Tour of japan wrap up

Down town tokyo was the scene for the final instalment of the tour of japan for 2012. A nice flat circuit race of 112km with plenty of big corners made for the ideal way to wrap up a seriously hard week of racing. The big bunch gallop is always a favourite for the crowds and the teams containing the sprinters certainly ensured that this was how the days winner would be decided. Our team was keen for a sprint as our malaysian missile adiq ottman was keen to bang handle bars with the fast men but we knew his best chance would be if we could somehow get some fatigue into the sprinters pins before the final dash for the line. Like every other day our plan was simple, be aggressive and look for any opportunity to break the race up. This was difficult with no breakaway attempt getting more than 6 seconds ahead of the charging peleton but we still launched of the front at any opportunity as we had done all week. Should no breaks survive and the bunch be gruppo compacto then our big strong man will clarke was to put in a bid for glory in the final 5km. My role was to have him up the front and adiq behind will so I could protect him from the wind to maximise his attack and adiq could be behind to ensure nobody could follow his wheel easily. We don't really need to worry to much about this as will clarke is one of the most explosive guys in the peleton and you basically need a nitro booster to attempt to follow but none the less better to make sure he gets away. So to the front I took them as the pace built for the final 5km and out of the corner of my eye all I saw was a flash!! He attacked so hard I had no idea what team outfit he was wearing and he instantly had a good gap. Unfortunately for wilba, larry lactic acid set in once he was with 2km from the line and he was caught. With this happening, myself along with adiq now on my wheel moved our way to front and adiq chose a wheel he wanted to follow. He picked the right one as the wheel he chose ended up winning. Once he was dropped of I went full gas to the front of the bunch to keep the pace as high as possible for the final km and keep at bay any will clarke style attacks from the opposition and wait and see where the malaysian missile would end up. With 500m to go I got swamped by the sprinter and there leadouts and in a tight very scrappy sprint adiq ended up with a great 4th place which is a excellent result considering he is not a pure sprinter so all good all round.

As always with these flat chaotic circuits I am always happy to finish with all my skin still intact and results wise finished 7th on GC, bit of a nothing result really however following my allergy attack on mt fuji it certainly could have been a lot worse and it is always nicer to be more toward the front than back. Our climber chris butler wound up 5th on GC after his sterling ride up mt fuji and the result I am most happy about is the fact that we finished 2nd on team GC, by far the best performance this year as a collective group. Nice we finally have some momentum and now important to keep the ball rolling. So with the race all done and dusted and bikes packed up we headed out for a meal with our major sponsor champion system in down town tokyo. It was about a japanesey as you could get as we gouged ourselves with sushi, pork, fish, and steak and of course a few or there great beers.

A great way to wrap up a great week doing a great race with a great bunch of blokes.

Time to head home to tassie and do some serious training!! Super duper motivated!!

Cjw

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Tour of japan stage 4

Today was an absolute dusy!! Not only did our 2 kings of chinese cycling, pengda and xu gang finish 2nd and 3rd respectively they achieved it on what can only be described as the most incredible racing circuit created for a bike race. Measuring 12km in length and climbing 400m in altitude each lap, it is not only never , and I repeat never flat but also you are never not turning a corner!! As nasty as it sounds it is a purpose built circuit for rd cycling apart of the japanese cycling school which also is the base of there world famous keiren school. This is basically where riders are like jockeys who race a series of races where they ride the same bike and wheels and even dress like a jockey. The big draw card of the sport is the millions of dollars which are gambled on the race annually. Amazingly all the corners were incredibly safe and the course flowed remarkably well. So not only did you have to deal with the fatigue but also fight dizziness and motion sickness as even after completing the course 12 times I still had no idea where I was going. Quite an incredible day of racing.

