Lost Phone, Ring,Glasses,Etc, At the Office

Posted on May 16, 2013 by andywarren

If you work at a company with more than a 100 or so employees you probably get an email every couple weeks about a phone or some other item being found in the breakroom/restroom/conference room, often with a note saying to email or call with a description of what you’re missing so that can confirm it’s yours.

All very practical.

Maybe not a lot of fun if you’re the keeper of the lost items. Maybe not a lot of fun for you, if you see it as a distraction (and assuming you haven’t lost anything).

Me, I see it as a chance for some fun!

For example, recently someone left a ring in the break room. I go to Google images, find a picture of a toe ring on a toe with some nice polish, paste that into a reply with a note that I’m so glad they found it and hit send. I’m kind enough to not ‘reply all’, though some rainy day I’ll probably have to give that a try too.

Lots of ways to be over the top without crossing any HR lines. Be creative, it’s good for you!

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From Google Reader to Feedly

Posted on May 16, 2013 by andywarren

I shifted to Reader about a year ago mainly for the ability to access my feeds on multiple devices. I’ll admit to being surprised that Google would close it, but given that it was free hard for me to complain. I’ve been looking at the suggestions for a replacement and I’m struck by how easy/hard it is to do that. The top rated one seems to be Feedly and that made me want to look at the others first, not follow the herd. I looked at Netvibes and Newsblur, both interesting but not quite what I wanted. I thought about using Pulse (which I already use) and might have gone with it except the lack of OPML support.

This reminds me why software is so hard. I can’t tell you what I want, but I will probably know it when I see it!

With the July date fast approaching I needed to move somewhere, forcing me to decide something. Feedly imports from Reader, so as is often the case the lower friction made it the easiest thing to do. Thoughts so far:

  • Annoyed it requires a Chrome extension
  • Android client is very nice (but no offline support that I can see)
  • Once a feed is added I don’t see a way to move it to a different folder, leaving remove/re-add as the option
  • One week into it it feels good enough, not much in it frustrates me
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Got Any Grapes?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by andywarren

This past weekend we took a mini vacation, along the way my daughter decided to play this song, which is indeed a pretty good song to enjoy on vacation. Blame me if this one gets stuck in your head for the rest of the day.

 

The Duck Song
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Drafting Email You’ll Never Send-Probably

Posted on May 10, 2013 by andywarren

It’s not uncommon to get frustrated about something at work and send out an email blasting whatever person or group has caused you the frustration. It rarely ends well. It’s usually not very effective in generating the change, and it doesn’t do much to build your reputation as someone that can moderate their emotions under stress. Still, it’s a human thing to do, and sometimes – sometimes – very satisfying as well, regardless of the resulting consequences. Think of this as Level 1.

At Level 2 you’re wise enough to not click send at the end of the writing. Writing is useful, it’s cathartic on its own, and sometimes the writing helps you realize that your frustration, though real, isn’t something that sending this particular email (or maybe any email) will fix. Saving it as a draft and coming back to it, even an hour later, gives you the chance to cool off just a little. Sometimes they get edited and then sent (better an edit than not), more often they just sit in the drafts folder,piling up as a silent record of the stresses and strains of work.

At Level 3 you don’t write the email. You’ve grown to the point where you manage your reaction to the stress and arrive at a decision that an email isn’t going to change your problem. You might just let it go,you might log it mentally for a follow up when the right opportunity arises.

Level 4, attained only by Yoda, is where you don’t get frustrated.

Level 2 is interesting. It’s an active response to a stressor and a fairly effective one too. Aiming for Level 3 is worthwhile, but if you never get there, that’s ok. It’s also worth remembering that even as an enlightened Level 3 under the right kind of stress (say lack of sleep + aggravating co-worker) you might revert to Level 2 or even Level 1.

I have to admit to laughing (cackling? howling?) at the idea of saving all of those drafts and when you finally leave, sending all of them. Take that you aggravating swine! Fun to imagine, horrific in the implementation I think. Write the draft if you will, but delete the draft soon after. 

