• Mr. (unregistered) in reply to Skizz
    Skizz:
    Code Dependent:
    Morasique:
    I have a database with a single table, with a single row that holds the contents of the flat file. That's how real programmers do it
    I predict a "wooden table" comment hard on the heels of this.
    You forgot the web service interface and the fax based reply system or, for the hard core, the post.

    Skizz

    I have a database with a single table, with a single row that holds the contents of the flat file. Any queries to that table is sent with SOAP messages to a server that puts the query in a distributed message queue. An outsourced worker reads that message, types in the SQL query and faxes the answer to my fax machine, that happens to be placed on a wooden table.

  • Global Warmer (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    I'm sure that Oracle can do this too, but when SQL 2005 was being developed, Microsoft used a Barnes and Noble (bookstores) database for testing. It held 1.3 billion sales records (for 2 years), and 8.4 billion inventory records. It worked fine!

    A SQL license for unlimited users on a server can cost a lot, but a SQL license for a few simultaneous users on a single server (maybe 5 or 10 users, I forget), which is plenty for some small businesses, costs about $700.

    The SQL 2005 Express engine (without a user interface) is free (just like MySQL). There are third-party user interfaces for it.

    The user interface, SQL Server Managment Studio Express, is free too.

  • Global Warmer (unregistered) in reply to magi
    magi:
    DWalker59:
    The SQL 2005 Express engine (without a user interface) is free (just like MySQL).
    I don't think so.

    You better think again

  • Mr. (unregistered) in reply to Markp
    Markp:
    Sylencer:
    The real WTF is all the comments discussing about "SQL Server" meaning the Microsoft implementation of "a" SQL Server...

    Even when it most situations of concern (including this one) it's completely unambiguous?

    I agree. And don't forget that "Server" uses a capitalized S, that also implies a noun.

  • Znonymous (unregistered) in reply to Global Warmer
    Global Warmer:
    magi:
    DWalker59:
    The SQL 2005 Express engine (without a user interface) is free (just like MySQL).
    I don't think so.

    You better think again

    It's free as in beer, not as in ... wait ... free beer?

    FREE BEER!!

  • Java Dude (unregistered)

    I consulted at a large telecom, which had an Oracle site license, so they could install Oracle anywhere in the company and it incurred no additional costs. That lead to an Oracle everywhere philosophy and vendors that used Oracle were heavily favored. My guess is that your product may have been sold to that particular telecom.

  • Global Warmer (unregistered) in reply to Martin
    Martin:
    It's not unambiguous. Just because you know what it mean does not make it unambiguous.

    Hint: A little googling will show you that both, MySQL and PostgreSQL have also been called "SQL Server"

    (It does ofcause not matter in this case at all, because it is a wtf no matter what implementation of a sql server they use).

    You're an idiot. We all know we are talking about Microsoft SQL Server and not MySQL or anything else when someone says "SQL Server" Apparently you are the only one having trouble with that.

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Chris:
    One place I worked at a "Technical Director" considered the programmers to be overhead.
    And he was right--unless the programmers were working for free.
    snoofle:
    The last time someone accused me of being a cost center instead of a contributor to the bottom line...
    Contributing to the bottom line has nothing to do with it. If you receive a salary, then you are overhead.

    Employees == Overhead Customers == Profit

    I realise that the both of us have better things to do than to bandy about the precise definition of accountancy terms, but I'm afraid your interpretation is, shall we say, not commonly shared. A more typical one would be:

    Related to specific project: Not overhead. Not related to specific project: Overhead.

    I think you can see how this might be a slightly more functional approach, unless you're taking the contract bridge approach to financial management.

    Code Dependent:
    snoofle:
    Sometimes, the best way to show your value is to STOP doing your job!
    I don't know where you live, but in my part of the world that would be a quick and easy way to join the ranks of the unemployed.
    There's a difference between "sometimes" and "unconditionally;" illustrated, in this case, by the assertion that the tactic worked. I guess we all basically have three choices: (a) Try it anyway, because it's "sometimes" the right thing to do. (b) Move to a less horrible part of the world. (c) Ignore (a) and (b), and wear your Total Wuss badge with pride.

