You didn't miss Part I, at least not here you didn't.
Many of you know Mike Riley. If you don't, here's a little history. He's the past president of ODTUG (for like 37 years or something) and for the last two years, he's served as Conference Chair for Kscope. Yeah, that doesn't really follow, but you know I'm a bit...scattered.
Did you read the link above? OK, well, here's the skinny. Mike has rectal cancer. Stage III. If it weren't for the stupid cancer part, the jokes would abound. Oh wait, they do anyway. Mike was diagnosed shortly after #kscope13, right around his 50th birthday (Happy Birthday Mike, Love, Cancer!). Ugh. (I want to say, "are you shittin' me?" see what I mean about the jokes? I can't help myself, I'm 14). Needless to say, cancer isn't really a joke. We all know someone affected by it. It is...well, it's not fun.
Go read his post if you haven't already. I'm going to give my version of that story. I'll wait...
So, Sunday morning, Game 3 of the World Series went to the Cardinals in a very bizarre way. I was watching highlights that morning as I had missed the end of the game (doesn't everyone know that I'm old and can't stay up that late to watch baseball?). Highlights. Mike lives in St. Louis. He's a Cardinal's fan. Wouldn't it be cool if he and his family could go to the game (mostly just his family, I don't like Mike that much). So I make some phone calls to see what people think of my idea. My idea is met with resistance. OK, I'll skip the people. Let's call Lisa (Mike's wife).
Apparently Sunday's are technology free days in the Riley household, no response. I go for a bike ride, but I take my phone, just in case Lisa calls me back. After the halfway point, my phone rings, I jump off the bike to answer.
So I talked to Lisa about my idea, can Mike handle the chaos of a World Series game?
We hang up and she goes to work. BTW, I asked her to keep my name out of it, but she didn't. We'll have words about that in the future.
She calls back (I think, it may have been over text, 2 weeks is an eternity to me). "He doesn't think he can do it."
So I call Mike directly (Lisa had already spoiled the surprise.)
"What about Box seats? You know, where the people with top hats and monocles sit? Away from the rift-raft, much more comfortable and free food and beer."
Backstory. Mike had finished his first round of chemo less than a week before Sunday. To make things worse, he decided it was a good time to throw out his back. He wasn't in the best of shape.
Mike said he thought he could do it.
OK, nay-sayers aside, let's see what we can do. I emailed approximately 50 people, mostly ODTUG people; board members, content leads, anyone I had in my address book. "Hey, wouldn't it be great to send Mike and his family to Game 5 of the World Series? We need to do this quick, tickets will probably double in price tonight especially if the Cardinals win." (that would mean Game 5 would be a clincher for the Cardinals, at home, muy expensive).
Within about 20 minutes, a couple of people pledged $600.
Holy shit!
At the prices I had seen, I was hoping to get between $50 and $100 from 50 people, hoping. I had $600 already. Game starts. Now it's up to $1100 in pledges. Holy shit, Part II. This might just be possible. Another 30 minutes and were about an hour into Game 4. Ticket prices have already gone up by $250 a ticket. Given that maybe 4 people have responded and I have $1600 in pledges, I pull the trigger. I bought 4 box seat tickets for the Riley family. (I had to have a couple of beers because I was about to drop a significant chunk of change without actual cash in hand, I could be out a lot of money, liquid courage is awesome).
Tickets sent to the Riley family. Pretty good feeling.
Like I said, I was confident, but I was scared. Before the end of the night though, there was over $5K pledged to get Mike and family to Game 5. Holy shit, Part III.
By midday Monday, pledges were well over $7K. I'll refer you back to Mike's post for more details. Shorter: jerseys for the family and a limo to the game.
Here's the breakdown: 35 people pledged, and paid, $8,080. Holy shit, Part IV. Average donation was $230.86. Median was $200. Low was $30 and high was $1000. Six people gave $500 or more. Nineteen people gave $200 or more. The list is a veritable Who's Who in the Oracle community.
Tickets + Jerseys + Limo = $6027.76
Riley family memory = Priceless.
So, what happened to the rest? Well, they have bills. Lots of bills. With the remainder, $2052.24, we paid off some hospital bills of $1220.63. There is currently $831.61 that will be sent shortly. It doesn't stop there though. Cancer treatment is effing expensive. Mike has surgery in December. He'll be on bed rest for some time. His bed is 17 years old. He needs a new one. After that, more chemo and more bills.
