Looking for a top-flight MySQL DBA to help tune or troubleshoot your application? You’ve come to the right place. At Heavyweight Internet Group we have fourteen years experience identifying bottlenecks in your services and systems, and resolving intractable problems. We tune, optimize and rearchitect your application as necessary, to deliver you a better site. One that performs better, and handles all of your customers as your business grows.
Issue 51 – Stretch Your Database Dollar
January 1, 2009
by Sean Hull
2009 is finally here. Let’s put the struggles of 2008 and the last few months behind us, and take the downturn as an opportunity to dig in, work harder, and get creative in business.
In This Issue:
1. Feature: Stretch Your Database Dollar
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
1. Feature: Stretch Your Database Dollar
I’ve taken to listening to some podcasts by the Financial Times of late. A particularly good one which is very relevant to Information Technology is called Digital Business. It’s a weekly show hosted by Peter Whitehead, Editor of FT.com’s Digital business section.
The last episode of 2008 is one of particular interest, and I’d recommend it to readers of this newsletter. In it Whitehead discusses trends for 2009. Obviously with the recent shift in markets and availability of credit 2009 will be a lot about stretching your budgets, and making your dollar go further.
Interviewee Alan Kane suggests that virtualization and going green to save money will both be big trends in 2009. Steven Pritchard emphasizes Software As A Service, Cloud Computing, and notably open source, will all be big in 2009. It will also be a year for the public sector, with all the new government spending initiatives planned. Finally, Whitehead adds that as web2.0 has ramped up it has opened a whole new category of vulnerabilities thus web2.0 security will become a new priority. He also loves Twitter, and points to it’s recent explosive growth as a trend which will surely be significant in 2009.
Obviously we’ve been talking about open-source for years. With the heady mix of flexibility, few licensing restrictions, and customizability, it has always appealed to the do-it-yourself side of the IT world. But as IT managers look to optimise their budgets, I can definitely see how open-source will win even greater consideration.
In fact anecdotally I’ve already seen an up tick in the number of companies calling us about MySQL in the fourth quarter of 2008. MySQL has matured from the web-facing mini-database of five or ten years ago to a real force to be reckoned with.
MySQL for those new to the technology, started out as a lightweight, primarily web-facing database. It’s limited feature set and transactional support posed little problem for the mostly read-only web-based applications it was designed for. But as MySQL 4 came online, a transactional storage engine named InnoDB was added providing read-consistency, and recoverability of data. In 5.0 more and more enterprise features have become available, including stored procedures, functions, views, subqueries, complex joins, as well as a whole host of sophisticated caching mechanisms to make data access even faster. I now hear from clients supporting terabyte MySQL databases, using partitioning and other features previously only available in the more powerful commercial databases like Oracle.
If I might add my own predictions of trends for 2009, I would reaffirm Pritchard’s forecast of growth in open-source adoption, as IT shops look to squeeze more out of their budgets. In particular we expect MySQL to be a big part of this. We’ve already seen shops moving some of their enterprise data to MySQL in an effort to gradually test the waters. I firmly expect this trend to continue as IT staff & managers’ confidence in the
technology grows, and as familiarity with its strengths and weaknesses improves. Awareness of where the technology can fit in well, what type of jobs it is well suited for, and how to roll it into the mix without disrupting services will be crucial.
For DBAs all this will mean beginning to look at the technology, and building test and sandbox environments. For managers it will mean porting small and peripheral applications, testing for performance, reliability, benchmarking, and recoverability. All of these will weigh heavier as you look at moving more core business functions onto the open-source database platform.
Some like irreverent writing, and some don’t. Kawasaki’s subtitle is "the irreverent guide to outsmarting, outmanaging, and outmarketing your competition" sets the tone right out of the gates. I find his writing to be smart and hardhitting, and very relevant. This new book is no exception. The Standard has a piece Five reasons why a recession is a good time to start a company. I have to agree, and Kawasaki’s book will provide you with tons of cut-to-the chase, and get-the-job-done advice. Highly recommended.
I’ve been trolling through iTunes in the last few weeks, and have found some real gems. With that in mind I decided to add a new section to the newsletter to focus on interesting, and technology relevant shows that I find. By far the best one I’ve stumbled upon is Financial Times – Digital Business.
For instance the September 10th episode of this year talked about Mesh Collaboration, Globalization, and Social Networking. Definitely worth a listen.
You can read it online with updates almost everyday, and the print edition comes out on alternate wednesdays. The podcast you can find here.
Issue 48 – Balancing Time & Money
Intro to Oracle’s Automatic Workload Repository
Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Though we haven’t added a new audio interview in a while, we certainly plan to do some new interviews in the coming months. So please stay tuned. In the meantime, please listen to our past audio interviews.
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We are hosting our podcast to Odeo. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already.
The Onion does it again, this time with "Apple Employee Fired for Thinking Different"
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
We’ve always been about open-source technology, integration & mixing commercial technologies such as Oracle with open-source ones such as MySQL and Linux. As open-source becomes mainstream, and more shops consider moving critical services to these technologies, we continue to provide assistance and expertise for these transitions. Whether it is performance testing and tuning, benchmarking, high availability or recovery, we can provide services for your specific needs.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
1. What is the difference between RMAN and a traditional hotbackup?
RMAN is faster, can do incremental (changes only) backups, and does not place tablespaces into hotbackup mode.
