Voting for the 2020-2021 ODTUG BoD

Ooooh, looky-loo

Yes, I really do read my emails across my seven addresses although in this case 10 days late per the date of this email. Regardless I am finally getting round to doing more than skimming my email. Upon actually applying myself, lo and behold, I see that I can and should vote for the ODTUG BoD.

Did I? Did I? I did not, M’lud, but I plead working 15 hour days, eating in gas stations ‘cos that’s the only thing open near the hotel (no, no sushi or pizza but instead these guys who are alas not as good as these guys but still aren’t half bad) in the Wee Small Hours of the Morning, and, mostly, the laziness I am well known for.

Laziness mixed with a soupçon of procrastination led to this:

Ah bugger, didn’t vote then either as it came two days ago and I have yet to act.

I am voting because:

I was extrememly active in ODTUG (presented, was on the BoD myself and yes somehow ODTUG survived that so totes obvs it’s a strong organization), was away for a year or two, and am back albeit not at the same

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My take on OGB Appreciation Day: An Essbase Hacker’s POV

“Smart boy, doesn’t follow instructions, must try harder”

Pretty much every teacher I ~~tortured with my intransigence and folly~~ gladly received tutelage from as a wee lad noted that while I had a certain level of base intelligence, (note that I didn’t use words like, “overmuch”, “gratifyingly high”, or even just, “barely adequate for the purpose at hand”) I really, really, really wasn’t terribly good at following instructions. It’s a skill that alas seems to be forever beyond my reach. And still is, as you’ll soon see.

Tim Hall, aka OracleBase, (Oracle-Base? Dunno.) organizes OGB (Oracle Groundbreakers) Appreciation Day as a way to thank all of the people in the Oracle community that have helped others. In my (OMG, surely it isn’t possible if you follow the corporate ownership path of Essbase) 25 years in the Oracle space I have: helped some, been helped by many, and confounded and confused just about everyone I’ve crossed paths with.

Tim has suggested the following potential topics:

My favourite feature of {the Oracle-related tech you work on}.
What is the next thing on your list to learn.
Horror stories. My biggest screw up, and how I fixed it.
How the

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Oracle OpenWorld 2019 presentations, free as in beer

Introduction

You, Gentle Reader, are one of three sorts when it comes to reading this blog:

You didn’t get to go to OpenWorld for a variety of reasons, but sure wish you had.
You did go to OpenWorld but didn’t attend every session you wanted to go to/you did attend each and every session you wanted to but were too sleepy/hungover/overwhelmed to remember. I might have fallen into the latter category.
You really meant to learn all about cars at www.thetruthaboutcars.com and unintentionally typed in “cpm” instead of “cars”. A sort-of understandable mistake. I fully expect you to stop reading although of course you’re welcome to carry on.

Whatever your reason (unless you’re in the third group and don’t have a sense of curiosity), this post is for you. And for once it’s short and sweet.

NB – Actually, no, there’s a fourth that ended up here but pretty much wished it was anywhere else in the world wide web. Fie to you, I say!

And heeeeeereeeee they are!

Here’s the link to the publicly available OOW 2019 EPM presentations.

https://events.rainfocus.com/widget/oracle/oow19/catalogow19?search=epm

Roadmaps, emerging technology, customer success stories, everything — it’s all there. It isn’t quite like being there

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OpenWorld 2019, day 4, but in fact not even then

Why do I even bother?

At the beginning of conferences I am filled with fresh will and enthusiasm, sure that this time I really and truly will keep you, Gentle Reader, as informed as informed can be when it comes to this conference; any conference really. And I don’t. Ah, a man’s reach must exceed his grasp else what’s a heaven for?

Having firmly established the fact that I am either a fool (almost certainly), unreliable (the evidence speaks for itself), or simply unduly optimistic in my estimation of how hard I’m really going to try to do this (this is what I choose to believe although I think there’s something about the road to Hell and pavement in the form of good intentions), and before I get to the main plate of delicious geeky information, allow me to give you some impressions of what OpenWorld was like this year. And oh yeah, day four of the conference finds me on an aeroplane on the way back to the Right Coast, so all of the cool EPM stuff that Oracle cruelly scheduled for Thursday – missed the whole thing. Argh. Disirregardless of my poor timing (next year I’ll stay through

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Oracle OpenWorld 2019, live blog, part two

OpenWorld is an interesting place

I tweeted this one out it bears repeating.

There is an eyeglasses vendor.

At OpenWorld.

In the Expo Hall.

And they’re doing a smashing business.

What can I say?

Hah! I can say something: for a limited time, there’s a 20% discount.

So much for vendor relations.

I swear there’ll be real content Real Soon Now.

Be seeing you.

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OpenWorld 2019, live blog, part the zeroeth and first

Zero? One?

Every good(ish) geek knows the difference between zero and one based numbering systems. Said geek also knows that Powers That Be flip between them, seemingly arbitrarily. When I want to fool mathheads/real programmers, I use a zero-based convention. When I interact with normies, I use one.

