I need your help to put Oracle EPM on the spot at Kscope14

Why help out?  

This year, Thursday at Kscope14 is going to be different than years past.   What do I mean by that?  Simply that instead of the normal fare of technical session after technical session, ODTUG is trying something different this year on the last (sob) day of the conference – deep dives into technology.  These are longer and different in focus sessions that allow you, the Kscope14 attendee, to really get to the very heart of whatever tool or track tickles your geek fancy.

What that means is that there are sessions on:

• Application Express
• ADF & Fusion Development
• Developer’s Toolkit
• Business Intelligence
• Essbase
• Financial Close
• EPM Foundations
• BI/EPM Reporting

And a panel session on Good ‘Ol Planning consisting of the Planning and Essbase product managers, hosted by none other than yr. obt. svt.

What’s it all about, Cameron?

I am so glad you asked – the Planning Deep Dive is your chance to ask direct, possibly slightly painful, and definitely interesting questions to both Gabby Rubin, Essbase product manager, and Shankar Viswanathan, Planning product manager.  

Huh, you say (you do say this, right?), what’s the Essbase product manager doing at a Planning deep dive session?  Remember, Essbase is at the heart of Planning, so asking why Planning does this or that without asking why and how Essbase does the same thing is all a bit pointless.

Gabby and Shankar graciously accepted the chance to be mercilessly grilled by you.  What I mean is that this is a panel of two (Gabby and Shankar) with me as moderator, and you get to lob questions, hopefully difficult and maybe a little painful, directly to them.  Oracle of course has the option to grin or grimace at you and then refuse to answer your question but I have found that typically Oracle are quite open.  It at least ought to be entertaining.

What I plan on asking them

As you will see, I am not exactly pulling my punches.  These are items of intense interest to me, and I suspect many in the Hyperion Planning world:

1. When will Hybrid Essbase be certified for Planning?
2. Why can’t we report on attribute dimensions via Planning data connections; this is especially puzzling in the light of ASO Planning and ASO Essbase’s superior attribute performance.
3. Why is ASO Planning not an Essbase data source?  Again, attribute dimensions work so much better in ASO than BSO – it is very puzzling.
4. Planning seems to be the engine that drives Essbase sales, yet Essbase functionality appears to be influenced by OBIEE.  Why?  How is Planning impacting Essbase’s future direction?  What about other tools?  Will Essbase retain its EPM focus or become just another component of the Oracle database?
5. ASO Planning allows (by Planning standards) huge databases, yet Planning’s administrative performance cannot keep place, e.g., extraordinarily long dimension build (and even longer delete) times, slow refreshes, and poor form execution.  How will Planning’s performance improve?  When?
6. Planning and Essbase have at least seven (EPMA, EAS, Studio, Classic Planning, Outlineload, ODI, BIFS, and I’ve likely forgot a few) ways to build dimensionality and load data.  Each method has its merits, each has its weaknesses.  Why isn’t there a single optimized metadata and data management tool?  Or at least fewer ones.
7. Documentation for the EPM schemas stopped with 11.1.2.1.  Are there any plans for releasing new schema maps or is that someone’s KScope15 session?
8. When, when, when will SQL be used to read and write Essbase data and metadata aka when do Load Rules die?
9. When will BSO Essbase perform the following using the Hybrid engine:  Attributes, Time Balance, Cross dimensional references, and add all of the Calc Script functions?
10. It appears as though many aspects of Essbase (Exalytics-only functions) and Planning (tied more and more closely to EBS and Fusion) are losing their technology-agnostic nature, historically one of the benefits of the Oracle Hyperion EPM technology stack.  Are we looking at a future in which the EPM suite only works on Oracle hardware and with Oracle back-end software?

But those are just my questions.  I don’t actually expect to get answers to all of the above (I think they alone could fill our two allotted hours but I am a firm believer in over-preparing), but you now have an insight of the EPM Mind of Cameron.  It’s not too scary, is it?

Shankar and Gabby didn’t actually agree to me as Privy Councilor for a Planning-themed Star Chamber.  The Planning Deep Dive is your opportunity to ask your questions to the very people who define the future of Planning and Essbase.  

How you will ask questions before and during the Deep Dive

I have a sneaking suspicion that you will have many, many, many questions and I want to give everyone a fair chance at them.

While I will be taking questions in the normal way during the session, i.e., you raise your hand, ask the question, I repeat it, and maybe Oracle answer it, that approach single threads the Q&A process and doesn’t necessarily let the best ones bubble to the surface.  

To try to get round that, I am asking that you send your questions now, yes right now, to the following Twitter hashtag:  #PlanningDeepDive.  Before the conference, I will monitor that tag for your oh so valuable questions.  During the Deep Dive session I (or more likely a “lucky” volunteer as I cannot walk and chew gum at the same time) will monitor the same.  I (we?  confusing isn’t it?) will see if they share common themes and guide the discussion around those lines.

And that’s it

I think this will be a lot of fun, perhaps even for two very brave (and very generous) Oracle EPM product managers.

Yes, there are lots of other cool things going on at the same time (as always, I wish there was a way to attend, oh, the Planning, Essbase, Business Intelligence, EPM Foundations, and BI/EPM Reporting Deep Dive sessions all at the same time but of course that just can’t be) but I think what the Planning track has on offer simply isn’t matched anywhere else on Thursday.  

If you don’t show up, I will of course be crushed, but then again I will have two rather hard to reach Oracle PMs at my mercy to ask, whine, and beseech about the future of the two tools that have come to define my (and very likely your) career.

