Karthi's Blog

எழுவோம்

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:30:00 +0000

பத்துகோடி பேரிருந்தும் நமது ஒற்றைகருத்தை

எடுத்தியம்பும் சித்தமான தலைமை காணோம் !

திரைச்சித்திரம் எனும் மாயைதனில் தினம் நித்திரை கண்ட

இளரத்தங்கள் யாவும், அறயுத்தம் புறிந்திட விளைந்தோம் !

அரசியல் விடுத்த; அறமும், பொருளும் மென் அறிவியலும்

அடிமைக்கு வித்திட்ட சூத்திரமென்பதை மறவோம்

இடைவந்த மதம்விடுத்து , இடர்தரும் சாதி தகர்த்து

நெறிகூரும் நம் மொழியால் இணைவோம் !

மொழிவெறி

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:35:00 +0000

கல்தோன்றி மண்தோன்றா முன்தோன்றிய எம் மொழியும்
மகாகவி செவிபுகுந்த தேன்மொழியும்
வாழ்த்த, வணங்க மட்டுமின்றி வசைபாட உகந்த செம்மொழியும்
வடமொழியின் படையடுப்பில் பன்மொழியாய் திருயுமாயின்,
வழக்கிழப்புக்கு விதிவிலக்கில்லா மொழிமேல் வெறி - பிழை !

காலபேதம்

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:37:00 +0000

நாளும் நீளும் பகல்

இளவெப்பம் ஏற்றி வரும் காற்று

பருவத்திரிவின் அறிகுறியான கனமழை

கடந்தகாலத்தில் இழந்த ஆடையை

விரும்பி அணியும் மரங்கள்

மரங்களின் முரணாய் கல்லூரிப் பெண்கள்

மறித்திருந்த மாக்கள் யாவும் உயிர்த்தெழ

மறைந்திருந்த மக்கள் யாவரும் வெளிவர

இப்படியாக .. நான்,

இப்பிரபஞ்சத்தின் தகவல் கட்டமைப்பை வியந்து,

வசந்தத்தின் வருகையை நோக்கி !!

புலம்பெயர்ந்த சிந்தனை !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:16:00 +0000

நளவெண்பா பயிலவேண்டாம்

நன்னூல் நவிலவேண்டாம்

குறளேதும் அறியவேண்டாம்

பகுத்தறிவு பகலவேண்டாம்

அறிவியல் அறிய வேண்டாம்

ஒழுக்கமேதும் இருக்கவேண்டாம்

சமுதாய சிந்தனை வேண்டாம்

மனிதமென்று ஒன்றும் வேண்டாம்

ஆனால் ...

கடல்தாண்டிய பணி வேண்டும்

கைநிறைய பணம் வேண்டும்

தமிழறிந்த மடந்தை வேண்டும்

நம்வழி மறக்க வேண்டும்

பிறர்வழி நடக்க வேண்டும்

வந்தேரியாய் வாழவேண்டும்

வளர்த்த மண்ணை வசைபாடவேண்டும்

இருந்தும் …

தம்மக்கள் தமிழ்பேச வேண்டும்

உடன்படா இவ்வாழ்க்கை விட்டு

என்றேனும் திருநாடு திரும்பவேண்டும் !!

காலாவதிக்க !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:04:00 +0000

காதல் தவிர பிற

பாடுபொருள் அறியா

தற்க்கால தமிழ் கவிஞர்களே ,

"காலாவதி" தவறியதா உம் அகராதி ?

இஃதிலா கடவுளர்களும் இல்லை

காதலென்ன , வெறும் கருமம் தானே !

காலாவதியின் கரு அறிவான் ஞாணி

அதனின் காலாவதி பகர்பவன்

கற்பனை புனையும் கவிஞனே!!

ராவணன் !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:47:00 +0000

மணி, ரத்தினம், வைரம், முத்து....
மேற்கண்ட இந்நான்கும்
இரநிரண்டே தனி சேர்ந்து
பின் அவை இரண்டும் ஒரு சேர்ந்த
பல படைப்பில் வியப்படைந்து,
புது பரிமாணம் அளிக்குமோ ?? இவர்களின் தற்கால படைப்பு
என்கிற எதிர்பார்ப்பின் விளிம்பில் !!

A Cliché !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:58:00 +0000

"It’s been a while since I’ve written a post"
This has unintentionally become the preface to many of my recent posts. Blogging, for me, is one of the best ways to organize and reflect on the information stored in my mind. Learning isn’t just about reading, listening, or watching—it’s about absorbing and understanding. A common misconception is that learning ends with knowing facts or statistics. However, real comprehension begins when we actively organize what we’ve learned, whether mentally or through an external medium. Blogging serves as that bridge, helping to crystallize subconscious knowledge into conscious understanding.
I believe blogging should happen whenever inspiration strikes. Delaying it risks diluting the essence of what we want to express. There have been countless moments, thoughts, and experiences that sparked the urge to write. Unfortunately, many of these ideas slipped away, lost in the chaos of poor time management and my ever-shifting interests.
Posts like "Time and Space," "The Science Behind Booking Tickets on IRCTC," and "Abstraction is Amazing" are just a few examples of ideas that bloomed briefly in my mind but withered away before I could capture them.
The rise of microblogging platforms like Twitter has made it easier for bloggers—but also lazier. While Twitter offers a convenient way to share quick thoughts, it can unintentionally hinder thoughtful, long-form writing. The brevity of tweets makes it tempting to express ideas instantly, but it often robs us of the opportunity to reflect and write meaningful posts. Mobile access further encourages these bite-sized updates, leaving little room for well-planned blogging.
It’s easy to find external factors to blame for such missed opportunities. But upon reflection, I realize that the core issue lies within me.
What I need most now is discipline.

