Oracle Database 11g Release 2 has a new feature named server pools. If a database is created as a policy managed RAC database then policy will dictate where the database instances are placed in the cluster rather than which instances were created on which node at creation time.

Take a cluster of three nodes.

Oracle Database 11g release 2 has been released. Key improvements include

Oracle have waived extended support fees for Oracle Database 10g release 2 through to July 2011.

The Register is reporting that under certain circumstances it is faster and cheaper to run Oracle Database under VMware as an alternative to deploying a RAC configuration.

Clever Elephant has reported that PostgreSQL will be used for OpenStreetMap.

Google have released their street view software for the UK. To give it a try, visit maps.google.com with Javascript enabled, search for London, then drag the little orange man (at the top of the left-hand zoom bar) onto the map. Streets that are navigable will be shown in blue.

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 5.0 (codenamed Lenny) after 22 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of twelve processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. It also features compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.2 of the LSB.

The SANS Intitute have released a list containing what are considered to be the twenty-five most dangerous programming errors. Update your code now!

The Economist has an interesting article on the decisions you need to make when choosing a netbook computer. It is suggested that you use the bundled tuned operating system based on the Linux kernel.

We have an existing email infrastructure running uw-imapd and exim4 on Debian GNU/Linux Etch and needed to hook up a Nokia E71 mobile telephone to this existing setup.

The existing infrastructure has run without issue for many years. However the E71 would take a minute or so to retrieve just a single email. Therefore some alternatives were tried.