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  • AWS EC2 security group source

    - by greener
    I'm currently trying to configure a security group and allow MS SQL connections from my other instance. I want to be able to specify the security group's name as the source. But the connection is not going through. The instance's firewall has a rule to allow connections on the port. In fact, if I specify the IP of the machine as the source, it works. Just not the security group name. There are two other rules for the same port and they're for specific IPs only. What am I doing wrong?

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  • XMLHttpRequest and IE 8 error - in jsp/servlet applicaton

    - by Greener
    Hello, I am using HMLHttpRequest object to retrieve information from the database via servlet and populate combo box. The code run in Firefox 3.6 and Chrome without any problems. However, I have a problem with IE 8. here is my code: var req; var isIE; function initRequest(){ if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { req = new XMLHttpRequest(); } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { isIE = true; req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } } function populateMuniBox(countyCode) { initRequest(); req.onreadystatechange = populateMuniCallback; req.open("GET","./CntyMuni?county="+ countyCode,true); req.send(null); } function populateMuniCallback() { //clean combo box document.getElementById("cmbMuni").options.length = 0; var muni; if(req.readyState==4){ if (req.status == 200){ var XMLresult = req.responseXML; var muni = XMLresult.getElementsByTagName("rec"); } } for(var i=0;i<muni.length;i++) { //create Html option Element var opt = document.createElement("option"); //Set up the option - add values from XML opt.value = muni[i].getAttribute("code"); opt.text = muni[i].getAttribute("desc"); //add the option to the combobox document.getElementById("cmbMuni").appendChild(opt); } } HMTL code //First combo box the sends a value to the script <td> <select name="cn" id="county" onchange="populateMuniBox(this.value)"> // Second cmb <select name="mu" id="cmbMuni" ></select> IE error: 'lenght' is null or not an object cntymuni.jsp Code: 0 I am not sure how to fix the error.

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  • Creating a relative path to a Database in Asp.net for a library

    - by Greener
    In school I am part of a team of four working to create a GUI to translate the paper records of a made-up company and their functionality to a digital format. We're using an ASP.NET website for this purpose. Basically we use stored procedures and C# classes to represent the database. The folder we're using for the project contains the site and the libraries in separate folders. If I try to open the site from the folder containing both these elements the site will not run. I want to know if there is some way I can set up a relative path to the database in the Settings.Settings.cs file (or by some other means) of my libraries so I don't have to constantly change the database location for the connection string value every time we move the project. I suppose I should also mention that the database is in an App_Data folder.

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  • 10 Linux Alternatives to Songbird

    <b>Testfreaks:</b> "As we've mentioned earlier, Songbird has left the Linux flock and gone on to perceived greener open source pastures. But what are the Linux faithful to use to replace this one time music player gem that was heralded as the alternative to iTunes?"

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  • SQL SERVER – A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – A Collection of Inspiring and Funny Posts by Vinod Kumar

    - by pinaldave
    One of the most popular quotes is: A picture is worth a thousand words. Working on this concept I started a series over my blog called the “Picture Post”. Rather than rambling over tons of material over text, we are trying to give you a capsule mode of the blog in a quick glance. Some of the picture posts already available over my blog are: Correlation of Ego and Work: Ego and Pride most of the times become a hindrance when we work inside a team. Take this cue, the first ever Picture post was published. Simple and easy to understand concept. Would want to say, Ego is the biggest enemy to humans. Read Original Post. Success (Perception Vs Reality): Personally, have always thought success is not something the talented achieve with the opportunity presented to them, but success is developed using the opportunity in hand now. In this fast paced world where success is pre-defined and convoluted by metrics it is hard to understand how complex it can sometimes be. So I took a stab at this concept in a simple way. Read Original Post. Doing Vs Saying: As Einstein would describe, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Given the amount of information we get, it is difficult to keep track, learn and implement the same. If you were ever reminded of your college days, there will always be 5-6 people doing different things and we naturally try to emulate what they are doing. This could be from competitive exams GMAT, GRE, CAT, Higher-Ed, B-School hunting etc. Rather than saying you are going to do, it is best to do and then say!!! Read Original Picture Post. Your View Vs Management View: Being in the corporate world can be really demanding and we keep asking this question – “Why me?” when the performance appraisal process ends. In this post I just want to ask you one frank opinion – “Are you really self-critical in your assessments?”. If that is the case there shouldn’t be any heartburns or surprises. If you had just one thing to take back, well forget what others are getting but invest time in making yourself better because that is going to take you longer and further in your career. Read Picture Post. Blogging lifecycle for majority: I am happy and fortunate to be in this blog post because this picture post surely doesn’t apply to SQLAuthority where consistency and persistence have been the hallmark of the blog. For the majority others, who have a tendency to start a blog, get into slumber for a while and write saying they want to get back to blogging, the picture post was specifically done for them. Paradox of being someone else: It is always a dream that we want to become somebody and in this process of doing so, we become nobody. In this constant tussle of lost identity we forget to enjoy the moment that is in front of us. I just depicted this using a simple analogy of our constant struggle to get to the other side, just to realize we missed the wonderful moments. Grass is not greener on the other side, but grass is greener where we water the surface. Read Picture Post. And on the lighter side… Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • Changing Platform