This will of course be more meaningful if you do attend – you will have insights, concerns, and questions that I could never come up with.  Your participation is key to the success of this session.

In case you can’t tell, I am tremendously excited by this opportunity as I think this will be a dynamic, exciting, and educational session like no other at Kscope and one that will be driven by you, the audience member.

Join us, won’t you?

Safety Car

Since wrapping up the tour of California a week ago I have quite literally been racing all over the globe like a headless chook, a very tired one at that! The final stage was another successful one for the green machine with superman sagan taking a fine 3rd and in the process wrapping up his 5th consecutive green points jersey at the race, it's an understatement to say he's made the jersey his own. Thanks to Peter's success there was reason to celebrate and as a team we got stuck into that on Sunday afternoon. As usual when the full Cannondale social society from Connecticut is present the fun didn't finish with a few quiet beverages beside the pool with festivities rolling on into a little later in the evening than I had planned. I have to confess, California is a pretty easy place to have some fun! With the race and celebrations done it was time for a couple of days hanging out with the extended cannondale family in the usa.



I was very pleased to have the tour behind me, it was perhaps one of the most mentally demanding weeks I have experienced in my career. My condition was so terrible and I felt so useless that trying to maintain a positive frame of mind was quite difficult, even for someone as positive as me. I guess though when your body is deprived of oxygen like mine was last week in California, invariably your brain is aswell and I simply didn't have the mental energy to be my chirpy self. All the oxygen and energy my brain and body was getting was going into surviving in the race and contributing where I could but in the end the overwhelming sense of knowing I was unable to do what I wanted in the race really played heavy on me, not being there for my team mates when it matters most is always going to be something I will be disappointed with myself about. Anyways the race is behind me now and I did what I could and that was all I could do. There are new races on the horizon so what's important now is not what's been done but what I do going forward. I need to get back to being my usual self as that's when I am most use to my team and myself!



On a positive note I managed to defend my last place on the general classification all the way to thousand oaks. I can honestly say there was no point in the race after stage 1 when my airways decided to close that I even thought about getting any result other than finishing. Basically from that point on helping the team where I could and getting to the finish line once I had done that were the only two objectives I had on a daily basis such was my physical state. It was almost comical how greatly the wind had been taken out of that I started to call myself the "safety car". Basically as soon as the race was going full gas I immediately retreated to the back of the peleton and waited for it to subside or get unceremoniously dumbed out the back which happened to me more time than I care to remember last week. Once the pace slackened and the race was under control I would immediately go right to the front and ride tempo as more often than not we were working on a sprint for peter. Don't be fooled, even though I spent many hours on the front of the bunch keeping the break in check it was a hell of a a lot easier than sitting in the group and following a pace I wasn't in control off. I was in such a bad physical state that I had to make the peleton ride at my pace for as long as possible simply to help me survive as silly as that sounds. The funny thing is the bunch allowed me to do it so I must say a big thankyou to all the riders at the 2014 tour of California for helping make me look not quite as they should off! Basically when I am hit with these allergy asthma attack thing I don't have any threshold as that requires an immediate increase in oxygen around the body. Therefore I could ride all day at between 300-400 watts but as soon as I tried to raise the pace above this level the oxygen rapidly ran out and my legs filled with toxic lactic acid and I was further back than full back. I guess the only thing that saved me was that I am lucky enough to have a good base, after all prior to California it was the best start to the season I have had so luckily some of that hard work helped me out. Another thing that gives me some optimism is that I got so weak so quickly that I am crossing the fingers its like a bout of food poisoning and I regain my usual condition equally as rapidly, guess time will tell on that one! Anyways i feel that with what I have described above make me the perfect candidate for "safety car" award of the 2014 tour of California! Suffice to say I am very greatfull that I was able to survive in that state and also be able to have a laugh at myself now its all said and done. Was a very humbling week for me!!



With the race and celebrations done I had the chance to start repairing the mind and body with a couple of relaxing days in socal. I had a nice ride on monday with my great buddies from best buddies (pardon the pun). There is no better way to role out the aches and pains and perhaps a few to many guiness's than a pedal with Jon, Jeremiah and road sheriff Richard. Also along for the ride were Andy and Kevin from the cannondale events clan, two guys that I have never ever not had an unforgettable experience with and Monday's ride was no different. These guys love cycling more than I care to imagine and also reiterate to me how lucky I am to do this sport every day, after the week I had had having a couple of hours with these boys had me recharged and champing at the bit for what comes next so thanks lads, was one of my most enjoyable and memorable recovery spins specially as we did it along a stretch of the famous route 66.



With the aches and pains largely rolled out it was time for the "official" cannondale post c=tour of California after party. In cycle hosted it in Pasadena and along with Ted, George, GB and the two Sagan's we were pretty excited to get amongst all the fans. I believe 400 people turned up for the car park party and each and everyone of them made an attempt to show there appreciation, again this was the r n r I was in need of so I really enjoyed this party. As with most cannondale events you attend with superman sagan you are very much part of the support band but that is perfect for me. While Peter gets mobbed I get the chance to have a good chat with the odd fan who seeks me out and often wind up meeting someone whom will become a great friend and Monday was no different. It was a great party and must give a big thanks to in cycle for hosting it and giving us a memorable final night of our time in California. At the end of the day the guys who own the bike shops that sell cannondale's are what gives us the opportunity to be apart of our exciting team. Its great therefore to give a little back to them even in just the form of bit of a chinwag about what racing's like or more importantly what we think of the bikes we ride. The feedback we give could often be something that helps them sell bikes and when they sell bikes everybody is happy, it's a real trickledown effect. As I didn't finish up with the owners until the bars closed in Pasadena on Monday night, I am pretty sure they enjoyed hanging with us and I hope in some way we were able to help them aswell. Again big thanks to incycle for a great party and being such great supporters.



