Oracle 11g Web SQL client

Oracle 11g does not provide the iSQLPlus interface or the GUI SQL*Plus client (sqlplusw). Instead, it provides SQL Developer and APEX (Application Express).

To get a web interface for typing in SQL and getting the results, you can use the Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) web interface, accessible at: https://localhost:1158/em (assuming you've got Oracle installed on your computer).

To log into the OEM web interface, you need to have the SELECT ANY DICTIONARY privilege (or you can use the SYSTEM account :-P ). When you're logged in, click on the Data Movement 'tab' and click the SQL Worksheet link (under the related links section). You'll now have the iSQLPlus-like interface for executing SQL queries.

EDIT: If you're using Quest SQL Navigator, you will need version 5.5.4 or later to work with Oracle 11g; this version also supports Microsoft Windows Vista.

The End for Netscape Navigator

Netscape has announced the end of development on the Netscape web browser with the last of the patches being available till 1st February 2008.

After the acquisition of Netscape by AOL, development branched off to form the open-source Mozilla foundation leaving Netscape to be a little more than Mozilla with skins and extensions. Finally, the retirement of the Netscape browser has been announced, leaving Mozilla to continue development on the browser.

Happy New Year

I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year with many more blog articles coming up on .NET, Java and technology in general. Looking forward to much better times ahead.

VarArgs in Java 5

Introduced in Tiger (Java 1.5.0), variable arguments enables Java methods to accept a variable (0..*) number of arguments thus allowing users greater flexibility in passing calling methods, previously dealt with using arrays.

The last parameter in the list is defined with a "type ... variable_name" syntax (note the ellipsis).

Example:
private static int sum(int ... numbers) {
  int accum = 0;
  for (int i=0; i<numbers.length; i++) {
    accum += numbers[i];
  }
  return accum;
}

Implicit variable declaration in .NET 3.5

In C# 3 and Visual Basic 9, you can declare variables without having to specify the type of the variable. This isn't the same as the variant type in Visual Basic, but rather the compiler's ability to determine the type of the variable from the initialization value.

Here's how it works:
var i = 3; //C#
Dim i = 3 'VB

Using implicit declaration of variables requires you to specify a non-null value since a null only represents the generic object type.

EDIT: You can get the implicit declarations feature in LINQ projects (CTP) with Visual Studio 2005.

Google's 403 for View as HTML

Google is probably having to deal with a load on it's servers this holiday season and so they're restricting access to their "View as HTML" feature. The message displayed is:

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

MacOS X's .DS_Store files

I noticed a couple of .DS_Store files appearing in some of the archives that I've been receiving and recognized them as MacOS X files used for display, much like the Windows thumbs.db (created to store thumbnails of files - check the "Do not cache thumbnails" in Tools > Folder Options > View). I looked up more info and here's what I came across:

Under Macintosh OSX .DS_Store holds the information which controls the way a folder will be opened; i.e., the shape and size of the window, the position of the window on the desktop and whether file, folder or icon view has been selected. If you were to delete the .DS_Store the folder would revert to the system default next time it is opened and a new blank .DS_Store would appear (invisibly).

You can disable the creation of .DS_Store files by MacOS X by running this command from the terminal window: defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true