2. What are bind variables and why are they important?
With bind variables in SQL, Oracle can cache related queries a single time in the SQL cache (area). This avoids a hard parse each time, which saves on various locking and latching resources we use to check objects existence and so on. BONUS: For rarely run queries, especially BATCH queries, we explicitely DO NOT want to use bind variables, as they hide information from the Cost Based Opitmizer.
BONUS BONUS: For batch queries from 3rd party apps like peoplesoft, if we can’t remove bind variables, we can use bind variable peeking!
3. In PL/SQL, what is bulk binding, and when/how would it help performance?
Oracle’s SQL and PL/SQL engines are separate parts of the kernel which require context switching, like between unix processes. This is slow, and uses up resources. If we loop on an SQL statement, we are implicitely flipping between these two engines. We can minimize this by loading our data into an array, and using PL/SQL bulk binding operation to do it all in one go!
4. Why is SQL*Loader direct path so fast?
SQL*Loader with direct path option can load data ABOVE the high water mark of a table, and DIRECTLY into the datafiles, without going through the SQL engine at all. This avoids all the locking, latching, and so on, and doesn’t impact the db (except possibly the I/O subsystem) at all.
5. What are the tradeoffs between many vs few indexes? When would you want to have many, and when would it be better to have fewer?
Fewer indexes on a table mean faster inserts/updates. More indexes mean faster, more specific WHERE clauses possibly without index merges.
6. What is the difference between RAID 5 and RAID 10? Which is better for Oracle?
RAID 5 is striping with an extra disk for parity. If we lose a disk we can reconstruct from that parity disk.
RAID 10 is mirroring pairs of disks, and then striping across those sets.
RAID 5 was created when disks were expensive. Its purpose was to provide RAID on the cheap. If a disk fails, the IO subsystem will perform VERY slowly during the rebuild process. What’s more your liklihood of failure increases dramatically during this period, with all the added weight of the rebuild. Even when it is operating normally RAID 5 is slow for everything but reading. Given that and knowing databases (especially Oracle’s redo logs) continue to experience write activity all the time, we should avoid RAID5 in all but the rare database that is MOSTLY read activity. Don’t put redologs on RAID5.
RAID10 is just all around goodness. If you lose one disk in a set of 10 for example, you could lose any one of eight other disks and have no troubles. What’s more rebuilding does not impact performance at all since you’re simply making a mirror copy. Lastly RAID10 perform exceedingly well in all types of databases.
7. When using Oracle export/import what character set concerns might come up? How do you handle them?
Be sure to set NLS_LANG for example to “AMERCIAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1″. If your source database is US7ASCII, beware of 8-bit characters. Also be wary of multi-byte characters sets as those may require extra attention. Also watch export/import for messages about any “character set conversions” which may occur.
8. How do you use automatic PGA memory management with Oracle 9i and above?
Set the WORKAREA_SIZE_POLICY parameter to AUTO and set PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET
9. Explain two easy SQL optimizations.
a. EXISTS can be better than IN under various conditions
b. UNION ALL is faster than UNION (not sorting)
10. Name three SQL operations that perform a SORT.
a. CREATE INDEX
b. DISTINCT
c. GROUP BY
d. ORDER BY
f. INTERSECT
g. MINUS
h. UNION
i. UNINDEXED TABLE JOIN
11. What is your favorite tool for day-to-day Oracle operation?
Hopefully we hear some use of command line as the answer!
12. What is the difference between Truncate and Delete? Why is one faster?
Can we ROLLBACK both? How would a full table scan behave after?
Truncate is nearly instantaenous, cannot be rolled back, and is fast because Oracle simply resets the HWM. When a full table scan is performed on a table, such as for a sort operation, Oracle reads to the HWM. So if you delete every single solitary row in 10 million row table so it is now empty, sorting on that table of 0 rows would still be extremely slow.
13. What is the difference between a materialized view (snapshot) fast refresh versus complete refresh? When is one better, and when the other?
Fast refresh maintains a change log table, which records change vectors, not unlike how the redo logs work. There is overhead to this, as with a table that has a LOT of indexes on it, and inserts and updates will be slower. However if you are performing refreshes often, like every few minutes, you want to do fast refresh so you don’t have to full-table-scan the source table. Complete refresh is good if you’re going to refresh once a day. Does a full table scan on the source table, and recreats the snapshot/mview. Also inserts/updates on the source table are NOT impacted on tables where complete refresh snapshots have been created.
14. What does the NO LOGGING option do? Why would we use it? Why would we be careful of using it?
It disables the logging of changes to the redologs. It does not disable ALL LOGGING, however as Oracle continues to use a base of changes, for recovery if you pull the plug on the box, for instance. However it will cause problems if you are using standby database. Use it to speed up operations, like an index rebuild, or partition maintenance operations.
15. Tell me about standby database? What are some of the configurations of it? What should we watch out for?
Standby databases allow us to create a copy of our production db, for disaster recovery. We merely switch mode on the target db, and bring it up as read/write. Can setup as master->slave or master->master. The latter allows the former prod db to become the standby, once the failure cause is remedied. Watch out for NO LOGGING!! Be sure we’re in archivelog mode.