    It probably helps if, like snoofle, you're somewhere helpful up the hierarchy and have enough history with various bosses to increase the chances of (a) working.

  • notJoeKing (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Morasique:
    I have a database with a single table, with a single row that holds the contents of the flat file. That's how real programmers do it
    I predict a "wooden table" comment hard on the heels of this.

    I have a wooden table that I use as a database... I carve records into it with a router and clear data with a belt-sander. That's how real programmers do it...

  • Jean Naimard (unregistered)

    Feh.

    At $ORKPLACE-3, the boss told a client that some techs would bring his printer to the office to fix it. No tech was available so I (project leader) was sent to pick it up.

    On the premises, I saw what the problem was: an optical sensor blocked by a piece of paper. So I removed it and fixed it on the spot in less than 5 minutes.

    Of course the client was pleased to have his printer back immediately.

    Not the big boss, though, who lambasted me over my own boss for “not keeping to our word — what will the client think of us if we can’t keep our [my] promises???”.

  • bert (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    OP:
    the database was completely superfluous since records were processed as they came in

    Ancillary: And if that server goes down while real time records are streaming by and you miss a record or two, or thousands?

    Probably the same thing that happens if the Oracle server goes down while real time records are streaming by...

    You can never totally eliminate failures. You just manage risk.

  • (cs) in reply to Dude
    Dude:
    MySQL is solution

    Sugar dissolved in water is also a solution.

  • (cs) in reply to TimmyT
    TimmyT:
    I'm curious, I've never worked on Oracle before, but have done lots of SQL work including clustering and replication - can anyone tell me from a unbiased DBA/systems engineer perspective why Oracle is better than SQL? All I can think of is maybe Solaris is a little more stable than a properly configured and hardened Windows server. I don't care about marketing or end user perception, I want the truth!

    Any comments like "cuz oracal is teh best dood" will be deleted from my temporary tables...

    Oracle is better because it has more configuration options - currently about eighty bazillion of them, and if you get all of them set correctly (for your application) then it will be marginally more efficient.

  • (cs) in reply to bert
    bert:
    snoofle:
    OP:
    the database was completely superfluous since records were processed as they came in

    Ancillary: And if that server goes down while real time records are streaming by and you miss a record or two, or thousands?

    Probably the same thing that happens if the Oracle server goes down while real time records are streaming by...

    You can never totally eliminate failures. You just manage risk.

    PHB: "Ah, but you lost information while it was being read into an Oracle server. You see, that's much more industry-standard than losing information while it's being read into a flat file."

    The concept that, with effectively zero latency on an in-memory queue, you are far less likely to lose data than by relying on a transactional system (that, in its lower layers, depends upon exactly the same techniques), is lost on these morons.

    Apparently, it's lost on snoofle too. Which is sad, because he normally makes sense. Perhaps over-reliance on databases causes premature senility.

  • Martin (unregistered) in reply to Global Warmer

    Better tell that to gnu: To quote from gnu.org: <quote> SQL Server is a free portable multiuser relatational database management system. It supports the full SQL89 dialect and has some extensions from SQL92. It provides multiuser access and transaction isolation based on predicative locks. The working OS: UNIX. The working language: C . It also uses RPC, shared memory and message queues. </quote>

    While it is not normal, some people do referer to their MySql/PostgreSQL/SysDB/Oracle as simple "SQL server"

  • Asiago Chow (unregistered)

    Re overhead and all that...things are rarely pure.

    Example: If I make and sell widgets at retail for a single fixed price my support staff may be considered "overhead". After all, they don't produce the product and if the product was perfect they wouldn't be necessary. If I start charging an hourly rate for support those same people, doing the same jobs, are now producing revenue and are not overhead.

    Flip side: If I have a successful product fully deployed, and no expected need for an upgraded or enhanced version of that product, keeping SW developers on the payroll can be pure overhead.

    Beyond that I'll just say that the vacation thing was highly unprofessional. If you can't explain your value to your employer using reason and logic you should move on.

