Man Vs Machine

By Robert Davis, 2012/08/23

Man Vs Machine

Are you a fan of the television show Man Vs Food starring foodie Adam Richman? In this show, host and title subject “Man” Adam Richman travels the United States taking on food challenges where he finds them. Sometimes these challenges entail eating more food than is generally humanly possible. Other times it requires eating something that is insanely hot (in at least 1 episode, the chef wears hazard gear when preparing it because the fumes alone can cause severe burns). Often these challenges include little gotchas like a time limit or in the case of hot foods, they may require that you sit for a time after finishing it without drinking anything.

Personally, I would enjoy most of the heat challenges, but the other challenges would be too much for me. Sometimes, it’s too much for Adam Richman too. This isn’t some 1950s feel-good show where Man always comes out on top. Food gets its share of victories as well.

SQL PASS Summit Lightning Talk

I submitted a Lightning Talk for this year’s SQL PASS Summit titled How Bad Is Read-Only Access? and I need your vote to get to present it. I considered naming this session Man Vs Machine because this will not be some cutesy, canned presentation. It will be an outright challenge. I will be coming in unscripted without pre-written scripts armed with nothing but my knowledge of how SQL Server works, my T-SQL skills, and read-only permissions. I will be attempting to do as much damage as I possibly can using read-only permissions and ad-hoc T-SQL. No procedures will be used so you know that I won’t be using any dirty tricks like executing as a different account. It will be just me vs SQL Server.

Who will prevail? Will it be Man or Machine?

Please vote for the Lightning Talk submissions you’d like to see. Vote here: http://www.sqlpass.org/summit/2012/CommunityChoice.aspx.

My Lightning Talk Submission

How Bad is Read-only Access?

The debate over whether read-only access to production systems should be granted is not likely to end soon. Why are DBAs so adamant about not wanting to give this level of permissions? What harm could come from someone with read-only access? This demo-only talk will attempt to do as much harm as possible with read-only access. Tune in and see how much damage can be done with read-only permissions.