Boston Celtics 2012: NBA BIG Commercial

NBA released bunch of Playoff classified for 2011-2012. One of the best I have seen with content, background music and shots were that of Boston Celtics. Here you go:

"You’ve probably forgotten all about them by now. Nothing left in the tank, nothing left to prove, too slow, too injury prone, too much mileage. Hmm…

You better hope you’re right, because HERE THEY COME and what some call age, they call experience, grit, toughness, leadership, moxie, savvy, passion, desire, heart and these guys are at their best when the stakes get BIG"

The team did perform against the analysis from different commentators. Basketball fans ignored the team because of the reasons mentioned in the bill. The BIG Three - Kevin Garnett (KG), Paul Pierce, Ray Allen are considered to be aged. With Rondo, Boston is a BIG Four team. Not to forget the bench contributed to the team's road to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Apple iOS 6, Mountain Lion and Today Microsoft Surface

Last week in WWDC Apple announced about the upcoming iOS6 for its mobile, iPad and iPod touch with bunch of new features. With this release, Apple is bringing its own Maps app and biding good bye to Google Maps. It has also enhanced Siri, added Facebook integration, Passbook (which is similar to the notification center). This is targeted to be released this fall. 

Apple also introduced a newly redesigned Macbook Pro with retina display and improved computing power, storage. Apple have maintained the strategy of making computer thinner and lighter.

Apple also shared details about its new Desktop/Laptop OS - Mountain Lion. With Mountain Lion, Apple is trying to integrate much more features of iOS with the Mac. iMessages, iCloud, Notes, Notification Center, Reminders and some to name.

Microsoft borrowed Apple's method of announcing new products yesterday to announce its entry into the hardware-software integrated tablet business. Microsoft Tablet is named - Surface and comes in two versions. The price and availability is still unknown but is anticipated as a good contender against the dominated iPad.

Oracle: Query column name with reserved keyword from a table

I happen to see a table(say X) created with column name using key words like NUMBER, GROUP . I could query the table X for all columns as

Select * from X;

To query one or two particular columns named as keywords, you need to use double quotes.

Select "NUMBER" from X;

Make note of the 'case'  as Select "number" from X; won't work.

Where table creation script is:

Create table X

( "NUMBER" varchar2(90),

   Creation_date date,

...

...
...);

Oracle: Memory Parameters Math

It is always challenging for Oracle Administrator to define Oracle Memory Parameters. Recently while creating new database with Oracle 11g (11.2.0.3) using DBCA, I noticed the values DBCA assigns to the following memory parameters.

Total Memory: 1024 M (or 1 GB)
Shared Pool - 160 M
Buffer Cache- 482 M
Java Pool - 48 M
Large Pool - 76M
PGA - 256 M

These value can help Oracle DBA to multiply or divide to get accurate numbers. I chose 'custom database' option with 8K block size in DBCA.

Oracle: Change the SQL Prompt with Glogin.sql

DBAs usually work with so many servers, databases at the same time. They toggle from one screen to another within few seconds. There are a lot hidden opportunities where you can make mistakes. Being a superuser  brings in more responsibilities and adds up cautions.

Following are some best practices to ensure you are on right database before you do any critical task like shutdown or drop is very relevant :

1. Login as SYSDBA only when required, otherwise create a database user and grant DBA role.
2. Use shell script to perform task like shutdown, startup of databases.
3. Change the color of putty sessions for example Red for Production, Blue for QA, Yellow for Test.
4. SQL Prompt: Change the SQL prompt on the database to show the Database Name/SID with user whom you have connected as. Oracle by default calls login.sql or glogin.sql whenever 'sqlplus' command is given on a UNIX machine. The script login.sql or glogin.sql is located in $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/admin. You can add a line to query from v$instance table something like below:

select host_name||':'||user||' @ '||UPPER(instance_name) X from v$instance;

The problem with the above SQL in login.sql is that SQLPLUS will hang if the database is down. When database is down, you cannot query any v$ views. The other way which does the same but safe way is by the command below:

The SQL prompt will be SYSTEM@TESTDB SQL> .