Mobile Phone vs Bible

I Stumbled across this this morning, looks like it’s been around for a few years but I’d not read it before. Very telling and very challenging:

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we used it to receive messages?
What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?
What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?

This is something to make you go, hmmm, where is my Bible? Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cellphones, we don’t ever have to worry about our bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

Source

Oracle SQL Developer on Ubuntu 8.10

Like my earlier post on installing the Oracle 10g client on Ubuntu, when I came to install SQL Developer on 8.10 I couldn’t find a complete list of instructions so I thought I’d write my own.

First we need to get the rpm from Oracle:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/sql/index.html

Now we need a few things before we install it:

sudo apt-get install lsb sun-java6-jre alien

We’re ready now to build the .deb package and install:

sudo alien --scripts sqldeveloper.rpm
sudo dpkg -i sqldeveloper.deb

Finaly we need to tell SQL Developer where to find our JDK, mine went into /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10/ so:

echo "/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10/" > ~/.sqldeveloper/jdk

SQL Developer should now be installed in the Applications menu under Programing.

sshMenu installation

Hey, two posts in one day! Must be some kind of achievement (for me anyway).

I’ve recently installed this realy useful little Gnome panel applet called sshMenu. Once installed and set up it gives you direct access to all your ssh sessions from a menu on the Gnome panel. Here’s how to install it on Ubuntu 8.10 as that is my current distro:

sudo apt-get install sshmenu sshmenu-gnome

then just add the application to the Gnome panel by right-clicking the panel and choosing ‘Add to panel’ then select the sshMenu application from the list. I had to restart Gnome (CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE) after the installation before it showed up in the add to panel list.

Ouch!

Having switched from the Metro tram system to the trains I suddenly realised last week how much the 8 mile a day round trip to the station was costing me in fuel so I went out and bought a bicycle (an Apolo 10Gx I think…). I’ve not spent a huge amount of money, it only cost just over £100. I’ve not owned or ridden a bike in about 10 years so I’m a bit sore this morning!

Creating Oracle Users From a CSV file

Hi All. Managing several Oracle Servers with large numbers of students can by time consuming. I’ve no desire to spend a couple of hours creating user accounts so insted I spent a couple of hours building a VBScript to do it for me. Fortunately I can export the data I need from the University’s student management system and create the csv file quite quickly. Anyway, here’s the code. It’s probably full of examples of how not to do things but as far as I am concerned it works. Any feedback would be appreciated!

'A script to create Oracle schema users
'NOTE: sqlplus must be installed and configured to connect to Oracle!
'Created by Rob Childs
'thisbrokenworld.wordpress.com
'=======================================
intArgs = WScript.Arguments.Count
If intArgs < 2 then
WScript.Echo "usage: cscript createOracleUsers.vbs [inputFile] [mode] [OracleSid] [OracleAdminUser]"
WScript.Echo "Creates Oracle Schema users from a specified csv file"
WScript.Echo " "
WScript.Echo "example: createOracleUsers.vbs users.csv 1 sid sys"
Wscript.Echo "Mode - 0 Create SQL Script only"
Wscript.Echo "       1 Create SQL Script and users"
WScript.Echo "       [OracleSid] and [OracleAdminUser] is required for modes 1 and 2"
WScript.Echo " "
WScript.Echo "Note that the CSV file must be in the following format with 2 fields and remember that"
WScript.Echo "Oracle user passwords can't start with a number!"
WScript.Echo "               USERNAME,PASSWORD"
WScript.Quit
end If

'set this to 'yes' to have the sql script quit sqlplus after completing
'Note that if you do this you'll have no way to tell if the script succeeded or not
autoQuit = "no"

'Default Oracle roles to assign to new users
roles = "CONNECT, RESOURCE"

'USERS Tablespace Quota in Mb
intQuota = 10

'grab the command line arguments
inputFile = WScript.Arguments.Item(0)
mode = WScript.Arguments.Item(1)

'the file name for the .sql script we're going to create
sqlScript = inputFile & ".sql"

if mode > 2 then
WScript.Echo "Not a valid mode"
WScript.Quit
End If

if intArgs = 4 then
oraAdmin = WScript.Arguments.Item(3)
oraConnect = oraAdmin & "@" & dbInst & " as sysdba"
end if

