DIY: SQL Server Express or Oracle XE?

[mcs328]

In my anticipated down time, I'm thinking of building a server to either run SQL Server Express or Oracle XE. It's free and so I might as well give it a whirl. Anyone tried doing this before?

My goal is to sharpen and/or learn either my existing knowledge of Oracle or learn something similar like SQL Server. Hopefully, this will translate into some useful experience in my job hunt. I think I'll create an application like the one I worked on but not hindered from 15+ years of changing requirements and band-aids. My other idea is to keep an inventory of all my stuff with scanned images of the receipt.

Ambitious?

[cruelpupet]

Yes ambitious on the scanning.

No experience running an SQL server here though. BUt then again that's what VMs are for.

[attgig]

if you know oracle, it may be useful to pick up sql server. and when the interviewer says, i see sql server experience listed, but no work experience with sql server, and you tell them, well I wanted to learn for my own benefit/knowledge, and so i spent time at home putting up a sql server express to work with it.... i think that would be more impressive, vs sharpening skills of something you already know.


As for project that you want to do.... I don't know if scanning things images/receipt will be that big of a challenge sql wise. you'll have a few fields, and storing things in blobs, but technically, not that difficult to set u the tables, the generic create/select/delete/update procs... and that's about it.
it could be a good primer, but nothing that would stretch your skills.

are there any other normal life tasks that you think may be good for a database? or maybe hobbies... ie, mining sports statistics, and creating new ways to find correlation between different stats.