At the end of Oracle RMAN for Beginners – Part 2 I had created a few backups of the ant12 database. In this part, I explore how to trash a database and recover from that trashing using the cold backups taken. Bear in mind that any work done after the cold backup was taken will be lost. With a cold backup, you cannot roll forward to re-apply archived logs etc because when the backup was taken, the database was in a consistent state.

At the end of Oracle RMAN for Beginners - Part 1 I was ready to begin a backup of the ant12 database. Read on … Cold Backup - Backupset Type There are two different types of cold backup. The first uses RMAN’s own internal format for the dump files - a backupset - the other uses image copies of the individual database files. In this part I’ll concentrate on a backuset type of cold backup.

Introduction One of the things a DBA needs to be aware of, is RMAN. This has been around since Oracle 8 (or was it 8i?) and has been improving since then. It’s almost pretty good at 11.2! One of the things that I, as a DBA, need to get to grips with is RMAN. Most of the work I’ve been doing for the last few years have not involved very much in the way of RMAN usage.

I’ve been doing a bit of Docbook work recently - converting a paper based manual into a Docbook one that can then be used to generate all kinds of different output from the same input file. Very useful. I needed to create an index that correctly reflected the contents of the new format rather than simply copying the old one - where the pages would no longer have matched up.

It’s finally coming! Raspberry Pi has now officially started manufacture of the first production boards. See http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/509 for details. (Update 25/02/2023: Sorry folks, dead link!) Sadly, you can also see there why the tax situation in the UK (or possibly because of the EU) is preventing the charity from manufacturing these boards in the UK. (Update 25/02/2023: However, eventually, Sony in Wales started making the boards, and have done so ever since.

I’m trapped on a plane for four and a bit hours and your bloody child has been screaming it’s head off for most of the way. There’s little chance of me being able to sleep at all on this flight but somehow that’s ok with you because “she’s only 18 months old.” Do you think that I, and the other passengers around you, think that that is an acceptable reason for suffering 4 and a bit hours of continual screaming?

I knew you could do this: 1 2 3 4 5 SQL> select 1234567890 as abc from dual; ABC ---------- 1234567890 or 1 2 3 4 5 SQL> select 1234567890 abc from dual; ABC ---------- 1234567890 But I didn’t know that this worked as well – there’s no space between the value and the alias name: 1 2 3 4 5 SQL> select 1234567890abc from dual; ABC ---------- 1234567890 So I did a bit of playing and discovered that there is a difference if the alias is D or F but no other single character:

This “story” is doing the rounds on email at the moment, but it made me laugh. Grumpy old sod that I am! ;-) Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologised and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days.” The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today.

TweetDeck for Linux, for example. Refused to start on me recently because it couldn’t find or access the location where I had saved my encrypted details. The problem is caused by Adobe Air not being able to find a running daemon for Gnome Keyring or KWallet, or a corrupted wallet database. Full details here http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/492/cpsid_49267.html - works for me! In my case, simply restarting KWalletManager worked fine. And restarting TweetDeck of course - it’s unable to pick up the fact that the wallet is available.

You know the feeling, your 10g or 11g database displays a warning message about your use of deprecated parameters at startup, but it doesn’t say which parameters are deprecated? You could look through the manuals to find the list of all deprecated parameters then go hunting in your spfile/pfile for those and remove them, or, you could simply look in the alert.log. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .

I’ve been using KDE4 on OpenSuse (11.4 currently) for some time and never had any problems. After a recent patch fix to the system, the volume control buttons on my Dell Vostro stopped responding. Normally pressing volume up or volume down worked instantaneously. Stop and go still worked fine, but not volume. What would happen is that the on screen indicator would appear after about 45 seconds or so - but the volume wouldn’t change until it did, then, it would go to maximum or minimum - depending on which button I’d been hammering for 45 seconds!

Check this link (sorry, it’s no longer available, but this link is the product being described - the Philips Urban Beehive.) for details. I’m saying nothing! Except, maybe, I really can’t see it taking off. Well, ok then. How do you stop the queen laying in the honey comb? There doesn’t appear to be a queen excluder - so your honey will have all sorts of stuff in it! Larvae, eggs, etc.

Using NetBeans (version 7.0.1) to develop Android applications and for no apparent reason, a project that worked yesterday won’t run any more. It compiles without error but refuses to run - whether or not the emulator is running - and doesn’t produce an error. Hmmm. In the source code for the main Java class (yes, I said Java - anyone who knows me will be having a fit right now!) the very first line is flagged with a red (ok, pink!