Tuesday 15 January 2008

Jeremy Clarkson Hacked

In a recent blog article I talked about the fact that the UK government has lost computer discs containing 25 million peoples records including information such as bank account details and national insurance numbers.

In his usual highly uninformed (but hilarious) way (ref: his comments on motorcyclists) he wrote in the Sun (rubbish tabloid) that this loss by the government wasn’t a big deal as after all the account details could be used only to put money in ... so to prove his point he published his own bank account details in the newspaper ...

He was therefore surprised when he saw his bank statement and realised that somebody had setup a monthly direct debit of £500 to the Diabetes Uk charity. I suspect if he has any honour he will cancel the Direct Debit but let them keep the £500 that has already been taken. He is lucky he attracted the attention of someone looking to prove a point not someone who actually wanted to rip him off ...
It was probably a tech savvy biker

It’s a funny and fitting story - but it does prove a point - we should all be more careful in future ...

"Anger at lies lasts forever. Anger at truth can't last." - Greg Evans

Oracle: CUBE

ROLLUP and CUBE are extensions to the GROUP BY functionality of the Select statement. The following select statement demonstrates basic use of CUBE:

select soh_cucode, soh_owner, sum(soh_net) from guser.f_sohdr
where soh_date between '01 JUN 2007' and '30 JUN 2007'
group by cube (soh_cucode, soh_owner)

This statement will give output that looks like the following:



The output is very similar to the output from ROLLUP, with the exception that CUBE also performs a subtotal by Salesperson at the end of the results set, followed by the total for all Customers, the same as the ROLLUP option.

Between them CUBE and ROLLUP add an extra an very useful dimension to your SQL reporting toolkit. For more information or to explore the options further, consult the Oracle documentation.

Software Development * Security * Database * Technology * Training * Networking * Virtualisation
Technology Consultancy from GENeSYS Solutions
www.genesyssolutions.co.uk

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Dwight D Eisenhower

Oracle: ROLLUP

ROLLUP and CUBE are extensions to the GROUP BY functionality of the Select statement. The following select statement demonstrates basic use of ROLLUP:

select soh_cucode, soh_owner, sum(soh_net) from guser.f_sohdr
where soh_date between '01 JUN 2007' and '30 JUN 2007'
group by rollup (soh_cucode, soh_owner)

This statement will give output that looks like the following:



Within Customer Code the Grouping occurs via the Salesperson. For each Salesperson a Summary Total is shown and then finally a Total for that Customer, basically the sum of the values of each Salespersons orders. The bottom of the results set shows the Total Value of orders within the period for all Customers.

So basically the ROLLUP has worked like this:

        TOTAL ORDERS BY SALESPERSON
        TOTAL ORDERS BY CUSTOMER
        TOTAL ORDERS

"Not the power to remember, but its very opposite, the power to forget, is a necessary condition for our existence." Sholem Asch

Thursday 10 January 2008

Blu-Ray Wins ?

The High Definition format war may just have been won by Sony’s Blu-Ray technology. Blu-Ray has been outselling HD-DVD by two to one recently and this week high profile Hollywood Studio Warners Bros have switched allegiances to the format.

In addition Microsoft have announced that an external Blu-Ray player may be made available to connect to their XBox-360 console.

Reminder To Self: Buy Playstation 3

"If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that is a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life." - Chris Evert