Month: September 2015

YouTube Cameos : My Channel Needs You!

I’ve spent the last couple of months uploading videos to my YouTube channel.

At the start of each technical video, I introduce myself by saying something like, “Hi. It’s Tim from oracle-base”, and I use a video clip of someone from the Oracle community saying, “.com”,  to finish off the website name. I then put links to their blog, twitter, website etc in the description box. It’s just something fun and stupid to lighten the tone of the videos and to give a shout out to people in the community. 🙂

If you take a look at the clips, you’ll see they vary a lot. Some are simple and straight, just filmed on a webcam or phone. Others are a little more elaborate, like the one filmed under water. Some come with some funny outtakes I put at the end of the video. 🙂

Here’s a montage of all the clips I’ve used so far.

If you want to be included in one of the videos, send a clip of yourself saying “.com” to me (tim (at) oracle-base.com) along with your blog and twitter URLs and I’ll include it in a future clip.

I don’t mind you using some casual company branding, like wearing the t-shirt, but this is really about community, so don’t send me a McDonalds advert! 🙂 Any user group clips, like the one I got from Auckland are great too.

I try to use them on a first-come-first-served basis, so get in early before I start gathering clips at OpenWorld. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Update: Whoops! I missed out my crazy uncle Martin Widlake. You can see his clip here.

Oracle OpenWorld : It’s just around the corner…

The total insanity that is Oracle OpenWorld 2015 is just around the corner. I’ve got my flights and hotels booked, so I think I’m good to go!

The first couple of days will be ACE Director briefings. The big announcement this year will be the Oracle Games Cloud (#OGC), but as a beta program participant I’m under NDA so I’m not allowed to talk about it. It will be interesting to see what else is coming down the pipeline. I expect lots of hardware refreshes and standard stuff like that, but there is always something unexpected that makes you sit back…

Of course, the main event of the ACED briefing will be me gathering 100+ “dot com” YouTube cameos. Dress to impress and perfect diction please… 🙂

As far as presentations go:

  • Optimizing SQL for Performance and Maintainability—a Panel Discussion [CON8415] Moscone South Room 309 16:15 – 17:00 : I’ve been invited to join this panel session. I’m the token dumb-ass to help you relate to panel. My job is to nod, like I know what people are talking about and occasionally scratch myself. 🙂
  • More Than Another 12 on Oracle Database 12c [UGF3190] Moscone South Room 306 time 13:30 – 15:15: UKOUG are using their two user group sessions to host another multi-speaker extravaganza. I was involved in this last year, but submitted my entry too late to get in this year. There are so many good EMEA presenters! My slot will be called “12 Oracle 12c Data Pump enhancements in 7 minutes!” 🙂

Apart from these events, there are always loads of things to get involved in, so it’s going to be a busy few days!

If you are new to the OpenWorld experience, I suggest you check out Jeff Smith’s post called, How to Survive, no, Thrive at Oracle Open World. Making the most of OOW is a skill. It’s a pity if you get to the end of the event and feel like you missed out. Preparation is the key! 🙂

For those who are lucky enough to be going, I’ll see you there soon. If you can’t make it, many of the headlines will be streamed live and you have a blogsphere that will keep you updated on the fun bits!

Cheers

Tim…

SQL for Beginners : Videos and Articles

love-sqlI’ve been saying for some time I should do some more entry level content, but it’s been kind-of hard to motivate myself. I mostly write about things I’m learning or actively using, so going back and writing entry level content is not something that usually springs to mind.

Recently I’ve got involved in a number of “grumpy old man” conversations about the lack of SQL knowledge out there. That, combined with a few people at work getting re-skilled, prompted me to get off my ass and give it a go. It’s actually quite difficult trying to get yourself into the head-space of someone who is coming fresh to the subject. You don’t want to pitch it too low and sound patronizing, but then pitching it too high makes you sounds like an elitist dick.

Anyway, after completing the Efficient Function Calls from SQL series of videos, I decided to jump into a SQL for Beginners series. I’m also putting out some articles, which are essentially transcripts of the videos, to allow people to copy/paste the examples. More importantly, they have links to articles with more details about the subject matter.

Once I’ve done a quick pass through the basics, I’ll start adding a bit more depth. I’ll probably dip in and out of the series. If I stick with it too long I’ll probably go crazy from boredom. 🙂

If you know someone who is fresh to SQL, can you ask them to take a look and give me some feedback? It would be nice to know if they are helpful or not.

Cheers

Tim…

Oracle Midlands : Event #11 – Summary

oracle-midlandsLast night was Oracle Midlands event #11 with Chris Antognini.

The lead up to this event was not the best for me. I had been on the verge of a headache all day. By 14:00 I gave up, went home and went to sleep for a couple of hours. It wasn’t great, but it was just enough to take the edge off, so when the time came, I felt sort-of OK to head out for the event. The drive started to convince me this wasn’t the best move, but once I got to the event and sat down I figured I was going to make it. 🙂

Chris did two talks at the event.

The first talk had lots of people’s heads nodding. It’s kind-of depressing, but we’ve all seen, and continue to see, these same things happening again and again. I, like others in the audience, am convinced it is because of the lack of emphasis on database technologies in development. Too many frameworks encourage a hands-off approach to the database, hiding it behind persistence layers that end up doing a mediocre job, at best. Anyway, enough of my rambling. This session should be mandatory viewing once a month for every developer that goes near a database! 🙂

redstacktechThe second session was pretty neat too. I must admit I’ve become addicted to the Enterprise Manager 12c performance pages, so a couple of the things Chris mentioned took me by surprise, including the use of some V$ views that I assumed were part of the Diagnostics and Tuning Pack, but aren’t. I’m purposely going to avoid mentioning them here because I would want to confirm the status before accidentally leading someone astray, but the idea was, query the V$ view and you are good. Query the DBA_HIST_* view and you’ve sourced the information from the AWR, so you need the D&T pack. This definitely *does not* apply to all V$ views, but it’s worth checking out if you don’t have D&T, or you are working with standard edition.

I think the evening went really well. Thanks to Chris for coming to speak to us and thanks to the Oracle ACE Program for getting him across. Thanks to Red Stack Tech for sponsoring the event, allowing this to remain free. Thanks to Mike for doing a great job of keeping these events rolling. Of course, thanks to everyone for turning up after the Bank Holiday weekend. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…