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• Which C++ Standard Library wrapper functions do you use?

  - by Neil Butterworth

  This question, asked this morning, made me wonder which features you think are missing from the C++ Standard Library, and how you have gone about filling the gaps with wrapper functions. For example, my own utility library has this function for vector append: template <class T> std::vector<T> & operator += ( std::vector<T> & v1, const std::vector <T> & v2 ) { v1.insert( v1.end(), v2.begin(), v2.end() ); return v1; } and this one for clearing (more or less) any type - particularly useful for things like std::stack: template <class C> void Clear( C & c ) { c = C(); } I have a few more, but I'm interested in which ones you use? Please limit answers to wrapper functions - i.e. no more than a couple of lines of code.

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• Iterate over defined elements of a JS array

  - by sibidiba

  I'm using a JS array to Map IDs to actual elements, i.e. a key-value store. I would like to iterate over all elements. I tried several methods, but all have its caveats: for (var item in map) {...} Does iterates over all properties of the array, therefore it will include also functions and extensions to Array.prototype. For example someone dropping in the Prototype library in the future will brake existing code. var length = map.lenth; for (var i = 0; i < length; i++) { var item = map[i]; ... } does work but just like $.each(map, function(index, item) {...}); They iterate over the whole range of indexes 0..max(id) which has horrible drawbacks: var x = []; x[1]=1; x[10]=10; $.each(x, function(i,v) {console.log(i+": "+v);}); 0: undefined 1: 1 2: undefined 3: undefined 4: undefined 5: undefined 6: undefined 7: undefined 8: undefined 9: undefined 10: 10 Of course my IDs wont resemble a continuous sequence either. Moreover there can be huge gaps between them so skipping undefined in the latter case is unacceptable for performance reasons. How is it possible to safely iterate over only the defined elements of an array (in a way that works in all browsers and IE)?

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• How many hours a day (of the standard 8) do you actually work? [closed]

  - by someone

  Possible Duplicate: How much do you [really] work a day When I started working (not so long ago), I was very conscientious about really working. If I didn't work for 10 minutes at a time, I felt like I was cheating. But as I started to look around me, I realized that I was the only one... and most of my coworkers were spending a big percentage of their time browsing the internet or playing solitaire. I started to slack off a little more than usual... while still basically getting all my work done. But while I do all that's required of me, and usually quickly, I no longer beg for work to fill up my spare time; I'm content to do what I'm told and play around when no one makes sure I'm busy enough. Which means that I'm often bored and underutilized. (Which I was even when I begged for work - people are pretty laid back about the workload and don't seem to realize how much I can get done if pushed to the fullest.) But I was just talking to a friend who graduated with me and also recently started working... and she came to me with the same concerns about slacking. She's working remotely, which means there are often gaps in communication when she can't really get anything done... And she's feeling guilty about it. Which made me rethink the whole thing... So, as workers, how many hours, out of the 8 standard average, are you actually working (honestly)? And, as bosses, how many hours do you expect your workers to work? And from an ethical standpoint, how much free time, or space out time, can workers have during the day without being considered to be "cheating" their office of labor and money?

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• IIS6 Log time recording problems