  • Nerf Herder (unregistered)

    Just create a table called dual2. But here's the tricky part. Instead of one column and one row, make it TWO rows and TWO columns. Dummy and Dummy2.

    Handle that cost based optimizer!

  • Nerf Herder (unregistered) in reply to TimmyT
    TimmyT:
    I'm curious, I've never worked on Oracle before, but have done lots of SQL work including clustering and replication - can anyone tell me from a unbiased DBA/systems engineer perspective why Oracle is better than SQL? All I can think of is maybe Solaris is a little more stable than a properly configured and hardened Windows server. I don't care about marketing or end user perception, I want the truth!

    Any comments like "cuz oracal is teh best dood" will be deleted from my temporary tables...

    Oracle doesn't require Windows to run.

    Also locks are not precious commodities like they are in SQL Server (aka writers don't block readers in Oracle). Transactions take as long as they need, and other sessions are not blocked while someone updates the tables. In my opinion this is one of the single best reasons to stay far away from MS.

  • (cs) in reply to Chris
    Chris:
    alegr:
    Ben4jammin:
    It would be like if I chastised my mechanic over the type of oil he put in my truck or something. There is a reason why he works on trucks and I work on servers.

    Mechanics at Tustin Toyota put cheap generic green antifreeze into my Toyota, instead of Toyota pink red antifreeze. I wonder how many engines are ruined by that.

    Most likely, none. I've used "generic green" anti-freeze in my Toyota for 6 years with no ill consequences. Sometimes during the summer I even use *gasp* distilled water with a cleaning additive. Anti-freeze is a coolant: ethylene glycol + water; it's not rocket science and there's likely little difference in the Toyota brand other than the coloring they add.

    If you think you need Genuine Toyota anti-freeze, then you're as dumb as the marketing types in this article who think they need Oracle at all costs.

    Besides from ethylene glycol (never mind that base could also be propylene glycol), antifreeze contains corrosion protection additives. It has specific pH. Aluminum engines and radiators require different additives than brass radiators. Those who were using orange antifreeze, learned it the hard way, when the cooling system got clogged and engine failed.

  • (cs)
    1. SQL Server Express which comes with a UI called Management Studio Express has 4GB database limit (not the quoted 2GB).
    2. Microsoft SQL Server is the ONLY database product to include SQL Server in its name. If anyone refers to MySQL, Oracle or whatever as SQL Server they are wrong.

    P.S. What MySQL do you use? The one from Microsoft?

  • sporksporkspork (unregistered) in reply to Stilgar
    Stilgar:
    2. Microsoft SQL Server is the ONLY database product to include SQL Server in its name. If anyone refers to MySQL, Oracle or whatever as SQL Server they are wrong.

    P.S. What MySQL do you use? The one from Microsoft?

    Yeah, and I'm sure MS is still pissed that Oracle was able to brand it's database as Oracle x. Even if most people imply 'Microsoft Sql Server' when they say Sql Server, you sure get far more ambiguous google results if you only refer to it as 'Sql Server'

    I have a pet hate for co-opting everyday words for software unless it's well and truly obscure.

    I prefer referring to aforementioned SQL software as MSSQL as it's shorter to type.

  • (cs) in reply to sporksporkspork
    sporksporkspork:
    Even if most people imply 'Microsoft Sql Server' when they say Sql Server, you sure get far more ambiguous google results if you only refer to it as 'Sql Server'

    So ambiguous that the whole first page of Google is about Microsoft SQL Server. I am not defending MS for usurping a word such as "server" but I am more annoyed by people who refer to other database products as "SQL server" because they don't know it is a brand. In my opinion if you have not heard about MS SQL Server you should not talk about databases at all. You can hate it but you should be aware about it before talking about database products.

  • JIm McDish (unregistered)

    Wow dude, that is WAY too cool if you ask me. Pretty neat stuff.

