Re: consolidation of multiple rows

From: DA Morgan <damorgan_at_psoug.org>
Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:58:40 -0700
Message-ID: <1205207905.528867@bubbleator.drizzle.com>


Alex Kuznetsov wrote:
> On Mar 9, 10:58 pm, DA Morgan <damor..._at_psoug.org> wrote:

>> Alex Kuznetsov wrote:
>>> Strange. In our trade most great people are largely self taught in the
>>> areas they are great in - the industry is new, and people are coming
>>> up with innovations all the time.
>> Innovations all the time ... yes. Innovations all the time in medicine
>> too.
>>
>> But "new"? I would disagree.
>>

>
> As compared to law, medicine, and engineering, which have been around
> for generations, IT is still very new.

Yes. But compared to the lifetimes of the humans spouting off here it has been around longer than more than half of them.

Would you tell your physician penicillin is new? It has been commercially available about the same amount of time as mainframes.

Penicillin first successful treatment: March 14, 1942. IBM 650 first mass produced mainframe: Shipped 1954.

> Suppose a professor is ten years behind the practice. In law ten years
> is just a tiny fraction. But being ten years behind in IT is huge.

No one was discussing professors we were discussing IT and medicine and law and engineering. So lets not change the subject and pursue it.

How long can a surgeon in the US retain his license to practice medicine without continuing education? Two years max. A CPA one year if he or she plans to file tax returns for customers. Attorneys and Engineers about the same amount of time. If they don't maintain their education level they lose their malpractice insurance, they lose their license to practice, they lose their ability to work.

Want to guess what percentage of Oracle DBAs have never taken a single class in their lives? Or how many are running 9i and above while certified on 8i or below? We don't come even remotely close to the quality control levels required of other professionals.

>>> Memorizing last names has nothing to do with the ability to administer >>> databases.

Sorry but that's nonsense. If you think you can find a person that can competently tune an Oracle database and doesn't know who Cary Millsap or Jonathan Lewis is you are kidding yourself. If you think you can find a competent Oracle developer that doesn't know who Tom Kyte is you need to lay off the stuff. You can't segment knowledge the way you are trying.

Next are you going to tell me is that you can understand Newtonian mechanics without knowing who Isaac Newton was.

-- 
Daniel A. Morgan
Oracle Ace Director & Instructor
University of Washington
damorgan_at_x.washington.edu (replace x with u to respond)
Puget Sound Oracle Users Group
www.psoug.org
Received on Mon Mar 10 2008 - 22:58:40 CDT

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