As I had been full gas since the race finished up, I figured there was no point slowing down on my final day in California. I was up early Tuesday with Ted to head south to orange county for a ride with our great friend and one of the biggest supporters of not only cannondale but USA cycling in the one and only Scott Tedrow. Scott is in the process of putting the finishing touches on two new bike stores and kindly organised a social ride for ted and I to attend and meet up with those involved in his new ventures and some other cannondale fans. What always strikes me about California is how educated about cycling the local scene is and its always an absolute pleasure to cruise the boulevards with socal folk. Scott is the ultimate host and you are always glued to whatever he has to say which consequently meant that in the end ted and I were doing a mad rush to get me to the airport intime for my flight back to Europe. Scott is an never ending source of enthusiasm and with the state I had been in for the previous week I was trying to absorb as much of it as possible so was happy with the stress of running late, the two days cruising around socal had got my spirts back up and I was ready to get back across the pond and get stuck right back into it.



Ted charged though the crazy and thanks to the intimidation of his massive F150 pickup truck I made it to the airport in time for me to board the plane back to Italy. By the time I took my seat the excitement of the past couple of days was subsiding and the fatigue of the race was setting in. I remember sitting down, explaining to the flight attendant that under no circumstances did I wish to be woken for meals before promptly falling into the deepest of sleeps. I must have laid my chair out at some point once we took of but I certainly don't remember doing and it wouldn't surprize me if the hostess did it for me and tucked me under the blanket. I was woken upon the commencement of our decent into munich so had slept like a log for 11hours. I got of the plane a new man and with a spring in my step, certainly the first time I have felt this way following a long haul flight. A short flight to milan followed and before I knew it I was back in my home away from home in gavirate and again tucked up into bed and out to it. As fresh as I thought I was after the flight it must have been a honeymoon period. I feel asleep that night at 11pm once back in gavirate and did not wake up until 4pm the next afternoon. I really had done a big number on myself and my body decided it needed a further 15hours to gets things back in order. This time I woke up a little groggy which is probably of no surprize but once that passed I was again feeling chippa and most importantly the fatigue finally started to leave my body. It became apparent at this point to me that feeling that lowly in a race is a sign that perhaps your are really getting your body to do something that it doesn't want to do. I don't like quitting and I certainly wasn't going to leave my team mates a man short in a race on the other side of the world, especially one as important as California is for our team. With that if I am going to race then I am going to race and always give all I can to contribute. On this occasion I really hard to dig deep into my backet of digging deep and adrenaline would have helped me through. Now finally back to the safety of Italy my body finally said enough was enough and knocked me out for ¾ of a day to repair itself. So thankyou my body for firstly allowing me to get through the tour of California and secondly for grinding me to halt and reloading when the time was right. I knocked out 35hours of sleep in my 3 days in gavirate, its certainly is the bodies best medicine.



On Saturday morning I was back at malpenza airport to start the rebuilding phase, destination Tenerife. Yep back to the Spanish island for a couple of weeks to prepare for my next challenge, the tour of Switzerland. Upon arriving in the carpark at the hotel parador and getting out of the car I instantly felt relaxed again. I love this place and have affectionately named it the green zone or my safety zone. Her I can simply worry about riding my bike as effectively as possible and nothing else. The staff here bend over backwards to do all they can for you and as such I am so pleased to be back to get stuck into what's a very important period of preparation ahead of me. As usual I am not the only cyclist here as Chris Froome, Ritchie Porte, Vincenzo Nibali and Alberto Contador are all currently roaming the halls of the hotel parador. When you feeling a bit out of sorts its always nice to back around your familiar surrounds and I have spent a lot of time here at the foot of the volcano so for now its probably a pretty good spot for me to be. I will check in soon with what's cracking at cycling's Alcatraz.



cjw

Come one, come all, to the EPM carnival

Only two things scare me

As a child of the Cold War, I share Austin Powers’ first fear all too well, but the second?  Carnies?  Really?  On the other hand, Kscope does nomadically wander from city to city.  But do we all smell bad?  Have small hands?  Hopefully at least not the middle property (I, and I believe most of ODTUG bathe on a regular basis, with soap) and I think I have pretty large hands, so that’s only one out of three.  G’wan, watch the clip.  I’m pretty sure Michael York’s look of incomprehension pops up on my face at least once a day in reaction to all kinds of interesting statements.

But not this time

No need for a look of incredulity – what I’m about to relate is dead easy to understand.  

The EPM community will be hosting an EPM (‘natch) carnival at Kscope14, Monday, 23 June 2014, from 8 till 10 pm.  Why oh why oh why would you go?  Simply because it will be about fun, networking, and help.

What is this thing you call “fun”?

For once it isn’t my current project that is driving me, in sequence, to rage, tears, and anxiety, but instead preparing for my way-too-many-OMG-why-did-I-agree-to-this Kscope presentations.  As almost always, I have no one to blame but myself.  No matter the source of your current angst, the EPM carnival will be a salve to your troubled waters (yes, I am mixing metaphors but bear with me) because it will include:

• Bean bag toss – your favorite(?) EPM ACED’s face will be superimposed onto a clown’s mouth and you get to throw the bag in the mouth.  We certainly talk enough; perhaps this is your opportunity to shut us up?
• Road Rally - this is a multi-player game where everyone rolls dice and if your “lane” number is rolled you advance your car (hot wheels)
• Say Ahh - this is a put-put golf game
• Skee Roll - smaller version of the classic skee ball game
• Balloon Darts
• Hoopster /Electronic Shooting – basketball
• Ring Toss - classic coke bottle ring toss

Although I am crushed to relate that health and safety regulations preclude the ACE Director dunk tank (I have a strange feeling that this would be quite popular), you must agree that the above activities contain at least a scintilla of fun.  Those fun times are a great motive to be there, but they aren’t the only reason you, oh Kscope EPM attendee, should come to the EPM Carnival.

