Confessions of a database geek

IAIDQ Data Quality Blog Carnival - November 2010

2010-11-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

Each month the IAIDQ (International Association for Information and Data Quality) (@iaidq) asks the data quality blogging community to submit blog posts for the El Festival del IDQ Bloggers. The carnival is hosted by a different blogger each month and I am very happy to host it for November 2010. I'm posting this today, November 11, in honor of World Quality Day. This year's theme of '

Carnival of Data Quality: October Submissions Welcomed

2010-10-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I'm hosting the IAIDQ Blog Carnival for October posts. I'll publish the Carnival post on November 11 -- which happens to be World Quality Day. Please submit any October posts related to data quality to blogcarnival@iaidq.org. Include the URL of the blog, a quick description of the post, description for the author, and (if you wish) a url for the author's bio. I'm looking

Predictably Poor MetaData Quality

2010-06-25T21:06:00.001-07:00

Big huge disclaimer -- post's title is a play on Jim Harris's excellent post titled "Predictably Poor Data Quality." In fact, it's Jim's post that started me thinking about whether data and metadata quality issues stem from the same root source. I work with a product that, among other things, infers table relationships and proposes ER diagrams based on statistical patterns found in the data.

Road Warrior: Using TripIt to Manage Itineraries

2010-06-07T23:22:00.001-07:00

This is the first week in around three months I haven't traveled. After a while the trips blur together, as do the hotels and departure times. I truly do not remember on any given week what time the next week's flights are. I started using TriptIt.com in January to organize my travel details. My memory isn't any better, but now I don't worry about it. When I get my itinerary email from my

Data Quality: A Philosophical Approach to Truth

2010-06-05T21:13:00.001-07:00

Jim Harris just wrote an excellent post titled The Point of View Paradox on the importance of considering how multiple points of view can lead to multiple perceptions of truth. The basic thesis is that the background, history, and perceptions we bring to a situation, any situation, will impact what we perceive as "truth" in that moment. What does this have to do with data quality? Or '

Evergreen Topic: Securing the Oracle Agent

2010-06-04T22:44:00.001-07:00

Jeepers. According to HitTail the most popular posts I've ever written were in April, 2006. In dog years (which are surely even slower than blog years?) that'd be 30 years ago. So what's the top 'oldie but goodie' topic? Securing communications with the agent -- who knew? Securing Communication with the Agent Securing Communication with the Repository I thought the RMAN posts would be the

Apologies to Data Quality Aggregator Subscribers

2010-06-02T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, sorry for the huge list of old posts from my blog that just showed up in the aggregator. I changed the aggregator to only include my posts if labeled "data quality" -- so y'all wouldn't have to read my ramblings about life as a road warrior, etc... Unfortunately, submitting that change meant all 29 data quality posts re-fed themselves into the aggregated feed (sigh). Have a great

Road Warrior: What I Carry

2010-06-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

[Note: Life as a “road warrior” is one topic I expect to return to regularly as this blog evolves…] I fly somewhere nearly every week. I’ll hit 40,000 miles for 2010 by this Friday. How does a dedicated geek decide what electronic toys to take? I decide by weight and whether it can be multi-purpose. With these gadgets I can work, surf, read, connect. They're my lifeline. Always with me:

Blog Directions: A Year and a Half Later

2010-06-01T07:00:00.001-07:00

Wow, time really does fly...especially when you're flying. Last year I logged just over 100,000 miles on airplanes. It's a little slower this year -- I've flown just under 40,000 so far. And yes I'm tired. My life's changed a lot since I began this blog. I was a DBA for a regional university with a strong interest in all things data quality/security. I've evolved into a sales engineer

IOD Day 1: Optimizing Information Management

2008-10-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

A good day yesterday at IOD. Here's some notes from the sessions I attendedKeynoteWith the terabytes and petabytes of information swirling around us, managing those information assets is a critical competitive differentiator. The keynote session made the challenges clear: managing data growth, optimizing existing infrastructure, providing solid analytics, protecting customer privacy,

IOD Day 0: Partners, Expo, and Reception

2008-10-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything technical to say this morning, just wanted to share this ice sculpture from the Expo opening. It was originally surrounded by a pile of really good shrimp. Obviously that didn't last long. :-)Tonight's post will have more substance.

Information On Demand 2008: Here we go!

2008-10-26T12:02:00.001-07:00

Time for the annual trip to IBM’s Information on Demand (IOD) conference. As I write, I’m on the plane to Vegas.Last year I attended as an IBM consultant. This year, I’ll see it through the eyes of a Sales Engineer role. More time talking with current and potential customers, less time networking with other IBMers. If you’re at IOD, I’m working the Optim booth Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon.

