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Either. But why don't you go with MapR instead?I have experience with Cloudera training & certification, (which was great, but I'm sure it cost my company quite a lot of money then, given it was classroom training and they had to get Cloudera trainers from abroad). The tag of being a Cloudera Certified Developer for Apache Hadoop definitely certainly gave me confidence and some sense of satisfaction, but I guess what eventually mattered was I got a way to learn Hadoop well.However, not every company (or individual) can afford to pay for such training. Also there isn't much flexibility with time or resources for the learning process.MapR, one of the top ranked Hadoop distributions, offers free on-demand training (see Hadoop On-demand Training Courses). They have a wide variety of courses and the course material is detailed and I found them a bit more interesting (they have some new concepts on FileSystem side, ...) . I've completed a few and it was lot easier to manage my learning. I had the freedom of choosing my time and the topic I wanted to focus on. They have follow-up quizzes after each lesson and eventually one could register for certification.I think this would be a better way to go.p.s. I currently work for MapR. But these are my personal thoughts and based on experiences from before.

Let me give you some test scores :AWS SysOps Associate - 100% , AWS CloudPracticioner - 96.4% , AWS SAA - 91% , AWS Developer Associate - 96%I only ever purchased one CloudGuru course that too for Developer Associate. For everything else , i relied on WhizLabs . I have no official affiliation with them but the questions provided there are very relevant for the actual exams , at least for the associate levels.Another good thing about Whizlabs is that the answers provide a link to the official documentation , which helps in the overall preparation process.

The 100 Rules for Being a First-Time EntrepreneurIf you Google “entrepreneur” you get a lot of mindless cliches like “Think Big!” For me, being an “entrepreneur” doesn’t mean starting the next “Faceook”. Or even starting any business at all.It means finding the challenges you have in your life, and determining creative ways to overcome those challenges. However, in this post I focus mostly on the issues that come up when you first start your company. These rules also apply if you are taking an entrepreneurial stance within a much larger company (which all employees should do).Just as good to be an “entreployee” as an “entrepreneur”. Either one will help you survive this world of increased economic uncertainty.For me, I’ve started several businesses.Maybe 17 have failed out of 20. I fail quickly. I fail frequently. Entrepreneurship is a sentence of failures punctuated by brief success.I’m invested in about 28 private companies. I’ve advised probably another 50 private companies. I’m on the board of several private companies and one public company. The companies ranging from $0 in revenues to a billion in revenues.Along the way I’ve compiled a list of rules that have helped me deal with every aspect of being an entrepreneur in business and some in life.Here’s the real rules:A)        It’s not fun. I’m not going to explain why it’s not fun. These are rules. Not theories. I don’t need to prove them.But there’s a strong chance you can hate yourself throughout the process of being an entrepreneur. Keep sharp objects and pills away during your worst moments. And you will have them. If you are an entrepreneur and agree with me, please note this in the comments below.B)        Try not to hire people. You’ll have to hire people to expand your business. But it’s a good discipline to really question if you need each and every hire.C)       Get a customer. This seems obvious. But it’s not. Get a customer before you start your business, if you can.So many people say to me, “I have an idea. Can you introduce me to VCs?”There is a HUGE gap between “idea” and “professional venture capital”.In the middle of that gap is “customer”.D)        If you are offering a service, call it a product.Oracle did it. They claimed they had a database. But if you “bought” their database they would send in a team of consultants to help you “install” the database to fit your needs.In other words, for the first several years of their existence, they claimed to have a product but they really were a consulting company. Don’t forget this story. Products are valued higher than services.And almost EVERY major software product company was a service company in the beginning. Don’t forget that.E)       It’s OK to fail. Start over. Hopefully before you run out of money. Hopefully before you take in investor money. Or, don’t worry about it. Come up with new ideas. Start over.F)         Be profitable. Try to be profitable immediately. This seems obvious but it isn’t. Try not to raise money. That money is expensive.G)        When raising money: if it’s not easy then your idea is probably incapable of raising money. If its easy, then take as much as possible. If its TOO easy, then sell your company (unless you are Twitter, etc).(if its too easy, sell your company)H)        The same goes for selling your company. If it’s not easy, then you need to build more. Then sell. To sell your company, start getting in front of your acquirers a year in advance. Send them monthly updates describing your progress. Then, when they need a company like yours, your company is the first one that comes to mind.Don’t be like that guy in the TV show “Silicon Valley”. If someone offers you ten million for a company that has no revenues, then sell it. Not everything is going to be a Facebook. And even the Google guys tried to sell their company for ONE MILLION DOLLARS to Yahoo before they were revenue positive.SELL THE COMPANY.I)          Competition is good. It turns you into a killer. It helps you judge progress. It shows that other people value the space you are in. Your competitors are also your potential acquirors.J)         Don’t use a PR firm. Except maybe as a secretary. You are the PR for your company. You are your company’s brand. You personally.I’ve never had a good PR company. I’ve had good PR secretaries. But they are cheaper. One time I hired a PR company and they accidentally sent me the contract for Terry Bradshaw. He was paying $10,000 a month. How did they do for him?K)        Communicate with everyone. Employees. Customers. Investors. All the time. Every day.Employees want to know what to do. And they want to know you are thinking of their overall career.Customers want to know how to keep their bosses calm.Investors want to be your friend and want to know they can count on you when time’s are tough.L)         Do everything for your customers. This is very important.Get them girlfriends or boyfriends. Speak at their charities. Visit their parents for Thanksgiving. Help them find other firms to meet their needs. Even introduce them to your competitors if you think a competitor can help them or if you think you are about to be fired. Always think first, “What’s going to make my customer happy?”Note: EVEN if that means introduce them to a competitor. If you are the SOURCE, then everybody comes back to the source.M)        Your customer is not a company. There’s a human there. What will make my human customer happy? Make him laugh. You want your customer to be happy.N)        Show up. Go to breakfast/lunch/dinner with customers. Treat.O)        History. Know the history of your customers in every way. Company history, personal history, marketing history, investing history, etc.P)         Micro-manage software development. Nobody knows your product better than you do. If you aren’t a technical person, learn how to be very specific in your product specification so that