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Cranky Curmudgeons

Today we have a guest editorial from Grant Fritchey as Steve is away on his vacation. This editorial was originally published on Jan 23, 2020.

If you’re haunting the internet as I do, you probably hear how DBAs are an aging population. Further, because we’re aging, we’re not ready to embrace all the wonderful new technologies that are clearly superior in every possible way. Hence, this is why ElasticSearch and MongoDB haven’t taken over the world.

Now, I’m not going to argue. The DBA demographic is aging. We’re getting older. Yes, also, that means that a certain section of us are becoming cranky curmudgeons (CC). The CC will regale you with all the ways that they had to use stone knives and bear skins for disaster recovery back in the day. However, this is not applicable to everyone.

Let me sidestep for a moment. I little while ago I finally got off my behind and got my Ham radio license (KC1KCE, that’s my call sign). If you think the DBA population is aging and creating CC at a surprising rate, you should see the Ham community.

Over the recent holiday break, I took the time to really play with my radio. What was I doing you ask? OK, you’re probably not asking, but I’m going to tell you anyway. The first thing I did was get my Raspberry Pi 4 set up with a newer version of Raspbian (Debian Unix specific to the Raspberry Pi). With that I was able to configure Winlink, a software for sending email through the radio. I also was experimenting with FT8, a digital mode where the radio is controlled by a computer. In FT8, you send extremely short signals (28 characters max, and you thought Twitter was a pain). The whole idea is to use low power, small signals, as a way to make communication across large distances easier. I was also using another digital mode, PSK31, where you can type into a computer program and it gets transmitted through your radio. Yet another way to extend the reach of the radio beyond what’s possible through voice (called Single Side Band) or Morse code (called CW). All this through a tiny box that fits in the palm of my hand.

Anyone still here? Why am I talking about all this boring radio junk? Because, this CC was expanding his Linux skill set while learning new programs, new hardware, and new ways to communicate using a computer and a radio.

TLDR: CC can learn.

Same thing goes for data and databases. Don’t assume that because the population is aging that it’s not keeping up. Besides, the whole reason we’re not letting you implement ElasticSearch is because you youngsters haven’t properly secured it. See, we CC have been around the block a time or two, so we’re watching out for you.

Grant Fritchey

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