General

I see so much written about how to scale SQL Server systems, and this generally starts with needing to improve SQL Server database performance. When I read articles from the SQL Server field support teams with titles like Top 10 Performance Problems for SQL Server, I often just smile. The problem is one of perspective. If you are looking at the performance problems that are brought to the support teams to solve, you get a very, very skewed view of what’s typical.

2018-01-08

In the second half of 2016, I enrolled in the Microsoft Professional Program for Data Science, and completed it in early 2017. I have to say that I really enjoyed it overall. It was a bit challenging at times but I don’t regret doing it. If you want to get the certification, you need to enroll in the verified option for each course. Nowadays, that’s pretty much $99 USD per course.

2018-01-05

Let me make a potentially bold statement: People who can’t type write worse code than they could be writing I’m sure that will upset some people (probably those who can’t type or who are two or four finger typists) but it’s a conclusion that I’ve come to over many years. Coding is clearly not the same thing as typing but the reason is simple: To write good code, you need to be prepared to constantly refactor and rework the code that you write, and if you can’t do that quickly, you’ll be more reluctant to do it.

2018-01-01

Intrusions into computer systems are happening all the time now. We need to address this issue as an industry, but it’s important to understand that the way we design databases plays a big role in the impacts that occur during intrusions. If you don’t accept that you could have an intrusion, you are living in La La Land. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy _prone_personality) A bug in any one of the frameworks that you use, the code that you write, the protocols that you use, the operating system or hosting services that you use can potentially expose you to an intrusion.

2017-12-19

If I want accounting advice, it’s unlikely that I’d ask my dentist for that advice. Many years ago, I created applications for food wholesalers. When the owners of these businesses decided to get a new or better computing system, invariably they’d speak to their accountants. I understand the reasons why that might seem logical to them at first, but what I saw when these clients did this, is that they invariably ended up with the wrong systems.

2017-12-12

Just after I was born, my mother and father called me Gregory. Ever since then, everyone has called me Greg. And that included my parents. To this day, my mother calls me Greg and so did my dad while he was alive (miss you dad). However, every time I need to fill in an official form, I have to write Gregory. I could change that to Greg if I changed my name legally but I’m not going to do that.

2017-12-11

I’ve pointed out in previous blog posts that I’m not a fan of ORMs. What I’m even less of a fan of is code-first design, particularly in combination with an ORM like the Entity Framework. It might seem cool and shiny and if you are just whipping up a small proof of concept or test app, please feel free to do it, but the minute you think of doing it for enterprise systems, just don’t.

2017-12-05

Many years back, I was invited to chair a course accreditation panel for a local TAFE (Technical and Further Education) course. They had started to offer a computing-related 3 year diploma, and the hope was that it wasn’t too far below the 3 year degrees offered at local universities. One part of that accreditation process involved me discussing the course with the staff members who were teaching it. After talking to almost all the staff, what struck me was how similar they all were.

2017-11-28

I work with data. I understand that for most organizations, that the data they own is the most valuable asset the company owns. One thing I’ve learned from working with data is that unlike application software, data generally outlives generations of applications, is often used by many different applications, and typically just morphs from shape to shape over time. It almost never gets totally refreshed. This is a good thing.

2017-11-21

Something I really struggle with in this industry is when newcomers to a system want to change standards within existing systems because they think something else is better. It’s a sign of immaturity yet it often applies to people who should be senior. Many system architects fall into this category. For example, a vendor system that I’ve been working with has single column primary keys in all tables, and all the primary key columns are named PKey_ID (I’ve changed it a bit to protect the guilty).

2017-11-14