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• Social HCM: Is Your Team Listening?

  - by Mike Stiles

  Does integrating Social HCM into your enterprise make sense? Consider Sam and Christina. Sam is a new hire at a big company. On the job 3 weeks, a question has come up on how to properly file an expense report to get reimbursed. It was covered in the onboarding session, but shockingly enough, Sam didn’t memorize or write down every word of the session. The answer is probably in a handout, in a stack of handouts 2 inches thick. It also might be on the employee web site…somewhere. Christina is a new hire at a different big company. She has the same question. She logs into her company’s social network, goes to the “new hires” group, asks her question and gets an answer in seconds. Christina says, “Cool!” Sam says, “Grrrr.” It’s safe to say the qualified talent your company wants is accustomed to using social platforms to communicate and get quick answers. As such, Christina is comfortable at her new company, whereas Sam is wondering what he’s gotten himself into. Companies that cling to talent communication and management systems that don’t speak to talent’s needs or expectations put themselves at risk. Right from the recruiting stage, prospects can determine if a company has embraced the communications tools of the 21st century. If they don’t see it, alarm bells go off. With great talent more in demand than ever, enterprises should reconsider making “this is the way we do it, you adapt to us” their mantra. Other blogs have clearly outlined that apart from meeting top recruits’ expectations, Social HCM benefits the organization itself in terms of efficiency, talent performance & measurement. Recruiting: Jobvite shows 64% of companies hired using social. 89% of job seekers are using social in their search. Social can give employers access to relevant communities of prospects and advance the brand. Nucleus Research found general hiring software can provide over 1,000% ROI by reducing churn and improving screening. Social talent acquisition should perform at least as well. Learning & Development:Employees, learning from the company or from peers, can be kept on top of the latest needed skillsets and engage in self-paced training so as to advance within the company. Performance Management:Just as gamers are egged on by levels and achievements, talent can reach for workplace kudos, be they shout-outs from peers & managers or formally established milestones. Plus employee reviews become consistent and fair as managers have access to the cumulative feedback social offers. Workflow and Collaboration:With workforces dispersing in terms of physical location, social provides a platform that helps eliminate drawbacks that would have brought just 10 years ago. Finding and connecting with just the right colleague to get the most relevant info at any given time has never been more possible…or expected. While yes, marketing has taken the social lead inside the enterprise, HCM (with the word “human” right there in its name) is the obvious locale for the next big integration of social in business. The technology is there. At Oracle, Fusion HCM apps are deeply embedded with Social HCM…just one example of systems taking social across the enterprise. Christina’s company is communicating with her in ways she’s used to. Sam’s company may as well be trying to talk to him using signal flags. @mikestilesPhoto via stock.xchng

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• Oracle Announces the Winners of the 2014 Oracle Sustainability Innovation Award

  - by Evelyn Neumayr

  Oracle will be honoring the winners of the 2014 Sustainability Innovation Award, one of the Oracle Excellence Awards, at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco. This award recognizes the innovative use of Oracle technology to address global sustainability business challenges. The winning customers reduced their environmental footprint while also reducing costs using green business practices and Oracle technology. For these customers, environmental sustainability has become an essential ingredient to doing business responsibly and successfully. Oracle will also be awarding Lacey Lewis, Senior Vice President – Finance at Cox Enterprises, with Oracle's 2014 Chief Sustainability Officer of the Year award. Lacey is being honored for the comprehensive, deep-rooted environmental sustainability program at Cox Enterprises. With a focus on conserving and protecting the environment, Cox Enterprises uses Oracle Applications and technology to drive efficiency and green business processes throughout its organization. These awards will be presented by Jeff Henley, Oracle Chairman of the Board, in Oracle's seventh annual sustainability awards session. Please join us at this awards session on Wednesday October 1 in Moscone West Room 3002 if you will be attending Oracle OpenWorld.

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• What if you've been asked to develop a site and the client later introduces Ts&Cs that you'll breach whilst doing your job?

  - by Matt Lacey

  Disclaimer : this is all made up. Honest. And it represents no clients or employers living or dead, blah blah blah, etc. [Allegedly] As part of a website I've built, I've now been provided the Terms and Conditions of site usage to display on the site. These terms--which must be agreed to to access the site--include my (or any visitor to the sites) compliance with a number of clauses. Many of these clauses refer to general computer use and are not tied specifically to use of the site. Some of these clauses refer to things I have had to previously do as a legitimate part of my job and would expect to have to do again. When I've raised similar issues previously my line manager has said just to ignore it but that doesn't seem to be the professional thing to do. So, what do I do? Abiding by the terms would mean that I could no longer work on the project and would cause issues with my employer and the owner of the business the site is being created for. Ignoring them could lead to possible future issues with the business owner and is not something I'm necessarily happy with (the deliberate breaking of a legal contract). Neither option is one I'd choose and could have major consequences. Any thoughts?