It unfolded nicely how we had planned, a break away went clear early with our powerhouse will clarke inside it providing a great chance for the stage win. The nippo team of the leader were forced to work to keep the time gap to break undercontrol and this gave the 5 of us the luxury of sitting in the bunch and saving our legs in the event will and his breakaway were caught. It was the slowest race I have ever done and in the end the average speed was only 31kmph, also we had climbed 4500m in 140km so it was obviously not the easiest day on the bike despite the slow speed. Non the less it felt easy for us as we could hide in the bunch and eat and drink as the calories were definitely going to be called upon in the final laps should the race light up. And this is what happened, with 3 laps or around 40km to travel the pace ramed up and the group got small but we were all still there. At this point I took the decision to work for adiq for the small bunch sprint should will be caught as he had the best chance of winning. With 15km to race will was caught and I immediately took up the pace making to deter anyone from trying to attack as per our plan. With about 10km to race will felt the pace was a little to solid and adiq was suffering a bit so I stopped riding and as I swung off my ever alert chinese team mate pengda had not heard will and assume I was finished and shot out of the bunch that quick that I could not even tell if it was one of our riders or not!! I had not seen him all day and after just 20km he had been dropped but being the incredible fighter he is he hung tuff and was now leading the race with 8km to travel. He was soon joined by a few more including our other chinese rider at the race xu gang and fivesome formed the group that would ultimately contest for the stage victory. Back in the bunch us five now played policemen and bullied anyone who attempted to ride across to ensure our men had there chance for glory. In the end they were outclassed by the most successfull and experience professional from the asia region, kam po wong, however mopping up 2nd and 3rd was still a great days work for the champion system team. Meanwhile in the bunch I again took to the front with 1km to go to lead out adiq as had been planned for the win however this time for 6th place which he easily took and with all 6 of our riders ultimately finishing in the top 20 it was a great days racing for our you team. Certainly the best team performance to date so great to see our constant improvement.

One more stage to go tomorrow on the streets of down town tokyo which will be awersome so we will be looking to set up our malaysian missile for the sprint which we are confident he can suck all there helmets of in!!

From tokyo

Cjw

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

IMG00532-20120525-2119.jpg

Following our 2 days of racing here in japan we enjoyed yet another relaxing rest day as we drove to the site of our next stage, mt fuji. Today was the 3rd stage and it measured only 11km as it went straight up mt fuji. No gentle run in, not even a few circuits at the base to warm up the pins, simply line everybody up and straight into the the 10% slopes of japans most famous mountain.

I was really excited about todays stage, I had gently ridden up it yesterday and was optimistic that I could do a good job today. My lungs on the other hand had a different idea and as light rain started to fall I suffered an allergy attack and had the pleasure of hyper ventilating my way up the final 5km of the mountain. So a disaster day for me and frustrating due to these attacks being out of my control and always seeming to come when I am in a great position, anyways will get it sorted with all the required tests when back in aus next week.

At the start of the day we had very distinctive objective objectives, to get me on the podium and go for the win with chris and myself. The plan was simple, follow a solid tempo to the steepest section which began at 5km to go where at which point chris would attack and go for the stage win, hopfully put all the others in the red zone, and I could lock into my tt mode and grind up the hill and gradually ride away aswell. Chris did a great job doing his part and initially it looked to work perfectly and he put the 3rd and 4th placed riders in difficulty but unfortunately as I began my quest to overhaul them my lungs started using a mind of there own and it was all over. Chris was marked by the same 2 nippo team riders that had demolished me the day before and went onto finish a very brave 3rd and achieved a great result on the queens stage of the race.

Now its lights out time in a hotel with a difference. We are in a traditional style hotel so no shoes and we are sleeping on the floor so yet another cultural adventure for a day in which we climbed the countries famous landmark. Nothing like team bonding when all six of us are stacked into a room with merely enough room to role out our footons let alone swing a cat!!

All in all its been a great experience in japan and a look at tomorrows race map would indicate that another day of excruciating carnage is on the menu!!

As always, looking forward to it

Cjw

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

KScope12 session highlight No. 5

Let’s get exclusive

Over the last four days I’ve highlighted: what I think will be a really important infrastructure session and whitepaper, 10 important ODI presentations, some out of the norm sessions that cover a whole bunch of technologies (and some of which aren’t even particularly technical), and a track for those who are new to the awesomeness that is Essbase.  These are (mostly) all presented by Orcale’s customers and partners.  But what about Oracle employees as presenters?

Kscope12 has an awful lot of people from Oracle at it.  Hardly surprising given that the first letter in ODTUG is “Oracle”.  Don’t let that name lead you to believe that Oracle dictates what is at the conference – I was elbows deep (now there’s an interesting visual metaphor that I leave to you to fill in) in the EPM selection process and ODTUG’s volunteers decide it all.  We figure out what we’d like to have Oracle present and then ask them (politely, mind, we are not dictators) to participate.  Sometimes they say yes, sometimes no, but usually yes.  It’s a collaborative process and it still fascinates and surprises me how open they are.  I imagine I sound like an Oracle cheerleader sometimes, but red really isn’t my color and it is amazing to see how well Oracle’s product development staff works with ODTUG.  How often would the likes of me get to talk to product development senior management?  Never is the answer, except for ODTUG.  Yes, ODTUG is that awesome.

