Learning is not a spectator sport

Complete listing of posts

  • Got Issues Running an Installer / Assistant on Windows ?

    Got Issues Running an Installer / Assistant on Windows ?

      I tweeted today that Oracle Database 23ai Free is now available on Windows. You should go check it out 🙂     The installation of the “Free” suite of database versions on Windows is fully automated, with just a simple click on setup.exe. However, on other products on Windows, we often go through a Read more

  • Schema level grant in 23ai

    Schema level grant in 23ai

    Even with smart use of roles to manage privileges, one of the frustrations for DBAs with security privileges has been the disconnect between privileges and typical usage hierarchy. Object privileges have always worked on two tiers only, namely, you get access a single object (eg GRANT SELECT), or you get access to every object (GRANT Read more

  • Flashback Query – an important warning

    Flashback Query – an important warning

    One of the very cool technologies that Oracle Database has is the concept of Flashback Query, the ability to look “into the past” at the state of some data in a table. It is part of a whole suite of Flashback technologies. If you’re interested in an overview of all of them, check out my Read more

  • A recommendation for ENUMERATION DOMAINS

    A recommendation for ENUMERATION DOMAINS

    Use case domains is one the very cool features in Oracle Database 23ai. When this release was still in the Beta phase, I did a video covering the basics which you can see below. But now that we are at production, one enhancement that has come along for the ride is the concept of enumeration Read more

  • Tracking SQL macro dependencies

    Tracking SQL macro dependencies

    SQL macros are ridiculously powerful and I think as time goes on, we are going to see more and more innovative usages of this super cool tech. It may seem a strange analogy, but I liken them to analytic window functions from way back in version 8.1.6, in that the syntax arrives, people scratch their Read more

  • Data Centric Apps are better when they do NOT work

    Data Centric Apps are better when they do NOT work

    OK, that title sounds a bit weird, so let me explain. If you live in Australia you may have seen that the national airline Qantas had a little stumble last week. I would log on to the mobile phone app, and normally it shows a brief summary of your frequent flyer membership The problem there Read more

  • A SQL conundrum

    A SQL conundrum

    I had an AskTOM question recently about finding occurrences of a set of words within sentences stored in a table. For example, if you have two sentences, The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat. and I were given the phrase “fox,dog,cat” Read more

  • Backup Paranoia

    Backup Paranoia

    By now you have probably seen or heard about the Google SNAFU, surmised nicely by this tweet. Now you’re probably thinking “Oh here we go. Someone from not-Google is going to take the opportunity to dunk on Google” , but rest assured this is not my intention. As anyone who has been in IT for Read more

  • The One SQL Thing You Should Never Use

    The One SQL Thing You Should Never Use

    …is every single damn blog post out there that says “You should never use” ! I read another one of these such blog posts today, and like always, it really got my goat. Every few months, there’s another piece of nonsense out there “You should never use OUTER JOIN” “You should never use DISTINCT” “You Read more

  • 23ai – Leave Your Wallet at Home

    23ai – Leave Your Wallet at Home

    “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” – Paulo Coelho There is a scary amount of amazing stuff in Oracle Database 23ai, but for me, you could take all of that away and leave me with just one particular feature that is in 23ai and I Read more

  • Will I lose my existing AUDIT settings in 23ai?

    Will I lose my existing AUDIT settings in 23ai?

    A few days back I posted a video how Unified Auditing is now the only support auditing option in 23ai, and gave you some easy steps on how to migrate your existing traditional audit settings to the equivalent audit policies under Unified Audit. As the video also reassures – when you upgrade your database, your Read more

  • Switching services on Autonomous now easier

    Switching services on Autonomous now easier

    I’ve posted before on a few occasions about the importance of understanding the different services provided when you connect to the autonomous database. For example, the difference between TP and TP_URGENT is not just a difference in priority in terms of resource consumption – it also impacts the allowed usage of parallel facilities. Even more Read more