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In a theme being attributed to Tony Bibbs, Andi tagged me. Also see http://in2it.be/whotaggedwho.php.

1. I have a mixed accent due to being English, but growing up in America and later Australia.
2. My first computer was a Sharp PC-1211.
3. I cycled to my high-school computer science teacher's house during summer vacation to use the school computers. My school by then had progressed from a CPM machine with mark-sense cards to having multiple BBC Micros
4. At school, we watched Australia win the 1983 America's Cup using the TVs that functioned as the BBC Micro monitors.
5. I studied Comp Sci at Melb Uni, where I got my first taste of UNIX. When I started, all machines had aboriginal names that began with "mu", e.g munnari. One of the mandatory student manuals was a bound compendium of UNIX man pages. Fun historical info is at http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~alistair/fifty-years/mof06history.pdf
6. I started reading comp.risks (now at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks) about that time. Let's try not to expand its archive of computer wrongs.
7. I use Emacs.
8. I think there are two types of people in this world, those who can count to seven, and those who can't.

As this 7-Things meme winds down, I'll just tag Tony Dovgal, who has recently become a new father - congratulations!

Here are Tony Bibb's rules for the meme:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Now that Python 3000 has been released, Anthony Tuininga has announced cx_Oracle 5.0, the latest version of the extension for Oracle Database access. His announcement email contains all the details.

Among the new features, it support Oracle 11g Connection Pooling (DRCP) fully now and allows the connection class to be set. This enables maximum reuse of the Oracle pooled server processes by applications.

(The bottom one is the now- old edition of the Underground PHP & Oracle Manual. The latest edition can be downloaded free from www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/pdf/underground-php-oracle-manual.pdf)

A "php-oci8-11gR1" RPM is now available on the "Unbreakable Linux Network" (http://linux.oracle.com/) in the Oracle channel. If you have the appropriate ULN subscription, you can use 'up2date' or 'yum' to install it and its dependencies (e.g. the Oracle Instant Client 11g RPM).

The php-oci8-11gR1 RPM provides the OCI8 1.3 extension for Oracle DB 9iR2, 10g, and 11g access. It is built for the default PHP. When connected to Oracle DB 11g, DRCP Connection Pooling is available.

Instant Client 10.2.0.4 & 11.1.0.7 RPMs are also available in the Oracle Channel on ULN.

What really is ULN? From its homepage: "ULN is a comprehensive resource for Oracle Unbreakable Linux support subscribers, and offers access to Linux software patches, updates and fixes, along with information on up2date program and support policies."