Nokia E71

Just got a Nokia E71 - nice little machine, which fulfills all my communication needs. Works perfectly with Google Maps and GMail.

For synchronizing the calendar with the Google calendar I use goosync.com.

Upgrading

Upgrading from Ubuntu 8.10 to 9.04 on my DELL Inspiron 8600 with Broadcom WLAN failed. A complete new install from CD worked perfectly.

Xubuntu 9.04

Today I installed Oracle XE on the new Xubuntu 9.04 - it worked ;-)

Minor problem was that XE forgot the passwords given on installation for SYSTEM and SYS, so it was impossible to login to APEX.

Solution was:

su - oracle
sqlplus /NOLOG
connect / as sysdba
ALTER user system identified by new_password;
ALTER user sys identified by new_password;

:-)

Home theatre again

New equipment:

• PS3 80GByte
• 16:9 screen Framestar 260 (260 x 146 cm)

Now I will try out fuppes as Linux-based media server: http://www.howtoforge.com/set-up-a-linux-playstation-3-media-server-with-ubuntu8.04 worked great as a starting point, also on Intrepid.

Compatibility check

Just had the time to check XE on Ubuntu 8.10 and Mythbuntu 8.10 - no problems ;-)

XDB

While developing a new Apex application, suddenly the browser asked for XDB credentials instead of showing the pages. I am not sure what caused this problem, but the solution was to unlock the users SYSTEM and ANONYMOUS which suddenly were locked.

Upgrade again

Just upgraded from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04 RC - no problems with Oracle XE. The same without RC ;-)

Hotel Aldeia de Sahy

Second part of the conference with the individual presentations was in Hotel Aldeia de Sahy near Sao Sebastiao. It's nice to have WLAN all over the place ;-)

Just a few impressions ...

LH 506

After a nice flight with Boeing 747-400 D-ABVF "Frankfurt am Main" we arrived on time in Sao Paulo - wheather is great, Hotel Howard Johnson Lima Farina Inn equipped with WLAN in every room ;-)

Arnoldshain Seminar - again ;-)

Tomorrow I will be flying to Sao Paulo where the 8th Arnoldshain Seminar will take place.
If time allows, I will try some event blogging - just for fun ;-)

Hard disk upgrade

Today I replaced the 80 GB hard disk in my Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo 7424 notebook with a 160 GB Western Digital Scorpio - works perfectly ;-)

New Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon

With the release of Gutsy Gibbon I installed Oracle XE on it - works without any problems ;-)

Home theatre

Having acquired a Sanyo PL-VZ 2 projector, I started my home theatre project.

Equipment so far:

• Sanyo PL-VZ 2
• DVDO iScan HD
• Kenwood KRF-V 6070

The projector is not ceiling-mounted, it rests on top of my shelf....

Picasa crashes?

If Picasa crashes while uploading pictures or sending them per email: Updating the Intel wireless driver 2200BG helps!

A similiar problem with Pegasus Mail, which suddenly crashed while sending email, was also cured by the update.

End-user configurable help in Apex

Let's assume the following scenario:

We have an application developed by A for B, B wants to be able to add and edit help information on the pages of the application, but has no access to the development environment of Apex.

1. Create a table HELP with 3 columns:

CREATE table "HELP" (
"ID" NUMBER,
"PAGE" NUMBER,
"HELP" VARCHAR2(4000),
constraint "HELP_PK" primary key ("ID")
)
/

CREATE sequence "HELP_SEQ"
/

CREATE trigger "BI_HELP"
before insert on "HELP"
for each row
begin
select "HELP_SEQ".nextval into :NEW.ID from dual;
end;
/

2. Create a "report and form" on this table in your application, they will be used for maintaining the help table.

3. Create a help region on Page 0 as report region, use the following SQL:

select help from HELP where page = &APP_PAGE_ID. and help is not NULL

Condition for this region: select help from HELP where page = &APP_PAGE_ID. and help is not NULL returns at least one row.


4. Using the report and form from step 2 an authorized user can create and edit the help text for the pages: the page number goes into PAGE, the text into HELP.

Update

Today I have updated my Ubuntu 6.10 server to 7.04 without any problems.

Additionally I installed XE on the machine - worked perfectly.

As a precaution I always use the "real" root in Ubuntu for installing XE, as I ran into some troubles with doing it with "sudo" some months ago.

A380

Finally, I had the chance to see the A380 flying.

After missing the first opportunity in 2005, because of waiting on the wrong side of FRA airport in the fog, my chance came on 27th March 2007.

Having arrived at the spotters point at runway 18W just a few minutes before, the A380 landed on runway 07L.

APP_PAGE_ID

A while ago I promised tips & tricks .... well, for starters:

Supporting the end users of an Apex application is much easier, when they can tell you the relevant page number. Of course it is in the URL (as long as the Apex URL is not hidden, e.g. with a frame redirect), but in my experience end users like a more explicit way of getting the information.

For this reason, I include &APP_PAGE_ID. in the Navigation Bar of my application.

Apex Evangelists

Some leading members of the Apex community have started a project "AE - Apex Evangelists"!

Good luck to them - you can find more information at http://www.apex-evangelists.com/