This is a question I ask myself everytime I start a new project that requires authentication.  And then respectively is it Sign Out, Sign Off, Log Out, or Log Off?

What is this all about?  Well I was trying to determine if there was a standard terminalogy used to describe entering your username and password to gain access to a system or application.

I found no definitive answer, but I did check out a few random web sites and operating systems to see what they used.

Most of the web sites I checked, mac, solaris, redhat w/gnome use Log In/LogOut.

Only Windows OS’s and a couple we sites used Log On/Log off.

And then Sign In/Sign Out was rather limited.

Now granted, my selection of web sites is farely limited and I did not check any actual client applications.

There is a term called Single Sign On, yet I did not run across any systems which actually term their username and password screen Sign On.

Sign In/Sign Out yahoo mail gmail hotmail expedia ofoto shutterfly tivo netflix turbotax amazon ebay espn cnn usps national geographic dell oracle

Log In/Log Out Mac OS 9.0, 10, X Sun Solaris OS GNOME 2.2.0 in Redhat 9 sun buy logitech gamespot webex americawest mac mail redhat sourceforge roboform swa avis united nwa americanairlines delta paypal paypal development flickr snapfish qvc ameritrade schwab american express evite fedex motley fool ivillage brinannica lycos bugzilla blogjet novell rsa

Log On/Log Off Windows NT, 2000, 2003, 95, 98, Me, longhorn chase etrade oracle sql plus

Sign On/Sign Off I didn't run into any.

Oracle TNS Names Configuration

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

4:12 PM

 

A question I am frequently asked is how do I set up a PC's TNSNAMES.ORA file so that it contains an entry pointing at a particular oracle database instance.

 

Adding an ODBC DSN is out of the scope of this document, but I will mention the following:

Once this configuration is done you can use the ODBC Administrator to add an Oracle DSN.  In the Oracle ODBC Driver Configuration window, in the TNS Name Service text box, you can enter the net service name as you entered it in the setup below, or you can enter the fully qualified net service name as it appears in the tnsnames.ora file.

 

Ok, here is the configuration:

 

Please note that the following screen shots may slightly vary if this is not the first name service entry you have added.

 

Run the Oracle Net Configuration Assistant from:

 

Start Menu / All Programs / OraHome90 / Configuration and Migration Tools / Net Configuration Assistant.   (OraHome90 may be named something different.)

 

Select "Local Net Service Name configuration", then "Next".

 

 

Select "Add", then "Next".

 

 

Select "Oracle8i or later database or service", then "Next".

 

 

Enter the name of the service.  This will most likely need to be the fully qualified service name of the oracle service instance. (Not necessarily the name of the machine, because more than one oracle database service instance can run on a single machine.)

 

If you do not know the service name, one way to find it is to run the "Oracle Net Manager" on the server and expand "Oracle Net Configuration", then expand "Local", then expand "Service Naming".  This will then contain a list of service names.

 

 

Select "TCP", then "Next".

 

 

Enter the host name of the computer that the oracle database service is running on.  This can be the IP address, the NetBIOS computer name (like "computer1"), or fully qualified domain name of the computer (like "computer1.mydomain.com").

 

 

Select "Yes, perform a test", then "Next".

 

 

Because the first test is done using the "scott" and "tiger" username and password, it will likely fail and you must select "Change Login".

 

 

Change the default username and password to a valid username and password for the database service you entered.  Then click "OK".

 

 

After changing the login, the test will automatically rerun and hopefully you will have success.  If so, select "Next".

 

 

Enter any net service name you like here which will be used as a reference to the configuration you just set up.  Then select "Next".

 

 

 

At this point your configuration has been saved to your TNSNAMES.ORA which will be somewhere like:  C:\Program Files\Oracle\ora90\network\admin\tnsnames.ora

 

And will look something like:

 

# TNSNAMES.ORA Network Configuration File: C:\progra~1\oracle\ora90\network\admin\tnsnames.ora

# Generated by Oracle configuration tools.

 

MYSERVICENAME.MYDOMAIN.COM =

(DESCRIPTION =

(ADDRESS LIST =

(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = computer1)(PORT = 1521))

)

(CONNECT DATA =

(SERVICE NAME = myoracleservice.mydomain.com)

)

)

 

Select "Next".

 

Select "Finish" and the configuration application will close.

 

What I love about Mozilla Firefox is all the great extensions for it.  Here are my favorites…

DOM Inspector*
Dictionary Search
IE View*
Nuke Anything
wmlbrowser
Clone Window*
Adblock*
Web Developer*
Image Zoom*
Tabbrowser Preferences
Yahoo Toolbar*
BlogJetThis!
ColorZilla
Greasemonkey*
Download Manager Tweak
AI Roboform Toolbar*
MeasureIt

* These are items I can’t live without!

This weekend I added support in DasBlog for Gravatar icons/images next to posted comments.  When I have time later this week I will send Scott the information to see if they are interested.

It didn’t help much that the Gravatar dns lookup failed all weekend.  But I was able to do a whois on gravatar.com and get their name server and query it for their ip adders.  Ahh the things us developers do to implement even the silliest of features.

Update:  7/30/2005 Well I've been a little too busy to get the source code off to the DasBlog folks, but in due time. :)
Update:  7/31/2005 Ok, I made it a point to get the source code sent off today for review. Click here for a screen shot.

First off let me tell you how much I love this remote control. I got rid of my 5 remote controls and now just use the Logitech Harmony 880 Remote Control. It's a bit pricey but considering my wife can now use the entertainment system, it's well worth it!

Now back to the Tivo situation. After first setting up the remote to work with tivo I noticed that the quick button response/performance that i was used to from the tivo remote was now slow with the harmony remote. After doing some digging around I found 2 settings that make the remote work just as well as the tivo remote...

1. Setting the Inter-Key Delay to 0
First set the Inter-Key Delay to 0. If this causes problems you can set it a bit higher, but 0 works for me. I also have Inter-Device Delay set to 500, but this is not important for what we are trying to do here. So to change this setting, which defaults to 500, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'More Options' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Device Options page should appear, from which you should select 'Adjust the Delays (speed settings)'. In the Inter-key Delay box, enter 0 and click Next, then click Next again from the next page.

2. Setting command repeat count to 0
Secondly and lastly set the command repeat count to 0. So to change this setting, which defaults to 3, from the Harmony Home Page select the 'Troubleshoot' link next to the Tivo device (not the tivo activity). The Adjusting Setup:Device Problems page should appear, from which you should select 'Show me more problems' radio button and then click Next. On the next page, choose 'TIVO doesn't appear to receive every command correctly.' and click Next. On the next page select 'The device responds too much to some commands (for example, volume up increases the volume too quickly).' and click Next. A list of numbers 0 to 5 will appear. This is the number of times the remote will send a command to Tivo which defaults to 3. Set this to 0 which works fine for me. If you have problems with this try increasing it to 1.

And that's it. Once I changed these settings, my tivo responded to my harmony 880 remote as quickly as it did to my tivo remote.

A couple more little tricks

To facilitate quicker fast forward and rewinds, I mapped the up arrow and down arrow respectively.  I just found it a little difficult to quickly locate the fast forward/rewind and play buttons.

Since I also have a ‘Tivo Stereo’ activity, I added a custom button to lower the volume on the tivo.  This also works with other activities like DVD.  I tried just muting the tv, but the tv leave the word ‘MUTE’ on the screen.

Thank you Harmony for providing my best gadget purchase in quite some time.