Hello world. Can you hear me now? What other trite expressions can I use to start a new blog?
Moving past that, probably the best way to start a new blog is with a quick introduction of self and the blog. So, here goes…
I’m an IT professional and have been in the field since high school. I’ve been interested in electronics and computers prior to high school, but it was my first day that really launched a career. With anticipation, I sought out the “computer room” that first day. From that point forward, every morning before school, every afternoon after school, and every study hall was spent there. There was a small room, about the size of a large walk-in closet; maybe 1/3 the size of an average classroom. There were three terminals in the room that connected to computers at AEA 10, I believe. One of the teletypes was an Teletype 33. It connected to a PDP 8 by a 110 baud modem. The other two terminals were were DECwriters. Those were connected to an HP 3000 by a 300 baud modem.
So, what’s this have to do with launching a career? Well, one morning, on one of the first days in high school, I was in the “computer room” working on a Basic program to calculate how much one could make in a month if they had a job that paid a penny on the first day, and each day the pay doubled. Mr Kibby copied from a scrap of paper onto the chalkboard “Help Wanted. Need someone with computer skills to help with IBM 360 mainframe. Call Marilyn at…”. I signed out of the HP 3000. Waited for the modem to disconnect, picked up the phone and dialed. I had a geometry class, then a study hall. I was 16 years old, so I could drive… and I had a car! I drove the 10 blocks, interviewed for 45 minutes, and had a part-time evening job starting that evening. My first real IT job!
While obtaining a degree at Iowa State University, I worked for the Computation Center as an operator, then as a programmer. I absolutely loved the VAX and VAX VMS. VMS was the first C2 certified operating system. As I was in a position that enforced security on the VAX, I became very interested in the internals of VMS and security in general.
Enough about me for now. I promised ‘quick’, so to honor that, let me conclude by saying that this blog is for techies. It’ll get in depth with enterprise databases… Things like redo logs, internals, backups, etc. I’ll touch on many engines, but will limit to: Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MariaDB/MySQL, Informix, Sybase, and PostgreSQL, even Data Warehouses/Marts, Hadoop/DataLakes, ETLs. There will be information about Cyber-security, Database Administration, Data Architecture, Sec/DevOps. Given that I’m also subject to an occasional tangent, I’ll occasionally write about Linux, Windows, Android, IOS, Java, C, PowerBuilder, encryption, data in general and especially data security, etc.
My goal… for me is to document for later reference… for you is to inform. I’m open to constructive replies/comments as we all have something to learn.