Author: user

Let’s look at items 2 and 3 from the list in my previous blog 1) You know you have a performance problem and can re-create it by running a specific part of the application, be it a user interaction or batch job.2) You have an intermittent but recurring performance problem which looks system-wide and can’t … Continue reading Historical Perspective (Part 2)

As mentioned in a few blog comments in the past, it’s not the greatest idea to advertise on the web that you’re going on holiday (or vacation if you prefer), given the easy availability of home addresses online. You might as well leave the back door open for the burglars and save the locks being… Continue reading Historical Perspective (Part 1)

Well, I’ve faced my final problem with Tripod’s blogging tool. Jeff Hunter ran into problems trying to add a comment, so I’ve decided to move over to http://oracledoug.blogspot.com/ Cheers, Doug

A friend sent me a link to a wiki of computer game innovations a few weeks ago. It’s a nice idea from the Entertainment Technology Centre at Carnegie Mellon (I’d no idea such a thing existed!). I’d definitely question the accuracy of some of the information on there, but it looks like it’s pretty easy… Continue reading Game Innovations

The Top 12. 36 15.52% animal porn18 7.76% sql decode6 2.59% decode function examples4 1.72% decode syntax3 1.29% px deq credit3 1.29% saved oracle stats3 1.29% oracle table statistics3 1.29% animal porn .com3 1.29% using code decode tables in oracle3 1.29% oracle restore previous statistics cbo2 0.86% select table_name, num_rows2 0.86% porn I don’t know… Continue reading My Most Common Search Words

My website stats have shot up since making the case, decode and px papers accessible again using server side redirection from the old Tripod site. Spot the bit where the redirections were missing 😉 In fairness to Pete S, though, I should point out that the number of page hits is very high relative to… Continue reading Statcounter Blocking Cookie

There are still a few minor (I hope) issues with the blog. RSS Feed 1) Thomas Presslie mentioned that the success of the RSS feed is intermittent – it seems to miss posts or they appear late. I haven’t noticed any problems myself and then realised that my Thunderbird feed-reader is still pointing at Feedburner.… Continue reading Blog Issues

Welcome to the fourth edition of Log Buffer. Maybe it’s the summer holiday season and DBA-land is a little quiet, but navel-gazing seems popular this week. During a conference keynote speech by Ray Lane I attended earlier this year, he highlighted how much the software industry likes to talk about itself and DBAs are always… Continue reading Log Buffer #4

Yesterday someone asked me how to trace a session that selects from a view in a remote database via a link. If they activated the trace on the local instance, they wouldn’t see the bulk of the work which was happening on the remote instance – just a bunch of SQL*Net Message from dblink waits.… Continue reading Tracing session activity over a remote database link

[Clears throat …] Back in the old days, when I was teaching and consulting, I would have plenty of spare time to read books, muck around with Oracle, get the bills paid on time and so on. These days I’m working full time, catching up with friends when I can and have the usual family… Continue reading Thinking Time