Re: Washington Area Informix User Group meeting - July 26, 2005

Folks, What an interesting thread. Sorry I missed the beginning of this thread, but I have been in Kansas City and just got off the plane in Denver (working of Informix projects;) so have been out of touch of c.d.i for a few days. So, I am going to jump back to the beginning of this thread. First the technical details. A couple of years ago the WAIUG board, Warren, Nick, Dave, Lynn, Bob, Byron and myself meet and decided that one way to continue to expand and grow our user group, and meet the needs of the group and interest of our members was to include DB2 content. Most of us were already working with DB2 in addition to Informix. This has turned out to be very successful with most of our new members coming from organizations where they had DB2 and Informix, but could not justify participating in a user group meeting just on Informix. We do the Informix sessions in the morning and the DB2 sessions in the afternoon. No one has to come to both session, if you don't want to listen to DB2 you can leave, but most stay for the whole thing. Until our membership says otherwise, we will continue to do this. IBM did not direct us to do this and this has nothing to do with marketing. We are an independent user group run by a bunch of Informix users who decided to ex pand our base. I don't see the point in flame war threads, and don't see the point of participating in senseless discussions with folks who hid there identity, but this looks like fun so I am going make an exception and jump in. I have very little respect for folks who whine and complain about Informix or IBM marketing or lack or it. Its not going to change, get over it and move on! I have and have built a successful career on Informix projects in spite of all that. I also have very little respect for folks who remain Informix bigots. As Informix users we don't need to hid from other database technology. As independent Informix consultants we have to keep an open mind to whats going on in the industry and with technology. I went to a DC area data warehousing user group meeting a couple of weeks ago because they had an interesting new technology presentation from another vendor. Great stuff, then, someone who knew me and what I do, tried to put me on the spot asked a very pointed question on what kind of performance we were getting with a terabyte data warehouse we had built, and I had fun telling the about the great performance we get with Informix. I have build a very successful business doing Informix consulting and it is growing!!. And I know there are others out here in the the Informix user community that have done the same. I have also worked with most of the other databases, and one of my favorite tasks is doing performance benchmarks for a client considering a new project who wants to get the best database technology. And, because I have worked with and tested other databases, I can as an independent consultant go to a client and say if you want a successful project you will do it in Informix. I have heard this argument from before from an ex-IBM'er who complained about presenting at one of our user group meetings because there was a DB2 session that afternoon. Same complaint as in the email below. I wonder why "me <headtailfeet@yahoo.com>" is hiding his identity here. Saying "Doesn't this continue to support the notion that everyone, someday, somewhere will have to move to DB2?" is self-defeating failure mentality. Its a little like folks who blame all their problems on someone else, or like to blame things on IBM or Informix marketing or lack of it. Now I am not saying IBM has great marketing, its just that there is no point in complaining about things you cannot fix, I like to spend my time fixing the things I can. So, lets get back to talking about this great secret database technology we all have and love and share. As for the WAIUG, we are an Informix user group and we are out to assimilate the DB2 users in our area;) Regards - Lester me wrote: > I thought this was the "Washington Area INFORMIX User Group"? Why then, > is there a DB2 session in the afternoon? Doesn't this continue to > support the notion that everyone, someday, somewhere will have to move > to DB2? I mean, could the analogy be anymore trite?...You start the > day (your career) as and INFORMIX person, but in the 2nd half of your > day (your career), you're a DB2 person? > > A REALLY BAD message for the Informix community. > > > Lester Knutsen wrote: >> Next Quarterly Meeting is: >> >> Date: Wednesday, July 26, 2005 >> Time: 9:00-5:00 >> Location: IBM, Bethesda offices. >> Building 6710, Wing B Room 21B167. >> 6710 Rockledge Drive >> Bethesda, MD 20817 >> (Directions are on our web site) >> >> Agenda: >> >> Morning: >> >> Informix SQL Performance Tuning by Lester Knutsen, Advanced DataTools Corporation >> >> Discover ways to improve the performance of Informix SQL and understand how SQL is interpreted. This seminar looks at how to review the Informix SQL query plan (sqexplan.out), examines indexes and when they will or will not improve performance, and explores other factors that may affect performance such as sorts, cursors, and locks. This is a free version of the tutorial I did at the IDUG/IIUG conference in Tampa this year. >> >> Lunch will be sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Inc. >> >> Afternoon: >> >> DB2 Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting: A Practical Approach by Jim Cleveland >> >> This presentation will describe a method to rapidly identify, diagnose and resolve the vast majority of commonly experienced DB2 database performance problems. In the heat of a production crisis where database performance is at issue, the emphasis is on finding and fixing the problem -- fast. To that end, what follows is a distillation of much hard-won, collective experience gleaned from countless performance tuning engagements. A step-by-step, metrics-driven process will be elucidated for isolating and eliminating a wide variety of database performance difficulties. Although a "one-size-fits-all" methodology for addressing DB2 performance issues doesn't exist, this discussion should provide the means and the understanding to mitigate all but the most unusual of circumstances. >> ______________________________________________________________________ >> >> The meeting is open to all. Please register at the WAIUG Web site. >> We will need a list of attendees for access to the building. >> http://www.iiug.org/waiug/ >> >> ______________________________________________________________________ >> >> >> -- >> ______________________________________________________________________ >> Lester Knutsen lester@advancedatatools.com >> Advanced DataTools Corporation Voice: 703-256-0267 x102 >> Visit our Web page: http://www.advancedatatools.com >> >> Washington Area IBM-Informix User Group: >> http://www.iiug.org/~waiug/ >> ______________________________________________________________________ > > _______________________________________________ > Informix-list mailing list > Informix-list@iiug.org > http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list > > > -- ______________________________________________________________________ Lester Knutsen lester@advancedatatools.com Advanced DataTools Corporation Voice: 703-256-0267 x102 Visit our Web page: http://www.adva