Oracle provides the DBMS_LOCK package which allows users to manage their own locks.  One handy subprogram in this package in the SLEEP method, which suspends the current session for the specified number of seconds.  I have used DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP a number of times in the past so I knew this would do the trick.

The first thing needed was the ability to execute this package method, which is not something granted to all users by default.  I had my colleague issue the following grant as the SYS user in his test database:

GRANT EXECUTE ON DBMS_LOCK TO public;

Once that was done, all that was needed was a quick function to make his query run long.  Hence, the following:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION query_wait
(
   i_wait_secs IN PLS_INTEGER
)
   RETURN NUMBER
IS
BEGIN
   DBMS_LOCK.SLEEP(i_wait_secs);
   RETURN i_wait_secs;
END;
/

Here’s our new helper function in action:

matt:~>sqlplus scott/tiger@local

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.1.0 Production on Tue Aug 24 05:55:54 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL> SET TIMING ON

SQL> SELECT query_wait(10)
  2    FROM dual
  3  /

QUERY_WAIT(10)
--------------
            10

Elapsed: 00:00:10.01

And that’s all there is to it. Instant, long running queries. Enjoy!

It’s been well over a month since I first discussed embarking on my Mac endeavor.  I cannot believe it is almost the middle of February, and today is the first day I have not been onsite at my client since before the holidays began.  That also means today is really the first chance I’ve had to come back around and give you an update on where I’m at with validating the viability of the Mac for my daily needs.

To start, here are the specs for my test bed:

• Mac Mini
• Mac OS/X 10.5.8
• Processor: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
• Memory: 4GB 1067 MHz DDR3

My initial challenge for the Mac was basically to replicate (again, in a viable manner) the various tools and utilities that are critical to my daily grind.  Well, I am honestly surprised to say that aside from a few minor things here and there the Mac stood up to the challenge.  Read on for the specifics…

1. Microsoft Office

As I mentioned before, this is a must have given the obvious email factor, as well as the amount of client documentation we prepare.  I was fortunate to already find Microsoft Office 2008 installed on the Mac Mini, including the Entourage email client.  At this point I have not been able to explore Entourage at all, but that is on the list.  I have heard there are “quirks”, but I cannot validate these claims yet.  It will be very intereting to see how it compares to Outlook.  At this point I’m just happy there is a Microsoft offering.  Wow, did I really just say that?

2. Oracle RDBMS

I was somewhat disappointed to find that OracleXE is not available on MacOSX.  I say somewhat because I have been recently challenged by several of the limitations in XE as it relates to otherwise “enterprise” features Oracle has disabled in XE (e.g. table partitioning, parallel exports, etc).  Fortunately, I was able to get Oracle 10gR2 Enterprise installed with little effort.  I found the following guide very helpful:

http://www.pythian.com/news/1937/quick-install-guide-for-oracle-10g-release-2-on-mac-os-x-leopard-intel/

NOTE: One thing I had to do in order to get the installation to work correctly was to edit the ORACLE_HOME value in the /Library/StartupItems/Oracle/Oracle file.  If you are familiar with Oracle in a Unix environment, you know the importance of ORACLE_HOME so this should not come as a surprise.

After installation, I tried creating a local database.  This process was giving me grief until I discovered I had to enable the root user on a Mac.  What’s that all about?  Disabling the root user?  Well, the following support note from Apple walked me through the process:

Enabling the root user in MacOSX: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1528

Once that was done, I had to manually create the /etc/oratab file and set file permissions such that the oracle user could write to it via the Database Configuration Assistant (dbca) utility.  Finally, I had a fully functional Oracle installation.  Life is good…

3. Oracle SQL Developer / Data Modeler

Both of these items are supported on MacOSX and both installed easily.  Things are looking promising, I must admit.  But the challenge is not over…