Updates to the Information Quality Aggregator

2008-10-26T12:00:00.001-07:00

It’s great to see more activity in the data quality arena. Dylan Jones started the Data Quality Pro site, and dropped me a note with some additional blogs to consider. A couple look pretty good! I’ve added them to the aggregator.If you have a few minutes you might want to check out the Data Quality Pro blog. There’s a couple interesting series, including one on careers in data quality. Like

Hard choices: back on the road

2008-10-08T06:22:00.000-07:00

I'm having a Doug Burns moment.Those of you in the Oracle blogosphere likely recall Doug going to work for Pythian (a top-notch remote DBA support company) for a bit. In the end, whilst he loves the company and still has a great relationship with them, he had to decide it wasn't the right place for him. I recall reading his post and thinking how important it is for each person to understand

Data Quality Conference Blog: For those of us who can't go

2008-09-22T05:04:00.001-07:00

Cool! Daragh O'Brien's put up a blog to cover the IAIDQ conference (that's International Association for Information and Data Quality). He's told me he'll be blogging live from his subnotebook EEEPC. He's also going to try to get some of the presenters to post about their presentations. It sounds like a good opportunity for them to expand on questions, explain parts of their presentations, or

Oops: Errant Posts in Information Quality Feed

2008-08-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Readers of the Information Quality Aggregator may have noticed the appearance of some woodworking and bourbon posts -- proof positive that even blog aggregators can have information quality issues.It turns out that one of my data sources was trying out "link splicer" and inadvertently combined additional blogs into his aggregated feed. Tis fixed now.Now for the "relevancy" question: how many of

Data Quality Conference: Are you going?

2008-08-22T22:21:00.001-07:00

I am so bummed. The IAIDQ Conference (IAIDQ=International Association for Information and Data Quality) is September 22-25, but I won't be able to go. It's just not going to be possible with this year's schedule. That said, if you have a strong interest in data quality, I encourage you to take a look at the conference program. Larry English and David Loshin are two of the featured speakers. (

Pondering Security of Distributed Data

2008-08-05T23:04:00.001-07:00

Mike Ferguson's been pondering data security across the slew of layers and applications in the enterprise. (content management, MDM, databases, networks, SANs, the list goes on) To paraphrase, Mike essentially posed two excellent questions: Are the varying security policies able to be consistently managed across the organization, and Does data governance need to expand to include data

Database Professionals: What's in Your Office?

2008-08-04T21:19:00.001-07:00

Here's your chance to sound off: what are the must-have user tools/resources for your office (at work or at home)? I had lunch last week with a contractor friend who's expanding into databases. Somehow our conversation shifted to the tools of the trade -- and what we couldn't live without. Here's my list, feel free to add your favorites:SoftwareVMWare images (linux and Windows): Every db pro I've

Data Quality for Product Attributes: Microsoft Jumps In

2008-07-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

If you watch Data Quality news, or subscribe to my Information Quality aggregator, you'll have already seen the announcement that Microsoft's purchasing data quality vendor Zoomix. Vince McBurney and others have posted analyses of the purchase, citing Zoomix's ability to better-position Microsoft for MDM.A Product Data Quality CapabilityWhat caught my eye in the press release was the mention of

SQL Server Service Broker: Archival Processing

2008-07-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

I mentioned earlier I've been working with Service Broker lately. It meets my need of being able to create a near-real time (reportable) archive of activities. More importantly, the queuing allows the archival process to survive the sometimes unpredictable peak loads found in web applications.[Note: Those of you who know my history know I have a background in IBM's etl toolset, and may wonder why

Data Quality Tidbits in the News

2008-07-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

(Catching up on my reading while listening to news reports about local forest fires....a common occurrence in Eastern Washington, but not conducive to a calm night's sleep.)I like reading Vince Mcburney's blog -- he always has the pulse of data integration software trends. He noted yesterday that Oracle is planning to merge Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB) and Oracle Data Integrator (ODI). It'll

Book Review: Pro SQL Server 2005 Service Broker

2008-07-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, I've been working a lot lately with the Service Broker in Microsoft SQL Server. I'm planning a couple posts this month detailing tips and "gotchas," but thought I'd start with a review of Klaus Aschenbrenner's book on the subject.Microsoft's documentation for Service Broker is pretty thin, and sorely lacks for guidance in best practices. I supplemented with two sources:

Data Masking: Case for a Reverse Firewall

2008-07-04T21:27:00.000-07:00

The phrase Data Quality Firewall has been getting press for a couple years now, most recently from Mike Ferguson at DataFlux. The idea is to sanitize the data at runtime, preventing poor-quality data from ever entering corporate systems. Most DQ software vendors have enabled SOA access to their routines specifically for the "data quality firewall" purpose.It seems to me a similar approach applies

Ninety Days: yikes!