Networking

While the education that Kscope provides is second to none, an equally compelling reason I (and I suspect you as well) come to Kscope is to meet, if only once per year, with my peers from around the globe.  This is where the elite Oracle geeks meet and greet; the EPM Carnival gives us all a relaxed, friendly, and open way to meet people from all walks of EPM life, free from the pressures of work responsibilities.

Informal contacts can be just as valuable as the ones forged through work.  Kscope’s social events, from the Community Service Day to the big Wednesday night Special Event, are the place to forge those relationships.  Don’t ignore the Monday night EPM Carnival as another avenue to do just that.

The spirit of giving

As many of you know, Mike Riley, Kscope14 conference co-chairman and former ODTUG president is battling cancer.  Cancer is a cruel disease and Mike needs all of the help – spiritual, material, and financial – that he and his family can get.  ODTUG is Mike’s professional family, and when a member of our family needs help, we give it.

The EPM Carnival will give you an opportunity to do just that – you will be able to donate unused Carnival tickets (it’s just like going to a Grange Fair, right down to how you pay for the rides) or even purchase additional ones for Mike’s fund.  Yes, this is a naked appeal for your help.  You expected dignity from me?  You haven’t been reading my blog much, and certainly not on this subject.  

As so many of we EPM geeks are a bit, um, hopeless when it comes to examples of physical dexterity, you will be able to supplement the carnival tickets for whatever game you are playing not so well with cold hard cash to move your middling score up to the winner’s circle.  The real do-re-mi that you contribute will go towards the fund for Mike.

The EPM community owes Mike a huge professional debt because he is really the reason why EPM is part of ODTUG and thus Kscope.  He is also one hell of a nice guy.  He needs our help and you can provide it.  Isn’t that enough to cause you to cough up a few tickets?

Summing it up

So there you have it:  fun in the form of possible ritual humiliation of EPM ACE Directors, a chance to informally meet your peers, and an opportunity to aid Mike Riley.  All made possible by the fine folks at Secure-24.  

I’ll be there.  Will you?

sagan!!

Sagan was back to his scintillating best today. Infact you would have been hard pressed finding anybody at today's start willing to bet against him winning stage 7. The course was perfect for peter, well it's hard to find a stage that isn't or that he doesn't make perfect for his characteristics such is the seemingly endless amount of ability he possesses to race a bike. So with the plan at the start of the day to give peter a shot at victory, everybody on the team had there simple part to play before peter charged through the line before anyone else in the race!



It was again a stinking hot day. It's become the norm this past week however when your racing a bike in it you don't ever get used to it! The attacks were thick and fast at the start and unfortunately for my powerless pins that again meant spending some time at the back of the peleton for the 1st hour or so. While I may not be able to pull the skin off a rice custard at the moment it's lucky I have 7 super strong team mates who kept things under control up the front and eventually let a nice manageable group of 7 riders skip clear. When I break is hard to be like today it means only strong men are in it so you need to get it under control very quickly. Fortunately greenedge had the same plan as us and immediately put a couple of strong guys on the front so that made my job a little easier. So with the race under control and some help up front I settled in at the head of the field for a little pace setting.



My role was very straight forward. That was to Keep the break in check for as long as possible alone and keep the rest of our guys fresh for as long as possible. Ideally that would mean riding the front until such time on the final climb peter gave the nod to light the fuse and dispatch the other sprinters so I knew I only had to make it 90km before I would be unceremoniously dispatched. The plan was actually for GB and ted to help me out but as I am so incredibly useless at the moment I said to them to save there legs and let me keep the gap at a manageable 2min for next 60km's or so and that way they could be the ones to light the fuse on the climb and inturn keep our real strongmen in Koran, body, saba, and George fresh for the final 40km plunge down to the finish. So all luckily went to plan, I had some assistance from big Jens mouris from greenedge to trade turns with and we had no dramas keeping the 7 men up the road in check. Them like clock work as the final climb ramped up ted and GB hit the turbo.



There acceleration was instantly effective and by the time I was unceremoniously dispatched from the back of the peleton cav had also been dropped. Up ahead I could see many more gaps opening in the bunch and just knew that the man with the fastest and freshest legs up the front was wearing a cannondale jersey and that the victory seemed a formality. Off course this wasn't the reality and while only 50 riders remained in the front group by the top of the climb our boys still had plenty of work to shut down the final seconds to the breakaway.



From the top of the climb to the finish body, koren, saba, and George covered everything and perfectly executed the final phase to the days plan. That being to ensure that when the finish line comes into sight peter was in a position to let rip and cross the line first. Off course I can't give a detailed description on what happened in those final km's as I was further back than full back by that stage but I know the boys where all over everything like a rash to ensure the group sprint would decide the winner. Sure enough as the sprint opened up the green machines most prolific winner kicked like a mule and took yet another dominant and ever so stylish victory. Peter seems to win with such ease that it seems almost a formality and in the end he makes it look that way that's for sure. The thing that makes peter so special is that every rider in that field knew what we were doing all day and planning and in the end no body could do anything to stop him crossing the finish line first. Yep, there are not many compliments or praises left for Mr peter sagan but a performance like today just reiterates what an absolute superstar he is. Not only that but he is the most humble and enjoyable captain to ride for. Anyways a great day for peter, the team and cannondale. The win certainly puts a spark in the tail of the team and tomorrow represents another opportunity so time for some much needed rejuvenation sleep and get up and do it all again tomorrow.