'Open the input file
Const ForReading = 1
Set objInputFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objInputFile = objinputFSO.OpenTextFile(inputfile, ForReading)

'create the sql file we're going to output to
WScript.Echo sqlScript
Set objOutputFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objOutputFile = objOutputFSO.CreateTextFile(sqlScript)
objOutputFile.close

'add lines to our new sql script
intUsersToProcess = 0
Do Until objInputFile.AtEndOfStream
arrStr = split(objInputFile.ReadLine,",")
strUser = arrStr(0)
strPwd = arrStr(1)
intUsersToProcess = intUsersToProcess + 1
WScript.Echo "Processing " & strUser
strCreateUserLine = "CREATE USER " & strUser & " IDENTIFIED BY " & strPwd & ";"
strGrantLine = "GRANT " & roles & " TO " & strUser & ";"
strAlterUserLine = "ALTER USER " & strUser & " QUOTA " & intQuota & "M ON USERS;"
Set WriteFile = objOutputFSO.OpenTextFile(sqlScript, 8, True)
WriteFile.WriteLine(strCreateUserLine)
WriteFile.WriteLine(strGrantLine)
WriteFile.WriteLine(strAlterUserLine)
WriteFile.Close
loop
WScript.Echo intUsersToProcess & " Users Processed"

'if autoQuit is set to yes, add the quit command to the end of our sql script so that it exits.
'the problem with that is you'll miss any errors thown by sqlplus when running the script
if autoQuit = "yes" then
Const ForAppending = 8
Set objFile = objOutputFSO.OpenTextFile(sqlScript, ForAppending)
objFile.WriteLine("quit")
objFile.Close
end if

'if the autoCreateUsers is set to yes, run sqlplus and execute the sql script.
if mode > 0 then
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WScript.Echo "connecting to sqlplus " & oraConnect & " @" & sqlScript
Return = WshShell.Run("sqlplus " & oraConnect & " @" & sqlScript, 1, true)
end if

Long time no blog…

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I’ve been working on some projects at church and work has been very busy with the new enrolment and changes throughout the University IT department, I should be in a new position before the end of the year and in a better position to keep up to date with this blog. As for Church, I’ve completed the first module of my Theology qualification, it’s been alot of hard work but most definatly worth it. Also there’s a new Church website which is almost finished, just a little bit of polishing to do there and I’m now the leader of the Friday night youth club for secondary school kids called Rock Club. (The younger group is called Pebbles and the older bible study group is called Bolder, kind of a play on words). Whew, thats all for now, new updates coming soon!

Core Truths

What is at the core of Christianity? There have been several books over the years trying to answer that question, most famously Mere Christianity by CS Lewis, he of Narnia fame. (A strongly recommended read). Here’s a breakdown of the four key areas of truth that a person needs to know to be saved. This is a brief summary of each of the key points. I’ll try to expand on each a little over each soon.

God

God is our creator; he fashioned the whole of creation out of nothing and created the human race through Adam and Eve who rebelled against Him. God is Holy and Just; this means that he is different to us, set apart and that he is the final authority on Justice, what is right and what is wrong. God is also Loving and Merciful; He loves and cares for his creation, even in our rebellious state. God has spoken in the past to men who faithfully recorded His words and actions in history. God’s spoken word comes to us in the form of the Bible

Sin

Sin is anything that is against God, words, actions and thoughts. Because God is Just he has laid out in His word what is right and what is wrong. Sin is a nature that is within us, it’s something we’re born with, inherited from our ancestors who rebelled against God. Sin is also a practice, that nature causes us to think and act in ways that are contrary to God. Because God is Just He has said that sin must be punished.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is God, specifically God the Son, part of the trinity. At the same time He is also Man. Because He is God, Jesus is perfect, He never sinned, not even once. Jesus died for sinners. He took the punishment from God for our sin. Jesus was raised to life and He’s coming back to take his people to heaven.

The Way of Salvation

God makes the invitation to mankind for people to be saved from the punishment their sin will ultimately bring on them. Man’s response is to Repent, that is to turn away from sin and to Believe, to put your trust in Jesus Christ as God’s way of salvation.