Experiencing performance problems with your MySQL 4.x or 5.x database? We can help. We have over a decade of experience tuning sophisticated multi-tier web applications. This allows us to identify and pinpoint problems quickly, drilldown to the relevant application and SQL, and sift out the problem code.
All this makes your applications run faster, and your customers happy!
One of the more popular articles on our site according to Google is the Oracle DBA Interview Questions article we did a few years ago. So with that in mind, we’ve put together a similar article for MySQL DBA Interviews.
1. Explain two ways that MySQL Replication can get out of sync. What are the solutions to these problems?
One way is if your code contains non-deterministic functions such as SYSDATE, USER and UUID. The second way is if you have mixed transactions between InnoDB and MyISAM tables, in some cases those can get replicated incorrectly.
2. How does one create a new user and give it privileges on an existing database? Why should “with grant option” be avoided?
mysql> grant all privileges on test.* to ‘newuser’@'localhost’ identified by ‘mypassword’;
3. Explain the differences, advantages and disadvantages to using the MERGE storage engine, versus using Partitioned tables to manage large datasets.
The MERGE storage behaves much like a view with UNION ALL between the tables. It is easy to add and remove tables and redefine the MERGE table. They are good for logging and huge datasets.
One of the primary differences between partitioning is that a row can exist in one and only one partition, which is not the case with a MERGE table. Also you can cluster data together in certain partitions reducing the amount of work the server may have to do to get at related data. Also partitioned data can be distributed across multiple harddrives.
4. How do you determine what storage engines are installed?
mysql> show global variables like 'have%'; +-----------------------+----------+ | Variable_name | Value | +-----------------------+----------+ | have_archive | NO | | have_bdb | YES | | have_blackhole_engine | NO | | have_compress | YES | | have_crypt | YES | | have_csv | NO | | have_dynamic_loading | YES | | have_example_engine | NO | | have_federated_engine | NO | | have_geometry | YES | | have_innodb | YES | | have_isam | NO | | have_merge_engine | YES | | have_ndbcluster | NO | | have_openssl | DISABLED | | have_query_cache | YES | | have_raid | NO | | have_rtree_keys | YES | | have_symlink | YES | +-----------------------+----------+ 19 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>
5. How do you get the query cache status? How do you tune it?
mysql> show global status like 'qcache%'; +-------------------------+-------+ | Variable_name | Value | +-------------------------+-------+ | Qcache_free_blocks | 0 | | Qcache_free_memory | 0 | | Qcache_hits | 0 | | Qcache_inserts | 0 | | Qcache_lowmem_prunes | 0 | | Qcache_not_cached | 0 | | Qcache_queries_in_cache | 0 | | Qcache_total_blocks | 0 | +-------------------------+-------+ 8 rows in set (0.16 sec) mysql>
Tune it by looking at qcache_hits/(qcache_hits+com_selects)
6. What is DRBD? Explain the advantages and disadvantages to MySQL Replication for High Availability.
7. What is circular replication? How is it different from master-slave replication?
Issue 50 – Do Your Dishes
December 1, 2008
by Sean Hull
Here we are into the holidays already. I’m happy to have reached the 50th issue of Open Insights, and plan to bring another 50. Thanks to everyone for reading.
2008 has brought us a lot of surprises, none of which need further repeating. Let’s take the downturn as an opportunity to dig in, work harder, and get creative in business.
With that, I wish all of you a peaceful holiday season, and happy new year 2009!
In This Issue:
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
Many people ask me how I manage time. The truth is I’m pretty good at staying on top of things but I wasn’t always. There was a time, I guess everyone had their moments in college, where I was quite the procrastinator.
So people wonder how did I get a hold of the discipline to start a business, and keep it going for a decade?
A Funny Analogy
Even if you haven’t had roomates, you can probably appreciate this story. Perhaps you’ve lived by yourself, or just didn’t have someone around taking care of you. So it was left up to you to do the dishes. You know it doesn’t matter how lazy you are, or how on-top of things you are, we all have to do the same amount of dishes. That’s right, you can either do the dishes AFTER you use them, or BEFORE you use them.
What do I mean? Well on the one hand there’s the person who stays ahead of the game, does them right after dinner. The other person doesn’t feel like doing them, so they leave them sitting around. But when they need a dish, they have to do it before hand. So really, they end up with the same amount of work. The only difference is the on-top of things person had a clean smelling kitchen, and the procrastinator had a smelly kitchen. The procrastination didn’t really save them any work. Actually it probably caused *MORE* work.
So there’s the theory. In practice people need to use this method for a while and start to like it before they will really feel it.
Back To Consulting
Doing freelance consulting is much the same way. You always have the opportunity to put off work until another day. And it’s tempting, like a credit card, or like not doing the dishes. However the advantages of staying ahead of your game are legion.
For starters you come across professional. If you have things done on time, this is immeasurable. And it turns out to be somewhat rare, so your clients will really appreciate it.
Next it allows you to have contingency plans. If something happens, you’ll be able to absorb the distractions, mess, or other detours that can derail your timeline and prevent you from delivering on time.
