Database and ERP audit plans and best practices at www.checklist20.com
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New DVD Training – Learning Oracle 11g
Posted on March 31st, 2012 No commentsFrom An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
What a nice birthday present. My new video training, Learn Oracle 11g, was released yesterday.
This training is an introduction, kind of like a concepts guide. I take a viewer on a walk-through
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What’s up with Oracle and Sun?
Posted on March 31st, 2012 No commentsI don't know why this made me laugh. I think it might be the yoda-like way the warning is written (Oracle or Oracle Not, There is no Sun). Or maybe it's the incredulty of the message. Or the seriousness of the buttons (Proceed anyway, return to safety!). Or even the plea to Help me understand!
This is the first time I've seen this kind of error though. Is this a Chrome thing? A phishing preventative? I mean from a protocol perspective, wouldn't this just be an http redi
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Getting Groovy!
Posted on March 29th, 2012 No commentsFrom An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
I've been teaching myself Groovy for the last few weeks. I was learning Lua but ran into some issues with creating interfaces and stand-alone apps, so I decided to look for another language that is as productive as Lua but that can also create GUI apps. I considered going back to Ruby (I did that a few years ago), but I had hit limitations there
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Happy Anniversary To Me
Posted on March 19th, 2012 No commentsFrom An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
What? An anniversary? Yep, I have been blogging at it toolbox for 7 years now. Wow! Seriously - 7 years. It snuck up on me.
I remember when I would get up at 4 in the morning (5 days a week) to write my blog entries. It would take me a couple of hours each morning to write a single entry. Some entries took a week or more to write. I ha
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Hit the Oracle Packtpot!
Posted on March 3rd, 2012 No commentsFrom An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
I've reviewed quite a few books from Packt over the years. They are having a special in the leadup to IOUG. It's called
Oracle Forms Survey
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
I've been following a discussion on linkedin about Oracle Forms and the future/viability of forms. It's been a pretty interesting read.
My background as regards forms: I started with oracle as a forms developer. I developed custom applications using forms 4, 4.5, 5 and 6. I played around a bit with 9i and
Ziff Davis Buys Toolbox.com
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
Well, this is interesting. I got an ACH deposit in my bank account today from Ziff Davis. This is the company behind geek.com, PC Magazine, etc.
I had no idea why I would get a payment from ZD though so I did a little searching. I usually get my che
9 Steps to Coding Perfection
Free Cool Tools
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
As an official geek, I like software. Even utilities make me happy. Today I figure I will post about a few utilities that make my life easier. Every one of these is free but most have the option for paid upgrades to add space or functionality.
VArrays 101
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
Continuing on in my 101 series - I wrote about associative arrays, nested tables and
Nested Tables 101
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
A nested table is much like an associative array but you do not determine the index. The index grows by using the extend command and the index is always an incrementing integer value. You can use the DELETE attribute to delete individual elements so you will always want to
Record Types 101
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
A record type is a simple structure that combines multiple datatypes into a single package.
DECLARE
TYPE r_person IS RECORD (
fname VARCHAR2(30),
lname VARCHAR2(30),
age NUMBER );
v_person r_person;
BEGIN
v_person.fname := 'Lewis';
v_person.lname := 'Cunningham';
v_p2011 in Review and 2012 Goals
To get where you want to be in life, you need to have goals. It doesn't matter if you want to advance professionally, improve a hobby or lose weight, goals help you achieve your desires.
I think it's important to look back at the previous year and see how you did as far as your goals. When I see how realistic my previous year goals were, then I can decide how to set my goals for the current year. Unfortunately, I didn't list my goals for 2
For those in the US – Stop SOPA!
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
I rarely, if ever, bring up politics. Currently the US Congress is considering legislation that I think is reprehensible. I really can't believe that we, as a nation, have come to this. I have been reading about this for a while. I guess I have been in denial that it would really happen.
Associative Arrays 101
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
An array is one way to store multiple variables in a collection. In PL/SQL we will often refer to an array of objects as a collection. If a record is a way to think of a specific row in a table, a collection type can be thought of as the rows in the table.
The original pl/sql table that was offered in pl/sql is the index by table also
Tasklist and Taskkill
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
At my current client, they have set a policy so that I can't run task manager. The OS is Vista Enterprise 32 bit and I only have 2GB of RAM (my 4 year old netbook is more powerful). Rebooting takes forever.
I'm not sure why they have that policy. Maybe to prevent users from seeing what is running? Prevent them from stopping what is run
CIW v5 Database Design Specialist
Meeting Expectations
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
I'm asked fairly often what someone can do to move up or get promoted. I don't really have any great insight to that. I mostly just live the consultant's life and continually have my learning hat on.
I want to share a lesson I learned early in my career. I have been blessed to work with some amazing people in my time. Amazing developers, DB
NaNoWriMo 2011
You might not get the job if….
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
A paraphrased conversation from a few months back. It still makes me chuckle.
Inteviewer: What is the first thing you do if a report is running too slow?
Me: Define too slow.
Interviewer: The next thing?
Me: Define fast enough.
Interviewer (with a si
Oracle Database 11g: Data Warehousing Certified Implementation Specialist
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
Recently, I posted a review of some certification preparation software, UCertify - Oracle Data Warehousing 11g Essentials Practice Test. This prep kit preapres you for the
Learning Oracle PL/SQL Programming Tutorial DVD – Video Training
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
My latest endeavor - A video based tutorial for PL/SQL. This is geared towards beginners. I wanted to create an A to Z introduction and I wanted to be sure I captured as many best practices as I could.
This vi
UCertify – Oracle Data Warehousing 11g Essentials Practice Test – Review
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
This is a software review of the UCertify - Oracle Data Warehousing 11g Essentials Practice Test. I was provided a fully licensed copy to use to evaluate the material and the tool.
Win a free certification test prep software license
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
Quite a while back, I wrote a review of a certification test prep software from a company called UCertify. I'm going to be reviewing another one, the
And the survey says….
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
Recently, I asked for some feedback via a survey. I had a pretty good response and thought I would share the results.
Just a note, this is not a scientific survey. It is based on what people who read my bl
My OpenWorld 2011 Highlights Reel
Oracle Information Integration, Migration and Consolidation – Book Review
From An Expert’s Guide to Oracle Technology
The book that I am covering in this review is from Packt and the main reason I wanted to review it was the description. I had never heard of a book like it. The book is Oracle Information Integration, Migration and Consolidation by Jason Williamso
OpenWorld For Free (A Sampler Anyway)
From An Expert's Guide to Oracle Technology
Can't make it to San Francsico for OpenWorld? Can't spring for flights, hotels, etc? No problemo! Now you can get it, at least some of it, for free.
I got the email below from Oracle. Check it out.