MacLochlainns Weblog

I attempted to have a forward from the old WordPress.com site. That was a painful mistake! It took down both blogs with a circular referencing that was humorous I suppose. The DNS entries appear to all be corrected and forwarding straightened out. I apologize for any inconvenience.

As I update or expand entries, I’m entering a note in the old blog posts. I think the code segments are much improved, you can find SQL, PL/SQL, PHP, and Java examples in the following blog entries that are now perfect for cutting and pasting. Also, as noted the iPhone view is GREAT!

1. SQL example
2. PL/SQL example
3. PHP example
4. Java example
5. Shell example, DOS and Bash

Here are some of the plugin reasons for migrating my blog from being hosted on WordPress.com. You may find them useful in your own blogs.

1. The iPhone plugin isn’t available (may be later) on WordPress.com. As you can see in the last post it makes it easy for those on an iPhone to read your blog. A BIG THANK YOU to Brave New Code, Incorporated.

2. The GeSHi programming code formatter plugin likewise wasn’t there, and it’s provided by Ryan McGeary. A BIG THANK YOU to Ryan. GeSHi (Generic Syntax Highlighter) started for a PHP bulletin board.

3. A Google stats plugin looks interesting, and I’ll let you know more when I play with it. A BIG THANK YOU to Wilfred van der Deijl for the Google stats plug in.

A number of friends wanted me to do things that weren’t possible while keeping my blog on WordPress.com’s web site. Things like code formatting, downloads for software, et cetera …

You can find the new blog at: http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com

So, I’ve migrated it to my own domain. I’m in the process of configuring the rest of the domain. I’ll update you through the blog as I complete the process.

I’ve got grand plans (lets hope there’s time). For example, I’m planning to migrate and update the TechTinker.com domain too. I’ll plan tutorials on Java, PL/SQL, and PHP initially as well as administration tips, techniques and walk through steps for my favorite platforms. As time allows, I’ve got some stuff comparing SQL across platforms – much beyond the trivial Oracle’s SPOOL is MySQL’s tee (not herbal tea).

While my perspective may change over time, I’m quite fond of Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and Red Hat. I won’t exclude Microsoft because we must live with it, but isn’t CrossOver sweet! I’d actually tried to get Oracle to run through it. I may yet, I’m still playing with it.

I’m trilled that Chris Jones and Justin Kestelyn got me blogg’n. I’ve always wanted to contribute more but the forums have mavens with much more time than I have to answer questions. The blog lets me share ideas and concepts as they travel with me on a daily basis.

Stats on the blog pages may not migrate but if time allows maybe I’ll write a plugin if I can’t find one. Generally, I don’t think anybody cares about the stats. It’s the information to solve problems, and I hope that’s what you find useful in my blog.

By the way, it wasn’t just the ability to have my blog pages look cool on my iPhone that drove the change, but it does look nice!!!

Somebody reminded me that I should include the $TNS_ADMIN variable to avoid unnecessary file searches (minor expense) in the Mac configuration instructions. This eliminates additional searches when running sqlplus and tnsping executables. I’ve updated that blog page with those instructions. It’s not necessary to make it work but it does avoid a read to the local and /etc directories on your Mac OS X for a tns_names.ora file before reading it from the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin directory.