UKOUG Breakthrough 2022 : Day 2

Day 2 started pretty much the same as day 1. I arrived late to avoid the traffic.

The first session I went to was Martin Nash with “Oracle Databases in a Multicloud World”. I was a bit late to this session, but from what I saw it seemed the general view was “don’t be stupid, stupid”. Multi-cloud can add some complexity and latency, but if it’s what you need, it’s all manageable. If you do have a system where multi-cloud is not suitable, don’t do it for that system. Most things can be migrated, but some things are easier than others. Pick your fights. Sorry if I came to the wrong conclusion… ๐Ÿ™‚

I often get the feeling that some people think everything has to be all or nothing. We have Oracle Cloud Apps on Oracle Cloud. A bunch of stuff on Azure, with more to come. One of our major systems is moving to AWS in the next couple of years. Then of course we still have a load of stuff on-prem. This isn’t because we are desperate to be multi-cloud. It’s just the way things have happened. I’m sure we’ll run into some issue along the way, but I’m also sure we’ll solve them. Once size does not fit all…

BTW Martin now works for Google, so we have to hate him. ๐Ÿ™‚

Next up was Jasmin Fluri with “The Science of Database CI/CD”. I already had the long form of this presentation because I read Jasmin’s masters thesis, but I was interested to see how she summarised some of it into a presentation. She did a great job of getting the main points into a 45 minute session, which can’t have been easy. It was also a little depressing, because I’ve come a long way , but I’ve still got such a long way to go. Ah well…

After Jasmin was Erik van Roon with “Scripting in SQLcl – You Can Never Have Enough of a Good Thing”. The session discussed how to extend the functionality of SQLcl with your own commands written in JavaScript. I get the distinct impression Erik has too much time on his hands. If anyone wants to join me in staging an intervention, just let me know. ๐Ÿ™‚ I’m not sure if I will use this functionality, but it’s always good to know it exists, because you never know when it might come in handy, and knowing it’s possible is the first step.

Last up for me was “The Death of the Data Scientist, But Long Live Data Science” by Brendan Tierney. To summarise Brendan talked about the recent mass layoffs of data scientists, suggesting a number of factors including a glut of data scientists on the market, low return on investment from many data science teams, and the simplification and automation of data science to the point where it had now been integrated into products and domain-specific staff roles. It’s typical hype cycle stuff. We’ve moved from the “Peak of Inflated Expectations” to the “Trough of Disillusionment”, and the job market has corrected itself because of that. It doesn’t sound like a move from DBA to data scientist is a great career move right now. ๐Ÿ™‚

I spent some time chatting to Brendan, then it was off to beat the traffic home so I could return to real life again.

UKOUG Breakthrough 2022 is over now, and it was a good introduction back into the world of face to face conferences for me. I’m still very nervous about the thought of travelling, but based on the last few days I’m hoping I can get my conference mojo back. Just don’t expect too much too soon. ๐Ÿ™‚

Thanks to all the conference organisers and speakers for giving up their time to make this happen. See you all again soon.

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Breakthrough 2022 : Day 1

The evening before the conference the Oracle ACEs met up for some food at a curry place in the city centre. Thanks to the Oracle ACE Program for organising this! Earlier that day I presented my first face to face session in 3 years, and now it was time for my first social event in a similar timescale. I was pretty nervous going into it, and quite standoffish at first, but I gradually relaxed and “conference Tim” started to come back. By the end of the evening I was feeling a lot more comfortable with the situation. It was nice to get to meet up with a bunch of people I had not seen for a long time. It also made me feel a bit more relaxed about going to the conference the next day.

The one downside of going to a conference in your hometown is commuting. I don’t live far away from the venue, but regardless of the mode of transportation, commuting during rush hour is a nightmare. Instead I chose to wait for the rush hour traffic to die down and be fashionably late. That was the right move.