    - by Liam McLennan
    From time to time a developer makes a break from their platform of choice (.NET, Java, VB, Access, COBOL) and moves to perceived greener pastures. Zed Shaw did it, jumping from Ruby to Python, and Mike Gunderloy went from .NET to Rails. But it can be difficult to change platform. My clients don’t come to me looking for  a software developer, they come looking for a .NET developer. This is a tragic side effect of big software companies marketing. If your village is under attack by bandits, would you turn away the first seven samurai who offered to help because you didn’t like their swords? What matters is how effectively they can defend your village. You should not tell your carpenter what sort of hammer to use and you should not tell your software developer what platform to use.

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  • Believeland

    - by AllenMWhite
    My daughter sent me this link to an article on ESPN called Believeland , which is a bit of a Tolstoy, but gives you a bit of the feel of what it's like to be from Cleveland. We love our city, even as many of us leave it for greener (and warmer) pastures elsewhere. One of the things I hope you'll find when you come here for SQL Saturday 60 on February 5, is what a great place it is to live here. Our call for speakers is open until Sunday. I hope to see you here. Allen...(read more)

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  • Apple de nouveau pointé du doigt par Greenpeace, qui félicite Wipro et HP pour leur respect de l'environnement

    Apple de nouveau pointé du doigt par Greenpeace qui félicite Wipro et HP pour leur respect de l'environnement Dans son action pour la protection de l'environnement, Greenpeace évalue l'engagement des entreprises technologiques pour le respect de l'environnement. L'ONG écologiste vient de publier son rapport « Guide to Greener Electronics » des entreprises les plus écolos dans le domaine du hardware. Dans ce classement, Apple perd deux places par rapport à la dernière liste de Greenpeace, pour se retrouver à la sixième position avec un score de 4,5 sur 10. La firme à la pomme aurait fait des investissements dans l'utilisation des énergies renouvelables et l...

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  • SysAdmin Career Question: Internal or Client Based

    - by Malnizzle
    ServerFault Community, It seems there are two positions SysAdmins find themselves in, either you are working for a non-IT services based single client (your employer) and providing in-house IT support or you work for a company who provides out sourced IT services to multiple clients. Right now I work for a company who does the latter, and I often consider how nice it would be doing the in-house side of things, to just have one network I am focused on and instead of feeling like I have a dozen bosses between clients and internal management, I would just have one set of management and people to appease. There is also the technical aspect of every client wanting something different, and having to manage numerous different technology platforms, or trying to force clients into using the technologies we prefer, neither situation is enjoyable. Is this just "the grass is greener on the other side" syndrome, or is there some legitimacy to the the stress of client based IT work compared to being an in-house IT guy? Thanks!

