Chet Justice

I've been trying to build an image of OBIEE 11g recently, with not much success.

The process is as follows:
1. Fire up big-ass (to me anyway) Windows 2003/8 Server on Amazon.
2. Go through all the security hassle of Internet Explorer to download the software (I've since put it on it's own volume, and then attach that to my instance, so I don't have to do this 300 times)
3. Install 11gR2 database, software only.
4. DBCA to build database.
5. Net Manager to build the listener.
6. Create the weblogic metadata for OBIEE.
7. Install OBIEE.
8. Scream and yell when the configuration doesn't work.

Rinse and repeat 12 times.

I've gotten quite good at it.

Then I ran into this lovely error...TNS-03505: Failed to resolve name
Cause: The service name you provided could not be found in TNSNAMES.ORA, an Oracle Names server, or a native naming service.
Action: Verify that you entered the service name correctly. You may need to ensure that the name was entered correctly into the network configuration.
I went through Net Manager and Net Configuration Manager about 1000 times. You know, instead of actually reading the error.

I thought I needed a Loopback Adapter. I didn't.

I started to go through the files by hand, sqlnet.ora, listener.ora, tnsnames.ora (which I'm much more confident with surprisingly)...it had to be something small.

# tnsnames.ora Network Configuration File:
c:\oracle\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\network\admin\tnsnames.ora
# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

ORACLR_CONNECTION_DATA =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = 127.0.0.1)(PORT = 1521))
   )
   (CONNECT_DATA =
     (SERVICE_NAME = TESTING)
     (SID = TESTING)
   )
 )

LISTENER=(Address=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=127.0.0.1)(PORT=1521))

I name all my sandbox databases "testing." Always have, probably always will. From the command line I issue:

SQLPLUS SYS/TESTING@TESTING AS SYSDBA

(Yes, I know I don't need to specify the user/password@service_name).

Spot it yet?

Could it be that my alias says: ORACLR_CONNECTION_DATA?

Yup, foiled again. ID10T in the house.

This post is almost a direct copy of my reply to the OBIEE EMG mailing list started by Mark Rittman about Initial Opinions on OBIEE 11g?.

I can't say I've had any success installing the software. So far I've tried on XP Pro (VM on laptop) and Server 2008 (AWS instance). I've chosen the Enterprise install each time.

The laptop I can understand, sort of, as it is severely underpowered. 3 GB RAM total for the machine. I understand the integration with WebLogic/Fusion, but it makes it that much more difficult for those starting out to get it up and running on their personal machines. I can still install the database on my laptop; in fact I have 3 or 4 versions (in VMs) on my machine right now. That's nice.

A couple of days ago, I fired up a cloud Windows Server 2008 server with 18 GB RAM. Installed the database. Created the BI metadata (rcu). Finally began the OBIEE install (Enterprise). It failed finally on one of the configuration steps (12 of 13), I believe it was one of the opmnctl processes.

That said, I haven't read the install documents from front to back yet. I have, however, installed a lot of Oracle software over the years, including EM, OAS (10g), etc. I can usually get the software up and running. This is a different beast though and is not for the weak.

I'll eventually read the docs, sooner rather than later.

On the bright side, installing the latest 11g forces people to learn a bit more about the interactions of the database, EM, WebLogic, etc. That's a good thing.

This is more for me since I seem to install it quite regularly.

I've been snagging the SQL from OBIEE query logs (nqquery.log), which doesn't come out too pretty.

So that I don't have to manually format 400 lines of SQL, I created a formatting template. Ctl - F7 and voila!

I do go back in and make small changes, which is why I am writing this. As I scroll down through the file and indent or change code, the GROUP BY clause is auto-generated, which is annoying to me.

To turn it off is easy (if you can remember, which I can't, which is why I write this).

Go to Tools - Preferences then look for Code Editor:



Expand that group and then go to Completion Insight:



Uncheck the box next to the arrow and you're done.

My hope is that in the next version of SQL Developer, we'll be able to call the SQL Beautifuler from the command line. That would be pure awesome.

As you may know, OBIEE 11g was released not too long ago.

