UKOUG Northern Server Technology Day 2009

This year’s Northern Server Technology Day will take place on Tuesday 28th April at the Park Inn hotel in York.

This annual event is aimed at DBA’s and Developers in the North of England and delivers a full day of server tech presentations over two streams.

Previous events have taken place in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle and the day has always proved to be popular for technical content and networking opportunities in a location that is easily accessible within the North of England.
Agenda highlights this year include Pete Finnigan’s ‘The right method to secure and Oracle Database’, Julian Dyke presenting on ‘Optimizer Statistics’ and Joel Goodman giving an ‘Oracle Exadata Overview’

The full agenda and registration information can be found here on the UKOUG website.

A difficult choice in difficult times

Friday before last I made the difficult decision to leave SolStonePlus.

I joined SolStone in April 2006, and whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the work I did it has always been a juggling act to balance my personal life at home in Newcastle with working in the South.

In order to find a more manageable work/life balance I had to choose to either move closer to work or work closer to home.

Although not an easy decision to make, the right one for me at the moment was to leave SolStonePlus and pursue work further north.

At the moment I don’t have anything else lined up but I am keeping an eye out to see what is available.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Graham and everyone else at SolStonePlus for the fantastic opportunities I have had over the last 3 years, and wish them the very best and continued success for the future.

Log Buffer #132: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs

Welcome to the 132nd edition of Log Buffer, the weekly review of database blogs.

This is my first post of this New Year, so let's kick it off with a new blog.

Joel Goodman has begun his Blog from the DBA Classroom. This week he has been discussing the different ASM Storage Possibilities, but make sure to check out his older posts too if you missed them. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this blog.

Keeping on the education theme here, Dan Norris has a few thoughts on his blog regarding certifications.
I think the subject of certifications will always divide opinion, but something that did interest me here was the comment from a Senior Exec of a certification company, who informed Dan that " Their certification enrollments are approaching record levels due to the economic “downturn” "

Keeping with the economy, but switching technologies, Kevin Kline over at the SQL Blog is asking 'Does the down economy have an impact on your job?'. Rather than talking about IT layoffs though, he's asking if DBAs are struggling to justify attendance at Conferences and User Group meetings and talks about the potential knock-on effects of such cut-backs. Interesting stuff.

OK, enough doom and gloom, let's go and find some happy posts.

Zack Urlocker at TheOpenForce has been celebrating the first anniversary of Sun acquiring MySQL.
They had beer.
At work.
I like their style!

Further anniversary news from H.Tonguç Yılmaz as The Turkish Oracle Users Group Forum prepares for it's 10th Anniversary with a whole host of new blogs

More good news as Harald van Breederode tells us it is possible to recall command line history in tools such as SQL*Plus.

Rhonda Tipton also shares a handy trick for SQL Server users on how to easily convert date formats from one style to another, I'm sure all of us have been caught out by the US/UK date thing at one time or another!

PostgreSQL Users also have something to look forward to with Xaprb talking about the new windowing functions and common table expressions coming up in the next release.

Back to Oracle now, and a post from Pythian's Lukas Vysusil. I have to admit, I found his 'Hitting Oracle with a Hammer' title a bit misleading, especially as he kicks off with "Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in a stress-testing exercise".
I thought 'Yeah, when I get stressed I could whack Oracle with a Hammer too". Typically, my misinterpretation was way off the mark. No gratuitous violence, just a great post about, well, stress-testing.

Speaking of misinterpretations, I'm going to finish this week's log buffer with something for you to think about. Justin Kestelyn over at the OTN Blog asks 'What does "Freedom of Speech" mean in the Context of Community?'

A big 'Thank You'....

..to everyone who voted me onto the UKOUG Board of Directors!

There seems to have been a bit of a shake up this year with 4 new Directors being elected, which I believe is the most number of new Directors in one year.

We will officially take up our posts on 15th January and I'm really looking forward to the next 2 years - although I've been well advised that there is a lot of work ahead!

