Tech. Biz. Culture. Law.
The Atlas Shrugged II “Teaser Trailer” is out and is scheduled to be in theaters this weekend. Click here to see it for yourself! The scheduled release date is October 12, 2012.
NEWS FLASH: The Atlas Shrugged team is looking for volunteers to help with marketing in Dallas, TX, click here to find out more information, and good luck!
Mike O’Hearn just invited me (well … me, and a few thousand of his friends) to a live event where he will attempt to break 24 panes of glass AND the world record for doing such a thing, to be filmed for the TV show Guiness World Records. The event is at 2 p.m. today in the Los Angeles area, and it’ll be scheduled for worldwide broadcast soon, stay tuned for specifics. I have a hunch Mike will pull it off, he’s one of the most impressive and physically powerful people I can think of. That, and he has a heart of gold, he’s a great guy. More on this later.
Yesterday we all heard the sad news about the passing of legendary actor Ernest Borgnine. Fans will remember him from the classic TV show McHale’s Navy, and a ton of great movies. He’s probably best known for Marty, but he played a wide variety of characters and was known for being a really nice guy. What some folks might not know, however, is that he was also the subject of one of the first “reality show” type of productions. And while I’m saying “one of the first”, I personally think it’s probably THE first, but I can’t say that I’ve researched that.
What I can say is this: the reason Borgnine has this incredible distinction is because of my very good friend from high school named Jeff Krulik, one of the most innovative filmmakers in the business. Years ago Jeff created a film called Ernest Borgnine on the Bus. It follows the classic film icon on his summer vacation across the country, driving his own personal humongous bus to tourists locations, bus stops, and shows Borgnine being just a regular guy. It’s fantastic film and highly entertaining. The full version is now on YouTube:
It was WAYYYY ahead of his time, which just proves what all of us at Bowie High School knew years ago, that Jeff Krulik is a real visionary.
Bowie is the same school that produced other visionaries like dazzling guitarist Todd Bauchspies, vocal legend Eva Cassidy, guitar-maker-to-the-stars Paul Reed Smith, and the overall entertaining Kathie Lee Gifford, and many more – I’m leaving some out but I’ll do my best to get to them all here at Skere9, along with some other greats – like the amazing Doug Hayden, who is rocking the political satire world even as I type this with Insanity Island. But we’ll get to all of that here at Skere9, and keep an eye on the YouTube channel for more about the Skere9 Gallery of Stars.
More later!
I just read a great blog piece by legendary data guru Curt Monash, and it’s titled Why I’m so forwarding-leaning about Hadoop features. The bottom line: Monash is encouraging Hadoop uses to err on the side of new features, and not worry so much about using earlier, more stable versions of Hadoop. His reasoning is that, at this stage in the Hadoop product life cycle, the benefit provided by the latest features is greater than any benefit to product stability.
It’s good logic, of course, we expect no less from Monash. He’s been publishing a number of excellent common-sense posts about Hadoop in the last few years – see Enterprise-ready Hadoop, including its link to Annoying Hadoop marketing themes that deserve to be ignored. Curt’s a great voice of reason amid a lot of hype and bravado.
Curt first got my attention with his discussion about Google’s patent application for MapReduce, and the fact that Hadoop functionality is hardly new, and has long been doable in an Oracle environment. His article titled More patent nonsense – Google MapReduce should be required reading for all data professionals with an interest in Hadoop solutions.
The bottom line: the “big data” trend has merit, particularly for some specific, unique business cases, but there’s a tremendous amount of hype around them, and even Hadoop, at its core, depends on relational logic in order to be of any use.
In my book OCA Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-047), I mention the use of something called “dynamic SQL” on page 391. I’ve since received some email asking for more information about it. The concept I was referring to with the phrase “dynamic SQL” is simple: write software code to create SQL statements in real time, based on the logic within the script. A typical use in many websites today is to create some sort of code using PHP or Perl to display an HTML page, ask the user questions, and then issue a custom-written SQL statement to interact with the database accordingly. An example might be to create an HTML page that displays a form:
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample Form</title></head>
<body>
<h1>Click Display list of customers</h1>
<form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="test.php">
Choose order for displaying the results:
<select name=parm_OrderBy>
<option value="DESC" selected>Descending
<option value="ASC">Ascending
</select><br>
<input type=submit value='Display Results' />
</form>
</body>
</html>
The form might appear this way:
This HTML could then invoke a PHP script that looks something like this:
<? php
... receive incoming parameters ...
$vQuery = "SELECT FIRST_NAME, LAST_NAME FROM CUSTOMERS ORDER BY LAST_NAME"
if (parm_OrderBy == "DESC")
$vQuery .= " DESC";
... run query ...
?>
The idea is that the PHP script is bulding a text string in the $vQuery variable that may or may not include DESC after the ORDER BY, based on the value selected in the HTML form.
This is obviously just a very simple example. You can use much more complex code structures to build a variety of SQL statements, including SQL statements that may or may not include joins, GROUP BY clauses, and more. It’s just a matter of building text strings based on input, nothing more.
So that’s it! Now you know what dynamic SQL is about.
Happy developing!
And now for something completely different … if you haven’t seen the 2009 blog post of “Hey Jude” flowcharted, you owe it to yourself and your technical education to check it out:
It’s a classic. And if you really like it, you can even order a print:
Order Prints of Hey Jude Flowcharted
Way cool.
