Saturday, October 18, 2014
Bill Murray on storytelling
Friday, October 17, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Can't get no Rest An Oracle RESTful Service Consumed by Excel
In this case I installed the Oracle Client for the 11i database that I was using
I configured the TNS Names entry for connection to the database on a remote server
I configured a ODBC source which gave a successful test of connectivity
After all of this excel gave me an error when I tried and connected to this data source
There are a few steps to making this happen
First you need a report page with some data so, I loaded the demo app into APEX
I set the page (2- Customers) in this case that had the report public so that no sign in would be required
You need to go into the administrator role and allow rest services
After all of this sets up the next step which is to allow the report region to be published. I will shift over to page 4 - Orders to show what happens when you get things out of order.
This will allow the page 4 to be set to public, given a region id and set to Restful publishing
Summary
We have published (provided) a rest service in Oracle APEX 4.1 and consumed from a browser and excel. A pretty good days work!
Many thanks to
http://oracleapexideas.blogspot.com/2011/12/restful-access-of-report-in-oracle-apex.html
for describing the url setup
You cam also check out the official APEX documentation below:
- Log in to Oracle Application Express Administration Services. See "Logging In To Oracle Application Express Administration Services".
- Click Manage Instance.
- Under Instance Settings, click Security.
- Locate the RESTful Access section.
- From Allow RESTful Access, select one of the following:
- Yes - Enables developers to expose report regions as RESTful services.
- No - Prevents developers from exposing report regions as RESTful services.
- Click Apply Changes.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
TimeTracking
i was doing some reading, browsing and all around research today a found an article on the ProjectLocker site. This is a great place for people like me that have periodic needs to do something with Subversion or maintain a wiki for a project which the trac tool is great for.
See the page at: http://projectlocker.com/integrations/time-trackexcerpters/ This article identifies 3 trackers. Here is an excerpt
ProjectLocker seamlessly integrates with your time tracker
After looking at each of these solutions, I settled on toggl. The primary reason is that there is afree versio that I can try and there is integration with Freshbooks which is a plus
There is an android app and a Chrome Browser App
I have always known that better use of time begins with taking stock of what you are spending time on. I plan to use toggl to establish a baseline of where all that time goes and maybe do a bit of fine tuning
Friday, September 19, 2014
Microsoft Excel embedded
I am working with the excel embed feature from onedrive
Monday, July 12, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Take Me out to the Ballgame
I went to a Colorado Rockies game last night. A warm spring evening in Coors stadium is a great way to celebrate the coming of Summer in the Rockies.
Some time between the first pitch and the expected Home Run by number 99 Manny Ramirez that sealed the game for the Dodgers, I noticed that there was a lot going on outside of the game. I remember going to a game in Toronto several years ago where it was noted that the first digital cell phone (PCS as it was called at the time) call was made. It seemed to usher in a new world where you could talk to anyone when you wanted to.
There were a few people making miscellaneous calls from the seats around us in the left field bleachers, but most of the activities were taking place with people supplementing conversations with periodic texting. It takes some getting used to, but clearly people outside of the game experience were either involved remotely or other topics were being worked out over the text message network from the stands.
As more of the stadiums’ namesake was consumed, the fans grew louder and more emotional. Although not enough to change the outcome of the came, participation came in a lot of shapes and sizes. There was some relationship building taking place before our eyes as well as perhaps some minor embarrassing moments that would be pointed out later since they were captured on the ever present camera’s that accompany most all of the texting devices in use around us.
As my son and I left the stadium and headed for the light rail, the area around the stadium transitioned from those leaving town to those arriving. With late night act ivies being nudged into place via some very quick thumbs, people were connecting with communities in person, close by, and perhaps sometimes in other states, or even countries.
