I discovered this neat little open source application called Console that is effectively a shell for cmd.exe in Windows.  The reason I found this application was because SQL*PLUS that comes with the Oracle 11g client tools is command line/prompt only.  One of the rather annoying behaviors that cmd.exe has is the inability to easily copy and paste.  Console solves that problem and a whole lot more that I didn't realize I had.

Console's features are described as having "multiple tabs, text editor-like text selection, different background types, alpha and color-key transparency, configurable font, different window styles."  Now I have not utilized all these features yet, but the text editor-like text selection is very handy.  The multiple tabs feature is also quite nice.

Shortly after getting Console I created a shortcut to load Console and run SQL*PLUS.  First I opened Console's settings (Edit > Settings) and created a tab called SQLPLUS where I set the startup directory for my most common SQL script.  For the shortcut, I used the following:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Console2\Console.exe" -t SQLPLUS -r "/k sqlplus"
The command line arguments I used were -t which tells Console which tab to use and -r to run a command.  I wanted it to use the SQLPLUS tab that I had previously configured under Settings.  The -r argument was a little tricky because when you use cmd.exe as your shell for Console, running programs needs to be preceeded with a /k which is why you see it before sqlplus.

I also created a shortcut that loads Console, runs SQL*PLUS, logs into an instance, and runs a SQL script automatically.  To do this I added my login credentials and the path to the SQL script after the sqlplus command.  It looks something like this "/k sqlplus user/pass@instance @runme.sql".

It's been quite a while since I've blogged so I'm going to write a little about everything--old and new.  Let's start with a recap of some of the older stuff.

401k

It's finally starting to look like it has some life again.  My most recent 2Q statement had it up I think around 16% for the year.  For quick comparisons sake, the DJIA started closed '08 at 8776.39 and closed on Friday, July 24th at 9093.24.  While that may not be too impressive, the DJIA lowest for '09 was 6547.05 and we have certainly come a long way from down there.  Since the lowest point around mid March, the DJIA has gone up 2546.19 points.  It is up nearly 39% since its low.  Certainly some optimism has crept back into the market.  I really think that the magic barrier is getting back above 10,000 again.  Once the markets have reached that point, I believe almost everyone will be saying the recovery is in full swing and we're pulling ourselves out of it.  It'll probably take 4-5 years of consistent progress though before we get back up near 14,000 though.  I highly doubt we'll see the bullish markets of the dot-com era for a really long time to come.

Softsys Hosting

Nothing new to report really.  Since I haven't been doing much personal website work or anything like that for a while, I don't have much to say about them.  I've had no problems with their hosting or email going down for any appreciable time.  All is good when there is no news to report I suppose.

Car Industry

Well it looks like I got some predictions (semi) correct.  GM did end up filing for bankruptcy, but they haven't completely folded.  On the other hand, they're jettisoning quite a few of their brands to become a more profitable company focused on a few, select core brands.  Only time will tell, but I'm betting on the refocused GM to stick around for a while longer now.  The certainly won't be a major player any more and I predict some foreign company will eventually gobble them up.  That'll probably happen in another 3-5 years when they've had time to sort themselves out and get back on a firm footing.  They will have to extract themselves from the federal government first I'm guessing.  It may take a while for them to buy back that stock so they're in a position to shop themselves around.

Chrysler did in fact end up merging, but not with whom I predicted.  Fiat is a strange bedfellow to me.  I just don't see how this relationship is going to work.  Chrysler has no sense of direction and their lineup is pretty poor in my opinion.  Fiat builds small cars destined for European and other foreign markets.  They really have nothing in common.  Only time will tell if this deal will work out.  I suspect some private equity firm will buy Chrysler back when the time comes, but that's going to be years away.  Until then, Chrysler will just keep being #3 in the US.

Ford is going to survive.  Unless they misstep and fall flat on their face with their upcoming car lineups, they'll be #1 in the US for quite a while.  When I say #1 in the US, I mean between GM and Ford they'll be on top.  Foreign companies like Toyota, Honda, and VW will all eventually all bubble to the top in US auto sales.  The days when US automakers were #1 in the US and world are over.  Plain and simple.

President Obama's decision to virtually eliminate support for hydrogen cars is going to hurt the US in the long term.  Our reliance on foreign oil is deplorable and promoting "greener" technologies as a short term gap isn't helping.  I call things like hybrid's "greener" because they're not THAT much better than say a hydrogen powered vehicle.  Hybrid's still use gasoline and until we sever that umbilicle cord, we're still hooked on foreign oil.  I really wish he had looked a little farther into the future, something beyond say 5 years and his re-election campaign.  It takes roughly 5 years on a fast-track to design, test, build, and mass produce a new car line.  Less funding for hydrogen car research now likely means we're stuck with hybrids until 2015 or later.  There is one glimmer of hope and that is Shell has recently opened a second hydrogen filling station in New York.  Don't you think it is kind of ironic that Shell is starting to get interested in this technology?

New House

I bought a house.  A new house.  My first house.  It's fantastic!

I started looking back in February when I found out the stimulus package was to include a tax credit for first time home buyers.  At the time, various figures were being proposed anywhere from $7,500 up to $15,000 for buying a home.  I was really hoping for $15,000 which I believe my state senator was pushing for.  Alas I will have to "settle" for just $8,000.  Needless to say that the carrot dangled in front of me was a primary reason to finally take the plunge.  Needless to say, I was one of those people that our government hoped to get off the fence and buy a home.  Job well done!

There is one thing about buying your first home that you don't realize no matter how many people tell you.  You will be spending every weekend for months going to Lowe's, Home Depot, or the local hardware store to buy stuff after you move in.  You will also be compiling a to do list of things that need to be done around the house.  And you will be making a wish list of everything you need to buy.  I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but in reality I had not the faintest clue.  Word to the wise--if you are buying your first home, triple the amount of money you think you will need for things like buying a new refrigerator, lawnmower, and everything else.  You will quickly realize how much "stuff" you don't have that you need after you move in.

Bank of America has an online banking feature called My Portfolio.  If you've never used it before, it is basically a way to bring all your financial accounts together into one single view.  It gives you the ability to view at a quick glance your checking, savings, and credit card accounts even if they are all at different banks other than Bank of America.

With any solution that integrates information from multiple heterogeneous sources, there are bound to be problems and there are some with BoA's My Portfolio.  On at least 3 occassions in the last 3 months, various linked accounts I have setup in My Portfolio absolutely will not update for days at a time.  I am getting an error message that says my username or password is wrong.  I know this isn't the case because I've previously retyped them correctly and I can login to the website where my account is linked from with that username and password.

For whatever reason, the savings account which is held at another bank and setup in My Portfolio seems to flake out each time BoA has problems with My Portfolio.  We are currently on day 6 of the current "maintenance" period.  I use that term loosely, but that is the word BoA support uses when you call and ask about the problem which I've called about twice now in the last couple of days.  The standard response I keep getting is essentially this: "We are aware of some problems with the My Portfolio section of online banking.  We have a team working on it, but we do not have an estimated time that work will be completed."  Seriously, 6 days and counting?  If the purchasing application that I wrote for work recently wasn't working for 6 days, I wouldn't have a job any more.  How hard can it really be to debug and fix the problem?  And why not provide the users with a better error message instead of telling me my account's username and password is wrong when clearly it isn't?  They either don't have any user-interface designers on staff at BoA or the ones they do need to find another line of work.  Failure.

Anyone else think it is kind of ridiculous for a multi-billion dollar company like BoA to have these kinds of problems over and over again?  What do you think of the "error message" which really doesn't explain the actual problem to the user?