Useful Articles on Oracle

Useful Articles on Oracle Cast function -
http://www.psoug.org/reference/cast.html

Performing DML with Collections
1. http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28371/adobjcol.htm#sthref483
2. http://www.psoug.org/reference/collections.html

Answers to my question on whether or not its possible to perform DML on Oracle collections (in combination with Cast)
1. http://www.orafaq.com/forum/t/137485/133715/
2. http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=3176984

Some Notes on Joins & their syntaxes in Oracle
1. http://oreilly.com/catalog/orsqlpluspr2/chapter/ch01.html

Some articles on Oracle Explain Plan and how to generate/read/understand it
1. http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/explainplan.html
2. http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/sql/join/join_methods.html
3. http://download-uk.oracle.com/docs/cd/B12037_01/server.101/b10752/ex_plan.htm

Some articles on Oracle Global Temp Tables (GTT)
1. http://www.dbasupport.com/oracle/ora8/page2.shtml
2. http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_temporary_tables_sql.htm

On Oracle Memory Usage
http://www.dbasupport.com/oracle/ora11g/memory_usage.shtml

And he's one month today... :)

Its been a month today... since he came into our world, the tiny one.

He's added a new dimension, a whole new perspective to our lives. The way of thinking is changing already, the way we plan our lives is changing, the core values which governed our lives are now changing from growth to growth mixed with stability...

Its a huge change, no doubt being a parent means a lot. It sure is a LOT...

First time as a brother...

Here you see the baby, being treated as a brother, while cradled in mother's arms.

In our family, we have this tradition of "teeka" (applying the roli on forehead with some rice grains) on certain occasions. This was first such occasion after his birth, and you can see him crying his heart out at being treated that way :)

The coconut you see in the hand of the mom should have been in his hands, but for obvious practical reasons, he cant hold it right now :) So, a proxy is doing it for him :)

काँच की बरनी और दो कप चाय - एक बोध कथा

काँच की बरनी और दो कप चाय - एक बोध कथा

जीवन में जब सब कुछ एक साथ और जल्दी-जल्दी करने की इच्छा होती है, सब कुछ तेजी से पा लेने की इच्छा होती है , और हमें लगने लगता है कि दिन के चौबीस घंटे भी कम पड़ते हैं, उस समय ये बोध कथा , "काँच की बरनी और दो कप चाय" हमें याद आती है ।
दर्शनशास्त्र के एक प्रोफ़ेसर कक्षा में आये और उन्होंने छात्रों से कहा कि वे आज जीवन का एक महत्वपूर्ण पाठ पढाने वाले हैं...उन्होंने अपने साथ लाई एक काँच की बडी़ बरनी (जार) टेबल पर रखा और उसमें टेबल टेनिस की गेंदें डालने लगे और तब तक डालते रहे जब तक कि उसमें एक भी गेंद समाने की जगह नहीं बची... उन्होंने छात्रों से पूछा - क्या बरनी पूरी भर गई ? हाँ... आवाज आई...फ़िर प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने छोटे-छोटे कंकर उसमें भरने शुरु किये, धीरे-धीरे बरनी को हिलाया तो काफ़ी सारे कंकर उसमें जहाँ जगह खाली थी , समा गये, फ़िर से प्??ोफ़ेसर साहब ने पूछा, क्या अब बरनी भर गई है, छात्रों ने एक बार फ़िर हाँ.. कहा अब प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने रेत की थैली से हौले-हौले उस बरनी में रेत डालना शुरु किया, वह रेत भी उस जार में जहाँ संभव था बैठ गई, अब छात्र अपनी नादानी पर हँसे... फ़िर प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने पूछा, क्यों अब तो यह बरनी पूरी भर गई ना ? हाँ.. अब तो पूरी भर गई है.. सभी ने एक स्वर में कहा..सर ने टेबल के नीचे से चाय के दो कप निकालकर उसमें की चाय जार में डाली, चाय भी रेत के बीच में स्थित थोडी़ सी जगह में सोख ली गई...प्रोफ़ेसर साहब ने गंभीर आवाज में समझाना शुरु किया - इस काँच की बरनी को तुम लोग अपना जीवन समझो.... टेबल टेनिस की गेंदें सबसे महत्वपूर्ण भाग अर्थात भगवान, परिवार, बच्चे, मित्र, स्वास्थ्य और शौक हैं, छोटे कंकर मतलब तुम्हारी नौकरी, कार, बडा़ मकान आदि हैं, और रेत का मतलब और भी छोटी-छोटी बेकार सी बातें, मनमुटाव, झगडे़ है..अब यदि तुमने काँच की बरनी में सबसे पहले रेत भरी होती तो टेबल टेनिस की गेंदों और कंकरों के लिये जगह ही नहीं बचती, या कंकर भर दिये होते तो गेंदें नहीं भर पाते, रेत जरूर आ सकती थी...ठीक यही बात जीवन पर लागू होती है...यदि तुम छोटी-छोटी बातों के पीछे पडे़ रहोगे और अपनी ऊर्जा उसमें नष्ट करोगे तो तुम्हारे पास मुख्य बातों के लिये अधिक समय नहीं रहेगा... मन के सुख के लिये क्या जरूरी ह? ये तुम्हें तय करना है । अपने बच्चों के साथ खेलो, बगीचे में पानी डालो , सुबह पत्नी के साथ घूमने निकल जाओ, घर के बेकार सामान को बाहर निकाल फ़ेंको, मेडिकल चेक- अप करवाओ..टेबल टेनिस गेंदों की फ़िक्र पहले करो, वही महत्वपूर्ण है... पहले तय करो कि क्या जरूरी है... बाकी सब तो रेत है..छात्र बडे़ ध्यान से सुन रहे थे... अचानक एक ने पूछा, सर लेकिन आपने यह नहीं बताया कि "चाय के दो कप" क्या हैं ?प्रोफ़ेसर मुस्कुराये, बोले.. मैं सोच ही रहा था कि अभी तक ये सवाल किसी ने क्यों नहीं किया... इसका उत्तर यह है कि, जीवन हमें कितना ही परिपूर्ण और संतुष्ट लगे, लेकिन अपने खास मित्र के साथ दो कप चाय पीने की जगह हमेशा होनी चाहिये ।

