Toad + Oracle instant client

many thanks to Christian Gosselin’s weblog

1. Dowload Oracle instant client
2. Create a directory called oracle with the following subdirectories

c:\Program Files\oracle
├─bin
└─network
└──admin

3. Uncompress the instant client under the bin directory
4. Add the following environment variables:
   • SQL_PATH = c:\Program Files\oracle
   • TNS_ADMIN c:\Program Files\oracle\network\admin
   • LD_LIBRARY_PATH = c:\Program Files\oracle\bin
5. Copy the tnsnames.ora in the following directory: c:\Program Files\oracle\network\admin. Here’s a simple tnsnames.ora:
   DEV =
   (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
   (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = foo)(PORT = 1531))
   )
   (CONNECT_DATA =
   (SERVICE_NAME = foo)
   )
   )

traceback: http://www.javamart.ca/blog/wp-trackback.php?p=34

use shadowbook to play next song in itue

Open Terminal (Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities)
Type: emacs ./shadow_nextsong and validate with enter.
This open the file shadow_nextsong in the text editor emacs.
Paste the line:
/Triggered/ { print $0; system("osascript -e \"tell application \\\"iTunes\\\" to play next track\";"); }
Press Ctrl-x then Ctrl-s to save the file.
Press Ctrl-x then Ctrl-c to quit emacs.

Launch ShadowBook.app
In the Terminal, paste the line:
tail -f /Library/Logs/Console/501/console.log | awk -f ./shadow_nextsong and validate with enter.

Next time you'll want to use it, if you didn't move or deleted the file shadow_song, you'll only need to execute the last 2 step

thanks to http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=57844

How to get widgets on to regular desktop

1 - Press F12
2 - Click the (+) to add a new widget
3 - Drag the widget on to the screen
4 - While still holding on to the widget with your mouse, press F12
5 - Release the widget.

To get rid of it simply press F12 again and close it in the dashboard screen