collateral to raise loans, and can be more readily sold to raise cash in emergencies.

Stop right there.

How about intangible assets? Let's check that definition:

...the long-term resources of an entity, but have no physical existence.

Nope.

Sorry, I'm just not buying the idea that people are assets. So what are they?

I think a person is a resource:

An economic or productive factor required to accomplish an activity, or as means to undertake an enterprise and achieve desired outcome.

Now that's a person!

Let's wrap this discussion up with a couple of metaphors:

1. Data is the fuel for the engine (the resource) that produces information.
2. Data are the ingredients for the chef (the resource) to produce a meal (information).

Do you have any better examples? Do you agree or (more importantly) disagree?

PS: Some people don't like the term "Human Resources", but I always thought it meant resources for humans, not resources that are human.

Just A Big Ol' Spreadsheet

I've been thinking about my last post, and it occurred to me that some users probably think a database is nothing more than a big, interactive spreadsheet. Result sets are returned as rows and columns, and maybe their reports have graphs, just like in Excel. Heck, maybe they're actually using Excel as a front-end, so of course the database looks like a spreadsheet.

I know when I'm asked, "So what is a database, anyway?" I use a spreadsheet to explain it.

Maybe I have to come up with a better metaphor.

Meme Monday: Dumb SQL Questions

Once again, it's Meme Monday. Thomas LaRock's (Blog | Twitter) meme this month is dumb SQL questions.

First, let me express an opinion. I agree with the ideas that there are no dumb questions, or the only dumb question is one that isn't asked. But I think there are lazy questions, questions that could be answered with a little digging (or a quick Google search), but it's just easier to ask the DBA. I don't like lazy questions, and I try not to ask them.

Now, on to this month's meme. I don't really have a dumb question, more of a dumb attitude. It seems that a lot of end-users and developers think that creating a database takes about as much time and effort as creating a spreadsheet. They need it tomorrow, and don't understand when we start asking about schemas, tables, constraints, etc.

I suppose the DBA team needs to do a better job at education, but sometimes it seems like a lost cause.

It's Meme Monday Again

It's the 1st Monday of the month, so Thomas LaRock (Blog | Twitter) has another Meme Monday. Here's my list of Nine Things That Can Go Wrong With SQL Server That Don't Involve Disks:

1. Users delete data they shouldn't.
2. A memory module goes bad.
3. Backup tapes get lost or damaged.
4. The SA password is compromised.
5. The network goes out, so no one can access the database.
6. The requirements for a project change drastically at the last minute.
7. The documentation you're using to try to fix a problem turns out to be wrong.
8. Your mentor suddenly quits.
9. Your raise is denied.