So what’s the Oracle agenda?

Sunday symposium

The Sunday EPM symposium (there are other symposiums as well for Apex, BI, EPM Business Content, Db and Developer’s Toolbox, and Fusion) is one of my favorite parts of the conference.  Lest you think (and really, why would you?) I have some sort of inside track on what Oracle is up to for its next releases let me disabuse you of that notion – the symposium is where I find out what the next release (and beyond) of EPM will be.  Here’s what the symposium will preview with demos, slides, and Q&A sessions:

• EPM Foundation and common services
• Oracle Essbase
• Oracle Hyperion Planning
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Management
• Oracle Business Intelligence
• Data Management & Integration tools
• Other projects in development

It’s very, very, very exciting stuff and is unparalleled access to what’s coming down the pike in our little EPM world.  If there is one session you should attend at the conference, this is it.

Sessions

If the symposiums are the ghost of EPM future, then the sessions are the ghost of EPM present.  This is where Oracle shows we lucky few how the (usually) new products work.  It is pretty cool stuff.

Disclosure Management
Karin Cheung, Oracle Corporation
When: Thursday June 28, Session 18, 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: EPM Business Content

Implementing Financial Close Management & Custom Integrations
Janette Kosior, Oracle Corporation
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 11, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: Reporting and Other Hyperion Apps

Customizing Planning interfaces via ADF
Prasad Kulkarni, Oracle Corporation
When: Monday June 25, Session 4, 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: Planning

Exalytics and Planning
Prasad Kulkarni, Oracle Corporation
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 13, 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: Planning

Oracle EPM/BI Development Panel
Al Marciante, Oracle Corporation
When: Monday June 25, Session 1, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Oracle Exadata Technical Features Overview
Dan Norris, Oracle Corporation
When: Monday June 25, Session 3, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Topic: Database - Subtopic: Infrastructure/Management/Security

Exalytics and Essbase
Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 6, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Business Intelligence - Subtopic: BI Applications

Essbase 11.1.2.2 New Features
Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

A Forward Look at Essbase
Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 16, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Enterprise Projects Financial Planning - An Integrated Approach
Shankar Viswanathan, Oracle Corporation
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 9, 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: EPM Business Content

Deep Dive into the New Features in Planning 11.1.2.2
Shankar Viswanathan, Oracle Corporation
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 13, 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: Planning

Intro to HFM 11.1.2.2: Working with Almost Unlimited Custom Dimensions, and Intro to an Entirely New User Interface
Rich Wilkie, Oracle Corporation
When: Thursday June 28, Session 18, 10:30 am - 11:30 am
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: HFM

Intro to Oracle Financial Management Analytics (HFM pre-built dashboard for OBIEE)
Rich Wilkie, Oracle Corporation
When: Thursday June 28, Session 17, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: HFM

Customer Panel (Aramark, Experian and General Dynamics): Better Together - Oracle EPM and ERP Solutions
Neela Chaudhari, Product Development
When: Monday June 25, Session 3, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: Case Studies/Panels

That is a lot of direct-from-Oracle goodness.  Where else are you going to find this scope and breadth and geekiness?  Nowhere else is where.  Are you coming to San Antonio?

And so we are done

I’m not entirely sure why I thought writing a blog post every day this week was a good idea.  I tend to have these great (ahem) ideas that then proceed to eat up my free time – this week’s blitz is yet another example.

The thing is, I really haven’t covered all of the cool things at Kscope12:  the volunteer day, EPM Midnight Madness, the Special Event, the networking, the lunch n learns, the labs, etc.  I’ve had multiple people tell me that they wish they could split in two (mad scientists working on cloning, here is your target market) so they could attend simultaneous sessions.  It really is that good.  I hope that this series gave you a taste of what to expect but really the only way to know is to go.  See you in San Antonio!

KScope12 session highlight No. 4

Back to the beginning

Ah, the start of a romance, when you and your paramour are eagerly discovering each other.  Anything and everything seems possible.  You feel as if you are on cloud nine and the world is your oyster.  Of course you felt this way about Essbase, right?  I know I did, although I can be somewhat…odd in my enthusiasms.