Google’s Milestones in 2 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:06:00 +0000

Time constraints made me to blog less and tweet more. But I am still consciously trying to pen-down my thoughts. I believe that “ Google is the best thing that has happened to us in this 21st Century”. I would say, it is analogous to “Inventing Wheel” or “Understanding structure of human DNA”. We can talk about the array of services provided by Google, but we couldn’t find our time enough for doing so.

This video enumerates the milestones of Google in 2 minutes.

Source: youtube

Gmail - Dockable Labels

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Google came up with new docking features in Labels of Gmail. Inspite of clear and lite interface, Gmail users were complaining the difficulty involved in archiving or grouping related mails using folders. It was partly due to the fact that most user were novice in using labels or more accustomed to folders provided by yahoo. To elucidate this, Gmail introduces “move to” option in Gmail. This feature allowed us to simply select mails and choose the labels under which we need to group or archive it. Yesterday moving one step ahead in imparting simplicity in Gmail interface, it has introduced a dockablity of mails into labels. In other words, simply you can drag and drop mails into labels, virtually folders. Dockability has eventually turned this labels in to folders.

Additionally, we have options to set the visibility of each labels under “manage labels” settings. It provisions us to disable infrequently used labels and default options like All Mails and Sent Mails which make the interface hassle free and simple. We can drag any label and drop in to different part of the browsers which levitate your label fly back into its position. Web User Interface is evolving right?

Dockable Label

Users, who are getting screwed with heavy mail clients like Lotus Notes are happy to use MS Outlook and open sources like thunderbird. Google is a phase of introducing all adorable features of latest email client in its interface. I guess it may gradually get in to the race of developing a new mail client as they have developed arguably the fastest browser chrome.

Google is the best thing that has happened for us in this information era.

முரட்டுகவி முரளி !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:33:00 +0000

மும்பை மாநகரம் எனக்கு தந்த முத்தான நண்பர்களில் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கவர் முரளிதரன். தமிழ் ஆர்வமும், சமுதாய சிந்தனையும் மிக்க முரளி பழகுவதற்கு இனியவர். எங்களது உரையாடல் சினிமா , அரசியல், ஆன்மிகம் என்று தினசரி போல பல பரிமானம் கொண்டிருக்கும்.

ஒரு சமயம் "திருமணம் செய்ய சரியான வயது" என்பதை பற்றி விவாதிக்கும் போது, வது ஏற ஏற பக்குவம் வரும் .. ஆனா..ரெம்ப வயசான எதுவுமே வராதுன்னு சொல்லி முடித்த பிறகு, இரண்டு நிமிடம் ஆனது எனது சிரிப்பை அடக்க. இயற்கையாகவே தனக்குள்ள மொழி ஆர்வத்தை கவிதை எழுதி தீர்ப்பது இவரின் சிறப்பு. இதோ உங்கள் பார்வைக்கு ஒரு மாதிரி, இதன் உட்கரு காதல் எனினும் இவர் பயன்படுத்தும் தமிழ் சிறப்பு!!

/*****************************************/

காளை நான்

காதலை கூறிய போது

கருத்தில் கொள்ளாது

கருப்பாய் இருக்கிறேன் என்றாய்

கேவலமாய் …

பைத்தியகாரி !!

புரிந்துகொள்வாய்

புறக்கணித்து தவரென்று

உன்னிடம் வெறுப்பாய்

நடபோரிடம் நான்

நெருப்பாய் கொதிக்கும் போது

மட்டுமல்ல

நீ தவறாய் முள்ளைக்

கடக்கும் போது நான்

செருப்பாய் வரும்போது கூட ...

-- முரட்டுகவி முரளி

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எங்களது மற்றொரு நண்பர் முஹமது , இவர் கவிதை யதார்த்தத்தை எடுத்து உரைப்பவை. முகமதின் "மொக்கை கவி" என்ற புனைபெயருடன் தனது படைப்புகளை எழுதி வருகிறார். இவ்வாறன வித்தியாசமான கவிதைகளை தங்கள் சிந்தனையில் மட்டுமே இயற்றி, வெளிஉலகிற்கு தர தயங்கும் தமிழர்களுக்கு இவர்கள் விதிவிலக்கல. இதனை வெளியட தயங்கும் காரணமும் விளங்கவில்லை. இவர்கள் இயற்றும் பண்ணும், பாடலும் இனி இங்கே இடம்பெறும். முரட்டுகவியும், மொக்கை கவியும் சிறந்த தமிழ் படைப்புகளை நமக்கு அளிப்பார்கள்.

குத்திக் காட்டியது - என் தமிழ்

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:20:00 +0000

நிழலின் அருமை வெயிலில் தெரியும் ! இதை நம்மில் பலர் அறிவோம் ஆனால் உணர்ந்தோமா என்பது தனி மனிதரை பொருத்தது. சில நேரங்களில் நாம் படித்து அறிந்த பொருளை பகுத்து உணரும் சூழ்நிலை அமையும். அது

பிறர் எடுத்து உரைக்கும் போதோ
தீவிர சிந்தனையின் போதோ
ஏதேனும் படிக்கும் போதோ

இவ்வாறாக பல சமயங்களின் போது நிகழலாம். அண்மையில் வாசித்து உணர்ந்தது ....இதோ உங்கள் பார்வைக்கு

/************************************************/

தாத்தாவின் மூக்குக் கண்ணாடி
கை தவறி விழும் முன் சொன்னேன்
'Sorry ' தாத்தா என்று …!

தூங்கும் போது கழுத்து வரை
போர்த்தி விடும் கருணை - தூக்கத்திலும் சொல்வேன்
'Thanks ' ம்மா என்று …!