Ah, the things I think about.

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Books On The Desk

Posted on May 7, 2013 by andywarren

I read quite a bit and it’s rare that I don’t have a book or magazine with me in case I’m stuck waiting on some meeting to start. Most days at lunch I read for a few minutes too, just another way to get to my weekly goal of professional development. It’s typically technology, management, leadership type books, though occasionally it’s further afield – recently I was reading about writing grants for example.

I tend to throw whatever I’m reading on my desk. It reminds me to stay at it (not all these books are page turners after all), but I’ve also found that it is a useful way of starting conversations. It’s also interesting to see people ask (or you see them thinking) “why would you read that?”.

I wish I saw other people do this more. It feels like a lot of people are successful in the short term with no learning, or just in time learning. It’s a practical (or cynical) strategy, but it’s short sighted, there is no investment in “later”. Then again, maybe I just don’t seem them making that investment.

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A SQL Shirt Style For Any Occasion

Posted on May 6, 2013 by andywarren

Recently at work we had a “Hawaiian Shirt Day”, a nice change from the usual business casual. I picked one of my brightest SQLSaturday shirts and off I went to work, where someone remarked that they couldn’t believe I had a Hawaiian SQL Shirt. I remarked that not only did I have one, I have many (from both SQLServerCentral and SQLSaturday), but I have SQL shirts for most other occasions too, with an inventory of t-shirts and polos being the bulk of it, but just in case I have a SQL football jersey, a SQL apron, a SQL chef hat (with my name on it) and a button down long sleeve (which I hope to never wear again) too.

Interesting to think about, isn’t it?

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Looking Forward

Posted on April 30, 2013 by andywarren

For the past couple months I’ve been looking forward to a 5 week break, a chance to think about what I’ve learned and what I want to do next. I haven’t take 2 weeks in a row off in almost 3 years, so a nice vacation, some thinking, some yard work, that seemed like a good plan. That plan was also a hedge of sorts, I’ll return to that in later in the post.

I’ve never been just a DBA. Or maybe just anything. Heck, maybe no one is. I know that I look at people that seem to be just something with a bit of envy, it’s nice to have that focus and consistency. That seems like what serious people should do. I think about my grandfather who was a policeman for 26 years, retired, then worked another 17 years in the court system. I think about a line in a Spenser novel by Martin Quirk (the police captain), commenting that he has been a cop for 30 years and if he wasn’t serious about it,he’d be doing something else.

Somehow that’s never been my path. Or at least not so far. I think about job decisions and career choices,but it’s driven by some internal compass that is hard to express as a rule. I’ve said no less often than yes to interesting jobs, but I have said no at times, and left perfectly good jobs because it was time to go. Money matters, sort of. If I’m going work I’d like to get paid what I’m worth, but the work has to interest me (or at least I’d really like it to be that way). Framing a job as a challenge certainly gets my attention, but even then it’s some mix I look for – I turned down two very nice long term positions in the past year because that mix wasn’t there.

I’ve had a sense of wanting to acquire skills that I’ll need, for something, where something is not well defined, but I suspect is both that next business I build and the non-profit I’ll surely create at some point. It’s hard to make decisions about which fork in the road is the right one (or as Yogi said, take it) when you don’t have that clear destination in mind.

I don’t think I’ll figure all of it out in 5 weeks. My friend Steve Jones tells me I need to work on writing and I think he’s right. Serious writing is a whole different thing from writing blog posts that certainly can and do ramble at times. I want to do more on understanding and teaching professional development, but I’m not at all sure it’s what I want to do full time, yet anyway. I miss being a SQL guy, I miss the doing part of technology. I like the people side of the business. I like working alone and I like working with a team, how to reconcile that? I’m quite sure I couldn’t describe my dream job today, but maybe soon.

