Another point of view. I started out very inexperienced (as we all did). One of the most important solutions to a problem I had was supplied by Rachel, who had in one mail answered and given me my solution. Now that solution was by no means evident at first. The scenario was the production server would refuse further connections to the database after about 100 sessions (Dedicated Server), obviously test system worked fine, I scurried around reading, searching, rtfm-ing like mad. One comment from Rachel in that mail sent me rtfm-ing and hence the solution and that was something along the line of "It sounds as if you need to enable MTS" followed by more info. Now this sort of solution is not that evident in the documentation, at least not three years ago, to a seriously stressed, still on three month performance evaluation, badly in need of a break DBA. I am still here thanks to Rachel's help. (Thanks Rachel!) I would encourage all listers that we should not reject newbies (we too were there once); also to keep in mind that we don't know what stress/pressure that person on the other side of that keyboard is under. Have you ever tried reading the FM when the production system has gone belly up? Not to mention we DBAs are non-entities until that DB is down, then even the Managing Director, IT Director stand over your shoulder scowling "What the h*ll are you reading for? Do Something!" It after all looks more impressive if you are actually typing something. I know I've been there! But, on the flip side you all have valid points. As for humor, it is all well and good but as I remind my kids, it isn't funny anymore when it gets personal. My 0.02c worth Denham =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at http://www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at http://www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------