Your subconscious is telling you that it thinks there is a problem and you shouldn't spend time working on a project that it feels is going to fail if you continue down your current path. Spend a few days listening to what your subconscious is trying to tell you, and refute in writing all the negative things it's telling you. If you can refute everything convincingly, then your mental motivational block will resolve itself. Don't be afraid to free-associate until you get to the root of the problem. Don't worry about spending too much time overcoming this roadblock, because 1) your subconscious is telling you there is a real problem, and 2) many times it's right. Brainstorm solutions until you get your solution. I've sometimes spent many days mulling over problems until I come up with a solution, but once I do my motivation comes right back and I can't wait to get back to the project. Everybody occasionally runs into these mental blocks; it's nothing to be concerned with if you decide to systemically attack it by letting your subconscious feed you solutions until you find one that works. Just don't write it off to "lack of motivation"; there's something your subconscious is trying to tell you. Address it and your motivation will come back.
Wow, the term Politically Correct means nothing to you. Lawrence Summers got pilloried for less. I'm not sure you can use the term "illegal" workers any more in polite company. I think the New York Times prefers the word "undocumented." And I'm not going to touch the rest of that paragraph. (Mock outrage and major hand-wringing, and a slight whiff of pretentiousness that goes along when I cluck my tongue in a condescending manner.)
One, the US is in the midst of a major restructuring of the economy. It's going to take time. A lot of us are going to be playing musical chairs until a more efficient allocation of our labors occurs. It's as much about /how/ our talents should be allocated in this new economy as opposed to our talents. That's a subtle difference, but an important distinction.
Two, Americans don't move around as much as they used to. We used to move about once every 5 years. Now, when a recession hits, we don't move to where the jobs are as much. That slows the recovery down.
Three, there are major pieces of legislation that have not been resolved. That does not help the business community decide whether it's OK to hire. The quicker the legislation is handled (one way or another), the faster the restructuring of the economy and the faster people will be put back to work.
Four, "productivity" in the midst of a recession is just a fancy name for fewer workers doing more work because their co-workers were let go. This new-found "productivity" wont last long, and will go back to the mean as soon as rehiring starts.
Five, there will /always/ be a demand for people to fix other people's screw-ups (if you're in the IT industry). The last two jobs I was on they were looking for somebody who can migrate their ancient systems to something more modern. People are figuring out that's it's really easy to build things, but quite a different matter when it comes time to migrate.
Six, we are working our way through a large bubble. This recession says more about the bubble than the skills of the labor force. But, yes, major labor adjustments will be made.
Seven, businesses are scared and banks wont lend to small business. It's not that labor is unnecessary, but that next to nobody wants to take the risk in a down economy, or those who do can't get the capital. Some well-managed companies haven't laid off anybody and are thriving (e.g. Apple). Google has started re-staffing, so they see things picking up. It will take time, but it's getting better. The well-managed companies see the shift and are first movers.
Eight, this economic restructuring is normal. It's scary if you've never lived through one before, but it's by no means unique. It's actually more than normal, it's occasionally necessary to force a restructuring and wring out the excesses.
Nine, things are better than they appear on the surface. We have started the recovery but it's hard to tell because the lagging indicators are still down. Just because pessimism is in vogue doesn't mean things are getting worse.
Lastly, we have finally slipped our shackles. No more WinTel. Instead, we get to figure out the best way to handle multi-core. RDBMs are no longer de rigueur; we get to apply NoSQL where it makes sense. Hardware is so cheap that instead of doing backups we just use clustering or multiple-allocation. RAM is so cheap that we can put the whole internet in it. Disk is morphing to solid-state right before our eyes. The opportunities are far greater than they have ever been. And those of us who have been keeping up will lead the way.
Worst: c/c++ pointer memory errors, duh. Especially when there are thousands of pointers and don't know which one is overwriting memory that it shouldn't be overwriting.
Second worst: linking c programs when some of the symbols are duplicated in more than one library yet are defined differently, Nobody mentioning this to the developer made it all the more exciting.
2. for showing that it's possible to succeed without selling out, Whedon.
3. for challenging me to stick to my beliefs, J.D. Salinger.
4. for a glimpse of honor, compassion, and beauty, Harper Lee.
5. Anne Frank.
One German-born girl, three American writers, and one fictional character. On the surface
they don't look like super-heroes, but all have affected the way I think and view the world.
What's sobering is that none of my heroes are on anybody else's list.
First, thanks for posting the question. I've read a lot
of good info in this thread and I'd like to reciprocate.
The most important lesson I've learned in my life is
that the people who have any influence over you are
most likely playing you. And most "dirty tricks" are
not done directly, but through their proxies. If this
is news to you, you wont even be able to tell whose
pulling the levers.