As much as anything for the past couple years I’ve been troubleshooter, taking on a tough project that had to be delivered, and I find I like doing that. Much like figuring out a performance problem, getting something moving that is complex, broken, or both is a fun challenge, especially when it involves people and technology. I don’t know that I want to make a career of it, but I don’t know that I don’t either. At heart I’m a problem solver – that’s what I do.

Maybe now is the time to return to the hedge. I have a client that has an interesting project. It’s been going on for a while and has a ways to go. It was unclear how or where I might fit into that and due to timing and other stuff it didn’t look like it would work out, as much as it might have been a good fit. Normally with an assignment ending I’d be lining up more work well in advance, but this time I was inclined to take a chance and just wait a bit. Waiting isn’t easy, for me and especially for my wife who likes at least the appearnace of job stability, so the compromise was to plan on the break that ended with the family vacation in June, and if nothing had materialized by then I’d have a good start on what I wanted to do next and could get busy trying to make that happen.

Waiting worked out, I think. I’m moving on to that project now, with only a light understanding of what the final role will be. Interestingly I’m not too worried about the lack of definition. I’m betting it will clarify over a few weeks and work out, and if it doesn”t, I’ll deal with it then. That does mean, sadly, that I don’t get my 5 week break, and that hurts more than I expected. I’m willing to postpone it for a while, but I want that time. Even planning for that break has been useful, and I have some things I can work on while I’m getting there.

Right decision? Hard to know.

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Looking Back-Part 2

Posted on April 29, 2013 by andywarren

As I re-read the original Looking Back post I realized I didn’t include anything about the fear part – stepping away from an established career focus to do something else for a while. I’ve been a SQL guy for a long time, I started using SQL Server in 1998 and I was working with data for a while before that. It’s hard to think about giving that up, about losing momentum, falling behind, etc, etc.

At the time a year seemed like a lot, but not out of the realm of reason, and in a lot of ways I looked at it and treated it as a working sabbatical. Then came the decision to make that break closer to two years. That wasn’t quite as worrisome, but it was still cause for thought. How long can you leave a field/technology before it becomes untenable to return, or at least difficult to return at the same level/salary?

I made a deliberate decision to not be finding reasons to use SQL Server during the day – that would have been going back to the comfort zone. It did force me to use Access from time to time to crunch some data to help me make some decisions (and that only reinforced my love/hate relationship with Access). I also made the deliberate decision to stay engaged, though at reduced levels, with my network. I went to some events,went to the Summit,talked to people in the SQL world.

Today I’d say I’m rusty, but not lost. I’ve spent little time with SQL 2012 so I’m behind on using new features, but I think when it’s time to return it will be a few weeks to grind off the rust. It reminds me that SQL Server, even though it has changed a lot, has in a lot of ways changed incrementally. The visual change from Enterprise Manager to SSMS was jarring, but a DBA today using SQL 2000 (and plenty are) could easily make the leap forward. Of course, that assumes doing data to day DBA/data work, which I’m not. That still leaves me wondering what is the longest you can go before you cannot return? Or is that true? Or how long can you maintain dual skill sets, dual networks, etc?

That fear of falling behind certainly bothered me, and I took some time to think on it before deciding. Today I think that kind of change bothers me less – a result of experience no doubt.

The lessons here are not simple. It’s not as easy as saying never fear change, or don’t worry about falling behind. Changing jobs, taking risks, there is no right answer, no formula, or it wouldn’t be a risk. I guess I would tell you, though, that if you get a chance to step away for a year take it. Grow and see what happens. Maybe you’ll return rusty and eager, maybe you’ll take a different path – just have to see. If you think of it as a working sabbatical (oxymoron?) it makes a lot more sense.

Not sure I explained that well, but I’m going to post as is – writing about fear isn’t the easiest thing for me.

