Learning is not a spectator sport

I did three talks for the tasmanian user group.  Its a small user group, but a credit to the committee that they keep it strong, and keep it going year after year.  It was a pleasure to go there. And if you’re reading this, I hope a) you’re a member of your local user group… Read more

I’ll be doing a talk on Flashback on Feb 29.  Details below – hope to see you there.   Where: Oracle Australia: Level 2, 66 Kings Park Road, West Perth When: Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Breakfast starts 7:30am, and the talk from 8-9am RSVP: By RSVP Sunday 26th February 5pm by emailing vicepresident.wa@ausoug.org.au Cost: Free… Read more

I’m in Hobart Tasmania for a half day on Monday (Feb 29).  If you’re in town, please drop in and say Hi – should be a fun morning Here is the agenda 09:00 – 09:15 am General introduction 09:15 – 10:15 am Presentation – Diary of an 11.2 upgrade 10:15 – 10:30 am Morning tea… Read more

Its been a long hard painful road…. But finally, we no longer have to ensure that Flash-based mistake that was unleased onto the world a few years back I freely admit that I’ve been a scathing critic of the MOS flash interface, both on newsgroups and internally via feedback to the support team themselves, and… Read more

Just a short note to say thank you to anyone that took the time to score, rate and comment on my presentations at the UKOUG this year.  Whether you loved my talks, or hated my talks, I’m always flattered by anyone that takes the time to give the feedback that all speakers desire in order… Read more

I recently came across an example where someone wanted to update primary keys with an INSTEAD-OF trigger (on a view). It can be done, but I wanted to demonstrate that you need to take extreme care, because you can get some problems you might not have forseen. If you choose to allow primary key updates,… Read more

Today was a bumper day for content. Day 3 started with Doug Burns taking the p*ss out my presentation style…The cheek of the man !   All in good fun, although Doug is such a sensitive soul, the temptation to mess with him and claim offense was very very high.  He gave a great talk… Read more

Firstly, I hope everyone had a great Christmas…I took a few weeks off in December which explains the blog hiatus…but back to the grind stone now Well, day 2 started much like day 1….4am the internal body clock told me to get up, and thus I did some work on my slides, and then promptly… Read more

Well, as per normal when attending a conference in another country, it started very early….very early indeed.  4am the body clock decided it was time to get up, so eventually just gave up on trying to get back to sleep and started the day First up was Kyle Hailey’s talk on SQL Tuning.  Kyle is… Read more

UKOUG talks for me if you’re keen Monday 11:05, Hall 9 Partitioning 101 A look at the partitioning options at your disposal in Enterprise Edition from its inception in Oracle 8 up to array of improvements that have arrived in 11g. We’ll look at the various types of partitioning, how to decide whether you should… Read more

There is nothing better than a) bumpy flight from Perth to Dubai b) bumpy flight from Dubai to Birmingham then to open the laptop bag and find a) a laptop b) NO laptop power supply So this morning was mad panic, getting taxis to PC-World to buy a universal power supply, which beeps when the… Read more

Well, its off to the UK for one of the best conferences going…the UKOUG conference in Birmingham.  If you’re coming, please join me at my talks – I’m giving one every single day, including Sunday, so you’re spoilt for choice 🙂 Read more