Hello and welcome to my DB2Locksmith blog. I’ve been promising you I’d get around to doing this someday and it only took a couple of years for me to make good on that promise. First some background. I started learning DB2, own my own, back more years ago than I care to divulge in public. At that time there were limited resources available to assist me and I had to learn a lot about the product by trial and error. I’m not complaining. It was “what it was” and obviously I broke DB2 enough to learn a lot. I’ll take the current “good” of knowledge that came from the previous “pain” of staying up all hours fixing…..ummm……“issues”.

One of my general takes on life is that you can learn a lot by breaking things and then having to fix them yourself. For example, I can learn my way around a city by getting lost and just driving in ever widening circles until I find something familiar that can help me escape. That “finding my way by getting immersed in the problem” approach means I’m not as likely to get lost in the same general vicinity again because what I observe as I attempt to become “un lost” becomes highly imprinted on my brain and helps me avoid future unpleasant navigational challenges. For purposes of getting my bearings in a new city that approach worked for me as a solution until the GPS came along. Now, I just fire up the GPS and can navigate without too many undesired detours. This is what I call my “GPS Eureka” moment.

So, apply this GPS Eureka moment concept to DB2 LUW skills. With all the available resources out there now, learning DB2 should be much easier today than it was for me, and, in fact, it is. If you go to the Lagniappe page of this site, you will see some links to online resources that will help you do just that…learn DB2. But how about the lessons learned from practical experience? Those are pieces of insight that are most often acquired while being in the center of the fire…or in my case..working in a city greatly impacted by a hurricane. Those types of life altering experiences tend to color our reality and provide insights (both professional and personal) that transcend just understanding the mechanics of a technology or a disaster. They tend to point out subtleties of knowledge that expand our vistas. Those re-defining experiences help us focus on what is truly important versus what is just before our eyes at the moment.

My DB2 LUW Eureka moment arrived post-Katrina. It came with the realization that I have had some uncommon life and work experiences which have imparted unique knowledge and that knowledge might, in turn, be beneficial to others. I came to the conclusion (thanks to a gentle nudge by Susan Visser at IBM) that I had things to say that should be shared. It became a hope that information I passed on might have some value to the DB2 community. Perhaps some piece of knowledge I shared could save someone from losing their job due to a security breach that forced their company out of business or even keep millions of credit card numbers from being stolen. Perhaps my insights might help DB2 Security Professionals, those who hold the DB2 Security Administrator authority (SECADM), as they perform their tasks to protect their enterprise against threats. So, I started writing and I haven’t stopped since. This web site is, in part, a continuation of that effort. I hope you gain something useful here, even if it’s just the definition of the word Lagniappe which means, “a little something extra”.

Recently I was discussing this blog and my upcoming IDUG NA presentation with a technical friend. He said that in the past he had considered speaking at events such as IDUG conferences or writing articles or blogs. What stopped him was the realization that he would then be perceived as an expert when in fact, he was just a journeyman like the rest of us. While he is fairly certain he knows his stuff, he can never be 100% correct 100% of the time and that realization prevented him from sharing his knowledge with others. I hope you keep this in mind as you read my articles, blogs and presentations, especially since when it comes to security, the right answer today may be the wrong answer tomorrow. One of my favorite tag lines is that “perfection comes at a much higher bill rate than I make”. So feel free to send me emails, comments and corrections about topics I post here. I always put my day job first, but when I’m off the clock, I’ll read your comments and respond.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope this finds you healthy, happy, gainfully employed and that all your DB2 databases are secure !

DB2Locksmith