Open-ended questions to start a conversation

I. Ask an open-ended question.

1. "What sort of books do you like?",
2. "What did you study?",
3. "Which is your favorite season? Why?",
4. "What are you doing right now?",
5. What types of movies do you like?

II. Know how to combine general remarks with open-ended questions.

1. That's a nice handbag, where did you get it?
2. What an amazing buffet! Which is your favorite dish?
3. Fantastic turnout! Which of the lecturers is your favorite?
4. I love your costume. What are your favorite sci-fi movies?
5. I love your shirt. Where do you usually go for clothes shopping?

III. Talk about the current events

1. Hey, did you hear about that helicopter crash? That was pretty crazy.

IV. Draw on previous discussions
For example, their kid’s milestone, one of their projects, or some bad news that they shared with you.

V. Ask questions that are easy to answer.

What are you up to? meaning, What are you doing today? or What is your schedule for today?

"Remember, whoever you are talking to, you always have something in common. We all experience the weather, like good food, and enjoy a good laugh. When in doubt, just talk to them about what they are there for. For example, if you meet them at a bus stop, ask them where they are going. If they are from out of town, ask them about their life at home [1]."

"Take a mental note of some amusing things that you saw or heard throughout the day. For example, something funny someone said, a fun activity you did with your friends, or anything interesting. This can give way to future conversation [1]."

"Developing your interests. It's easier to start interesting conversations when you invest in developing your own interests. Be familiar with your interest so that you can articulate them. Broaden and deepen your interests by having the attitude that you are interested in everything. Another way to broaden and deepen your interests is to ask questions about others' interests. If your friend loves baseball, ask him which teams and players look good this year or ask him questions that clarify the league structure [1]."

References
1. http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Conversation-When-You-Have-Nothing-to-Talk-About accessed date 29/08/2014

Editing guidelines

The following shows a checklist for editing your own work [1].

1. Check spelling, grammar, constructions
2. Enhance visual impact
3. Consider practical details
4. Get second opinion
5. Back up

Please note: effective writing is clear, coherent, concise and accurate.

References
[1]. MN501 Professional Practice Lecture Notes, Melbourne Institute of Technology, Trimester 2, 2014.

Database Day 06: sqlplus Oracle commands (2)

1. Purge vs cascade constraints options 

purge and cascade constraints options in drop table command

purge clause is used to remove table completely, without purse the deleted tables are still recoverable.

Specify CASCADE CONSTRAINTS to drop all referential integrity constraints that refer to primary and unique keys in the dropped table. If you omit this clause, and such referential integrity constraints exist, then the database returns an error and does not drop the table [3].

"Oracle Database 10g introduces a new feature for dropping tables. When you drop a table, the database does not immediately release the space associated with the table. Rather, the database renames the table and places it in a recycle bin, where it can later be recovered with the FLASHBACK TABLE statement if you find that you dropped the table in error. If you want to immediately release the space associated with the table at the time you issue the DROP TABLE statement, then include the PURGE clause as follows. DROP TABLE employees PURGE; Specify PURGE only if you want to drop the table and release the space associated with it in a single step. If you specify PURGE, then the database does not place the table and its dependent objects into the recycle bin. NOTE: You cannot roll back a DROP TABLE statement with the PURGE clause, and you cannot recover the table if you drop it with the PURGE clause. This feature was not available in earlier release."[1].

2. Format of the Date object

Date storage is often a problem with various DBMS's - for Oracle use the date data format of: 'DD-MMM-YYYY' in single quotes within an insert statement eg. '09-AUG-2014'.

3. Update statement
E.g.

4. Date related SQL statements

4.1 To format date as 'DD-MM-YYYY' on display
E.g. SELECT ProductName, Price, FORMAT(Now(),'DD-MM-YYYY') AS PerDate
FROM Products;

4.2 The Oracle/PLSQL TO_DATE function converts a string to a date.
E.g. to_date('2014-08-22', 'yyyy-mm-dd') would return a date value of August 22, 2014
E.g. TO_DATE('2014/08/22', 'yyyy/mm/dd') would return a date value of August 22, 2014
E.g. TO_DATE('082214', 'MMDDYY') would return a date value of August 22, 2014
E.g. TO_DATE('20140822', 'yyyymmdd') would return a date value of August 22, 2014

5. "Columns defined with the VARCHAR2 datatype store variable-length alphanumeric data (including text, numbers, and special characters). The maximum length of the data is specified in the parentheses. VARCHAR2 is the most commonly used datatype and can store up to 4,000 bytes.

In contrast, the CHAR datatype (not shown in Figure 7) allows for fixed-length alphanumeric data only and stores a maximum of 2,000 bytes.

I recommend choosing VARCHAR2 over CHAR when you select an alphanumeric datatype to define text columns. With VARCHAR2, particularly if you choose an appropriate maximum length for your columns, you won’t waste storage space.