"Hey Chet, I'd love to help the Riley family out, can I give you my money for them?"
Yes, absolutely. Help me help them. I started a GoFundMe campaign. Goal is $10K. Any and all donations are welcome. Gifts include a thank you card from the Riley family and the knowledge that you helped out a fellow Oracle (nerd, definitely a nerd) in need. You can find the campaign here.
If you can't donate money, I've also created a hashtag so that we can show support for Mike and his family. It's #fmcuta (I'll let you figure out what it means). Words of encouragement are welcome and appreciated.
Thank you to the 35 who have already so generously given. Thank you to the rest of you who will donate or send out (rude) tweets.
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Why I'm voting for Danny Bryant and You Should Too
I'm talking about the ODTUG Board of Directors.
This.
That's really all you need isn't it?
Fine.
Today wraps up the voting period for the ODTUG Board of Directors. If you're asking me what ODTUG is, stop reading now. If you are a member of ODTUG, then please give me a few minutes to pontificate (that's a word I heard Jeff Smith use once, hopefully it makes sense here).
Your favorite Oracle conference, KScope, is largely successful based on the efforts of the Board, along with the expert advice of the YCC group. In addition, if you think ODTUG should "do more with Essbase" or "charge more for memberships" these decisions are made and carried out by the board.
So if you like being in ODTUG, and you want to help it get better and grow, and be as awesome as possible, you only need to do one thing today. Go vote. Midnight tonight (10/29) is the deadline. Do it.
You get to vote for several people. I suggest you read their bios. I'll save you the time for at least one vote, and that's for Danny Bryant.
Besides that awesome photo (#kscope12 in San Antonio) up above, here are several more reasons.
1. He's into everything. OBIEE. EBS. Essbase. SQL Developer. Database. Not very many people have their hands in everything, he does. He will be able to represent the entire spectrum of ODTUG members.
2. He's a fantastic human being. It's not just because he takes pictures of himself wearing ORACLENERD gear everywhere (doesn't hurt though), he's just, awesome.
3. This (Part II)
4. He also always answers the phone, tweets, and emails I send him. He might be sick, or he might just be that responsive. The ODTUG Board member responsibilities will fit nicely on his shoulders I believe.
So go vote. Now.
This.
That's really all you need isn't it?
Fine.
Today wraps up the voting period for the ODTUG Board of Directors. If you're asking me what ODTUG is, stop reading now. If you are a member of ODTUG, then please give me a few minutes to pontificate (that's a word I heard Jeff Smith use once, hopefully it makes sense here).
Your favorite Oracle conference, KScope, is largely successful based on the efforts of the Board, along with the expert advice of the YCC group. In addition, if you think ODTUG should "do more with Essbase" or "charge more for memberships" these decisions are made and carried out by the board.
So if you like being in ODTUG, and you want to help it get better and grow, and be as awesome as possible, you only need to do one thing today. Go vote. Midnight tonight (10/29) is the deadline. Do it.
You get to vote for several people. I suggest you read their bios. I'll save you the time for at least one vote, and that's for Danny Bryant.
Besides that awesome photo (#kscope12 in San Antonio) up above, here are several more reasons.
1. He's into everything. OBIEE. EBS. Essbase. SQL Developer. Database. Not very many people have their hands in everything, he does. He will be able to represent the entire spectrum of ODTUG members.
2. He's a fantastic human being. It's not just because he takes pictures of himself wearing ORACLENERD gear everywhere (doesn't hurt though), he's just, awesome.
3. This (Part II)
4. He also always answers the phone, tweets, and emails I send him. He might be sick, or he might just be that responsive. The ODTUG Board member responsibilities will fit nicely on his shoulders I believe.
So go vote. Now.
Monday, September 16, 2013
#OOW13
I'm going to be busy.
Here's my list of events:
Here's my list of events:
- Saturday
- I arrive in San Francisco on Saturday around 1 PM. If you're arriving at around the same time, let me know, we can share a cab into the city.
- Beer. After arriving I plan on finding a very cold Pliny the Elder. Or three.
- ODTUG Dinner. I'm crashing this one. It's Board members only to my knowledge and until someone says I cannot go (especially if fueled by more than one Pliny the Elder), I'm going.
- Sunday
- Open World Bridge Run. Not sure if I can make it, but I'm going to try. I'm presenting at 10:15 so it will be a tough decision.