I downloaded it the day it was available, and have been trying every since to 1, find the time to install it and 2, not break the install process.

Environment
Guest: Windows XP Professional (an old image I had lying around)
VirtualBox 3.2.8
Host: Ubuntu Karmic Koala
Memory: 1.5 GB

In short, my laptop.

I started with the database, 11gR2 32 bit for Windows. No problems there.

As is my MO, I didn't read the installation instructions the first time I fired up the OBIEE installation. I was quickly met with the database connect string. Easy enough, machine:port:service_name.

What's this? You want a specific user? Bollocks.

I let it rest for a couple of days.

Meanwhile, a colleague asked a question about which database he could use. I asked if a version was specified and then quickly scanned the docs. No specific mention of a version...so I said Oracle XE, no 11gR2, no, XE, no, 11gR2. 11gR2, yeah, that's it.

That's when I finally decided to read the installation instructions...and found out I had missed one of the downloads.



Oh, you mean that one?

The Repository Creation Utility. Interesting.

I had heard that some of the new version would be database driven, I had just assumed (yes, I know about assuming) it was more RPD related (and it still may be).

Anyway, that took all of 15 seconds to install.

Back to the installer...and I don't learn any lessons, I tried to install it from my virtual folder, instead of from the "actual" disk. So, it took 4 times before I finally figured that out.

I copied the zip files to the disk, unzipped them and installed the sucker. By install I mean I am in step 12 of 13, Configuring BI Domain. That's the furthest I have gotten so I'm calling it a success.

Now to wipe the disk and start from scratch.

I got an email today titled, "Your Favorite Movie."

It claims to successfully calculate your favorite movie by picking a number, from 1 to 9, then doing some calculations and applying the result to a list of movies.

Years ago...my first boss, got a similar email and began working through it via SQL. I was very impressed, both by the idea of using SQL and that he could do it in SQL. He was (is) a smart, creative guy.

I'm sure you've seen this one before:Your Favorite Movie

Try this test. Scroll down and do the quiz as it instructs and find out what movie is your favorite. This amazing math quiz can likely predict which of 18 films you would enjoy the most. Don't ask me how but it really works!

Pick a number from 1-9.

Multiply by 3.

Add 3.

Multiply by 3 again.

Now add the two digits together to find your predicted favorite movie in the list of 18 movies below.

Mine was "Gone with the Wind" - exactly right! So be honest, and do it before you scroll down to see the list below. It's easy and it works.How do you do this in SQL? It's not that hard really. First, get 1-9. SELECT from DUAL will accomplish that.

SELECT rownum
FROM dual
  CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 9

Then you just need to apply the calculations. First go, I put the calcs in the outer query:

SELECT rn, ( ( ( rn * 3 ) + 3 ) * 3 ) calc_#
FROM
  (
    SELECT rownum rn
    FROM dual
      CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 9
  )
/

    RN     CALC_#
------ ----------
     1         18
     2         27
     3         36
     4         45
     5         54
     6         63
     7         72
     8         81
     9         90

A pattern jumps out at me immediately...

So I move it to the inner query and use SUBSTR to get each number and then add them together. I am sure there are better ways...this was quick and dirty.

SELECT
  rn,
  SUBSTR( t, 1, 1 ) + SUBSTR( t, 2, 1 ) total
FROM
  (
    SELECT
      rownum rn,
      ( ( ( rownum * 3 ) + 3 ) * 3 ) t
    FROM dual
      CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 9
  )
/

The results reveal the pattern rather quickly.

    RN      TOTAL
------ ----------
     1          9
     2          9
     3          9
     4          9
     5          9
     6          9
     7          9
     8          9
     9          9

Of course #9 is the movie that you would never pick. It's funny though:

1. Gone With The Wind
2. E.T.
3. Beverly Hills Cop
4. Star Wars
5. Forrest Gump
6. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
7. Jaws
8. Grease
9. The Joy of Anal Sex With A Goat
10. Casablanca
11. Jurassic Park
12. Shrek
13. Pirates of the Caribbean
14. Titanic
15. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
16. Home Alone
17. Mrs. Doubtfire
18. Toy Story

I'm not really out in front of this one, but I'll do the obligatory post.

