Learning is not a spectator sport

Complete listing of posts

  • Quick tip–identity columns

    Quick tip–identity columns

    Lets say I’ve been reading about schema separation, and thus I am going to have a schema which owns all of my objects, which I’ll call APP_OWNER, which will have no connection privilege and a separate schema called APP_ADMIN which will take care of all of the DDL tasks. Here’s my setup: SQL> create user… Read more

  • Session killin’ time

    Session killin’ time

    As developers, sometimes we set something running that we wish we hadn’t   And naturally, we’d like to be good IT citizens and clean up the mess as quick as we can.  (For most of us, this means – cover our tracks before the phone rings about smoke coming out of the server).  But of… Read more

  • Transportable Tablespace–part 2

    Transportable Tablespace–part 2

    I did a little demo of sharing a tablespace between two databases a few days back – you can see the details here or by just scrolling down if you’re on the home page. To avoid clouding the demonstration I omitted something in the details, but I’ll share that now, because it could be critical… Read more

  • Sharing a tablespace between 2 databases

    Sharing a tablespace between 2 databases

    I was reading an interesting discussion today about multiple databases each containing large amounts of read-only data.  If that read-only data is common, then it would make sense to have a single copy of that data and have both databases share it. Well, as long as you can isolate that data into its own tablespace,… Read more

  • SUM is better than DISTINCT

    SUM is better than DISTINCT

    There is a good chance that (based on this blog post title) that you’re expecting a post on SQL, and that’s understandable. But I’ll come clean nice and early – that was just to lure you in The post is about SUM and DISTINCT, but not in the technical sense. A few days ago, fellow… Read more

  • Apex Interactive Grid and IOT’s

    I love the interactive grid in Application Express.  And here’s why… (Warning: Ranting mode is now on ) You can tell people here’s an application built with almost no code, in fact, you probably could have built it yourself it’s multi-user, with optimistic locking built in for you it’s secure it’s backed up and recoverable,… Read more

  • Apex patch for 5.1

    If you are running Application Express, there is a new patch available.  Lots of fixes which you can read about here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/apex/application-express/apex-511-patch-set-notes-3661846.html I just downloaded patch 25341386 and followed the installation instructions and it went through with no problems at all in just a few minutes. Verifying Application Express version… …have version 5.1.0.00.45 PL/SQL procedure… Read more

  • End of an era …

    Four years ago I wrote about a little volunteer project that my partner did.  A small association that provided outdoor experiences and facilities for kids with physical impairments needed a system to record member and volunteer details, plus a few other bits and pieces.  We built an Apex solution running on XE.  This week, they… Read more

  • 12c Release 2, set feedback enhancement in SQL PLus

    There’s a nice little touch to the “set feedback” command in SQL PLus in 12.2. There is a new “only” clause in the SET FEEDBACK command, so you can run queries but the resulting rows are not shown in the display. They are still queried, fetched and “returned”, but just rendered to the screen. Here’s… Read more

  • Pi Day, March 14

    Geeks around the world will be celebrating Pi day, a shameless excuse to put the month before the day like the Americans do so we can talk Mathematics on “3.14” day So what better way to show how cool SQL can be with some expressions to approach Pi with continuous series All we really need… Read more

  • 12c Release 2 – Transparent Data Encryption online !

    It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that even if you have incredibly stringent controls on user authentication, user authorisation etc, that wont save you if your data on disk is not encrypted.  All you need is an errant tape, a missing disk, a misplaced flash stick…and kersplat, someone has a copy of your… Read more

  • TimTams, Twelve Two, and tete-a-tete !

    What do you do when you’re an Australian, you’re at Oracle Headquarters, 13,000 kms from home you bump into someone whilst grabbing a coffee Well…naturally, you lure them over with a packet of our famous Australian chocolate biscuits, grab a camera and have a chat ! Maria Colgan and I chew the fat over why… Read more