ORACLENERD: Random Things: Volume #12

Random Things: Volume #12

Driving
The last 2 weeks I have been driving back and forth to Greenville, SC. Round trip at 1200 miles. I leave Sunday at noon and return on Thursday night at 10. Yesterday I couldn't keep my eyes open, despite 2 5 hour energy drinks and a bottle of Mountain Dew. Had to pull over for a nap.

Consulting
I have to say being a consultant is fun for a number of reasons.
1. I get to meet a lot of different people.
2. I get to experience different IT shops and how they work.
3. I don't necessarily have to prove myself every single time.
4. I get to eat out more often

It's also bad for a number of reasons.
1. Time away from family.
2. I get to eat out more often
3. I get to eat out more often

I definitely need to find a routine. Next week should allow me to begin that search as I will be the only one (from my company) there...temptation(s) (read: eating out) is reduced by 100%.

The hotel I originally stayed at had a stationary bike. The second one did not. I'm trying to get back into the first, but they're booked. My charm wasn't enough to convince them to open up a room...but they did say I could use their gym.

Work
I'm currently working with OBIEE metadata (rpd) and reporting (presentation services). Soon to be extending that to OBIA, the pre-built DW/BI solutions for EBS, PeopleSoft and JD Edwards.

It's difficult for me to stay out of the database though. I constantly want to push as much as I can into it.

The good thing is that I am getting serious exposure to the complete lifecycle of data. OLTP --> ETL --> DW --> Reporting

(Completely) Random
I continue to be amazed at the amount of help available out there...you just need to find it. My old friend Tom was helping me out earlier this week. Kellyn has offered to help me out with something else. Christian has promised to send me his NexusOne (ok, I have to send it to him after I receive it...maybe)

I love the 'tubes.

Labels: random

¶ 1/15/2010 09:33:00 AM

Comments:

> It's difficult for me to stay out of the database though. I constantly want to push as much as I can into it.

Good man, since that's where you should put resource-heavy stuff.
Seriously though. That's the reason Oracle came up with Exadata.

As for the Nexus: can't get to the bloddy ordering page even when using a proxy :-((

# posted by

Christian Berg : January 15, 2010 10:05 AM

I heard they only sold 20k Nexus One's and everyone was complaining about how much the coverage sucks. I think I will hold off for now. I like gadgets, but not so much that I always have to have the latest and greatest (or not so greatest) thing.

# posted by

Tom : January 15, 2010 11:06 AM

I started my career in consulting back in '93 and discovered quickly how much happier I was then the poor souls who were worried about being downsized. I then moved into Professional Services which is consulting by another name and am now moving back into regular consulting. I found early on that I need change. Being committed to a single product, or project for years would waste away the remaining braincells I have left.

With that said, I really feel for you making that drive. Will they let you use VPN and work from home some weeks? Most of the customers I worked with in consulting at Oracle didn't want to pay for travel and were more than willing to allow me to work from home. Once they get to know what your about, and what's important to you, it's a no brainer.

# posted by

Jeff : January 16, 2010 9:32 AM

This post has been removed by the author.

# posted by

Jeff : January 16, 2010 9:36 AM

Jeff,

I will be able to work from home a little bit, not sure of the frequency though. I do understand to a degree, interaction is a bit easier in person and those random (often important) questions...you know, the ones in the hallway, are more likely to happen.

Of course there is the cost to consider. That's difficult (in my mind) to justify all the time, but if the client deems it important, I won't argue.

# posted by

oraclenerd : January 16, 2010 2:16 PM