Tuesday, September 08, 2009
The Cranky DBA
I manage databases and database applications for a living. There is a community of SQL Server bloggers out there, and I’ve started doing some writing myself. I’m now publishing at The Cranky DBA.
That site won’t be connected to mikehillwig.com. It’s running different blogging software. It’s using Word Press while I use Expression Engine for this site.
Today, I became the latest syndicated author for SQLServerPedia.com. That’s pretty exciting for me. It’s a great way to network with other DBAs as well as gain some great exposure for job prospects, should I be looking for them in the future.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Spreading the LUV
@southwestair
Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a huge fan of Southwest Airlines.
Recently, I had an experience that proves why Southwest does something right that most airlines have wrong.
My travel plans for next weekend have changed. Josh’s closing got pushed back due to a problem on the seller’s end. That means I’m not helping him move this weekend. Instead, I’m going to be spending the weekend in Washington, DC to see an old friend from college. I had already purchased my airfare on Southwest weeks ago. With most other airlines, my $265 fare would have been history. But not with Southwest.
I went to southwest.com and canceled my reservation. That meant that I had $265 in credit available for my next flight. Instead of losing money, I can apply it to my trip to DC this weekend without any additional fees. A refund would be nice, but that’s not very good business. But by giving me an opportunity to use that money toward a different trip, they keep me coming back for more. THAT’s good business.
It gets better, though. As the day has progressed, I’ve decided to take Friday as a vacation day. Reggie is heading to my friend Chris’ house on Friday morning now. That means I can catch an earlier flight. Most airlines will charge you a fee for this. Instead, my flight has a lower fare available than my original flight. Southwest is giving me the fare difference as a credit.
You’ll never see US Airways do that.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Purging
Purging
Originally uploaded by mikehillwig
If you follow me on Facebook, Flickr or Twitter, you may know that I’ve been pondering a move back to the city. I love my condo, but living in Salem has become invconvenient. Between doctors and chorus obligations, I’m in the city pretty frequently.
If you look at my moving history, a 2BR in Pittsburgh, 2BR in Providence, 1BR in Boston, and a 2BR in Salem, I have a lot of stuff. My second bedroom in Salem has effectively become a big closet. Enough is enough. I’m purging a lot of crap I just don’t need anymore.
This project has been incredibly refreshing. I’m throwing away stuff I haven’t seen/used/touched/needed for ages. This includes clothes. I have a ton of clothes that just don’t need to be kept. As I’m doing laundry, anything that isn’t worth keeping gets discarded. (I’d rather replace than fold clothes, anyway.) Last night, I tried on three suits that were in the closet. Not one of them fit. They’re going to Goodwill. An entire box of magazines has been discarded.
I used to keep every boarding pass from every flight I’ve ever taken. Those are history as well. If it wasn’t made or owned by a grandparent, it’s not sacred and up for purging.
Last night, I threw out six huge trash bags of stuff. There are two more that aren’t in this picture.
IT Crisis Management
One of the hallmarks of a good manager is the ability to empower the success of her or his people. This morning, I’ve been thinking about one of the best managers for whom I’ve had the privilege to work. In my career, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work for some amazing managers, and they all keep raising the bar on each other.
This was during my time at Weirton Steel, and I worked for a guy named George. He is truly one of the best managers for whom I’ve ever worked. We were having a hell of a time with our Novell file servers. This was the big iron of the time that ran a big chunk of the company. And this thing was going up and down like a yo yo. Nobody was quite sure if it was hardware or software. George brought in engineers from our vendor that specialized in Novell and Compaq hardware. We had a ton of Novell expertise on staff as well. This should have been fixed in short order, but the problems persisted a few days.
In times of crisis, George was the one remain incredibly calm. When people started raising their voices, he would speak up and quiet people down. I recall him buying lunch for his staff during this, which allowed his people to keep working. What really impressed me through this whole crisis was not how he handled his staff, but how he handled upper management. George strategically placed himself in the corner of the data center, not only to watch from a bit of a distance, but for a much greater purpose. When a member of upper management would come into the data center, he would intercept them and usher them right back out. I recall hearing him tell the IT director that the last thing his staff needed was someone from upper management asking for a status report. He played interference for his team, making sure they could keep working.
George taught me a lot. And to this day, I won’t walk into a data center with a beverage in my hands. That was forbidden in his data centers, and that’s how it should be.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
On Healthcare
It seems like one can’t turn on a news program these days without somebody blathering on about healthcare. It probably won’t surprise my readers to know that I have some very strong opinions on the matter. As someone who is a consumer of a great number of healthcare resources, I like to think I’m pretty well aware of the current system, its flaws, its benefits, and how to navigate the system.