நாளை நண்பனின் பிறந்த நாள் - இன்றே
வாழ்த்து அட்டையில் எழுதினேன்
'Happy Birthday da' என்று …!

காலையில் நாளிதழ் படிக்கும் பொழுது எதிர் வீட்டுக்காரர்
அவர் சொல்லும் முன் முந்திக் கொள்வேன்
'Good Morning Uncle' என்று …!

கோயிலில் பத்தாம் வகுப்பு சிநேகிதி கணவனுடன்
அவள் பேசும் முன் முடித்துக் கொள்வேன்
'Hai' என்று …!

மாலையில் கடற்கரையில் என்னவள் - மணலில்
அவள் விரல் பிடித்தே எழுதுவேன்
'I Love You' என்று …!

இரவில் …
வீட்டிற்கு செல்லும் வழியில் - காலை
குத்தியது முள் …
'அம்மா' என்று அலறினேன்

குத்தியது முள்ளில்லை - என்னை
குத்திக் காட்டியது - என் தமிழ்

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Distant Measurement Tool from Google

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:01:00 +0000

Today, I was checking for some new features from Google Services. Own map creation tool embedded with Google Maps allowed me to add my home from Madurai in My map. While searching for options on the left pane, I found an interesting link named Distant Measurement Tool. I clicked over it. It has equipped me with location balloons for measuring distance. I have placed two location balloons in the map and it has printed the distance between the points and a drop down with different units of measurement. I was amused to to see this feature. Also I have tested the tool by measuring distance between my home and nearest ATM centre.

On changing the displayed units, the measured distance will be converted to the new unit selected. I think, considering the variety and range of people, who are accessing the map, they have listed all possible units to measure length. During my college days, I use to jog around Teppakulam couple of times daily. I thought it was awesome, considering the stamina and energy required. Gradually it had extended to long conversation, sometime debate, with my bro regarding Teppakulam’s perimeter. I guessed it was 1.5 Km, he use to deny it irrespective of whatever I said. So It had become a long term ambition to measure the perimeter of Teppakualm. Though we had an option of doing it with odometer of our motorcycle, I was not convinced with its accuracy. Today Google makes it possible with its immaculate image processing algorithm. Finally Google has measured it as 1181.94 m.

Measuring Teppakulam’s Perimeter

I left you guys to explore the other features available in Google Map.

Oracle Trace Files

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:39:00 +0000

Guys! As a software engineer, you need to be ready to work around the clock, and equally prepared to sit idle for weeks, even months.

Throughout most of my career, I’ve experienced the former—non-stop work. But in the past couple of months, I found myself in the latter, far more boring phase. Luckily, I recognized it early on and discovered a remedy for this monotonous stretch. That remedy, my friends, was “Installation and Configuration of MetaSolv.”

I must admit, installing MetaSolv M6 from scratch was a real challenge. One of the most valuable lessons I learned along the way involved Oracle Trace Files. Although MetaSolv includes a trace option, I had to use Oracle’s native trace feature to troubleshoot some privilege issues.

What is Trace in Oracle?

Trace is a feature in Oracle that logs the smallest details of a session. When enabled, it generates trace files with the extension “.trc.” These files follow a standardized naming convention:


DB_NAME_ORA_SID.trc

DB_NAME: Global database name
SID: Session ID

Example:


mssdev_ora_2308.trc

Enabling Trace

Trace can be enabled at the session level, either through an ALTER statement or by using the DBMS_SUPPORTpackage.

Example:

sql
ALTER SYSTEM SET trace_enabled = TRUE;  -- Enable trace  
ALTER SYSTEM SET trace_enabled = FALSE; -- Disable trace

If you want to enable tracing for another session, use the DBMS_SUPPORT package.

sql
SQL> desc dbms_support  
 Element                 Type  
 ---------------------- ---------  
 PACKAGE_VERSION         FUNCTION  
 MYSID                   FUNCTION  
 START_TRACE             PROCEDURE  
 STOP_TRACE              PROCEDURE  
 START_TRACE_IN_SESSION  PROCEDURE  
 STOP_TRACE_IN_SESSION   PROCEDURE

The last two procedures allow you to start and stop tracing for any session in the database. Below is an example of enabling trace for all active sessions of a specific user using a BEGIN-END block.

Example:

sql
BEGIN  
  FOR c IN (SELECT s.sid, s.serial#  
            FROM   v$session s  
            WHERE  s.username = 'ASAP' AND s.status = 'ACTIVE')  
  LOOP  
    dbms_support.start_trace_in_session(c.sid, c.serial);  
  END LOOP;  
END;

To stop tracing, use:

sql
dbms_support.stop_trace_in_session(c.sid, c.serial);

Sample Trace File

Below is an excerpt from a sample trace file:

yaml
=====================================================================
Dump file c:\oracle\admin\mssdev\udump\mssdev_ora_2308.trc  
Wed Feb 18 13:01:42 2009  
ORACLE V9.2.0.1.0 - Production  
vsnsta=0, vsnsql=12, vsnxtr=3  
Windows 2000 Version 5.1 Service Pack 2, CPU type 586  
Instance name: mssdev  

Redo thread mounted by this instance: 1  
Oracle process number: 15  
Windows thread id: 2308, image: ORACLE.EXE  

*** SESSION ID:(9.23) 2009-02-18 13:01:42.000  

PARSING IN CURSOR #2 len=79 dep=0 uid=73 oct=3 lid=73 tim=259898785365 hv=4060294543 ad='1cd62f00'  
SELECT global_name FROM global_name  
END OF STMT  
PARSE #8:c=15625,e=17422,p=0,cr=2,cu=0,mis=1,r=0,dep=0,og=4,tim=2592960232  
BINDS #8:  
EXEC #8:c=0,e=1358,p=0,cr=0,cu=0,mis=0,r=0,dep=0,og=4,tim=2592968343  
=====================================================================

Every line in a trace file contains statistics. These statistics help decode session details. For example:

PARSE: Displays cursor length (len=79), user ID (uid=73), and parse time (tim=).
C: CPU time
E: Elapsed time
P: Number of database blocks read
CR: Consistent mode blocks read
CU: Current mode blocks read
MIS: Number of library cache misses
R: Number of rows fetched
OG: Optimizer goal (1 = all_rows, 2 = first_rows, 3 = rule, 4 = choose)

Understanding the Trace File

Trace files provide a detailed view of each session, including:

The client used for execution
Time and resources required for query execution
The number of rows fetched, along with the optimizer goal

Reading trace files gives valuable insights into session performance, query optimization, and resource usage. For more information, you can explore Oracle’s documentation on trace file output formats.