I’ve received a number of requests for an electronic copy of the SQL scripts in my book, OCA Oracle Database SQL Expert Exam Guide (Exam 1Z0-047). I’ve emailed them to readers who have asked. And I’m probably overdue for publishing them here in this blog. So … now you can!
For info, visit the SQL Scripts page!
Enjoy! And as always, please let me know if you have any questions!
Steve
soh@corbinian.com
Hello out there … the Skere9 world is taking shape, slowly but surely … the Skerinators are working in the background to hammer the dots and cross the eyes and get the parts connected and the parameters passing and all the cool nifty bells and whistles … uh … well … belling and whistling, I guess. Yes, that’s it. BUT – you wouldn’t necessarily know all of that because the work so far has been in the background, but WAIT … more is coming soon …
Stay tuned.
And now for something completely different.
Jesus was wandering around Jerusalem when he decided that he really needed a new robe.
After looking around for a while, he saw a sign for Finkelstein, the Tailor. So, he went in and made the necessary arrangements to have Finkelstein prepare a new robe for him.
A few days later, when the robe was finished, Jesus tried it on — and it was a perfect fit! He asked how much he owed.
Finkelstein brushed him off: “No, no, for the Son of God there’s no charge! However, may I ask for a small favor. Whenever you give a sermon, perhaps you could just mention that your nice new robe was made by Finkelstein, the Tailor?”
Jesus readily agreed and as promised, extolled the virtues of his Finkelstein robe whenever he spoke to the masses.
A few months later while Jesus was again walking through Jerusalem , he happened to walk past Finkelstein’s shop and noted a huge line of people waiting for Finkelstein’s robes. He pushed his way through the crowd to speak to him and as soon as Finkelstein spotted him he said: “Jesus, Jesus, look what you’ve done for my business! Would you consider a partnership?”
“Certainly,” replied Jesus. “Jesus & Finkelstein it is.”
“Oh, no,” said Finkelstein.”Finkelstein & Jesus. After all… I am the craftsman.”
“I understand, Mr. Finkelstein, but I am the son of God,” Jesus replied.
The two of them debated this for some time. Their discussion was long and spirited, but ultimately fruitful. They finally came up with a mutually acceptable compromise. A few days later.. the new sign went up over Finkelstein’s shop:
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HA!
I was honored to be a panelist on the television show White House Chronicle, which was broadcast last weekend, and in what I believe to be a somewhat unusual step, is being re-broadcast again this weekend. The show is also published online at the show’s website, White House Chronicle.
I had a total blast doing that show! I was very honored to be invited, and I was immensely impressed with the outstanding professionalism and integrity of everyone associated with WHC. And the other panelists – Bob Franken and Lauren Ashburn – are top notch in their respective areas of expertise and beyond. I was definitely with a very illustriuous group and it was a great privilege to be included.
One surprise to me was how incredibly funny everyone was! Llewellyn King is to be credited for a good-natured spirit that he instills in the show, a process that begins long before the show’s taping and made the entire experience very fun for me. It’s to his credit that the show is both relaxed and energetic at the same time, a rare combination that’s hard to foster, yet Llewellyn King makes it look easy. He’s well established as one of the most respected journalists in the business, but I’m not sure everyone is fully aware of what a great wit and fun individual he is.
Linda Gasparello exhibits great insight, and I know her to be quite innovative. Both she and Llewellyn are in tune with the quickly evolving state of technical changes in the industries of media and broadcasting, and the world at large. They recognize the current changes before other mainstream news outlets, and more than that, they recognize the potential implications in the future. Yet they are gracious enough to allow their guest panelists to share the spotlight. Each one of us had valuable contributions to share, all of which is to the credit of Mr. King and Ms. Gasparello.
Speaking of my fellow panelists, Bob Franken needs no introduction to news “consumers” like me, he’s one of the most accomplished journalists in the industry with impeccable credentials, not to mention a fantastic personality off camera as well. His insight into the state of technology goes far beyond what was able to be represented in this brief but power-packed broadcast, it was evident to me from the moment we all arrived at the studio that he’s on top of the major trends and more importantly – understands their implications and how best to navigate the future. And if Bob and Llewellyn ever decide to do a stand-up comedy act, I’ll be the first in line to buy tickets.
Lauren Ashburn is one of those remarkable and rare people to be a visionary and also to do something about it. She recognized the power of video on the web before most in the biz and oversaw USA Today’s work in that area while others were still figuring out what was going on. Many people talk the talk, Lauren is one of the rare few who have impacted the industry for the better in substantial ways. And if you happened to notice how much the camera loves her – and it does, everybody knows that – I can tell you this: she is even more of a babe in person. Yes, it is possible, I’m a witness.
If you view the program, you’ll see that I had a camcorder running during the broadcast itself. I began filming several minutes before the show began, and caught some interesting discussion before and after what you see in the broadcast. I’ll be coordinating the publication of that footage with the good folks at WHC in the very near future. Keep an eye out for it, and in the meantime, if you wish to be notified when it’s up, just follow me on Twitter, or send me a request via our online form, and I’ll be sure to let you know.
Congratulations go out to tonight’s winner of the Chesapeake Regional Tech Council award for “Tech Company of the Year”: MedAssurant. It’s great to see a successful firm from my own home town of Bowie get proper recognition of their fantastic business, which has an active presence in virtually every county in the United States. Congrats in particular to its founder, Dr. Keith Dunleavy.