People may be moral on Sunday, but, come Monday, the
boss can pretty much define what's right and wrong and
people will fall in line, even if it's to conspire and
betray. Most people have the morality of a squirrel:
they will steal your nuts, but only when you aren't
looking.
Their justifications for screwing you:
1. as long as they don't get caught, they think it's OK;
2. they assume they are being played, too, so it's just
the way they think the world works;
3. the ends justify the means;
4. some people (salesmen / head hunters / egotistic
managers) play it for the game: playing people like a
puppet on a string, what's not to like, especially if
it puts jingle in the pocket?
5. better him than me; it's a dog eat dog world;
6. who can afford morals when you have a mortgage
payment due? Family first;
7. the naive deserve to be played if they're this easy;
8. bacon cheeseburgers, chocolate, and over-generous
salaries go a long way towards assuaging the guilt;
9. some think saying a prayer every Sunday absolves
them;
10. periodically spreading graft in the form of
gifts, bonuses, perks, plush job positions, etc., is
an embodiment of their good intentions and shows what
swell guys they really are. In reality, they are trying
to buy you.
Here's a few clues that should draw your attention:
1. if it seems like your manager is doing no better
than flipping a coin whenever he makes a technical
decision, it's not because he's a moron when it comes
to technical matters, it's because he is factoring his
decision into his scheme of playing the maximum number
of his employees to his benefit.
2. if the boss makes totally random statements that
technically don't make any sense at all, it's because
they weren't intended to make technical sense. He's
sending you a message in manager-speak, the only code
he understands. (More on this below.)
3. if buds that used to pal around with you start
avoiding you, the boss has gotten to them in some way.
And here's one anti-pattern: don't think that being
outwardly religious means that one is less evil than
the non-religious. It just means the evil is cloaked in
religious vestments.
Here's an example of how to decode a totalling
random thing your boss may say. "Put the prototype
in production now." Those six words have a totally
different meaning to a manager than to a person naive
enough to take this statement literally. Translation:
"What I want you to do is this: rewrite the prototype
and turn it into production code, test it, and install
it before the end of the day, or, if you prefer, you
can work all night and install it first thing tomorrow
morning while I'm pounding away on my trophy wife.
I know what I said may have sounded kind of funny,
because I don't understand the stupid details that you
techies masturbate over, but if I had said anything
truly insane I'm sure that you idiot techies would have
either corrected me, or made the proper translations
from manager-speak to geek-speak. I mean, surely you're
smart enough to do that, aren't you? You say you can
speak all these different languages. Well, why don't
you start with English? I own all of your asses, so
you will either find a way to do this or else tell
me in the most obsequious manner how my grand plan
may be amended in a manner such that I will save face
and still get what I want in the quickest way. And,
oh, by the way, if this causes the database to start
hemorrhaging data, it's all your fault because I hereby
give you total responsibility and zero authority to
actually get the task done. Deal with it, and get out
of my face already. I have no clue how to actually
do anything that I asked you to do, but that's not
my problem, now, is it, you fooken mooches? Now I've
got to get back to my office and covertly read the
email you've been sending each other. Suck it! Uh, I
mean, good luck on getting this done by my totally
meaningless deadline!" There, that wasn't so hard
to decode, was it? The reason why it becomes easier
and easier to decode manager-speak is because a lot
of the words and phrases remain the same, especially
the phrases "idiots," "suck it," and "don't bother me
with details, you ass-wipes! I can't even remember the
passwords to half my accounts. How the hell do you
think I can help you with your petty problems? Now, for
Christsakes, leave me alone!"
Most people are amateurs at being pure evil, however,
and have tells. They avoid looking you in the eyes, or
give short, evasive or noncommittal answers. They often
don't face you while talking to you, and their voice
is lower than it is normally. They may look at their
computer monitor as if it's revealing the answer to
the universe and they are too busy soaking in life's
answers to attend to your silly, silly questions that
deal with boring things like databases or how we might
make their company some coin.
The Pros, on the other hand, have learned the tricks to
hiding their culpability: they have learned to control
their emotions so that they can appear charming and
look you straight in the eyes while lying. Finding the
Pro's tells is much harder.
The most common way for a player to judge whether his
conspiracies have been found out is to occasionally
"ping" you and judge your reactions. The simplest form
this takes is a cheery "Good Morning," except this is
not a pleasantry, your boss is using it like radar.
The naive wont be able to control the bile that starts
to well up in the throat when they see somebody who
is playing them, and they will immediately give it
away on their face, and this is of course instantly
readable. The ping succeeded. If you understand how
the game is played, however, you will immediately give
a reciprocating cheerful "Good morning," not because
you give a rat's ass about your boss' well-being, but
because showing your hand makes it even easier for your
boss to play you. The corollary is to never let on that
you know the rules of the game, which is why you almost
never see these missives in print, and they will be
quickly disavowed or shrugged off as casually as Bush
shrugs off the fact he belongs to a secret society
(Skull and Bones -- look it up). Who said poker's just
a game?