  - by Hafthor

  On three separate occasions on two separate servers at nearly the same times, 6.9 hours seemingly went by without any data being written to the IIS logs, but, on closer inspection, it appears that it was all recorded all at once. Here's the facts as I know them: Windows Server 2003 R2 w/ IIS6 Logging using GMT, server local time GMT-7. Application was still operating and I have SQL data to prove that Time gaps appear in log file, not across two # headers appear at gap Load balancer pings every 30 seconds No caching Here's info on a particular case: an entry appears for 2009-09-21 18:09:27 then #headers the next entry is for 2009-09-22 01:21:54, and so are the next 1600 entries in this log file and 370 in the next log file. about half of the ~2000 entries on 2009-09-22 01:21:54 are load balancer pings (est. at 2/min for 6.9hrs = 828 pings) then entries are recorded as normal. I believe that these events may coincide with me deploying an ASP.NET application update into those machines. Here's some relevant content from the logs in question: ex090921.log line 3684 2009-09-21 17:54:40 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:55:11 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:55:42 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:56:13 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:56:45 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 #Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 #Version: 1.0 #Date: 2009-09-21 18:04:37 #Fields: date time cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 3078 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 109 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 3828 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 0 ... continues until line 5449 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 <eof> ex090922.log #Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 #Version: 1.0 #Date: 2009-09-22 00:00:16 #Fields: date time cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 ... continues until line 367 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:30 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 ... back to normal behavior Note the seemingly correct date/time written to the #header of the new log file. Also note that /ping.aspx returned 404 then switched to 200 just as the problem started. I rename the "I'm alive page" so the load balancer stops sending requests to the server while I'm working on it. What you see here is me renaming it back so the load balancer will use the server. So, this problem definitely coincides with me re-enabling the server. Any ideas?

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• Coldfusion autorestart

  - by Comcar

  Coldfusion is automatically restarting, a lot. It comes in waves, everything seems fine for a while then the server struggles for a few minutes, restarts a lot then settles down again. I have Fusion Reactor installed, but when CF goes down FR stops logging so it's not really helping. Looking through the archived logs just shows gaps in the logs. These are all the occourances of the phrase "Coldfusion started" today. [root@server2 logs]# grep -i "Coldfusion started" server.log | grep "11/27/12" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:49:35",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:50:46",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:52:39",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:54:08",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:55:12",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:56:29",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:57:36",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:58:57",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","01:59:56",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:01:38",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:03:11",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:04:41",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:07:53",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:10:45",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:11:49",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:13:09",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:14:18",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:15:44",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:17:06",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","02:34:19",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","03:01:20",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","05:25:59",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","06:30:48",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","06:36:20",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:34:07",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:35:39",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:36:41",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:39:15",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:40:42",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:42:55",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:44:23",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:46:18",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:47:35",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:48:53",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:50:04",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:51:51",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:53:05",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:54:24",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:55:28",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:56:38",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:58:03",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","09:59:03",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","10:04:37",,"ColdFusion started" "Information","main","11/27/12","12:04:02",,"ColdFusion started" I've been looking at the live server metrics in FR on a second screen all day, the CPU, Memory and requests all seemed fine about 12 midday, then the server rebooted. Looking at the logs for the hour between 9am and 10am (more than 15 restarts in the hour), the CPU never went over 44% usage and the Memory never exceeded 53% usage - in the recorded stats at least. There is no JDBC tracking at the moment, so I'll add that to tracking and see if it's MySQL causing a problem, but can anyone help me narrow down the problem, what would cause Cold Fusion to auto restart, and I'm assuming the auto restart is only happening because Fusion Reactor is installed. It's a Red Hat 5 LAMP stack running Coldfusion 9 and Fusion Reactor 4.5.2

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• Establishing a web page bookmarking process - looking for ideas to improve

