Podcasts about dbas

In diesem Video erkläre ich dir die Rückfallklausel im Kontext eines Doppelbesteuerungsabkommens (DBA) – was sie bedeutet, wie sie dich betrifft und welche Nachteile sich daraus ergeben können.

#374 From solo painter to full-scale CEO, Josh Douglas has scaled A Painter's Touch into a thriving multi-service business with six crews and multiple DBAs under one brand. In this episode hosted by Kirsten Tyrrel, Josh shares how he transitioned from doing all the work himself to building teams of subcontractors, expanding into services like flooring, crown molding, and fence installation, and systematizing every aspect of the business. He dives into his hiring process, how he uses tools like Jobber and ChatGPT to streamline operations, and why staying organized is the key to scaling sustainably. If you're ready to turn your service-based hustle into a finely tuned machine, this episode is packed with real-world strategies and hard-earned wisdom! What we discuss with Josh: + Starting as a solo painter + Transitioning from employee to CEO + Hiring and managing subcontractor crews + Using Jobber to streamline operations + Leveraging ChatGPT for estimates and emails + Expanding into multiple service lines + Building systems for consistent growth + Importance of customer experience + Adapting to Google Guaranteed changes + Treating team members like family Thank you, Josh! Check out A Painter's Touch at APaintersTouchLLC.com. Watch the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠video podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ of this episode! And follow us on: Instagram Facebook Tik Tok Youtube Twitter To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors. Want to hear from more incredible entrepreneurs? Check out all of our interviews here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some of you reading this are database administrators (DBAs) who manage systems as their full-time job. Others of you might be developers, analytics people, or someone else who has another job, but you get stuck with managing the database somehow. I've seen a receptionist and a dental hygienist act in this role. We may call you the accidental DBAs, though that doesn't imply you are good or bad at managing databases. I got into this line of work as an accidental DBA who was also a developer.  No matter what your job title, my guess is that you aren't over-staffed at your organization. Likely you wish you had one (or more) more person to help keep up with the work. It seems that we never have enough time to get everything done in a week. And that's with a full staff. What do you do when someone is sick or goes on vacation? If you're like me, you get further behind and feel extra stress while your coworker is out of the office. Read the rest of Part-Time DBAs

In this episode of the PowerShell Podcast, we reconnect with Jess Pomfret, a PowerShell and SQL Server powerhouse, LinkedIn Learning instructor, and community advocate. From her early days in England to becoming a respected speaker and consultant, Jess shares her journey into tech, her passion for automation, and the importance of mentorship, curiosity, and community. Key topics in this episode include: Jess's transition from footballer to DBA – How a soccer scholarship led her to a tech career in the U.S. The power of PowerShell and DBA Tools – How Jess leverages PowerShell to automate SQL Server tasks and save time. Finding a community in SQL and PowerShell – Jess reflects on how welcoming both communities are and the impact they've had on her career. Career growth through speaking and mentoring – Encouraging others to speak, contribute, and grow through conferences and collaboration. Working with Data Masterminds – The benefits of working in a high-level consulting team and tips for managing multiple clients and context switching. LinkedIn Learning and teaching at scale – Behind the scenes of her professional training content and what it's like filming for LinkedIn Learning. Jess also shares her favorite DBA Tools command, productivity tips for conferences, and the story behind her podcast Finding Data Friends, which highlights voices in the data world.   Bio and links: Jess Pomfret is a Data Platform Engineer and a Dual Microsoft MVP. She started working with SQL Server in 2011, and enjoys the problem-solving aspects of automating processes with PowerShell. She also enjoys contributing to dbatools and dbachecks, two open source PowerShell modules that aid DBAs with automating the management of SQL Server instances. She has also contributed to the SqlServerDsc module, adding several new resources to use when configuring your SQL Servers. She grew up in the South West of England and outside of her DBA life enjoys Crossfit, cycling and watching proper football.  Connect with Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpomfret and Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jpomfret.co.uk Watch Finding Data Friends on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@findingdatafriends/videos Check out her LinkedIn Learning courses: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/jess-pomfret Explore DBA Tools at dbatools.io Join PowerShell Wednesdays at 2 PM EST on https://discord.gg/pdq The PowerShell Podcast: https://pdq.com/the-powershell-podcast The PowerShell Podcast on YouTube: https://youtu.be/L4zABO526bM

Picking up from Part 1, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham continue their deep dive into MySQL security with MySQL Solution Engineer Ravish Patel. In this episode, they focus on user authentication techniques and tools such as MySQL Enterprise Audit and MySQL Enterprise Firewall.   MySQL 8.4 Essentials: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/mysql-84-essentials/141332/226362 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative  podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:25 Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi everyone! Last week, we began exploring MySQL security, covering regulatory compliance and common security threats.  Nikita: This week, we're continuing the conversation by digging deeper into MySQL's user authentication methods and taking a closer look at some powerful security tools in the MySQL Enterprise suite. 00:57 Lois: And we're joined once again by Ravish Patel, a MySQL Solution Engineer here at Oracle. Welcome, Ravish! How does user authentication work in MySQL? Ravish: MySQL authenticates users by storing account details in a system database. These accounts are authenticated with three elements, username and hostname commonly separated with an @ sign along with a password.  The account identifier has the username and host. The host identifier specifies where the user connects from. It specifies either a DNS hostname or an IP address. You can use a wild card as part of the hostname or IP address if you want to allow this username to connect from a range of hosts. If the host value is just the percent sign wildcard, then that username can connect from any host. Similarly, if you create the user account with an empty host, then the user can connect from any host.  01:55 Lois: Ravish, can MySQL Enterprise Edition integrate with an organization's existing accounts?  Ravish: MySQL Enterprise authentication integrates with existing authentication mechanisms in your infrastructure. This enables centralized account management, policies, and authentication based on group membership and assigned corporate roles, and MySQL supports a wide range of authentication plugins. If your organization uses Linux, you might already be familiar with PAM, also known as Pluggable Authentication Module. This is a standard interface in Linux and can be used to authenticate to MySQL. Kerberos is another widely used standard for granting authorization using a centralized service. The FIDO Alliance, short for Fast Identify Online, promotes an interface for passwordless authentication. This includes methods for authenticating with biometrics RUSB security tokens. And MySQL even supports logging into centralized authentication services that use LDAP, including having a dedicated plugin to connect to Windows domains. 03:05 Nikita: So, once users are authenticated, how does MySQL handle user authorization? Ravish: The MySQL privilege system uses the GRANT keyword. This grants some privilege X on some object Y to some user Z, and optionally gives you permission to grant the same privilege to others. These can be global administrative privileges that enable users to perform tasks at the server level, or they can be database-specific privileges that allow users to modify the structure or data within a database. 03:39 Lois: What about database privileges? Ravish: Database privileges can be fine-grained from the largest to the smallest. At the database level, you can permit users to create, alter, and delete whole databases. The same privileges apply at the table, view, index, and stored procedure levels. And in addition, you can control who can execute stored procedures and whether they do so with their own identity or with the privileges of the procedure's owner. For tables, you can control who can select, insert, update, and delete rows in those tables. You can even specify the column level, who can select, insert, and update data in those columns. Now, any privileged system carries with it the risk that you might forget an important password and lock yourself out. In MySQL, if you forget the password to the root account and don't have any other admin-level accounts, you will not be able to administer the MySQL server. 04:39 Nikita: Is there a way around this? Ravish: There is a way around this as long as you have physical access to the server that runs the MySQL process. If you launch the MySQL process with the --skip grant tables option, then MySQL will not load the privilege tables from the system database when it starts. This is clearly a dangerous thing to do, so MySQL also implicitly disables network access when you use that option to prevent users from connecting over the network. When you use this option, any client connection to MySQL succeeds and has root privileges. This means you should control who has shell access to the server during this time and you should restart the server or enable privileged system with the command flush privileges as soon as you have changed the root password. The privileges we have already discussed are built into MySQL and are always available. MySQL also makes use of dynamic privileges, which are privileges that are enabled at runtime and which can be granted once they are enabled.  In addition, plugins and components can define privileges that relate to features of those plugins. For example, the enterprise firewall plugin defines the firewall admin privilege and the audit admin privilege is defined by the enterprise audit plugin.  06:04 Are you working towards an Oracle Certification this year? Join us at one of our certification prep live events in the Oracle University Learning Community. Get insider tips from seasoned experts and learn from others who have already taken their certifications. Go to community.oracle.com/ou to jump-start your journey towards certification today! 06:28 Nikita: Welcome back! Ravish, I want to move on to MySQL Enterprise security tools. Could you start with MySQL Enterprise Audit? Ravish: MySQL Enterprise Audit is an extension available in Enterprise Edition that makes it easier to comply with regulations that require observability and control over who does what in your database servers. It provides visibility of connections, authentication, and individual operations. This is a necessary part of compliance with various regulations, including GDPR, NIS2, HIPAA, and so on. You can control who has access to the audited events so that the audits themselves are protected. As well as configuring what you audit, you can also configure rotation policies so that unmonitored audit logs don't fill up your storage space. The configuration can be performed while the server is running with minimal effect on production applications. You don't need to restart the server to enable or disable auditing or to change the filtering options. You can output the audit logs in either XML or JSON format, depending on how you want to perform further searching and processing. If you need it, you can compress the logs to save space and you can encrypt the logs to provide address protection of audited identities and data modifications. The extension is available either as a component or if you prefer, as the legacy plugin. 07:53 Lois: But how does it all work? Ravish: Well, first, as a DBA, you'll enable the audit plugin and attach it to your running server. You can then configure filters to audit your connections and queries and record who does what, when they do it, and so on. Then once the system is up and running, it audits whenever a user authenticates, accesses data, or even when they perform schema changes. The logs are recorded in whatever format that you have configured. You can then monitor the audited events at will with MySQL tools such as Workbench or with any software that can view and manipulate XML or JSON files. You can even configure Enterprise Audit to export the logs to an external Audit Vault, enabling collection, and archiving of audit information from all over your enterprise. In general, you won't audit every action on every server. You can configure filters to control what specific information ends up in the logs. 08:50 Nikita: Why is this sort of filtering necessary, Ravish? Ravish: As a DBA, this enables you to create a custom designed audit process to monitor things that you're really interested in. Rules can be general or very fine grained, which enables you to reduce the overall log size, reduces the performance impact on the database server and underlying storage, makes it easier to process the log file once you've gathered data, and filters are configured with the easily used JSON file format. 09:18 Nikita: So what information is audited? Ravish: You can see who did what, when they did it, what commands they use, and whether they succeeded. You can also see where they connected from, which can be useful when identifying man in the middle attacks or stolen credentials. The log also records any available client information, including software versions and information about the operating system and much more. 09:42 Lois: Can you tell us about MySQL Enterprise Firewall, which I understand is a specific tool to learn and protect the SQL statements that MySQL executes? Ravish: MySQL Enterprise Firewall can be enabled on MySQL Enterprise Edition with a plugin. It uses an allow list to set policies for acceptable queries. You can apply this allow list to either specific accounts or groups. Queries are protected in real time. Every query that executes is verified per server and checked to make sure that it conforms to query structures that are defined in the allow list. This makes it very useful to block SQL injection attacks. Only transactions that match well-formed queries in the allow list are permitted. So any attempt to inject other types of SQL statements are blocked. Not only does it block such statements, but it also sends an alert to the MySQL error log in real time. This gives you visibility on any security gaps in your applications. The Enterprise Firewall has a learning mode during which you can train the firewall to identify the correct sort of query. This makes it easy to create the allow list based on a known good workload that you can create during development before your application goes live. 10:59 Lois: Does MySQL Enterprise Firewall operate seamlessly and transparently with applications? Ravish: Your application simply submits queries as normal and the firewall monitors incoming queries with no application changes required. When you use the Enterprise Firewall, you don't need to change your application. It can submit statements as normal to the MySQL server. This adds an extra layer of protection in your applications without requiring any additional application code so that you can protect against malicious SQL injection attacks. This not only applies to your application, but also to any client that configured user runs. 11:37 Nikita: How does this firewall system work?  Ravish: When the application submits a SQL statement, the firewall verifies that the statement is in a form that matches the policy defined in the allow list before it passes to the server for execution.  It blocks any statement that is in a form that's outside of policy.  In many cases, a badly formed query can only be executed if there is some bug in the application's data validation. You can use the firewall's detection and alerting features to let when it blocks such a query, which will help you quickly detect such bugs, even when the firewall continues to block the malicious queries. 12:14 Lois: Can you take us through some of the encryption and masking features available in MySQL Enterprise Edition?  Ravish: Transparent data encryption is a great way to protect against physical security disclosure. If someone gains access to the database files on the file system through a vulnerability of the operating system, or even if you've had a laptop stolen, your data will still be protected. This is called Data at Rest Encryption. It protects not only the data rows in tablespaces, but also other locations that store some version of the data, such as undo logs, redo logs, binary logs and relay logs. It is a strong encryption using the AES 256 algorithm. Once we enable transparent data encryption, it is, of course, transparent to the client software, applications, and users. Applications continue to submit SQL statements, and the encryption and decryptions happen in flight. The application code does not need to change. All data types, table structure, and database names remain the same. It's even transparent to the DBAs. The same data types, table structure, and so on is still how the DBA interacts with the system while creating indexes, views, and procedures. In fact, DBAs don't even need to be in possession of any encryption keys to perform their admin tasks. It is entirely transparent. 13:32 Nikita: What kind of management is required for encryption? Ravish: There is, of course, some key management required at the outside. You must keep the keys safe and put policies in place so that you store and rotate keys effectively, and ensure that you can recover those keys in the event of some disaster. This key management integrates with common standards, including KMIP and KMS. 13:53 Lois: Before we close, I want to ask you about the role of data masking in MySQL. Ravish: Data masking is when we replace some part of the private information with a placeholder. You can mask portions of a string based on the string position using the letter X or some other character. You can also create a table that contains a dictionary of suitable replacement words and use that dictionary to mask values in your data. There are specific functions that work with known formats of data, for example, social security numbers as used in the United States, national insurance numbers from the United Kingdom, and Canadian social insurance numbers. You can also mask various account numbers, such as primary account numbers like credit cards or IBAN numbers as used in the European Bank system. There are also functions to generate random values, which can be useful in test databases. This might be a random number within some range, or an email address, or a compliant credit card number, or social security number. You can also create random information using the dictionary table that contains suitable example values. 14:58 Nikita: Thank you, Ravish, for taking us through MySQL security. We really cannot overstate the importance of this, especially in today's data-driven world.  Lois: That's right, Niki. Cyber threats are increasingly sophisticated these days. You really have to be on your toes when it comes to security. If you're interested in learning more about this, the MySQL 8.4 Essentials course on mylearn.oracle.com is a great next step.  Nikita: We'd also love to hear your thoughts on our podcast so please feel free to share your comments, suggestions, or questions by emailing us at ou-podcast_ww@oracle.com. That's ou-podcast_ww@oracle.com. In our next episode, we'll journey into the world of MySQL backups. Until then, this is Nikita Abraham… Nikita: And Lois Houston, signing off! 15:51 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

How does a small community in Athens, Ohio, turn local produce into a thriving business ecosystem? Join us as we unravel the evolutionary tale of ACEnet, a pioneering force in community-based economic development, through the eyes of our insightful guests Adam Cody, Cameron Chastain, and Izzy Stichik. Discover the origins of ACEnet, once known as the Worker-Owned Network, and its transformation into a beacon of innovation and support for food businesses in Central Appalachia. Inspired by models from Northern Italy, ACEnet's journey includes launching the Athens Food Venture Center, a hub that has empowered countless entrepreneurs since 1996. Our conversation sheds light on the collaborative efforts between ACEnet, AmeriCorps, and local farmers, which have reshaped food access and education in Athens County. From transformative programs like the Veggie Van to educational initiatives that teach children about agriculture and cooking, listeners will hear firsthand how ACEnet is making a difference. The episode highlights the critical role of business incubation services in rural settings, providing aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge and resources needed to flourish, and the role resources like community-scaled equipment provide for building solidarity and resilience. With stories of shared resources and financial empowerment, we delve into the supportive networks that ACEnet nurtures, including tool libraries and financial guidance. Hear about the power of community networking, and how personal experiences, from starting a mushroom farm to engaging in business counseling, reflect ACEnet's impact on local entrepreneurship. Finally, we cast an eye on the future with ACEnet's exciting participation in the Regional Food Business Center program, a USDA-funded initiative poised to revolutionize regional food economies across Central Appalachia, offering new markets and transformative opportunities. Check out ACEnet's work here: https://acenetworks.org/# https://www.indianag.org/intertribalfbc https://www.appalachiarfbc.org/   For sources, transcripts, and to read more about this subject, visit: www.agroecologies.org To support this podcast, join our patreon for early, commercial-free episode access at https://www.patreon.com/poorprolesalmanac For PPA Restoration Content, visit: www.restorationagroecology.com For PPA Merch, visit: www.poorproles.com For PPA Native Plants, visit: www.nativenurseries.org To hear Tomorrow, Today, our sister podcast, visit: www.tomorrowtodaypodcast.org/   Key words: Community-driven, Economic Empowerment, ACEnet, Worker-Owned Network, Rural Entrepreneurs, Athens, Ohio, Food Access, Business Counseling, Local Economies, Shared-Use Kitchen, Agricultural Producers, Food Entrepreneurs, Community Collaboration, Resource Sharing, Transformative, Food Systems, Community Economic Development, Northern Italy, Athens ACEnet Food Venture Center, Thermal Processing Room, AmeriCorps, Local Farmers, Rural Action, Fresh Produce, Schools, Agriculture, Nutrition, Business Incubation, Business Support, Rural Setting, Business Knowledge, Entrepreneurship, Business Structures, Cooperative Models, C-corp, S-corp, Equitable Ownership, CEO-led Models, LLCs, DBAs, Cost Considerations, Processing Sunchokes, One-time Intake Fee, Regulatory Processes, Privilege of Failure, Safety Net, Commonwealth Kitchen, Shared Resources Model, Tool Libraries, Community Networking, Financial Empowerment, Financial Literacy, Veggie Van Program, Food Accessibility, Healthy, Local Produce, Underserved Communities, Food Sovereignty, Food Justice, Career Paths, Regional Food Business Center Program, USDA, Technical Assistance, Appalachia Region, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Markets, Business Builder Sub-A

The short answer is of course, most of us can learn and improve our skills to become better developers, engineers, DBAs, etc. While we might not be able to become the 10x engineer that many aspire to be, we can certainly become a better employee inside of an organization. There's a piece on becoming a more effective engineer, which is actually titled know how your org works. It a piece from an engineer that started with a tweet: The text was:You can either complain and pontificate on Twitter on how the tech industry *should* ideally work, or you can learn how your org *really* works and what's rewarded, and optimize for that. Or quit and find another job.  This might sound cynical - but it's what it is. That sounds a little harsh, but the reality of how your org works or is structured or interacts is a reality. We all have hindsight to look back and wish someone (including us) had written code better. We might be sure if we could change one thing, or add/remove someone else, or make some other change, then things would be better. We might feel that there is a simple solution. Those things might be true, but they aren't the reality of the situation. Read the rest of Can You Become a More Productive Engineer?

In this episode, I'm joined by Jesmar Canol, COO of ProxySQL, to explore the  journey behind the creation of this open source solution that has become a game-changer for database management.  From his early days in IT to addressing the challenges that database administrators (DBAs) face daily, Jesmar shares the story of how ProxySQL evolved from a side project into a vital tool for empowering database teams around the world. We discuss the complexities of managing MySQL and PostgreSQL infrastructures, ProxySQL's unique approach to query routing, load balancing, and its ability to maintain high availability even in the most demanding environments. Jesmar explains why ProxySQL's open-source model is critical in fostering trust and transparency, and how it helps organizations adapt to the growing demands for cloud-native and on-premise database solutions. Jesmar also offers insights into the challenges of running a distributed team, the evolution of database management in an era of increasing automation, and the emerging trends shaping the future of this space. Whether you're a seasoned DBA, a tech leader, or simply curious about the transformative power of open source solutions, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways.

Send us a textDid you know you can maximize your HSA contributions even if you switch to a high-deductible health plan late in the year?In this episode of the Small Business Tax Savings Podcast, Mike Jesowshek answers listener-submitted tax and business-related questions, covering topics such as HSA contributions, structuring multiple businesses, employing children, vehicle deductions, the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERC), and year-end tax planning strategies. He emphasizes the importance of implementing tax-saving strategies tailored to individual circumstances and highlights tools like Tax Savings Podcast resources and Taxelm for deeper guidance.Discover this and more tax-saving tips in today's listener Q&A episode![00:00 - 02:53] HSA Contributions and the Last Month RuleMike explains the IRS's Last Month Rule, allowing full-year HSA contributions if enrolled by December 1st.[02:53 - 05:42] Starting a Business and Learning Tax StrategiesA Minnesota listener seeks guidance after forming a new business.What is the importance of implementation over mere learning of tax strategies?[05:42 - 07:39] Employing Children and Managing Child SupportMike gives advice on structuring small business ownership to avoid affecting child support obligations.[07:39 - 13:00] Structuring Multiple BusinessesDiscussion on using DBAs versus separate LLCs for businesses in different verticals.Consideration of liability and future sale opportunities.[13:00 - 19:16] Core Tax Strategies and Vehicle DeductionsMike discusses core tax strategies such as home office, automobile, and travel deductions.He explains vehicle deductions, depreciation methods, and financing.[19:16 - 27:30] Year-End Tax Planning TipsMike clarifies on how to handle ERC credits in amended taxes.He encourages listeners to implement achievable strategies before the year ends.Direct Quotes:“The key piece is implementation. You can learn all you want all day long, but if you don't implement anything, you don't see the tax savings.” - Mike Jesowshek, CPA“As long as you have that high-deductible health plan in place by December 1st, you're eligible to contribute the full amount to an HSA for the year.” - Mike Jesowshek, CPA“Take off what you can bite off and do that. I'd much rather see you do one or two strategies than try to do ten and end up doing zero.” - Mike Jesowshek, CPACheck out this episode's blog post: https://www.taxsavingspodcast.com/blog/tax-questions-answered-vehicle-deductions-entity-structure-wotc-compliance-and-more ______Podcast Host: Mike Jesowshek, CPA - Founder and Host of Small Business Tax Savings PodcastJoin TaxElm: https://taxelm.com/-------Podcast Website: https://www.TaxSavingsPodcast.comFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/taxsavings/YouTube: www.TaxSavingsTV.com 

4 New Square Chambers' George McDonald and Matt Waszak explore new representative actions and the complex interplay between litigation funding and class actions, addressing the legal challenges that arise. They emphasise the importance of courts making early rulings on funding arrangements to ensure the viability of class actions. Key Topics Discussed: Funding Challenges: Issues related to funding agreements and privity of contract among class members. Early Court Decisions: The potential for courts to provide early clarity on funding arrangements. Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs): Insights into CFAs, including success fees and cost recovery for class representatives. Damages-Based Agreements (DBAs): Limitations and challenges of DBAs in collective actions. Adverse Costs: Discussion on liability for adverse costs in representative actions. Legislative Reforms: Speculation on potential reforms to expand the CAT's collective action regime for consumer claims. Judicial Management: The proactive role of courts in managing funding and costs early in litigation. Early Determinations: Advantages of pre-emptive court decisions on funding for smoother processes. Recommendations for Funders: Guidance on creating tailored funding agreements for representative actions.