(Choosing a maximum of 4,000 bytes makes sense only if you truly believe that your column will ever contain data values that reach that size limit.) CHAR can waste storage space, because the data is always padded with blank space to the specified fixed length before it is stored." [2].

6. SQL data types

SQL data types referene [4].

7. Oracle data types

1. numeric
2. number
3. char
4. varchar
5. date

8. set echo on and off commands

Add set echo on to allow commands to be echoed during execution

set echo on

add set echo off to turn off

set echo off

9. Roles and privileges

--select all the role name and granted role
select *
from role_role_privs
order by 1;

--Show role for the current user
SELECT * FROM USER_ROLE_PRIVS;

--Show role for username 'FOO'
select *
from user_role_privs
where username='FOO';

--show all the privileges for 'TUTORROLE'
select *
from role_sys_privs
where role='TUTORROLE'
order by 1;

--show all the priviledges for 'TUTORROLE'
select *
from role_sys_privs
where role='STUDENTROLE'
order by 1;

--list all current tables in the db
select * from cat;

References:
[1]. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7713432/difference-between-drop-and-drop-purge-in-oracle, accessed date 22 August 2014.
[2]. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/issue-archive/2011/11-nov/o61sql-512018.html, accessed date 22 August 2014.
[3]. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14200/statements_9003.htm, accessed date 22 August 2014.
[4]. http://www.w3schools.com/sql/sql_datatypes_general.asp accessed date 25/08/2014.

Database Day 05: sqlplus Oracle commands (1)

1. To connect to a different database from a current command-line session
sql>connect username
E.g. sql>connect system;
sql>connect hr;

2. Change user's password
ALTER USER USER IDENTIFIED BY password;

3. Change user's password and unlock the user account
ALTER USER USER IDENTIFIED BY password ACCOUNT UNLOCK;

4. Show all parameters
sql>show all;

5. Describe a table
desc <table_name>

6. Create a user with permissions using grant command
sql>create user <username that you want to set> identified by <password you want to set>;

User Created.
E.g. sql>create user foo identified by 123;

but again after user is created, you need to grant few rights for him/her.

SQL>grant connect,resource to <created username>;

Grant Succeeded.
E.g. sql>grant connect,resource to foo;

7. Show user
E.g. sql>show user;

8. To list all the tables you currently own
E.g. sql>select * from cat;

9 To show the contents of the table use the SQL SELECT command:
E.g. sql>select * from table_name;

10. To remove a table use the SQL DROP command:
E.g. drop table table_name purge;
Tables must be dropped in the reverse order from which they were created to protect the parent-child relationship (referential integrity) [1].

Basic ORACLE data types

Basic Oracle data types [1].

Oracle remark command (rem) for comments

REM command to create a REMARK line in the script [1].

Bibliographies and References
1. FIT5132 Introduction to databases, S2-2014, Monash University

Problem solving skills exercises Day 01

1. You found three job offers on the career search website. What things can you do to most thoroughly investigate your potential employers?
Think about: employers' websites, read and watch the news about the companies, research employers' financial situations, speak to the staff who work for them, etc.

2.Every Monday, your teacher gives you a quiz on the reading he assigned for the weekend. Since he typically assigns at least 50 pages of textbook reading, the quizzes are difficult and you have not gotten good grades on them so far. What is your best idea for troubleshooting this problem and improving your grades?
Think about: time to release the assignment, time spent on weekends for study, time to get up on Monday, the quality of sleep on Sunday night, etc.

3. You read a story in the newspaper about salary negotiations involving public transportation workers. The workers are threatening to go on strike tomorrow if their demands for higher wages and better benefits are not met. What inferences can be made from this scenario?
Think about: health insurance premiums, cost of petrol, public commuters, employers, etc.

References:
1. Lauren Starkey, Critical thinking skills success in 20 minutes a day, LearningExpress, LLC, New York 2004.

Common attributes and generic skills universities included in their curriculum

The following list the common attributes and generic skills that most universities include in their curriculum.

1. Written and oral communication
2. Critical and analytical (and sometimes creative and reflective) thinking
3. Problem-solving (including generating ideas and innovative solutions)
4. Information literacy, often associated with technology
5. Learning and working independently
6. Learning and working collaboratively
7. Ethical and inclusive engagement with communities, cultures and nations
8. Life-long learner

Bibliographies
[1] Biggs, J. (1999). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. Buckingham: SRHE and Open University Press.

39 questions to ask during a job interview

The above image was captured from an article written by Andy LaCivita from LinkedIn.com

Teaching and learning taxonomy table

The above table is extracted from http://ww2.odu.edu/~jritz/oted885/taxonomy.shtml accessed on 05 August 2014.

A sample project meeting agenda