Re: How do I set ORACLE_SID in windows NT environment

From: Howard J. Rogers <hjr_at_dizwell.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 08:43:33 +1100
Message-ID: <41be0d02$0$1078$afc38c87@news.optusnet.com.au>

Mark Bole wrote:
> Howard J. Rogers wrote:
>

>> hpuxrac wrote:
>>
>>> snip
>>>
>>>> informed of this.  My advice was, in my opinion, helpful, and is
>>>
>>>
>>> Man oh man i guess we have far different ideas on what being helpful
>>> is.
>>
>>
>>
>> It's a funny thing, but there seems to be a number of posts lately 
>> that equate kindness and helpfulness, or politeness and helpfulness. 
>> No-one ever seems to point out that honesty can be helpful, even when 
>> it is honesty to a painful degree.
>>

> [...]
>

>> HJR
>>
>>

>
> Maybe because those who value getting the computer to do what is needed
> in the most direct and efficient way already understand this, and don't
> need to point it out? Having been criticized myself with the comment
> "it's not what you say, it's the way you say it", I often wonder why it
> isn't the other way around: "it's not what you heard, but the way you
> chose to hear it".
>
> To echo Joel's comment in that other thread about Sybrand, it's
> frustrating that there is a well-entrenched camp of "feel-gooders" who
> think that the same skills that make for a successful massage therapist
> can translate to a successful system or network administrator. (Note: I
> am making a general statement, not type-casting any specific individual
> responders to this thread).

Nicely put, just the same. It's a good analogy. And one I shall make use of more often...

> I actually had the experience of being told by a "senior" co-worker
> (brother-in-law of the company co-founder), who spent two years (!) in a
> fruitless effort to design and implement a robust database batch process
> -- which I and another co-worker then had to spend two months
> successfully re-creating from the ground up -- that it was just "my way"
> of doing things, not necessarily a better way. This same person
> eventually almost got me fired, not for any personal attacks, but simply
> because I documented every one of his many technical mistakes that I had
> to fix, and he somehow thought that was unprofessional.
>
> Of course I understand about organizational politics -- hey, I was a
> boss for ten years myself, and considered it part of my job to motivate
> and get the most from the "feel-gooders" I inherited or had foisted upon
> me, even at the expense of some sub-optimal technical solutions. But
> that's what a boss is paid for -- not Usenet posters.
>
> Having said that, the lessons learned from this specific post, beyond
> those in the "FAQ - how to get an answer", are:
>
> 1) don't confer a "guru" title upon yourself -- calling yourself
> 'sexystud' in the personals may be OK, but not here.

Oh. Ok, Mark. Point taken. (Note to self: cancel that advert).

> 2) If you have a simple question, just ask it - don't provide a lot of
> extraneous information trying to show that you are an old hand at this,
> as it will probably backfire.
>
> 3) If someone says "I am basically a Unix person", it doesn't
> necessarily mean they are not an Oracle person. Corollary -- anyone who
> is a "Unix person" should have little problem figuring out basic things
> in Windows. I would have to agree that anyone who says they need help
> setting a Windows environment variable is probably not very
> knowledgeable about either Windows or Unix, certainly not at the DBA
> level. And this is clearly a RTFM question.
>
> 4) the marketplace is not efficient - lots of people get hired to do DBA
> jobs in place of more qualified people, perhaps because the customer is
> one who values kindness or politeness over helpfulness.

All good points, and thankyou for them (except the one about calling yourself SexyStud. Damn).

Regards
:-)
HJR Received on Mon Dec 13 2004 - 15:43:33 CST