Hand-picked news on Oracle and technology in general from AskTheOracle.netAskTheOracle's Blog
You don't even need to give us your email address to subscribe so if you're inbox is already overflowing, just relax. So, just RIGHT-click on the orange RSS button on the left under the menu and then copy and paste the URL of into your RSS reader. OR... Click on one of the Google, My Yahoo!, My MSN, or Bloglnes button if you use any of those and follow the instructions given and you'll start receiving our latest updates straight away. 5 Startups that could change the face of big dataOrganisations are storing ever increasing quantities of data and whilst tools exist at the infrastructure level to handle large amounts of data (so called big data), the applications required on top of this infrastructure have had to be custom built. This could all be about to change though. Gigaom has identified 5 relatively unknown startups that could bring big data applications into the mainstream. More details on teh Oracle SCN issueSince Infoworld first highlighted this issue on 17th Jan 2012 there have been plenty of comments and a critical patch update from Oracle to fix this bug. However if you've been looking for more technical details about the issue you've been out of luck, until very recently. Now orainternals has published a blog providing backgtound information on how Oracle databases use the scn and more details on the issue identified by Infoworld. The Big Data Online ForumOracle Senior Technical Architect Tom Kyte, Cloudera CEO Mike Olson, and others will be presenting at the Big Data Online Forum and discussing the essentials of big data from the technology underlying it to real-world use cases on Thursday Feb 16th 2012. How Cloud Computing is Changing Many Job DescriptionsThe advent of cloud computing is having a big effect on the way companies do business and obviously an even bigger effect on companies IT systems and the employees involved with them. As companies reduce their involvement with the nitty gritty of their IT systems, the greater the requirements will be for strategists and architects - people to design the "big picture" and the lesser the requirements for the lower-level jobs. About Oracle Database Systems Change NumberInfoworld reported on Jan 17th 2012 that they have found a fundamental flaw affecting the Oracle SCN in the way that Oracle databases have been designed. This seems to be a relatively rare issue but it is a potential security risk so Oracle have released a bug fix in the January 2012 Critical Patch Update to address the security issue and have provided a detailed description of the problem on their "Security Assurance Blog". Oracle Partners With Cloudera To Produce Big Data ApplianceOracle announced its Big Data Appliance at Oracle Open World in October 2011 and has now partnered with Cloudera to provide the Hadoop database needed to make this a reality. Oracle Enhances "TimesTen" To Compete With SAPOracle recently released version 11g R2 of its TimesTen In-Memory Database in order to compete with SAP's Hana product. Oracle state that the new release of TimesTen will support more users, more sessions and provide a greater throughput and will now support analytic applications by running the Oracle Exalytics appliance as well as OLTP applications. This enables it to compete with SAP's Hana in-memory database which originally supported just analytical applications but is now moving into OLTP. Oracle Strenghtens Databse Firewall Against SQL Injection AttacksOracle has enhanced its database firewall to increase security and reduce the risks of breaches by both employees and sql injection attacks. Support has also been added for MySQL in the latest release. Do More with Oracle WebCenter: Expand Beyond Portals.Oracle will be hosting a webinar "Do More with Oracle WebCenter: Expand Beyond Portals" on Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM PST. Christian Finn of Oracle will be discussing how Oracle WebCenter includes comprehensive content, Web experience management, and social computing capabilities. The presentation will explain Oracle WebCenter enables you to create advanced customer-facing Web solutions which will enhance customer loyalty and sales and how to manage the lifecycle of content across your entire enterprise. What's the difference between a trigger and a constraint in Oracle?What's the difference between a trigger and a constraint in Oracle? To a certain extent there is only a subtle difference between a constraint and a trigger Using a database link with heterogeneous services in Oracle Application ExpressBart Peeters describes how to overcome the problems that can occur in APEX (Application Express) when you're using heterogeneous services with a database link to connect an Oracle database and a non-Oracle database. Oracle Database Webinar - "Real developers DO use tools"Cary Millsap (ACE Director & former VP at Oracle) will be presenting this free webinar on Tuesday 24th Jan at 4pm GMT to show that using tools is necessary for efficient database development. IOUG Tips and Best Practices BookletThe IOUG (Independent Oracle Users Group) has compiled a booklet of technical tips from members for a variety of Oracle products. Although called a compilation of tips, it is actually a compilation of miniature presentations on topics such as Oracle Exadata, Oracle RMAN, AWR, ASM, security and the Oracle optimizer. Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Virtual Developer DayOracle will be holding 4 virtual developer days in 3 different time zones on WebLogic Server 12c for Java developers and architects. Attendees will learn about Java EE6, WebLogic Server, Coherence, Eclipse, NetBeans, Maven and Hudson. The first session, for the Americas, will be held on Jan 24 2012 from 9:30 - 1:30 PST. The Future of Oracle Forms is ... Forms!Lucas Jellema and Grant Ronald did a presentation for the UK Oracle Users Group in December 2011 the purpose of which was to show how Oracle Forms applications from the 1990s could be modernised. The presentation shows how to integrate Forms (now part of Oracle Fusion Middleware) can be integrated with Web 2.0 portals and applications as part of a SOA. How to delete all the rows in a table in an Oracle database leaving just the first 2 rows.There is a table with 100 entries. I want to delete all the rows except first two row. How should I do it? This is a very good question and one that often 10 programming languages that could shake up ITYou might think that there are more than enough programming languages already without adding any more but for some the current set of languages is just not up to the job so they've invented their own. Some of these new languages are enhancements to existing languages such as Java and JavaScript whilst others are brand new designed from the ground up. Oracle Exadata Virtual Conference 2012The Independent Oracle Users Group will be holding the first Exadata Virtual Conference on January 19-20 2012 from 2pm to 5pm EST each day. The topics covered will include the state of Exadata in 2012, top Exadata features you need to know and how to survive Oracle Exadata patching. You have to register for each day separately. Registration for day 2 is at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/702427145 Oracle Virtualization Launch Software UpdatesA couple of releases made just before Christmas that you might have missed:
PLSQL Collections Explored (Part 2 - VARRAYs)An introduction into the use of PLSQL collections in Oracle. Part 2 looks at VARRAYs (variable-size arrays) Permalink -- click for full blog post "PLSQL Collections Explored (Part 2 - VARRAYs)" 10 cloud startups to watch in 2012Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular and clouded but Gigacom has identified and provides profiles of 10 start-up companies with cloud offerings of one type or another and with a good chance of success in 2012. Your IT job prospects for 2012Your job prospects for 2012 are mixed according to this article in InfoWorld. InfoWorld reports that IT budgets are increasing but much of this new money will be spent on outsourcing and whilst certain skills are in demand it seems unlikely that there will be a big increase in jobs overall. Oracle Essentials, 4th Edition - download for freeRed Gate Software is currently offering the 4th Edition of Oracle Essentials (published by O'Reilley) for free download from their site. This book provides information about the Oracle database architecture (Oracle8 -11g), the various options and data structures and is a good reference book for beginners right through to experts. Is YouTube at risk of bring shut down?This is a departure from our usual discourse on Oracle databases and related technologies but we felt it was too important to ignore. According to this video (on YouTube!), YouTube is in danger of being shut down by the Stop Online Piracy Act which has a laudable (if impossible) aim of stopping copyright violations on the Internet. We are not in favour of stealing anyone else's intellectual property but if the facts reported in this video are correct then this act will do far more harm than good. Watch it and decide for yourselves. Oracle Unveils New Release of Oracle Tuxedo 11gOn December 16 Oracle released the latest version of Tuxedo, its application server for C/C++, COBOL, and dynamic languages. This new release has been optimized to run on Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2, and delivers a scalable solution for high volume, low latency mission critical applications requiring the highest qualities of service. Oracle state that Tuxedo 11g is the best performing and most reliable and scalable solution for developing non-Java enterprise applications and migrating legacy mainframe applications to open systems. |