my Computer Quest: IBM

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25 August, 2014

Oracle XE, ODP.NET and Oracle 9i in the same Windows XP machine

English: The logo of Oracle Corporation de:Bild:Oracle-Logo.svg he:תמונה:Oracle Logo.jpg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Saturday night, 23-Aug-2014

For a couple of weeks now, I have been figuring out how to make Oracle 9i and Oracle XE work in the same machine. For a long time, I have been running Oracle 9i and ODP.NET, designing, developing and maintaining applications using the Oracle RDBMS. Only lately when I started working in a new company that I am having restricted access to databases that I had to resort to some local DB, even on my old XP machine. I have the disc space to begin with.

And having some access on some Oracle dB means I had to also create and maintain a local dB that is Oracle-based. In comes Oracle XE.

That is when I started experimenting with Oracle Express Edition, and with 11g as the latest, and with ODP.NET version of 10.x.x, did not think of having a compatibility issue, even then, since I was doing all these in a Windows XP-based unit.

Then I got the problem. I mean, I don’t know how it happened, but for a moment, after initially installing oracle XE, I was getting both local dB and data warehouse dB (using TNS) to work. I was very happy. And as in all installs, I did a reboot. And if in most cases, a reboot would rebuild and repair and renew settings and realign once again everything – as new – something now doesn’t work. I either would get the DW dB to be working, and Oracle XE dB to be broken, or vice-versa.

I did many things, like tweaking the Path variables, the 3 .ora files, even the TNS_ADMIN variable and value, pointing either to the Oracle 9i directory, or the Oracle XE, and like I said, I would either get one or the other, but not both. And in most cases, I get the DW dB which is using TNS, to be the one working. Doing a PING to XE would result in error, but TNSPING to XE would give a positive result. But both PING and TNSPING to 127.0.0.1 would give both a positive result.

As in previous issues and problems, I did a lot of searching. And this becomes complicated, because I have to wait until I get home then I will be able to look up ORA-12154, ORA-12514, ORA-12528, etc., etc., because internet access is also restricted! Bummer!

There were some suggestions that focused on setting up, if not already, TNS_ADMIN variable in the system variables, and assigning its value to the Oracle XE …\network\admin path, and I tried this one, adding, removing, changing, then putting it back to Oracle 9i …\network\admin path, and still, I would either get one or the other, but not both. And still the same, I would usually be having the DW dB working, but not the Oracle XE dB.

I should mention that for each trial, I am either uninstalling Oracle XE, at least, or I would uninstall all of Oracle XE, ODP.NET and Oracle 9i, in sequence. And in reinstalling, it is also in the same order: Oracle XE, then ODP.NET, and finally, Oracle 9i. I believe it is common knowledge for all who have tried it, that for ODP.NET to work with Oracle 9i, the installation should be in that sequence. This is more or less something to do with the final value of Path in the system variables, and even in the default Home selection for Oracle.

Also, after each uninstallation, I would run CCleaner to remove invalid registry items, after a reboot. And after running CCleaner, another reboot, to really be sure that I am starting clean.

After many trials and errors, I made it to work. I did a reboot, and I checked, and it is still working. Another reboot, and it is still working. I run CCleaner, to once again remove invalid registry items, then a reboot, and yes, I confirm that both data warehouse dB using TNS and Oracle XE dB are both working.

Monday morning, 25-Aug, when I came to work, I booted up my PC, tested the 2 dBs, and they are working. I did a reboot, just to be really sure that I am not dreaming, and yes, both are working.

What did I do to make it work?

I removed the TNS_ADMIN setting from the System Variables. So it is now the individual .ora files being looked up and evaluated when I do a connection to each dB. (I think).
After the installation, I did not touch the .ora files, which means that whatever value that was created by the installers, then that was it. No tweaking or whatever.
The ODP.NET …\network\admin folder does not contain any .ora file. That’s a fact. It is just the dll file anyway that is required by .NET applications. Nada mas.

The day is now closing, and I have done quite a number of reboots – I am just very, very curious if the working condition will be sustained throughout the day. And yes, even as the day is already closing, I still get both data warehouse dB using TNS, and the local dB, using Oracle XE. I guess some times, you just keep your hands off things, and they will work on their own. They don’t need our help.

Sometimes.

Till then!

29 February, 2012

Can tablets give you a pain in the neck?

Read this. Are you getting it (the neck pain, I mean...)? I get 'inflamed' eyes right after playing with race car on my android phone, so I don't do this frequently, just once in a while...
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Posted: 26 January 2012

PARIS: Users of tablet computers should place their device on the table and tilt its screen, rather than have it flat on their lap, to avoid potentially painful hunching of the neck, a study suggested on Wednesday.

"Tablet users may be at high risk to develop neck discomfort based on current behaviours and tablet designs," it warned.