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• What You Can Learn from the NFL Referee Lockout

  - by Christina McKeon

  American football is a lot like religion. The fans are devoted followers that take brand loyalty to a whole new level. These fans that worship their teams each week showed that they are powerful customers whose voice has an impact. Yesterday, these fans proved that their opinion could force the hand of a large and powerful institution. With a three-month NFL referee lockout that seemed like it was nowhere close to resolution, the Green Bay Packers and the Seattle Seahawks competed last Monday night. For those of you that might have been out of the news cycle the past few days, Green Bay lost the game due to a controversial call that many experts and analysts agree should have resulted in Green Bay winning the game. Outrage ensued. The NFL had pulled replacement referees from the high school ranks, and these replacements did not have the knowledge and experience to handle high intensity NFL games. Fans protested about their customer experience. Their anger-filled rants were heard in social media, in the headlines of newspapers, on radio, and on national TV. Suddenly, the NFL was moved to reach an agreement with the referees. That agreement was reached late in the night on Wednesday with many believing that the referees had the upper hand forcing the owners into submission. Some might argue that the referees benefited, not the fans. Since the fans wanted qualified and competent referees, I would say the fans did benefit. The referees are scheduled to return to the field this Sunday, so the fans got what they wanted. What can you learn from this negative customer experience? Customers are in control. NFL owners thought they were controlling this situation with the upper hand over referees. The owners figured out they weren’t in control when their fans reacted negatively. Customers can make or break you more now than ever before, which is why it is more important to connect with them, engage them in a personal manner, and create rewarding relationships. Protect your brand. Whether knowingly or unknowingly, the NFL put their brand and each team’s brand at risk with replacement referees. Think about each business decision you make, and how it may impact your brand at different points in time. A decision that results in a gain today could result in a larger loss down the road. Customer experience matters. The NFL likely foresaw declining revenues in ticket sales, merchandising, advertising, and other areas if the lockout continued. While fans primarily spoke with their minds in the days following the Green Bay debacle, their wallets would be the next things to speak. Customer experience directly affects your success and is one of the few areas where you can differentiate your business. What would you do if your brand got such negative attention? Would you be prepared to navigate such stormy waters? Would you be able to prevent such a fiasco? If you don’t have a good answer to these questions, consider joining us October 3-5, 2012 at the Oracle Customer Experience Summit in San Francisco. You’ll have the opportunity to learn even more about customer experience from industry experts such as best-selling author Seth Godin, Paul Hagen and Kerry Bodine from Forrester Research, Inc., George Kembel from the Stanford d.School, Bruce Temkin of The Temkin Group, and Gene Alvarez from Gartner Inc.. There will also be plenty of your peers and customer experience experts available for networking and discussions.

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• Purple Cows, Copernicus, and Shampoo – Lessons in Customer Experience

  - by Christina McKeon

  What makes a great customer experience? And, why should you or your organization care? These are the questions that set the stage for the Oracle Customer Experience Summit, which kicked off yesterday in San Francisco. Day 1: The first day was filled with demos and insights from customer experience experts and Oracle customers sharing what it takes to deliver great customer experiences. Author Seth Godin delivered an entertaining presentation that included an in-depth exploration of the always-connected, always-sharing experience revolution that we are witnessing and yes, talked about the purple cow. It turns out that customer experience is your way to be the purple cow. Before everyone headed out to see Pearl Jam and Kings of Leon at the Oracle customer appreciation event, the day wrapped up with a discussion around building a customer-centric culture. Where do you start? Whom does it involve? What are some pitfalls to avoid? Day 2: The second day addressed the details behind all the questions brought up at the end of Day 1. Before you start on a customer experience initiative, Paul Hagen noted that you must understand you will forge a path similar to Copernicus. You will be proposing ideas and approaches that challenge current thinking in your organization. Just as Copernicus' heliocentric theory started a scientific revolution, your customer-centric efforts will start an experience revolution. If you think customer experience is like a traditional marketing approach, think again. It’s not about controlling your customers and leading them where you want them to go. It might sound like heresy to some, but your customers are already in control, whether or not your company realizes and acknowledges it. And, to survive and thrive, you'll have to focus on customers by thinking outside-in and working towards a brand that is better and more authentic. We learned how Vail Resorts takes this customer-centric approach. Employees must experience the mountain themselves and understand the experience from the guest’s standpoint. This has created a culture where employees do things for guests that are not expected. We also learned a valuable lesson in designing and innovating customer-centered experiences from Kerry Bodine. First you make the thing, and then you make the thing right. In this case, the thing is customer experience. Getting customer experience right means iterative prototyping and testing of your ideas. This is where shampoo comes in—think lather, rinse, repeat. Be prepared to keep repeating until the customer experience is right. Many of these sessions will be posted to YouTube in the coming weeks so be sure to subscribe to our CX channel.