The first session I went to was Simon Haslam speaking about “Platform Engineering for the Modern Oracle World”. I’ve got a lot of time for Simon. Him and Lonneke Dikmans sowed some seeds in my brain a long time ago, which have ultimately had a big influence on me over the years. In this session he talked about the various approaches to automation over the years, culminating in where many people find themselves today. I found myself nodding my head in agreement with most of what Simon was saying during this session. I joked later that his session gave me post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when I thought back through many of those stages. ๐Ÿ˜ A group of us continued the conversation about the topic after the session, which is always fun.

Next I moved on to the Oracle ACE Briefing. The first rule of the Oracle ACE Briefing is don’t talk about the Oracle ACE Briefing. Once again, it was good to see a lot of familiar faces, and some new ones. Once the session was over, and we knew everything there was to know about the Oracle Games Console (#OGC), I spent some time talking with Dominic Giles, while he desperately looked for ways to get rid of me. He didn’t succeed. ๐Ÿ˜‰

By the time I finally let Dom go, it was time to watch Jasmin Fluri and Gianni Ceresa presenting “Git Branching – the battle of the ages”, or “Development Workflows: The Battle of The Ages!”, depending on which title you prefer. The session was a celebrity death match between trunk-based development (Jasmin) and Gitflow style development (Gianni). Gianni fought dirty, but ultimately Jasmin was able to overpower him and grind him into the dirt. At least that’s how I saw it. ๐Ÿ™‚ Both sides gave compelling reasons for their preferred method, and ultimately there is a lot more similarity between them than some people would have you believe. As is often the case, there is no “best”, but what is “best for you”. Not surprisingly, this sparked another conversation at the end of the session, with a few war stories thrown in for good measure.

At that point I had to head off to beat the traffic across town, as I had some “real life” things to do.

So that’s was day 1 of UKOUG Breakthrough 2022. I know it will sound silly to most people, but I was stressing about the conference and it turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. Fingers crossed day 2 will go well also.

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Tech18 : Day 3

The first session of the day for me was Alex Nuijten with “and from the chaos comes the perfect APEX application”. This session was focused on the organisation and structure of APEX applications. You could describe it as #SmartDB or #HardShell I guess. The emphasis was on a functional API layer, with APEX used as a skin over that API layer. I share this opinion, but Alex takes it further than me, and in a more structured manner. He was having some problems with the screen blinking, but he’s a pro and took it in his stride. ๐Ÿ™‚

Next up was Amy Simpson-Grange with “Robotic Process Automation”. This was Amy’s first technical presentation, but you would never know it. There were some problems with the screen at the start of the session, and I’m sure she was freaking out inside, but she shrugged it off and did a great job switching between laptops. I’ve not really been involved in this type of automation before, so it was a learning experience for me, with a few light-bulb moments along the way. The content was great and the delivery was so relaxed and natural. I really hope she keeps on doing tech conferences in future!

After that I followed some of the analytic folks into a session by Abi Giles-Haigh called, “Open Source & Oracle Complementing not Competing”, which was focused on the AI, Machine Learning and Deep Learning space. I freely admit to being clueless about this area, and Brendan seemed surprised to see me there. ๐Ÿ™‚ I was kind-of expecting to be totally lost, but Abi did a good job of making it noob-friendly for me, as well as giving the pros something to bicker over. ๐Ÿ™‚

Continuing the theme of watching stuff I knew nothing about, I went to Lonneke Dikmans presenting an “Introduction to Blockchain for Developers”. Over the years I’ve gained my first insights into the worlds of SOA, microservices and then serverless from Lonneke, and here I am learning about blockchain at one of her sessions. I wonder what next year will bring. ๐Ÿ™‚

Next up in the same room was Roel Hartman with “Docker for Database Developers”. I’ve seen a number of Docker presentations for DBAs and developers, including my own, and they all bring something different to the table that make you think. I guess so much depends on your area of interest and the use cases you have in mind, as that will direct your attention. A hardcore DBA will see things differently to a developer, and a generalist like me will probably sit somewhere between the two. ๐Ÿ™‚ It’s good to see things from a few angles, as it gives you a more rounded perspective.

