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Signs you might travel too much

Flying Last year I did a lot of travelling, sure…not as much as some people probably did, however it was still a heck of a lot of travelling (at last reckoning around 50 or so flights).

This year is shaping up to be similar to last year (perhaps even more travelling!), so here’s my thoughts on some signs you might be travelling too much (in no particular order other than how they sprang to mind):

  • You always know where your passport is at any point in time (seriously, when I didn’t travel that much I would always have that mild panic of “where’s my passport?”…not any more.
  • You recognise many of the people at the immigration desk in another country.
  • You can recognise exactly what the flight meal is just by the smell of it, even the desserts.
  • You always carry spare laptop batteries for your flight, even if you plan to sit in a seat with power…because odds are that it won’t be working the day you really need it.
  • You’ve had your luggage lost…(you were expecting that one right?)…but here’s the kicker, you’ve had your luggage lost and you’re actually not that worried about it, because hey…these things happen when you travel alot, worrying and shouting about it won’t make it turn up any faster.
  • You realise that the only essentials you really need, are a passport, boarding card and a credit card. Everything else can be bought, borrowed or improvised (see above).
  • You have been stopped by the LAPD for turning right on a red-light…at a ‘Do Not Turn Right On A Red Light’ sign…with the LAPD car right behind you.
  • You start turning right on red lights, even though you’re back in your home country which has no such law (see above).
  • You have (at least once) got into your own car and thought “Where has the steering wheel gone?”…only to realise you’re back in your home country where they put things on the *correct* side ;)
  • You got that free airline upgrade. Upgrades are harder and harder to get these days, but the sheer number of times you travel means that the odds are that one day you’re going to have something really horrible happen during your flight that the airline has to compensate you for…in that sense upgrades are the peak before the next trough.
  • You have more than 3 types of currency in your wallet at any point in time.
  • You use your iPhone to mark the GPS location of your car in the airport carpark.
  • You have, at least once, returned back to your country to a different airport than you left your car at (see…now the GPS location one doesn’t seem so silly does it?).

I could go on, but I won’t….additions to the list very welcome though!

Posted 10 March 2009 † John Scott § General ‡ Comments (10) °

Application Express Training in Manchester

After our highly successful Utrecht and London Application Express Training Days (not to mention our original Brussels Training), Apex Evangelists have just opened registration for our 4th Application Express 3-Day training course.

So, what are these training days? Well, we host a lot of on-site training for clients, however we also hold ‘open training’ days, where anyone can sign up, come along and get training by people who know the product inside-out. We believe that our training provides the highest quality training for superb value for money.

The current agenda (subject to change) covers a variety of topics, but it doesn’t just stop there. We don’t believe in just a 9-5 training schedule and one of our core beliefs with these training events is to provide an open format where you can also raise any other (APEX related!) problems/questions you might have, particularly during some of our ‘out of hours’ relaxed sessions.

If you have been on one our our previous training events then you’ll notice the Agenda has changed and even if the topic description might look the same the contents may have been modified, so if you’ve been to a previous event there is still value in attending this one (we’re proud to say that on every course so far we have always had someone who attended a previous event!).

Application Express Training in Manchester

Following the previous training, we expect interest to be high (and places are strictly limited, so please don’t delay to register).

You can find more information on exact location, pricing and signing up at http://www.apex-evangelists.com/training

Posted 18 February 2009 † John Scott § Training § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °

UK Application Express SIG – Followup

On friday (12th February), the first UK Application Express Special Interest Group meeting was held. I previously blogged about the planned content, theme etc here.

I’m very pleased to say that the event exceeded many peoples expectations in terms of attendance, with around 55 or so people (and I believe around 20 people on the ‘waiting list’, it’s a shame we couldn’t have got a bigger room!). It was also a very nice surprise to see that Jonathan Lewis was sitting in on the event.

There were some interesting presentations on the day, David Peake gave us some sneak insights into APEX 4.0 and the roadmap ahead.

IMG_0325

Dimitri then gave us a presentation on Advanced Charting in APEX.

IMG_0327
Matt Nolan & Vincent Migue then told us how they were using APEX internally inside their company (with some nice AJAX and Web 2.0 functionality).