One of the benefits (?) about aging (other than the alternative, which is being dead) is that you can watch others go through the same experiences as you.  (Sorry, I have to insert this if you clicked on the previous link.  One day I will have to write a blog about Canadian humor, alas not today.)

Silliness aside, not everyone knows Essbase.  In fact, there are (thankfully) new customers of what is surely the most awesome analytical tool there ever has been all the time.

And to reach those Essbase newbies, Kscope12 has a track exclusively dedicated to the basics of Essbase.  It’s the brainchild of MMIC, and is a pretty interesting group of sessions.  Remember, if you are an advanced Essbase developer, these sessions are probably not for you, although I am sure there is interesting and unique content.

Essbase Beginner Track

Hyperion 101: An Introduction to the Oracle EPM/BI Suite
Andrew Jorgensen, Reportinq
When: Monday June 25, Session 1, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Dimension and Data Loading
Alice Lawrence, LSG Sky Chefs
When: Monday June 25, Session 4, 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

BSO Calculation Basics
Alice Lawrence, LSG Sky Chefs
When: Monday June 25, Session 5, 4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Beginning Calculation Manager for Essbase and Hyperion Planning
Jeff Richardson, Edgewater Ranzal
When: Thursday June 28, Session 17, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Essbase Application Design Considerations for Beginners
Edward Roske, interRel Consulting
When: Monday June 25, Session 3, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Introduction to Essbase Studio
Glenn Schwartzberg, interRel Consulting
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Beginner's Guide to Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting
Mehmet Sevinc, Bank of the West
When: Thursday June 28, Session 19, 11:45 am - 12:45 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

Why Can't I Look at an Essbase Cube?
Angela Wilcox, BI Architect – MedAssets
When: Monday June 25, Session 2, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: EPM Beginner Track

Note – I have revised this post to include sessions shared with other tracks.  Now there is a home for yr. obdnt. srvnt.

Managing an EPM Project Successfully - A Client's Perspective
Natalie Delemar, Ernst & Young
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 6, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: Case Studies/Panels

Don't Do This! Effective Strategies to Avoid Building Ineffective ASO Cubes.
Martin Slack, Ernst & Young
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 8, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Oracle Essbase Worst Practices - Lessons from a Moron
Edward Roske, interRel Consulting
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 9, 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Script or Die!
Cameron Lackpour, CL Solve
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 10, 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Intro to MDX + ASO
Gary Crisci, Morgan Stanley
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 11, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Getting the Most From Oracle EPM Product Support Presentation & Panel Discussion Part 1 & 2
Robb Salzmann, Accelatis
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 12, 8:30 am - 9:30 am & Session 13, 9:45 am - 10:45 am
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Introduction to Essbase Studio
Glenn Schwartzberg, interRel Consulting
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Essbase Beginner - Subtopic: Introductory content for new users

So Many Tools, What Do I Use?
Glenn Schwartzberg, interRel Consulting
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Essbase 11.1.2.2 New Features
Gabby Rubin, Oracle Corporation
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

And so to conclude

Kscope12 is not just for ultra geeks and Oracle ACE Directors, but we mere mortals as well.  I’m happy that ODTUG has recognized that some of the advanced content might be leaving new developers by the wayside and has provided sessions that brings everyone under the conference tent.

Less than a month away…so awesome/so scary.

KScope12 session highlight No. 3

Introduction

It’s Wednesday, which means we (I am of course hoping that someone actually reads these posts – so here we are, you and I) are halfway through my week long blitz of ODUTG Kscope12 sessions.  I’m going to take a somewhat different take on sessions today and focus on a few of the more atypical sessions that I think are worth looking at.

Where oh where is my Organizational Psychology book?

A political beast

When I took that class, oh, forever ago, my callow youth prevented me from realizing that essentially, people are crazy (and I am including myself in this category), organizations are a reflection of the people that inhabit them, and that means there’s a whole body of study that looks at crazy organizations because heaven knows, those organizations need help.  Gary Crisci must have been paying more attention in class than I, because he has come up with a subject my OP professor would have given her eye teeth for.  This is a repeat (I think) from three years ago when I cleverly decided it would be awesome to work 90 hours in a week on a project AND be involved in multiple presentations AND give a presentation of my own.  I will not comment on what that says about my psychological state, then or now.  In any case, that level of insane busyness meant I missed this presentation and will try my darndest to get there this time.

