It’s happening again…

Once again, some idiot who doesn’t know his arse from his elbow, reads a couple of my articles, and announces to the world I’ve got it wrong. Strangely enough, on reading the “mistakes” it turns out it is the idiot that is incorrect, because he doesn’t know what a “#” comment is, he can’t use the correct terminology and he obviously hasn’t read the manual on the subject he is waxing lyrical about!

I would like to make a suggestion. If you think you’ve found a mistake in someone else’s work, whoever they are, you should do the following:

  1. Read the article again to make sure you’ve understood it.
  2. Contact the author to confirm a mistake is present.
  3. If it turns out you are mistaken, have the decency to admit it, rather than trying to prolong the debate, thus wasting everyone’s time.

There are lots of people providing good content on the internet for free and it is inevitable that some mistakes will slip through. What we don’t need is a bunch of people waiting to jump on the slightest mistake and make a big deal out of it, or even worse, try to find fault where the is no fault.

Personally, I don’t mind people contacting me to ask about the contents of my articles. That’s why I have a comments section on the end of each article, a forum and a “Contact” page. What does get on my nerves is when I read posts on other forums where people criticize my articles without bothering to contact me, especially when the criticism is unfounded.

It seems these days we want everything for free, but when we get it we really don’t appreciate it.

Rant over 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

XMen 3 – The Last Stand, and Spiders…

I went to see “XMen 3 – The Last Stand” last night. It was totally brilliant! I loved the previous films, but this one was like the previous films on steroids. Loads more mutants and loads more destruction. Cool…

During the day I went to a 6th birthday party for one of my friends kids. In addition to all the usually party stuff, they got two guys to bring in an assortment of animals from a rescue center. All the kids, and most of the parents loved it. The guys brought a mixed bunch of animals including:

  • Two pythons
  • An African albino hedgehog
  • A skunk
  • A meerkat
  • Lots of cockroaches
  • Several types of tarantulas
  • Two types of scorpions
  • A paraquete

The kids were desperate to hold/touch/feed everything and apart from the scorpians, they got their hands on everything. Having seen a six year old holding two tarantulas, I bit the bullet and held one. I think it’s safe to say that I’m scared shitless of spiders, but it wasn’t half bad. Tarantuals are quite laid back and move very deliberately, not like those nasty house spiders, whose sticky little legs move at ten-to-the-dozen…

As a result of this, I feel moderately less scared of spiders. I guess the next time I find one lurking in the bath I’ll try and pick it up with my hands, rather than a glass and a piece of paper 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

The Da Vinci Code…

I’ve not yet seen anything positive about The Da Vinci Code film in the UK press. I saw a bunch of people leaving the premier in Paris saying it was awful, predictable and boring. One woman said it was the worst two and a half hours of her life. I all I can say is she must have had a pretty exciting life if that’s the worst she has had to endure!

With all the bad press and the fact that Tom Hanks gets on my nerves, I wasn’t really into the idea of going to see it, but I thought I ought to know something about it for reference sake, since everyone has been banging on about this story for a ages…

I went to see the film last night and I thought it was quite good. I don’t cope well with overly long films, but I coped OK, so it couldn’t have been too boring. It was a little predictable at times, but since most of the literate world seems to have read the book, that’s hardly a problem. Notice, I don’t count myself in that group 🙂

If you haven’t read the book, go and see it so you can nod politely while people spout rubbish about the factual accuracies/inaccuracies of the story. Maybe seed the conversation with controversial statements like, “I think it’s totally blasphemous!”, or “It’s an accurate account of history!”, then sit back and watch as people have the vapors… It’s like trying to teach evolution in America 😉

Cheers

Tim…

PS. XMen 3 next week.

Web Scripting for Oracle Update…

I’ve amended my Web Scripting for Oracle article to include ASP.NET (VB and C#).

I don’t claim to be an expert in any of these languages, so I can’t guarantee I’m using the best practices, but I like to keep some simple examples for those, “You’ve got to use bind variables!”, conversations 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

Should Oracle charge for patches?

I can understand Oracle charging for support and product upgrades, like 9i to 10g. I can even see the point of charging for releases upgrades, like 10gR1 to 10gR2. What I think is a little cheeky is to charge people for regular patchsets.

This line of thought came about because of a post on the Dizwell Forum, where someone mentioned they were running a production system without support. This person is working with 9.2.0.1.0 because they don’t have access to 9.2.0.7.0 as a result of not having a support and updates contract. Personally, I think this is more than a little mean of Oracle. Afterall, these patchsets are only fixing bugs in the product that was bought in good faith. Even Microsoft don’t charge for basic Windows Updates, only for version upgrades.

Personally, I believe patchsets on an existing product should be free to those who have a product license. Access to new releases and new product versions could still be restricted.

I just hope I’m never put in th same position as this guy!

Cheers

Tim…

Holiday, passport photos, films and music…

Holiday:
I’ve just got back from a weeks holiday. When I left home it was cold and raining. On holiday it was very hot and dry. I managed to get sun burn using SPF50! When I got home it was cold and raining again. My holiday was 40 miles away from home. That’s British weather for you 🙂

Passport Photos:
My passport was due to expire, so I sent off the renewal form just before I went on holiday. When I got back there was a letter saying my passport photos had been rejected. There was not enough contrast between my skin and the white background of the photo booth. Yes, I really am that pale. I like to think of my skin tone as alabaster, but in truth I look kind of deathly. Perhaps I need a spray-on tan before the next shots are taken 🙂

Films:

  • Silent Hill (Cinema) – Dull! I’m not prepared to say any more about it 🙂
  • Revolver (DVD) – I missed this at the cinema. I really liked it. Not your typical gangster film.
  • Doom (DVD) – This got slated when it was at the cinema. I thought it was an OK film. Guys running round a lab complex on Mars shooting mutant monster things. It does what it says on the tin!
  • Casshern (DVD)- Japanese futuristic superhero type film. I haven’t got a clue what was going on and I gave up about 15 minutes before the end.

I’ll probably go and see The Da Vinci Code this weekend. I don’t read books, so it will give me an idea of what everyone has been waffling on about over the last few years. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it…

In contrast, I can’t wait for X-Men III!

Music:
Tool – Not sure what I think of this CD. I guess I will need to play it a bit more.
Fall Out Boy – I love this CD. I’ve played it to death over the last couple of weeks. Time to rest it I think 🙂

There are so many cool bands out, it’s hard to find the time to listen to everything!

Cheers

Tim…

Mission Impossible 3…

I went to see Mission Impossible 3 last night. My thoughts are:

Shaking the camera so you can’t see what’s going on does not make everything more exiting! It makes it hard to watch the film without having an epileptic attack!

The film went on and on. I guess it ran for about 2 hours and 10 minutes. This is really a 1 hour 30 minute film, max. Why does hollywood insist on making overly long films these days. I wasn’t as boring as Lord of the Rings 2 or Matrix 2, but it was close!

The Ethan Hunt character is so uninteresting, and a little thick if you ask me. It’s all just so run of the mill. I found myself not caring if he lived or died. In contrast, Mat Damon’s character in The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy has some interest value.

MI3 is like James Bond without the humour and style, so what’s the point?

Cheers

Tim…