So, here’s my year end post, my gift to you, a list of 20 things you need to stop doing in 2020. You’re welcome.

Using antiquated technology

The line in the sand for me right now are the ages of my children. If any software was written before my kids were born, don’t use it. But that measuring stick won’t work for everyone. So, here’s something easier to consider – make certain you are only (at most) one full version behind. If someone advises you to not upgrade because “it ain’t broke”, remind them that security never sleeps.

Responding immediately

Stop doing that. Trust me on this, your response to that email/text/slack can wait. Don’t believe me? Try an experiment. For one month do not reply immediately to your emails. At the end of the month add up the number of emails you received, and the number of emails that required an immediate response. I’m willing to bet that the number is quite low, much lower than you realize. And once you realize just how few require an immediate reply, you’ll never look at email in the same way again.

Over-thinking everything

Some things in your life require deep analysis and thought, no question. But you don’t need to spend 30 minutes ordering coffee at Starbucks. Lots of things in your life are like that coffee, you should be able to just make a decision and move on. But for whatever reason we tend to analyze lots of decisions in our lives that don’t need any extra analysis.

Doing unproductive work

Start tracking your daily tasks and see which tasks (and times of day) are the most productive. Chances are you have a few tasks that don’t align with your highest level of goals. If you want to become the world’s best widget-maker then you need to focus on tasks that help you achieve that goal, and spend less time on tasks that don’t help you get there. Yes, this also means you should stop playing games on your phone instead of doing real work.

Pretending that work-life balance exists

It doesn’t. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the idea of work-life balance is a myth perpetuated by HR departments that are trying to recruit you. This is especially true the higher up the corporate ladder you find yourself. And yes, that means if you are self-employed, you are essentially your own CEO, and you don’t just work at home but you also live at work. So stop pretending that any such work-life balance exists, it doesn’t. What you really have is work-life management.

Multitasking every moment of the day

Would it hurt you to focus on the task at hand for once? You don’t always have to be doing three things at once. Like texting and driving, for example. Remember I told you how that email can wait? Yeah, that is especially true if you are driving. Try living in the moment a few times a day and you may be surprised to see the quality of your output rising as a result of your increased focus on one specific task.

Stop arguing with people on the internet

It’s just not worth it, even when they are wrong, and even when they attack you. The internet is a big place, and it is full of opinions. Let people express their opinion. It’s OK. If you really feel the need to inject yourself into a conversation, don’t do it. You won’t win. You can’t win. It’s the internet, and every time you try to get the last word in about something, or try to demean someone because you feel you have been wronged, all it does is make you look a little more foolish than if you had written nothing at all.

Comparing yourself to others

You’ll never be as good as that other person. It’s true. You will only ever become second-best, because you will always feel they are better than you anyway. It’s a losing effort, so don’t bother. Instead, find out what one or two things you like most about them and see if you can adapt those things to fit your personality or lifestyle. At the end of the day you have to be yourself, but it’s OK if you get some influence and inspiration from others. Just don’t try to be an exact replica because that’s creepy.

Thinking that you need to go it alone

I see this a lot. In fact, I lived it. I thought I was all alone in my role as a DBA. But I wasn’t, because I had a network of colleagues out there willing to help. You don’t need to do anything alone in life, you can always find someone willing to help. Even misery loves company. And whether you are a DBA or the CEO of your company, you don’t have to work in a vacuum, there is a network of your peers willing to lend you a hand. It’s OK to ask for help, to admit that you may have been able to do something better. If your end goal for life is to have “I did it myself” on your tombstone then you should expect a lot of lonely Holiday dinners.

Reusing passwords

Please, just stop this. It’s for your own good. Get yourself a password manager. Enable two-factor authorization when possible. Or maybe stop using passwords altogether and start using biometrics.

Thinking you need a blockchain

No, you don’t need a blockchain. And most crypto currencies are a modern multi-level marketing scam. Sure, there are a handful of legit use cases for these technologies. But chances are you aren’t one of them. (If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the Missing Cryptoqueen podcast, you should make the time.)

Ignoring ransomware

It’s only a matter of time before you or your company is hit with ransomware. Phishing attacks remain popular, as do macros. Combine this with password reuse and it is easy to understand why ransomware attacks are increasing. And before you say “more training” is the answer, I will tell you that the real answer is better email filters combined with network segmentation, and a solid disaster recovery process.

