Oracle related rants (and lots of off-topic stuff)…
I realise the world is a big place and depending on which hemisphere you live in, the scene you associate with this time of year will be quite different.
I just wanted to say have a great holiday break. Be safe and enjoy yourselves! If you have a little spare cash or spare time, please try to help out some people who are not as fortunate as yourself! It doesn’t take much to make a big difference!
Let’s hope next year will be better for everyone!
Cheers
Tim…
Since 2016 we’ve had an Oracle community day where we push out content on the same day to try and get a bit of a community buzz. The name has changed over the years, but in 2021 it was renamed to the “Joel Kallman Day”. Joel was big on community, and it seems like a fitting tribute to him.
The date is Tuesday October 11th. That’s two weeks from today!
Here is the way it works.
Like previous years, it would be really nice if we could get a bunch of first-timers involved, but it’s also an opportunity to see existing folks blog for the first time in ages!
The following day I write a summary post that includes links to all the posts that were pushed out through the day. You can see examples here.
Whatever you want to write about. Here are some suggestions that might help you.
It’s not limited to these. You can literally write about anything Oracle-related. The posts can be short, which makes it easy for new people to get involved. If you do want to write about something technical, that’s fine. You can also write a simple overview post and link to more detailed posts on a subject if you like. In the previous years the posts I enjoyed the most were those that showed the human side of things, but that’s just me. Do whatever you like.
No! It’s great to see people contributing to their own community. Google Translate does a pretty good job of translating them, so we can still read them.
I’m sure people would be happy to read stories about Joel, or content about APEX, but you don’t have to write about that. You can write about whatever you want, so long as it has an Oracle spin…
So you have two weeks to get something ready!
Cheers
Tim…
I mentioned in yesterday’s post I was having a call today with the Senior Director of Global Support Services from Oracle. I’ve just come off that call…
I’m not going to go into lots of detail, because ultimately none of it matters unless I see things improve. I was honest in the call. My previous rants were over 2.5 years ago, and it’s hasn’t improved, so why would I assume it will this time?
One big factor that I think is worth mentioning is about feedback on SRs. I was told Oracle Support are driven by customer satisfaction reports, based on the feedback surveys they ask you to fill in when you close a SR. We discussed my current employer, and we have completed almost no feedback surveys, so support can’t tell if we as a company are happy with support or not. Most of our SRs relate to Oracle Cloud Apps, not the core tech stack, so I’ve messaged some folks involved in that side of things asking them to encourage people to fill in the feedback surveys.
I’m lucky in that I have direct access to many people in Oracle, so I don’t have to raise many technical SRs, but from now on I will make it a point to fill in the feedback on every SR. I suspect my rating for the SR that sparked these posts will be something like this.
Stars: The minimum I can give.
Comments: There was no suitable problem type for my SR, so I got forced into an automation that sent loads of irrelevant requests for information. The automation is “too chatty”, sending many messages when a single one would suffice. I’m giving this a low rating mostly because the process was very painful!
I would advise you to give feedback on every call. Be positive when it is positive, but be critical when it sucks.
Update: I got the survey and filled it in as I said I would above. Interestingly, the survey messages are picked up as spam by our company spam filter, and are converted to plain text, so the links don’t work. You have to manually paste them into a browser. I suspect this is one of the reasons why Oracle are getting very little feedback from our company…
Cheers
Tim…
PS. The guy on the call was nice. This is not about individuals. It’s about the service!
Just a quick post to say I’m ending the year here. I don’t plan on doing anymore videos this year, and I’m going to do my best to stay clear of social media until next year. I’ve found 2020 a very difficult ride, and probably not for the reasons you are thinking. I normally do an end of year review, but I might not this year. Better to look forward than back.
Here’s the latest batch of “.com” clips from the videos this year. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday season, and I hope 2021 is the polar opposite of 2020.
Cheers
Tim…
In today’s video we give a quick demonstration of using catcon.pl to run scripts against multiple pluggable databases (PDBs) in a container database (CDB).