अपने खास मित्रों और निकट के व्यक्तियों को यह विचार तत्काल बाँट दो..मैंने अभी-अभी यही किया है.. :)

An interesting read on rediff...

Taken from : http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/10mumterror-8-things-india-inc-govt-must-do-against-pakistan.htm

The three-day-long terror strike on the country's financial capital was devastating in terms of its reach and impact. It has left Corporate India badly shaken and the elites numb.

It is no more about bombs being thrown at bus stations or trains getting blasted. It is no longer about only Nagpada or Govindpuri residents losing limbs and lives. Terror has now climbed up the value chain.

As the new age entrepreneur Kiran Majumdar Shaw told a Bangalore newspaper, "So far, the terrorists targeted common people. Now the society's elite, the business sector, is the target. What happened in Mumbai is a loud wake-up call for all of us to do something to protect ourselves."

Corporate India did not bat an eyelid when Mumbai train blasts took place, or when Sarojini Nagar was burning on a Diwali day, or Hyderabad was weeping two years before.

Light a candle for the fallen

Terror strikes at Mumbai's heart

But today, every corporate captain is angry, and so are the celebrities who people Page 3 of newspapers, due largely because the attacks on the three top hotels were directly aimed at those who frequent these places, for business or pleasure (contrast this with the scant coverage of the carnage at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, for example, where commoners were involved).

All the same, the bleeding-heart liberals would be back to their routine ways after a few days. They will lament that the captured terrorist has not been given his favourite food and not allowed to watch TV or use his cell phone; they will say his human rights are violated. Just wait for the chorus.

Of course, this time it will be between Page 3 and the jholawalas (activists) and that should be an interesting match to watch, but that's another story.

In the last ten years, not a single session of any seminar sponsored by the CII or Ficci or business/general journals has focussed on terrorism. When this writer once broached the importance of talking about it, a senior business captain said it is for the government to deal with.

Many of those seminars gave importance to Musharraf and now Zardari, as if they are going to provide any solution when they are a part of the problem.

Now, at least, terrorism is being realised as a problem facing the country.

