My World A Blog On All The Things That Happen In My Life

Download Toad for Oracle for Free
on 28/05/2010 - like it?

Toad (acronym for Tool for Oracle Application Developers) is arguably one of the most popular and best known tools used by most people dabbling in Oracle databases ( or for that matter, most relational databases anyway). Toad’s reputation is so good, I’ve known few people swear by it and don’t even bother looking at other software, no matter how good.

Toad’s got more features than your average SQL/ PL/SQL developer would use,and hence got a bit of a steep learning curve. Not to mention an even steeper price tag ( the base edition starts at $957, and goes all the way upto $4709 if you include the Code Tester and DB Admin module). Given these prices, Toad is pretty heavily pirated.

However, most people are unaware that Toad also comes in a freeware edition, and until recently was severely crippled. Few days ago, there was an update to Toad freeware – and the updates are pretty good. The freeware edition is now based on 10.5 codebase, rather than previous 8.5 codebase. Now before you start jumping up and down, the restrictions on the freeware edition are still in place, but noticeably lesser than the previous update. Some of the restrictions include you being limited to only one concurrent database connection (which btw – would severely hamper me, I generally maintain 2-3 connections). Another major irritation is that the freeware edition will expire every 90 days, and you will need to uninstall, re-download and reinstall it. Ugh.

Here’s comparison chart between the commercial edition and freeware.

If you’re OK with the restrictions imposed by freeware edition or a Toad fan, then you can go ahead with getting it. If you ask me, Oracle’s SQL Developer is a perfectly acceptable alternative tool.

(In case you’re wondering my preferred tool, its Allround Automations’ PL/SQL Developer. Yes, yes, I know, the UI is butt ugly – I didn’t want to touch it at all just because of the UI – but believe me, once you get over the UI, you’ll love it – its fantastically fast, consumes very little memory and got boat load of features for the price its available at. I’ll probably do a review of the tool soon.)

Do let me know if you have a preferred /alternative tool that I could look at.

Download Links:

1. Toad Freeware edition

2. Oracle SQL Developer

3. Allround Automations PL/SQL Developer

Tags: download, free, oracle, PL/SQL, PL/SQL Developer, SQL Developer, TOADL

25. My 25th Birthday “Celebration”
on 23/03/2010 - like it?

March 19 1985, 05:28. Date and time a certain SJ (no, not Steve Jobs, me!) came into this world. Fast forward to March 19, 2010. Today. Yesterday. couple of days ago. 25. I’ve “officially” completed 25 years of which 22 years were spent in Mangalore, 9 months in Austin, and the remaining time in Chennai.

(more…)

Tags: 3i, 9 feet High, blogger's meet, Chennai, GRT, Indiblogger, Life, meetup, timepass, tweetup, work

Celebrating 2 years
on 13/07/2009 - like it?

Couple of days ago, I tweeted this little message. July 9, 2007 is a red letter day for me – for that was the day I started my career as a working professional. As I tweeted that, I was greeted over IM by few of my friends and colleagues. It didn’t strike me much as soon as I tweeted, but few hours later I was just amazed as to how fast time has gone by – and how far I’ve come. To think, I applied for this position as an afterthought (“should I really ? Well..”). That got me into nostalgia mode.

(more…)

Tags: 3i, Chennai, Hassles, Life, office, Views, work

The customer is always right.
on 10/04/2009 - like it?

The customer is always right. even if they say sun never sets and horses lay eggs.

/facepalm

Just some of the shit that I go through everyday.

/end short rant

Tags: rant

The RubyHall Chronicles
on 08/02/2009 - like it?

This piece of work was written(and is continuing to be written, as of now) by my buddy, fellow rocker and 3i-ian Ankit. Its basically on our journey in 3i, from day 1. Note: This is NOT my article, all due credits to Ankit.

(more…)

Tags: 3i, Chennai, Life

I never thought..
on 01/01/2009 - like it?

Its almost time to kick out 2008 and welcome 2009. Instead of posting the Happy New Year message, thought I’ll post somethings which I never thought/expected I’d do/happen but did: So here ya go

(more…)

Tags: 2008, 2009, new year

A Visit to North By NorthWest
on 21/12/2008 - like it?

The day I landed in Austin, when I was being driven back, I’d seen this seemingly nice place – North by North West and my colleague told me its a beer brewery and restaurant, and I made a mental note to check it out. Somehow I never checked it out – till today. Yesterday while heading out to Bank of America to encash my Travellers’ Cheque I noticed that North by NorthWest is pretty close and walking distance from where I stay, so I decided to check this place out.

(more…)

Tags: Austin, bar, beer, brewery, North by Northwest, NXNW, restaurant, review, Texas

Mangalore Diaries – Part I
on 18/08/2008 - like it?

If you’ve been following me on twitter, you’d be knowing that I was due for a trip to Mangalore soon. Well it’s been couple of days since I’ve been in Mangalore, so I thought I’ll do a short post on what’s been up past couple of days.

(more…)

Tags: Life, mangalore

For All You Mangalore Konkanas and Non Konkanas, Here’s What it’s Like to Be a Konkana
on 07/08/2008 - like it?

I was going to my Outlook inbox archive today, I found this absolutely awesome forward mail that I got. And unlike most forwards, this one is 100% true. Being a Konkana myself, I can vouch for this.

Do note that if you’re a non-Mangalorian / non-Konkani you might not understand some points.

(more…)

Tags: Amchigel, Kodial, konkana, Konkani, mangalore, teru

And The Lamest Mouse Award Goes To….
on 23/06/2008 - like it?

[ad]
Preshit’s tweet about him having the lamest mouse triggered a series of “my-mouse-is-lamer-than-yours” tweets, and in midst of that we decided to have a contest – Who’s mouse is the Lamest? So who gets the award? Lets have a look at the contenders
(more…)

Tags: gadgets, lame, mouse, timepass