One of my favorites though is always being available. If you’re waiting too long, you’re dealing with crunch time. It sneaks up on you, and starts to impinge on your social life, or other important things you’d like to do. What’s more if someone contacts you during crunch time, you are definitely not available. However, if you stay ahead of your game, distractions are a pleasant surprise, and a needed respite. Get some air and come back, and your productivity will probably improve. And this availability doesn’t just extend to new projects that appear on the horizon, it also applies to your social schedule. You have more options to shift things around if you are way ahead of deadline.
But probably the most important reason is it’s just less stressful. If you stay ahead of things, you don’t have that deadline weighing on the back of your mind. If you wait for two weeks until the last minute, you enjoy that interim time a lot less than if you did the work at the outset.
In the end if you want to be together, run a solo or small business, you really have to keep up with things. That means doing the dishes at the earliest opportunity, and keeping yourself organized, focused, and ultimately, carefree!
Data mining is a hot word these days if google search results, or technorati are any indication. Baker charts a course looking at entrepreneur mathematicians he dubs "The Numerati". They are using data mining in new ways to put the vast array of data to use, customizing our buying experiences, or offering us products we didn’t know we’d like. It’s an interesting if sometimes cautious look at what the future may hold.
I’ve been trolling through iTunes in the last few weeks, and have found some real gems. With that in mind I decided to add a new section to the newsletter to focus on interesting, and technology relevant shows that I find. By far the best one I’ve stumbled upon is Financial Times – Digital Business.
For instance the September 10th episode of this year talked about Mesh Collaboration, Globalization, and Social Networking. Definitely worth a listen.
You can read it online with updates almost everyday, and the print edition comes out on alternate wednesdays. The podcast you can find here.
Issue 48 – Balancing Time & Money
Intro to Oracle’s Automatic Workload Repository
Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Though we haven’t added a new audio interview in a while, we certainly plan to do some new interviews in the coming months. So please stay tuned. In the meantime, please listen to our past audio interviews.
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We are hosting our podcast to Odeo. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already.
Sadly, even with humor we have to make a nod to the stockmarket meltdown. With that I give you the 401 Keg Plan…
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, databases. More and more we have clients asking us to manage MySQL at the enterprise level. With twelve years experience dealing with databases in the enterprise, we bring a wealth of experience to the table on open-source platforms such as MySQL, and traditional enterprise solutions like Oracle. Whether it is high availability, redundancy, scaling, tuning, or troubleshooting, we can bring you the same level of service and expertise we’ve been delivering for years.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
Issue 49 – Things Fall Apart
November 1, 2008
by Sean Hull
In This Issue:
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
This month it’s hard for talk of the economy not to makes it way into the conversation. Our recent global economic meltdown, and in many places near collapse of our banking system have given people the jitters far beyond their retirement and stock investments. When the fed needs to reassure people that FDIC will be backed 100%, and when I find myself checking into my various bank accounts, and whether their insured, you have to wonder if we’re only a whisper away from a larger run on the banking system.
This month I’ll speak a bit about economics, but mainly to use it as an illustration of larger truths which pervade technology, and consulting projects.
Complex Systems Break
The first lesson is that complex systems break. It seems obvious in retrospect, but before the fact these sophisticated systems often because of their size somehow seem more reliable. So the sudden revelation that they’re actually quite fragile leaves many people shocked and bewildered.
I find myself trolling finance sites like Baseline Scenario, Economic Principals, and Vinny Catalano’s Blog, or listening to NPR’s Planet Money, or FT’s Money Show. These are all good resources, and certainly do shed a lot of light on what’s been happening.
Whenever I talk to clients about Oracle technology, or the open-source MySQL, they are often surprised to learn that these enterprise class systems have bugs and problems. I would almost argue this is more prevalent in departments implement Oracle not because there are more bugs, but more because the bar has been raised higher by the investment dollars, and the marketing folks who sell everything as bulletproof or what is the latest fad term "unbreakable". All large enterprise level database systems have bugs, issues, and implementation challenges.
Put simpler, complex systems break. You need to monitor and manage them closely, be honest about the risks & problem areas, and be prudent about how far out on a limb you’re willing to hang.
Internet Applications, Markets, Dominoes and Interconnecting Pieces
Our recent lessons in the fragility of the global financial systems tells us that their are a huge number of interconnecting pieces. Huge amounts of new wealth looking for places to invest, mortgages rolled up and repackaged, and sold in foreign markets, ratings agencies, and regulatory bodies not doing their jobs.
When the web first got big, a lot of sites were trying to build on heavy technologies. Examples
might include sites that built using Java which required a lot of overhead, and heavy memory usage, and really didn’t match the lightweight, high transaction nature of the internet. ASP.NET in some senses falls into this category as well. This is why you’re seeing more and more sites built on PHP, especially huge very interactive sites like Facebook. And look how snappy that site responds.
The connection here is that transparency is good, many simpler working components that you can optimize individually is helpful, and each of those pieces being small and lightweight is a good thing.
Lessons Learned
I was listening to Fareed Zakaria on CNN the other day, and one of the financial advisors said "great economic events shape the way people act". He was referring to how the great depression spawned hears of saving, and a whole different philosophy around money than we have today. It was more generally frowned upon to get into debt, and being in debt was something you wanted to get out of as quickly as possible.
