Tomorrow is the final day of 2005 and my 40th Birthday. The next day I fly to New York for a one week celebration. How a group of Scots decided to check in at 7am for a 9am flight on the 1st January is still something of a mystery to me. (To be honest, it lets me spend my birthday with my daughter, who’ll be staying at home with her Mum) I’ve been given the task of making sure everyone is in a fit state for boarding!
I don’t feel at all negative on entering my 40th year. Older friends have been quite depressed when it happened to them but I don’t feel particularly different and I’m not expecting any change. Maybe I was just an old man already 😉 Sitting in the pub last night talking to Peter Robson about Oracle, writing, the user group and other interesting things, it struck me that he’s as enthusiastic and energetic as anyone I know despite being the owner of a bus pass! Sorry, Peter 😉 I’m enjoying my new job, have lots of work to do for the Hotsos presentation and no doubt there’ll be plenty of brand new problems for me to face.
Life begins, indeed.
New York is one of my favourite cities (along with Edinburgh and Amsterdam). I only visited there for the first time about 2 years ago, by myself, and have been back once since then with my Mum (who is 67 and had always wanted to visit America but had never managed). Although it has all the big city feel of somewhere like London, it’s not nearly so crowded, bad-mannered or dirty. I used to live in London so that’s my opinion, based on personal experience. Importantly, it has the least confusing city layout I’ve encountered, which makes aimless exploring more feasible. I could go on for hours, but choosing it for the third time in two years should tell you everything you need to know (or confirm me as a very unadventurous person).
I can’t imagine much blogging from New York, so here are some of my favourite moments of the year :-
1) Seeing Mogens Norgaard presenting in full Scottish Highland dress at the OUG Scotland meeting.
2) Buying Jonathan Lewis’ new book and spending the first few hours with my chin hitting the floor, trying to absorb how good it was. I know I’ve gone on and on about this but as I said to Peter the other night it’s a true Oracle classic. Regardless of whether the financial rewards match the amount of effort (unlikely, I guess), it’s something that Jonathan can be truly proud of and something to aspire to, even if I never get there.
3) Attending the Bloggers Dinner at the UKOUG conference (thanks again to Mark Rittman and the UKOUG for setting this up) and realising that Tim Hall looks exactly like his blog photo (an achievement in itself considering how strange many blog photos are) but *moves* and *talks*! Seriously, I’d dipped out of the user group community for a number of years and it was enjoyable getting involved again and meeting some new people. I think it’s a great community and for all my intermittent carping, I’ve met a lot of cool, decent people (I could give many examples, but would only end up leaving someone out!)
4) Unleashing Mogens on an expectant public.
5) My ISP4400 server turning up and meeting all of my expectations, particularly in the decibel department!
6) Adopting ‘The Rabbit’. He’s been a find, let me tell you, and has provided hours of fun! With the dual-purpose of introducing a new, young, hopeful year and saving everyone from more than a couple of weeks of Bill (as I promised), it’s over to you, Rabbit! (I’ve let him keep his Xmas hat on – he thinks he’s a Pirate.)
Have a safe, prosperous and fun New Year!
Cheers,
Doug
Happy Birthday!
Have fun
And a happy new year too
Big 40th.
You know that everything is downhill from hereon. 😄
Happy returns.
Doug, for me, I believe that you’re old if you’re old in spirit, and you’re young, if you’re young in spirit. Some of my friends just *feel* old, even though they are still in their early thirties.
My dad used to say: One day older is one day wiser.
Have a happy birthday and new year 🙂
Doug,
One pub that NYOUG frequents is St. Andrews, 120 W 44th St.
The best place I’ve seen for a wee bit of Scotch would be The Brandy Library, 25 N Moore St. down near the Hudson Tunnel entrance. But fear not, one need not venture south of Houston to find a Lagavulin 16. Even brewpubs such as Heartland Brewing in Union Square offer such nectars.
Unfortunately, The Blind Tiger Ale House (518 Hudson) closed last Tuesday eve. It died with an awful sound.
If there is a specific style of beer that you’re interested in, let me know. I might even join you for a pint next week.
Paul
Dear Doug,
Sorry to post a question here, since I could not find a place where I can post my question.
I remmeber some time ago you have talked about a problem with AUM in Oracle 9i (9205) when oracle brings undo segments online, the performance goes par below. We are exactly hitting the same problem. We have a trading databases, which is very critical, its 24×7, but, couple of hrs. in the morning and couple of hrs in the evening are very business critical hrs of us. Our transaction rate goes around 216 per second. We have around 12 CPU and 30GB ram. But, when oracle bring undo segs online, our database stops functionining, looks hanging state. As per oracel recommendation we have set event 10511 so that SMON won’t bring undo segs offline. What we see in our case is that, oracle still brings undo segs. online and I see still undo segs are expired. I had read in your site that you had the same problem and also down loaded Kriti undo internal docs/presentation. I too did the same.
We are planning to switch batck to MUM (Manual Undo Mgmt). What do you thing? This could help us? or not?
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Doug,
Have a happy 40th tomorrow. All the best & look forward to meeting up again next year.
cheers
Mark
All,
Thanks for the birthday wishes! Having a birthday that falls six days after Christmas means it can be a bit of an anti-climax. This is probably the largest collection of birthday cards I’ve had 😉
Paul, thanks, I appreciate the tips. I whiled away a few hours in St. Andrews waiting for my flight home on my first trip. I still have photos of the barmen and my future brother-in-law was in there a couple of weeks ago and tells me they’re still there, so I’ll pop in to say hello. Now for my big confession. I don’t drink Whisky. Yes, I know, I know and believe me it’s difficult to face Mogens Norgaard now that he knows, but I really don’t drink spirits at all – they just won’t slip down my throat and stay there. I’m a disgrace to my nation 😉 So, rather than good beer or whisky tips, imagine you have a couple of starry-eyed ladies with you who are visiting New York for the first time and want one pleasant, sophisticated (which I guess means expensive) evening out. Any bar suggestions there? I’m taking a suit just in case it’s required and one of my friends is taking his kilt, but he might reconsider once he feels the temperature! If you have any suggestions or want to grab a pint (I may be able to slip away from the party for a while …), drop me a mail at the address below.
Fly, I noticed your question on Oracle-L, I think. As you know this is a tricky situation with no easy answers and I know you’re talking to Oracle support, but drop me an email if you want to discuss it further – dougburns@yahoo.com
Thanks again folks.
Cheers,
Doug