I’ve been using Oracle SQL Developer I think since the very first initial betas.  I could never stand the TOAD interface and the few bugs I encountered with SQL Developer were never bothersome enough to stop using the tool.

Over the years SQL Developer has matured very nicely and now is very stable and feature rich.

When someone from Packt contacted me and let me know there was a book on the way I was very excited.  Oracle SQL Developer 2.1 by Sue Harper covers the latest release for SQL Developer – 2.1.  This release brought a lot of stability to the project and also introduced the new Data Modeler from Oracle.

I’ve been skimming through the book for the last week or so.  I honestly thought since I’ve been using SQL Developer for so long there would be very little new to me in the book but I’ve been pleasantly surprised and have picked up a lot of small tips that have helped me work smarter and more efficiently with SQL Developer.

The book covers quite a bit:

• Install, configure, customize, and manage your SQL Developer environment
• Includes the latest features to enhance productivity and simplify database development
• Covers reporting, testing, and debugging concepts
• Meet the new powerful Data Modeling tool – Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler
• Detailed code examples and screenshots for easy learning

A few useful tips I’ve picked up since reading the book have been:

• The ability to highlight and filter data in the grids.  This is really useful when you are trying to dig through some complicated data looking for very particular information.
• Using bind variables in the worksheet.
• The code formatter – cleaning up my mess!

What else does the book cover?   There are chapters devoted to PL/SQL, dubugging and tuning, extending SQL Developer, source control integration (using Subversion) and a large chapter on the Data Modeler which I’m just waiting for a new project to start to begin exploring that particular tool.

If you are just getting started using SQL Developer I’d highly recommend the book.  It will get you up to speed quickly and seems useful as a quick reference.   If you are an experienced SQL Developer user I still think the added section on the new Data Modeler will be quite useful.

With Bolt coming – I’m wondering if Adobe will continue to support the Eclipse extension (RDS, debugger, etc).  I don’t recall it being updated for Ganymede and looking in the download  the last timestamps are from 1/2008 (it would be nice if they gave this a version #).

Right now there appears to be a bug with it and Ganymede (Eclipse 3.4) and I have no idea how to contact Adobe about it…  The issue is documented on this post and I’ve taken the screenshot below to illustrate:

Adobe Eclipse Extension Bug

Right now I can make an RDS connection but when I expand my directory (A) I get an error (B) if I click on the directory to expand it.  What is odd is I can then click on the navigation arrows (C) and navigate through my directories and while it works it is tedious.

Anyone from Adobe read my blog and care to comment? :)

Update - same issue appears with the RDS Dataview:

Dataview Issue

Same issue – You can connect (A) but never get a list just “Contact server…”.  However you can open the Query Viewer and see a list of available data sources (B) and even query against them (C).

I’m on a reading kick lately and looking for some suggestions.  I occasionally see recommendations get thrown about on Twitter but I forget to write them down.

I’ve got the SciFi covered, and I don’t particularly  care for coding related books (I absorb enough of that via the web).

What I AM interested in is processes, management, inspirational, presentations, marketing, change control, etc.

Right now I’m reading:

• The Big Moo edited by Seth Godin (who has several other really good looking books that I’ve got on order from library)
• Roadshow by Neil Peart (Drummer from Rush – “A concert tour by motorcycle”)

A few on my radar from my wishlist:

• Wikipatterns
• Presentation Zen
• The Productive Programmer

So, what are your reading??  Fire away in the comments!

Time Management for System Administrators

By Thomas A. Limoncelli
First Edition  November 2005
Pages: 226
ISBN 10: 0-596-00783-3 | ISBN 13: 9780596007836

I’ve had this book for a long time and recently re-read it. While it’s targeted at System Administrators (which I used to be in a previous life) a lot of it pertains to application developers as well.

He basically breaks it down into a series of steps:

• Staying focused and avoiding interruptions
• Getting into routines
• Setting up a “cycle” – dealing with To Do lists, email and calendars
• Setting priorities
• Dealing with email and stress
• Eliminating time wasters (Twitter how I hate thee)
• The importance of documentation
• Automating things to save time

I’d say I’ve gotten better at a lot of these since the first time I read the book.  I’ve been managing my calendar and email much better.  I’ve begun using tools like Ant and AutoHotKey to automate all those pesky chores. Still struggling with To Dos and priorities but after re-reading the book I’ve got some ideas on how to improve in those areas as well (carrying my ancient Palm Pilot around again!).

