Trust

Here’s a guideline on how much trust to place in advice you get from articles about Oracle published on the Internet:

• If it’s not dated – don’t assume it’s true
• If its date is more than about 18 months old – don’t assume it’s (still) true
• If there’s no version number – don’t assume it’s true
• If it’s not your exact version number – don’t assume it’s (still) true
• For ‘technical implementation’ details, if there’s no platform mentioned – don’t assume it’s true
• For ‘technical implementation’ details, if the platform’s not the same as yours – don’t assume it’s true
• If there’s no rational justification supplied,  and no repeatable test case – don’t assume it’s true.

And even when all the details are perfect and there is a repeatable test case - and even after the repeatable test case produces the same results – ask yourself this question:

“Could there be a different explanation for the same set of results – and if so, how badly could this advice damage my system, and how hard would it be to test my alternative hypothesis ?”

Once you’ve got through that lot – then you might be safe trying the advice on a development system.