[GLLUG] Re: out of curiosity

Matt Graham danceswithcrows@usa.net
Thu, 14 Mar 2002 14:41:52 -0500


On Thursday 14 March 2002 14:06, Heloise wrote:
> Jo Dillon wrote:
>> Out of curiosity, what exactly are you planning on doing? It
>> takes a brave person to move /into/ the tech field given the state
>> of the economy :)

>    I am Brazilian and have a Law degree. The Law system here is
> totally different and I'd have to basically learn everything over
> again plus I didn't really like law. I chose the tech field because I
> had to pick something :) I know it's tough. But hopefully I'll be
> alright - someday. So far I got the Oracle8i-DBA certification. 

Certification is good.  DBAs are always in demand, it seems.

> Now
> I'm just "playing" with Linux and Oracle at home until I feel ready
> to start looking for an entry-level job. I didn't start yet because I
> know I need some experience, but nobody will hire me *because* of my
> lack of experience, so it's a vicious circle and the only thing I can
> think of is to stay home learning...  That's my story :)

Just getting Oracle installed on Linux requires a bit of heavy lifting. 
 (At least it did back in 2000.)  I recall using strace to find out 
which environment variable the installer wasn't finding.  (Installer 
error message: "An unknown error occurred."  Real helpful, guys.  Why 
not "Could not open file /usr/oracle/foo/bar/nls/default-nls-8859-1"?)
If you can get an Oracle installation running happily on a Linux box, 
that already shows basic competence with Linux.

Anyway, if you want to go the database route, there are lots of things 
you can do.  If you have another machine, try putting an Apache server 
on it, then create a CGI-Perl or PHP page that accesses the Oracle 
database and does something with the data it reads.  If you don't have 
another machine, you can of course do that on your local machine... 
having 2 machines just introduces more complexity, meaning there's more 
stuff to learn.

If you want to work on big databases in the real world, remember that 
lots of them are running on Sparc machines running Solaris.  Linux is 
Unixlike and Solaris is Unixlike, but they're just different enough 
that a bit of Solaris x86 experience may be helpful.  Something to 
think about, though Solaris x86 supports a lot less hardware than Linux 
does, and its install is generally more difficult/less rewarding.

-- 
   Luke, I'm yer father, eh. Come over to the dark side, you hoser.
   -- Dave Thomas, "Strange Brew"
There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see