Let me start by stating a bias. As a conservative, I don’t like government getting its hands into things it shouldn’t. Government also created this mess. In the world war 2 era, salary caps forced businesses to offer health insurance as a perk to employees. Since they couldn’t pay more, they offered something else of value. That’s capitalism at its best, creating a solution to a problem. In recent years, government made the situation worse by giving tax benefits to employers instead of employees.
Today, the AP has an article saying that the White House may be willing to give up on the so-called public option. This makes me want to jump up and down, cheering all the way. Again, I don’t think the government should be running a healthcare system. Disagree with me? That’s fine. You’re perfectly entitled to your opinion. But ask a senior how well they like medicare. It’s a broken system, too. Oh, and if you really want an example of how our government runs healthcare, ask a veteran how well the VA runs healthcare. That’s not just broken, it’s a travesty. If that’s how we treat our war heros, imagine how somebody like me will get treated. No, thank you.
Let me start with the big myth that everybody needs a high-end health insurance. Most Americans don’t. If you have a healthy family who has minimal healthcare needs, high-deductible plans could be a serious option, saving a ton of money. Couple that with a flexible spending account, and most people would be well-served. Speaking of flexible spending accounts, eliminating the year-to-year expiration of plans would be a huge benefit. Right now, if I don’t use all of the money in my FSA by the end of the year, that money expires. Why not let it roll over so I can use it the following year? FSAs are one of the best things we’ve ever done for healthcare. I put back close to three thousand dollars every year for my out of pocket expenses, and it’s all pre-tax money. You can’t beat it.
As I mentioned earlier, the current tax laws favor employers who pay for healthcare benefits. Why not open the market so that everyone can shop around for the insurance that suits their needs? Having insurance paid for by employers isn’t the only option.
And why aren’t we talking about community clinics? Companies like Walmart and CVS were setting up clinics in their stores where people could spend a little bit of money to see a nurse or nurse practitioner. It’s a brilliant idea that has been squelched by many government organizations, including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If someone could spend $20 to see a nurse before waiting for an issue to spiral out of control, forcing a trip to an emergency room, it would take a lot of pressure off our hospitals.
One of the big things we could do to reduce healthcare costs in this country is to end frivolous lawsuits. Defensive medicine is ridiculously expensive, and I’ve recently seen it in action. Before going on Tysabri, I had to have a whole battery of unnecessary tests required by the drug company. Why? Because a few people have died of a rare condition called PML and they’ve been sued. Keep in mind that this is why the drug was still experimental. Now, I have to have several expensive tests just to minimize the chance of the drug company being sued.
The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey has been under fire by the far left, including a group on Facebook, because he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with some of his opinions. The funny thing is that I agree with him on many points. I don’t agree with everything he says, but a lot of what he says makes sense.
Yes, healthcare in this country is broken and needs to be fixed. But lets not make it worse. Lets enact change, but lets fix the low-hanging fruit first. Sweeping change to a system that touches every segment of our economy could be a disaster in the making. I’d rather have it right instead of right now.
Dog Days
August is probably my least favorite month of the year. It brings heat and humidity, and that’s hard for people who have MS. I’m feeling completely wiped out right now, and it takes a ton of energy to do simple tasks.
Most people become hermits in February when it’s cold and dismal. I do, too. But I do the same thing in August, keeping myself in the air conditioning. I’m almost ready to break down and buy an air conditioner for the kitchen, just so the whole condo can be kept cool. I haven’t done that just yet, though.
The worst part of this is emotional. Everybody else is off to the beach or enjoying the last bits of summer. It’s an effort for me to just walk Reggie around the block. I get out of the car and stumble, and I worry about people thinking I’m a drunk driver. Little do they know the ill effects the summer heat and humidity have on my system.
My oven hasn’t been touched in two months. If I can’t do it on the stove top, it happens on the grill. Yesterday, while craving meatloaf, I broke out a crock pot.
I’ve been talking about taking a vacation to the Caribbean. Oddly enough, when I’m near a pool, I’m okay. Just dipping myself in the water makes all the difference. I had a great time in PTown because I stayed poolside and cooled off when I needed. My only problems were when I got too much sun one day.