2008-06-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

During chaotic times it's helpful to work for a good manager. My boss, who definitely falls into that category, commented in my 90-day review today that I hadn't blogged since joining the company. He wasn't criticizing, just checking whether I had enough "creative juices" time, not wanting me to burn out. To be honest, learning the new product line's internals took a bit longer than I expected

Blog Cleanup

2008-03-29T21:33:00.001-07:00

I've been remiss this last week, getting settled into the new job. More on that in a couple days. Catching Up: I just now published two comments from Alex Gorbechov (thanks Alex!) -- something I should have gotten to several days ago. My apologies. Also, Peter Scott's moved his technical posts over to the Rittman Mead blog. Any posts Pete's tagged as quality-related are available at http:

A Good Data Governance Blog

2008-03-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned Monday, Stave Sarsfield (of Trillium) has a blog worth taking a look at over at Data Governance and Data Quality Insider. Steve's blog discusses data quality, data integration, and (of course) data governance. Like me, he's purposely chosen to keep his blog independent of his employer. His posts do generally link out to Trillium -- but hey, some of mine menion Information Server,

How to Ask for a DBA Blog Link

2008-03-10T16:03:00.001-07:00

Time for a minor rant: There's a right way and a wrong way to ask for a link. But maybe I'm being overly snippy -- I'd love to know if you disagree. Two Link Requests, Done the Right Way Good Contact 1 Dylan Jones emailed me about the Data Migration Professionals site while they were still thinking it through. He was referred by John Morris over at Johnny's Data Migration Blog. Dylan asked

Career Change, Virtual Experts

2008-03-07T21:06:00.001-08:00

I should be posting a lot more often soon, and on a higher percentage of technical topics. As of 3/24 I'll give up consulting to go back to my software development roots. I'll be the data architect for a local software house, NextIT. They build "virtual experts" that use natural language intelligence to answer user questions. I see this as a chance to combine my background in data design/

Data Migration Community

2008-03-07T12:01:00.001-08:00

A new website (DataMigrationPro) specific to data migration launched last week. It's worth checking out if you're a DBA, Database Developer, ETL Specialist, or Data Architect. Dylan Jones contacted me a while ago as they were planning the site. He believes, and I agree, that successful data migration projects require a specific set of skills and processes. Best practices for migrating /

Blog Carnival of Data Quality -- Issue #3

2008-01-27T13:46:00.001-08:00

Welcome to the January, 2008 edition of carnival of data quality. This month's topic was to discuss how we can impact our world with information quality. An acceptable subtopic was to discuss how we can improve the practice of information quality efforts.[Editor's note: I posted this a couple days early -- next week's work

MDM via Technology: An Incomplete Recipe

2008-01-21T20:28:00.001-08:00

Want a recipe for integration failure? I have one for you:Embark on a complex data integration project. For the sake of today's meal let's be bold and make it a Master Data Management (MDM) feast. Have the IT group research and buy some MDM software. Hire a technology consultant to teach them the intricacies of the software. Identify a couple target systems to tie to the MDM app. Give IT a big

Data Quality: Changes Large and Small

2008-01-20T19:54:00.001-08:00

I'm hosting the January issue of the Carnival of Data Quality, with a theme of how we may change the world with (or of) data quality in 2008. We've received some good submissions with wide-reaching implications for society. (THANKS!) I'd like to encourage us to think about the little changes as well. For example: A low-tech data quality initiative: The "Sign your Site" campaign. The

Oracle-Specific Feed from this Blog

2008-01-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

[or, trying not to spam the aggregators]If you've been watching the Oracle blogosphere the last couple weeks, you've probably seen some grumblings about non-Oracle content in the Oracle aggregator.Personally, it doesn't much bother me to see a variety of topics, and I'm pretty good at scanning the headers to decide what I want to read. But that's just me and I do understand why others see it

New OASIS Customer Information Quality Spec

2007-12-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

I just found a reference to the new OASIS Customer Information Quality (CIQ) spec on The Grandpa Ham News.The old spec was seen as too cumbersome for simple applications. The new CIQ spec (version 3.0) was built to allow for simple application models while giving stronger completeness and flexibility.I liked the case study powerpoint they provide describing an approach to customize content

Carnival of Data Quality: Issue #2 Available

2007-12-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

Heads' up everyone! Daragh O Brien posted the 2nd Carnival of Data Quality over on his IQ Trainwreck blog. December posting can be slow, but even so there were some good posts worth reading.I'm hosting the next (January) edition. January's theme: How we will Change the World with Data QualityAs Daragh's (IQ TrainWrecks) site shows, data quality truly impacts our world. Let's get down to details

Information Quality Searches

2007-12-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

[if you're looking for information quality topic ideas, scroll to the "Post Ideas and a Challenge" section -- I have a doc you might find helpful.]Vince McBurney noted this month that Data Quality Readers are Hard to Find. I decided to check out how many hits I'd seen here based on quality-related searches. I pulled the last month's referring searches (tracked for me by hittail.com) and filtered

Updates to Data Quality Resources

2007-12-09T16:19:00.001-08:00

New Blogs I've added a few data information quality and data governance blogs to the aggregator. The Data Governance articles look particularly interesting. Yale Symposium: Reputation Quality Related to data quality is the concept of "reputational quality." One of the panels at Yale's Reputation Economies in Cyberspace symposium is titled Reputational Quality and Information Quality.

