Total Recall…

I’ve just got back from watching the re-spin of Total Recall. I was a fan of the Arnold version, but that was 22 years ago (Wow!), so I though it was worth a watch to see what they had brought to the table. As you would expect, some bits are very similar, but there is a lot that is very different from the previous incarnation.

Colin Farrell was pretty good. He certainly looked like he’d hit the gym and stuck to his diet in the lead up to the film. Very impressive. At times I was watching him and found myself thinking he’d make a cracking James Bond! When Daniel Craig gets bored of that gig, Colin should send in his CV.

Kate Beckinsale was fit with a capital “F”, “I” and “T”. A complete robo-babe from the planet vixen in the galaxy of grrrrrrr! In my opinion, she made the very lovely Jessica Biel seem positively ordinary, and that’s saying something!

All in all it’s a really neat action romp, even for us oldies that remember the days when they could show Arnold in a film without using soft focus…

Cheers

Tim…

The Expendables 2…

I was dissapointed in The Expendables, but I hoped they would make another film and try to get it right this time. I’ve just got back from The Expendables 2 and I’m glad to say they got it completely right this time!

If I’m honest, many of the elements of this film are the same as the previous one. The difference is this one is done with a lot more humor. The film and the cast don’t seem to take themselves too seriously and that pays dividends in the enjoyment factor. In the previous film there was a lot of violence, but this film has even more. What makes it better is it is taken to almost comic book proportions. Some of the grizzliest scenes had people in the audience laughing.

I’m looking forward to The Expendables 3!

Cheers

Tim…

Job Update and New Articles…

One of my reasons for taking a regular DBA job was to reconnect with the day-to-day of being an Oracle DBA. It’s very easy to get rose-coloured spectacles when you are not in the trenches. If I ever had them before, they have certainly been removed now. 🙂

Probably the most frustrating thing about my current role is my employer and I can’t agree on what an Oracle DBA is. I have a very firm idea of my skill set and what value I can add to an organisation. My employer seems to think an Oracle DBA just does whatever random thing that is asked of them. I’ve had a number of discussions with them about this, but it looks like we will have to agree to disagree. Despite this frustration, it’s a really cool group of people and I really look forward to going to work every day.

Just before I left for the OTN Tour of Latin America, the permanent DBA handed in his notice, which is a shame because he was a good guy and it would have been nice to spend some more time working with him. Yesterday was his last day, meaning on Tuesday I’ll be the only DBA in the company for a few weeks until his replacement arrives. Added to that, the guy that just left had a pretty strong middleware skill set, so as of Tuesday I’m also the company middleware guru. [pause, while I wait for you to stop laughing] From a middleware perspective, I can get the job done, but it’s far from being a strong point for me.

Me being at OpenWorld will leave the company without a DBA for a while. I think I’m going to have to sort out remote access in case anything bad happens…

I was hoping having a regular job would provide some inspiration as far as new articles was concerned. What has tended to happen is I’ve found myself going back over old articles and filling in the gaps, as well as writing new articles on old subjects. In many cases, I’ve not bothered to promote the articles to the front page since an article on a 10 year old bit of Oracle kit, like Oracle Application Server, is not high on most people’s reading lists. 🙂 If nothing else, this process has shown me how little I write about the middleware stuff. When trying to re-learn some of the old OAS stuff I went looking for my notes and found virtually nothing. I’ve written even less about WebLogic… 🙁

To make sure I don’t fall into the same trap again I’m going to write a number of articles on pretty basic middleware stuff over the next few weeks. It will clear away some of the cobwebs for me and help the new person get up to speed if their middleware skills are not that great.

Here are some of the “newer” things I’ve written recently…

Cheers

Tim…

Forum Spammers (again)…

My forum is being hit pretty hard by spammers at the moment. If you are of a sensitive nature, you may want to be careful about venturing in there. 🙂

In addition to deleting anything that looks remotely dodgy, I’m doing a regular purge of users with zero posts, so if you create an account and don’t post anything, I won’t be there for very long. Sorry if this freaks anyone out, but there is not much I can do about it.

Typically these attacks last a couple of days until they realise the forum is being maintained and their efforts are wasted, then they move on until the next time…

Cheers

Tim…

Any tips are welcome. I’ve tried a number of security methods including Re-Capture and Question&Answer. It looks like human posting to me…

Update: As the day progressed it went ballistic. I’ve switched the forum to Administrator Approval for any new signups. If you try to get an account and you have either an unusual sounding name, or an email address that doesn’t look real to me I will delete it. I’m sorry if that affects some real sign-ups, but I don’t want the forum full of extreme content!

