The Angry Geek

Tom Kyte is a world renowned Oracle expert – just look through his “Ask Tom” site for confirmation (half the questions seem to come from India). Despite his fame, I once changed his mind on an interesting topic – the best substitute for a Boolean data-type in Oracle -Ask Tom “Boolean Datatype”.  Okay, so it was a moment of crowning glory for me – but hey, I’m a geek – recognition from a famous geek (even fleeting) is worth a lot to me!

(more…)

Today did not start out well.  Possibly due to this cold (which I just can’t seem to shake) – or possibly due to staying up a little too late watching Spiderman (the animated series) – I completely slept through my first alarm, and therefore shut off and ignored my second alarm, assuming I’d be awoken again in half an hour…

(more…)

Does this scene seem familiar to anyone?

“Ow – she hit me!”
“Yeah, well he hit me first!”
“Only because she bit me before that!”
“Well he shouldn’t have taken my ‘My Little Pony’ – I told him I’d bite if he didn’t give it back”
“But she took my Action Man and made him ride around on her gay pink pony”

“ENOUGH – BOTH OF YOU!  I don’t care who did what to who – you’re both behaving like 3 year olds.  Grow up, the pair of you.  Sam, give Mary back her pony – and the head – and Mary, you give Sam back his toy soldier – wipe the lipstick off it first.  Right, you’re both grounded until you kiss and make up.”

(more…)

I manage the Support & Development department for the UK division of a fairly large multi-national corporation that provides Supply Chain solutions.  That’s not where I started though – I was originally hired as a code monkey, nothing more, and spent my first few years working for one particular customer developing customisations to our product to match their legacy requirements.

(more…)

Just for a moment, let’s pretend that this blog has tens – or even hundreds – of thousands of readers, all of whom are interested in buying a new car in the next 6 months.  Further, let’s pretend that all of these readers like and respect my opinion – maybe they’ve been reading the blog for years, and have come to trust me.  I know – it’s a hell of a stretch – but it’s always good to give your imagination a work-out now and again.

(more…)

Why is it, that in these times of global financial crisis, when loans are supposedly harder to get, I’m getting more offers of Credit Cards in the post than I’ve ever had in my life?  Even BT wants me to have one now!

Now, I’m not normally one to forward videos to people – but this one was just sent to me by a friend, and I know it will appeal to others…

Two things struck me as I watched this:

1. That cat is creepy
2. SEVEN DAYS…
3. Don’t Blink…

Why did no-one else spot this?  All anyone can say is “That’s really funny!”

Expatriates (see, I do know the right spelling) are people temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, motherland).

(more…)

For some reason, I always seem to look over at my clock when it’s exactly midnight.  Then, of course, I have to check at least 2 other time-pieces, to be sure that the clock I just looked at hasn’t stopped (or in the case of a Windows Sidebar widget, crashed).
This has happened 3 days in a row now – coincidence, or primeval link to the changing of the day?

Today, I’ve finally hit my payout target on Google Ads.  I’ve been using it a while now (is that non-specific enough to pass the Terms and Conditions?), so it was actually quite a surprise.  Interestingly though, I’ve done far better than I might have if I’d had a few more clicks a few months ago – since Google pays out in US Dollars, I’m nearly 50% better off thanks to the crappy value of the Pound these days…

(more…)