Home

Oracle DBMS_PIPE - why you should abandon it

A classical method of getting Oracle-based processes communicating with the outside world is by using the DBMS_PIPE package: Typically, we write to a pipe from an Oracle PL/SQL-based process, and then we continuously run an asynchronous Oracle PL/SQL process which reads the pipe and processes what it reads. A common use of DBMS_PIPE is for debugging, logging and launching external processes.

Oracle External Procedures

It is possible to call O/S commands or third-party programs from within SQL or PL/SQL with external procedures. This guide describes how to build, install and use such an ExtProc and shows an exploit on how to grant yourself Oracle sysdba rights. Think of an ExtProc as an Oracle root kit.

Oracle server construction guide on Linux

A step-by-step construction guide to install and configure a Linux server from scratch and how to then install the Oracle 10g RDBMS on it.

Product Quickcode Generator

How to generate your own Base36 Quickcode sequence using the SHA2 hash

Run this process for a few hours and you too can have your very own unique sequence of millions of unique Quickcodes that will keep your inventory management system well-fed for life.

String-Matching help for SQL Server

The task of matching strings between heterogeneous systems, especially that of matching personal or company names or addresses, is not easy with SQL Server's limited set of built-in string SQL functions. Here is a C# CLR-Assembly (with source code) for SQL Server with some advanced string-handling functions that may help:

LTrim - like Oracle's LTRIM function.
InitCap - like Oracle's INITCAP function
FlattenCharSet - Replace western characters with diacritics with best-choice, non-diacritic characters
StripPunctuationMarks - Remove all punctiation marks from the given string.

Unix Utilies for Windows

If you still have an old version of Windows floating about from before the days that MS conceded that the Windows O/S should be built on the Linux O/S, and you want to do anything vaguely sophisticated in the brain-dead command line shell of Windows (a.k.a. the DOS prompt), then you need a collection of commonly used UNIX utilities that can run under Windows. You should first ask yourself why you are running an outdated and unsafe version of Windows, but that is another story...

The Cats' Bill of Rights

1. Humans shall make no law respecting an establishment of boundaries or prohibiting the free exercise therein, or abridging the freedom of access, or the right to peaceful assembly.
In other words:
The cat is entitled to go outside any time s/he wants.