AskTom Search Engine Plugin Revived
I went to AskTom to add the site’s search engine to my Firefox’s Search Bar but too bad the search engine link was broken:
So, I went ahead and created a new AskTom search engine plugin.
If you are browsing this page in Firefox 2 or above or IE7 or above, click here to install the AskTom search plugin.
Check out this page for more Oracle related search engine plugins.
Filed in Firefox, Oracle, Plugins with Comments Off | Tags: Firefox, plugin, search35+ Oracle Subdomains You May Not Know About
Here is a list of public Oracle.com subdomains that I know about. In no specific order:
Do you know an Oracle.com subdomain that is not listed above? Feel free to share it with us.
Update: Thanks to Colin for letting us know about this query which gives us more than 100 subdomains.
Filed in Links with 9 Comments | Tags: LinksGive Me The Current Date Please
Did you know that in addition to SYSDATE, there is also a SQL function called CURRENT_DATE? Basically, they are the same except one important difference.
SYSDATE returns the current date and time set for the operating system on which the database resides whereas CURRENT_DATE returns the current date in the session time zone.
Here is a quick example to illustrate that difference:
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT = 'MM/DD/YYYY HH:MI:SS'
2 /
Session altered.
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE, CURRENT_DATE
2 FROM DUAL
3 /
SYSDATE CURRENT_DATE
------------------- -------------------
04/17/2008 04:09:56 04/17/2008 04:09:57
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET TIME_ZONE = 'EST'
2 /
Session altered.
SQL> SELECT SYSDATE, CURRENT_DATE
2 FROM DUAL
3 /
SYSDATE CURRENT_DATE
------------------- -------------------
04/17/2008 04:09:56 04/17/2008 07:09:57
Of course, I’m not telling you anything new here, it’s all in the documentation 
Check These SQL Beauties Out
Participation in the Obfuscated SQL Code Contest expired on April 1st. The SQL code that was submitted was not only obfuscated but also beautiful and artful.
When the contest started, I thought that we could just vote on the entries and select the most popular as the winner. But after seeing the entries, I believe that all the participants should be declared winners. Great Work!
Without further ado, here is the list of authors and their scripts:
Rob van Wijk: The script requires version 11.1.0.6 because of the pivot operator.
Shoblock: The script makes use of subquery factoring and generates rows from dual via “connect by level <”. Tested on 10.1.0.2.0
Laurent Schneider: The script requires 10.1.0.5 and cannot be formatted.
Frank Zhou: The script solves 4 different puzzles in a single SQL. Requires version 10.2.0.2.0.
Volder: The script draws an island and a turtle underneath. Requires any 10.2 version.
And here is a bonus script from Laurent (10.2.0.2).
Oh and by the way, Paul was kind enough to put Rob’s script on a t-shirt