IMG_0328

Then finally it was my turn to Dispel Myths about APEX (sorry no pictures of myself this time).

Finally we had a panel session where the floor was open for any question (I must apologise to my fellow presenters if I took too much share of answering the questions, but there’s always that split second timing where you try to gauge if anyone else is going to answer and if not you just dive in).

My gut feeling is that the day was a good success, there were lots of interesting questions outside of the presentations (during breaks/lunch etc) and I find that this is usually one of the highlights of events like this since many people are not comfortable asking questions in a big group but in a 1-2-1 situation you get the chance to ask anythign you like

After the event many of us went to nearby bar (my wife even joined us later) and whiled away the hours discussing all things APEX and non-APEX.

I do want to stress one thing though, if you attended the SIG meeting, please *please* make sure you give your feedback to the UKOUG, since without this feedback they will be unable to gauge the response to the event and determine any future plans for it.

I really do hope another event is arranged soon, as I see APEX growing in popularity and usage every day, so there is definitely a need for events like this. Special thanks to Justin Hudd for finally pulling this all together!

Posted 16 February 2009 † John Scott § APEX SIG § UKOUG ‡ Comments (6) ° Tagged:

I lost a good friend

Firstly forgive the ‘indulgent’ nature of this post, the friend I’m referring to was our cat LC (Lucy Cat, or more correctly Lucy Scott Cat).

Non-pet owners might be surprised at (or quite not comprehend) the amount of love you can give and receive from a pet. Or as my sister said, they’re not just pets they are members of the family.

Lucy was (like most cats) a unique little personality, with her own quirks and ways which made her all the more loved by us.

A rare moment of awakedness

She was only 6 years old (around 40 in human years), so she should have had plenty more summers lazing out in the garden ahead of her. However unfortunately on friday after she was struck down with arterial thromboembolism, it was so quick it was shocking.

Fortunately I was at home at the time and saw it happen before my eyes. I got her to the vet in record time, however on the journey there was a point where I’d stopped at a set of traffic lights and I looked across at her, in her basket on the passenger seat. It might sound overly dramatic but our eyes were locked for about 20 seconds or so, I really believe that deep down she knew she wasn’t coming home again.

Lucy Cat - At my feet

The vet put her on a cocktail of blood-clot busting drugs and she was very brave, trying to fight that damn silly blood clot that had robbed her of the use of her back legs.

However after 48 hours at the vet, she was showing no sign of improvement and since the prognosis for recovery was just too bad after this long without the use of her legs, we had to make the difficult decision to let her go.

It’s the first cat we’ve ever had in our lives (I won’t say ‘owned’ as I don’t think you can ever ‘own’ a cat, you just share you life with one), so it’s the first time we have had to make a decision like this.

We spent about 10 minutes or so with her and she seemed almost (but not quite) back to her normal self (she was fully conscious, her eyes were shiny etc), but you could just tell that she couldn’t come back from this.

You just reach a point where you think, ok the time has come. Pamela and I gave her some last few strokes, told her how brave she was and then we told her it was ‘bedtime Lucy’ (whenever we told her that she would almost without fail race to her bed, although that wasn’t possible this time, we wanted her to know she was going to have some peace).

It is a very quick, painless and dignified way to go, she felt no pain and just seemed to literally go to sleep right infront of our eyes in a few seconds. (I later told my wife, when my time comes, sign me up for one of those injections!).

At the risk of being even more indulgent (please forgive me, normal blog-service will be resumed at some point), there are a couple of quotes I want to include.



Firstly, when I was writing Pro Oracle Application Express (bear with me, I’m not trying to squeeze in some emotional-advertising here), Lucy lay next to me while I wrote practically every word of it, so much so that she even gets a mention in the Acknowledgement -

(p.s. it was always intended to be an ‘in-joke’ but anywhere in that book you see the name ‘Lucy Scott’ in the demo examples, that’s a reference to our cat).

Oh, and also, a final mention of our cat. Without her sleeping by my feet each day when I was writing the book, the days would have seemed so much longer and less furry.

The other quote is from my sister-in-law, who showed us the Epilogue in a Kinky Friedman novel, I won’t include the full Epilogue since it’s quite long, however the most relevant part I think is a quotation from Irving Townshend which I think sums it all up.

