Call for Post Ideas

By Jake • April 21st, 2009 • 27 Comments

Photo by pshutterbug from Flickr used under Creative Commons

Photo by pshutterbug from Flickr used under Creative Commons

I’m having serious blogger’s block lately.

There are plenty of topics I’d love to discuss but can’t, so I guess I’m just feeling gravity’s pull.

This blog has been around for a while now, and if you read here, you know it’s pretty much my opinions and stuff I think is interesting or cool mixed in with some announcements, some stuff we’re working on, an occasional gaming or game mechanics post from Paul, and a rare geeky post about Ruby from Rich.

So, help me, help you by suggesting some topics in comments you’d like to have discussed.

I know a lot of you read without commenting, which is fine, so maybe this is a good time to come out of the shadows and guide the content.

Otherwise, it’s back to Twitter-Google-Facebook talk. Actually, we’re getting close to finishing a redesign of Connect groups, which should warrant a post or two.

And no, I’m not discussing acquisitions or internal stuff like that. Nice try though.


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  • neiled

    I don't have a post idea, sorry. But have you heard of http://skribit.com/ ? I'm not affiliated :) but I've seen it on a couple of blogs and seems to work quite well! Might be worth a look…

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Interesting. I'd be remiss if I used this rather than creating a group on Mix for the same purpose though :) Sure, it's not integrated into the blog, but I think I could whip up a widget (Topper might still have his from last year's suggest a session).

    Anyway, thanks for the idea.

  • http://oraclenerd.com/ chet

    First!

    They shouldn’t be including things like PDF readers because that would put Adobe out of business or something. What about SnagIt? Now they can’t sell software to Mac users? WTF? I smell an anti-trust lawsuit brewing!

    I haven’t had a chance to use a Mac yet. I do know this, they are absolutely gorgeous. I would buy one if I could afford one and if all of the latest Oracle software ran on it (didn’t 10gR2 get release for OS/X?).

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    Now that pdf is an open standard, Adobe can’t do anything, but OS X and other software have been manipulating pdfs for years. Prolly had to pay a license fee or something similar before the spec was opened.

    Yes, 10g R2 was just released for OS X Intel. Raimonds has an install guide. I run SQL Developer on my Mac. I thought I saw an item pass through OraNA about installing APEX on top of the OS X 10g R2 release. What else do you need?

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://oraclenerd.com/ chet

    11g? (not really, but it would be nice)…and money? I need to be the cool kid on the block and having a MBP or Mac Air would definitely put me in the cool crowd. Baby steps. I’ve been fighting with myself over buying an iPhone this week…stupid flap on my $10 phone broke off…what better excuse to drop about $300?

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tim-Harper/596627863 Tim Harper

    A long time windows user, I hated my Mac for the first 3 or 4 days. Then things changed. Now I prefer it over windows. Things tend to be arranged / designed in a way that closer matches the way I work. I’ve found it to be easier to manage lots of open programs without feeling crowded – windows was always a nightmare when you had a lot of apps open.

    Finally, having Unix under the hood, with a shell (bash) and terminal that isn’t as lame as a scooter drag racing competition really pushes my buttons.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://elearningtech.blogspot.com Tony Karrer

    I never quite understand how folks can run out of ideas for blog posts. It seems like there's always too much to discuss. If you really do need help, you could take a look at:

    100 Conversation Topics for some ideas.

    I'd be interested in your take on Topic Hubs and the general idea of aggregation, filtering, etc.

    And while I'm at it, you might want to point some of your fellow Oracle bloggers at hrtechcentral.com and see if they are interested.

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    From what Justin’s saying, 11g ported to OS X isn’t happening soon.

    Yeah, money is an issue with Apple stuff, especially when you pay the early adopter tax. I really like the iMac I bought the wife, but obviously, it’s not portable. Still love my OG iPhone and don’t plan to upgrade and don’t care to either.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    A scooter drag racing competition? Is that DOS reference?

