Oracle Headquarters

This week I am at the head quarters to attend Fusion Subject Matter Experts training. I managed to capture a few pics of 'Royaume de Larry'.

Feeling down.

Its 2:43 PM and I am idling away at the office. Don't why but I feel a lot down at this moment. This is the first time in my life that I am feeling this way. Is such a feeling routine amongst adults? Does this signify anything related to my state of mind? Do I need something that I am being wrongfully denied? Too many questions... I feel like listening to something thats close to my heart. Which one? Searching my mind.....searching...still searching....okay, got it! This song is titled 'i will always be right there' and is one of my favs.

And the lyrics....awesome....I still remember them by heart. Here they go....

I swear to you - I will always be there for you -
Theres nothin I wont do
I promise you - all my life I will live for you - we
Will make it through
Forever - we will be
Together - you and me
Oh n when I hold ya - nothin can compare
With all of my heart - ya know Ill always be - right
There
I believe in us - nothin else could ever mean so much
Youre the one I trust our time has come - were not two
People
Now - we are one - ya youre second to none
Forever - we will be
Together - a family
The more I get to know ya - nothin can compare
With all of my heart - ya know Ill always be - right
There

Forever - we will be
Together - just you and me
The more I get to know ya - the more I really care
With all of my heart - ya know Ill always be...
Ya know I really love ya - ya nothin can compare
For all of my life - ya know Ill always be - right
There

I hear my phone ring ..someonez calling...may be the credit card ladies. My mind is programmed with the standard reply.

CC lady: Sir I am calling from XXX bank. Do u want a credit card sir?
Me: Thanks but I already have it.
CC lady: Do u need a personal loan sir?
Me: Thanks again but I do not need any.
CC lady: Sir, My name is YYY and pls take my number &*^%$#@,. Call me if you need it.
Me: Sure.

And I end the call.I do jot down the number though..just in case you know.
Hear the ring at Anupam's or Puneet's desk. Must be the the same lady.

I feel a bit better know after blogging. Blogging does help lighten your heart.

Good bye Kjetil.

I am sad at this moment to learn that Kjetil Kolin passed away last night. My heart goes out for his entire family. It was only 5 days ago that I last spoke to him. He asked me if I had a problem with his baby on the side while on the phone. I jokingly said that his baby was most welcome to give its inputs. We then went on for an hour discussing about XML Publisher. Little did I know about his cancer then. It was only after a day that one of my colleagues informed me about his serious case of liver cancer. My initial thoughts were of guilt for having disturbed him late in the night. Kjetil, forgive me for that.

May God be with your entire family in this moment of immense grief.

Don.

2007, the birth of Fusion applications.

We are only a few months away from building the next generation applications. Ones that could very well rewrite Oracle's fortunes. Ones that could potentially bring the application industry behemoth SAP to its knees and ones that could make Larry Ellison's dream real...beat Microsoft. Given that the stakes are too high, Oracle needed a remarkable person to lead this change. Who better than John Wookey known for his prowess in this field, can realise this dream project? He is been attributed to having the toughest job in the Silicon Valley by the Business Week. Read this: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_04/b3968086.htm

Two years ago when Oracle announced this, I was skeptical. I couldn't believe that it is possible to bring out an application suite that has the best features of Peoplesoft, JD Edwards, Oracle and of course Siebel which came in later, by 2008. I never doubted the technical expertise that Oracle has but it has always been the schedule that baffled me. I put this very question to John himself when he was here in Hyderabad a few months ago. He did not give me any plan or statistic but he just told me ' Heck, I do not care if you or Larry believe that the schedule is unrealistic. I believe that it can be done.' Talk about confidence huh!

Given that the fusion suite is going to include the best features of all the product lines and that it is going to be built on the next generation technology stack, I think its time I start blogging on the very definition of 'Fusion application'. I mean basic things like what does it look like, what will it be built on and how the offering is going to differentiate itself from SAP's products in the market.

I am going to dedicate my next few blogs discussing these things. Look out for them.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous 2007.

Disclaimer: All the opinions expressed here are solely mine and do not necessarily reflect those of Oracle Corporation.