11g was announced back in early July in the UK, followed shortly by an announcement here in the States. Every since then, I'll go to OTN, downloads, OBIEE to see if was generally available. I've done this every day for the past month. On Friday, I did the same thing and 10.1.3.4 was still there. I then got an email from my boss that evening saying it had been released. I guess I can't first for everything.

To download the latest and greatest, go here. The Overview is here. And finally the documentation.

I downloaded it on Friday evening (nerd) but haven't installed it just yet. I'm hoping to get to it this week. I wouldn't say I'm excited...I'm still in my learning phase...so it just means a bit more work. I'm sure it will be fun though.

Mr. Rittman, I believe, has written a book on 11g, which means he's had it for quite some time. Get on over there to see a host of articles pertaining to the new release. I'll start with the New Features section, the install, and probably head on over there.

Many of you know I went through a bit of a family crisis recently. My 5 1/2 year daughter Kate was hospitalized, then put in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and soon after that, put on a ventilator. Not only is it remarkable how fast it all went down but also how fast she recovered. Within a little over 24 hours after being removed from the ventilator, she was sent home.

Over the years, people have asked how I can air my grievances/likes/dislikes/personal stuff/etc openly via this blog. I have never really had a good answer...usually something about taking control of my online persona comes out...

Over these same few years, I've been privately contacted by many people. Some completely random; like recently, a mother who's 1 year old daughter was going in for the first of a few syndactyly surgeries and then others, who read the blog, who have similar family situations (a sick child) or know someone close to them that does.

I've gotten quite a lot out of those encounters...something I would never have been able to get had I just kept to myself.

So here's one argument for putting personal stuff "out there." Support.






















































































In case you weren't counting, there are 83 replies there. A couple of duplicates. Most of you, I have never met in real life.

Pardon my language, but how fucking cool is that? You all rock!

And...were done!

After being moved to a regular room yesterday afternoon and sporting her first smile in a week, today, I'm happy to report, she was sent home!

Doc felt like she would recuperate better at home, and I think he was right.

Not only did I get to hold my baby girl again, I caught her smiling a few times as well. Then the laughing started (though muted, the trauma to her throat from the intubation has made her hoarse).

We had no idea it would happen so quickly. Kris came home, as her parents took over watching Kate, to spend some time with LC. So much needed mommy and son time. As she opened the garage door, she got a call from the doc, telling her to get her arse back there and take her home. It was quite a shock to all of us needless to say. Just yesterday morning she was in the intensive care unit. Wow. She is a stubborn one.

My mom came over and we began to get the house ready for Kate's arrival. Disinfecting everything and picking up the clutter (I had been here by myself for a few days...I'm messy). I swept, mopped and even started some laundry...and I didn't complain once.

Now we begin the road to recovery. Knowing Kate, it will be quick. She doesn't care much for being sick.

I don't know if I can't thank all of you...but please know that your notes, thoughts and prayers for her did not go unnoticed. The Justice family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.

I guess it's a good thing I didn't post anything last night.

I picked up LC from my parent's house and we watched movies last night. He usually stays with my parents when there is a slight worry I'll get a call in the middle of the night to come to the hospital. No more of that...

Kate moved over to the regular hospital yesterday, i.e. out of the intensive care unit. All of the wires and tubes were removed (though some of the ports remain). Kris sent me a note saying she cracked a smile and I was on the road within minutes to witness it myself.

Upon arrival I got a brief smile, which was all I needed.

She is still very groggy...she looks drunk or hungover, and probably is given the volume of drugs she received over the past week. I did manage to get her to walk from the bed to the door, but she was wobbly.

We're obviously thrilled to see her slowly but surely recover. I want my smile back and Kris wants to yell at her some more. In other words, normality.

Thank you again so much for your thoughts and prayers.

No more ventilator! w00t!

After 10 long days of not being able to hold Kate (I was in Chicago for 5), I, we, finally got to hold our precious little girl. She's pretty groggy from all the drugs she has taken and she quickly fell asleep in my arms.