Waiting to patch servers and systems

Apply security updates as soon as possible. Don’t delay because someone in accounting is inconvenienced. They will be more inconvenienced by a security breach that forces the business to close its doors. When it comes to security updates don’t wait for permission from 27 different teams to say “OK”. Tell them when it is happening, and why, and then get it done.

Storing credentials in GitHub

Honestly people, when I read stories like this one it makes me wonder if we should allow you to drive a car, or vote. I know there are ways to encrypt credentials inside your source control. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Use a password manager, please. Or a key vault. The last place I would want to store credentials is inside of source control. But that’s me. You do you.

Ignoring regular DR testing

I mentioned ransomware earlier, and having a solid disaster recovery process is necessary. Well, you don’t get there without practice. DR testing doesn’t have to mean all-hands on deck all weekend. You can do parts of it throughout the year, like practice recovering a critical database or system. Backups are useless, restores are priceless. (Ask anyone that’s been ransomwared.)

Restoring production data to dev/test systems

If you are restoring production data to a less secure environment you have increased your risk for data leakage. You must take the necessary steps to obfuscate that data before Adam in Accounting leaves his laptop on the bus full of spreadsheets with customer details.

Thinking cloud is less expensive

While it may prove to be less expensive in time, the initial migration and ramp up will not show much savings. And then, when hidden costs come in (such as AWS mysterious transfer rates) you suddenly find yourself paying way more than you were expecting. That being said, you can’t focus just on dollar cost, because there are more benefits to using a public cloud such as Azure or AWS than just shutting down your own data center.

Stop leaving your s3 buckets open

Seriously people, the default for S3 objects is “private”. This means that you are knowingly opening up your buckets to the world and you don’t seem to care. I can’t help you unless you want to be helped.

Stop believing you must always be working

Every so often some jackhole posts a message on Twitter or Facebook that talks about how you can’t be a success unless you are working nights and weekends. Don’t fall for this bullshit. You don’t need to work yourself to death to be a success. In fact, working yourself 80 hours a week is going to lead to burnout and mental fatigue. No one cares about effort, they only care about results. Focus on delivering quality work, doing something you truly enjoy, alongside others you enjoy being with.

Reading blog posts titled “20 Things in 2020”

They’re a waste of your time. Go kiss your children goodnight and read them a story instead.

The post 20 Things You Need to Stop Doing in 2020 appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

So, after the events last week, it got me thinking how I have not written many (or any?) posts about available free tools such as Pingdom. So, here’s one for today. I will use the free website performance tool from Pingdom to do performance testing against this blog. I’ll run a quick test against my “Hey Cortana” post from last week, with Disqus enabled at first then disabled.

Here’s the result with Disqus enabled:

13 seconds to load the page? That seems like a bit of a drag to anyone trying to read my post. I know I wouldn’t wait around that long for a page to load (and from my page stats, I can tell you don’t either).

Further down the Pingdom test results page, I find details on the number of requests and content size broken down by domain:

I see 14 requests from Disqus, with a sum total of 413.27KB. Roughly one-third of the entire 1.2MB page size, just from Disqus.

Now, let’s have a look at the same page, but this time with Disqus disabled:

The page size is half as much as before, and the load time is about 90% faster. The total number of requests went from 156 down to 52, a nice decrease.

Let’s look at the content and requests by domain:

The Disqus requests are gone. As a result, this blog will perform better for my readers.

Disqus no longer serves any purpose for me or my readers. As a result, I have removed it from this blog. Thanks to Pingdom I was able to identify this easy change to improve the performance of my blog. I have some additional cleanup to do for this blog. I will continue to use Pingdom to help me navigate the location of performance tuning opportunities.

If you are so inclined I would advocate that you try Pingdom for your own blogs and websites.

The post Pingdom Made Me Stop Using Disqus for Blog Comments appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

You may think you’re cool, but you’ll never be ‘Steve McQueen driving a Ferrari at Le Mans’ cool.

Last week I received an email from my friend Mike Walsh (blog | @mike_walsh), who commented on the look and feel of this blog as well as the general content. Mike and I have been friends for more than 10 years now so it’s safe to say “he knew me when”.