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Assorted Links for April 27, 2013

Posted on April 27, 2013 by andywarren
  • Spend a few minutes reviewing 20 Critical Security Controls. Very interesting stuff. For example, #1 refers to having and maintaining an inventory of authorized devices/etc. Do you know all the servers running SQL and would you know if someone set up a new one?
  • Add this blog about servant leaders to your reader if you’re currently managing or thinking about it.
  • Assign a custom icon for each of your USB drives so you can easily tell which is which when it’s plugged in
  • 20 interesting and free security tools. Use caution and common sense before you run these at the office. Not sure where to start? Learning Wireshark is a great way to see what is really going across the wire.
  • Want to learn about DLP (Data Leakage Protection)? Take a look at OpenDLP (I haven’t tried it yet). Or try Spider, an app that searches for various kinds of sensitive data. Reminder again to apply caution and common sense when trying it out.
  • Might find some interesting stuff at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, including a chronology of data breaches. You might also look at Data Loss DB.
  • I just ordered a copy of Translucent Databases ($4 used) by Peter Wayner.
  • I’m amused and annoyed that there is a need for a book on SQL injection (pub 2009, have not read it). Isn’t it time we solved this problem? Education is not working well enough.
  • While I’m posting security links, take a look at the Surveillance Self-Defense project. Lots of good information there on privacy and data protection.
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Looking Back

Posted on April 24, 2013 by andywarren

In July 2011 I took what felt like a big chance and a detour to lead a large and complex security upgrade for a large company. The project included replacing firewalls, re-ip’ing  hundreds of servers, implementing updates to hardening standards, updating application logging, and a lot more. A ‘lot more’ doesn’t really begin to describe the scope – it touched every facet of IT. My knowledge of technology came in handy, but I didn’t do any of the work. Nor did I manage the project in the sense of being a project manager (I had four of those to help with that part). My role was to deliver the final product on time – making sure goals were clear, resources found, and that the work was done. It was work that came to me because of my network, someone I had worked with in the past that knew I was good at sweating the details and pushing things to completion.

It was an intense effort for the first nine months of the planned twelve month engagement. I learned a lot about security, a lot about large companies, a lot about everything. It was the ‘industrial strength’ challenge I had been craving, the one that would integrate and extend skills I had been acquiring over the previous few years. The original plan was to spend a couple months wrapping up the minor left over items,but there was more than expected,and I ended up staying longer – this week is my final week on the effort, 22 months after the start.

It was longer than I planned. Looking back the ‘extra’ time was almost as valuable as the first nine months. It was a chance to see things run at a normal pace, to explore and understand what large companies were good and not good at, and to learn some more lessons about the power of relationships and how hard it can be to build them (making them all the more valuable).

It reminds me of how I’ve changed and continue to change. It wasn’t just work for me, it was a chance to learn – it’s interesting how much (or how little) you can learn if you’re trying to learn. It’s learning by observing and thinking, not as easy as classroom learning, but far more diverse in the results.

Cataloging lessons learned and mistakes would make for a good sized list, too lengthy (and too client centric) to list here. I’ll write down just a few that I think matter the most:

  • Fully understand “Done”. That doesn’t mean you have to understand or document it all on day 1, but you have to keep driving out the gray until you can clearly define done.
  • Relationships matter. Build them or perish.
  • Decide early if you’re going to adapt to the culture or change it. Both are valid strategies, pick the wrong one and you’ll suffer!
  • Transparency (translucency) is armor, but distinguish between what needs to be done publicly vs privately (and back channel)
  • Be willing to compromise to win – you don’t get style points, all they will remember is if you won or not
  • Fight for every day. Lose hours, not days, not weeks.

It has been a great experience, but it’s it time to move on. Over the past two months as I’ve worked towards wrapping up and doing a hand off to the person who will own this going forward I’ve been planning to take the month of May off. I haven’t taken two full weeks off in almost four years and the idea of a full month off followed by a week trip to Philadelphia and DC is…enticing, intoxicating, something – it sounds good!

Tomorrow I’ll post some notes about what I think I might do next.

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