Published Today: Carnival of Data Quality #1

2007-11-30T06:10:00.000-08:00

Data Quality Community history in the making! Vince McBurney published the first Carnival of Data Quality today. The theme was "make data quality interesting," and I think he succeeded.There's a few good sites referenced I'd not seen yet. I'll get them added to the InfoQuality aggregator this weekend. Look for the 2nd issue at the end of December over on Daragh's IQ Trainwrecks. You can submit

Information Quality: All the news that's fit to trust?

2007-11-28T15:01:00.000-08:00

Found an article on smartmobs.com today discussing information quality in journalism, with a way to rate it being offered by Newstrust.net. Rating News:Newstrust.net bills itself as "your guide to good journalism." How so? It presents news stories from a list of magazines, newspapers, blogs, radio, and more, asks for reader reviews, and shows the results.Here's the interesting part -- readers

Still Pondering Unstructured Data

2007-11-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

Joe McKendrick points to a survey in which 53 percent of respondents had 11 Terabytes or more of unstructured data. I noticed this Teneja Group survey a couple weeks ago when Paul Weinberg discussed the survey's findings, but didn't have time to read the details.[Nothing like being sick in a hotel room to give you more time than you ever wanted to surf around the web. Of course, it takes me

Off-Topic: Netbank Update

2007-11-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

Last month I posted on the closure of Netbank (which had been my bank) and gave some tips for others who may be wondering what to do. Here's an update.Important DatesYour Netbank debit cards are done. They were deactivated November 23rd.Netbank billpay stops processing December 7. If you have any bills scheduled to pay after December 7 you need to make other arrangements to cover those

Banking Error, Data Linkage Accuracy, and Needing Business Input

2007-11-23T20:04:00.001-08:00

[Quick review: Data quality is often discussed in terms of "dimensions" including accuracy, believability, relevancy, completeness, and timeliness. The list varies slightly from author to author, but you get the idea.] In today's news Allied Irish Bank acknowledged a "technical problem," having sent 15,000 notifications to its customers containing private bank information of other customers.

Data Quality Assessment Redbook Available

2007-11-21T17:58:00.001-08:00

Heads' up! IBM released a draft version of "IBM Websphere Information Analyzer & Data Quality Assessment" for public review. The final version will be published December 31. Don't let the 640 pages scare you away -- this document is heavy in screen shots and "how to" bullet points. The content's worth it, and free is a wonderful price. If you are implementing Websphere Information Analyzer

Update: New Information Quality Aggregator

2007-11-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

In a post this morning I said we'd benefit from a blog aggregator specific to Information Quality. Mulling it over, it didn't seem right to just leave it at "gee, wouldn't it be nice if someone did this..."So, I've started a blog-level aggregation titled "InfoQuality Aggregator." There are three ways to views of the info from this blog's menu at right:The "InfoQuality Aggregator: Full Results"

Aggregating Data Quality Content

2007-11-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

One of the commentors to my Data Quality Community post suggests that the variety of blogging platforms (and associated registrations to make comments) contributes to fragmentation in the Information Quality community. He suggests creation of a centralized Information Quality site, hosting guest bloggers.There are those who will find this centralized blogging approach appealing. The wonderful

Towards a Community of Data Quality Bloggers

2007-11-17T21:24:00.001-08:00

[Disclosure: my employer sells data quality software, though they do not sponsor this blog nor do my posts in any way represent official opinions of IBM.] Vince McBurney comments that the data quality blogging community doesn't seem to connect with each other. I agree, and we need to change this. My Experiences I started this blog as an Oracle DBA at a regional university. Naturally, most

Stepping up to Responsibility for Data Migration

2007-11-17T21:18:00.001-08:00

[aka mitigating ERP project risk with proper data planning] John Morris posts a description of a pretty typical data migration: i.e. one in which data quality issues rear their head during user acceptance testing, finger-pointing and accusations fly, and the project timeline falls apart. Steve Tuck points to similar research for CRM implementations. I know a couple universities (from my DBA

McBurney Lists Information Server (DataStage) Tutorials

2007-11-16T14:10:00.001-08:00

Quick shout-out to Vince McBurney: He's bested his April Top 7 Online Data Stage Tutorials post with a new 7 Even Better Online Data Stage Tutorials. If you're just getting up to speed in Information Server or DataStage 7.5, you need to spend some time over in Vince's blog. Nice work Vince!

