A Lesson in Giving

Active members of the Oracle Community have some common attributes, they are willing to share what they have learnt and are not afraid to ask questions.

These are not static attributes but actually a learning circle, let me give you two examples.

Tim Gorman shares scripts to help with performance management, lets look at one of these:

sp_delta_views.sql (ASCII text file – 47Kb) SQL*Plus script containing DDL to create views that automatically calculate the "delta" or difference between adjacent samples of data gathered by the STATSPACK package. Each of these views is named the same as the corresponding tables in the STATSPACK repository, except that the prefix of "STATS$" has been replaced by a prefix of "DELTA$". These views are extremely useful in using the STATSPACK repository like a data warehouse of Oracle performance tuning information.

Many people have used the scripts and have thanked Tim for sharing, but one reader has gone further. Tanel Poder, himself a very experienced and respected presenter uses the script and taken the output into excel. And Tanel gives Tim the credit in the worksheet.

There are many comments on Tanel's blog as to how helpful this tool has been, and last week I witnessed Tanel explain it in detail to Tim, who will be using the tool himself from now on.

I know some of the newer database tools go someway to helping you with this analysis but there are a lot of people not on the latest versions and they want this kind of help.

And as for asking questions, Dan Fink often throws out questions to get people to think and to use their responses for his own research. His latest question on when is a SQL script too long? is an interesting topic that would not be discussed by people interested in only their own reputation.

Active Oracle Community members, those who regularly present, members of the ACE community, Oak table Members, user Group Leaders all want to share their knowledge and push their own learning. Join in what are you waiting for?

What Can I Say?

Have you ever taken part in a sponsored silence? Well that is how I feel with a Non Disclosure Agreement with Oracle. I have spoken before in this blog that as a blogger who is encouraged by Oracle I find it difficult to decide what is under NDA and what isn’t. Fusion Applications definitely are and when ever someone tells me it is vapour ware or never going to happen I get very frustrated and have to bite my tongue, again as I have said before I have seen it and love it.

But don't get me wrong, I am honoured to have the access and happy to be under an NDA.

Well now I can say something because Thomas Kurian has gone on record with Information Week.

Basically work has started with customers who have the required appetite to move to Fusion, yes it will be a carefully choreographed program and still a long way off from General Availability, but we can wait, we want not only an excellent application but proven migration paths and as many issues as possible resolved.

So the gag isn’t lifted yet but I have come up for air and now remain silent before I step out of line.

Let UKOUG increase your value

I subscribe to a number of newsfeeds and last week Search CIO highlighed this article - Unexpected side effect of recession - time for IT education and training.

The premsie is simple, if you have spare capacity use it to home in our your skills, attend those SIGs you normally don't have time for. UKOUG membership is very cost effective and much cheaper than attending expensive training courses. In return your ROI on Oracle investment will increase.

From the Horse's Mouth

I want this blog to tell people about UKOUG and what we all get up to on the board. A few weeks ago Ronan and I were in Redwood at the IOUC Summit and Ronan had the opportunity to say why people should join a user group

A New Blogger, an old friend

So what ever happened to my friend Mike from the elevator?

He has recently been elected as President of ODTUG and we met up a few weeks ago at the IOUC Summit.

Since then Mike has set up his own blog and one of his first posts is about volunteering. Read it, he talks about why we volunteer and how it makes us feel. It makes me feel wonderful and that is not just in the User Group. I teach retired people computers and get so much back from them, I look after the AV in my local church and in my time lots of other things and the common denominator I feel great, make great friends and hopefully do just my little bit in return.

I told Mike my favourite quotation is "Commitment is doing the thing you said you'd do, long after the mood you said it in has left you" - (Facing Up by Bear Grylls), and my daughter thinks that is going on my headstone I am so passionate about commitment.



In UKOUG we have over 200 volunteers and without them we would not be the best user group in the world.

But what do I like most about Mike's blog? I originally came above Tom Kyte in the blog roll, Mike has changed it now but I still rank above Duncan Mills!