4. Core Development Platform (Java, Ant, Subversion)

Not a whole lot to report here either (fortunately and unfortunately).  I found all of these tools already installed on the Mac Mini, to my surprise.  Not because Apple shipped it that way, obviously, but because I inherited the device from another internal development team who was using the tool set.  It’s great to see these packages work, which I am not surprised by, but I am a little disappointed I did not get to install them.  That time will come, though.  It will be interested to symlink all of the respective install directories so I can add other JDK versions and switch out my builds on the fly using environment variables.  That will give me the opportunity I was looking for, I only need the time to dig into it.  Something to look forward to…

In my original post I also mentioned the desire to find a TortoiseSVN-like utility that integrated natively into the file manager.  I honestly did not expect to find one, given my earlier woes while trying to find such a tool for Gnome/Nautilus.  At that time I was surprised to find that the folks at Tigris did not offer one.  Well, they didn’t overlook the Mac.  I ran across a native Finder plug-in from Tigris.  Just what I was looking for.  I did notice that the directories under version control did not automatically appear with correct SVN icons, but I am assuming this is related to a caching issue within the plugin.  We’ll wait and see it it corrects itself.

5. VMWare

As I mentioned before, this is perhaps one of the most critical components I have to get working in order for me to survive in the land of Mac.  Not being able to replicate my virtual environment would pretty much be a deal-breaker for me.  I was already aware of VMWare Fusion, but I was not clear on the compatibility between Fusion and Workstation (the product I use).  In short, I installed Fusion, opened an existing VM created under VMWorkstation 6.5 on Linux, and it loaded right up with no changes.  Very, very nice.  I can’t say enough good things about VMWare.  Life is really good…

6. UltraEdit

This is still in the works by the guys over at IDM Software, but it’s definitely on the way for MacOSX.  See http://www.ultraedit.com/company/blog/community/what_will_uex_become.html for an update, and be sure to read the comments.  In the meantime, a very viable alternative is found in TextMate.  Couple that along with the Oracle syntax plugin and I can once again write code in comfort.

7. Pidgin

This was alittle misleading, to be honest.  I thought I had found Pidgin for MacOSC, but I really found a couple of Pidgin alternatives that are recommended on the Pidgin website.  After taking a look at them both, I chose to go with Adium since it uses the libpurple core library that Pidgin uses and offers “…a more native Mac OS X experience”.  Interestingly, not all of my groups appeared in the list of groups, but all my critical IM protocols are working.  All in all a nice utility.

8. Conky

This is still a gap.  While I saw a number of posts recommending GeekTool, it does not appear to be anywhere near as flexible as Conky.  I will have to do some more digging.  If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.  I really enjoy Conky and have come to rely on it and keep it in my peripheral vision on the side of my desktop as I work.  I typically watch my CPU activity, top processes, and core component temps as I work.  A screenshot of my Conky config can be seen here.

9. iTunes

It was obviously no surprise to find iTunes already installed and working indiginously in MacOSX.

10. Firefox

No problems here.  I am a long time Firefox user, but have recently begun using GoogleChrome as a result of a friend’s convincing blogpost:   It’s as good as he describes (at least on Linux).

Conclusion

Not too shabby, eh?  These results give me a huge confidence boost in the viability of converting over to a Mac.  Perhaps 2010 is “the year of the Mac“, at least for me.  Which reminds me, I still haven’t seen any contributions to my MacBook Pro fund….

I remember from a previous life having worked with a developer who had a very neat desktop background that demarcated the different resolutions with a label and border so that regardless of which application or window he was working in he could tell immediately how well it fit into a particular resolution simply by moving the window over the different sections of his desktop.  I did a bit of searching and turned up nothing in the way of desktop backgrounds that fit the bill, so I’m guessing maybe he did what I did – create my own.

Since I run a screen resolution of 1680×1150 on my HP laptop I’ve started with, well, a 1680×1150 image.  You can see that I like darks colors on my desktop, and the final version has a nice little gradient to spice it up a bit.  Conky overlays it very nicely, and I now have a great solution to my problem.

Here’s a screenshot of the final product running on my laptop:

Here’s the Gimp .xcf file with all the layers for the 1680×1150 resolution.  Those of you who run larger screen resolutions can take it and modify to fit your needs.

desktop_screen_res_bg_1650×1150.xcf

And, here is the .png file for those of you already running 1680×1150.

desktop_screen_res_bg_1650×1150.png

Hope you enjoy!