In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham explore the Automatic Transaction Quarantine feature with Senior Principal Database & MySQL Instructor, Bill Millar. Bill explains that this feature isolates transactions that could potentially cause system crashes, preventing them from impacting the entire container database. They also discuss the key advantages of automatic transaction quarantine in maintaining database stability and availability.   Oracle MyLearn: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-database-23ai-new-features-for-administrators/140830/   Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/   X: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   --------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University, and with me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi there! In our last episode, we looked at an Oracle Database 23ai new feature called Automatic Transaction Rollback, and we spoke about why it is such an important feature for database administrators. 00:51 Nikita: Today, we're going to talk about another new feature called Automatic Transaction Quarantine. We'll discuss what it is, go through the steps to monitor and identify quarantine transactions, explore how an issue is resolved once a quarantined transaction has been identified, and end by looking at quarantined transaction escalation, and how it helps to protect not only your PDB, but also your container database. Lois: Back with us is Bill Millar, our Senior Principal Database & MySQL Instructor with Oracle University. Hi Bill! What is automatic transaction quarantine and why do we need it? 01:27 Bill: The good news is that starting in 23c with the database quarantines, it's going to isolate a transaction or transactions that could possibly cause a system crash, so you can avoid crashes. It's going to isolate those transactions that potentially could cause a problem. However, those transactions must be manually resolved by the DBA so that the row locks are released from those bad transactions. A transaction recovery basically is going to isolate failure and also identify what is the cause of that corruption. So when a system restarts, transaction can fail to recover while the other transactions can be recovered. So with the transaction recovery, basically, we know when the system recovers, the SMON is going to use the redo and the undo. 02:27 Nikita: Can you explain that in a little more detail? How does transaction recovery work and why is it so critical for database stability? Bill: It does the redo to roll forward the database. However, at that point, it'll go ahead and open the database, allow it to start being used while it is applying the undo. And when it cannot apply that undo, that's when the system is going to mark that transaction as bad for that. That is what is transaction recovery. Whereas instance recovery is basically the same thing, except now you're in a RAC environment. And it's unable to be recovered on one of the instances within your RAC environment. Because it can be, it'll have those rows locked, and it can affect the other instances. So SMON might be unable to perform that recovery, so it could cause that PDB or the CDB to crash. OK, now, nobody can access any information. So once if that entire container crashes, recovery is going to stop. If it has a bad transaction, recovery stops. So it might be because of physical data, might be because of the index is corrupt, might be logical corruption. So it stops that interactive transaction recovery process. So not only does it stop the recovery of the transaction that is trying to be recovered by SMON, it's going to stop the rest of the inactive transactions. Those row locks are held. And it can impact critical operations. Yeah, if my system can't do anything, yes, it's going to have an impact. The DBAs must resolve what is that bad transaction, how to get rid of it, how we're going to get around it? 04:12 Lois: Bill, what's the workflow a DBA would follow when a transaction is quarantined? Bill: So in the system, when that transaction recovery failure is, OK, I've found this dead transaction. I'm going to quarantine. I'm going to say, hey, you have something you need to take care of for that. So it's not recovered by the SMON. So what's going to happen? So there is also is going to be a limit. So if it does reach that limit and the limit is three, then you're going to have to step in and try to take care of that very quickly. The shut down abort will be performed on the PDB. So the good news there is that it's going to keep it from impacting the entire container. If the limit isn't reached, well, then, OK, hey, we have this bad transaction that's going to quarantine, is going to populate. There's a couple of views that you can go out and look at. There's a CDB quarantine transactions or a DBA quarantine transactions. Those views you can look at. And then once we determine that, what are we going to do to try to recover it? If we're going to try to recover it, then we can go ahead and drop that bad transaction. It'll help free up the rows. That way, everything can start working again. That PDB can be opened. 05:30 Nikita: What can you tell us about monitoring quarantined transactions? What specific views or logs should DBAs monitor? Bill: So you can view. You'll see these quarantine transactions in several different places. One is the alert queue. It's going to be sent to the alert queue. That is what is going to notify Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, also populates it within the AWR. Back in 21c, we added the attention log. It shows critical events. Hey, you need to take a look at this. It also can populate it. It will populate it to the alert log. So remember you have the V$DIAG_ALERT that you can look at. Or, if you're familiar with or you use the ADRCI, automatic diagnostic repair recovery advisor, so you can also look at the alert log there. So there are two new views, the CDB_QUARANTINED_TRANSACTION, the DBA_QUARANTINE_TRANSACTIONS working with multi-tenant. The CDB, I can see all the quarantine transactions from the root container, the DBA_QUARANTINE_TRANSACTIONS what I see if I'm in a specific PDB. But it's going to give me the information. 06:52 Lois: What about resolving quarantined transactions? Bill: Monitoring is a must to be able to identify, hey, we have bad transactions that we need to-- quarantine transactions we need to take care of. You can apply the appropriate MOS note if you're not sure what to do. Like anything else, if something happens-- and hopefully, you're not getting quarantined transactions daily or anything like that. But once we start doing a few things, we remember how to do them. 07:21 Lois: And, how do we take care of this? Bill: Well, you always have the ability to go to My Oracle Support. There is a view called-- that CDB quarantine transaction that we talked about that we can look at, hey, here's the reason. And we might use that to go out there and search My Oracle Support and/or contact Oracle Support. 07:49 Do you have an idea for a new course or learning opportunity? We'd love to hear it! Visit the Oracle University Learning Community and share your thoughts with us on the Idea Incubator. Your suggestion could find a place in future development projects! Visit mylearn.oracle.com to get started.  08:09 Nikita: Welcome back! Bill, what are some of the common causes of quarantined transactions? Could you share some examples with us? And how do you resolve them? Bill: One could be physical corruptions. It could either be logical or physical. So maybe because media failed. Hardware bits get flipped. So that might be able to be easily fixed by using the RMAN Block Media Recovery. And that's the lowest level of recovery that we can apply. And then there's logical corruptions. This is the recommended order when trying to resolve logical corruptions. First level is the Block Media Recovery. And then, after that, if the Block Media Recovery fails, then possibly, how about re-creating that data segment? So either truncate or drop it, and then recover it from another source. So once you drop the segment, the transaction then is going to skip trying to recover it. It's no longer there. So it's, OK, hey, I'm successful now. And then, the last resort type method is to drop that undo segment. There's an offline rollback segment that you can use. But it's recommended-- it's best to avoid that-- again, kind of a last-ditch effort to try to fix something. There are other options that you might try. However, these options do end up being a loss of data. Why? Because we're going to do a point-in-time recovery. So we can go back to a table point-in-time recovery. So we start with the Block Media Recovery. OK, we can't. OK, so how about if we go back before that transaction and try to recover the table at that time? So it will be a loss of data. Then, the next level is, we can't do the table. Can we do the entire tablespace? That might be an option. Might flashback the database if we are using-- if we have Flashback Database on. Again, that's just another method of point-in-time recovery. And then also do a database point-in-time recovery. If we can do the database point-in-time recovery flashback at the PDB level, so that way it's not impacting the entire container, hopefully, we don't have to try to do a point-in-time recovery at the database level. So we wouldn't want to do that. That would something really drastic would have to happen to force us to do the entire container. But we want to do that at the PDB level. 10:54 Lois: Ok. So the issue is resolved. What happens next? Bill: So once we have the issue resolved that caused that, SMON is still going to try to do transaction recovery because why? That quarantined transaction says, hey, I've still got this bad transaction there. So once that transaction has been fixed, we need to drop that quarantined transaction. So that way, SMON says, hey, I have this transaction. I need to recover. SMON will keep from trying to do that. So there is a DDL command to drop that quarantined transaction. So remember, from the views, the quarantined transaction views, that's where we saw the undo segment. We saw the slot number. We saw the quarantined transaction slot number. So that way, we can drop that transaction by using that. 11:51 Nikita: How does the escalation process work for quarantined transactions? And why is it important to protect the PDB and the container database? Bill: So quarantined transaction escalation-- we might have multiple transactions fail, depending on the corruption level. It might have multiple blocks for that that have failed. So just to quarantine a bad transaction may not help whatsoever. It depends on what the root cause is for the failures and how many are happening at that time. So the database with these bad transactions will continuously run in an inconsistent state. So it could be dangerous if we have multiples of the same issue and that. So with that system running in an inconsistent state, things will continue to spread. Things will continue to get worse. That's why, once that level of 3 is reached, we go ahead, and we do a shut down abort on that PDB. Because if a transaction can't be recovered, there's no need in trying to do any other type of shutdown. So with this escalation process, it does benefit us because, again, SMON is going to continuously try to recover that bad transaction for that. OK, SMON's going to keep trying. It's not going to work. And at some point, it might cause it to crash. So by stopping it before it continues getting worse, damaging more, we're going to go ahead and say we're escalating this issue to where we're shutting down the PDB. Fault tolerance, so meaning that we have higher availability of the rest of the container. So it's not going to crash the entire container. So the PDB can continue to operate when we are trying to resolve transactions except in the case where it exceeds the amount, and it does a shutdown abort on that PDB. So with that escalation, we reach that limit of 3 for that. We do a Shutdown Abort on that PDB. That transaction recovery is disabled. OK. Don't try to recover any transactions. Why? Because we know we have a few of them. So it's shut down, so we're going to go out and look at our quarantine transactions views, what's the reason for that, how many do we have? And then, once we resolve the issue, we are going to enable recovery again because it turns off the recovery option before it allows us to open that PDB. It's not going to be in a consistent state, though. So now we can go ahead and alter the system and, OK, go ahead and allow recovery of transactions again. 14:42 Lois: Thank you, Bill, for walking us through the details of automatic transaction quarantine and telling us how to manage and resolve these complex scenarios. Nikita: Yeah, thanks Bill! To learn more about what we discussed today, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database 23ai New Features for Administrators course. Join us next week for a discussion on some more Oracle Database 23ai new features. Until then, this is Nikita Abraham… Lois: And Lois Houston signing off! 15:13 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Grant Fritchey has over thirty years of experience in IT, specializing in development and database administration. He works for Red Gate Software as a Product Advocate and writes articles for SQL Server Central and Simple-Talk. He is the author of “SQL Server Execution Plans” and “SQL Server Query Performance Tuning.” He also co-authored “Query Store for SQL Server 2019,” “Expert Performance Indexing,” “SQL Server MVP Deep Dives 2,” “Beginning SQL Server 2012 Administration,” and “Pro SQL Server 2012 Practices.”   He presents at conferences and user groups worldwide and is available for part-time, short-term consulting contracts.Since 2009, he has been recognized as a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. He has received the AWS Community Builder award for the past five years. In 2014, he was honored as a Dunn & Bradstreet MVP, and in 2011, he received the Tech10 Award in Rhode Island.   Topics of Discussion: [:35] Introduction of Grant Fritchey and his career in IT and database administration. [3:23] Grant's journey from software development to becoming a DBA. [5:13] The importance of database selection and how different types of databases serve different needs. [11:27] Grant's view on the addition of document support to major database platforms. [13:29] Database hygiene basics and the importance of regular backups and restore practices. [19:26] The business side of database recovery and balancing cost with recovery objectives (RPO/RTO). [25:03] Grant's recommendations for testing database restores. [28:08] Automation in DevOps and the importance of human training in recovery processes. [31:53] Managing data warehouses and recovery strategies for large databases. [35:12] Resources for developers without dedicated DBAs to ensure good database hygiene.   Mentioned in this Episode: Clear Measure Way Architect Forum Software Engineer Forum Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net. Clear Measure, Inc. (Sponsor) .NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon! Jeffrey Palermo's Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events! SimpleTalk by Redgate ScaryDBA.com Grant Fritchey on X   Want to Learn More? Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.

Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham as they discuss the Automatic Transaction Rollback feature with Senior Principal Database & MySQL Instructor, Bill Millar. Bill explains that in the 23ai release, transactions blocking other transactions can now be automatically rolled back, depending on certain parameters. Bill highlights the advantages of using automatic transaction rollback, which eliminates the time-consuming process of manually terminating blocking transactions. They also cover the workload reduction benefits for database administrators.   Oracle MyLearn: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-database-23ai-new-features-for-administrators/140830/   Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/   X: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   -------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome back to the Oracle University Podcast. I'm Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs with Oracle University, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services. Nikita: Hi everyone! Last week, we looked at two Oracle Database 23ai new features related to Data Manipulation Language, or DML. One was Unrestricted Parallel DMLs and the other was Unrestricted Direct Loads. Do check out that episode if you missed it. 00:56 Lois: Today, we have Senior Principal Database & MySQL Instructor, Bill Millar, with us. He's been on several times this season taking us through all the different 23ai new features. In this episode, we're going to ask him about the Automatic Transaction Rollback feature. Hi Bill! What is automatic transaction rollback and why is it an important feature for database administrators? 01:22 Bill: We can now have transactions that are blocking other transactions, depending on some settings, to automatically roll back. It does require some parameters to be set. Rows basically get locked in a single row. Each row is locked based off of what type of activity is being performed on that row, such as inserts, updates, deletes, merge, select for updates. 01:52 Nikita: And how were things before this feature? Bill: Traditionally, the database administrator had to research and manually terminate blocking transactions, or there are some things that resource manager might have been able to do. 02:05 Lois: This seems like such a game-changer for DBAs, Bill. So, how does it work? Bill: So there are some parameters that control the automatic rollback. One is the transaction priority. We're going to set that priority for a transaction either to medium, high, or low. We have the high priority wait target and a medium priority wait target that we can set. The high wait target will terminate if a medium transaction is blocking that high target based off of the values that we set, the medium transaction can be terminated. A medium transaction will terminate a low priority. So if a transaction designated as low exceeds the blocking time that we set for the medium priority wait time, then it'll be terminated. Whereas, the high priority will terminate both medium and low transactions. We have the rollback mode. We're either going to roll back or we're going to track, depending on what we're trying to do. 03:10 Nikita: So, if I decide that I want to use automatic transaction rollback… if I decide to implement it…I'll need to set those parameters, right? Bill: So we can set those at a session level. We also have some system level wait targets. What are the wait times for the medium, high transactions? How long they are going to wait for those lower transactions? And then we also have the rollback mode. Are we actually going to roll back or are we just going to track for right now? We have to determine what is going to be the wait times for those transactions that we want to wait before those lower transactions, priority transactions are rolled back? At that session level, we're going to set the session. High is the default. So if we want transactions to run at a lower, we have to set those. So we can set the medium or low because that's going to determine how they're rolled back. So, what is that rollback order? Again the low, we'll roll back any low that's blocking mediums. High, we'll roll back any mediums or lows that are blocking. So you do need to have the understanding of that application, and how critical are the different transactions, because if you start rolling back transactions, what? It does-- If you roll back the transactions, it does generate a little research, a little bit more work on why did that happen. 04:38 Lois: Yeah… you don't want to set it without really understanding what you're doing. Ok, so, what else do I need to know? Bill: So we do have the system level wait targets again. How long is the high priority transaction going to wait for a lower transaction before it rolls it back? How long that medium priority is going to wait? We use the ALTER SYSTEM SET command. It does have a range of values from one second to 2,147,483,647 seconds. That's like 68 years. Might not want to wait 68 years for a transaction to be rolled back. We can set it at the PDB level. Each pluggable can have a different value. And it can have a different value in the different RAC instances. We have those system level wait targets that we want to set. Automatic rollback. In order for it to function, all the parameters have to be set properly. What is that transaction priority? We saw the medium, high, low. What is the wait target? How long is the medium is going to wait? How long is the low is going to wait? We set that in seconds. The order of those transactions determine how they are terminated. 05:53 Lois: Earlier on, you mentioned rollback mode. Can you tell us a little more about it? Bill: So with that automatic rollback mode, there's only two valid values. It is considered advanced parameter. We can either set it in rollback, which is the default, or we can put it in track mode. Track mode gives us the ability to try it out. I guess you can say. It will say, hey, if I would have been running, if I would have been used, I would have terminated this transaction. It'll show me the number of times it would have happened for high priority, the number of times it would happen for a medium priority. It is modifiable in the PDB, but however, the track mode must be the same in each instance. So that rollback mode, again, that is the default value for that. So statistics are going to be available. So how many high priority rollbacks occurred? How many medium rollbacks occurred? In that track mode, I have to set that value. I do have to have the time set for how long is it going to wait for those, so the high and medium. And those priorities has to be set in the session. So statistics are available for the high and the medium in the track mode. Not only when we're actually rolling back, but also tracking. Again, this gives us the ability, by having it in the track mode, gives us the ability to do a little testing with it first. 07:27 The Oracle University Learning Community is an excellent place to collaborate and learn with Oracle experts and fellow learners. Grow your skills, inspire innovation, and celebrate your successes. All your activities, from liking a post to answering questions and sharing with others, will help you earn a valuable reputation, badges, and ranks to be recognized in the community. Visit mylearn.oracle.com to get started. 07:55 Nikita: Welcome back! Bill, when it comes to monitoring, how do you keep track of these rollbacks? Bill: For monitoring our rollback transactions, the data dictionary information is available to assist with monitoring our transaction priority. So from the V$TRANSACTIONS, there are columns available allowing us to do that. Based off that transaction priority shows what is the wait target for that. And then also each of the priority of those transactions. We can view this information, it will be populated to the alert log. So we can see that session ID, what was session ID of that? What was the transaction ID? What was the priority? What was the system identifier for that? It tells you-- even tells you the parameter and tells you what that wait time was set at. If it was a medium transaction that was terminated, it shows, OK, it was a medium. So we can view the alert log. And we can look for these terminations. Gives an idea of what's being done. 09:01 Nikita: And finally, what are the key advantages of using automatic transaction rollback? Bill: It eliminates a very manual process. It can be very time-consuming for the DBA to go out there and try to find what's the blocking session. Yep, I'll go ahead and do an ALTER SYSTEM. I'll kill that session trying to track it down, finding the views to look at it to say, OK, Yeah, this is the blocking one. I want to go ahead and take care of it. Resource manager doesn't really fully address blocking transactions. Some things that can do for that. We have the maximum estimate execution time. So that's the number in CPU seconds allowed for that call. It's terminated. It doesn't matter whether it's blocking another session or not in that case or even another transaction. It just says, OK, you exceeded this time. I'm going to terminate you. Then we also have the max idle time again. That's maximum session idle time. All right. You haven't been doing anything to session, we're going to terminate you. And then we have the MAX_IDLE_BLOCKER. That's the time duration of an idle session can block another session. Again, it's going to check OK, is the session actually idle? But these don't really address the issue of, hey, I have a higher priority transaction waiting for a lower transaction that's blocking it. 10:27 Lois: Thank you, Bill, for that breakdown. This feature is such a time saver. Nikita: Yeah, and such good way to reduce the manual workload for DBAs. Thanks Bill! Lois: To learn more about what we discussed today and view some of the demonstrations of this feature, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database 23ai New Features for Administrators course. Join us next week for a discussion on some more Oracle Database 23ai new features. Until then, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham signing off! 11:02 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

גיא ואיתן מדברים על ההרצאות של איתן בנושא SSDT, וגם גיא מספר על הרפתקאותיו המוזרות עם תקלות ברפליקות של AlwaysOn. קישורים רלוונטים: חדשות מפי מיקרוסופט: Preview release of SDK-style SQL projects in Visual Studio 2022 - Microsoft Community Hub הרצאות של איתן בנושא SSDT: Development Lifecycle Basics for DBAs, Sun, Sep 15, 2024, 5:00 PM | Microsoft DBAs Club Meetup SSDT Methodologies for SQL Server DevOps, Wed, Sep 25, 2024, 5:00 PM | Microsoft DBAs Club Meetup SSDT Tools and Features for SQL Server DevOps, Sun, Sep 29, 2024, 5:00 PM | Microsoft DBAs Club Meetup Troubleshooting Common SSDT Errors, Sun, Oct 13, 2024, 5:00 PM | Microsoft DBAs Club Meetup Database DevOps for Leaders - Eitan Blumin, Thu, Oct 24, 2024, 12:00 PM | Cloud Data Driven Meetup טיפול בשגיאה מספר 1412: Applying Transaction Logs to the Secondary Replica in SQL Server Always On Availability Groups (sqlshack.com)

How many of you have objects in your database that aren't being used? What about something in a schema with a _old in the name? Or _2 or _3 or _delete? There is a lot of old, deprecated stuff I see in production databases. In fact, I've been somewhat amazed as I work with clients that many of the scripts we can build from a database with SQL Compare won't actually execute on an empty database because the script is full of broken code. I also find plenty of DBAs that want to clean things up, but they don't. Sometimes they're afraid they'll break something, which is certainly possible. Sometimes they can never find the time. Often they might ask a manager, who usually says this isn't important and don't bother. Read the rest of Cleaning Up Your Database

host Dave Sobel welcomes Ori Rafael, CEO and co-founder of Upsolver, to discuss the emerging concept of lake house architecture in data management. The conversation begins with an exploration of how lake houses compare to traditional data warehouses and data lakes. Ori explains that a lake house is essentially a modern data warehouse architecture that allows customers to manage their own data layers, providing flexibility and control over their data storage and processing.Ori delves into the evolution of data management architectures, highlighting the transition from on-premise data warehouses to cloud-managed solutions. He discusses the challenges faced by database administrators (DBAs) in the past, such as vendor lock-in and the limitations of traditional data warehouses. The lake house model addresses these issues by decoupling storage and compute, enabling organizations to utilize multiple query engines and platforms without being tied to a single vendor.The discussion also touches on the significant advantages of lake house architecture, particularly in terms of cost reduction and operational efficiency. Ori emphasizes that organizations can save a substantial portion of their data warehouse budgets by eliminating the need for expensive ETL processes tied to specific warehouse vendors. Additionally, the ability to leverage various engines for analytics and AI applications empowers businesses to innovate without the constraints of traditional data management systems.As the conversation progresses, Ori highlights the importance of optimizing storage for improved query performance and efficiency. He explains how Upsolver manages the file system layer to ensure that organizations can achieve performance levels comparable to traditional warehouses while maintaining high storage efficiency. The episode concludes with a discussion on the evolving role of data engineers, emphasizing the need for them to transition from developers to platform managers, enabling greater independence and efficiency in data operations. All our Sponsors: https://businessof.tech/sponsors/ Do you want the show on your podcast app or the written versions of the stories? Subscribe to the Business of Tech: https://www.businessof.tech/subscribe/Looking for a link from the stories? The entire script of the show, with links to articles, are posted in each story on https://www.businessof.tech/ Support the show on Patreon: https://patreon.com/mspradio/ Want our stuff? Cool Merch? Wear “Why Do We Care?” - Visit https://mspradio.myspreadshop.com Follow us on:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28908079/YouTube: https://youtube.com/mspradio/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mspradionews/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mspradio/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessoftechBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/businessoftech.bsky.social

In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham discuss improvements in time and data handling and data storage in Oracle Database 23ai. They are joined by Senior Principal Instructor Serge Moiseev, who explains the benefit of allowing databases to have their own time zones, separate from the host operating system. Serge also highlights two data storage improvements: Automatic SecureFiles Shrink, which optimizes disk space usage, and Automatic Storage Compression, which enhances database performance and efficiency. These features aim to reduce the reliance on DBAs and improve overall database management.   Oracle MyLearn: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/oracle-database-23ai-new-features-for-administrators/137192/207062   Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/   X: https://twitter.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   ---------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Nikita: Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Principal Technical Editor with Oracle University, and joining me is Lois Houston, Director of Innovation Programs. Lois: Hi there! Over the past two weeks, we've delved into database sharding, exploring what it is, Oracle Database Sharding, its benefits, and architecture. We've also examined each new feature in Oracle Database 23ai related to sharding. If that sounds intriguing to you, make sure to check out those episodes. And just to remind you, even though most of you already know, 23ai was previously known as 23c. 01:04  Nikita: That's right, Lois. In today's episode, we're going to talk about the 23ai improvements in time and data handling and data storage with one of our Senior Principal Instructors at Oracle University, Serge Moiseev. Hi Serge! Thanks for joining us today. Let's start with time and data handling. I know there are two new changes here in 23ai: the enhanced time zone data upgrade and the improved system data and system timestamp data handling. What are some challenges associated with time zone data in databases? 01:37 Serge: Time zone definitions change from time to time due to legislative reasons. There are certain considerations. Changes include daylight savings time when we switch, include the activity that affects the Oracle Database time zone files.  Time zone files are modified and used by the administrators. Customers select the time zone file to use whenever it's appropriate. And customers can manage the upgrade whenever it happens.  The upgrades affect columns of type TIMESTAMP with TIME ZONE. Now, the upgrades can be online or offline.  02:24 Lois: And how have we optimized this process now?  Serge: Oracle Database 23c improves the upgrade by reducing the resources used, by selectively using the updates and minimizing the application impact. And only the data that has dependencies on the time zone would be impacted by the upgrade.  The optimization of the time zone file upgrade does not really change the upgrade process, so upgrade can be done offline. Database would be unavailable for a prolonged period of time, which is not optimal for today's database availability requirements.  Online upgrade, in this case, we want to minimize the application impact while the data is being upgraded. With the 23c database enhancement for time zone file change handling, the modified data is minimized, which means that the database updates only impacted rows. And it reduces the impact to the applications and other database operations.  03:40 Nikita: Serge, how does updating only the impacted rows improve the efficiency of the upgrade process? Serge: The benefits of enhanced timezone update include customers who manage large fleet of databases. They will benefit tremendously with a lower downtime. The DBAs will benefit due to the faster updates and less resource consumption needed to apply those updates. And that improves the efficiency of the update process.  Tables with no affected data are simply skipped and not touched. All results in the significant resource savings on the upgrade of the time zone files. It applies to all customers that utilize timestamp with time zone columns for their data storage.  04:32 Lois: Excellent! Now, what can you tell us about the improved system data and system timestamp data handling?  Serge: Date and time in Oracle databases depends on the system time as well as the database settings. System time now can be set as the local time zone for an individual database.  04:53 Nikita: How was it before this update? Serge: Before 23c, the time has always matched the time zone of the database host operating system. Now, imagine that we use either multitenant environments or cloud-based environments when the host OS system time zone is not really the same as the application that runs in a different geographic locality or affects data from other locations.  And system time obviously applies not only to the data stored and updated in the database rows but also to the scheduler, the flashback, to a place to materialized view refresh, Recovery Manager, and other time-sensitive features in the database itself.  Now, with the database time versus operating system time, there is a need to be more selective. It is desired that the applications use the same database time in the same time zone as the applications are actually being used in.  And multitenant and cloud databases will certainly experience a mismatch between the host operating system time zone, which is not local for the applications that run in some other geographical locations or not recognizing some, for example, daylight savings time.  So migration challenge is obviously present. If you want to migrate from a specific on-premises database to either multitenant or cloud, you would experience the host operating system time zone by default.  06:38 Lois: And that's obviously not convenient for the applications, right? Serge: Well, the database-specific time in Oracle Database 23c, any cloud database can set local time zone to whatever the customer's requirements are explicitly. And any pluggable database can also set its own local time zone to customer's requirements, not inheriting the time zone from the container database it is currently running in.  This simplifies migration to multitenant or cloud for applications that are time-sensitive. And it offers more intuitive, easier database monitoring, and development.  07:23 Working towards an Oracle Certification this year? Take advantage of the Certification Prep live events in the Oracle University Learning Community. Get tips from OU experts and hear from others who have already taken their certifications. Once you're certified, you'll gain access to an exclusive forum for Oracle-certified users. What are you waiting for? Visit mylearn.oracle.com to get started.   07:51 Nikita: Welcome back! Let's move on to the data storage improvements. We have two updates here as well, automatic secure file shrink and automatic storage compression. Let's start with the first one. But before we get into it, Serge, can you explain what SecureFiles are?  Serge: SecureFiles are the default storage mechanism for large objects in Oracle Database. They are strongly recommended by Oracle to store and manage large object data.  The LOBs are stored in segments. Those segments may incur large amounts of free space over time. Because of the updates to the LOB data, the fragmentation of the space used is growing depending, of course, on the frequency and the scope of the updates.  The storage efficiency could be improved by shrinking segments with the free space removed. And manual secure files shrinking has become available since Oracle Database 21c, requiring administrators to perform these tasks manually.  Traditional SecureFiles required the time-consuming DBA activities. DBAs would need to manually identify eligible LOB segments either using Segment Advisor or PL/SQL or built-in database views.  Once identified, the administrators would manually execute shrink operations on very large LOBs which takes too much time and may result in excessive disk space consumption. For example, code to operate this shrinking would look like ALTER TABLE some table SHRINK SPACE CASCADE.  That would shrink all LOB segments in a particular table. If you want to scope the shrinking to a single column, the code would be required to ALTER TABLE some table MODIFY LOB, followed by the column name SHRINK SPACE.  This affects only a single column in a table with LOBs.  10:01 Lois: So, how has automatic secure shrinking made things better? Serge: Automatic SecureFile shrink removes the emphasis from the DBAs to manually perform these tasks. And it results in the more optimal use of space over time.  It is integrated into the automated database maintenance tasks. The automation once enabled runs every 30 minutes, collects eligible LOB segments, and shrinks them offline. The execution time and freed space would vary depending on the fragmentation and the size of the LOBs. Each shrink execution may reclaim up to 5 gigabytes of unused disk space from each LOB segment that is idle.  On the high level, automatic SecureFile shrink improves the Oracle Database 23c storage usage efficiency. It is part of the ongoing Oracle Database improvement effort and transparently reclaims the free space with negligible to no impact on performance of the database operations.  Again, this is done in the background without affecting the running processes. It makes Oracle database 23c less dependent on the DBA activities while reducing the disk space required to store SecureFiles, reducing the usage of LOB segments.  Automatic securefile shrink runs incrementally in small steps over time. Some of the features are tunable. And it is supported for all types of large objects, storage, compressed, encrypted, and duplicated the object segments.  11:50 Nikita: Right, and note that this feature is turned on out-of-the-box in the Autonomous Database 23ai in Oracle Cloud. Now, let's talk about Automatic Storage Compression, Serge.  Serge: With Automatic Storage Compression and Automatic Clustering, the storage compression gives you the background compression functionality. Directly loaded data is first uncompressed to speed up the actual load process. Rows are then moved into hybrid columnar compression format in the background asynchronously.  The automatic clustering applies advanced heuristic algorithms to cluster the stored data depending on the workload and data access patterns and the data access is optimized to more efficiently make use of database table indices, zone maps, and join zone maps.  Automatic Storage Compression advantages include the improvements to Oracle Database 23c storage efficiency as well. It is part of the continuous improvement, part of the ongoing Oracle Database improvement effort. And it brings performance gains, speeds up uncompressed data loads while compressing in the background.  The latencies to load and compress data are because of that also reduced. With the hybrid columnar compression in particular, this works in combination.  And it results in less DBA activities, makes the Database Management less dependent on the DBA time and availability and effort.  Automatic Storage Compression performs operations asynchronously on the data that has already been loaded. To control Automatic Storage Compression on-premises, it must be enabled explicitly. And you have to have heatmap enabled on your Oracle Database objects.  Table must use hybrid columnar compression and be placed on the tablespace with the SEGMENT SPACE MANAGEMENT AUTO and allowing autoallocation. And this feature, again, is transparent for the Autonomous Database 23c in the Oracle Cloud. 14:21 Lois: Thanks for that quick rundown of the new features, Serge. We really appreciate you for taking us through them. To learn more about what we discussed today, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Oracle Database 23ai New Features for Administrators course. Join us next week for a discussion on some more Oracle Database 23ai new features. Until then, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham signing off! 14:50 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

גיא ואיתן מקבלים בברכה את שנת הלימודים החדשה ומנסים ללמוד כמה דברים חדשים ומעניינים, כגון: איך הכי עדיף להתריע על סטפ אחד או יותר שנכשל בג'וב שהסתיים בהצלחה? מה גיא למד מהוובינר שהעביר בנושא סקריפט הבדיקות המרוכז עבור SQL Server, ואיך הכי עדיף לתחזק סקריפט מורכב שכזה? וגם - הכרזה על סיבוב הופעות מחודש של איתן בנושא DB DevOps ו-SSDT קישורים רלוונטיים: Security and Compliance/Invalid_owner_for_system_schema_role_or_database.sql at MadeiraData/microsoft-dbas-club (github.com) Useful Scripts to Check the Health of Your SQL Server Instance (youtube.com) MadeiraData/SqlServerReview (github.com) Data Devops for leaders (youtube.com) Development Lifecycle Basics for DBAs, Sun, Sep 15, 2024, 5:00 PM | Meetup SSDT Methodologies for SQL Server DevOps, Wed, Sep 25, 2024, 5:00 PM | Meetup SSDT Tools and Features for SQL Server DevOps, Sun, Sep 29, 2024, 5:00 PM | Meetup Troubleshooting Common SSDT Errors, Sun, Oct 13, 2024, 5:00 PM | Meetup  

On this episode of Charity Therapy, Meghan and I cover the most important topic - the REAL differences between a Minnesotan and a Wisconsin accent! But don't worry. We quickly shift gears to talk about something really important for nonprofits: DBAs (Doing Business As). We answer a listener's question about juggling legal name changes and DBAs without making things overly complicated. Trust me, you'll walk away with some practical tips to make your nonprofit life a whole lot easier. In the second half of the episode, we get into the nitty-gritty of managing multiple DBAs for nonprofits. Meghan and I break down the annual compliance you need to keep up with and warn against filing unnecessary DBAs that just add to your workload. We even chat about how keeping an old DBA can help make rebranding smoother. Plus, we've got some funny anecdotes and past episodes to reference if you need a deeper dive into nonprofit branding.  Whether you're a nonprofit newbie or a seasoned pro, join us for some laughs and loads of actionable advice. We'll help you navigate the maze of DBAs, compliance, and rebranding, all while keeping things light and fun. And don't forget to share your own quirky accent stories with us on social media—we'd love to hear from you! In this episode, you will hear: What a DBA is for nonprofits Keeping things legal and clear for banks and the public A listener's question on filing multiple DBAs after a name change When you should file a DBA (hint - not just for the heck of it!) Strategies for rebranding Keeping an old DBA during a transition The headaches of managing multiple DBAs The need for annual state registration Risks of letting state registrations lapse Avoiding extra work and potential legal messes Avoiding being shady Only file DBAs if they solve real problems Over-filing creates more hassle and paperwork Resources from this Episode Episode about branding & changing the nonprofit's name: https:/birkenlaw.com/charity-therapy-podcast/ct105 Sign up for the Birken Law Email list: https://birkenlaw.com/signup/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/birkenlaw Follow and Review: We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast. Episode Credits If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know we sent you.

