Mood Swings

An interesting column comment encountered:

MOOD_SWINGS_IND VARCHAR2(1) (Y/N) “indicates that the person was in a swinging mood at the time of the episode”


AUSOUG Conference 2006 over

Another enjoyable conference. I’ve attended it every year since 2000 and this year’s was packed with presentations. Over 300 attendees spread over up to six presentations meant less crowding, I think; although as always there were a few packed sessions.

Highlights for me were:

  • Connor’s “live demo” of 11g in Being a successful developer with Oracle
  • Learning that cancelling a cursor is a good thing, but finding it can’t be done in PL/SQL – Anjo Kolk, The life of a cursor and its impact on the shared pool
  • Trace Analysis on Steroids – Dave Moore’s talk was an eye-opener, not about performance-enhancing drugs (caffeine’s usually enough for me), but about Trace Analyzer. I thought this would be just another “if you’re not buying our product you’re wasting your time” talk, but in fact this is a totally free, open-source (PL/SQL!) tool that not only collates all the data from a trace file (as tkprof does), but also digs into your database to correlate the trace info with the data dictionary and present it all beautifully in HTML. Downloading and trying out this tool is definitely on my to-do list.
  • Connor again, Odds and ends – an odd but arguably the best session to end the conference with. A number of tricks I’ll want to experiment with once I get a copy of the powerpoints (e.g. I wasn’t aware that contexts can be made “globally accessible”).

Thanks to the AUSOUG committee for another well-organised event.


AUSOUG 2006 Perth Conference update

Noticed that the final conference programme is now available. Unfortunately I don’t have a laptop so I can’t attend some of the hands-on sessions.

I’m planning to at least attend the following:

  • Future of Database Technology (Barry Matthews)
  • How Can I Tune It When I Can’t Change the Code (Penny Cookson)
  • Being a Successful Developer (Connor McDonald)
  • Next-Gen Self-Managing Database (Barry Matthews)
  • Next-Gen Oracle Database Availability (Barry Matthews)
  • Odds and Ends (Connor McDonald)

Unfortunately, the schedule precludes me from Systematic Oracle Performance Tuning (Guy Harrison).

From the Delegate Program:

“…a smattering of such features and/or techniques Connor has encountered over the years, that he has either created himself, read about, or simply stolen from someone smarter.” (Odds and Ends, McDonald)

– plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery… 🙂

“Oracle recently announced the future obsolescence of SQL*Plus GUI version… [SQL Developer] allows easier access for less technical users… The session will include basic SQL syntax training so that End Users can utilise the product to access their data.” (SQL Developer Hands-on Workshop, Kate Marshall)

– I personally have never come across any end-users who currently use SQL*Plus; I have, however, worked with some business analysts who can customise simple SQL using a helper like Discoverer; perhaps they’d be the kind of person who would benefit from this session. Looks like Chris Muir is giving a similar talk in Melbourne, although for some reason it’s in the “Applications” stream.

“Since Oracle introduced the shared pool in the Oracle kernel, it has been causing problems… these problems are because of Oracle bugs, …This presentation will have a closer look at what application developers do wrong.” (The Life of a Cursor and Its Impact on the Shared Pool, Anjo Kolk)

– hey, why should we expect presenters to sugar coat their topics?

Most interesting presentation title: Guaranteed Project Failure
Runner-up: Make Money Fast and Improve Your Love Life with Oracle…
Most boring presentation title: Off shoring Oracle Support: Alcoa’s journey …but the presentation itself will be interesting I’m sure 🙂


AUSOUG National Conference 2006

Just read the latest draft timetable, looks like there’s going to be some very interesting presentations this year. It looks a lot bigger than before, mainly because of the merger with Apps. I’m particularly looking forward to:

  • “The future of database technology from Oracle Development” (Mark Townsend, Oracle)
  • “Being a successful developer with Oracle” (Connor McDonald)
  • “Systematic Oracle performance tuning” (Guy Harrison, Quest)
  • “The next-generation self-managing database: a sneak preview” (Mark Townsend, Oracle)
  • “Next generation Oracle database availability: a sneak preview” (Mark Townsend, oracle)
  • “Odds and ends” (Connor McDonald)

My curiosity has been piqued on these ones as well:
  • “Adding wings to your SQL development” (Howard Ong, Aurora Consulting)
  • “AP Imaging – remaining a step ahead” (Jacinta Savage, Uni of Melbourne)
  • “Guaranteed project failure” (Julie Harris, DFEEST)

Buzzword alert! 😉
  • “Accelerating the journey to Fusion” (Roland Slee, Oracle)
  • “Web Services, SOA & BPEL – a primer” (Basheer Khan – Innowave Technologies)
  • “Understanding the Fusion technology stack: preparing for the future” (Tim Blake, Oracle)

Townsend features a bit more this year, and I’m sure McDonald’s presentations will be entertaining as usual. Penny’s only doing one session this year, however – mind you, that one could be a fairly involved hands-on session with Application Express.