This version retains the technical depth and structure of the original while improving clarity, consistency, and readability.

Daddy Is Back!!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:50:00 +0000

The title is inspired by Mr. Barney, a man known for his catchy phrases, whose grandiloquent speech has left an impression on me—despite often being peppered with cheesy adjectives.

It’s been a couple of months since I last wrote a post on Fundamentalism. Time, an extraordinary force in our existence, takes us through its phases without any conditions or expectations. In these past two months, I’ve experienced a blend of both good and bad moments—but, in the end, they are all just perceptions.

There were several thoughts and incidents along the way that stirred my urge to write. However, I found myself struggling to weave those ideas into posts of the quality I aspire to, with a seamless and coherent flow. Reading articles from The Economist and The Times of India has been inspiring, but it also kindled a desire within me to write posts of even higher standards.

A recent addition to my bookshelf has been a profound source of wisdom. Not only has it enriched my English vocabulary, but it also delves into the physics of existence, challenging conventional understandings of life itself. I hope that my upcoming posts will reflect the exciting ideas I’ve encountered and the insights I’ve gained.

With our six senses, life is a journey that oscillates between agony and ecstasy, and it’s truly fascinating to contemplate its complexities.

Let this post be my starter for this new season of blogging. :)

Fundamentalism is Lethal !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:37:00 +0000

This post could be an extension of my previous post and eventually I could have titled it as Rusticating Part II, but intensity of my musings on unpalatable happenings around our world has made me to change the post’s heading.

Today, terrorism and its inhumane atrocities occupy most part of our dailies and weeklies. You could give an endless list starting from Kashmir issue & Tamil Elam Issue in Indian sub-continent to Israel-Palestine issue in middle east. Irrespective of geography, ethnicity and culture, the root case for these outrage is fundamentalism. Let me explain my understating of “ How fundamentalism leads to ruthless outrage?”

“Comparison” is a very basic quality, which human beings possess and uses it in all aspects of life. It gets surfaced in our minds when parents compare us with our counterparts in neighborhood. It is an undeniable fact that “comparison” is a primary dimension of sixth sense, which helps us in analyzing scenarios and making decisions. But, we humans use “comparison” the other way around. World clouded with insecurities, instigates people to compare them with others in terms of language, race, color complexion, geography (lets call these as attributes) etc to identify the aspects in which they are better than others to feel a sense of security. Its very human… right? This process has been fueled by hard core belief on one’s culture that we call as fundamentalism. Evilness of “comparison” comes out in the process of glorifying ones attributes people are naturally inclined to show disdain to others. People do this unintentionally as they get involved in the act. Sub-conscious mind of human beings executes the comparison process with “disrespect” as a weapon. Consequently, mutual disdain and disrespect between groups of people hampers the harmony in social living and ultimately make their co-existence impossible.

It is evident that these kind of thoughts are predominant with narrow-minded people. But the prevailing situation across the world concludes that more communities and its leaders are vulnerable for this “comparison”. It gives them a sense of pride, security, holiness or whatever terminologies which give them a belief that they are superior (indirectly secure). This happens at every level; between two villages in a district, between two states of a country and eventually between two countries and religion. In recent times, India is witnessing results of these fundamentalism in forms communal riots and cross border terrorism. So border issues, communal problems and terrorism are derivatives of fundamentalist thoughts endorsed by extremist act.

If you take any issue as an example, both sides (involved) can list innumerable points to justify or rationalize their stand, supported by historical data and sentiments of people. In fighting for the cause of unreal attributes, people forget the basics of life i.e LIVING. Yes, solution should be derived, but, by considering the fact that people in the concerned region are born to live.

“Comparison” is natural and a quintessential part of life. It separates us from animals. The good or evil depends on how we decipher the result of comparison; either with narrow-mind to cause social disintegration or with open-mind to cause social harmony. Life with no disdain for anyone, open minded thinking, social tolerance, non-fundamentalist leadership would improve the social harmony and make this world a place to live.

சிந்தனையை தூண்டிய கவிதை !

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:58:00 +0000

நேற்று, பொழுதுபோக்குவதற்கு கூகுளின் உதவியை நாடினேன். எங்கிருந்தோ வந்த தமிழ் கவிதை ஆர்வமும், கூகிளின் நேர்த்தியும் கீழே இடம்பெற்றுள்ள கவிதைபக்கத்துக்கு எடுத்து சென்றது. பல ஆண்டுகளுக்கு பிறகு சிந்தனை மிகுந்த ஒரு கவிதை படிக்கும் வாய்ப்பு கிட்டியது. இதோ உங்கள் பார்வைக்கு அந்தக்கவிதை …

நன்றி கூடல் தளம்

Diagnosing Oracle Database Performance

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:36:00 +0000

RDBMS has been my area of interest for the last couple of years and mainly I have been working on improving performance of oracle database by tuning queries, writing sql scripts for load monitoring and killing blocking locks. I joined my project as a novice in database before two years and faced lot of challenges in maintaining a database centric application called Metasolv. I have compiled the steps involved in troubleshooting and diagnosing performance of an oracle database (DB).