That’s a far cry from where we were in the 90’s and 2000’s where I commonly saw people buying cocktails at bars with their credit cards. The idea of the credit card extending your wealth is commonly accepted. And the idea of businesses, banks, or even countries living on an overly huge amount of debt had become commonplace. I suspect that will change quite a lot now, as it should.
The lessons I would take away from this in terms of consulting, and technology projects would be three-fold.
(1) Don’t bite of more than you can chew. Develop less first, and make your milestones conservative, that way when things get messy, as they always do, you’ll have some give in the schedule.
(2) Be realistic about risks. This pertains to what technology can do, it’s potentials, as well as it’s hidden surprises. Expect things to break, and plan for that. Monitor, and be proactive, especially around areas whose inner workings are less understood.
(3) Be ready with the firefighters. As the fed deals with the current crisis, trying to put out fires as fast as it can, you should have people at the ready in the same capacity. Your on-call people should understand some of the problem areas, and know who to call if something falls out of their scope, or area of expertise.
The Undercover Economist by Tim Hartford
Most of us are not classically trained as economists, so we need coffee table books to dispense the wisdom. This is one of those books. I particularly liked one chapter where he uses Starbucks as a case study. They have drinks of prices ranging from the inexpensive $1 or so to $4 and up. Yet if you look at the underlying costs, they are all about the same plus or minus a few cents to produce. What they are doing is providing thrifty customers inexpensive choices, and customers more cavalier about price with expensive alternatives. Businesses that use this technique can have it both ways, being appealing to high-end consumers, as well as thrifty ones. The same technique works in business, and is the way to appealing to a wider field of potential buyers of products and services. A very interesting read.
I’ve been trolling through iTunes in the last few weeks, and have found some real gems. With that in mind I decided to add a new section to the newsletter to focus on interesting, and technology relevant shows that I find. By far the best one I’ve stumbled upon is Financial Times – Digital Business.
For instance the September 10th episode of this year talked about Mesh Collaboration, Globalization, and Social Networking. Definitely worth a listen.
You can read it online with updates almost everyday, and the print edition comes out on alternate wednesdays. The podcast you can find here.
Issue 48 – Balancing Time & Money
Intro to Oracle’s Automatic Workload Repository
Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Though we haven’t added a new audio interview in a while, we certainly plan to do some new interviews in the coming months. So please stay tuned. In the meantime, please listen to our past audio interviews.
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We are hosting our podcast to Odeo. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already.
Sadly, even with humor we have to make a nod to the stockmarket meltdown. With that I give you the 401 Keg Plan…
8. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, databases. More and more we have clients asking us to manage MySQL at the enterprise level. With twelve years experience dealing with databases in the enterprise, we bring a wealth of experience to the table on open-source platforms such as MySQL, and traditional enterprise solutions like Oracle. Whether it is high availability, redundancy, scaling, tuning, or troubleshooting, we can bring you the same level of service and expertise we’ve been delivering for years.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
OPEN INSIGHTS Newsletter
Issue 48 – Balancing Time & Money
Oct 1, 2008
by Sean Hull
This month’s dispatch comes to you direct from London where we’re anxiously watching the Wall Street meltdown from the bleachers.
Like what you see here? Forward us to a friend.
Comments are always welcome, please direct them to Sean Hull – shull at iheavy.com
In This Issue:
1. Feature: Balancing Time & Money
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
1. Feature: Balancing Time & Money
Balancing Time & Money
I was just talking today with a friend. She called for advice. She had a number of different projects in front of her, offering various career directions. Some provided measurable income, while others were gratifying to work on, and still others offered a larger potential return, but remained more nebulous in the short term.
I explained one method I use to help clarify things. I divide time by total income. It shocks me how simple this equation is, and how surprising the numbers are often to someone, when they really look at it.
A Couple of Examples
For example, let’s say she has a full-time job making $50,000 for arguments sake. Let’s also say that she works eight hours most days, but also works 3-5 hours extra two days per week. We’ll average that to 8 extra hours. She also gets no paid vacation. So, calculators out, 48 hours/week x 52 weeks = 2496 hours. $50,000 divided by 2496 equals $20/hr. If there are benefits go ahead and factor those in, by counting *ONLY* the company contribution.
Another example. I know a few bankers who get into work at 7:30am, and work until 10pm regularly. We’ll estimate a half hour for lunch. They even work weekends sometimes. Let’s say they work every other weekend, 10 hours total. That adds 5 hours to each week. Now you’re gonna say, yeah but they get a handsome salary and bonus. Yep, that they do. Let’s say base is $120,000 and bonus is $50,000. So total is $170,000 for 75 hours per week. Now the first thing I’m thinking is, why not work two $120,000/year salary jobs, and make $240k. But I’m not done yet. Let’s say they get two weeks paid vacation. So we’ll count 50 weeks. 75 times 50 equals 3750 hours. And guess what, that’s $45/hour. Ok granted I didn’t count benefits, but still. Here’s the really interesting part. The base of $120,000 divided by 40 hours (times 50 weeks) comes to $60 per hour!! The extra hours (which in consulting are normally billed out at time and one half because they are more burdensome on your life) 35 times 50 equals 1750 hours for $50,000 bonus paid out only $28.50/hour. I can think of a lot of jobs that pay more.
