software

A few weeks ago, I signed up for a invitation to Google Music. The service is only available in the US but, by a lucky chance of fate, I just happened to be connected to my corporate VPN so I was successful and an invitation duly arrived in my Inbox.

Initially, the Google Music Manager software didn't support Linux. Nor was the Ogg Vorbis audio format supported so I didn't pursue it any further as both of these were show stoppers for me. I don't intend re-ripping my entire music collection to MP3 format.

Steve Rubel has resolved to return to feed reading in 2011.

However, I have been using Google Reader since 2007 and use it daily to catch up with the tech and sports news in addition to my favourite blogs. I honestly can't imagine life without it. I was also interested by a recent article (prompted by the demise of delicio.us) that described the use of Google Reader as a bookmarking service.

Jake Kuramoto from Oracle Apps Lab has a great post about common search terms for the three main search engines and notes that 'facebook.com' (and variants thereof) appear in the lists of most frequently used keywords.

Idea for a new TV series - 'When Ethernet cables go bad' - A fascinating 60 minute documentary into the wide range of issues people have with wireless networks. The program would also include some 'C' list celebrities and a phone/text in competition to win something.


AND TO_NUMBER(TO_CHAR(appt_start_dt + 9/24, 'YYYYMMDDHH24MISS'))


Please can a clever Oracle person explain, in English, the precise semantics of this WHERE clause snippet in the comments below.

I realise this construct and variants thereof have probably been discussed ad infinitum on Oracle WTF but I just don't get it.

I don't know whether this SQL was written by a human being or a third party ETL tool but it doesn't matter. Currently, all ETL tools are written by humans in any case.

‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” — Steve Jobs

So very true. Via a comment on an interesting blog post comparing Tumblr to Posterous.

Last year, I visited a customer in Swindon. When I arrived at the office, I noticed some water dripping from the underside at the front of my car. I didn't have time to investigate or get my hands dirty so I subconsciously hoped it was just condensation from the air conditioning unit and tried to forget all about it.

I have been running Linux Mint for 8 weeks now and I've been delighted with it. My desktop PC is fast and responsive and I am hugely impressed by the sheer amount and quality of software available for Linux. Printing, scanning, wireless networking, audio, DVD writing and all my USB devices just work.

'Dear Father - It is 6 weeks since my last confession. Since then I have...'

'How I ditched Windows and embraced Linux' - the prequel.

On Saturday morning, I thought it might be fun to install Linux on my home computer. A year ago, I had experimented with a few Live CD's and actually installed Ubuntu (not officially supported) followed by Oracle Enterprise Linux (officially supported) on my work laptop (Thinkpad T61). For various reasons, I subsequently had to reverse that change so I thought it might be worthwhile and interesting to install Ubuntu on my own computer (an aging but reliable Dell 4500).