Tag: pl/sql

A quick thank you…

Just a quick note to say thank you to everyone involved in making the 2-day PL/SQL workshop in Utrecht happen last week. Thanks to Miracle Benelux for staging the event, to Anjo for inviting me and to Annette for organizing everything, including Anjo. 🙂

Of course the biggest thanks go to everyone who came to the workshop, because without them it wouldn’t happen. See you all soon. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Slovakia Day 2

I’m not nervous about flying, but I am nervous about being late for flights, so day 2 was a complex day for me. The plan was to teach from 9:00-17:00 then go straight to the airport and leave. Having the deadline for the airport in the back of my mind all day meant I was a little on edge. Even so, it all went pretty well.

Anyone who’s seen my conference talks knows I do quite a lot of demos. Well the 2 day workshops are crammed full of them. I more or less try to prove every sentence I say with a demo. Of course, this means things inevitably go wrong from time to time. I had one demo hang, and Enterprise Manager decided not to work, so I had to miss out another demo. Overall though, things went pretty smooth and by the numbers.

I’d like to say thanks to everyone who came to the session and thanks to the people at Oracle that make it possible, especially Stefania Panaite.

So I’m home now and I have 4 days to prepare for the next two conferences (ORCAN and OUGF) that happen back-to-back. I’ve got two new talks to rehearse, one I’ve not even written yet, and one 60 minute talk I’ve got to somehow turn into a 30 minute version. Don’t even mention the paperwork I have to do. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Slovakia Day 1…

That’s day 1 over as far as teaching is concerned. The audience is quite a diverse mix. Everything from 6 months to 10+ years of Oracle experience and from variety of countries too. I’ve even got a member of Oracle staff in the group. I wonder if he’s a spy… 🙂

It’s always dangerous to start getting too analytical about the lessons part way through course, so I will leave that until after I finish tomorrow.

I probably should go out and do some sightseeing now, but I think I’ll probably get some food and come back to the hotel and collapse. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Slovakia Day -1

I got to Slovakia with no major trauma.  I also had enough time to have a quick look round. As always, I used the shotgun approach. Several shots of each scene in the hope something would come out looking OK. 🙂

Not sure if I’ll have time to do any more looking around. The schedule is pretty tight for the next 2 days and I leave straight after finishing the second day. Better than nothing though.

It’s a Sunday so the streets are pretty quiet except for tourists.

Cheers

Tim…

OCA PL/SQL Developer and stuff…

Today has been a bit of a rare day…

I hurt my back last night at Karate. I managed to get in on a cancellation at my osteopath, so off I went this morning to get everything straightened out.

I left the osteopath just in time to get to the Prometric test center down the road to sit the “Program with PL/SQL (1Z0-147)” exam, which I passed. The exam was pretty easy, but then I have been doing this stuff for 14 years. I sat the “Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL (1Z0-001)” as part of my Oracle 7.3 OCP, so I guess I’m now an “Oracle PL/SQL Developer Certified Associate”.

The reason for doing this is I quite fancy doing the “Oracle Database 11g: Advanced PL/SQL” exam, currently in beta, to get the “Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional”. The OCA PL/SQL Developer is a prerequesite. I’ve been teaching most of the content of the “Oracle Database 11g: Advanced PL/SQL” this year so it shouldn’t be a problem. I just don’t know if I’ll have time before I hit the road, and the beta period will be over by the time I get back…

What made the whole day a bit more problematic, was I had a Diabetes clinic appointment today and I wasn’t allowed to eat before it, so I was really hungry. My appointment was at 15:30 and I hadn’t eaten since about 17:00 the previous day. Back pain and hunger aren’t the normal things you expect to deal with during an exam. Never mind, it’s sorted now… 🙂

By the way, I might be doing a couple of talks at the Swedish Oracle User Group in December (10th-11th). Nothing definite at the moment. I’ve been invited, but it’s all in the ether. The world tour continues… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Estonia Day 1 Update…

I’ve just completed day 1 of my PL/SQL workshop in Estonia. The first few minutes proved especially eventful!

When I did my workshop in Copenhagen, I had a lot of trouble with the projector. This morning I plugged the projector into my laptop and all was well. I even made a joke about how well it was going. Little did I know…

I started the presentation and the first demo hung! I don’t think I can fully describe the panic that sets in when something like that happens withing a couple of minutes of starting a 2 day workshop. It’s like a little piece of you dies. 🙂 I did a little messing around to try and get it working, but quickly realised I had to keep things going or it was going to get really boring, really quickly, so I just rebooted the virtual machine.

Lookily, wiser men than me (Andrew Clarke and Mark Rittman) had warned me long ago about the dangers of live demos, so I always carry a backup plan. I had text representations and screen shots of the expected output from the demos, so I used those while I waited for the VM to restart. After a little while the VM was up again and was working fine, so with more than a small sigh of relief, things were back on track.

I wonder what fate will throw at me tomorrow. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, or gives you a heart attack…

You gotta laugh…

Cheers

Tim…