your programmers can’t say: “well you didn’t say that!”Q)        Hire local. You need to be able to see and talk to your programmers. Don’t outsource to India. I love India. But I won’t hire programmers from there while I’m living in the US.R)        Sleep. Don’t buy into the 20 hours a day entrepreneur myth. You need to sleep 8 hours a day to have a focused mind.If you are working 20 hours a day, then that means you have flaws in how you are managing your time. You can argue about this but it’s true.S)         Exercise. Same as above. If you are unhealthy, your product will be unhealthy.T)         Emotionally Fit. DON’T have dating problems and software development problems at the same time. VCs will smell this all over you.U)        Pray. You need to. Be grateful where you are. And pray for success. You deserve it. Pray for the success of your customers. Heck, pray for the success of your competitors. The better they do, it means the market is getting bigger. And if one of them breaks out, they can buy you.V)       Buy your employees gifts. Massages. Tickets. Whatever. I always imagined that at the end of each day my young, lesbian employees (for some reason, most employees at my first company were lesbian) would be calling their parents and their mom and dad would ask them: “Hi honey! How was your day today?” And I wanted them to be able to say: “It was the best!” Invite customers to masseuse day. W)       Treat your employees like they are your children. They need boundaries. They need to be told “no!” sometimes. And sometimes you need to hit them in the face (ha ha, just kidding). But within boundaries, let them play.X)        Don’t be greedy pricing your product. If your product is good and you price it cheap, people will buy. Then you can price upgrades, future products, and future services more expensive. Which goes along with the next rule.Y)        Distribution is everything. Branding is everything. Get your name out there, whatever it takes. The best distribution is of course word of mouth, which is why your initial pricing doesn’t matter.Write a blog about your industry and be very honest about all the flaws (even your own) that is currently in your industry.Authenticity is the best branding.Z)         Don’t kill yourself. It’s not worth it. Your employees need you.Your children or future children need you. It seems odd to include this in a post about entrepreneurship but we’re also taking about keeping it real.Most books or “rules” for entrepreneurs talk about things like “think big”, “go after your dreams”. But often dreams turn into nightmares. I’ll repeat it again. Don’t kill yourself. Call me if things get too stressful. Or more importantly, make sure you take proper medicationAA)     Give employees structure. Let each employee know how his or her path to success can be achieved. All of them will either leave you or replace you eventually. That’s OK. Give them the guidelines how that might happen. Tell them how they can get rich by working for you.BB)      Fire employees immediately. If an employee gets “the disease” he needs to be fired. If they ask for more money all the time. If they bad mouth you to other employees. If you even think they are talking behind your back, fire them.The disease has no cure. And it’s very contagious. Show no mercy. Show the employee the door. There are no second chances because the disease is incurable.I don’t say this because I want anyone to be hurt. But if you’ve followed the rules above then you are treating employees well already. NOBODY should spread the disease and badmouth you or your customers.CC)      Make friends with your landlord. If you ever have to sell your company, believe it or not, you are going to need his signature (because there’s going to be a new lease owner)DD)     Only move offices if you are so packed in that employees are sharing desks and there’s no room for people to walk.EE)      Have killer parties. But use your personal money. Not company money. Invite employees, customers, and investors. .FF)       If an employee comes to you crying, close the door or take him or her out of the building. Sit with him until it stops. Listen to what he has to say. If someone is crying then there’s been a major communication breakdown somewhere in the company. Listen to what it is and fix it. Don’t get angry at the culprit’s. Just fix the problem.(you don’t want your employees to be sad.)GG)     At Christmas, donate money to every customer’s favorite charity. But not for investors or employees.HH)     Have lunch with your competitors. Listen and try not to talk. One competitor (Bill Markel from Interactive 8) once told me a story about how the CEO of Toys R Us returned his call. He was telling me this because I never returned Bill’s calls. Ok, Bill, lesson noted.II)        Ask advice a lot. Ask your customers advice on how you can be introduced into other parts of their company. Then they will help you. Because of the next rule…JJ)        Hire your customers. Or not. But always leave open the possibility. Let it always dangle in the air between you and them. They can get rich with you. Maybe. Possibly. If they play along. So play.KK)     On any demo or delivery, do one extra surprise thing that was not expected. Always add bells and whistles that the customer didn’t pay for.This is such an easy way to over deliver I’m surprised people don’t do it 100% of the time. They do it maybe 1% of the time. So this is an easy way to compete and surprise and delight.LL)      Understand the demographic changes that are changing the world. Where are marketing dollars flowing and can you be in the middle. What services do aging baby boomers need? Is the world running out of clean water? Are newspapers going to survive? Etc. Etc. Read every day to understand what is going on.LLa) Don’t go to a lot of parties or “meetups” with other entrepreneurs. Work instead while they are partying.MM)    But, going along with the above rule, don’t listen to the doom and gloomers that are hogging the TV screen trying to tell you the world is over. They just want you to be scared so they can scoop up all the money.NN)     You have no more free time. In your free time you are thinking of new ideas for customers, new ideas for services to offer, new products.OO)     You have no more free time, part 2. In your free time, think of ideas for potential customers. Then send them emails: “I have 10 ideas for you. Would really like to show them to you. I think you will be blown away. Here’s five of them right now.”OOa) Depressions, recessions, don’t matter. There’s $15 trillion in the economy. You’re allowed a piece of it:FedEx, Microsoft, HewlettPackard, and many huge companies were started in recessions or depressions. Leave economics to the academics while they leave good business to you.PP)       Talk. Tell everyone you ever knew  what your company does. Your friends will help you find clients.QQ)     Always take someone with you to a meeting. You’re bad at following up. Because you have no free time. So, if you have another employee. Let them follow up. Plus, they will like to spend time with the boss. You’re going to be a mentor.RR)      If you are consumer focused: your advertisers are your customers. But always be thinking of new services for your consumers. Each new service has to make their life better. People’s lives are better if: they become healthier, richer, or have more sex. “Health” can be broadly defined.SS)       If your customers are advertisers: find sponsorship opportunities for them that drive customers straight into their arms. These are the most lucrative ad deals (see rule above). Ad inventory is a horrible business model. Sponsorships are better. Then you are talking to your customer.TT)      No friction. The harder it is for a consumer to sign up, the less consumers you will have. No confirmation emails, sign up forms, etc. The easier the better.TTA) No fiction, part 2. If you are making a website, have as much content as you can on the front page. You don’t want people to have to click to a second or third page if you can avoid it. Stuff that first page with content. You aren’t Google. (And, 10 Unusual Things You Didn’t Know About Google)UU)     No friction, part 3. Say “yes” to any opportunity that gets you in a room with a big decision maker. Doesn’t matter if it costs you money.VV)     Sell your company two years before you sell it. Get in the offices of the potential buyers of your company and start updating them on your progress every month.  