blog postings

wel, after haveing been gently prodded by someone i promise to try and actually write stuff here.  here i was thinking that this should be for posting happy things and when i didn’t have any happy things to post i didn’t post.  silly me.

RMOUG

i’m scheuled for 2/15 right before lunch.  maybe they want me to finish early so everyone can go eat?

log buffer #3

The “Who Ya Gonna Call” edition of Log Buffer, a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs.

July 28, 2006 – By Bill “Shrek” Thater

The “Something strange in the neighborhood” feeling happens to all of us at one time or another. When it does we all have people we go to for answers. This week I thought I’d wander through some of the places I go to look for the latest information and to get questions answered.

One of the first places I go is to AskTom and so does Robert Vollman. And as he points out in his AskTom post sometimes the questions and answers there are just funny.

And that leads to how to ask questions. Let’s not follow the example that Tom Kyte himself points out in Shine up that crystal ball shall we?

If it’s security that’s the issue, I go visit Pete Finnigan’s blog where we find such gems as Blackhat Las Vegas 2006 and unwrapping PL/SQL. And hot off the press 07/27/2006: “How to bypass the protection implemented by DBMS_ASSERT” looks like SOL injection rears it’s ugly head again. Always a good read even if you’re not having security issues. Maybe especially if you’re not having them.

For more mind-stretching stuff I go visit Mark Rittman for things like Partition Exchange Loading using OWB10gR2.

I sometime go straight to the source and check Oracle Blogs where we find a whole bunch of stuff by Oracle employees like Allison Holloway’s post on her new PHP and Oracle book.

If it’s more general stuff you’re looking for like Monitoring Index Usage you can go visit Doug Burns. Just watch out for the monkeys.

If MySQL is your platform of choice, and performance is suffering [I hate it when that happens.;-)] go visit MySQL Performance Blog to find such things as Extended EXPLAIN or MySQL EXPLAIN limits and errors.

If Postgres is more to your liking try Celebrity Deathmatch: Postgres vs. PostgreSQL or maybe Postgres compatible table names for MediaWiki. And you can always check the weekly news at PostgreSQL Weekly News - July 23 2006

Visiting my friend Niall Litchfield always produces some interesting coments like Listing RMAN backups and the importance of syntax.

And for those of you using SQL Server check with Brian Kelley for things like New SQL Server 2005 Books Online download available.

Another good source of information are the blogs at DBAZine.com where you’ll find people like Chris Foot with musings on being a DBA: The Non-Technical Art of Being a Successful DBA.

Archive Log

The no longer newbie Lisa Dobson [ as she points out in Happy Birthday Newbies Blog post] still has a lot of good information in her blog. like this blast from the past Studying for the OCA/OCP Exams – Hints and Tips that includes excellent advice for those of you taking the exams.

Finally, as a full disclaimer, most of the people mentioned here are friends of mine. Yup I am that lucky.

Next week be sure to visit Doug Burns for Log buffer #4.

So as we say here in Texas “Y’all come back soon now, hear?”

you can watch…

purple balloons for a log way, even when it’s cloudy out. watch them carry you thought, your heart, your spirt. watch them try and convey how much someone you never even met affected your life. you can watch them for a long time even thought your tears.

AskTom - day 2

late.  they actually expect me to work here.

the training was great, so much stuff my brain iches.  lost of things that we can use here to help things along.  if i get to implement them that is.

if you get a chance to go to one of his presentations, DO NOT pass it up.

Jen Weaver 1978-2006

Jen was a young woman of amazing courage, a fighting spirt and the ability to touch and inspire people she never met in real life.  Her body is gone, but her spirt will live on in the hearts and souls of people worldwide.

She and her family are in my heart and thoughts.

AskTom - day 1

ya know, i think he may know what he’s talking about.

lots and lots of stuff, much of which i can use to help my developer’s along.  and maybe some changes i can make in the database “black box” to help both our third party stuff and our in-house stuff run better.

i’ll be sitting up late tonight going over all the stuff ilearned and how to use it.

i get to AskTom…

well, maybe.  if he’s as smart as i think he is, he won’t call on me.;-)  i’m in dallas for his 2 day seminar.  i get to use my brain!!!!

so far, nice hotel good food, good scotch.

passport…

applied for. somehow i thought they’d want a lot more information and a lot less money. instead it was little information and lots of money. why am i not surprised?

ain’t modern technology fun?

yesterday i got handed my very own two way pager. it not only has a phone number but a “makes sense” email address of <bill.thater@my2way.com> instead of the usual <some phone number>@<long.service.name>.

my very own electronic leash. which is strange since we don’t do on call, at least in the normal sense. i guess they just can’t stand not to be able to jerk my chain whenever they want.