While the sporting event was fun, for many it was only a stop along a more connected lifestyle that tries to balance being there and connecting with those who are not
Friday, May 28, 2010
Rules Easy - Not Breaking Hard
I notice my weight today is inching up. I will spare you the details but the number is not good. I did exercise on the elliptical this morning and several other times in the last week. I continue to set new peak numbers and then move them back a bit. I saw the news item on a blog post that the worlds greatest loser had lost over 50% of his body weight on the show. Pretty simple rules. Exercise more and eat less. Funny that so many of us have problems executing these simple rules
You know A lot of projects are like this. I have seen projects with simple rules and sometimes not so simple rules. Most of the time, the projects with simple rules assume some type of adult behavior and reasonable judgment. There is less to remember and by removing the ambiguity of rules that try and take in both the normal cases and the strange and unusual cases, there is more likelihood that the rules will be applied as intended. Judgment may come into play, but once you actually talk to someone about what they were thinking, the number of times when you just can not support their judgment goes down dramatically,
Coaching people around what the shared objectives are and putting in place some simple rules that allow judgment to be applied is far less work than unsuccessfully attempting to think of all of the outliers. This also allows the rules to be a more flexible and an easier to apply reference point than rules that require extensive study, written documentation and memory work to apply.
Back to my personal weight goals. Eat like I want to have a more healthy lifestyle and get some exercise. Now that I know what do do I can move from planning to execution
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Back in the Blog life again
I just started reading a book on becoming a trust agent. See the link on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Trust-Agents-Influence-Improve-Reputation/dp/0470743085/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top This book has some interesting stories and information about the changes that become possible when you post items on a web site via a blog twitter or other form of social media.
The analogy of telling a joke is used to describe how you can connect with people who are not part of the original experience through the later review of your postings. I think that my person dilemma has been that I did not want to post any content that was not “good enough” for public consumption. This book will give me confidence that it is probably unrealistic to think that I will be a particularly good blogger at first. The paradox is that to become better, I have to just get started and improve with practice.
The tools that are available have also been improving while I was thinking about blogging and have become easier to use. This post is being written with Microsoft Live Writer for example, although the straight we editors that are available are also very usable. My only disappointment to date with this tool is that it does not seem to connect easily to Drupal
Since I have begun to experiment with some Drupal content creation on http://don.drupalgardens.com/blog# this would have been a handy feature. I did a quick search and saw that I was not the only one that had identified this short coming but I do not want to take the time to jump perform any complex configuration right now. Plenty of time to improve but as this book has encourage, It is time to get started
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Venezuela's new bolívar
Venezuela’s revamped and renamed currency, the “bolívar fuerte” (strong bolivar), made its debut with the New Year, in a move designed not only to simplify transactions but also to tame high inflation. The former objective will be met, as the redenominated currency will have three fewer zeroes. The latter goal will not be achievable unless the government of President Hugo Chávez makes significant fiscal and other policy adjustments to address strengthening inflationary pressures. The chances of it doing so over the next year are poor.
The bolívar fuerte is valued at a fixed official rate of Bs2.15:US$1, versus Bs2,150:US$1 for the older currency. However, the dollar costs more than double that on the black exchange market, where the current rate is around Bs5.70:US$1.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Pumping DC power to the data center
Posted by Martin LaMonica
Thomas Edison had it right, say the founders of start-up Validus DC Systems. Direct current is the way.
Validus on Tuesday announced that it has raised $10 million from Oak Hill Venture Partners to further develop its data center power supplies that use direct current (DC) to lower power consumption. Products are expected to be released in late January next year.
By using direct current, rather than drawing electricity from outlets that supply alternating current, data center managers can reduce their energy consumption by up to 40 percent, according to the company.
There is a growing awareness of the cost and waste associated with electricity in data centers. Companies are also struggling to get enough electricity to power their gear.
With a few exceptions, nearly all data centers use the alternating current that comes off the electricity grid. Instead, most companies are using virtualization or are buying more efficient cooling units, according to a recent survey done by data center automation company Cassat.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Next-Gen Travel Sites Find Better Deals, Faster
Savvy travelers know Travelocity and Expedia don't always include the cheapest fares in their searches. But who has time to comb through every airline website looking for better deals? Four new airfare mash-up sites do the hard work for you.
Unlike the first generation of travel sites, these startups don't actually sell you the ticket once you've found your fare. Instead, they search airline and travel-booking sites to find the best deal, then hand you off to the site offering that fare when you're ready to buy.