  - by Matt

  Like many others, I have a process for bookmarking web pages to read later. My requirements for web page bookmarking are: Ability to bookmark pages must be available from all (within reason) platforms - PC/browser, mobile device, etc. Bookmarks must be centrally stored (implicit from #2) so that I can read the bookmarks from anywhere/any device Full text of web pages must be stored Bonus features would be: Bookmarks and page content should be full text searchable Maintain an archive indefinitely Distinguish between what's read vs. unread Bookmarked page content is cleaned up, e.g. ads eliminated, unnecessary html removed, pages better formatted for reading My current process (which addresses most of these requirements) is as follows: I set up a Gmail account with 2 labels, "Bookmarks Unread" and "Bookmarks Read" Gmail filters set up such that depending on the form of the address (using Gmail's '+string' functionality in addresses), the incoming bookmark gets labeled appropriately On each of my browsers/devices, I have an address book entry for [email protected] and [email protected]. If I want to clean up the page content, I use the Readability bookmarklet which does a great job of giving me the essential content only Anywhere I have Firefox, I use the Send Page by Email extension which, with 2 clicks, allows me to send the cleaned-up Readability page URL and content to one of the above email addresses. Where I don't have Firefox (e.g. iPhone or other mobile device) I use the native ability to send the current link via email (most/all apps have them, including the browser, RSS readers, NYTimes, etc.). In most cases (unless it's built into the particular app), this won't include the page body. The process is almost perfect. I've got the central access and ubiquitous access of Gmail as the storage mechanism, full text searchability (due to Gmail, but of course only for the URLs I send from that Firefox extension), a cleaned up page due to Readability, ability to read offline (assuming I use an IMAP client against Gmail) and permanent archiving of content, including what's been read vs. unread. The missing pieces are: The Send Page by Email Firefox extension seems to only send X bytes of a web page. Or some portion. So it limits my full text searchability. Where I don't have Firefox, I can only send the link, so no full text search at all in those cases. Instapaper looks like it meets most of my requirements (and bonus items). The only downside to me (personal preference) is that central storage is based on Instapaper vs. something more broad like Gmail, which as a generalized service and with Google behind it pretty much means it's permanent. I'm not too hung up on this, but I would definitely prefer to keep Gmail if possible. An upside of Instapaper is that it does the page clean-up as well as stores the entire page content, unlike my Firefox extension. Thoughts on addressing the gaps and improving this process further?

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• IIS6 Log time recording problems

  - by Hafthor

  On three separate occasions on two separate servers at nearly the same times, 6.9 hours seemingly went by without any data being written to the IIS logs, but, on closer inspection, it appears that it was all recorded all at once. Here's the facts as I know them: Windows Server 2003 R2 w/ IIS6 Logging using GMT, server local time GMT-7. Application was still operating and I have SQL data to prove that Time gaps appear in log file, not across two # headers appear at gap Load balancer pings every 30 seconds No caching Here's info on a particular case: an entry appears for 2009-09-21 18:09:27 then #headers the next entry is for 2009-09-22 01:21:54, and so are the next 1600 entries in this log file and 370 in the next log file. about half of the ~2000 entries on 2009-09-22 01:21:54 are load balancer pings (est. at 2/min for 6.9hrs = 828 pings) then entries are recorded as normal. I believe that these events may coincide with me deploying an ASP.NET application update into those machines. Here's some relevant content from the logs in question: ex090921.log line 3684 2009-09-21 17:54:40 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:55:11 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:55:42 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:56:13 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 2009-09-21 17:56:45 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 0 #Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 #Version: 1.0 #Date: 2009-09-21 18:04:37 #Fields: date time cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 3078 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 404 0 0 3733 122 109 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 3828 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 278 122 0 ... continues until line 5449 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 <eof> ex090922.log #Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 #Version: 1.0 #Date: 2009-09-22 00:00:16 #Fields: date time cs-method cs-uri-stem cs-uri-query s-port sc-status sc-substatus sc-win32-status sc-bytes cs-bytes time-taken 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 ... continues until line 367 2009-09-22 01:04:06 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 2009-09-22 01:04:30 GET /ping.aspx - 80 200 0 0 277 122 0 ... back to normal behavior Note the seemingly correct date/time written to the #header of the new log file. Also note that /ping.aspx returned 404 then switched to 200 just as the problem started. I rename the "I'm alive page" so the load balancer stops sending requests to the server while I'm working on it. What you see here is me renaming it back so the load balancer will use the server. So, this problem definitely coincides with me re-enabling the server. Any ideas?

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• SQLAuthority News – Technology and Online Learning – Personal Technology Tip