Sometimes Grid Control Drives Me Nuts…

I’m a big fan of Enterprise Manager Grid Control. The performance page and all the drill-downs from there are awesome. Having said that, there are loads of things where it is such a pain in the ass.

Some incidents spring to mind:

  • Someone asked me to check what sessions a particular user had against the database. I was already on GC, so I decided to use that. After a couple of clicks and pauses for the screen to load I turned and said, “Bugger this for a game of soldiers!”, opened SQL*Plus, ran my sessions script and it was done. GC is such a waste of time for some simple tasks like this. It’s far easier to do it using SQL*Plus or SQL Developer.
  • I was cloning a database and decided to do it with GC. The process was very long winded to fill in all the options I needed and at the end it failed with some crappy error message. I switched to the command line and it was done in no time. I would hazard a guess the whole manual operation took less time than typing in the required options into GC.
  • The job scheduler in GC is chronic! For some operations I have to switch from my Super Administrator account to the SYSMAN account or things just cave in. That happens with other areas of functionality too I guess.

I’m not discounting that someone with less command line experience may have a different take on things, but sometimes Grid Control drives me nuts!

Cheers

Tim…

So long iPad…

I’ve not touched my iPad this week. I’m now total a Nexus 7 junkie. More than anything, it’s because of the speed difference. My iPad 1 is so slow in comparison to the Nexus 7. If I were to go back to an iPad now, I would have to upgrade to the latest model and I don’t see the point of spending that amount of cash…

It looks like this weeks visit to my nephews will include a new addition to the “things they use for 30 seconds before going out to play football” pile. 🙂

Cheers

Tim…

PS. I reserve the right to go out and buy an iPad 3 at any time for the fun of it… 🙂

Update: The iPad did get re-homed at my nephews this weekend… 🙂

The Dark Knight Rises…

I went to watch The Dark Knight Rises yesterday. Wow, that is one loooong film…

Let’s start by saying I never really got into the previous films (Batman Returns and The Dark Knight). This one was more of the same for me. Nothing felt new. Nothing really excited me. One of my mates thought it was amazing and couldn’t understand my apathy. Apart from the length, there is nothing wrong with the film. It just doesn’t do it for me…

I guess I’ve got to wait for the next kick-start to see if that one suits me…

Cheers

Tim…

Nexus 7 : Impressions after a couple of days…

It’s been a couple of days since I got my spangly new Nexus 7. I was hoping to chalk it down to an impulse buy, but after 3 failed attempts to buy one at high-street stores I got frustrated and ordered one off Google Play directly…

If you’ve used an Android phone (or tablet) before, there aren’t many mysteries here. It’s just a bigger, faster and smoother version of what I’ve seen before. There has been lots of talk about the improvements in Jelly Bean (Android 4.1). Now I don’t know if it’s really because of changes in Android, or just because of the hardware refresh compared to my HTC Wildfire, but this thing is like sh*t off a shovel! Everything is so quick and smooth. It’s really cool! As far as *my* use is concerned, Android and iOS are now the same thing. You can be picky, but Jelly Bean is a very polished product.

The issue with phones and tablets is that every pro is also a con. For example:

  • Size: It’s smaller than my iPad, but that makes it a little more annoying for typing than the already-annoying iPad.
  • Portability: Because it’s smaller than the iPad, it feels more portable than that, but not as portable as my crappy old HTC Wildfire or some of the larger smart phones.
  • Reading: Even though it is smaller than the iPad, it’s still bigger and heavier than my Kindle. That, added to the shiny screen makes it vastly inferior to the Kindle for reading novels.

Mark Rittman made some mention of the unusual form factor as far as displaying web pages. It’s true the aspect ratio is more like a large phone than the tablets I’ve used/seen, but that hasn’t affected me so far.

I don’t have a posh smart phone, but for those that do, you might want to read Howard Rogers’ review. I’m guessing a lot of people might actually get more use out of a Galaxy SIII or Galaxy Note phone that the Nexus 7.

So the conclusions are pretty simple. For £200 it is a really excellent device. It’s half the size of the iPad and half the price, so you get what you pay for in that respect. If you have the money and want the extra screen size, the iPad is a better option. If price is an issue, or you prefer a smaller tablet, then the Nexus 7 is a great choice.

I’m not sure what the future holds for my Nexus 7. It might end up replacing my iPad, in which case my nephews will get that. The Nexus 7 might become a present for my nephews and I’ll keep the iPad. I might end up using both devices. Yesterday I was streaming the Olympics or Netflix on my iPad, while doing emails and tweeting on my Nexus 7. I have this horrible feeling I will have my laptop, iPad, Nexus 7 and Kindle when I’m traveling to OOW this year… 🙂

Cheers

Tim…