- 10:30 to 11:30. Thinking Clearly About Performance. Somehow I managed to con Cary Millsap into a duet of sorts. I have him convinced it is the other way around. Either way, it should be fun (I am not nervous!).
- 2:15 to 4:30, Software Development in the Oracle Ecosystem, Part I and Part II. I'm moderating the aforementioned Mr. Millsap, Sten Vesterli, Markus Eisele and Jerry Brenner (My first boss was scheduled to speak as well, but he had a last minute change of plans, jerk).
- Oracle ACE Dinner. Evening.
- Post Oracle ACE Dinner drinks...wherever the night takes me.
- Monday
- Oracle OpenWorld - San Francisco Bay Swim - Part II, 7:30 AM. We had almost 20 last year, 33 have signed up (on the page anyway) this year. Come along. Cool t-shirts too, sponsored by Oracle Technology Network and designed by Lauren Prezby.
Let's not forget the swim caps! Sponsored by the encouragable Bjoern Rost of The portrix group (he's like me, afraid of capital letters) (designed by Lauren Prezby).
- Oaktable World. You'll most likely catch me here after the swim and before the...
- Wear Your ORACLENERD Gear Day, 3 PM to 4:30 PM. We'll be taking a group photo around 4:30 PM. If you can't make it for that, come by when you can and get a picture with me. You know I like that sh...stuff. You don't have a shirt/hat/sticker/random-item? OTN Lounge is giving away one hundred cool red t-shirts (Lauren Prezby, again).
This picture is coinciding with the APEX Developer Challenge which goes from 3 - 7:30 that afternoon/evening. I might even give it a go (fueled, hopefully, by Pliny the Elder).
- Oracle OpenWorld - San Francisco Bay Swim - Part II, 7:30 AM. We had almost 20 last year, 33 have signed up (on the page anyway) this year. Come along. Cool t-shirts too, sponsored by Oracle Technology Network and designed by Lauren Prezby.
- Tuesday
- Oaktable World.
- Leave at noon.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Context Switching: An Example
Last week at #kscope13 I saw an outstanding example of context switching. If you don't know what it is, Tom Kyte explains it here.
The session was Using Kanban and Scrum to Increase Your Development Throughput presented by Stew Stryker (not to be confused with Ted Striker) of Dartmouth College (Stew gave me a gallon of Vermont Maple Syrup which exploded in my bag on the flight home, a gift for sharing my hotel room. Thanks Stew! ;)). So here's the example he gave to demonstrate context switching.
Take a list of names and time yourself writing out the first letter of each name, then the second, until you are finished.
Now, same list of names and write them out the way you normally would, left to right.
If the first method was faster, you are a freak of nature.
The two environments are just "different", separate and distinct. You can do plsql without SQL, you can do SQL (and many times do) without invoking plsql. There is a call
overhead to go from SQL to PLSQL (the "hit" is most evident when SQL invokes PLSQL - not so much the other way, when SQL is embedded in PLSQL). Even if this hit is very very small (say 1/1000th of a second) - if you do it enough, it adds up. So, if it can be avoided - it should be.
The session was Using Kanban and Scrum to Increase Your Development Throughput presented by Stew Stryker (not to be confused with Ted Striker) of Dartmouth College (Stew gave me a gallon of Vermont Maple Syrup which exploded in my bag on the flight home, a gift for sharing my hotel room. Thanks Stew! ;)). So here's the example he gave to demonstrate context switching.
Take a list of names and time yourself writing out the first letter of each name, then the second, until you are finished.
Now, same list of names and write them out the way you normally would, left to right.
If the first method was faster, you are a freak of nature.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
#kscope13
Back in September, I was asked, and agreed, to become to Content Chair for "The Traditional" track at Kscope 13. Like I mentioned there, I had been involved for the past couple of years and it seemed like a natural fit. Plus, I get to play with some really fun people. If you are ready to take advantage of Early Bird Registration, go here. (save $300)
Over the past few weeks we've finalized (mostly) the Sunday Symposium schedule. We're currently working on finalizing Hands-on-Labs (HOL).
Beginning last year, we've had the Oracle product teams running the Sunday Symposia. This gives them an opportunity to showcase their wares and (hopefully) provide a bit of a road map for the future of said wares. This year, we have three symposia: APEX, ADF and Fusion Development and The Database and Developer's Toolbox.
