Kscope 15 days 4 and 5

The day after the night before

I’m going to try to do this in sequential order with some description of the many pictures.  It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s just that I’m so tired it’s not (actually it is) funny.

And with that…

Day 5, Wednesday, June 24 June

AppMan lives!

Proof that a tight integration with Windows cannot be beat.  I don’t think given Oracle’s announcement of Essbase as a Service (Eaas) we’re going to see a return to the Windows development world, but a man can hope.

Really, I miss this thing, and so do many others.  My Ride or Die Girl, Kscope15 conference chairwoman, @EssbaseLady, also known as Natalie Delemar said, “What?  I want that!”  It’s like the Soviet samisdat only for software.

Women In Technology luncheon

Also put together by Natalie as part of her commitment to ODTUG.  (Question:  How does she get by with being a mother, an E&Y Senior Manager, and ODTUG superstar all at the same time?  Discuss.) it was a lot of fun and I didn’t feel the least bit intimidated in being one of the few men.  I never quite understand why my fellow male geeks tread so carefully around subjects like this.  It wasn’t a hanging party for men, it was a chance to discuss what it’s like for women to work and lead in technology.  The reason men were invited to this session was for both to hear a woman’s perspective on work and life and to return the favor with our thoughts.  I think it was a smashing success.

Dudes, time to man up and come next year, it’ll add so much more to  your machismo(and we know of course no one can hear you over your present level of awesomeness; imagine the heights you will achive next year through this meeting alone), grow hair on your chest, and make you even more of a manly man with massive rippling muscles.  And yes, that was a pretty awful attempt at humor, but my fellow X and Y chromosone humans ought to sign up for this at Kscope16 .  The world is composed of both men and women, we both have perspectives to share, and I found it instructive; you would too.

 

Here’s Natalie in her element kicking the event off:

William Hodges presenting on Groovy

Fellow Developing Essbase Applications:  Hybrid Techniques and Practices William Hodges is on stage, Tim German is watching with rapt attention which is more than I can say he did when I was copresenting with him, cf. my last blog post.  TimG, I kid, I kid; you were merely waiting for the awfulness that was my part of the prsentation to finish.

The Wednesday night entertainment

The madness, the madness.  It really was pretty good.

Waiting to greet Kscope attendees to the White Party

The madness begins with fellow board members Dave Schliess, Tim Tow, and Monty Latiolais.

Mia Urman, my Thought Leader and her husband

Mia and I seemingly disagreed with just about everything (well, not everything, but an awful lot of subjects) in her first year on the board.  I have seen the light and now (mostly) agree with her.  I think I just had to catch up to her Awesomeness.  Really, she is pretty awesome and is full of fantastic ideas.  

Did I mention that she really knows how to party?  Oh yes she does.

He lives, he lives, he really lives

Can you guess That Man?  No, not the idiot on the right, the one on the left.  He turns out to not be an army of autonomous robots.  More’s the pity as now my OTN humiliation is complete.

The party is about to begin

OMG, it’s so cool.

Can geeks party?  Oh yes they can

Wait, wait, who is that I see?

Amazingly, it’s my friend and fellow presenter, Tim German.  Tim, we never thought we’d live to see the day.

Was there an after party?  Yup

On the way to South Beach’s Mansion.  We owned that club.  Yes, we ODTUGers did just that.  I’m not sure the club staff will ever get over it.

Opal Alapat dancing on top of a couch

Opal is like Spock’s human counterpart:  so serious, so logical, so smart.  If she could do the Vulcan neck pinch, I’d know she did come from a planet with two suns.  And then you get her dancing and she loses all control.  Awesome, but that preculdes her Vulcanness.

Somewhere on the Twitterverse there is a picture of yr. obt. svt. dancing on top of a table.  Yes, really.  And with only three drinks in me I’m not sure there’s any excuse.

Did someone order drinks?

Or a fire?

Are we not awesome?

It is just possible.

Jessica Cordova getting down

Does that term date me?  Quite likely.
  

Update -- I just had a text conversation with Jessica and the comment on my part is completely incomprehensible to her.  Unfortunately, this means it isn't a joke at all so for those of you who did not have older siblings in the 1970s, the definition is here and it means to dance.  The inimitable James Brown said it best.

Thursday, 25 June

Does anyone look like they are a wee bit tired?  Thursday was the first day I could eat breakfast.  No, not because of a Technicolor Yawn on yr. obt. svt.’s part but because this was the first day I wasn’t 100% booked.  I like Mojo Bars best both for insanely-stupid levels of busyness as well as hiking.  Peanut protein and lots of sugar – what’s not to like?

I cannot exactly remember what I ate as I was a little tired having gone to bed at 3 am and up at 6:30.

Essbase Deep Dive

Here’s 2/3 of the room filling up.  I guesstimate we had about 150 people.

And the distinguished panel

In order from left to right: Steve Liebermensch, Gabby Rubin, and MMIC aka Glenn Schwartzberg.  These Thursday events are an unprecedented opportunity to ask anything, I mean anything, of the product managers that drive the tools we love.

They didn’t make too much fun of me when I called this the Eeeeeessssssbaaaassssseeee Deep Dive session.  Lack of sleep/profound stupidity made me do it.  All sort of kidding aside, I had a pretty difficult time speaking and definitely a large dollop of difficulty in thinking coherent thoughts, let alone moderating the session.

The closing session

A full house; I believe that is the back of Joe Aultman’s head.

Natalie and ODTUG President and Monty Latiolais winding up the conference

Unfortunately this is the end of what is really the best conference I have ever been to, bar none.