Guy and Eitan discuss the recent CrowdStrike incident and what it would mean for DBAs, and discuss options to load huge CSV files into SQL Server as fast as possible. Relevant links: 101 of Troubleshooting SQL Server on Linux - Microsoft Community Hub bcp utility - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn Altering lock escalation for SQL Server tables (mssqltips.com) dbatools docs | Import-DbaCsv A Fast Way to Load Large CSV Files into Microsoft SQL Server | by Sasha Korovkina

Is testing out pgAdmin on your to-do list? In this episode of the podcast, we chat with Ryan Booz, a PostgreSQL advocate at Redgate, about how a SQL Server professional might begin a dive into PostgreSQL, one of the most popular open source databases in the world. Ryan came from a career background in SQL Server, but after experiencing his accidental "jump-into-the-deep-end" PostgreSQL moment, he hasn't looked back. Naturally, open source presents DBAs and their organizations with many desirable features, but there are certain drawbacks as well. Ryan shares how he navigated his transition into PostgreSQL and raises some points to consider if you are thinking about a switch. We discuss a few of the land mines you might encounter along the way as well as terminology differences in this space. Be sure to check out Planet PostgreSQL for the most recent blog posts from the very folks that are contributing code to the PostgreSQL project. Have you shifted from SQL Server to PostgreSQL? How'd it go? Did you get any good take-aways from today's podcast or have some questions? Leave us a comment and some love ❤️ on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.  The show notes for today's episode can be found at Episode 277: PostgreSQL for the SQL Server Crowd. Have fun on the SQL Trail!

In the latest episode of the Sleeping Barber Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Ella Ward, a senior marketing scientist from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.  Dr. Ward shares her expertise on the importance of visual brand identity, the difference between being data-driven and evidence-based, how to create cohesive brand packaging and most importantly Marc and V get a lesson on Aussie rules footy! This is an episode you do not want to miss! Don't forget to join our hosts, Vassilis and Marc, for some post-podcast banter! Quote of the episode: “Your strategy can't be based on differentiation. Your competitors will catch up." Our Guest: Dr. Ella Ward Sr. Marketing Scientist @ Ehrenberg-Bass Institute Enhancing visual brand identity across a product portfolio. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-ward-/ Our Hosts: Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠ Get in touch with our hosts: Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/ Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠ Background Research & Literature: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14707853231201852?icid=int.sj-abstract.citing-articles.4 https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2023/coloured-by-numbers/  https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ella-ward-_distinctiveassets-evidencebasedmarketing-activity-6785027383834611713-eeTI https://marketingscience.info/research-services/distinctive-assets/ Timestamps: 0:00 - Podcast Introduction 0:50 - Introduction to Ella  3:31 - Path to becoming a Marketing Scientist @ Ehrenberg-Bass Institute 4:28 - Ella's areas of research 5:23 - Visual cohesion across the brand portfolio 6:40 - The scientific revolution happening in marketing 8:39 - Marketing science matters because the real world is a very weird place 10:33 - Data-driven vs. Evidence-based marketing 13:05 - Using science to lead change 16:40 - Bloodletting & changing paradigms  18:30 - The difference between brand books and Distinctive Brand Assets (DBA) 20:44 - Making brands available & linking brands to memory 23:22 - Brand management isn't about policing, it should be fun 26:45 - Rebranding? Know what assets trigger the brand   29:20 - How effective are your DBAs at triggering memory 30:52 - Why characters are more memorable than other types of distinctive assets  34:20 - Rebranding? know the strength of your distinctive assets 36:15 - Adding to your distinctive asset pallet - Ikea voiceover 39:10 - Hagen-Dazs Case Study 39:40 - Package colours used to signal variety aren't often effective 43:17 - The danger of using colour to signal a variety 45:38 - Prioritize your branding over colour signalling 49:43 - Decreasing product packaging types to improve advertising efficiency 51:00 - Cohesive branding improves the bottom line 53:17 - Differentiation v. Distinctiveness in product packaging 58:25 - Packaging Services 1:01:45 - Post-pod with V and Marc   Where to Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-sleeping-barber-a-business-and-marketing-podcast/id1609811324 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4v0kaM350zEY7X2VBuyfrF?si=7083317d5afd488b ⁠⁠ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sleepingbarberpodcast © 2024 Sleeping Barber

In episode 163 Steph is co-hosting with Lindsay Taylor of Travel Leaders 365, If you have a question for Steph and her co-hosts, please submit it here for a future episode: https://hostagencyreviews.com/friday15 ! 1. I work as an independent contractor so I already have an LLC for non travel related business. I was wondering if I could just add a "second" DBA and use the same LLC to start the travel business but continue to work on my full time job as another name. So basically 2 DBAs under one LLC? I live in Florida. Thanks! —Anonymous 2. Hello, so I live in the US and want to help people in Guyana, South America purchase flights to travel to and from the US and charge a small fee. I want to use sites like Priceline and Expedia and Booking to purchase the flights. Sort of an off the books business. Is this possible? —Mike S. 3. Hi, I'm curious about startup/yearly/monthly fees. I keep reading that it's a red flag if a travel host charges. In your opinion and experience, what do you want to look for when searching for a host? Thanks! –Jamie K. RESOURCES: https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agency-business-structures (The options for your travel agency's business structure — pros and cons) https://hostagencyreviews.com/page/travel-advisor-research-reports/ (Travel agent survey data on fee charging practices: what they charge for, how much, fee structures and more.) https://hostagencyreviews.com/page/travel-advisor-research-reports/ (Travel agent survey data on fee charging practices: what they charge for, how much, fee structures and more.) https://www2.arccorp.com/support-training/fraud-prevention/ (ARC's fraud prevention webinar) https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/travel-agency-debit-memo (What is a travel agency debit memo?) https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/what-is-gds (In-depth information on what the GDS, global distribution system, is and which travel advisors use it.) https://hostagencyreviews.com/hosts/travel-leaders-365 (TL 365's HAR profile) https://TL365.com (TL 365's website) ltaylor@tl365.com (Lindsay's email address) https://hostagencyreviews.com/friday15 (Submit questions, sign up for reminders for the F15, along with that week's questions we'll be covering!)

**Set up a free 30 minute coaching discovery call with Lois on https://www.loisstrachan.com/contact-lois/ In today's episode, Lois speaks with Abida Mahomed about her work as a database administrator (DBA) using the Oracle platform. This is the latest episode of the Job Talk series, focusing on people with disabilities working in mainstream employment. Despite studying for a career in social work, Abida started working in a technical field on a platform that had limited accessibility for her as a blind user. During the conversation she discusses the changes she has experienced as the platform has become more inclusive of the needs of DBAs with visual conditions. Abida talks about her work, the skills she feels that make a good database administrator, and some of the challenges she has faced as a blind person working in a technical field. Reach out to Abida at: e-mail: abidamahomed@outlook.com Podcast Image description: A woman of Indian heritage with shoulder-length dark hair. She is wearing a sleeveless black top and a pendent on a necklace. She is sitting at an outdoor restaurant with people in the background, who are seated at a table shaded by a blue umbrella. I'd love to hear from you – contact me at Web: https://www.loisstrachan.com/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lstrachan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loisstrachanspeaker This episode edited by Craig Strachan using Hindenburg PRO – find out more on Hindenburg.com Credits and music by Charlie Dyasi of Naledi Media.

With a nod to the late 1980's Scorpions song, let's dive into the prevailing forces that are causing organizations to reevaluate their strategies with relational databases. To do that effectively, we welcome back to the program Ryan Arsenault, Principal Field Solution Architect (and heavily accented Bostonian), who has broad experience previously running SAP and Database operations at a large competitor. Ryan and I navigate through the landscape of trends that are requiring DBAs and IT leaders to change their approach to the software that manages their most important assets - the database. We touch on the impact of Cloud, Automation, AI and AI operations, Security, and the recent changes with VMware - plus how all-Flash changed the game for tier 1 database storage management. Always a fun conversation when Ryan stops by. For more information on Pure Storage solutions for Databases, check out: https://www.purestorage.com/solutions/applications.html

מה העתיד צופן לנו ה-DBA-ים? מה כדאי לנו לעשות לגבי הקריירות שלנו? גלו כל זאת ועוד בפרק ההמשך של.... ה-DBA-ים!   קישורים רלוונטיים: Microsoft DBAS Club | Meetup DBA's Community | MADEIRA (madeiradata.com) Data Leaders | MADEIRA (madeiradata.com) DevGeekWeek2024 (johnbryce.co.il) ROW_NUMBER (Transact-SQL) - SQL Server | Microsoft Learn Microsoft Copilot in Azure extends capabilities to Azure SQL Database (Private Preview) - Microsoft Community Hub

The BOSSES discuss how to embrace the intricacies of your finances as owners of your voiceover business. As tax season approaches, they delve into self-employment, discussing how different business structures, such as S-Corps and DBAs, can significantly impact your taxation and payment schedule. They also examine the emotional factors that can influence your approach to money management, taking into account personal backgrounds and societal pressures.  Health insurance options are also discussed, from leveraging a spouse's plan to state programs. The BOSSES also explore the merits of keeping distinct business bank accounts and utilizing tools such as Health Savings Accounts and business credit cards. Whether you're a spreadsheet enthusiast or a QuickBooks aficionado, they provide insights on tracking transactions, automating invoicing, and the smart utilization of business credit cards for cashback rewards. 00:01 - Intro (Announcement) It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a V-O boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  00:19 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, welcome to the V-O Boss podcast and the Real Bosses series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, Again back with the amazing Tom Dheere. Tom, I'm so excited to talk to you today.  00:33 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yay, always glad to hang out with you.  00:36 - Anne (Host) Except I don't have such a fun topic to talk to you about today, tom, oh no. Well, my accountant. The other day she sent me an email saying well, anne, I'm going to be taking out thousands of dollars for your free payment, for your taxes, for your S-Corp. As April is coming along here, I thought we should probably talk about finances, and I know it's not everybody's favorite topic and I've talked about this before, but I think, getting closer to tax time, it's important for us to have an intelligent discussion right and talk about why it's so important, bosses, for you to have some financial intelligence surrounding your business, and I think, tom, you're going to be the best source of information for this. So let's talk about financial intelligence. What does that mean?  01:25 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Okay, I derive my understanding of financial intelligence versus emotional intelligence from Robert Kiyosaki rich dad poor dad books. If you've never read rich dad poor dad, it is a must read for people who are self-employed in general, and it's really great for voice actors in particular, because it talks about making decisions based on feelings versus making decisions based on facts, and part of my philosophy is that everybody has their own weird relationship with money.  01:55 - Anne (Host) A lot of people are afraid of it. That's a polite way of saying it. It's a weird relationship with money.  02:01 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yeah, Well, yeah, because some people are terrified of it. Yeah, some people covet it, some people hate it, and a lot of that is influenced by you, but it's also influenced by what your parents taught you or didn't teach you about money, or your culture, or your home or your school or your friends kind of taught you what your relationship with money is, not necessarily what it should be. So, as the VO strategist, there's a lot of grown-up poopy stuff that I talk about.  02:28 - Anne (Host) You made me snort, sorry Sorry.  02:30 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Or maybe I should do them more over there. That was pretty funny. What I mean by that is that a lot of people try to get into the voiceover industry to get away from the grown-up poopy stuff, and what they find is that they have to do all that stuff too, yeah, but they don't know how to do it. No one has told them how to do it, or when to do it, or where to do it, or why to do it, nor being held accountable for it. And the financial literacy is a huge component of that. Yeah, understand the difference between how employees get paid versus how managers get paid, versus how self-employed people get paid, and how they get taxed is very, very different. Yes, and can I just interject really quickly?  03:12 - Anne (Host) I said my accountant right, and of course, I always talk about my accountant and how wonderful it was one of the best decisions I ever made for my business. However, even though I have an accountant, I need to be able to direct my accountant and understand what my accountant is saying. So, yes, I need to be financially literate, I need to understand what's important, I need to understand how things operate, and she can be part of my education. She can talk to me about that. But also it's definitely upon myself to be educated and smart, because if you're going to have someone helping you with your financials, then you want to make sure that you've got the right person.  03:48 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yes, and there's a lot of ways to do that. There's a website. I'll have to find it. I'll give you the link. I think it's the AEA or AEE or it's like the American Association of Accountants or something like that, and you can do a search based on where you live and what kind of financial advisor you need help with. So there are CPAs certified public accounts who specialize in working with people who are self-employed. So because the way that someone who's self-employed files their taxes, because the way they get paid what tax, if tax is withheld, what tax is withheld, how it is withheld and all of the expenses that you can write off in deductions that you can make is completely different from a person who has one nine to five job, who gets a paycheck every 14 days and gets one W-2 in the mail every year and you take the standard deduction and you're done.  04:33 - Anne (Host) Now I have a bunch of different information right At the end of the year that if I'm paying people I need to provide or I get a bunch of information depending on how much money I've made from different clients I will get a bunch of different pieces of information that are important for my taxes, and I will also mention that, having been a DBA prior to an S-Corp, right, things are different now that I'm an S-Corp.  04:54 I mean, I used to, as a DBA, I would quarterly make an estimate on my taxes and pay it, but now I have to pay myself a salary, and so that is also different and I have different paperwork to file. I'm gonna say the S-Corp saved me a whole lot of my taxes. And again, what's the difference, right, between the different types of businesses and how can they help me when tax season comes about and how can they help save me money? And so, while I am saving money with an S-Corp versus my DBA, because of the amount of money that I'm making, it also becomes more time consuming on my part because I've got more paperwork to fill out, more things to mail in, and I've constantly, for whatever reason, the government is always coming back to me saying, hey, you owe us $13. No, I don't, because there was a number that was reported incorrectly.  05:40 And I'm not always getting it, but it certainly happens a little bit more than when I was working for a company and just had one piece of paperwork to file at the end of the year.  05:48 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Your VO bosses may be freaking out a little bit right now, but I wanna put them at ease. The question is should you incorporate or should you form an LLC, or should you stay self-employed? The answer is different, for everybody. Just because Anne is an S-Corp doesn't mean she advocates that everybody should be an S-Corp.  06:06 - Anne (Host) Yeah, absolutely, Because you all live in different right, Right exactly.  06:12 - Tom Dheere (Guest) And that has a huge effect because different states have different incorporation laws. So what benefits her living in California and forming an S-Corp? May not be good for me in New York forming an S-Corp. So that's why you need to have a living breathing CPA, not filing it via QuickBooks or stuff. You need to have a human.  06:33 - Anne (Host) And I'm gonna say yeah, and not just once a year for taxes. I really highly recommend some sort of an advisor. Now your accountant doesn't have to tell you what kind of business, but mine did because she was very familiar with working with people who are self-employed. So that helped a lot, tom. What do you recommend for people who don't have a clue, like what sort of company should they form?  06:55 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Right, okay, talk to. Well, not all. And to your point, not all CPAs are financial advisors and not all financial advisors are CPAs, right? So if you are gonna have a conversation with someone about it, I would strongly recommend you find in your state a certified fiduciary, that's a person who has literally taken an oath and certified that they will give you financial advice that is in your best interest. This is why you should not walk into some national franchise bank looking for financial advice, because there's always some guy or girl sitting in the corner at a desk who don't care if you are penniless when you retire, they're gonna try to sell you the retirement packages that will give them the best commissions. So I say, stay as far away from them as you can. Go to your credit union also. They may be able to help you. Your credit union is more of a vested interest in your financial wellbeing too.  07:49 - Anne (Host) I just caught you saying I'm gonna sell you a retirement package. Now, that's something that most voice artists, right? If you're working for yourself and self-employed, you're not even really thinking about, right? That's in addition to registering your business, paying yourself a salary or whatever it is that you're going to do. Are you going to incorporate? Are you going to be a DBA? There's also other things like retirement funds and healthcare, right and so?  08:13 - Tom Dheere (Guest) That's a whole other thing too.  08:14 - Anne (Host) Let's talk about that for a moment, Tom Sure.  08:17 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Okay. So if you have a spouse who has an insurance plan, get on it. Yeah, that's probably your best way to go. Also, sag-aftra has a fantastic health insurance program. If you are SAG-AFTRA, you need to earn a certain amount of money every year to qualify for that. So if you can get it through a partner, great. If you can get it through SAG-AFTRA, great.  08:40 - Anne (Host) If you cannot, If you work for the government too, county or state before this this county-state government employees also have fantastic plans.  08:46 - Tom Dheere (Guest) When I was a teacher yes, I had a great plan because I work for an educational institution and I have a nice pension Right.  08:51 Also, the Freelancers Union has healthcare. Nava has health insurance packages that you can look at. I, who live in New York, go through this state New York healthcare program. So my wife and I built an account. We entered all of our information, all of our assets, all of our expenses, and then it says okay, based on your adjusted income, you qualify for these health insurance programs through these companies and it will cost this amount. So that's been fantastic for us. The big thing is that if you are self-employed, you can write off legitimately, legally, ethically, a lot of stuff. Yes, yes. So when it comes to applying for a mortgage, it doesn't look good because your income looks a lot lower.  09:30 - Anne (Host) Absolutely.  09:31 - Tom Dheere (Guest) But if you are applying for health insurance, first-hand experience.  09:33 - Anne (Host) It's great for you yes, first-hand experience. If you're self-employed and then asking for a mortgage, it is something. You will have to provide a trillion pieces of evidence of the money that you make. It is very difficult, because that was my experience when we applied for a mortgage a couple of years ago, before we bought this home, and so, being self-employed, you have to be more financially intelligent than you ever thought, because you're going to have to have lots of different proof of income when do you get your income and how much income, and what are you writing off? And the cool thing is is that, yes, you can write off a whole bunch when you're self-employed. However, sometimes it makes the government look at you a little closer too.  10:13 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yes, you gotta be careful about that Because if you take a loss too many times, they're gonna designate your voiceover career as a hobby and then financially, you're kind of boned when it comes to that. I will also give another piece of advice regarding health insurance. Is that the best advice that I can give that I give my VO strategist students is to try to get a health savings account, or HSA. This is separate from a health insurance policy. Hsa is basically an IRA or a retirement account, but the purpose of it is to put money into it and take money out of it only for medical expenses. And what's great about it is for those of us who get paid voiceover gigs where there is no withholding. They don't take taxes out. You can deposit that money in that HSA and it will not get taxed when you take that money out for a legitimate medical expense.  11:08 That money does not get taxed, it is protected and a lot of them function like actual funds, like retirement funds where you can choose. It's like an index fund or a retirement fund where you can choose Apple or Microsoft or whatever, and it will be influenced by the market and some of them are purely interest rate based, like a straight up IRA so you can have multiple HSAs. I have multiple HSAs. Some are performance based, some are interest based, and what I do is I don't take anything out of them ever, even if I have medical expenses, because what I'm going to do is that down the road you can reimburse yourself for medical expenses as long as you provide the receipts, anytime you want. So if you've got $1,000 in your HSA and you take out $500 to repay yourself back for a medical expense, you've only got $500 in there. That's growing or performing. If you do it 10 years from now, that $500, and you have $10,000 as a result of market growth and additional putting more money in. Now, when you're taking $500 out, it's a drop in the bucket.  12:10 Yeah yeah, absolutely, and when you hit 65, you can just withdraw from it like a retirement fund. So I strongly recommend a health savings account. It's very, very powerful. A lot of your credit unions may already have one, or you can go to hsabankcom and check it out.  12:25 - Anne (Host) Well, I'm also going to say now what's so important right that establishes you as a business is a business bank account, which is something I think is imperative, and also a business savings account, and I have a high yield business savings account, which is really. I don't take money out of that If I don't have to. That is really, and I don't know if it's just in the last couple of years, but I've seen more and more offerings of this with different banks and with I actually happen to have one with American Express which is doing really well, and so I have that.  12:55 I just put the money in it and I don't touch it and it just sits there and it really is doing well, interest wise, and so if I ever do need it, that's going to be kind of like my little nest egg. But talk about the importance of separating your accounts out from personal into business.  13:11 - Tom Dheere (Guest) This is so important. The biggest reason why you need to do this is so you have a clean audit trail, because if the IRS does ever come and knock in, they can look at your accounts and you can say this one, all of my business expenses went in and out of this account. All of my personal stuff went in and out of this account. They are separate because if you are mixing it all up, it's a big mess and you could get in a lot of trouble.  13:34 - Anne (Host) Yeah, and it's horrible at tax time Horrible, horrible at tax time, horrible, especially if you're not keeping track.  13:40 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yep. These accounts are super easy to open as well. Most of us can just go online, log on to your bank online and just open the account. You don't even need to talk to a human, you just go, click, click, click.  13:49 - Anne (Host) You just transfer money and they want your money, they want your money and, as a matter of fact, they will reward you if you have a certain amount of money in that account. Free checks, higher interest, that sort of thing, lots of different. So I think you can shop around for a bank, because banks want your money right now.  14:04 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yeah, because, like, my business checking account is with one major bank chain and then my personal checking account is with another one because the interest rate is so much higher in the other one. But I like all the benefits. Sure, the business one. That's also the same one that I got my PPP loan when the pandemic happened. So when I applied and lined everything up, I got approved in 15 minutes and the money hit my account within 24 hours.  14:25 - Anne (Host) Yeah, yeah, same. For me, it really makes such a big difference when you have those accounts separate, and I cannot tell you how easy it is to have those separate accounts when you're working, let's say even with an accountant, right, because I actually happen to have the same bank for both my personal and my business. However, they're entirely separate when it comes to my software. So how important is it, tom, to have a software that helps us to financially understand what's happening in our business? You know inflows, outflows, profit and loss.  14:57 - Tom Dheere (Guest) I'm going to give you an answer that you may not expect, but I hate those. I hate them.  15:02 - Anne (Host) Okay.  15:03 - Tom Dheere (Guest) What I do is I have I know this sounds terrible, but I have a spreadsheet. Well, of course you do what the spreadsheet does is I know because Tom dear loves a spreadsheet.  15:14 - Anne (Host) Yes.  15:14 - Tom Dheere (Guest) My spreadsheets, which you can download for free at vostratigistcom. You sign up for it, you will get the spreadsheet that I'm talking about. I log every penny that goes into my business and every penny that goes out of my business.  15:25 - Anne (Host) Okay.  15:26 - Tom Dheere (Guest) So what's also nice is I've been messing around with some formulas lately, so the 2024 version, which I have yet to upload, but if you email me at tomatomgcom I can send it to you directly is that I log the amount, whether it's me as a voice actor or as the VO strategist. I have separate columns for those revenue streams and then I have the genre of voiceover in another column and then that populates a report, a running, living report.  15:51 So I can see exactly how many e-learning things I've done this year and how much money I've made and what percentage of my overall revenue that is.  15:58 - Anne (Host) So now does that also incorporate? Now the only reason I'm gonna say to you that, yes, I realize that you hate them. The reason, one of the reasons why I like them it use QuickBooks online is that I can integrate my bank account and so if somebody's paying me through an invoice and it goes into my bank account, it automatically gets recorded and because I am working with an accountant, she can remotely log in. She's not in California. She can remotely log in and manage my finances and the two of us. I can see what she's doing and that basically works really well for me.  16:30 - Intro (Announcement) And I have.  16:31 - Anne (Host) PayPal coming cause clients can pay me via PayPal, Venmo, my QuickBooks invoicing, which is three different streams incoming, and so those three act as banks and get automatically entered into QuickBooks and it can also take the fees, cause you know PayPal and they all charge fees.  16:49 That's the one thing, and so that can be yes, that can be separated automatically, so it's not something that I have to go and say, oh, all right, so $20 was paid to me. However, I only netted $18.57 because of the PayPal fee. So all of that can be automated and that just makes it easier for me and my accountant.  17:08 - Tom Dheere (Guest) I will say that I do use Wave for my voice actor invoicing, which I have my credit card set up on that, I have PayPal set up on that and I have direct deposit set up on that.  17:19 - Anne (Host) My VO strategist revenue goes through Wix, so I don't really generate invoices manually as the VO strategist Wix does, wix does it for me, and then it collects all the payments.  17:30 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Yeah, wix is great for that, and then I have it set up where once a week it'll take all the money I earned from Wix and just put it in my business checking account. So I get an email saying here tomorrow you're gonna get a direct deposit for this amount.  17:42 - Anne (Host) And then I just I write it in my checkbook and then you know, this is all income. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense.  17:46 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Right and I just write Wix in the right part of the side, or PP or DD or whatever. So also I'm so anal and I am so diligent with my spreadsheets and my CPA loves it because everything is auto-summed. So at the end of the year, when I don't bring my receipts to my CPA ever, I just send in one print out that has all of the expenses added up Automatically. I do very little math.  18:11 And then another spreadsheet that has all the 10.99s that I collected and all of the W-2s that I collected and then like the interest on my savings accounts or capital gains, the insurance interest and all that stuff and I just give that all to her. So I like my system. It works for me.  18:27 - Anne (Host) Yeah, no, absolutely.  18:29 - Tom Dheere (Guest) And working with the QuickBooks works for her, so it's good.  18:32 - Anne (Host) Well, yeah, I will tell you in terms of expenses, like so, my expenses. I have one business credit card and everything it's put on that business credit card, and so the statements from that credit card become my expenses.  18:45 And the nice thing is I just get a credit card that gives me all kinds of benefits. It actually gives me cash back, so again, that also is a bank that can be input into my QuickBooks and so all of my business expenses are also there, and so again, that works for me. So, and also my business checking account, obviously in savings account, are also in the QuickBooks. So yeah, I mean, I think, whether you do it via spreadsheet. Now, in terms of the amount of time, tom, that you spend doing financial things every day, once a week, once a month, how does that work for you? What's your time?  19:18 - Tom Dheere (Guest) I mean, the spreadsheet is open every day, so if an expense comes in or a gig comes in or I work with a student, I just log it as I go. It's just part of my workflow. It takes a minimum amount of time. I pay my credit card bills like twice a week. And that's the same time I'm updating my checkbooks. I send out invoices. Well, I mean, it depends. There's some clients where the second I send the audio files, I send the invoice. For some clients I wait a week for retakes.  19:43 Then I send the invoice and then I have some clients who all the work that I did in one month I'll send them one invoice for, so I don't have a set time of day or a week where I'm invoicing. It's usually that. But again, I've been doing this for so long and it's just such a part of my workflow and I'm one of the weirdos that likes doing the invoicing and paying the credit card bills and balancing the checkbook and logging the spreadsheet.  20:04 - Anne (Host) And I'm one of the people that doesn't I actually enjoy?  20:06 - Tom Dheere (Guest) it and that's fine. You're the minimum majority.  20:08 - Anne (Host) I'm the weirdo on this one, but that's okay. I mean, I think, your method with the spreadsheet. I mean the spreadsheets are so, so valuable.  20:16 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Number one yes, especially if you can find the right formulas, because, like, I like to know what percentage of my voiceover work is coming from my agent, so I know at the top of my head in 2023, 12% of my voiceover revenue came from representation Wow, and that's important, because I need to know how my business is functioning and why my business is functioning and I also learned things on a marketing level.  20:39 - Anne (Host) Yes, yes, absolutely About how my voiceover.  20:41 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Business is doing so. If I do a marketing campaign to put myself out there as an explainer video narrator and then I notice in third quarter 2023, my explainer video bookings went up by 20%, that means that marketing campaign worked. So these things all have a relationship with each other how your money comes in and out, your marketing methods, the tools that you're investing in, the training that you're investing in on a genre level All of them are interrelated. Everybody thinks they're these separate silos, and I love this one and I eat this one. I love them all because they're all related to each other. They should have a synergistic relationship. Most people coming into the industry, as you know, dump all their money into performance training, which they pretty much should at the beginning because they need to know if they can do this and how to do it. And then they invest in the demo and while they're doing that, they're investing in the home recording setup and all that stuff.  21:31 But what they're not a lot of them are doing is investing in their financial literacy. While they're doing this, they kind of wait till later or they don't know they have to work on this, because if you can start to develop your financial literacy as you are developing your performance skills and working with great coaches like Ann, when it comes time, when you've got that shiny demo in your hand and your website is up and your home recording studio is ready, you can hit the ground running, not just on audition and pray mode, but also on what do I do when I get my first gig. Oh, my God, I did the gig.  22:01 - Anne (Host) What do I? I got to do. What do I do now? Oh my God, what do I do? I got a gig. What do I do now?  22:06 - Tom Dheere (Guest) And what do I do with the check? How do I invoice them and what do I do with the check?  22:09 - Anne (Host) Well, first of all, if you go, oh my God, what do I charge? And then it's like, oh my God, how do I invoice? And then it becomes like, okay, now I've got the money and think about it. You don't want to just throw that in your personal checking.  22:18 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Right, and that's why Ann can help you with that. I can help you with that Kind of developing your financial literacy muscles and your marketing muscles, your business muscles, along with your performance muscles. So you are well rounded and when you're ready to hit the ground and really start your voice over career, you'll be firing on all cylinders.  22:36 - Anne (Host) Well, absolutely. And Tom. I just want to promote you, tom, because for all of those bosses out there that are just starting out like a lot of people out there going, oh my God, I don't even know where to start. Do I incorporate, do I create a business? What should I do? How do I even go about getting a separate account for my business? All of these questions you've got the VO strategist right here at your fingertips. And Tom is just amazing. He's been in the industry for gosh a billion years already and he didn't even pay me to say this. But I am highly, highly recommending for you to get with Tom. Get yourself a plan right, get yourself a strategy so that you can go into this as a business and not be panicked and be prepared for success. I love it. There's probably a whole lot more that we can talk about financial literacy.  23:20 - Tom Dheere (Guest) Tom.  23:21 - Anne (Host) However, I think we've really covered a lot of ground here. That I think is important for all bosses out there to understand and know that again, we're not just in the booth performing. That's not who our business is. There is that other component which I think is super, super important for us to understand so that we can go and make a profit, because that's what the whole purpose is. That's why we've become unless you're a hobbyist and I don't think VL Boss is I don't think we're talking to hobbyists here. I think we're talking about bosses. We are entrepreneurs, we are business owners, and let's get yourself prepared financially so that you can be on the road to success. Tom Dheere, is your pathway to get you started. I'm telling you, tom, thanks so much for talking with me today about this lovely topic which I know most people. I'm going to have to title this episode something completely different. Maybe I don't know, because I think sometimes, when people even see the word finance, they're like, oh God, my head hurts.  24:20 - Tom Dheere (Guest) But it doesn't have to be. Learn to love it. Yeah, love your finances. Yeah, that's what it's going to be called Love your finances Right, love your finances and have business success.  24:31 - Anne (Host) All right, tom. Well, thank you so much again for your wisdom. Bosses, big impact, simple mission, 100 voices, one hour, $10,000. If you want to know more, that's four times a year. By the way, bosses, visit 100voiceswhocareorg to find out more. And big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can network and connect like VL Bosses, the VL Bosses that you are. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Have an amazing week and we'll see you next week. Bye.  25:01 - Intro (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, ann Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Free distribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

There is a skill that I think DBAs and sysadmins will need to develop: cloud cost analysis. I've thought this was important for quite a few years, and I've been (unsuccessfully) lobbying for cost information to be gathered and analyzed in Redgate Monitor. Hopefully, this work will get done soon, as I see more companies asking their technical people to provide analysis and justification of the resources being billed for in the cloud. Basecamp analyzed its costs in 2023 and decided it could save money by leaving the cloud. I've seen other companies decide they were saving money in the cloud. Many, however, are likely unsure of the total return they get compared to the costs of cloud computing. I have seen some posts (like this one) that try to help you get a handle on your costs, but there is often a lot of complexity in cloud costs when multiple departments have different accounts (AWS) or subscriptions (Azure) with a provider. Read the rest of The Cloud Database Cost Analysis

AI's potential impact on the IT industry is immense. It is crucial to embrace AI and develop the necessary skills to stay relevant. Automation and AI are changing roles like DBAs and system administrators. To remain valuable, it is important to develop senior-level knowledge and expertise. However, there are challenges and risks associated with AI, such as the loss of tribal knowledge and the need for human oversight. Middle management roles may be reduced as AI takes over tasks, while senior management focuses on vision and innovation. Large tech companies stand to benefit the most from AI advancements. Future-proofing skillsets and considering alternative career paths is advised. AI tools can be used to improve job performance and efficiency. Additionally, AI has the potential to assist individuals with disabilities, like dyslexia. Organizations can leverage AI effectively by using AI accelerators and pre-built solutions.

