Reflections on Robert B. Parker's Death

Robert B. Parker died today: http://bit.ly/7Ji65A One of our favorite authors! RIP

Parker's most famous for his "Spenser for Hire" books. Other memorable mysteries featured Jesse Stone (played by Tom Selleck in made-for-TV films), and Sunny Randall. The female characters in his books were never shrinking violets.

I once saw them filming an episode of "Spenser" in Boston. I remember it took over an hour for a scene that was on TV about 15 seconds!

I used to write a column in the Princeton Packet papers and one day I was in the local ShopRite grocery store. A woman came up to me and said "I really enjoy your writing, would you mind giving me your autograph?" I replied "Sure, but I don't have anything to write with, let me borrow something from one of the cashiers."

I had no sooner gotten a pen and a slip of paper when I saw Avery Brooks (who played Hawk in the Spenser series) standing next to me in line. Catching my breath, I said something like "Wow, Professor Brooks, I can't tell you how much I enjoy your acting. Would you mind if I asked you for your autograph!?"

Meanwhile, I have no idea where that woman slipped off to, but she never did get mine!

I've posted a photo of part of our RBP collection. I will admit we never got into the non-mystery fiction, particularly the Western themed novels he wrote. However, we saw the movie "Appaloosa" and enjoyed that very much. I believe there may have been as many as three books that featured the characters Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, the guns-for-hire of those stories.

I'm not 110% sure, but I think he always dedicated every book to the love of his life, his wife Joan. If I wrote as he did, I would do the same...to my wife, of course, not his.

Practical, easy-to-digest hands-on tutorial is a winner! Posted on Amazon July 25, 2012

This review is for:

Getting Started with Oracle Data Integrator 11g: A Hands-on Tutorial (Paperback)

Oracle Data Integrator is Oracle Corporation's premier software product for integrating data across an organization's lines of business. It addresses the need to move data among transaction processing systems, data warehousing implementations, business intelligence tools, master data management, so-called "big data," and the like. It is fully integrated with the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Enterprise Data Quality.

As an instructor and consultant for the better part of my 40+ year professional career, I have always sought to share with my students value-added collateral that reinforces the lessons I teach them in the classroom (either through traditional or live virtual class settings). I've shared white papers, links to documentation both inside and outside of vendors' mind space and the results of personal research via email threads and blogs. I eagerly anticipate that someone will create a well-written primer that's driven by the needs of a critical mass of product users.

Such is the case with the new book, Getting Started with Oracle Data Integrator 11g: A Hands-on Tutorial. The authors of this practical, easy to digest, 384 page paperback (available also as an e-book) are directly involved with the development and support of the product known by its users simply as "ODI." They ostensibly avoided creating just another rehash of vendor documentation, opting instead to "accelerate your learning of ODI 11g" through hands-on lessons.

As they mention in the first few pages, they hope to "highlight the key capabilities of the product in relation to data integration tasks (loading, enrichment, quality, and transformation" by exposing the key productivity features inherent in a code generator that automates the implementation of much of the required logistics traditionally hand-coded in conventional ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) processes.

They illustrate sample use cases that transcend the mundane, offering examples that exploit a varied set of relational database tables, text files and XML (Extensible Markup Language) data. In keeping with their tutorial focus, they maintain an educational perspective, demonstrating how the features and functions of the tool are used in real-world situations. Their "number one goal is to get you familiar, comfortable, and successful" using the product. In my professional opinion, I believe that the entire book is faithful to their objectives.

With chapters that cover every critical topic from a brief but effective review of ODI terminology, architecture and concepts, through product installation, application development and administration, the authors provide a comprehensive look at the tool without bogging the reader down in minutia. They cover the use of database technologies like MySQL, Oracle database and Microsoft SQL Server. Best of all, the entire book has an enthusiastic tone. As they say, "If it is not obvious by the time you finish reading this book, we ODI 11gR1" (the emphasis on "really like" is theirs).

I, too, am a zealous devotee of ODI. I have worked with the product ever since Oracle Corporation acquired the French company known as Sunopsis a half-decade ago. Several of the authors were among those who developed and marketed what has evolved into Oracle Data Integrator 11g. I've taught well over 1,000 people how to be successful with ODI in those intervening years. I welcome this new book as an essential title in the library of every student I teach going forward. I will heartily recommend it to everyone "interested in, or responsible for, the content, freshness, movement, access to, or integration with data."

One final comment: I pride myself on being well-versed in ODI. I kept track of all the techniques and observations about this software that I may not have fully exploited, despite my experience. When I was finished reading the book, I had compiled a list of about a dozen features that were interpreted in significantly better ways than I've traditionally explained them! My hat's off to the team who wrote this excellent book!

(This book is available via http://www.amazon.com or directly from the publisher, Packt Publishing at the following URL):

http://www.packtpub.com/oracle-data-integrator-11g-getting-started/book

Paperback Edition: Getting Started with Oracle Data Integrator 11g: A Hands-on Tutorial

Kindle Edition: Getting Started with Oracle Data Integrator 11g: A Hands-On Tutorial

Location: Kingston, NJ (USA)

Spending MLK Day productively

Connie and I got up around 7AM today, showered and dressed and drove to the Dunkin' Donuts on US1 by Marshall's. After breakfast, we went to Staples where I bought the latest version of TurboTax Deluxe.

We dropped off an entire trunk of clothes that neither fit us nor suited our current tastes. Hopefully someone else can make good use of them. We basically cleared out a whole closet!

Then it was off to the MarketFair, where we browsed around Barnes & Noble, purchasing a gift for our niece Judy's little girl, Samantha. We window-shopped in a few of the stores, looking for housewares to complement our newly-painted living-and-dining rooms without success.

We ended up at Lowe's, where we got 3 fake wooden shelves, two 12-inch support sets, and one 16 incher. When we got home, we realized that we had spent a lot of time looking at the tops of the shelving to ensure there were no scratches, failing to realize that two of the three boards were cracked clear across on the bottom side! Pretty crappy indeed. So, back to the store to replace them (without question) and get two good ones. (It was a good thing I didn't need 3 - the last one of 3 was also cracked clear across). Makes one wonder about the quality, and who checks this stuff on their shelves.

Anyway, I was able to move all my Oracle memorabilia and awards, including my autographed books, Dilbert toys, and my treasured Star Wars Storm Trooper Proximity Alarm, to the new shelves. I have plenty of desk space now, and lots of fun stuff to look at.

I took a photo with my iPhone - it's not great, but you get the idea.

I spent about an hour or so cleaning up my Inbox for my work email, approving a couple of timecards & expense reports for my folks, and responding to a couple of messages.

Now I'm happily waiting for dinner -- Connie's making homemade crab cakes, sweet potato fries, and cauliflower with cheese sauce.

GJ

My Photo Gallery

I just updated my photo gallery to include a few photos about the painting project we just completed today. Precision Paint & Paper started Monday and finished before noon today. We did the living room, dining room and hallway.

http://www.gjurrens.com/oragallery/

I think they did a great job - great attention to detail, and a wonderful job cleaning up. Connie had a "punch list" which Steve worked through today cheerfully. We also got an estimate to do our bedroom, our bathroom and the foyer coming off the patio into the kitchen (and down the stairs to the basement).

Location: Kingston, NJ US

Poem from NCIS: LA 1/13/2010

Quoted "Which I is I?" from:

In a dark time
Theodore Roethke

In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
I hear my echo in the echoing wood--
A lord of nature weeping to a tree,
I live between the heron and the wren,
Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den.

What's madness but nobility of soul
At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire!
I know the purity of pure despair,
My shadow pinned against a sweating wall,
That place among the rocks--is it a cave,
Or winding path? The edge is what I have.

A steady storm of correspondences!
A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon,
And in broad day the midnight come again!
A man goes far to find out what he is--
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
All natural shapes blazing unnatural light.

Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire.
My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly,
Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I?
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
###

#fb


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Location:Home

Pacifico Beer Ad & Hams?

http://www.k0nr.com/wordpress/2009/10/pacifico-fake-ham-radio/

My son saw this ad while at the barber shop today & couldn't wait to tell his ham Dad when he got home. There are print & video versions apparently. 73 #fb


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Location:Home

Humor: Letter to Husband

This is an oldie but goodie!

http://jokemail.blogspot.com/2007/02/letter-to-my-husband.html

Be sure to read the P.S.!

So Happy It's Thursday!

GJ

George Strayline W2GSS

George joined us at the monthly meeting of the DVRA (Delaware Valley Radio Assn.) to speak to us about the state of the ARRL in the Southern NJ section.
#fb



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Location:Ewing, NJ

Painting

Dining room in the process of being painted. Furniture covered with tarps.







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Location:Home

Reviving Broken Crackers blog

Getting ready for dinner, then it's off to the DVRA meeting at 7:30 in Ewing. 73


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Location:Kingston, NJ US