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• Customer Experience in the Year Ahead

  - by Christina McKeon

  With 2012 coming to an end soon, we find ourselves reflecting on the year behind us and the year ahead. Now is a good time for reflection on your customer experience initiatives to see how far you have come and where you need to go. Looking back on your customer experience efforts this year, were you able to accomplish the following? Customer journey mapping Align processes across the entire customer lifecyle (buying and owning) Connect all functional areas to the same customer data Deliver consistent and personal experiences across all customer touchpoints Make it easy and rewarding to be your customer Hire and develop talent that drives better customer experiences Tie key performance indicators (KPIs) to each of your customer experience objectives This is by no means a complete checklist for your customer experience strategy, but it does help you determine if you have moved in the right direction for delivering great customer experiences. If you are just getting started with customer experience planning or were not able to get to everything on your list this year, consider focusing on customer journey mapping in 2013. This exercise really helps your organization put your customer in the center and understand how everything you do affects that customer. At Oracle, we see organizations in various stages of customer experience maturity all learn a lot when they go through journey mapping. Companies just starting out with customer experience get a complete understanding of what it is like to be a customer and how everything they do affects that customer. And, organizations that are further along with customer experience often find journey mapping helps provide perspective when re-visiting their customer experience strategy. Happy holidays and best wishes for delivering great customer journeys in 2013!

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• The Softer Side of Customer Experience

  - by Christina McKeon

  It’s election season in the U.S., and you know what that means. It means I stop by the recycling bin in my garage before entering the house with the contents of my mailbox. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my usual direct mail purge when I came across a piece from The Container Store®. This piece would have gone straight to the recycling bin, but the title stopped me: Learn what WE STAND FOR! Under full disclaimer, I’m probably a “frequent flier” at The Container Store. One can never be too organized! Now, back to the direct mail piece. I opened it to discover that The Container Store has taken their customer experience beyond “a shopping experience that makes you smile” to giving customers more insight and transparency into how they feel about their employees, the vendors they partner with, and the communities they live in. The direct mail piece included several employees showcasing a skill, hobby or talent with their photo and a personal note that used one word to describe what these employees believe The Container Store stands for. I do not recall the last time I read through an entire piece of direct mail. But this time, I pored over all the comments and photos.  Summer, a salesperson, believes that one word is PASSION. Thomas in distribution center inventory systems chooses the word ACTION. The list goes on to include MATCHLESS, FUN, FAMILY, LOVE, and EMPOWERMENT. The Container Store is running a contest asking you to tell them what nonprofit organization you stand for. Anyone can submit their favorite nonprofit to win cash, products and services from The Container Store. Don’t forget about the softer side of customer experience. With many organizations working feverishly to transform their business into being more customer-centric, it’s easy to get caught up in processes and technology. Focusing on people and social responsibility often falls behind and becomes a lower priority. Keeping people and social responsibility at the forefront is crucial. Your customers will use your processes and technology, but they will see or hear your people and feel their passion. The latter is what they will remember most about your brand. I’m sure there are many other great examples of the softer side of customer experience. Please share your examples in the comments section.

