xix
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I have to thank my wife and children for putting up with my distant expres-
sions, long silences, and my habit of being physically present while mentally absent. They have
been very patient with my mantra to “give me just five more minutes.”
I would like to thank those Oracle experts and adventurers around the world who (know-
ingly or unknowingly) have extended my knowledge of the database. In particular, though not
exclusively, I owe thanks to (in alphabetical order) Steve Adams, Wolfgang Breitling, Julian Dyke,
K. Gopalakrishnan, Stephan Haisley, Anjo Kolk, Tom Kyte, James Morle, and Richmond Shee.
Each of them has, at various times, supplied me with insights that have allowed me to open up
whole new areas of investigation and understanding. Insights are so much more important
than answers.
Christian Antognini and Wolfgang Breitling merit special thanks for reading the draft chap-
ters, and for making a number of suggestions to improve the quality of the book. Any outstanding
errors are, of course, all my own work.
There are many more individuals who deserve to be named as sources of ideas and infor-
mation, but the more I name, the greater the injustice to those whose names I let slip. So let me
cover them all by thanking those who post on the comp.databases.oracle newsgroups, those
who post on the Oracle-L mailing list, and those who post on Oracle Corporation’s MetaLink
forums. And, of course, there are the members of the Oak Table Network who can be relied
upon to provide entertaining and stimulating discussions.
I would also like to mention the audiences who attend my seminar Optimizing Oracle:
Performance by Design. At the end of each of these three-day events, I always have several new
questions to answer, points to clarify, and strange cases to investigate.
The most important part of what I do is to deal with production database systems, so I also
want to thank the many companies who have decided to call me in for a few days to examine
their problems, validate their designs, or just give them some guidelines. Without continuous
input and challenge from real users, real requirements, and real applications, it would be
impossible to write a book that could be of practical benefit to its readers.
Finally, I owe a big thank you to the Apress editorial and production teams who worked
incredibly hard to beat a tough deadline: Tony Davis, Ami Knox, Katie Stence, and Grace Wong.
Lewis_636-6Front.fm Page xix Thursday, October 6, 2005 5:36 AM