Said geek also knows that different conversations and contexts seem to drive usage in a seemingly arbitrary way. I flip between the two contextually: when I want to fool mathheads/real programmers into thinking I have a brain, I use a zero-based convention. When I interact with normies, I use one as my starting point.

In this case, I’m using both. Unpossible! In fact all of this falderal means is that I’m combining yesterday’s pretty-much-arrive-in-San-Francisco-at-OpenWorld and EPM partner meeting with an ongoing live stream today and, with luck, every day.

I can’t tell you much (actually, nothing) about yesterday’s partner meeting, but I can share with you this list of sessions Oracle recommended to us. Also, as a bonus you get the top of someone’s head. Lucky whoever that may be.

Many of these sessions are already full, but if not and you’re at OOW, check them out.

I’ve got to go

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A n00b’s OneStream Journey No. 8 — Why Two Is Not Better Than One

Apologies and yet without apology

Apologies up front as the subject of this blog post is both n00bie-ish as well as somewhat advanced and awfully, awfully, awfully important. It’s super-duper important that you understand what follows because a common design requirement and an equally common design solution won’t and doesn’t take into account OneStream’s core storage model. I’ll be making references to Data Management jobs, Finance business rules, as well as Data Buffer processing which is all rather a lot for a n00b post. But all of that is exposition – the key thing for we n00bs is to understand that a design approach we all take for granted in other tools is a Bad Idea in OneStream. Happily, the solution is straightforward.

The 42 people who regularly read this blog probably know a fair bit – although logic demands that I ask why you lucky 42 read it if you already know it. Perhaps you enjoy irrelevant links to popular culture from a year that predates your time on this planet by at least 50 years. Ask your parents or better yet your grandparents to help with that sort of confusion; hopefully the balance of the post will make

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A n00b’s OneStream Journey No.7 — I’ve Got Your Number

Stunning and maybe in a good way. Or not.

It’s all about numbers and – quite honestly, 98% of the reason I write this blog – I have the best, best, best (or perhaps the worst, worst, worst) antediluvian not-at-all-relevant-to-anyone-but-your-grandparents pop culture reference. Please, click on it and pinky promise you’ll watch the whole thing– it’s that good. And yes, it is actually germane to this post.

All done?

Do you ever think you’ll be the same? No. Will you ever click on one of those links? No. Again. Until next time at least. But really, there’s a point other than the searing of your eyes and a reminder that not everything from before-you-were-born is…like that.

How will you feel when you use the Excel add-in to retrieve a number from your super-duper OneStream application and get the wrong number? How is that possible? OneStream doesn’t do bad data. But it can happen. And then it’s bad, right? And you’re frustrated, gobsmacked, fearful, , and even blue? Fired is more like it. Mr. Twimble has the right idea although the mail room might not be the ultimate expression of your ambition.

I’ve Not Got Your Number

Good-Bye

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Why I do what I do when it comes to blogging

Why I do what I do do do

Do you know why I ~~write endless drivel~~ try to contribute something to the CPM/EPM world through the-very-best-social-media-this-Gen-Xer-can-come-up-with?

This is LinkedIn message is why:

This, this, this is why I’ve spent thousands (yes, really, even if to little positive effect) of hours over the last 10+ years on the web. Only this. And trying to figure out how to do something and have an earthly chance of remembering how I did it whatever “it” might be. So, two things, but the former is much more gratifying even if it’s the latter that keeps me employed.

Dear Anonymized Reader, thank you so much for this. The thought that my ramblings have helped anyone, ever, is incredibly gratifying.

Destroying stereotypes

In case you wonder why Yr. Hmbl. & Mst. Obt. Svt. hasn’t identified the writer of this LinkedIn note, said writer really does exist and is a Millennial who isn’t 100% comfortable with public exposure on Al Gore’s Greatest Invention. A complete implosion (complete role reversal really) of stereotypes between the two of us although I have been assured that $12 avocado toasts are part of that millennial’s standard fare.

For the

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Kscope19 live blog, so many days after the conference it can’t really be called live

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: late

I plead a vacation, freedom from technology, and a healthy-ish communion with dirt, or in other words: tent camping. It was great, thanks for asking. And oh yeah, I’m on doxycycline, thank you .

And with that mea culpa, let’s jump right into Kscope19 and its import

I’ve been out of the Oracle world for the last two years to it’s all been a bit overwhelming as I try to catch up with lo the many new announcements. To wit, Oracle really seem to have their act together for the first time in quite a while.

By that I mean that there’s been a concerted effort to take the multiple SaaS products that make up the Oracle EPM product suite and combine them into a single offering. I am by no means an expert in product pricing (There are those, perhaps quite rightly, who believe that I am by no means an expert in anything – who can argue with such logic given abundant supporting evidence?) but it seems to me that a move away from EPM a la carte pricing on a product by product basis to a broader enterprise license is

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