Thursday, February 28, 2008

#76 Bottles of Water � Stuff White People Like

#76 Bottles of Water � Stuff White People Like: "Water seems like a fairly simple concept. You turn on the tap, put glass underneath, and drink. Sadly, it is not this simple for white people."

An Unorthodox Approach to Database Design : The Coming of the Shard | High Scalability

An Unorthodox Approach to Database Design : The Coming of the Shard | High Scalability: "While working at Auction Watch, Dathan got the idea to solve their scaling problems by creating a database server for a group of users and running those servers on cheap Linux boxes. In this scheme the data for User A is stored on one server and the data for User B is stored on another server. It's a federated model. Groups of 500K users are stored together in what are called shards."

5. Data Structures

5. Data Structures: "List comprehensions are much more flexible than map() and can be applied to complex expressions and nested functions:

[str(round(355/113.0, i)) for i in range(1,6)]
['3.1', '3.14', '3.142', '3.1416', '3.14159']"

Databases: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Dr. Dobb's Database Report: "There's the old story about a great-grandfather's axe that had its head replaced twice and its handle three times. That's where I think relational databases are going. We'll change the data model, the data types, the application topology, and the network interface, but they'll still be relational databases."

sqldeveloper EA2 - migrate screen geometry badness



This is on a G5... on my laptop, the top is a little bit squished but still usable. For this one, it's too squished to select the source schema

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors - New York Times

The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors - New York Times: "The next time you’re juggling options — which friend to see, which house to buy, which career to pursue — try asking yourself this question: What would Xiang Yu do?"

sqldev, bad screen layout on autotrace


here's a screenshot after clicking the autotrace button.

note the weirdness with the scrollbar in the autotrace tab, and the odd horizontal split.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Azithromycin

Product Search: "Azithromycin Tablets
Strength : 250 mg
Brand Name : Zithromax� Tablets
Rating : AB
Imprint Code : 93/7146
OTC/Rx : Rx
Description : Modified-Oval, Mottled Pink
Therapeutic Category : Antibacterial"

First Course in Database Systems Oracle Guide

First Course in Database Systems Oracle Guide: "Notes on the Oracle DBMS"

Monday, February 25, 2008

Music special: Five great auditory illusions - being-human - 24 February 2008 - New Scientist

Music special: Five great auditory illusions - being-human - 24 February 2008 - New Scientist: "As part of our special issue on music, Daniel Levitin has written The Music Illusion, which looks at auditory illusions and how they can help us understand the workings of the human brain. Here we have compiled five of the most striking auditory illusions discovered so far."

Saturday, February 23, 2008

R Todd King: China Photos 2007 - Harbin

R Todd King: China Photos 2007 - Harbin: "Welcome to... Beijing after an ice storm? No, this is “The Eighth Annual Harbin Ice and Snow World”, China’s premiere winter event. Unlike my previous visits to this ice festival, first in 2003 and then again in 2005, I decided to start my visit here near sunset - around 4pm - to see its layout before dark. I’m glad I did: the festival seemed far larger than before and it now takes a while to see the full setup. Additionally, the festival, which used to be laid out from south to north, is now oriented from east to west, allowing for some dramatic sunset photographs of the main ice structures. This is the Harbin Ice and Snow World entrance, which itself grows more grand every year, before the crowds arrive."

Friday, February 22, 2008

Viktor's Home Page: Oracle Cheat Sheet

Viktor's Home Page: Oracle Cheat Sheet: "I did a fair bit of work recently with Oracle. Being a regular MySQL user, I found some Oracle-isms a little strange, so I put together a cheat sheet:"

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Date / Time Arithmetic with Oracle

Date / Time Arithmetic with Oracle: "If you store date and time information in Oracle, you have two different options for the column's datatype - DATE and TIMESTAMP."

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Unbelievable Water Rockets

Unbelievable Water Rockets: "Safe, simple fun with a pop bottle and a bicycle pump. Fly to 600 feet.
AntiGravity Research Corporation
Professional Water Rocketry"

Monday, February 18, 2008

SQL Injection Tutorial

SQL Injection Tutorial :
Welcome to the Tutorial on Defending Against SQL Injection Attacks!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

SourceForge.net: GIS extension for Oracle SQL Developer

SourceForge.net: GIS extension for Oracle SQL Developer: "The purpose of GeoRaptor project is to extend Oracle SQL Developer development tool with additional functionality that is needed by database administrators of Oracle Spatial data, ESRI ArcSDE administrators or advanced GIS user."

Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Revised Maclisp Manual (The Pitmanual)

The Revised Maclisp Manual (The Pitmanual): "Internet, December 16, 2007—The Revised Maclisp Manual, originally published in hardcopy at MIT in 1983 as the Saturday Evening Edition, is now available on the web as the Sunday Morning Edition.

Nicknamed The Pitmanual, The Revised Maclisp Manual describes the programming language MACLISP, which ran on the DEC PDP-10 and Honeywell 6180/6880. This newly-updated Sunday Morning Edition features many editorial corrections, an enhanced hypertext index, and a Common Lisp Conversion guide that offers advice on upgrading old MACLISP programs to run in Common Lisp."

fo.py, mighty Forth Lisp SmallTalk mix in Python

fo.py, mighty Forth Lisp SmallTalk mix in Python: "Blending Forth, Lisp and SmallTalk produced first results.