If you’re going to go ahead and do these calculations, I suggest you include the benefits you get, such as medical and 401k contributions. But let’s also be fair and include commute time as work time. Why? Because if you work from home, you save that time. It’s not to say freelancing is for everyone, but for comparison purposes, it’s worth looking at.
Striking a Balance
So back to my friend’s dilemma. Sure there is more to life than money. There is the time you spend with friends and family, or on your own leisure pursuits. Or perhaps you have a side business you are working on, or a million other reasons. You certainly have to balance all these factors. How much money you’ll make can impact how much time you have positively or negatively, but if the job kills you, it may impact your well-being in other ways. So sure, go ahead and consider everything, juggle and balance in a way that is right for you. But don’t do it without all the facts, and figuring out your hourly rate, is one eye-opening exercise you won’t regret.
Intro to Oracle’s Automatic Workload Repository
Oracle Automatic Storage Management
Oracle Indexing – What, Where, Why?
Create a Database Manually – When & Why?
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part I
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part II
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part I
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part II
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part I
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part II
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part I
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part II
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We’ve also moved our podcast to Odeo for Audio Podcast hosting. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already!
Globalization and It’s Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz
If there were ever a time to discuss some of the more troublesome aspects of globalization, now would be that time. Stiglitz’s book is an excellent antidote to always shiny-happy Thomas-Friedman-world-is-flat optimism that I suspect is quickly falling out of favor these days.
A little inane humor to brighten up your day… Jessica Hagy has this cute little blog called indexed. She uses index cards to illustrate little truisms, often with funny comments on venn diagrams. Here’s a funny one the relationship of status to money.
We all want to optimize our sites for Google. I mean other than a select few, that’s where most of our traffic comes from, so the more our site plays well with Google, the more users, readers, customers, and clients will find their way to us.
Most of the SEO material I’ve read has been pretty sparse, and unclear. But I’ve been following the topic over at my good Felix’s #comments blog, and I’m starting to get it. So you can too! Take a read: Google loves me, again!
If you haven’t been following the news on the topic, take a look over at this NY Times piece: Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again. Personally I don’t think there is much hysteria this time around, sure there’s some, but not much. The industry is more mature now, and computers in general have lost their initial wow factor, so people are general more sober, and able to step back and see what is actually useful, can make money, is making money, or might well make money. That’s the root of investing smart.
Issue 47: Change the Problem
Issue 46: Interests Aligned
Issue 45: Contractualities
Issue 44: Gaining Legs
Issue 43: On Prudence
Issue 42: On Efficiency
Issue 41: Roshomon Effect
Issue 40: Self Taught
Issue 39: Reputation Management
Issue 38: Are You Fast Failing
Issue 37: A Real Open Book
Issue 36: Rarity of Excellence
Issue 34: Hindsight Is Always 20/20
Issue 33: Market For Experts
Issue 32: Different Heritages
Archive: Past Issues
Oracle DBA Interview: click here
Tools for the Intrepid DBA: click here
Oracle9i + RAC on Linux/Firewire: click here
Migrating MySQL to Oracle: click here
MySQL Disaster Recovery: click here
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, Oracle. Everything related to and surrounding the database technology we specialize in, but specifically setup, admin and tuning of Oracle technology. I have 10 years experience with Oracle, wrote a book on the technology, and write and lecture frequently. I’m founder and senior consultant of the company. In capacities where your company might hire Deloitte, AIG, or Oracle Consulting we can bring the same level of service and experience, at about half the price. Simple equation.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
OPEN INSIGHTS Newsletter
Issue 47 – Change the Problem
Sep 14, 2008
by Sean Hull
Like what you see here? Forward us to a friend. And let us know if you have any suggestions or comments. They are always welcome.
In This Issue:
1. Feature: Change the Problem
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
1. Feature: Change the Problem
If you can’t find a solution, consider changing the problem
I run into this situation over and over in consulting. The cards are laid out on the table, there’s this intractable problem, and the question becomes, what are we to do to solve it.
I find these situations are some where I can make the most impact. Partly this is because I am coming from the outside, so an outside perspective might be given a voice where someone inside the company might not be heard. Also I’m a bit of a maverick, so sometimes I may see another angle that hadn’t been looked at before.
There are a few different versions of this scenario so I’ll list them easiest to hardest to solve.
Developers following singular approach
By far the easiest situation is when the developers have been looking at a problem one way, and a different perspective needs to be tried. That’s because a new approach can quickly be tested, and if it works, and provides the results needed, everyone is sold on the solution, and then we simply need to go about making the change.
For example I had a client a number of years back in the education space. They had a client application that ran on a palm pilot, and teachers would upload data to the website periodically. So when they built the platform they were small, and had few subscribers, so they just synced data as it came in. As they grew to 10x and 100x their original subscriber base, they began to have big performance problems. All those subscribers uploading all that data, and as the backload built up, other subscribers suddenly had to wait for what was previously free and instantaneous.
So at a meeting discussing the problem, I stepped back for a moment. I explained this from my perspective. I said, look, you can spend a lot of money on lots and lots of new hardware, but don’t you see there is an assumption built into all of this. That every subscriber should and must expect instant always on data! I then went on to outline a gold, silver and bronze level of subscriber. The gold subscribers would pay more, and continue to get instantaneous uploads, the silver people would get their data, but available and collated in one hour, and the bronze would be twice a data. This turned out to be a simple and affective solution. Most subscribers it turned out, didn’t really NEED instant access to their data, and the ones who did, were willing to pay for it.
