Things you have in common with Larry

Larry and I have something in common -- We both like sailing!
I prefer catamarans to trimarans, but hey all those design experts were proven right - the BMW ORACLE Racing Trimaran [BOR90]is arguably the fastest sailing boat ever built. I did a lot of sailing back in Australia where I owned a small cat. In fact a good mate of mine Kevin Crowley of Pacific DBMS (free plug least I could do ... and they offer APEX Consulting services as well) still has it in his back yard.

Now something else Larry and I have in common - We both like Application Express.
Larry has been a big supporter of Application Express since the beginning.
Sergio Leunissen, former APEX PM and now in the Linux group, developed an APEX application for the BMW ORACLE Racing team when they first started out years ago.
Again with the 33rd America's Cup challenge the team used APEX together with Data Mining to support the team.

Listen to this podcast from Ian "Fresh" Burns, design coordinator for the team on how Oracle technology helped the team to win the America's Cup: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OracleDatabaseInsider/~5/nussC-gxZFQ/8576609_Ian_Burns_030810.mp3

Cheers,
David

WANTED -- Oracle APEX Customer References

I need customer references for Oracle APEX. You must be allowed (have legal approval) to provide me with information on your APEX application(s) and a company image. I'm also interested in hearing from Consulting Companies providing their clients are prepared to share information with Oracle. {References from anywhere not just the US graciously accepted}

Very highly regarded (and loved by Marketing) if APEX is running on Oracle Database 11g. HUGE bonus points if you are also using other Database options (RAC, BI Publisher, etc).

I use references for the following:

• Quotes on APEX OTN Home Page


• Podcasts


• Customer referral - Potential customers wishing to speak to others


• Presentations


• Publications (articles, white papers, etc.)


• Other marketing such as convincing Sales that APEX can make them $$$

I always check with references before using them and where possible provide drafts before publication, so you can always elect not to be included in any of the above.


So if you want to tell the world of your wonderful achievements using Oracle APEX and get your name in lights send me an email (david.peake@oracle.com).

Thanks,
David

New Content on APEX Home Page

It has been a while since I updated the content on the APEX OTN Home page.

Finally got some time to refresh the content including two books, three podcasts, some great customer case studies, and reshuffled the section up top to make it easier to find OBE's etc. Take a few minutes to review this excellent new content.

I also added all of the outstanding requests from consulting companies, blogs, internet applications and commercial applications - Apologies to those who had to wait so long to be added.

We now have listed:
101 Consulting Companies
63 Blogs
28 Commercial Applications
27 Internet Applications
12 Hosting Companies

An impressive list. If you're not listed and want to be it is as easy as sending me an email with details and images.

Regards,
David

New York Oracle DB Developer Day - BYOL

Join Mike Hichwa, Marc Sewtz, Christina Cho and myself in New York for the Oracle Database Developer Day on Wednesday, January 13.

Unlike previous events this is a Bring Your Own Laptop (BYOL) event.
You can choose to install XE, APEX, etc directly on your laptop or install Sun VirtualBox and we will provide you with a pre-configured image with Oracle DB11gR2, APEX, SQL Developer, etc. already installed. If you want to use Sun VirtualBox it is important to download the software and accept the End-User Agreement (http://www.virtualbox.org/)

APEX 4.0 Early Adopter now available!

The APEX Development Team is proud to present the Early Adopter for APEX 4.0.

Please fill out the survey and request a workspace on our hosted instance @ http://tryapexnow.com.



This Early Adopter is not production ready and some new features may contain bugs or incomplete functionality.

Websheets is not yet available in the Early Adopter. Our plan is to produce an updated release (Early Adopter Phase II) once Websheets is ready to be tested.

The new theme used throughout the Application Builder is still a work in progress, especially in respect to Internet Explorer. Therefore we have disabled access from IE at this stage.

Online Help has not yet been updated and does not include any new features. An application describing all the new features will be available shortly.



Please provide feedback directly from within the Application Builder.

UKOUG Conference

I'm off to Birmingham for the UKOUG Conference.

I recently updated my APEX Conferences Application to include a page for printing out the Agenda: http://apex.oracle.com/pls/otn/f?p=59652:13:0::NO::P13_CONFERENCE:UKOUG

This conference is growing in popularity for those in the APEX Community.
If possible you should try and attend.

Dimitri has organized an APEX meet-up on Monday Night see details here.

Look forward to getting back to England and meeting up with many of you.

Travelling to Ora*GEC in Quebec & Montreal

For anyone in the Quebec (11/24) or Montreal (11/25) area you should try to attend the Ora*GEC 'Application Express for Mission Critical Applications' event. I will be there to give a presentation and a sneak peek of APEX 4.0. Unfortunately I don't speak French so you will have to listen to me in English. However, the other presentations will be in French.

http://www.oragec.org/pls/htmldb/f?p=105:34:0:::::

I atteneded a similar event put on by Ora*GEC last year and it was well attended.

It is always good to catch up with Serge Tremblay from Oracle Sales who is a huge advocate of APEX, and of course the thriving APEX community in the area.
Hope to see you there,

David

APEX Demo Grounds - Moscone West

Traditionally the APEX team staffs the Demo Grounds with members of the development team and this year is no different. In recognition of how busy our demo pods are, the Oracle event organizers have given us 3 demo pods in a prime position right at the end so we have some room. So to see our latest development efforts, and get your questions answered directly by those who develop the features come to Moscone West.

Updated Statement of Direction

I have just updated the APEX Statement of Direction and refreshed the APEX 4.0 Presentation.


One of the big new additions is Team Development (as some caught onto with my last blog) including Built-In Feedback. This came out of our work with Teamspace - a stand alone packaged application with some of the same sorts of capabilities. Due to development constraints the Teamspace packaged application has been put on hold for a short while.

Check out the presentation for a few more details on many of the major 4.0 features.

Preparing for Oracle Openworld

San Francisco will once again turn red for Oracle Openworld (October 11 - 15).

As always the APEX Development team will be there in force manning our three booths in the Demo Grounds (Moscone West) and delivering Hands-On Labs and Sessions. For further details on the hands-on labs and sessions see the APEX Conference Sessions application. Be warned there is only limited space in the hands-on labs and some of them are already full - so act fast if you want to get in.

If you are attending Oracle Openworld then make sure you stop by the demo grounds where you can speak directly to our wonderful developers and see first hand demonstrations of both existing APEX functionality and features being developed for APEX 4.0. {Monday 10:30 - 6:30, Tuesday 10:30 - 6:30, Wednesday 9:15 - 5:15}

Before you ask - NO we can't tell you the dates when APEX 4.0 will be available other than calendar year 2010 and YES we are planning to have a public Early Adopter program that everyone can participate in.

As you will see there is a huge amount of new functionality in APEX 4.0 - and even those who saw our progress at ODTUG Kaleidoscope will see many changes. We were hoping to have an Early Adopter available around this time of year, but you will have to be patient with us while we finalize our development. Once ready we will announce the Early Adopter on the APEX OTN Forum and on the blogs.


Also don't forget about the APEX Meet-up Dimitri Gielis is organizing on Tuesday @ 7:30 pm at the Fourth Street Bar & Grill.

Look forward to seeing you there.