ADF and Fusion Development
- Oracle Development Tools – Where are We and What’s Next - Bill Patakay, Oracle
- How to Get Started with Oracle ADF – What Resources are Out There? - Shay Shmeltzer and Lynn Munsinger, Oracle
- The Cloud and What it Means to Oracle ADF and Java Developers - Dana Singleterry, Oracle
- Going Mobile – What to Consider Before Starting a Mobile Project - Joe Huang, Oracle
- Understanding Fusion Middleware and ADF Integration - Frederic Desbiens, Lynn Munsinger, and Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle
- Open Q&A with the ADF Product Management
I love that they are opening up the floor to questions from their users. I wish more product teams would do that.
Application Express
- Oracle Database Tools - Mike Hichwa, Oracle
- Technology for the Database Cloud - Rick Greenwald, Oracle
- Developing Great User Interfaces with Application Express - Shakeeb Rahman, Oracle
- How Do We Build the APEX Builder? - Vlad Uvarov, Oracle
- How to Fully Utilize RESTful Web Services with Application Express - John Snyders, Oracle
- Update from APEX Development - Joel Kallman, Oracle
(If you see Joel Kallman out and about, make sure you you mispronounce APEX). This is a fantastic group of people (minus Joel of course). Not mentioned above is the affable David Peake who helps put all this together. The community surrounding APEX is second-to-none.
Finally, The Database and Developer's Toolkit. I'm partial to this one because I've been involved in the database track for the past couple of years. Like last year, this one is being put together by Kris Rice of Oracle. There are no session or abstract details for this one as it will be based mainly on the upcoming 12c release of the database. However, we do have the list of speakers lined up. If you could only come for one day of this conference, Sunday would be the day and this symposium would be the one you would attend.
This symposium will start off with Mike Hichwa (above) and then transition to the aforementioned (too many big words tonight) Mr. Rice. He'll be accompanied by Jeff Smith of SQL Developer fame, Maria Colgan from the Optimzer team and Tom Kyte.
How'd we do? I think pretty darn good.
Don't forget to sign up. Early Bird Registration ends on March 25, 2013. Save $300.
Over the past few weeks we've finalized (mostly) the Sunday Symposium schedule. We're currently working on finalizing Hands-on-Labs (HOL).
Beginning last year, we've had the Oracle product teams running the Sunday Symposia. This gives them an opportunity to showcase their wares and (hopefully) provide a bit of a road map for the future of said wares. This year, we have three symposia: APEX, ADF and Fusion Development and The Database and Developer's Toolbox.
ADF and Fusion Development
- Oracle Development Tools – Where are We and What’s Next - Bill Patakay, Oracle
- How to Get Started with Oracle ADF – What Resources are Out There? - Shay Shmeltzer and Lynn Munsinger, Oracle
- The Cloud and What it Means to Oracle ADF and Java Developers - Dana Singleterry, Oracle
- Going Mobile – What to Consider Before Starting a Mobile Project - Joe Huang, Oracle
- Understanding Fusion Middleware and ADF Integration - Frederic Desbiens, Lynn Munsinger, and Shay Shmeltzer, Oracle
- Open Q&A with the ADF Product Management
I love that they are opening up the floor to questions from their users. I wish more product teams would do that.
Application Express
- Oracle Database Tools - Mike Hichwa, Oracle
- Technology for the Database Cloud - Rick Greenwald, Oracle
- Developing Great User Interfaces with Application Express - Shakeeb Rahman, Oracle
- How Do We Build the APEX Builder? - Vlad Uvarov, Oracle
- How to Fully Utilize RESTful Web Services with Application Express - John Snyders, Oracle
- Update from APEX Development - Joel Kallman, Oracle
(If you see Joel Kallman out and about, make sure you you mispronounce APEX). This is a fantastic group of people (minus Joel of course). Not mentioned above is the affable David Peake who helps put all this together. The community surrounding APEX is second-to-none.
Finally, The Database and Developer's Toolkit. I'm partial to this one because I've been involved in the database track for the past couple of years. Like last year, this one is being put together by Kris Rice of Oracle. There are no session or abstract details for this one as it will be based mainly on the upcoming 12c release of the database. However, we do have the list of speakers lined up. If you could only come for one day of this conference, Sunday would be the day and this symposium would be the one you would attend.
This symposium will start off with Mike Hichwa (above) and then transition to the aforementioned (too many big words tonight) Mr. Rice. He'll be accompanied by Jeff Smith of SQL Developer fame, Maria Colgan from the Optimzer team and Tom Kyte.
How'd we do? I think pretty darn good.
