Re: an honest post about being an oracle ace

From: joel garry <joel-garry_at_home.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2009 11:06:27 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <9a3f34aa-90e1-4afd-99da-5dbb644d17dc_at_p36g2000prp.googlegroups.com>



On Feb 4, 5:26 am, Noons <wizofo..._at_yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> Chen Shapira wrote,on my timestamp of 4/02/2009 2:08 PM:
>
> > I guess it depends on specific experience. There are organizations
> > that are very kool-aid prone, and there are some shops that still use
> > Orace 7 technology (no matter which version they actually run), and
> > new technologies could actually save them a lot of time and money.
> > Personally I see a lot of value in at least evaluating new features.
>
> Normal businesses run applications, not databases.  Databases are just tools to
> an end, not the end itself.

And of course, taking this too far=database independance :-O

> IT businesses are different, but not all business is IT: far from it(!).
>
> Have you ever considered that such places might use those versions because the
> applications that use those dbs are NOT supported in ANY later release, there is
> no immediate alternative and management are not even interested in finding one?

Well of course, the finger is always must point towards management in the end, and must include the app vendor who made the decision too.

>
> It's very easy to take the foolish perspective that use of an old release of
> necessity means incompetence or unwillingness to upgrade from the part of the IT
> folks in a normal business...  That is indeed the hallmark of the low-life
> marketeer and at the level of car sales rep.

It's not necessity, buy in my experience, all sites that are in this position have an IT manager that has not only implemented this policy, but is supporting it. Or perhaps was supporting it and left, now we have some poor shmoe getting stuck in mud over his head and posting for help...

And how'd you know I just sold my car? :-)

>
> > I guess I'm too young to be cynical.
>
> It's never too early to accept reality! ;)

I sometimes do a double-take on what I hear from my 12-year-old...

>
> > Ace is definitely not a variant on certs, and it is not peer-reviewed
> > either (although you do get nominated by peers, Oracle eventually
> > decides who is an ace and who is not). It will be interesting to see a
> > peer-reviewed, community owned, technical award. However, I suspect
> > that just like anything else that is community based, it'll be more
> > who-you-know than what-you-know, and therefore even less valuable than
> > certs.
>
> And there is a difference between a who-you-know community based award and one
> unilaterally decided by whomever at Oracle, at their unique discretion, because...?

Same problem with apprenticeships and academia. Wish I had an answer.

>
> Sorry Chen but like I said, I think in your case it's well meant and I agree
> entirely and applaud it, so please do understand: no disrespect meant.
> But the whole ACE/OCP/whatever thing is just a sham of the highest calibre,
> always was, always will be.

Even so, I think there's still some value in it, there is motivation in the aspiration, the problem arises with the misapplication of the value.

jg

--
_at_home.com is bogus.
Another SAP bites the dust: http://ww.uniontrib.com/uniontrib/20070416/news_1m16compute.html
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/31/1m31data234055-11-million-over-budget-and-counting/?uniontrib
Received on Wed Feb 04 2009 - 13:06:27 CST

Original text of this message