New album from Taylor

American Idol 2006 winner and one of my favorite entertainers is releasing his first big album. It is due in December and is titled 'Taylor Hicks'. Can't wait to grab one of the shelves but I guess I have to wait as I am in India. He was on 'The tonight show' recently and performed one of his singles from that album. It was amazing and he has packed it with everything that the 'Soul Patrol' expects. You can catch it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggt2ns8EQrc

This is why I call him an entertainer and not just a singer or a rocker. Go Taylor Go!!!

Me at Hyderabad 10k

Woohoooo! I did it! Never thought I could run 10k non stop in 52 mins. Yes 52 mins! I finished 10th overall amongst Oraclites. Not bad huh! Feeling very good abt it at this moment. Gonna go and have a nice sleep.

Nivea ad song.

I had recently seen the ad of Nivea lotion and taken a liking to the song. Never thought it was from an album until now. It is sung by Asher Lane and the title is 'New Days'. The song is really good. You can catch it on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQSK7yzTH-4
Enjoy!

The Shraddha Project

There are days when I sit back and reflect on the opportunities that I have blown or the mistakes that I made when I was very young. It is very easy for one to get into some sort of depression at that moment. Luckily, I have been able to stay afloat by thinking about those sections of the society that haven't got what I have. I have a happy family, shelter, good health and a cool job to round it off. Such thoughts also urge me to do something for such people apart from donating some money for charity.

The Oracle Global Volunteer Days 2006 program helped me realize a small part of my urge. I had an opportunity to co lead a group of twenty colleagues in spending a day with kids who are basically termed slow learners.
These kids are either mentally or physically challenged and are very different from the main stream.

The event was planned by my team well in advance. We broke into teams and planned out all the activities. All the required items were procured one week in advance. Finally, the big day arrived and we reached the school by 8:30 AM. All the classrooms were decorated before the kids arrived at 9:45AM. The kids assembled enthusiastically and I apprised them of what they can expect during the day. They seemed very excited and the show kicked off.

First there was a painting competition where the kids show cased their talents. We were surprised by the range of their ideas. God isn't bad after all. He did endow them with special talents. Then there was a quiz competition between the Shraddha and Oracle teams which we lost badly. Let me admit that we really lost it. The kids were damn good. They certainly knew their history and current affairs.

We were all hungry by then and had a great lunch. The volunteers took care of serving the kids. The afternoon was left for music and dance competitions where we were enthralled again.

We signed off the day by giving away prizes for the winners. Not to disappoint others,
we distributed gifts to all of the kids. It was an eventful day and we returned to our homes with a deep sense of satisfaction. It was worth more than a 1000$ bonus!

What's wrong in calling a spade a spade!!!

The past week had seen a major crisis in the world of cricket. It all started when a certain Australian umpire called Hair had the guts to judge the entire Pakistani cricket team as cheats in front of millions of viewers. The repercussions have been huge ever since, ones that could destroy the very spirit of the game. Ones that could draw a racial divide. Was he right in doing like that so publicly or should he have waited till the end of the day and taken the matter to the match referee? I personally believe that Hair was spot on here. He did what he had to do. If he felt that the ball was being tampered and believe me I am not surprised at all as the Pakis are well known in the cricketing circles for this, there was no point in waiting for the day to get over. The game could have been well over by then with England crushing to a defeat that they can ill afford just before the ashes. If Hair is indeed a biased person, he would have let the game go on as it would only benefit his Aussie team to face a defeated England side.

The ICC was right in pulling up Inzy for all the fuss created by his team. For God sake there were thousands of viewers at the ground who had spent their hard earned money on the game and Inzy just disregards them?? This is unacceptable and Inzy should be severely punished for this. As far as the media is concerned , I think it went over board in supporting Pakis. This shouldn't surprise anyone as such a stance only dramatises the situation which would mean higher viewership/readership. Parallels were drawn with the Murali's incident which I thought was a cheap shot. The issue was buried years ago and a lot has changed after that. Personally though, I still believe Murali is chucker though not 'technically' as ICC would put it.

