Tuesday, October 24, 2006

OOW2K6: Manic Monday Pt 2

I had a slight schedule clash yesterday afternoon. Steven Feuerstein's 10 Things NEVER to do in PL/SQL started at the precise time that Tom Kyte's Database Worst Practices ended but they were in buildings a brisk ten minutes apart. So I decided to attend Steven's talk. I'll be hearing Tom speak at the UKOUG Conference but Open World is my only opportunuity to hear Steven. This was a good call.

I'm tempted to gloss his talk as Chicken Soup for the PL/SQL Programmer's Soul, because it was full of sound advice: drink lots of water, take regular exercise, play mind-developing game with your kids. He didn't quite say "eat up your greens" but it was definitely implied. This is, of course, sensible advice. The rest of his equally sensible points were on best practice in software development in general, although obviously focused on PL/SQL. Ask for help. Don't trust a guru just because they've written a book: verify everything. Share code and ideas.

I liked this talk a lot precisely because it dwelt on process. The tendency for conferences is to focus on features and functionality, which is useful but such information is usually obtainable if you know how to use the documentation and Google. So it's a nice change to hear somebody talk about ways we can make ourselves better programmers and do our jobs more effectively. People do take exception to some things Steven has written. But over the course of ten books it is inevitable that he has said stuff that is incorrect, dumb or just doesn't jive with our world outlook. But at least he admits it when he's been wrong. I think if we all applied the practices in his books rigourously in our coding we would universally be writing better code than we are right now. Of course, never take a guru's word for anything ;)

I think Steven will have trouble launching his new acronym on the world. He was talking about having a Single Point Of Definition for everything - formulas, business rules, SQL. This is like the Pragmatic Programmers' Don't Repeat Yourself rule. The thing is, spod is already a word, at least in England, and it's not complimentary. So the statement "I'm going to SPODify my code" is likely to be met with the rejoinder "Don't you think it's spoddy enough already? Why not try improving it instead?"

Hanging with Eddie


I met Eddie Awad in the Feuerstein talk and we did a tour of the Moscone South exhibition hall. The big hit of the open hour was the EDS stand. They were giving away these cool-looking blue lagoons (a cocktail, m'lud) with a flashing "ice cube" in them. Major queue for those. Another stand had a guy riding a Segway to drum up trade for a presentation about their product. Eddie managed to blag a ride on the thing in return for watching the presentation. I always thought that people on Segways look a bit dorky but Eddie managed to make it look cool. Before boarding the vehicle Eddie handed me his camcorder, which is why the video on his site is not up to his usual standard.

OTN Night at the Oasis


This was a bit of an odd one. Every conference seems to do it: put a group of overwhelmingly male software geeks of an unathletic disposition into a big room and play really loud dance music at them. This year OTN had hired some lithe female dancers in bizarre costumes to really point up the contrast. In one of the other rooms there were some low stages with exotic dancers of various persuasions - contortion artiste, snake dancer, belly dancer. It wasn't actually a burlesque show but I found it a bit disturbing. Oh, and the bars closed an hour before the event was due to end. On the plus side I got to talk with my Dutch colleague Roel Hartmann, Oracle's Sue Harper and some people from the UKOUG.

2 comments:

Vidya Balasubramanian said...

heard about the geeks and loud music at OTN night, dancers??? was definitely a surprise

Anonymous said...

情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣用品,情趣,情趣,情趣,情趣,情人歡愉用品,情趣用品,AIO交友愛情館,情人歡愉用品,美女視訊,情色交友,視訊交友,辣妹視訊,美女交友,嘟嘟成人網,按摩棒,震動按摩棒,微調按摩棒,情趣按摩棒,逼真按摩棒,G點,跳蛋,跳蛋,跳蛋,性感內衣,飛機杯,充氣娃娃,情趣娃娃,角色扮演,性感睡衣,SM,潤滑液,威而柔,香水,精油,芳香精油,自慰,自慰套,性感吊帶襪,情趣用品加盟,情人節禮物,情人節,吊帶襪,成人網站,AIO交友愛情館,情色,情色貼圖,情色文學,情色交友,色情聊天室,色情小說,七夕情人節,色情,A片,A片下載,免費A片,免費A片下載,情色電影,色情網站,辣妹視訊,視訊聊天室,情色視訊,免費視訊聊天,視訊聊天,美女視訊,視訊美女,美女交友,美女,情色交友,成人交友,自拍,本土自拍,情人視訊網,視訊交友90739,生日禮物,情色論壇,正妹牆,正妹,成人網站,A片,免費A片,A片下載,免費A片下載,AV女優,成人影片,色情A片,成人論壇,情趣,免費成人影片,成人電影,成人影城,愛情公寓,色情影片,保險套,舊情人,微風成人,成人,成人遊戲,成人光碟,色情遊戲,跳蛋,按摩棒,一夜情,男同志聊天室,肛交,口交,性交,援交,免費視訊交友,視訊交友,一葉情貼圖片區,性愛,視訊,嘟嘟成人網

愛情公寓,情色,舊情人,情色貼圖,情色文學,情色交友,色情聊天室,色情小說,一葉情貼圖片區,情色小說,色情,色情遊戲,情色視訊,情色電影,aio交友愛情館,色情a片,一夜情,辣妹視訊,視訊聊天室,免費視訊聊天,免費視訊,視訊,視訊美女,美女視訊,視訊交友,視訊聊天,免費視訊聊天室,情人視訊網,影音視訊聊天室,視訊交友90739,成人影片,成人交友,美女交友,微風成人,嘟嘟成人網,成人貼圖,成人電影,A片