A bit of knowlege

In my real job, as a software guy, I frequently find myself combing the internet for answers to my daily questions. Usually the questions are mundane: "What is the syntax for datetime.toString()" or "Why won't my asp pages run". And usually I get some pretty good answers. What's amusing to me about this is that there's no natural-language magic going on to make these search terms work. The reason they work is that it's a big Internet full of lots of people... and many of them have the same questions.

Recently I was tasked with preparing and executing a database server migration. This was no small job. I was to move our live production database from an aging server running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to a brand new Dual-Quad EM64 bad ass server running Microsoft SQL Server 2005. And I had to do it working against the clock.

Our database is really a gigantic string-buffer with some complicated counting bits. As words are said on TV or Radio they go into the database, and after a certain amount of time they are deleted to make room for new words. This system serves us very well, but we have to stay on top of things, because when we have a database server outage, all of the text that's meant to be coming in, just waits at the front door. When too much text is at the front door waiting we run the risk of never being able to catch up.

Oh, did I mention that this database is primarily responsible for putting food on my table?

So needless to say there was a lot of planning. I wanted to have a very good idea of how long our service would be unavailable to our users. So I came up with a plan:

1. Test
2. Stop the old database server
3. Copy database files from old server to new server
4. Attach the newly copied database files
5. Test for sanity
   
6. Swing DNS to point to the new server

Three of these steps take a little bit of time:

Figuring out the time it takes to swing DNS is easy. You just look at the domains TTL and thats about the time it'll take for everything to make the change (give or take 50%).



Figuring out how to copy the files took a little bit of work. Our production database is somewhere in the neighborhood of 500GB. In the Microsoft SQL Server world, that means I have one gigantic file: My_Really_Big_Production_Database.mdf which has to get copied from the old server to the new server. Without getting too into the nitty-gritty I ended up using a Microsoft utility called eseutil to copy the files. This method seems to work quickly and didn't require me to install 3rd party software on my new database server.

The only other part of the process that had me nervous was performing the database "attach". Normally I wouldn't think twice about the performance of this operation, but in this case we were performing a rather significant upgrade. Not only did our database files have to be converted from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005, but it also had to go from 32bit to 64bit. What this means is that SQL Server performs a series of iterative upgrades on the database structure to get it up to date. So obviously I performed scaled down tests. Attaching and detaching little shell databases didn't get me any closer to an answer. The attach would either take 5seconds or happen instantaneously.

So obviously I turned to the internet. Oh no! No good answer! ACK! At the end of the day I had to cross my fingers and hope for the best as I executed the attach statement. Well, I got my answer. And now I'm giving it back to the internet. [drum roll...]

Question: How long does it take to attach a SQL 2000 database to a SQL 2005 server?
Answer: About 19 seconds for my 500GB database with about 300 tables. The truth is we moved a number of databases on that day. They all seemed to take between 3 and 19 seconds, and it didn't seem to matter how big the database was.

Phew... ok Internet, you can rest easy now.

Update

If I were writing this post in vi, now would be the time where I run this:

:s/I/Jared and I/g

Due to lateness of the the hour when I wrote this post I inadvertently left out the fact that without the help of, my friend, Jared, this migration would have most-likely crashed and burned. I was fortunate enough to benefit from Jared's encyclopedic knowledge of SQL server throughout the migration. Thanks bud!

Update #2

Success! Now the Internet people, with the same question that I had, can have an answer!

RE: Blogging

Memo From the Desk of Zorlack:

It's been a while since I've written here. For those of you reading this post and thinking "I told you so". Yes, yes you did. Also, get off your horse.

For you the reader: Here is a list of new truths.

1) I will not attempt to catch up: The futility of trying to get a casual blog-reader caught up with the goings-on in my real life is enormous, and any attempt would not only be unsuccessful, but very boring as well.

2) Here be format changes: Yes, I will no longer be posting exclusively about photography. I've decided that since, on occasion, I do think about other things, that maybe those things should be fair game also.

3) Some things will stay the same: I'm the same person, more or less.

I feel like every return-from-hiatus blog post should follow the following format:
¶1: Hello
¶2: Yeah, yeah... I forgot about you
¶3: Here's what I'm gonna do this time around (in a list)
¶4: Recursive meta discussion regarding return-from-hiatus blog posts
¶5: Conclusory mea culpa.

