Goodbye UKCMG, Hello Poughkeepsie

(Originally posted 2008-05-20.)

I feel like I’m on “home turf” at UKCMG… My use of English can be looser 🙂 and it’s so nice to catch up customers with whom I’ve a long and (I hope) fruitful history. I did my (slightly updated) “Memory Matters” and “Much Ado About CPU” presentations – and I really do lose track of how much change there’s been in each of them (though it seems to me I fiddle with them A LOT. 🙂 Actually I sat in a couple of presentations from Glenn Anderson which I HAVE seen before and actually technical topics DO bear repetition. And Glenn did, in my opinion, a GREAT job of the two I saw: One on Websphere Application Server Performance and the other on Unix System Services Performance. (So much so that I’m making sure I read them on the plane(s) tomorrow.)

It was also nice to see an external view of DB2 Version 9.

I’m conscious it may be time to either radically shake up my existing presentations or to do some new ones. I’ve an idea for ONE, sort of inspired by Glenn’s presentations. The working title is “z/OS Application Zoo”. Kinda like the “Particle Zoo” to my perhaps unfocused mind.

And I think there was some value in my Twittering in the sessions. Folks, you can follow my (perhaps marginally useful) Twitterings under my handle: MartinPacker. And I hope some of YOU will sign up to Twitter. I know of at least one customer and two very respected DB2 pundits who have: Willie Favero and Craig Mullins. (And just today a very good friend of mine who left IBM last year signed up – so it’s a great informal way of staying in touch.)

So, onwards:

Tomorrow sees me fly to Poughkeepsie to work on a Redbook on Parallel Sysplex Performance. I hope to try some of the material out here (and to use Twitter to ask questions or toss out odd thoughts that might influence the course of the book).

And I’ve already forewarned many of my Poughkeepsie friends of my imminent arrival… So they can clear out of town. 🙂 Seriously, if there ARE things that need raising with developers in Poughkeepsie feel free to contact me. Face to face there is SO much better for such discussions. But TRY not to abuse the offer. 🙂