September is just around the corner. And I can’t wait. Oddly enough, my September is pretty much booked. My friend Josh is moving into his house in Pittsburgh Labor Day weekend, and I’ll be there. The following weekend, the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus will be headlining the Boston Arts Festival. The next weekend is still up in the air. My mom may be planning my dad’s retirement party for that weekend. If not, I hope to be making the trip to Cleveland, but more on that later. And the last weekend in September is my friend Sam’s wedding.
Cleveland? My cousin Marilou and her husband Tom live there. Marilou and I have always been close, and I’ve never visited her in Cleveland. I’m also a HUGE fan of Iron Chef Michael Symon, and we’ll make a trip to one of his two restaurants while I’m there. She eats at Lolita frequently and loves it.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Miles and More
209-365: Mileage Plan
Originally uploaded by mikehillwig
I haven’t been blogging much. It’s been a busy summer at work. And life in general has been a bit insane. I still post a daily photo on Flickr.
I mentioned in my last blog post that I had switched banks. On top of that, I signed up for Bank of America’s Alaska Airlines debit card. I use my debit card for everything, so I’m earning miles. For example, when I pay my $120 cable bill every month, that earns me 60 miles on Alaska Airlines.
Some people have asked me why Alaska Airlines. First, I love the airline, even though I don’t get to fly them often. They’re based on the west coast and I live on the east coast. However, they serve Boston from both Seattle and Portland. That means if I have a need to fly to the west coast, I’ll have some miles built up.
It was a bit odd to book a flight on Southwest Airlines paying with my Alaska Airlines debit card. It’s a bit humorous to earn miles on Alaska by flying Southwest. But that’s the nature of a rewards card. Now if I use that card to book a flight on Alaska, I’ll earn double miles!
Flights on Southwest, you might ask. I actually have two trips booked with a third coming soon. I’ll be flying to Pittsburgh on Labor Day weekend to help my friend Josh move into his new house. Reggie won’t be making that trip with me. Thanksgiving is already booked, too. Southwest makes it much cheaper to fly with Reggie than JetBlue does. The trip that hasn’t been booked yet is my dad’s retirement party.
Travel plans for Christmas are still up in the air My tentative plans are to join the chorus in singing at Boston’s Arlington Street Church for Christmas Eve services and then head home on Christmas day. I’ve pretty publicly stated how much I loathe US Airways these days. If I fly home for Christmas, they have the best flight times for me. With a flight leaving Boston at 7:00 AM, it can have me at my parents’ house by 10.
Oh, I’m in a wedding in a few weeks and need to buy a new suit.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Switching Banks
I haven’t written a blog entry in over a month. Remember when I used to write every day? The good news is that I have plenty of content in my brain to write about. The bad news is that I don’t make the time to do said writing.
I recently made the decision to change banks. I’ve been with Citizens Bank since I started working in Boston in January 2005. They were okay as a bank, but I wasn’t thrilled. Their technology was hardly impressive, and their network of branches never worked for me when I traveled domestically. What I hated most is that every time I used another bank’s ATM, they’d charge me a foreign ATM fee. I wouldn’t object too much if they had ATMs everywhere. Even lately, I noticed that I was standing in line at the branches forever if I actually had to use one.
I’m now a customer of Bank of America. They have a presence that’s much better for my needs. They have branches and ATMs in New York and San Francisco. Their online banking is outstanding. That alone puts Citizens to shame. On top of that, they have a partnership with two different airlines that allow me to earn miles by using my debit card. I use my debit card for everything, so earning miles at the same time is a good thing. There is one drawback here. The two airlines are US Airways and Alaska Airlines. As I’ve stated recently, I won’t fly US Airways. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Alaska Airlines, but I don’t get the opportunity to fly them much. I’m thinking I’ll sign up for the Alaska Airlines Debit Card, though, earning the miles i need to get me to the west coast, or at least enough to score some upgrades.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Things That Go Beep in the Night
About 3:00 this morning, Reggie sat right up and let out a little “oof.” He NEVER does that, so I knew something was going on in the house. It wasn’t too long before I heard it, too. Something was making noise in the house. About 90 seconds later, I figured out that one of the smoke detectors was chirping. Thinking it was the one in the back stairwell, I went out there, only to hear it coming from inside the unit. This madness went on for close to ten minutes until I figured out it was the one in the hallway outside the bathroom. Oh, and it was also the one in the second bedroom, too. They were both beeping.