Ask their advice on a regular basis in the guise of just an “industry catch-up”WW)    If you sell your company for stock, sell the stock as soon as you can. If you are selling your company for stock it means:a.         The market is such that lots of companies are being sold for stock.b.         AND, companies are using stock to buy other companies because they value their stock less than they value cash.c.         WHICH MEANS, that when everyone’s lockup period ends, EVERYONE will be selling stock across the country. So sell yours first.XX)     Execution is a dime a dozen. If you have an idea worth pursuing, then just make it. You can build any website for cheap. Hire a programmer and make a demo. Get at least one person to sign up and use your service. If you want to make Facebook pages for plumbers, find one plumber who will give you $10 to make his Facebook page. Just do it.Fail quickly. Good ideas are HARD. It’s execution that is a dime a dozen.YY)     Don’t use a PR firm, part II. Set up a blog. Tell your personal stories (see “33 tips to being a better writer” ). Let the customer know you are human, approachable, and have a real vision as to why they need to use you. Become the voice for your industry, the advocate for your products. If you make skin care products, tell your customers every day how they can be even more beautiful than they currently are and have more sex than they are currently getting. Blog your way to PR success. Be honest and bloody.ZZ)      Don’t save the world. If your product sounds too good to be true, then you are a liar.ZZa) Your company is always for sale.AAA)  Frame the first check. I’m staring at mine right now.BBB)   No free time, part 3. Pick a random customer. Find five ideas for them that have nothing to do with your business. Call them and say, “I’ve been thinking about you. Have you tried this?”CCC)   No resale deals. Nobody cares about reselling your service. Those are always bad deals.DDD)   Your lawyer or accountant is not going to introduce you to any of their other clients. Those meetings are always a waste of time.EEE)    Celebrate every success. Your employees need it. They need a massage also. Get a professional masseuse in every Friday afternoon. Nobody leaves a job where there is a masseuse.FFF)     Sell your first company. I have to repeat this. Don’t take any chances. You don’t need to be Mark Zuckerberg. Sell your first company as quick as you can. You now have money in the bank and a notch on your belt. Make a billion on your next company.Note Mark Cuban’s story. Before he started Broadcast and rode it to a few billion, he sold his first software company for ten million.GGG)   Pay your employees before you pay yourself.HHH)   Give equity to get the first customer. If you have no product yet and no money, then give equity to a good partner in exchange for them being a paying customer.  Note: don’t blindly give equity. If you develop a product that someone asked for, don’t give them equity. Sell it to them. But if you want to get a big distribution partner whose funds can keep you going forever, then give equity to nail the deal.III)       Don’t worry about anyone stealing your ideas. Ideas are worthless anyway. It’s OK to steal something that’s worthless.IIIA) Follow me on twitter.Questions from ReadersQuestion: You say no free time but you also say keep emotionally fit, physically fit, etc. How do I do this if I’m constantly thinking of ideas for old and potential customers?Answer:  It’s not easy or everyone would be rich.Question: if I get really stressed about clients paying, how do I get sleep at night?Answer: medicationQuestion: how do I cold-call clients?Answer: email them. Email 40 of them. It’s OK if only 1 answers. Email 40 a day but make sure you have something of value to offer.Question: how can I find cheap programmers or designers?Answer: if you don’t know any and you want to be cheap: use Hire Freelancers & Find Freelance Jobs Online, Elance, or craigslist. But don’t hire them if they are from another country. You need to communicate with them even if it costs more money.Question: should I hire programmers?Answer: first…freelance. Then hire.Question: what if I build my product but I’m not getting customers?Answer: develop a service loosely based on your product and offer that to customers. But I hope you didn’t make a product without talking to customers to begin with?Question: I have the best idea in the world, but for it to work it requires a lot of people to already be using it. Like Twitter.Answer: if you’re not baked into the Silicon Valley ecosystem,  then find distribution and offer equity if you have to. Zuckerberg had Harvard. MySpace had the fans of all the local bands they set up with MySpace pages. I (in my own small way) had Stock Market - Business News, Market Data, Stock Analysis - TheStreet when I set up Stockpickr! Your Source for Stock Ideas. I also had 10 paying clients when i did my first successful business fulltime.Question: I just lost my biggest customer and now I have to fire people. I’ve never done this before. How do I do it?Answer:  one on meetings. Be Kind. State the facts. Say you have to let people go and that everyone is hurting but you want to keep in touch because they are a great employee. It was an honor to work with them and when business comes back you hope you can convince them come back. Then ask them if they have any questions. Your reputation and the reputation of your company are on the line here. You want to be a good guy. But you want them out of your office within 15 minutes. It’s a termination, not a negotiation. This is one reason why it’s good to start with freelancers.Question: I have a great idea. How do I attract VCs?Answer: build the product. Get a customer. Get money from customer. Get more customers. Build more services in the product. Get VC. Chances are by this point, the VCs are calling you.Question: I want to build a business day trading.Answer: bad ideaQuestion: I want to start a business but don’t know what my passion is:Answer: skip to the post: “How to be the luckiest person alive”. Do the Daily Practice. Within six months your life will be completely different.Question: I want to leave my job but I’m scared.Answer: same as above question.  The Daily Practice turns you into a healthy Idea Machine. Plus luck will flow in from every direction.Final rule: Things change. Every day. The title of this post, for instance, says “100 Rules”. But I gave about 70 rules (including the Q&A). Things change midway through. Be ready for it every day. In fact, every day figure out what you can change just slightly to shake things up and improve your product and company.Your business is not your life. When you start a business you also get a cognitive bias that makes you think your business is GREAT.Every day make sure you are not smoking crack. The most important thing is your health so you can be persistent. If you smoke crack you can die.I hope you succeed. Because I really need that smart toilet that sends my doctors text messages after doing urinalysis on my pee every day.Good luck.

