Locating your phone if it is under Google Device Policy

If your company is using Google for Business and you have Google Device Policy App installed and enabled on your Android Phone.

There is a page that will help you locate your phone.

The url is:

https://www.google.com/apps/mydevices/b/0?pli=1

Note, however, that this is possible only if you phone has recently connected to internet (wifi) and has GPS enabled

There are also some options like reset the PIN or Ring Device.

Taking a screenshot on your un-rooted Android Phone

HTC Desire HD

I found this by accident.   This works with HTC Desire HD.   I then did a search and found that the trick has been there all this while (since the 3.5 upgrade) I read that it is a feature in HTC Sense 3.5 and higher, not sure if similar function is available for non HTC phones.

Press the standby/on button and the home button at the same time.

Key thing to remember is you have to be fast since the power button may also put the phone to sleep or holding it too long will cause the menu of shutdown/restart to pop up.

Samsung S2

Seems that with Samsung S 2 the key combination is different:

Samsung Galaxy S2: Press and Hold down the HOME button and then press the POWER button.

If you upgrade to ICS, the key combination changes to:

Press Volume Down button & the Power Button at the SAME time to take a screenshot

For Galaxy S

Press the Back button in right bottom and hold it. While holding Back button now press Home button in the middle.

Reference:
http://getandroidstuff.com/how-to-take-screenshot-with-samsung-galaxy-s-with-no-root/
http://droidlessons.com/how-to-take-a-screenshot-on-the-samsung-galaxy-s2-free-no-app-required/
http://myhtcdesire.com/tutorials/how-to-take-screenshots

Blog on design by 37 signal

I came across this site while reading some emails on copywriting.   This blog is by a company called 37 signals.

The site is found here.

Some of the articles are as follow:

• Clarity over brevity in variable and method names
• Good Enough
• Nagios Monitoring Performance

Control output from PL/SQL

Usually when I write a PL/SQL script and schedule it, there are certain things I want to generate and record into a log file.   I usually do that using a pipe command.   Assuming my program is in a file called comp.sql, I would then execute:


sqlplus scott/tiger@orcl comp.sql >> comp.log

Within the comp.sql, I will start with the following commands:

SET TIMING ON
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000

I usually like to declare at least one date variables:

    vdate         DATE;


After the Begin, I like to place the following command:

    DBMS_OUTPUT.DISABLE;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(1000000);

    vdate := SYSDATE;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI'));
Towards the end, I like to know how long the script runs by adding the following command:

    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Elapse time is ' || ((sysdate-vdate)*24*60) ||' minutes');
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI'));

So the script would look something like this:

SET TIMING ON
SET SERVEROUTPUT ON SIZE 1000000

Declare

    vdate         DATE;

    .........

Begin

    DBMS_OUTPUT.DISABLE;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.ENABLE(1000000);

    vdate := SYSDATE;
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI'));

    .........

    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE('Elapse time is ' || ((sysdate-vdate)*24*60) ||' minutes');
    DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI'));

End;
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