Reality is hard. While being back in Holland, work caught up with me. Instead of a full blown overview, I will present here a small one. No one posted about it yet and that would be a shame. Powerpoint presentations and demo scripts are really worthwhile so have a look.

The last day of the Hotsos symposium is the annual returning training day. This is an extra day, with also an extra fee involved, but if it fits your main interest, career path or else, is an fine add on to the main symposium. This year the training day was all about database essentials, "DBA content", demonstrated by Mr. Thomas Kyte. I would argue, though that this content is also very important for developers. Although general in its content, these are the building blocks every Oracle database user (DBA / Developer), should understand and/or know off.

The presentations and SQL demonstrations can be found via the "asktom.oracle.com" website, via the submenu "Files" and downloaded there. A short path is provided [here]. As Mr. Thomas Kyte said, the scripts and presentation can be freely distributed (because it is was in his intend that everyone should know this information). The presentation will lead you through the essentials of database functionality and more.

The Hotsos Training Day with Mr. Thomas Kyte involved:

Storage Techniques
Encryption
Indexing
Materialized Views and Caching
Reorganization

and in more general sense the "Mythology" around it (and incorrect "facts").

All topics were explained via an general outline of the feature, some demonstrations, and then the "do and don’ts" / restrictions.

Storage Techniques (Physical Schema Design)