After a couple of days with good stats, doc decided to let her try on her own. As I mentioned last night, she was doing most of the work; the ventilator was only doing 6 breaths per minute.

Her sats (oxygen saturation levels) have remained strong, but after a few visits from friends and family, and probably sheer exhaustion, they began to hover in the low 90's range only occasionally dipping below 90 (that's typically when the alarm goes off). You can probably see a bit of it in the picture, she still has an oxygen mask, but it's a blow-by and doesn't need to be on her face (which she objects to, vigorously). She may still need the nose plug-in variety for delivering oxygen, but she just hasn't needed it yet.

Naturally all this is great news. The support we have received from all over the world (love the interwebs) has been amazing. Thank you all so much.

Wasn't so dark here this evening. Maybe it was because I actually slept today, or that Kate seems to be getting better, who knows and who cares?

She's still on the ventilator, although it's not doing nearly as much work as in the beginning. Her oxygen levels are down to 40% and the breathing rate is set at 6 per minute, which means Kate is doing the rest on her own. Both great signs.

Despite being drugged out of her mind, two things seem to rile her out of her slumber; me and the opening or rustling of plastic bags (i.e. cookies, crackers, candy, whatever...). The result of that is her sitting up, with about 30 tubes through her nose (feeding), mouth, ears (nah, not really her ears) and all the other (good) drugs through various "ports" in her hands, harms...wherever. Have I mentioned she is strapped down to the bed?

Probably not, but she is. I can't help but think she is some sort of violent criminal and the police are just waiting outside for her to wake up so they can take her away. OK, I feel a lot better and I think Kris does too.

Meanwhile, LC has stayed with both sets of grandparents and has been spoiled all week. You should have seen the slurpee that his Abuela got him...it was taller than him.

Anyway, thanks all for your thoughts and prayers. It is very much appreciated.

I had the pleasure of sitting with Kate last night. It was the very least I could do, Kris had been up for 4 days straight and there wasn't really much she could do.

The Darkness
My eyes were red, just from being on the verge of losing all night. Tonight when I showed up, I finally let loose. Not sure why, other than the obvious...

I've had conversations with a few friends about The Darkness in the past. It's not something I intuitively understand, I'm pretty much a happy-go-lucky guy. This shit though...this just isn't right. There is no way that this little girl should have to endure this kind of thing...trying to reconcile that has given me the "darkness." I'm just pissed; pissed that she has to go through this, pissed that it couldn't be me, pissed that I can't enjoy her beautiful smile and laugh, pissed that I can't get a hug...just plain pissed.

It's not rational of course, but who really cares? I'm her father, inherently non-rational when it comes to her. I don't have to be happy-go-lucky now. I can just sit here and watch her...and it's incredibly painful.

The Status
We got results back from her culture, she has a staph infection. It's good news in a way because all of her other pneumonia incidents have been of the viral variety, this one is bacterial, which can usually be treated with antibiotics. The trick is to find the right one.

We have no idea how long Kate will be here, but it won't be a few days, more likely a few weeks. The swing of emotions is difficult, but I, we, will get through.

I can't say it enough, but thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

Day 2 (or day 3 if you use PL/SQL arrays).

Not much has changed since last night. I didn't really want to put this on the front page, but you can see Kate in all her current glory if you click through her picture. Warning, not for the faint of heart.

Kate is finally resting peacefully. After "arguing" with her doctor last night, they finally decided that it was too much. She's intubated, sedated and on the ventilator. Now her body can use the energy she was expending to simply breathe, to actually fight off whatever infection she has.

I am currently on night duty. Kris hasn't slept since Tuesday night (Dave Matthews concert on Wednesday), so I'm giving her a break. Hopefully she's asleep right now resting comfortably knowing I am here.

I'll continue to update as I can. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

While working in Chicago this week, I got a phone call on Thursday from wifey saying that Kate had been up all night coughing. She was taking her to the doctor.

On Friday, back at the doctor, I got the dreaded, "we're on our way to the hospital (via ambulance)" call.

This was around noon. My flight was leaving at 8:15. The 1:50 was booked.

My colleague, who was at home and had just had a baby a couple of weeks ago, looked up some other flights and found one at 5:50 and booked it for me.

