Today is SysAdmin day, don’t you know. Right up until last year, DBAs were included in this global movement to celebrate systems administrators. The Internet Wayback Machine gladly shows us how the site looked last year, clearly including DBAs right in the home page.
This year? No mention of us!
Craig Mullins, at DBAZine, says that they include us: “And before anyone questions this, the celebration includes DBAs (it says so right on the web site),” he writes. Well Craig, not this year they don’t.
Which kind of makes sense. DBAs have a unique role in an organization, and it was unfair to lump them with the common SysAdmin anyway :)
So DBAs will now have their own day. I have registered ‘dbaday.com’ and am looking for ideas for which day to call our own. The current leading candidate is August 23, given that its Codd’s birthday. Feel free to lobby for other days in the comments below, we’ll make a decision soon and I’m trying to get Paul to approve a budget for a DBA of the year prize.
–Raj.
9 Comments. Leave new
Hi Raj. I like your “under construction” page. :)
ORA-24123 feature “dbaday” is not yet implemented
Dr. Codd is famous for relational model but there are other kind of databases as well, though, not that popular today. Anyway, Codd’s birthday looks as good as any other summer day.
Actually, maybe it’s better to hang to something like last/first/second/etc. Friday of the month? :)
Codd’s birthday looks like a good anchor point.
How about the nearest friday on or after Codd’s birthday each year.
Then the next question is “what do we do actually to celebrate this event”.
Many of the people in the dba community are not exactly characterized by a wild propensity for frivolity.
Maybe we could march around and pretend we are danish soldiers?
John – re: the marching around pretending we are Danish soldiers, Mogens Norgaard would really love that tradition I’m sure… I’ll have to forward your suggestion to him! :-)
I agree with an anchor date but like you suggest it would be preferable if it always were a weekday, since let’s face it it’s not like anyone is going to think of their DBAs during their weekends, unless of course they are users in the office doing acceptance testing after a major upgrade!
Raj thinks I should come up with a budget for a DBA of the Year award based on nominations. Any other ideas for annual celebratory events or otherwise?
Paul
Codd’s birthday is a good choice. Lex de Haan’s death day (1st of February, 2006) is another possibility. He chose it because 3 x 42 is 126. 3 for his love of three-valued logic, 42 because it’s the answer and 126 is the date.
I’d be more than happy to have Miracle part- or wholly sponsor some award for this excellent day, and I don’t mean it like we have to get publicity out of it, and all that stuff. It’s simply a good idea and we have the money for it.
As for the marching around like Danish soldiers, here’s a picture of my marching team: https://www.nijmegenmarch.dk/
How about March 24? That’s the date of the oldest message archived on google that refers to oracle as a dbms (1982)…
https://groups.google.com/group/net.unix-wizards/msg/ecfd0a3ea301b284?dmode=source&hl=en
Really, I’d like to nominate the date of the first customer relational db startup, but I don’t know what that is. I think the Oracle histories all have the granularity “year.”
Database Administrator was a distinct job function long before relational databases, of course.
John said …
“Many of the people in the dba community are not exactly characterized by a wild propensity for frivolity.”
Speak for yourself, mate ;-)
Don’t fret! DBAs are included in System Administrator Appreciation Day. Happy SysAdminDay!!!
Ted
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I noticed that in the link
https://groups.google.com/group/net.unix-wizards/msg/ecfd0a3ea301b284?dmode=source&hl=en
The mail message was sent from a VAX, one of the original platforms Ellison used to enhance the Oracle product. There is a whole history behind where it originally came from etc…
I vote for the Friday during the week of the 23rd of August.
August 17th – birthday of the DBA “god”