The PL/SQL Challenge has been picking up speed rapidly - we now have over 1300 developers playing the daily quiz. And just last week, on 15 July 2010, 32 developers participated in the first-ever PL/SQL Challenge championship playoff. This playoff (consisting of ten questions to be answered in 15 minutes) was the culmination of a three-month competition in which PL/SQL developers from around the world tested their knowledge of PL/SQL against one another through daily quizzes. Gerben Kroese of the Netherlands won first place and a prize of US$1000. Niels Hecker (Germany) won second place and a prize of US$500. Third place went to Janis Baiza (Latvia), with a prize of the O'Reilly Media ebook library of Oracle books. A full list of participants in the playoff, and their rankings, is available at http://plsql-challenge.blogspot.com. If you haven't yet started playing, it's not too late to qualify for the next playoff and, of course, have fun learning more and more about PL/SQL.

The other big news in my life: my youngest son, Eli (23), has spent the last several years honing his skills as a guitarist and composer. He's very talented, but it's hard to make a living as a musician, especially in the current economy. Much to my delight, Eli has decided that he would like to try his hand at being a software developer. He has a basic foundation of mathematics, but no programming experience. He has, on the other hand, well-developed powers of abstraction, used to conceptualize and organize music and songs. He is excited about diving into the world of software.

I've decided to have him learn Oracle fundamentals and APEX 4, as the quickest path to making him productive. I have lots of work to be done in APEX for my various projects. I will also take this opportunity to deepen my familiarity with APEX; it certainly makes sense given that PL/SQL is the foundation technology. I've just been hard-pressed to date to make time for learning a new technology. So we will learn together.