Tired of the Crappy MS Oracle OLDEB Provider?

February 27, 2008 on 11:43 am | In .NET Coding | No Comments

If you use Linked servers in SQL Server 2005 to connect to oracle servers, and have been frustrated by the slowness of the Microsoft OLEDB provider for Oracle, then we have something in common.

Lucky for you and me, there is a fix.

Step 1: Install the Oracle Client freely downloadable from their website on your SQL server host. (Requires a little spam info.)

Step 2: Configure your client by setting up your TNSNames.ora file as per usual.

Step 3: in Management studio, login as a server admin (sa, or someone with the server admin role)

Step 5: Issue the following commands, (it’s in secret code, so be careful!)

That’s it kids! Just say no to the wizard.

You can then create a view in one of your existing databases that selects from this Link, and almost as magically every tool that hits SQL server can now be using SQL Server as a conduit for Oracle. (It’s better to do this if you’re combining data or something, not just as a very expensive DB provider of course, but it still works however you like it, and the chances are you’ve got another SQL host somewhere that wouldn’t mind pulling some data for your developers convenience.) My FAVORITE feature about doing this is that I can now do LINQ to Oracle. So there! Go Forth, Be Multiply, and Fruitful.

A Picture of The Competition

February 6, 2008 on 12:14 am | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A good friend of mine went to India recently. I’ll let his commentary and the picture he brought back with him speak for itself.

“While in India recently I visited a temple in a town called Kalahasthi in Andhra Pradesh. This photo was taken around 7:00pm under heavy street lights (see the lights in the stores it was night time). This girl was studying on the divider surrounded by heavy traffic….of course this photo does not fully show the traffic, but Uma (my friend who took the picture) had to wait a few minutes and got a clear shot only after taking 5-6 pictures. As you can see the vehicles are moving and there was a lot of truck traffic as well……the girl was really oblivious to all the humdrum surrounding her, she was just doing what a student was supposed to be doing on a school night. When the power is out at homes or when there is no power at homes at all, studying under street lights is a very common scenario.”

“We have a video that shows the street light and all that, but anyway it is a very powerful picture showing the face of the competition.”

photo by Uma Shankar