Some people hack into resources of others. My wiki and my forums are almost constantly being hacked into, pages are altered, users are created, spam is left behind, etcetera, etcetera. That’s annoying.

I decided that the forums and the wiki will have to go. I hardly ever use them anyway. This is a message so you know where they went after they’re gone.

The Bravo surpassed the 5000km early this morning. I don’t even have the car for 1 month yet (still 3 days to go). Wow.

Dear Oracle spatial experts,

When I don’t license Oracle spatial, but only want to use Locator (as described in Appendix B of the Spatial User Guide), is it allowed to load the SDO Java classes into the database ($/md/admin/sdoloadj.sql)? Or does loading the Java classes mean that one switches to using Oracle Spatial, and thus requiring a valid license?

Comments are greatly appreciated. Perhaps Simon is reading this?

Thanks to this post, I solved my Oracle authorization problem. His comments don’t seem to work, so I thought I’d post it here.

For some reason, a client did not have Oracle Locator (10g) installed. So I started DBCA (I’m lazy), selected the correct database and selected “JVM”, “XML DB” and “InterMedia” standard database options to be installed. That should do the trick.
But only when you have enough free storage in your SYSTEM and SYSAUX tablespaces. Naturally, there was 3MB free space in system and a similar amount in SYSAUX. So the installer barfed on me. Hey, let’s just add some space (extra datafiles) and restart.

Say it ain’t so: Oracle crashed, but does not clean up after its behind. It does not rollback the installation! Therefore you cannot just restart or reinstall. Great. That’s what they mean by a mature product? The JVM has been in the database since, what is it, Oracle 8i?

1) Remove JVM: ?/javavm/install/rmjvm.sql
2) Bounce the database (if you forget to bounce, you will get an ORA-00028)
3) Start dbca and install jvm (and the rest)

Yes, I received my new (lease)car yesterday. Finally! It’s a Fiat Bravo Business. With a lot of extras of course. Although the engine is about the same size as my previous car (1.6 common rail diesel, 120bhp) the Bravo feels and reacts more potent, and it’s a lot quieter, but that’s with most new diesels.

Driving in a traffic jam is a breeze with the automatic gearbox (which is not so common in the Netherlands), and I can even switch to semi-automatic so I need to change gear by moving the stick to + or to -, or by using the flippers on my steering wheel just like in a race car. When driving semi-automatic, I prefer the flippers.

The car came with Blue&Me, a voicecontrolled carkit. I’ve heard stories of voicecontrolled carkits in other carbrands and the stories were not happy stories. So I was a bit afraid I would have the same experience. But without any glitch I coupled my private and my business phone (you can register several users) and both of them work flawlessly. The voicecontrol is brilliant, and works when talking loud or soft of even when you’re mumbling a bit. Compliments to Fiat for such a good system.

Yeah! Oracle Application Express 4.0 is here!!!

To reset the sys password of a database, do the following:

1) rename/delete ${ORACLE_HOME}/database/PWD{ORACLE_SID}.ora
2) enter the command: orapwd file=${ORACLE_HOME}/database/PWD{ORACLE_SID}.ora password=newpassword
3) start “sqlplus /nolog”
4) login with sys and the newpassword (SQL> connect sys/newpassword as sysdba)
5) now reset other passwords or just be done

I was asked to install Oracle 10gR2 on one of the clients new machines. Of course I had trouble installing it, since the OS was CentOS and not one of the certified Oracle platforms. The trouble with installing Oracle x64 on non-supported systems is the relinking process. You always run into libraries that cannot be found, or some other shit that’s still looking for 32-bit software/libraries. In my opinion x64 should be the default and all server software should be backported to x86, but that’s just my opinion.

Thanks to this post I was able get Oracle to install properly, basically because the list of prerequisite packages in Oracle’s installation guide is to short. This list (at least on CentOS 5.4) should do the trick:

binutils-2.17.50.0.6-2.el5
compat-gcc-34-3.4.6-4
compat-gcc-34-c++-3.4.6-4
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61(i386)
control-center-2.16.0-14.el5
gcc-4.1.1-52.el5
gcc-c++-4.1.1-52.el5
gdbm-1.8.0-26.2.1
glibc-2.5-12
glibc-common-2.5-12
glibc-devel-2.5-12
glibc-devel-2.5-12(i386)
libgcc-4.1.1-52.el5(i386)
libgcc-4.1.1-52.el5(x86_64)
libgnome-2.16.0-6.el5
libstdc++-devel-3.4.3-22.1
libXp-1.0.0-8.i386
libXp-1.0.0-8.x64
make-3.81-1.1
sysstat-7.0.0-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
util-linux-2.13-0.44.e15.x86_64

You don’t need the exact versions. Just do a “yum install compat-gcc-34″ for instance, and if the installed version is higher, you’re safe.

Now you know why Apple hardware is so expensive. They have to pay for all lawsuits…

HTC sues Apple to block iPad, iPod and iPhone in the US

HTC is the second company to sue Apple, following Nokia who claims that Apple infringes some of Nokia’s patents in their iPad.