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• The Talent Behind Customer Experience

  - by Christina McKeon

  Earlier, I wrote about Powerful Data Lessons from the Presidential Election. A key component of the Obama team’s data analysis deserves its own discussion—the people. Recruiters are probably scrambling to find out who those Obama data crunchers are and lure them into corporations. For the Obama team, these data scientists became a secret ingredient that the competition didn’t have. This team of analysts knew how to hear the signal and ignore the noise, how to segment and target its base, and how to model scenarios and revise plans based on what the data told them. The talent was the difference. As you work to transform your organization to be more customer-centric, don’t forget that talent is a critical element. Journey mapping is a good start to understanding how your talent impacts your customer experiences. Part of journey mapping includes documenting the “on-stage” and “back-stage” systems and touchpoints. When mapping this part of your customers’ journey, include the roles and talent behind the employee actions—both customer facing and further upstream from that customer touchpoint. Know what each of these roles does, how well you are retaining people in these areas, and your plans to fill these open positions in the future. To use data scientists as an example, this job will be in high demand over the next 10 years. The workforce is shrinking, and higher education institutions may not be able to turn out trained data scientists as fast as you need them. You don’t want to be caught with a skills deficit, so consider how you can best plan for the future talent you will need. Have your existing employees make their career aspirations known to you now. You may find you already have employees willing to take on roles that drive better customer experiences. Then develop customer experience talent from within your organization through targeted learning programs. If you know that you will need to go outside the organization, build those candidate relationships now. Nurture the candidates you want to hire and partner with universities, colleges, and trade associations so you can increase the number of qualified candidates in your talent pool.

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• Powerful Lessons in Data from the Presidential Election

  - by Christina McKeon

  Now that we’ve had a few days to recover from the U.S. presidential election, it’s a good time to take a step back from politics and look for the customer experience lessons that we can take away. The most powerful lesson is that when you know more about your base, you will have an advantage over your competition. That advantage will translate into you winning and your competition losing. Michael Scherer of TIME was given access to Obama’s data analysts two days before the election. His account is documented in Inside the Secret World of the Data Crunchers Who Helped Obama Win. What we learned from Scherer’s inside view is how well Obama’s team did in getting the right data, analyzing it, and acting on it. This data team recognized how critical it was to break down data silos within the campaign. As Scherer noted, they created “a single system that merged information from pollsters, fundraisers, field workers, consumer databases, and social-media and mobile contacts with the main Democratic voter files in the swing states.” The Obama analysis was so meticulous that they knew which celebrity and which type of celebrity event would help them maximize campaign contributions. With a single system, their data models became more precise. They determined which messages were more successful with specific demographic groups and that who made the calls mattered. Data analysis also led to many other changes in Obama’s campaign including a new ad buying strategy, using social media and applications to tap into supporters’ friends, and using new social news sites. While we did not have that same inside view into Romney’s campaign, much of the post-mortem coverage indicates that Romney’s team did not have the right analysis. As Peter Hamby of CNN wrote in Analysis: Why Romney Lost, “Romney officials had modeled an electorate that looked something like a mix of 2004 and 2008….” That historical data did not account for the changing demographics in the U.S. Does your organization approach data like the Obama or Romney team? Do you really know your base? How well can you predict what is going to happen in your business? If you haven’t already put together a strategy and plan to know more, this week’s civics lesson is a powerful reason to do it sooner rather than later. Your competitors are probably thinking the same thing that you are!

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• Understanding When Social Interactions Should Be Resolved in Another Channel

  - by Christina McKeon

  Guest Blogger: Aphrodite Brinsmead, Senior Analyst at Ovum Agents need to respond to customers’ social comments and questions quickly and in the right tone. But more importantly, they need to offer resolutions. Customers care most about how long it takes to find information rather than which channel they are using. They choose to use social media because they are comfortable with the channel and it offers a convenient way to communicate. Ideally agents will resolve questions within social media, but they need guidance as to how and when to escalate interactions to a more private channel. First, businesses should assess the way in which customers are using social media to communicate with them and categorize posts into groups: complaints, feedback, technical queries or more general support questions. They should then consider the types of interactions that can easily be handled within social media and those that need to be followed up in another channel. This will be very dependent on the industry. Examples of queries that can be resolved in social media include Shipping pricing and timeframes Outage updates and resolution plans Flight status information Product stock check Technical support videos or forum posts Availability of facilities Both customers and agents need to be educated about the types of questions they can expect to resolve within social media. As the channel matures as a customer service tool, it needs to have value other than just as a forum for complaints. Social customer service agents need the power to start a web chat or phone call Any questions where customers need to divulge personal details in order to get a resolution will need to be addressed in a private channel: a private social message, web chat, email or phone call. Customers should never disclose their date of birth, social security, credit card number, or healthcare records in a public forum. Flight issues, changes to a booking, billing queries or account updates will all need to be completed via a private interaction. Agents responding to questions on social media need the ability to start a web chat or phone call with the customer. The customer doesn’t want to have to repeat their question and the agent should be empowered to connect customer records and access account or billing information. These agents will need to be trained across different channels and should be able to view all customer communications in one application. They also need to follow up questions that began on a public forum in the initial channel to make it clear that the issue was addressed. In order to make this possible, social media needs to be integrated as part of a broader customer service strategy. Irrespective of how many channels are used to complete an interaction, businesses should prioritize customer satisfaction and issue resolution. They need a clear strategy and trained agents that can handle and respond to social interactions. Follow me on Twitter @diteb. 