AI's potential impact on the IT industry is immense. It is crucial to embrace AI and develop the necessary skills to stay relevant. Automation and AI are changing roles like DBAs and system administrators. To remain valuable, it is important to develop senior-level knowledge and expertise. However, there are challenges and risks associated with AI, such as the loss of tribal knowledge and the need for human oversight. Middle management roles may be reduced as AI takes over tasks, while senior management focuses on vision and innovation. Large tech companies stand to benefit the most from AI advancements. Future-proofing skillsets and considering alternative career paths is advised. AI tools can be used to improve job performance and efficiency. Additionally, AI has the potential to assist individuals with disabilities, like dyslexia. Organizations can leverage AI effectively by using AI accelerators and pre-built solutions.

Sometimes the best way to learn is to listen to others' questions. Tune into this episode to listen to legal questions from small business owners and my answers to them. We touch on topics including staying within your business insurance's scope of coverage, drawing a line between your coaching business and your professional license, and how to best use DBAs.In this episode, you'll hear…How to keep your professional license safe while transitioning to coaching.When you need to get a separate LLC and when you can use the same one.The difference between an LLC and a DBA.Click here to find the full show notes and transcript for this episode.RESOURCES:Grab the Ultimate Bundle® on sale now! CONNECT:Sam on InstagramSam on FacebookOn Your Terms on InstagramDISCLAIMERProduced by NOVA MediaMentioned in this episode:UB SalesBiggest savings of the year! Grab the Ultimate Bundle before 02.28 and save $500 when you pay in full! UB Sales

Git has become a fantastic tool for me, and many other technologists, over the last ten years. It's almost ubiquitous in most of my clients, and so many people are comfortable with it. Many others aren't, which is why I started a Git series for DBAs (and other Ops people) on my blog. Quite a few people asked me why I recommend git over a file share for storing code that a team of Ops people or DBAs might use. Why isn't a global file share a better choice in an organization? I think I have a few good reasons, but if you disagree, let me know in the discussion for this piece. Read the rest of This is Why You Use Git for Scripts

In this episode of AgCredit Said It, host Libby Wixtead interviews attorney Ryan Conklin about the different types of entities farmers can use to structure their farms. They discuss sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and corporations, and the benefits and drawbacks of each. They also touch on the importance of having an operating agreement or partnership agreement in place, as well as the role of entities in succession planning. They emphasize the need for farmers to communicate with their lenders and other advisors when setting up entities and making changes to their business structure. They also conclude with advice for young and beginning farmers to start early when it comes to setting up an entity. Show Notes:  https://www.agcredit.net/news/episode-52-dbas-corporations-decoding-farm-business-structures-ryan-conklin Resources mentioned in this episode: Ep. 34: Farming Equipment on the Road: Common Questions Answered with Barry Thompson and Anthony Lester Leader Magazine - AgCredit's monthly newsletter AgStart - Financing for the next generation of farmers Connect with AgCredit on Facebook, X and Instagram Share questions and topic ideas with us: Email podcast@agcredit.net

On today's episode of the podcast, I'm sharing my Small Business Blueprint. I share this topic annually as a reminder for those of you who are new to the podcast or who need a reminder of the steps that still need to be completed. These are the steps you'll need to take if and when you plan to legally solidify your sole proprietorship, form an LLC and/or form an S corporation. You can get help with all of this inside our program Legally Launched. The doors are officially open and if you join by end of day Friday, January 26th, then you can get access to a live cohort of the program where we'll be doing three group Q&As on Tuesdays at 9am PST/12pm EST. Each one will be structured with the course, which is only about 20 minutes of videos each week. The biggest benefit to Legally Launched is you're going to learn what actually needs to happen with your LLC and S corp and how to maintain them moving forward so they don't dissolve. Join at notavglaw.com/legallylaunched While we use my home state of California as an example, these blueprint applies to all states. 1. Get registered agent 2. Choose biz name and check availability 3. Determine entity and file articles 4. Obtain employee identification number (EIN) 5. File for seller's permit 6. Get fictitious business name license 7. Obtain business license or business tax certificate 8. Draft operating agreement 9. Draft meeting minutes 10. File S corp election 11. File statement of information 12. Pay annual franchise tax 13. Open back accounts 14. Set up payroll Steps 1 - 10 are what cover your entity, 11-14 are post-formation requirements. Before we dive deeper into the steps, I need to remind you to stop paying for bull shit. Online filing systems are like car mechanics, if you don't know what you need, how do you know if you really need everything they say you do? The blueprint is going to tell you everything you need, and will vary based on your business entity choice. If you plan to stay a sole prop I recommend looking at steps 4 - 7 and 13. Do the same if you have a general partnership, but add a partnership agreement. LLC formation, go through the full blueprint but only include steps 10 and 14 if you plan to elect S corp status on your LLC. You can always form an LLC and elect S corp status on a future year. Even as a sole prop it's good to get your EIN and other business licenses now. If you do an LLC later you can update that then. Let's review the steps in detail. 1. Get a registered agent - This is the person who will receive service of process if you are ever sued. Every LLC and Corporation must have one located in the state where the LLC is formed. You can be your own registered agent with your home or office address or you can hire a corporate registered agent which usually happens under two circumstances - they don't feel comfortable receiving service of process because your home address or office address is publicized or your office is outside the state where you formed. 2. Choose biz name and check availability - LLC filings are rarely denied but one common reason for denial is using an already taken name. Google "(your state) LLC search" to avoid this before filing. The rules that constitute a similar name vary by state. Almost every state allows online LLC filing through a .gov address. Don't fall for the trap of filing through a third party and paying additional fees. 3. Determine entity and file articles - Entity means the legal ways to form your business. The options are sole proprietorships, general partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, and C corporations. The default entities are a sole proprietorship and general partnership. The most common options for small businesses are LLCs and S corps. Remember that an S corp is not a type of entity, it's a tax status therefore for most soloprenuers an LLC would be the best starting point. If you plan to make more than $60k-ish a year, check out the S corp Savings Calculator to determine if you should file an S corp . If you want S corp status within the first year, you must file for S status within two months and 15 days from the date of forming your business. For existing entities, you can change your status by filing before March 15th of the year you want S status to become. 4. Obtain employee identification number (EIN) - Essentially this is a social security number for your business. You are required to have one if you have employees or if your business is a partnership or a corporation. Most banks require an EIN to open a business bank account. You want the EIN in the LLC's name so you want to file the LLC first. You can get your EIN totally free through the IRS website during IRS business hours, do not file through any third parties. If you already have an EIN, it's okay to file for a new EIN when moving from a sole prop to an LLC but the IRS would prefer you to update your existing EIN instead which is cleaner and helps maintain your tax history under one account, it just takes longer. The most common mistake is things getting wonky if you have multiple EINs and mistakenly use the wrong one. 5. File for seller's permit - Sellers permits are required when you have sales subject to sales tax. Some states have different names for sellers permits. If you don't need this, don't get it because once you have one, the state will be looking for sales tax returns from you, therefore hold off on getting one until you start collecting sales tax. 6. Get fictitious business name license - After you get your EIN it's time to file your FBL. This is to establish your DBA (doing business as) and this is typically filed through your county. If you need multiple DBAs, many counties allow you to file several on one form and pay for each, add any and all you want and make sure to put them all on your business license. You only get one FBL per business. FBLs also have renewal requirements and may renew at a different timeline than your LLC. 7. Obtain business license or business tax certificate - Business licenses are sometimes called tax certificates. These are required by most cities, check your city requirement. These are typically required anytime you operate a business in that city and the definition of operate may vary city to city and is generally based on physical location which would be where your office or storefront is. Some cities have requirements for businesses that operate out of their home. Many business to business exceptions for hiring require businesses to have a business license, you should always ask for a copy when hiring someone using one of the exceptions (more on this in episode 278). 8. Draft operating agreement - If you have two or more individuals coming together to form a partnership you need a partnership agreement. A general partnership doesn't have a separate existence in the eyes of the law so the partners will be held jointly and severally liable for any debts or liabilities of the business. State default rules apply in absence of a partnership agreement. If you don't have an agreement a court can make and infer particular rules. The main reason to form an LLC is for liability protection. To maintain your liability protection, you must meet particular requirements that prove you're keeping yourself separate from your business. One way to do that is through an operating agreement. You can get operating agreements in the Contract Club (notavglaw.com/club). 9. Draft meeting minutes - The operating agreement and meeting minutes are internal documents, meaning they don't get filed with the city, county, state, or IRS.Recording meeting minutes is one of those formalities to maintain your magical liability bubble. They don't have to be complicated; you don't need to record minutes for every minor decision, like offering a promotion, for example. Instead, record major business changes in meeting minutes like salary raises, opening and closing bank accounts, buying physical property, etc. 10. File S corp election - If you're filing your LLC later in the year, note that you're only getting the tax benefits for those months. If your S election is not effective on the 1st of the year, you file what's called a part-year tax return. For the one part of the year you don't have S corp status you file taxes as a pass-through. For the other part, you file as an S corp. Because this makes things more complicated, you may want to file for S Corp status at the beginning of the following year. 11. File statement of information12. Pay annual franchise tax13. Open back accounts 14. Set up payroll

In this 22nd episode of our series of commercial litigation update podcasts, we look at some recent developments relating to enforcement of judgments, litigation funding and class actions as well as an important Court of Appeal decision on ADR that came out in late November, and a couple of interesting recent decisions on exclusion clauses and the Unfair Contract Terms Act. This episode is hosted by Maura McIntosh, a professional support consultant in our litigation team, who is joined by Alex Oddy, a disputes partner, and Martin Hevey, a senior associate in our disputes team. Below you can find links to our blog posts on the developments and cases covered in this podcast. • UK signs Hague Judgments Convention 2019: a further step toward facilitating the international enforcement of English judgments https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2024/01/15/uk-signs-hague-judgments-convention-2019-a-further-step-toward-facilitating-the-international-enforcement-of-english-judgments/ • Government proposes legislation to permit funder DBAs in opt-out competition class actions https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2023/11/16/government-proposes-legislation-to-permit-funder-dbas-in-opt-out-competition-class-actions/ • Revised litigation funding agreement approved for opt-out competition claim: fee based on multiple of funding was not a DBA https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2023/11/22/revised-litigation-funding-agreement-approved-for-opt-out-competition-claim-fee-based-on-multiple-of-funding-was-not-a-dba/ • Competition Appeal Tribunal finds funding agreement based on multiple not a DBA, despite express cap by reference to proceeds https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2024/01/18/competition-appeal-tribunal-finds-funding-agreement-based-on-multiple-not-a-dba-despite-express-cap-by-reference-to-proceeds/ • Representative actions: Court of Appeal decision gives go ahead for secret commissions claim, but suggests only limited issues may be dealt with on “opt-out” basis https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2024/01/22/representative-actions-court-of-appeal-decision-gives-go-ahead-for-secret-commissions-claim-but-suggests-only-limited-issues-may-be-dealt-with-on-opt-out-basis/ • Courts can compel parties to engage in ADR: Court of Appeal finds comments to the contrary in Halsey not binding https://hsfnotes.com/adr/2023/11/29/courts-can-compel-parties-to-engage-in-adr-court-of-appeal-finds-comments-to-the-contrary-in-halsey-not-binding/ • Exclusion clauses: High Court grants summary judgment as losses fell within clear and unambiguous exclusion clause and UCTA reasonableness test did not apply https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2023/11/23/exclusion-clauses-high-court-grants-summary-judgment-as-losses-fell-within-clear-and-unambiguous-exclusion-clause-and-ucta-reasonableness-test-did-not-apply/ • Reasonableness of exclusion clause under UCTA: Equality of commercial bargaining strength does not necessarily mean equality of bargaining strength as to contract terms https://hsfnotes.com/litigation/2023/12/07/reasonableness-of-exclusion-clause-under-ucta-equality-of-commercial-bargaining-strength-does-not-necessarily-mean-equality-of-bargaining-strength-as-to-contract-terms/