  - by pinaldave

  This is the fourth post in my series about Personal Technology Tips and Tricks, and I knew exactly what I wanted to write about.  But at first I was conflicted.   Is online learning really a personal tip?  Is it really a trick that no one knows?  However, I have decided to stick with my original idea because online learning is everywhere.  It’s a trick that we can’t – and shouldn’t – overlook.  Here are ten of my ideas about how we should be taking advantage of online learning. 1) Get ahead in the work place.  We all know that a good way to become better at your job, and to become more competitive for promotions and raises.  Many people overlook online learning as a way to get job training, though, thinking it is a path for people still seeking their high school or college diplomas.  But take a look at what companies like Pluralsight offer, and you might be pleasantly surprised. 2) Flexibility.  Some of us remember the heady days of college with nostalgia, others remember it with loathing.  A lot of bad memories come from remembering the strict scheduling and deadlines of college.  But with online learning, the classes fit into your free time – you don’t have to schedule your life around classes.  Even better, there are usually no homework or test deadlines, only one final deadline where all work must be completed.  This allows students to work at their own pace – my next point. 3) Learn at your own pace.  One thing traditional classes suffer from is that they are highly structured.  If you work more quickly than the rest of the class, or especially if you work more slowly, traditional classes do not work for you.  Online courses let you move as quickly or as slowly as you find necessary. 4) Fill gaps in your knowledge.  I’m sure I am not the only one who has thought to myself “I would love to take a course on X, Y, or Z.”  The problem is that it can be very hard to find the perfect class that teaches exactly what you’re interested in, at a time and a price that’s right.  But online courses are far easier to tailor exactly to your tastes. 5) Fits into your schedule.  Even harder to find than a class you’re interested in is one that fits into your schedule.  If you hold down a job – even a part time job – you know it’s next to impossible to find class times that work for you.  Online classes can be taken anytime, anywhere.  On your lunch break, in your car, or in your pajamas at the end of the day. 6) Student centered.  Online learning has to stay competitive.  There are hundreds, even thousands of options for students, and every provider has to find a way to lure in students and provide them with a good education.  The best kind of online classes know that they need to provide great classes, flexible scheduling, and high quality to attract students – and the student benefit from this kind of attention. 7) You can save money.  The average cost for a college diploma in the US is over $20,000.  I don’t know about you, but that is not the kind of money I just have lying around for a rainy day.  Sometimes I think I’d love to go back to school, but not for that price tag.  Online courses are much, much more affordable.  And even better, you can pick and choose what courses you’d like to take, and avoid all the “electives” in college. 8) Get access to the best minds in the business.  One of the perks of being the best in your field is that you are one person who knows the most about something.  If students are lucky, you will choose to share that knowledge with them on a college campus.  For the hundreds of other students who don’t live in your area and don’t attend your school, they are out of luck.  But luckily for them, more and more online courses is attracting the best minds in the business, and if you enroll online, you can take advantage of these minds, too. 9) Save your time.  Getting a four year degree is a great decision, and I encourage everyone to pursue their Bachelor’s – and beyond.  But if you have already tried to go to school, or already have a degree but are thinking of switching fields, four years of your life is a long time to go back and redo things.  Getting your online degree will save you time by allowing you to work at your own pace, set your own schedule, and take only the classes you’re interested in. 10) Variety of degrees and programs.  If you’re not sure what you’re interested in, or if you only need a few classes here and there to finish a program, online classes are perfect for you.  You can pick and choose what you’d like, and sample a wide variety without spending too much money. I hope I’ve outlined for everyone just a few ways that they could benefit from online learning.  If you’re still unconvinced, just check out a few of my other articles that expand more on these topics. Here are the blog posts relevent to developer trainings: Developer Training - Importance and Significance - Part 1 Developer Training – Employee Morals and Ethics – Part 2 Developer Training – Difficult Questions and Alternative Perspective - Part 3 Developer Training – Various Options for Developer Training – Part 4 Developer Training – A Conclusive Summary- Part 5 Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Developer Training, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Developer Training

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• Connection Pooling is Busted

