Enabling Trace
The TRACE_ENABLED parameter allows you to trace the execution history of Oracle. It should be set to TRUE by default.
The information gathered is stored in the following locations:
#User: /usr/oracle/admin/sid/udump #Background: /usr/oracle/admin/sid/bdump #Core: /usr/oracle/admin/sid/cdump
These locations could be different depending on what’s set in your PFILE.
Check if trace is enabled:
SHOW parameter trace_enabled;
Sample output:
SQL> show parameter trace_enabled; NAME TYPE VALUE ------------------------- -------- -------------- trace_enabled BOOLEAN TRUE
And if it isn’t enabled, enable it using:
ALTER SYSTEM SET trace_enabled = TRUE;
Note: Prior to version Oracle 9i, this parameter was: _trace_enabled
Starting, stopping, and Status of Oracle Enterprise Manager (EM)
To start the Oracle Enterprise Manager Database Control (from the command-line):
emctl start dbconsole
To get the status:
emctl status dbconsole
To stop the dbconsole
emctl stop dbconsole
To access the EM (with default settings):
http://hostname:5500/em
Create bevelled text
I might be superfluous in my method here, but it works well for me 
Add some text
Added blending-modes:
Final result
Search through files for a string (Linux)
To search a directory recursively for specific text or a string, use:
find . -exec grep "string to find" '{}' \; -print
Synchronize Google Calendar on iPhone
Note: This should also work on the iPod Touch
iPhone OS 3.0 introduced support for CalDAV and ICS - that means it's really simple to sync with your Google Calendar:
Start by going into Settings:
Go into "Mail, Contacts, Calendars", then "Add account..."
Add a CalDAV account and fill the details:
If you check your calendar, it should sync
You can also add all your other calendars by adding a "Subscribed Calendar"
Start by going to the settings for the calendar you want to add:
Click on the "ICAL" link to get your Calendar's private address
It's usually a really long link, so start by putting it under your drafts or email it to yourself. Add another Calendar account (not a CalDAV this time, but a "subscribed Calendar" Then copy-and-paste into the Server input box specifying URL to the .ics file)
Creating a tunnel and SOCKS proxy with Putty
Why?
- Secure a public WiFi connection
- Bypass country-specific-content websites (e.g sites that only allow users from the U.S)
- Connect to a remotely-secured MySQL database via localhost
It's pretty easy to do in Linux (and I think the command is pretty much the same in MacOS or with cygwin installed):
ssh -L localport:hostname:remoteport username@Server
This is how to do it with Putty
Open Putty and enter in the basics: the Server and port (22):
Next, create the tunnel. Enter the source port (in this example, it's 3306 - a MySQL port) and leave the destination field empty (not always left blank, but it works for most cases)
The tunnel will be open/active as soon as you've logged in. Obviously, you still have to set up your proxy settings in whatever application you're using (for those who don't know, 127.0.0.1 is 'localhost'):
Reducing spam even further in Wordpress
Maybe I'm bored, but I've been spending a bit of time researching on ways to beat spam. Mind you, I haven't had anything get past Akismet anyway. This article is for all of you who want to be hardcore about your spam defences
I came across "Project Honey Pot", which is a distributed system for identifying spammers and the spambots. Simply said, IPs of your site's visitors are verified against the Project Honey Pot database and spammers are kicked out.
Participating in this network comes in 2 forms. You can either install a Honey Pot (which is pretty easy) or if you don't want to install a Honey Pot of your own, you can link to someone else's.
Installing Honey Pot on a server (optional)
Installing a Honey Pot is easy enough. Start out by visiting Project Honey Pot. Once you've signed up for an account, you can begin adding a Honey Pot:
Depending on your webserver's supported languages, you can choose from a bunch:
Once you've chosen your options, you can download the files and upload it to any accessible-directory on the site you specified. Just visit the site to activate it.
The next step, is to customize your blog or site in such a way that you can actually catch suspicious activity:
Plugin: WP-Honey Pot
In order to make use of your new Honey Pot (or a Honey Pot elsewhere), install WP-Honey Pot. WP-HoneyPot enables you to add a hidden link on your blog in one of several randomised locations to ensure that spammers are less able to adapt to the solution and once you are a contributing member to Project HoneyPot then you are able to use the http:BL (which I'll be getting to just now).
Once that's set up, you'll be doing your part in helping to catch email harversters, comment spammers and other suspicious folks.
Plugin: http:BL
The obvious next step, would be to block the spammers from your site. And that's where http:BL comes into the picture.
Once you've installed and activated the plugin, all you need to do is specify an API key (which you get from the Project Honey Pot site) and the URL to your Honey Pot of choice. And that's pretty much all there is to it.
This flow-chart sums up my Spam protection for the time-being:
So far so good:
If any of you have tried something similar, or tried what I described above, drop me a line below and let me know your experiences!