A team led by environmental health researcher Jack Dennerlein of the Harvard School of Public Health asked seven men and eight women who were experienced tablet users to carry out tasks on an iPad2 and a Motorola Xoom.

Using a motion-analysis system, the team filmed the 15 volunteers as they worked on the tablet in four common configurations.

In the first position the tablet was not placed in its proprietary case but held on the lap in one hand while the other was used to touch the screen.

Tennis Serve Instructional Video

In the second the tablet was placed on the lap, but stayed in its case. The user worked with both hands on the screen.

In the third, the tablet was set up in its case on a table, with its screen set at a lower angle, and the user worked with both hands.

The last configuration, dubbed "table-movie," entailed placing the tablet on the table in its case, tilted at a higher angle. The user did not work on the screen and instead watched movies or other programming on it.

The experiments showed the angle of the head and neck varied hugely across the four configurations and between the iPad and the Xoom.

Compared with the Xoom, the angles were more acute in the iPad, which the researchers attributed to the different case designs.

The study found that tablet users generally had more acute angles of head and neck flexion than with desktop or notebook computers.

Only when the two tablets were in the "table-movie" configuration - when the screen's angle was at its steepest - did the user's posture approach a neutral position.

"This suggests that tablet users could place the tablet higher, on a table rather than a lap, to avoid low gaze angles, and use a case that provides steeper view angles," the scientists said.

A 2009 study found that the "gaze angle" for looking at computers should be roughly 45 degrees or more to avoid straining the neck's extensor muscles.

The gaze angle is calculated as the downward direction of the eyes in relation to the horizontal.

The paper, published in the accident-prevention journal Work, did not assess the impact of tablet use over a long period, nor did it address the positions of the arms, wrists and hands, an issue it said needed further research.

But it noted that tens of millions of tablet computers have already entered circulation and there remained no posture guidelines for using them safely.

The history of ergonomic science is littered with designs, from car seats to office desks and phones, that can cause discomfort or even pain if the user uses the wrong posture over time.

- AFP/de

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Can tablets give you a pain in the neck?

16 January, 2012

Root-ing my Samsung Galary R

Image via Wikipedia

iPhone 4's Retina Display v.s. iPhone 3G

Image by Yutaka Tsutano via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image by benmarvin via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase16-Jan-2012

I did it last week.

I mean, I've not been doing anything with the iPhone 4 when my wife got hers, since I'm not really enamored with the iPhone, even when it was only 3, then 3S. And when my wife got hers, it was already 4, and I was simply ignoring that small device which has captivated millions (is my estimate correct?) all over the world. And it still does, but I will never be in the statistics.

You see, when I got my Samsung Galary R over a month ago, I felt it was a very good deal, unit price promo-ed at only $11 at the least plan that will have data access, not to mention that the SGR was already a dual-core device, albeit a toned-down version of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Anyway, I was immediately introduced to the already huge world of android freebies, primarily through the Android Market, and then to the all-free spree being done in all of the major android sites - always. And this is something that I enjoyed on what the web has to offer - freebies!

Anyway, I also immediately found that many of the stronger apps out there (and yet still free) are requiring the device to be 'rooted' - a limitless, all-access, superuser account category - that would be able to control the device from the very core.

Then I found that to root a device, it will void the warranty, and that the process of rooting, if done wrongly, may render the device unusable, 'bricked' so they say, ending up simply as a beautifully-formed glass and metal (and plastic) artwork.

Furthermore, it is a cat-and-mouse chase: while you may succeed rooting your device, phone manufacturers will eventually release a firmware update, which will unroot your device and clear any superuser accounts, and reinstate the device to its unrooted state. So hackers (developers to be precise) who are not content with that will again try to develop rooting methods and programs that will again be able to 'root' the device even with the latest firmware. Then manufacturers will release a firware update... it just never ends!

So I had my hesitation... take note, I had...

But the best of me yielded to the 'risk-taking', and on the 12th of January, I did my first rooting business - and I succeeded.

What made it all too easy is that I found several articles that offered help by laying down the process step-by-step, so I was fully familiar with that I should be doing, but finally, I found that I only have to click a button, and wait, and watch, and it's done. Is it too good to be true?

Well, it was. I used SuperOneClick. With all the hesitation in my mind, my finger steely clicked the mouse button, and I waited, and I watched, and it was a success! SU was created, and I had superuser access to the rooted device! That finally gave me the privilege to install those free apps that will help me take control of my small device from the very core.

So that's it. My small, yet very fruitful, new adventure: rooting my android device. And I showed my phone to my wife, and she wanted an exchange...

