Quit Calling Me Stupid...

I recently saw this one going around Facebook:

Here is my response:

No, I don't think criminals obey laws. Only the fictional liberal bogey man that you create so that you can win arguments believes that. No actual human being believes that.

However, given what I think I know about supply and demand, I DO think it's entirely probable that cutting the overall supply of weapons will reduce the number of criminals who have access to said weapons. Will some criminals still have them? Yes. But, they will have to be smarter and better funded. Will some brainless brat who's going to take your wallet to buy weed have one? Potentially - but it's far less likely, if we sufficiently reduce the supply, thus increasing the value even on a black market. How about the suburban kid who's been rejected by the cute girls one too many times? I dunno. Maybe. But, again, I have to believe a smaller supply is going to create higher barriers to ownership and thus reduce the chances.

This would, of course, require both laws and law enforcement, which I know you hate. I'm not saying it's something conservatives wanna do, just that it could be done.

But, that's not the point. The reality is that NO ONE wants to take your guns away.

Here's what I have a problem with:
In Iowa, Conservatives have gone so stark-raving-mad with hatred for the liberal bogey - man, who I can attest does not exist, that they've passed laws removing Sheriff's discretion from concealed carry permits. The result is convicted sex offenders walking around with concealed carry permits. THAT's the sort of thing that I want to get rid of.
http://archive.desmoinesregister.com/article/20130505/NEWS01/305050072/1001/news/Register-Exclusive-50-sex-offenders-gun-permits

That and gormless twits carrying loaded AR's into Target amongst the sugar-mad kids and terrified soccer moms.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/guns-target-open-carry-texas


The words "well regulated" are right there in the 2nd amendment. Maybe you need to read it again.

And, quit calling me stupid.

Well, THIS saved me a lot of hastle

Oracle SQL Developer, rather inexplicably in my view, doesn't come out-of-the-box with a good facility to set the schema.  Even the set active schema command gets ignored.

This extension provides a handy drop-down box that allows you to set the active schema.  Brilliant :-)

http://javaforge.com/project/schemasel

Opening files in SSMS as query files when they don't have .sql as extension

SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) will happily load a *.sql file and execute it as a SQL Script.
However, we store our DDL files as .DDL.

I was able to convince SSMS to treat these as sql scripts in the following way:

Tools -> Options
Expand Text Editor
Select File Extension
Add an extension.  NOTE: Make sure to select "SQL Query Editor" in the "Editor" drop-down.

And, voila!

DB2 Refrential Integrity

I was going to write a post about DB2 referential integrity, but I cannot imagine writing anything better than the very good, thorough treatment of the topic found here:
http://ibmdatamag.com/2011/01/how-well-do-you-know-the-rules/

Trouble installing oracle on Windows

So, while installing Oracle on Windows 7 (64-bit), the Oracle installer would just sort of shut down unceremoniously.

I found a log file C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs.  It wasn't, however, very revealing.  The last message was simply "INFO: Get view named [QuickInstallUI]"

So, poking around on the internet lead me to a thread over at forums.oracle.com that discussed this issue, but the only thing that worked for me was to create another user and run the install as that user.

Crazy. But it worked.  Wanted to pass it along.

DB2 Backup Naming convention

I had a hard time finding this on the internet, so I thought I'd post after I found it in a book.

The naming convention for a DB2 file system backup will be:
Alias.Type.Instance.Node.Catalog_Node.MonthHourSecond.Sequence
Example:
MyDB.0.DB2INST.NODE00000.CATN0000.20131015131259.001
   ↑       ↑        ↑                ↑                   ↑                ↑   ↑  ↑     ↑   ↑     ↑
Alias     |    Instance          |           Catalog Node     |    |   |      |    |      |
       Backup Type       Node                              Year  |   |      |    |      |
                                                                            Mon  Day  |  Sec   Seq
                                                                                           Min

Reference:
Understanding DB2: Learning Visually with Examples Second Edition
Page 745
14.4.6 The Backup Files
Raul F. Chong (Author), Clara Liu (Author), Sylvia F. Qi (Author), Dwaine R. Snow (Author)

Christ and the Environment

http://losalamitos.patch.com/groups/weather/p/climate-change-study-permanent-unbearable-heat-expected-in-southern-california-by-2047_44f0b316

So many things are weird to me. I think this is the last thing I'll say for a while, but here's this one.

Christians are Republican. No, don't even argue that you're not, I've seen your glee over the glitches in Obamacare, which I cannot see in any other context.

But that's OK, I get that. You picked a team over an issue that was important to you, and I completely respect that. Now you want your team to win, and that's completely natural.

I guess, if I had a wish, though, it would be that you could start pressuring your team to have more Christ-like opinions on issues outside your main one.

For instance: what would Christ say about the environment?

Would Christ say, well, Bush 41 ended acid rain by creating a market for sulfur and letting his market based solution solve this problem, but that same idea is applied by that Kenyan Muslim Terrorist AntiChrist black-man in the white house, it's the most evil thing ever?

Would He say Boy, despite the opinion being held by literally all of your best scientists, there's a possibility that they're wrong, so why advance the human race by creating cleaner more renewable sources of energy that will reduce costs and improve standard of living for everyone, particularly the poor?

Would He mock the environmentalists who, whether they're right or wrong, have the best interest of His creation at heart?

Would He say, Hey, having an environment that supports human life and happiness is important, but I'd hate to see profits hurt by some sort of effort to make a change?

Would He even say, Hey, you can't put people out of work? Or would He say, man, do everything you can not to put people out of work, and if you DO put people out of work, support them, retrain them, pray for them, feed and clothe them until they're back on their feet again? And, oh, btw, develop of carbon sequestration technology, and you don't have to put people out of work?

The only way that I can understand the Christian position on a variety of issues is through the psychology of teams. Our minds are designed to make us join a team, make us love us and hate them, and blind us to obvious Truth.

BUT, we are the disciples of The One who is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life. Truth is important. Perhaps more important than anything. Wanting our team to win at the cost of Truth is a terrible, terrible shame.

My next note will be this same sort of thing, but about health care ...