Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

Probably a bit late, but...

At traditional big companies, there are two main categories of DBAs, and data scientists would generally be separate.

- Systems DBAs are responsible for making sure the database systems keep running. Scaling, high-level performance, updates, deploying new hardware for databases, setting up new databases and performance monitoring for them, investigating what's going on when databases slow to a crawl, that sort of thing. When I read "Oracle DBA", and particular "Oracle database admin", that's what I think of as most likely.
- Application DBAs are more focused on writing database-level code for software applications (what the "programmers" or "software developers" write). Often, regular developers aren't experts in database queries - they can write them, but maybe not very complex ones, or maybe the ones the regular developers write are very slow. Application DBAs specialize in writing these queries and making them run quickly and efficiently. It could be that the position you mention is for this as well, and they mention Oracle because that's their exclusive database, and while most application DBAs can switch between variants of SQL, each vendor, including Oracle, has their own extensions.

There often is at least some overlap, more so at smaller shops, but those are the broad swathes of responsibility. Sometimes the difference is called out in the job description, but just as often it isn't. And it's worth mentioning two more related specialties, including your chosen field:

- Data architects are responsible for building the structure of the database in a way that is high-performing for the company's tasks (versus using existing tables efficiently, as application DBAs do). For small applications, you can have any old developer design the tables, but for very large companies with lots of data, designing them in a way that scales to the data becomes a considerable challenge.
- Data scientists are responsible for finding patterns and uses for large amounts of data. Nowadays the problem isn't collecting lots of information; it's finding out how all that information is useful. Data scientists make those connections, and while database skills will be useful in that, making useful insights and connections is a very different focus than the performance-focused, problem-is-already-defined role of the application DBA. It's more exploratory.

I suspect that most data scientists would not find DBA positions to be fulfilling. There usually isn't much creative freedom in DBA roles (even less if it's a systems DBA role), they're very technical, and as mentioned the focuses differ. It's certainly possible to become a master of DBA, and if you're the type of person who enjoys perfecting that data-performance-related craft, or being the guy everyone can count on to fix things when the data center goes down, it might be for you. But it doesn't have the creativity that you likely are expecting given your course of study, and is usually an underappreciated (and in other companies, underutilized) role.

It seems a little strange that a company would try to hire a data scientist for a DBA role. It could indicate several things, including not really knowing the difference themselves; needing a DBA, and having plans that involve some data science but not the money to hire both a DBA and a data scientist, and thus being happy to see a data scientist apply; or actually wanting a data scientist but not wanting to pay the (generally, though not always) higher data scientist salary, and thus hoping they could lure one in with a DBA role. The former would be concerning, especially if the tasks they describe are DBA tasks; the middle would likely leave you mostly bored, though it could help sharpen your database skills a bit if needed and it's an application DBA position; the latter might not be bad as a way to get a couple years of experience, before moving on to something that pays better or is at a company with more data scientists. And there is something to be said early in your career for a position where the pay isn't the greatest, but you can learn, have some autonomy if it's a smaller company, and earn some good recommendations. Just don't stay forever if you do well and hit the ceiling there.

Source: I'm a "regular software developer" who has worked at mid-size and large companies over the past 7 years, and my father was in IT for almost four decades, including a decade as one of the top data architects at a large corporation (which overlapped with the time when data science became its own distinct field; he knows several people who transferred from DBA or data architect roles into data scientist roles, when the field was new enough that you could do that fairly easily).

 

At this point in time, all previously-purchased SSDs are compatible with everything newer*

All you have to do for this one is connect the SATA port to the motherboard. One male-to-male cable. You will likely need to remove the Acer's hard drive to accomplish this. If it still has a CD reader, you may be able to reinstall the HDD there - I know it's possible on Macbook Pros. Haven't looked into Windows modifications of that nature, since there's too many variant models...

In the worst case that you still need the hard drive, you can put it in an enclosure and get a SATA-USB adapter and use it externally.

*Unless you're doing something dumb like installing a super-fancy advanced SSD (you'd probably know if you had one) into the cheapest most basic motherboard you can get

 

The Acer he has does have an extra slot for an SSD. Should be able to work alongside the original HDD.

 

wow, $300? When I bought my 500gb in 2015 you could get a full 1TB ssd for that price.

 

You dont want anything spinning in a machine you are carrying around. Especially not such a big drive you'll have a hard time to recover from if damaged.

 

Modern tech is not foolproof, but it is pretty good about that now. There's accelerometers in most laptop HDDs that will lift the needle/stop the motion when they detect surges.

 

The accelerometers are in the laptops, not the drives. Many laptops (e.g. anything by Apple) have never contained such tech. (In Apple's case, because they switched the entire lineup to SSDs.)

 

I saw a bunch of attempts to access various files with "xattack" (which seems to be some sort of vulnerability exploiter) in the logs for a Joomla site. They all seem to have not worked though. Is this something to worry about, so long as Joomla's kept up-to-date and other good security practices are in place?

 

As long as both the old SSD and the new computer use the same form factor, such as the 2.5" laptop hard drive form factor that it sounds like peter's uses, the drive can be migrated to a new computer. I wound up moving an older SSD into the laptop I'm using right now, after buying a bigger one for my main desktop.

Along with the 2.5" form factor (which comes in 9mm and 7mm height variants, but those are interchangeable as long as there's sufficient height where it's being installed), the other common one is called M.2280. It's a smaller stick size, and many of the super-fancy advanced SSDs available now use it, since it also supports a data exchange protocol that allows even faster speeds. It's becoming common to have laptops that support one traditional 2.5" drive, and one new M.2280 (aka NVME) drive. This is actually fairly convenient, since it allows using both a newfangled, super-fast SSD in a moderate capacity, as well as a traditional spinning hard drive to support lots of file storage. I would not be surprised if my next laptop has that capability.

IMO, the concern about spinning hard drives in laptops really comes down to whether you are liable to dropping the laptop. These days (2005 or later), laptop hard drives are built well enough that everyday movement is not going to cause a problem. Moving around with the laptop while it's on, moving it in a backpack while it's on, etc. - I've used hard drives for years that way, and they're all still working. All bets are off if you drop it, of course. But even if you had an SSD that was drop-proof, it would still be a good idea to have your data backed up in case it failed. They're pretty reliable these days, but no technology is perfect.

It depends on the model. Western Digital has made hard drives with free-fall sensors in the drives, for example, while IBM has put the sensors in laptops. I'm partial to the built-in-to-HDD option, since that means you would get the benefit if you made it into an external drive, too. Although as mentioned my overall favorite is the "proper backup + respect for hardware" strategy.

 

A lot of M.2 are still SATA, not NVME

 

Does anyone have a bit more XP with video editing?
I have a little project, where I'd need to put a picture into a part of the video (want to glue a face from a photo into a video).
For what would I need to look online/would need to google for to find the right advice.
(I already tried, but most stuff just comes up how I can add static images between movie clips)

I have Adobe everything available.

 

you want to cgi the video with this new face in it? that's a bit outside my wheel house, but try after effects.

 

I installed an android update today, and now my phone is displaying the name of a different network than the one I use. Why would that happen? Should I be concerned?

 

I'm starting a twitch channel that I want to take pretty seriously (hence the equipment I purchased).

I'm using OBS to stream. Here is what works:

1) my webcam showing my face in the bottom right corner.
2) the video of the game itself as I play.
3) me talking into my condenser mic.

What doesn't work is the audio of the game itself. The audio goes through the headphones I'm wearing to where I can hear it, but the viewer on twitch cannot.

 

Are the headphones a headset? OBS can have issues differentiating between audio channels if you're using a headset alongside a standalone microphone.