Cjm

racing in a furnace

Stage 6 here in california was yet another barmey affair! I have decided to start using the usa measuring system as it sounds so much more impressive when you say it's 100 degrees! So that's what greeted us right out of the starting blocks today here in valencia. Not only that but we had some of those super enjoyable rollers which I just too long to be able to role over but short enough that whoever is at the front wants to launch attacks left right and centre. So this is what we faced in the first 20km and not surprisingly there were riders all over the place! I have maintained my consistent form here in california and was dully one of the first riders dropped but I didn't panic, I knew I am further back than fullback as far as my conditions goes at this race so played it safe and rolled myself back onto the group once the pace had settled down a little. Unfortunately we again missed the breakaway but not that I could I have really done anything to help that as I was more concerned about staying in the peleton let alone worrying about what was going on in front of it! Anyways with the break gone and the race under control I immediately got to work and began my bottle runs for the day!



We had one simply objective today which was to give George the best possible chance to do well on the mountain top finish. On stage 4 unfortunately George ran out of water in the final km's so my sole objective today was to ensure that the only concern he had with water was that he had to much of it and not on the contrary. Obviously I am far from my usual self here but that's no excuse not to try and help out where you can. Basically I feel that it's just as important how you can help when your at your worst as it is when your at your best. We all have great days, and we all have shockers but in a cycling regardless of how horrible your traveling or how bad you feel you need to do all you can to find a way to help out. So with that being said I knew that on a sweltering hot day in the Californian dessert I could contribute to the teams effort by ensuring everybody was as well hydrated as possible. It was not just important for today but we also have 2 more stages left. And with peter sagan in the team and the massive motors we have here to help him in saba, body, GB, ted and koren, it was important to try and get everybody through the day in the best shape possible.



So basically I did between 7-8 trips back to the car. Each time your carry 8 bottles for all the riders so that equals whatever it equals!! When you go back so many times, basically every 30min or so, it's important to pick the right moment. If you go at the wrong and load yourself up with 8 bottles which weighs around 5kg and all off a sudden the groups going full gas up a climb then there I a good chance you will be needing all those bottles for yourself as you could very quickly be further back than fullback behind the race! So with all the practice I have had in the past days I have been doing my very best to find the exact perfect moment to go back, load up, and get the bottles back to the boys as quickly as possible. Also I have realized I have. Developed a system that loads 8 bottles onto my body as quickly as possible and is also as easy to unload when I get to the boys.



The system is as follows. First I place a bottle in each rear side pocket. Then I load another 3 into back which stay high on the back due to the bottles in the pockets holding them up. Then I put the final 3 down the front of my shirt and off I go. I always try and anticipate when the group is bunched up as logically if the group is strung out in a long line you have a lot longer journey to get back to the front of the peleton. Generally going up a rise and charging back into the group just as you crest the top is one of the easiest ways to deploy beverages to the boys. Also anytime your going easily uphill is another good option but here you have to be confident that you know what your doing as if the you know what hits the fan and the pace goes on then you could find yourself 5kg heavier and in a big spot of bother! Anyways that's my system for getting bottles and I am in many ways greatfull for how horrible I have felt here in california as I have had plenty of practice now in sharpening up my skills in this area.



Back to the race and it was pretty straight forward. It was hot hot hot and a lot more up than down so in other words quite a challenging day for all. At one point wiggo pointed out to me how hot it was just incase I hadn't noticed! To which I quite wittingly replied in my opinion "my throats as dry as a pommy's towel" that got a laugh out of him and was a brief moment of amusement at the challenging environment we currently found ourselves racing our bikes! So George was looking chippa all day. On the bike, particularly when he is going uphill, George simply looks like he is floating. He is natural climber but as he showed yesterday with his work for peter there is a lot more to his 60kg frame than just going uphill fast. Anyways I would have loved to have assisted him today but knew simply getting to the finish would be a big enough challenge in my current state. Once inside the final 40km I just kept going back to the car for bottles for all the guys but mainly for George. I think I did 3 trips within a 20km period and when I did my final run George had that much water coming his way he gave himself I nice refreshing shower with a bottle and said he was all good. That was music to my ears as all the trips to and from the car had started to take a little bit of a tole on me and I was ready to join the laughing group and cruise up to the finish line. I watched geroge pedal off effortlessly with the best riders, he looked so light on his feet the a good breeze may have just blown him away! So was not a big surprise to find out he finished in a fine 9th place on the stage amongst all the big guns in the race which was a great result. Most importantly George was chirpy and happy with his ride and I am sure there is still a fair bit of smack down to come from his skinny pins in the final couple of stages.



I survived another round and while I certainly did nothing to create any excitement in the race I feel like I didn't quite suck as much as I have done in the previous days. I definitely wouldn't say I am improving but was nice to see some other guys getting tired and joining me in the hoop group today. Tomorrow is a new days and could be a great chance for peter to add to his tour of california stage wins so looking forward to that. Whatever my role may be, on the front, on the bottles, probably a combo of both, I am simply just happy to still be in the race and still in the swinging!