Johnny Chung Lee

I Stumbled across this guy a few days ago. He’s done some amazing stuff with the Wii remote, most of it is pretty straight forward but the applications are amazing. It’s worth checking out some of the videos particularly the one on head-tracking. Wow, I hope that the next generation of Wii FPS games start using this, imagine being able to actually pear around a corner for real or dodge left and right by moving your head! I guess there’ll be some weird looking headgear to go with it but the results would be so worth the humiliation.

Free to Think

Personally, I find it impossible from a logical perspective to accept that there is no God. That is not to say that I believe that anyone who chooses not to do so is ignorant or illogical, but from my own experience of life and study of God through the Bible I can come to no other conclusion than the existence of a good and just creator of everything.

Contrary to the currently fashionable secular view of faith, the true New Testament faith is not something made stronger by ignorance or by believing against the evidence. Faith is consistent with knowledge and a true understanding of facts and evidence that we can see around us.

I personally find it immensely frustrating that the world uses ’straw men’ arguments against the simple logic and truth of the Christian faith, setting up caricatures and twistings or misunderstandings of the truths revealed in scripture in order to undermine the message and keep people believing that faith is blind and ignorant.

Sadly many have fallen for the lie and believe that Christians are easily lead, simple minded fools at best for following the teachings of Christ. At worst we are zealous ‘fundamentalists’ who threaten the perceived freedom of our society.

John 8:44 says Satan is the father of lies, Jesus goes on in this passage to explain that the people do not believe the truth when they hear it because they are not of God. We are by our very nature, sinful (See my previous post) and so we cannot be ‘of God’ so it’s no surprise that a proportion of the world is following a lie.

Paul said in Romans 10:17 that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” Only when the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of the mercy and grace of the love of God for us, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can anyone accept it. Once we accept that understanding given by the Holy Spirit it makes perfect sense and the lies are revealed for what they are. Only then, when the clouds of lies are lifted and our eyes spiritually open can we be truly free to think.

Why is it broken?

If God is perfect, good, just and righteous, why is the world he created and the people in it that he created in his own image so obviously broken? Why do we continue to kill and destroy each other with words and weapons? God has given us instructions on how he expects his creations to behave but whether we believe the Bible or not we sin daily against our God even when we know what we are doing is wrong in God’s eyes and sometimes even in regard to what is acceptable in our society. Why?

It all comes down to what is called our ’sinful nature’ or inherited corruption, we are all born with a rebellious and sinful nature within us, to rebel against authority (God, as our creator, being the ultimate authority). It is natural for us to sin and rebel and it is this nature that leads us to sin even when we know better.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
Romans 7:18 (in context)

My wife and I have a young daughter and I can see this nature in her, from the moment she was old enough to begin to assert herself as a person she began to rebel against us. We certainly didn’t teach her to do that, in fact like most parents we try to teach her to respect and obey us but her sinful nature causes her to rebel whether she understands it or not.

I see this nature in myself; I read the bible (although not as much as I should) and even when through His word God warns me about my actions, words and thoughts I still cannot help but rebel against Him, even though I know He is right and I am wrong.

But God did not make His creation with this sinful nature and there is only one place and time that it could have begun in order to affect everyone on earth today: Back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell into the temptation of Satan and they understood good and evil they and every child they would ever have, from generation to generation were left with this sinful nature which we have inherited.

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned
Romans 5:12 (in context)

Yes we can do good, and sometimes great things for education, society, the development of civilization, science and technology, arts laws and so on but because of that sinful nature, because of the corruption inherited from Adam, as far as God is concerned (and let’s face it, it’s His opinion that counts) we can’t do anything that pleases Him.

Our sinful nature is not like that characterized by the little devil on the shoulder, always opposed by the angel on the other side, our entire being is affected by sin, thoughts and actions, feelings and motives, everything we are is bound up in sin.

Everything that we are and everything that we do condemns us before our just, holy and righteous creator God, and so we stand helpless before Him. It may sound depressing but that is the true state of man as it has been since that day in the Garden of Eden.

I’m trying to make it sound like that for a reason, the better the understanding of our position before God the more amazing this next verse (a personal favorite) sounds:

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4-5 (in context)

This is the Good News of the Gospel message that while we were still lost and helpless in our sin, God sent His son, Jesus Christ, into the world to take the punishment that should be ours, and what do we have to do to be a part of this? do we need to perform some sort of ritual, or perhaps go to church every week or pray every day? Not at all.

He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”
Acts 16:30-31 (in context)