Andrei DANEASA

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

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:

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Cand am aflat ca o sa am o prezentare in Kenya am stat linisit: sigur se va anula. Timpul a trecut si chestiile au devenit serioase. A trebuit sa ma vaccinez, mi-am facut varianta completa de vaccinuri, 6 in total, insa tot speram ca se anuleaza.

Insa a venit inevitabilul: s-a confirmat si a trebuit sa plec. Habar n-aveam ce ma asteapta acolo si nici timp sa studiez n-am avut foarte mult, fiind super ocupat la birou. Si iata-ma plecat fara sa am nici macar un contact in Kenya. Mi-am dat seama de asta abia cu o zi inaintea plecarii, dar era duminica si n-aveam ce face. Am sunat la hotel si i-am rugat sa trimita masina sa ma ia.
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Dupa atatea postari tehnice cu doar cateva intruziuni, m-am hotarat sa scriu si impresii de calatorie… asa ca de azi lansez o noua categorie pe blog.

De ce? Super simplu: tocmai mi-am dat seama ca am vazut o multime de chestii pe care uneori n-am avut nici macar timp sa le spun familiei. Am vazut cea mai mare parte din Europa, cu cateva exceptii, plus US/California si Kenya. Am luat de atatea ori pulsul oraselor, tarilor si n-am bagat de seama. Dupa ce trece timpul amintirile se amesteca si e greu sa imi aduc aminte tot ce am trait in acel moment, asa ca impresiile trebuie scrise rapid !

Tari din Europa vizitate pana acum

In drumul spre Africa am trecut peste Sahara si In acel moment adus aminte ca am vazut anul trecut si Groenlanda, si Mt. Blanc din avion si am uitat. Cine stie cand sau daca voi mai avea vreodata ocazia asta. Cati oameni nu vor vedea niciodata Kenya? Multi probabil… asa ca de ce nu spun niste impresii cinstite? O sa incerc sa nu amestec chestiunile de serviciu cu parerile personale despre locatii.

Asa ca stati pe faza pentru primul topic: Nairobi.

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I am a huge fan of Picasa, moved from Flickr due to their stupid limit of 200 photos in free accounts. After one and a half year of using Picasa Web, my web space reached its limit and I had to buy 10 GB of space for $20 per year (this was the cheapest option).

There was a post on Google blog saying they are now offering twice the space for quarter the price. I went immediately to my account and saw that I now have 80 GB of quota !!

… and the first option is to buy 20 GB for $5 ! Long live Google !

One funny thing here: check the “round” prices for bigger plans: $512, $1024, $2048…. 🙂

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I’m a constant user of Google Analytics. It’s a great piece of software with lots of useful reports, easy to read and to understand. However, I was never curious how far I can go with it.

Last week I had a discussion with someone in Oracle about Real-Time Decision (RTD) Server and Real User Experience Insight (RUEI), so I decided to find out first all the capabilities of Google Analytics.
After half of day of reading the course materials on Google Conversion University, I decided that a challenge might worth 50$, so I took the exam.

More than an hour later I passed the 70 questions exam, much difficult than I expected, with a score of 87%:

Now having the proof I understood correctly what’s happening with Google Analytics, I can jump into conclusions: Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no way to develop a web app and don’t need a chart/pie, even this is for the backend. Google offers this Chart API and it’s fabulous. No need to install anything, just call a web page with your set of parameters. Now they offer maps and I can, for example, to keep track of the countries I visited.

Example:

Europe countries I visited so far

People say that one picture worth more than a thousand words. This is true: just change, or offer charts as alternative to your long and boring tables and you’ll see the result.

What have I done here:
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Long time since my last post…. not necessary because I was lazy or I didn’t have things to share, but my family expanded with a new member and I’m spending with her all my spare time. And she’s so funny…. you can see her below (4 months old):

Now as she told me she’s a big girl and can take care of herself, I will try to make time to update my blog more frequently. So stay tuned for articles about Oracle, Ubuntu and other cool things.

Total Commander – File Manager – I am using it since version 3, ~10 year ago. Simply not replaceable.

Pidgin – Instant Messaging – Single client for all protocols, including Oracle internal one.

Launchy – Application Launcher – just press ALT+Space and write a few letters from app name to start it

MPlayer – Movie Player – no GUI, just console, very quick, no need to install codecs. Some issues with external monitor.

Firefox – of course, user since version 0.9 Beta

Dropbox – File Sync – simple sync of some folders between laptops or laptop and desktop. As a bonus files are stored online and you get revisions history

Google Mail – Personal Email – lot of space, even bought extra. Can also use it to read other POP3 accounts, all in a single interface.

Google Reader – RSS reader – the best RSS reader

Google Calendar – Calendar – simple to use, simple to share, to sync. Can also use it to read other calendars.

TripIt – Booking Manager – just forward all the travel plans to Tripit and you’ll have your itinerary ready, published as a web calendar, links to online check-in and other usefull stuff.

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