See, not everyone who gets the iPhone are really iPhone fanatics. My wife is one who would prefer the 'better' deal. She thinks the iPhone is outdated. I think all the more that it is outdated. It is like the IBM story, closed, proprietary, unaccommodating. Then PC came. Android has come, but devices will still be rooted. The limits and boundaries may be set and defined, but there are many who just can't be boxed and enclosed.

Android is freedom, and the exercise of freedom makes android users freer.

Till then!

27 October, 2011

Lotus Notes 6.5 is now working!

27-October-2011

I finally managed to get Lotus Notes 6.5 work on the GX520 – and on the Probook 4430s laptop!

The reason was actually very simple, and so uncomplicated, that it is almost shameful to be told.

Anyway, after so many days and weeks of trying and trying, searching and searching, tweaking, installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, and I was losing my patience, particularly today, and was at the point of giving up on this thing, I prayed for strength to go on, and patience to keep me cool, but most importantly, wisdom to at least know and understand what I am doing.

To begin with, I checked how the working PC is faring.

I opened the Visual Studio IDE on both computers to see what variables are getting populated, and with what values.

I did a simultaneous run on both PCs, inserting breakpoints at the same line of code, comparing side-by-side when codes are being executed.

Then I found the differences:

The Lotus Notes document cannot be opened.

Why?

The Lotus Notes Database cannot be created.

Why?

The password is wrong.

Also, the server is wrong.

So why was I using the .ini file with all the wrong details inside?

These are all defined in the .ini file which I copied from the GX520 PC, which is not used as a primary mini-server machine, but it was a development machine, and while the codes would be verified before deployed, that was before the server and account was changed. And with a code that isn’t very dynamic, there wasn’t any need to update the files now and then. That’s the bug that bit me.

I stepped through the code backwards, and here are the errors as encountered:

“Object reference…” when the document cannot be opened.

When I tried to define a new Notes DB object by the ‘new’ directive, I got “80040154”.

When I searched about this error code, I found something like registering nlsxbe.dll, which I did, but the same error code/cause was thrown: 80040154.

Somewhere, maybe in quiet desperation, coupled with a slower movement on the code check, I managed to step through the line that initializes the Notes Session, which calls the login function, which was requiring the user, password, and of course, the server name.

I saw it from there, like a snake waiting to bite me if I ever stick my head in…

So a simple problem what needed a long time to get fixed, but it is all done now.

Lotus Notes object is not a problem anymore in my desktops and in my laptop (GX280, GX520 and Probook 4430s).

This may not be the case for still many others who are struggling with Lotus Notes 6.5 out there, but that number is one less now…

Till then!

09 September, 2011

Windows 7 and Lotus Domino 6.5

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack (3-User)

I am very eager to migrate all of my codes to Windows 7 - I cannot list down all of the advantages, but to name a few, here goes:

Speed - I am using Dell GX280 and GX520, and I found that GX280 running Windows 7 compared to GX520 running XP, the speed is substantially noticeable. Just for the record, here are the basic specs:

GX280
Pentium 4
2.79GHz
2GB RAM

GX520
Pentium 4
3.00GHz
2.5GB

Not to mention other peripheral chips and devices, the GX520 should be the better machine - but not with Windows 7. One big factor is the additional RAM by employing Readyboost in Windows 7. I plugged in a 4GB USB drive, and by all sticks and yards, GX280 runs faster than GX520.

That is true even when opening and editing in Visual Studio 2005 and 2010.

Now, what is the point I am driving home now? I had one PC try out Windows 7, and part of the test is to find out if all my codes will work, knowing that Windows 7 is the better way to go.

I built and installed those programs that were using Oracle client (inline SQL, stored procedures, etc), and they worked fine. There is another that saves to Excel file, and this, too, worked fine.

Then came those batches that uses Lotus Notes, Domino 6.5. Well, I was able to install Lotus Notes client. And what I usually do is, I copy the whole folder of \\notes\ from a different PC that is working, and dump it into the new installation, and immediately, things are like old times. Followed by this, I was able to build and install the whole batch of programs that reads from Notes.

IBM Lotus Domino: Classic Web Application Development Techniques

But when I ran them... disaster ensued! "Error opening blah, blah, blah... object not instantiated..."

But I was able to resolve this within the day. My luck? I would call it my perseverance to make use of Windows 7, and my perseverance to make things work - if needed.

Since things can be done faster even with a dying PC (I'd call it that, the GX280) which is given the new heart of Windows 7, I do several rounds of uninstalling Lotus Notes client, reinstalling it, then building and installing 1 program at a time.

What I found is that I am able to build 1, or all, at the same time, but when I try to build 1, then install, then next build already fails. the object file domobj.tlb can no longer be referenced by Visual Studio. But as said, if you build all first, there is no problem.

So finally, that is what I did: uninstall then reinstall Lotus Notes 6.5, then build all of my programs, then do the installation after. Now, did the programs run without a problem?

