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Intermedia Writing Systems, revised 3rd edition is a textbook I wrote for a theoretical class at a hypothetical school. It was staple bound and printed as a zine that I distributed to various shops. Here is a beast fable from the book: The Platypus and the Chimaera Once upon a time there was a platypus […]

I recently attended part of the recent Techcrunch 50 conference, and when I wasn’t there I was watching much of it online. For probably 80% of the companies when it came time to ask about their business model, they said ads. Then they talked about cause they have all of this great information about the user they can advertise better than they used to. The problem is they’re forgetting all about user intent. This is why ads on facebook simpl....

I recently attended part of the recent Techcrunch 50 conference, and when I wasn’t there I was watching much of it online. For probably 80% of the companies when it came time to ask about their business model, they said ads. Then they talked about cause they have all of this great information about the user they can advertise better than they used to. The problem is they’re forgetting all about user intent. This is why ads on facebook simpl....

I finally got fed up with Blogger, and am moving this blog to live on Wordpress hosted off of scripts.mit.edu. In the process of converting everything over and setting up Wordpress I’ve decided I hate it, but hopefully I hate it less than I hate Blogger. We’ll see. I’ve also changed the URL to this blog from http://nelhage.com/blog to http://blog.nelhage.com, which I like better as URL anyways. It should redirect to the toplevel of the new ..

I finally got fed up with Blogger, and am moving this blog to live on Wordpress hosted off of scripts.mit.edu. In the process of converting everything over and setting up Wordpress I’ve decided I hate it, but hopefully I hate it less than I hate Blogger. We’ll see. I’ve also changed the URL to this blog from http://nelhage.com/blog to http://blog.nelhage.com, which I like better as URL anyways. It should redirect to the toplevel of the new ..

I am changing employers. As of October 1st, I will no longer be lead software architect at BBS Nordic. Instead, I will be the chief scientist at the Norwegian division of Steria. This weekend, I was invited to join my new employer at their gathering at a resort in the south of Norway. I’ve had a chance to speak with a lot of my new colleagues, and I was overwhelmed by the number of skilled, thoughtful and friendly people.

Sometimes I am accused of suffering from the “Not Invented Here Syndrome”. It has been suggested I would rather program something myself than take an already existing e.g. open source solution to the problem and integrate it with the product being developed. I mean that’s clearly a blanket statement. The right solution differs from project to project. (But, for sure, when making such a decision, one must not forget about the cost of integ..

I’ve learned the value of dealing seriously with connecting requirements to the actual code. The JBehave project started work to make formal, “business friendly” requirements into executable specifications, but due to limitations in Java, it was very clunky to use. JBehave 2.0 has just been released, and it has a much better model. Here’s a specification: Story: Play Tabs As a music fan I would like to convert guitar tabs to music So that I..

I’ve looked over some of my code lately, and found ways that I often improve my tests. I’m planning on writing a blog post for each of my five favorites. First out: Using the data storage. I upgraded our API for billing customers. I had a few compilation errors in my code, as the API had changed somewhat. After fixing these errors, I was left with a test that broke mysteriously with a MethodNotFoundException.

Rollapaluza Best - rob.sh - 18 years ago - eng
As mentioned previously, my new Rollapaluza best time. Not really posted for that reason, but mainly due to test out the new IXUS 960IS I have been given!

Rollapaluza Best - rob.sh - 18 years ago - eng
As mentioned previously, my new Rollapaluza best time. Not really posted for that reason, but mainly due to test out the new IXUS 960IS I have been given!

If you’re interested in leading edge database research (as of 2008 :), the VLDB 2008 proceedings are publicly available now. Here are direct links to some Oracle-specific ones: Oracle SecureFiles System Optimizer Plan Change Management: Improved Stability and Performance in Oracle 11g Closing The Query Processing Loop in Oracle 11g (this one is about adaptive cursor sharing) Enjoy! :)

If you’re interested in leading edge database research (as of 2008 :), the VLDB 2008 proceedings are publicly available now. Here are direct links to some Oracle-specific ones: Oracle SecureFiles System Optimizer Plan Change Management: Improved Stability and Performance in Oracle 11g Closing The Query Processing Loop in Oracle 11g (this one is about adaptive cursor sharing) Enjoy! :)

Forget the benchmarks, forget whether its truly faster or slower, forget whether the market share is 30% for non-IE browsers (though is this only for US or internationally). Google Chrome evolution or revolution, whatever you want to call it, it makes me actually want to stay in the browser. I just want plugins, that function as well as the browser alone does. Yeah theres rendering problems, and some oddities, but the browser as a whole is ....

Forget the benchmarks, forget whether its truly faster or slower, forget whether the market share is 30% for non-IE browsers (though is this only for US or internationally). Google Chrome evolution or revolution, whatever you want to call it, it makes me actually want to stay in the browser. I just want plugins, that function as well as the browser alone does. Yeah theres rendering problems, and some oddities, but the browser as a whole is ....

