X-Received: by 10.52.141.113 with SMTP id rn17mr7965797vdb.0.1425521405860; Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:10:05 -0800 (PST) X-Received: by 10.140.36.134 with SMTP id p6mr135743qgp.26.1425521405484; Wed, 04 Mar 2015 18:10:05 -0800 (PST) Path: news.cambrium.nl!textnews.cambrium.nl!feeder3.cambriumusenet.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!195.208.113.2.MISMATCH!goblin2!goblin.stu.neva.ru!novso.com!nerim.net!usenet-fr.net!proxad.net!feeder1-2.proxad.net!209.85.216.87.MISMATCH!w8no612385qac.0!news-out.google.com!qk8ni49442igc.0!nntp.google.com!w8no612382qac.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle.server Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2015 18:10:05 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=76.250.34.64; posting-account=cCzuEQoAAAB8CZ0hZsq_yGgT2_ozUL1v NNTP-Posting-Host: 76.250.34.64 References: <78b0c306-2783-4ad1-aa53-5af1572781b9@googlegroups.com> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <2e3e83ea-df22-4650-bfcd-053c027c2af0@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Tom Kyte a false idol? From: richard.rankin@ieee.org Injection-Date: Thu, 05 Mar 2015 02:10:05 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Xref: news.cambrium.nl I just got this too. This is absurd. I detest any sort of ad hominem argume= nts or attacks on the value of someone's statements of fact, arguments, rea= soning, etc. This is without regard to whether the intent is assert the ver= acity of fact or reasoning because of someone's credentials or the reverse,= to argue the falsity of a statement of fact or reasoning based on credenti= als, personality, previous statements or the fact that they do not dress fa= shionably. This has been known as a fallacious argument since before Aristo= tle. Every time I hear someone say "I have been working in this field for 3= 0 years" or "I have two post graduate degrees from Harvard in this field.",= I immediately feel assured that they do not have a sound case and if I exa= mine it closely, I'm going to be able to cut it to pieces. Particularly des= picable is the argumentum ad verecundiam, the argument that one's position = is correct because one's opponent lacks credibility, their position is ther= efore incorrect and thus one's position be correct. I will not delve into i= nductive reasoning but it is essentially the same sort of fallacious reason= ing. I have been reading papers by many of the people mentioned and I only accep= t those providing sound evidence and reasoning. Tom Kyte invariable provide= s and insists on a script that sets up the test case and executes the verif= ying test (and usually releases any memory allocated).=20 "Don't accept authority simply because it comes from some great man or is w= ritten in a sacred book." - The Buddha