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• View all unplayed podcasts in Zune desktop software

  - by Matt Lacey

  When using the Zune desktop software, is it possible to view a list of all unplayed downloaded podcasts? I don't want to have to keep looking through each individual subscribed podcast for any new shows.

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• SSL connection error for only one site (of many) on server

  - by Matt Lacey

  I have a server running many websites, each with SSL. One of the sites is now refusing connections over SSL. This was previously working and I'm looking for assistance in determining what has been changed. Here's the situation: http://site1.com/ - works https://site1.com/ - works http://site2.com/ - works https://site2.com/ - Doesn't work (but did previously) Both sites are on the same server (Win Server 2003 SP2 - IIS6) Both sites use certificates from the same authority and are both valid (according to IIS). As far as I can tell, both sites have certificates configured identically in IIS. (Checked by a manual/visual check of properties, side by side) Through use of OpenSSL I can see that there's a "ssl handshake failure" when trying to connect to site2 using https. What could be the cause of this? How can I investigate further? Without SSL connections being available to this site, users are unable to log in or register. :( disclaimer: I'm not a server admin and not responsible for the box. Yes, there are wider issues here but I need to get this working again first.

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• SQL Cruise Alaska 2011

  - by Grant Fritchey

  I had the extreme good fortune to get sent on the last SQL Cruise to Alaska. I love my job. In case you don't what this is, SQL Cruise is a trip on a cruise ship during which you get to attend classes while on the boat, learning all about SQL Server and related topics as well as network with the instructors and the other Cruisers. Frankly, it's amazing. Classes ran from Monday, 5/30, to Saturday, 6/4. The networking was constant, between classes, at night on cruise ship, out on excursions in Alaskan rainforests and while snorkeling in ocean waters. Here's a run down of the experience from my point of view. Because I couldn't travel out 2 days early, I missed the BBQ that occurred the day before the cruise when many of the Cruisers received their swag bags. Some of that swag came from Red Gate. I researched what was useful on a cruise like this and purchased small flashlights and binoculars for all the Cruisers. The flashlights were because, depending on your cabin, ships can be very dark. The binoculars were so that the cruisers could watch all the beautiful landscape as it flowed by. I would have liked to have been there when the bags were opened, but I heard from several people that they appreciated the gifts. Cruisers "In" the hot tub. Pictured: Marjory Woody, Michele Grondin, Kyle Brandt, Grant Fritchey, John Halunen Sunday I went to board the ship with my wife. We had a bit of an adventure because I messed up our documents. It all worked out and we got on board to meet up at the back of the boat at one of the outdoor bars with the other Cruisers, thanks to tweets letting everyone know where to go. That was the end of electronic coordination on the trip (connectivity in Alaska was horrible for everyone except AT&T). The Cruisers were a great bunch of people and it was a real honor to meet them and get to spend time with them. After everyone settled into their cabins, our very first activity was a contest, sponsored by Red Gate. The Cruisers, in an effort to get to know each other and the ship, were required to go all over taking various photographs, some of them hilarious. The winning team of three would all win prizes. Some of the significant others helped out and I tagged along with a team that tied for first but lost the coin toss. The winning team consisted of Christina Leo (blog|twitter), Ryan Malcom (twitter), Neil Hambly (blog|twitter). They then had to do math and identify the cabin with the lowest prime number, oh, and get a picture of it and be the first to get back up to the bar where we were waiting. Christina came in first and very happily carried home an Ipad2. Ryan won a 1TB portable hard drive and Neil won a wireless mouse (picture below, note my special SQL Server Central Friday Shirt. Thanks Steve (blog|twitter)). Winners: Christina Leo, Neil Hambly, Ryan Malcolm. Just Lucky: Grant Fritchey Monday morning classes started. Buck Woody (blog|twitter) was a special guest speaker on this cruise. His theme was "Three C's on the High Seas: Career, Communication and Cloud." The first session was all on Career. I'm not going to type out all my notes from the session, but let's just say, if you get the chance to hear Buck talk about how to manage your career, I suggest you attend. I have a ton of blog posts that I'll be putting together over the next several