While on the plane, Kate was tranferred to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) due to her breathing difficulties.

I arrived at the hospital about 10. No smile from Kate, but she had been calling for me all day (she signs daddy all the time).

I left and all was relatively well. Kate was difficult, who wants that stupid mask on their face?

Today, LC and I (along with many other family members) arrived around 5. Still no smile, but things were stable.

Everyone but me left the room and Kate fell asleep, so did I.

Kris and Granny Kathy (Kate's namesake) came in and Kris immediately noticed a difference in Kate's breathing. The nurse came in, then called the doctor. He arrived and that frightening sight of the entire staff standing outside Kate's room presented...reminded me of 3 years ago immediately.

Doc decided that despite the difficulty she was having, it wasn't necessary to intubate her.

Fast forward another 2 hours, I'm at my parents house with LC, and I get that call...they decided to intubate her.

Ultimately a good decision, we think, but never fun. It's painful and invasive, but probably the best for Kate right now.

The oraclenerd edition.

I think this is the longest stint I have gone without posting since I started, almost 3 weeks now.

It's not that I don't have anything to say...you know better than that. I've actually been super busy.

I've been in Chicago (Rosemont actually) for the past 2 weeks and will be there for the next 4. This follows 8 weeks at home. I guess it all evens out in the end. The client has been awesome in regards to my travel, knowing our situation with Kate, and I'm very appreciative of this...but it's crunch time and I probably should be on-site.

I did 90% of the metadata work, bringing in a colleague late in the game to help offload some of the work. This also means I am at the center of just about every question about the data. I've had a lot of help, especially from some new team members (client side) who came from the DW world. Their research and knowledge of the systems has helped me out tremendously.

Just about any work I do I do at night, when it's quiet. In the office, I am rarely at my desk...which is another reason I have been so quiet here and on Twitter. I do have a cool new phone, the HTC Incredible, but I've hardly learned how to use that thing yet. After lunch on Wednesday...well, actually, during lunch on Wednesday, I was on a conference call on APEX and SSO (yes, outside my current job duties, but I love APEX so want to see it successful) walking back to the office. That led me to hitting up David Peake, the Principal Product Manager for APEX (who lives just 1.5 hours from Chicago) who then pointed me towards Anton Nielsen of C2Consulting for his knowledge in implementing SSO with APEX. I finally passed on Anton's name to the client as I didn't want to be a bottleneck.

The next 3 hours I found myself in meetings or at someone's desk answering questions. I finally sat down at 4. It's fun interacting, but exhausting.

Oh, and the client has definitely learned that they shouldn't let me out of my cage too often. After 8 weeks at home, I was a chatterbox.

Anyway, the initial deployment is on Monday and we will be rolling out fixes shortly after that. Not the ideal of course, but it is what it is.

Hopefully soon, I'll be able to post something informative or at least somewhat interesting. I did finish up my NQQuery.log parser, I just haven't had a chance to do anything with it yet.

You all know Kate right?

We will sometimes call her Katezilla because she has this penchant of running through her brother's elaborately built battle scenes just like Godzilla. It's a thing of beauty, and one day, I'll get it on tape.

Since we visited the Tridas Center a couple of months ago, we have acquired both a behavioral speech therapist and a behavioral therapist. The plain old behaviorial therapist is in-home treatment, the fancier behavioral speech therapist is at an office.

About that same time, my parents (among others) have offered to help us out financially with Kate's medical bills...that is until they saw them. Doh! Rates that would make most of us contractors and consultants blush in envy.

I had been considering it for awhile, but I finally took the first step. A couple of weeks ago I purchased katezilla.com and katezilla.org. I plan on starting a 501c(3) organization so that our family and friends can get something out of any financial help they provide. While I'm at it, T-Shirt sales will go to that same charity (afterall, it was a way to help with costs).

I don't know all the particular rules and regulations just yet, but I'm looking. If you know of anyone (lawyer, accountant) who specializes in charitable organizations that would be willing to volunteer a couple of hours, it would be much appreciated.

What about insurance you ask?

Well, the way Kate was coded, she doesn't qualify for any of these services. Nice huh?