Some indicators of Pro players: they pay a lot of
attention to their appearance (one exception: they
think they can cover up their rolls and rolls of fleshy
fat with really expensive leather coats); they attach
a huge amount of importance on being able to tightly
control their emotions (or use them to personal gain,
to wit, watch Hillary turn on the waterworks when her
words are no longer effective); they tightly control
information: they only release information that
either makes them look good, is benign, or is vitally
important to getting the job done; they know how to put
the best light on a sucky situation, and, conversely,
are quick to throw mud at others, even when they are
three levels down the ladder and have absolutely zero
authority, they still try to divert the responsibility
onto those who are either unable to defend themselves
or are unwilling to stoop to this nonsense. Most of
the time, however, you wont even know it's happening.
Most of it doesn't surface, but some eventually bubbles
up from the depths. The most insidious members of our
society are cowards, and prefer maneuvering in the
shadows.
So amoral and base are these people that they will
even try to play you after you give your notice. While
you desperately try to break free from the beady-eyed
little monsters, they will ask for that last pound of
flesh without even blinking. From the most evil there
is absolutely no remorse; and from those trying to buy
back a piece of their souls, a generous severance. Take
it -- you deserve it more than you will ever know.
Those weird things people have said to you in the past
that you just write off as unimportant or meaningless,
well, they weren't. The motivations behind those weird
statements were most likely guileful, trying to get you
to expose your cards, or manipulate you.
How to know you're being played? Aside from the clues I
list above, you need to totally clear your head and let
your subconscious pick it apart at night. I literally
woke up one morning and knew what had happened because
my dreams had played it out for me. Then once you know
what happened, and understand these unspoken rules I've
laid out, it's not too difficult to confirm. And to be
specific about clearing your head, I mean eating like
a cave man, and exercising like a cave man. Don't even
ingest caffeine if you are trying to get to that point
where your subconscious is able to tell you important
things and you are capable of listening.
However, I just may be over-sensitive. And I suck at poker.
But I'm learning.
What also works is recorded rain sounds, and James Horner (A Beautiful Mind soundtrack). Loud enough to drown out the talking, but doesn't interfere with the thought process.
As long as it is on-topic, it's fair game, because if the blog entry would not look out of place if posted in the forum, it's ok to put a short and tastful note of its existence. If done correctly, you are strengthening the community by making pertinent information available by sharing high-value links.
Three exceptions.
Exception one: you shouldn't explicitly charge or ask for money on the blog entry (modicum amount of ads are ok, though, to help defray bandwidth expenses).
Exception two: if there is a more appropriate venue, such as a Planet <X/Lisp/Ruby/etc.> that acts as a syndicate for blogs and covers your area of interest, then the blog syndicate should be used instead since most people understand that that's the place to go if they want to read blog entries.
Exception three: don't bother spamming your lesser blog entries that hold little new value.
some of the coolest problems are the problems that don't have a polynomial solution, so clever heuristics have to be discovered that work in most scenarios and compliment your data and requirements. for example, trying to solve a problem when there are not enough cpu cycles to even traverse a fraction of the total search domain. instead of looking for the perfect solution, you search for a solution that is good enough. which leads to the next question: how do you know when you've got a good enough solution?
I meant to ask this question myself but I just couldn't find the motivation.
Seriously, procrastination is the way your subconscious tells you something is wrong and needs to be fixed, or all of your work is for naught. So either stop, talk to your buddies, and fix it so that you can get re-motivated, or check all the code back in unlocked and go find the next challenge. Your subconscious is trying to tell you something; listen to it and address it, because it's almost always right. The answer is not here, but you already knew that, didn't you?
The raw performance between Sql Svr and Mysql are pretty much a wash. If you primarily base your decision on this, you are overlooking quite a few more important issues.
Hardware (Raid level, Ram, CPU), DB driver, programming language, and caching are all more important issues.
Non-speed issues:
1. Sql Svr 2000 had locking problems such that many transactions deadlock and automatically get rolled back. This was due to page locking. I think MS fixed this in 2005 with record-level locking.
2. Sql Svr has very nice stored procedure support. This can be extremely useful. If you think you may need this capability, then Sql Svr is the better choice.
If you do decide to go with Sql Svr, you will probably end up having to get a copy of VS 2008 and do some C# programming. It's almost impossible to maintain Sql Svr w/o it, unless you want to maintain the db by hand every day.
It doesn't sound like you have much db experience. Get a couple of experienced db admins in to talk with you before you make any big decisions, even if it's just a two hour consult.