DB Optimizer - "the wow factor of the InSync conference"

Just recovering from a whirlwind 2 weeks in APAC (Asia-Pacific)

Japan:

First off was 48 hours in Tokyo where I was warmly welcomed by Oaktable member, Ichiro Obata. Check out Ichro's blog at

Ichiro not only warmly welcomed me, treated me to Sushi and Sapporo, discussed Exadata, data warehousing, and performance tuning, but he also took me to the crazy neighborhood of Akihabara, sort of a mix of computer stores, nerds, manga, goth and geisha. Here's someones description:

China

Traveled then to China where I gave another presentation to a packed house

and visited numerous clients as well has having Peking Duck for the first time (not to mention pigs feed and jelly fish - two new ones on me)

Australia

Finished up with an awesome time in Melbourne at the Insync Conference where I got to listen to great presentations by Richard Foote, Connor McDonald among others as well as giving my own presentation on simplifying database performance monitoring and tuning with graphics. After my presentation one of the participants called my section on Visual SQL Tuning (VST), "the wow factor of the conference!"