Let us summarise what the real situation is and what the corporate sector should do if we are serious in fighting terrorism on our soil.

1. Recognise and treat Pakistan as a terrorist state. The state policy of Pakistan is terrorism and their single-point programme is to destroy India. This needs to be internalised by every business baron including the owners of media.

2. Now, the elite of Pakistan are more angry, since India is growing at 7% and they are given CCC rating and stiff conditions for borrowing from the IMF.

Many an academic from that country, who I have met in global conferences, has openly lamented that nobody talks about Indo-Pak relations anymore, but only Indo-China or Indo-American, etc. They want to be equal but they are in deep abyss.

3. Pakistan is the only territory in the world where an army has a whole country under its control. This is an important issue since studies have found that a large number of corporates in Pakistan are ultimately owned by the Fauji Foundation (FF), Army Welfare Trust (AWT) Bahria Foundation (BF), Shaheen Foundation (SF) all owned by different wings of armed forces (See paper presented by Dr Ayesha Siddiqa-Agha on 'Power, Perks, Prestige And Privileges: Military's Economic Activities In Pakistan' in The International Conference on Soldiers in Business -- Military as an Economic Actor; Jakarta, October 17-19, 2000).

Hence, do not try to think of Pakistan without its army, irrespective of who rules that country temporarily and nominally. At least 70% of the market capitalisation of the Karachi stock exchange is owned by the army and related groups.

4. There are three groups in India, who are obsessed with friendship with Pakistan. One is the oldies born in that part before partition and who are nostalgic about the Lahore havelis, halwas and mujras. The second is the Bollywood and other assorted groups, who look at it as a big market. The Dawood gang has financed enough of these useful idiots. The third is the candle light holding bleeding heart liberals (BHLs) who cannot imagine India doing well without its younger brother taken care of.

All three have been proved wrong hundreds of times, but they are also opinion makers. Shun them, avoid them and ridicule them.

5. We should categorically, unambiguously, unequivocally boycott Pakistan in all aspects for a decade or more. Be it art, music, economy, commerce, or other hand-holding activities. That army-controlled state has to realise that it has done enough damage to global civilisation.

More than 100 acts/attempts of terror recorded in the world since 9/11 have had their roots in Pakistan. More than 40% of the prisoners in Guantanamo are Pakistanis.

6. We should recognise that it is our war and nobody in the world is going to wage it on our behalf. What the Americans are thinking, or what the Britishers are going to do, will not help. A determined country should have a sense of dignity and independence to fight its war.

We should stop interviewing leaders from that country who mouth the same inanities that "you have not produced any proof." The Government of India should perhaps create a museum of proof between India Gate and North Block.

I am amazed that a country of a billion is required even to furnish proof. If one-sixth of humanity says that the terrorist state of Pakistan is the root cause of global terrorism -- it is factual. Let us not fall into the trap of providing proof to the culprits.

7. We should realise that a united Pakistan is a grave threat to the existence of India. Hence, we should do everything possible to break up Pakistan into several units. This is required to be done not only for our interest, but for world peace.

8. We have made a grave blunder by suggesting in the international fora that "Pakistan is also a victim of terror." That is a grave error and it will haunt us for decades. They are perpetrators and our government is in deep illusion if it tries to distinguish between organs of power in that country thinking it is like India.

There is only one organ, namely its army (with ISI as a sub-organ) in that country, which owns and controls at least 70% of the GDP in that country.

If we want the world to treat Pakistan for what it is, then we should start practising it. Always call it the 'terrorist state of Pakistan' and never have any illusion that it is going to be any different.

If corporate India, including electronic/ print media, starts practising this, we should see results in a few years. Are the elites listening?

The author is professor of finance and control, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, and can be contacted at vaidya@iimb.ernet.in. The views are personal and do not reflect those of his organisation.

violence on sea beach... vizag

violence on sea beach... vizag, originally uploaded by s_raghu20.

taken by a friend, this shot kind of captured my imagination at the first moment.

The clouds and the water give you a sense of an upcoming storm...pretty terrifying sight...

great shot guys, worth sharing...

Useful mysql stuff...

Here's a compilation of my day to day use of mysql related stuff...