Kim Harrison, a freelance content marketing strategist and author, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to talk about asking the right questions to find your target demographic, why she has such a deep love for story telling, and how marketing extends after the product has been sold. Kim shares her unique experiences with solving urgently painful problems that customers are experiencing and subsequently building a relationship with those customers that allows her to solve more pain points down the line. About KimKim is a professional storyteller focused on strategic communications. She translates complex ideas into compelling narratives, helping teams share their perspectives. She enjoys building impactful stories, and using a range of mediums and channels to reach specific audiences.For 10+ years Kim has worked closely with teams focused on big data and developer tooling. They have brought new methodologies forward, impacted the language used to describe technologies, and even established new industry categories.Links Referenced:Personal/Company website: https://www.kimber.kim/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberh/Twitter: https://twitter.com/kittyriotTranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud, I'm Corey Quinn. One of the unpleasant-to-some-folk realizations that people sometimes have is, “Wait a minute. Corey, you've been doing marketing all this time.” To which the only response I can come up with is a slightly more professional version of, “Well, duh.” And I think that's because people misunderstand what marketing is and what it means. Here to talk about that, and presumably other things as well, is Kim Harrison, a freelance content marketing strategist. Kim, thank you for agreeing to listen to me.Kim: [laugh] Thank you for having me, Corey. It's great connecting with you today.Corey: You've worked at a number of different places over the course of your career, the joys of freelancing. You have periodically been involved in getting folks from the companies at which you've been working onto this show, but it's sort of the ‘always a bridesmaid, never a bride' type of philosophy. You were somewhat surprised when I reached out and said, “Hey, why don't you come on the show yourself?” Which is always the sign it's going to be a fascinating episode because some of the most valuable conversations that I find I have here are with people who don't think at first that they have much to say. And then I love proving them wrong. But you're in marketing. Presumably, you have many things to say.Kim: [laugh] It's funny, you say that I feel like in marketing, we're always behind the scenes, we are the ones building and crafting the image, and bringing that story forward of, who is this? What is this company? What is this product? What do they do? Why should I care about it? And, “Wow, those are amazing stickers. I want five of them, please.” So, I'm kind of used to being behind the curtain rather than in the foreground talking about what I do.Corey: People tend to hate marketing, especially developers, when you talk to them, but when you really drill down into it, it's not marketing that they hate. It is, on some level, a marketing straw man—or straw person, whatever the current term of art is—because they think of the experience through the lens of the worst examples of it. And everyone who has been in the industry for five minutes knows what I'm talking about. Billboards that make no sense where a company spent $20 million on an ad buy and seven bucks over the lunch counter trying to figure out what to say once you have all of that attention, or bad email blasts that are completely irrelevant, untargeted, misspell your name, and are clearly written by a robot. That's not what marketing is, at least in my mind. What is it to you?Kim: For me, marketing is how you communicate who you are, what have you built, what is the value that it provides, and how can somebody use it. There's many ways in which you can share that, that can be all of those activities that you just talked about. And I think it's easy to sometimes lose the story in all of that and talk about things that may not be as important. I think a lot of times people get excited about what they've built, and love to talk about what they've built but not why it provides value, and what value it provides. And so, staying focused and really sharing that clear story is—it's a lot harder than I think people give it credit for.Corey: A very senior, well-known engineering leader whose name I will not mention because I—I can tell stories, or I can name names, but I don't believe in doing both—once said, out of what was otherwise like this—like, this person just dispenses wisdom like a vending machine. It's amazing, but one of the dumbest things I ever heard this person say was, “I never want to get marketing outreach, or show me ads or the rest. If you've built something awesome. I will find it on my own.” Which is a terrific recipe to follow if you'd like to starve to death.Kim: Yeah, I agree with that. And I think there is this… I don't know, maybe it feels great to imagine that what you've built is just so interesting that people would automagically find their way to you and pop up in your DMs and beg to throw money at you for what your product is. But I mean, truly if nobody knows that the thing exists, or even what it does, how could they? I've seen this happen quite often in technology where there's actually an amazing product that maybe they are sharing who they are, they are promoting themselves, but the messaging just doesn't quite land, and so there's a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about an amazing product. And so, not sharing, but also not sharing a very accurate, complete picture of who you are can also hurt you.Corey: When I first started going out independently in the fall of 2016, I did not know whether it was going to work, whether I was going to succeed or have to go do something else, but what I knew very obviously, was that, one way or another, 18 months from now, I was going to want to have an audience to tell about whatever I was doing. Like, the best time to build an audience is five years ago; the second-best time is today, just like planting a tree. So, I started building out the email newsletter. It was something I wish existed, no one else had built it, I figured I'd give it a shot, and it resonated, and that's where the Last Week in AWS newsletter came from. But it means that I can reach out and talk to 32,000 people in their inbox, more or less whenever I want to, tell them whatever is on my mind, and I do that in the form of my newsletters. And that more than anything else has really led to anything that could be equated to be… me as a brand, so to speak. It took work to get there, but I view it as something that, in hindsight or to someone who had spent 20 minutes thinking about marketing, was obvious, but it took me a while to get there from first principles.Kim: Yeah, for sure. And, you know, as a person who receives your newsletter, as somebody who has collaborated with you in the past, something I know you do really well is you are very clear about who you are, what you stand for, and you're consistent. And so, I think… in my opinion, I think you've done a great job of earning your audience's trust, and that's a huge part of this, right? As a marketer, it's very easy to say, you know, “My thing is bigger, better, faster,” but if it's pure conjecture, if it's not—if there's no there there, people will find out, you will lose that trust, and it can become difficult. And so, it does take time. And I think—I imagine, and I would ask you—I imagine you were very intentional about what you did. It took time, and you understood that, and it's like, okay, put your head down and be patient because this will reap rewards in the end.Corey: That's the curse, on some level, of having succeeded at something. You look back in hindsight, and everything looks like one thing clearly led to another, and where you are now is sort of inevitable when viewed through that lens. It does not feel like that on the day-to-day. I promise.Kim: [laugh] What—okay, so as you built your audience, what was the hardest part for you?Corey: Figuring out who the audience was, to be perfectly honest. It didn't take long before Datadog came sniffing around, six issues in, asking if they could sponsor. And it was, “You want to give me money to talk about you? Of course, you can give me money. How much money?” And I inadvertently found myself with a sponsor-driven media business.But that led to a bit of a crisis of faith for me of, who is my audience? Is it the sponsors because that—like, I like money, and I wish to incentivize the behavior of giving it to me, but if I do that, then suddenly, I'm more or less just a mouthpiece or a shill for whoever pays me enough, and that means the audience loses interest. It has to be the community is my target because that's what I consider myself a part of. I write content that I want to read, that I want to exist, and if sponsors like that, great. If they don't, then well, okay, it's not for everyone.But the audience is around because they either agree with what I say, or they appreciate the authenticity of it. And it goes down to the old saw of would you rather have a pile of money, or would you rather have a relationship with someone? It's like, “Well, I can turn a relationship into money way more easily than I can the opposite.” So yeah, I would much rather build a working rapport with the people who support me.Kim: Interesting. Yeah, I agree with you. And I would ask another question about your audience. Who was in that audience? Is this one kind of person? Is this many kinds of people? How do you think about who you're speaking to? Is it a unified group, or are you considering that there are three or four different kinds of people within this body, and you try to address all of them at different points in a week or month?Corey: If you try to write for everyone, you wind up writing for no one—Kim: Yeah.Corey: —and every time I think I have a grasp on who my audience is—like, if you're listening to this show, for example, I have some baseline assumptions about you in the aggregate, but if you were to reach out—which again, everyone is welcome to do—I would be probably astounded to learn some of the things that you folks are working on, how you view these things, what you like, what you don't like about the show. On some level, I operate in a vacuum here, just because feedback to a podcast is a rare thing. I suspect it's because it's like listening to an AM radio show, and who calls into an AM radio show? Lunatics, obviously. And most people—except on Twitter—don't self-identify as lunatics, so that's not something that they want to do.I encourage you to buck that trend. Reach out. I promise, I drag multi-trillion-dollar companies, not individuals who dare to reach out. Some of my best friendships started off with someone reaching out like, “Hey, I like what you're doing, and I'd like to learn more about it.” One thing leads to another, and there are no strangers; just friends we haven't met yet.Kim: Yeah, yeah. In the world of developer marketing, sometimes that audience can be a range of people. It can be the user versus your buyer. So, when I think about content marketing and I think about telling the story of a platform or a brand to, you know, this range of people, maybe I want to tell that same story, but I've got to do it in slightly different ways. Because to your point, if you try to be, you know, one thing for everybody or nothing to everyone, it just, it doesn't work. And so, how do you talk to that buyer who can actually sign the check versus the individual contributor, the person who's using the product day-to-day? What part of that story do they want to hear? What makes sense to them? What is engaging to them?Corey: Part of the challenge I've had is that I always assume that the audience was largely comprised of people who vaguely resemble me, namely relatively senior engineering folks who have seen way too many cycles where today's shiny new shit becomes tomorrow's legacy garbage that they needed to maintain. But that is not true. In practice, about 60% of the audience is individual contributing engineers, and the remaining 40 is almost entirely some form of management, ranging from team leads to C-level executives of Fortune 50s and everything in between. And every piece that I write is written for someone. And by that I mean, a specific person or my idea of that person as I go.Now, I don't mention them by name, but that means that different pieces are targeted at different audiences and presuppose different baseline levels of knowledge. And sometimes that works, sometimes that doesn't, but it means that everything that I write should ideally resonate with some constituency.Kim: Yeah. Yeah. And, again, as a person who has collaborated with you, you have a range of channels that you share content across. And so, I think when I first met you and first started working with you, I very quickly started to understand where that made sense to me, not just as a collaborator, but as somebody who enjoys the people that you bring in to interview, the stories that you tell, the conversations that you start. But I've noticed there's areas that I tend towards, and would listen to or read more. I don't know if that was intentional, if there are certain areas that you focus on for different segments of your audience.Corey: Partially. And this is a weird thing for me to say, particularly in this medium. I don't listen to podcasts myself. I read extremely quickly, I do not have the patience to sit through a conversation. It makes sense when I'm driving somewhere, but I barely do that. My drive home from dropping off my toddler at preschool is all of seven minutes, which is not long enough for basically anything, so it's not for me.I don't watch videos. I don't listen to podcasts. I read. That's part of the reason that every episode of this show has a transcript. It's also part of the reason, though, that I have the podcast entirely, as that I am not the common case in a bunch of things. An awful lot of people do listen to the podcast. I've talked to listeners who are surprised to learn I have an email newsletter, but I view it as the newsletter came first and then the podcast.Occasionally, I find people who only know me through my YouTube videos—which are sporadic because it's a lot of effort to get one of those up—and no one sees all of it. This did lead to a bit of a weird crisis for me early on of, okay, so I have a Twitter account, I have a LinkedIn page, I have the Screaming in the Cloud podcast, I have the AWS Morning Brief podcast, I have the Last Week in AWS newsletter, and I have the Last Week in AWS blog, and of course, I have my day job at The Duckbill Group where we fix AWS bills. That is seven or eight different URLs. Where do I tell people to go?Kim: Yeah.Corey: It's a very hard problem.Kim: Do you do that? How do you do that? Or do you allow people to find their own way?Corey: Whether you allow people to or not, they're going to do it on their own. My default of where do I send people is lastweekinaws.com. That talks a little bit about who I am, it has a prominently featured ‘newsletter signup' widget there, give me your email address and you will get an opt-in confirmation.Click that, and you will start receiving my newsletters, which talk in the bottom about other things that I do, and let people find their way to different places, like slack.lastweekinaws.com, for the community Slack channel, which is sort of the writer's room for some of these conversations. There's a bunch of different ways, but not everyone wants to engage in the same way, and that's okay.Kim: Yeah. That is something that's come up a lot for me, managing content programs. You said it yourself: not everybody learns the same way, and so thinking about different ways to share a story, I would say right now a lot of people are really burnt out on webinars. I think the past couple of years of being at home and staring at screens has done a number on us all. But still, there are ways in which some people do prefer video.Maybe shorter format is better, or audio, or reading. And it's great that you put the transcript in because I know I'm a person who really values that. Sometimes I can't listen to an episode, and it's great that I can, you know, kind of skim through and read through parts of the interview that I knew that were going to come up. And so, being attuned to the fact that there's many different ways to tell a story, and having fun with that—dare I say [laugh]—is, I think, a huge part of it.Corey: You have to have fun, otherwise, you aren't going to be able to stay the course, at least that's my philosophy. I am very fortunate in that what I do is technically marketing for the consultancy because an overwhelming percentage of our leads come from, people have heard of me and that leads them here. It's never clear to me where was the original point of contact, how did you get into the orbit, who recommended you, but that is functionally what it is. I'm fortunate in that the media side of our business with sponsorships turns this into a business unit that generates a profit. But it is functionally still a marketing department. That is not mandatory.Kim: Yeah. So, an interesting thing that I've seen happen within developer marketing is when thinking about this audience and how you market your consultancy, you spoke about how many people are individual contributors in your audience. I—did you say it was like 60%?Corey: 60% engineers, although it's also how people view what their role is changes rather drastically. And I've never found that any of these things that are categorizations of roles or company styles or what have ever fit me well. I don't fit anywhere I go. And that's okay. I assume that there's a lot of slop and wiggle room in there, but it gives me a direction to go in. I would have guessed before that, that 95% of the audience was engineering hands-on coding-type practitioners.Kim: Right.Corey: Clearly I'm wrong.Kim: Well, in understanding that, I mean, what you've got is an understanding of who can take what action. I mean, yeah, at some point, you do want sponsors, right? If you are marketing for your consultancy, you probably do want to reach those executives that would be the person that would actually bring you in—your team in—to evaluate and give them advice and feedback, and that's not always the individual contributor. However, having a presence within the community is equally beneficial to your brand. And so, for me, as a person who has worked in-house at teams, often the demand gen team is telling me, “Oh, we just want to do things that will get leads in the door,” you know, leads that will actually turn into customers, but addressing your community and having a presence there, and showing up there, and participating is just as important. You know, that's brand awareness.And so, there will sometimes be activities that you do that really are just about participating, and showcasing yourself and your team as the experts that you are. And sometimes it will be a direct, “We have this feature. We have this product. Here's how you can do a trial and sign up to become a customer.”Corey: That is, I think, something that gets missed a lot. With so much marketing in this industry slash sector slash whatever it is that you want to call it is, in larger companies in particular, you wind up with people who are writing some of the messaging around this that are too far removed from the actual customer journey. You see it very early startup phase, too, where… I see it on the show, sometimes, with very early stage technical co-founders. They want to talk about the internals of this very hard thing that they built and how it works. Great. That's not your customer. That is not something that anything other than your competitor or your prospective hires are really going to be that interested in.Kim: Yeah.Corey: Talk about the painful problem that you solve.Kim: Absolutely. Show—oh, my gosh, I just had a conversation with a colleague about this very thing. Show the return on investment, show the value you provide, and do it explicitly, do it very clearly. Do not assume that people understand. Give numbers if you can, metrics. Just really put it out there because I think in this moment right now, in this economy… budgets are tight. And so, if you can't clearly show what value you provide and why you should be there, you know, why somebody should bring your product into their stack, you're just not going to make it through, or you're not going to last long.Corey: Yeah. It's hard. None of this stuff is easy, and marketing is way, way, way harder than it looks. Done well, it looks like you barely did anything at all. Do it badly, and suddenly the entire internet lines up to dunk on you.Kim: Oh, that is so true. Gosh, and that's really difficult for marketers because, as you said, we've done well, it just feels natural. Like, of course, this would happen. But there's so much that goes on behind the scenes to execute and make it look seamless and flawless. That is something that I like to advise onto my fellow marketers and content marketers is, don't forget to remind your team what you've been up to and what it took to get there so that they appreciate the value of what you're providing, and will continue to do those things that help keep that momentum moving forward. As you said, how many years did you work on getting that audience together where it is today? This was not six months. This was a real time and effort for you to build this following, and to earn this trust, and to have the brand that you have now.Corey: The funny part is, I didn't do most of it. My entire time doing this, I have been unable to materially alter the trajectory of growth. It is all word of mouth, people in the audience telling other people about whatever it is that I do. I have run a number of experiments across almost every medium that was within my reach, and none of them seem to materially tip anything other than being authentic and being there for the audience, and then just letting the rest sort of handle itself.Kim: Mm-hm. I like that you said that, that you're running experiments. You're in conversation with your audience. You're really thinking about how your message lands, and what they like or don't like, or what resonates.Corey: It's a hard problem. How do you view marketing? You've been working in this space a lot. You have specifically in your title of Freelance Content Marketing Strategist a derivation of the word strategy, which has always been something that I'm not great at. It's longer-term, big picture thinking. I'm much better tactically in the weeds. What do you see as the broad sweep of how it's being done in this industry?Kim: I can speak to myself. I studied sociology. I really love thinking about what influences people, I love stories and storytelling, and so my focus is strategic communications. And that's a fancy way of just saying, you know, taking these complex ideas, these products that people built, and turning them into compelling narratives so we can showcase the value they provide. And I think it's especially interesting and challenging doing that in technology when a lot of times you're bringing forth a completely new products that never existed before, so how do you speak to that? How do you help people understand that a thing they've never been able to do before they can now do, and it could be a part of their life, and it could be part of their workflow, and change how they think about their own practices?And so, for me, it really is storytelling. I'm a sucker for, you know, a good podcast and a good book on the side. That's how I think about it, but I also do appreciate that at the end of the day, this is marketing, we are, you know, a business, and so I also enjoy being a part of a team. So, I can help build the beautiful story and think about how to share that effectively, get that in front of the right people at the right time so that they can have an understanding of who you are, what you are, what you offer, be a part of the larger conversation that is in place that you can become a trusted brand, and doing that within you know, a larger marketing team, those people that make sure that, you know, ultimately we're getting those people into the marketing and sales funnel, and the appropriate activities that happen next. So I'm, I tend to hang out in my storytelling realm of marketing, but fully well appreciate and know that this is—to your point, this is—marketing is a large effort, and there are a lot of people that contribute to the different moving parts. And it's like a dance making it all come together.Corey: Something I found as well is a complete lack of awareness outside of marketing itself, in the differences between all of the marketing sub-functions. It's the engineering equivalent of lumping mobile developers, and front-end developers, and SREs, and back-end developers, and DBAs, and so on, and so on, and so on, all into the same bucket. Like, “You're just an engineer. Can you fix my printer?” Style stuff.Kim: Yeah.Corey: Marketing is a vast landscape, and you start subdividing it further and further, and there's a reason that it's an entire organization within companies and not a person.Kim: Yeah, for sure. And gosh, some of the people that I've worked with at earlier-stage companies that are capable of covering more than one area, really creative, flexible, nimble fingers, you know, they are quick on their feet and can see that, you know, larger vision and help contribute to that. So, you know, building out messaging is one thing. Thinking about how to get that in front of your audience is another. How to guide your customers through that journey, like, what does the learning process look like, and how do you make sure that you continue to drive those conversations so that somebody can go through that learning process? How are you showing up in the real world at an event? How is your team talking to [media 00:25:23] to analysts?I mean, the list can go on, as you begin to think about the more and more people in the world that you want to touch and interact with, who should know who you are? They should understand who you are, what is your brand, what product have you built, and why it's important to the conversation right now. And so yeah, you start to bring in more team members who specialize in that, who can help you make sure that you're doing that particular function really well. And it's fascinating being inside of a small startup and then watching that operation scale into something larger, and really watching that effort take off. It's pretty cool to see.Corey: Something I'm curious about that you have been rather vocal about is that marketing extends after the product is sold. What do you mean by that?Kim: The way that I think about that is, in my opinion, customers should be a part of the customer journey. So, the customer journey is from point zero where this person or team or organization was not aware of who you are to, “Oh, apparently, there's a solution that fits my need,” to, “Oh, and I want this particular brand, I want this tool in my stack, I want to work with these people,” to, they've signed on to become a customer. Even after that point, in my opinion, marketing efforts should continue, in that perhaps that customer came in to solve one or two use cases, but your platform or product can help with many others. And so, making sure that customer is onboarded appropriately so that they're getting the full value out of the product that they should, and they're keeping them educated so that they're aware of other parts of the product that maybe they didn't learn about in their discovery journey, as well as, you know, as your product evolves, new features that are offered.So, as I think about marketing, the existing customer base is also a group of people that I'm always thoughtful about. So, let's say that, you know, if I were to plan out a product release announcement, that is a segment that I would absolutely want to make sure that we include in our strategy. And where are the touchpoints for that? How can we make sure that segment is also understanding and aware of this new announcement, and how it can affect them? And what resources would I provide to them so that they know about it, they will use it well, perhaps become a power user, and you know, very selfishly… sorry to say this out loud, but maybe they'll become a power user and want to come on a webinar with me, or be featured in an article about how much they enjoy using it. But again, just because you've got a customer in-house doesn't mean that journey is finished. There's, as your product continues to grow and evolve, your relationship with that customer should also continue.Corey: There are two schools of thought on taking money from customers. One of them is you get them as much money as you possibly can upfront, once. And there's also the idea of, all right, I want to have an ongoing relationship in which they broaden their relationship in the fullness of time and grow as a customer. Some of our best sources of business have come from folks who either—not just—don't tell their peers at other companies about us, but come back to us when their situation changes, or wind up doing business with us as they land somewhere else in the ecosystem. Like there is, “Yeah, we like working with you,” is all well and good, “And I want to do it again; here's money,” is a different level of endorsement.Kim: Absolutely. And some of the companies that I've worked with, often customers will come in because they have some extreme point of pain, and they want to solve that one thing. They do not have time to think about the dozen different interesting use cases. “I have this thing that I need to solve, and I need to get it done now.” And so, work with them on that, and later on, that opportunity to expand their understanding of what else is possible.And even coach and provide guidance on, especially with some newer products where people are learning new development techniques. “Did you know that this is also possible? Have you considered this?” And so, thinking about that, like, not everybody is just twiddling their thumbs, “Oh, I have free time. I'd love to learn a thing.” They're usually coming to you because they have a very painful thing that they need solved, hence why it's great to talk about the value you provide: “I can help you solve that, I can help this pain go away, and help your business do what it needs to get done.” And so, when they're our customer, that next moment is that great, great opportunity to talk about other use cases, other parts of the platform.Corey: I really want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. If people want to learn more, where's the best place for them to find you?Kim: Right now, I'm mostly active on LinkedIn, and I believe—would you be able to provide a link to that in the show notes?Corey: Oh, we absolutely will put that in the show notes, whether you want us to or not. That's the beautiful part of having show notes for folks.Kim: Awesome. Yeah, I think that's the best place to find me today. Unfortunately, I don't use Twitter as much as I used to. So, I do exist there, but I'm not—Corey: That's such a smart decision.Kim: I know, I feel terrible about it. And I got to say, I miss the community that it was.Corey: Yeah, that's the reason I focus on the newsletter as the primary means of audience building. Because email is older than I am. It will exist after I'm gone—and that's fine—but it means that it's not going to be purchased by some billionaire man-child who's going to ruin the thing. I don't need to worry about algorithmic nonsense in the same way. I can reach out and talk to people with something to say. I'm in that very rarefied space where when a company blocks an email that I send out, they get yelled at by their internal constituencies of, “Hey, where'd that email go? I was looking for it.”Kim: That's awesome.Corey: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I appreciate it.Kim: Thank you, Corey. It's a pleasure talking with you.Corey: It really is because I—like you—am delightful. Kim Harrison, freelance content marketing strategist, has been my guest today. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry and insulting comment. Don't worry about telling me about it. If your comment was any good, I'm sure I'll find it on my own.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business, and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   This week's episode features Ray McGovern. Former CIA analyst and foreign policy advocate in Washington, DC. He join us to give some history and context on the Israeli/Hamas war.   TRANSCRIPT:   Speaker 1 (00:42): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:51): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode of this broadcast, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historic context in which they occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. According to my guest self-proclaimed Zionist, Joe Biden, with no witts about him is assuring the destruction of Zionist apartheid Israel as corrupt US Intel leaders have unleashed the dogs of war. We cannot be bystanders, quote, indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself. That's Rabbi Abraham Heschel for insight into this. Let's turn to my guest. He leads the speaking truth to power section of Tell the Word a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in inner city Washington. He served as a CIA analyst for 27 years. His duties including chairing the National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President's daily brief. And he also ran the Russia desk for the CIA. And in January of 2003, he co-created veteran intelligence professionals for sanity. He is Ray McGovern. Ray, welcome and let's connect some dots. Ray McGovern (02:34): Thanks, Dr. Leon Dr. Wilmer Leon (02:36): Ray, you recently published a piece at raymcgovern.com entitled, can You give a brief synopsis of what's happening in Israel? And it's based upon a response to a question from, I believe your youngest daughter. She asked you to explain to her what's happening in occupied Palestine and it opens as follows. I was nine years old, 1948 when there was huge celebration in the Bronx at the founding of the state of Israel. No one told me that Arabs had lived on that land for centuries and were displaced by force. Tens of thousands of them crammed into postage stamped Gaza and now host to millions of Palestinians. Ray, I'll throw it to you. Why was it so important for you to write this piece? Ray McGovern (03:30): Wilmer? Frankly, I was really encouraged that one of my children, and we have five, was interested in knowing what I thought about this. (03:43) Prophets are without renown in their hometowns and sometimes in their own homes. So when Miriam asked me this question, I said, well, she wants a short, concise paragraph, so I'll try and I failed. I couldn't do it In one concise paragraph, I said, look, here's somebody who's genuinely interested. She has three young children. She's got a very busy life, but she knows that this is important. So let me explain some of the background to this. And so I started out first with the, so-called religious justification for what Israel did. Well in occupying lands already occupied by Palestinian people for centuries before I have been in the West Bank, I have been in Israel at one point, we went up a hill to a Jewish settlement. This is about eight years ago now. At the bottom of the hill, there was devastation. There was no running water, there was poverty of an extreme kind. (05:03) When we went up to the top of the hill, whoa, you look like a golf course for God sake, green lawns being watered, okay? And a rabbi from Cleveland telling us why he's entitled to be there as a settler. So one of my colleagues, we were on a little delegation, said, well, a rabbi, how do you explain the conditions right down at the bottom of this hill in Palestinian territory, and you're beautiful settlement up here. And he said, without hesitation. Well, God promised us this land. Now, I had heard that before and I know not enough about the what's so called the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, but I knew this. I knew that they depend on Deuteronomy 15 four for that. So I basically, rabbi, please cite the part of scripture that justifies your settling on this land. And he said, that's easy. He said, Yahweh said to the Jewish people, you shall have this land flowing with milk and honey. (06:22) And I said, continue, rabbi, continue. And he said, what do you mean continue? I said, well, you're only giving us half of the deal, right? He said, well, what do you mean? I said, read the rest of the verse. So there shall be no poor among you. He said, oh, you forgot to. So it was a deal. It was, well, you might call it a covenant. All right. You shall have this land so that there shall be no poor among you. And I thought that Miriam should know this, that when she hears people say, oh, wait a second, I promised this stuff. It was a deal. And the Israelis, of course, have broken that deal in a scurrilous way. So that's the way I started out. I went into some of the more recent history. But go back to the Hebrew scriptures. It's very clear what God's promise was. Assuming you think this is important. And of course the settlers think it's important. That's why they always cited Dr. Wilmer Leon (07:28): Ray two things. One, it would be one thing if the scripture said, I will give you this land of milk and honey so that you will not be poor. But that's not what it says. It says so that there will not be poor among you. And there's also a reason why those individuals are called settlers. And there's also a reason why that region is called the occupied territories. Ray McGovern (08:06): That's right, Wilmer. And it's an embarrassing history we Americans have because we were settlers on the land, peopled by Native Americans, and we kind of pushed them aside just as Israel has pushed the Palestinians aside. So it's not a happy history. But when you're a settler, well, that's a nice way of putting that. You're coming from outside and you've displaced people who have a right to live on those lands. So as I said in the beginning of this piece, I came from the Bronx. I lived there for my first 22 years before I went in and served as an army officer. Now, when I was nine years old, 19 eight, oh man, it was sort of like the 4th of July, 10 times over Israel had a home, right? And as I noted at the beginning, well, nobody told me. Well, he told me that it was not a land for people, a land without any people in it. (09:15) Well, there were people in it. And that's the basic part of all this. And if you go more recent in the history, I was serving as a CIA analyst in 1967 when the Israelis attacked Egypt and Syria decimated their Air Force and enlarged Israeli territory to include parts of Syria, to include the West Bank, to include the Sinai, to include Gaza, lots of places to include, right? Okay. Now we thought, or we were told that Egypt was about to attack Israel. Well, that was the legends put forward for many years after 1967. But finally, man, be a former Israeli prime minister, got up before an audience in Washington in 1982 and call it chutzpah, call it honesty. Call it a cleansing of his conscience. But this is what he said. It's not long. I want to read it so that I don't mess it up. All right, man. Bein former Israeli prime minister quote, in June, 1967, we had a choice. The Egyptian army concentrations in the side eye approaches do not prove that SSO is already really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him. (11:07) It was duly reported in the New York Times and people in New York and elsewhere where I was living. Oh, isn't that interesting? So the Israelis said, well, that's called aggression. That's calling creating Libens home. Okay? Not terribly dissimilar from what happened in the thirties at the hands of the Nazis in Germany. And so that's the truth behind all this. Now, how did the UN react then back in 67 when all this happened? There was the unanimous security council resolution, resolution two, four, two, that call for Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. Was it a close vote? It was unanimous. Okay. Did the Israelis do that? No, they didn't do that. Why didn't they do that? Because of chutzpah? Because the Israelis can always depend on the United States to defend them no matter what they do. And so they have occupied all those territories. They gave back the Sinai to Egypt when there was an agreement under Jimmy Carter, but the Sinai is not worth keeping. (12:17) Actually. Now the people in Gaza are bearing the brunch of this occupation, this oppression, and as I quoted Rabbi Heschel, one of my very favorite people who marched with Dr. King back in the late sixties, that we're not all guilty, but we are all responsible. How did I put it? How did he put it? Indifference to evil is worse than evil itself. That's what we have to measure up to this time. There's been evil in Gaza, and we have to make sure that we don't one sidedly accuse one side and give the other a free ride, so to speak. As has been the case since the US reacted to the UN resolution, it didn't do diddly, as we say in the Bronx to enforce it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (13:23): There's a lot of misinformation. There's a lot of disinformation and outright lies that are being used in support of the Zionist US narrative of this illegal occupation of Palestine, as well as the genocide of Palestinians. I want to read a brief statement and then show a map before I come back to you. Here's a statement. This is from the foreign office, the 2nd of November, 1917, and it reads, dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of his Majesty's government. The following declaration of sympathy with Jewish scientist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the cabinet, his majesty's government view, with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object. It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done, which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. (14:36) I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation, yours, Arthur James Balfour. Now this is known as the Balfour Declaration. The British government decided in 1917 to endorse the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine, not Israel, Palestine. After discussions within the cabinet and the consulting with the Jewish leaders, the decision was made public. And we have this letter to that point. Here's a map from National Geographic from 1947 where you can see Lebanon, Syria, trans Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine. Israel is not on this map. Why? Because contrary to the dominant Western narrative, Israel did not exist. That's why we know now Israel is actually the occupied territories. Ray people will have a tendency to try to categorize this conversation as anti-Semitic, which is why if we can put the map back up one more time, I want to be sure that people see this map. This is history. This is not narrative. This is not rhetoric. This is history. Ray McGovern. Ray McGovern (16:14): Well, history can be very antisemitic. (16:22) I mean, it's hard to realize that most Americans are blissfully unaware of all this. The maps show the story. Now, the situation right now is different. How is it different? Well, the Soviets, I used to be a Soviet analyst analyst of Russians, foreign policy. The Soviets used to talk about a concept called the correlation of forces. Now, it's not rocket science, okay? It had to do with the balance of power in the world. Now, guess what folks? The balance of power in the world has shifted. People are now talking about a shift from a unipolar world, which is what the US was since World War ii, and particularly since the Soviet Union fell apart to a multipolar world where other countries are allowed to have a say in these things. Well, I look at it as a bipolar world, and I would refer more recently just to the yesterday's vote at the un, where the US was the only one to veto a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling for the Israelis, not to ethnically cleanse Gaza as they apparently still intend to do. (17:53) So what's my point? My point is that everyone, not even the British voted with us this time, okay? 12 to one was there was two abstentions. So what am I saying? I'm saying that the Arab countries, well, here's an example. The Arab ambassadors in Beijing asked the Chinese, please get us all together. We would need to talk about what's going to happen in Gaza. And the Chinese did. The head of Iran calls up arch rival the head of Saudi Arabia and says, we got to do something about this. And they have a cordial conversation. Okay? Next thing you know, he is talking to the head of Hamas. He's talking to the head of Hezbollah, okay? So there are things that are happening here where it's where the deck is being stacked heavily against the United States, and it's sat traps like the UK and France and Germany. They're not very long for this world, those governments, okay? So what we have here is a condition where 20 years ago, the US could work its will. Okay? No longer can it. Hamas is well-equipped. I don't think that killing civilians is a good idea, nor do I. When you look at it or when you look at it, you say, well, was this unprovoked? (19:31) Unprovoked seems to be the adjective of choice here. Just as PCIs decision to defend his compatriots in the DBAs was not unprovoked, neither was Hamas' reaction here without making any moral judgements, which is something that intelligence analysts are not called to do. Actually, we can say you can understand this given the recent history and the more distant history that we've referred to earlier. Dr. Wilmer Leon (20:07): I'm very glad that you put it that way because a lot of times people misconstrue, and I'll just put this on a personal level. I'm not a former, not an intelligence analyst, but I am a political scientist, not a political operative. And so people have a tendency to misconstrue my explanation of events with my agreeing with the events, my saying, I understand why President Putin and Russia went into Ukraine. I understand it because I understand the history. I understand why Hamas took the actions that it did. I don't condone the killing of civilians. I don't condone the killing of children, but I understand why Hamas did what they did. If you could quickly, Tony Blinken, you were just talking about the shift from the unipolar to the multipolar world. Talk a little bit about Tony Blinken and this whole concept of the rules based order, because Tony Blinken in the Biden administration, they love to talk about the rules based order, but when you try to find a definition of it, you can't because it only exists in the mind of Tony Blinken. They rarely talk about international law. They always want to talk about the rules based order. Ray McGovern (21:46): You put your finger on it, the rules based international order, well, it's a contrived expression. It's meant to substitute for international law and the United Nations. It was invented by Blinken and Sullivan and Nolan, and I mean poin and Laro, the foreign minister have made fun of it. Well, tell us about this. We try to Google it, but could you please give us, can you give us a piece of paper to describe what the rules based into law? And of course they can. And what it means is what we say goes, we make the rules, and that's it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (22:30): And you follow our orders. Ray McGovern (22:33): People are getting wise to that increasing number of people witness the vote at the UN yesterday, 12 to one, the one being the United States. The saving grace here, as I say it, is that the UN is still being respected by China, by Russia, and by some of the other countries that are insisting that we abide by UN regulations. First and foremost in this context, security council resolution 2, 4, 2 of November 22nd, 1967 ordering is to relinquish control of the occupied territories that they seized in 1967. So what's the hope here? Well, the hope was yesterday. The US talks about Russia being isolated. Look, (23:34) And maybe just maybe these Zionists, and I'll use that word advisedly. I mean, Joe Biden has bragged about being a real dy in the world. Zionist, so has Blinken and Sullivan, the rest of them. Okay? What does that mean? That means the people that occupied the Palestinian Territories occupied by Palestinians for as just as Native Americans in our example, four centuries before, it doesn't make sense. And it's not going to make any headway no matter how much we invoke this rule space, international order. Thanks for raising that, because it's very telling how we thought that we could just invent a new phrase and substitute it for international law. And the UN Dr. Wilmer Leon (24:29): President Biden, when he went to the region on this, so-called Peacekeeping tour, wherever the heck he was supposed to be doing, he talked about peace. And to your point earlier on, not on this trip, but earlier on he was very clear, I am a Zionist. And then Tony Blinken goes and he says, I am here not only as the Secretary of State of the United States, but I'm here as a Jew. What message do you think that sends to the Arabs in the region who he allegedly is supposed to be trying to find some common ground with and bring about some type of peaceful resolution to this conflict? Ray McGovern (25:18): Well, I think the word is chutzpah and naivete. If blinken doesn't know how that goes over with the Arab leaders that he is talking to, he is hopelessly blind. Wait Dr. Wilmer Leon (25:35): A minute, wait a minute, Ray, does he care? Because what that I remember very clearly probably two years ago when Blinken went to Anchorage, Alaska to meet with the Chinese delegation, and the Chinese delegation got up and said, we're not going to sit here and let you lecture us. We're China. We don't have to sit here and listen to you. And they got up and walked out of the room. That to me, sounds eerily reminiscent or what just transpired with Tony Blinken in the Middle East sounds eerily reminiscent to what he tried to do with the Chinese. Ray McGovern (26:17): Well, Wilmer, you probably have seen President Biden reading from his little notes, even in a very short a session with Netanyahu. So who writes the notes? Dr. Wilmer Leon (26:33): Tony Ray McGovern (26:33): Blink. Well, Blinken writes the notes. Dr. Wilmer Leon (26:36): Victoria Newland. Ray McGovern (26:37): Victoria Newland. Now, what does Victoria Newland have in common? What Jacob Sullivan have in common? They're all of Jewish extraction. Now, should that ordinarily matter? No. Does it matter? Now? It happens to matter. Now we're talking about a Jewish home land created at the expense of the Palestinian people. We're talking about Zionism, which is a political movement, not a religion. So the three top people at the State Department have traditionally been Zionists, not only Jews, but Zionists. Now, this is not lost on the Middle East leaders or China or Russia. And you could see their hold on Biden from the very first part of his administration. The first thing he did, we got up and he said, now China, China's going to be, has aspirations to be the most powerful country in the world, not only economically, but strategically. That's not going to happen on my watch. (27:51) Okay? Next thing he does is he lets himself be set up by Stephanopoulos George Stephanopoulos, who says, now, Mr. President, do you think Putin's a killer? And by, oh, he's a killer. Okay? And then they meet with the Chinese at Anchorage and read him the riot act about the rules. Basically, the Chinese say, we know all about this. We spent a century throwing off your predecessors, the British selling with the gun diplomas. That's all the folks. And as you say, they didn't put up with it. So you have at the very outset of his administration laying down the line, look, were all powerful, which is not the case anymore. We're Zionists, which happens to be the case anymore. Let me introduce one sort of comment that Biden made without reading from his little cards there, I think was on the plane coming home yesterday. He said, I made a note of it. He says, I can understand why people in the Middle East region would not believe the Israelis, or that maybe the bombing of that hospital was not intentional. (29:17) Well, I can understand why the people of that region would not believe the Israeli. The question is why you believe him, Joe Biden, and whether now Jacob Sullivan, I have to tell you, people object to my saying Jacob Sullivan, but that's his first name. Okay? Just like remember Scooter Libby who worked for Janie. His first was Israel Libby. So why does he go by Scooter? Why does Jacob go by Jake? I don't know, but I can make a little guess here. Okay. Jacob Sullivan is Zionist as the Newlands and the Blinken of this world, and of course the president who styles himself as the supreme Zionist. What does that mean? Well, it means that it's over the US and Israel. It's just going to take a couple of months. Now for people to realize that, and the fear I have Wilmer, the fear I have is that there's too much at stake personally for President Biden and for Blinken and Nod and Sullivan and Nolan and Hunter Biden, there's too much at personal stake for them to go away quietly and acknowledge the new correlation of forces. (30:37) If they lose the wars, if they lose the election, they could end up in jail. The evidence is there, and court documents in sworn testimony, bribery, impeachment proceedings may go forward. So I'm always saying, I don't give a rat's patooty about what happens in impeachment considerations. What I care about is how they are likely to react to save their own patootie. And that introduces an element of instability and personal stake that worries me greatly. And it doesn't matter what worries McGovern greatly, I'm sure it worries Russian and Chinese leaders greatly too, and has them on tenterhooks as to what will happen over the next year. Dr. Wilmer Leon (31:29): When you look at the surveys right now, when you look at the polling data, the race for 2024 between President Biden and former President Trump, by most polls, is a dead heat, one or two points. It's within the margin of error. History tells us that countries tend not to shift leadership or change leadership in the midst of conflict slash war. You mentioned if they lose the election, I'm sorry, you mentioned if they lose the war, if they lose the election, does Joe Biden need this conflict in his mind in order to save his administration? Ray McGovern (32:19): I don't think Joe Biden is Compass Menis. I think that Blinken and Sullivan, Nolan, they are extremely Compass mentors. They have a lot to fear. Let's say that Trump wins election, as I said before, the evidence is out there, not only of bribery and those kinds of things, and Hunter Biden's laptop and the inclusion of corrupt former intelligence officials and all that kind of stuff. But Blinken was personally involved in arranging for Biden to win via a subterfuge. What do I mean? Well, when Hunter Biden's laptop was revealed and the scarless repeat stuff on, and his dealings with calling his father's brand name into, well, how did they decide to handle that was three weeks before the election. Oh, what happened? Well, by testimony to Congress, by a former acting director of the CIA, his name is Mikey Morell. He said, I got a call from Tony Blinken, and he said, the best way to handle the Hunter Biden laptop is could you get former intelligence directors to say that it has all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence disinformation operation? (33:56) And Mikey Mell said, sure, I can do that. Three days later, Mikey Morell has rounded up 50 count 'em, 50 former intelligence directors and very high officials, speaks pretty poorly of them, doesn't it? 50 plus Mikey Morrell, and he says 51 former intelligence directors, including four or five former directors of the CIA, as if that enhances their credibility. Say, this has all the earmarks, Russian intelligence, disinformation operation. Now, was that consequential? Well, all I know is that two days later, Joe Biden had his last debate with Trump, and Trump raised this. Biden said, oh, don't you know that this is in all the earmarks of a Russian intelligence operation? Now, why do I go into that detail? I mean, that should not have happened. Okay? I don't know whether that won the election for Biden or not, but you don't do these things. They have to be illegal, in my view. (35:09) So Blinken himself is on 10 hooks. He could be prosecuted, he could be put in jail, and Jacob Sullivan, just the word about him, he invented Russiagate, the non-existent Russian hacking of the DNC computer for Hillary Clinton's emails and all that stuff that showed that she had stolen the nomination for Bernie Sanders. That was Sullivan. He was a big campaign manager for Hillary Clinton. So that's all out there. Now, I don't know if Trump came in, and I will not comment on what I think of Trump. If he came in, he's not loath to hold these people accountable, and on this case, he's got the law behind him. So again, there's great incentive on the part of all these people preparing their notes for Joe Biden to keep the war going in Ukraine and not lose before the election, and to help the Israelis to the degree the US can still not lose in Gaza. The last one is not possible anymore. Neither is the first one. So what am I afraid of? I'm afraid that they will react according to this personal stick they have, and it's to happen before when you have this kind of personal stake and you have advisors like these guys who are saying, Joe, look, if we lose this, look what happens then. You don't have to write notes to Joe. He understands this. He's a politician, and that's what worries me. Sorry to carry on at that point. Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:52): I Ray McGovern (36:52): Think this is an important aspect. It's not really covered elsewhere. Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:58): You are former intelligence official, and you understand the subtleties of diplomacy. And one of the things that I find very interesting is when you listen to President Putin, when you listen to President Xi, when you listen to Raisi in Iran, they speak in very subtle undertones. So when Donald Trump assassinated, general Ray McGovern (37:29): Soleimani, Dr. Wilmer Leon (37:31): Soleimani, Iran said, we're going to retaliate, and a lot of people expected the retaliation to be coming shortly thereafter. It did not come well, as Tony Blinken was traversing the Middle East recently, the Iranian foreign minister was doing the same thing with his allies and released a statement saying, Israel, the time is up. Did that convey to you a not so subtle message that people need to be paying attention to? Ray McGovern (38:17): Well, it does, and that's really one outstanding aspect of what happened over the last week. The notion that the president of Iran would call up the leader of Saudi Arabia to coordinate on what they're going to do. I mean, that's a tectonic shift in the relationship between those two countries. And raci, the president of Iran has been traveling all around, and he's got, he talks to this area and he talks to the Egyptians, and actually the Egyptians and the Jordanians wouldn't even receive Joe Biden when he wanted to see them. So what we need to do is recognize, Dr. Wilmer Leon (39:13): And Mohammad bin Salman made Tony Blinken wait an entire day, actually overnight, because I guess he had gone fishing in somewhere in Saudi Arabia, and he was on a fishing trip in Saudi Arabia and couldn't be bothered. So he thinked Tony, again, from a diplomatic perspective, that's one of those not so subtle messages that says, I really don't feel I'd being bothered with you. Ray McGovern (39:43): And Saudi Arabia is very, very, very important, not only because of the oil, but because of the raro schmo that was going on with China and with others. So maybe the Saudi foreign minister was supervising some beheadings in the public square. You get pretty busy in Saudi Arabia when head start rolling, and I understand he did give Blinken access to a men's room there as he waited. So there's some niceties that were observed, but he gave away overnight. You don't do that with, at least you didn't use to do that with the Secretary of State of the United States of America, least of all. Would the Saudi Arabia's have done that? So that's just one little symptom of the tectonic shift in relations where us is no longer the unipolar power, but rather a bipolar with them with the United States. And I am an American citizen. I really mourn the fact that because they're own ineptitude and chutzpah that would put ourselves in this situation. And I dare say that the Israelis do what everyone thinks they're going to do. Now, it's going to be all hell to pay because the Iranians has Pua, Hamas, the Egyptians, the Hezbollah, the others, even the Saudis for are not going to sit around and tolerate the of 2 million people in Gaza. Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:39): Yemen isn't going to be too happy with this either. Ray McGovern (41:44): Yemen as well. Yeah. Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:46): So people watching this, people listening to this, they may be saying, wow, Wilmer, you and Ray are spending an awful lot of time talking about foreign policy, talking about the Middle East. We have homelessness in the United States. We have abject poverty. We have all these declines in the standard of living in the United States. Why spend so much time talking about this instead of talking about that? Ray McGovern (42:19): Well, because they're connected. As you well know, every billion you send to Ukraine, every billion you send to Israel is at the expense of these people. The poor people in our country that need all that kind of help, there shall be no poor among you. Well, that's a universal. That's a universal, in my view. It doesn't have to be a Hebrew scripture. I mean, the Christian, the Christian, and I say Judeo-Christian attitude toward justice Wiler. We have this American concept of justice where you have this blind lady of all people holding these scales and the images impartiality image, no favoritism to one or the other. Now, lemme tell you something, and your listeners, the Judeo-Christian, the biblical concept of justice is unbalanced and biased to the core in favor of the poor. The hated poor as the Old Testament called the very word in pre Aramaic for justice, denotes not connotes, denotes showing mercy to the poor. (43:46) Now, that used to be kind of observed, FDR, my father's favorite president, he cried when FDR died. He knew in his heart what he needed to do, poor people. He brought us out of that depression. There used to be a Democratic party that cared mostly about the poor. When I asked my father, I said, dad, what's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican? He said, all Democrats care about people. Okay, care about poor people. Well, that ain't the case anymore. They're all joined at the hip. And what do they care about? Stuffing their own pockets. What was really a revelation to me was when Pope Francis came to Congress 2015, I think it was, and there was a joint section, and he stands up there, and to his credit, Pope Francis says, and I quote, the main problem today is the blood soaked arms trade. Okay? The main problem today is the blood soaked arms trade. (45:04) Now what do those congressmen, what do the senators do? Oh, they go, they, oh, yeah, right? And he stood up, and then they looked in their pocket ship envelope from Raytheon was still there, and it went from Lockheed over here. I mean, it was giving hypocrisy a bad name, okay? These guys know what the message was, but they're so soaked in this money and this power that it's going to take a lot of us, a lot of us who care about the poor, and a lot of us who can show opportunity costs is what the economists use. (45:45) For every 150 million you spend on creating an F 35, what could be done in your school district to pay the teachers a decent way? What could be do? What could be done in Iowa or Nebraska or any of these places which are being downtrodden? Okay? People need to make this very specific. This money is going to these high people that are making 20, $30 million a year as salaries, as CEOs or Raytheon and Lockheed general dynamics. That ain't sustainable. We need to get up and find out where these people live. Shame them into relenting a little bit and saying, look, maybe 10 million is enough for your salary, and maybe we'll give the balance to the poor. So round this thing up, I happen to be out of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and this reinforces my, what's the word, my imperative to honor the concept of justice, which is not balanced in favor of everybody because it's, it's not a level playing field. It's a unbalanced, it's biased and prejudice to the core in favor of the poor. Now, that's what I come out of as a faith perspective. I'll just add one other thing. I had a Jesuit teacher who was a real good friend of mine. I said, well, how would you describe your theology? I said, that's very simple. I can put it in one sentence. I said, what's that? He says, well, it all depends on what kind of God you believe in and how God feels when little people are pushed around. (47:47) And, okay, I'll say that again, and how God feels when little people are pushed around. Now, you don't have to believe in God. You can just believe in justice. I had agnostics and atheists tell me, look, Ray, you don't have to go into the Bible here. Human beings know that we're supposed to be fair, and that's true. Human beings used to know that we need to get back on the track here and do everything we can to make sure they realize that. Now, the more so since things are getting very, very perilous for us, not only in Ukraine, but in Western Asia as it's called now, Dr. Wilmer Leon (48:29): In mentioning Ukraine, you also have a piece at your website, Ray mcgovern.com entitled, fact Checking Putin on Ukraine. President Putin gave an interview right before he went to China for the Belt and Road Initiative Conference, and you say, media consumers should be permitted to learn what Putin said, particularly about Ukraine and Russia's problems dealing with various US administrations over the years. Readers who rely on the paper of record, however, will be shielded from his remarks, and thus, any temptation to ask if they might be true. And you went through a lot of what Russian President Putin had to say. You did your own fact checking. And what were some of the conclusions that you came to regarding President Putin's the veracity of his comments? Ray McGovern (49:35): Well, I checked them all, and there were two that I needed to consult others on because I wasn't a hundred percent sure. One had to do with when Soviet Russian forces went up there near Kiev and were abruptly withdrawn very early in the war in Ukraine, I always wondered about that. Putin claims that that was part of a deal, not a covenant, but at least a deal. Now, what was the deal? The deal was reached with Ukrainian officials in Glarus and in Turkey. There was a deal to stop the war, to have a ceasefire, to commit Ukraine, not to join NATO, and to bring Russian troops down from where they were threatening Kiev. That's what Putin claims. Now, I checked around because my memory is just one person, but I found out, yeah, that's probably why the Russian troops went down from that area. It's not because they couldn't have taken Kiev, although they didn't really have all that many troops there. (50:54) But the Russians, from the very outset of their special military operation, appeal to the Ukrainians, look, we'd like to have a deal here. All we want is some respect for our own security. We don't want NATO coming in as a bulwark against us. Now, what happened? Well, the Ukrainians talked and they reached an agreement in Ankara on the 31st of March, 2022, and it said these things that I just spelled out what happened? Well, the US in the person of Boris Johnson from the uk, he visited Kiev right away and said, no, no, no deal. You may be willing to deal with Russia, but we're not. We want to continue this thing. The object here is to give the Russians a bloody nose, a strategic defeat. Okay? And so what does Zelensky do? Oh, okay. Sorry. Sorry. I won't do that anymore. Okay. That's how that thing went down. (51:58) Now, I remember reading this in S, the official organ in Ukraine. I mean, that's pretty good. But when I had confirmation about this from some of the people that know the military situation a little better than I did, I said, yeah, well, that was correct too. Now, Wilmer, without belaboring this, I have to tell you that after fact checking all this and trying to offer this as an alternative view by somebody who had fact checked it, I couldn't get it published. I couldn't get it published on a very, well, what we shall say, a very anti-war website. Dr. Wilmer Leon (52:46): But Ray Ray, that's got to be impossible because Joe Biden has told us that we stand for democracy, that Putin is a dictator and that he's an autocrat, and we stand for the freedom of press in America. Ray, how could you not get something like that published? Ray McGovern (53:07): Well, I guess my point Wilmer here is that I've long since stopped trying to get something in The Times or the Washington Post. I used to be able to do that 10 years ago, like twice a year. But the alternative media, for God sake, the progressive media is now saying, oh, that sounds a little bit too. So here, I check these things. I double check with the people who know about things they're not quite sure about. I put it out there and say, well, that sounds a little bit too, we can't run that. So that's the alternative media. That's the binder where nobody wants to feel like they could be susceptible to criticism of being pro Putin, that my friend, is how bad it has become. Dr. Wilmer Leon (54:02): I was at dinner with some friends, and one of them asked kind of a generic question about this media and whose interests are being served, and this can't be some invisible cabal that is behind the scenes, being sure that a particular narrative is only being articulated. And I said, no, it doesn't really have to be a cabal, because when you look at Jeff Bezos, for example, and he owns the Washington Post, and he owns Amazon, and look at where Jeff Bezos has received most of his money from Amazon Data Systems, which is a defense contractor. I said, look at, what's his name, knowns Tesla, and he controls X, and where does he get most of his money from? SpaceX and starlink defense contractors. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a cabal as much as it is the confluence of interests that understand which side their bread is buttered on. Is that fair to say? Ray McGovern (55:29): Well, Wilmer, I have an expression or an acronym called the Mickey Mat, the military industrial Congressional Intelligence Media, academia think tank complex. It's in some dictionaries now. Okay, why do I say media? Because the media is controlled by the rest of the Mickey Mat. That's the situation we're in now. Now you mentioned Jeff Bezos, and you correctly pointed out he gets lots of money from the federal government, CIA, and others. Okay, but the people he picks, well, there was a fellow named Fred Hyatt who ran the editorial section of the Washington Post, like the op-ed section. Okay? And before the war in Iraq, about 90% of the op-eds were, oh, yeah, they're weapons of mass, weapons of, okay, so what happens after the war when there are no weapons of mass destruction? He goes up to the Columbia School of Journalism, and when a naive student says, Mr. Hyatt, you kept saying that there were weapons of mass destruction as flat fact, and it turned out not to be any. How do you explain that? And Hyatt famously said, well, if there weren't weapons of mass destruction, we probably should not have said that. There were, (56:58) My patron, Robert Perry of recent memory turned to me at that, and he said, Ray, that used to be sort of like a cardinal principle or journalism. If something's not true, you're not supposed to say it's okay. What happened to Fred Hyatt? He stayed in place for 20 more years running the op-ed section. So what's my point? No one, no one is held accountable for these things. That's up to us. We have to find ways to hold people accountable, and what that involves, I leave to people, but we have to start getting off to our rear ends. We have to put our bodies into it as I have in the past. They're not going to kill you. They'll beat you up, all put you in prison, but it's worth it because so much is at stake right now, and I've never seen, never seen a more tentative, a more dangerous time to include the prospect of the use of many nuclear weapons, which eventually would do us all in. Dr. Wilmer Leon (58:01): We have just about a minute and a half or so left, and I want to read, this is from M-S-N-B-C, and this is from the April 6th, 2022. In a break with the past US is using Intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn't rock solid. What that means, boys and girls, is M-S-N-B-C is admitting that they are lying to the American people under the pretext of the noble line. They're lying to you. Boy, Ray McGovern American people, first of all, Ray, thank you so much for your time today, and where can folks find your work? Ray McGovern (58:51): Well, I'm sure that Plato and his noble liar kind of turning around in the grave right now. Dr. Wilmer Leon (59:01): Where can people find your work? Ray McGovern (59:03): Oh, where? Okay. Well, I am Twittering. That's @RayMcGovern. Okay. My website is raymcgovern.com. I'm also on Facebook and on Instagram, so I hope that you'll tune in. My son who runs my website always says, Ray, always say, always add. If you don't get it, you won't get it. You don't get it. But I'm too humble to say that. Dr. Wilmer Leon (59:31): Ray McGovern, thanks for joining me. Big shout out to my producer, melody McKinley. Thank you all so much for joining the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history, converge talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. Stay tuned for the new podcasts every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, follow me on social media. You can find all the links below in the show description. I'll see you all next time, and until then, please treat each day like it's your last, because one day you'll be right. I'm Dr. Wilmer Leon. Peace and Blessings. I'm out.