Graduate Programs in Information Quality

2007-11-16T13:43:00.001-08:00

A few days ago I posted some data quality resource links. This post hopes to gather links to educational resources. If anyone knows of Masters or Doctoral programs in Data Quality or Information Quality drop me a note and I'll publish a link to it from this post. (degree-granting graduate programs only, please) University of Arkansas at Little Rock: MSIQ and (soon) a PhD program.Elliot Kumpe

A Few Data Quality Resources

2007-11-12T21:11:00.000-08:00

I'm still working through my thoughts about data quality in unstructured data. Thought I'd share a few of the sites I've been perusing, in case anyone else is interested. IQ Trainwrecks: If you ever need to make a point about the importance of data quality, pull a couple examples from this website. For example, recent survey results indicating removing the wrong kidney happens more often than

Cognos Acquisition

2007-11-12T19:32:00.001-08:00

Wow. IBM (my employer) announced an agreement to buy Cognos. My first reaction was "cool, we need a good BI platform, and Cognos is excellent." And let's face it, with Oracle and SAP both making recent acquisitions in this space, it's a good strategic choice. Peter Scott, who always has his finger on the pulse of the BI world, has posted a good review of the remaining BI landscape.

Trying out Live Writer

2007-11-11T12:06:00.001-08:00

Today's post on ERP Data Quality was a first attempt with Live Writer. I like having an offline blogging software, since I often compose posts while on a plane. I used to use Qumana, but found the page breaks formatted strangely when I published. And, I wanted to be able to add new Blogger categories on the fly. So far, Live Writer seems to work pretty well. The only irritation was having to

ERP/SAP Data Quality Approach

2007-11-11T11:57:00.001-08:00

Data Quality Assessments in ERP ImplementationsYou may recall I attended a SAP Data Quality class (reviewed in Day 4 Session Notes) at the Information On Demand conference. I just spent a week near Boston meeting with those same instructors to discuss data issues in SAP, ERP data migration, and approaches to assessing data quality in ERP implementations. The last couple years have seen increasing

IOD Conference Day 5: Session Notes

2007-10-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

More sessions -- what a busy day!General Session:The general session featured a panel discussion led by Chris Anderson (Wired's editor in chief). The panelists took on a challenging topic -- how we will adjust to Web 2.0 technology in the enterprise. They touched on the tensions of new technology, enabling communication, ensuring enterprise security, mixing internal and external data sources,

Off-Topic: Playing with Digg

2007-10-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

Someone just showed me the Digg Labs' swarm visualization, and I confess I was hooked. (Love those little floating bubbles.)So, just for chuckles I added a Digg button to the blog. No doubt it'll serve as a lesson in humility.... I expect to have a resoundingly low total at month's end.

IOD Conference Day 4: Session Notes

2007-10-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Some sessions I attendedIBM Metadata Strategy:This was a surprisingly full session. Ruthie is good at making metadata relevant, and avoids overpromises and hype. If you have a chance to hear her speak I highly recommend it.Metadata scenarios: service lifecycle, impact analysis, data lineage, security management, rules management. Ruthie gave a nice deep dive of the underlying framework in

IOD Conference Day 3: Session Notes

2007-10-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was pretty interesting.SAP Data Quality: This was a 3-hour class using Information Analyzer's DataStage and QualityStage capabilities. The initial overview was dead-on. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, there's good value in analyzing and cleaning our data before we try to migrate or consolidate it. The instructor had some good figures to back up this business case, as well as a

IOD Conference Day 2: Quick comments

2007-10-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

This was the first public day of the conference. Just a small gathering of over 7,000 people.....General Session: Dana Carvey was the master of ceremonies...he was great. It's a good thing, too, because with the 8am start a lot of us were only partly awake. Anything less interesting and we might have nodded off.Two product announcements caught my attention:Data Studio -- to manage the data

IOD Conference Day 1: Business Development Day

2007-10-15T08:00:00.001-07:00

Short post today: Sunday's sessions were specific to IBM's business partners, so I won't bore you with their content. I will say, though, IBM presenters teased us with tidbits of some product announcements due today. I'm looking forward to hearing the details.The expo is huge and yes, DataMirror really is giving chair massages in their booth. Elvis entertained for a few minutes before the

IOD Conference Day 0: Getting There

2007-10-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

This was one of those rare trips where the flights were on time, the planes had lots of empty space, and my suitcase was one of the first to arrive at baggage claim. Life is good. I'm two hotels away from the conference -- not surprising since I registered so late -- and will either be riding the tram or getting a lot of walking in. Hey, I could use the exercise. Business Development day is

Information on Demand (IOD) Conference

2007-10-10T03:36:00.000-07:00

Looks like I'll be going to the Information On Demand (IOD) Conference in Las Vegas next week. (I'm substituting for an Associate Partner who had a last-minute conflict.) Anyone else in the Oracle blogosphere attending?The variety of tracks/sessions is huge. I'll probably gravitate towards the Data Quality, Data Profiling, and Master Data Management sessions in the technical track, but you never