More than a couple of times have I installed package updates to components I use everyday only to have a library incompatibility rear its ugly head and break one of my other tools.  To date I have broken (at least temporarily) Compiz, Nautilus,  GnomeTerminal, NetworkManager, VMWare Workstation, and UEX with innocent package updates.  In many case I have been able to recover by either upgrading a tool to a newer version (not so bad) or by downgrading one or more libraries or packages (not as much fun).  In a couple of cases I have not been able to recover – Nautilus and GnomeTerminal have not worked in quite a while.  Now, this is not to say that I could not get back to a working version of either by doing the necessary digging, research, and trial/error package updates.  The problem is that I don’t have time for these activities.  My schedule is already full with work that requires these tools and utilities to be working, with little to no slack for troubleshooting one that has stopped working.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not ready to go back to Windows – not even close.  The flexibility, freedom, and power I have enjoyed with Linux are things I am not willing to give up.  The question I have is how can I get a stable desktop environment that affords me the freedom of Linux?  Actually, let’s be more specific.  How can I get a stable desktop environment *on* Linux?

Thus the topic at hand.  OS/X is Linux at its core, which immediately grabs my attention.  Mac’s are definitely growing in popularity amongst peers in my industry who are not graphics designers.  Can a database guy survive on a Mac?  Hopefully so, but that remains to be seen.  I have begun taking an inventory of the tools and utilities I use everyday that must be found in some reasonable form in the Mac world.  Here’s the list, in order of importance:

• Microsoft Office – simply a must.  And, I really need Outlook.  I have been using Mozilla Thunderbird and it has no calendar.  CrossOver for Linux allows me to run Outlook, but it is somewhat flaky and does not run natively.

• Oracle – I need a local Oracle database, at least version 10g, and preferrably an XE install (not the full blown Standard or Enterprise version).

• Oracle SQL Developer / Data Modeler – I already said I was a database guy, therefore I need 1) a query tool, and 2) a data modeling tool.  I have already made the move to the two Oracle tools I listed, and I’m not ready to move on.

• Core Development Platform (Java, Ant, Subversion) – not optional. As a side noe, I would love to be able to find an SVN client that integrated natively into the file manager like TortoiseSVN does in Windows.

• VMWare – we use VMWare for a number of things so this is also a must.

• UltraEdit – my favorite text editor.  UEX was a huge leap forward for UltraEdit, but for some reason my current openSuse config has broken UEX and it core dumps.  Regardless, still the best text editor there is.

• Pidgin – or another generic IM client that supports GMail, Yahoo, and standard XMPP.

• Conky – a desktop system monitor (and more).

• iTunes – I really miss iTunes.  Haven’t used it since I jailbroke my iPhone. Not critical, but definitely a nice-to-have.

I expect this list will grow, but these are the big ones.

Now for the hardware…  Thankfully I have access to a Mac Mini that I will use as my test bed.  I’ll get OS/X set up and running and then begin the software and configuration journey.  Having never used a Mac before, it should be interesting.  Yes, I did use an Apple IIE in my elementary computer lab, but that doesn’t count

More to come as I make progress.  In the meantime, if anyone is interested in contributing to my MacBook Pro fund…

OLAP Fiendly OLTP Design – Planning Ahead for the Inevitable Data Warehouse

A woman who is beautiful but lacks discretion is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout. –Proverbs 11:22 (NLT)

And I make this point because as I read this passage growing up I for some reason always related the “beauty” to the “gold ring” instead of relating the “woman” to the “gold ring” and the “[in]discretion” to the “pig’s snout”.  Now, I could obviously be misinterpreting the scripture, but it seems to me the message is much more profound when you look at it this way.

Every person is beautiful in God’s eyes however a lack of discretion covers our image in the eyes of others with a devalued veneer.  This devaluation reflects the wearing away of our morals, and I believe the message applies to everyone, men included.

