Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Sergiy - Friday, March 3, 2017 7:00 PM

    I hear the "couple" one far too often. A couple is two.

    Actually, "a couple" is not the same as "two".A couple means two bound together by some property, situation, or something else."A couple of dollars" is a wrong expression, but the expression "a couple of headlight" meaning "a set two complementary headlights" would be right use of the word."A couple of people" can be used for a pair, say, spouses, but should not be used for strangers on a bus stop.

    "There's a couple at the bus stop" - two people in a relationship
    "There are a couple of people at the bus stop" - two or three  people
    You can't really say "should not be used" when the usage is as widespread as the loose usage of "couple" as a numeric.
    MAX(Couple) = (Few - 1)
    πŸ˜›

    β€œWrite the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw

    For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
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  • Sergiy - Thursday, March 2, 2017 1:53 PM

    I feel bad that my resume has stretched onto a third page but I guess I do have nearly 20 years experience at this point. I also include information about myself outside of work. Things like volunteer work and coaching soccer. None of the resumes I saw recently had any of this kind of thing. They were just a robotic listing of the work tasks and provided no insight to the humanistic side of the applicant.

    Nobody in recruitment agencies read resumes nowadays.They do not accept resumes in any format other than Word document. Even PDF is not good for them.It's because they feed all the resumes to a specialised tool which parses it according some predefined patterns and populates the database with the candidate's skills.Professional job hunters know the system, and know how to build the resume to be amongst most preferable candidates - they just need to fit the system.Professional DBA's are not so good in job hunting, they rarely fit the standard pattern, so there is a very little chance you'll ever see them on another side of the table.Unless you dump the agency.

    This is why the last page of my resume has a section called Metadata and is nothing more than a list of keywords. They will get dumped into the database. And then my resume will pop out when there's a vague match.

    Yup. Database developer gaming the system. Seems like I should get extra points for that. 😎

  • ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    Grant Fritchey - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:25 AM

    GilaMonster - Thursday, March 2, 2017 8:24 AM

    Jeff Moden - Thursday, March 2, 2017 7:47 AM

     Ironically, the ones that knew the least rated themselves the highest when asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on the skills advertised for the job prior to the interview.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

    At my previous employer, for legal purposes we were required to a) ask every single person the same set of questions on an initial interview and b) keep notes. I had notes on over 150 people failing to answer 10, stupid simple questions, about SQL Server. The vast majority of those people had, at least on paper, 5-10 years of experience as a DBA. If within 5 years, you can't tell me the difference between a CI & NCI or two of three standard recovery models(and I would have gleefully accepted non-standard models) or even, my favorite failing question, "So, SQL Server X was just released, can you tell me anything about it at all?" Huge, huge, huge swaths of people don't even bother reading "What's new" to see what's coming out in vNext.

    Trying to hire a competent data pro is a flipping nightmare. No wonder everyone wants to eliminate the position.

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

  • jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    It also doesn't specify whether I need to apply relativistic corrections.

    Last time I got a question like that it was in 2nd year Physics exam, and the speeds involved were all over 0.7c.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    Grant Fritchey - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:25 AM

    GilaMonster - Thursday, March 2, 2017 8:24 AM

    Jeff Moden - Thursday, March 2, 2017 7:47 AM

     Ironically, the ones that knew the least rated themselves the highest when asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on the skills advertised for the job prior to the interview.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

    At my previous employer, for legal purposes we were required to a) ask every single person the same set of questions on an initial interview and b) keep notes. I had notes on over 150 people failing to answer 10, stupid simple questions, about SQL Server. The vast majority of those people had, at least on paper, 5-10 years of experience as a DBA. If within 5 years, you can't tell me the difference between a CI & NCI or two of three standard recovery models(and I would have gleefully accepted non-standard models) or even, my favorite failing question, "So, SQL Server X was just released, can you tell me anything about it at all?" Huge, huge, huge swaths of people don't even bother reading "What's new" to see what's coming out in vNext.

    Trying to hire a competent data pro is a flipping nightmare. No wonder everyone wants to eliminate the position.

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    Or just assume that both trains are already moving at full speed.

    _______________________________________________________________

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    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

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    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
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    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • Sergiy - Friday, March 3, 2017 7:00 PM

    I hear the "couple" one far too often. A couple is two.

    Actually, "a couple" is not the same as "two".A couple means two bound together by some property, situation, or something else."A couple of dollars" is a wrong expression, but the expression "a couple of headlight" meaning "a set two complementary headlights" would be right use of the word."A couple of people" can be used for a pair, say, spouses, but should not be used for strangers on a bus stop.

    One of the definitions of couple is indeed a numeric meaning a small number.

    A couple does not always represent a pair of persons that is bound together or even related.

