Oracle – Life After Coffee

hello. iamthenode and I’m here to make you vomit

Oracle EMEA has launched a pilot Web 2.0 program where a character called ‘The Oracle Node” can do a search on the entire OTN website for content you are interested in. This was created and aimed at developers to help encourage registration and downloads on OTN.

The program has a strong web 2.0 aspect with details about the Node on many of the networking websites. Since this is a pilot program, we thought you might be interested in getting involved with the project by suggesting new sources of information, building up and spreading of the Node virally. We welcome your feedback, suggestions and ideas you may have to help improve the Node.

Go ahead, click through and form your own opinion… All I can say is what the hell is Oracle thinking? If you can stomach the orbiting pod long enough to navigate to the end of one of these paths you’ll be faced with a sliding wall of nausea which may somehow contain some relevant information, but with no discernible organization.

I have come up with two acceptable explanations… Someone at Oracle just finished a class on Flash and needed a project, or someone at Oracle just finished a study on motion sickness and needed a project.

You can grow a beautiful garden out of a pile of shit, but it’s hard to see anything fertile about iamthenode.com at this point.

Oracle Shell Scripting: an “Excellent presentation”

Well, things have been busy for me (hence the break from blogging) but interest in my Oracle Shell Scripting book remains strong! Just today this (5 star) review showed up on Amazon from Srinivas Gaddam:

Excellent presentation
If you are working on Oracle products, you know problems can get complex and the internet will have million possible solutions, but if you are looking for just one that works you should own this book.

Thanks a lot Srinivas! This comment hits on one of the reasons I wrote the book: to give a coherent but concise treatment of shell scripting for Oracle while giving plenty of usable scripts to get people started quickly!

Oracle Shell Scripting: Another 5-star review!

Well, I’m glad to see that people are liking my book Oracle Shell Scripting: Linux and UNIX Programming for Oracle. Another 5-star review showed up on Amazon last week:

Jolly writes:

Great book!

A well written book. A great way to learn shell scripting. Relevant and useful examples throughout the book (downloadable code).

Thanks for the review Jolly!

For more information like this check out my book Oracle Shell Scripting, only $34.95 from Rampant TechPress.

Buy it now!

What shell am I in?

When you connect to a system, whether directly on the system’s keyboard or through a remote connection you will automatically start in your default shell. The default shell was originally assigned to you when your account was created.

To find out what shell you are currently using we can use the echo command:

$ echo $SHELL /bin/bash

In this command we are using the echo command to examine the value of the environment variable $SHELL. This variable was set by the system when we started this command line session and shows the full path to the shell we were assigned at login. Here are some common shells you might see:

/bin/sh â€“ Bourne shell
/bin/bash â€“ Bourne Again shell
/bin/csh â€“ C shell
/bin/ksh â€“ Korn shell
/bin/tcsh â€“ TC shell
/bin/zsh â€“ Z shell

Shell binaries are also commonly found in the /usr/local/bin directory. Consult your system administrator if youâ€™re having trouble finding your shell binaries.

For more information like this check out my book Oracle Shell Scripting, only $34.95 from Rampant TechPress.

Buy it now!

Oracle Shell Scripting, another review

Another review for my book Oracle Shell Scripting: Linux and UNIX Programming for Oracle has shown up on Amazon!

Prashant wrote:

This book has helped me impress my colleagues and boss..I originally browsed through it at Border’s (and found myself sitting on the ground with a notepad scrambling to copy as much as possible)..of course, then I realized I had to have it, so I bought it online..I knew the publisher was a trustworthy source because I’m always using Don Burleson’s DBA tips online.. this author’s approach is easy-to-follow and concise; yet it’s a thorough guide that is like a catalyst for your own creativity…it has made me look forward to extracting the power of the shell.

It’s a lot better than parsing through thick UNIX encyclopedias or cycling through fragmented online material..as an OCP 10g/9i DBA, I still feel like there are not enough practical day-to-day guides like this one for junior/mid/senior-level administrators, since over half our work is directly/indirectly connected to the shell.

Thanks for the great review Prashant! After all the work that goes into a book like this it’s great to know that it’s helping people. That’s what it’s all about, after all.

For more information like this check out my book Oracle Shell Scripting, only $34.95 from Rampant TechPress.

Buy it now!