    Jt www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

  • chrome (unregistered)

    If you have an application with a small dataset but high performance requirements, and a large budget that requires you to somehow "use Oracle" in there like the OP, take a look at the Oracle TimesTen in-memory database. Its a real screamer, though not cheap. As long as you can fit your entire database in memory, you're set.

  • Lurker Indeed (unregistered) in reply to Nerf Herder

    Wouldn't using locking hints in the queries solve that issue? In most cases, I don't think I would want to read a record while it was in the middle of a transaction.

  • Lurker Indeed (unregistered) in reply to Nerf Herder
    Nerf Herder:
    TimmyT:
    I'm curious, I've never worked on Oracle before, but have done lots of SQL work including clustering and replication - can anyone tell me from a unbiased DBA/systems engineer perspective why Oracle is better than SQL? All I can think of is maybe Solaris is a little more stable than a properly configured and hardened Windows server. I don't care about marketing or end user perception, I want the truth!

    Any comments like "cuz oracal is teh best dood" will be deleted from my temporary tables...

    Oracle doesn't require Windows to run.

    Also locks are not precious commodities like they are in SQL Server (aka writers don't block readers in Oracle). Transactions take as long as they need, and other sessions are not blocked while someone updates the tables. In my opinion this is one of the single best reasons to stay far away from MS.

    Quote button is there for a reason...anyway:

    Wouldn't using locking hints in the queries solve that issue? In most cases, I don't think I would want to read a record while it was involved in a running transaction.

  • Reece (unregistered) in reply to Outlaw Programmer

    Why do people assume Oracle is the best? Because people that don't understand make the decisions, and they think in terms of "Bad" "Good" "Best" - so Oracle simply makes sure they are perceived as the best (mostly with high cost more than functionality).

  • Tim O'Brien (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent

    So that the prophesy may come true.

    I have a wooden table right here that is holding the contents of multiple flat files.

    Victory Lap

  • (cs) in reply to Walleye
    Walleye:
    Outlaw Programmer:
    Stilgar:
    Dude:
    MySQL is solution

    yes but sometimes you want more power then you go for flat file

    You forget that you can just store the XML IN the MySQL DB. Infinite scalability!

    But neither a flat file or MySQL lets you exercise that most powerful of Oracle SQL commands:

    SELECT X FROM DUAL

    Actually, MySQL can do that.

  • (cs) in reply to real_aardvark
    real_aardvark:
    I realise that the both of us have better things to do than to bandy about the precise definition of accountancy terms, but I'm afraid your interpretation is, shall we say, not commonly shared. A more typical one would be:

    Related to specific project: Not overhead. Not related to specific project: Overhead.

    I think you can see how this might be a slightly more functional approach, unless you're taking the contract bridge approach to financial management.

    Wikipedia seems to see it my way: Overhead (business), the ongoing operating costs of running a business. I believe salary qualifies as an operating cost, yes?

    The Free Online Dictionary gets more specific: The operating expenses of a business, including the costs of rent, utilities, interior decoration, and taxes, exclusive of labor and materials.

    Neither matches your formula above, since one is inclusive and the other exclusive. However, let's go with that formula. How much time each day is actually spent doing work related to a specific project? Speaking for myself, I would say on average about five. The rest is spent in team meetings, departmental meetings, meetings of various company-sponsored committees for which I've volunteered, birthday celebrations, doing research, studying, using the restroom, reading TDWTF, reading and answering email, consulting with teammates, and other generalities. I don't smoke, but for those who do, factor in a smoke break of five to 15 minutes' duration at least twice per day; more often if they can get away with it.

    So for about three hours per day, by your formula, a developer is overhead.

  • Dave G. (unregistered) in reply to Martin
    Martin:
    It's not unambiguous. Just because you know what it mean does not make it unambiguous.

    Hint: A little googling will show you that both, MySQL and PostgreSQL have also been called "SQL Server"

    (It does ofcause not matter in this case at all, because it is a wtf no matter what implementation of a sql server they use).

    You are an idiot. Please stop talking.

  • Dave G. (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Wikipedia seems to see it my way: Overhead (business), the ongoing operating costs of running a business. I believe salary qualifies as an operating cost, yes?