I reminded Mike that this blog had a makeover last year, and replied to his comment about the content I’ve been writing for the past six years. Mike’s comment about my content was this:

“…more general and less sql. Makes sense with your role.”

Mike’s comment wasn’t a negative one, it was just an observation of his, and his note was supportive of my work here over the years.

Still, that comment got me thinking about what I’ve been doing here. I don’t post as frequently anymore, maybe only a few posts a month. The reason for that is because my writing is in demand in many more places these days and it can be hard to find the time for blog posts here. But the content itself, is it less SQL?

Maybe it is, and in my reply to Mike I told him how I’ve always viewed having a data professional career is similar to how an F1 racing team can be broken down into three roles. If you don’t know what F1 racing is because you only know NASCAR and left-turn only stock car racing then let me tell you that F1 is where Juan Pablo Montoya used to race.

Mechanics

The folks that keep the engine running in peak condition, are always there to work fast, and put out any fires that crop up. Many DBAs liken their roles to being a mechanic, and with everything under the hood of SQL Server these days I think an F1 mechanic is an apt comparison. You are expected to know a lot about a very specific thing (database engine, car engine), you are expected to have an amazing set of tools, and you are expected to fix issues quickly no matter what the situation. Hard skills are of most value here.

Drivers

Some people don’t want to be under the hood, they would rather be behind the wheel. These are the folks that have their hands “less dirty” as they progress through their career, most often into middle management roles. They enjoy project work, they enjoy working close with the mechanics (but not being one), and they enjoy being in the winner’s circle from time to time as the result of being part of a winning team. Hard skills and soft skills have equal value here.

Owners

Some people just want to help put all the pieces together and run a successful business, or team. These are the executives, the architects, the folks that don’t get paged in the middle of the night unless their driver or ace mechanic needs bail money. They can see, and they can comprehend, the bigger picture when it comes to the data industry. They pay attention to trends, they gather data, and they know that if you wait six months everything will change. Hard skills aren’t valued much, if at all. Soft skills reign supreme for owners.

When Confio bought me all those years ago, they weren’t looking to have me be a mechanic. They wanted me behind the wheel. Over time I’ve taken the steps to learn about what it takes to be an owner. My role now at SolarWinds is to be someone that can help make a big push when needed. Mechanics don’t move the needle as much as an owner can.

So, yeah, I guess I don’t write as much about weird SQL things as I once did. And I think that’s just fine. I’ve often said that blogging should be done to feed your soul, not the soul of others. If you find yourself blogging because you think you need to keep up with others, then you are doing it wrong. Write what you want to say, when the words feel like they need to come out of your fingers, and publish when you want and not when someone tells you to publish.

Final Thoughts

There’s nothing wrong with gravitating towards any one (or more) of these roles in your data career. I have friends that have moved between each of these roles, as it seems every few years they need to try something different.

How you become a mechanic, or driver, or owner isn’t important to anyone else. Some paths may take longer than others, so you need to remain positive and keep visualizing the end result. No one is going to be concerned about your past, all they will want are tangible results delivered with a ribbon on top.

Getting there can be tough. Being there can be tougher. And staying there can be the hardest thing of all. And if you want to move beyond the role of a mechanic then you must start working on the soft skills. Hard skills have a salary cap, but soft skills do not. Even the most talented mechanic, the ones with more hard skills than anyone else, can (and will) be replaced if they also happen to be jerks to everyone else around them in the garage.

Lastly, make sure you take time for yourself. Put your family first whenever possible, but remain responsive and responsible, and never be afraid to admit that you do not know everything. You spent a long time getting to your role, so make certain you are enjoying your life, your career, and the ride.

The post More General and Less SQL appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

You may have seen me mention the IS [NOT] NULL newsletter on Twitter and Facebook in previous weeks but today I want to show off the shiny new landing page, built by the Business Betties.

I’ve mentioned before that this blog is not my full time job, so the idea of having a newsletter may seem odd. Most newsletters are part of a traditional sales and marketing campaign, designed with one goal in mind: to find a way to separate you from the dollar(s) in your pocket.

That’s not why I spend time here, writing. I write because writing feeds my soul. And lately I have been feeling that I need a way to create something that allows for more intimacy than what a traditional blogging platform provides.