Cjw

cali update

Time for a bit of an update from the tour of california. The first few days have not been some of the most enjoyable days I have had racing this year, Infact it's definitely been the most difficult ones I have faced. This time last year I was suffering through the giro with allergies and unfortunately a change in continent for the month of may has changed what's seems to be an annual miserable may as far as my respiration goes! It's bizarre, until mid to late April all feels great and then as if turning on a switch I just don't feel right at this time of year. Anyways this issues I have had here in california have been more through lack of anticipation on my part with taking my preventative medication but now I am ontop of that again I am doing my best to get back amongst the race. Basically I have spent the first 4 days well and truly playing the ropa dope simply trying to survive to the next round and help out where possible. It's had its positives, I haven't been on bottle duty much this year so has been fun re aquainting myself with the skills associated with shoving as many icy cold drink bottles down my jersey! To be honest due to the searing heat it's been a pleasurable cooling task! Anyways enough of that, I am still here and I am still swinging and today we started with a fresh slate and clear objective for stage 5.



Today's stage was absolutely perfect for our fearless team leader peter sagan. I nice but nasty little 5km climb with 30km of the finished on paper appeared to be the perfect place for the boys in green to ramp up the pace and distance some of the other sprinters and let peter do his thing on the run into santa barbara. So with a likely winner in the team we hatched a simple but what we felt was an effective plan to deliver peter to the finish.



My role was the one I enjoy the most. Stay alert at the start and do what possible to dictate the size and composition of the daily breakaway group. The heat meant nobody seemed to keen to charge up the road and it didn't take long until the field were happy to send 6 men on there way. After not catching the breakaway yesterday I wasn't taking any chances today. As soon as they had a couple of minutes I immediately went to the front to keep some momentum in the group going. Thing is if you ride easy then they can ride easy to gain a big gap, If you just ride regular, say 250-300watts which is nice and cruisey then they need to at least apply a little pressure to the pedals to gain a significant advantage. I am happy if they have there gap I would just prefer for them to take on some fatigue to gain it, makes it a little easier to chase them down later. Anyways GB, the canadian cannonball and I were incharge of ensuring we got the boys the base of the final climb with the breakaway under control. This ended up a being a little more relaxing than we envisaged as the gap never got above 2min 30seconds all day so meant we could comfortably control it and not have to call upon any help from the boys until the final climb. Ted was like a pack horse with the water bottles all day along with bodnar and the rest of the gang. The boys were so good at bringing up water bottles that I had the luxery of having one to pour over my head for most of the day. In 40+ degree temperatures this is absolutely priceless and definitely makes a big difference in your ability to drum out a tempo on the front of the bunch for 130km so big thanks to the boys for that. So by the time we got to the base of the climb, GB and I had done our job and it was now time for our climbing kiwi George Bennett to turn the screw on the field and she'll as many sprinters as possible.



Onto the climb and I immediately put the hazard lights on! I had long since over heated and was now simply in getting to the finishline mode. I am not even the faintest of a shadow of my usual self thanks to these allergies this week so need to save what limited energy levels I have. Besides we have 3 more days and I want to contribute as much as possible so saving some energy here and there is the logical thing to do to be of any use to the boys.



Back to the race and onto the climb and George started drumming out his tempo. He quickly and very unceremoniously dropped all the sprinters that finished infront of peter on stage 1 so peter was now the red hot favorite for the anticipated sprint amongst the selection formed on the climb. Unfortunately just as it seemed all the foundations had been layed a red locomotive in the form of Taylor phinney charged out of the peleton and down the decent at a bullet a gate and wouldn't be seen again until everybody else arrived at the finish line 15seconds after he had! Our boys immediately reacted and did all they could to bring him back but it seemed nothing was stopping the American today. With our biggest engines in bodnar and koren churning away on the front, a tandam that most would never bet against pulling back any move be it big or small, but today just wasn't meant to be. Best on ground would have to have been George today however. Not only did he drum out the pace on the climb but he was right there in the thick of it on the flat doing all he could to give peter a shot at the victory, a very very impressive performance indeed. But in the end we can't be disappointed, we all did what was asked and peter also duly gobbled up 2nd place on the stage which also put him into the lead in the green points jersey so we certainly finished the day with more than we started with so that's great. Also testament to peter whom it could be viewed has had a quieter than normal start to this year's tour of cali but he is still the most consistent sprinter in the race by virtue of having the points jersey. Yep sagan truly is a class act and we still have 3 days left so today should just be the start of cannondale's late run in the 2014 tour of cali!



Time for some sleep



Cjw

On the ropes

The tour of California has not really got off to the start I would have liked. Simply put I have spent the first 2 stages playing the ropa dope as a result of being WBA loped in the face by some unexpected Californian springtime allergies. I had the same problem last year I. Italy in may and just hoped that relocating to another continent to race this may I would avoid such problems again, unfortunately didn't pan out that way. Anyways now I know they are here our great team doc has got me the correct medicines to deal with it and fingers crossed I will come good in the coming days. To be brutally honest I am just happy to still be in the race and survived the first 2 days all be it all on the ropes, will do my best to get back toward the centre of the ring tomorrow. I currently occupy the prized position of being the last rider in the race so at least I don't have to worry about anyone fighting me for that! Still we have a fantastic team here and when I perk back up I look forward to reporting in on how awesome they all are, for now however it's time for something I have been doing alot of latey, the greatest medicine of all, sleep!



Cjw

America's Interstate Highways

The 47,000 miles of highways that comprise America’s interstate highway system are nothing short of an engineering marvel, surpassed only by what China has built in the last few years.

