Life After Coffee

Ever wonder what your DBAs do when they’re not dealing with your crisis of the day? Friend and coworker Bob Watkins highlights the DBA’s main tasks in this recent article on Tech Republic.

It’s been said that the database administrator (DBA) has three basic tasks. In decreasing order of importance, they are: protect the data, protect the data, and protect the data.

Although data integrity is clearly the #1 job (who cares if the database is available or fast if the data isn’t good), the DBA has many other jobs as well. Here’s a list of the actual tasks that a DBA performs. (Some duties are common to all DBAs, and others are only required in some database environments.)

Check out the full article where Bob goes on to touch on all the major areas of the typical DBA job including backup and recovery, security, upgrades, tuning and troubleshooting. If you’re looking for a job description for a DBA this is a very good one.

When tempered glass breaks it blows into a million tiny pieces. While startling this actually makes the glass safer when it breaks as there are no large, heavy pieces which are actually more likely to harm.

I never understood why otherwise strong tempered glass would break so spectacularly but this article and the videos below of “Prince Rupert’s Drops” (small drops of tempered glass) show how the inherent tension caused by quick cooling makes glass stronger, but explosive.

via MAKE

After hours of research and testing I have my Mojito recipe dialed in. Many recipes call for more lime, less mint, etc. This one is tailored to my taste, but should be a good starting point for anyone.

Fresh ingredients are key to this drink. Avoid bottled lime juice and use the freshest mint you can find.

To muddle the first three ingredients combine them in a sturdy glass and mash them up with a muddler or a wooden spoon. The idea is to extract flavor from the mint by squeezing it. The sugar acts as an abrasive to help the process. A muddler is just a stick with a rounded end used to mash stuff up so don’t hesitate to improvise.

In a good sized glass with a heavy bottom muddle together:

• 1 rounded tablespoon granulated sugar
• 10 fresh mint leaves
• Juice of 1/4 lime

Add and stir to dissolve any remaining sugar:

• 2 oz light rum

Strain this mixture into a pint glass 1/2 full of ice (preferably crushed.) Fill the rest of the glass with:

• Club Soda

Optionally garnish with a mint leaf or the spent lime rind and enjoy the minty goodness! The recipe is easily multiplied and everything through the rum can be prepared ahead of time.

Ah, summer…

Modern electronic locks are getting more complicated but it’s amazing how vulnerable they can be. The video below shows how a high end electronic lock can be bypassed with a combination of induction and magnetic force.

If you’re not familiar with this type of locks it may not be clear, but the lock is actually being unlocked by spinning a disc with embedded magnets near the motor that actuates the lock. Barry at blackbag offers a far more detailed explanation of the device.

This is a good reminder that if a lock can be opened then it can be picked. The manufacturer will undoubtedly correct this vulnerability but there will always be another way to get in.

via Zach

Why do content owners and distributors continue to make consumers jump through hoops to buy their content? Are they really protecting their content or just pushing people to illegal sources? My article Content Owners Make a Hash of Online Distribution takes a quick look at the current status of online content distribution.

Online content distribution has exploded over the past 10 years, but the entertainment industry has been slow to embrace this new means of doing business. Even now, as the music industry is finally starting to adopt the new model, they continue to apply artificial restrictions to content distribution, making it harder for people to purchase and use their content legitimately.

Check out the full article on Internet Evolution.