Identify Users With Maximum Active Sessions

Applications use to create sessions with database using drivers like JDBC/ODBC for executing the statements( queries, DDLs, DMLs etc). “Users” are DB objects used for creating sessions. We can identify the number of active sessions for every users connected to the DB using the following query.

select substr(s.username, 1, 18) username,
       substr(s.program, 1, 15) program,
       count(1) session_count
from v$session     s,
       v$process     p,
       v$sql         q
where s.paddr = p.addr and
          s.status = 'ACTIVE' and
       s.sql_address = q.address
       and p.BACKGROUND is null -- exclude oracle process
group by substr(s.username, 1, 18) ,substr(s.program, 1, 15)

USERNAME             PROGRAM           SESSION_COUNT
------------------    ---------------         ----------------
KARTHI                sqlplusw.exe                1
MSLV                  DbUser                       8
REPORTS             busobj.exe                  2

“PROGRAM” column gives us the client used by users for connection.”DbUser “ indicates session created within the db itself. Pick the user with erratically high session count and drill down into minute details by following these steps.

Identifying Time Consuming Queries

This step involves measurement of time taken by queries, which are executed by user we identified in the previous step. From result-set identify the maximum time consuming queries.

For example, lets take the “REPORTS” user for proceeding further.

select distinct v.sid,
                v.serial#,
                s.sql_text,
                trunc(v.last_call_et / 60, 2) minutes,
                trunc(v.last_call_et / 3600, 2) || 'Hr' Hours,
                v.logon_time
from   v$session v,
       v$sql     s
where v.username = 'REPORTS' and
       v.status = 'ACTIVE' and
       v.sql_address = s.address
order by 4 desc;

SID    SERIAL# SQL_TEXT   MINUTES        HOURS          LOGON_TIME

----    -------      ---------      -------          -------       ---------------

940    19336        VIEW_SQL    0.15            0Hr     12/5/2008 12:01:27 PM

The output shows the list of SQLs and the time, i.e how long the SQL is executing and the logon time. Please note the time in minutes and hour are same time but displayed in different units. I replaced the actual SQL by VIEW_SQL text to make the output legible. Pick the query with maximum minutes and tune it using different optimization techniques.

Performance from Lock Perspective

Performance of databases can also be affected due to unavailability of resources. Exclusive lock is the primary reason for unavailability of resources. You can see a descriptive view on oracle locks, an older post from my blog. Still I would like to write down the method of finding waiting locks and its associated details like SQL, users involved, time taken, client details etc.

Identify the waiting locks using this query.

select s.osuser, s.machine, s.sid,s.serial#, s.username, s.LOCKWAIT,
       trunc(s.last_call_et / 60, 3) minutes
from   (SELECT /*DECODE(request,0,'Holder: ','Waiter:') ||*/
         sid sess,id1,id2,lmode,request, type
        FROM   gv$lock
        WHERE (id1, id2, type) IN (SELECT id1,
                                           id2,
                                           type
                                    FROM   gv$lock
                                    WHERE request > 0)
        ORDER BY id1,
                  request) inn,
       v$session s
where inn.sess = s.sid;

OSUSER MACHINE SID SERIAL# USERNAME LOCKWAIT MINUTES

-----------    ----------     ---    ------      ---------      --------------                   -------
    KARTHI   01HW165315     15     6463      MSLV                                         0.183
    KARTHI    01HW165315    471    19501    MSLV    7000001788E9010            0.133

The result set shows that the session with sid 15 is locking an object which cause the session with sid 471 to wait for the same object. The session (15) is holding the object for 0.183 minutes and the session (471) is waiting for 0.133 minutes.

You can get more details of the session (SID) using the following query.

select do.object_name,
       dbms_rowid.rowid_create(1,
                               ROW_WAIT_OBJ#,
                               ROW_WAIT_FILE#,
                               ROW_WAIT_BLOCK#,
                               ROW_WAIT_ROW#) "rowid"
from   v$session   s,
       dba_objects do
where s.sid in (15) and
       s.ROW_WAIT_OBJ# = do.object_id;

OBJECT_NAME                       rowid

-------------------         ------------------
ONE_STATUS_SERV    AAARRlAATAAAAAAAAA

Using the object name and the rowid you can find out the row which has been locked. Reasoning the locks and its types will give us insight of the application’s architecture. After understanding the root cause of the lock you can make the necessary code or architecture changes to avoid locks and there by giving assured performance.

Note: I recon readers to refer oracle documentation for description of all data dictionary views. Also I request the readers to leave their comments on my post which would be a feedback (positive or negative) for me.

Rusticating Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:16:00 +0000

As I mentioned earlier, my desire to decipher the experience on vacation to Madurai made to write this post. Since I am from a domestic project, I was fortunate enough to get a long vacation of two weeks. As I landed, I felt the conducive vicinity around me in forms of language spoken and people’s faces which I am missing for the last couple of years. Simply you could describe it as the summit of nostalgia. Life in Mumbai gave me the opportunity to witness the mammoth infrastructure in terms of roads, apartments, railways, water supply etc. I wondered "We were staying in such a small city !!" as I headed toward my home at Annanagar. Roads were pretty narrow with negligible traffic, which obviates the need for its wideness. From the station, I travelled to home by the so called "City bus", which I would never like to miss whenever I go to my home town. Mumbai-life at the back of my mind and Madurai-life in front of my eyes drag my mind to a comparison between the city I love and the city I live now.

Though detailed plan of rustication had not been made, I had a rough to-do list like meeting friends; discussing with professors ; meeting relatives and of course to eat the delicious meal prepared by mom at home.

