Andrei DANEASA

I’ve been asked by Packt to review one of their last books on Oracle, “Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer Professional Guide“.
Like many of the Packt books, it’s highly recommended to read the subtitle as well, in this case “Master advanced PL/SQL concepts along with plenty of example questions for 1Z0-146 examination”.
So in case you’re preparing for this Oracle University exam and ready to become “Oracle Advanced PL/SQL Developer Certified Professional“, this book is a good start.

The structure of the book if following in detail the 1Z0-146 exam topics and the user will find a separated chapter for each topic, exactly in the same order, which makes the book a very good companion when preparing for exam. The examples used trough the book are clear and easy to understand. Starting chapter 7 onwards there are topics with high applicability like SecureFiles, tuning, caching, profiling and tracing and SQL Injection prevention techniques that should be read by every Oracle PL/SQL developer but are not very well understood and unfortuntely underused by the community.

If the reader is not necessarily keen to take the exam, he can then switch to Oracle documentation available on tahiti.oracle.com, where he can read more about each of the topics in the book and many other advanced PL/SQL topics that Oracle University didn’t include in the exam curriculum.

The main effect Facebook and LinkedIn had on my online behavior is that I’m not posting on my blog anymore. It’s also true that I don’t have the time anymore for long articles, but I am really loving my blog (now 6 years old… school boy) and will continue to publish here things that are too technical for Facebook and not business enough for LinkedIn.

Meanwhile, since the last post, I studied a lot on Oracle Data Integrator (ran 5+ workshops across EMEA), Oracle GoldenGate (very hot on my plate, built a machine we’re using for exercises and the corresponding lab book very appreciated on our workshops), Oracle Database Firewall, got GoldenGate Certified Implementation Specialist certification, was traveling a lot to various places in Europe, including a series of 7 weeks in a row, now chilling out a bit and making time for CISSP certification.

Certification status as of May 2011

What’s common to the 3 technologies above? Anybody? Yes, I’m trying to get heterogeneous, they are all dealing with other database systems as well.

Keep in touch.

P.S. Yes, I do hate as well Ubuntu 11.04, can’t wait for 11.10

My parents in-law got their home router replaced by the provider with a crappy Zyxel wi-fi router. Besides the fact everything is working slower than before due to some internal firewall and management, one laptop having Vista on it (hmmm, it came with it) was unable to connect to the new network.

After spending few hours trying to connect, changing all the settings in the router, restarting the router like hell, I was about to reinstall the OS on that laptop. But as I never worked on Vista, I thought google-ing a bit might reveal similar experiences. And yes, I was so right… one of the first results was stating:
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Apex is a great tool for rapid web applications based on Oracle Database. It’s free, and if you’re happy with Oracle XE’s limitations, then it’s perfect, you have the database free as well. I’ve been following APEX for long time ago, since it was called HTML DB, and wrote 2+ years ago a guide how to install APEX on XE.

Now APEX 4.0.1 is GA and most of the people would like to upgrade. It’s very simple.

1. Download APEX from OTN
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After I saw quite some interest on installing Webmin on Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10, I decided to go ahead and do the same for 10.04 and 10.10. I also strongly believe Ubuntu is doing wrong by not including Webmin into their repository Webmin is doing a mistake by using a deprecated library and not leave everybody to take benefit of their great product.
For those unfamiliar with Webmin, it is a web interface for configuring your linux box without X server.

LATER EDIT: As Joe Cooper from Virtualmin (the guys making webmin) said in the comments, there’s no need anymore for libmd5-perl for webmin starting with 1.520. I tested and it’s true, now the whole installation can be done in 3 simple steps. Thanks Joe, now’s much better!

Having said these, let’s to the job: Read the rest of this entry »

After I saw quite some interest on installing Webmin on Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10, I decided to go ahead and do the same for 10.04 and 10.10. I also strongly believe Ubuntu is doing wrong by not including Webmin into their repository Webmin is doing a mistake by using a deprecated library and not leave everybody to take benefit of their great product.
For those unfamiliar with Webmin, it is a web interface for configuring your linux box without X server.

LATER EDIT: As Joe Cooper from Virtualmin (the guys making webmin) said in the comments, there’s no need anymore for libmd5-perl for webmin starting with 1.520. I tested and it’s true, now the whole installation can be done in 3 simple steps. Thanks Joe, now’s much better!

Having said these, let’s to the job: Read the rest of this entry »

I know there’s quite some time since my last post, but there are good reasons for this. First on the list would be my daughter Emma, who keeps growing and is filling all my afterwork time.

Secondly, lot of new Oracle products that I’ve been trained on and now I’m supposed to train other people. Then it comes the vacation, the first one with a child 🙂

What else… maybe I should mention:

• it’s my fourth week working entirely on Ubuntu 64bit and I absolutely love it. Nothing is missing but Microsoft Office.
• I read a lot of technical books on my Sony Reader. Everybody should buy one, especially now when they dropped the price like hell
• did some personal projects, some very successful
• I was actively involved in the efforts of keeping IT tax benefits in Romania
• ahhh, yes, these Facebook and Linkedin are definitely distracting me from my blog.

But there’s September now and things are back on track.

I was doing some insane browsing during my vacation and realized that my oldest blog post is 5 years old!
… and my domain, webxpert.ro is 8 years old. It had quite a few versions and in the end I decided that nothing worth to be on the first page.
… and I don’t even call myself “blogger” or anything else.

I am proud not to put all kind of garbage on my blog, proud of most my posts and proud that I kept my interest in this so many years. And yes, I want this coffee mug:

%RELATEDPOSTS%

Approx. 4 months after the Linux release, the Windows version of 11gR2 arrived on OTN silently.

Just 64bit version for the moment, but I’m sure the 32bit version will follow soon. Considering the fact there is nothing on corporate blogs or on eDelivery, I’m sure they will make it public after both version will be available, most probably after Easter.

Regarding the version itself, I used the beta versions and will definitely recommend it.

LATER UPDATE (6th of April): 32bit version has just arrived on OTN here.

Enjoy!

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PHP is one of my preferred languages. I’ve been using it for almost 10 years, since version 3, I witnessed the release of 4.0… in some words: I have a bit of experience.
I’ve been given by Packt one of the latest PHP books they published, called “PHP 5 e-Commerce Development“. The title sounds very promising and I expected to get an update on the latest technologies and techniques related to e-Commerce out of it.

First, the book is following what it says in the title, creating one e-Commerce site from the ground. From authentication to discount codes, everything is covered by the book. It touches also some APIs from payment gateways and Google. So who wants to have a ride in knowing how to build an eCommerce site with PHP 5 should read the book.

If you want just the positive feedback you should stop here. Read the rest of this entry »