I want this to be something my daughters eventually have planted  deep inside them.  Likewise I want my son to grasp this just as well, because we all live in a world of increasingly compromised standards where both children and adults experience a continual beat down of of moral desensitization.  Whether it be movies, television, the Internet, or fashion ads, the message is relentless.  “Less is more” – the “less” being (in many cases) clothing and the “more” being popularity, attention, inclusion, etc.

We (I speak for both my wife and I) want our children to find the joy that comes through living a life pleasing to God first and foremost – not one that meets the expectations of their peers or the world around them.  I believe that such an understanding is a core pillar in their spiritual foundation.

Am I completely off base here?  Let me know what you think…

I am not ashamed to say that what pushed me over the edge was seeing the entire suite of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games (~800 in all) running on a friend’s jailbroken iPhone 3GS.  Each of them only consumed on average approximately 100KB.  I could not believe it.  Enough said, time to jailbreak…

First let me say that I found many guides to jailbreaking an iPhone 3G, but I only found one I was comfortable giving a go.  There are many variables at play in terms of iPhone model, firmware version, iTunes version, host O/S version, jailbreak software version, etc.  I highly recommend you do your homework before choosing a path to follow.  Included in this post are brief notes on my personal experience, but they are by no means guaranteed to work for you.  However if you meet the following criteria, you should have no problems:

• iPhone 3G (not 3GS)
• Firmware version 3.0_7A341
• Windows Vista 64bit
• iTunes 9.0

I used the instructions provided here.  There were many follow up comments from people who used these instructions successfully, and they also included specific for how to get the jailbreak process to work in a Windows Vista 64bit environment.  While “Vista 64bit” is not mentioned anywhere in the instructions, Windows 7 is, and that was enough to do the trick for me.  Here are the key things to watch out for…

First, the instructions specifically mention iTunes 8.2.  Well, unfortunately I had already given in to the relentless upgrade notifications iTunes had been presenting me and allowed it to upgrade itself.  That resulted in iTunes 9.0.  Oh man! Now what?  Well, after a little research I saw a few posts confirming iTunes 9.0 would not affect the jailbreak process.  Whew…

Next off, I downloaded the latest version of redsn0w for Windows.  The instructions mention version 0.7.1, but I could only find 0.7.2, which worked great.  I am convinced that the higher the version the safer you probably are because of bug fixes, etc.  I also downloaded the iPhone 3.0 ipsw firmware file (a 230MB beast, BTW).  These are really the only two items you will need outside of iTunes.  Once you have them you can begin following the instructions as provided.  The only thing I want to highlight is the section at the very bottom of the instructions which explain how to start redsn0w in Windows 7.  Regardless of whether you are using Windows Vista 64 or Windows 7, make sure you start the redsn0w executable in Windows XP compatability mode, and run as administrator.

The first time through the process I did the compatibility mode step, but missed the “run as administrator”.  All was going well until redsn0w crashed right in the middle of “uploading the ramdisk”.  I remember screaming in horror  briefly, which thankfully did not wake the kids.  Then I went back over the instructions and saw the part I missed.  Fortunately I was able to resume the process beginning at Step 3.  The second time through worked like a champ.  It took maybe 5 minutes from start to finish.

When Cydia was completing its installation after the first reboot, it again rebooted and this time it took longer than a normal reboot.  I got concerned (impatient, really) and did a hard reboot.  It still took a while but eventually came up just fine.  I am now well on my way down the path of exploring Cydia’s app inventory.  Wow, what a difference.  I have to admit that the first app I installed was a command line terminal.  I just had to do it.  I feel so much more comfortable knowing I can now go to a terminal at any point and inspect my new Linux handheld

Looking back at both my experience moving to a Linux environment on my laptop as well as living in the world of a locked down Apple iPhone, I have come to this conclusion:  The only viable way to put a Linux device in the hands of an average user is to lock it down the way Apple did the iPhone.  Between the periodic kernel updates, video driver patches, Xwindows issues, etc., there is no way the average laptop/desktop user could survive.  You simply have to know too much about the “ugly” parts of Linux to work around the everyday issues that arise.