_I have written two posts in one, about a performance issue with writes in system tablespace and introduction of a little DTrace stack sampling script. _ Have you noticed that DML on tables residing in SYSTEM tablespace is slower than tables in other tablespaces? Here’s an example, I’ll create two similar tables, one in USERS tablespace, other in SYSTEM, and inset into the first one (Oracle 10.2.0.3 on Solaris x64): SQL> create table....

_I have written two posts in one, about a performance issue with writes in system tablespace and introduction of a little DTrace stack sampling script. _ Have you noticed that DML on tables residing in SYSTEM tablespace is slower than tables in other tablespaces? Here’s an example, I’ll create two similar tables, one in USERS tablespace, other in SYSTEM, and inset into the first one (Oracle 10.2.0.3 on Solaris x64): SQL> create table....

As I currently work at a startup I have a small stake in the company. When talking with one friend of something I have been working with someone with on the side, the question came up over if this was a conflict of interest. I was actually quite shocked to hear the question at first, not only did I expect them to do likewise, as I know many that do. The full on conflict of interest statement just shocked me. Being at a startup it does make ....

As I currently work at a startup I have a small stake in the company. When talking with one friend of something I have been working with someone with on the side, the question came up over if this was a conflict of interest. I was actually quite shocked to hear the question at first, not only did I expect them to do likewise, as I know many that do. The full on conflict of interest statement just shocked me. Being at a startup it does make ....

In recent past I’ve blogged few scripts which use specially crafted ordered nested loop for sampling contents of V$ and X$ views fast, with plain SQL. If you haven’t read them yet, here are the links: WaitProf LatchProf LatchProfX I wrote the above scripts having special purposes in mind (e.g. profile session waits or latching activity). Now I introduce a simple but powerful sqlplus script for ad-hoc sampling of any V$ view. I..

In recent past I’ve blogged few scripts which use specially crafted ordered nested loop for sampling contents of V$ and X$ views fast, with plain SQL. If you haven’t read them yet, here are the links: WaitProf LatchProf LatchProfX I wrote the above scripts having special purposes in mind (e.g. profile session waits or latching activity). Now I introduce a simple but powerful sqlplus script for ad-hoc sampling of any V$ view. I..

"Wow"-talks - jhannes.github.io - 18 years ago - eng
I just watched another amazing talk from the TED conference. Spencer Wells is a natural public speaker. He talks about where we all, as a species, came from. Amazingly enough, everyone who is alive today share a common ancestor in Africa no more than about 2000 generations, or 60,000 years ago. Wells describes the fascinating questions and their answers, as we know them today. The TED conference is full of remarkable talks.

A week or so ago, I spent a very enjoyable day watching some great bike polo - again with my camera. Enjoy the photos! . I also managed to knock my Rollapaluza quick-rollers PB down to 22.16s :-D

A week or so ago, I spent a very enjoyable day watching some great bike polo - again with my camera. Enjoy the photos! . I also managed to knock my Rollapaluza quick-rollers PB down to 22.16s :-D

Looking back at my projects for the last two years, we’ve had a tremendous improvement in the way we’re working. There are many things that we have done to make it better, and I’m be hard pressed to pick just three things I’ve learned. After much consideration, my favorites are: Partial production; Whole team; Requirements = Tests. Partial production: Using real production data for production in various scenarios has been extremely helpful.

I’ve been using wpa_supplicant to manage wifi on my Ubuntu laptop for a while, and have found that it’s pretty close to what I want for managing wireless — closer than anything else I’ve found, at least. I figured I should document my setup and experiences. Some Background You probably all know just how much wireless on Linux can be a pain to get working right. Getting drivers and so forth working is usually fine these days, especially if y..

I’ve been using wpa_supplicant to manage wifi on my Ubuntu laptop for a while, and have found that it’s pretty close to what I want for managing wireless — closer than anything else I’ve found, at least. I figured I should document my setup and experiences. Some Background You probably all know just how much wireless on Linux can be a pain to get working right. Getting drivers and so forth working is usually fine these days, especially if y..

When the building blocks of your program fail and you don’t notice, the problem can be very hard to diagnose. In most of my projects, the building blocks are the persistent objects. Using Hibernate makes it easy to create a data access layer, but if you don’t watch out, errors can sneak into equals or hashCode, bidirectional relationships or properties that for some reason don’t get persisted correctly. Or the code you use to search for you..

Many people criticize Wal-Mart for the way they run their business. I personally find no problems with it, as their goal is simply to make prices competitive. If you care about the other details then either A. shop else where or B. donate to those causes you feel should be supported with the money you save. While sure some of these qualms may be justified I’d like to hint at another thought, of why people don’t take advantage of the same ap....

Many people criticize Wal-Mart for the way they run their business. I personally find no problems with it, as their goal is simply to make prices competitive. If you care about the other details then either A. shop else where or B. donate to those causes you feel should be supported with the money you save. While sure some of these qualms may be justified I’d like to hint at another thought, of why people don’t take advantage of the same ap....

