Even Oracle supporters have to concede that it is just horribly hard to use, especially in its command line interfaces. I am not complaining (at least not this time) about the fact that you basically need to be a DBA in order to get anything done. It is a defensible position to require trained professionals to install such a complex system. I am talking about things like sensible default values, helpful diagnostic output, auto-completion, command history, adherence to generally acknowledged conventions and such.

I spent an hour today supporting one of our developers in fixing his Oracle connection problems, which turned out to be something extremely silly. Without the help of Google this could have potentially taken much longer.

There are a number of ways to connect to an Oracle DB using Oracle's own client software, the most popular one involves a text file tnsnames.ora that defines where the databases are.

MY_DATABASE =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = out.there)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SERVER = DEDICATED)
      (SERVICE_NAME = XE)
    )
  )

Even though the settings looked okay, we could not connect to the database.

$ sqlplus me@MY_DATABASE
ERROR:
ORA-12154: TNS:could not resolve the connect identifier specified

This message seemed to indicate that tnsnames.ora was somehow broken, or not being read. But on the other hand, Oracle's network ping tool (which reads the same file) had no problem.

$ tnsping MY_DATABASE

Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = out.there)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = XE)))
OK (0 msec)

So maybe the file was okay? It was not, of course. But only because Oracle turned out to be extremely picky. tnsnames.ora had been copied from a Windows machine, and the Linux Oracle client did not like the Windows line breaks. Even if we accept that such behaviour is acceptable, having some of the tools handle the situation differently than others is very confusing.

This movie is to the fantasy genre what Fifth Element is to science fiction, and the original Pirates of the Carribean is to the pirate movies: A light-hearted take on the material, not taking itself too seriously, but at the same time not totally silly (Shrek) or derivative (Eragon) either, with plenty of original characters, plot, mythology and visuals to provide for an interesting story in itself.

7 points

A while back (I think as a direct result of hitting my mail quota on web.de) I switched my personal email over to Google Mail. As a direct result of this, I am reading my mail less frequently; sometimes whole days go by without me checking the inbox. Because Google's browser-based interface is so useful, I exclusively use their web page to check for email, and whereas a traditional mail client constantly checks for new email, the web page has me actively log in every time to check.

Now that Google started rolling out IMAP, I could set up Thunderbird (although IMAP is not yet available for my account). Another solution would be to just keep a browser window with GMail open all day, but I am just too paranoid to do that. In addition to Google being then able to link all my searches to my account, you would also expose yourself to some very nasty (and very real) cross-site scripting attacks. A workaround for this is to open a GMail in a dedicated browser, but this is cumbersome. Mozilla just came up with a new approach.

Prism is an application that lets users split web applications out of their browser and run them directly on their desktop.

Prism (and its predecessor WebRunner, which I am using now, because there is only a Windows version of Prism yet) lets you set up a site-specific browser, which is basically a trimmed-down version of Firefox (sans all the menus, buttons and toolbars used for web browsing) that runs only a single web application.

Even in this early stage of development, this gives me what I wanted: a GMail window that I can keep open all day without being logged in as far as my main web browser is concerned. External links still open in the normal browser, just as you would expect a dedicated mail application to behave. I can also launch it just like any other desktop application. Should also work with Google Spreadsheets, which I am frequently using too.

The Prism team is now focussing on making it behave even more like a native application. I imagine that you could very soon set up a GMail as the default mail application (so that it responds to mailto: links from other applications), or a Flickr prism that accepts dropping image files from the Finder on its application icon.

Thanks to the Tokyo International Film Festival there was a chance to see the Simpsons movie well before its terribly delayed Japanese opening. Before the screening, there was a little introductory session (the Simpsons are not at all popular here) which featured people in Simpson family costumes. Homer got sick, stumbled off-stage in the middle, and was led out through an emergency exit. Bizarre.

Best Simpsons Movie I have ever seen in my life -- so far (although one could wish for a stronger song than Spider Pig).

8 points

The first report from her new home:

Kitty is already very comfortable with the new environment and checked all corners of the house. She also tried to be friendly with the other cat, but the other cat is nervous about the newcomer and too stressed to eat. So Kitty happily eats two cats' portion of food now.

Queen of the Hill, that's my girl. Just hoping that she does not stretch her welcome too far and gets kicked out. She did venture out by herself on Tuesday morning, but was recovered soon thereafter.

Patai, the other cat, is also a girl, and seven years old. There are pictures, but not with both of them together, because they are never together.

We have given Kitty away to one of Cissy's co-workers.

This is probably a more momentous event for us than it is for Kitty. Her new family already has another cat, and will certainly provide her with a nice home. If anything, one has to worry for them, or the other cat, in case Kitty misbehaves and turns into a house-wrecker. If that happens, we will have her back in a week or so. If not, we will go visit them sometime later. Not sure, which outcome I prefer.

The air-plane book. Previously published under a pseudonym, this political thriller is set in the months leading to the first Gulf War: A low-ranking CIA analyst uncovers hints that Saddam Hussein could be preparing for a major military operation, but her superiors do not want to hear about it, because it does not fit into their own scheme of things. At the same time, a small-town Iowa Deputy Sheriff (and great admirer of Sherlock Holmes) investigates the murder of a foreign exchange student and stirs up a great deal of attention in Washington and in the Middle East. The plot and setting is not too exciting, but Stephenson's witty writing style is well worth your time.

Oh, and if anyone was wondering, I did finish the Baroque Cycle, and it was great. I started to blog about it, but trying to come up with something special to match the extraordinary books turned out to be too ambitious and I could not finish the posts. It would have required continuous note-taking throughout (which did not happen), or a page-by-page revisit (and pages there are plenty). Well, maybe one day. It was a concept.

Pixar are still at the top of their game with this tale of a gourmet rat. And a perfect ending, too.

8 points

Tsutaya hands out an annual handbook with descriptions, rankings, and pictures of their rental DVD. It's nice. There is a chapter for every genre (Drama, Love Story, Comedy, Musical, Classic, Literary, Documentary, Mystery, Action, SF, Horror, Asia, TV drama), each with an Editor's choice, several top tens, and a long ranking compiled from customer's recommendations. For every title, there is a picture of the DVD cover, a plot summary, topical icons, a checkbox for you to tick off, information about cast, crew, runtime, languages, picture and audio formats and so on.

Here are my coverage ratios for the top tens:

• Drama: 20%
• Love Story: 80%
• Comedy: 60%
• Musical: 40%
• Classic: 40%
• Literary: 70%
• Documentary: 20%
• Mystery: 20%
• Action: 60%
• SF: 90%
• Horror: 10%
• Asia: 0%
• TV drama: 20%
• Social: 20%

There is also a funny little mix-up with the original movie titles. The following films are all listed as Clear and Present Danger:

• For Love of the Game
• Seven Chances
• Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
• Runaway Jury
• Air Force One
• Miller's Crossing
• The Island