From there I tagged along with Dawn and met up with a few folks at a local hotel bar for a quick drink before heading off to get the train home.ย I got a table on the train, but disappointingly there was no wifi, so I had to write this blog post in a text editor, to post later. ๐Ÿ™‚

Me looking pretty in Machu Picchu, Peru, wearing a Chile hat. Photo taken by Debra Lilley a few minutes before I was hospitalised. ๐Ÿ™‚

So that’s the last conference of the year for me! Thanks to everyone at UKOUG for making the event happen and inviting me to speak. Thanks to the attendees and speakers who came along and made the event what it is. Thanks also to all last year’s attendees who filled in the speaker evaluations, that resulted in me getting the “Prettiest Speaker Ever” award this year! To this year’s attendees, please fill out the evaluations. It gives UKOUG feedback that helps with speaker selection in future, and it’s a nice pat on the back for the speakers if they get a prize. Finally, thanks to the Oracle ACE Program and the Oracle Groundbreaker Ambassadors for letting me continue to fly the flag.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Previous posts in this series.

UKOUG Tech18 : Day 2

Day 2 started at 07:00. I hadn’t slept that great, so when the alarm went off I was thinking it would have been nice to stay in bed a little longer…

I got to the conference venue at about 08:00 and went straight to the “Women in IT – What has Changed?” session. Debra Lilley introduced the session and the speakers, then it was on to Daya Haines Haddockย and Amy Simpson-Grange telling their stories and speaking about their experiences and inspiration. Both were super-positive people and really inspirational. It was great to hear Amy is involved at the grass roots level at schools and colleges, spreading positive messages, letting people know they can be themselves and still succeed. The overriding message of the session was “Be brave. Be yourself. Take on challenges!” A good lesson for everyone.

I kind-of got lost for a while, chatting and catching up on the blog.

The next session I went to see was “Identifying Performance Problems in a Multitenant Environment” by Christian Antognini. It’s good to hear his thoughts on his approach and he pointed out a couple of things I had missed in the docs, so I’ve got them on my list to check out. ๐Ÿ™‚

Pretty soon it was time for my session called DBA Does Docker. It’s a real struggle to get this done in 45 minutes and I failed again. ๐Ÿ™‚ Nobody was following on from me, so I didn’t ruin the next speakers life. I hope people found it useful.

I spent some time chatting to Pete Finniganย about life, the universe and everything. That was followed by his session calledย “User Rights & Least Privilege”. I would like to say my systems don’t suffer from loads of the stuff he mentioned, but… It’s always good to go to Pete’s sessions and remind myself I need to try harder…

After that it was Jeff Smith with “Oracle SQL Developer – Everything you Need to know About Tuning”. Not surprisingly, this was a tour of the features available in SQL Developer that relate to performance tuning. There’s a lot in there these days! ๐Ÿ™‚

After Jeff’s session I bumped intoย Amy Simpson-Grangeย and had a total fanboy moment over her talk in the morning.

I went to my hotel to drop off my bag, then went back to the venue for the social event. Carbs! I chatted to a bunch of people, who kind-of provided counselling for me. Thanks folks! Then it was back to the hotel to crash.

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Tech18 : Day 1

Day 1 started at 05:00. Normally I start trips with a 30 minute taxi ride to the airport, leaving about 2.5 hours before the flight. Today I left the house 30 minutes before my train was due to depart. Not needing that 2 hour buffer makes a big difference.

I had upgraded to first class, a whopping ยฃ10 extra, to get a set with a table and wifi. The wifi was a little slow and it restricted a whole bunch of sites, but I was still able to do some stuff. I got an Uber from the station to the venue. The driver was playing The Prodigy and Nirvana. Awesome.

