Subj : Re: Free Oracle
To   : comp.programming
From : rem642b
Date : Wed Sep 14 2005 08:17 pm

> From: "Shiro Kawai" <shiro.ka...@gmail.com>
> HP offers testdrive where you can evaluate their various platforms
> with software, including Oracle.  It's free to get a telnet account.
> http://www.testdrive.hp.com/

Test drive requires prior registration, which is not available currently:
   Linkname: We're Down
        URL: http://www.testdrive.hp.com/accounts/register.shtml

> Since learning APIs is one of the easiest part of the job, I'd rather
> seek for the right attitude towards solving problems, rather than
> knowledge of particular technology, as the qualification for an entry
> position.

I think I have a good attitude toward solving some kinds of tasks via
some RDBS. Basically if there's some kind of data that should be
persistent, but updateable at any time, and if that data naturally is
organized into records of fixed structure (fixed number of fields per
record within each table, with each particular field having uniform
datatype across all records within the table), then a RDBS is a natural
tool if it's available. If logical combinations of the kinds of tests
that a RDBS provides are sufficient for large queries, then that's a
bonus for a RDBS. On the other hand, if records are free-format with no
limit on size or structure, and queries require computation beyond the
built-in capabilities of any RDBS, that weakens the case for using a
RDBS.

Once the decision is made to use a RDBS for a particular kind of
persistent data, the first major task is to define the structures of
records in each table, and the relationships between the tables (such
as foreign/unique key links). Then comes initializing the tables and
writing code to maintain the tables.

So what other aspects of problem solving, relevant to applying for an
entry-level job in JDBC programming (using Oracle or any other RDBS),
would you need to know (re my personal ideas) in order to evaluate my
chance of being hired by you or somebody who shares your views?

> BTW, being good at finding excuses not to do things earns a big
> negative score.

That statement needs to be qualified. For example, sometimes a
particular tool is entirely inappropriate for a job, or it's not
available at any affordable cost, and so there's good reason not to use
that particular tool for that particular task. (In my own case of not
having already learned JDBC with Oracle, I've never had such a
configuration available for me to play with. Maybe later this month
when HP's free-trial site comes back online I'll have my first chance.)

> If you say you had millions of records and dealt with tens of
> transactions per second, for example, that counts.  Even when it's a
> small size database, if it was actively used by lots of users and
> you've maintaned it for years, it counts.

I think you're asking way too much prior experience for a mere
entry-level job. The whole point of entry-level is that it's a way of
getting entry into serious work in some area, where there's no prior
serious experience. Actually, in the true and original sense of the
phrase, an entry-level job should require no prior related experience
whatsoever. The fact that I not only studied how JDBC works but
actually wrote some small applications, which worked correctly as
planned, is a plus for my entry-level employment in this area. If you
don't count my experience as relevant, or enough for entry-level job,
then it's you who is making excuses why not.

.