Scripting aNd Querying These Days..

2 months back, I started working on data warehousing projects at work. Basically, getting introduced to Unix environments through Putty and querying databases by making use of Teradata SQL.

Few days back, I wrote 2 tricks that can be real time-savers and make you more productive. Here are the tricks;

1. Read File without Changing Directories..
2. Changing Timestamp Format using Teradata SQL

HTH..

Oracle acquires Sun Microsystems

It is all over the web and when I tried to open Sun's official website http://www.sun.com/ I got redirected to http://www.oracle.com/index.html

Strange, isn't it??

Well, they could have kept the Sun official website online for sometime, maybe they had some other plans. I have not seen the webcast yet. Anyways, this means Sun website will cease to exist now and even if you try to access it, they will redirect it to Oracle's website.

Hope to update myself on more details about this acquisition.

See ya later.. Till then, time to watch another episode of Street Hawk..

uCertify PrepKit Review (SCJP 5.0)

"Learn, practice in real exam conditions & track your progress"

This what uCertify have to say each & every one of you. In fact, as found out from other reviews. They have actually stood for, what they believed in (i.e. their motto).

However, this is something I will partially agree to, as I have never given any certification exam and don't intend to give any in near future.

First Look

If you download demo version, you would still be able to see that there's a menu bar with some disabled items. A tabbed-pane container having sets of "Practice Tests" & self-study material (Study Helper).

One can also find 2 panels namely, "Enhance Your Understanding" & "Track Your Progress". These panels provide study tips, test history, reports, etc. to do the needful. At the bottom, you can find useful tips related to the usage of the PrepKits.

As I got a chance to review this PrepKit, I got free license for 1 year. So, I had access to each and every option available within the PrepKit.

Exam Prep

Its better to go through exam objectives then, study smartly. These PrepKits provide you exactly the set of objectives, as mentioned in official certification websites.

You can also view study guides/notes along with exam objectives with a click of button. Or, you may view them individually like slides. As I am covering SCJP 5.0 PrepKit, so there were 7 chapters covering necessary topics as per the Exam Objectives, providing quality content with easy-to-understand examples. This surely helps in grasping the basics of Java. However, practice is still required. The more you practice, the more you learn.

You also have an option to create flash cards, i.e. writing notes about study guides based upon your understanding so as to help in quick revision/memorizing. Also, you can add/remove your notes instantly onto the study guides, tag them, etc. If you're keen on enhancing your understanding of subject, you may consider going through articles provided within the PrepKit.

All in all, PrepKits are really helpful, if you complement them with your own practice of the technology you want to get certified for. Also, you get chance to take mock test from within the PrepKit, you can easily assess yourself and find out in which specific area, you're weak/strong.

This PrepKit also provides an option to re-test all the incorrect/correct questions of previously attempted mock tests from within the PrepKit. The "Feedback" feature, I couldn't find it useful enough in short period I had to assess this PrepKit.

Also, while answering questions in mock test, you can instantly review your previously answered questions, pick any random question and change the answer. In the end, when result is generated, clicking "Review" provides you explanation for every answered question, be it wrong/right.

So, I think next time I get a chance to review the PrepKit, I would either be certified/getting ready to be certified.

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I would like to thank the PR of uCertify, that has given me an opportunity to review their fabulous PrepKit. For more reviews, find out on Google!

Hope this helps!

Going back to the basics..

Its been a long time, folks! But, I'm back with lots to blog about. Few months back, I joined an IT company and got trained on Perl, C++, VB as part of their Training Program.

Moving from Java to C++ was not that tough (atleast for training part), however doing Perl scripting and creating VB Applications (for the very 1st time in my life), was one-helluva-ride ;)

Still, I managed to clear the training with minor hurdles, but I seriously felt like I am sitting on some kinda time-machine to go back and get the basics. Really, I was actually using Microsoft VB, VC++ (not the dotNet versions) for programming. Whereas, in case of Perl, I got my hands-on Active Perl.

In the end, I really felt good to have explored Perl and VB to some extent (do some quality progg., at last) before I get into real projects (post-training) based on Data Ware Housing.

Surprise, isn't it??

By the way, I also got started working on Unix Environments.. ;)

System crashing, yet again!

After my system crashed this Monday, I got the partition of hard disk formatted that had Windows XP Professional OS. However, during formatting another partition that had almost 60 GB (out of 80 GB) of Free and Open Source Softwares, I have been using or wanted to use over the past years... read more..