Nexus 7: First steps and first problems (auto rotate, adblock)

After tracking the Nexus 7 shipment via internet failed, the device anyhow reached me:

Unpacking the device was fun and the first steps like adding a Google Account and WLAN authentication were without any problems. Then i started the first app (if i remember correctly it was the reader) and rotate the Nexus 7. No rotation of the content. ?? At this moment i astonished. I never checked the specification, that the Nexus 7 is able to do auto rotation....
But the user manual tells how to enable this: Wipe the screen from top to bottom. Then you see teh notification bar.

Touch the lock sign with the two arrows and after that auto rotation is enabled (except the home screen).

Next i wanted to get rid of the advertisements inside Google's browser chrome. But accessing the chrom web store is with android not possible.

So i searched via play.google.com. But there you find two apps, which need root privileges (look here) and one which needed a proxy configured for chrome. But this is not possible because, there is no way to configure an APN on your Nexus 7...
Grrrrr.
The solution was easy: I installed firefox and added adlock plus and all ads were gone....

Buying a Nexus 7: Google Wallet with wrong tracking link...

After several years using an ipod touch i decided to change to Google's Nexus 7. (Why Nexus 7? I hope Google will provide always new android versions for their own devices...).
The only way to get one, is via https://play.google.com/store/devices. The purchase can only be done via Google Wallet, which offers a tracking service:

But after clickling on "Track DHL package" i only got:

I think the link is wrong:

• http://www.dhl.com/en/express/tracking.shtml?pageToInclude=RESULTS&type=fasttrack&AWB=<myordernumber>

but it should be:

• http://www.dhl.com/content/g0/en/express/tracking.shtml?brand=DHL&AWB=<myordernumber>

Even with the second link dhl.com only gives "No result found for your DHL query. Please try again.".
So let's hope, that the shipping is successful (this is more important than tracking the shipping ;-))

End of Life: Adobe Flash Player for Linux

For mobile android devices flash player is not supported anymore [1]. Now the support for Linux seems to reach end of life too:

There are some tutorials around, how to use Google Chrome with a built in flash player [2], but i think, because of the importance of smartphone and tablets more and more website will move from flash to html5 and Adobe itself will provide tools to migrate from flash to html5. Loosing customers is no option even for companies like Adobe...

Review at amazon: Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide

This week i read Oracle Database XE 11gR2 Jump Start Guide:

After some postings about Oracle 11 XE like

• Oracle Database XE 11g beta
• Oracle 11g Database Express Edition released

about the features and installation, reading this book was the next step to see, what is special with XE in contrast to other Oracle editions.
Packtlib says at their overview:

• Install and uninstall Oracle Database XE on Windows and Linux environment
• Set up local and remote database connections and resize Oracle SGA
• Install SQL Developer, access table data, modify table data,
  understand transaction control statements and most commonly used SQL
  functions
• Create and manage database objects like tables, indexes, constraints, views, sequences, and synonyms
• Develop PL/SQL stored subprograms
• Create rich and responsive applications using Oracle Application Express
• Understand Oracle logical and physical components such as SGA, PGA, Tablespaces, and Flash Recovery Area
• Move data between different Oracle Database XE versions
• Upgrade Oracle Database Express Edition to other Oracle Database Editions
• Protect and recover your database
• Tune the database for optimal performance

This topics are all covered in the book, but most of them just at beginners level. For readers which want to start with Oracle databases especially Express Edition this book is a rich source of SQL snippets and basic administration commands. Only the chapter, which describes the different editions, is helpful for database administrators.
So i gave 4 stars at my review at amazon, because for developers, which do not work each day with Oracle databases or want to start a program and need a free database, this book is an excellent jump start. Database administrators should stay with the official documentation (but they have to read much more than the 125 pages of this book ;-)