So, in sticking with the format, and without further stalling: I'm sorry for disappearing. My bad.

Building a Plywood Huey. Part 1!

I have to build a Huey for our production of Miss Saigon. And it just so happens that my new tiny DV camera has arrived, so I decided to document the helicoptering process.


Plywood Huey - Part 1 - Watch a funny movie here

Party at Maya's Parents'

This weekend's big event was the going-away/birthday/graduation party that everyone looks forward to.



I carried my camera through the whole cookout. I hate doing that, but I'm pretty pleased with this shot, so I'm not going to complain. This is a photo of Jimmy and Lex hamming it up for another camera. Obviously I tweaked the color a bit - also I did a little bit touch-up on some faces.

Out of focus rollercoaster girl.

Don't get me wrong. Flickr is wonderful. It's both an outstanding piece of web-based software and a wonderful community full of talented photographers. (At least I think a piece of software can be a community... that may be another discussion altogether). Nevertheless, there are times when my fellow flickrites wear me out.



I took this shot at the 100th Yankee Doodle Fair in Westport. The weather had been hot and balmy all day until around three when a huge thunderstorm rolled through. Afterwards, we had this wonderful warm misty thing going - normally, not my kind of weather but for photographic purposes: outstanding.

This shot was one of about 10 that I took of this particular subject. I'd say I started by focusing the camera on the front of the car, and then I shot a few with the girl in focus.

During post I decided that this shot was more meaningful to me. Somethinig about the way that the shallow depth of field amplifies the expression on her face... Yes, I realize that sounded a bit doofy.

Whatever. I'm proud of my shot. I post it to all the flickr groups that I usually go to. What happens next, I wasn't prepared for: The shot gets absolutely panned. Of the 20+ comments, probably half contain some variant of "too bad the girl isn't in focus".

I know that criticism is feedback. Sometimes its amusing. Sometimes its helpful. Other times...

What do you think?

Slam Dunk at Kate's Parents in Redding

We went for a cookout at Kate's parents house for her birthday (Pang and I got her a weed-whacker). While there I managed to score shoot some great photos of the general going's-on.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.
I'm not sure if I like the idea of posting slide shows here. It seems to me like its a cop-out. Like I couldn't be bothered to pick the best one. So you'll probably only see a few of these pop up from time to time.

Some catching up to do

I've been learning a few things about my new lens. Here is a short summary:

1. Big lenses weigh a lot. I've had to buy a new more comfy camera strap.


2. f/4.6 isn't very big. Well, I guess I knew that coming in, but its a bit of a shock when I switch from the 18-200 f/4.6 to the 50mm f/1.8.


3. Just cause you can, doesn't mean you should. Sometimes it's hard to resist zooming in on things. Narrow-field composition is a very different beast than shooting wide.

Well, yes, I took this photo in captivity. And my photographic-cred takes a hit for that. Frankly, I'm not sure I'd want to run into this bugger on his own turf. That can-opener is a serious piece of hardware.

I'm Back

By popular (err... not-so-much) demand.

And to prove it:


A Long Overdue Job - Celebrity bloopers here

First day with a new toy

About two weeks ago I got my new toy. My first real uberlens. :)

The venerable Nikon 18-200 3.5-5.6 AF-S D VR

Needless to say I'm very happy with it. It's just about the most lens you can get for under a grand. And it replaces the need to carry two lenses. Thats not to say it doesn't have its downsides. For one thing the lens grows by about 200% when you zoom in. Imagine attaching a roll or paper-towels to the front of your camera-body. Yeah.

The other down-side is that it more-than doubles the weight of my camera, and all that weight is in the front. This means that a day of shooting comes with significantly more wrist-strain. Truth-be-told, I'm discovering new ways to hold my camera to account for this factor. I now almost always wear my camera's strap and use it take some of the pressure off my right hand.

Well how about some photos. Here are two photos taken on my first day shooting with the 18-200.



The truth about this image is that the focus isn't really as hard as it looks in the "medium" view. When blown up there is some blur in the texture of my shoes. Still, I like the foreground blur afforded to me by the long lens length.


Ok, it's pretty obvious what I'm doing here. I'm playing with the distance. Fine, you caught me. Its a long lens, and I think its cool. :-)

It's time to get caught up.