    This is hugely simplistic and broad. By this definition, EVERYTHING in business could be considered to be an overhead.

    Overhead is, more specifically, those costs incurred by a business which cannot be attributed directly to the output of a product.

    Electricity is a simple example of an overhead. HOWEVER, if a company produces only one product, electricity is NOT considered overhead. Why? Because the electricity used in the production of this product CAN be directly attributable to the costs of creating that product. It becomes part of the production costs of the product.

    "Overhead" is really just a way to make cost accounting easier and more practical. Once the business starts making two products, it is infeasible and frankly not worthwhile to start metering the amount of kilowatt hours spent on making each product. Instead, estimates are used.

    It is hard to attribute the amount of electricity that went into making each product, so its' treated as an overhead. There are ways of assigning estimated proportions of overhead to each product, but that's beside the point here - it's still overhead.

    The Free Online Dictionary gets more specific: The operating expenses of a business, including the costs of rent, utilities, interior decoration, and taxes, exclusive of labor and materials.

    Same from above applies. If the business produces only one product, none of these are overheads. It is easy to directly attribute each of these costs to the production of that one unit.

    So for about three hours per day, by your formula, a developer is overhead.

    This is a bit tricker, but the real question is - does it help the accounting process to go into this much detail? The answer is most certainly no, and it would be impossible to do anyway.

    You can charge employees times between different projects - eg one project for 5 hours and another in 3 hours - but you wouldn't go down to the level "well this is a meeting, so its overhead.. but the other time he wrote some code, so it's a production cost". You'd say they were production costs and be done with it.

  • (cs) in reply to Martin
    Martin:
    While it is not normal, some people do referer to their MySql/PostgreSQL/SysDB/Oracle as simple "SQL server"

    Not only is it not normal, it's wrong. "SQL Server" is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Their database product is called "Microsoft® SQL Server®". Sybase's product is called "Sybase® Adaptive Server®". Oracle's product is called "Oracle® Database", probably because the word "database" is too generic to trademark.

    All part of Microsoft's annoying habit of trademarking the generic term (their active server pages product is called Active Server Pages, their reporting services product is called Reporting Services, etc).

    To the "Is Oracle better than SQL Server" argument: Verizon are running a 7.7 TB database in Microsoft SQL Server. Some anonymous company is running a 6.8 TB database in Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise. Elsevier are running a 9.6 TB database in Oracle RAC. The Land Registry for England and Wales are running a 23 TB database in IBM DB2. None of these database products are toys.

    Some of these high numbers, as well as the high numbers at the Transaction Processing performance Countil, are running on Windows. Some are running on flavours of Linux. Some are running on Solaris. None of these operating systems are toys.

    B

    Source: Winter Corporation "2005 Winter TopTen Award Winners" (www.wintercorp.com).

  • Tom (unregistered) in reply to Outlaw Programmer

    I agree. Oracle is very sophisticated and is good for many things, but I find that many people buy it when SQL would have sufficed or PostgreSQL. heck, even MySQL would have worked. In other cases, I have seen massive DW's built on Oracle and they used none of the DB features like bitmap indexes, dimensions, partitioning, materialized views, and Oracle OLAP etc... they had no idea how to design it or use those features to allow it to scale.

    If you are going to pay for Oracle, make damn sure you need it, and if you do, make sure you use the right feature to solve the problem!

  • Tourist (unregistered) in reply to Outlaw Programmer

    just as Lotus Notes is the "best" email program for corporate use.

  • nonregistered (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent

    I predict a humorous comment involving "wooden" and "hard on".

  • (cs) in reply to havokk
    havokk:
    Martin:
    While it is not normal, some people do referer to their MySql/PostgreSQL/SysDB/Oracle as simple "SQL server"

    Not only is it not normal, it's wrong. "SQL Server" is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Their database product is called "Microsoft® SQL Server®". Sybase's product is called "Sybase® Adaptive Server®". Oracle's product is called "Oracle® Database", probably because the word "database" is too generic to trademark.