Metro-cities like Mumbai have strong affinity towards the western life, where things like personal life, opinion & desire, financial security, job satisfaction are having ultra high priority. For getting these, people are ready to compromise anything and they rationalize their act in the name of “growth”. Recently I read, in In Spite of Gods , that only the society, which urbanize rapidly will be able to grow constantly by providing jobs to all common people. But the recent economic melt down defy this. Even a small crisis on any one of the industry or business sector in the global village creates its amplified repercussion on all possible business and industry there by affecting all class of people. Though we cannot deny the fact that urbanization fueled to exponential growth, equally we should accept that urbanization has increased the vulnerability of our economy for external factors( i.e a business carried out across the boundaries). I am going off the topic.. right?. So the point is, urbanization is good for an extent, but madly following the same would jeopardize our financial stability at times of economic crisis like “Credit Crunch”. Personally I feel, we need to encourage more variety of industry or business as we have to achieve heterogeneity in our business. Amuck westernization would be a barrier for creating a heterogeneity in our business.

After spending couple of days in home I had visited our college for meeting the professors. I was able to visualize some changes in the college, which was on its way to lose the reputation it had. The “university issue” had already segregated the stake holders of the college into group of islands. I felt a sense of insecurity prevailing among the college staffs when I had interacted with them. Our college needs better infrastructure, high profile professors, better course work and all these could be possibly achieved through funds. Perhaps this could be the reason why the agenda of “ The university creation” has been put forth by the management. But you know, there are always two sides for a coin. As an alumni I want a fair decision to be taken by considering all the possible inputs and analyzing all possible pros and cons.

As a part of the vacation I had travelled towns, villages and cities to meet uncles, aunts cousin brothers, cousin sisters, nephews etc. Really nice to be a part of a big family, huh ! I had wonderful time meeting school and college friends especially Vignesh, Reuben, Sathya and Arun (Muthu and Pras were missing). I still remember those penultimate days of our semester exams, when we (me Pras and Reuben) mock at each other in the name of “Preparing for exams”. Amid the vacation, a new fragrance of thoughts on society, culture, economy and politics blossom in my mind. It was quite peculiar compared to thought history dominated by electronics and computers. With all these memories I was getting ready to catch the train towards Mumbai.

On My Way To Rusticate

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Everything was set for my trip to Madurai after a long gap of six months. As planned Gary and I went half hour early to catch Madurai Express, which was about to depart from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus(LTT). My past experience with second class sleeper has provoked me to go for three tire AC car. As we were trying to settle by finding place for our luggage and in search of some amicable co-travelers, we met Maheshwaran, a voluble, outspoken and a typical tamilian. Knowing the fact that a ticket cancelled by us in penultimate day of our journey enabled him to get his ticket confirmed had made us good friends. Mahesh introduced him as a Deputy Engineer from Essar, a premier oil refinery in India. I thought his fluency in Hindi might be a reward for his outspoken nature and amount of time he might have spent in north India. We were accompanied by a Marathi family, who were embarking a tour to south Indian cities like Kodaikanal, Madurai and Kanyakumari.

I was amazed by Mahesh’s ability to gel easily with strangers. But his wit fullness in cracking joke might made it possible. Eventually he had made the long journey easy by giving us a good company and explaining the concepts involved in process of oil formation from fossils. He went on explaining structure of tectonic plates and how it helps in trapping oil in between the layers of earth. We exchanged common problems, prides and gossips that all south Indians come across after being migrated to northern part of our country. It gave me a sense of relief after sharing my thoughts in my mother tongue on topics varying from Raj Thackeray to world Economic crisis. Our discussion was intensively thoughtful when we talked about different cultures prevailing in Mumbai and different languages we learned in our journey from home and interesting similarities among them. Our synchronized frequency of thoughts had created a good chemistry between us, which made our journey an enjoyable one. Mahesh’s desperation to help the Marathi family in making them understand the fact that Dindigul is near to Kodaikanal than Madurai and arranging a cab for travelling from Dindigul to Kodaikanal was really remarkable. He finally signed-off with a smile at Trichy station, where he was picked by his brother.

Our compartment was almost empty after Dindigul, after which we met a person who was in his early 50’s. He introduced himself as a railway employee from Andhra Pradesh and he was going to meet his son, who was working in Honeywell Madurai located at the campus of our college. Within a couple of minutes after our introduction he enquired about my package and started comparing his son’s package. Somehow I had managed not to show my embarrassment. But his knowledge on current affairs has amused me to continue our conversation. He was worried about Biharis dominance in Southern Railways and concerned about people who are getting railway jobs with mere political support and less technical knowledge or merit. We discussed about steps Mr.Lalu had taken to improve Indian railway as a profit yielding organization and in the conversation I understood the fact that 70% of revenue for Indian railways comes from goods train. Besides he expressed his dream of making his son an IAS officer. Especially People from Andhra have lot of passion for civil service; without which guys like Charan won’t quit a high-paying job for preparing for Indian civil service entrance exam.

I reached Madurai exactly after 36 hours of boarding from Mumbai. It was exciting to see my people and city again. This time my stay in Madurai provoked thoughts on my society, economy and culture. Hopefully I will pen those thoughts in near future.

Sourav – A Determined Leader !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:30:00 +0000

After twelve years of international cricket, Sourav Ganguly, a flamboyant left handed opener from Kolkata has called “Its day”, before the hyped four-match test series against the Oz. Sourav, who has been known for his ability to pierce the offside field and timing the ball with perfection will be playing his last four match against Australia in the next 30 days. As a captain he has taken the Indian team from “bunch of lazy batsmen” to a “rich blend of talented youths”. As a rhetoric leader he has been respected in the team as a captain and a senior player. By taking India to the 2003 World cup final and remarkable Test Series victories outside sub-continent, arguably he is the best captain India has ever produced. Yesterday once again he set standard by announcing his retirement from cricket for giving way to the young talents in the country.