Robby has a chat with Senior DevOps Engineer, Hila Fish. They start off by discussing the key characteristics of maintainable infrastructure code. Hila shared insights on providing software engineering teams with the necessary space for exploration while maintaining essential guardrails to ensure the stability of production environments. The conversation also touched upon the significance of offering engineers useful metrics and dashboards for measuring load and stress tests. Robby and Hila reminisced about the evolution of roles like sysadmins and DBAs over the decades, highlighting the transformative journey of infrastructure management.A focal point of the episode was Hila's experience leading a large migration project from Bitbucket Cloud to a self-hosted Gitlab within a tight six-week timeframe. She emphasized the importance of rigorous testing in both development and production environments, effective communication with stakeholders and the team, and other critical aspects of successful project management. The discussion extended to personal and professional development, with Hila underlining the importance of regularly evaluating one's values against those of the employer and the value of self-retrospectives. The challenges in hiring for potential versus expertise in an industry that demands a combination of both were explored. The episode also featured insights into DevOpsDays TLV, Hila's involvement in tech events, and valuable tips for overcoming the initial fear of speaking at such events, accompanied by her own unconventional journey to delivering her first talk. It's going to be an interesting episode, so don't miss out.Helpful Links:Hila on LinkedInOpen-Source - Open ChoiceTechnical Documentation - How Can I Write Them Better and Why Should I Care? By Hila FishTerraformHelmGitLabBitbucketDBAsDevOpsDays TLVThanks to Our Sponsor!Turn hours of debugging into just minutes! AppSignal is a performance monitoring and error tracking tool designed for Ruby, Elixir, Python, Node.js, Javascript, and soon, other frameworks. It offers six powerful features with one simple interface, providing developers with real-time insights into the performance and health of web applications. Keep your coding cool and error-free, one line at a time! Check them out! Subscribe to Maintainable on:Apple PodcastsOvercastSpotifyOr search "Maintainable" wherever you stream your podcasts.Keep up to date with the Maintainable Podcast by joining the newsletter.

January 3rd 2023 Yuriy shares his intriguing story of being the unlikely hero in a book about wartime Kyiv that's already a bestseller on pre-order and suggests how to get a mention of your own name in this podcast... Pre-order the book here: https://a.co/d/cXTosku  You can email Yuriy, ask him questions or simply send him a message of support: fightingtherussianbeast@gmail.com    You can help Yuriy and his family by donating to his GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-yuriys-family   Yuriy's Podbean Patron sign-up to give once or regularly: https://patron.podbean.com/yuriy   Buy Yuriy a coffee here: https://bmc.link/yuriymat  ----more---- TRANSCRIPT: (Podbean app users can enjoy closed captions)   It is January 3rd.  I've probably been asked a hundred times why I don't write books or other people did not even ask, but expressed deep surprise. But I don't write books. It usually looks something like this: "You personally acquainted with Bashar al-Assad, survived several Hamas interrogations in Gaza, maintain friendly relations with a family of the Samaritan High priest, and even received an order from Zelensky after voluntarily living civilian life enjoying the army. Why haven't you written a book about all this?"  The answer is very simple- I just don't want to do it. I've already written 5 billion texts about all this, and I'll write that much more if I get out of this war alive. I don't see the point in wasting my precious free time on something I've been doing all my life at work. I'm much more interested in reading books. Honestly.  But the fact that I don't want to be a book author does not negate the fact that I can be a hero in our people's books. And so it happened, but I really became the hero of one such book, not the main one, but one of noticeable ones. This book was written by my colleague and longtime friends, a journalist, Ilya Ponomarekno, who was born in a small town in DBAs, but has worked in Kyiv for many years. He has long collaborated with foreign media, but as it turned out, he also wrote a whole book about how Kyiv lived in the days when the Russian Army stood on the outskirts of a Ukrainian capital. He told me about it himself when he sent me a New Year's greeting. He congratulated me. And when wrote what he had finished working on the book that is dedicated to the first stage of the full scale war, that this book will be released in English in the spring and also with one of the chapters of the book is dedicated to how I came to the studio of a radio station, from which I went to the Army to broadcast in uniform and with a rifle. He listened to this broadcast and wrote about it in his book.  I really hope that I turned out to be a positive character. You know that kind, that if we want to make a movie out of the book, the actor for my role would be chosen between Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale. By the way, it would be interesting to see how we would cope with this role. But jokes aside. The book is actually finished, has already been edited and is being prepared for printing, it can already be pre-ordered on Amazon, and I even did it. It'll be released on May 7th and will gradually be shipped to me. This book and its name is 'I Will Show You How It Was, The Story Of Wartime Kyiv' has already made it into the Amazon bestseller lists. Maybe you'll find it interesting too.  And a little hint for you, if you want me to mention you in this podcast, just write a book, a song, or maybe a symphony about me and you'll get the mention absolutely free. Happy New Year, my friends. 

This special episode is a series of the Audible Chapters of the book Side Hustle Millionaire. If you're just starting right now and you want to hear the entire book, go find Chapter 1 and you will find all of the chapters in sequence. Enjoy! This episode features Chapter 6 "Structure" of the book Side Hustle Millionaire by Tony Whatley. Chapter 6 breaks down how to safeguard your personal assets and set up your business for success. Tony guides you through the maze of DBAs, LLCs, and Corporations, weighing the pros and cons of each to help you make an informed decision. You'll gain clarity on how to reap the benefits of tax breaks, legal protections, and the nuances of liability that come with the right business entity. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business owner, this chapter is brimming with insights to fortify your venture against the unpredictable tides of the business world. Connect with Tony Whatley: Instagram: @365driven Facebook: 365 Driven LinkedIn: Tony Whatley

Episode 192 contains the Digital Marketing News and Updates from the week of Dec 18-22, 2023.1. Site Structure Strategy - Understanding the basics of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can significantly enhance your online presence. Gary Illyes from Google has recently shed light on the importance of using a hierarchical site structure for SEO, a strategy crucial for making your website more accessible and understandable to both users and search engines.Illyes explains two types of site structures: hierarchical and flat. A flat site structure links every page directly from the home page, making each page just one click away. This approach was popular when sites relied heavily on web directories and reciprocal linking. However, as Google reduced the influence of PageRank as a ranking factor, the flat structure became less relevant.In contrast, a hierarchical site structure organizes content from general to specific. The home page covers the most general topic, with links to categories, subcategories, and individual pages that delve into more specific topics. This structure not only makes it easier for users to navigate your site but also helps search engines understand and categorize your content effectively.A hierarchical structure offers several advantages: Improved User Experience: It makes it easier for visitors to find what they're looking for, enhancing their overall experience on your site. Better SEO: By clearly categorizing your content, search engines can more easily index and rank your pages. Flexibility: It allows you to create distinct sections on your site, like a news section, which can be crawled and indexed differently by search engines. The choice between a hierarchical and a flat structure depends on your site's size and complexity. For larger sites with diverse content, a hierarchical structure is more beneficial. It allows for better organization and easier management of different content sections. He explained, "hierarchical structure will allow you to do funky stuff on just one section and will also allow search engines to potentially treat different sections differently. Especially when it comes to crawling. For example, having news section for newsy content and archives for old content would allow search engines to crawl news faster than the other directory. If you put everything in one directory that's not really possible."For small business owners, adopting a hierarchical site structure, as suggested by Gary Illyes from Google, can significantly improve your website's SEO performance. It's not just about organizing content; it's about making your site more accessible and relevant to both your audience and search engines. By implementing this structure, you can enhance user experience, improve search rankings, and ultimately drive more traffic to your site.2. Decoding the Dec 21 Spam Attack: Key Lessons to Elevate Your SEO Strategy! - On December 21, 2023, Google's search results were overwhelmed by a massive spam attack. This event highlights the vulnerability of search engines to spam tactics and the potential impact on businesses relying on online visibility.The attack involved numerous domains ranking for hundreds of thousands of keywords, indicating a large-scale operation. The spam was first noticed when almost all top search results for specific queries, like "Craigslist used auto parts," turned out to be spam, except for a few legitimate listings.The spam sites exploited three main opportunities within Google's ranking system: Local Search Algorithm: This algorithm is more permissive, allowing local businesses to rank without many links. Spammers used this to their advantage, targeting local search queries. Longtail Keywords: These are low-volume, specific phrases. Due to their low competition, it's easier for spammers to rank in these areas. New Domain Advantage: Google gives new sites a short period of 'benefit of the doubt' to rank in search results. Many spam domains were newly registered, exploiting this window. The effectiveness of this technique lies in the different algorithms Google uses for local and non-local searches. Local search algorithms are more lenient, allowing these spam sites to rank with minimal effort. he December 21, 2023, spam attack on Google's search results offers valuable insights for business owners looking to enhance their SEO strategies. This incident, where numerous domains ranked for an unusually high number of keywords, sheds light on the vulnerabilities and opportunities within Google's ranking system.Key Learnings from the Spam Attack Exploiting Low-Competition Areas: The spam attack targeted low-competition keywords, particularly in local search and longtail queries. For legitimate businesses, this highlights the potential of focusing on niche, specific keywords where competition is lower, increasing the chances of ranking higher. Understanding Google's Algorithms: The spammers took advantage of the local search algorithm's leniency and the initial ranking boost given to new domains. This underscores the importance of understanding how different SEO factors work, including the impact of new content and the specific requirements of local SEO. The Power of Longtail Keywords: The attack successfully utilized longtail keywords, which are specific and often less targeted by major competitors. For businesses, incorporating longtail keywords into their SEO strategy can capture niche markets and attract highly targeted traffic. Applying These Insights to Your SEO Strategy Focus on Local SEO: If you're a local business, optimize for local search queries. Ensure your business is listed accurately on Google My Business, and use local keywords in your website's content. Leverage Long Tail Keywords: Conduct thorough keyword research to identify longtail keywords relevant to your business. These keywords can drive targeted traffic and are generally easier to rank for. Monitor New Trends and Updates: Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and Google algorithm updates. Understanding these changes can help you adapt your strategies effectively. Diversify Your Online Presence: Don't rely solely on organic search rankings. Utilize social media, email marketing, and other channels to build a robust online presence. 3. Is Your Company Blog Google News Worthy? - Google's John Mueller addressed a crucial question: Can company blogs be eligible for Google News? This is particularly relevant for small business owners seeking to expand their reach and visibility online.Mueller clarified that while he works on search, which is somewhat separate from Google News, there's nothing in Google News content policies specifically excluding company blogs. This opens up an opportunity for business blogs to be featured, provided they meet certain criteria.To be considered for Google News, your blog content must adhere to specific guidelines. These include: Clear Dates and Bylines: Each article should have a visible publication date and author byline. Author, Publication, and Publisher Information: Details about the authors, the publication, and the company or network behind the content are essential. Contact Information: Providing contact details adds credibility and transparency to your content. While Google can automatically discover news content, being proactive can increase your chances. You can submit your blog URL for consideration through Google's Publisher Center. This step is crucial for small business owners looking to leverage their company blog for greater visibility.FYI: Google News does feature content from company blogs. For instance, GridinSoft company's blog and Adobe's company webpage have been shown in Google News. This demonstrates that while dedicated news sites are more common, company blogs that publish news are also considered.For small business owners, this information is a game-changer. It means that your company blog has the potential to be featured in Google News, provided it meets Google's content policies. This can lead to increased exposure, traffic, and potentially, a steady stream of advertising income. It's an opportunity to elevate your content strategy and expand your digital footprint in a meaningful way.4. Perfect SEO Isn't a Reality for Your Business - Google's John Mueller in his last SEO office hours of December 2023, where he stated, "no SEO is perfect." This insight is particularly relevant for business owners who may feel overwhelmed by the constantly evolving landscape of SEO.SEO is an ever-changing field, influenced by the continuous evolution of the internet, search engines, and user behavior. This fluidity means that what works today in SEO might not be as effective tomorrow. The technical elements like structured data and quality considerations are always in flux, making the idea of achieving 'perfect' SEO unattainable.Despite the impossibility of perfect SEO, Mueller emphasizes the importance of engaging in SEO practices. The goal isn't to achieve perfection but to adapt and evolve with the changes. SEO remains a crucial element in enhancing online visibility, driving traffic, and improving user engagement.Key Takeaways for Business Owners Adaptability is Key: Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates. Being adaptable in your SEO strategy is more valuable than striving for perfection. Focus on Quality and Relevance: Instead of chasing perfection, concentrate on creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience and adheres to SEO best practices. Continuous Learning and Improvement: SEO is a journey, not a destination. Regularly review and update your SEO strategies to align with current best practices and user preferences. Don't Be Discouraged: The complexity of SEO can be daunting, but don't let the pursuit of perfection discourage you. Even small, consistent efforts in SEO can yield significant benefits over time. For small business owners, understanding that 'no SEO is perfect' can be liberating. It shifts the focus from chasing an unattainable goal to developing a flexible, quality-focused approach that grows with your business and the digital landscape. Embracing this mindset allows you to navigate the complexities of SEO with more confidence and less stress, ultimately leading to a more robust and effective online presence.5. Does a Double Slash in URLs Affect Your SEO? - Google's Gary Illyes addressed a common query: does a double forward slash in a URL affect a website's SEO? Double forward slashes in URLs often result from coding issues in the CMS (Content Management System) or the .htaccess file. This can lead to the creation of duplicate webpages that differ only in their URL structure. Resolving this issue isn't as simple as rewriting the URL to remove the extra slash; the root cause must be identified and corrected.Gary Illyes clarified that from a technical SEO perspective, having double slashes in a URL is not problematic. According to RFC 3986, section 3, a forward slash is a standard separator in URLs and can appear multiple times, even consecutively. However, from a usability standpoint, double slashes are not ideal. They could potentially confuse users and some web crawlers.The usability of a website is crucial because it can affect user satisfaction and, indirectly, the site's popularity and visibility. If a site is difficult to navigate or understand, it may deter users and reduce the likelihood of being recommended or linked to by other sites. Similarly, anything that causes confusion for web crawlers can directly impact SEO. It's essential for a site to be easily crawlable and understandable.To avoid potential issues: Regularly check your website for double slashes and other URL anomalies. Consult with an htaccess expert or a developer to identify and fix the source of the problem. Use tools like Screaming Frog to pinpoint where the double forward slash issue starts, providing clues to the underlying technical issue. For small business owners, understanding and addressing these seemingly minor details can make a significant difference in SEO performance. While Google may be able to navigate through such issues, relying on this is not a best practice. Proactively managing your site's technical health ensures a better user experience and optimizes your site for search engines.6. DBAs Now Accepted for Advertiser Verification! - Google Ads has made a change to its Advertiser Verification Program and now accepts DBAs (Doing Business As) or trade names for verification. This development is particularly important for small business owners who often operate under trade names or DBAs.Previously, the Google Ads Advertiser Verification Program required advertisers to use their legal business names for verification. This posed a challenge for many businesses that operate under a DBA or a trade name different from their legal name. With this update, Google Ads acknowledges the common practice of using DBAs and adapts its verification process accordingly.Implications for Business Owners Broader Accessibility: This change makes the verification process more accessible to a wider range of businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises that commonly use DBAs. Brand Consistency: Businesses can now maintain brand consistency across their advertising and legal documentation. This is crucial for brand recognition and trust among consumers. Simplified Verification Process: The inclusion of DBAs simplifies the verification process for many businesses, reducing the administrative burden and potential confusion. To be verified under a DBA or trade name, the legal document submitted for verification must include both the legal name and the DBA/trade name. This ensures that Google can accurately associate the trade name with the legal entity behind it.7. Reservation Campaigns in YouTube Ads - YouTube/Google Ads has simplified the process of setting up reservation video campaigns, a type of advertising that offers fixed-rate impressions, ideal for brand awareness and product promotions.Reservation campaigns are a form of advertising where ad placements are purchased in advance at a fixed rate, typically on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis. Unlike auction-based ads, where placements are bid on in real-time, reservation campaigns guarantee ad placement, making them ideal for high-impact advertising and ensuring visibility for crucial campaigns.Key Features of the New System Self-Service Options: Advertisers can now easily set up reservation video campaigns through Google Ads, streamlining the process of buying high-visibility ad placements like YouTube Select lineups and Masthead. Enhanced Targeting Options: The update includes advanced targeting capabilities, such as YouTube Select topic and interest-based targeting, along with demographic targeting, allowing advertisers to reach their desired audience more precisely. Access to Premier Content: Advertisers gain access to prominent placements like the YouTube Masthead and premier content via YouTube Select, ensuring a broader audience reach. Diverse Ad Formats: The system offers various ad formats, including non-skippable in-stream ads and bumper ads, catering to different campaign needs and audience preferences. Benefits for Business Owners Greater Control and Visibility: With fixed-rate impressions and guaranteed placements, reservation campaigns offer more control over ad impressions and higher visibility for your brand. Targeted Reach: The expanded targeting options enable businesses to tailor their campaigns more effectively, reaching the right audience with relevant content. Efficiency and Flexibility: The streamlined process saves time and effort, allowing businesses to focus more on the creative aspects and strategy of their campaigns. For small business owners, Google's update to reservation video campaigns on YouTube simplifies the process of creating impactful brand awareness and product promotion campaigns, leveraging YouTube's vast audience. Familiarizing yourself with this new system and aligning your campaigns with Google's policies will be key to maximizing your brand's exposure on one of the world's most popular video platforms.