"What is a database administrator(DBA) or how to become one?" are the questions people ask me when they find out I am a DBA. I have been working as a DBA for a while and love everything about it. This blog answers both the questions, along with my experience on how I started my career in database.What is a DBA?DBA stands for Database Administrator who is solely responsible for everything listed below and much more. You should have hands-on working knowledge of the following responsibilities in at least one of the relational database management systems to become a DBA.Database Availability: An application pulls data from a database to display or to generate a report. Companies cannot afford the database to remain offline. Without database, the application can't remain online. Database availability is one of the key responsibilities of a DBA.Database Backup: What happens when your hard drive crashes and you do not have a good backup of your documents, pictures, music, etc.? It is important to make a backup of existing database every single day. Making multiple copies of a backup and storing them in different location is a good practice. Hot backup and cold backup are two types of backup strategies for backing up a database. Database backup is automated through a scheduled job which runs nightly or weekly.Database Restore: Restoring is a process of building a database from a backup copy. Backup is done to protect data from data corruption, hardware/media failure or natural catastrophe. Time and again, DBA is required to restore database from a backup to practice restoring process. The successful restore process validates the backup copy is corruptions free which you won't know without restoring it.Database Design: A good database design might take a while but it saves a lot of headache later. Application developer should consult their design with DBA or involve DBA early in their designing process. Good database design makes the applications highly scalable, more maintainable, highly secure, and perform faster.Data Move: Organizations have various need for moving data from one database to another. The most frequent request is to move data from production database to development database in order for the developer to test their application before pushing the change to production. Sometime data movement are done to archive date in a history table, to make a backup of existing data, to store data in data warehouse for reporting and analyzing. Database link, Export-Import, Materialized View, custom script, and SSIS, Informatica are some of the Extract Transport Load (ETL) tools used widely these days.Database Upgrade: You all might have a smartphone with Android, Windows, or IOS Operating System. Every year or so, they release a new version of OS and we are notified to upgrade to the latest and greatest version of OS. The newer version covers all or most of the problems which older version had and may add few more features. Similarly, DBAs are required to upgrade their database with a newer version of database. However, I will wait few months before upgrading to a new version. Oracle and SQL server won’t provide support if you are running your database on older version.Database Patch: Database is a software which can never be a perfect. The database company constantly works on to improve or secure their product. Database vendor release a patch to resolve a known bug, add features or to tighten the security. DBA are required to monitor these patch releases from these vendors, test it and apply to their databases.Train Developer: Application and Developers are frequent users of your databases. Developers are your client. They are very good at what their title states but may not have good exposure to database best practices. Database administrators are the ones who should educate the developers about database best practices and standards, do's and don'ts. The correct design from early on will help DBA and Developer in the long run. Both database and applications are more manageable, faster and secure when the database design is correct.Query Tuning: Tuning is a process of making your query run faster without putting extra overhead to database. Tuning a SQL query is an art that comes with experience. Following correct database practices, knowing the data, and the query result helps you to write the most optimized query. Most databases come with a tool to display how the db is executing your query. The simple rule is to avoid table scan and make the query use index where possible. Again, this depends on the data size and the query result. Materialized view is another database object to make your query faster. How do you gain performance using materialized view? Not all query can become faster using materialized view. The query that does calculation benefits the most. Instead of running the calculation every time the query is executed, Materialized view stores the result. Query re-write, use of cursor, temp table, or database re-design are few ways to make your query run like a champs.Database Tuning: It is a process done to optimize the performance of a database. This is strictly done by a system dba on a db and server level. Adjusting temp database size, requesting proper memory, processor, hardware and database configurations are some of the examples of database tuning. This is done to run your query fast without much overhead. This is an ongoing process and a DBA should always looks for ways to improve the performance.Database Security: Security is a top priority for any company. Is your database secure? You have heard the horror stories about Sony,Target, eBay etc. They are experiencing a bsignNow in customer accounts including Credit Cards, Social Security number, email. DBAs team should always work with security team to ensure they are in compliance and the db is secure for both external attack and internal attack. Creating a database user account with a minimum privilege is one way to protect the database from internal database users. Security is a complex topic and most companies these days employ full-time DBA just to protect database from vulnerability, malware, and cyber-attack.Capacity Planning: Capacity planning accommodates for future growth. The growth can be a database users, applications users, or data itself. DBA needs to make sure that they have enough disk space, memory, processor, and bandwidth to support the company's growth. It is always good to overestimate than underestimate it. Poor planning can cost you a job, the database may not perform at its optimal, and may crash anytime.Database Monitoring: Monitoring is done to ensure the database is running without a problem. I normally monitor db when I am running complex queries, building indexes, moving data, etc. You can monitor the database jobs, table lock, I/O, and the problem queries. Monitoring is done to identify problem queries. Each database comes with a tool to monitor it or there are after market tools you can use for free or some fee.Error Log Review: Error logs are where the errors are spit out and every database management system has it. DBA should review and monitor early in the morning and throughout the day. Anywhere you see error, you should fix it asap. Reviewing the error logs is one way to find out the problem queries. A good DBA will send a page to themselves or