With today’s economy in such dire straits, many companies are getting back to basics and reviewing the overlooked areas in order to save any money possible. In particular, Oracle licensing is expensive and complicated, and therefore becomes a viable discussion for many companies looking at potentially migrating their databases over to more economical Oracle, or non-Oracle releases. The key to this equation remains on what the database release can deliver, it’s overall encompassing support, and then lastly, how is it competitively priced.

In reading Bridget Botelho’s 2007 article on ‘Licensing for quad-core processors gets tricky‘, chip manufactures such as Intel are pushing to make the Quad-Core the industry standard for all servers. Microsoft’s position on licensing remains the same when it relates to cores, which is licensed ‘per physical processor’, and has no future plans to change this model. Keeping in tune with their competitors and their releases, Oracle’s pricing on Standard Edition was simplified so customers can run systems with as many as four processors with no limit on the number of cores. However, Oracle’s pricing on Enterprise Edition remains complicated  in regards to cores. "Oracle has four categories for licensing, and each category has a unique processor factor that is used to determine the total number of processor licenses. For instance, the processor factor for the UltraSPARC T1 is 0.25. To determine how many licenses are required, Oracle multiplies that number by the number of cores. A Sun Fire T2000 server with one 1.2 GHz UltraSPARC T1 processor and eight cores requires two licenses (eight multiplied by a processor factor of .25 totals two processor licenses). Processor factors for AMD and Intel chips are 0.50, so a Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) ProLiant DL145 G2 with two AMD Opteron 200 series dual-core processors will require two multiplied by two multiplied by a 0.5 processor factor, totaling two processor licenses with a list license fee of $80,000. All other multicore chips, like Sun’s UltraSPARC IV, have a 0.75 processor factor, and single core chips have a processor factor of 1.0. "

Oracle Database is available in four editions, each suitable for different development and deployment scenarios.

The Oracle Database Product Family:

Oracle Database Standard Edition One:
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Oracle Database Standard Edition One delivers unprecedented ease of use, power, and performance for workgroup, department-level, and Web applications. Standard Edition One can only be licensed on servers with a maximum capacity of two processors.

Oracle Database Standard Edition:
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Oracle Database Standard Edition delivers the unprecedented ease of use, power, and performance of Standard Edition One, with support for larger machines and clustering of services with Real Application Clusters. Oracle Database Standard Edition can be licensed on single servers or server clusters that have a maximum capacity of four processors. Real Application Clusters is not included in the Standard Edition of releases prior to Oracle Database 10g, nor is it an available option with those earlier releases. When used in a clustered server environment, Oracle Database Standard Edition requires the use of Oracle Cluster Ready Services (CRS). Third-party clusterware management solutions are not supported. In addition, Automatic Storage Management (ASM) must be used to manage the data stored in Oracle Database. Third-party volume managers and file systems are not supported for this purpose. CRS and ASM are required in a clustered server environment in order to facilitate the installation, configuration, and support of Real Application Clusters on Standard Edition.

Oracle Database Enterprise Edition:
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Oracle Database Enterprise Edition provides the performance, availability, scalability, and security required for mission-critical applications such as high-volume online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, query-intensive data warehouses, and demanding Internet applications. Oracle Database Enterprise Edition contains all of the components of Oracle Database, and can be further enhanced with the purchase of the options and packs.

Oracle Database Personal Edition:
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Oracle Database Personal Edition supports single-user development and deployment environments that require full compatibility with Oracle Database Standard Edition One, Oracle Database Standard Edition, and Oracle Database Enterprise Edition. Personal Edition includes all of the components that are included with Enterprise Edition, as well as all of the options that are available with Enterprise Edition, with the exception of the Oracle Real Application Clusters option, which cannot be used with Personal Edition. Personal Edition is available on Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit versions). The Management Packs are not included in Personal Edition.

The following table lists the options available with this release:

The following table lists the features available with this release:

Why get LinkedIn? Well, for starters, LinkedIn is the creator of the world’s largest and most effective business network. With more than five hundred of the Fortune 500 companies deployed, this establishes them as a leader in the recruiting and sourcing of passive job candidates. With more than four million members in North America, more than three million in Europe, and a million-plus in Asia, these companies have adopted LinkedIn Corporate Solutions across their staffing and recruiting organizations and pay between $10,000 and $250,000 annually for subscriptions, which include access to the LinkedIn network of over 8.5 million professionals, enhanced search and communication capabilities, as well as job listing packages.

So, as an Entrepreneur, what does LinkedIn bring to the table?. It is built upon trusted connections and relationships, and is conceivably the biggest gathering of professionals and entrepreneurs seen at a global level. It is like a virtual ‘Chamber of Commerce’ open for anyone to join, without any bias or restrictions on anyone wanting to tap the opportunities it potentially offers. LinkedIn takes your personal business network online, giving you access to people, jobs and opportunities like never before. With more than four million members in North America, more than three million in Europe, and a million-plus in Asia, it provides entrepreneurs use of social networking tools for marketing and recruiting purposes.