Don't forget to sign up. Early Bird Registration ends on March 25, 2013. Save $300.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
BIWA Summit 2013
I meant to write about this sooner...
If you're looking for a good BI/DW/Analytics focused event, check out the BIWA Summit which takes place in January of 2013. If you're interested in speaking at the event (and you know you are), hurry up and get your abstract in here, it closes tomorrow (November 9th).
Day 1 will give us Tom Kyte who will talk about What's new from Oracle in BI and Data warehousing. Day 2 will feature Vaishnavi Sashikanth, Vice President, Development, Oracle Advanced Analytics at Oracle who will speak on Making Big Data Analytics Accessible.
For more information, go here and here.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
ODTUG/Kscope Content Chair
So I have a problem saying No (No, No, etc, etc.).
ODTUG came calling this year and of course, I couldn't say no. I was asked to be the Content Chair for ADF/Fusion, APEX, The Database (like The Ohio State), Developer's Toolkit and Building Better Software. There is an entirely different track for BI/EPM stuff, that's being handled by Natalie Delemar.
Just in case I never mentioned it, I was the 4th (or was it 5th?) choice to lead the Developer's Toolkit track last year. My handlers made sure I knew that, presumably to keep me in line. Thankfully Lewis was much nicer, he never told me I was a 4th or 5th choice.
What do I do? Well, I have to get (wrangle) people to run each of those tracks mentioned above. They in turn will get (wrangle) 5-10 people to do their bidding, and by bidding I mean read and rank abstracts for Kscope 13. Then scheduling those sessions that were selected. Fun stuff.
Let's go over that list again:
ADF and Fusion Development
- ADF for Beginners
- Advanced ADF: Mobile, Cloud, Web, Services, etc.
- Customizing Fusion Apps
- SOA and Fusion Middleware
Application Express
- The Basics
- Advanced
- Infrastructure/Management/Security
- Plug-ins & Dynamic Actions
Developer's Toolkit
- Forms and Beyond
- IDEs
- Languages
- Version Control and Continuous Integration
- .Net
The Database
- DBA
- PL/SQL
- SQL
- Tuning
Building Better Software
- Agile
- Business Rules
- Code Generation
- Instrumentation
- Modeling
- Testing
Easy right?
I'm still trying to tie down people for The Database and Developer's Toolkit. If you're interested in leading a track, or just simply participating, yell at me.
It's a great way to get involved. It's a great way to help shape the direction you believe we're all headed. Do it. Get involved.
ODTUG came calling this year and of course, I couldn't say no. I was asked to be the Content Chair for ADF/Fusion, APEX, The Database (like The Ohio State), Developer's Toolkit and Building Better Software. There is an entirely different track for BI/EPM stuff, that's being handled by Natalie Delemar.
Just in case I never mentioned it, I was the 4th (or was it 5th?) choice to lead the Developer's Toolkit track last year. My handlers made sure I knew that, presumably to keep me in line. Thankfully Lewis was much nicer, he never told me I was a 4th or 5th choice.
What do I do? Well, I have to get (wrangle) people to run each of those tracks mentioned above. They in turn will get (wrangle) 5-10 people to do their bidding, and by bidding I mean read and rank abstracts for Kscope 13. Then scheduling those sessions that were selected. Fun stuff.
Let's go over that list again:
- ADF and Fusion Development, John King
- APEX, Dan McGhan
- Building Better Softare, me and ???
- The Database,
openKellyn Pot'Vin (2012/09/25) - Developer's Toolkit,
OpenPatrick Barel (2012/09/25)
ADF and Fusion Development
- ADF for Beginners
- Advanced ADF: Mobile, Cloud, Web, Services, etc.
- Customizing Fusion Apps
- SOA and Fusion Middleware
Application Express
- The Basics
- Advanced
- Infrastructure/Management/Security
- Plug-ins & Dynamic Actions
Developer's Toolkit
- Forms and Beyond
- IDEs
- Languages
- Version Control and Continuous Integration
- .Net
The Database
- DBA
- PL/SQL
- SQL
- Tuning
Building Better Software
- Agile
- Business Rules
- Code Generation
- Instrumentation
- Modeling
- Testing
Easy right?
I'm still trying to tie down people for The Database and Developer's Toolkit. If you're interested in leading a track, or just simply participating, yell at me.
It's a great way to get involved. It's a great way to help shape the direction you believe we're all headed. Do it. Get involved.
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