It has been a very interesting year for me. I met a lot of people of whom I only had the pleasure to mail with. Some of them are known people from the Oracle blogosphere, others, known people in our field (eg. “The Oakies“). The / my train ride started in 2006 when I had to chance to meet people like Mr. Ken Jacobs and Mark Drake in San Francisco during Oracle Open World 2006, they showed me a little of the work done while delivering the next stage of an Oracle database (past and present).
The year 2006 was the year that AMIS had his 15th anniversary. The year 2007 was the one that Oracle celebrated his 30th. In that light, it was funny that we helped with the Oracle 11gR1 beta testing phase and while doing this, marched into the new year of 2007. I mainly focused on testing (DBA) XMLDB technology in Oracle 11gR1 and doing this, I guess, my enthusiasm got a little bit out of hand, but at the end of this 2007 year, this also brought me to new (presenting) horizons. Thanks to Doug, Kurt and Alex (on site in Birmingham), this “small” hurdle (seen afterwards, but what a adrenaline rush before hand), I was able to mastered it with a lot of their humor supporting me.
Thanks to the support at AMIS, I was able to meet and attend some great presentations and presenters at 2007 as well. Working for AMIS, I know I am spoiled with great presenters like Lucas Jellama, Alex Nuijten or, among others, Peter Ebel, so during my last days of Oracle Open World 2006 (and the one that made my day, that closing day), I was able to see Cary Millsap (and lots of other great presentations) and to go for a reprise during HOTSOS 2007 in Dallas. Despite my adventures at UKOUG 2007, I guess I learned most during HOTSOS 2007. It gave me lots of new insights and refocused me on stuff that I knew, but had taken it for granted, like design issues described during Toon Koppelaars presentation at HOTSOS 2007.
2007 was also the year that, besides my colleagues and me were doing a decent job off remote database administration service activities at AMIS for our valued customers, that I felt the need to re-focus on this strange XMLDB Technology and started of a kind of notepad version of a website. It actually shouldn’t be known to you people out there, but Doug spoiled that one for me, by making some “commercial” effort, after we met during HOTSOS 2007. The main reason for starting it was (and probably still is), that it better shows me if there is a future as a DBA, specializing in XMLDB technology. Also over there, I am allowed to make enthusiastic “mistakes” like my Oracle 4.1 post, that shouldn’t reflect on my employer: AMIS.
Of course, it gives me the opportunity to ramble about fuzzy stuff like “A musical stawl through YouTube” or fantastic adventures regarding “Polly and the Boys“. My guess is though, that Oracle XMLDB technology (database wise) will be “hot” in 2008, so I think, you will see more detailed posts regarding this on the AMIS Technology Blog, where more of us virtually meet, than for instance on the OTN XMLDB Forum (although this is still a good place to start, to learn and read about solutions) or on my “notepad” website. My DBA related adventures, by the way, can always be found on this blog, like my “Miracle Express” adventures and experiences of Miracle Oracle Open World.
The first half of 2007 was Oracle 11gR1 beta testing minded and believe me when I say that I really started to hate some chapters regarding, for example, XMLIndex and Binary XML storage, after re-reading and re-reading it over and over again, during all phases off Oracle 11gR1 Beta 1,2,4 etc. In retrospect it gave me better insight and pushed me and my AMIS colleagues towards some very nice posts about “Oracle 11g First Impressions“, but at that time, I couldn’t see another new re-print of the manuals. It was very gratifying while doing it, but in my enthusiastic mindset I put to much family time in it. Besides the spare time spent on XMLDB OTN Forum questions, this was a little bit to much overkill. In short, thanks for my family, AMIS and Mark Drake (Sr. Product Manager Oracle XML(DB) Technology) and his team for supporting AMIS and me along the beta testing way.
Before I forget…
Also a warm thank you to Anjo who made my day in 2007, by volunteering for another great AMIS Query (in this case for the AMIS KC DBA) session: Anjo Kolk, “How the Middle Tier is Slowing Down your Database”
I guess, in all, hopefully allowed (because I guess this will be the last 2007 AMIS post), on behalf of my AMIS colleagues, to say a warm “Thank You” for all you readers out there, who comment, interact and read, this company technology blog and thrive our abilities by doing it.
The Best Wishes and a Good 2008 to you all!
Marco.
Picture Galore 2007
Hover over the images to get some little bit more info.
