General Thoughts of the Week

Sometimes I'll use this blog to just stream off the things that I've been thinking about, doing, or dealing with recently. There won't be much cohesion between the issues, but at least it gives me a forum to get these thoughts out. And hopefully you'll enjoy my random musings...

First of all, I got a letter in the mail the other day from Janet Perna. For those who don't know, Janet Perna is the general manager of IBM's information management solutions - and that is the team at IBM responsible for DB2. Oh, it wasn't a personal letter or anything like that, it was a form letter. But it was interesting. The letter talked about how Oracle had recently dropped support for 8i and how IBM could help to rein in software cost by converting to DB2. It said I could "...trade up to the superior manageability, scalability, and availability of IBM DB2 Universal Database at a reduced price..." Sounds interesting. Now I'm waiting for my letter from Larry Ellison...

I've also been reading quite a lot lately, on a number of varied topics. I don't just read IT/database stuff. The first book I've been enjoying is Seth Godin's Purple Cow. The book is a quick read and makes a lot of sense. Godin talks about the major changes impacting marketing and how it is increasingly necesary for products and services to be different, novel, and useful to get attention. Now that doesn't sound like anything but common sense, but you'd be surprised how many times folks try to market and sell the same old, same old. And the book contains a lot of useful ideas.

Another good book I can heartily recommend is Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. This book posits the idea that decisions can be made almost instantaneously by experts; and that those decisions are usually better than those made after long hours of inspection and introspection. You have to read the examples given by Gladwell to fully comprehend the ideas here... and it can be applied to database administration somewhat, too. If you're a DBA, how many times have you encountered a problem and seemed to just intuitively know what was the cause? When this happens, it is the power of blink that makes it so.

I've also enjoyed a recent O'Reilly book on open source, titled Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing by Andrew M. St. Laurent. The book isn't very technical so it is useful for managers, or anyone who wants to get a good overview of open source and the licensing issues it entails. Licensing is usually a dull topic useful for inducing sleep, but this book is different. The author manages to make the book both informative and enjoyable at the same time.

On a completely different note, I am a big fan of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine and I highly recommend the first large treasury of strips called Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic. Pearls Before Swine is written by Stephan Pastis, a lawyer by training, but amusing by trade now. Pearls Before Swine began syndication in late 2001 and it has been nominated two years in a row as Best Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society. If you like a good pun, or just enjoy dark humor, you'll like Pearls Before Swine.

Finally, I've just started reading Travels in Four Dimensions by Robin Le Poidevin. Subtitled The Enigmas of Space and Time, this book will get you thinking. If you've ever spent any time thinking about the nature of time (is it real? does it flow? when did time begin?), you'll enjoy this little book. It is not a physics or philosophy book - it is written using easily understood language - and can be enjoyed by all.

Have to sneak a data-related topic in here, too. During a recent gig reviewing a book proposal I got the chance to do a bit of research into the semantic web and SPARQL. SPARQL is a query language for the Resource Definition Framework, or RDF. RDF is a proposed semantic web standard that provides a framework for asset management, enterprise integration and the sharing and reuse of data on the Web. Basically, the goal of the semantic web is to create a universal medium for the exchange of data. The difference between the semantic web and the good old web is that the semantic web will contain machine-understandable data. With facilities that enable processing data by both people and automated tools, the belief is that the web becomes more useful, shareable and manageable. The road map for the semantic web was written by Tim Berners-Lee in 1998. I'll be keeping my eye on this activity because it sounds quite interesting... but who knows if it will ever become a reality.

If you are a fan of power pop like me, you really need to check out a band called The Plain White T's. I just recently bought their new CD, All That We Needed, during a business trip to Chicago and I can't get these songs out of my head. Infectiously catchy and fun, this CD is not to be missed!

I've also been enjoying the recent re-release on CD of the Boomtown Rats records. I'm particularly fond of The Fine Art of Surfacing (it contains "I Don't Like Mondays") because I listened to it incessantly when I was sixteen, way back in 1979; but A Tonic for the Troops is quite good, too.

On a final musical note, I've been getting into my old Parliament/Funkadelic records again, so much so that I've started to replace many of them on CD. You might be able to tell that my taste in music is all over the board. I have an extensive CD and LP collection (over 5000) and I don't stick to just one type of music (though I do have my favorites).

And I also wanted to let everyone know that I won't be posting any new entries to my blog for the next two weeks. I'm taking a much-needed vacation to celebrate my 10th anniversary. When I get back I'll start posting again... and don't worry, I won't bore you all with an extended account of my vacation.