Oracle Application Server 10g Swap Space - Setup Installs Fails

When installing Oracle Application Server 10g on Windows 2003 R2 an error can be displayed that install pre-requisites have failed due to insufficient Swap Space. The installer aborts at this point and prevents you continuing the installation despite all the requirements being met according to the Oracle Application Server 10g documentation.

On Win2003 server the swap space is system managed and changing this requires the database to be rebooted which would affect the database users as well as impact on performance.

Checking swap space: 0 available, 500 required Failed.

The solution is to run the installer without the system pre-requisites so that the installer can continue. As the system has the correct requirements the install should proceed successfully. The command line to use is:

setup -ignoresysprereqs

This assumes that your installation server does meet the minimum requirements and that the error that causes the setup to fail is not down to a genuine lack of resources.

VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate Review

Review of the VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

If you are looking for a great performance, spacious family estate that is also very economical then the Volkswagen Passat TDI140 Sport could be the perfect car. As well as covering huge mileages with ease the car will also return 50+mpg on the motorway.


VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

The VW Passat TDI140 Sport Estate has sports interior with comfortable sports seats and durable cloth trim. The exterior of the car has 17" alloy wheels and is slightly lowered compared to the standard VW Passat.

The VW Passat estate is hugely spacious and the legroom for reat seat passengers gives room for pretty much any height. The space in the rear is better than in some much larger executive cars and is vast compared to cars such as Jaguar XJ or Range Rovers.



VW Passat Estate with 5 spoke alloys 17" wheels

Interior of the VW Passat TDI140 Diesel Sport Estate

Bosch AXT22D Shredder Review

This is a review of the Bosch AXT22D Shredder that we purchased recently. The UK retail price for a new Bosch AXT22D Shredder is around £250 but we managed to bag an Ebay bargain at under £160.

Once unpacked from the box the shredder is easy to assemble just requiring the feeder head to be attached to the base of the shredder motor unit. This is easily done with a sturdy knob. If this is not attached or tightened correctly the Bosch AXT 22D Shredder will not start and emits a beeping sound.

The shredder is impressively quiet in operation and far less noisy than previous shredders I have used. The Bosch AXT22D Shredder can take some large branches with ease and effortlessly turns them into small pieces. It is less good at garden material containing large amounts of greenery or leaves which can tend to clog the shredding mechanism. The collection container is a handy feature meaning that the shredder can be used inside a shed without making a huge mess but also can quickly fill up with the speed that the shredder can process branches. The collection basket has 2 lugs to the rear that would appear to be its weak point. As they are plastic I can imagine that they will not survive long term.

The shredder has wheels so that it can be moved around. These help as it is a much heavier machine than other shredders such as the Bosch AXT 2200 that have rotating blades rather than the rolling drum. However the weight is mainly in the upper part of the shredder which makes it very unstable to move around and it can easily rock from side to side when being moved about.

Some reviews of the Bosch AXT22D Shredder have mentioned that the short cable is a problem but for most uses it will be used at some distance from a power outlet so an extension cable would be required anyway.

Summary of Bosch AXT22D Shredder

Pros:
Able to handle large branches with ease
Fast processing of large volumes
Quiet
Weight makes it stable in use

Cons:

Clogs with too much leafy material
Unstable when being moved on its wheels
Long term life of collection basket

Are Laskys & Comet The Same Company or Linked?

Is there a connection between Comet and Laskys?

We recently bought a tumble dryer from Laskys via Ebay, excellent price and no charge for delivery. The total price for the White Knight tumble dryer was £133 at the Laskys Ebay store including delivery.

When the van arrived to deliver the tumble dryer we were very surprised to see it was from Comet. On further investigation it appears that Comet and Laskys are part of the same group but Laskys offer the better online deals.

So if you are worried about buying from Laskys on Ebay bear in mind that they are part of the same group as Comet and the goods may well be delivered by Comet from the same warehouse as if you had bought directly from Comet anyway.

Laskys price on Ebay  £133
Comet price online      £149

Saving £16 by using a different company in the same group - good result!

VW Passat Diesel Piezo Injector Replacement Recall

VW are sending letters to all owners of VW Passats with Diesel PD140 engines for the injectors to be checked and replaced. Apparently the failure rate of these has been exessively high and when they fail the car engine stops immediately so it is a fairly important safety issue.

VW Passat Diesel Piezo Injector Replacement Recall: Photo credit : 1810martin

My VW Passat 2007 Sport went to the main dealer yesterday and all 4 piezo injectors were replaced as part of this replacement programme. Not bad at all when some owners have previously been charged over £1000 for a single injector to be replaced! Even better when the car has over 125,000 miles on the clock and these should last the same mileage again

I have been very impressed with the way Volkswagen handle warranty and safety related issues on their cars. Some time ago when I owned a VW Golf Mark 2 it was recalled for replacement of the heater matrix. Quite incredible when the car was 13 years old at the time and the original matrix had clearly worked ok for all that time.

More info about the VW Passat injectors can be found here

No Signal on O2 Network - Mobile System Down Again? Affecting Tesco Mobile & Giffgaff

O2 Network Down with No Signal  (so also affecting Tesco Mobile and GiffGaff)

Luckily my mobiles are with Vodafone and Three but a couple of colleagues trying to arrange a shoot today are with O2 and neither have had any mobile network signal since lunchtime. It isn't geographical as they are in totally different parts of the UK, one in Kent and one in Manchester so I am currently relaying messages between them.

UPDATE - 11pm on Weds 11th July 2012 - O2 have issued a statement that the problems are due to a failure in their core network. Friend's mobiles are still showing no signal nearly 12 hours after it started.

UPDATE - As of 10pm Weds 11th July the problem still appears to be continuing. Many friends in Kent are still reporting that they have no O2 mobile signal.

After the previous problems with O2 it does appear that they have serious reliability issues with their network or very poor single points of failure.

O2 Network Down (Again) with No Signal

This problem also is affecting Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff networks which piggyback on the O2 transmitters so are impacted by failure of any parts of the O2 mobile phone network. Amazingly considering the extent of the outage and disruption across the UK the Tesco Mobile website has no information at all about the problems and the O2 website has crashed under the volume of hits.

If you need to check the location of O2 transmitters in your area to see where the nearest is located then click here for more info

How to avoid Form Model Scams in London

New TV Show by Maverick Television

I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch, but I work for a television production company in London called Maverick TV and we are currently looking for people to take part in a brand new show.  

We are looking for young people between the ages of 18-30  from all walks of life to answer a series of general knowledge questions for a new Tv show .We are looking for men and women from various backgrounds and professions to take part in some fun filming as part of a brand new show! Filming will take place at the end of July to early August in London, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchester. 

We are looking for a large number of people to be involved, so I was hoping you might be able to help us to spread the word. Filming should take no more than 20 minutes.  I would really appreciate it if you might be happy to forward on this information to any of your colleagues or friends. Anyone that would like to find out some more can  e-mail me directly or call me on the number below. 

Many Thanks in advance

Toral 

Toral Davda

Assistant Producer

40 Churchway

London

NW1 1LW

Tel. 0207 874 6667

t.davda@mavericktv.co.uk