months (yes, months) both here and over on ScaryDBA. I also have a bunch of work I'm going to be doing to get my career performance bumped up a notch or two (and let's face it, that won't be easy). Later on Monday, Tim Ford (blog|twitter) did a session on DMOs. Specifically the session was on Tim's Period Table of DMOs that he has put together, and how to use some of the more interesting DMOs in your day to day job. It was a great session, packed with good information. Next, Brent Ozar (blog|twitter) did a session on how to monitor and guide SAN configuration for the DBA that doesn't have access to the SAN. That was some seriously useful information. Tuesday morning we only had a single class. Kendra Little (blog|twitter) taught us all about "No Lock for Yes Fun".  It was all about the different transaction isolation levels and how they work. There is so often confusion in this area and Kendra does a great job in clarifying the information. Also, she tosses in her excellent drawings to liven up the presentation. Then it was excursion time in Juneau. My wife and I, along with several other Cruisers, took a hike up around the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely beautiful weather and walking through the Alaskan rain forest was a treat. Our guide, Jason, was a great guy and it was a good day of hiking. Wednesday was an all day excursion in Skagway. My wife and I took the "Ghost and Good Time Girls" walking tour that ended up at a bar that used to be a brothel, the Red Onion. It was a great history of the town. We went back out and hit a few museums and exhibits. We also hiked up the side of the mountain to see the Dewey Lake and some great views of the town. Finally we hiked out to the far side of town to see the Gold Rush cemetery. Hiking done we went back to the boat and had a quiet dinner on our own. Thursday we cruised through Glacier Bay and saw at least four different glaciers including sitting next to the Marjory Glacier for  about an hour. It was amazing. Then it got better. We went into class with Buck again, this time to talk about Communication. Again, I've got pages of notes that I'm going to be referring back to for some time to come. This was an excellent opportunity to learn. Snorkelers: Nicole Bertrand, Aaron Bertrand, Grant Fritchey, Neil Hambly, Christina Leo, John Robel, Yanni Robel, Tim Ford Friday we pulled into Ketchikan. A bunch of us went snorkeling. Yes, snorkeling. Yes, in Alaska. Yes, snorkeling in the ocean in Alaska. It was fantastic. They had us put on 7mm thick wet suits (an adventure all by itself) so it was basically warm the entire time we were in the water (except for the occasional squirt of cold water down my back). Before we got in the water a bald eagle flew up and landed about 15 feet in front of us, which was just an incredible event. Then our guide pointed out about 14 other eagles in the area, hanging out in the trees. Wow! The water was pretty clear and there was a ton of things to see. That was absolutely a blast. Back on the boat I presented a session called Execution Plans: The Deep Dive (note the nautical theme). It seemed to go over well and I had several good questions come out of the session that will lead to new blog posts. After I presented, it was Aaron Bertrand's (blog|twitter) turn. He did a session on "What's New in Denali" that provided a lot of great information. He was able to incorporate new things straight out of Tech-Ed, so this was expanded beyond his usual presentation. The man really knows what he's talking about and communicates it well. Saturday we were travelling so there was time for a bunch of classes. Jeremiah Peschka (blog|twitter) did a great overview of some of the NoSQL databases and what they should be used for. The session was called "The Database is Dead" but it was really about how there are specific uses for these databases that SQL Server doesn't fill, but also that these databases can't replace SQL Server in other areas. Again, good material. Brent Ozar presented again with a session on Defensive Indexing. It was an overview of how indexes work and a deep dive into how to apply them appropriately in your databases to better support access. A good session, as you would expect. Then we pulled into Victoria, BC, in Canada and had a nice dinner with several of the Cruisers, including Denny Cherry (blog|twitter). After that it was back to Seattle on Sunday. By the way, the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle isn't a Science Fiction Museum any more. I was very disappointed to discover this. Overall, it was a great experience. I'm extremely appreciative of Red Gate for sending me and for Tim, Brent, Kendra and Jeremiah for having me. The other Cruisers were all amazing people and it was an honor & privilege to meet them and spend time with them. While this was a seriously fun time, it was also a very serious training opportunity with solid information coming from seasoned industry pros.

