ROWNUM, Random updates and the Alert Log – A trip down Memory Lane

I met up with an old friend recently. Deb and I were in Toronto, hometown of a certain Simon Jennings.
Apart from being a top bloke, Simon was also my first mentor in the mysterious ways of SQL, a sort of Obi-Wan Kenobi to my Anakin Skywalker, but without the light-sabers.

Ah those heady days when the world was young…and I first discovered ROWNUM.
That pseudo column was one I used often when investigating the structure and data within tables. It was also, the source of some confusion.

Oracle External Tables or What I did on my Holidays

This week’s missive is coming to you from the netbook. Deb and I have pushed the boat out this year and we’re currently in Canada for our holiday.
This has nothing at all to do with Oracle External Tables, but does explain the flavour of the examples that follow.