Politics of Essbase
Gary Crisci, Morgan Stanley
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: EPM Business Content

Team building

Continuing the psychology theme, Martin D’Souza has a session on how to grow a development team so that developers aren’t at each other’s throats/they actually produce whatever they’re working on.  I’ve been on a lot of project teams – some were beyond awesome, most were okay, and a few were spectacularly dysfunctional.  I’d prefer to avoid the last category for, oh, the rest of my life, so if you’re in charge of putting together teams, please attend this session.  Although Martin comes at the issue from a APEX and PL/SQL perspective, the lessons he teaches should be applicable with slight modification to our narrow little world.

Building a Better Team
Martin D'Souza, ClariFit
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 8, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm
Topic: Application Express - Subtopic: Team Development, Testing, Debugging, Load Testing

Why would anyone want to do that?

Humor, as in a sense of

I believe the 28^th amendment to the US Constitution states that I have to hate him because I used to work for him, but I don’t, and he is an excellent speaker (so much so that his presentations are often SRO).  Who am I talking about?  Just the Kscope12 conference chairman, aka, Edward Roske who, in what I imagine will be a somewhat lounge in cheek approach, will outline the things you should NOT do in Essbase.  One note – I think some people are off put or puzzled by his dry sense of humor – if so, this presentation is probably not for you.  OTOH, if you have a pulse and a brain, you might find it entertaining and instructive.

Oracle Essbase Worst Practices - Lessons from a Moron
Edward Roske, interRel Consulting
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 9, 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Essbase

Will there one day be a Dan’s Blog for Financial Reports hackers?

Dan Pressman always but always has a different take on tools.  Once you accept that FR reports are really XML objects, and that XML isn’t scary, changing them for fun and profit becomes a more than acceptable approach.  This session is a hacker’s dream (you are after all reading a blog all about hacking Essbase amongst other products so this shouldn’t scare you) and the fact that what Dan imparts is almost surely 100% unsupported by Oracle makes it that much better.  

Financial Reporting: I Didn't Know it Could Do THAT
Dan Pressman, nTuple, LLC
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: Reporting and Other Hyperion Apps

Once again, Kscope12 offers unique content

C’mon, think about it – where else are you going to find a mix of content like the above?  

Organizational Psychology – yes, Kscope12 attendees have brains, work in organizations (hey, even a one-man band like yr. obdnt. srvnt. has corporations as clients and I don’t exactly work alone in a Fortress of Solitude), and aren’t afraid to admit imperfection in this physical world.

Humor?  Oh, I’d say so.  I happily cannot find the video of me singing “Everybody Loves Somebody” but perhaps that is one of those coping mechanisms my brain has employed to keep the trauma at bay.  I am told it was…excruciating.  I can believe that although I am somewhat puzzled as I sound great when I sing it in the shower.  One of the imponderables of life, I suppose.

I hope you check out these presentations at the conference.  It’s just a short month away (gasp) and promises to be the best yet.  I can hardly wait.

Tour of japan stage 3

For the first time in the tour of japan we strung together 2 days of racing with stage 3 taking place on a 12km circuit which we completed 12 times. It included a 2km climb and was never flat so provided a great opportunity for the race to blow appart. Our plan was simple, make it as hard as we could and bank on our boys from champion system coming to the for in the closing laps of the race. Hard we made it, from lap 1 infact as the peleton immediately started to decimate. After just 3 laps there were only 40 riders left and after 5 laps only 30 riders. With 7 laps to go I decided that was still to many and attacked and soon the race was down to 13. With 2 laps to go the nippo team with 2 strong climbers forced the pace on the climb and blew that group appart, while initally I was able to follow I would lose contact and 4 were left in front with myself and another rider dangling behind at 30seconds. It stayed this way for the next lap and on the climb I was able to close a little but once the 4 hit the top for the final climb the 2 team mates took off again and put another 30seconds into us leaving me 1min behind and 2 other riders in the middle at 30seconds. The nippo team certainly have made a strong statement that they are here to dominate and in the past 2 days they have certainly put us all to the sword. After us it was a minute or so back to our breakaway companions and the damage continued further down with small groups all coming accross the line. On paper it looked like the 3rd hardest stage of the race so I am pretty fearfull of what the 2 hardest stages look like that we will tackle after another rest day tomorrow.