Again, because of the original assumptions, and how the application was built when the company was quite small, that assumption, that perspective had carried itself into the present when it was no longer practical or feasible to stick with it.
Already bought the hardware platform
I’ve run into many cases where this is a problem. Some time in the past a decision was made to go with deficient hardware, for instance a server with RAID 5, simply because those were the only servers available, or that was the shortest path somehow. I usually start with the analogy of Oracle. You buy a ferrari and then put economy class car tires on it because you ran out of budget. At that point your Oracle dollars are being wasted. Why not go with an open source database solution instead?
The best case in these situations is that a second server is available with different disk subsystem, where we can setup and test, and demonstrate the difference in application performance. It’s true, and hardware change can be expensive, and involved, which is why no one wants to address it. But remember internet applications are database backed, and usually the database is your bottleneck. And what is a database, but a sophisticated caching mechanism and SQL front end to a DISK!
Business committed to a path long since forgotten
By far this is the hardest case. I’ve had clients who built a platform basically for e-commerce, and then patched, and modified it over five or six years. In the meantime completely new platforms have come out, even some open source ones, that do everything that they wanted and a whole lot more. Or better yet there are web services solutions, that allow them to completely eliminate the software development side of the house, and concentrate solely on selling their widgets.
Of course when you’ve spent millions of dollars, and gone down one path for many years, this can be a very hard sell. But it’s a case of throwing good money after bad, and it’s a hard choice you sometimes have to make in business.
Conclusion
So in the back of your mind, when you’re looking at a problem in business, especially intractable problems, if you can’t find a solution, consider changing the problem.
Programming Perl, Perl + Oracle
Oracle Indexing – What, Where, Why?
Create a Database Manually – When & Why?
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part I
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part II
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part I
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part II
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part I
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part II
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part I
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part II
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We’ve also moved our podcast to Odeo for Audio Podcast hosting. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already!
The Hidden Dimension by Edward T Hall
When we think of cross-cultural exchange, we seldom think of the intangibles like personal space. Stand close to an American say, and they might think "who is this guy" or "I like this guy, I feel comfortable around this person". A Japanese might respond differently from the same personal space. Or consider a pat on the shoulder. Some european guys greet with a peck on the cheek, as you would greet a woman, whereas for an American this would be a big no-no. Handshakes, nuances of eye contact, Hall creates a science of proxemics (like proximity) to discuss this interesting topic.
A little inane humor to brighten up your day… Jessica Hagy has this cute little blog called indexed. She uses index cards to illustrate little truisms, often with funny comments on venn diagrams. Here’s a funny one the relationship of status to money.
We all want to optimize our sites for Google. I mean other than a select few, that’s where most of our traffic comes from, so the more our site plays well with Google, the more users, readers, customers, and clients will find their way to us.
Most of the SEO material I’ve read has been pretty sparse, and unclear. But I’ve been following the topic over at my good Felix’s #comments blog, and I’m starting to get it. So you can too! Take a read: Google loves me, again!
If you haven’t been following the news on the topic, take a look over at this NY Times piece: Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again. Personally I don’t think there is much hysteria this time around, sure there’s some, but not much. The industry is more mature now, and computers in general have lost their initial wow factor, so people are general more sober, and able to step back and see what is actually useful, can make money, is making money, or might well make money. That’s the root of investing smart.
Issue 44: Gaining Legs
Issue 43: On Prudence
Issue 42: On Efficiency
Issue 41: Roshomon Effect
Issue 40: Self Taught
Issue 39: Reputation Management
Issue 38: Are You Fast Failing
Issue 37: A Real Open Book
Issue 36: Rarity of Excellence
Issue 34: Hindsight Is Always 20/20
Issue 33: Market For Experts
Issue 32: Different Heritages
Archive: Past Issues
Oracle DBA Interview: click here
Tools for the Intrepid DBA: click here
Oracle9i + RAC on Linux/Firewire: click here
Migrating MySQL to Oracle: click here
MySQL Disaster Recovery: click here
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, Oracle. Everything related to and surrounding the database technology we specialize in, but specifically setup, admin and tuning of Oracle technology. I have 10 years experience with Oracle, wrote a book on the technology, and write and lecture frequently. I’m founder and senior consultant of the company. In capacities where your company might hire Deloitte, AIG, or Oracle Consulting we can bring the same level of service and experience, at about half the price. Simple equation.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
OPEN INSIGHTS Newsletter
Issue 46 – Interests Aligned
Aug 4, 2008
by Sean Hull
Like what you see here? Forward us to a friend. And let us know if you have any suggestions or comments. They are always welcome.
In This Issue:
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
Are Your Interests Aligned?
Hiring new people, or starting a new job, always involves thinking about your interests. If you are a company hiring, you’re thinking about what position you need to fill, how long it will take to get the new hire up to speed, how they will mesh with your current team, what kind of money they will be expecting, and if you have a bit of perspective on the horizon, you are hopefully also wondering how long they might stay with the company.
