Articles and stuff…

Articles:

I think I’m finally getting myself back on track. It’s been an unusual few weeks though.

I spent quite some time complaining that I couldn’t think of anything to write about and hoping 11g would inspire me. Since the release of 11g and the inevitable installation articles, I’ve felt rather lethargic again. Getting into a new version of the database is always a bit odd. For me it’s a combination of excitement and denial… 🙂

Well, I’ve finally updated the VMware RAC article for 11g, which was dependent on a RAM upgrade. It works fine, but very slow. Unless you want the ASM experience, I think the NFS RAC method is a lot cleaner and easier.

I’ve also started to plug through the DB new features. The first thing I played around with was Partitioning. I’m hoping I can keep up the momentum for a while. I wanted to sit the 11g beta OCP exam, but I know so little about 11g at the moment it seems really unlikely I’ll get to grips with it before the beta exam closes. It’s a shame really because it’s nice to be involved in the process.

Stuff:

I finished reading Vittorio the Vampire. Of all the Anne Rice books I’ve read I think it’s the weakest. It’s all a bit flowery and “mills and boon”. Not my cup of tea.

On a more serious note, my 5 year old nephew was in A&E last night with pneumonia. I was with him all day yesterday and although he wasn’t well, we didn’t suspect something so serious. A bit of Calpol and he was up attacking a balloon octopus with a plastic sword… Things got worse through the night which resulted in the A&E visit and the diagnosis. The doctor was surprised he was so active and chirpy considering. Tough as old boots! 🙂 He’s back at home now and all looks good, but it’s very unnerving. I suspect within a couple of days he will be back in full effect.

Cheers

Tim…

Vista is dead. Long live CentOS…

I’ve been using Vista on my Laptop for a few months, and I’ve tried hard to like it, but the truth is it annoys the hell out of me. This weekend I wiped off all traces of Vista and installed CentOS 5 (x86_64). At last some calm has returned to my world. There will be a couple of applications I will miss, but for the most part it feels like I’ve returned home.

Just for the hell of it, I’ve installed a Vista virtual machine, but I doubt I’ll use it much. If I’m ever forced to use a Windows application I think I’ll run it on an XP virtual machine and avoid the constant barrage of, “Are you sure?” questions.

Cheers

Tim…

Database 11g…

You’ve gotta love Eddie Awad! I think he deserves “Oracle Blogger of the Year” again for this post alone:

Download Oracle Database 11g Release 1 Now

I’ve added links to the 11g documentation, a documentation search and an error message search to the ORACLE-BASE.com website navigation bar.

Currently 11% downloaded. The internet is too slow. I demand it gets faster! 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Don’t talk to me for a month!

PPS. Just kidding. 🙂

Update: My first 11g article is now complete:

Oracle Database 11g Release 1 (11.1) Installation On Enterprise Linux 4.5 and 5.0

StumbleUpon and Fedora 7…

Is SumbleUpon really worth $75 million?

I suppose the answer to that is yes, since eBay have just bought them for that figure. StumbleUpon claim 23 million regular users, of which I’m one, but if most of the other users are like me, they just click on a single toolbar button when they get bored. I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I did anything other than hit the “Stumble!” button. I don’t even rate pages I visit. Are 23 million users like me really worth that much money? The words “Boom” and “Bust” spring to mind!

Does anyone want to buy a blog that is visible to all internet users worldwide (even though they don’t actually read it) for several million pounds?

By the way, Fedora (don’t call it Core) 7 is now available.

Cheers

Tim…

Upgrade from CentOS 4 to CentOS 5…

I upgraded my main server at home from CentOS 4 to CentOS 5 last night. The upgrade from the installation DVD went OK, but when the upgrade was complete and I tried to check for software updates on the net using “yum update”, it complained about a number of package conflicts. On closer inspection I found that about 10 old packages were still present on the server, causing conflicts with newer versions. I removed the old packages and the software updater ran fine.

Now CentOS 5 is up and running, I guess I need to see what else I’ve broken along the way. I wonder how long it will be before I switch off the transparent windows and wobbly menus? 🙂

As is always the case, it’s better to do a clean OS install rather than an upgrade, but I really couldn’t be bothered. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll blow it away and start again.

Cheers

Tim…

CentOS 5 and Internet Usage Observation…

CentOS 5 has been released. Please wait for me to download it before you try… 🙂

I’ve recently had another reality check about the internet usage patterns of “normal” non-IT folk. I’ve spent years on IT forums, where you often post a question and get a rapid response, but recently I’ve been frequenting a number of stretching and flexibility forums where the response time can be up to days. All of these forums are quite well populated, but unlike IT forums, most of the members don’t spend the whole of their lives in front of a PC, hence the delays involved.

This sort of this just serves to remind me I’m not a “normal” internet user… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5)…

I’ve been having a play with the beta 2 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5).

Having seen the various Fedora Core versions released since RHEL4, I knew what to expect from RHEL5, but somehow I hoped for a bit more. If just feels like RHEL4 with a different theme.

I can see why Microsoft always add a bunch fancy new gizmos to every Windows release. They need something to differentiate the product, regardless of its usefulness, and people like me fall for it every time… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Ubuntu 6.10…

A little over a year ago I blogged about installing Ubuntu 5.10. At the time I thought is was a nice enough distro, but not really anything to rock my world. In a fit of boredom I recently installed Ubuntu 6.10 (screenshots by SnagIt 🙂 ). What a difference a year makes.

First off, it’s a live CD, so when you boot from it you can use Ubuntu straight away. I think that’s a really nice touch. On the desktop is an “Install” icon, which not surprisingly allows you to install the distro onto your hard drive. A handful of mouse clicks later you are presented with an installation progress bar and in no time you have a complete installation.

Now the distro itself still doesn’t rock my world, they’re all pretty much the same to me, but I think this is the easiest and cleanest Linux installation I’ve ever done, and I’ve done plenty.

Once again, this isn’t going to make me change my base distribution, I need an enterprise clone, but I certainly think it makes a good candidate for your average desktop, or people using Oracle XE…

Let’s see what it’s like next year… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…