10g Performance Guide: 6th Chapter

2007-10-03T15:43:00.001-07:00

Chapter 6: Automatic Performance Diagnostics[Usual disclaimer: You should read the Oracle Performance and Tuning Guide yourself at OTN -- these are just my notes of what I found interesting or new while reading.]Introduction to Database Diagnostic MonitoringOverall purpose is to aid DBAs in correctly diagnosing issues, as opposed to just making changes based on initial symptoms. (I like this

Data Profiling Topics: Information Analyzer Certification

2007-10-01T15:20:00.001-07:00

Thought I should make up for today's off-topic post with some data-oriented content... :-)Information Analyzer (aka ProfileStage) CertificationSolution Developer certification for Websphere Information Analyzer released a week ago. For those of you who haven't heard of Information Analyzer, it's the data profiling product formerly known as ProfileStage, with a metadata platform and profile

Off-Topic: Netbank Closed by FDIC

2007-10-01T15:11:00.001-07:00

My bank closed permanently this weekend. This post is for the benefit of fellow customers who may just now be learning of the closure and wondering what to do.My ExperienceNetbank, one of the first major online banks (with assets of over 2.3 billion) was closed by the FDIC Friday night. Imagine my surprise when I fired up Quicken Saturday a.m., told it to download my transactions and balances,

Swimming back to the surface

2007-09-04T12:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted for over a month. (Slacker!) In my defense, during the last month we sold our home and purchased a new one, along with all the packing, paperwork, and headaches that go with it. Sooo glad to be done. :-)So now I'm sitting in the Denver airport (one of my favorites) catching up on my reading.I see Alexander Kornburst has found some holes in 11g. Yet another reason (in my

How DBAs rev their Databases, on the Cheap

2007-07-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

Just saw this article in Computerworld discussing how DBAs manage their systems -- pointing out that throwing more hardware and features at the system isn't always the right answer. It's a pretty good article.One item I loved is one blogger's statement that "The average life span of a 'temporary, one-off' application is four years, and there is code from the 1960s that is still running today."

Reading Day

2007-06-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Non-techie siteI like to watch the database questions posted at LinkedIn, if for no other reason than to marvel at the varying levels of skills and interests represented. Last week someone asked about recommendations for on-call dba support (two of us recommended Pythian). A month ago I responded to a question about privacy/legalities in accessing universities' student resume databases. Today

Data Quality: Standardizing Product Attributes

2007-06-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

[Side note: The first time I tried to write this post my mind kept jumping to variations in standardization of phone numbers. (If you're looking for the logic of that mental transition, there isn't any. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of my brain.) I finally gave up and wrote this post on adjusting data quality initiatives to organizations' needs -- using phone numbers as an example.]

Database Security Still not a High Priority

2007-06-11T11:11:00.000-07:00

Sigh.I just read this article in ComputerWorld, in which we find that 40% of large companies surveyed still don't monitor databases for security purposes.Key findings listed in the survey (which is available here) are:Trusted insiders remain a significant, and largely unmonitored riskA majority of organizations do not have the technology or processes required to effectively manage against insider

Oracle Support: Free Training Available

2007-06-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

[Continuing on same vein as my weekend pointer to a posting on using Oracle Support effectively]There's a testimonial over on Chris Warticki's Blog (testimonial is from Raymond Payne) about the free training available for using the new Oracle support tools. It appears the training's free to anyone who has a current support contract. I'm embarrassed to admit I had no clue this was part of the

Polly and Crew

2007-06-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

Polly and crew,After reading Doug's heartfelt apology to your original post, it's best if you stay where you are and give Doug or sweet 5-year old Athina a chance. Family is most important, and if there's a possibility of reconciling you really should take it.That said, our pugs are most disappointed and have taken to their bed. They've asked me to extend an invitation for you to visit. Perhaps

Doug's Cuddly Toys: Alternate Housing Offer

2007-06-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

Doug Burns furry housemates have posted an open letter to the community about the strife in their home. Our thoughts are with them.While I truly hope they make amends, I've posted an offer (in his blog's comments) of a place to stay on this side of the pond. Here are the pics I promised:Couch (against far wall) for sitting and contemplating life:View of the countryside (visible from

Data Quality: Where to Validate

2007-06-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Ronald mentions one of my data quality posts in this week's Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs (Thanks Ronald!) and poses the question “Where are the validation rules applied, the application or the database?”An excellent question, and one sure to find strong opinions on both sides. Most of my background is with 3- (or more) tier applications, so keep that potential bias in mind. When thinking

Oracle Support: Being Successful

2007-06-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

I just read Floyd Teter's post about what we get for our $$ with Oracle. By far, my favorite part of his article was a list of 7-point list of questions to ask yourself if I'm having challenges with Oracle Support. In other words, what am I doing to enable myself get the most effective response to support requests? He has no less then eight specific Metalink doc IDs embedded into the list and