Overall a great read. Check your local library for a copy.  O’Reilly also offer it in PDF format as well as the hard copy.

Sometimes you know a show is going to be special a few minutes into it… When Dweezil and crew took the stage and cranked into “Eye of the Tiger” – I knew it was going to be good.

I had never been to the Lincoln Theatre and was surprised at how tiny it was. It reminded me a lot of the old Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill. The show was sold out and soon the place was packed with a mix of old Zappa fans, young kids and several people their with their son/daughter, mother/father.

The music was loud, and I should have had some plugs with me, but it wasn’t obnoxiously so. The mix was great, no one was overbearing and Dweezil had an awesome tone throughout the whole show. They played a great mix of Frank’s tunes. Dweezil joked at the end that they could keep doing this awhile as they “had plenty of material to choose from”. The played some old stuff, they played some classics and several times near the end they seriously jammed, Dweezil throwing his hands up in the air to tell them to ‘keep it going’ which the band did with ease. Dweezil has some awesome musicians backing him up. Frank’s music is challenging and everyone on stage gave an amazing performance.

Dweezil really shone. He was one of the happiest looking musicians I’ve ever seen on stage. Frequently he would be pulling off these amazing riffs while casually looking over at one of the other musicians with this huge shit eatting grin on his face. He just seemed to be soaking up the energy of his father’s music from his bandmates and the crowd. The crowd was feeding off it as well and at one point a pair of panties even made it up onstage!

They played for almost 3 hours only taking a few breaks to tune or fix something. After the show it was nice to see Dweezil out on stage, talking to fans and signing autographs. Usually after most shows I go to the band scurries off to the bus never to be seen again.

Dweezil mentioned that he hopes to keep this show on the road, sharing Frank’s music with old fans and especially introducing new fans to the music.

I hope he comes back to Raleigh again. I’ll be there.

Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST… ~ “Packard Goose” (Joe’s Garage)

For more info – including a few good blog posts about the Raleigh show – check out the official Zappa Plays Zappa site.

Alan has a list of the OpenBD (Open BlueDragon) Steering Committee on his blog:

Andy Allan, Peter Amiri, Mike Brunt, Sean Corfield, Mark Drew, Adam Haskell, Jordan Michaels, Alan Williamson, Matt Woodward and Andy Wu

LOTS of good names on there and some really nice quotes but obviously I’m going to have to step up and volunteer for the committee myself.

“formalised language”… “masterful clustering-replication mechanism”…

Huh?

Not one of them mentioned the dreaded ‘f-word‘…. Can’t anyone say it??! Me of shallow pockets (have you priced kid sneakers lately?) will…

OpenBD is Free!! (it even rhymes – marketing will love that)

OK. Now I feel better.

On a serious note – I am happy to see such prominent names on the committee and I’m really looking forward to seeing where all this goes. Exciting times!

Watched a few movies this weekend:

The first – I Am Legend. Ugh. I had recently re-read this book and I wish I had left it there and not seen the movie! Why is it Hollywood can’t leave well enough alone? This movie – much like I Robot only shared the title of the novel. Otherwise it was complete garbage. A Hollywood flick that totally missed the point of the book. If you haven’t read it – go visit the library!

Next was The Host. I had been reading Cloverfield stories for the last few weeks and this movie kept popping up. We were in Blockbuster getting a movie for the kids and I grabbed it. It was surprisingly good. I reminded me a lot of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie. :) Filmed in Korea it seemed like it was dubbed over. But overall a good, unique ‘monster’ movie.

The final one I watched was Sunshine. I haven’t seen a good science fiction movie in quite awhile but this one blew me away. It had a really unique storyline, a great cast of unknowns, and awesome cinematography. I wish I had seen this one in the theaters… If you like scifi – check it out!

Knee deep writing some jQuery Ajax code today and I have my MP3 player fired up….

My first record (yes as in vinyl) was Cheap Trick’s “Live at Budokan”. I can remember bringing it home, unwrapping it and plopping it on my folks ancient TV/HI-FI set. Firing up the volume I promptly blew out one of the speakers listening to “Surrender”.

Mommy’s alright, Daddy’s alright, they just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender, but don’t give yourself away

28 years later, listening to that song on my MP3 player, I realize the tide has turned and now I’m a little weird. Time to go find Mom and roll around on the couch. :)