After a late night (um, < 4 hours sleep...) I was up bright and... well, just early now I come to think of it! I checked out, retrieved the coat (phew!) I hadn't realised I'd left in the hotel bar until just before I was about to leave the hotel room for the final time and had breakfast.
Then it was off to the first presentation of the day...
Statistics On Partitioned Objects – Doug Burns
I have a feeling that I’ve seen this presentation before – it’s possible that I haven’t seen the entire presentation, but I believe Doug did a couple of work presentations around this subject. Anyway, whether it was those or his blog entries on the subject, a lot of it felt familiar. Doug is an engaging speaker, and the subject is an interesting one. I’m not sure whether it’s applicable to the way our databases are designed, but I will be recalling this talk (amongst others) when I think of ways to improve our stats gathering when we go to 11g.
Using GoldenGate To Minimize Database Upgrade Risk – Marc Fielding
I didn’t fully understand what this talk was going to be about when I signed up for it, but having just worked with and upgraded GoldenGate following a bug in the version we use, plus the upcoming 11g upgrade, I thought it would be a good thing to go to.
Ultimately, I don’t think it’s applicable in our situation this time, but it was about using GoldenGate to copy the data changes from a, for example, 10g database up to the same db but in 11g. Potentially very useful, so a good idea to have in the back of my mind, should I ever come across a situation where it could be used.
The talk was aimed more at DBAs than devs, I think, but I was pleased that I understood most of the GG terms he used – our recent issues at least consolidated my GG knowledge, so it wasn’t all bad!
Optimizer Statistics – A Fresh Approach – Connor McDonald
Yes, the keener eyed/memoried amongst you will spot that I attended this on Sunday. Well, I did have another session lined up to go to, but by this time, my brain couldn’t handle much! Connor was just as amazing as he was on Sunday (no surprise there, then!), and I was able to just sit back and be entertained! (Thanks Connor!)
Faster, Leaner, More Efficient Databases – Index Organised Tables – Martin Widlake
Martin has done a series of blog entries on IOTs and this proved to be an interesting talk. I’ve used IOTs in the past, and will perhaps again, now that our version of GG has gone up to the latest version (the version we had previously couldn’t handle IOTs; I’m not sure about the new version, but I’d hope it would!).
The performance stuff was especially interesting, so I’ll have to go away and see how it might be applied in our databases. A good talk to have gone to.
What Shape Is Your Data? – Niall Litchfield
This was the last talk of the conference, and it was interesting. Niall took us through some examples of how data might be organised and what can be done to best optimize it.
Truth be told, I was flagging a little by this point, so didn’t retain as much of the talk as I’d have liked – I’ll definitely be downloading the slides, when they appear!!
Yeah, you would have seen the stats presentation in the office because I did it between Hotsos and UKOUG but that just makes it all the more impressive that you made it, so thanks very much for that!
Even when you only drink Diet Coke, they’re still some pretty late nights you’re having
Sleeping is overrated *{;-)
I *know* you already know that!