My goal for creating the IS [NOT] NULL newsletter is to create a place that allows for data professionals to have better conversations. I want to help people understand that there is more to the world than the screen on their desk. I want to make this newsletter a source of information to help subscribers be ready to make that career pivot when the time comes.

As the landing page suggests, the newsletter will launch at some point in time this fall. That gives me until the morning of December 21st to get it done. I like my odds on making that deadline and I am hoping it will be sooner as I have LOTS of things I want to say to you people.

The IS [NOT] NULL newsletter will contain my thoughts on the enterprise data community and the people that build it, some links that I believe are worth sharing, a healthy dose of snark, and a place for everyone to speak their mind. This will not be a one-way broadcast, it will be a collaboration. And while I have a loose idea of the newsletter format and structure right now I also expect that it will evolve over time.

This newsletter will be a journey for all of us to take, and I am excited to get started.

Sign up to get the IS [NOT] NULL newsletter in your inbox.

The post Announcing the IS [NOT] NULL Newsletter appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

First up, you may have noticed things look a bit different here. The blog has been redesigned. In fact, it’s not really a blog anymore. It’s a real website that just happens to have a blog attached. The design work was done by the wonderful Business Betties and I could never thank them enough for the work they have done and the patience they showed with their most difficult client ever, me! So, thanks to both Alison and to my beautiful bride Suzanne for all their work since the start of the year. And if you like what they did for me here, check out the services they provide to see if they can help you, too. Mention my name and…wait…might be best for you to not mention anything about me, ever.

Yes, I said ‘start of the year’ just now. This blog isn’t my full time job, nor theirs. We’ve done the redesign in small steps over the past ten months. We’ve made some changes, then changed the changes, and applied other changes, and finally gotten to the point where we want to officially announce that changes have been made. You’re welcome.

Also, I haven’t done much with my blogger rankings for a while now, updating them infrequently at best. When I started them 8 years ago it was meant to help promote and encourage others to participate in blogging. Eventually my RSS feed exploded and these days I find myself not able to invest the time necessary to keep the rankings current. Many of the blogs on the rankings have become stale or evolved into marketing mouthpieces. I want to turn back time and focus on finding ways to help those in need of some encouragement with blogging and writing.

It’s time to blow things up and start over, I just haven’t figured out what to do yet. There are a lot of bloggers out there that talk about wonderful parts of technology that exist outside of (and yet influence) the SQL Server core engine. I will need to spend time thinking about what steps to take next to build the ultimate “who’s who” list of bloggers. In the meantime I will continue to update the current page infrequently.

As always, thanks for reading. It’s been 3 years since I last updated the blog. It was time for a makeover and I will have more announcements in the coming weeks.

I’m really happy with the new website, the blog, and the direction we are heading.

The post Blogging Update appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

I, however, have never been one to follow the crowd.

So as we close out 2014 it’s time for my annual review of things that didn’t happen to me during the previous twelve months.

As always, you’re welcome.

Didn’t dump a bucket of ice water on my head

The Ice Bucket Challenge enjoyed slightly more than 15 minutes of fame this past year. Billions of brain cells killed by frostbite in an effort to raise awareness for charity. I wish I had completed the challenge with as much style as Sir Patrick Stewart.

11mi today. Just a few hills. #18kBefore8a I just ran 11.0 mi with Nike+. http://t.co/I8XexSRVW5 #nikeplus pic.twitter.com/WP8twqXMQn

— SQLRockstar (@SQLRockstar) August 16, 2014

Didn’t Run a Marathon

For the 8th year in a row now, as the 2006 New Your City Marathon remains the one and only time I was crazy enough to attempt using only my feet to move my body for 26.2 miles. I did run quite a bit this past summer and I am thinking of a few races for 2015.

Didn’t Win an Academy Award

Despite my work on the SolarWinds Lab episodes I have found myself snubbed by the Academy yet again. I’m beginning to think that perhaps the voting process is weighted in such a way that I may never win.

Didn’t Get Asked To Join the Illuminati (again)

And even if I did, it’s not like I would tell you. But I did write about how you can see the signs that the Illuminati exist everywhere, including inside of SQL Server.