We take them for granted, but when they were designed almost sixty years ago these super-highways presented both great opportunity and vast challenges.  The US wasn’t the first with super-highways. Those bragging rights go to the Germans, whose Reichsautobahnsaw cars zooming along at 100+ mph in the 1930’s.

Most credit President Eisenhower, whose troops rode the Autobahn in WWII, for seeing the military value of an American equivalent, though engineering such a complex across the US was far more difficult.

Of course by 1940 the US already had the Pennsylvania Turnpike and by 1954 the NY State Thruway, but private toll roads were just the beginning.

To build a road expected to last, in 1955 the federal government, AAA and automakers first built a $27 million seven mile test road near Ottawa, Illinois.  Half was concrete, the other half asphalt.  The 836 separate sections of highway had various sub-surfaces and 16 bridges.  For two years army trucks drove night and day, seeing which road designs would hold up.

Weather and traffic dictated different designs:  in desert areas the highways need be only a foot thick, while in Maine the tough winter and freeze-thaw cycles required that I-95 would be five feet thick.

Construction of the highways required moving 42 billion cubic feet of soil.  To expedite construction of I-40 in California, there was even a plan to use nuclear bombs to vaporize part of the Bristol Mountain range. 

As author Dan McNichol writes in his excellent book “The Roads that Built America”, “VIP seating was even planned for the event.  The (nuclear) bombing was to produce a cloud 12,000 feet high and a radioactive blast 133 times that of Hiroshima.”  Needless to say, the mountains were moved using more conventional explosives.

Outside of Greenbelt MD another site tested the design of road signs… white lettering on a black background, white on blue (already adopted by the NY Thruway) or, what proved to be the winning model, white on green.

Just 5200 of the original 41,000 miles of Interstates were to be built in urban areas, but those few miles accounted for almost half of the $425 billion total cost.  By 1992 the system was deemed “completed”.  Bragging rights for the longest of the interstates goes to I-90 running 3020 miles from Boston to Seattle and own beloved I-95, which runs 1920 miles from the Canadian border to Miami FL.

As anyone who drives on I-95 in Connecticut knows, the interstates have far surpassed their expected traffic load and are in need of billions of repairs.  Little did we know 60 years ago what our automotive future might bring.

Might I learn something from Oracle Support?

Might I learn something?

I might and there’s a strong possibility you might as well.  Read on and find out about a new initiative that Oracle Support are running to help you get the most out of, well, Oracle Support.  I cannot see how you would not want to do this unless of course you find nearly endless searching through what is a huge website whilst your boss/clients/peers are beating on your head with, “Did you figure it out yet?  Do we need to file a SR?  Did you figure it out yet?  Did you?  Did you?  Did I mention that it’s really important that you figure this out?  Right now would be a good time to do so.” to be oh so enjoyable.  No, probably not.

What oh what oh what is this all about

If you are an Oracle customer, or an Oracle partner of Gold level or above, you have the ability to browse Oracle’s Support site, download patches, log Service Requests (SRs) if you are a partner  of Platinum or higher (customers can always do this so long as their maintenance is current), and download patches as well.  

There are many resources out there on the web:  blogs, message boards, Twitter and they are all (well most – I don’t get the blogs that are copy and paste regurgitations of the documentation; I also understand although I do not approve of sites that simply take Support KB articles and replicate them) pretty good.  But nothing trumps the breadth and depth of Oracle Support.  I like to think of this as the difference between paid troubleshooting, workaround finding, and general knowledge dissemination and those who do it for free, like yr. obdnt. srvnt and many others.  I don’t think one replaces the other (okay, except for those illegal sites – and no, I am not going to link to one as they are depressingly easy to find), they are instead complementary.  A blog like this one might cover a function or feature in one of the many EPM tools; Support will tell you how to fix one of those systems and even help you prevent problems.  I can only do the latter if you hire me and maybe not even then.

As I alluded to in the introductory paragraph of this post, Oracle Support is big.  Big in terms of content by product, big in terms of products, big in terms of sheer size.  Like I wrote, just big.  And with size comes confusion as one must filter out all of the other products that Oracle sells.  I seem to remember Thomas Kurian mentioning at an ACE Director briefing (note to all -- this is as close as I come to the Oracle power structure) that there are over 2,000 products with the Oracle brand and Oracle Support covers them all.

To reduce this potential confusion Oracle Support have launched all manner of education in how to use Oracle Support.  The latest initiative is an Oracle Support accreditation exam.  Italia Norwodworska of Oracle support sent me an email suggesting that I might like to check it out.  As I am one of those who is often confounded by the Support website, this sounded like a really good opportunity to learn more about a site I don’t often use, but when I do use it, I really need to use it as efficiently and effectively as possible.  Remember those quotes in the introduction?  Those were real life examples.  Ah, stress, how I don’t enjoy you.

What does it look like?

The Level 2 Accrediation for Business Analytics (I seem to have skipped level 1 but as always I do not let a lack of proper technical preparation slow me down) exam is a series of videos that explain how Support works and how to best use it.  Going through every one of the videos is recommended unless you really do know it all.  For the most part I just listened to it and jumped back to the videos when something I really didn’t understand was discussed.  The nice thing about videos like this is that you can play them as many times as needed till you grok the subject.

In case it is not obvious, you watch (or half-watch and listen) each of the subject areas and then take the test at the end.

This being the age of social media (and inexpensive animation) you will get pictures like the below to help drive a concept home:

Hmm, she reminds me of a grade school teacher telling me, “Cameron, you are a moderately bright boy, but you do not pay attention.”  True, that, even today.  But I did try to pay attention and as you’ll see from my not totally stellar score, I did manage to mostly pay attention.  The school-like aspect of this exam will become obvious later.