    I like all the things you mention. My goal here was to point out that Macs come with more stuff than Windows b/c UI is subjective. You can’t argue with Preview’s pdf capabilities.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    This blog is pretty meandering, and sometimes I just have ennui around the whole daily exercise, what with normal work stuff, etc. That translates into a shortage of ideas I want to discuss.

    Thanks for the tip. I'll bring it up at the next Oracle blogger chapter meeting :) Kidding, natch. I personally don't follow HR, but the folks at TalentedApps do. They might be interested.

  • http://blog.sreekantan.com/ Vijay

    I am not a fan of Windows.

    But my thing about not going to a Mac or Unix is the ability to get whatever software you want for mostly free and you can get a PC for 1/3rd the price of a mac, spend 2 days and get all the utilities you want installed.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://only4left.jpiwowar.com/ jpiwowar

    Yup, 10gR2 is out for OS X Intel. As Jake mentioned, Alex Gorbachev posted a how-to for installing Apex on Mac. SQLDeveloper works. JDeveloper works. As for the rest of it, Virtualbox or VMware+Oracle Enterprise Linux gets you there.

    Do it. You *know* you want to. Okay, maybe that was a bit heavy-handed. “*ahem* I encourage you to evaluate a Mac the next time you’re looking to rev your workstation.”

    Also, I can’t believe I’ve been using a Mac for this long and didn’t know about that Preview drag-n-drop PDF merge trick. Jake, you rock as usual with the interesting/useful tidbits.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    I think this is highly dependent on what you use the machine for, e.g. Chet’s requirements are pretty heavy-duty, whereas most people won’t need much more than a browser and a word processor.

    It’s tough to make the argument that Mac and Linux don’t have the software you need anymore. In fact, I think there are more open source alternatives for Linux (natch) than for Windows, due to their cultural differences.

    I won’t get into cost here. Suffice to say that pricetag != cost of ownership.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://imterry.googlepages.com/ terrywang

    To me, I am moderate towards Macs (hardware), as they r not cost-effective to me. While I’ll say I like Mac OS X since I started using 10.3 Jaguar.

    I think OS X’s philosophy is totally different from Windows. With OS X, people can do most of the daily job with no 3rd party software installed. It looks very simple and straightforward to end-users.

    While Windows makes plenty of room for 3rd party software developers, paid or free:)

    I think OS X will be the excellent OS for 2 kinds of people: 1. non-IT people like my wife and kids. 2. geeks or gurus like OS X (who r *NIX experts and use fink/macports a lot, I don’t like ports…).

    So, I prefer Linux simply because it is open source (have full control of the whole system) and I am used to it. I can manage to solve all problems and do almost everything. Of course, I’ll use my Mac for peace of mind sometimes. Now mainly with Ubuntu and Gentoo, I’ll upgrade to Jaunty in 1 day or two:)

    Regarding Windows 7: I tried build 7068. Nothing fancy. Very average, no big improvements, I reckon what they did is just optimize the kernel. It’s just Vista with Windows Kernal 7.0^_^

    So, save our money for Snow Leopard:)

    ZFS is cool, BtrFS for Linux is cool as well. Now that Oracle buys Sun, I am curious to see what is going to happen to these 2 Oracle owned FS.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • Tim

    All I know … I hate Vista with a passion! My wife and sons laptops have it. I just can not face ripping it out to put in the mildly bearable XP … I have lost the will to ‘re-install’

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://oraclenerd.com/ chet

    Though I haven’t used a Mac (other than wifey’s iPhone), I can still appreciate what they have done, particularly in the usability category. (That might come from reading too much 37signals). There’s really no arguing with success.

    I’m too much of a newbie to debate the differences between operating systems, I think they each have their points. PC (windows) for getting into just about every home which then drives more and more people to look or get curious about other operating systems (Linux, OS/X, etc). Here I go blabbing again…

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://oraclenerd.com chet

    I've got nothing.