Data Quality: As Meets the Needs of an Organization

2007-05-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

This seems to be my month to ponder data quality. As I mentioned earlier, part of my definition of 'data quality' includes the phrase "...that best meet the specific needs of the organization for a given period of time." In other words, priorities and benefits vary, attribute-by-attribute, from company to company and over time.Case in point: the lowly phone number. In the last two months I've

Oracle Listener

2007-05-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

Andrew Fraser has a detailed description of the differences in listener password recommendations between 9i and 10g. It's worth taking a hop over to read.Listener security, RMAN usage, and grid agent security are the top three search topics that refer folks to my blog. This is surprising, since I haven't posted on the listener or grid agent for about a year. I'm hoping it means folks are taking

Training Wheels: Using DB2 (and my DataStage Configuration Error)

2007-05-23T22:31:00.000-07:00

As an IBM employee it's embarrassing to admit I've never administered a DB2 database before. I did test one briefly last fall, attempting to load large XML SAP iDocs into DB2 or Oracle (turned out the xml was too large for either engine).That's changing, and I'm strapping on my dba training wheels! I even saw what I thought was my first DB2 error -- before I learned it was a DataStage/Linux

Mobile Banking: the "must have"?

2007-05-23T19:10:00.000-07:00

[Nothing to do with databases. Just my bank industry background rearing its head...]Mobile banking (i.e. on cell phones) is the "must have" fashion accessory for banks this Spring. Or at least it is if you judge by the number of press releases.I thought I'd seen quite a few announcements recently, so I did a quick search for "mobile banking" in FinExtra. Here's a sampling of the results:May 23

Defining Data Quality

2007-05-22T20:12:00.001-07:00

Ever tried to define data quality? David Loshen gives it a go over at DataFlux. [I spent this winter leading data quality assessments for a packaged goods manufacturer, so David's article is relevant to me.] He defines it from the process perspective, which is probably the best approach. It did get me thinking: how would we define data quality if we defined in terms of data characteristics?

Retaining Records: 50 Years Later

2007-05-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

I haven't heard the phrase "Records and Information Management" (RIM) for a couple decades.Larry Medina mentions it in this discussion of retention periods and their interaction with technology. And yes, indeed, a percentage of records truly do still need to be around and accessible 50 years from now. Ow!!!!Yet another good case for having data policies. [Yes, data governance can go too far

Another Data Loss

2007-05-15T22:47:00.000-07:00

Fair is fair. I blog from time to time about data theft or loss in other organizations -- I feel obligated to note my employer is dealing with a loss as well.According to this article in Computerworld a contractor lost tapes with sensitive information about current and former IBM employees. Most disconcerting is that the data wasn't encrypted.I don't know any details about this scenario, and am

Good Sizing Post to Read

2007-05-11T20:07:00.000-07:00

I've been reading the 10g performance and tuning guide lately -- so tuning-related posts are catching my eye.Jonathan Lewis put up a great post today on LOB sizing. Within a few paragraphs he uses an example to analyze storage, purge schedule, picking appropriate block sizes, and caching options. A good read.

Business Week: Welches on Leadership

2007-05-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to get myself a copy of Business Week. Jack and Suzy Welch are getting folks' attention with an article about leadership.According to Jeff Hunter the Welches point out that good leaders admit to their mistakes, learn from them and move on. I'm guessing we've all known at least one manager who never made a mistake (just ask them!). Good leaders are willing fess up, or they

10g Performance and Tuning Guide: 5th Chapter

2007-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

[Usual disclaimer: You should read the Oracle Performance and Tuning Guide yourself at OTN -- these are just my notes of what I found interesting or new while reading.]Automatic Performance Statistics As a geek, statistics are always near and dear to my heart -- it makes that whole logical/measurable part of my brain want to turn cartwheels. I was hoping for some good statistical details in this

10g Performance and Tuning Guide: 4th Chapter

2007-04-29T22:31:00.001-07:00

Configuring a Database for Performance (Chapter 4 of Oracle's 10g Performance and Tuning Guide)Disclaimer: This series of posts isn't an exhaustive list of information in the guide. It's just my notes of things I find interesting or want to remember as I read through the Tuning Guide.Initial Configuration Initialization Parameter File: The "Keep it Simple" principle applies, particularly when

Reading: Oracle Forensics

2007-04-29T17:00:00.001-07:00

I just downloaded and glanced through Paul Wright's "Oracle Forensics in a Nutshell" (pointed to by Pete Finnigan's blog). it's only seven pages long, but has a plethora of links to resources, and looks to lay out the overall approach pretty well. It was useful reading. Having seen departmental Oracle installs (with sensitive data) on Windows machines, I'd love to see both Unix/Linux and

Log Buffer #42: A Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs

2007-04-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 42nd edition of Log Buffer, a weekly survey of database blogs.MySQLAs noted last week, conference season seems to be in full swing. The MySQL Conference and Expo has been rolling in Santa Clara this week (sunshine! I'm so jealous) and judging by the comments it's been well worth the trip. Some conference pictures are available on Stewart Smith's Ramblings. [Advance apologies to

Tuning: "Database was Degraded..."

