Recently, Sky News in the UK ran a sting to investigate local PC repair shops. They disabled a honeypot machine by loosening one of the RAM chips and took it to various repair shops for service. The machine had “private” data on it, including photos, documents, the usual stuff, and it also had spyware on it, not… Read More
Author: Jake
a.k.a.:jkuramot
Connect Adds Keyboard Shortcuts
Rich cracks me up; yesterday, he IMs to tell me he’s added JS shortcuts to Connect for quick keyboard navigation through posts. Standard stuff, like j/k to navigate through posts, r to refresh, l to like/unlike a post, etc. The funny part is that he qualified it with “I know I’m not supposed to be… Read More
Jolicloud and Netbooks
I finally got my invite to Jolicloud Tuesday and promptly installed it on a VM for some geeky fun. I first heard about Jolicloud from Rick Turoczy, who wanted to put it on his new netbook. Jolicloud is a remixed Ubuntu distro, looks like Netbook Remix, that brings an iPhone-like O/S interface to your netbook. I don’t… Read More
Oracle on Twitter
Even as we debate the ongoing utility of Twitter and other social tools, there are still ways to get good information from social sites. One easy way to cut through the noise is to use your personal network for recommendations. Assuming you consider this blog a trusted source, I have a couple recommendations for you.… Read More
Geek or Nerd?
Over OraTweet last week, I gently corrected an old friend of mine when she called those of us using Oracle’s mirco-blogging tool “nerds”. We’re not nerds. We’re geeks. This person hails originally from Eastern Europe, so the nuances and cultural connotations of the two aren’t part of her DNA. Being the quizzical type, she asked… Read More
DataMapper Oracle Adapter for Ruby
Raimonds (@rsim) recently posted his initial version of an Oracle adapter for DataMapper. DataMapper maps Ruby objects to relational database objects, so if you’re a Rails or JRuby developer, you can use Raimonds’ adapter to get into your Oracle databases. Raimonds previously created an Oracle adapter for ActiveRecord, another Ruby-relational database mapping tool that he… Read More
Why Don’t People Update Software?
This question applies to personal software more so than IT-supported software. I understand the complexities involved with taking updates to software that IT is on the hook to support. What I don’t get is why people aren’t more vigilant with their own software, specifically browsers and O/S. Over the years, updates have become more in-your-face,… Read More
Do You Think Social Has Jumped the Shark?
Way back in April 2008, Paul remarked that Web 2.0 had jumped the shark, at least for him. For the last six months or so, I’ve been feeling the same way about social, which is essentially analogous to Web 2.0, but more focused on applying social aspects to everything. I’m not alone in this belief;… Read More
Jim Marion’s PeopleTools Book
I should have posted this before, but better late than never. Friend of the ‘Lab, PeopleSoft guru and all around smart guy, Jim Marion is going to be in print. His book, titled PeopleSoft PeopleTools Tips & Techniques, should be going to press sometime next Summer, July-ish. You can preorder it now, if you’re so… Read More
Join the ORACLENERD Family
Chet, the ORACLENERD, dropped me a note yesterday. He’s thinking about expanding his empire to include more Oracle content. His plan is to reach out to people in the Oracle blogging community who don’t post very frequently (ahem, John P.) to see if they’d like to join his Nerd Herd. Sounds like a good idea.… Read More
A Computer for Your Parents
This post in Forbes today, “Apple’s Secret Weapon: Your Mom” came across Techmeme a little while ago. While the post centers around Apple’s financials and quarterly earnings report due this week, it interested me because I’m currently planning to bring my parents into the now with a Macbook Pro. A few months ago, they finally… Read More
Murphy’s Law of Demos
When I started at Oracle in 1996, I was a sales consultant, part of a college new hire bootcamp program. We got lots of training on technical stuff, mostly pertaining to how to install and demo the products. In addition, we had an equal part of soft skills training, how to conduct yourself, presentation skills,… Read More
Who is Scott Tiger?
I guess more accurately, who is Scott, since it’s really scott/tiger. If you’re not familiar, scott used to be one of the seeded users that came with a fresh Oracle DB install. His password was tiger. Here’s the story. Bruce Scott was one of the first employees at Oracle, and his daughter had a cat… Read More
What Kind of Advertising Works on You?
Admit it. Sometimes an advertisement catches your attention. That’s just one step away from buying the product. So, it’s kind of a big deal. We’re constantly inundated with advertising–on the TV, on the interwebs, in the car, walking on the street, in print. Everywhere. And it’s only going to get worse. The great promise of… Read More
IE6 Death Rattle
Last week, Digg became the first major web site to end support for IE6, or at least, support for certain functions in IE6. Today, it looks like YouTube may be the next. This should come as no surprise, since the anti-IE6 movement has been in full voice for quite some time. What’s interesting is the… Read More
Inertia and Separation Anxiety Drive Design
This article about reluctance among users to give up Outlook as their mail client of choice underscores an issue that everyone in product design/development faces. People hate change, especially at work. When it comes to computers, most people have a very low tolerance threshold for failure, even if the service or web app is free.… Read More
Everything is a Journey
The year I started with Oracle (1996) was the year the Network Computer (NC) was announced. The NC was about a decade ahead of its time due to a number of factors, and it’s funny to me that netbooks are the latest rage. The promise of netbooks is essentially the promise of the NC, i.e.… Read More
Why It Just Works
So John suggested I delve into why “it just works“. He suggests that Apple’s tight control of their products, from design to software and hardware development and third party components allows them to do what “open” systems cannot. I agree. Beyond control, this approach both limits the possible combinations software needs to support and allows… Read More
Comment with OpenID
Disqus announced today that its commenting widget finally supports OpenID. You may recall they’ve been quickly adding other ways to login and leave a comment, including Facebook Connect and Twitter. I applaud their support for multiple authentication mechanisms. I’ve enabled OpenID here, and as you probably know, I’m a proponent. So, if OpenID is your… Read More
You Know You Love Email
Everyone loves to complain about too much email. But face it, you know you love it, or at least, you have a love-hate relationship. Email is today’s busy meter. You know, that measuring stick that shows how busy you are. By the way, is it uniquely American to brag about how much work we do?… Read More