    Twitter, Facebook and Google are out right? What about next gen stuff? Do you have any ideas on what the future will look like (i.e. next month, next 6 months, next year)? Will it be more social media or do you think those mentioned above will continue to rule the world? Will it be more aggregation a la FriendFeed?

    I have no idea, but I would love to hear your take on things.

  • http://squarism.com/ Chris Dillon

    Trusism: Macs suck less.

    They try to push open source at home without users knowing it. OpenGL, objc, X11 etc etc. Objective-C and their API has been a hurdle for me. Macruby looks like a good shortcut (good to have a rapid option) if it matures.

    By no means perfect. Package management! There’s a few ways they do it now.
    1) .app special folder (drag and drop) would work great if this was it
    2) mega installer (like Adobe and Microsoft installers), fails
    3) unix installers and .pkg types

    The problem with 2 & 3 is there’s no uninstall. System just piles up stuff until you reformat? Gentoo and Debian package management should be emulated or something official in SysPrefs should be developed. Probably too late at this point. Would be best if Adobe/MS just made .app packages and then Debian packages became standard in Snow Leopard. Fat chance, too big of a change.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    One gripe I have with OS X is that it hides stuff like root access. I agree with your assessment of the user types, so this makes sense. If a lot of your users are relative n00bs, you should hide stuff that can bork the O/S.

    I love running Ubuntu and wish I had a beefier machine for it.

    Macs are pricey, but they’re coming down every year. Remember how much they were before the Intel deal? I’m not jumping into Snow Leopard right away; I just went to Leopard a few months ago.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    Your path is clear: Ubuntu or gOS.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    To your PC in every home point, I think people get caught up with the price tag of a Mac. Most average users in the US will keep a computer at least 5 years. Think about how much extra maintenance comes as you get a fragged disk that probably is part of a bot net.

    Most people don’t have IT in the family.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    Heh, Apple and open source have a strange relationship.

    I agree that package management could be better. I have a similar piling up problem, but since I have free disk space, I don’t really care. Maybe that was their goal, throw disk at the problem

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com Jake

    Twitter, Facebook and Google are not out, so you could +1 those topics :)

    Interesting, I like squinting into the future. I'll noodle on those. Thanks.

  • http://oraclenerd.com/ chet

    You’d think by now I would know how to ask a fellow IT person a question and not leave it open to debate.

    I was hoping to get you to share your thoughts on future applications. Not necessarily the next Facebook or Twitter, but what you think/see going on in the world…you know, since you are an expert.

    While I’m here though, I might as well talk about the netbook thingy too. We recently purchased another computer. Mine (desktop) was 7 years old and was sorely underpowered for what I needed it to do (run an Oracle database). I didn’t really want to (nor could I afford to) drop a lot of money, but for what I needed, I was staring at the 1500 range, minimum. We decided to buy my wife a new laptop, I would take the “old” one (Dell XPS) and call it a day. I did however look at all the netbooks out there and was tempted…but my wife is near blind and she’s taken to streaming netflix movies so I went with a cheap 15″ Dell Inspiron (I had credit).

    I agree about the iPhone. It’s good enough for 90% of what I do (twitter, blogging, email and the like). One of these days, I’ll sack up and buy one.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://theappslab.com/ Jake

    I’m not an expert. I just blog Thinking about future applications sounds like work, and it’s a pretty big subject area. If I have some quiet time, I’ll ponder that.

    The good enough mantra does feel like the end of days for a heavy O/S that comes with crap I don’t need. It’s weird to see MSFT squeezed between price points that didn’t used to exist. They’re conceding the high end (and usability) to OS X, and netbooks/Linux are pushing up from the cheap end.

    Can’t be good. The Office business unit will carry them for a while though, but not forever.

    This comment was originally posted on http://theappslab.com/)”>Oracle AppsLab

  • http://davidhaimes.wordpress.com David Haimes

    Tony,

    Sometimes our conversation topics and thoughts are occupied with things we really shouldn't blog about (acquisitions, future product features, etc.). This is one of the problems of working in an R&D department, you can't always blog what you are working on day to day :(