"F. Alfredo Rego" wrote:

> Richard Gambrell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >John,
> >
> >  Sorry to hear the bad news.  Please keep us (hp3000-l) informed as to
> >your "progress" with Oracle.  A year might not be enough time, from what I
> >hear, depending on the willingness to conform to the product.
> >
> >  Don't know if your company is a candidate, but more than one company
> >(and University) has been caught between an inability to adapt (or
> >de-evolve:-)) to an RDBMS/Unix solution and a failure to invest in keeping
> >the "old guy" going and up-to-date.
>
> We may need to enlist Wirt to discuss Richard's term (de-evolve) as
> it applies to unpleasant expressions such as "been caught", "Yeah,
> the unthinkable happened", "Sorry to hear the bad news", "the
> willingness to conform to [Oracle]", which are not precisely positive
> or full of joy and glory.  The whole idea may be wonderful for the
> folks who end up getting all the money, of course, but that's a
> different story.
>
> Is there an Oracle fan club somewhere (NOT formed by commissioned
> Oracle salespeople or by highly-paid Oracle consultants) that can
> help us understand the psychology behind the whole thing?  I don't
> mean the psychology of laughing all the way to the bank (this
> psychology is typical of the "server" side that collects the money).
> I mean the psychology of paying a high price for something that has
> been profusely documented as painful all over the world (this
> psychology is typical of the "client" side that pays the money).
>
> I have noticed that whenever a person who is not well versed in the
> art of enjoying good wine (but who has money to spare) goes into an
> expensive restaurant (which might be slightly out of that person's
> cultural league), such person "CHOOSES" wine by going for the most
> expensive bottle.  This is called the "indexed price method" by those
> in the know.
>
> I happen to have a friend who works in an expensive restaurant in
> Switzerland.  She tells me all kinds of funny stories about the
> tricks that she and her colleagues play on customers who become nasty
> and disrespectful to her (newly arrived United-Nation types or
> Olympic Committee types, for instance).  She just brings a "special"
> wine list that contains lousy wine with high prices.  The restaurant
> staff likes to bury wine bottles in their garden to give them a
> certain "patina" for this express purpose.  Once the nasty customer
> selects such a bottle and "examines" its wine with a silly ceremony
> designed to impress his guests, the fatuous customer says "great" to
> the amusement of the entire staff in the restaurant, who know only
> too well that the parvenu has no clue :-)
>
> Is it just fashionable to pay through the nose?  Don't payers realize
> that their payees are rolling on the floor with laughter?
>
> So, what's up with Oracle?  Even more important, how can Oracle keep
> this up?  I would love to hear from an honest and enthusiastic Oracle
> fan who can set all of us straight.  Over a good bottle of wine,
> perhaps?  Paid by the Oracle folks, of course!  I would not mind to
> be wined and dined by them as they "educate" me.  But I would choose
> the wine :-)
>
> Still curious, after all these years.
>
> Alfredo

Hmmmm, what can I add here. A few things perhaps. Some time ago I decided to
head back to University to do post-grad. course in order to 'refresh' myself
with the latest happenings. Many late nights I have wondered about that
decision ! One of the interesting things that I decided to look study was a
unit in RDBMS. I think, having finished that unit I can offer a little more to
what Alfredo says.

To the course. Essentially, this is what I see everyone is learning

1. If it isn't a RDBMS ( Oracle/Sybase/SQLServer ) then it isn't worth looking
at. Of course there is sometimes mention of 'older architectures' but only for
reference.
2. RDBMS ( like Oracle ) look after all the things that would have been
traditionally managed by the programs ( hence total program/data independance
). Other issues like redo/archive logs are all part of the same issue. This is
one of the ultimate goals, if it cannot deliver the above it ain't worth
looking at.

I could go on but I think you get my point. In taking this to the next step:-

First thing to remember is that this unit is a mirror of many more like it
around the world. Second thing to remember is that many of the IT professionals
out there today have been coming out of University with such courses learnt and
studied and fully converted.

Finally, as has been discussed before, with the massive swing to major ERP
implementations, the user does not get a choice of MPE/Image. Typically, as
suggested the move may well be off the MPE and over to Solaris ( very typical
in Australia ).

How to tackle such issues is very difficult, however I think there should be a
recognition that some people are going to demand Oracle no matter what. What I
would like to see is the ability, at the very least, to have them see MPE as a
viable alternative to the various OS ( solaris ). I will not go into those
reasons as I think the List has very well versed the rock solid nature of MPE
and the ease by which it can be used by mere mortals like myself.

Finally, to Alfredo - an Oracle Fan Club, there is a site
http://www.orafans.com/

Enough said, plenty of great work to do today on my rock solid HP3000.

cheers

shane.


--
Shane Devereaux
Manager Information Systems
Mudgee Shire Council
--------------------------------------------
Phone 0263 725888
Fax 0263 725815
Email [log in to unmask]