No! You see, some thing could be writing to the registry, and it 'removes' or 'deletes' the entry for Domino 6.5. So after installing the programs, what I did was do a Repair-Installation of Lotus Notes 6.5, and that fixed the problem.

That may not be a convenient fix, but it works. I actually sent this issue to Notes support team, and 4 days since, I'm not getting a reply from them. Are they interested with my case? I'm sure I am not the only one. So is Notes team entertaining everyone's question? Maybe not. We'll find out sooner or later.

But for me, I have a fix, and I will stick to it, whether or not I get an answer from them.

Till then!

28 June, 2009

Who moved my 'Delete' key? Lenovo did. Here's why...

06/26/2009 04:21 PM

Lenovo put nearly a year of research into two design changes that debuted on an updated ThinkPad laptop this week. No, not the thinner, lighter form or the textured touchpad — rather, the extra-large "Delete" and "Escape" keys.

It may seem like a small change, but David Hill, vice president of corporate identity and design at Lenovo, points out, "Any time you start messing around with the keyboard, people get nervous."

Computers get smaller and faster every year, but keyboard design remains largely stuck in the 19th century. When Beijing-based Lenovo, which bought IBM Corp.'s personal-computer business in 2005, looked into improving the keyboard on the new ThinkPad T400s, a $1,600-and-up laptop for businesspeople, it knew it had to proceed with caution.

To understand Lenovo's concern, turn the clock back to the 1800s.

Back then, fast typing would jam typewriters, so a keyboard layout that slowed down flying fingers was devised. The commonly used "A'' key, for example, was banished to the spot under the relatively uncoordinated left pinky.

Typewriter technology evolved. Mainframe computing led to function keys and others of uncertain use today. The PC era dawned. Yet many laws of keyboard layout remain sacred, like the 19-millimeter distance between the centers of the letter keys.

Tom Hardy, who designed the original IBM PC of 1981, said companies have tried many times to change the sizes of keys. That first PC had a smaller "Shift" key than IBM's popular Selectric typewriter did, and it was placed in a different spot, in part because the industry didn't think computers would replace typewriters for high-volume typing tasks.

IBM reversed course with the next version to quiet the outcry from skilled touch-typists.

"Customers have responded with a resounding, 'Don't fool with the key unless you can improve it,'" said Hardy, now a design strategist based in Atlanta.

PC makers relearned this lesson in the past year, as netbooks – tiny, cheap laptops – have become popular with budget-conscious consumers. Early models boasted screens measuring as little as 7 inches on the diagonal, requiring shrunken keyboards that many people found to be too small. Some even repeated IBM's mistake by cutting the size of the "Shift" key.

The computer makers have largely shifted focus to 10-inch (25-centimeter) or larger netbooks, so that there'd be room for near-standard keyboards or better.

Push-back from consumers hasn't stopped companies from testing and even manufacturing keyboards with unconventional designs over the years, in some cases demonstrating that people could learn to type faster than on standard QWERTY keyboards, so-called because of the arrangement of the top row of letters. During Hardy's time at IBM, researchers came up with ball-shaped one-handed keyboards that he said were faster than standard ones.

"A lot of those things never passed the business planners and the bean counters because they were concerned about manufacturing something that was just basically an experiment," Hardy said.

Ones that did get made have remained niche.

Paul Bradley, an executive creative director at the global design group Frog Design, said makers of ergonomic keyboards that also improved typing speed were counting on concern over carpal tunnel syndrome during the dot-com boom of the 1990s to drive demand, but the market never materialized.

If ever there were a time to make radical changes to the keyboard, now might be it. As evidence, Bradley noted the high tolerance many younger people show for tapping out cell-phone messages on tiny keypads using only their thumbs.

Lenovo is on a more conservative course. In designing the new ThinkPad, it installed keystroke-tracking software on about 30 employees' computers (They volunteered). On average, they used the "Escape" and "Delete" keys 700 times per week, yet those were the only "outboard" keys, or non-letter keys, that hadn't been enlarged.

Lenovo made those two keys about twice as long in the vertical direction to fit the way people reach up, rather than to the side, and then deliberately whack those keys, said Hill, the Lenovo executive who was at IBM for nearly 20 years before the 2005 sale to Lenovo. The new design cuts down on accidental taps of the "End" and "Insert" keys, too.

The new keyboard isn't perfect. Hill called "Caps Lock" a frustrating hangover from typewriter days, a key that can introduce garble, emulate shouting, or foil password entries without the user noticing.

"I think maybe sometime in the future, we should maybe entertain removing it," he said. "It's one of those things you kind of have to approach with caution. There might be some people out there who just really like their 'Caps Lock' key for whatever reason." - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

my Computer Quest

25 August, 2014

Oracle XE, ODP.NET and Oracle 9i in the same Windows XP machine