RE: Unintentional Humor

Dan,  

It was never my intention to make you or anyone else feel bad.  

And I certainly feel the same frustrations that you felt when looking at the Web site to begin with.  

I agree completely that the page in question showed a significant lack of attention to the information presented and that the overall impression is one of carelessness on the part of those who put the piece together.  

No argument here, trust me.  

I guess what I was saying here was that ultimately, the author, is the one who suffers in such a circumstance.  

And I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt by saying that perhaps he wasn't even aware that the advertisement had been put together yet, let alone placed in full visible view of everyone.  

When I found out more about all parties involved with this particular book (information I was admittedly ignorant about when I wrote my original response - lucky for me someone emailed me personally and set me straight), then I understood better that this never really should have taken place to begin with. And, of course, I knew that *ideally* this never should have taken place. But, I was told that in this particular instance, it *really* should never have taken place.  

Trust me, your point and everyone else's is well taken.  

I respect the opinions and viewpoints of the folks here at Oracle-L.  

It's why I subscribe.  

Melanie  

-----Original Message-----

Daniel Fink
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2003 5:15 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L  

Melanie,
There is truth in what you said originally. As soon as I read your original email, I felt bad. I appreciate your willingness to stand up and disagree. Some of us take issue, rightly so, with the content of the page, but we (me included!) should do a better job of critiquing the page in a more constructive manner.
While we did not explicitly paint the author with the same brush that we used to go after the web page, the implications are pretty clear. Yes, the page contains many egregious errors and has probably been written by someone in marketing without a clue as to what Oracle is. The text makes no sense in several places and the program listing is just plain wrong. I don't mean to justify what we did, but we all get frustrated with the bad information or lazy people out there who don't take the time to look at something critically or even RTFM. Cary's earlier story about the drill sergeant hit home with many of us. As a result, we have short fuses for this kind of 'crap'. And it is not just on the list, but it is with many of our colleagues and coworkers...even managers. It fits well in the 'professional development' category of interpersonal skills. I'll shut up now... <expecting smart comments from at least 1/2 the list>
Dan
Melanie Caffrey wrote:
Well all, I've been corrected in my statements below, and I am always one to own up to my mistakes (or misstatements). I guess what I should have said is that in SOME cases, there is not always a clear communication between all parties involved when an advertisement is made.
In this case, I have been informed otherwise. So, what initially looked to me like innocent, albeit egregious, mistakes in a book advertisement, were apparently just plain egregious. So, you are all correct.
-----Original Message-----

Melanie Caffrey
Sent:Monday, October 06, 20033:54 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L Alright.Now, I feel I have to defend this poor guy.For if I don't, who will?
First of all, the book title lists the covered items as Hidden programs - COMMA - export/import - COMMA And so forth.
VERY different from something like
Hidden programs:export/import, SQL*Loader, etc. Secondly, I'm sure the author didn't mock up his own press page. These things are typically created by some "editor" of sorts at the accompanying publisher.
And, if any of you have ever published a book before, you should be intimately familiar with the fact that, nine times out of ten, the people writing these press releases *really* don't know what they're writing about.
A few catch phrases thrown around here and there and it's assumed to be good enough.
What somebody should have told Dave Moore is "NEVER let any press mockups or releases go out without you having gone over them with a fine-toothed comb".
Otherwise, what just took place in this thread is bound to happen ... Now I can't speak to the efficacy or accuracy of his book.All I'm saying is take Web pages, particularly Web pages on publisher Web sites that are touting books they want to sell, with a grain of salt.And don't dump on the poor author until you've read his book ...
-----Original Message-----

Stephane Paquette
Sent:Monday, October 06, 20033:19 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L You mean the hidden $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory

Stephane Paquette

Administrateur de bases de donnees
Database Administrator
Standard Life
www.standardlife.ca
Tel. (514) 499-7999 7470 and (514) 925-7187 stephane.paquette_at_standardlife.ca
-----Original Message-----

Daniel Fink
Sent:Monday, October 06, 20033:04 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L I see what you mean. Too funny!
Hmm...I guess I've been wrong all these years. And all that time I wasted reading the official documentation on such "undocumented" and "hidden" programs like export/import, sql*loader, tkprof...

Jared.Still_at_radisys.com wrote:

OK, well I thought it was funny.
Doing a google search on some Oracle stuff, I found the following page. http://www.dba-oracle.com/bp/bp_book6_utils.htm Scroll down a bit? Do you see the funny part?

Jared

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Author: Melanie Caffrey
  INET: mcaffrey_at_proximo.com

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