The video is based on one section of this article.
You can find loads of information about living with CDBs and PDBs in the following articles and the YouTube playlist linked below.
The star of today’s video is my long suffering wife Debra Lilley. Clearly suffering because of her social isolation, which of course means not seeing me. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
The UK has started to relax *some* of the lock-down conditions, so I thought I would write down some of my thoughts related to social distancing…
First and foremost, social isolation and social distancing is predominantly a good thing for me. I live alone, and as I’ve said many times before I like it that way. There is a “work Tim”, a “conference Tim”, a “with friends/family Tim” and a “home Tim”, and it’s the “home Tim” I’m most comfortable with. I’m not talking about some schizophrenic thing. Just different aspects of my personality that I use to cope with different situations. The only authentic me is when I am home alone.
I keep saying to people I’m living my best life at the moment.
Having said all that, it’s not been plain sailing. One thing I’m really struggling with is work-life balance. Before this I mostly worked from the office, and my computer at home was for doing my own thing, like the website and blog etc. Since I’ve been working from home the working day has stretched, which has been made worse by some weekend work. When I do eventually switch off, the thought of doing my own thing is really difficult. I feel like I want to walk away from the computer, so that’s what I’ve been doing a lot. I think the solution to this is to define some different phases of the day and try to stick to them. Things have improved since I’ve been actively trying to do this.
Exercise is another issue. The gym is closed, and I find it really hard to be motivated to do anything other than go to the gym. I’ve done very little exercise, which is really not good as I’m a fatty, and being a fatty is not good at the best of times, but it’s even more problematic at the moment. This week I’ve been going on some bike rides at lunch time. Nothing big. Just getting out of the house and moving a bit. Once again, it’s about trying to define phases of the day.
I started the social isolation/distancing thing about a week before most people in the UK. I go to the shop every few days, and go to pick up a prescription once a month. Apart from that I stay home. I think it’s going to remain this way for quite a long time for me, regardless of what the government suggest.
I feel sorry for people who live alone and don’t like it. I feel sorry for families with kids who are going stir crazy. I can’t relate, but I can sympathise.
What this whole thing has taught me is there are some selfish fuckers out there who should go fuck themselves. People who blatantly ignore the rules, without thinking what impact they are having on others. I kind-of expect this behaviour from young people, as they think they are indestructible and are too dumb to think about the bigger picture, so I give them a free pass. What really pisses me off are adults who don’t seem to give a shit.
You don’t know anything about the people around you. You don’t know what their risk factors are. You don’t know if they are worried about relatives they live with that are vulnerable. It is not your position to judge, and you have no right to put them and their families in danger.
Now I admit some people take it too far, like walking in the road when there is nobody on the path, but for the most part people are being sensible and considerate. For those that are not, see my first sentence in this section!
Despite that there have also been some really positive things.
Some random thoughts from me.
OK. The random bullshit is over for now.
Cheers
Tim…
In today’s video we take a look at RESTful web services handling media files built using Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS).
This is based on this article.
There is more information about related stuff here.
The star of today’s video is Katrina Shallahamer, who is one of my favourite people to meet at an event. She’s such a positive person to be around, and makes me wish I was a nicer person. It’s clear she’s the real brains of the OraPub operation, but don’t tell Craig I said so! 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
It seems like every year this has a different name, but the motivation is the same… This year it is #ThanksOGB…
Back in the day we had a community site called Oracle Technology Network (OTN), which is why the first incarnation of this event was called #ThanksOTN. Later OTN got re-branded as Oracle Developer Community (don’t call it ODC 🙂 ), so the last couple of years we got #ThanksODC. That confused a few people, as they thought this was about the Oracle Developer Champions, Oracle Database Cloud, Oracle Developer Cloud or some other such stuff. It wasn’t. Some people didn’t identify as developers, so thought it was not for them. None of that is true. It’s pretty simple. I can’t image there is anyone working with Oracle technology that hasn’t used forums, read articles or downloaded Oracle software from OTN/ODC over the years. You must have directly, or indirectly, benefited from the work done by the people at Oracle who support our community. This is just an opportunity to say thanks to those brave folks who endure our endless moaning. 🙂
It’s “Oracle Groundbreakers Appreciation Day”. Who are they? To quote Jennifer Nicholson.
