Oracle related rants (and lots of off-topic stuff)…
Andy C has a nice post about the current Ask.com advertising campaign. I have to agree with him. Most regular folk out there simply need to know there is an alternative to Google, rather than being subjected to poncey advertising campaigns.
His post also reminded me that AltaVista.com used to exist. Of course, it still does exist, but it’s completely off the radar, so it might as well cease to be… 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
Rant Alert. The following is an unreasoned attack on the IT community in order to vent my frustration. I’m not claiming it makes any sense or it’s factually correct. It’s just how I feel today. Maybe I’ll feel different tomorrow…
I can’t help feeling that companies like Oracle are doing the IT world a major disservice by trying to make out that their products are easy to use. I have a quick newsflash… They are not!
This post is really a response to two things:
From a work perspective, the mass exodus of people from my current company has left me having to deal with bits of technology that aren’t really my bag. It gets doubly annoying when I’m having to use bad support services to help me do really basic tasks. If software and hardware vendors were honest and made customers aware that they would need trained professionals to deal with this crap, perhaps people like me wouldn’t be left fumbling in the dark, trying to pick up the pieces.
From the Oracle forum side of things, I’ve really noticed a shift over the last few years and I’ve written about it before. The same type of questions are being asked as they always were. The difference is that in the past these questions were being asked by people trying to learn the technology. Now they seem to come from people who are employed as DBAs and developers by companies. I don’t believe the intellectual capacities of people have dropped over the years. I just think companies are employing under-skilled people to save money, or expecting people to cover roles they are not qualified to do. You wouldn’t let an electrician fix your plumbing, so why would you let this happen?
I don’t claim to know the answers, but I can see that the constant barrage of “point-and-click”, “intuitive” and “self-tuning” marketing messages are leading people to believe they don’t need qualified staff, and the result is a whole bunch of people asking how to recover their production databases from incomplete backups.
IT is getting more complicated and the range of skills needed in a company is getting bigger by the year. Companies need to be made to understand this or they will constantly be finding themselves in the shit!
Cheers
Tim…
My fear of spiders has abated somewhat since my encounter with a tarantula. I’ve even turned a blind eye to the spiders living in my car, kitchen and bathroom, but this is totally gross…
Oregon boy in double spider ear blockage horror
Cheers
Tim…
I’ve been on holiday for a few days, so this latest release passed me by.
Cheers
Tim…
PS. Please don’t ask me for help installing Oracle on Vista. I’ve never done it and I don’t plan on trying. Instead I would advise you use VMware Server or Virtual Box to run Oracle on Oracle Enterprise Linux. A much neater solution in my opinion.
I’ve just got back from watching Spider-Man 3 and I’m reminded why I didn’t like the first two. Sure, the action sequences are good, but it seems like most of the film is spent listening to people whining and moralising. For the most part, the film takes itself far too seriously. There are some more light hearted (cringe-worthy) scenes, but most of the non-action scenes are just plain depressing. If you liked the first two I think you’ll love this one. If not, give it a wide birth.
One thing of note in the film was Bryce Dallas Howard. It wasn’t a great part for her, and I think I prefer her with red hair, but her presence did add some interest for me.
Cheers
Tim…
I saw Undisputed II: Last Man Standing on DVD last night. Michael Jai White plays an ex-champion boxer who is in Russia filming a commercial. He’s framed and sent to prison for the sole purpose of forcing him to fight in a prison style Ultimate Fighter Competition (UFC). It’s a pretty derivative plot, but it was quite enjoyable.
Michael Jai White seems to get bigger every time I seem him. He was pretty big in Universal Soldier: The Return, but in this film he looks like he might have overdosed on the steriod pies. He still seems quick with his hands, and I know he’s very flexible, but in this film he does very little fighting with his legs.
The most impressive thing for me was the villain, played by Scott Adkins. Like MJW, Scott is very muscular guys, but he can so some amazing stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a big guy move so well. He looks fast, flexible and extremely agile. It would be interesting to see some more of him. He’s in the next Bourne film, The Bourne Ultimatum, so that should make interesting viewing.
Cheers
Tim…
Apart from computers, I’ve become a little averse to gadgets. They do appeal to me, but I know I’ll quickly bore of them and get annoyed about the amount of money I’ve wasted on them.
As a result, I’ve been walking round with the worst mobile phone in the world, my digital camera is huge and I don’t own a mp3 player or satellite navigation…
Recently, after getting lost while driving for the 1 billionth time, I decided I wanted satellite navigation. Whilst looking at my options, one of the guys at work mentioned the Nokia N95 mobile phone. It’s got satellite navigation, a 5 megapixel camera, an mp3 player, and you can even use it as a mobile phone… 🙂
In a fit of madness, I got one. It’s a fairly new model, so I got fleeced as far as my contract goes, but I must say I’m pretty happy with it. The satellite navigation seems to work fine. The camera is not as good as a £200 point-and-click camera, but it’s as good as I need. So now I have all the gadgets I wanted, conveniently rolled up into one, easily losable device. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
I went to see Curse of the Golden Flower at the cinema on Friday night. I was expecting something like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero or House of the Flying Daggers, but that’s not what I got. This was definitely not a martial arts film, although there were a few stylized fight scenes.
The film is focused on the relationships between the Emperor of China during the Tang Dynasty (10th Century), his three sons and his wife. With some fierce sibling rivalry, incest and the most dramatic sets you will ever see, it’s not exactly the story of a regular family.
One thing I found difficult was dealing with the subtitles. Normally this isn’t a problem, but the scenes were so spectacular I sometimes forgot to read the subtitles. It’s probably worth watching a couple of times. Once for the dialog, and once for the visuals. Either that, or hope the DVD has English dubbing.
If you are expecting to see a high budget martial arts film you will be disappointed. If on the other hand, you want to see an interesting story with totally spectacular sets, it’s a must-see. Overall, I’m glad I went to see it. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
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…
It was a scorcher this weekend. I don’t know what the official temperature was, but it felt really hot. In true British style I caught myself moaning about the heat, only a couple of days after moaning about the cold. We Brits aren’t truly happy unless we can have a weather-related moan. 🙂
I was at a Karate course yesterday. Fortunately the sports hall was mercifully cool, otherwise I think we may have lost a few people. I’m feeling a little worse for wear this morning, but hopefully I’ll pick up in time for tonights Karate class.
Cheers
Tim…