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Starting With Oracle SQL

Note: I wrote this guide back in 2012 for Oracle SQL Express Edition 11g. While the command prompt steps are still valid for Oracle databases, the specific software versions and setup screens will look completely different today! Today, I'm going to show you how to connect to and interact with Oracle SQL directly from your Windows command prompt. You might be wondering why we don't just use the built-in Run SQL Command Line tool from the Start menu. The big issue with that tool is that it doesn't support basic copy and paste functionality—something that developers like you and me desperately need! So, let's look at how to properly connect to your database using the trusty standard command prompt. First things first, you'll need to have Oracle SQL installed on your PC. If you don't have it yet, you can grab it right here: Download Oracle SQL Express Edition 11g Oracle SQL Express is completely free to use, but Oracle does require you to log in before downloading. If you don't have an account, just hit the sign-up button—it's free and only takes a minute. The download is fairly hefty at around 350MB. Once it's finished, extract the ZIP file and run setup.exe. The installation wizard is pretty standard. If you've installed Windows software before, you can safely just click "Next" through most of the prompts. During the setup process, you'll eventually hit a screen that looks like this: This is an important step. You're being asked to set the password for the SYS and SYSTEM users. In Oracle, these are your master administrative accounts. If you're just setting this up on your local machine for development and learning, I highly recommend using a simple password like admin. It's easy to remember and quick to type. Of course, you can use whatever password you prefer. Once you've typed it in, click Next. The installer will now begin copying files and setting up your database. Just sit back and wait for it to finish.

2 min read
Ankur in Archived

Folder Colorizer: Change Icon Color Of Any Folder In Windows

Folder Colorizer is an application which enables you to change the colors of folders in Windows Explorer in just two clicks. After installation this application will add Colorize! menu in your context menu. From there you can choose different colors, so that you can apply to your folders. To change the color of a folder, right-click it, open Colorize! menu and select the color of your choice. The choices available by default include Yellow, Lawn Green, Red, Blue, Silver, Violet, Sandy Brown and Aquamarine.

2 min read
Ankur in Snippets

Getting Started With Google Web Fonts

Google Web Font, a free and open source font collection provide by Google. It contains thousands of free fonts which are always free for download and can be used anywhere. Learn how to use them in your documents or in your work. Just have a look on them. You might find something interesting.

2 min read
Ankur in Archived

UMPlayer: Play Anything

Note: I originally wrote this post in 2012. UMPlayer is no longer actively maintained. Today, I'd highly recommend using VLC or SMPlayer instead! Windows Media Player comes built into Windows, but it's notorious for not being able to play every media format out there. That's why so many of us have shifted to VLC. VLC is a fantastic, free media player that handles almost anything you throw at it. But what happens on that rare occasion when even VLC struggles to play a file? Let me introduce you to UMPlayer (Universal Media Player), another free and open-source alternative. The most impressive thing about UMPlayer is that it comes packed with over 270 built-in audio and video codecs. It handles nearly every media format imaginable, including AAC, AC3, ASF, AVI, DIVX, FLV, H.263, Matroska, MOV, MP3, MP4, MPEG, OGG, QT, RealMedia, VOB, Vorbis, WAV, WMA, WMV, XVID, and a whole lot more. Plus, UMPlayer is portable, meaning you can drop it onto a pen drive and run it anywhere without installing it.

1 min read
Ankur in Archived

Page Snooze: Hide Tabs & Schedule Them To Open Later [Chrome Extension]

Note: I originally wrote this back in 2012. While Page Snooze was a cool concept at the time, browser capabilities and available extensions have changed a lot since then! If you're a hardcore web surfer, you've probably run into this problem: you've got dozens of tabs open across your screen, and you don't even know which one to look at next. All those open tabs chew up your system's memory, which inevitably leads to a browser crash. And if you run into a system fault, a blue screen, or a power outage, you risk losing all of them. Or, more simply, you just don't have the time to read through all that content right now. Even if your browser doesn't crash, the sheer clutter of that many tabs is pretty irritating. If you're using Google Chrome, I found a neat little extension that helps solve this called Page Snooze. So, What Does Page Snooze Actually Do? It's a pretty clever concept. Page Snooze takes a tab and hides it away for a specific amount of time. Once that timer runs out, the tab automatically reopens in your browser window, right when you're ready to deal with it. You can grab the extension directly from the Chrome Web Store: Download Page Snooze Once you've installed it, you'll notice a new clock icon sitting right next to your address bar. Using it is super intuitive. Just right-click anywhere on the page you want to hide, and you'll see a new "Page Snooze" option in the context menu. Select how long you want to snooze it for, and poof—the tab vanishes. It'll automatically spring back to life when the time is up.

2 min read
Ankur in Archived

Google Input Tools : Chrome Extension

Note: I originally wrote this post way back in 2012. While the Google Input Tools extension is still around, some of the interfaces, screenshots, and exact features might have changed. Keep that in mind as you read through! Have you ever needed to quickly type something in your native language, but didn't want the hassle of installing a full OS-level keyboard? That's where the Google Input Tools Chrome extension comes in. It lets you type in your preferred language directly into any text box on almost any website. You get transliteration, virtual keyboards, and IMEs all packaged into your browser. It supports every transliteration method from the Google Transliteration Service and over 90 keyboard layouts from Google Virtual Keyboard. How To Get Started First things first, grab the extension from the Chrome Web Store. When you install it for the first time, it'll ask you to pick your input methods. Just click the extension icon and select "Extension Options" from the pop-up. A new tab opens up where you can pick exactly what you need. Don't worry if you miss something—you can always come back to this page to add, remove, or rearrange your tools. For example, here's a screenshot showing how I added Marathi to my input tools.

2 min read 💬 7