I mixed late binding, reflection, concatenation and dynamics in a small python file. 17 lines of VM. 18 lines of compiler.

Simple ping-pong program below."

Friday, February 15, 2008

World War II Posters Keep Secrets

World War II Posters Keep Secrets: "World War II Posters: Don't talk about ship movement or cargo"

Sql Develop EA1 worksheet hilight issue

Here is the worksheet highlight from the released version (1.2?) which is nicely readable:



Here is the worksheet highlight from EA1 which is too dark and not readable:

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Chumble Spuzz! � peer-see

Chumble Spuzz! � peer-see: "A colleague of ours found this set of building blocks to help children learn English. One of the things that is so amazing about teaching English as a foreign language is that it forces you to rethink components of English you take for granted and experience the language in a completely new way. With that in mind, try to remember back…far back…to yourself at a more innocent time."

Monday, February 11, 2008

Oracle: Unindexed Foreign Keys

"Also consider that for most (not all, most) parent child relationships, we query the objects from the 'master' table to the 'detail' table. The glaring exception to this is a code table (short code to long description). For master/detail relationships, if you do not index the foreign key, a full scan of the child table will result.

So, how do you easily discover if you have unindexed foreign keys in your schema? This script can help."

Woot : Savage Sounds of the Woot Podcast!

Woot : Savage Sounds of the Woot Podcast!: "Super Bowl, schmuper bowl—we spent most of the weekend combing through our archives looking for forgotten treasures. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t rewarding, and it wasn’t even very much fun.

But from literally hundreds of recordings, finally we selected a few that might stand up to a second listen.

So, just as we promised last week, here’s a plumber’s dozen of the least-terrible Woot podcasts for your listening pleasure. We’ve also provided album cover art below, in case your fancy newfangled mp3 player supports it."

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Video: "How to Speak"

Video: "How to Speak": "In this skillful lecture, Professor Patrick Winston of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers tips on how to give an effective talk, cleverly illustrating his suggestions by using them himself. He emphasizes how to start a lecture, cycling in on the material, using verbal punctuation to indicate transitions, describing 'near misses' that strengthen the intended concept, and asking questions. He also talks about using the blackboard, overhead projections, props, and 'how to stop.'
Running time: 45 minutes."

A Whole Lotta Nothing – How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap!

A Whole Lotta Nothing – How to record a kickass podcast between two macs — and cheap!: "The beauty of the approach I describe is that you can get an output file that sounds almost as good as an expensive thing like maintaining two professional studios cross-country for about $100 with just a couple laptops and some software."

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Some of the Best Speaking Advice Ever

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Some of the Best Speaking Advice Ever: "MIT Professor Harry Winston every year gives a famed lecture on 'The Art of Speaking'. Cal Newport attended the lecture this year and posted the notes. They're awesome - some of the best advice on speaking I've read. Read the whole thing, excerpted below are my favorite parts. In particular, I found the advice 'don't thank your audience at the end' pretty interesting."

Study Hacks � Blog Archive � The Art of Speaking: "There is a special circle in hell for those who use laser pointers," this and other advice from a m

Study Hacks � Blog Archive � The Art of Speaking: "There is a special circle in hell for those who use laser pointers," this and other advice from a master speaker.: "Every January, during MIT’s Independent Activities Period, Computer Science Professor Patrick Henry Winston gives a famed lecture titled: How to Speak. During this perennially popular event, Professor Winston walks his audience through a series of tips and strategies, developed and honed over decades, for mastering the art of speaking. I attended his lecture for the first time this year, and was not disappointed."

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Advantage CA-Dataquery for CA-Datacom

"Advantage CA-Dataquery for CA-Datacom provides users throughout the organization with the ability to easily access, retrieve, report, and update information in Advantage CA-Datacom/DB Database. This power is available to users on an ad hoc basis and does not require involvement with IT. The software provides an integrated design for ease of use by all levels of users. Advantage CA-Dataquery for Advantage CA-Datacom/DB Database is completely integrated with other CA software solutions within Advantage CA-Datacom/DB Database, providing for central control and access of the database."

Monday, February 04, 2008

ORACLE-BASE - Auditing in Oracle 10g Release 2

ORACLE-BASE - Auditing in Oracle 10g Release 2: "This article presents an overview of auditing in Oracle 10g Release 2. Many of the topics presented here have been covered in previous articles, but this serves to bring them all together.

* Server Setup
* Audit Options
* View Audit Trail
* Maintenance and Security
* Fine Grained Auditing"

Oracle DBA Queries - Database status, uptime, how big is it, etc...

Oracle DBA Queries - Database status, uptime, how big is it, etc...: "Administration - Status

* Startup time
* How large is the database
* Distribution of objects and data
* Show the ten largest objects in the database
* Is java installed in the database?
* Display character set information
* Show all used features"

Friday, February 01, 2008

Bacon!

"The Ultimate Bacon Sandwich
Bacon Cereal
Bacon Cheese Baconburger"