One of the things that has been interesting to watch over time is how the SQL Server platform has expanded the amount of information that we get back about the performance of the query optimizer and query processor. While it's not perfect, and there is room for improvement, the advances made with intelligent query processing are helping many systems run faster. Not all queries, but some. As I've done a little work on other platforms, there are ways to look for potential missing indexes in PostgreSQL and MySQL, but these aren't built into tools, nor are they easily accessible to developers or DBAs. There's work to be done on many platforms, though I'm not sure if there is more work than required in SQL Server. On all these platforms, you need to dig into queries and understand why they are slow, though the tooling for SQL Server, with graphical plans in SSMS (or with Plan Explorer) can make the job easier. Read the rest of Be Careful with Missing Index Requests

Laurent Doguin, Director of Developer Relations & Strategy at Couchbase, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to talk about the work that Couchbase is doing in the world of databases and developer relations, as well as the role of AI in their industry and beyond. Together, Corey and Laurent discuss Laurent's many different roles throughout his career including what made him want to come back to a role at Couchbase after stepping away for 5 years. Corey and Laurent dig deep on how Couchbase has grown in recent years and how it's using artificial intelligence to offer an even better experience to the end user.About LaurentLaurent Doguin is Director of Developer Relations & Strategy at Couchbase (NASDAQ: BASE), a cloud database platform company that 30% of the Fortune 100 depend on.Links Referenced: Couchbase: https://couchbase.com XKCD #927: https://xkcd.com/927/ dbdb.io: https://dbdb.io DB-Engines: https://db-engines.com/en/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldoguin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ldoguin/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Are you navigating the complex web of API management, microservices, and Kubernetes in your organization? Solo.io is here to be your guide to connectivity in the cloud-native universe!Solo.io, the powerhouse behind Istio, is revolutionizing cloud-native application networking. They brought you Gloo Gateway, the lightweight and ultra-fast gateway built for modern API management, and Gloo Mesh Core, a necessary step to secure, support, and operate your Istio environment.Why struggle with the nuts and bolts of infrastructure when you can focus on what truly matters - your application. Solo.io's got your back with networking for applications, not infrastructure. Embrace zero trust security, GitOps automation, and seamless multi-cloud networking, all with Solo.io.And here's the real game-changer: a common interface for every connection, in every direction, all with one API. It's the future of connectivity, and it's called Gloo by Solo.io.DevOps and Platform Engineers, your journey to a seamless cloud-native experience starts here. Visit solo.io/screaminginthecloud today and level up your networking game.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud, I'm Corey Quinn. This promoted guest episode is brought to us by our friends at Couchbase. And before we start talking about Couchbase, I would rather talk about not being at Couchbase. Laurent Doguin is the Director of Developer Relations and Strategy at Couchbase. First, Laurent, thank you for joining me.Laurent: Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.Corey: So, what I find interesting is that this is your second time at Couchbase, where you were a developer advocate there for a couple of years, then you had five years of, we'll call it wilderness I suppose, and then you return to be the Director of Developer Relations. Which also ties into my personal working thesis of, the best way to get promoted at a lot of companies is to leave and then come back. But what caused you to decide, all right, I'm going to go work somewhere else? And what made you come back?Laurent: So, I've joined Couchbase in 2014. Spent about two or three years as a DA. And during those three years as a developer advocate, I've been advocating SQL database and I—at the time, it was mostly DBAs and ops I was talking to. And DBA and ops are, well, recent, modern ops are writing code, but they were not the people I wanted to talk to you when I was a developer advocate. I came from a background of developer, I've been a platform engineer for an enterprise content management company. I was writing code all day.And when I came to Couchbase, I realized I was mostly talking about Docker and Kubernetes, which is still cool, but not what I wanted to do. I wanted to talk about developers, how they use database to be better app, how they use key-value, and those weird thing like MapReduce. At the time, MapReduce was still, like, a weird thing for a lot of people, and probably still is because now everybody's doing SQL. So, that's what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to… engage with people identify with, really. And so, didn't happen. Left. Built a Platform as a Service company called Clever Cloud. They started about four or five years before I joined. We went from seven people to thirty-one LFs, fully bootstrapped, no VC. That's an interesting way to build a company in this age.Corey: Very hard to do because it takes a lot of upfront investment to build software, but you can sort of subsidize that via services, which is what we've done here in some respects. But yeah, that's a hard road to walk.Laurent: That's the model we had—and especially when your competition is AWS or Azure or GCP, so that was interesting. So entrepreneurship, it's not for everyone. I did my four years there and then I realized, maybe I'm going to do something else. I met my former colleagues of Couchbase at a software conference called Devoxx, in France, and they told me, “Well, there's a new sheriff in town. You should come back and talk to us. It's all about developers, we are repositioning, rehandling the way we do marketing at Couchbase. Why not have a conversation with our new CMO, John Kreisa?”And I said, “Well, I mean, I don't have anything to do. I actually built a brewery during that past year with some friends. That was great, but that's not going to feed me or anything. So yeah, let's have a conversation about work.” And so, I talked to John, I talked to a bunch of other people, and I realized [unintelligible 00:03:51], he actually changed, like, there was a—they were purposely going [against 00:03:55] developer, talking to developer. And that was not the case, necessarily, five, six years before that.So, that's why I came back. The product is still amazing, the people are still amazing. It was interesting to find a lot of people that still work there after, what, five years. And it's a company based in… California, headquartered in California, so you would expect people to, you know, jump around a bit. And I was pleasantly surprised to find the same folks there. So, that was also one of the reasons why I came back.Corey: It's always a strong endorsement when former employees rejoin a company. Because, I don't know about you, but I've always been aware of those companies you work for, you leave. Like, “Aw, I'm never doing that again for love or money,” just because it was such an unpleasant experience. So, it speaks well when you see companies that do have a culture of boomerangs, for lack of a better term.Laurent: That's the one we use internally, and there's a couple. More than a couple.Corey: So, one thing that seems to have been a thread through most of your career has been an emphasis on developer experience. And I don't know if we come at it from the same perspective, but to me, what drives nuts is honestly, with my work in cloud, bad developer experience manifests as the developer in question feeling like they're somehow not very good at their job. Like, they're somehow not understanding how all this stuff is supposed to work, and honestly, it leads to feeling like a giant fraud. And I find that it's pernicious because even when I intellectually know for a fact that I'm not the dumbest person ever to use this tool when I don't understand how something works, the bad developer experience manifests to me as, “You're not good enough.” At least, that's where I come at it from.Laurent: And also, I [unintelligible 00:05:34] to people that build these products because if we build the products, the user might be in the same position that we are right now. And so, we might be responsible for that experience [unintelligible 00:05:43] a developer, and that's not a great feeling. So, I completely agree with you. I've tried to… always on software-focused companies, whether it was Nuxeo, Couchbase, Clever Cloud, and then Couchbase. And I guess one of the good thing about coming back to a developer-focused era is all the product alignments.Like, a lot of people talk about product that [grows 00:06:08] and what it means. To me what it means was, what it meant—what it still means—building a product that developer wants to use, and not just want to, sometimes it's imposed to you, but actually are happy to use, and as you said, don't feel completely stupid about it in front of the product. It goes through different things. We've recently revamped our Couchbase UI, Couchbase Capella UI—Couchbase Capella is a managed cloud product—and so we've added a lot of in-product getting started guidelines, snippets of code, to help developers getting started better and not have that feeling of, “What am I doing? Why is it not working and what's going on?”Corey: That's an interesting decision to make, just because historically, working with a bunch of tools, the folks who are building the documentation working with that tool, tend to generally be experts at it, so they tend to optimize for improving things for the experience of someone has been using it for five years as opposed to the newcomer. So, I find that the longer a product is in existence, in many cases, the worse the new user experience becomes because companies tend to grow and sprawl in different ways, the product does likewise. And if you don't know the history behind it, “Oh, your company, what does it do?” And you look at the website and there's 50 different offerings that you have—like, the AWS landing page—it becomes overwhelming very quickly. So, it's neat to see that emphasis throughout the user interface on the new developer experience.On the other side of it, though, how are the folks who've been using it for a while respond to those changes? Because it's frustrating for me at least, when I log into a new account, which happens periodically within AWS land, and I have this giant series of onboarding pop-ups that I have to click to make go away every single time. How are they responding to it?Laurent: Yeah, it's interesting. One of the first things that struck me when I joined Couchbase the first time was the size of the technical documentation team. Because the whole… well, not the whole point, but part of the reason why they exist is to do that, to make sure that you understand all the differences and that it doesn't feel like the [unintelligible 00:08:18] what the documentation or the product pitch or everything. Like, they really, really, really emphasize on this from the very beginning. So, that was interesting.So, when you get that culture built into the products, well, the good thing is… when people try Couchbase, they usually stick with Couchbase. My main issue as a Director of the Developer Relations is not to make people stick with Couchbase because that works fairly well with the product that we have; it's to make them aware that we exist. That's the biggest issue I have. So, my goal as DevRel is to make sure that people get the trial, get through the trial, get all that in-app context, all that helps, get that first sample going, get that first… I'm not going to say product built because that's even a bit further down the line, but you know, get that sample going. We have a code playground, so when you're in the application, you get to actually execute different pieces of code, different languages. And so, we get those numbers and we're happy to see that people actually try that. And that's a, well, that's a good feeling.Corey: I think that there's a definite lack of awareness almost industry-wide around the fact that as the diversity of your customers increases, you have to have different approaches that meet them at various points along the journey. Because things that I've seen are okay, it's easy to ass—even just assuming a binary of, “Okay, I've done this before a thousand times; this is the thousand and first, I don't need the Hello World tutorial,” versus, “Oh, I have no idea what I'm doing. Give me the Hello World tutorial,” there are other points along that continuum, such as, “Oh, I used to do something like this, but it's been three years. Can you give me a refresher,” and so on. I think that there's a desire to try and fit every new user into a predefined persona and that just doesn't work very well as products become more sophisticated.Laurent: It's interesting, we actually have—we went through that work of defining those personas because there are many. And that was the origin of my departure. I had one person, ops slash DBA slash the person that maintain this thing, and I wanted to talk to all the other people that built the application space in Couchbase. So, we broadly segment things into back-end, full-stack, and mobile because Couchbase is also a mobile database. Well, we haven't talked too much about this, so I can explain you quickly what Couchbase is.It's basically a distributed JSON database with an integrated caching layer, so it's reasonably fast. So it does cache, and when the key-value is JSON, then you can create with SQL, you can do full-text search, you can do analytics, you can run user-defined function, you get triggers, you get all that actual SQL going on, it's transactional, you get joins, ANSI joins, you get all those… windowing function. It's modern SQL on the JSON database. So, it's a general-purpose database, and it's a general-purpose database that syncs.I think that's the important part of Couchbase. We are very good at syncing cluster of databases together. So, great for multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, on-prem, whatever suits you. And we also sync on the device, there's a thing called Couchbase Mobile, which is a local database that runs in your phone, and it will sync automatically to the server. So, a general-purpose database that syncs and that's quite modern.We try to fit as much way of growing data as possible in our database. It's kind of a several-in-one database. We call that a data platform. It took me a while to warm up to the word platform because I used to work for an enterprise content management platform and then I've been working for a Platform as a Service and then a data platform. So, it took me a bit of time to warm up to that term, but it explained fairly well, the fact that it's a several-in-one product and we empower people to do the trade-offs that they want.Not everybody needs… SQL. Some people just need key-value, some people need search, some people need to do SQL and search in the same query, which we also want people to do. So, it's about choices, it's about empowering people. And that's why the word platform—which can feel intimidating because it can seem complex, you know, [for 00:12:34] a lot of choices. And choices is maybe the enemy of a good developer experience.And, you know, we can try to talk—we can talk for hours about this. The more services you offer, the more complicated it becomes. What's the sweet spots? We did—our own trade-off was to have good documentation and good in-app help to fix that complexity problem. That's the trade-off that we did.Corey: Well, we should probably divert here just to make sure that we cover the basic groundwork for those who might not be aware: what exactly is Couchbase? I know that it's a database, which honestly, anything is a database if you hold it incorrectly enough; that's my entire shtick. But what is it exactly? Where does it start? Where does it stop?Laurent: Oh, where does it start? That's an interesting question. It's a… a merge—some people would say a fork—of Apache CouchDB, and membase. Membase was a distributed key-value store and CouchDB was this weird Erlang and C JSON REST API database that was built by Damian Katz from Lotus Notes, and that was in 2006 or seven. That was before Node.js.Let's not care about the exact date. The point is, a JSON and REST API-enabled database before Node.js was, like, a strong [laugh] power move. And so, those two merged and created the first version of Couchbase. And then we've added all those things that people want to do, so SQL, full-text search, analytics, user-defined function, mobile sync, you know, all those things. So basically, a general-purpose database.Corey: For what things is it not a great fit? This is always my favorite question to ask database folks because the zealot is going to say, “It's good for every use case under the sun. Use it for everything, start to finish”—Laurent: Yes.Corey: —and very few databases can actually check that box.Laurent: It's a very interesting question because when I pitch like, “We do all the things,” because we are a platform, people say, “Well, you must be doing lots of trade-offs. Where is the trade-off?” The trade-off is basically the way you store something is going to determine the efficiency of your [growing 00:14:45]—or the way you [grow 00:14:47] it. And that's one of the first thing you learn in computer science. You learn about data structure and you know that it's easier to get something in a hashmap when you have the key than passing your whole list of elements and checking your data, is it right one? It's the same for databases.So, our different services are different ways to store the data and to query it. So, where is it not good, it's where we don't have an index or a service that answer to the way you want to query data. We don't have a graph service right now. You can still do recursive common table expression for the SQL nerds out there, that will allow you to do somewhat of a graph way of querying your data, but that's not, like, actual—that's not a great experience for people were expecting a graph, like a Neo4j or whatever was a graph database experience.So, that's the trade-off that we made. We have a lot of things at the same place and it can be a little hard, intimidating to operate, and the developer experience can be a little, “Oh, my God, what is this thing that can do all of those features?” At the same time, that's just, like, one SDK to learn for all of the features we've just talked about. So, that's what we did. That's a trade-off that we did.It sucks to operate—well, [unintelligible 00:16:05] Couchbase Capella, which is a lot like a vendor-ish thing to say, but that's the value props of our managed cloud. It's hard to operate, we'll operate this for you. We have a Kubernetes operator. If you are one of the few people that wants to do Kubernetes at home, that's also something you can do. So yeah, I guess what we cannot do is the thing that Route 53 and [Unbound 00:16:26] and [unintelligible 00:16:27] DNS do, which is this weird DNS database thing that you like so much.Corey: One thing that's, I guess, is a sign of the times, but I have to confess that I'm relatively skeptical around, when I pull up couchbase.com—as one does; you're publicly traded; I don't feel that your company has much of a choice in this—but the first thing it greets me with is Couchbase Capella—which, yes, that is your hosted flagship product; that should be the first thing I see on the website—then it says, “Announcing Capella iQ, AI-powered coding assistance for developers.” Which oh, great, not another one of these.So, all right, give me the pitch. What is the story around, “Ooh, everything that has been a problem before, AI is going to make it way better.” Because I've already talked to you about developer experience. I know where you stand on these things. I have a suspicion you would not be here to endorse something you don't believe in. How does the AI magic work in this context?Laurent: So, that's the thing, like, who's going to be the one that get their products out before the other? And so, we're announcing it on the website. It's available on the private preview only right now. I've tried it. It works.How does it works? The way most chatbot AI code generation work is there's a big model, large language model that people use and that people fine-tune into in order to specialize it to the tasks that they want to do. The way we've built Couchbase iQ is we picked a very famous large language model, and when you ask a question to a bot, there's a context, there's a… the size of the window basically, that allows you to fit as much contextual information as possible. The way it works and the reason why it's integrated into Couchbase Capella is we make sure that we preload that context as much as possible and fine-tune that model, that [foundation 00:18:19] model, as much as possible to do whatever you want to do with Couchbase, which usually falls into several—a couple of categories, really—well maybe three—you want to write SQL, you want to generate data—actually, that's four—you want to generate data, you want to generate code, and if you paste some SQL code or some application code, you want to ask that model, what does do? It's especially true for SQL queries.And one of the questions that many people ask and are scared of with chatbot is how does it work in terms of learning? If you give a chatbot to someone that's very new to something, and they're just going to basically use a chatbot like Stack Overflow and not really think about what they're doing, well it's not [great 00:19:03] right, but because that's the example that people think most developer will do is generate code. Writing code is, like, a small part of our job. Like, a substantial part of our job is understanding what the code does.Corey: We spend a lot more time reading code than writing it, if we're, you know—Laurent: Yes.Corey: Not completely foolish.Laurent: Absolutely. And sometimes reading big SQL query can be a bit daunting, especially if you're new to that. And one of the good things that you get—Corey: Oh, even if you're not, it can still be quite daunting, let me assure you.Laurent: [laugh]. I think it's an acquired taste, let's be honest. Some people like to write assembly code and some people like to write SQL. I'm sort of in the middle right now. You pass your SQL query, and it's going to tell you more or less what it does, and that's a very nice superpower of AI. I think that's [unintelligible 00:19:48] that's the one that interests me the most right now is using AI to understand and to work better with existing pieces of code.Because a lot of people think that the cost of software is writing the software. It's maintaining the codebase you've written. That's the cost of the software. That's our job as developers should be to write legacy code because it means you've provided value long enough. And so, if in a company that works pretty well and there's a lot of legacy code and there's a lot of new people coming in and they'll have to learn all those things, and to be honest, sometimes we don't document stuff as much as we should—Corey: “The code is self-documenting,” is one of the biggest lies I hear in tech.Laurent: Yes, of course, which is why people are asking retired people to go back to COBOL again because nobody can read it and it's not documented. Actually, if someone's looking for a company to build, I guess, explaining COBOL code with AI would be a pretty good fit to do in many places.Corey: Yeah, it feels like that's one of those things that would be of benefit to the larger world. The counterpoint to that is you got that many business processes wrapped around something running COBOL—and I assure you, if you don't, you would have migrated off of COBOL long before now—it's making sure that okay well, computers, when they're in the form of AI, are very, very good at being confident-sounding when they talk about things, but they can also do that when they're completely wrong. It's basically a BS generator. And that is a scary thing when you're taking a look at something that broad. I mean, I'll use the AI coding assistance for things all the time, but those things look a lot more like, “Okay, I haven't written CloudFormation from scratch in a while. Build out the template, just because I forget the exact sequence.” And it's mostly right on things like that. But then you start getting into some of the real nuanced areas like race conditions and the rest, and often it can make things worse instead of better. That's the scary part, for me, at least.Laurent: Most coding assistants are… and actually, each time you ask its opinion to an AI, they say, “Well, you should take this with a grain of salt and we are not a hundred percent sure that this is the case.” And this is, make sure you proofread that, which again, from a learning perspective, can be a bit hard to give to new students. Like, you're giving something to someone and might—that assumes is probably as right as Wikipedia but actually, it's not. And it's part of why it works so well. Like, the anthropomorphism that you get with chatbots, like, this, it feels so human. That's why it get people so excited about it because if you think about it, it's not that new. It's just the moment it took off was the moment it looked like an assertive human being.Corey: As you take a look through, I guess, the larger ecosystem now, as well as the database space, given that is where you specialize, what do you think people are getting right and what do you think people are getting wrong?Laurent: There's a couple of ways of seeing this. Right now, when I look at from the outside, every databases is going back to SQL, I think there's a good reason for that. And it's interesting to put into perspective with AI because when you generate something, there's probably less chance to generate something wrong with SQL than generating something with code directly. And I think five generation—was it four or five generation language—there some language generation, so basically, the first innovation is assembly [into 00:23:03] in one and then you get more evolved languages, and at some point you get SQL. And SQL is a way to very shortly express a whole lot of business logic.And I think what people are doing right now is going back to SQL. And it's been impressive to me how even new developers that were all about [ORMs 00:23:25] and [no-DMs 00:23:26], and you know, avoiding writing SQL as much as possible, are actually back to it. And that's, for an old guy like me—well I mean, not that old—it feels good. I think SQL is coming back with a vengeance and that makes me very happy. I think what people don't realize is that it also involves doing data modeling, right, and stuff because database like Couchbase that are schemaless exist. You should store your data without thinking about it, you should still do data modeling. It's important. So, I think that's the interesting bits. What are people doing wrong in that space? I'm… I don't want to say bad thing about other databases, so I cannot even process that thought right now.Corey: That's okay. I'm thrilled to say negative things about any database under the sun. They all haunt me. I mean, someone wants to describe SQL to me is the chess of the programming world and I feel like that's very accurate. I have found that it is far easier in working with databases to make mistakes that don't wash off after a new deployment than it is in most other realms of technology. And when you're lucky and have a particular aura, you tend to avoid that stuff, at least that was always my approach.Laurent: I think if I had something to say, so just like the XKCD about standards: like, “there's 14 standards. I'm going to do one that's going to unify them all.” And it's the same with database. There's a lot… a [laugh] lot of databases. Have you ever been on a website called dbdb.io?Corey: Which one is it? I'm sorry.Laurent: Dbdb.io is the database of databases, and it's very [laugh] interesting website for database nerds. And so, if you're into database, dbdb.io. And you will find Couchbase and you will find a whole bunch of other databases, and you'll get to know which database is derived from which other database, you get the history, you get all those things. It's actually pretty interesting.Corey: I'm familiar with DB-Engines, which is sort of like the ranking databases by popularity, and companies will bend over backwards to wind up hitting all of the various things that they want in that space. The counterpoint with all of it is that it's… it feels historically like there haven't exactly been an awful lot of, shall we say, huge innovations in databases for the past few years. I mean, sure, we hear about vectors all the time now because of the joy that's AI, but smarter people than I are talking about how, well that's more of a feature than it is a core database. And the continual battle that we all hear about constantly is—and deal with ourselves—of should we use a general-purpose database, or a task-specific database for this thing that I'm doing remains largely unsolved.Laurent: Yeah, what's new? And when you look at it, it's like, we are going back to our roots and bringing SQL again. So, is there anything new? I guess most of the new stuff, all the interesting stuff in the 2010s—well, basically with the cloud—were all about the distribution side of things and were all about distributed consensus, Zookeeper, etcd, all that stuff. Couchbase is using an RAFT-like algorithm to keep every node happy and under the same cluster.I think that's one of the most interesting things we've had for the past… well, not for the past ten years, but between, basically, 20 or… between the start of AWS and well, let's say seven years ago. I think the end of the distribution game was brought to us by the people that have atomic clock in every data center because that's what you use to synchronize things. So, that was interesting things. And then suddenly, there wasn't that much innovation in the distributed world, maybe because Aphyr disappeared from Twitter. That might be one of the reason. He's not here to scare people enough to be better at that.Aphyr was the person behind the test called the Jepsen Test [shoot 00:27:12]. I think his blog engine was called Call Me Maybe, and he was going through every distributed system and trying to break them. And that was super interesting. And it feels like we're not talking that much about this anymore. It really feels like database have gone back to the status of infrastructure.In 2010, it was not about infrastructure. It was about developer empowerment. It was about serving JSON and developer experience and making sure that you can code faster without some constraint in a distributed world. And like, we fixed this for the most part. And the way we fixed this—and as you said, lack of innovation, maybe—has brought databases back to an infrastructure layer.Again, it wasn't the case 15 years a—well, 2023—13 years ago. And that's interesting. When you look at the new generation of databases, sometimes it's just a gateway on top of a well-known database and they call that a database, but it provides higher-level services, provides higher-level bricks, better developer experience to developer to build stuff faster. We've been trying to do this with Couchbase App Service and our sync gateway, which is basically a gateway on top of a Couchbase cluster that allow you to manage authentication, authorization, that allows you to manage synchronization with your mobile device or with websites. And yeah, I think that's the most interesting thing to me in this industry is how it's been relegated back to infrastructure, and all the cool stuff, new stuff happens on the layer above that.Corey: I really want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. If people want to learn more, where's the best place for them to find you?Laurent: Thanks for having me and for entertaining this conversation. I can be found anywhere on the internet with these six letters: L-D-O-G-U-I-N. That's actually 7 letters. Ldoguin. That's my handle on pretty much any social network. Ldoguin. So X, [BlueSky 00:29:21], LinkedIn. I don't know where to be anymore.Corey: I hear you. We'll put links to all of it in the [show notes 00:29:27] and let people figure out where they want to go on that. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really do appreciate it.Laurent: Thanks for having me.Corey: Laurent Doguin, Director of Developer Relations and Strategy at Couchbase. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this episode has been brought to us by our friends at Couchbase. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry comment that you're not going to be able to submit properly because that platform of choice did not pay enough attention to the experience of typing in a comment.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

As we exit the spooky season, we're checking in with our resident database expert and Field Solutions Architect, Anthony Nocentino, to revisit the common problems that plague data management. Anthony shares customer anecdotes around several places that DBAs struggle to maintain consistent database operations and how Pure can help alleviate these challenges. Why is it important to businesses to deliver consistent response times to end users? What are the impacts of downtime? How can improved and streamlined copy/clone and refresh processes positively impact business value creation and why are snapshots the key to this? And yes, we hit on scripting, PowerShell, and automation - all friends to the DBA to automate daily tasks and spend less time in swivel-chair management. It's all about satisfying the end users and application owners and their need for consistent and reliable data where and when they need it - and Pure does it best. For more on Pure Storage solutions for database operations: www.purestorage.com/applications

Get ready for an eye-opening episode of The Wicked Biz Podcast! In this week's episode, we dive deep into the legalities of expanding your business and adding additional streams of income. Join us as we sit down with the brilliant Reonna Green, the powerhouse behind She Trademarks. With her unique background as a hairdresser turned attorney, Reonna specializes in trademark law specifically tailored for beauty businesses. Together, we explore the crucial legal requirements behind incorporating merch, training programs, lash products, events, and more into your business model. But that's not all - we also unravel the mysteries surrounding LLCs and DBAs, shedding light on the differences and ensuring you're armed with the right knowledge to make smart decisions. So, whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, tune in to uncover the legal gems that will propel your business to new heights. You won't want to miss this valuable episode!Get your PASSION 4 LASHIN' Ebook!Online Lash Lift CourseMy IG: @wednesdaythelasherReonna's IG: @shetrademarks