Sourav was predominantly a batman in earlier stages of his carrier. His ability to score runs consistently at the top of the order gave balance in batting order for the Indian team, which was suffering from lack of skilled openers in 1996 world cup in the sub-continent. Rahul once complimented Sourav as “next to God on the offside”. Geoffrey Boycott, the notorious English commentator, praised him as a “gifted timer” of the cricket ball. Sourav’s name has been appended in the list of Indian star batsmen, which was having only the name of Sachin for almost a decade. His cricketing skills enthralled crowds across the country and earned him respect and love among the sentimental Indian fans.

He got the opportunity to lead the Indian side when Sachin stepped-down as captain after the 2000 Australian tour debacle. He had transformed himself from a player to a great leader. Sourav’s decision making; team selection and field setup were widely appreciated by commentators and cricket lovers. He has backed youngsters like Yuvraj, Kaif, Zaheer, Harbhajan and given freedom for them to perform and establish themselves as players. He lead a team with rich blend of experience and youth, which had won the historic Final in Lords against England; victories outside subcontinent; famous test victory at Leeds and first Test series win in England. He is great communicator and extracted the best out of all individuals and created history by beating Australia in their home after 35 years. He was involved in couple of controversies on and off the field, But I personally feel that he is one of the few Indian players, who responded properly to happenings on the field like sledging.

As unanimously happening to all players of the game, Sourav also had been dropped from the team following series of poor show with the bat. In the midst of these humiliations, he had been criticized by Indian media and column writers for his incapability to play bouncers and the deliveries moving away from his bat. He responded to all the criticism by scoring consecutive hundreds in domestic tournaments and county matches, which earned him a place in the national Team when India toured South Africa by 2007. He emerged as a player of the series and sent a strong message to the world that, he was still determined to play cricket with passion. I was really impressed by the comeback from the “prince of Kolkata”. In a post match presentation he said “ It’s all about guts and determination, ” when someone asked about his comeback.

Sourav has been a role model for lot of young emerging players from India. His knowledge and passion for the game is still a valuable resource that BCCI can exploit for betterment of cricket in India. With hefty experience of international cricket, Sourav still has a lot with him to deliver to Indian cricket.

Quick Fix in a Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:29:00 +0000

While writing a blog on Flash tennis, I have embedded the flash tennis game in my blog. I was happy to present this to my readers, but I forgot the fact that this flash file was having an audio playing in the background. So, whenever someone open the site, flash will be loaded and and eventually they will get the sound produced by the flash file. Reader opening my blog from a silent place may get annoyed by the unexpected loud noise. Shankar, one of my friend had experienced this, when he casually opened my pages when he was in a library. I understood the problem when he conveyed the message to me, and the same instigate me to provide an immediate fix for this bug in my writing. Here is the fix,

Download the html code from this Link.
Open a notepad.
Paste this code and save the file with HTML extension
Open the file with a browser you will get the flash tennis.

I have removed the attached flash from my old blog. Shankar’s advice at right time will help me to avoid my readers getting annoyed.

An Adorable Essay !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58:00 +0000

Forwarding mails has become a hobby for some of my friends. Forwarded mail contents are like scintillating series of picture; creating awareness about health; urgent requirement of help; mockery which could be analogous to any recent movie; a wired picture; some time puzzles. Recently I got an interesting mail having an essay written by an IAS exam candidate, It was really a scintillating and gibberish transliteration from his mother-tongue to English. I took sometime for me and Sunil to control our laughing. I am presenting the same to you guys.

Even I am taking efforts to improve my vocabulary for giving my GRE. Who knows ? my analytical writing may be as gibberish as this one to my GRE readers.

Jubilant Federer !!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:02:00 +0000

“I am jubilant, because Federer is jubilant”, these were the words I was murmuring when Federer made a remarkable come back by winning the US open 2008. He has taken his game to a new level of perfection and controlled aggression. After failed to prove his class in the Australian open; out lashed by Nadal in the French Open and unlucky in the epic final at the Wimbledon, Federer also lost his regime of number one spot in ATP tennis ranking after almost four and half years. Because of shear excellence and class he has dominated world tennis for consecutive four years which made media to bestow him the best player ever to play the game.The same media started speculating about the thirteen-time grand slam champion’s down fall so early. Once his unusual calm and uncommon lack of visible frustration has been praised by media and same set of crazy people in the recent past remarked his game as “lack of self-confidence”. But he has given answer to all the question in an unanimous way by winning the US open for the fifth time at Flushing Meadows.

Federer with fifth (consecutive) US Open Trophy

Andy Murray one of strong forehanded emerging player from Scotland was finding difficult to match the 16 time grand slam finalist from Switzerland. Federer started this US Open with average wins, as he progressed further he got his serves stronger and returns accurate. I was able to feel difference in his performance in semifinal against Djokovic. Federer was able to convert all his breakpoint successfully into winners. In the post semifinal press meeting he was asked on, whom would he prefer in the final among Nadal and Murray. He said “I would prefer the trophy”, which showed his desperation to win a grand slam this year. Being a top player for consecutive 230 odd weeks you can't think of an year without any Grand title.

Nadal was lacking his usual agility and endurance in hard court this year. Even though, he won French and Wimbledon he lost in all hard-court tournaments this year. He failed to produce his trademark cross-court return, which earned him vital points in crucial stages of games he played in the past. Murray was too good to beat Nadal in the semis and ready to face Federer in the Final of US open 2008.