    All part of Microsoft's annoying habit of trademarking the generic term (their active server pages product is called Active Server Pages, their reporting services product is called Reporting Services, etc).

    To the "Is Oracle better than SQL Server" argument: Verizon are running a 7.7 TB database in Microsoft SQL Server. Some anonymous company is running a 6.8 TB database in Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise. Elsevier are running a 9.6 TB database in Oracle RAC. The Land Registry for England and Wales are running a 23 TB database in IBM DB2. None of these database products are toys.

    Some of these high numbers, as well as the high numbers at the Transaction Processing performance Countil, are running on Windows. Some are running on flavours of Linux. Some are running on Solaris. None of these operating systems are toys.

    B

    Source: Winter Corporation "2005 Winter TopTen Award Winners" (www.wintercorp.com).

    Actually Sybase has the guiness world record:

    http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1056945

    1 PByte

  • Mark (unregistered)

    The real WTF is not storing the CDRs. In some (maybe all) jurisdictions that is like throwing away money if the customer ever decided to dispute the bill.

  • malliemcg (unregistered) in reply to Ben4jammin
    Ben4jammin:
    It would be like if I chastised my mechanic over the type of oil he put in my truck or something. There is a reason why he works on trucks and I work on servers.

    But there is a significant difference between someone knowing a little about a product and its function (oils) than someone just parroting keywords (oracle).

    One of my good mates was a mechanic by trade and employed for someone else at the time - the place switched from using Mobil-1 as their default shop oil to a Caltex oil - this was motivated by money (better deal from Caltex than Mobil) as any mechanic would be - to make a profit. However oils are formulated differently - several high kilometre engines began smoking before their next service intervals in part due to the difference in effectiveness of the detergents used in the oils (cleaning soot built on on the bores of the engines allowing oil to get past the rings and thus smoke to come out the exhaust).

    My point here is that your analogy is crap. Oils vary quite significantly in make up, tolerance to heat (impacts service intervals) and are something that you should be aware of and they are all made differently and you should check (and chastise if necessary) your mechanic's choice of oil.

  • Aaron (unregistered) in reply to malliemcg
    malliemcg:
    My point here is that your analogy is crap. Oils vary quite significantly in make up, tolerance to heat (impacts service intervals) and are something that you should be aware of and they are all made differently and you should check (and chastise if necessary) your mechanic's choice of oil.

    I see that the same as if you used Sql server and your client googled sql server vs oracle chastise you for not using oracle

  • peterb (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Chris:
    One place I worked at a "Technical Director" considered the programmers to be overhead.
    And he was right--unless the programmers were working for free.
    snoofle:
    The last time someone accused me of being a cost center instead of a contributor to the bottom line...
    Contributing to the bottom line has nothing to do with it. If you receive a salary, then you are overhead.

    Employees == Overhead Customers == Profit

    Err, no. Overhead are all costs that are not directly linked to turning a profit. A in-house programmer working for an hotel might be considered overhead, a programmer working for a progamming firm most certainly isn't overhead.

  • (cs) in reply to metrician
    metrician:
    Just for the record, CDR is an abbreviation for Call Detail Record not Call Data Record.

    Not its not! Its Compact Disc Recordable!

  • (cs) in reply to mstum
    mstum:
    [quote user="Code Dependent

    How did you get a wooden table into your database?...

    create table wooden (<column><type>....) go

  • Dhericean (unregistered) in reply to Mark
    Mark:
    The real WTF is not storing the CDRs. In some (maybe all) jurisdictions that is like throwing away money if the customer ever decided to dispute the bill.
    I feel the need to ask if you actually read the item? It specifically said that this was a separate parsing of the CDRs and nothing to do with the phone bill calculation - they were having to parse them separately because they were (understandably) not being let anywhere near the billing tables.
  • stunned at the lack of skill (unregistered) in reply to malliemcg
    malliemcg:
    Ben4jammin:
    It would be like if I chastised my mechanic over the type of oil he put in my truck or something. There is a reason why he works on trucks and I work on servers.

    But there is a significant difference between someone knowing a little about a product and its function (oils) than someone just parroting keywords (oracle).

