something new, something old
Sorry for the long break, folks. Been quite busy with family matters. Nothing major, just routine stuff that needed done.
Well, there's going to be some changes in my professional life. I've thought long and hard about where I want to be in the next 5 years and reached a few conclusions.
One of them is that the managed services market in NSW is very slow, if not dying. For some reason that partly escapes me, companies who can afford these type of services insist on staying with very old versions of their software and systems. We've got now a spread of clients with everything from release 7 to release 9r2 of Oracle, and only a sprinkle of 10gr2.
This makes any kind of organized and structured work to address the management of these sites almost a waste of time. Have you ever tried to write storage monitoring code that can cope with dictionary managed tablespaces and LMT? And stats gathering and management routines that can span 7 to 10?
Thought so...
Yet clients on release 7 seem to expect us to extract the same type of info and do the same type of work that we can do with release 10g. As if there was no difference whatsoever between Oracle releases!
The general attitude seems to be: if Oracle says they can do all these things, how come you guys can't?
Well, duh? Because Oracle never say it, but they mean 10g. Whereas you Jurassics are still using 8ir3!
Well, don't really say it that way but I certainly mean it! Unbelievable, how completely out of tune with reality some damagers can be...
Basically, after having done managed services on my own for over 13 years, then for someone else for over 5 years and finally for the current company for 7 months, I think it's time for a change.
Had already tested the waters with the job I got two years ago at 24/7 Realmedia. That was one heck of a team, with one heck of a group of real IT geeks to work with! If it hadn't caused so much stress in my personal life with the uncanny hours required by a single person worldwide support position, I'd still be there. A great company, with a great future. Pity they didn't want to invest in it properly.
I am now going back to a single site environment. A very large Australian company has contacted me late last year to go lead their dba team. They are in the process of bringing all their databases into Oracle, with 10gr2 and the latest application software. Some SQL Server in there as well, starting to get big. And expanding their sites into a worldwide capability with a central admin facility here in Sydney. Right up my alley, if you get my drift. And this time I'm given the team, the environment and the tools to do the job. As well as more than adequate financial support.
So, as of end of February I'll be starting in a new position. Which will be a challenge. But those were never a problem for me. Staleness is a much bigger problem and that's what's happening to managed services in NSW. That's the main reason for this change now.
Anyways...
Thought I'd entertain you with some old stuff as well. Been scanning some of my old Kodachrome: the Coolscan 9000 ED is the first non-drum scanner I've seen that does a reasonable job with this film.
This is something you folks have probably never seen:
No it's not a trick, it's a black mushroom! We used to go fishing in a place called Catherine Hill Bay in the mid-80s. It was a disused coal mine and some of the coal seams showed right up against the sea edge. Anywhere the rain water could concentrate along these seams, these mushrooms would appear. It's obvious to me where they get that colour from. But I've never been able to properly identify these little fellas.
And this is the rock platform where we fished from.
Mostly spinning off the rocks, with a bit of bait fishing when the season was right. Young Gus - who is now a fine young man in his 20s - is holding some of the bonito we caught this fine morning. These were then cut into cubes and sent back with a balloon and a big hook. When the big yellowfin tuna caught on to them, it was "hang on for your life" time!
Ah, good times...
catchyalata, folks
Well, there's going to be some changes in my professional life. I've thought long and hard about where I want to be in the next 5 years and reached a few conclusions.
One of them is that the managed services market in NSW is very slow, if not dying. For some reason that partly escapes me, companies who can afford these type of services insist on staying with very old versions of their software and systems. We've got now a spread of clients with everything from release 7 to release 9r2 of Oracle, and only a sprinkle of 10gr2.
This makes any kind of organized and structured work to address the management of these sites almost a waste of time. Have you ever tried to write storage monitoring code that can cope with dictionary managed tablespaces and LMT? And stats gathering and management routines that can span 7 to 10?
Thought so...
Yet clients on release 7 seem to expect us to extract the same type of info and do the same type of work that we can do with release 10g. As if there was no difference whatsoever between Oracle releases!
The general attitude seems to be: if Oracle says they can do all these things, how come you guys can't?
Well, duh? Because Oracle never say it, but they mean 10g. Whereas you Jurassics are still using 8ir3!
Well, don't really say it that way but I certainly mean it! Unbelievable, how completely out of tune with reality some damagers can be...
Basically, after having done managed services on my own for over 13 years, then for someone else for over 5 years and finally for the current company for 7 months, I think it's time for a change.
Had already tested the waters with the job I got two years ago at 24/7 Realmedia. That was one heck of a team, with one heck of a group of real IT geeks to work with! If it hadn't caused so much stress in my personal life with the uncanny hours required by a single person worldwide support position, I'd still be there. A great company, with a great future. Pity they didn't want to invest in it properly.
I am now going back to a single site environment. A very large Australian company has contacted me late last year to go lead their dba team. They are in the process of bringing all their databases into Oracle, with 10gr2 and the latest application software. Some SQL Server in there as well, starting to get big. And expanding their sites into a worldwide capability with a central admin facility here in Sydney. Right up my alley, if you get my drift. And this time I'm given the team, the environment and the tools to do the job. As well as more than adequate financial support.
So, as of end of February I'll be starting in a new position. Which will be a challenge. But those were never a problem for me. Staleness is a much bigger problem and that's what's happening to managed services in NSW. That's the main reason for this change now.
Anyways...
Thought I'd entertain you with some old stuff as well. Been scanning some of my old Kodachrome: the Coolscan 9000 ED is the first non-drum scanner I've seen that does a reasonable job with this film.
This is something you folks have probably never seen:
No it's not a trick, it's a black mushroom! We used to go fishing in a place called Catherine Hill Bay in the mid-80s. It was a disused coal mine and some of the coal seams showed right up against the sea edge. Anywhere the rain water could concentrate along these seams, these mushrooms would appear. It's obvious to me where they get that colour from. But I've never been able to properly identify these little fellas.
And this is the rock platform where we fished from.
Mostly spinning off the rocks, with a bit of bait fishing when the season was right. Young Gus - who is now a fine young man in his 20s - is holding some of the bonito we caught this fine morning. These were then cut into cubes and sent back with a balloon and a big hook. When the big yellowfin tuna caught on to them, it was "hang on for your life" time!
Ah, good times...
catchyalata, folks
posted by Noons at 1/28/2007 12:31:00 am
3 Comments:
Good job Noons -- if you're not moving forward then you're moving back. Best of luck with the new position.
Congrats! Sounds enviable...
thanks, folks.
as they say: grass is always greener until you get there...
but it should be fun and I need to inject some of that in my professional life.
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