On exiting the taxi I tweaked my back. I tried to put my coat into my case and noticed it was locked, and I couldn’t remember the combination. What a surprise. I’m at a conference and things are going wrong… ๐Ÿ™‚

The first session of the day for me was “Using Vagrant to Build, Test & Debug Ansible Scripts Easily” byย Martin Bach. Followers of the blog know I’m a meddler with Vagrant and I’m an Ansible wannabe.ย  Martin was extolling the virtues of reliable and repeatable builds, which I’m all for. ๐Ÿ™‚

Next up was the keynote, which started with Martin Widlake doing the introduction to the event, and announcing the speaker awards based on last years evaluations.

Big shout out to all the winners in all the categories.

This year I picked up my third UKOUG speaker award, which means you are given the “Lifetime Achievement Award” and you are not included in “the race” in future years. I join an illustrious list of people who’ve been told to “get out and don’t come back!” ๐Ÿ™‚

Later on I had to pick up my award and get a photo opportunity. Thanks to everyone who filled in the speaker evaluations last year. It always surprises me when this type of thing happens, especially when I think how far I’ve come over the last 10 years of presenting. I still consider myself a “nervous speaker” and I watch other people present and think I’ve still got a lot to learn about presenting.

Next up was theย “Exadata – Roundtable Discussion with Development” hosted byย Gurmeet Goindi. I don’t work on Exadata, but I like to keep my ear to the ground, and get invited to a meetup later of course. ๐Ÿ™‚

After that I got lost in a whole bunch of conversations with a variety of people. I could lose a day doing this.

The next session I went to was “How Autonomous is the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse?” byย Christian Antogniniย and Dani Schnider. I have to admit I was a little distracted during this talk because I was logged into work looking at some stuff. I spoke to Christian later to fill in the gaps a little.

From there I went to a panel session about the ACE program. Unfortunately it had been put in the wrong track, in a room the other side of the building, and up against a load of really good speakers who were going to soak up the audience (Maria). The audience was compact and bijou. ๐Ÿ™‚

From there I went back to the hotel to drop off my stuff, then it was off for a brief visit to the Exadata meetup, followed by the ACE dinner.

Looking back it was a really random day, but I got to speak to a lot of people, which is the best thing about conferences for me. ๐Ÿ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Tech18 : See you there!

Next week is UKOUG Tech 18. It’s going to be an unusual event for me for a couple of reasons.

First up, I’m going to be in Liverpool from Mon-Wed. I can’t go on Sunday as it’s nephew #1’s birthday, but this is the first time I will be at the event for this long. Depending on who else from the company goes, I might have to work (from the hotel) on one of the days, but…

Next, it’s a pretty quiet conference for me, as I only submitted one presentation, but I’ve just been invited to a panel, so I can pretend I’ve got two sessions. ๐Ÿ™‚

Title : Understanding the ACE Program & itโ€™s Value
Time & Placeย : Room 20-21, Monday 3rd December 5:10 PM – 5:55 PM
Abstract :
Have you ever wondered what the ACE Program is about? What does it mean to those who are part of it and what is it’s value to Oracle? Have you wondered about being part of it? Come along to this session and we will answer your questions.

Title : DBA Does Docker
Time & Placeย : Database 2 – 1C, Tuesday 4th December 2:25 PM – 3:10 PM
Abstract : here

This will be my last event for the year, so I’m hoping it goes OK. ๐Ÿ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

OUG Ireland 2018 : Day 2

Day 2 was a mixed day for me. I mentioned in the previous post my preparation for this conference had not been the best because of circumstances, and that started to get the better of me. I’ve said it before, public speaking is not natural for me. This was the first conference I had done since UKOUG Tech17. Having nearly a 4 month break and coming in without the normal prep was a bad idea, because it felt very much like I was back to square one, doing my first ever presentation. I spent quite a while talking to Chris Saxon in the morning, where I had pretty much decided to give up presenting blah, blah, blah…

My first session was “Using PL/SQL and ORDS to Develop RESTful Web Services for APEX? Why?”. Even though it is an APEX talk, I am speaking mostly about the organisation of applications, the use of API-first development and web services, but all in the context of APEX. I’m the first to admit I’m not a great APEX developer, but I do know a bit about PL/SQL and I think I am pretty good at organising applications. I think the talk went OK. That calmed my nerves somewhat for the next session, which was the one I was really worried about.