    One of my good mates was a mechanic by trade and employed for someone else at the time - the place switched from using Mobil-1 as their default shop oil to a Caltex oil - this was motivated by money (better deal from Caltex than Mobil) as any mechanic would be - to make a profit. However oils are formulated differently - several high kilometre engines began smoking before their next service intervals in part due to the difference in effectiveness of the detergents used in the oils (cleaning soot built on on the bores of the engines allowing oil to get past the rings and thus smoke to come out the exhaust).

    My point here is that your analogy is crap. Oils vary quite significantly in make up, tolerance to heat (impacts service intervals) and are something that you should be aware of and they are all made differently and you should check (and chastise if necessary) your mechanic's choice of oil.

    That's almost the exact same thing as this article. I don't think I've ever seen a closer car->computer analogy. Yet you still think there's some big difference?

  • Steve C (unregistered) in reply to Kermos
    Kermos:
    Ben4jammin:
    I just love situations where people THINK you are an idiot for reasons that make you KNOW they are idiots.

    It would be like if I chastised my mechanic over the type of oil he put in my truck or something. There is a reason why he works on trucks and I work on servers.

    Oh, there are plenty of reasons to go chastise a mechanic over the type of oil put into your vehicle. If it isn't synthetic, it isn't touching my engine. If someone dares to put non-synthetic, they're going to get the biggest wrench I can find shoved up their ass until they get it right.

    Oh yeah. And just what brand of wrench do you insist on?

  • Rhialto (unregistered) in reply to jgayhart
    jgayhart:
    I was at a wireless billing company for about thirteen years. "Call Detail Record" is the more common usage (and the one that I prefer). But, I have seen "Call Data Record" used on more than one occasion.
    Words and abbreviations change strangely over time. On boarding passes, there is a "sequence number", often abbreviated to "seq number", then misread as "sec. number" and pronounced as "security number". I have even seen the actual writing mutated to "sec. number"...
  • 35% Genius (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Ed:
    Code Dependent:
    Employees == Overhead Customers == Profit
    Wrong! If you work on a project that generates profit, then you are direct labor and not part of overhead. And by work on, I really mean word on. You have to do the coding or put stuff together or something.

    If you manage, overhead. Maintaince? overhead. The guys writing the software you sell? Not overhead.

    The guys who write software couldn't write it if their computers didn't work. Therefore the electic bill generates profit. By your reasoning, then, the electric bill is not overhead.

    True

  • Nik0las (unregistered) in reply to jgayhart
    jgayhart:
    metrician:
    Just for the record, CDR is an abbreviation for Call Detail Record not Call Data Record.
    I was at a wireless billing company for about thirteen years. "Call Detail Record" is the more common usage (and the one that I prefer). But, I have seen "Call Data Record" used on more than one occasion.
    Same goes for ASR: 'Answer Seizure Ratio' vs. 'Average Seizure Ratio' ...
  • 35% Genius (unregistered) in reply to Lurker Indeed
    Lurker Indeed:
    Nerf Herder:
    TimmyT:
    I'm curious, I've never worked on Oracle before, but have done lots of SQL work including clustering and replication - can anyone tell me from a unbiased DBA/systems engineer perspective why Oracle is better than SQL? All I can think of is maybe Solaris is a little more stable than a properly configured and hardened Windows server. I don't care about marketing or end user perception, I want the truth!

    Any comments like "cuz oracal is teh best dood" will be deleted from my temporary tables...

    Oracle doesn't require Windows to run.

    Also locks are not precious commodities like they are in SQL Server (aka writers don't block readers in Oracle). Transactions take as long as they need, and other sessions are not blocked while someone updates the tables. In my opinion this is one of the single best reasons to stay far away from MS.

    Quote button is there for a reason...anyway:

    Wouldn't using locking hints in the queries solve that issue? In most cases, I don't think I would want to read a record while it was involved in a running transaction.

    Oracle uses versioning. If you read from a table that is updated by someone else but not yet commited, your query will return the old values from before the update.

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