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  • links for 2010-04-15

    - by Bob Rhubart
    e-Energy 2010 in Passau : Franz Haberhauer's Weblog Fresh off his participation in a panel at the 1st Int' Conf. on Energy-Efficient Computing and Networking at the University of Passau, Germany, Franz Haberhauer offers some background on the CoolThreads/Chip Mulitthreading Technology and its role in greener datacenters. (tags: oracle sun datacenter Mulitthreading) Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control: New Recommended Bundle Patch (APR 2010) - 9405592 for Patch Automation on EM 10.2.0.5 Notes and a short FAQ on the Recommended Bundle Patch 9405592 for Oracle Enterprise Manager Grid Control. (tags: architect entarch grid oracle otn) Vijaykumar Yenne: Customizing Spaces UI Vijaykumar Yyenne explains how to leverage the Extend Spaces Project on the Oracle Technology Network to customize Oracle WebCenter site templates. (tags: enterprise2.0 oracle otn webcenter) Knut Vatsendvik: Catch Me If You Can "Suppose you have a Proxy based Web Service using Oracle Service Bus. In a stage in the request pipeline, you are using a Publish action to publish the incoming message to a JMS queue using a Business Service. What if the outbound transport provider throws an exception (outside of your pipeline)? Is your pipeline able to catch the error with an error handler?" -- Knut Vatsendvik (tags: oracle otn soa esb weblogic architect) Pete Wang: Coherence Configuration For Multiple HA SOA Domains Quick tips from Pete Wang on the Oracle Coherence settings necessary for creating multiple SOA HA domains. (tags: architect coherence oracle otn soa) Warren Baird: New Walkthrough Capability in AutoVue 20 Warren Baird describes new features in Oracle AutoVue 20 that allow viewing a 3D model of a building from the inside. (tags: architect entarch oracle otn) Peter Wang: How to implement multi-source XSLT mapping in Oracle SOA Suite 11g BPEL In SOA 11g, you can create a XSLT mapper that uses multiple sources as the input. Pete Wang shows you how. (tags: oracle otn soa bpel architect)

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  • Flash Technology Can Revolutionize your IT Infrastructure

    - by kimberly.billings
    A recent article in the Data Center Journal written by Mark Teter outlines how flash is becoming a disruptive technology in the data center and how it will soon replace HDDs in the storage hierarchy. As Teter explains, the drivers behind this trend are lower cost/performance and power savings; flash is over 100x faster for reads than the fastest HDD, and while it is expensive, it can produce dramatic reductions in the cost of performance as measured in Input/Outputs per second (IOPS). What's more, flash consumes 1/5th the power of HDD, so it's faster AND greener. Teter writes, "when appropriately used, flash turns the current economics of IT performance on its head. That's disruptive." Exadata Smart Flash Cache in the Sun Oracle Database Machine makes intelligent use of flash storage to deliver extreme performance for OLTP and mixed workloads. It intelligently caches data from the Oracle Database replacing slow mechanical I/O operations to disk with very rapid flash memory operations. Exadata Smart Flash Cache is the fundamental technology of the Sun Oracle Database Machine that enables the processing of up to 1 million random I/O operations per second (IOPS), and the scanning of data within Exadata storage at up to 50 GB/second. Are you incorporating flash into your storage strategy? Let us know! Read more: "Flash technology can revolutionize your IT infrastructure", The Data Center Journal, March 30, 2010. Exadata Smart Flash Cache and the Sun Oracle Database Machine white paper var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www."); document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-13185312-1"); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}

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  • Leadership does not see value in standard process for machine configuration and new developer orientation

    - by opensourcechris
    About 3 months ago our lead web developer and designer(same person) left the company, greener pastures was the reason for leaving. Good for them I say. My problem is that his department was completely undocumented. Things have been tough since the lead left, there is a lot of knowledge both theoretical knowledge we use to quote new projects and technical/implementation knowledge of our existing products that we have lost as a result of his departure. My normal role is as a product manager (for our products themselves) and as a business analyst for some of our project based consulting work. I've taught myself to code over the past year and in an effort to continue moving forward I've taken on the task of setting my laptop up as a development machine with hopes of implementing some of the easier feature requests and fixing some of the no brainer bugs that get submitted into our ticketing system. But, no one knows how to take a fresh Windows machine and configure it to work seamlessly with our production apps. I have requested my boss, who is still in contact with the developer who left, ask them to document and create a process to onboard a new developer, software installation, required packages, process to deploy to the productions application servers, etc. None of this exists, and I'm spinning my wheels trying to get my computer working as a functional development machine. But she does not seem to understand the need for such a process to exist. Apparently the new developer who replaced the one who left has been using a machine that was pre-configured for our environment, so even the new developer could not set up a new machine if we added another developer. My question is two part: Am I wrong in assuming a process to on-board and configure a new computer to be part of our development eco-system should exist? Am I being a whinny baby and should I figure the process out and create a document on my own?

