Windows XP support will be ending in April 2014. Time to upgrade or move to Ubuntu? http://buff.ly/1cuYiJx

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Top Five Gadgets of 2014. Number 4 : Jawbone UP24 : Fitness Tracker.

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This is quite an interesting app. Its called Rando. Take a cool pic and it gets sent to a random user. Then you get a random pic in return.

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Happy Christmas everyone!!! If you received a new phone, tablet or laptop from Santa or a loved one then check out these setup guides : http://lifehacker.com/5870892/set-up-and-get-to-know-your-new-tech-gifts

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Cal is a beautifully simple Calendar app available for iOS and Android. Check it out here : http://lifehacker.com/cal-the-calendar-app-from-the-team-behind-any-do-is-o-1476010883

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Competition Time!!! Fancy winning a copy of Call of Duty : Ghosts for PlayStation 4? Simply like or share to be in the draw.

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This is a great free app for learning a second , third or fourth language. It's called Duolingo and it makes learning simple and fun. Enjoy. http://www.duolingo.com/?desktop#/mobile

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I haven't tried this personally but it has good reviews and most computers I repair have lots of 'crapware' installed. Give it a go : http://lifehacker.com/adwcleaner-removes-toolbars-and-other-malware-in-one-cl-734204747

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If you use Facebook, or even if you don't, this is a very interesting read : http://mashable.com/2013/06/26/facebook-shadow-profiles/

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Big Data? We are just getting warmed up.

Humans are great at generating data.  Twitter mentions, topic trending, fb likes, status updates, pinning boards. What is Big Data?  Wikipedia describes it as,

"Big data^[1][2] is a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. The challenges include capture, curation, storage,^[3] search, sharing, transfer, analysis,^[4] and visualization."

Our ability to organise and analyse this data is being outrun by our ability to generate data.  Is there a fix?  Can distributed processing of data on users smartphones help share the load?  Lots of questions surrounding Big Data and I'm not really concerned about any of them.  Technology will prevail.

However, is this only the tip of the iceberg?  Definitely.  We can't even begin to imagine how much digital data the human body will be producing in 10 years time.  Potentially every cell of every connected human will be providing "status updates", tweeting health problems, predicting disease weeks and months before conventional diagnosis.   Where will this data be stored, who will own it and how can it be used to improve our lives and improve society as a whole? I don't have the answers but you can bet your bottom euro Apple and Google will be fighting it out in the court room for the rights to your biological data.

I believe that we will start to treat our bodies more like we treat our smartphones, laptops and tablets.  We will require battery life status in the form of heart, liver, kidney function, what brain processes are running, do we have enough swap space?  We will run virus scans regularly, check for updates to our internal tech and ultimately we will be completely hackable.

The data obtained for each individual will be incredibly powerful especially when combined with the other 8 billion individuals who are also self humanalysing (patent pending).  When a crime is commited by an individual we will be able to replay the exact biological and chemical actions of the brain of the perpetrator.  The uses of this data, when used for good, will improve society immeasurably.

Thanks for reading,
Tom

Ubuntu 13.04 is available as a beta. Successfully upgraded from 12.10 to 13.04 without any issues. To upgrade just run : sudo do-release-upgrade -d

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Great little app called banjo for combining your social networks : http://mashable.com/2012/11/15/banjo-app-update/

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If you use Evernote check this out : http://lifehacker.com/5988111/evernote-hacked-time-to-change-your-passwords

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Picked up a Raspberry Pi today. It's class and if you have kids interested in computers this is a great place to start : http://m.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/04/raspberry-pi-programming-jam-cern

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Very important week in technology. Playstation 4 announced, Ubuntu on tablets code released and HTC One smartphone announced. For more details check out engadget.com.

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Google+ is now the second largest social network and growing fast : http://dustn.tv/google-plus-is-the-number-two-social-network-in-the-world/

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Disabling Java for a few days may be a good move. Check out : http://gizmodo.com/5975475/how-to-disable-java-in-your-browser

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Need to provide better customer service? Communicate better with colleagues and customers? Check out Google Community for your business : http://socialfresh.com/google-plus-communities/

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In the future you will be able to swagger through downtown Timbuktu like a local : http://mashable.com/2013/01/03/michael-jones-google-maps

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Check that Oracle DB 11.2.0.2 test db is receiving connections

Logged in as oracle user this works :

Make sure ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_SID and PATH are all set :
# echo $ORACLE_HOME
/export/home/database/11g/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1
# echo $ORACLE_SID
orcl
# echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/export/home/database/11g/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1/bin:

# $ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -s "/ as sysdba"<<! > /tmp/check_$ORACLE_SID.tom.ora
> select * from v\$database;
> exit
> !

# cat /tmp/check_$ORACLE_SID.tom.ora

     DBID NAME      CREATED   RESETLOGS_CHANGE# RESETLOGS
---------- --------- --------- ----------------- ---------
PRIOR_RESETLOGS_CHANGE# PRIOR_RES LOG_MODE     CHECKPOINT_CHANGE#
----------------------- --------- ------------ ------------------
ARCHIVE_CHANGE# CONTROL CONTROLFI CONTROLFILE_SEQUENCE# CONTROLFILE_CHANGE#
--------------- ------- --------- --------------------- -------------------
CONTROLFI OPEN_RESETL VERSION_T OPEN_MODE            PR


Command :

/bin/su - oracle -c "ORACLE_HOME=/export/home/database/11g/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/dbhome_1;export ORACLE_HOME;ORACLE_SID=orcl;export ORACLE_SID;$ORACLE_HOME/bin/sqlplus -s '/ as sysdba'<<! > /tmp/check_$ORACLE_SID.ora
select * from dual;
exit
!"