to the team when the word “error” is logged in a log file.And Much More: DBA roles and responsibilities do not end here. The above mentioned bullet points are just some of the core responsibilities of a DBA. Occasionally, DBAs are required to work with system administrator, network administrator and some other IT department to help the troubleshoot. DBA should have the good knowledge of Operating Systems and IT networking concepts. DBAs are required to know scripting languages like shell scripting, awk, and Linux command to automate the task. Knowing the programming languages that your developer use is your company is a huge bonus.How To Become A DBA?The easy part of defining the roles and responsibilities of a DBA is done. Now, this section talks about how you are going to master these responsibilities and become a DBA.Database Installation: Everyone who wants to learn database must install a relational database management systems like Oracle, Sql Server, or MySQL in their home PC. These are some of the popular relational databases in market. Each company makes a free lightweight version for you to try like Oracle Express, SQL Server Express or MySQL. Decide the one you would like to learn and install it. Installing express edition is easy and you will find the installing instructions from their sites or you can search online for instructional videos if you prefer to learn by watching.Learn SQL: SQL stands for Structure Query Language for accessing database. Learning SQL is the first step towards becoming a database professional. You are required to know data definition language(DDL) and data manipulation language (DML). DBA uses SQL all the time. SQL is a query language that works with most Relations DBMS systems available. This is like “learn once and apply in all DBMS” technology. I cannot stress enough on how important it is to learn SQL before you begin to learn DBA work. W3schools is my one stop go-to bible for learning SQL. I recommend w3schools to anyone who wish to learn, it is easy to follow and completely free to use.Database Concepts: What are database concepts? You have picked your horse, now is the time to ride it. Learn the architecture of the database you installed. Know how your query are processed and executed. Get yourself familiar with the database concepts like primary key, foreign key, database integrity, database logs, indexes, views, and synonyms, backup and restore error code and messages, etc. There's no way I can list them all. I recommend reading books on database concepts. Books are more organized versus looking up online. Again, these concepts are the not database specifics, therefore you can apply these concepts on any relational DBMS. I started out with Oracle. Now, I manage SQL Server and MySQL. The concepts that I learned with Oracle still applies to these databases with minor differences.Online Document: Database companies like Oracle, DB2, and SQL Server have their official sites with technical documents and white papers. These documents cover the db features, syntax, how-to's, and everything that DBA and developers required to know to perform their tasks. You will need to get familiar with these documents. These documents are detailed and very long to follow.With practice and experience you will know what and where to look in a document. If you are learning Oracle DBA, you should get familiar with Oracle documents through their reference page. Do not refer to third party sources like blogs while you are learning. They may not have the latest and greatest information. Blogs or other unofficial sites are something you will want to navigate later. I would always refer to official documents which as are kept up-to-date with least errors.Practice, Practice, and More Practice: You have installed a database of our choice, learned SQL, understood database concepts and architecture, and got familiar with the official online documents. If you are reading this, then you made a big commitment to become a DBA. Now is the time to get your hands dirty. Here, you practice to make a backup & recovery, database design, data migration, upgrade, database and query tuning, monitoring, and everything that was discussed under roles and responsibilities.Online Training: Whatever you did so far is good enough to get a job as a junior DBA. In order to get a step further but now you need to lean more. You have done so much to get here and the journey does not stop here. You will need to further enhance your knowledge but you must be tired already to learn own your own. Now is the time to find a trainer. I usually use an online trainer because it saves time and I can get the training done from the comfort of my home. Find the best trainer and learn it from the best. Don't be afraid of paying extra; you will know why they are charging more after the training.User Group: You have jobs that you are comfortable with. The online training is done. You will need to keep yourself updated on database technologies which changes so fast. Around your city find the user group like Oracle or SQL Server or whatever db you are going to administer. Sign up and participate in their monthly meetings and workshops. This is where you will meet and network with professionals like you. What do they do in User Group meetings? The user group discusses the problem that their company is having or the new product launch or database best practices, etc. This is a good place to ask questions and answer anything you know. You will learn more by asking and answering questions.Reading & Writing Blogs : Remember, I asked you to hold off on reading blogs, but now is the time to navigate a good blog and start following it. Blogs will teach you the tips and tricks and the real production issues. This is how blogs are different from the online documents.I enhance my knowledge is by sharing with the communities and this is how my blog was born. You can start blogging about the problems and the projects you worked on. There are free blogging sites that you can get started in minutes. Blogger and WordPress are two popular blogging sites that are easy and free to use.Other: The other ways of learning involve talking to senior DBA of a company, Twitter, Facebook page, Google plus, attending annual conferences, training, certifications, and workshops. If you are still alive, you will make a good DBA!!My Own ExperienceAren't you excited to know how I made my career into a database? Right after college, I applied for several DBA positions and guess what I got? Too many rejections, which I called them love letters. I wasn't even called for an interview. That was a depressing moment that I had to go through right after graduation. I thought I have done something wrong somewhere. Later on, I found out that I had no prior industry experience on database nor any projects in school that were related to database.Clearly, whatever I learned in school wasn't enough to get a job. There were no internships or entry-level DBA positions which I could apply for. Even today, not many companies offer entry-level DBA or database developer positions because they don’t want any newbies playing with their data. Data is the most valuable asset of any organization, and without data, they are nothing. I now know exactly why the hiring managers are scared of hiring entry level database administrators.By