why lock records on a read? On 2015-07-31 16:24, David Schwartz wrote: > Here’s something: > > A while back I had a contract in a support Dept at a Big Corp in town. > When I started, I was told, “Don’t do anything except hold their > hands.” > > One Friday morning about two weeks into the contract, I arrived at > work and everybody in my Dept was gone except me. I wasn’t alerted > ahead of time. > > Around 11:45 AM, three people appeared at my cube door: the FInance > Mgr (head of Dept), Payroll Mgr, and someone else. > > The FM said, “I guess you’re the only Support person here today.” I > said, “Looks that way.” > > He said, “Look, we’ve got a problem here and I need you to get it > fixed. TODAY. If you don’t your contract is caput. We need someone who > can fix this crap NOW.” > > As far as SteveT’s question goes … THIS IS PURE PROBLEM-SOLVING > ABILITY. I had no exposure or knowledge to their system at all. I’d > been there for 2 weeks and didn’t have a clue about their software, > hardware, network, or anything. > > > I’m like, “Well, ok. What’s the problem?” > > They proceeded to explain it to me … which I’ll summarize here only > because some of you will get a chuckle out of it. > > Payroll starts running their check run at 11:30 AM. After about 10 > minutes, it hangs-up. They have to abort the run, void the checks, and > start over. It usually keeps happening. They run it specifically over > lunch because most of the Financial Dept is at lunch, so nobody’s > online. > > I poked around and noticed there were a couple of people running > reports, including the gal in the cube next to me. (They ran these > reports that went to Epsons dot-matrix printers and they’d run for > about 45 minutes.) > > BTW, this is some kind of accounting system running on a bunch of old > DOS machines (circa 1995) hooked into a Banyan Vines LAN, sharing > access to files on a file server. > > I looked at how the gal in the next cube ran her reports. It was a > batch file that looked like this: > > runrptapp.exe xyz abc >lpt > > (I forget what devices were on DOS, but … notice the right-arrow.) > > Digging around, I discovered that this app, which I’m calling > runrptapp.exe, opens the database file on the server, which happens to > be the same database file the Payroll app used. It was a very popular > database back then (i forget the name, but it’s not dBase). I happened > to know that that particular database used FILE-LEVEL locking. > > Notice the right-arrow … > > Question: who starts off their reports first: the gal in the next > cube, or Payroll? > > Answer: gal in the next cube! At 11 AM, because she needs it for a 2PM > meeting, and it usually crashes over lunch and needs to be restarted. > > Did you notice the right-arrow ... > > What happens is she runs her report and the printer is fed data in > real-time as the report extracts records from the DB. After a while, > it has extracted as much as it can before the print buffer gets filled > up, and it starts to crawl along. > > Some time after she starts runnign her report (15-20 mins), the > Payroll Dept starts their check run. > > It access the same DB. > > Notice that right-arrow … and think, “file-level locking” … and > “Payroll wants to run against this DB at the same time … > > hmmm …. changed the BAT file to this: > > runrptapp.exe xyz abc >temprpt.txt > copy temprpt.txt lpt1 > > The report took about 15 seconds to run, then it started printing it > from the local copy on the disk. > > VIOLA! PROBLEM SOLVED. sort of … > > Monday morning I had another manager wating at my door when I arrived. > “Weren’t you told not to fix anything for these people? JUST HOLD > THEIR HANDS, right?” > > "Well, the Finance Mgr said if I didn’t do SOMETHING he’d fire me.” > > > > The vendor had sent out their top support people, and even sent their > DEVELOPERS, and NOBODY had been able to fix this problem. They even > had some support guys from Banyan come out, and they couldn’t fix it > either. > > Turns out, the Finance Dept didn’t like this piece of software and it > came with a 90-day money-back guarantee. They wanted their money back. > > Nobody else who’d tried to fix this problem, including the SMEs, > couldn’t solve it. > > But silly me … it took me about 15 minutes to fix it. With no > subject-matter expertise at all. > > And a week later, my contract was terminated. :o > > > So it doesn’t surprize me when people report they have trouble finding > folks with good problem solving skills. > > Unfortunately, the kinds of questions I get in interviews don’t go > into this at all. They’re mostly general stuff, trick questions, and > things intended to get a feeling of how good you are with existing > tools. > > This is the problem. If people have good problem-solving skills, they > CAN figure this shit out, no matter what. > > But if you don’t know the tools, and regardless of you problem-solving > skills, BZZZTTT! You’re DISQUALIFIED! > > I’ve also worked at several places where we encountered LAN problems, > and after a couple of days with their “A+ Certified,” “Novell > Certified," and “Microsoft Certified” experts being unable to solve > server/workstation issues that were holding me up, I asked if I could > “take a look”. In every instance, I’ve been able to solve their > problems in about 15 minutes, knowing nothing about their specific > network, but just from my general understanding of networking, LANs, > and that stuff. > > Yet I could not get a job in an IT Dept if my life depended on it — > I’m not “certified” and obviously “lack the expertise”. > > This stuff drives me nuts, becuase nobody interviews in a way that > uncovers problem-solving abilities at all. > > It’s nearly 100% focused on identifying subject-matter expertise the > candidate may (or may not) have in very narrow technical areas. > > This seems totally naive, but I’d think a company would want to have a > few people on staff who are excellent problem-solvers, and just loan > them out to projects and departments that get stuck on various issues. > Because problem-solving skills are NOT technology-specific. (In fact, > they seem to be relatively hard to find.) > > -David Schwartz > > > >> On Jul 28, 2015, at 9:32 PM, Steve Litt >> wrote: >> >> On Tue, 28 Jul 2015 20:30:31 -0700 >> Sesso wrote: >> >>> "Companies should focus a little less on buzzwords, and a lot more >>> on someone's ability/desire to learn, ability to think critically, >>> and ablility to solve problems.” >>> >>> >>> I have a hard time finding candidates with all 3 of the above. I have >>> met many that have a strong desire to learn but lack problem solving >>> skills. Now for a shared hosting company, this is fine. >>> Dedicated/Cloud infra. won’t work out. >>> >>> jason >> >> What are both of you meaning by "problem solving skills?" What, >> exactly, would the work of someone with "problem solving skills" look >> like? >> >> How does "problem solving skills" differ from "thinking critically?" >> >> I'm not asking out of idle curiosity, this is actually part of what I >> do. >> >> >> SteveT >> > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss -- Keith Smith --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss