Sunday, April 15, 2007

Humour:My First SQL Primer

Oracle security meister Pete Finnegan has become a Dad.
He actually said "Now all that needs to be done is to start to teach him about Oracle."

My four-year old son started school back in January. Most nights now I spend 10 to 15 minutes with him and a book with a title like "Grandma" or "My Letter" .
One night a few weeks back, after a beer or two, I was struck by an idea. I couldn't resist.
I now present the unofficial and unsupported "My First SQL Primer"
Yes, teach your toddler SQL, and get him (or her a headstart) in Oracle.

Okay, I've had to play with the syntax a bit, but this is an age-group who think the Wiggles are the best music ever. But it still beats "See the red ball" at story time.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Changing jobs in Sydney

Like Howard (who is following Doug), I am also on the cusp of moving jobs.
For the past eight and a half years, I've been contracting in Australia. Initially, as my wife and I did some travelling, contracting was more fitting to the moving around. After we settled down in Sydney, it just carried on out of habit. Admittedly since I've only had about 4 contracting roles in the last six years the issue didn't come up too often.

After over 18 months in my current workplace, I decided it was time for a fresh challenge. A good, permanent, opportunity arose with a consulting firm based in North Sydney (and Melbourne and Brisbane). The company impressed me with its commitment to quality (starting with ISO 9001, but backed up with phrases like"Money Back Guarantee" and "Lifetime Warranty") and the job should allow me to keep my Oracle developer focus and still get some variety as well. It looks like my first assignment there will involve some Application Express, which should prove interesting. I'll be able to weigh in on the JDeveloper vs Apex debate.

[As an aside, the 2-Day Apex 3.0 Developer's Guide refers to the embedded PL/SQL gateway in "Oracle Database 11.1 or higher or Oracle Database 10g Express Edition". Is this an indication that that the database version naming is being overhauled, with no i,g or f suffix for v11 ?]