Tony Baer, Principal at dbInsight, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss his definition of what is and isn't a database, and the trends he's seeing in the industry. Tony explains why it's important to try and have an outsider's perspective when evaluating new ideas, and the growing awareness of the impact data has on our daily lives. Corey and Tony discuss the importance of working towards true operational simplicity in the cloud, and Tony also shares why explainability in generative AI is so crucial as the technology advances. About TonyTony Baer, the founder and CEO of dbInsight, is a recognized industry expert in extending data management practices, governance, and advanced analytics to address the desire of enterprises to generate meaningful value from data-driven transformation. His combined expertise in both legacy database technologies and emerging cloud and analytics technologies shapes how clients go to market in an industry undergoing significant transformation. During his 10 years as a principal analyst at Ovum, he established successful research practices in the firm's fastest growing categories, including big data, cloud data management, and product lifecycle management. He advised Ovum clients regarding product roadmap, positioning, and messaging and helped them understand how to evolve data management and analytic strategies as the cloud, big data, and AI moved the goal posts. Baer was one of Ovum's most heavily-billed analysts and provided strategic counsel to enterprises spanning the Fortune 100 to fast-growing privately held companies.With the cloud transforming the competitive landscape for database and analytics providers, Baer led deep dive research on the data platform portfolios of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, and on how cloud transformation changed the roadmaps for incumbents such as Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Teradata. While at Ovum, he originated the term “Fast Data” which has since become synonymous with real-time streaming analytics.Baer's thought leadership and broad market influence in big data and analytics has been formally recognized on numerous occasions. Analytics Insight named him one of the 2019 Top 100 Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Influencers. Previous citations include Onalytica, which named Baer as one of the world's Top 20 thought leaders and influencers on Data Science; Analytics Week, which named him as one of 200 top thought leaders in Big Data and Analytics; and by KDnuggets, which listed Baer as one of the Top 12 top data analytics thought leaders on Twitter. While at Ovum, Baer was Ovum's IT's most visible and publicly quoted analyst, and was cited by Ovum's parent company Informa as Brand Ambassador in 2017. In raw numbers, Baer has 14,000 followers on Twitter, and his ZDnet “Big on Data” posts are read 20,000 – 30,000 times monthly. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as Strata Data and Spark Summit.Links Referenced:dbInsight: https://dbinsight.io/ TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: This episode is brought to us in part by our friends at RedHat.As your organization grows, so does the complexity of your IT resources. You need a flexible solution that lets you deploy, manage, and scale workloads throughout your entire ecosystem. The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform simplifies the management of applications and services across your hybrid infrastructure with one platform. Look for it on the AWS Marketplace.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. Back in my early formative years, I was an SRE sysadmin type, and one of the areas I always avoided was databases, or frankly, anything stateful because I am clumsy and unlucky and that's a bad combination to bring within spitting distance of anything that, you know, can't be spun back up intact, like databases. So, as a result, I tend not to spend a lot of time historically living in that world. It's time to expand horizons and think about this a little bit differently. My guest today is Tony Baer, principal at dbInsight. Tony, thank you for joining me.Tony: Oh, Corey, thanks for having me. And by the way, we'll try and basically knock down your primal fear of databases today. That's my mission.Corey: We're going to instill new fears in you. Because I was looking through a lot of your work over the years, and the criticism I have—and always the best place to deliver criticism is massively in public—is that you take a very conservative, stodgy approach to defining a database, whereas I'm on the opposite side of the world. I contain information. You can ask me about it, which we'll call querying. That's right. I'm a database.But I've never yet found myself listed in any of your analyses around various database options. So, what is your definition of databases these days? Where do they start and stop? Tony: Oh, gosh.Corey: Because anything can be a database if you hold it wrong.Tony: [laugh]. I think one of the last things I've ever been called as conservative and stodgy, so this is certainly a way to basically put the thumbtack on my share.Corey: Exactly. I'm trying to normalize my own brand of lunacy, so we'll see how it goes.Tony: Exactly because that's the role I normally play with my clients. So, now the shoe is on the other foot. What I view a database is, is basically a managed collection of data, and it's managed to the point where essentially, a database should be transactional—in other words, when I basically put some data in, I should have some positive information, I should hopefully, depending on the type of database, have some sort of guidelines or schema or model for how I structure the data. So, I mean, database, you know, even though you keep hearing about unstructured data, the fact is—Corey: Schemaless databases and data stores. Yeah, it was all the rage for a few years.Tony: Yeah, except that they all have schemas, just that those schemaless databases just have very variable schema. They're still schema.Corey: A question that I have is you obviously think deeply about these things, which should not come as a surprise to anyone. It's like, “Well, this is where I spend my entire career. Imagine that. I might think about the problem space a little bit.” But you have, to my understanding, never worked with databases in anger yourself. You don't have a history as a DBA or as an engineer—Tony: No.Corey: —but what I find very odd is that unlike a whole bunch of other analysts that I'm not going to name, but people know who I'm talking about regardless, you bring actual insights into this that I find useful and compelling, instead of reverting to the mean of well, I don't actually understand how any of these things work in reality, so I'm just going to believe whoever sounds the most confident when I ask a bunch of people about these things. Are you just asking the right people who also happen to sound confident? But how do you get away from that very common analyst trap?Tony: Well, a couple of things. One is I purposely play the role of outside observer. In other words, like, the idea is that if basically an idea is supposed to stand on its own legs, it has to make sense. If I've been working inside the industry, I might take too many things for granted. And a good example of this goes back, actually, to my early days—actually this goes back to my freshman year in college where I was taking an organic chem course for non-majors, and it was taught as a logic course not as a memorization course.And we were given the option at the end of the term to either, basically, take a final or  do a paper. So, of course, me being a writer I thought, I can BS my way through this. But what I found—and this is what fascinated me—is that as long as certain technical terms were defined for me, I found a logic to the way things work. And so, that really informs how I approach databases, how I approach technology today is I look at the logic  on how things work. That being said, in order for me to understand that, I need to know twice as much as the next guy in order to be able to speak that because I just don't do this in my sleep.Corey: That goes a big step toward, I guess, addressing a lot of these things, but it also feels like—and maybe this is just me paying closer attention—that the world of databases and data and analytics have really coalesced or emerged in a very different way over the past decade-ish. It used to be, at least from my perspective, that oh, that the actual, all the data we store, that's a storage admin problem. And that was about managing NetApps and SANs and the rest. And then you had the database side of it, which functionally from the storage side of the world was just a big file or series of files that are the backing store for the database. And okay, there's not a lot of cross-communication going on there.Then with the rise of object store, it started being a little bit different. And even the way that everyone is talking about getting meaning from data has really seem to be evolving at an incredibly intense clip lately. Is that an accurate perception, or have I just been asleep at the wheel for a while and finally woke up?Tony: No, I think you're onto something there. And the reason is that, one, data is touching us all around ourselves, and the fact is, I mean, I'm you can see it in the same way that all of a sudden that people know how to spell AI. They may not know what it means, but the thing is, there is an awareness the data that we work with, the data that is about us, it follows us, and with the cloud, this data has—well, I should say not just with the cloud but with smart mobile devices—we'll blame that—we are all each founts of data, and rich founts of data. And people in all walks of life, not just in the industry, are now becoming aware of it and there's a lot of concern about can we have any control, any ownership over the data that should be ours? So, I think that phenomenon has also happened in the enterprise, where essentially where we used to think that the data was the DBAs' issue, it's become the app developers' issue, it's become the business analysts' issue. Because the answers that we get, we're ultimately accountable for. It all comes from the data.Corey: It also feels like there's this idea of databases themselves becoming more contextually aware of the data contained within them. Originally, this used to be in the realm of, “Oh, we know what's been accessed recently and we can tier out where it lives for storage optimization purposes.” Okay, great, but what I'm seeing now almost seems to be a sense of, people like to talk about pouring ML into their database offerings. And I'm not able to tell whether that is something that adds actual value, or if it's marketing-ware.Tony: Okay. First off, let me kind of spill a couple of things. First of all, it's not a question of the database becoming aware. A database is not sentient.Corey: Niether are some engineers, but that's neither here nor there.Tony: That would be true, but then again, I don't want anyone with shotguns lining up at my door after this—Corey: [laugh].Tony: —after this interview is published. But [laugh] more of the point, though, is that I can see a couple roles for machine learning in databases. One is a database itself, the logs, are an incredible font of data, of operational data. And you can look at trends in terms of when this—when the pattern of these logs goes this way, that is likely to happen. So, the thing is that I could very easily say we're already seeing it: machine learning being used to help optimize the operation of databases, if you're Oracle, and say, “Hey, we can have a database that runs itself.”The other side of the coin is being able to run your own machine-learning models in database as opposed to having to go out into a separate cluster and move the data, and that's becoming more and more of a checkbox feature. However, that's going to be for essentially, probably, like, the low-hanging fruit, like the 80/20 rule. It'll be like the 20% of an ana—of relatively rudimentary, you know, let's say, predictive analyses that we can do inside the database. If you're going to be doing something more ambitious, such as a, you know, a large language model, you probably do not want to run that in database itself. So, there's a difference there.Corey: One would hope. I mean, one of the inappropriate uses of technology that I go for all the time is finding ways to—as directed or otherwise—in off-label uses find ways of tricking different services into running containers for me. It's kind of a problem; this is probably why everyone is very grateful I no longer write production code for anyone.But it does seem that there's been an awful lot of noise lately. I'm lazy. I take shortcuts very often, and one of those is that whenever AWS talks about something extensively through multiple marketing cycles, it becomes usually a pretty good indicator that they're on their back foot on that area. And for a long time, they were doing that about data and how it's very important to gather data, it unlocks the key to your business, but it always felt a little hollow-slash-hypocritical to me because you're going to some of the same events that I have that AWS throws on. You notice how you have to fill out the exact same form with a whole bunch of mandatory fields every single time, but there never seems to be anything that gets spat back out to you that demonstrates that any human or system has ever read—Tony: Right.Corey: Any of that? It's basically a, “Do what we say, not what we do,” style of story. And I always found that to be a little bit disingenuous.Tony: I don't want to just harp on AWS here. Of course, we can always talk about the two-pizza box rule and the fact that you have lots of small teams there, but I'd rather generalize this. And I think you really—what you're just describing is been my trip through the healthcare system. I had some sports-related injuries this summer, so I've been through a couple of surgeries to repair sports injuries. And it's amazing that every time you go to the doctor's office, you're filling the same HIPAA information over and over again, even with healthcare systems that use the same electronic health records software. So, it's more a function of that it's not just that the technologies are siloed, it's that the organizations are siloed. That's what you're saying.Corey: That is fair. And I think at some level—I don't know if this is a weird extension of Conway's Law or whatnot—but these things all have different backing stores as far as data goes. And there's a—the hard part, it seems, in a lot of companies once they hit a certain point of maturity is not just getting the data in—because they've already done that to some extent—but it's also then making it actionable and helping various data stores internal to the company reconcile with one another and start surfacing things that are useful. It increasingly feels like it's less of a technology problem and more of a people problem.Tony: It is. I mean, put it this way, I spent a lot of time last year, I burned a lot of brain cells working on data fabrics, which is an idea that's in the idea of the beholder. But the ideal of a data fabric is that it's not the tool that necessarily governs your data or secures your data or moves your data or transforms your data, but it's supposed to be the master orchestrator that brings all that stuff together. And maybe sometime 50 years in the future, we might see that.I think the problem here is both technical and organizational. [unintelligible 00:11:58] a promise, you have all these what we used call island silos. We still call them silos or islands of information. And actually, ironically, even though in the cloud we have technologies where we can integrate this, the cloud has actually exacerbated this issue because there's so many islands of information, you know, coming up, and there's so many different little parts of the organization that have their hands on that. That's also a large part of why there's such a big discussion about, for instance, data mesh last year: everybody is concerned about owning their own little piece of the pie, and there's a lot of question in terms of how do we get some consistency there? How do we all read from the same sheet of music? That's going to be an ongoing problem. You and I are going to get very old before that ever gets solved.Corey: Yeah, there are certain things that I am content to die knowing that they will not get solved. If they ever get solved, I will not live to see it, and there's a certain comfort in that, on some level.Tony: Yeah.Corey: But it feels like this stuff is also getting more and more complicated than it used to be, and terms aren't being used in quite the same way as they once were. Something that a number of companies have been saying for a while now has been that customers overwhelmingly are preferring open-source. Open source is important to them when it comes to their database selection. And I feel like that's a conflation of a couple of things. I've never yet found an ideological, purity-driven customer decision around that sort of thing.What they care about is, are there multiple vendors who can provide this thing so I'm not going to be using a commercially licensed database that can arbitrarily start playing games with seat licenses and wind up distorting my cost structure massively with very little notice. Does that align with your—Tony: Yeah.Corey: Understanding of what people are talking about when they say that, or am I missing something fundamental? Which is again, always possible?Tony: No, I think you're onto something there. Open-source is a whole other can of worms, and I've burned many, many brain cells over this one as well. And today, you're seeing a lot of pieces about the, you know, the—that are basically giving eulogies for open-source. It's—you know, like HashiCorp just finally changed its license and a bunch of others have in the database world. What open-source has meant is been—and I think for practitioners, for DBAs and developers—here's a platform that's been implemented by many different vendors, which means my skills are portable.And so, I think that's really been the key to why, for instance, like, you know, MySQL and especially PostgreSQL have really exploded, you know, in popularity. Especially Postgres, you know, of late. And it's like, you look at Postgres, it's a very unglamorous database. If you're talking about stodgy, it was born to be stodgy because they wanted to be an adult database from the start. They weren't the LAMP stack like MySQL.And the secret of success with Postgres was that it had a very permissive open-source license, which meant that as long as you don't hold University of California at Berkeley, liable, have at it, kids. And so, you see, like, a lot of different flavors of Postgres out there, which means that a lot of customers are attracted to that because if I get up to speed on this Postgres—on one Postgres database, my skills should be transferable, should be portable to another. So, I think that's a lot of what's happening there.Corey: Well, I do want to call that out in particular because when I was coming up in the naughts, the mid-2000s decade, the lingua franca on everything I used was MySQL, or as I insist on mispronouncing it, my-squeal. And lately, on same vein, Postgres-squeal seems to have taken over the entire universe, when it comes to the de facto database of choice. And I'm old and grumpy and learning new things as always challenging, so I don't understand a lot of the ways that thing gets managed from the context coming from where I did before, but what has driven the massive growth of mindshare among the Postgres-squeal set?Tony: Well, I think it's a matter of it's 30 years old and it's—number one, Postgres always positioned itself as an Oracle alternative. And the early years, you know, this is a new database, how are you going to be able to match, at that point, Oracle had about a 15-year headstart on it. And so, it was a gradual climb to respectability. And I have huge respect for Oracle, don't get me wrong on that, but you take a look at Postgres today and they have basically filled in a lot of the blanks.And so, it now is a very cre—in many cases, it's a credible alternative to Oracle. Can it do all the things Oracle can do? No. But for a lot of organizations, it's the 80/20 rule. And so, I think it's more just a matter of, like, Postgres coming of age. And the fact is, as a result of it coming of age, there's a huge marketplace out there and so much choice, and so much opportunity for skills portability. So, it's really one of those things where its time has come.Corey: I think that a lot of my own biases are simply a product of the era in which I learned how a lot of these things work on. I am terrible at Node, for example, but I would be hard-pressed not to suggest JavaScript as the default language that people should pick up if they're just entering tech today. It does front-end, it does back-end—Tony: Sure.Corey: —it even makes fries, apparently. There's a—that is the lingua franca of the modern internet in a bunch of different ways. That doesn't mean I'm any good at it, and it doesn't mean at this stage, I'm likely to improve massively at it, but it is the right move, even if it is inconvenient for me personally.Tony: Right. Right. Put it this way, we've seen—and as I said, I'm not an expert in programming languages, but we've seen a huge profusion of programming languages and frameworks. But the fact is that there's always been a draw towards critical mass. At the turn of the millennium, we thought is between Java and .NET. Little did we know that basically JavaScript—which at that point was just a web scripting language—[laugh] we didn't know that it could work on the server; we thought it was just a client. Who knew?Corey: That's like using something inappropriately as a database. I mean, good heavens.Tony: [laugh]. That would be true. I mean, when I could have, you know, easily just use a spreadsheet or something like that. But so, I mean, who knew? I mean, just like for instance, Java itself was originally conceived for a set-top box. You never know how this stuff is going to turn out. It's the same thing happen with Python. Python was also a web scripting language. Oh, by the way, it happens to be really powerful and flexible for data science. And whoa, you know, now Python is—in terms of data science languages—has become the new SaaS.Corey: It really took over in a bunch of different ways. Before that, Perl was great, and I go, “Why would I use—why write in Python when Perl is available?” It's like, “Okay, you know, how to write Perl, right?” “Yeah.” “Have you ever read anything a month later?” “Oh…” it's very much a write-only language. It is inscrutable after the fact. And Python at least makes that a lot more approachable, which is never a bad thing.Tony: Yeah.Corey: Speaking of what you touched on toward the beginning of this episode, the idea of databases not being sentient, which I equate to being self-aware, you just came out very recently with a report on generative AI and a trip that you wound up taking on this. Which I've read; I love it. In fact, we've both been independently using the phrase [unintelligible 00:19:09] to, “English is the new most common programming language once a lot of this stuff takes off.” But what have you seen? What have you witnessed as far as both the ground truth reality as well as the grandiose statements that companies are making as they trip over themselves trying to position as the forefront leader and all of this thing that didn't really exist five months ago?Tony: Well, what's funny is—and that's a perfect question because if on January 1st you asked “what's going to happen this year?” I don't think any of us would have thought about generative AI or large language models. And I will not identify the vendors, but I did some that had— was on some advanced briefing calls back around the January, February timeframe. They were talking about things like server lists, they were talking about in database machine learning and so on and so forth. They weren't saying anything about generative.And all of a sudden, April, it changed. And it's essentially just another case of the tail wagging the dog. Consumers were flocking to ChatGPT and enterprises had to take notice. And so, what I saw, in the spring was—and I was at a conference from SaaS, I'm [unintelligible 00:20:21] SAP, Oracle, IBM, Mongo, Snowflake, Databricks and others—that they all very quickly changed their tune to talk about generative AI. What we were seeing was for the most part, position statements, but we also saw, I think, the early emphasis was, as you say, it's basically English as the new default programming language or API, so basically, coding assistance, what I'll call conversational query.I don't want to call it natural language query because we had stuff like Tableau Ask Data, which was very robotic. So, we're seeing a lot of that. And we're also seeing a lot of attention towards foundation models because I mean, what organization is going to have the resources of a Google or an open AI to develop their own foundation model? Yes, some of the Wall Street houses might, but I think most of them are just going to say, “Look, let's just use this as a starting point.”I also saw a very big theme for your models with your data. And where I got a hint of that—it was a throwaway LinkedIn post. It was back in, I think like, February, Databricks had announced Dolly, which was kind of an experimental foundation model, just to use with your own data. And I just wrote three lines in a LinkedIn post, it was on Friday afternoon. By Monday, it had 65,000 hits.I've never seen anything—I mean, yes, I had a lot—I used to say ‘data mesh' last year, and it would—but didn't get anywhere near that. So, I mean, that really hit a nerve. And other things that I saw, was the, you know, the starting to look with vector storage and how that was going to be supported was it was going be a new type of database, and hey, let's have AWS come up with, like, an, you know, an [ADF 00:21:41] database here or is this going to be a feature? I think for the most part, it's going to be a feature. And of course, under all this, everybody's just falling in love, falling all over themselves to get in the good graces of Nvidia. In capsule, that's kind of like what I saw.Corey: That feels directionally accurate. And I think databases are a great area to point out one thing that's always been more a little disconcerting for me. The way that I've always viewed databases has been, unless I'm calling a RAND function or something like it and I don't change the underlying data structure, I should be able to run a query twice in a row and receive the same result deterministically both times.Tony: Mm-hm.Corey: Generative AI is effectively non-deterministic for all realistic measures of that term. Yes, I'm sure there's a deterministic reason things are under the hood. I am not smart enough or learned enough to get there. But it just feels like sometimes we're going to give you the answer you think you're going to get, sometimes we're going to give you a different answer. And sometimes, in generative AI space, we're going to be supremely confident and also completely wrong. That feels dangerous to me.Tony: [laugh]. Oh gosh, yes. I mean, I take a look at ChatGPT and to me, the responses are essentially, it's a high school senior coming out with an essay response without any footnotes. It's the exact opposite of an ACID database. The reason why we're very—in the database world, we're very strongly drawn towards ACID is because we want our data to be consistent and to get—if we ask the same query, we're going to get the same answer.And the problem is, is that with generative, you know, based on large language models, computers sounds sentient, but they're not. Large language models are basically just a series of probabilities, and so hopefully those probabilities will line up and you'll get something similar. That to me, kind of scares me quite a bit. And I think as we start to look at implementing this in an enterprise setting, we need to take a look at what kind of guardrails can we put on there. And the thing is, that what this led me to was that missing piece that I saw this spring with generative AI, at least in the data and analytics world, is nobody had a clue in terms of how to extend AI governance to this, how to make these models explainable. And I think that's still—that's a large problem. That's a huge nut that it's going to take the industry a while to crack.Corey: Yeah, but it's incredibly important that it does get cracked.Tony: Oh, gosh, yes.Corey: One last topic that I want to get into. I know you said you don't want to over-index on AWS, which, fair enough. It is where I spend the bulk of my professional time and energy—Tony: [laugh].Corey: Focusing on, but I think this one's fair because it is a microcosm of a broader industry question. And that is, I don't know what the DBA job of the future is going to look like, but increasingly, it feels like it's going to primarily be picking which purpose-built AWS database—or larger [story 00:24:56] purpose database is appropriate for a given workload. Even without my inappropriate misuse of things that are not databases as databases, they are legitimately 15 or 16 different AWS services that they position as database offerings. And it really feels like you're spiraling down a well of analysis paralysis, trying to pick between all these things. Do you think the future looks more like general-purpose databases, or very purpose-built and each one is this beautiful, bespoke unicorn?Tony: [laugh]. Well, this is basically a hit on a theme that I've been—you know, we've been all been thinking about for years. And the thing is, there are arguments to be made for multi-model databases, you know, versus a for-purpose database. That being said, okay, two things. One is that what I've been saying, in general, is that—and I wrote about this way, way back; I actually did a talk at the [unintelligible 00:25:50]; it was a throwaway talk, or [unintelligible 00:25:52] one of those conferences—I threw it together and it's basically looking at the emergence of all these specialized databases.But how I saw, also, there's going to be kind of an overlapping. Not that we're going to come back to Pangea per se, but that, for instance, like, a relational database will be able to support JSON. And Oracle, for instance, does has some fairly brilliant ideas up the sleeve, what they call a JSON duality, which sounds kind of scary, which basically says, “We can store data relationally, but superimpose GraphQL on top of all of this and this is going to look really JSON-y.” So, I think on one hand, you are going to be seeing databases that do overlap. Would I use Oracle for a MongoDB use case? No, but would I use Oracle for a case where I might have some document data? I could certainly see that.The other point, though, and this is really one I want to hammer on here—it's kind of a major concern I've had—is I think the cloud vendors, for all their talk that we give you operational simplicity and agility are making things very complex with its expanding cornucopia of services. And what they need to do—I'm not saying, you know, let's close down the patent office—what I think we do is we need to provide some guided experiences that says, “Tell us the use case. We will now blend these particular services together and this is the package that we would suggest.” I think cloud vendors really need to go back to the drawing board from that standpoint and look at, how do we bring this all together? How would he really simplify the life of the customer?Corey: That is, honestly, I think the biggest challenge that the cloud providers have across the board. There are hundreds of services available at this point from every hyperscaler out there. And some of them are brand new and effectively feel like they're there for three or four different customers and that's about it and others are universal services that most people are probably going to use. And most things fall in between those two extremes, but it becomes such an analysis paralysis moment of trying to figure out what do I do here? What is the golden path?And what that means is that when you start talking to other people and asking their opinion and getting their guidance on how to do something when you get stuck, it's, “Oh, you're using that service? Don't do it. Use this other thing instead.” And if you listen to that, you get midway through every problem for them to start over again because, “Oh, I'm going to pick a different selection of underlying components.” It becomes confusing and complicated, and I think it does customers largely a disservice. What I think we really need, on some level, is a simplified golden path with easy on-ramps and easy off-ramps where, in the absence of a compelling reason, this is what you should be using.Tony: Believe it or not, I think this would be a golden case for machine learning.Corey: [laugh].Tony: No, but submit to us the characteristics of your workload, and here's a recipe that we would propose. Obviously, we can't trust AI to make our decisions for us, but it can provide some guardrails.Corey: “Yeah. Use a graph database. Trust me, it'll be fine.” That's your general purpose—Tony: [laugh].Corey: —approach. Yeah, that'll end well.Tony: [laugh]. I would hope that the AI would basically be trained on a better set of training data to not come out with that conclusion.Corey: One could sure hope.Tony: Yeah, exactly.Corey: I really want to thank you for taking the time to catch up with me around what you're doing. If people want to learn more, where's the best place for them to find you?Tony: My website is dbinsight.io. And on my homepage, I list my latest research. So, you just have to go to the homepage where you can basically click on the links to the latest and greatest. And I will, as I said, after Labor Day, I'll be publishing my take on my generative AI journey from the spring.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to this in the [show notes 00:29:39]. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.Tony: Hey, it's been a pleasure, Corey. Good seeing you again.Corey: Tony Baer, principal at dbInsight. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn, and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, along with an angry, insulting comment that we will eventually stitch together with all those different platforms to create—that's right—a large-scale distributed database.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Overview: If you're running a business, it pays to keep things legit from the start. Today we talk DBAs & LLCs + the benefits of establishing them early. We also talk about the relationships we have formed over the years that have paid off. Today We Talk About: Registering your DBA on Legal Zoom Keep your eyes out for a bonus episode this Friday with some exciting news! Glow Tip of the Week: It always pays to be kind Links Mentioned: Where is my steamer from? What's my favorite esty chair? Shop Spa & Equipment and use code Kasey for 5% off your order HERE Want me to stock your treatment room this month? Like & comment on the latest @skinandthecitypodcast post to be selected! Enjoy 5% off Glow skincare with code SATC22 Become a Glow Skincare Member | Join the Private Facebook Group | Follow Us on Pinterest | ASCP Insurance | Follow us on TikTok Leave us a review HERE & email a screenshot to podcast@glowskincarela.com and our Kim-Tern will be shipping you some goodies Be sure to follow and tag us on IG! @skinandthecitypodcast and @glowskincarela Thanks for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/skinandthecity/message

Jonathan Morin (Product Lead @datadoghq) & Jason Manson-Hing (Product Manager) talk about emerging trends in Database monitoring and observability. SHOW: 735CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK - http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwNEW TO CLOUD? CHECK OUT - "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:Datadog Monitoring: Modern Monitoring and AnalyticsStart monitoring your infrastructure, applications, logs and security in one place with a free 14 day Datadog trial. Listeners of The Cloudcast will also receive a free Datadog T-shirt.GCore - Global Hosting, CDN, Edge and Cloud ServicesUse promocode “CLOUDCAST” to receive a €100 credit on Gcore servicesEquinix Global Data Centers and Networking Learn more and signup at https://deploy.equinix.com/. Use the coupon code CLOUDCAST to get $500 in credits to get started.SHOW NOTES:Troubleshoot blocking queries with Datadog DBMDatadog DBMAlwaysOn availability groups with Datadog DBMAlso, recently, Datadog announced a feature availability for DBM, the ability to create monitors and alerts on data surfaced from Datadog DBM. Here's a doc written by the engineers of Datadog on the feature announcement. Try Datadog Database Monitoring with a free trial to begin tracking and analyzing query metrics from your database fleet.  Topic 1 - Welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about your background, and what you focus on at Snowflake.Topic 2 - Let's talk about database monitoring. There are so many types of databases these days (SQL, Graph, Time-Series, Document, etc.), are the concepts for database monitoring the same across any database, or does the system need specific domain expertise? Topic 3 - Given the importance of database performance for the overall application experience, do you find that DBAs (or application developers) are thinking about their monitoring strategy earlier in the DB design process? Topic 4 - What are some of the most common database challenges to monitor and troubleshoot (e.g. root problems, performance)? What are some of the most difficult to troubleshoot (e.g. AlwaysOn Availability groups)? Topic 5 - How much time and effort is typically spent monitoring/troubleshooting DB problems in real-time vs. looking at historical trends and trying to either troubleshoot issues or predict how things might behave in the future? Topic 6 - What are some of the things that can be done to find the right balance between resources being dedicated to application-database processing vs. database-monitoring processing? FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter: @thecloudcastnet

How to Increase Stakeholder and Team Member Engagement Right from the Start - Mike Cohn Do you struggle to engage the right people in product development? You are not alone.Development team members sometimes view their jobs as things to be endured. They want to get through the 8-hour day, go home, and then do the things that really give them purpose.Customers sometimes really want the end-result product but hate the process of getting there. “Can't I just wave a magic wand and get what I want?” they wonder.Increasing engagement in both team members and stakeholders leads to better products. Achieving that level of engagement can be hard, though.One of the ways I get people excited about a project from the start is to involve everyone in story-writing workshops.That means I want the programmers, testers, designers, analysts, DBAs, tech writers, and so on to participate. The Scrum Master, product owner, and key stakeholders should be there as well.I don't advise holding a story-writing workshop every sprint. Instead, I recommend doing one every three months or so. Each story-writing workshop should be focused on a strategic objective or two that is larger than a sprint.Sure, the product owner and team can adjust this plan from iteration to iteration. But if a team doesn't have a larger goal in mind, their work is often sub-optimized as they go from this iteration's crisis to the next iteration's crisis.You may think it will be wasteful to include development team members in these quarterly story-writing workshops.I don't.I consider it an investment. Sure, team members get less done on the day of the workshop. But that pays back quickly because:  Team members know more about the work they'll do. Questions always arise when team members begin work on a product backlog item. But, if team members were present when user stories were written, they'll have more context and fewer questions. Encouraging participation when defining a set of features leads to greater engagement when building those features. Conducting approximately quarterly story-writing workshop with team and stakeholder participation sets a project on the path to succeed with agile, How to connect with AgileDad: - [website] ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram] ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook] ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ - [Linkedin] ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/leehenson/⁠

Welcome to the newest episode of The Cloud Pod podcast! Justin, Ryan, Jonathan, Matthew are your hosts this week. Join us as we discuss all things cloud, AI, the upcoming Google AI Conference, AWS Console, and Duet AI for Google cloud.  Titles we almost went with this week: