Iggy Fernandez

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“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I'll have a long beard by the time I read them”—Lobel, Arnold. Whiskers and Rhymes. William Morrow & Co, 1988.
Updated: 13 hours 23 min ago

One More Thing: New Oracle Cloud free tier better than AWS free tier

Mon, 2019-09-16 19:20
Larry Ellison just concluded his Oracle OpenWorld keynote with the announcement of an Oracle Cloud free tier that is better than the AWS free tier. The Oracle Cloud free tier never expires and includes the crown jewels. The slides say it all.
Categories: DBA Blogs

Northern California Oracle Users Group organizes the mother of all competitions

Tue, 2019-04-02 08:59
In a coolly calculated effort to promote its spring conference featuring a full-day Oracle Database security master class with Oracle ACE director alumnus Dan Morgan on Thursday, May 9 at the PayPal Town Hall in San Jose, the Northern California Oracle Users Group (NoCOUG) is conducting the mother of all competitions with the grand prize being a lifetime NoCOUG individual membership worth a cool $9500 USD at the going rate of $95 USD per year. Unlike the insanely difficult SQL competitions of the past which required contestants to be brainiacs, the latest NoCOUG competition is as simple as doing an expense report. The winner will be the contestant who has notattended the most NoCOUG conferences even after receiving numerous reminder e-mails. What could be simpler?
Categories: DBA Blogs

NoCOUG watchers protest despicable tactics being used by NoCOUG management

Thu, 2014-11-13 13:49
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NoCOUG watchers protest despicable tactics being used by NoCOUG management SILICON VALLEY (NOVEMBER 13, 2014) – Veteran NoCOUG watchers all over Northern California have been protesting the despicable tactics being used by NoCOUG management to lure Oracle Database professionals to the NoCOUG conference at the beautiful eBay Town Hall next week. Instead […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

Oracle Trivia Quiz

Wed, 2014-10-29 08:36
All the answers can be found in the November 2014 issue of the NoCOUG Journal. I am the editor of the NoCOUG Journal. What’s NoCOUG, you ask? Only the oldest and most active Oracle users group in the world. If you live in the San Francisco bay area and have never ever attended a NoCOUG […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

Results of the NoCOUG SQL Mini-Challenge

Tue, 2014-10-28 16:55
As published in the November 2014 issue of the NoCOUG Journal The inventor of the relational model, Dr. Edgar Codd, was of the opinion that “[r]equesting data by its properties is far more natural than devising a particular algorithm or sequence of operations for its retrieval. Thus, a calculus-oriented language provides a good target language […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the EXPLAIN PLAN: The story so far (Part 11–22)

Sat, 2014-09-27 18:20
On the Toad World site, I’m writing a series of blog posts and Wiki articles on the subject of EXPLAIN PLAN. I’m using EXPLAIN PLAN as a motif to teach not just SQL tuning but also relational theory, logical database design, and physical database design. In a year’s time, I hope to have enough material for […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the EXPLAIN PLAN: The story so far (Part 1–10)

Sat, 2014-06-28 16:13
On the Toad World site, I’m writing a series of blog posts and articles on the subject of EXPLAIN PLAN. I’m using EXPLAIN PLAN as a motif to teach not just SQL tuning but also relational theory, logical database design, and physical database design. In a year’s time, I hope to have enough material for a […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

Editor’s Choice award at ODTUG Kscope14: NoSQL and Big Data for the Oracle Professional

Sat, 2014-06-28 08:42
My paper on NoSQL and Big Data won the Editor’s Choice award at ODTUG Kscope14. Here are some key points from the paper: The relational camp made serious mistakes that limited the performance and usefulness of the relational model. NoSQL is based on the incorrect premise that tables in the relational model must be mapped to […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the EXPLAIN PLAN (Act II)

Mon, 2014-06-16 14:04
Over at ToadWorld: Part 5: SQL Sucks! Part 6: Trees Rule Part 7: Don’t pre-order your EXPLAIN PLAN Part 8: Tree Menagerie Bonus article: Equivalence of Relational Algebra and Relational Calculus The story so far: A relational database is “a database in which: the data is perceived by the user as tables (and nothing but tables)  and […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the EXPLAIN PLAN (Act I)

Mon, 2014-06-02 20:17
On the Toad World site, I’m publishing a whole series of blog posts and articles on the subject of EXPLAIN PLAN. I’m using EXPLAIN PLAN as a central motif to teach not just SQL tuning but relational theory, logical database design, and physical database design. In a year’s time, I hope to have enough material for […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

The people behind the NoCOUG Journal

Fri, 2014-04-25 13:53
Now in its 28th year, the NoCOUG Journal is the oldest Oracle user group publication in the world. No other small user group in the world has a printed journal. Most large user groups do not have printed journals either. But little NoCOUG does. I am the editor of the NoCOUG Journal and—I must confess—I get sad when I see […]
Categories: DBA Blogs

Cupcake Wars at NoCOUG Spring Conference

Tue, 2014-04-01 15:49
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Cupcake Wars at NoCOUG Spring Conference on May 15 at UCSC Extension Silicon Valley SILICON VALLEY (APRIL 1, 2014) – In a bold experiment aimed at increasing attendance at its awesome educational conferences, the Northern California Oracle Users Group (NoCOUG) is considering changing the format of its spring conference to that of […]
Categories: DBA Blogs