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• Airport Express configuration

  - by Christina

  We are trying to set up remote access to a computer that houses a server fro a particular program we are running. The program says we need to configure the office router. In the firewall settings it says to open ports 5345-5351 (TCP only). Port Forwarding: You will also need to forward the same range of ports (5345-5351) to the computer running the Server. This typically requires that the computer running the Server be assigned a static IP on the local network. Having trouble figuring out which IP address we actually need to be using on the client side of this program in order to access the server computer. Can someone walk through this process?? We are working on Mac OSX 10.5. Thank you in advance!

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• Airpot Express configuration

  - by Christina

  We are trying to set up remote access to a computer that houses a server fro a particular program we are running. The program says we need to configure the office router. In the firewall settings it says to open ports 5345-5351 (TCP only). Port Forwarding: You will also need to forward the same range of ports (5345-5351) to the computer running the Server. This typically requires that the computer running the Server be assigned a static IP on the local network. Having trouble figuring out which IP address we actually need to be using on the client side of this program in order to access the server computer. Can someone walk through this process?? We are working on Mac OSX 10.5. Thank you in advance!

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• How test that ASP.NET MVC route redirects to other site?

  - by Matt Lacey

  Due to a prinitng error in some promotional material I have a site that is receiving a lot of requests which should be for one site arriving at another. i.e. The valid sites are http://site1.com/abc & http://site2.com/def but people are being told to go to http://site1.com/def. I have control over site1 but not site2. site1 contains logic for checking that the first part of the route is valid in an actionfilter, like this: public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext) { base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext); if ((!filterContext.ActionParameters.ContainsKey("id")) || (!manager.WhiteLabelExists(filterContext.ActionParameters["id"].ToString()))) { if (filterContext.ActionParameters["id"].ToString().ToLowerInvariant().Equals("def")) { filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Redirect("http://site2.com/def", true); } filterContext.Result = new ViewResult { ViewName = "NoWhiteLabel" }; filterContext.HttpContext.Response.Clear(); } } I'm not sure how to test the redirection to the other site though. I already have tests for redirecting to "NoWhiteLabel" using the MvcContrib Test Helpers, but these aren't able to handle (as far as I can see) this situation. How do I test the redirection to antoher site?

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• What should every programmer know?

  - by Matt Lacey

  Regardless of programming language(s) or operating system(s) used or the environment they develop for, what should every programmer know? Some background: I'm interested in becoming the best programmer I can. As part of this process I'm trying to understand what I don't know and would benefit me a lot if I did. While there are loads of lists around along the lines of "n things every [insert programming language] developer should know", I have yet to find anything similar which isn't limited to a specific language. I also expect this information to be of interest and benefit to others.

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• How do I stop image spam from being uploaded to my (future) site?

  - by Pete Lacey

  I have in mind an idea for a generally accessible site that needs to allow images to be uploaded. But I'm stymied on how to prevent image spam: porn, ads in image form, etc. Assumptions: I'm assuming that the spammers are clever, even human. I'm skeptical of the efficacy of image analysis software. I do not have the resources to approve all uploads manually. I am willing to spend money on the solution -- within reason. This site will be location-aware, if that helps. How does Flickr do it or imgur? Or do they?

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• What's the standard behaviour for an out parameter when a TryXxxx method returns false?

  - by Matt Lacey

  Assuming a method with the following signature bool TryXxxx(object something, out int toReturn) What is it acceptable for toReturn to be if TryXxxx returns false? In that it's infered that toReturn should never be used if TryXxxx fails does it matter? If toReturn was a nulable type, then it would make sense to return null. But int isn't nullable and I don't want to have to force it to be. If toReturn is always a certain value if TryXxxx fails we risk having the position where 2 values could be considered to indicate the same thing. I can see this leading to potential possible confusion if the 'default' value was returned as a valid response (when TryXxxx returns true). From an implementation point if view it looks like having toReturn be a[ny] value is easiest, but is there anything more important to consider?

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• Is it possible to add a Silverlight 3 out-of-browser application to the add/remove programs list?

  - by Matt Lacey

  Is it possible to include a Silverlight (3) out-of-browser application to the add-or-remove programs list? The intention is to be able to remove the OOB application that way (not just by right-clicking from within the running app)? If the OOB app is installed with a shortcut to the desktop and you try to delete the shortcut you are presented with the standard 'you are just deleting a shortcut if you want to delete the application go to add or remove programs' dialog. I want to tidy up this inconsistency.

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• How to align item to the very bottom within flexible box layout column?