We who choose to surround ourselves with lives even more temporary than our own live within a fragile circle…

Lucy Cat - loves her sleeping spots

Thank you for sharing your all too brief life with us Lucy, we will miss you.

Posted 09 February 2009 † John Scott § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (13) ° Tagged:

UK APEX SIG – Coming VERY soon

UKOUG Logo

The “need” for a UKOUG Application Express SIG (Special Interest Group) has been discussed a lot, Jonathan Lewis blogged about it a year ago and received a lot of interest. Sara Blair also floated (or resurfaced at least) the idea again last year, again receiving a lot of positive feedback. I have also been very interested in the idea and have said as much to most UK “APEX people” that I’ve spoken to.

However up till now it’s just never happened, fortunately Justin Hudd has progressed it past the idea stage and actually co-ordinated pulling everything together to actually make it happen!

So on the 13th February in the Oracle office in London will be the first UKOUG APEX SIG meeting!

The agenda is available on the UKOUG site here, however to give you an outline, we have -

  • David Peake (Oracle) – Latest & Greatest from Development
  • Anthony Rayner (Oracle) – Learn How Oracle Utilises Application Express
  • Dimitri Gielis (AE) – What happens on an APEX Page?
  • Matt Nolan & Vincent Migue (e-DBA) – Using APEX to Expose your Business to the Web
  • John Scott (me!) – Dispelling Myths about Application Express
  • APEX Forum – A chance to ask the Experts
  • A.O.B. and Close

The event is planned to run from 9am to 5pm, however given how enthusiastic most of us are about Application Express I’m sure we’ll be around a bit later too to ask any questions etc.

A note on the pricing:

  • If you are already a member of UKOUG then it’s free to attend.
  • If you are not a member then there is a £160 plus VAT charge.
    • Posted 21 January 2009 † John Scott § APEX SIG § Apex Training § UKOUG ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged:

    Carl Backstrom – Memorial Details

    Joel Kallman has posted more details for the memorial announcement for Carl Backstrom.

    Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to attend (much though I would love to), but my thoughts will certainly be with his other friends and family during the difficult time and I’ll certainly be raising a glass to Carl on the day.

    Posted 04 November 2008 † John Scott § General ‡ Comments (0) °

    Carl Backstrom – A great loss

    I woke up to the news this morning that Carl Backstrom has been killed in a car accident.

    I’m not going to post a link to the news article directly, as it contains some distressing details that some people might not wish to read, however the news has been confirmed by various Blogs and (reliable) people on Twitter.

    For those who didn’t know him, Carl was “Mr AJAX & Javscript” in the Application Express World, he was responsible for some incredibly cool features in the APEX tool and was always helpful with the APEX community.

    However more than that, Carl was a really cool and great guy. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Carl at many of the Oracle events in the last few years and would often send him “hey dude, what’s up with my javascript here?” messages on MSN in the small hours and he would always answer them, without fail.

    Carl was definitely a good friend, I’ll miss him a lot and I’ll never have another whiskey without checking for flies first!

    One of my fondest memories about Carl (and I have a lot) was the day he took Dimitri and me for a guided tour around San Francisco and showed us sights that we never would have seen otherwise.

    My thoughts are with Carl’s family and friends at this difficult time.

    carl_backstrom

    Posted 28 October 2008 † John Scott § Application Express § General ‡ Comments (6) ° Tagged:

    ODTUG09 – Call for APEX Papers

    Recovered from the last ODTUG? Well, time to start thinking about the next one ;)

    At ODTUG2009, for the first time there will be a seperate APEX Track (anyone doubting the future/success/growth of APEX should hopefully see how positive this is). All of the APEX sessions will hopefully be held in the same room (or couple of rooms), which means less chance of APEX presentations overlapping, or having to race around and find the locations of the rooms each time (or is that just my problem?).

    The ODTUG board have asked myself, Dimitri Gielis, Scott Spendolini and Patrick Wolf to be responsible for the APEX Track content at ODTUG09.