that time, I had realized there was no way of getting a position in database and that I needed to focus on something where they would take fresh graduates. During my undergraduate school, I had to take tons of programming classes even though I never enjoyed the projects & assignments. After revamping my resume, I was able to land in an application developer position in a reputed corporation.As an application developer, I got exposed to various programming languages, internal tools, databases, great mentors, and some training opportunities. I enjoyed the developer position which was more fun than my school projects. I made my way up to a senior developer position after few years. While working on application development projects, I had to work closely with DBA, System Admin, and IT nerds from other department. This gave me an opportunity to explore different DBA roles and responsibilities. After showing interest in DBA position, the DBA manager let me shadow his team and this eventually helped me make an informed decision to pursue a career in database.I also completed Oracle Database System Certification course from a Community College while working full-time. In addition to this, I installed Oracle database and practiced what my DBA taught me. I started exploring online Oracle communities, Oracle blogs, and online documents. These helped me learn a lot about DBA work even though I wasn't working as one. It took me 6 full years to land into a database career, but I thoroughly enjoyed the journey that I took to get there. I am now a DBA and a mentor for a top company in the United States.Database Administrator is a hot career and makes a fairly good starting salary. If you are still reading this article, you have learned that there is no easy way to become a DBA. Becoming a DBA requires a lot of hard work, practice, a learning mindset, and patience. Do not get discouraged. Just work hard and stay focused. You can get to where you want in your career. Learning to become a dba is not rocket science and it is not a brain surgery. It is database, nothing morePS: I unpack more database tips and tricks in www.dbarepublic.com

“What programming languages should I learn if I want to make a software that can help me accomplish my work on a computer automatically?”The answer to this question depends greatly on the computer, the work, and how people are going to use your software.Here are a few examples that I have encountered as a software engineer in order from basic office work to software development work. Language names are bolded. Keep in mind that each solution I provide is certainly one of many options.I want to automate the transformation of some MS Excel tables and data in a way that cannot be done with a formula. (Or I want to automate saving/sending/altering emails in MS Outlook in a way that cannot be done with rules.)Solution: write a VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) macroI want to automate the transformation or extraction of some data from MS Excel or Word into another program or file type on a Windows computer.Solution: write a Powershell script possibly combined with a VBA macroI want to automate actions on a website (signing in, clicking a button, making a purchase, etc).Easy but unreliable solution: record a Selenium script using the Selenium browser extension and paste it into a Java application.More involved but more reliable solution: inspect the web page and the remote calls it makes during the action. Then construct an HTTP request with a tool like Postman (Windows/Mac/Linux) or cUrl (MAC/Linux) and execute that when needed. If using curl, it can be further automated by placing the command inside a cron job or shell script.Note that these require a basic understanding of how the web works.I want to automate data transfer from an Excel file to a database.Solution: if you have proper architecture for this, it should all really be happening on a Linux box. In that case, use a shell script to change the formal from xls/xlsx to csv. Then add commands to the script to load the data using the database specific tools (sqlloader for oracle, isql for sybass, bulk loader for mssql, a curl call to the bulk endpoint for elasticsearch, etc)So, the real answer is you can use almost anything but I would say starting with the system-specific shell language (powershell/shell script) would be most advantageous. If you’re just working in Microsoft applications then VBA might be sufficient.

The Social Intranet space is massive and there are many great options out there. However, I can't help but add Stream Workspace to your list of possible options for non-profits.Key Benefits/Stream's Value Add:1) Visual UX (actually 'see' content, P2P and organization wide)2) Intuitive, User-centered Experience (promotes actual usage)3) Realtime Aggregation of Content with 'Streams'4) Powerful Search (indexing content within numerous document types)5) On-prem, Web 'Connectors' (Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, Google Drive),or a hybrid model6) Workspaces (secure, role based spaces for teams to...

This is going to be a bullet FAQ on starting a business.  I've started about 20 businesses. Some major successes. Some major failures.I'm also invested in about 30 startups. I've seen some blow up. I've seen some return 10,000%. So take this for what it's worth but I wish someone had told me these things when I did my first startup or two. If you’re a lawyer, feel free to disagree with me, so you can charge someone your BS fees to give the same advice. If you can think of anything to add, please do so. I might be missing things. If you want to argue with me, feel free. I might be wrong on any of the items below.Every situation is different. But I find these rules are generally applicable in almost every situation. But every question here is a question I've been asked by a startup CEO. So I know these are relevant questions. The rules are: I’m going to give no explanations. Just listen to me.1) C Corp or S Corp or LLC?C-Corp if you ever want to take on investors or sell to another company. You can start LLC but you'll need to switch to C Corp if you raise investors. 2) What state should you incorporate in?Delaware.3) Should founders vest?Yes, over a period of four years. On any change of control the vesting speeds up.4) Should you go for venture capital money?First build a product, then get a customer, then get friends-and-family money (or money from revenues which is cheapest of all) and then think about raising money. But only then. Don’t be an amateur.5) Should you patent your idea?Get customers first. Patent later. Don’t talk to lawyers until the last possible moment.6) Should you require venture capitalists to sign NDAs?No. Nobody is going to steal your idea. VC's view NDAs as amateur hour.7) How much equity should you give a partner?Divide things up into these categories: manage the company; raise the money; had the idea; brings in the revenues; built the product (or performs the services). Divide up in equal portions.8) Should you have a technical co-founder if you are not technical?No. If you don’t already have a technical co-founder you can always outsource technology and not give up equity.9) Should you barter equity for services?No. You get what you pay for.10) How do you market your app?Friends and then word of mouth. And then blog on multiple platforms. And then add new features. 