We found that all four of the search engines we tested cover roughly the same travel websites, but the deals they found varied by as much as $100. On fare prices, Yahoo FareChase was the clear winner, delivering the lowest prices on five out of eight test routes. FareCast comes in a close second for usability, although it delivered the lowest fare in only one test case. Here's how the sites stack
The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
is an epic science fiction series written over a span of forty-nine years by Isaac Asimov. It consists of ten volumes (about one million words) that are closely linked to each other, although they can be read separately. The term ‘Foundation Series’ is often used more generally to include the Robot Series and Empire Series, which are set in the same fictional universe. Total there are fourteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and six novels written by other authors after his death. The series is highly acclaimed, winning the one-time Hugo Award for “best all-time science fiction series” in 1965.
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second_Foundation
Foundation’s Edge
Foundation and Earth
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Password flibrary.org
Download
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Missing matter caught in tangled cosmic webs
var storyURL = "http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2007-12-10-missing-matter_N.htm";
var storyTitle = "Missing matter caught in tangled cosmic webs";
By SPACE.com Staff
Cosmologists are always complaining about their inability to find the dark matter in the universe, invisible stuff that's supposedly more prevalent than regular matter. They don't even know what it is, so of course they can't see it.
Meantime, a whole bunch of normal matter is missing, too.
A new computer model at least suggests where some of that missing normal matter might be.
Regular vs. dark
Monday, December 10, 2007
The New LinkedIn Platform Shows Facebook How It's Done
The New LinkedIn Platform Shows Facebook How It's Done
By Scott Gilbertson December 10, 2007 10:16:45 AMCategories: communities
A social network showdown is coming. LinkedIn, which aims to track your business and professional connections, has rolled out a new developer platform and already the majority of the web press is comparing LinkedIn's efforts Facebook's platform. It's a fair comparison, but there's one key difference between the two — LinkedIn's platform is actually useful.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Web2.0--All about Social Networking
Location: BlogsProfitimo Articles
Posted by: profitimo
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Web2.0 is a phenomenal topic in the present arena. Infact, the topic has grown to much debatable phase as each one of us is trying to derive an inference to it, without getting the actual meaning unexplored. Everyone one of us related to Search engine Industry is trying to explore this very topic. So the exact meaning of Web2.0 is open to debate. According to Wikipedia's definition “ Web 2.0, a phrase coined by O'Reilly Media in 2004, refers to a perceived second generation of web-based services—such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies—that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.” According to Tim O’Reilly "Web2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.Web2.0 is all about linking, sharing and collaborating with people." Examples of Web2.0- Google, Amazon etc.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
five suggestions for setting up quick and dirty business processes and organizing your information
You will find that in the start-up phase of business, many of the vendors, government agencies, potential customers, media contacts and partners want the same kind of information about you and your company. So instead of digging through file folders and your "sent" email, here are five suggestions for setting up quick and dirty business processes and organizing your information for easy access:
Create a "General Company Information" cheat sheet. This can have things on it like:-Legal identity information (your business name, when you were established, when you were incorporated (if different), official contact information, tax I.D. numbers, trademark registration info)-Contact information for your key business partners like your accountant, lawyer, insurance agent and banker. Make sure to add the complete contact information of name, address, phone, fax and email.-Current supplier contact information for credit applications. If you are applying for credit the first time, often they will ask for references to ensure you have a track record of paying people on time.-Client references. Prospective customers may want to talk to some past clients to be sure you are who you say you are and will meet their needs. Just be sure to check with these references to see if it is OK to have someone contact them. As a general rule of thumb, I don't like to give out the same name more than three times, lest I waste the time of a satisfied customer.-Policy information for insurance. This can include coverage for life or liability insurance. Make sure you note what the total value of the coverage is.-Financial information about your company. This can include current revenues, projected sales, profit margins, and, for bank and credit applications, personal net worth.-Major business assets if your company requires major equipment. Write down the name and description of the equipment, year, make and model, purchase price and date of purchase.
