Oracle OEM From Unix

If have an X display, you may run OEM tools from unix with "oemapp". This is like the MSWindows OEM: oemapp console
Looks in $ORACLE_HOME/bin for oemapp.

Oracle SQLPlus Without Password

Many Oracle administrators are concerned about hard-coding passwords
in scripts and crontabs. Oracle 9i from the command line allows a simple
logon like this: oracle@bighost $ sqlplus '/ as sysdba'

This provides a simple method to run scripts without a password.
Another method is to create and externally authenticated account, such as
ops$oracle. Then log on with: oracle@bighost $ sqlplus /

When using either method, remember to set up the shell environment
variables before running sqlplus.

Oracle SQL Developer

Oracle has released SQL Developer, a no-charge GUI tool for developers.

Quest has sold TOAD for several years, though hasn't done much develop in recent years. When in a software development office, the morning are filled with the croaking toad sound when developers start the application.

Tora is an open source package that has similar functionality.

Zfone VoIP Encryption

Philip Zimmermann has released Zfone, a VoIP encryption package that works with Gizmo and other VoIP services. He has submitted the package as a proposed IETF standard.

HP-UX Going, Going, Gone...

I am working with some machines hosted in a HP data center (Littleton Massachusetts), so the choice of HP-UX is not a surprise.
My previous HP-UX experience was version 10 several years ago. It appears little has changed during those years, and freeware support is lacking.
I tried to install a web browser... any web browser. Unlike other OSs, this is not a ten minute task.

Mozilla distributions support Windows, Mac, and Linux x86.

Opera distributions support more OSs - Windows, Mac, Linus, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS2, QNX, and many mobile platforms.

Opera has a distribution for OS2 and not HP-UX.

HP-UX's 3rd party software developers have left the building.

GMail Beta

GMail has been in beta for a couple years. This is the longest beta I have seen. Just one more feature and another and another. No software is ever complete.

DB2 Free Production License

Following up this DB2 post, DB2 Express is no charge. This is useful for development, learning, and lightweight production.

Open Router Software

XORP is an open source IP router that can run on PC hardware. Enterprise-class routers from Cisco and other routher manufacturers have been highly priced and are often administered by high-priced people who typically barricade their knowledge from the rest of the IT staff.

This Business Week magazine article considers the threat to Cisco that is posed by XORP.

Open source has been sweeping the IT industry. Operating systems, databases, and application servers all have several viable open source products. Products in the networking layer of the IP stack still have fat margins and over-priced personnel and support. This stronghold of fat margins is now under seige by open source.