News on the happier front though...I have a friend who works with this guy who has a large, well-connected presence in the Autism community. I asked my friend to ask him if he knew of any resources we could tap. We got a name of someone at USF. I sent the email out around 1 or 2 AM on Friday morning, by the time I woke up, I had a reply. Said person was no longer there, but her boss contacted me. By 11 that morning, Nancy had called me to tell me that Rochelle would be calling us later that afternoon.

Rochelle called around 1...on her day off. She knew and worked with a lot of the summer camps for special needs kids around town providing training and counseling. In fact today, we found an opening at one of those camps.

On Monday, a holiday, we received a phone call from someone else at USF. Another department. That was followed by an email from yet someone else.

Can you say USF rocks?

It's funny, we came from a college town, Gainesville, and we didn't pay much attention to USF. Part of that is probably due to some bad experiences there (at UF). USF has more than made up for that though...all I can say is wow!

We had felt like we stalled there for a little while, now we can barely keep up with the onslaught of USF's help. So nice to be moving forward again...I just hope we can keep up and give back to them half of what they have given to us so far.

As I told the original emailer, we don't mind, "I don't know." Just point us in the direction of someone that might be able to help...USF is pure awesome.

Or the CHAR edition.

A report writer asked me why this report isn't returning any rows. So I brought up the report, ran it, then grabbed the SQL, when I saw this:

AND concat( concat( T364349.DEV_CD, ' - ' ), T359839.DEV_DESC ) = 'DLC        -Developer conflict'

Yeah, that's a bunch of spaces between "DLC" and the "-". Most likely the cause of the problem.

Took a look at the database and sure enough, it was defined as a CHAR(10).

This was already a "view" in that it was a stored SQL statement or Table Type of "Select".

I then added the TRIM function to both the code and the description. I didn't bother to test it because surely, this would work.

Later in the evening I went to the report to see if I could help with a different problem. No data was coming up. I opened it up to all time ranges and all lines of business...nothing.

I asked the dev if he had changed anything today. Nope.

Hmm...

I can "View Data" on the table (with the TRIM). I went ahead and removed it anyway. Now the report works. WTF?

Repeated this process a couple of times just to make sure and that was it. The TRIM function in the SELECT statement was causing issues. No warnings or errors though.

I guess the good news is I learned how the TrimTrailing function in OBIEE works now. It's not just:

TRIMTRAILING( column_name )

like I would have thought, it acts more like a substring:

TRIM( ' ' FROM column_name )

I just love these little things that can drive you nuts.

Yesterday I got to "help" a colleague out with the aforementioned ORA-12705. I had never seen it before and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of information out there, especially in regards to OBIEE.

Here's the definition from the docs:

Cause:
Either an attempt was made to issue an ALTER SESSION command with an invalid NLS parameter or value; or the environment variable(s) NLS_LANG, ORA_NLSxx, or ORACLE_HOME was incorrectly specified, therefore the NLS data files cannot be located.

Action:
Check the syntax of the ALTER SESSION command and the NLS parameter, correct the syntax and retry the statement, or specify the correct directory path/values in the environment variables.

This would occur when trying to import tables into the RPD (OBIEE). First thing that pops up is the Select Data Source screen:



Then this beauty would pop up:



Ultimately the solution that, sort of worked, was here.

Windows - The NLS_LANG must be unset in the Windows registry (re-named is best). Look for the NLS_LANG subkey in the registry at \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE, and rename it.
We tried changing it to what I had in my registry: AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252

That didn't work.

Tried renaming it as the article suggested, that didn't work.

Finally, my colleague (without prompting from me), cleared the key (didn't delete, just blanked it)...and voila!

Last year my post on how to obtain free passes to Oracle OpenWorld usually ended up at or near the top of Google results, I figured I'd do it again for this year's event.

Almost 2 weeks ago I received noticed that I would be attending via the Blogger program. I promise, no theatrics (not going, going, not going) from me this year, I am going. I may be using a service like airbnb (h/t Jake via TechCrunch), I don't really care. I am going.

