Coopers Consulting Solutions Limited » the Interweb

How to write unmaintainable code

administrator — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:05:46 +0000

I just had to post this – it’s so amusing to the code-monkeys out there.

Its a post (repost in fact) by Roedy Green, from Canadian Mind Products. I came by it by way of a Tweet from Eddie Awad. It’s essentially a tongue-in-cheek article on the best ways to not write code, or (if you would like a job for life) the best way to code to prevent anyone else from understanding it.

The sad thing is that i’ve been guilty in the past of producing code following many of these rules without even thinking about it.

Anyway, the article in full is here. Enjoy it…I have…

Twitter meets Oracle

administrator — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:52:31 +0000

Last night i came across this facinating article Twitter meets Oracle. I won’t warble on too much about it (it is well worth a read though).
In the article, the author Lewis Cunningham demonstrates how to get your Oracle DB to generate Tweets.

In the past i have done work involving setting up the system to generate email notifications, and even sending SMS messages, upon completion of tasks (mainly long-running batch processes). This article shows how you can take this a step further by embracing new technologies.

It’s certainly going to be interesting to experiement with this idea. Lewis demonstates the advantages from a DBA perspective, however i’d like to experiement from an applications user angle…Imagine getting your EBS install sending you a Tweet to say that your monthly payroll process has completed. Perhaps providing a summary of errors/warnings etc (probably totals, as you’d struggles with the 140 character limit).

Taking this idea on a bit – what about being able to Tweet back? Would there be a way of getting it to process a response and kicking off some other process?

The opportunities are endless

Twitter comes to town :(

administrator — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:10:40 +0000

This was not my idea. Not my idea at all. If i’d had my way i would steer clear of social networking altogether.

It was an idle (almost throw-away) suggestion by my better half that i should set up a Twitter account so that i could “Tweet” whilst i’m on my jolly attending the OHUG Conference in Las Vegas in June. That way she would know that i was not gambling the night away in a beer-fuelled frenzy with my respected peers

On the face of it, it’s probably not such a bad idea after all. I mean i will be armed with my laptop during the 8 days i’m out there as i do have some work to do, however firing it up in order to hand-craft some length blog posts about the various conference sessions i’ve attended may not be that practible in reality. Whereas armed only with my Blackberry, i could provide regular bursts of 140-character summaries of the days events, as they happen.

So this is what i have done. I’ve created myself a Twitter account, and (heaven forbid) even gone as far as linking it into here (my blog). All that is left to do is to test the tweet-by-SMS facility (which i will do as soon as i A-think of something to tweet about, and B-go somewhere other than home that has a decent mobile signal! UPDATE: Using the Blackberry equivalent of the iPhone AppStore i’ve found an excellent app called Ubertwitter – essentially a twitter app right here on my blackberry! Works a treat too!

Anyway, enough said – things to do…