I got a question regarding Metalink note 296235.1 about a describe bug which causes objects to “disappear” when they are described when database is not open. It was an interesting case involving a bug, so I wrote a quite long analysis with test cases today. However when posting the entry to wordpress, it managed to completely mess up the formatting. After wasting half an hour trying to get the formatting correct I gave up and saved the ar..

I got a question regarding Metalink note 296235.1 about a describe bug which causes objects to “disappear” when they are described when database is not open. It was an interesting case involving a bug, so I wrote a quite long analysis with test cases today. However when posting the entry to wordpress, it managed to completely mess up the formatting. After wasting half an hour trying to get the formatting correct I gave up and saved the ar..

Live video streaming from your phone might just seem like another form of lifecasting, a video form of twitter, or even a mobile version of ustream.com or justin.tv, but it really is far more than that. A few people have taken these mobile streaming services such as Qik, Flixwagon, and Kyte and really used them to their fullest capacity. Sure you can go to an extreme like Robert Scoble, but admittedly most of his content from Qik can be pre....

Live video streaming from your phone might just seem like another form of lifecasting, a video form of twitter, or even a mobile version of ustream.com or justin.tv, but it really is far more than that. A few people have taken these mobile streaming services such as Qik, Flixwagon, and Kyte and really used them to their fullest capacity. Sure you can go to an extreme like Robert Scoble, but admittedly most of his content from Qik can be pre....

I just replied to an Oracle Forum Thread about why does even a small difference in SQL statement text cause it to be hard parsed and loaded as a different cursor. The reason is actually very simple – and I’m posting it into my blog too: —   The reason why a statement with even a minor difference in text is parsed as a separate cursor is due how Oracle looks up statements from library cache.

I just replied to an Oracle Forum Thread about why does even a small difference in SQL statement text cause it to be hard parsed and loaded as a different cursor. The reason is actually very simple – and I’m posting it into my blog too: —   The reason why a statement with even a minor difference in text is parsed as a separate cursor is due how Oracle looks up statements from library cache.

I wrote a little script pvalid.sql for listing valid values for multioption parameters (the ones which are not string, number or boolean type, but accept a parameter from predetermined list, like optimizer_mode which can have values of ALL_ROWS, FIRST_ROWS, CHOOSE, FIRST_ROWS_1, etc). The script accepts a (part of) Oracle parameter name as first argument, for example the following output is from Oracle 10.2.0.3 database: SQL> @pvalid ....

I wrote a little script pvalid.sql for listing valid values for multioption parameters (the ones which are not string, number or boolean type, but accept a parameter from predetermined list, like optimizer_mode which can have values of ALL_ROWS, FIRST_ROWS, CHOOSE, FIRST_ROWS_1, etc). The script accepts a (part of) Oracle parameter name as first argument, for example the following output is from Oracle 10.2.0.3 database: SQL> @pvalid ....

So traditionally I’ve been a very do it yourself person. I wanted to be the person that didn’t have to rely on anyone, and thus far it’s worked pretty well. I can handle my day to day chores, as well as do my job, and most any side project of venture I take on I feel like I can accomplish pretty well. However, I recently asked my question if that was the best approach. While it’s good to be self reliant, the people at the top seldom do ever....

So traditionally I’ve been a very do it yourself person. I wanted to be the person that didn’t have to rely on anyone, and thus far it’s worked pretty well. I can handle my day to day chores, as well as do my job, and most any side project of venture I take on I feel like I can accomplish pretty well. However, I recently asked my question if that was the best approach. While it’s good to be self reliant, the people at the top seldom do ever....

Rollapaluza XI - rob.sh - 18 years ago - eng
More cycling event photos - a bunch of images from the Rollapaluza XI race last night at the Kingpin Suite in Bloomsbury. Lycra skinsuits meets cycling campaigns meets drunken cyclists. Beer, rollers and endorphins - what more do you need? (Click the image for the full gallery ).

Rollapaluza XI - rob.sh - 18 years ago - eng
More cycling event photos - a bunch of images from the Rollapaluza XI race last night at the Kingpin Suite in Bloomsbury. Lycra skinsuits meets cycling campaigns meets drunken cyclists. Beer, rollers and endorphins - what more do you need? (Click the image for the full gallery ).

Fotoviewr - www.craigkerstiens.com - 18 years ago - eng
In the coming weeks I’m going to be working with a friend to help his venture in a new partnership that someone has approached him about. This partnership is rather large and I’m not at liberty to disclose details yet, and while this is indeed great news for the site, the great news for users is the site is already fully available. In short fotoviewr is one half of an online photo album, it doesn’t store your photos for you, but allows yo....

Fotoviewr - www.craigkerstiens.com - 18 years ago - eng
In the coming weeks I’m going to be working with a friend to help his venture in a new partnership that someone has approached him about. This partnership is rather large and I’m not at liberty to disclose details yet, and while this is indeed great news for the site, the great news for users is the site is already fully available. In short fotoviewr is one half of an online photo album, it doesn’t store your photos for you, but allows yo....

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