Care to join "Team Feuerstein"?

So on March 17, 2014 I joined Oracle Corporation as an Architect.

Wow, do they have lots of things for me to do!

And I want to do my very best with all of it:

• Publish articles, presentations, white papers that are accurate, are readable, and have no mistakes.
• Share my PL/SQL utility and sample code (and make sure they are readable and have no mistakes).
• Find - and notify developers - about useful blogs, code and anything else relating to PL/SQL.

It is quickly becoming clear to me that I can't do it all, all by myself. And everyone else at Oracle is just as busy as me.

So I have decided to create "Team Feuerstein" - a group of Oracle technologists who share, with me, a delight for PL/SQL and SQL, and a desire to help build our community.

While you will not be paid in hard currency for your efforts, I will be very grateful and you will get public credit for your contribution.

I plan in the future to provide a webpage where you can submit an application to join the team and list your specialties. But I've decided that there is no reason to wait until that is ready.

I can get started right away soliciting your help!

So if you are interested you can do one of two things:

(a) Send an email to steven.feuerstein@oracle.com asking for more information.

(b) Send an email to steven.feuerstein@oracle.com to volunteer as a team member and provide the following information:

• Background on your Oracle experience: free form text, LinkedIn profile, etc.
• Your technical strengths: for example, I can definitely use help with non-trivial SQL, regular expressions, XML, etc. Core PL/SQL knowledge is, of course, great, too!
• Other skills of interest: I plan to record lots of videos and podcasts, so if you have experience with this (esp on a Macbook), I'd love to hear about it. Excellent English writing skills? That would be very useful.
• How you would like to be identified publicly.

Many thanks in advance for considering this!

Steven Feuerstein

PLSQLville: Sung to the tune of Margaritaville

You know what they say about your job: "Don't forget to have fun!"

So I figure I should waste no time in my new job at Oracle. Let's have some fun!

I certainly enjoyed writing a new set of lyrics to the tune of Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet. I hope you find it entertaining as well! And please feel entirely encouraged to offer your own version or individual stanzas!

PLSQLville

Writin' a decode,
When others then null flowed,
Into my package, nothing private to hide.
Selectin' from dual,
Gulpin' coffee for fuel.
Another all-nighter should shore up my pride.

Codin' away again in PLSQLville,
Thinkin' that this time I'll get it right.
Some people say I need to test my code,
But it compiles, so it should be fine.

Just when I had it,
The users were glad it
Worked exactly just like they want.
But hold on a second:
Those same users have reckoned
They need lots of changes, and not just the font.

Codin' away again in PLSQLville,
Hopin' that this time I'll get it right.
Some people say that I should test my code,
Sure I should, but it takes too much time.

Corrupted production,
Tried emergency suction,
Told the users that it could take days.
But my laptop is needy,
And that FORALL is speedy
I'll be working all weekend to get through this maze.

Codin' away again in PLSQLville,
Prayin' that this time I'll get it right.
 Some people say that I should test my code,
But we know: bugs in software are fine.

Yes, and people say that I should test my code,
Sure I should, but it takes too much time.

My New Oracle Badge

Went out to Reston VA to meet with my new boss, Mike Hichwa, and some of the members of his team. It was a fantastic few days. For one thing, there was no shortage of folks eager to help me get my new Macbook Pro set up. That was especially important since I have used a Windows machine for decades. The Macbook is a beautiful machine and the Mac OS is a joy, but still....lots of adjustments to make. So: a grateful shout out to Christina, Taj and Shakeeb in particular for their patience as I went back to them again and again with questions.

But the first thing I did on arriving at the Oracle offices was to get my badge. I gotta say I was a bit surprised at how excited I was about that. It's been a long time since I've had a new job, and I am pleased as can be to be back "on the inside" at Oracle Corporation.

We're still sorting the details of my responsibilities at Oracle, but I can tell for sure that I will be doing some new and very different things, which you will enjoy greatly!

And so to finish off this post, here's my badge.....