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  • Java Spotlight Episode 102: Freescale on Embedded Java and Java Embedded @ JavaOne

    - by Roger Brinkley
    An interview with Michael O'Donnell of Freescale on Embedded Java and Embedded Java @ JavaOne. Part of this podcast was recorded live at the JavaOne 2012 Glassfish Party at the Thirsty Bear. Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. You can also subscribe to the Java Spotlight Podcast Feed to get the latest podcast automatically. If you use iTunes you can open iTunes and subscribe with this link:  Java Spotlight Podcast in iTunes. Show Notes News Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 Java Embedded Server 7.0 Events Oct 3-4, Java Embedded @ JavaONE, San Francisco Oct 15-17, JAX London Oct 30-Nov 1, Arm TechCon, Santa Clara Oct 22-23, Freescale Technology Forum - Japan, Tokyo Oct 31, JFall, Netherlands Nov 2-3, JMagreb, Morocco Nov 13-17, Devoxx, Belgium Feature InterviewFreescale is the global leader in embedded processing solutions, advancing the automotive, consumer, industrial and networking markets. From microprocessors and microcontrollers to sensors, analog ICs and connectivity – our technologies are the foundation to the innovations that make our world greener, safer, healthier and more connected. Michael O'Donnell, is the Director of Software Ecosystem Alliances. The upcoming Freescale Technology Forum - Japan in Tokyo, Japan is an excellent way for developers to learn more about Freescale and Java. What’s Cool Glassfish Party - 6th year Geek Bike Ride

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  • Oracle Internet Directory 11gR1 11.1.1.6 Certified with Oracle E-Business Suite

    - by B Shashikumar
    We are very pleased to announce that Oracle Internet Directory 11gR1 (11.1.1.6) is now certified with Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 11i, 12.0 and 12.1. With this certification, we are offering several benefits to Oracle E-Business Suite customers: · Massive Scale: Oracle Internet Directory (OID) is a proven solution for mission critical deployments. OID can scale to extremely large deployments on less hardware as demonstrated by its published Two-Billion-User Benchmark. This reduces the footprint required to deploy enterprise directory services in the data-center resulting in cost savings and a greener enterprise. · Enhanced Security: OID is the most secure directory service that provides security at every level from data in transit to storage and backups. In addition to LDAP security, it leverages powerful Oracle database security features like Database Vault and Transparent Data Encryption · Investment Protection: This certification leverages Identity Management’s hot-pluggable capabilities enabling E-Business Suite customers to store and manage user identities in existing directory servers thus helping them maximize their investments For a complete matrix of platforms supported by Oracle Internet Directory and its components, refer to the Oracle Identity and Access Management 11gR1 certification matrix. For more information about this certification, check out the Oracle E-Business Suite blog. 

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  • Are Intel compilers really better than Microsoft ones?

    - by Rocket Surgeon
    Years ago I was surprised when discovered that Intel sells Studio compatible compilers. I tried it in particular for C/C++ as well as fantastic diagnostic tools. But the code was simply not that computationally intensive to notice the difference. The only impression was: did Intel really did it for me just now, Wow, amazing tools with nanoseconds resolution, unbeleivable. But the trial ended and team never seriously considered a purchase. From your experience, if license cost does not matter, which vendor is a winner ? It is not broad or vague question or attemt to spark a holy war. This sort of question about 2 very visible tools. Nobody likes when tools have any mysteries or surprises. And choices between best and best are always the pain. I also understand the "grass greener" argument. I want to hear all "what ifs" stories. What if Intel just locally optimizes it for the chip stepping of the month, and not every hardware target will actually work as well as Microsoft compiled ? What if AMD hardware is the target and everything will slow down for no reason ? Or on other hand, what if Intel's hardware has so many unnoticable opportunities, that Microsoft compiler writers are too slow to adopt and never implement in the compiler ? What if both are the same exactly, actually a single codebase just wrapped into 2 different boxes and licensed to both vendors by some 3rd party shop? And so on. But someone knows some answers.

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  • Are Intel compilers really better than the Microsoft ones?

