Test w.bloggar

I'm trying this new program to see if I can blog a bit faster.

Update on 30/12/2006: this post stayed in my drafts for ages... I think w.blogger is good but not fantastic and it doesn't work anymore for my new blogger.com page.

Oracle technology news

As former Oracle employee I know that Larry E. is ambitous...
He sees $$$ and want's to be the n° 1 in:
1) Database
1) Application Server - Middleware (Fusion)
1) Business Applications

To come there, it's not possible anymore for Oracle to do it all by themselves. They need partners... I'm responsible for the Oracle Team at AUSY, and we want to become "the" prefered partner for Oracle solutions in BeLux.
At the end, customers are bying SOLUTIONS not technology anymore!

Some days ago I was at the Oracle Roadshow for ISV's.
I saw at the event the 10g "Fusion" architecture... it was quite impressive.
* Overview: Application (SOA), Architecture (Grid Computing), Information (EIA) and in the middle Oracle FUSION Architecture
* Technology: AS 10g, DB 10g, EM 10g, CS 10g all connected - Fusion -

Also a new feature in 10g DB... table functions - nice if you want to do, like in Excel/Access, crosstab queries.

Webdevelopment - Ajax

I found a really interesting “way of working” for webdevelopment (HTMLDB, PHP, …) It’s called “Ajax”.

Defining Ajax

Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:

• standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
• dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
• data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
• asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
• and JavaScript binding everything together.

The classic web application model works like this: Most user actions in the interface trigger an HTTP request back to a web server. The server does some processing — retrieving data, crunching numbers, talking to various legacy systems — and then returns an HTML page to the client. It’s a model adapted from the Web’s original use as a hypertext medium, but as fans of The Elements of User Experience know, what makes the Web good for hypertext doesn’t necessarily make it good for software applications.

Figure 1: The traditional model for web applications (left) compared to the Ajax model (right).

Read the whole article at : http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php

SOx and GPL?

Today the customer I’m currently working for gave a presentation/seminar about SOx and GPL.

About SOx:
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act became law on July 30th 2002. It introduced highly significant legislative changes to the regulation of corporate governance and financial practice. It established stringent new rules, to "protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws".
The act is of course named after its main architects, Senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. It followed a series of high profile scandals, such as Enron. It is also intended to "deter and punish corporate and accounting fraud and corruption, ensure justice for wrongdoers, and protect the interests of workers and shareholders".
(source http://www.sarbanes-oxley-forum.com)

Implementation:
The IT department I currently in need to implement this methodology. This is a good initiative; everybody will work the same way, testing will be much easier etc. however it will also have a drawback, because it costs more effort (overhead).
I think that at the end, you will gain time because the standards are defined and “everything” is clear…

Others - Oracle:

I’m also searching for “the best approach” for Oracle projects. Some best-practices, standard documents, naming conventions etc.
Best practices in Oracle is difficult, because it’s not because you did it ones “that” way, that you always should do it like that.
For ex.; difference in version (7, 8i, 9i, 10g), the choice of impl./expl. cursors, ref cursors, bulk collect… Nevertheless, if we define best practices and document when to use them it’s really usefull. But at the end, you need to know “Oracle” and understand what you’re trying to do.

Today I also learned that OWB (Oracle Warehouse Builder) puts the default of analyse to 90% in the mappings. This can really hurt your system as some mappings will run in parallel. We improved performance when we decreased the analyse %.

Compare 2 Oracle schema's

*** Edit: An update of this post you find here where I compared Oracle SQL Developer and Schema Compare for Oracle ***

A collegue of mine asked for a comparison tool for Oracle databases.
I searched a bit on the internet, and found the below solutions.

*** Following tools can connect first to 1 database and later to an other (didn't test this) ***
- http://www.codeproject.com/vb/net/OracleSchemaCompare.asp For windows, written in .NET (with xml!)

*** Following tools must connect to both database ***
- OEM - Change manager (used it, works great)
- TOAD - Compare schema's (used it, works great)
- http://www.dbspecialists.com/scripts.html basic SQL*Plus script with DB Link
- http://www.softtreetech.com/dbtools/ nice tools for Oracle (windows)
- http://www.impacttoys.com/download.htm Tool for Organizing Your Schemas
- http://www.dbsolo.com/schema_comparison.html Compare databases (oracle, sql server, …)
- http://www.dkgas.com/oradiff_screens.htm Compare 2 Oracle databases
- http://www.dbbalance.com/technology.htm Compare databases (oracle, sql server, …)

*** Following tools work at design level ***
You can also do reverse enginering of the schema's with the used design tool and compare from there...
The design tool we used: Sybase PowerDesigner, Oracle Designer

*** Following script will compare the data of 2 tables (with or without db link) ***
(I found it on http://asktom.oracle.com and adapted it a bit)
Download the script here.

Testing BlogJet

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Hi, my first post

Hello,

I'm trying to post my first thoughts into this blog.
Does this really work? What should I write at this stage?

Dimi