Things should be clearer once ICC reveals Hair's side. I see an embarassed Paki side after that. Come on, reverse swing on a pitch that had grass on it and that too in the cloudiest of the climates? Gimme a break Inzy. You guys cheated and you should pay for it.

The beginning of the end for SAP

As someone associated with Oracle, I couldn't help but poke fun at the recent SAP results. SAP's application business grew at a meagre 8% whilst Oracle grew at 83% during the same period. I know some of you would argue that most of Oracle's growth is inorganic but if you compare the growth by the individual constituents, it is still higher than what SAP managed to achieve. So what do you make out of this. Did SAP lose business to Oracle? Did some of the big deals slip into the next quarter as their CEO pointed out or is it that Companies have realised that Oracle just makes better applications?

I for one think that people around the world are realising that SAP's apps are too difficult to implement and upgrade. The worst part is that, during upgrades, customers have to buy the same features that they already have. (I mean upgrades to mySAP ERP etc). As a testament to this, only a few percentage of their install base are on their latest versions which is a shame. The world has also started believing in open standards and the value that brings to them. SAP's apps are these huge monolithic, fragmented ones built on propreitary technologies like ABAP. It costs a lot to hire such skilled professionals from the market. At the same time, Oracle's apps are standards based and even a kid out of college can code in Java.

Where do we go from here? I think if Oracle could manage to string one more strong quarter, it will set a trend and momentum for them. It will be a huge psychological advantage and we can see Oracle stealing more deals from SAP. As one of Oracle's top executives pointed out, 'if Oracle Fusion works in it's very first version, we will be the numero uno in this industry..period..'.

The Class

I just finished reading Erich Segal's 'The Class' and honestly, it blew me away. It was a 'Class' apart and one of the best novels that I've ever read (Believe me, I haven't read many). What amazed me was how the author could string the lives of five Harvard men into a page turner. There was not even a single moment when I felt bored. The novel teaches us how important love, family and friendship are important in our lives. We are ceratin to pay for our successes in one way or the other. We will grow old and no matter how much we achieve these things are the ones that will count in the end. I am certainly gonna keep this in my mind. Let me see if the novel has taught me one of the secrets of life.

Merci,
Don

Impatient

I am very impatient as I am writing this. I am very much waiting for tommorrow morning. I have my 3rd Java certification exam(SCBCD) tommorrow. I am not nervous but just want to finish it off. I am aware it is not that tough but I am looking forward to achieving a great score, at least a score that could beat that 14 yr guy, Afsah Shaufqat. Need to skim through some notes but I had been delaying that sice afternoon. just watched Schumi win the GP and felt very happy abt it. To divert my attention of that victory I logged on but hey what am I doing!!!talking abt it. OK.. I need to get back to my notes and kill the exam tommorrow.

Mon Blog

Bird Flu, Fear and Oprah!

I am writing this as my application is compiling and about to run which generally takes around 5 mins on a monday morning. Nevertheless my mood is upbeat today as I reached office in a record 50 mins. It generally takes me around 2 hrs. The secret?? well I started early today at around 7:15AM while Hyderabad is till sleeping!!! Lazy city is mine.

Well..yesterday was the day that the bird flu fear took over India. There had been many news reports handing out bunch of data but none comprehensive. It made me nervous as I didn't know what to do as an average citizen. The only precaution I took was not to eat chicken on a Sunday. As I kept wondering and zapping the TV channels, I came across Oprah's show. The guest was Dr Michael Osterholm, a renowned 'Communicable Disease Specialist' itseems.

Key points from that discussion:

1 There is every chance that the flu can mutate in a human body into a form that can transmit between the humans easily.
2 This is no vaccine available to counter this.
3 The world economy could cripple as each country takes measures to keep the disease off it's shores.
4 Each country is on it's own..so the lesser developed countries could suffer a lot.
5 People should think abt stacking up food supplies right now.

And many more scary things. I am not sure if this guy is gone over board but he looks very confident and his past record suggests that he is more or less accurate.

Only the next few months could tell if we are again to face a situation like the one in 1918.

Mon Blog

Mon Blog

Starting up...

Hi