A Quick Blog about the Author

Most of my blogs break the cardinal rule of blogging. They aren’t short and don’t contain a few tidbits of information. Well, blogs are also supposed to be personal and I have always been grammatically long-winded by nature. My co-workers are lucky it only affects my writing and not my verbal communications. Although my writing style does drive my boss nuts. He often states “can you quit writing me 8 paragraphs and just come and TALK?”

A lot of blogs provide you with the author’s opinion on non-technical as well as technical issues. We’ll leave that to the other bloggers out there. I’m happy with remaining on the topic at hand – Oracle10G. As I said, I’ll digress for one blog.

I have been working with Oracle for over 15 years now. I have bought it, sold it, learned it and taught it. I am currently the author of over three-dozen articles on Oracle technologies and have spoken multiple times at both the International Oracle Users Group (IOUG) and Oracle’s Open World.

I have held many jobs during my career; I started as a COBOL programmer 20 some years ago. During the past 20 years, I have worked as a database administrator, database architect, alternative architecture specialist, high-priced Oracle consultant, Oracle certified trainer, and finally, database team lead at Giant Eagle. Great job for a great company.

I began my career working as a database administrator at Mellon Bank. For ten years at Mellon, I served as a DBA and later as the bank’s Client Server Systems Architect. During my tenure at Mellon, I was responsible for helping to create Mellon’s support infrastructure for all non-mainframe database applications. As a result, Mellon was asked by the Oracle Corporation to participate in Oracle’s Showcase Environment program in August of 1996. Hey, it was easy. I just applied mainframe quality control processes and principles to our non-mainframe systems.

I continued my career at Alcoa and became Alcoa’s Database and Server Architect in April 1998. I was responsible for worldwide database software and hardware server strategies at a corporate level, reporting to Alcoa’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Information Officer (CIO).

I have always been interested in training. During my entire 20 year career in the trenches, I have always had another part-time career in some facet of education. Over the years I have developed Oracle and DB2 database training curriculum for several companies, including Platinum Technologies and KCS Inc. At Platinum, I was responsible for creating their entire Oracle curriculum including classes on general administration, backup/recovery, database tuning and several SQL and PL/SQL courses. That career lasted until Platinum was bought, more like “borg’d”, by Computer Associates. Ahhhh, CA – gotta love them (I think).

I finally merged both careers when I became a certified Oracle Instructor and senior database consultant for Contemporary Technologies Inc. Contemporary Technologies Inc. was an Oracle certified training center and a member of the Oracle Approved Education Center (OAEC) program.

Part of my job at CTI was to perform database audits. I evaluated database environments on key database disciplines (performance, security, reliablity, ease-of-administration, recoverability). Its funny, you just can’t believe what goes on at some shops until you’re a consultant. I loved logging on to systems and seeing everyone with DBA authority and jobs running in the system named BOB1, BOB2, BOB3, BOBFIXIT… You also can’t believe how many times I had to say “Your current strategy of copying database files while they are active and the database isn’t in ARCHIVELOG mode is not correct.” Or “No, you can’t do a full database Import and then use the redo logs to roll the database forward to the current point-in-time.”

I received my Senior Oracle Instructor title in 1999, which allowed me to certify my fellow instructors. I was very proud to have the title “trainer of trainers.” The greatest accomplishment in my career came was when I was awarded the OAEC Quality Achievement Award. These awards are given to the top 4 instructors in the OAEC program. Like most instructors, I took my teaching responsibilities seriously. It was my job to ensure that all students taking my classes were prepared for the challenges that faced them. I tried to impart 15 years of tips, tricks and techniques so that my students didn’t make the same mistakes I did.

If you believe the adage "we all learn from our mistakes", then you can truly classify me as an Oracle expert. My classes were often described as an Oracle “boot camp” (actually it is more like “Foot camp”) because I ran the classes hard. Minimal breaks and long days were common (10 to 12 hours per day). I didn’t want to end class thinking I did my students an injustice by not giving my all. Kind of like these blogs, don’t you think? Although some of my students looked like they were going to kill me if I said the word Oracle one more time during the last day or two of class. I miss education. That's one of the reasons why I write this blog. Makes me feel like I'm still trying to contribute.

I am a frequent lecturer on the database circuit and have given over a dozen speeches to local, national and international Oracle User Groups. In addition, I have been a guest lecturer for the Master’s Program at Duquesne University. I was a featured speaker at three international Oracle User Groups, and four Oracle Open Worlds. At Oracle Open World, I spoke to a group of more than 700 and was asked to provide an encore presentation on database tuning.

I think I can easily write a book on what not to do when giving presentations. One – don’t drink a carbonated beverage when you’re wearing a tie mike (trying to stifle a burp doesn’t work well). During one of my presentations I leaned on the podium when I began my speech and quickly found out that it was on wheels. I lost my balance and the podium and I were quickly heading for the end of the raised stage. By the time we reached the end of the stage, I was easily doing 20 MPH. It was good luck for everyone involved that the people in the first row were quick enough to put their hands up to catch me or I would have landed directly on top of them. They kind of looked like the people in the old movies just before they get stomped on by Godzilla. I also had a speaker before me leave with the tie mike I was supposed to use. This forced me to give an entire speech bent over. I had no choice, I was attached to a 4 ½ foot mike cord and I’m over four feet tall. I couldn’t straighten up for the rest of the day.

I am currently is the author of over thirty articles for a variety of magazines including DBAZine, Database Programming & Design, The Data Administration Newsletter, and Edge- The Database Survival Guide. I have also written one book titled "The OCP Instructors Guide for DBA Certification."

On a more personal note, here’s an image of everything that I am interested in. It’s the desktop’s background on all of my computers. My wife has beat cancer twice which is why I don't sweat the details as much as I used to. I built all of those decks myself. They aren’t exactly straight or square but they look OK… My interests (besides friends and family) are dogs, cars and growing roses… You could describe me as an absolute car maniac. My house has more car stuff than most dealerships. Like my carpentry skills, I am only a fair mechanic but I get by. The newest addition to the family is Abigail, an English Mastiff pup.

Ok, back to Oracle 10G!