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I thought when i started my own company again I would have had time to spedn updating my website and posting to my blog at least under the guise of marketing; so far no such luck. I am very busy....[Read More]
Posted by Pete On 25/11/07 At 07:49 PM
I first downloaded this add-in to report on OWB from SQL Developer some while back and then forgot to blog about it.
Wednesday saw me in Nuremburg, Germany, attending Europe's second largest Oracle user group. As well as some customer meetings it was another chance to roll out our Forms and SOA message to a community, that I know, are big Forms users. It looked like about 80 people made the presentation and I've responded to requests by posting the PPT here. One interesting question came up which I think it is worth repeating here..[...] Read more!
As some others already blogged... APEX 3.1 beta is public now.
An ironic update to yesterdays story about the loss of sensitive data in the UK. My wife who is in the middle of changing her employment status had enquired of HMRC about assistance that they might give to sole traders and small businesses. We got a letter today with some incorrect assertions about her tax status from a lady at our local office. The email address listed was a .gsi.gov.uk address or government secure intranet
From the 2004 press release about the then latest gsi investment
The £40 million new Government Secure Intranet (GSi) has gone live, linking over 140 local and central government departments with over 280,000 users. There are over a million potential users, if & when the GSi is linked to the Criminal Justice Network, the NHS Network and the MOD. It'll be a fundamental backbone for e-Government in the UK for the next few years.
The new GSi, provided by Energis, will enable all central and local Government departments and public sector organisations to communicate quickly, easily and securely.
Hugh Barrett, chief executive, OGCbuying.solutions, said: "The new Energis GSi represents a step change in technology, with the capacity to transform the way government communicates. The new contract, which is available to central civil government and the wider public sector, as well as government suppliers, has the potential to finally deliver joined-up government in a way not previously possible."
So HMRC already have access to a secure internal intergovernmental network, and indeed are advertising it as the method to contact them. They chose however to transmit the sensitive data by CD and Courier.
I just got around to upgrading my main mac to OS X 10.5; but rather strangely I found that my user account when missing after the first attempt a logging in. Took me a while to fix the problem; but in the end tracked it down to this little treat. Looks like if you have just upgraded since the original version of OS X there is a sting in the tail if you had a nice long secure password. Oh well fixed now.
| Version | Description | # Requests | Average | Median | Standard Deviation | Throughput |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | oci_connect DEDICATED server |
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Not tested |
| 2 | oci_pconnect DEDICATED server | 1200 | 84 | 63 | 116 | 4077 |
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3 |
oci_connect SHARED server |
1200 |
280 |
264 |
150 |
1290 |
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4 |
oci_pconnect SHARED server | 1200 | 82 |
78 |
93 |
3965 |
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5 |
oci_connect with DRCP | 1200 | 104 | 94 | 45 | 3265 |
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6 |
oci_pconnect with DRCP | 1200 | 78 | 78 | 23 | 4396 |
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To say i was shocked is an understatement. I was completely gob-smacked that a UK government agency can spend (presumably) millions of our IT pounds storing and using our personal data and then proceed to take it out of its....[Read More]
Posted by Pete On 21/11/07 At 03:40 PM
As everyone living in the UK should be aware there has been a serious error in data protection involving the UK Tax Authority , the auditor of UK Central Government as well as a private courier firm. In summary
It seems highly likely to me that the "Junior Official" involved was a DBA, though perhaps a systems administrator was involved.
There has been, and no doubt will continue to be, a significant discussion around the appropriate procedures and technologies in use. Oracle might for example cite their Secure Backup product. The relevant junior minister last night spoke on National radio and played down concerns about our proposed national ID Card on the grounds that it was newer technology and so would not suffer the same problem.
For me though the technology is really rather irrelevant - security here is a people issue. There appear to have been a number of people failings
It doesn't encourage me that the minister apparently believes both that people won't make mistakes with ID data or that it is OK to go on record as saying that the Child Benefit data is stored on an outdated and inherently insecure system. The first is certainly untrue and one would hope that the second was equally untrue.
So, after the buzz of Oracle World in San Francisco its Germany for the German Oracle User Group (DOAG). I'm presenting Oracle's Forms and SOA strategy and expecting to meet a few Oracle Forms customers but I met one Forms customer earlier than I thought. On checking into the hotel I did a quick check over the desk to see the application the hotel is using and low and behold, it was Oracle Forms! Its amazing where you see Oracle Forms popping up!..
I was just catching up on some stuff and read Jonathan's blog posting on the UKOUG. Sure enough - UKOUG is right around the corner. I have two technical sessions and a keynote there before I leave for some other internal events in Europe. I like the UKOUG - have been to the last few (this will be my fifth time there). The event is well organized and the wealth of material available is huge. I highly recommend this if you are in the area.
As for other events... I've finally gotten around to using a new feature of asktom the developers put in for me earlier this year. There is a "where is tom?" bit now on the home page. I'll be using this to display public events I'm speaking at/attending over time. The calendar widget goes out for a year into the future, and the list on the home page shows the next 10 events. I'll be using this in the future to advertise seminars, user groups, and other Oracle related events.
I do have three events in Europe I'd like to point out - at the end of January, I'll be in Madrid, Spain. At the end of February I'll be in London, UK (check back on that one, the date seems to be in question - I'm not sure if it'll be the 25/26th or 27/28th). Lastly, in early May - I'll be in Berlin, Germany. I have been meaning to generate some new content for a while and will be using these seminars as an excuse to finally sit down and do it. As usual - the content will cover things up to the current release - but as much as possible - cover ever