  - by Christina Lacey

  So far I have the three columns laid out in a vertical box (can't post images yet so here's a link): http://imgur.com/4Y34c <div id="vbox"> <div id="blck1"></div> <div id="blck2"></div> <div id="blck3"><div id="yellow"></div><div id="blue"></div></div> </div> css #vbox{ display: box; box-orient: vertical; } #vbox > div { box-flex: 1; } The problem is that I don't know how to get the blue box to align to the bottom of the third column.. I tried all the alignment properties, i must be doing something wrong. Any ideas???

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• Google I/O 2012 - Building Mobile App Engine Backends for Android, iOS and the Web

  Google I/O 2012 - Building Mobile App Engine Backends for Android, iOS and the Web Dan Holevoet, Christina Ilvento Mobile application development is growing at explosive rates and the best of those applications have a backend server. Find out how you can use App Engine's new feature to build powerful APIs to support mobile applications running on Android, iOS, and mobile browsers. For all I/O 2012 sessions, go to developers.google.com From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 1783 43 ratings Time: 48:38 More in Science & Technology

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• Bring Spring to Your Desktop with the Dreamgarden Theme for Windows 7

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you ready for Spring? Then bring the beauty of the season to your desktop with the Dreamgarden Theme for Windows 7. This refreshing theme comes with eighteen images full of springtime color by photographer Christina Manchenko. Download the Dreamgarden Theme [Windows 7 Personalization Gallery] How to Own Your Own Website (Even If You Can’t Build One) Pt 1 What’s the Difference Between Sleep and Hibernate in Windows? Screenshot Tour: XBMC 11 Eden Rocks Improved iOS Support, AirPlay, and Even a Custom XBMC OS

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• Javascript hide/show classes with checkbox

  - by Christina

  I am just learning javascript, so please bear with me! I want to be able to use checkboxes to choose to hide/show div classes (to basically filter the amount of info being shown). It is done in this... but I'm try to figure out something much simpler (since I don't need to dynamically generate the checkbox options.) I came across this example: The Javascript: function showMe (it, box) { var vis = (box.checked) ? "block" : "none"; document.getElementById(it).style.display = vis; } The HTML <form> <input type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="value1" onclick="showMe('div1', this)" />value1 <input type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="value2" onclick="showMe('div2', this)" />value2 <input type="checkbox" checked="checked" value="value3" onclick="showMe('div3', this)" />value3 </form> <div id="div1" style="display:block">Show Div 1</div> <div id="div2" style="display:block">Show Div 2</div> <div id="div3" style="display:block">Show Div 3</div> </body> </html> But it only works for div ids, not classes. Any idea on how I can work this? Thanks in advance if you can help me out!

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• Entity Framework - Insert/Update new entity with child-entities

  - by Christina Mayers

  I have found many questions here on SO and articles all over the internet but none really tackled my problem. My model looks like this (I striped all non essential Properties): Everyday or so "Play" gets updated (via a XML-file containing the information). internal Play ParsePlayInfo(XDocument doc) { Play play = (from p in doc.Descendants("Play") select new Play { Theatre = new Theatre() { //Properties }, //Properties LastUpdate = DateTime.Now }).SingleOrDefault(); var actors = (from a in doc.XPathSelectElement(".//Play//Actors").Nodes() select new Lecturer() { //Properties }); var parts = (from p in doc.XPathSelectElement(".//Play//Parts").Nodes() select new Part() { //Properties }).ToList(); foreach (var item in parts) { play.Parts.Add(item); } var reviews = (from r in doc.XPathSelectElement(".//Play//Reviews").Nodes() select new Review { //Properties }).ToList(); for (int i = 0; i < reviews.Count(); i++) { PlayReviews pR = new PlayReviews() { Review = reviews[i], Play = play, //Properties }; play.PlayReviews.Add(pR); } return play; } If I add this "play" via Add() every Childobject of Play will be inserted - regardless if some exist already. Since I need to update existing entries I have to do something about that. As far as I can tell I have the following options: add/update the child entities in my PlayRepositories Add-Method restructure and rewrite ParsePlayInfo() so that get all the child entities first, add or update them and then create a new Play. The only problem I have here is that I wanted ParsePlayInfo() to be persistence ignorant, I could work around this by creating multiple parse methods (eg ParseActors() ) and assign them to play in my controller (I'm using ASP.net MVC) after everything was parsed and added Currently I am implementing option 1 - but it feels wrong. I'd appreciate it if someone could guide me in the right direction on this one.

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