  - by MightyZot

  A few weeks ago we started getting complaints about performance in an application that has performed very well for many years.  The application is a n-tier application that uses ADODB with the SQLOLEDB provider to talk to a SQL Server database.  Our object model is written in such a way that each public method validates security before performing requested actions, so there is a significant number of queries executed to get information about file cabinets, retrieve images, create workflows, etc.  (PaperWise is a document management and workflow system.)  A common factor for these customers is that they have remote offices connected via MPLS networks. Naturally, the first thing we looked at was the query performance in SQL Profiler.  All of the queries were executing within expected timeframes, most of them were so fast that the duration in SQL Profiler was zero.  After getting nowhere with SQL Profiler, the situation was escalated to me.  I decided to take a peek with Process Monitor.  Procmon revealed some “gaps” in the TCP/IP traffic.  There were notable delays between send and receive pairs.  The send and receive pairs themselves were quite snappy, but quite often there was a notable delay between a receive and the next send.  You might expect some delay because, presumably, the application is doing some thinking in-between the pairs.  But, comparing the procmon data at the remote locations with the procmon data for workstations on the local network showed that the remote workstations were significantly delayed.  Procmon also showed a high number of disconnects. Wireshark traces showed that connections to the database were taking between 75ms and 150ms.  Not only that, but connections to a file share containing images were taking 2 seconds!  So, I asked about a trust.  Sure enough there was a trust between two domains and the file share was on the second domain.  Joining a remote workstation to the domain hosting the share containing images alleviated the time delay in accessing the file share.  Removing the trust had no affect on the connections to the database. Microsoft Network Monitor includes filters that parse TDS packets.  TDS is the protocol that SQL Server uses to communicate.  There is a certificate exchange and some SSL that occurs during authentication.  All of this was evident in the network traffic.  After staring at the network traffic for a while, and examining packets, I decided to call it a night.  On the way home that night, something about the traffic kept nagging at me.  Then it dawned on me…at the beginning of the dance of packets between the client and the server all was well.  Connection pooling was working and I could see multiple queries getting executed on the same connection and ethereal port.  After a particular query, connecting to two different servers, I noticed that ADODB and SQLOLEDB started making repeated connections to the database on different ethereal ports.  SQL Server would execute a single query and respond on a port, then open a new port and execute the next query.  Connection pooling appeared to be broken. The next morning I wrote a test to confirm my hypothesis.  Turns out that the sequence causing the connection nastiness goes something like this: Make a connection to the database. Open a result set that returns enough records to require multiple roundtrips to the server. For each result, query for some other data in the database (this will open a new implicit connection.) Close the inner result set and repeat for every item in the original result set. Close the original connection. Provided that the first result set returns enough data to require multiple roundtrips to the server, ADODB and SQLOLEDB will start making new connections to the database for each query executed in the loop.  Originally, I thought this might be due to Microsoft’s denial of service (ddos) attack protection.  After turning those features off to no avail, I eventually thought to switch my queries to client-side cursors instead of server-side cursors.  Server-side cursors are the default, by the way.  Voila!  After switching to client-side cursors, the disconnects were gone and the above sequence yielded two connections as expected. While the real problem is the amount of time it takes to make connections over these MPLS networks (100ms on average), switching to client-side cursors made the problem go away.  Believe it or not, this is actually documented by Microsoft, and rather difficult to find.  (At least it was while we were trying to troubleshoot the problem!)  So, if you’re noticing performance issues on slower networks, or networks with slower switching, take a look at the traffic in a tool like Microsoft Network Monitor.  If you notice a high number of disconnects, and you’re using fire-hose or server-side cursors, then try switching to client-side cursors and you may see the problem go away. Most likely, Microsoft believes this to be appropriate behavior, because ADODB can’t guarantee that all of the data has been retrieved when you execute the inner queries.  I’m not convinced, though, because the problem remains even after replacing all of the implicit connections with explicit connections and closing those connections in-between each of the inner queries.  In that case, there doesn’t seem to be a reason why ADODB can’t use a single connection from the connection pool to make the additional queries, bringing the total number of connections to two.  Instead ADO appears to make an assumption about the state of the connection. I’ve reported the behavior to Microsoft and am awaiting to hear from the appropriate team, so that I can demonstrate the problem.  Maybe they can explain to us why this is appropriate behavior.  :)

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• [GEEK SCHOOL] Network Security 3: Windows Defender and a Malware-Free System