2007-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

I thought this was pretty fitting, given that I'm currently reading the 10g Performance and Tuning Guide.The Turbotax e-Filing system failed for 12 hours this week, just as folks tried to file last-minute tax returns. The reasons quoted in Computerworld are "...an intermittent database problem..." and that "...the database was degraded that day." In all fairness, the degradation may have risen

National Disclosure Regulations for Data Loss/Theft?

2007-04-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

Non-U.S. readers, this obviously doesn't apply directly to you. That said, I would be very interested in your perspective on this topic.As most of y'all know, we have a variety of state-level (and a few national) laws regarding of lost or stolen consumer data. Computerworld reports that CA and Symantec are pushing for national legislation, presumably to provide some coherency... The

10g Performance Tuning Guide: 3rd Chapter

2007-04-20T06:46:00.001-07:00

Chapter 3: Performance Improvement MethodsThe method describes a way of approaching the problem, rather than prescribing a set of tuning rules.Steps in the method: Perform the standard checks: Get user feedback. Acquire statistics (OS/database/app) during both good and bad performance periods (an obvious call for proactive statistics gathering). Look for maxed hardware hardware errors or

Offline Blogging

2007-04-19T12:17:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking for a while lately about writing blog posts from the airport or on the plane. (I spend waaayyy too much time traveling.) Obviously nothing stopped me from writing posts in a text editor and copying into Blogger when I next connected, but I'm lazier than that.I just installed Qumana and am happy so far. It manages multiple blogs, has a spell-checker and easily switches

10g Performance and Tuning Guide: next 10 pages

2007-04-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

Pages 46-56 (through end of Chapter 2)Disclaimer: This series of posts isn't an exhaustive list of information in the guide. It's just my notes of things I found interesting or want to remember.Index Design IdeasAppending columns to an index or using index-organized tables: Goal is to eliminate a table access from an execution plan. You can append to the index all the columns referenced in

Breach at Ohio State University

2007-04-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

The bad news: Ohio State University announced an employee system was compromised by foreign hackers.The almost-good news: staff noticed the breach the very next day. According to the article they immediately shut down the database, and contacted authorities. Obviously I'd have preferred the breach not occur at all or be noticed immediately. Still, when you compare to some of the other

10g Performance and Tuning Guide: First 46 pages

2007-04-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't played with Oracle as much lately as I'd like (my small-scale development databases are fun, but not challenging), and am starting to feel rusty.Time to start digging into the docs, writing a few test scenarios, and pushing the grey matter a bit more. I'll start by reading the 10g Performance Tuning Guide.As with my postings from the Concepts Guide, these notes are not intended to be

Did you Read the Oracle Concepts Guide Yet?

2007-04-17T15:42:00.000-07:00

A few more reasons for DBAs to read the concepts guide. 1) Poster in Ask Tom asks if triggers fire after or before a commit... [sigh]2) Coskan Gundogar lists unwillingness to read the Guide first in the list of behaviors of an "Invalid DBA" (great post, btw)3) This list of keyword searches into this blog that landed on one of my Concepts Guide writeups. (Notice how many are related to data

Reading: Women in Computing

2007-04-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

Interesting blog in Computerworld today about the decline of women in computing. Don't get me wrong, guys. I like working with you -- honest! Probably helps that I was a tomboy growing up... Still, I'd like to figure out how to encourage girls to consider our field. I'd hate to lose the next generation of potentially awesome DBAs like Lisa Dobson and Sheeri Kritzer. I notice parents making

Student Loan Database: Lenders Misusing Student Info

2007-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm officially ticked. According to this article in the Washington Post, lenders have been misusing the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) database. Access patterns indicate the lenders are mining the database inappropriately, potentially to find prospects for debt consolidation marketing campaigns.LENDERS! This information is covered by federal privacy laws. You are only supposed

Popular Page: Turbo Tax Article

2007-04-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

Go figure. Of the 80+ posts in this blog, none received more pageviews their first week than Thursday's quick, off-topic post about a potential security issue in the web version of Turbo Tax. Maybe folks were searching to find the software, given the looming U.S. income tax deadline?For the record, from the news reports it looks as though the issue was in the web site programming (as opposed to

Turbo Tax Website Security Hole

2007-04-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

I used the web-based TurboTax once, a few years ago. I'm glad I switched to the pc-based version, particularly after reading this article in ComputerWorld. Seems a Nebraska woman was inadvertently able to access the bank information of other customers having the same name.Intuit acknowledges the hole, and I assume (hope?) they've since closed it. Still, I think I'll stick to the PC software.