Create email templates for common inquiries. If your marketing is in order, you will get inquiries from prospective clients that say things like "please tell me about your services." I have a very basic email template that I send out to people who inquire about my services that describes the process of coaching in a few bullet points, outlines basic services and encourages them to sign up for an introductory session. Anytime you notice that you are sending the same general emails to many people, create a quick template to save time. These can be for things like:-Company background for prospective clients-Explanation of standard billing procedures or processes-General agreements for joint venture partners-Media inquiries (see next bullet for more on this)
Whip up a "media page" if you plan on courting the press as part of your marketing strategy. I just put together a quick and dirty one myself, since my "About Me" section in the blog was a bit long-winded (it still needs editing, but one step at a time!) A Media Page (or Media Room) should have the following information to make it easy for the press to contact you and see if you are the expert they are looking for:-Brief bio that describes what you do and what qualifies you to do it. This is not the place to say things like "enjoys listening to Journey songs and doing yoga on the beach" since most media contacts really don't want to get to know you that well. Do include things that make you unique and press-worthy. It can be appropriate to include personal information like marital or parental status, if that would be relevant to your status as an expert (I chose to mention that I am married with kids, as much of my target market struggles with issues of supporting a family while starting a business)-Media appearances. This can be online and offline media appearances in print, radio and television. It helps to put the most noteworthy towards the top, since one of the best ways to be characterized as an expert is to be featured in a prominent mainstream news source. Include the name of the publication or media outlet, title of the story and date of publication. If you want to link to the story itself, that is fine, but not totally necessary when you first get up and running. Be careful when displaying video clips on your site (such as from T.V. appearances) since you can run into copyright issues if you don't get permission first.-Story angles. Help the media think up newsworthy articles by suggesting story angles based on your expertise. -Interview questions. Outline the major types of questions that are of critical interest to your target market. This can save the reporter time, and make sure that you get to reinforce key messages as part of your brand and company mission.-Contact information (again). Even though you have the contact information up front, put it at the bottom. Reporters are busy, busy people, so the easier you make it for them to contact you, the more likely they will. Final tip on that -- call the media RIGHT BACK. They are often under last-minute deadlines, and will quote whichever expert gets back to them first.(I stole much of this layout from my friend Andy Wibbels - check out his media page here.)
Start a bare-bones operations manual for common business processes. This doesn't have to look great or have a huge amount of detail. Just start by capturing the basic steps required to execute key business activities such as:-Bringing on a new client("Send welcome email" "Send agreement in the mail with pre-paid envelope" "Enter contact information into Outlook")-Starting a new project("Send billing procedures confirmation to accounting contact," "File final version of proposal in project file," "Enter project milestones into calendar.")-Purchasing a new piece of equipment("Update general business info sheet with information," "Add equipment to insurance policy," "File warranty paperwork.")-Conducting a presentation, event or workshop("Book event location," "Send confirmation notice to participants," "Book catering 6 weeks in advance.")
Create a folder of frequently accessed documents on your desktop.These can be things like your general business information sheet, head shot, one-page company background or current press release. Over time, your folder structure can get more complex, but there is no need to create many levels of folders at this point if you just have a few key documents.
10 Remedies For "I'm Starting My Own Business And I'm Paralyzed With Fear
10 Remedies For "I'm Starting My Own Business And I'm Paralyzed With Fear!"The past two weeks have been rough! I developed "Total Fear Paralysis At Going Out On My Own" and turned to the drugs I know will best numb the panic for me: McDonald's, television, and getting lost in the Wikipedia. Still, I kept thinking "Who am I kidding? My consulting will never get off the ground and fly!" That is, when I wasn't thinking about the bills coming in, especially the money I owe over the next year for my building's brick repointing project. Yikes!
Friday, November 23, 2007
the Two Achievement Gaps
The one big thing that our children most desperately need is the one thing that we have been told we must not offer them — namely a highly specific, cumulative, multi-year, core curriculum, oriented to content and planned out in advance. If we were to embrace that one forbidden thing, much else would more readily fall into place, including teacher training, school morale, student discipline, and the narrowing of the gaps.
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