The Spotlight is on Daniel Liu Mr. Liu authored our Oracle 8i and 9i DBA questions.

RN: Please tell us a little about yourself.

LIU: I am a senior Oracle Database Administrator at First American Real Estate Solutions in Anaheim, CA. Prior to First American RES, I have worked at companies such as The Allant Group, Automatic Data Processing, Commonwealth Edison and CNA Insurance in Chicago area. I have worked with some of the largest and most mission-critical database systems.

My interest in the database area includes Oracle performance tuning, Oracle networking, and Oracle high availability solutions. I hold a Master of Science degree in computer science from Northern Illinois University, and a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biology from Roosevelt University.

I live in Orange County, CA. In my leisure time, I like to spend time playing tennis and ping-pong.

RN: What did you enjoy most about writing your Oracle test?

LIU: As an Oracle Certified Professional, I taught Oracle certified DBA classes and IOUG (International Oracle User Group) University Seminar. I found that one of the most rewarding experiences from teaching is that you actually learn a lot more on the subject area. This was also true for writing the Oracle test for ReviewNet. First, you really need to know the subject well in order to come up with good questions. Second, you also learn more about the subject when writing a question.

RN:How did you first get involved in writing technical books?

LIU: I started with writing papers for Oracle conferences. I have received many good feedbacks from the user community. Then I began to write articles for technical magazine such as, DBAzine, Oracle Internals, and SELECT Journal. It encouraged me to write more Oracle articles after I have received the SELECT Editorial Award for Best Article in 2002. After I met with some of the prominent Oracle authors at OracleWorld, I decided to get involved in writing technical books.

RN: Tell us about your latest book.

LIU: My new book (co-authored with Mike Ault and Mudhu Tumma) Oracle10g New Features by Rampant TechPress (http://www.dba-oracle.com/bp/bp_book_oracle10g.htm) is coming out in December 2003. I am very excited about my upcoming book on Oracle Database 10g. This book will talk about the new features of the industry's first designed database for grid computing.

RN: What do you see as the future of databases? Where would you like to see it go?

LIU: The size of databases is growing rapidly in the past decade. Today's typical large database is approaching to terabytes in size. Large databases bring database administrators and developers new challenges. A database used to take 30 minutes to backup may take 10 hours to backup now. Searching a record in a large table may take a lot longer. In the future, it will be impossible to manage a very large database on any single computer. Therefore, Grid computing would be a way to solve problems for very large databases.

RN: Please share your thoughts with us on the role that ReviewNet evaluations play in hiring IT professionals.

LIU: ReviewNet evaluations are very important part of the overall hiring process. Many hiring places tend to bring the candidates on site for an interview first and then discover the candidates' technical skills do not match with their resumes. Companies can save a lot of money and time by using ReviewNet evaluations to pre-screen the candidates.

Click here to check out Mr. Liu's latest book, "Oracle Database 10g New Features" .