Oracle Pro Tips, Trends & Technology eXTRA Pinnacle Publishing http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com Issue 3.14 August 21, 2002 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1) Pop Quiz (answer at the end) 2) Web Services Feedback 3) COBOL 4) Oracle Technet 5) Tech Industry News 6) Oracle News 7) Answer to the Pop Quiz --------------------------------------------------------- 1) POP QUIZ (answer at the end) --------------------------------------------------------- What is Oracle's Java development tool? --------------------------------------------------------- 2) WEB SERVICES FEEDBACK --------------------------------------------------------- A reader expressed great interest in the article on Web Services and wondered if we Oracle professionals (and DBAs in particular) need to learn these things. First of all, I think as a technical professional we should keep an interest in the latest and greatest development in the industry. After all, the buzz today may become the industry standard tomorrow. Witness the popularity of UNIX in the academic world in the '70s and '80s before it gained widespread acceptance in the commercial world. On the other hand, technology is changing at such a dizzying pace that it's very difficult for one to keep up. That's why we need Oracle's technet, user groups, conferences, and your participation in the tech community! What do you think? --------------------------------------------------------- 3) COBOL --------------------------------------------------------- While some of us are contemplating the future of Web Services and Oracle's strategy in this exciting field, others are struggling to adapt their legacy code to the 21st century! Here's an interesting article on the future of COBOL. Yes, COBOL, the '60s language! In fact, according to one survey, the majority of the business applications are in COBOL. Find out more at the following link: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020808/152/d6xfm.html. --------------------------------------------------------- 4) ORACLE TECHNET --------------------------------------------------------- In the past few issues, I'd been making references to articles on Oracle's Technet Web site (http://technet.oracle.com/). However, some of you gave me the feedback that you weren't able to access the site. The trick here is that you must first register (for free!) as a member of Technet, sign in, and you'll be able to open the document. If you haven't yet registered for Technet membership, here's the link: http://otn.oracle.com/membership/. Personally, I think it's a great idea for you to sign up because, at the very least, you get access to Oracle documentation for free! Just in case you've forgotten about the URL for the documentation page, here it is again: http://technet.oracle.com/docs/content.html. Note that you have to log in first before you can open this site. Happy reading! --------------------------------------------------------- 5) TECH INDUSTRY NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- As some of you may know already, IBM is planning to acquire Price Waterhouse Coopers' consulting firm for US $3.5 billion. According to some industry insiders, the impact of the merger will be felt throughout the IT industry. As an independent consulting company, PWC Consulting was able to forge alliances with various hardware and software partners. Now, the merged entity may need to give up some of those partnerships because IBM's established presence in the hardware and software markets may pose an a competitive threat to some of these existing partners. Read more about the merger at the following link: http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/020815/200208151504000607_1.html. * * * * * Mega-mergers aside, the IT industry as a whole is definitely suffering from reduced demand due to the slowing economy. According to Goldman Sachs analyst Rich Sherlund, there will be minimum growth in tech spending in 2002 and 2003. Find out more at the following URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020813/tech_itspending_research_1.html. --------------------------------------------------------- 6) ORACLE NEWS --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle provides a learning management system that helps corporations manage their training programs. The Oracle iLearning tool can be offered standalone or within the Oracle E-Business Suite; it "provides a complete infrastructure for organizations to manage, deliver, and track training participation of employees, customers, and partners in both online- and classroom-based environments. Oracle iLearning may be installed at the customer's site, used as a subscription service, or delivered as an outsourced service, eliminating the need for complex installation and ongoing software maintenance." Find out more at the following URL: http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/020814/045448.html. --------------------------------------------------------- 7) ANSWER TO THE POP QUIZ --------------------------------------------------------- Oracle JDeveloper is Oracle's Java development tool. Originally, it was based on Borland's JBuilder. Now that the product has matured, Oracle is aggressively marketing the product to users of other Java development tools. Oracle has recently released a bulletin showing the migration path for VisualCafe as well as JBuilder. In fact, it even has information on how you can use JDeveloper with non-Oracle application servers, such as BEA WebLogic. Find out more in the following article: http://www.oracle.com/features/9iAS/index.html?t1as_java.html. --------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's it for this week. I welcome your feedback, input, tips, suggestions, Web sites, and other Oracle- related news. If you send me something, please let me know whether I can use your name with your comments. I apologize in advance if I don't respond personally to each of your questions or suggestions, but I'll get to as many as I can in the eNewsletter if not personally. Garry Chan, Editor Database Architect mailto:GChan@ProcaseConsulting.com This eNewsletter is brought to you compliments of Pinnacle Publishing, Inc. Copyright(c) 2002 http://www.pinnaclepublishing.com All rights reserved.