Frederick Tang Weblog

I found a need to track the total CPU usage by the oracle user:

$ id
uid=101(oracle) gid=101(dba)
$ prstat -t -u 101 > prstat_out
$ more prstat_out
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:44:40 7.0%
Total: 333 processes, 720 lwps, load averages: 1.74, 1.73, 1.98
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:44:53  10%
Total: 333 processes, 720 lwps, load averages: 1.88, 1.75, 1.98
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:45:05  13%
Total: 333 processes, 720 lwps, load averages: 1.97, 1.77, 1.99
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:45:17  14%
Total: 333 processes, 720 lwps, load averages: 2.12, 1.81, 2.00
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:45:30  16%
Total: 333 processes, 720 lwps, load averages: 2.25, 1.84, 2.01
 NPROC USERNAME  SIZE   RSS MEMORY      TIME  CPU
   332 oracle   1737G  529G   100% 283:45:41  16%

It is not so pretty… so perhaps I will use awk:

$ grep oracle prstat_out | awk {'print $7'}
7.0%
10%
13%
14%
16%
16%

If you are using Windows and like me, want to use something more exciting than the standard Cygwin xterm or Putty to ssh to a Unix server, then these two tools might fancy you. I have been using these two tools for a while now and both are quite good.

Their features are quite similar and you can read more about them on their websites, but I will list what I found here:

Terminator: http://software.jessies.org/terminator/

• around 20MB to run with two tabs open, feels more lightweight.
• can run a Shell on the local machine.
• Tab interface, feels cleaner
• Have “Find” and excellent scrollback.
• Does not force line break, and uses the scrollbars.

Poderosa: http://en.poderosa.org/

• around 22MB to run with two tabs open.
• Tab interface
• the window space can be split into half easily, so you can have terminals organized side by side to each other at the same time, useful if you are running some commands, and watch some log file scroll output in another window at the same time.
• cannot run a Shell on the local machine. Purely to establish a session on a remote Unix machine using profiles (stores Hostname, IP, Username, Password, Encoding… etc.)

I use Terminator for simple stuff, but uses Poderosa for more complex database work. Both are free… but Poderosa has not been updated since 2006

As a DBA nowadays, I find the need to do some simple arithmetic everyday, like converting Bytes into Megabytes, adding several numbers together. I also need a calculator to do some simple money management, simply adding my $$ from different accounts, income minus expense for the month… etc.

Humanized Enso provided a very useful tool to do calculation, I type out a mathematical formula in text, in any application, highlight and press ‘Caps Lock+calc’ and the formula is replaced by the number I need.

Another tool I found today is called CalcEd. It does a similar thing, but in its own application window. It doesn’t support highlight and calculate like Enso does. One feature I liked CalcEd over Enso-calc is my formula is not replaced by the result, it is appended at the end of the line. I found copy and paste works fine with CalcEd, except from OneNote.

Looks like Google disabled such automated requests from another search engine. The same Google Error message was displayed for the “Web” and “Answers”, works for other settings.

I found the mouse-over enlarge frame slightly annoying. When the frame enlarges, the content shifts and changes position (due to widening of the frame) so you lose whatever you were looking at, or if you are trying to click something. There is a “Split Screen Lock” at the top right hand corner of the content window, but it is difficult to see if the browser isn’t enlarged to full screen.

Clicking on URLs from the Search Results will open the website *inside* the SearchBoth search frame. It should open in the same window in my opinion, just like it would if you were using Google alone.

Screenshot was taken today 5th July 2007 – http://www.searchboth.com/.

Recently I found this interface tool called Enso, it combines GUI with CLI (Command Line). It allows you to quickly open an application, open a webpage very quickly. In one of the demo I have seen, if you highlight a city and type “add map”, a google map will be automatically added.

Another example is the calculator, I just type “open calculator” rather than click “Start > All Programs > Accessories > Calculator” – you will find typing is faster than clicking+mouse moving (if you are a fast typer that is…).

One of the feature I use most is the calculator feature, and I combine it with Memento. Whenever I want some numbers calculated quick, I click open a note, type in a formula (or copy and paste from a webpage or a Word document – that I don’t want to modify), type “CA” in Enso, the formula will become the result.

Take a look at the Enso demo, you will like it…

Just found out about Windows Live Writer so I am giving it a go.

I got a laptop with Windows XP SP1 and the installation won’t continue with a message saying “…requires newer version of Windows”. The installation works on my desktop with Windows XP SP2 though.

I like the idea of a client, I can save draft and this Writer has a much better WYSIWYG editor than blogger. I can even write a blog entry offline (good for traveling)!

Maybe I will try the plugins some time, e.g. Flickr4Writer.

Finally got my Flickr account reviewed as “safe”.
All in all, took around 3-4 weeks from when I signed up for an account, to when it was approved. My “public” photos was only viewable by everyone after my account was approved.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cfredericktang