Back when we were first starting this web application up, I wrote a stored procedure that on the first of every month would move the active cars over from the previous account month to the new one. Doing so required a lot of inserts into the database, and so I heeded the wisdom of my more experienced co-workers and issued a "commit" command every 200 cars.

Two years later, the Data Base Administrators (DBAs) were reviewing my stored procedure and saw the commit rule. "Oh no," they tut-tutted. "That's far too long a time to wait until you commit. Let's change that so you'll commit after every TWO cars. Much better."

And now we come to today. I need to tweak the procedure so that when trouble occurs, it will send out a condition code that will trigger an alarm. I hand it to the DBAs for their wisdom. They offer advice, and then add:

"Why are you committing every two cars? Wait until the process is complete before you do a commit!"

Tags: geekery, work