All of the smoke detectors in my building are hard-wired into the house power, so I’ve never had the need to pull them down and change batteries. I just assumed they didn’t have batteries. Thinking I’d have to get my landlord to call an electrician in the morning, I put a pillow over my head and tried to fall back asleep. That was an exercise in futility. Finally, I got up got a ladder and looked at the smoke detectors, hoping there was a way to disconnect them. Nope. They are hard wired right into the house power. What I did notice is that there was a compartment door for a battery. I opened the little door and found a 9v battery. I guessed these needed to be replaced. Do you think I have any 9v batteries in the house? Of course not.
Here I am at 4:00 AM, and I’m driving around Salem, looking for batteries. Two convenience stores and $20 later, I have three batteries. Seriously, $20. At 4:15 in the morning, I’m not going to argue about the price. Next, I’m back up on the ladder, replacing batteries. By this time, it’s 4:30, Reggie has had an accident on the floor (despite having just been outside), and I’m wide awake. I tossed and turned for over an hour, trying to fall asleep. No such luck. I got up to get my work laptop and check my calendar (and my boss’ calendar), knowing we have auditors coming in this week. Fortunately, our calendars were clear. What I did notice is that I was a little woozy on my feet and that I had chills. These are MS symptoms, and my body was telling me to rest. I e-mailed my boss, telling him I was taking a sick day, took something to help me sleep, and went to bed. I also fed Reggie so that he wouldn’t be waking me up at 6:00.
I got another five hours of blissful sleep, waking up about 10:30. I got myself up, and headed into work.
I really hate to take sick time because of my MS symptoms. This was one of those cases where I really didn’t have a choice. My body was telling me it was time rest, and that’s what I had to do. If I had pushed myself, I would have been a mess and risk crashing. That’s the last thing I want when I’m supposed to go on vacation in less than two weeks.
I’m feeling better and back in the game. And you’d better believe I’ll be changing those batteries on a regular basis now. I hate it when these things go beep in the night.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
How to Lose a Customer
Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been a long-time supporter of US Airways. I lived in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, meaning they were the hometown airline. They were almost the most convenient airline most of the time. In the last half of 1999 and first half of 2000, I flew close to 50,000 miles on that airline. Every time I’ve crossed the Atlantic Ocean, it was on US Airways. I was incredibly faithful. When I worked for IBM, I used the travel policies in my favor to make sure I flew US Airways, even though we got better deals on other airlines. Those days are long over.
Two years ago, I had a bad experience with US Airways in Nashville and Delta rescued me. History is about to repeat itself.
I should also take some of my own advice. I remind people of this on aviation forums when they complain about how the service on US Airways has gone downhill. Several years ago, US Airways filed for its second bankruptcy. They were bought by America West who kept the US Airways name and the America West product. One shouldn’t expect the same service one got on the old US Airways. Today, I proved that. US Airways lost my business. Worse yet, they lost my love.
As someone who follows commercial aviation as a hobby and who spent a decent chunk of his career being a professional business traveler, I’ve learned a few things. I know how to navigate the system, and friends come to me for advice. I’ll now be steering my friends and family to Delta and jetBlue instead of US Airways.
What did they do to deserve my anger? They were inflexible and uncaring.
I guess I should back up. Last July, I booked a frequent flyer reward ticket on US Airways from Boston to Portland, OR for my birthday weekend in October. All of the sudden, I found myself joining the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, and my birthday weekend was the chorus’ retreat. I had to cancel my trip. This was no big deal. I called US Airways, and they told me that as long as I rebooked it within a year, I could reuse the ticket, provided I paid a $150 rebooking fee. I wasn’t thrilled, but I could live with this.
Today, I called US Airways, trying to rebook my trip for mid-August. I was told that if I didn’t travel by July, I’d lose the entire ticket. Even though my travel was in October and I cancelled it in October, they base everything on the date the ticket was issued. In my head, I booked it in July for October Travel. I should be able to rebook before July for travel before October. Nope. If I don’t travel before July 6, I lose my miles. I do have the option of spending $150 to redeposit my miles for future use. Of course, I’ll have to pay yet another fee to redeem those miles. I asked to speak to a supervisor who gave me the same story. In their defense, I didn’t get conflicting stories.
So I have the choice of spending somewhere between $200 and $300 to rebook a ticket with more blackout dates on an airline who left a bad taste in my mouth or a new ticket on Delta, which will cost me about $300. I thanked the US Airways supervisor for her time and told her that I was cutting my losses and taking my business elsewhere. Hello, Delta!
Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I’m being unreasonable. Either is possible, but I don’t think so. The old US Airways would have taken care of me. The new US Airways did not.
I’ll be spending a long weekend in Portland visiting friends, and I won’t be flying US Airways to get there.