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Ray's 10,000th Post
By
Dennis James
Editor-in-Chief
January 2006
Milestones in our marketplace are notable occurrences of paramount technology or marketing events or faux pas of enormous proportion. As the word suggests, "mile" (having reached a significant distance) and "stone" (something considered of heavy weight and in this case rich in content). A milestone is about to occur with this the 10,000th post of Ray Wurlod. As for distance, averaging about 10 to 12 minutes to write any response to a post as on the DSXchange, times 10,000, means Ray has contributed nearly a business year of time to our site for the betterment of others. There are not enough words to thank Ray for this contribution. The other concept is the weight (stone) which directly points to the rich content of each and every post made. Ray is not the author of the products, not just the teacher of the products, but a guerilla fighter with the products, a scientist, who insists that his knowledge is founded from real life best practices and product evaluation and experimentation. It is from these experiences Ray's pearls of wisdom grace our pages. Again we can only humbly thank you, Ray.
There is a concern I must also address. Using the metaphor of a walk on a straight line, reaching the mile one foot after the other, we would only assume Ray would reach this point; after all, time marches on. If you further imagine that there is a incline or decline in this vision, then the weight of the stone rolling downhill like a snowball means that Ray's body of wisdom could soon be monstrous. Monster Ray is also not hard to accept. But when you push a quantity of knowledge uphill and perch it on the pedestal without any support, it suggests we are teetering on something that cannot sustain us long-term. We need plenty of other smart folks to help support Ray's good works.
While many might say the DSXchange is the house that Ray built, neither Ray nor I want to live in a small house on the hill, we want to live in a community of hundreds and thousands of folks who share the passion we do. As we evolve our marketplace, our website, and our skills, we must work to broaden support for our infrastructure. Hoorah for Ray, he's the master, the guru, the Zen, but to honor this accomplishment in the most gratifying manner, help us all build the base of knowledge and leverage it for a better community going forward. See you all there!
Dennis James, Editor
Ray's Response:
When DSXchange started I was in the fortunate position of having worked for the
vendor during the development and subsequent success of DataStage. It was this luck that allowed
me to have an in-depth knowledge of the product, and I wanted to share my luck with others who -
clearly - could not all have been in that fortunate position. That said, I have been self-employed
for nearly five years, and have maintained my skill level through some hard work and study. A lot
of hard work and study. Noting that there are, indeed, more people posting answers than there used
to be, I would like to join Dennis in encouraging even more of you to contribute your experiences
and to help the newer members with their learning curves.