    - by Rocket Surgeon
    Years ago, I was surprised when I discovered that Intel sells Visual Studio compatible compilers. I tried it in particular for C/C++ as well as fantastic diagnostic tools. But the code was simply not that computationally intensive to notice the difference. The only impression was: did Intel really do it for me just now, wow, amazing tools with nanoseconds resolution, unbelievable. But the trial ended and the team never seriously considered a purchase. From your experience, if license cost does not matter, which vendor is the winner? It is not a broad or vague question or attemt to spark a holy war. This sort of question is about two very visible tools. Nobody likes when tools have any mysteries or surprises. And choices between best and best are always the pain. I also understand the grass is always greener argument. I want to hear all "what ifs" stories. What if Intel just locally optimizes it for the chip stepping of the month, and not every hardware target will actually work as well as Microsoft compiled? What if AMD hardware is the target and everything will slow down for no reason? Or on the other hand, what if Intel's hardware has so many unnoticable opportunities, that Microsoft compiler writers are too slow to adopt and never implement it in the compiler? What if both are the same exactly, actually a single codebase just wrapped into two different boxes and licensed to both vendors by some third-party shop? And so on. But someone knows some answers.

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  • Losing a programmer, what steps to take?

    - by Zak
    One of the programmers on our team is leaving for greener pastures. We will be going from 6 to 5. What steps should we take to ensure our development process continues to run smoothly, potentially while integrating in new blood. We are currently working on a short release cycle with iterative development. Design - code - review. The person leaving was the most senior dev on the team, and would often give lots of feedback to the rest of the team, especially during the design phase.

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  • How much freedom should a programmer have in choosing a language and framework?

    - by Spencer
    I started working at a company that is primarily a C# oriented. We have a few people who like Java and JRuby, but a majority of programmers here like C#. I was hired because I have a lot of experience building web applications and because I lean towards newer technologies like JRuby on Rails or nodejs. I have recently started on a project building a web application with a focus on getting a lot of stuff done in a short amount of time. The software lead has dictated that I use mvc4 instead of rails. That might be OK, except I don't know mvc4, I don't know C# and I am the only one responsible for creating the web application server and front-end UI. Wouldn't it make sense to use a framework that I already know extremely well (Rails) instead of using mvc4? The two reasons behind the decision was that the tech lead doesn't know Jruby/rails and there would be no way to reuse the code. Counter arguments: He won't be contributing to the code and is frankly, not needed on this project. So, it doesn't really matter if he knows JRuby/rails or not. We actually can reuse the code since we have a lot of java apps that JRuby can pull code from and vice-versa. In fact, he has dedicated some resources to convert a Java library to C#, instead of just running the Java library on the JRuby on Rails app. All because he doesn't like Java or JRuby I have built many web applications, but using something unfamiliar is causing some spin-up and I am unable to build an awesome application in as short of a time that I'm used to. This would be fine, learning new technologies is important in this field. The problem is, for this project, we need to get a lot done in a short period of time. At what point should a developer be allowed to choose his tools? Is this dependent on the company? Does my company suck or is this considered normal? Do greener pastures exist? Am I looking at this the wrong way? Bonus: Should I just keep my head down and move along at a snails pace, or defy orders and go with what I know in order to make this project more successful? Edit: I had actually created a fully function rails application (on my own time) and showed it to the team and it did not seem to matter. I am currently porting it to mvc4 (slowly).

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  • viable part-time career in IT/programming?

    - by Rider
    Hi, I'd like to ask for some career advice from you people. Is there a viable job/career that can be done in programming/IT for the long term? Right now, I am thinking about website (PHP?) developer path. My background: I have a degree in computer science and have been a programmer/system analyst for almost 10 years. Lately I took a big break from programming and studied for a B.arch. degree (yes architecture), only to discover that architecture offers zero (0) jobs where I'm from, for 3 years already (and no, I am not going to move and the grass in not greener in other places). I have never been particularly interested in programming, in fact I was bored by it. But I was always quite good at both programming and system analysis, and very valued by practically all my employers. On the other hand, I have never been valued or offered a good job in any other field (although I can do many things, like design, architecture, translations, documentation, teaching, etc etc.) I guess the human component has been always more important for me in programming jobs - I value all the good people I worked with, but not projects. However, I have about zero skills or desire to be a project manager. I also have close to zero skills for selling myself. I like it best when I can do "my thing", have my niche, have an ownership of some project. Right now my career perspective is to do part time programming and to part time teach yoga. I have already started the yoga teaching part. Do you think that part time programming is viable? And what niche works best for that? I have considered web development, QA, or software development in a company like I did before. However, my fear is that when you do programming part-time, you get the most boring coding work, only to see your colleagues move to more interesting projects and up their respective career ladders. I also fear that part-timers are not especially needed either. And, since I don't share much enthusiasm at programming, I'd rather not be around young programmers boiling with geeky enthusiasm about coding, but rather QA mindset with people from different backgrounds and life paths might work better for me. Thanks for any advice, --Rider