    Unfortunately there is another definition that does allow for an indefinite small number (e.g. few)

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

  • jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    Grant Fritchey - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:25 AM

    GilaMonster - Thursday, March 2, 2017 8:24 AM

    Jeff Moden - Thursday, March 2, 2017 7:47 AM

     Ironically, the ones that knew the least rated themselves the highest when asked to rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 10 on the skills advertised for the job prior to the interview.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

    At my previous employer, for legal purposes we were required to a) ask every single person the same set of questions on an initial interview and b) keep notes. I had notes on over 150 people failing to answer 10, stupid simple questions, about SQL Server. The vast majority of those people had, at least on paper, 5-10 years of experience as a DBA. If within 5 years, you can't tell me the difference between a CI & NCI or two of three standard recovery models(and I would have gleefully accepted non-standard models) or even, my favorite failing question, "So, SQL Server X was just released, can you tell me anything about it at all?" Huge, huge, huge swaths of people don't even bother reading "What's new" to see what's coming out in vNext.

    Trying to hire a competent data pro is a flipping nightmare. No wonder everyone wants to eliminate the position.

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?


    On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" ... I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
    β€”Charles Babbage, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

    How to post a question to get the most help http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537

  • Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    European or African?

    Thomas Rushton
    blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com

  • ThomasRushton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:37 AM

    Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    European or African?

    I don't know....

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    Depends how hungry it is.

    If you haven't even tried to resolve your issue, please don't expect the hard-working volunteers here to waste their time providing links to answers which you could easily have found yourself.

  • Brandie Tarvin - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:33 AM

    ThomasRushton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:37 AM

    Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    European or African?

    I don't know....

    /Brandie is magically flung from the thread and into the abyss to be forced to support a MUMPS application for the rest of her days

    And if you don't know what MUMPS is, Google it on DailyWTF for a more amusing description...
    I shudder at the mere thought of it...

  • JustMarie - Monday, March 6, 2017 10:53 AM

    This is why the last page of my resume has a section called Metadata and is nothing more than a list of keywords. They will get dumped into the database. And then my resume will pop out when there's a vague match.

    Yup. Database developer gaming the system. Seems like I should get extra points for that. 😎

    I love this.

  • jasona.work - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 6:11 AM

    Brandie Tarvin - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:33 AM

    ThomasRushton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:37 AM

    Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    European or African?

    I don't know....

    /Brandie is magically flung from the thread and into the abyss to be forced to support a MUMPS application for the rest of her days

    And if you don't know what MUMPS is, Google it on DailyWTF for a more amusing description...
    I shudder at the mere thought of it...

    After reading the word MUMPS, I now have a headache.

     Having previously worked at a health insurer, I had to deal with MUMPS on a daily basis.  Which in itself wasn't horrible, but the MUMPS developers were! They basically knew that they had the entire companies data in the proverbial palms of their hands.  I was the first person who wasn't a MUMPS programmer that actually knew the language, so they could no longer say no to the various requests that came their way.  
    Meetings were always pretty funny.  They would say no, it can't be done, and I would nearly always say, yes, it can.  Of course, I had to then show them how to do it.

    20 years later, the company is still stuck with these systems. The MUMPS programmers are all grumpy grey beards who still run the show.

    Michael L John
    If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
    To properly post on a forum:
    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/

  • jasona.work - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 6:11 AM

    Brandie Tarvin - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:33 AM

    ThomasRushton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:37 AM

    Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    jasona.work - Monday, March 6, 2017 12:05 PM

    ZZartin - Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:41 AM

    At my last job the first thing we gave techy applicants was a basic math quiz, like grade school level basic, train leaves a station going X miles per hour train b leaves a station going Y miles per hour they're Z distance apart how long until there's a fiery wreck kind of basic.

    The vast majority of the candidates only got interviews out pity after that because crumpling up their results and playing basketball with the trash can while laughing would be rude, these were people with post high school degrees in something tech related applying for developer jobs :crying:

    A bigger problem with this math problem is that you're apparently presuming instantaneous acceleration from 0MPH to X or Y MPH.  Presuming any sort of reasonable travel speed, you'd be turning your passengers into a fine red jam on the rear walls of the cars, presuming the walls would be able to withstand the impact...

    Honestly.

    You *have* to specify the acceleration rates of the trains as well, if one accelerates at 5MPH/minute and the other at 10MPH/minute, it's going to drastically alter when the trains will meet!

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    European or African?

    I don't know....

    /Brandie is magically flung from the thread and into the abyss to be forced to support a MUMPS application for the rest of her days

    And if you don't know what MUMPS is, Google it on DailyWTF for a more amusing description...
    I shudder at the mere thought of it...

    ACK! That sounds like PennMUSH.

    Well, okay. I'm being unfair to PennMUSH, especially as PM wasn't designed to actually hold up code for a business.

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Phil Parkin - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 4:54 AM

    Neil Burton - Tuesday, March 7, 2017 12:14 AM

    But what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

    Depends how hungry it is.

    It doesn't depend on hunger.  It depends on the weight of the coconut.

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