Kscope 11 Abstract submissions open and quiz answer

I got in my email today that the kaleidoscope 11 submissions are open. (they have actually been open since the conference). This is the most awesome conference and if your submission gets accepted you can go for free. The tracks for Hyperion content have been expanded and there will be a more diverse set of topics. In the past three years the presentations have all be very technical. The conference is broadening its scope and will have some case studies and more business related topics as well. This means you don’t have to be a technical guru in order to present. In fact, the conference is looking for a lot more customer (versus consultant) presentations.

If you want to look at the topic categories to choose from you can find them at: Kscope 11 Abstract page.

If you want to submit a presentation, there is a link on that page or you can go directly to Kscope Abstract submission .

The deadline for submissions is October 26, 2010 so you don’t have a lot of time. Put on your thinking caps and come up with an interesting topic. If there is something you would like to see presented at the conference but don’t feel you are the right person to present it, send me a comment and I’ll get the abstract added to the list and help to find a presenter. Or better yet find a friend, co-worker, friendly neighborhood consultant that you like and admire (no not me) and get him/her to submit it.

A few weeks ago, I put out what I thought was a pretty easy quiz. Perhaps it was too easy as I only got three responses to it. The first response was to my faithful Man in Philadelphia Cameron Lackpour who got almost all of the quiz answers correct. At least the answers I was looking for.

The first question was list two ways to display numeric zeros in SmartView retrieves. Cameron correctly answered #NumericZero and (0) (note in System 9 just entering a zero worked in some versions. I don’t know when that changed).


The first bonus question asked “How he can take non-numeric data in Excel and show it in formulas as a zero without using an "IF" statement” The answer is to use the syntax N(cell reference) like N(A3). This takes and turns the value into a numeric. Unlike Value() which Cameron described. The N() syntax turns non-numeric data into zeros so you don’t get #values in your formulaic cells. This is not a Smartview or Add-in solution, but an Excel solution. I amaze even the most prodigious Excel users with this one when I show them it.

The second bonus question asked “How can you have the classic Add-in return numeric zeros?” The answer is the same as part of the SmartView answer using the syntax (0) will bring back real zeros from the classic add-in.

Finally the last bonus question was “Why can this be a bad thing?” In the classic add-in and some versions of SmartView, numeric zeros will be sent to the database replacing your #missing with zeros. This will bloat your database, especially BSO databases and make your calculations run longer and the database consume a lot more disk space.

Time for a quick Quiz

I finished up presenting three sessions at the DOUG semminar in Dallas on Tuesday and my voice is shot.I talk way too much.  I was amazed at how many people were there. I'll guess over 100 just to hear me talk. Well actually to hear Edward Roske, Tracy McMullen and me talk. The biggest draw was Tracy's track on OBIEE. It seems to be the hot ticket right now. In all I think it was a very good day and people got a lot out of it. I only stayed for a little of the Rangers/Yankee game that followed the session as I had a long drive back to Austin. Thank you interRel for hosting the event. (Is this a shameless plug for the company or me just being nice?)

It has ben a while since I have done one of my quizes so I thought I would give you an easy one.
Bob is a real zero in life, but he does not like missing anything.. He loves the little round orbs that are nothing. But when he tries in smartview 11 to have his missing values display as zeros he has problems. Can you tell Bob  two ways (without doing find and replace) that he can have true numeric zeros in a smartview retrieve. As added bonuses
How he can take non-numeric data in Excel and show it in formulas as a zero without using an "IF" statement
Second Bonus, How can you have the classic Add-in return numeric zeros.
Third bonus, Why can this be a bad thing?

Persenting again

This upcomming week I'll be presenting at the DOUG (Dallas Oracle User Group) meeting at the interRel office in Arlington. There will be three tacks
The Future of Reporting & Analysis , Oracle EPM 11.1.2  and Becoming an Essbase Guru

Although I am far from Guru, I will be presenting the sessions in the Essbase track.  The topics include
Configure it out. , Load rules from intermediate to Advanced. (It used to be called from Basics to advanced, but I guess my basics are more intermediate to many people) and Preparing & Optimizing for 64-Bit Essbase. All really good topics.

If you want to see all of the topics in the other tracks or the schedule, you can check it out on http://memberservices.membee.com/538/irmevents.aspx?id=19  or contact Danielle White at DOUGBIEPM@GMAIL.COM