If you’re an individual looking for a new job, you’re going to be considering various factors too. You’ll look at the compensation in salary, what types of benefits and retirement plan is available, health insurance, and even other fringe benefits like day-care for kids, or a pool table in the break area. Or perhaps you are in the fashion industry, so being able to hob-nob in the right circles, or at the right parties, may be a tremendous side benefit to you. Of course the day-to-day factors such as how far is the office, what is the commute like, and who will you be working with are also factors. And don’t forget the question of how it will be building your career, and the intellectual or other challenges be from day to day.
If you’re a consultant, the factors may include the size of the contract, potential business building, and connections to future prospects, how it will grow your portfolio, how you like working with the client, if you feel they’ll be friendly, or adversarial. Will the work be remote, onsite, or include travel? Will it be a tight schedule, or finished at leisure? And then whether you like the work, whether it is challenging, and exciting.
In each of the scenarios above, different players have interests, as nations on the global stage. Each group has their own driving force, whether they acknowledge it or not. We all act in accordance with our needs. This is important to recognize. Once we recognize this, it’s easier for us to stand in the other ones shoes, and understand their needs.
So what are aligned interests? Well that is the best of all worlds, where business, and relationships really prosper, and grow. It is the proverbial win-win situation in business, where everyones needs match up. When this happens you sometimes feel like it’s a pleasure to go to work, that you’re lucky to have this job, or when a company feels they’re lucky to have the talent they have on board.
We may not all have the perfect opportunities, but when we consider our interests, and those of the people we’re working with, we’re more likely to align our interests, and work better together in the process.
Programming Perl, Perl + Oracle
Oracle Indexing – What, Where, Why?
Create a Database Manually – When & Why?
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part I
Migrating MySQL to Oracle – Part II
Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM)
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part I
Eight Ways to Hack Oracle – Part II
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part I
Oracle, MySQL and Postgres – Feature Comparison Part II
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part I
Open Source Technologies for Oracle DBAs Part II
In our last interview we had the opportunity to talk with Norman Yamada CTO of Millburn Corporation.
Norman shares with us his experiences providing world-class computing solutions, and the pros and cons of doing it with open source.
We’ve also moved our podcast to Odeo for Audio Podcast hosting. It is a great service, and provides all the RSS and subscribe links automatically. So please subscribe if you haven’t already!
Alpha Dogs – The Americans Who Turned Political Spin Into A Global Business
If you’ve ever watched a political campaign, you’ve probably felt a mix of different feelings from frustration, to surprise. It never ceases to amaze me how different the visual medium is from the written one. In todays world, clearly the visual medium of tv & internet has tremendous influence on people’s perspectives. The fascinating thing is to read about how these guys turned this whole thing into a big money consulting business, and peddled their brand of politics around the world. This is a great read, and whether you like it or not, these forces do influence people, so why not try to understand what they are, and how they work.
Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be Persuasive – Robert Cialdini
Cialdini’s original classic "Influence" has been on the short list of good books on this topic for years. His new title sifts much of the dense reading into 50 simple axioms. He presents each with a great example from the real world. This book is a breeze to read, and you can flip through the contents of 50 questions at the beginning to find just what you want. Worth every penny.
A little inane humor to brighten up your day… Jessica Hagy has this cute little blog called indexed. She uses index cards to illustrate little truisms, often with funny comments on venn diagrams. Here’s a funny one the relationship of status to money.
We all want to optimize our sites for Google. I mean other than a select few, that’s where most of our traffic comes from, so the more our site plays well with Google, the more users, readers, customers, and clients will find their way to us.
Most of the SEO material I’ve read has been pretty sparse, and unclear. But I’ve been following the topic over at my good Felix’s #comments blog, and I’m starting to get it. So you can too! Take a read: Google loves me, again!
If you haven’t been following the news on the topic, take a look over at this NY Times piece: Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again. Personally I don’t think there is much hysteria this time around, sure there’s some, but not much. The industry is more mature now, and computers in general have lost their initial wow factor, so people are general more sober, and able to step back and see what is actually useful, can make money, is making money, or might well make money. That’s the root of investing smart.
Issue 44: Gaining Legs
Issue 43: On Prudence
Issue 42: On Efficiency
Issue 41: Roshomon Effect
Issue 40: Self Taught
Issue 39: Reputation Management
Issue 38: Are You Fast Failing
Issue 37: A Real Open Book
Issue 36: Rarity of Excellence
Issue 34: Hindsight Is Always 20/20
Issue 33: Market For Experts
Issue 32: Different Heritages
Archive: Past Issues
Oracle DBA Interview: click here
Tools for the Intrepid DBA: click here
Oracle9i + RAC on Linux/Firewire: click here
Migrating MySQL to Oracle: click here
MySQL Disaster Recovery: click here
9. About Heavyweight Internet Group
In a nutshell, Oracle. Everything related to and surrounding the database technology we specialize in, but specifically setup, admin and tuning of Oracle technology. I have 10 years experience with Oracle, wrote a book on the technology, and write and lecture frequently. I’m founder and senior consultant of the company. In capacities where your company might hire Deloitte, AIG, or Oracle Consulting we can bring the same level of service and experience, at about half the price. Simple equation.
Looking for a top-flight DBA? Visit us on the web at www.iheavy.com.
