WordPress 2.5…

There’s been a lot of fuss about WordPress 2.5 over the last few weeks, most of which seems to be negative press about bad design of the adminstration pages.

Well, it’s finally here, and if you are reading this then the upgrade of my blogs have been successful.

I can’t say I really like the new administration pages much myself, but the blogs look the same and seem to work fine so I guess I can’t complain. πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

Native Oracle XML DB Web Services…

I’ve been playing around with Native Oracle XML DB Web Services in Oracle 11g Release 1 for a while and I’ve finally decided to release the article.

One of the reasons it’s been on the back burner for some time is I’ve been having trouble with the anonymous access configuration. I’ve still not got this sorted, but I decided to open it up and leave that section as a work in progress. I’ll keep looking at it and update that section if I get a satisfactory solution.

Cheers

Tim…

Update: I received the following quote on Metalink from the “Global Technical Lead XML Database”:

“Anonymous access to web services is not possible. Direct PL/SQL access without authentication would be a massive security hole.”

American Gangster…

I went round to a friends house last night and watched American Gangster on DVD. I didn’t bother to see it at the cinema because it really didn’t appeal to me, but it was a pretty good film. Denzel Washington always does the job well, although I don’t think he’s as good as the critics make out. Russell Crowe was less annoying than usual, so don’t be put off by his presence.

There was nothing drastically different about this film to separate it from any other gangster film I’ve seen, but it was executed well, which made it worth watching in my random opinion. πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

10,000 BC and Die Hard 4.0…

I’m not sure what I can say about 10,000 BC. It wan’t a terrible film, it just wasn’t all that good. As Noons pointed out, the time-line was very dubious to say the least.

The thing that bugged me the most was the galloping mammoths. As far as I can remember elephants, and therefore mammoths by extrapolation, can’t gallop like horses. They just walk really quickly. Turns out in 10,000 BC they can do a full-on gallop like a giant race horse. I was also surprised to see them in such hot conditions. I was under the impression they were a cold climate creature, hence the wooley coat. Turns out they were really happy building pyramids in 10,000 BC, even though everyone knows the pyramids were built by aliens. πŸ™‚

Less annoying, but equally misleading was the shape of the sabre toothed tiger. Looked just like a modern tiger to me, but with long teeth. Not much like the sabre tooth tiger pictures I’ve seen before. I guess they were a bit different in 10,000 BC…

I realize I’m being really picky for what is meant to be a bit of entertainment, but I don’t see why you need to tamper with some of this stuff. A stampede of elephants/mammoths would look pretty impressive even without the galloping. As too would a sabre-toothed tiger in its original form. It’s another case of dumbing everything down so much that it no longer has any link to reality.

I watched Die Hard 4.0 on DVD the other night. This kinda passed me by on the cinema and I don’t really know why. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Totally mindless and ridiculous, just like a Die Hard film should be. Don’t ask me why my standards change with every film I review. They just do. πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

The economy killed by the press…

First, the press takes an issue and hypes it up to a point where regular Joe’s are rushing out to draw their money out of a successful bank for fear of it collapsing. Next, they start running stories about how low consumer confidence is one of the major factors affecting the economy at the moment.

Does anyone else not find this funny?

I’m not just talking about the gutter press here. Every morning I watch the BBC news and it makes me want to sell everything I own, convert the cash to gold and hide it in a cave.

Perhaps if the newspapers and TV would stop harping on about this stuff, regular people might get on with their lives and the economy might be OK.

Cheers

Tim…

PS. Looking for a suitable cave for my gold… πŸ™‚

Vista SP1 and VMware Server 1.0.5…

Anyone following my tweets last night would know I installed Vista SP1 and VMware Server 1.0.5 last night.

While I was doing the Oracle workshops I didn’t really want to mess with my laptop much, but now I’m having a right good rummage.

The Windows Vista SP1 installation took about 45 minutes and didn’t report any problems. Since the install I’ve seen no problems. My AntiVirus software (AVG) works without complaint. My VPN software (Checkpoint) is happy as Larry. The box still talks to my Linux boxes and my NAS, which is a Linux appliance using Samba. So all in all it worked out OK, considering the various worry mongering going on in the press.

Remember, this is one laptop being used by a computer gumby. I’m not suggesting it’s safe for your whole organization to go Vista ans SP1. I just thought it was worth a mention.

While I was waiting for the SP1 installation I thought I’d give VMware Server 1.0.5 a go on my Linux (CentOS 5) server. It installed fine, and apart from having to update my VMware tools on each VM, everything ran as before. There doesn’t seem to be anything new compared to 1.0.4, probably just bug fixes, but I guess the big change will be when version 2.0 comes out of beta.

Once the SP1 installation was complete I put the new version of VMware Server on my laptop and it worked fine there also.

So it was a pretty successful evening, considering the devastation that could have resulted. πŸ™‚

Cheers

Tim…

Shoot ‘Em Up…

I saw the film Shoot ‘Em Up recently and thought it was pretty cool. I had no intention of seeing it, but it was the only thing on when I got to the cinema, so I thought I’d give it a go.

Now, when I say it was cool, I don’t mean it had a wonderful story or anything like that. It’s a designer violence type flick. Lots of completely over the top cartoon style shooting scenes. If it had looked even slightly real (like Rambo) I would be complaining that it was too violent, but the cartoonish style (like Kill Bill), makes it almost funny.

If you fancy an over the top bad-guys vs. anti-hero film it’s good fun.

Cheers

Tim…

Copenhagen (again)…

I mentioned in a previous post I had a days sightseeing before I started my workshop. Copenhagen is a really cool place. I would definitely like to visit again.

Regarding the workshop, I think it went really well. The people were very friendly and interacted a lot. It’s hard work presenting for 12+ hours, but it’s cool when the audience are getting involved.

One of the attendees (Ian) was a guy I worked with in a previous job, so when we finished the workshop on Thursday we went out for a drink in the city centre with one of Ian’s friends (Tony). That evening led to a rather messy morning, which I’m not going to elaborate on, but I did manage to get to the airport on time… πŸ™‚

All in all, I had a really good week. I’d like to thank everyone at Oracle for allowing me the opportunity to do the workshop, and everyone who attended for making me feel welcome.

Cheers

Tim…