Re: So what if 8i is outta support ?

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu>
Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2004 07:04:22 -0800
Message-ID: <1099666995.583657@yasure>

Howard J. Rogers wrote:

> "DA Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
> news:1099464779.731755_at_yasure...
> [snip]
>
>

>>More likely he will (or she or are you still assuming all Oracle
>>DBAs and developers are male?) will ask questions like "Where's
>>server manager?" or "Why aren't there any rollback segments?"

>
>
> See, if that's all there is, I'd happily employ a version 7 expert! Because
> the answers are: "use SQL*Plus, and it's practically identical" and "There
> are still rollback segments, but they have odd names that start with
> underscores".
>
> It's the people who somehow think that rollback segments have done a
> disappearing act that get me more worried. It suggests they pay more
> attention to Oracle marketing that the physical realities...

The scary ones are, for a single concrete example, someone that tries to off-line a rollback segment in the undo tablespace.

>>Would it make you happier if everyone agreed? If there was no diversity
>>of opinion and experience?

>
> There's an assumption there: that everyone's opinion is equally valid. Call
> me a John Stuart Mill fan, but I don't happen to believe that is always
> true.

Nor do I. But I'd rather listen to someone that is wrong than hear no opinion other than my own. (as painful as that may sometimes be ;-) )

  And in the technical sphere, it is definitely not true. A newbie's
> opinion is practically value-less, and the opinion of the World's Greatest
> Oracle Author is usually likewise.

I love your self-deprecating humor. (you were talking about yourself weren't you?) ;-)

  But Tom Kyte we esteem highly, to name
> but one. It's one reason why the World's Greatest Oracle Author and his fan
> club should take especial care not to mislead newbies, because they know no
> better and cannot be expected to.

  By world's "greatest" do you mean self-proclaimed or do you mean "greatest" as in the one with the most expertise? I have yet to find the man that proclaims himself most holy, in any profession, other than a self-aggrandizing charlatan.

> Whether your and your clients' employment practices fall into the technical
> or the atmospheric sphere is debatable, of course.

And, as everyone knows, we have debated it.

> I would want to tell your clients that their employment practices are
> ludicrously short-sighted, are fit only for fire-fighting mode, and are no
> way to run a proper company. But then I don't have to pay your mortgage and
> utility bills and can afford to be brutally honest accordingly.
>
> I probably wouldn't tell *my* clients anything quite so violently
> confronting, either.
>
> Regards
> HJR
I would like to tell them many things I don't. One of which is to pay me more for less work but I continually resist that temptation.

Disclaimer:
If anything written above doesn't strike you has written with a wry smile, and a glass of scotch, you have misunderstood my intent.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
(replace 'x' with 'u' to respond)

Received on Fri Nov 05 2004 - 09:04:22 CST