I’d like you to meet Joe

Joe is a stock photo and considerably better dressed than any Essbase admin I have ever met.  And I say this as someone who is just rolling off of an Essbase admin gig (don’t ask and I am officially the World’s Worst Essbase Admin as I kept on proposing new and hopefully better practices instead of just doing my job).  Here he is – I think his eyes follow me wherever I go in a room.  Creepy.  OTOH, Joe has what looks like a wicked cool 17” laptop so maybe he isn’t all bad.  At the same time, he never seems to move.  As I wrote, creepy.

All kidding aside, you will get to meet Joe at the beginning of every video and then Stalker Joe (as I have named him) goes away.  He’s just a bridging device and really isn’t so bad.  Having had a good look at those of us in the EPM community (and I most definitely include myself in this category), perhaps it is best that Oracle used a model.

The heart of the matter

Snarky (and really, unworthy) comments by yr. obdnt. srvnt. aside, this exam is quite valuable.  Dave Farnsworth, former EPM consultant (sadly now retired) once told me about buying books on one’s own nickel:  “If I get one new idea out of a book, just one, it’s paid for itself.”  I managed to learn at least four new things from this exam.  Did I mention it was free?  Quite the deal.

Things I should have known, but didn’t, and now do

What is a PowerView?

It’s the way you filter products within Oracle Support so you don’t get KB articles on how to get that bucket of prop wash for the IBM Series 360 (I am making this up in case it isn’t obvious) but instead just focus on the products you want to use.  It’ll be available the next time you log into Support.  I always wondered/was too lazy to figure that out, but I should have.

Terminology, vocabulary, and definitions

What’s the difference between a Patch Set, a Patch Set Update, and a Patch Set Exception?  Damfino.  Actually, now I do.

Patch Set

Patch Set Update

Patch Set Exception

Just to recap:

• Patch Set = Large number of merged patches, are cumulative bug fixes, and change the release number.  Remember all of the posts on 11.1.2.3.500?  That was all about a patch set.
• Patch Set Update = Low risk, cumulative patches, designed to be applied on a regular basis without forcing product recertification.
• Patch Set Exception = Single fix for a single problem, applied via Opatch, handed out to customers with lots of pain.

I must shamefacedly admit that I have had no idea what these have precisely meant since, oh, 2007 and Oracle’s acquisition.  There’s lots of good information like this in the videos.

Art following reality

Here is a generic boss woman (sensible heels, suit, short hair) dealing rather adroitly with the geek in glasses.  Hmm, lose the blue eyes and the tie and it could be me, right down to the Rocky from South Philly at the Art Museum looking down the Ben Franklin Parkway towards City Hall pose.  Yeah, I come from Philly.

Let’s see if we can read some other truths into this screen shot:

• Jolene (for I have named her such) has way better fashion sense than the geek.  This is damning with faint praise, but still it is worth noting.
• She will be his boss in six months if she isn’t already.
• Jolene secretly hates Cameron the geek and likely for good reason as she can run technical circles round him.  Also, she doesn’t think she’s Rocky Balboa.   Cameron shouldn’t either.  Look at that physique – he’s fooling himself.  The physical similarities (right down to the big head and glasses) are perhaps a bit too close for comfort for this writer.

Some fairly obvious advice that is surprisingly often not followed

I can think of many times where servers, usernames, and even passwords get posted to public forums.  Don’t Be That Guy.

Seriously, the above is really good advice.  Heed it or rue the day you posted confidential information for world+dog to see.

Teacher is going to ring my bell    

Class cutup, clown, or idiot? Only the exam can tell the tale.

Clicking on the Take The Exam link moves you to an Oracle University exam.  Gulp.

It’s a 30 question multiple choice exam – shades of school all right.  Most, but not everything, on the exam is in the videos (there is an assumption that you actually use the tools) and it took me about five minutes to go through the test.  You can review questions at any time and all in all it’s an effective interface.

Read ‘em and weep

I did actually take the videos seriously although perhaps not seriously enough:

A passing score, but will it get me into the university of my choice?  There’s that report card again with “Must try harder” in the margin.

What have I learnt from all this?

A couple of key things:

1. The videos are quite good with information that I should have known but did not.  Sad but there it is.
2. Even if I got a fair-to-middling score, I learnt new things, cf. the above comment.  This is all that really matters.
3. It is pretty painless to watch these videos and take the test – I reckon you will need just under 40 minutes if you do it all at once.
4. Sit up straight, no slouching, and pay attention!  Sorry, that was just a PTSD school moment – Oracle are actually quite friendly.  They want you to succeed as it’s better for all concerned.

I really applaud Oracle for coming up with this – it’s straightforward, entertaining (I wouldn’t have written all of those mildly funny comments if I didn’t enjoy it), and informative.  Take the test and I’ll bet that you too will learn from it.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating

Oh sure you say (you do say this, don’t you?), Cameron is merely shilling for his corporate masters.  Au contraire.  I dream of the massive amounts of dosh, cash, moola, bread, cabbage, simoleons, and spondulix that the various companies I write about send me.  In my dreams alas and alack, because it is actually the other way round.  Also, I have no corporate master.

What I mean by that is that I just stumped for a lovely, shiny, good-for-365-days Gold Partner agreement.  That’s $3,000 + tax of my not-terribly-big company’s money.  Why?  Gold Partners can access Oracle Support.

Yet another example of why being an independent ain’t all beer and skittles but Oracle Support is worth it and my money is where my mouth is.

Be seeing you.