The new release update experience
For about the last … hmmm…maybe decade or more, when you downloaded a release update from MOS for your database, the patch would consist of a single folder which...
2026-05-04
52 reads
My APEX installer / patcher
Hopefully you have just seen that APEX patchset bundle 16 has just been released for 24.2. Of particular note is that a well-publicised Chrome change to deprecate the unload...
2026-05-01
60 reads
The unhealthy obsession with ROLLBACK
So I jumped onto an LLM and asked it to give me some PL/SQL to handle a 3-step series of DML statements and out popped the following code: That...
2026-04-30
20 reads
Unleashing Skills onto my database
You may have already seen that thanks to Kris Rice, we now have a baseline set of Oracle skills available for your favourite AI tools. Check out the skills...
2026-04-28
30 reads
SQL skills just got MORE important
There seems to be a school of thought in the tech community that a robust knowledge SQL is now optional. After all, with modern AI tools able to generate...
2026-04-22
27 reads
GROUP BY ALL – Is it ALL you ever need?
You have probably seen a couple of cool GROUP BY features that came with Oracle Database 26ai. You can check out the short video below but since you’re on...
2026-04-17
65 reads
Voxxed Days Zurich
That was my first experience at a Voxxed Days event. Obviously I like Oracle-focussed events, but that can give you a blinkered view of the world. There’s a lot...
2026-04-07
26 reads
Thank you after 21 years
Throughout my long history of working with the Oracle Database, there are some things that often just take for granted, on the assumption that they have always been present....
2026-03-12
31 reads
Bind Variables – Worse than you were told
Many of you probably know Martin Bach. He’s a colleague here at Oracle although we’ve both been good mates in the Oracle community long before either of us joined...
2026-03-09
42 reads
Where is my TNSPING?
I’m a big fan of the “instantclient” solution to Oracle connectivity. No more calls to “runInstaller”, no registry files on Windows, it is just download-unzip-go. That makes installation a...
2026-03-05
44 reads
Blogs
Creating a Local Model Chatbot on Windows
By Steve Jones
After my session at VSLive last week, I had a few questions from the...
To refer and to be referred
Referrals have never been more important in the job market. They’re no longer nice...
A New Word: Dorgone
By Steve Jones
dorgone– adj. wondering if you could slip away from an event or group conversation...
Forums
Make It Routine
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Make It Routine
Finding Gaps in Sequential Data Using SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding Gaps in Sequential Data...
Negative and Positive Numbers
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Negative and Positive Numbers
Question of the Day
Negative and Positive Numbers
If I want to know whether a number of negative, positive, or zero, what is the easiest way to get this in T-SQL?
See possible answers