Didn’t Go To The Moon

And neither did anyone else, but some crazy team landed on a comet! Also, NASA launched Orion, which is supposed to be the first step towards going to Mars, but they won’t be stopping at the Moon either. Closer to Earth I flew over 125,000 miles on Delta this year, so that’s about halfway to the moon. And I did it all without my emotional pig (yeah, that’s my home airport, and I couldn’t be more proud). 

Didn’t Have a Wardrobe Malfunction On Stage at PASS Summit

I made it through the keynote this year with a minimal amount of gaffes. In rehearsal I kept saying “welcome to the 2015 PASS Summit”, and stepping on stage that morning my number one fear was saying the wrong year. Thankfully I wasn’t worried about my wardrobe.

@SQLRockstar has VERY fancy shoes. — Scott Senkeresty (@ScottSenkeresty) November 5, 2014

Didn’t Lose My Job to the Cloud

No, and I doubt anyone else has either, despite the FUD I continue to see spread regarding Cloud versus “Earthed” servers. Rimma Nehme said it best during her PASS Summit keynote when she told the room that whatever job you have now just put the word “Cloud” in front of it and spend time updating your skills. Otherwise your fate is sealed.

Didn’t Become A Vegetarian

As if this was ever in doubt? If anything my addition to tasty, salty pork products has intensified as evidenced by my latest adventure into making my own bacon. Which reminds me of something else that didn’t happen…

Didn’t Require a Stent

Despite the apparent rise in consumption of pork related products, and also seeing several friends have issues with their hearts, I have made it through another year without requiring the placement of a stent inside of my heart.

Didn’t Win the World Cup

And neither did the USA. The loss to Belgium cost me a wager with my friend Pieter Vanhove (blog | @pieter_vanhove), who earned a Belgium team jersey. I also was foolish enough to bet on Team USA in olympic hockey, costing me a Team Canada jersey in a wager with Colin Stasiuk (blog | @ColinStasiuk).

Didn’t Upgrade my MCM

Mostly because I can’t make sense of the website to have an idea of what exam I need next in order to stay current. And there is also the matter that the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) doesn’t exist anymore. No, I’m not bitter.

Didn’t Get Hacked By North Korea

And neither did anyone else, apparently, despite what the FBI currently believes. My emails to Sony regarding a potential three picture deal were also not leaked, nor were my photos stolen in the iCloud hack. I’m beginning to think I might not be online enough to be a target but I’ll wait for the NSA to confirm that theory.

Didn’t Have My Bitcoins Discovered By IRS

I managed to get through the year without the IRS learning about my stockpile of bitcoins hidden under my mattress. While I would like to think I’ve found the perfect hiding spot for bitcoins the more likely reason the IRS hasn’t come looking to collect taxes is because my data has been lost.

Didn’t Become a Thing

Despite being online much of the year I wasn’t turned into a “thing” and then assimilated into the “Internet of Things” I keep hearing about. But if that does happen someday I hope I can get a cool t-shirt.

There you have it, a list of things that didn’t happen to me in 2014.

I can’t wait to see all the things I won’t do in 2015!

The post 14 Things That Didn’t Happen To Me In 2014 appeared first on Thomas LaRock.

Instead of writing I found myself doing other activities, much as anyone else does when trying to avoid work. It got to the point where I realized that it would be easier to show you the things I was doing instead of writing a Christmas blog post than to actually write a Christmas blog post. So, that’s what I’ve done here.

As always, you’re welcome.

Here are five ways you can avoid having to write a Christmas blog post.

1. Take a nap

Because we all need to hibernate rest a bit more in the winter months.

2. Go sledding

It helps if there is snow, otherwise you may be disappointed a bit in this one.

3. Bubble bath

Who doesn’t like to relax in a nice, hot bath with bubbles?

4. Go for a swing

Get outside for some fresh air!

5. Go for coffee

A little caffeine can get those brain cells moving again!

I realize that these five things may not work best for everyone. Do whatever feels right for you. Go caroling if you want, or check your mailbox for Christmas cards, or string some maple-bacon-whiskey popcorn balls together. Whatever works for you.

But it helps if you have the right hat.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Photography by the amazing Suzanne Larocque.

The post 5 Ways To Avoid Having To Write a Christmas Blog Post appeared first on Thomas LaRock.