Looking Back

This is a reblog of a post from my friend, Steve Jones. He touches on a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and one that I strongly believe is crucially important.

Nearly all of my SQL Saturday presentations have revolved around documentation and technical communication. Technology may have changed over the years, but the importance of documentation has not. I strongly believe that documentation is getting to the point where it is being dangerously ignored, something that we, as technical professionals, cannot afford to do.

Voice of the DBA

Someone sent me this post on 40 years of programming. It’s a read that laments a few things and complains about many others. Most of the thoughts are opinions, and as such, you may or may not see validity in them. I suspect most of you, like me, see some things are mostly true and some as just false. Since I’ve been in this business for nearly 30 years, many of the comments bring back memories and thoughts about my career as well.

One of the things I do lament is the declining quality of documentation. I’ve seen the volume and detail decline over the years. I wouldn’t want to go back to paper, but I would like to see better examples and more complete examination of the ins and outs of the various functions and features. Far too often I find that there are examples, explanations, or behaviors…

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My introduction to Docker

With my (still-relatively) new job comes an introduction to new (to me) technology. In this case, the technology in question is Docker.

For those of you unfamiliar with Docker (like me), it is, in a nutshell, a tool for deploying and running an application within a container. It is an improvement over VM (virtual machine) in that it runs at the operating system, rather than the hardware, level, resulting in less overhead and a more efficient environment.

As part of my indoctrination into Docker, I looked up some resources to help me get started.  I found this entry that seems to be very helpful.  I’m sure I’ll find some others as well.  I’ll post them as I go along.  I also installed Docker on my work laptop and have been playing with it.  At the moment, I am far from an expert on Docker (in fact, I’m not even close), but I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of how it works.  Hopefully, I’ll be productive with it before long.

I also noticed that, in the schedule for our upcoming SQL Saturday, one of the sessions focuses on Docker.  I intend to attend that session.  At this point, any resource that helps me to learn this technology is definitely of interest.

Does anyone else have any suggested resources for helping me (and others) learn Docker?  Feel free to comment below!

My hometown SQL Saturday: Albany, NY, July 29

My local SQL user group is hosting SQL Saturday on July 29, a week from this Saturday!

I will be speaking; I will be giving my presentation on documentation.  There are also a number of other presentations that people might find of interest.

When I attended SQL Saturday in New York City a couple of months ago, I sat in on Lisa Margerum’s session on networking.  It is an excellent session, and I recommend it highly.

A number of my friends are also presenting, including Greg Moore, Thomas Grohser, George Walters, John Miner, and Ed Pollack.  They always give good presentations, and I recommend them highly.  Check out the schedule for more details.

Hope to see you there!