Some thougts on Kscope15

Kscope is the yearly highlight of my professinoal life as it is for many others.  I agonize over content from the selection process through my own sessions; hopefully some of what I and many others do helps make that happen for all of the attendees.

Kscope has no counterpart in the Oracle world.  The passion, the knowledge, the people all make Kscope a unique event and one that I love.

ODTUG is responsible in many ways for what I am today professionally and even a large component of who I am as a person.  The spirit of generosity in sharing knowledge, the passion in our work, the people who I call friends who I would never have met otherwise, the investment in and giving back to the community that ODTUG fosters; all of it has profoundly touched many others and me.

I’m really and for true getting misty eyed over writing the above.

Be seeing you.

Kscope15 days 2 and 3

Skipped a whole day+

Sorry about that, but it has been a crazy stupid couple of days.  The conference that so many of us prepare a good deal of the year for is already more than half over.  Sob.

I’ve given two presentations, have another one to go, and then the Essbase deep dive on Thursday.  And that, Gentle Reader, will be it.

Rather than give you a blow by blow recound of the day(s), I’ll try to tell the Kscope15 story with pictures.  

Day 2

Ron Moore’s Genesis Project

The Army of Autonomous Robots

Who is that man with the black shirt and white stripes?

General session

Music + loud!

Big Nerd finally gets a break

I thought I was going to have the piss taken out of me for the whole general session (it is hard to believe, but I am a nerd when I always thought I was a geek).  When Don MacMillan the comedian showed this who-does-Cameron-look-like-in-movies there was a pity “Awwww”.  Sad but I’ll take what I can get.

My Mum thinks I’m this good looking but only her

The man who I am confused with and vice versa

My Ride or Die Girl aka ODTUG VP, Conference Chairwoman, and all around awesome buddie

Fellow Aces (Tim, apparently Moses but missing the tablets, Rodrigo, Jason, and Celvin)

Opal Alapat about to receive Volunteer of the Year award

EPM community Monday night event

Yr. Obt. Svt. and Natalie’s aka Ride or Die Monday night meetup

Day 3

You aren’t going to see too much of this as I was either in meetings or presenting (I actually got to see two sessions so I could beat last year’s record)

OTN’s ACE lunch and learn

From left to right, John Booth, Mike Killeen, Sara Zumbrum, and Tim Tow.  Yr. obt. svt. is to the right, desperately trying to think of semi-intelligent questions.

Yr. obt. svt. and Tim German about to present our Essbase calculation taxonomy and scorecarding preso

I look bored, but am sleepy/terrified on the inside.

Tim looking away in embarassment and boredom as I drone.

Acellitis/ Applied OLAP cruise

I’m not totally sure why I keep on getting invited to this, but never argue with good luck.

I will try, try, try

It might be best to follow my Twitter feed on the conference.  I’ll get to it eventually on this blog but it is a bit harder.

Only two more days to go…

Be seeing you.

The Merritt: Queen of All Parkways

Cruising along on the Merritt Parkway awhile back I was struck by its natural beauty, unique bridges and amazing landscaping.  But until I did some research, I didn’t appreciate its history.

A hundred years ago the only way to drive between New York and Boston was on Route 1, The Post Road.  If you think traffic is bad today, imagine that journey!  So in 1936, two thousand men began work on the state’s largest public works project, the $21 million four lane parkway starting in Greenwich and running to the Housatonic River in Stratford.  The adjoining Wilbur Cross Parkway didn’t open until years later when the Sikorsky Bridge across the Housatonic was completed.

As the Merritt was being planned, a major real estate scandal caught Darien real estate agent G Leroy Kemp in cahoots with two brokers as they paid inflated prices for land for the parkway and split the proceeds.

The Merritt, named after Stamford resident, Congressman Schuyler Merritt, is best known for its natural beauty, though most of it was planted:  22,000 trees and 40,000 shrubs.  And then there are the bridges, since 1991 protected on the National Register of Historic Places.

Architect George Dunkleberger designed 69 bridges in a variety of architectural styles, from Art Moderne to Deco to Rustic.  Their adornments were better appreciated when cars were

poking along at half of today’s speeds, but they are still beautiful. No two bridges are exactly alike.  In short order the Merritt was being hailed as “The Queen of Parkways”.

The parkway at first had tolls, a dime (later 35 cents) at each of three barriers, not to pay for the parkway’s upkeep but to finance its extension to Hartford via the Wilbur Cross Parkway, named after Wilbur Lucius Cross who was Governor in the 1930’s.  Tolls were dropped in 1988.

The old toll booths themselves were as unique as the Parkway, constructed of wooden beams and covered in shingles.  One of the original booths is now preserved in Stratford at the Boothe Memorial Park.

The Merritt’s right of way is a half-mile wide, the vistas more obvious now since massive tree clearing after the two storms in 2011 and 2012 where downed trees pretty much closed the highway.

Since its design and opening in 1938 the Merritt Parkway has been off-limits to commercial vehicles and trucks.  But as traffic worsens on I-95, debates rage from time to time about allowing trucks on the Merritt and possibly widening the road.  Either move would probably mean demolition of the Parkway’s historic bridges, so don’t expect such expansion anytime soon.

The best watchdog of the Parkway is the Merritt Parkway Conservancy which has fought to preserve the road’s unique character.  Their latest battle is against plans for a multi-use trail along the south side of the roadway. Costing an estimated $6.6 million per mile, the Conservancy worries that the trees and foliage that would be clear-cut to allow bike and pedestrian users would despoil the eco-system.