11) Should you build a product?Maybe. But first see if, manually, your product works. Then think about providing it as a service. Then productize the commonly used services. Too many people do this in reverse and then fail.Oracle is a great example of a company that did this. They had a "database" but really they had an army of consultants that would go in and "install" the database. After about five years of this they finally had a database. 12) How much dilution is too much dilution?If someone wants to give you money, then take it. The old saying, 100 percent of nothing is worth less than 1 percent of something.13) Do you listen to venture capitalist?Yes, of course. They gave you money. But then don’t do anything they ask you to do.14) What if nobody seems to be buying your product?Then change to a service and do whatever anyone is willing to pay for using the skills you developed while making your product.“You’re gonna rattle the stars, you are.”15) If a client wants you to hire their friend or they won’t give you the business (e.g. like a bribe) what should you do?Always do the ethical thing: Hire the friend and get the client’s business.16) What do you do when a customer rejects you in a B2B business?Stay in touch once a month. Never be angry.17) In a B2C business?Release fast. Add new features every week. Very important. Constantly unwrap a suprise. 18) How do you get new clients?The best new clients are old clients. Always offer new services. Think every day of new services to offer old clients.19) What’s the best thing to do for a new client?Over-deliver for the first 100 days. Then you will never lose them.20) What if your client asks you to do something not in your business plan?Do it, or find someone who can do it, even if it’s a competitor.21) Should I ever focus on SEO?No.22) Should I do social media marketing?No.23) Should I ever talk badly about a partner of an employee even though they are awful?Never gossip. Always be straight with the culprit. NONE of your employees should ever say bad things about the client. I just saw this rule violated in a $100 million revenues company. Now they are losing the client and can't figure out why. 24) I have lots of ideas. How do I pick the right one?Do as many ideas as possible. The right idea will pick you.25) What is the sign of an amateur?— Asking for an NDA.— Trying to raise VC money before product or customers.— Having fights with partners in the first year. Fire them or split before anything gets out of control.— Worrying about dilution.— Trying to get Mark Cuban to invest because “this would be great for the Dallas Mavericks.”— Asking people you barely know to introduce you to Mark Cuban.— Asking people for five minutes of their time. It’s never five minutes, so you are establishing yourself as a liar.— Having a PowerPoint that doesn’t show me arbitrage. I need to know that there is a small chance there is a 100x return on money.— Catch 22: showing people there’s a small chance there’s 100x return on their money. The secret of salesmanship is getting through the Catch 22.— Rejecting a cash offer for your company when you have almost no revenues. Hello Friendster and Foursquare.26) What is the sign of a professional?— Going from bullshit product to services to product to SaaS product. (Corollary: the reverse is amateur hour).— Cutting costs every day.— Selling every day, every minute.— When you have a billion in revenues, staying focused. When you have zero revenues, staying unfocused and coming up with new ideas every day.— Saying “no” to people who are obvious losers.— Saying “yes” to any meeting at all with someone who is an obvious winner.— Knowing how to distinguish between winners and losers (subject of an entire other post but in your gut you know — trust me).27) When should I hire people full time?When you have revenues28) How long does it take to raise money?In a GREAT business, six months. In a mediocre business, infinity.29) Should I get an office?No, not unless you have revenues.30) Should I do market research?Yes, find one customer who DEFINITELY, without a doubt, will buy a service from you. Note that I don’t say buy your product, because your initial product is always not what the customer wanted.31) Should I pay taxes?No. You should always reinvest your money and operate at a loss.32) Should I pay dividends?See above.33) What should the CEO salary be?No more than 2x your lowest employee if you are not profitable. This even assumes you are funded. If you are not funded your salary should be zero until your revenues can pay your salary last. Important RULE: the CEO salary is the last expense paid in every business.34) When should I fire employees?When you have fewer than six months’ burn in the bank and you aren’t getting revenues growing fast enough.35) When should you have sex with an employee?When you love her/him and the feeling is mutual.36) What other reasons should one fire an employee?— When they gossip.— When they don’t over-deliver constantly.— When they ask for a raise because they think they are making below industry standard.— When they talk badly about a client.— When they have an attitude.37) When should you give a raise?Rarely.38) How big should the employee option pool be?15 to 20 percent.39) How much do advisers get?One-fourth of 1 percent. Advisers are useless. Don’t even have an advisory board.40) How much do board members get?Nothing. They should all be investors. If they aren’t an investor, then one-half of 1 percent.41) What if one client is almost all of my revenues?Treat them very nicely. Don’t forget the Christmas gift basket.People say: don't have one customer be more than X% of your revenues. That's great in a textbook but it doesn't work that way in reality. 42) What’s the best way to sell anything?Show arbitrage: If they pay X now they are buying something worth X * Y. That is the ONLY way to sell.43) What is the best way to sell anything?Part II: fear and agitation. Get them afraid (the world is falling apart). Get them agitated (this is the only way to stop it).44) What’s the best way to talk about your competition in a meeting?Use “choice ambiguity” (Google it). Say, “all of my competition is great. I wouldn’t even know how to choose among them.”45) What’s the best way to value a company?Ask yourself (no BS): How much would it cost to recreate the technology, services, brand and customers you have already built. Then quadruple it and see what people would pay.46) Should I ever worry about the news or the economy?Absolutely not. The best businesses are started in horrible economies.47) What happened to all of my friends?You don’t have anymore friends.48) How do I charge more for my services?Itemize as finely as possible and charge for each item.49) Do I charge per hour or per project or per month?First per project, then per-month maintenance.50) How do I prepare for a meeting?Know everything about the clients: competition, employees, industry. Over-read everything.Read everything.51) What is the only effective email marketing?Highly targeted email marketing written by professional copywriters, and the email list is made up of people who have bought similar services in the past six months.51a) Corollary: If you have zero skills as a copywriter then everything you write will be