But LinkedIn is only as good as you want it to be, and it’s effectiveness is only as much as the user can get out of it. Although regarded as the gold standard in professional networking and social interactions, it is primarily a place to do business at a global scale. It follows the principles of traditional networking in the virtual world, and makes many more people covering a broad spectrum of profiles accessible to one another.

How can it work for you? How about…

• An Ever Expanding Rolodex
• Finding People And Staying In Touch
• Hiring People
• Selling & Brand Building
• Branding & Marketing Yourself
• Finding A Job
• Finding Vendors And Service Providers
• Background Checks On People
• Entrepreneurs: Get Opinions & Investors
• Linkedin Answers: A Global Focus Group

LINKEDIN ACCOUNT LEVELS:

LinkedIn offers free personal accounts with robust features, including the ability to:

• Build and maintain a trusted professional network of unlimited size
• Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates
• Request and provide recommendations
• Create a professional presence on the web
• Request up to 5 Introductions at a time
• Search for and view profiles of other LinkedIn users

Besides the free basic account, LinkedIn also offers a variety of premium accounts that give you more ways to reach or be reached by the right people on LinkedIn – including better communication, more powerful search tools, and enhanced access to decision makers and other resources on LinkedIn.

Personal Plus accounts cost $60 per year. This includes:

• 10 Introductions open at a time
• OpenLink Network membership
• Unlimited OpenLink messages
• Premium Access content
• One-business-day Customer Service

Business accounts cost $19.95 per month or $199.50 per year. This includes:

• 3 InMails per month, with a seven-day response guarantee
  - Unused InMail credits roll over each month, up to a maximum of nine
• Expanded Profile views for the top 100 search results outside your network
• 15 Introductions open at a time
• Unlimited one-click reference searches
• OpenLink Network membership
• Unlimited OpenLink messages
• Premium Access content
• One-business-day Customer Service

Business Plus accounts cost $50 per month or $500 per year. This includes:

• 10 InMails per month, with a seven-day response guarantee
  - Unused InMail credits roll over each month, up to a maximum of 30
• Expanded profile views for the top 150 search results outside your network
• 25 Introductions open at a time
• Unlimited one-click reference searches
• OpenLink Network membership
• Unlimited OpenLink messages
• Premium Access content
• One-business-day Customer Service

Pro accounts cost $200 per month or $2,000 per year. This includes:

• 50 InMails per month with a seven-day response guarantee
  - Unused InMail credits roll over each month, up to a maximum of 150
• Expanded profile views for the top 200 search results outside your network
• 40 Introductions open at a time
• Unlimited one-click reference searches
• OpenLink Network membership
• Unlimited OpenLink messages
• Premium Access content
• One-business-day Customer Service

Interested in networking?… introduce yourself on LinkedIn!

Reference Information:

• LinkedIn Top Ten Questions
• Savvy Companies Get LinkedIn to Find Top Talent

After many months of waiting, the free Windows Mobile 6 (formerly code named "Crossbow") finally became available for the US versions of the Palm Treo 750 last month. This upgrade is designed for the Palm Treo 750 running on the AT&T network, and will update the smartphone’s software to the latest release, version 2.25.

For the Cingular and AT&T customers, the High-speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) capability allows for faster data-download speeds on 3G/UMTS/HSDPA networks.

HSDPA is a new protocol for mobile telephone data transmission. It is known as a 3.5G (G stands for generation) technology. Essentially, the standard will provide download speeds on a mobile phone equivalent to an ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) line in a home, removing any limitations placed on the use of your phone by a slow connection. Though any data can be transmitted, applications with high data demands such as video and streaming music are the focus of HSDPA.

The current Treo 750 runs Windows Mobile 5.2 Pocket PC edition. It is powered by a 300MHz Samsung processor and has 128MB nonvolatile flash memory (60MB available for storage). The display is a 65k colour, 240 x 240 pixel touch screen. It also has integrated Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology. It has a new side mounted mini-SD memory expansion and a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom. The battery is a removable 1200 mAh Lithium-ion, good for a claimed 4.5 hours GSM / 2.5 hours UMTS talk time, with 10 days standby time.

Although some enhancements in this upgrade may require Exchange Server 2007, they include:

• Microsoft Direct Push Technology connection to email, calendar, contacts and tasks
• Improved Calendar with Day-at-a-Glance bar
• Email enhancements such as HTML-formatted email messages
• Ability to set an out-of-office message from the Treo smartphone
• Mini-SD storage card encryption, password and PIN improvements, and remote data wipe
• Ability to search for email messages on the Exchange server
• Ability to set an out-of-office message from the Treo smartphone
• Meeting request and scheduling conflict improvements

The upgrade itself was very painless, however, it is critical that you read and understand the upgrade directions before attempting this upgrade. There is only one download limit per device (requires the Treo 750′s serial number), therefore having a backup of your Windows Mobile 6 upgrade installer is essential for potential future recovery.

The complete features list, upgrade documentation, and downloads can be found on Palm’s website for the Treo 750

Reference Information:

• The Palm Treo 750 download information
• High-Speed Downlink Packet Access [HSDPA]
• AT&T 3G network
• Windows Mobile 6 Summary