  - by Ciprian Rusen

  In this second lesson we are going to talk about one of the most confusing security products that are bundled with Windows: Windows Defender. In the past, this product has had a bad reputation and for good reason – it was very limited in its capacity to protect your computer from real-world malware. However, the latest version included in Windows 8.x operating systems is much different than in the past and it provides real protection to its users. The nice thing about Windows Defender in its current incarnation, is that it protects your system from the start, so there are never gaps in coverage. We will start this lesson by explaining what Windows Defender is in Windows 7 and Vista versus what it is in Windows 8, and what product to use if you are using an earlier version. We next will explore how to use Windows Defender, how to improve its default settings, and how to deal with the alerts that it displays. As you will see, Windows Defender will have you using its list of quarantined items a lot more often than other security products. This is why we will explain in detail how to work with it and remove malware for good or restore those items that are only false alarms. Lastly, you will learn how to turn off Windows Defender if you no longer want to use it and you prefer a third-party security product in its place and then how to enable it back, if you have changed your mind about using it. Upon completion, you should have a thorough understanding of your system’s default anti-malware options, or how to protect your system expeditiously. What is Windows Defender? Unfortunately there is no one clear answer to this question because of the confusing way Microsoft has chosen to name its security products. Windows Defender is a different product, depending on the Windows operating system you are using. If you use Windows Vista or Windows 7, then Windows Defender is a security tool that protects your computer from spyware. This but one form of malware made out of tools and applications that monitor your movements on the Internet or the activities you make on your computer. Spyware tends to send the information that is collected to a remote server and it is later used in all kinds of malicious purposes, from displaying advertising you don’t want, to using your personal data, etc. However, there are many other types of malware on the Internet and this version of Windows Defender is not able to protect users from any of them. That’s why, if you are using Windows 7 or earlier, we strongly recommend that you disable Windows Defender and install a more complete security product like Microsoft Security Essentials, or third-party security products from specialized security vendors. If you use Windows 8.x operating systems, then Windows Defender is the same thing as Microsoft Security Essentials: a decent security product that protects your computer in-real time from viruses and spyware. The fact that this product protects your computer also from viruses, not just from spyware, makes a huge difference. If you don’t want to pay for security products, Windows Defender in Windows 8.x and Microsoft Security Essentials (in Windows 7 or earlier) are good alternatives. Windows Defender in Windows 8.x and Microsoft Security Essentials are the same product, only their name is different. In this lesson, we will use the Windows Defender version from Windows 8.x but our instructions apply also to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. If you want to download Microsoft Security Essentials and try it out, we recommend you to use this page: Download Microsoft Security Essentials. There you will find both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of this product as well versions in multiple languages. How to Use and Configure Windows Defender Using Windows Defender (MSE) is very easy to use. To start, search for “defender” on the Windows 8.x Start screen and click or tap the “Windows Defender” search result. In Windows 7, search for “security” in the Start Menu search box and click “Microsoft Security Essentials”. Windows Defender has four tabs which give you access to the following tools and options: Home – here you can view the security status of your system. If everything is alright, then it will be colored in green. If there are some warnings to consider, then it will be colored in yellow, and if there are threats that must be dealt with, everything will be colored in red. On the right side of the “Home” tab you will find options for scanning your computer for viruses and spyware. On the bottom of the tab you will find information about when the last scan was performed and what type of scan it was. Update – here you will find information on whether this product is up-to-date. You will learn when it was last updated and the versions of the definitions it is using. You can also trigger a manual update. History – here you can access quarantined items, see which items you’ve allowed to run on your PC even if they were identified as malware by Windows Defender, and view a complete list with all the malicious items Windows Defender has detected on your PC. In order to access all these lists and work with them, you need to be signed in as an administrator. Settings – this is the tab where you can turn on the real-time protection service, exclude files, file types, processes, and locations from its scans as well as access a couple of more advanced settings. The only difference between Windows Defender in Windows 8.x and Microsoft Security Essentials (in Windows 7 or earlier) is that, in the “Settings” tab, Microsoft Security Essentials allows you to set when to run scheduled scans while Windows Defender lacks this option.