So was a day that we had a plan and stuck to it and in the end I did not quite have the endurance and explosive climbing power I expected. The next stage heads up mt fuji so I will be counting on my diesel style engine to help me out there. Certainly a backward step today but with so much hard km to come will keep forcing and fighting until we get to the finish in tokyo.

Will need a bucket of rice to refuel and a good long massage. After that I amy even have a japanese spa to get the muscles ready for the run to the finish!!

Cjw

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Tour of japan stage 2

Stage 2 of the tour of japan went of without to many fire works, that is untill we crossed the finish line but I will get to that in a minute. On paper it looked hardish but only if raced hard, it wasn't raced hard and as a consequence finished in a bunch sprint. This was exactly the outcome our team was trying to avoid as we were keep to retain the overall lead and perhaps even launch will to another stage win but it was not to be. Try as we might however with first will lighting up the only climb on the course on the second last lap before I made a bid to break things up on the final lap but with 4km run into the finish a large group reformed before the line and the argentine sprinters from the nippo team showed a clean pair of heels in the bunch gallop. With there win the also inherited the race lead relegating will to 2nd.



As for the fireworks, well as we crossed the line a heap were let off which startled me so much I stopped pedaling with 100m to go as I thought we were being shot at! The japanese sure know how to put on a show and as a result we all arrived at the finish safe and sound and ready to put on a show tomorrow. 12x12km laps await us tomorrow with a 2km climb every lap so we may very well get the harder day that I believe will suit my champion system men!!



Time for some shuteye



Cjw

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

KScope12 session highlight No. 2

Introduction

Ah, Oracle Data Integrator.  From the first time I opened up your nearly incomprehensible documentation (much better today, oh, you should have seen it with “SUNOPSIS” sprinkled all over it and nary a mention of Essbase, Planning, or HFM to be found) I knew you were special.  Powerful, obscure, chock full of technologies I had (and still have) almost no idea about, and with really unhelpful error messages.  How could I not love it?  And I do, although it sometimes drives me almost to tears of frustration.  When I get it (whatever “it” is) working, I want to dance a reel.  That is pretty sad, isn’t it?  No matter.  Excelsior!

ODTUG’s KScope is here to help you dance

I’m not the only one who has seen the power and possibility of ODI.  Kscope12 has 10 presentations on the subject including one from yr. obdnt. srvnt. and if you have any interest (and if you don’t, you should) in this powerful and exciting tool, I strongly suggest you make time in your convention schedule to attend a few of the sessions.

Here’s a list of the ODI sessions that I consider important:
Extending ODI - Hyperion Automation and Error Trapping
Opal Alapat, TopDown Consulting
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 11, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

ODI 11g for OWB Developers
Holger Friedrich, sumIT AG
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Topic: Business Intelligence - Subtopic: Business Intelligence

Financial Data Quality On-demand - Seamlessly Integrate Hyperion FDM and Oracle Data Integrator
Matthias Heilos, MindStream Analytics
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 10, 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

Oracle Data Integrator - Best Practices That You Should Be Aware Of
Matthias Heilos, MindStream Analytics
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 14, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

Implementing ODI and OGG 11g to Maximise Performance and Scalability in a BI Enterprise
John Jeffries, Spirotek Limited
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 10, 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm
Topic: Business Intelligence - Subtopic: Business Intelligence

Slay the Evil of Bad Data in Essbase with ODI
Cameron Lackpour, CL Solve
When: Monday June 25, Session 2, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

Essbase/Planning Metadata Management with ODI Across Environments
Terry Ledet,
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 15, 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

Hand Free HFM Automation
Alex Mathew, Oil and Gas
When: Tuesday June 26, Session 6, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Hyperion Applications - Subtopic: HFM

Beginners Guide to Oracle Data Integrator for Oracle EPM Developers
Markus Shipley, interRel Consulting
When: Wednesday June 27, Session 12, 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Topic: Essbase - Subtopic: Data Management

Moving Beyond the P&L: Essbase for Bank Planning and Technology Reporting
Evan Thayer, E*TRADE Financial
When: Monday June 25, Session 4, 2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Topic: EPM Business Content - Subtopic: Case Studies/Panels

Isn’t that awesome?

10 sessions for ODI – where else are you going to find that many presentations with a scope as wide as shown above?  Not anywhere else is where.  And that is why Kscope is the singlemost best place to go for all of your EPM/BI education.  See you there.