ColdFusion Merrimack Invitation
On June 30th I blogged about the next version of ColdFusion MX codenamed “Merrimackâ€. Today, I received an e-mail from the ColdFusion product team inviting me to participate in testing this new version. Here is the text of the e-mail: Continue reading…
2 Comments | Filed in ColdFusionNew look and features
You may have noticed that my blog has a new look. It is based on the the Crimson Milk WordPress Theme. In addition to having a new look, I have enabled the following new features on this site:
Similar to the new Google personalized home page, you can now hide and rearrange the boxes in the sidebar. All the customization you do to the boxes in the sidebar will be saved in a cookie and and reapplied on subsequent page views. Go ahead, try it.
There is a permanent “Poll” box in the sidebar, based on the WordPress plugin Democracy AJAX Poll. I will be frequently creating new polls. Go ahead, cast your vote.
There is now a live chat box in the sidebar, based on the WordPress plugin Ajax Shoutbox. You can chat with other visitors of this site, or just leave a message. This all done without even refreshing your browser. Go ahead, leave your mark.
Hope you like this new stuff.
Many thanks to Andrew Sutherland for his theme and plugins.
1 Comment | Filed in Interesting StuffSYS_CONTEXT in Oracle
Oracle has a very useful built-in function called SYS_CONTEXT. The syntax of this function goes like this:
SYS_CONTEXT ( 'namespace' , 'parameter' [, length] )
SYS_CONTEXT returns the value of parameter associated with the context namespace. You can use this function in both SQL and PL/SQL statements.
What makes this function more interesting is the fact that Oracle provides a built-in namespace called USERENV with predefined parameters, which describes the current session. Go ahead and run the following query: Continue reading…
Oracle SQLPlus
Even though I use Sql Navigator at work, I also often use SQLPlus. Almost everyone who has access to an Oracle database, has access to SQL*Plus. On the other hand, not everyone has SQL Navigator or similar third party tools installed on his/her machine.
SQLPlus can be started in GUI mode (Windows only) or in command-line mode. I like the command-line mode because it is more flexible and can be used on any platform.
By default, when you start SQLPlus, the prompt changes to SQL>: Continue reading…
How Everyday Things Are Made
If you’ve ever wondered how things are made – products like candy, cars, airplanes, or bottles – or if you’ve been interested in manufacturing processes, like forging, casting, or injection molding, then this site is the place to go. Really interesting.
Comments Off | Filed in Interesting StuffOracle Firefox search plugin
Up in the top right corner of Firefox, there’s a handy search box that puts search engines at your fingertips. When you download Firefox, a number of searches (like Google, Yahoo, and Ebay) are included but you can easily add more.
Because I find myself quite frequently using tahiti.oracle.com to search the Oracle documentation, I created my own Firefox search plugin to do just that, search the Oracle documentation. You can download, install and use my search plugin from here. The search plugin will only work in Mozilla Firefox. If you do not use Firefox, now is a great time to switch and use this great browser along with the other 75,000,000 users.
24 Comments | Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins | Tags: Documentation, Firefox, plugin, search