Rejuvenated Roger was completely back at his best in final against Murray. He swept opening set by 6 games to 2. Federer game used to be dominated by aces, but contrastingly in the finals he produced only 3 aces but he displayed all-round game by converting 70% of his break point to winners; 70% success by volleying at the nets. He thrust to a 5-0 lead in the final set by breaking the Scot thrice. He was at the peak of his form in the final set producing some unbelievable baseline shots. Finally he won convincingly 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 to become the first man to win US open five times in a row. "It definitely feels great," said Federer afterwards. "This is a very special moment in my career,” he added.

He is one title away from Pete Sampras record of 14 grand slam title. "I'm not going to stop at 13 - that would be terrible!” he said in the after match presentation. Murray said "I had a great tournament but I came up against, in my opinion, the best player ever to play the game today".

Federer would have felt lot better after winning US Open. "I think the French Open loss was brutal, but I got over that one pretty easily, played great on the grass and had a really tough loss at Wimbledon which - you know, I was proud to be part of such a great match, but at the same time it just sort of made me sad not having won that great epic match,” he shared.

Finally he revealed the fact that he was annoyed by media’s comment on his form and performance over the last year. "I mean, I'm a bit disappointed. Sometimes to a point a bit annoyed, because all sorts of crazy people started writing me and trying to reach me, telling me I need some help either mentally or physically. "You're laughing but it's the way it goes. People come out of the closet and think they can start helping me now. It's just a pain.

"For me, this sort of puts them to rest a little bit, and calms down the phones at my parents' a little bit, which I'm happy about”. Federer shines away from the press meet.

Google Chrome is Phenomenal

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:03:00 +0000

One more milestone in Google's history when they have launched the impeccable browser Chrome. I read about Chrome in Times of India yesterday, and I was furious to see how it looks and works. Today as I walked into the office, the first thing I did was download and install the browser Chrome. I feel Chrome resembles Picasa (web album by Google) in look and feel. It opens as fast as a notepad and the interface is also as simple as notepad. Apparently it seems it will beat Opera in speed and response. Importantly it does not have any array of menus or heavy tool bars.
It looks very gentle and light with a simple address bar and tab bar. Controls which are currently active in the browser are automatically highlighted with saffron color, which helps people who predominantly use keyboard rather than mouse. All the menu and options are embedded on the right side of your browser as a drop down menu. It makes your browser spacious to display content of the site your are surfing. Menus are grouped in to two main categories like Control menus and Customize menus.

Snap of Google Chrome

Control menu & Customize Menu

Its left to you to exercise the functions of each menu shown above. Chrome is using the Internet setting of MSIE. Options menu will take you to the proxy setting of IE browser.

Incognito Window

Google does not fail to enthrall people with unique features. It has an option called "incognito window", which will not store the browsing history and they won't leave other traces, like cookies

For Developers
The highlight of the browser for web developers is the developer menu, which allows us to debug the java script of the site we are browsing. Chrome has also provided a console for Javascript and it will help us in checking the Javascript and the Stylesheet (CSS) used in the page. Google has incorporated all the functionality of web-developer plugins provided by firefox inside its browser itself.
Task manager

Chrome handles every tab as a different operating system process, which helps in handling the unresponsive windows separately. It also encapsulate the functionality of one tab from other. So if any tab hangs because of some issue, it won't affect the other tabs performance and evidently allow us to kill it by leaving the others untouched. Chrome also provides a separate task manager for the browser for killing the "not responding" tabs. Task Manager provides you same valuable details like memory consumption and CPU. One step further we can drill memory statistics of the tabs in your browser up to its process nerds.

If you click the stats for nerds in your task manager, it will show you the panoramic details of each process like

Process id
Virtual Memory
Physical Memory
Private and shared split up of each memory.

Stats For Nerds

Chrome is simply a heap of ingenious functionality with unbelievable speed. Its awesome, isn't it?

Addicted to Flash Tennis!!

noreply@blogger.com (Karthikeyan) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:18:00 +0000

Online Flash are really perky.Isn't it ? Especially, if you love a game and failed in finding time to play and enjoy it.You can feed your hunger in playing the flash version of the game. As I was fascinated by Cricket and Tennis, I spent most of my leisure time in either reading about the game or playing it with my friends.Once you become a pro you are subjected to relinquish some of your habits (As I left my habit of "obsession to cricket"). For guys who sacrificed playing games these Flash games are real treat.

There are innumerable sites for online Flash games with attractive graphics and challenging rounds. Best of the pack is Tennis. As Sunil listed we use to play Flash Tennis a lot. It is a game which challenges your speed, accuracy, tactics and knowledge of the game. It provides option for you to set your skill level and your opponents' in terms of Forehand ,Backhand, Serve and Footwork in scale of zero to ten.You can choose an exhibition match for practice and tournament for testing your skills.

This game is reachable with simple Google search for "Flash tennis", but obviously you need to have Internet connection. As most of the employers are blocking URLs like flash and games; you could not enjoy tennis in office leisure hours. This provoked me and Sunil to explore the option of downloading the Flash (SWF) and embed it in an excel sheet.We have succeed in doing this. Hopefully we will explain you elaborately on, how to download and embed flash in an excel in near future. But as of now I am attaching the most amazing Flash tennis game here.Enjoy!!

Embeded Flash has been moved to new location for better User Interface.

Challenge

I would reckon you guys to follow these steps to make it more exciting.

Set 10 for you and 8 for you opponent and try to win 3-0.
Set 10 for both of you and try to win 3-0.
Set 10 to your opponent and 8 to you and try to win 3-0.
Set 10 to your opponent and reduce your rating gradually from 8 to 1 and try to win 3-0 in all possible combinations.

We are now trying to post a 3-0 win with a combination of 10 to opponent and 1 to us.Its really an adorable game to play.