So, it's not too late to register but if you want to go free (like me), here's what you can do:
- Blogger Program - I don't see any mention of it being closed yet, so give it a go.
- Nominate Your Company for the Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation AwardsHey! Do you use any of these products?

*Oracle application grid products
*Oracle SOA Suite
*Oracle Identity Manager
*Oracle Fusion Middleware with Oracle Applications
*Enterprise 2.0

If so, nominate your company for the Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Awards! If you win, you'll get all of these great prizes:

*FREE pass to Oracle OpenWorld 2010 in San Francisco for select winners in each category. Special honors at Innovation Awards ceremony, held during Oracle OpenWorld 2010 in San Francisco.
*13 meetings with Oracle executives during Oracle OpenWorld 2010
*Oracle Middleware Innovation Award Winner Plaque
*And lots more
- 'Enable the Eco-Enterprise' Awards - added 7/8/2010, h/t IOUG
Is your company using Oracle products to help protect the environment while reducing costs? For example, you may be using Oracle Self-Service E-Billing for paperless invoicing, Oracle Advanced Compression for reduced disk space and power usage, or Oracle's Sun servers for energy efficiency. If so, submit this nomination form for an 'Enable the Eco-Enterprise' award. These awards will be presented to selected customers and their partners (system integrators, consultants, ISVs, etc.) who are using any of Oracle's products to not only take an environmental lead, but also to reduce their costs and improve their business efficiencies by using green business practices.

Added 07/26/2010 h/t leight0nn
- There's now a way through MOS to receive a free pass.
This year, we’re offering a chance to win a free conference pass to Oracle OpenWorld as your reward for sharing documents. Creating a document to share in My Oracle Support Community enters you in the drawing and the information you share will help other members succeed! Write up of the best practices you defined for new implementations based on your past experience, show someone how to avoid a tricky situation, or lay out how you plan for successful upgrades. Areas that are familiar territory for you can be new for your peers. And if you are blazing new trails at your company, someone else may upload just what you’re looking for as a shared document. Amaze us all with your knowledge; see your document become one of the most popular or have another member reward you with a comment about how you helped resolve an issue.

Added 07/28/2010 h/t @surachart (via LinkedIn Updates email) and @brhubart
- Oracle Video Challenge
Convince your peers why you should be selected to win a FREE conference pass to Oracle OpenWorld, JavaOne or Oracle Develop!

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Added 09/01/2010
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That's all I have so far, but I'll keep the list updated as I find more.

It's been quite some time since I've dabbled in Java, thankfully JDeveloper makes it pretty easy for me.

I've been annoyed at how often I have to go dig through the NQQuery logs lately. Yes, I know about Session Manager and the ability to view logs there.

So I decided to write a quick and dirty java program that will pull the physical SQL out of the file. I believe there are 7 log levels in OBIEE, this is done at level 5 so no guarantee it will work on anything but 5.

I'll be putting the source code up soon and will update as appropriate. For the time being, here it is:

package oraclenerd;
import java.io.*;

public class ParseSQL
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    ParseSQL run = new ParseSQL();
    String query = new String();
    int i = 0;
    try
    {
      FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream( "/opt/projects/oraclenerd/classes/oraclenerd/test.log" );
      DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream( file );
      BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader( in ) );
      String strLine;
      while ( ( strLine = br.readLine() ) != null )
      {
        if ( strLine.startsWith( "-------------------- Sending query" ) )
        {
          i = 1;          
        }
        else if ( i == 1 )
        {
          if ( strLine.startsWith( "+++" ) )
          {
            System.out.println( "***************" );
            System.out.println( query );
            System.out.println( "***************" );
            query = "";
            i = 0;
          }
          else
            query = query + "\r\n" + strLine;
        }
      }
      in.close();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
      System.err.println( "Error:  " + e.getMessage() ); 
    }
  }
}

Obviously you'll need to change the path unless you have that exact path at home. You can find the log I used here.

There are 17 physical SQL statements in the log file. You should get 17 back.

The 17 SQL statements I retrieved are here (via console).

The source code is up above...until I get unlazy enough to put it under source control (Google Code). If you do make it pretty or add some functionality to it, please let me know, I'd love to include it.