1. Resetting root password in mysql
   - Goto this page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MysqlPasswordReset
   
   
2. To give privileges to a certain user in mysql
   - grant all on *.* to username
   
   
3. 
   

Finally... IE on Linux / Ubuntu...

Great..... It works... :)

Initially, when I needed to run a few IE specific sites on my Ubuntu installation, I spent quite some time searching around google, and some more prominent linux sites... But I did not hit success...

Today however, my search bore fruit... I found IEs4Linux project, and its so damned simple.

I am still running Hardy (not Interpid) on my desktop, and wine (the default). I picked up the instructions, kind of updated them myself to work in my hardy, and bingo.. it installed and works...absolutely.

Here's what I did -

1. Found this page for installation instructions on Ubuntu :
   http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Installation:Ubuntu
   
   
2. Run the following commands -

3. sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

4. And then run this -
   

5. wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
   tar zxvf ies4linux-latest.tar.gz
   cd ies4linux-*
   ./ies4linux
   

6. The last one would open a dialog box and would ask you basic questions about what version do you want, choose what u like and bingo.. it would start installation...
   
   
7. Within minutes, it automatically downloads some files from here and there, and is done.
   
   
8. It just works...

Agile : What is, Comparison, Transition...

Generally on Agile Methodology -
1. Agile methodology home page - http://www.agilemethodology.org/
2. Manifesto of Agile methodology - http://www.agilemanifesto.org/
3. Working with Agile methods - http://www.agileadvice.com/

Some links on Comparison of waterfall and Agile development methodologies.
1. http://agileintro.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/waterfall-vs-agile-methodology/
2. Youtube -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XokJLWp7icI
3. on Agile Advice - http://www.agileadvice.com/archives/2006/05/waterfall_vs_ag.html


Some links on the transition from Waterfall model to Agile methodology...
1. Agile Blog: Transitioning from Waterfall to Agile - Some tips
2. From Udayan
3. Scrum Alliance
4. A Presentation

Blogged with the Flock Browser

And the name is here....

Ha... It was a busy day... the day he got a name, at least officially speaking. They always call a baby with thousand names anyway but the one name that is used formally is given on this day.

Now, he is called Krishna... (based on Lord Krishna, born in the same town as we live in).

The ritual was long and tiring, but we all go with it. I am not best equipped to explain all the logic and reasoning behind it, but will try to post enough images to show how and what happened.

Here's the formation of the worship place, wherein the priest would summon all the gods and goddesses to be part of the procession.

Herein rice plays an important role, along with the water brought from Ganges.

Chosen fruits which have seeds in their core play a rather important role.

Every indian house has a place of worship, which has idols of the favourite gods. On occasions like these, the idols are brought out and worshipped along with other religious proceedings.

Further, there is havan, wherein a small pyre of fire is lit, which is fed purer stuff, e.g. pure butter, wood from the pipal or mango tree etc.

The idea behind is that the fumes from such a fire are supposed to be cleansing for the household. That way, the whole ritual turns into a cleansing process, purifying one...

After the chanting is done, the pyre (with fumes still emanating) is taken across the household (so that the fumes spread).

As is visible from the snaps, the new parent couple sits together in the process, praying to the almighty as single person (the couple acting as one unit). In the havan process, the male puts in the butter to the fire, whereas the female puts in the havan Samagri (a mixture containing many things meant to generate pure fumes).

After the havan is done, the newborn is handed over to the grand father, who would then let baby know the names of the 7 generations of the baby.



that would be

1. my great great great grand father
2. my great great grand father
   
3. My great grand father
4. My grand father
5. my father
6. me
7. my son

Well, thats when my father (baby's grandpa) whispered the new name to the baby through a funnel made of beetle nut leaf.

From priest's version, the funnel should be made of gold, but he would make do with this workaround.

Such workarounds are very common with Indian rituals. The scriptures, where there are methods advised to perform a certain ritual, refer to the process as if a king would be performing such ceremony. However, in real life following the scriptures is practically impossible. So, such workarounds are more and more common during such ceremonies.






And then there is celebration from the womenfolk of the home and neighborhood. There is song and dance in praise of the newborn, wishing him good, in comments/taunts (all in good humour) to the new parents, grandpa and other relatives.

Even the older ones wont stop from a bite of the celebration... :)