Oracle's Free Database Is Good for Business

Oracle's Free Database Is Good for Business: "Opinion: Smart companies offer a range of choices in order to satisfy every taste. That's what Oracle is doing with its Oracle Database 10g Express Edition."

Managing metadata | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2005-10-20 | By Jon Udell

Managing metadata | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2005-10-20 | By Jon Udell: "Everyone knows the common definition: Metadata is data about data, a secondary thing that's separate in some way from the primary thing to which it refers. But that definition begs a series of questions. Is metadata something we derive from data, or assign to it? Does it classify things, or enable us to search for things, or govern the behavior of things? If data that is described by metadata also, in turn, refers to other data, does it then qualify as both data and metadata?"

Chris Webb's BI Blog: BI Certification from Microsoft

Chris Webb's BI Blog: BI Certification from Microsoft: "
Euan Garden notes that the new SQL 2005 certifications have been announced, one of which is the MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer. See here for more details:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcitp/bid/"

Slashdot | Lights On But No One Home At Sun Grid

Slashdot | Lights On But No One Home At Sun Grid: "The Register reveals that Sun's pay-for-use grid computing services hasn't picked up a single customer yet"

MySQL 5 Arrives

MySQL 5 Arrives: "These new features include both read-only and updated views, stored procedures row-level triggers, both read-only and non-scrolling server-side cursors, and stored functions that rely on the SQL:2003 syntax. This is the same version of SQL that is used in IBM DB2. "

Exploit Code Released for Oracle Hole

Exploit Code Released for Oracle Hole: "Exploit code is being circulated that can crash both patched and unpatched Oracle 10g databases.
The code was posted on the Full Disclosure mailing list on Thursday."

Unlocking Data Silos to Understand Risk and Improve Compliance

Unlocking Data Silos to Understand Risk and Improve Compliance: "Measurable risks include interest rates, operations, market, liquidity and credit. Credit risk management begins at the point of origination; nevertheless, when it comes to locating loan origination history and credit history, Basel II presents a major hurdle to the banking industry."

Managing Project Quality: Cost, Control and Justification

Managing Project Quality: Cost, Control and Justification: "Most projects miss intended objectives and customer expectations. Unfortunately, for many companies, the number of quality defects and areas for improvement are also not tracked. IT executives should conduct a thorough quality audit to identify where poor quality exists, and develop a plan to address and resolve quality problems. The plan of attack should be prioritized by the greatest effect and positive impacts to project management practices and quality standards. "

OpenOffice Packs a Powerful New Database Punch

OpenOffice Packs a Powerful New Database Punch: "OpenOffice.org's latest update includes a database that matches Microsoft's popular and competing Access database, experts say."

Basel II Compliance Drives the Importance of Master Data Management

Basel II Compliance Drives the Importance of Master Data Management: "In recent months, there has been tremendous turmoil within major financial institutions. Many Basel II compliance programs have �hit the wall,� in an attempt to tackle too much too quickly. "

Big deal for Banks... here's some more info on Basel.

Go West, Job Seekers - Editorial - CIO

Go West, Job Seekers - Editorial - CIO: "Nationally, 16 percent of CIOs plan to hire staff in the fourth quarter this year, the highest net increase since the third quarter of 2002, according to the 'Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report.'

The West Coast is expected to produce the most new jobs, with 21 percent of CIOs there saying they plan to add new workers. A close second is the mid-Atlantic region; 20 percent of CIOs in that region plan to hire new workers. New England and the Mountain States offer the fewest opportunities."

Outer Join - Jon Baker : Is Microsoft becoming Big Brother with SQL Server 2005?

Outer Join - Jon Baker : Is Microsoft becoming Big Brother with SQL Server 2005?: "Did you know that, by default, there is a server side trace running on your SQL Server 2005 instance? No, Microsoft is not Big Brother looking over your shoulder! At least I don't think they are in this instance anyway :)

Rather, this is a light-weight trace that is always running to collect some data about what's going on in SQL Server."

Enterprise Planning Helps Companies Prepare for the Future

Enterprise Planning Helps Companies Prepare for the Future: "The planning process must expand and receive input from throughout the organization. This helps align employees with the company�s goals and strategies. While the participants may not be planning experts, they should be the closest to the daily operations of the company. By incorporating them into the planning process, the company can obtain their approval. "

Business Performance Management Dashboards

Good advice...

Business Performance Management Dashboards: "One of the most important considerations for today�s dashboard is how to make it actionable. There is nothing more frustrating than a room full of executives reading a report that lists flashing red measures, but no one knows what to do about it. You must make sure you are measuring factors that you can impact. In addition, you must have a general action plan and owner in place prior to the KPI falling out of its target range"

QlikTech contest

Just received this in email:

QlikView contest: "Hi Duncan,

The search is on for the most creative, innovative analytics applications. Winners will receive a $5000 donation to the charity of their choice, and all participants will receive a one-year free limited use license for QlikView Enterprise. Perhaps you or your readers would be interested and you can post this?

The �Think outside the Cube� Contest gives developers the opportunity to show their skills by designing and developing off-the-wall analytic apps using QlikView. Winners will be announced in December. For contest details, to enter the contest, or for terms and conditions, go to www.qlikviewcontest.com."

Database Security - Real Time Database Auditing - with Link

I think blogger is having problems! Link is no good for this webinar (and I can't remove the old post atm)

Database Security - Real Time Database Auditing: "Database auditing is essential to comply with today�s regulatory requirements but a traditional audit log is useful only after a database breach has been discovered. Moreover, traditional auditing techniques significantly diminish database performance and stability. This Webinar will include live demonstrations of sophisticated database attacks and demonstrate auditing techniques that provide different levels of visibility into the attacks."

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In a Big Year for BI, Microsoft Ups The Price/Performance Ante

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In a Big Year for BI, Microsoft Ups The Price/Performance Ante: "Some of Yukon's capabilities are top-notch. For example, because the platform integrates its analysis and data staging capabilities, it lets you use data mining algorithms on your data during the ETL process in order to clean it as it loads. Also filed under the I-A-R category of improvements is the BI Developer Studio, a unique development environment that lets you design cubes, dimensions, data mining models, ETL processes and so on � all in a single window. Advocating that implementers drive BI deeper into more applications, Microsoft also now offers APIs for BI Web services so enterprise developers can more easily extend BI directly to business application user."