My second session was “Cool New Features for Developers in 18c and 12c”, which was mostly live demos, connected to an 18c database running on the Oracle Database Cloud Service. I had recorded the demos in case the internet connection dropped, but I think if it had it would have been game over really. The internet connection was fine, which was a relief. I couldn’t switch between the slides and the demos as seamlessly as I would have liked, but it wasn’t terrible. I had picked a selection of things that I think are cool from 12.1, 12.2 and 18c. Some things were cool because they are useful. Some things are cool for geek factor, even though I might not use them much. I had a couple of timing issues with the demos and I ran out of time, but overall it felt OK. There was a bit of banter with the crowd, which always helps me relax.

Update: Someone asked for the list, so here it is. I didn’t get to demo them all because of time. ๐Ÿ™‚

From there it was off to the panel session I was meant to chair. So it turns out I’m bad on the panel, I’m bad in the audience and I’m bad as chair of a panel. I think the only way it’s going to work out is if I’m gagged or excluded. Dominic Giles got a grilling in part of the session, but he handled it admirably as always. As is always the case with panels, there’s a mixed bag of questions and a rather varied selection of answers… ๐Ÿ™‚

From there it was a few goodbyes, and I hung around with Chris, before leaving for the airport. We got some food and as Chris left for his plane Neil and Martin turned up. I spent a few minutes chatting with them, then it was off to get my plane.

Some of the guys at the back of the plane were “a little rowdy”, but it was a quick flight and we got back OK. It was then a short taxi ride home and it was all over…

The OUG Ireland 2018 conference felt busier this year. I’m not sure how the numbers stack up, but a couple of people commented the same. Just a little reminder, if you are using one of the cheap airline companies, it’s probably cheaper to get to the OUG Ireland conference than it is to get to some of the UK conferences. Just sayin’. ๐Ÿ™‚

Thanks to the folks at OUG Ireland for letting me come again. Thanks to the attendees and people who came to my sessions for helping me get through them. Thanks to the speakers also, especially those who did a bit of “counselling” for me. ๐Ÿ™‚ This was a self-funded trip, but thanks as always to the Oracle ACE Program and Developer Champion Program for letting me fly the flag. See you all again next year.

Cheers

Tim…

OUG Ireland 2018 : Day 1

When I originally posted about this event I was an attendee. Over the last week or so things have changed a lot. First I picked up a vacated speaker slot, then I was asked to chair a panel session, then I was asked if I could fill another speaker slot that had become free.ย Of the two presentations I agreed to give, one hadn’t been written yet and had live demos to prep. The other one was written, but needed some serious rehearsal. Needless to say, this last week has been a bit of a nightmare. My presenting skills are not natural, they’ve been learnt, and it takes me a lot of rehearsal to appear casual and relaxed. If you want to come and see if I manage to get through the demos without injury, my sessions are in the last three blocks on Friday. You can see the agenda here. ๐Ÿ™‚

So day one began at silly o’clock with a taxi ride to the airport. It’s a really short flight to Dublin, so it feels more like a bus ride. When you are flying on CheapAir for pennies there really is no messing about. A lady had her full baggage allocation, but wanted to bring a giant box of tea bags with her, which was going to cost her ยฃ50 as a checked item. That was an interesting discussion/fight… The flight itself was really quick, and once at Dublin airport is was a short bus ride to the Gresham Hotel and the conference started…

First up was Dominic Giles with a keynote called “Towards Autonomous Data Management”. I’ve written about using the Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud Service before (here). I’ve also written about my opinions of this type of service going forward (here). I’m looking forward to see how these services develop. As I’ve said before, this is the beginning of a journey, not the destination…

After coffee and some chit-chat it was off to see “Tell us Your Plans, ask us Your Questions” with the wife and Tony Cassidy. This was a question and answer session about Oracle Cloud Apps and I just wanted to keep my ear to the ground.

