Nothing like a good news aggregator

If you wait long enough there is always someone somewhere that does exactly what you have planned to do. Eddie Awad did it for me concerning the What’s-new-in-the-latest-and-greatest Oracle release. Now for some time to read it all and finally install Oracle 11g, that I have downloaded too soon to be sure I will install it before the first patches arrive.

It is not only out, it is available for download

Yesterday over at Eddie Awad’s blog was the first time I read that oracle 11g on Linux is available for download. And the documentation is there as well. I Shamelessly copied the links from Eddie, mainly so I won’t have to find them myself when I find the time to download and install.

Of course the first to download, install AND publish about it is to be found here.

Someone has got to do the dirty job .

Ode to NULL (Ram Srinivasan)

Reading up on oracle-l I encountered a poem. Yes, a poem! Having been bit by the null-bug more than once I could relate to the subject. Moreover, most of the people who are going read this will at least have heard about Lex de Haan and his ‘passion’ for everything concerning NULL. Jared noted that the poem should have a permanent place on the internet. Now I know a blog is nothing really permanent, but at least it is on the internet. The poem was written by Ram Srinivasan. Here it is…

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Ode to Null

It is neither a mountain nor a creek;

It is neither Latin nor Greek;

It is neither strong nor weak;

It is neither courageous nor meek.

It is neither nothing nor something;

It is neither a good thing nor a bad thing;

It is neither a big thing nor a small thing;

But it is something we have to deal with among all things.

It is neither a lender nor a borrower;

It is neither a zero nor a blank;

It is neither here nor there;

But, in programming, it is everywhere.

Oh! NULL, Oh! NULL!

You are neither a push nor a pull;

You always make us mull

Ov’r your dangerous effects, Oh! NULL!

MySQL for datawarehouses?

Nothing to do with Oracle this time, but ‘competition’ needs to be followed.

It seems MySQL is expanding it’s possibilities: BlueLithium Selects MySQL & Infobright for Analytic Data Warehouse. My first impression is that MySQL is involved but that the actual database is from Infobright. The ‘engine’ for this MySQL implementation is from that company. I read this as ‘the kernel’ is not by MySQL, just the surrounding functionality. If you replace the kernel, is it still the same ‘database’? A matter of definition of course, but a different kernel will probably mean a whole new set of SQL-like functions and a whole new set of maintenance functionality. You can still call it MySQL, but is it still the same? I tend not to think so.

It is enough reason to be interested though, and the need to delve deeper into MySQL has increased.

When will I find the time?