Apr 112006

Yesterday I completed my first course. That is, a course I have given (as opposed to following one). When I switched to my current employer, I told them that I experienced some great fun in coaching people. Teaching them how to work, or teaching them how to solve a problem. Because our company started as an Education Center, I was asked to think about giving courses. If I wanted to, and only when I was ready for that. Last Thursday I was ready, and I gave my first PL/SQL course to a small group of people.

The first ten minutes I tought I was going to die. It felt like hell. But I didn’t die. In fact, it went fairly well. And with each hour passing by, my confidence about giving a course grew. Yesterday was the final day of the course, and the attendees had to fill in an evaluation form. This is a standard routine. I swear I did not bribe them, but still they gave me high ratings. Yeah. That felt great.

To get into the teaching, I decided not to do courses about subjects I don’t have a ton of experience in just yet, so I can concentrate on the teaching part instead of the technical stuff in which I’m supposed to be the expert. Next week I will be giving a course in SQL. That’s the one you should do BEFORE the PL/SQL course. The challenge with this course is that it’s not given in our Education Headquarters, but at a remote location.

Apr 112006

Welcome to WordPress. This blog is converted to WordPress. I looks so much more professional, and it is a lot faster than b2evolution is. And it has a WYSIWYG text-editor.

What I like:

  • admin interface: looks better, and works better
  • WYSIWYG post editor
  • preview mode (the whole weblog-page) when editing
  • speed
  • themes (much more, and much nicer)
  • mass comment editing mode (deleting spam is easier)
  • Pages: can be used for articles or so. Integrated in the blog, but not part of it.

So….what are you waiting for? Switch to WordPress.

Apr 112006

RedHat released the news that they have acquired JBoss. For the total sum of $350m now and $70m at a later stage. The press release can be read here. There is some info on the JBoss site as well.