I didn't get much of a chance to celebrate after the results came in as I was speaking the next day (that was badly timed!) but I made up for it at the weekend once I got home.

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the UKOUG Conference, although it was hard work this year as it was a longer event with a 4 day exhibition which seemed quieter compared to previous years.

There was a lot of activity on the SolStonePlus stand as usual. I always enjoy being on the stand, doing the demos and getting to meet people, but it is tough work on the knees and ankles!

My presentation was very well attended this year too, I just wish it had been earlier in the week as you don't really fully relax until it is over!

One thing I want to end on though is that giving a presentation at the Conference is not as easy as it may look.

As a SIG Chair, I've always tried to encourage people to stand up and speak. Lots of people always have ideas on the topics they would like to see, but not many are prepared to give talks themselves.

So - to the man in my talk that got the giggles, talked (loudly) to his colleague, showed complete disinterest in everything I said and generally proved to be a distraction - please show a bit of respect and don't do that again.

If you're not interested in the presentation being given then please leave - quietly.

Otherwise you may find yourself giving a presentation one day in a room full of people like yourself.

UKOUG Director Elections

As I mentioned in my last post, I am currently running as a candidate in the election for a place on the UKOUG Board of Directors this year.

The election process has now begun, and voting closes on December 1st.

More information on the election process itself, the current Directors and this years candidates can be found on the UKOUG website and my details can be found here.

Ballot papers will be sent to the main contact for each membership, but if they have a colleague who is better placed to make that judgment, such as an active SIG member, then the vote can be passed to them.

As with any election, it's important that each membership takes the opportunity to vote.

By voting, you are ensuring that your community is represented on the Board of Directors and you are helping to shape the future of the UKOUG.

I've been actively involved with the UKOUG for many years, and for the last 3 years I have been a Volunteer co-chairing the Windows SIG and organising the Northern Server Technology Days and Back to Basics event.

I'm hoping for a place on the Board of Directors so that I can continue to ensure that both the Beginner's community and users in the North of England will have representation on the Board.

If you're a member of the UKOUG then please do vote, or liaise with the main contact for your vote, and hopefully vote for me!

At the third stroke...

...the time will be over 5 months since my last post (courtesy of the speaking clock..)

In a nutshell, my flat is now finally sold, the stress is almost completely done with (but not quite, estate agent contracts and solicitors seem to have their own agendas) and I am almost back to some sort of reality.

I'm going to be working on a client site near London until mid-December on an OWB project, and of course we are in the final run up to the UKOUG Conference which is taking place in the first week of December this year.

This year I am again giving a talk at the UKOUG Conference and I will also be working on the SolStonePlus stand.

What will be a bit different this year is that I am in the running for a place on the UKOUG Board of Directors.

Voting papers will be sent out to the main contact for each UKOUG Membership during the month of November, and the results will be announced during the UKOUG Conference.

I'll update with more information once the nominations are live on the UKOUG website, and will provide more information about the election process.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone that has contacted me during the last few months to check that everything is OK!

Never move house….

….unless you are fully prepared for it to take over your life for a couple of months and push your stress levels through the roof, only for it to come crashing down round your feet on the day it’s all supposed to complete.

The worst part is knowing that now that it’s back on the market, I’m going to have to go through the whole thing again in the not too distant future.

Anyway, that sort of explains why I’ve been quiet lately.

However, I’ve now got the UKOUG Northern Server Tech Day to look forward to in a few weeks, the agenda is now live and can be found here.
Obviously my last post is way out of date now, but the new date for the event is the 19th June.

We’ve once again got some great presentations for the day and it will be well worth attending.
It’s the 3rd time this event has been run, but the first time it has taken place in Newcastle.
Actually, it’s the first time the UKOUG have held an event this far North – hopefully after this there will be many more to come.

After that I’m off on a weeks’ holiday diving the Summer Isles again.

I’m sure that topping up my nitrogen levels will get me back on an even keel!