“I want to point out that Groundbreakers includes ACEs, Java Champions, Ambassadors and all those who have the Groundbreakers spirit. :-)”
I would like to include Oracle staff, especially those that work directly to support the community. Even though it is “Oracle Groundbreakers Appreciation Day”, this is not specifically about the Oracle Groundbreaker Ambasssadors Program, so you aren’t blowing smoke up their asses. This is a thank you to everyone that makes the community great, especially those people that work at keep us all moving! If you’ve benefited from the Oracle community at large, please join in…
You are thanking all the people who have have contributed and helped you in your journey!
Every year I pick a date and have to change it because of a national holiday on some country. 🙂 At the moment the date of the event is in a little over a weeks time on Thursday 10th October 2019.
Check back closer to the time to make sure the date hasn’t changed. If we have to move it, it will only be by a day either side.
Here is the way it works.
Like previous years, it would be really nice if we could get a bunch of first-timers involved, but it’s also an opportunity to see existing folks blog for the first time in ages! 🙂
The following day I write a summary post that includes links to all the posts that were pushed out through the day. You can see examples of the last two here.
Whatever you want to write about. Here are some suggestions that might help you.
It’s not limited to these. You can literally write about anything Oracle-related. The posts can be short, which makes it easy for new people to get involved. If you do want to write about something technical, that’s fine. You can also write a simple overview post and link to more detailed posts on a subject if you like. In the previous years the posts I enjoyed the most were those that showed the human side of things, but that’s just me. Do whatever you like. 🙂
So you have a little over a week to get something ready!
Cheers
Tim…
It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve gone somewhere. I only know the route when I’ve driven there myself. Everything makes sense when you see someone else do it. You don’t realise how distracted you are, and how much you’ve missed until you have to do it for yourself.
When we have consultants on site to help us with something new, I assume I’m going to drive and they are going to give directions. I make notes as necessary, but the main thing is *I’ve done it*, not them. If I’m told I have to “observe and make notes”, I say I’m not willing to support it, as experience tells me there will be important stuff that gets missed as the consultant rushes through it. Once again, it’s the difference between driving and being driven.
I’ve written a lot about Learning New Things, and I think it always starts with learning to learn for yourself. If you are always relying on other people to lead the way, they are driving and you are being driven. They are getting better and you are just drifting.
I suppose the obvious retort to this is,
“Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others.”
Otto von Bismark
There is some truth in that, but the import thing in the second sentence is the wise person *learns* from the mistakes of others. There is still something active going on here. You are learning, not just being passive and waiting to be told what to do.
Standing on the shoulders of giants requires you to climb up on to the shoulders in the first place!
Cheers
Tim…
I recently wrote about the release of Dbvisit 9, where I included a simple installation article and Vagrant build to get it up and running.
Yesterday I got an email about version 9.0.02, or 9.0.2 depending on how you want to write it. The interesting thing about this release is the introduction of an observer, which enables automatic failover. If you want to try it, there is a free trial available here.
Not surprisingly, the installation is very similar to the previous version, so I’ve updated my original article, and added the observer installation, setup and a quick automatic failover test.
I had to redo the screen shots as the “Configuratons” screen has changed a little to include the observer. I really don’t like taking screen shots!
My existing Vagrant build (here) worked fine. All I had to do was swap the version of the software in the directory, and Bob’s your uncle! Of course, that didn’t install and start the observer, so I did a couple of tweaks and now it does. If you fancy having a play with Dbvisit Standby, this Vagrant build is a really easy way to do it.
Happy days!
Cheers
Tim…