• Use Statspack to Identify Performance Problems
• OracleWorld Recap
• How to Use Oracle9i's Bitmap Join Index
• A J2EE Community
• News for Nerds

Ian Jones, Senior Consultant at Database Specialists, led an advanced DBA session at the Fall Conference of the Northern California Oracle Users Group entitled: "Using Statspack in Oracle8i and 9i to Identify Problems."

The presentation included an overview of the Oracle-provided Statspack utility, as well as real-world situations where use of Statspack led to timely solutions to database performance problems. More than just another "how to install Statspack," this presentation delves into the more important subject of how to interpret the Statspack report and put the information to use. You can download a copy of Ian's presentation at http://www.dbspecialists.com/presentations.html.

OracleWorld Recap

If you missed OracleWorld the week of November 10-14, 2002, you can check out Oracle's website for keynote highlights, guru chats, and some of the many technical sessions that were presented throughout the week. Check out OracleWorld Online at http://www.oracle.com/oracleworld/online/sanfrancisco/.

How to Use Oracle9i's Bitmap Join Index

Author and database administrator Don Burleson has recently written an overview of how to use Oracle9i's bitmap join index. "Oracle9i has added the bitmap join index to its mind-boggling array of table join methods," Burleson writes, "This new table access method requires that you create an index that performs the join at index creation time and that creates a bitmap index of the keys used in the join." Burleson also writes that, "Oracle has revolutionized index creation by allowing a WHERE clause to be included in the index creation syntax. This feature revolutionizes the way relational tables are accessed via SQL."

To learn more about bitmap join indexes and view SQL query samples, check out Don Burleson's article at http://www.dba-oracle.com/art_builder_bitmap_join_idx.htm.

A J2EE Community

Are you looking for more information about J2EE? You'll find a lot of resources on TheServerSide.com. On the home page, you'll find articles on topics such as an "Overview of XML and Web services Support in J2EE 1.4." You'll also find links to discussion groups, reviews on application servers, book information, and events. Look for it all at http://www2.theserverside.com/home/index.jsp.

News for Nerds

If you are a self-described nerd, you may be entertained by Slashdot.org. Their tagline is "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." The site is full of interesting news bits on science and technology topics. You can also do searches on popular topics such as security, handhelds, hardware, and space. You can check it out at http://slashdot.org/.