boring.52) Should I give stuff for free?Maybe. But don’t expect free customers to turn into paying customers. Your free customers actually hate you and want everything from you for nothing, so you better have a different business model.53) Should I have schwag?No.54) Should I go to SXSW?No.55) Should I go to industry parties and meetups?No.56) Should I blog?Yes. You must. Blog about everything going wrong in your industry. Blog personal stories that you think will scare away customers. They won’t. Customers will be attracted to honesty.57) Should I care about margins?No. Care about revenues.58) Should I spin-off this unrelated idea into a separate business?No. Make one business great. Throw everything in it. Do DBAs to identify different ideas.59) Should I hire people because I can travel on a seven-hour plane ride with them?Don’t be an idiot. If anything, hire people the opposite of you. Or else who will you delegate to?60) When should I say “no” to a client?When they approach you.61) When should I say “yes” to a client?Every other conversation you ever have with them after that initial “no.”62) Should I have sex with an employee?Stop asking that.63) Should I negotiate the best terms with a VC?No. Pick the VC you like. Times are going to get tough at some point, and you need to be able to have a heart-to-heart with them.64) Should I even start a business?No. Make money. Build shit. Then start a business.65) Should I give employees bonuses for a job well done?No. Give them gifts but not bonuses.66) What should I do at Christmas?Send everyone you know a gift basket.67) If my customer just got divorced, what should I say to him?“I can introduce you to lots of women/men.”68) When should I give up on my idea?When you can’t generate revenues, customers, interest, for two months.69) Why didn’t the VC or customer call back after we met yesterday and it was great?They hate you.70) Why didn’t the above call back after we met yesterday and it was great?“Yesterday” was like a split second ago for them and a lifetime for you. There’s the law of entrepreneurial relativity. Figure out what that means and live by it.71) Should I hire a professional CEO?No. Never.72) Should I hire a head of sales?No. The founder is the head of sales until at least 10 million in sales.73) My client called at 3 a.m. Should I tell him to respect boundaries?No. You no longer have any boundaries.74) I made a mistake. Should I tell the client?Yes. Tell him everything that happened. You’re his partner. Not the guy that hides things and then lies about them.75) My investors want me to focus.Should I listen to them? No. Diversify in every way you can.76) I personally need money. Should I borrow from the business?Only if the business can survive for another six months no matter what.77) I just bought two companies. Should I put them under the same roof and start consolidating?No. Not for at least two years.78) Should I quit my job?No. Only if you have salary that can pay you for six months at your startup. Aim to quit your job but don’t quit your job.79) What do I do when I have doubts?Ask your customers if your doubts are trustworthy.80) I have too much competition. What should I do?Competition is good. It shows you have a decent business model. Now simply outperform them.81) My wife/husband thinks I spend too much time on my startup?Divorce them or close your business.82) I’m starting my business, but I have relationship problems. What should I do?Get rid of your relationship.83) Should I expand geographically as quickly as possible?No. Get all the business you can in your local area. Travel is too expensive time-wise.84) How do I keep clients from yelling at me?Document every meeting line-by-line, and send your document to the client right after the meeting.85) I undercharged. What should I do about it?Nothing. Charge the next client more.86) I have an idea for an app but don’t know how to execute. What should I do?Draw every screen and function. Then outsource someone to make the drawings look like they come from a real app. Then outsource the development of the app. Get a specific schedule. Micromanage the schedule.87) I want to buy a franchise in X. Is that a good idea?Only buy a franchise if it’s underperforming and you can see how to improve it. Don’t buy on future hopes; only buy on past mistakes.88) I want to buy a franchise in X. Is that a good idea?Rely on the three Ds: Death, Debt, Divorce. When someone dies, the heirs will sell a business cheap. When someone is in debt, they will sell a business cheap. When someone divorces, the couple usually has to sell a business cheap. IMPORTANT: even if the trends in the industry are in your favor, you CANNOT predict the future. But you can use the past to help you get a deal. Always get a deal.89) I have a lot of traffic but no revenues. What should I do?Sell your business. There’s only one Google. (Well, there are two or three Googles: Facebook, Twitter … )90) I have no traffic. How do I get traffic?Shut down your business.91) Should I hire a PR firm?No. Do guerilla marketing. Read “Newsjacking” and “Trust me I’m Lying.” PR firms screw up from beginning to end. The first time I hired a PR firm, instead of sending me my contract they accidentally sent me their contract for “Terry Bradshaw.” He was paying $12,000 a month. Was it worth it for him?92) My competition is doing better than me across every metric. What should I do?Don’t be afraid to instantly shut down your business and start over if you can’t sell it. Time is a horrible thing to waste.93) I’ve been in business now for six years, and my business doesn’t seem to be growing. It’s even slowing down. What should I do?Come up with 10 ideas a day about new services your business can offer. Try to get a customer for each new service. I know one business in this situation that refuses to do this because their VCs are telling them to focus more. You’re going to go out of business otherwise.94) Is it unethical to run my business from the side while still at my job?I don’t know. Did God tell you that in a dream?95) My customer called me at 5 p.m. on a Friday and said, “We have to talk.” And now I can’t talk to him until Monday. What does it mean?It means you’re fired.96) XYZ just sold for $100 million. Should I be valued at that? I’m better!No, you should shut up.97) Investors want to meet me and customers want to meet me. Who do I meet if I need money?You should know the answer to that by now.98) If an acquirer asks me why I want to sell, what should I say?That you feel it would be easier for you to grow in the context of a bigger company that has experienced the growing pains you are just starting to go through. That 1+1 = 45.99) I just started my business. What should I do?Sell it as fast as possible (applies in 99 percent of situations). Sell for cash.100) I can change the world with my technology.No you can’t.100a) Corollary: Don’t smoke crack.101) If you’re so smart why aren’t you a billionaire?Because I sold my businesses early, lost everything, started new businesses, sold them, and got lucky every now and then.101a) Corollary: These rules don’t always apply. But like Kurt Vonnegut said, “if you want to break the rules of grammar, first learn the rules of grammar.”RULE #infinity:You create your luck by being healthy and not regretting the past or being anxious about the future.