Blog Archives
MOS – Community Reviews
I still hate new “Metalink” (My Oracle Support) look and feel, as I do every website that is heavily polluted with flash based content. I’m trying to avoid such sites entirely. Unfortunately, I can’t entirely ignore MOS and simply use supporthtml.oracle.com.
I hope someday Oracle will drop Adobe platform for good, until then I try to easy my pain while working with MOS by seeking some positive aspects from this unfortunate Oracle facelifting.
One feature that I do like is how Community reviews are linked to particular patch/patchset as shown on this sample picture:
Ok, I admit that 90% of stuff written there is rubbish, but from time to time you can get nice hint/warning about patch/patchset. Definitely something to check before deploying a patch.
Schallabweiserrei…
…is apparently the German word from which Slovenian slang words “šalabajzer” and “šalabajzerstvo” are derived from. The word “Schallabweiserrei” is used to express personal discomfort with superficial and incompetent work by artisans. I was using this slang word sporadically, not really knowing it’s origin.
No one is perfect all the time; I’m a šalabajzer from time to time (definitely when I’m trying to fix some broken part in the house, car, etc., without a proper tool(s) and know-how), but as much as I hate to spit in my own plate, can’t help not to admit that IT sector is without a doubt the business area plagued with the largest number of šalabajzers per capital. Who is really to blame? POP culture?, fast-food life style?, complex technology hidden behind user friendly API’s and GUI’s that gives everyone a feeling being an “expert”?, modern IT yuppies with ties, polished shoes and posh talks — mostly selling stuff, rarely solving problems?, “experts” that “excel” with PowerPoint’s and nothing else?, business managers not really knowing their core business and processes?, phoney “managers” on all levels – they’re extremely common in all post-socialistic-communistic countries, Slovenia is not an exception?, business executives buying all this…or even belonging in some previous mentioned category? I really don’t know.
Now I’m going to fix that damn light bulb…(Fingers crossed).
Cloud Computing
In the last WServerNews[tm] Electronic Newsletter I read interesting quote by Larry Ellison:
Quote of the Week from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison
“The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud
computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything
that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer
industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s
fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking
about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy
going to stop? We’ll make cloud computing announcements, I’m not going to
fight this thing. But I don’t understand what we would do differently in
the light of cloud computing other than change the wording of some of our
ads.” — CEO Larry Ellison at Oracle’s annual financial analysts meeting.
Bravo Larry! I think and feel the same. It’s amazing how much rubbish “IT Press Community & IT Marketing departments” are producing on the daily basis about “cloud computing”, Web 2.0, etc. Finally, one CEO who has courage to openly address this BS. Thank you Larry!
[Update on September 25th, 2009: Watch this video on Youtube.]
Three Great Ways to Get OOW 2008 content – LOL :)
Apparently someone at Oracle thinks, it’s the perfect time (at the doom of worldwide economy recession) to squeeze some extra money from customer pockets and charge for OOW presentation material. I found their offer one of the most ridiculous (stupid) one that I encountered in the last 10 years. Let’s see what they offer:
- if you’re lucky that you could attend OOW 2008, then you can access pdf’s for free. Big deal, because they’re really not free, considering overpriced registration fee.
- if you attended OOW 2008, but want to get multimedia content (or whatever “On Demand” means), you’ll have to shell out 400$
- of course, you can also get DVD Kit for a mere 200$. (Imho, that’s close to the robbery.)
- anyone who was not a full conference attendee must shell out 700$ to get “On Demand” access. (Yeah right, suckers who missed — or could not afford — OOW will rush and order On Demand access.[grin])
I have a strange filling that Oracle is digging it’s own hole in which it’ll end. If I can hold up with Oracle greedy attempt to charge for multimedia content access, I think it’s unfair to charge 400$ to those who already paid full OOW registration fee. For the first time, OOW pdf’s are not going to be available for free to Oracle community at large. Personally, I think this is not a big deal for us after all, because I’m sure all big names will publish their presentations on blogs. On the other hand it’s certainly a headache for Oracle public affairs department – with such cheap moves they’re casually gambling with their reputation. Nothing new in the West.
Regards,
AlesK
p.s. Next week I’ll attend Microsoft event related to Windows SQL Server 2008 and I certainly don’t expect to be ripped off by them.
6000 products…and counting…
I just read this report from Collaborate ’08. It’s just unbelievable and scary at the same time to think about 6000+ products in Oracle portfolio. Perhaps it’s just me, but from the viewpoint of the current Oracle customer I see a road ahead with lots of fusion and confusion – from both sides, Oracle and their (existing|potential) customers.
I wonder how big this red balloon will get, before it explodes. (To me, it’s a question of “when”, not “if” this will happen!)
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