Oracle DBMS..............

These days I'm having fun with Oracle. Ye, its kind of cool stuff, feels like mysql that we used to expertise on our past undergrad database class taught by Amalka , I guess Dr. Amalka Pinidiyarachchi by now : ) We used to work with mysql, SQLServer, Access (better to say every bit of MS Access). Now time for Oracle.
Subject is CS 5332 Database Theory class. Two weeks ago we had our first lab quiz and u know how much I got out of 100? 95 and 5 Bonus points add up to 100 marks. Yee.... I was bit scared usually like old days, b'se I started work for it just 2 days before the exam and I tried to solve the example queries given on previous lab classes. I was shocked when I realized that I didnt know how to write at least some simple queries mentioned on the lab examples! So, I just phoned one of my friend to know whats up with these questions and then she mentioned that there was another note that I need to read before working on the queries. Actually that note was the major one that we needed to work on, stupid me. I realized that there was only 3 hrs for the quiz and thought that gonna mess with the quiz this time. There was one such query I couldn’t hold I tried my best to understand I couldn’t do so, then the only thing tried to cram and memorize it.
Before the quiz, Prof Anne Nug, our professor for the subject explained what expected from the lab quiz and showed us the problem before hand. When it was started I was really nervous and couldn't help my self to start the work almost 10 or 15 minutes. After a while I saw that Krishan Pramod, one of my Indian buddy, got answer for the first questions. Oh I was pretty nervous at that time. I couldn’t realize what the hell with my output. It was not in correct format. Then Krishan told me that I need to change the linesize parameter to 250. Here it comes first one down. Two more to go. Then, my cramming helped me out for other 2 questions. I finished entire exam within 2hrs with another 1 hr left. Both those questions from the one that I had problems and that I memorized how to tackle it. Hurrah for my instincts. There was 3 main questions and 1 bonus question. This is how I scored on them,
First question 35/40
Second question 30/30
Third question 30/30
Bonus question 5/10

HALLELUJAH (shrek song)

This is one of amazing song I heard of. Especially the last singer kert Nilsun... amazing... wouldn’t expect such a beautiful voice... legendary. Keep coming back to this video.. It’s awesome!!! All their voices are beautiful! :) Lovely tight harmony

Awesome........u'd love it.

Click here to view the song

Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007

Last Thursday morning I spent alomst 5hrs on how to install Ubuntu on Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. One of Professor in Nims department asked my help to sort out problems he had on the preinstalled Ubuntu on MS VirtualPC in order to run it on Graphic mode. The graphic was trashy and couldn't see or execute anything on the graphic mode, though the text mode working pretty much. Started the work at Prof. Hahn's office around 7.30 am but was not successful till 11.30. I knew the problem was in emulated graphic hardware support on the virtual machine. It supports only 16 bit or less display color depth, which will leads to modify the display configuration manually. I found that if we can change the xorg.conf file, it would sort out everything. Problem was where to find it. Normally it should be in /etc/X11/xorg.conf but its possible to be at /target/etc/X11 or something like target/usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf
When I searched it on the web, I found several forums saying different locations for the xorg.conf location. Problem was I couldn't find it in any place. Started with fresh copy of the installation on MC virtual pc and started the text mode on the boot by pressing alt+clt+F1 combo. I was pretty much-fooled b'se it was in the middle of the installations, lots of packages specially graphics emulators not configured at that time. Silly me, I searched all around to find the file but no hit at all. Then I realized something wrong with the installations and continue the process again. It was almost 12 noon, I missed all my morning session at the international office. So I thought of taking the laptop back home and check it again at night.

When I started work again at night (that time the installation was pretty much done) and for my surprise I found the file at the default location /etc/X11/xorg.conf now the problem how to modify it to support only 16 bit. The file was read only and I didn't know how to make it modifiable on nano. GNU nano is a simple terminal-based text editor. Though not as powerful as Emacs or Vim, it is easy to learn and use. Nano is ideal for making small changes to existing configuration files or for writing short plain text files. Though its easy, had bit of problem on initial learing on how to work on it, specially how to exit from it :) we can see the commands on the editor but problem was on the representaion, its something like ^x for exit but how on earth I know this ^ means Clt key ha. Ok the orignal problem, how to open the file with wirte permission. I tried su and for my surprise I couldn't remember entered any super user for the system at the time of the installations, Mmm interesting ha. No super user on Ubuntu? Then I realiesed the use of sudo command. The actual command is like this,

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

this line just to backup the config file incase of any problem, that kind of things can happen. Then I used actual command for modifying the file
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

then by removing the line default '24' and change it to '16' hurrah here it comes Ubuntu on Virtual PC 2007.

May be I need to try installing Linux, Fedora & Ubuntu combo on my office PC too. Its kind of a cool stuff. But need to find some time.