Next up was Neil Chandler with “JSON in Oracle”, followed by Chris Saxon with “18(ish) Things Developers Will Love About Oracle Database 18c”. I enjoyed both sessions, but I think people in one of my sessions tomorrow might feel some deja vu, because they collectively covered a lot of the stuff I am speaking about tomorrow. I’ve got some live demos (if my internet connection works), which will hopefully make it feel different. ๐Ÿ™‚

From there I headed back to check in to my hotel and play catch-up on a couple of things, including checking out my demos again. ๐Ÿ™‚

I popped over to the social event, to catch some people I hadn’t spoken to during the day. I was going to duck out of the ACE dinner as it had been a long day, but Brendan persuaded me I should go, and I was glad I did because it was announced that Kiran Tailor is the latest person to be made an Oracle ACE Director.

Kiran is a super-nice guy, so I was pleased this happened.

Once we had eaten, I walkedย the wife back to her hotel, and bought her an ice cream, then headed off to mine to crash. What a long day!

Quite nervous about tomorrow…

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Tech17 : It’s a Wrap!

Just a quick reflection on the UKOUG Tech17 event…

Here are the posts I wrote over the event.

Things went pretty well for me this week. My timetable allowed me to come for two full days, which was nice. It’s a lot less stressful when you are not trying to rush in and out from work like I was on Tuesday.

It’s funny walking around the event as it feels like every couple of steps I see someone I want to stop and talk to. I could probably spend the whole event in the lobby just talking to people. ๐Ÿ™‚

As usual, some quick thanks:

  • Thanks to UKOUG for letting come to present again.
  • Thanks to all the people that came to my sessions, came to speak to me during the event and the folks thatย filled in the session evaluations last year, making my head swell even more. ๐Ÿ™‚
  • Thanks to Oracle Academy and UKOUG for letting me come and present at the Oracle Academy sessions.
  • Thanks to the Oracle ACE Program for organising the briefing and for letting me continue to fly the flag at these events, as well the Developer Champion Program for dragging me into the new world. ๐Ÿ™‚
  • Thanks to all the other speakers for sharing your knowledge and saving me a load of time Googling…

Next year’s event is in Liverpool, so I’m not sure how that will work out for me. If colleagues still want to come I will probably only be able to come for a single day. If they can’t face the journey I will be able to come for the whole event and stay in a hotel. ๐Ÿ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

UKOUG Tech17 : Wednesday

Wednesday started with a quick trip to the doctor, then I got a bus into town for the conference. I kept bumping into interesting people and chatting, so I didn’t manage to get to any of the early sessions.

I missed picking up my Best UK Speaker award and the group photo yesterday, so I picked it up today and did a photo withย Linda and Jennifer, two of the ladies that keep the Oracle ACE Program and the Developer Champion Programs running smoothly. While I was in the exhibition hall I got into a discussion about APEX, and rather than just talk I opened my laptop, headed to apex.oracle.com and did an impromptu demo. One APEX talk and it’s gone to my head. ๐Ÿ™‚

Then it was time for me to head up to the Oracle Academy sessions. UKOUG and Oracle Academy put on a program for students and Brendan Tierney and I agreed to help out and each do a short talk for them. Some of the students got “lost” in the conference (or at the German market), and of the ones that did turn up I recognised all of them from either the BCU talks I’ve done recently, or the UKOUG NextGen session I did in 2014. ๐Ÿ™‚

From there it was off to lunch, then I had a two hour Oracle ACE Director briefing. It was a mix of public and NDA stuff, so I’m not going to say anything about it (or the Oracle Games Console #OGC) for fear of getting disappeared…

That pretty much wrapped up the conference. I popped into Starbucks to chat to Mia, Debra and Fiona, then it was a bus home and that was that.

Cheers

Tim…