    So how can you help? Well there are a couple of ways -

    • Make your Mark – You can shape the direction of the ODTUG Kaleidoscope conference by discussing and voting on topics in our new online Kaleidoscope Community. Tell us what you know you need to learn. You have ideas and we want to hear them!
    • Submit an Abstract – Don’t wait until the last minute (abstract deadline is November 3), submit your abstract now. Not sure what to present? Begin participating in the Kaleidoscope Community and find out which topics are important to developers today.
    Posted 21 October 2008 † John Scott § ODTUG ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged:

    Pro Oracle Application Express

    Well it’s been a long time in the making, but the Pro Oracle Application Express book that I wrote (with a chapter on Themes and Templates contributed by Scott Spendolini) is finally shipping!

    I started working on the book way back and it seems barely a week has gone by since when I haven’t been asked the question (quite rightly!) “when is the book coming out?”.

    This is the first technical book (or any book for that matter) that I have written, so the whole thing was very much a learning experience for me, although obviously I like to think I know about the content side of it, the logistics of writing the chapters, the review process, the amount of time it consumes was all very new.

    When I agreed to write it, I contacted a few people who have already published Oracle technical books just to get some opinions on what I’d just agreed to. The comments all had a very similar theme of “Prepare to put your social life on hold because writing a book takes a lot longer than you imagine”.

    I really did enjoy writing the book, but I totally agree with how much time it can take, there is nothing quite looking at a blank screen for an hour, or spending three hours reworking a single page and ending up with what you had original, or the joy of laying out at example only to find that you want to completely change it and have to start again from scratch.

    Now, those who know me know I’m not a very ego-driven person, however, I have to say that it did raise goose-bumps actually seeing the book selling on Amazon.

    Pro Oracle Application Express

    Even weirder was seeing where the book was positioned in Amazon’s sales figures.

    Pro Oracle Application Express

    Fleetingly, the book was in the top 1000 books being sold on Amazon and was the number #1 seller in the Databases section (and the Oracle section). Of course the cynic in me would say that’s partly due to all the back-orders being satisfied from it being late, but it’s still nice to see that people are actually buying it.

    I certainly don’t expect to please everyone with the book, since I was limited in terms of pages what I could write, I already went way over the original 400 page estimate (to over 700 pages) and could have easily carried on for another 500 pages or so. Also the way I’ve structured the book is to cover a different area of development in each chapter, things that are typical to encounter when designing production applications in Application Express, so there are certainly topics that I don’t talk about since I needed to talk about other areas in much more detail.

    I certainly expect a lot of emails along the lines of “Why doesn’t it contain XYZ?”. Well the answer to that is that it is not intended to be a complete guide of everything you can do in Apex, more an in-depth guide on certain key areas.

    So that’s that one done…is it time to start thinking about another one? Hmm maybe after a short “rest” ;)

    Posted 19 September 2008 † John Scott § Application Express § Oracle § Uncategorized § book ‡ Comments (22) ° Tagged: ,

    Utrecht Apex Training – Followup

    A few days ago we held our third open European Application Express training days in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

    It was my first time in the Netherlands and I loved it, I have to say I thought it was a bit of myth about everyone using bicycles until I saw more bicycles in 20 minutes than I’ve seen in 30*cough* years in the UK.

    bikes

    The event was fully subscribed (infact slightly more) with 34 attendees, some of whom had been on one of our previous events (which is a really encouraging sign and a good endorsement that you’re doing something right!).

    Utecht01

    In the 3 days, we covered a lot of different topics, trying to squeeze in as much as possible to try and give everyone something that they could take away with them (always a difficult task!), hopefully we managed to do that (the feedback comments were very good and positive).

    I’m pleased to say that not a single demo failed this time…until we got to the quiz section on the final day, then all the problems came home to roost at the same time, luckily it was pretty funny (with me barely able to speak for laughing at some points).

    On the last training events we have invited the attendees out to a restaurant as a ‘thank-you’ from us, however this time we decided to go Bowling instead. All I can say is it’s been a loooooong time since I’ve been bowling, our lane was decidedly wonky and the balls weren’t perfectly spherical…there, did I make enough excuses?

    All in all, I had a great time, can’t wait till the next one!

    Posted 10 September 2008 † John Scott § Apex Training § Netherlands § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (2) °