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  • Reduce power consumption of gaming computer while idle

    - by White Phoenix
    This is my current build: EVGA X58 (first generation) motherboard Intel i7 965 clocked @ 3.3 Ghz 3x DDR3-1600 Corsair RAM at stock timings and voltages Corsair AX750 80 Plus Gold PSU 1 Optical Drive 1 Seagate 7200.10 500 GB drive 2x Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB drives OCZ Vertex 1 60 GB EVGA GTX 460 oc'd at 800/1600/1850 Antec 1200 case HT-Omega Striker 7.1 Sound Card Windows 7 32-bit Professional (PAE Enabled) I've already seen this post Reduce power use on computer and this post How do I lower power consumption of my computer and while useful, I'm looking for answers specific to my build and OS. I'm pretty sure this build is a energy-intensive build by default, but I want to try to reduce the amount of energy my build uses when I leave it idle (when I go to bed or go out, etc). The first requirement for this machine is that I need to leave it on, so I cannot turn it off while it's being unused. I run it as a file server for personal reasons and I also leave it on in case people leave me messages on various IM services and chat clients (IRC, MSN, Steam, XFire, Pidgin, etc). I'm also unable to replace the parts in my computer with a cheaper "greener" part. What are some ways to minimize the amount of power the machine uses? I'm already using a high efficiency power supply (80 Plus Gold), but I imagine there's other things that can be done in the BIOS and Windows' power settings to reduce power usage while I'm not using the computer. From what I can tell, I can't use Sleep since that'll disable network access (whole reason why I leave the computer on in the first place). I already turn off my monitor when it's not in use. I enabled Intel SpeedStep within the BIOS (I know, I have a 965 and why am I enabling SpeedStep?) Should I bring the graphics card back to stock speeds and lower the clock on the processor even more? Main reason why I'm asking is I think this computer alone is the reason why my power bill is high, so I want to reduce its consumption to as low as possible without having to shut the thing down.

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  • Is there a low carbon future for the retail industry?

    - by user801960
    Recently Oracle published a report in conjunction with The Future Laboratory and a global panel of experts to highlight the issue of energy use in modern industry and the serious need to reduce carbon emissions radically by 2050.  Emissions must be cut by 80-95% below the levels in 1990 – but what can the retail industry do to keep up with this? There are three key aspects to the retail industry where carbon emissions can be cut:  manufacturing, transport and IT.  Manufacturing Naturally, manufacturing is going to be a big area where businesses across all industries will be forced to make considerable savings in carbon emissions as well as other forms of pollution.  Many retailers of all sizes will use third party factories and will have little control over specific environmental impacts from the factory, but retailers can reduce environmental impact at the factories by managing orders more efficiently – better planning for stock requirements means economies of scale both in terms of finance and the environment. The John Lewis Partnership has made detailed commitments to reducing manufacturing and packaging waste on both its own-brand products and products it sources from third party suppliers. It aims to divert 95 percent of its operational waste from landfill by 2013, which is a huge logistics challenge.  The John Lewis Partnership’s website provides a large amount of information on its responsibilities towards the environment. Transport Similarly to manufacturing, tightening up on logistical planning for stock distribution will make savings on carbon emissions from haulage.  More accurate supply and demand analysis will mean less stock re-allocation after initial distribution, and better warehouse management will mean more efficient stock distribution.  UK grocery retailer Morrisons has introduced double-decked trailers to its haulage fleet and adjusted distribution logistics accordingly to reduce the number of kilometers travelled by the fleet.  Morrisons measures route planning efficiency in terms of cases moved per kilometre and has, over the last two years, increased the number of cases per kilometre by 12.7%.  See Morrisons Corporate Responsibility report for more information. IT IT infrastructure is often initially overlooked by businesses when considering environmental efficiency.  Datacentres and web servers often need to run 24/7 to handle both consumer orders and internal logistics, and this both requires a lot of energy and puts out a lot of heat.  Many businesses are lowering environmental impact by reducing IT system fragmentation in their offices, while an increasing number of businesses are outsourcing their datacenters to cloud-based services.  Using centralised datacenters reduces the power usage at smaller offices, while using cloud based services means the datacenters can be based in a more environmentally friendly location.  For example, Facebook is opening a massive datacentre in Sweden – close to the Arctic Circle – to reduce the need for artificial cooling methods.  In addition, moving to a cloud-based solution makes IT services more easily scaleable, reducing redundant IT systems that would still use energy.  In store, the UK’s Carbon Trust reports that on average, lighting accounts for 25% of a retailer’s electricity costs, and for grocery retailers, up to 50% of their electricity bill comes from refrigeration units.  On a smaller scale, retailers can invest in greener technologies in store and in their offices.  The report concludes that widely shared objectives of energy security, reduced emissions and continued economic growth are dependent on the development of a smart grid capable of delivering energy efficiency and demand response, as well as integrating renewable and variable sources of energy. The report is available to download from http://emeapressoffice.oracle.com/imagelibrary/detail.aspx?MediaDetailsID=1766I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the report.   