Wow,

Sorry about that I just realized how long it's been since my last update. Let me try to fix things:

I took this photo with my 50mm 1.8 lens, and it shows. Lately I've been coping with the low-light noise issues associated with the D50, this shot doesn't have the problem since I was able to shoot it at 2.2. In a little while I'll post one of my pictures from Rollerderby. It's a start contrast.



Something about this shot has a very "commercial" feel to it. If it wasn't a picture of my Dad talking to Kate I'd say it was generic stock photography.

A Day at Mystic

An unexpected day-off turns into alligator madness!


Alright, I admit it! This picture has no photographic merits what-so-ever - err.. except that its a decent snapshot. No, the real reason I'm posting it is this:

Q: How often do you get to pet/photograph an alligator.

A: If you live in the North-East, not often.

More Beach

As the weather gets a bit better, expect to see more beach photos... at least until they start requiring a sticker. Then they'll probably fall off.



Kate, Dylan, Max and I went on a rather impromptu trip to the beach with Sasha. I was shooting with my new lens - I got some pretty cool shots, while shooting wide-open. I had to strap on the CPL just to reduce the incoming light. Here's Sasha being a dog. To be honest, I don't think this is my favorite picture from the day, but I has a neat style (that it acquired in post).

See the other pictures.

At the beach

Recovering from our karaoke madness required sleeping for the better part of Sunday. If for no other reason then having not slept the night before. Never the less around 5pm we found ourselves at Sherwood Island State Park.


This was shot with my new lens - I'm still (yes, still) learning on it. I like to be able to shoot wide-open, but there's just too much light when I'm shooting at the beach. I think I may have to slap on either the CPL or the ND2 and see if that alleviates the problem in an acceptable way.

Ermm.. Saturday Night

I have no good pictures. We sang a lot. Maru. Karaoke. NYC.

Scary Gary Revisited

I've been playing around a bit more in a studio-like environment. Now, don't be fooled - my idea of a studio is my workbench, a white card, some translucent plastic and a 500W fresnel. This particular shot was back-lit using Rosco Kelly Green and the translucent plastic.



Still scary.

AHHH!!

Ok. Well. Hmm.



Yeah, I'm not sure I have any words about this picture. I don't recommend looking at it after 8pm. Or ever, really. Gary has a tendency to sneak into peoples dreams.

In other, slightly less interesting news, I shot this in my make-shift studio basement area. I'm going to be playing with my setup in the next couple of days, but this was a good first try. I shot it under a single 6" fresnel against a piece of white card. High tech, huh.

More new lensy-ness

Well, I'm still experimenting with my new lens. So far the results have been mixed. It's a big change shooting from mostly-wide to mostly-narrow. I find myself having to back up a lot. On the other hand I often find I now have too much light, which is a great problem to have!



Close scrutiny of this shot of Gizmo reveals the other problem I'm coping with: Getting the focus just right. At 1.8 the depth of field is so shallow that its hard for me to distinguish what's in and out of focus in the viewfinder. In this shot you can see that feathers and beak are the sharpest, while Gizmo's eye is a bit soft. The lens also has some subtle vignetting which I'm having to correct for.

My New Toy

Well, I've just acquired a new toy. A Nikon 50mm f/1.8D lens! I bought this lens to fill a need that my D50's kit lens couldn't fill. The kit lens is a 18-55mm but it's aperture at 55mm is a pretty-small 5.6. This makes shooting in low-light a bit of a pain. The new lens is, by comparison, a gaping f/1.8 at 50mm and its built like a truck.



So, will this be my new lens of choice? Well, only time will tell - at the moment it's taking a bit of an adjustment. I'd say with the kit lens I take a lot of wide-angle shots, with this lens that's not even an option. If I want to get more in the picture I have to back up, which certainly isn't the same thing. Never the less, the new lens is very sharp and pretty fun to use so far, so I'm going to withhold judgment till I've got a bit more time on it. One thing's for sure: I love shooting wide-open. The shallow depth of field is chocked full of goodness.

Lost in time

This is a game I haven't played in a long time. Oh my god. It's awesome.

But, wait, don't take my word for it:



And see what happens when you try to pour acid on a horse:



Nice.

More Weather

Here's another shot from my recent wet night out.



This shot is full of lots of shiny, greasy, cold awesomeness. A little bad weather goes a long way sometimes. Bricks, headlights, traffic-lights other stuff.