Best of luck to you if/when you decide to jailbreak.  So far no regrets for me, but then again it’s only been a few hours.

• HP EliteBook laptop (8730w)
• 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo 64-bit
• 6GB Memory
• openSuse 11.1 64-bit

The move to Linux from Windows has been a huge plus, though not without its own challenges.  But it’s not just the hardware and OS.  Here are the tools that round out a highly productive development environment:

• Oracle 10g Express Edition (XE) Cost: $0.  I have been using Oracle since 1998 and can tell you that XE is a huge step forward in providing developers a full Oracle functionality with a small footprint.  And, it’s free.  We have each developer install a local copy from which we do our individual development database builds.  The database build process (which is performed using Apache Ant) required a bit of special XE configuration to work properly, but is by far one of the best features of our agile development and implementation process.  I am eagerly awaiting Oracle’s release of the 11g version of XE.
• Oracle SQL Developer Cost: $0.  Currently using version 1.5.5.  It’s not TOAD, which is what I grew up using, but it is slowly gaining all the features of TOAD and more.  All in all, I am satisfied.
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler Cost: $0.  All I can say is “Wow”!  I have been looking at data modeling tools for a long time.  My favorite was Oracle Designer back in the day, but I have primarily used ERwin in most of my work.  My frustration was that there was always something missing in terms of features and functionality.  Not so with this new (and, currently, free) tool from Oracle.  I immediately incorporated it into our development process and have not looked back.  If you are looking for a fully featured data modeling tool that will work for Oracle, SQL Server (2000 and 2005), and DB2 – this is the tool for you.
• Apache Ant Cost: $0.  When I was first introduced to Ant I was skeptical to say the least.  For a Java developer, sure… but for the database?  I mean, what could possibly be done with that basic <sql> task?  Boy was I missing out.  After a bit of reading and experimentation (and a ton of insight from a very smart friend and colleague) I had a full blown agile database build utility on my hands.  I can’t say enough good things about Ant.
• Subversion (SVN) Cost: $0.  Nothing more to say here.  The breadth of the user community says it all.
• SmartSVN Cost $0.  For a Linux development environment, this is a great graphical client for SVN.  While it’s not needed since you can do all the work with SVN from the command line, it has a load of features even without enabling the Professional version.
• TortoiseSVN Cost: $0. For a Windows development environment, this is definitely the best SVN client.  Native Windows Explorer integration makes all the difference.  Developed by the same group who maintains Subversion, Tigris.  Now, if only they would port it to one of the Gnome/KDE file managers with the same level of integration.
• Crossover Linux (Standard) Cost: $40.  If you need to run windows applciations natively in Linux, this is probably the solution.  I’m not the biggest fan of it but it’s the best (if not only viable) alternative and it does do the job. Office 2007 is supported, BTW.
• UltraEdit for Linux, aka UEX Ohhhh yeah, finally a VI alternative with all the bells and whistles you could ask for.  I have been using UE since 1997, and I can honestly say I use it every day.  UEX is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped me from using it.  My hope is that I can transfer my UE license to UEX – we’ll see.
• VMWare Workstation Cost: $189.  Yes there are other options here (like the free VirtualBox tool from Sun), but you cannot go wrong with VMWare.  Tried and true.

Do you see the pattern?  Open source and free (or at least low cost).  Not necessarily the path of least resistance, but the best things are seldom the easiest to come by.

Also, if you happen to be looking for a good portable hard drive with high capacity and a low profile, take a look at OyenDigital.  I am currently using the 500GB External 2.5-inch eSATA/USB Portable Hard Drive for which I paid $130.  While it’s only 5400RPM, I can still run virtual machines over the eSATA connection with no problems.  We have a second one (320GB model) we carry with us that contains our full SCM environment running in a Linux VM.  Plug it in, fire up the VM, and we are set.

Give now and take advantage of the dollar-for-dollar matching grant (don’t forget to mention “Scott Wilder”). Beginning 9/15/09 you can watch a counter of the total number of Bibles donated over in the sidebar of my site.