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  • Developing Job References

    - by Joe Smith
    How do you develop references for jobs? I have 6 years of programming experience spanning two jobs, but sadly I don't have a lot of people I can draw on as references. It's been several years since I left my last job, which was at a small company, and I've lost touch with the few people I knew there. I now work at another small company. I think I've gone as far as I can in my current position, and would like to look for greener pastures, but I can't exactly use my current boss as a reference, even though I have a very good repore with him. I'm sure he'd make a great reference down the road, but I'm afraid I'd insult him or jeopardize my current job by mentioning that I'm thinking of leaving and would like him to help me. I've applied to some jobs, and I have gotten several replies like, "Oh, you're exactly what we're looking for. Send us a couple references and we'll schedule an interview. Oh, no references? You must be a psychopath, nevermind." I've tried doing some small freelance work on the side, just so I can have a contact who can vouch for my work, but the competition for even small projects is pretty fierce and I can rarely devote adequate time to freelancing while holding a full time job. In addition, I often encounter a Catch-22 where a lot of freelancing jobs also require references. So how do programmers maintain existing references and develop new ones, especially while holding a full time job?

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  • An alternative to Google Talk, AIM, MSN, et al [closed]

    - by mkaito
    I'm not entirely sure whether this part of stack exchange is the most adequate for my question, but it would seem to me that people sharing this kind of concern would converge either here, or possibly on a more unix-specific sub site. Either way, here goes. Background Feel free to skip to The Question, below. This should, however, help those interested understand where I'm coming from, and where I expect to get, messaging-wise. My online talking place-to-go has been IRC for the last fifteen years. I think it's a great protocol, and clients out there are very good. I still use, and will always continue to use IRC for most of my chat needs. But then, there is private instant messaging. While IRC can solve this with queries and DCC chats, the protocol just isn't meant to work too well on intermittent connections, such as a mobile device, where you can often walk around places with low signal. I used MSN for a while, but didn't like it. The concept was awesome, but I think Microsoft didn't get the implementation quite right. When they started adding all that eye candy, and my buddies started flooding me with custom icons and buzzing my screen to it's knees, I shut my account and told folks that missed me to just email or call me. Much whining happened, I got called many weird things for not using MSN, but folks eventually got over it. Next, Google Talk came along, and seemed to be a lot better than MSN ever was. The protocol was open, so I could use whatever client I felt a fancy for. With the advent of smart phones, I just got myself a gtalk client on the phone, and have had a really decent integrated mostly-universal IM solution. Over the last few months, all Google services have been feeling flaky. IMs will often arrive anywhere between twenty minutes and one hour after being sent, clients will randomly disconnect, client priorities seem to work sometimes, and sometimes just a random device of those connected will get an IM. I think the time has come to look for greener grass. The Question It's rather hard to put what I'm looking for into precise words. I guess I just want something that is kind of like MSN/Gtalk, but that doesn't let me down when I need it. IRC is pretty much perfect, but the protocol just isn't designed to work well on mobile devices. Really, at this point I'm considering sticking to IRC for desktop messaging, and SMS/email on the phone, but I hope that in this day and age there is something better out there.

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