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• Official and unofficial apps in the iOS, WP7, and Android marketplaces

  - by Bil Simser

  The last few months have seen people complaining about the lack of "official" apps in the Windows Phone marketplace. In fact a couple of months ago I wrote about this very thing here and if we really needed these official apps or could get by with third-party solutions. Recently a list of "Top 100 Mobile Apps" crossed my desk and it was curious. 40 iPhone apps, 40 Android apps, 10 WP7 apps, and 10 BlackBerry apps. Really? 10 for WP7? So I wondered if the media was just playing this up and maybe continuing to do what I think most vendors are doing which is treating Windows Phone as the red-headed step-child you keep in the basement while all along there's nothing wrong with them. I put together the list and went digging to see how many of the top 40 iOS and Android apps were also on the Windows Phone platform (sorry BlackBerry, you should just shut your doors right now). Here's the results. Note, these are all *free* apps. There might be other pay apps that have official representation across all mobile devices, I just chose to hunt these ones down because I'm cheap. In the top 40, I easily plucked out 20 that had official apps on all three platforms. These were: Amazon Mobile, ESPN Score Centre, Evernote, Facebook, Foursquare, Google Search, IMDB, Kindle, Shazam, Skype (yes, I know, in beta on WP7), SlackerRadio, The Weather Channel, TripIt, Twitter, Yelp, Flixster, Netflix, TuneIn Radio, Dictionary.com, Angry Birds, and Groupon. Hey, that's pretty good IMHO. 20 or so apps, all free, and all fully functional and supported (and in some cases, even better looking on the Windows Phone platform than the other platforms). A dozen or so more apps had official apps on some platforms but not all, so yes, there are gaps here. Here's a rundown of the hangers-on: Adobe Photoshop Express This looks great on the iOS platform and there's even an official version on droid. Hope Adobe brings this to WP7. There are other photo editing programs though if you go looking (maybe we can get Paint.NET to be ported to the phone?) BBC News A few apps offer news feeds but nothing official on the Windows Phone. The feeds are good but without video this app needs some WP7 love. Dropbox Again Windows Phone looses out here with no official app. There are a few third party ones that will help you along and offer most of the functionality that you need but no integration that an official app might bring. Epicurious Droid seems to be the trailer here as there are apps for it but nothing official (from what I can tell). Both iOS and WP7 have them. Flipboard It's sad with Flipboard as it's such a great newsreader. The only offiical app is for iOS but frankly the iPhone version looks horrible so without a tablet the experience here isn't that hot. Maybe with WP8. Currently there's nothing even remotely similar to this on the other platforms. Google+ Is anyone still using this? No official app for WP7 but some clones. Apparently there's no API so people are just screen scraping. Ugh. Mint.com This app has all kinds of buzz and a lot of votes on the application requests site. Official apps for iOS and droid. No WP7 love (yet). TED Quite a few TED apps on WP7 but nothing official. I think the third party ones suffice and some are pretty nice looking, taking advantage of the Metro interface and making for a good show. WebMD There's a third party app on WP7 here but nothing official. It seems to contain all the same information and functionality the official apps do so not sure if an official one is needed but its here for inclusion. The other apps in the top 40 were either very specific to the platform (for example all three of them have a "Find my Phone" app). There are others that are missing out on the WP7 platform like ooVoo, Words With Friends, and some of the Google apps (Google Voice for example). Since you can integrate your GMail account right into the Windows Phone (via linked inboxes) I'm not sure if there's a need for an official GMail app here. Looking at the numbers Windows Phone still gets the worst of the deal here with half a dozen highly popular "offical" apps that exist on the other mobile platforms and in some cases, nothing even remotely similar to the official app to compare. This doesn't include things like Instagram, PInterest, and others (don't get me started on those). Still, with over 20+ highly popular free apps all represented on all three mobile platforms I don't think it's a bad place to be in. The Windows Phone platform could get a little more love from the vendors missing here, or at least open up your APIs so the third party crowd can step in and take up the slack. P.S. these are just my observations and I might have got a few items wrong. Feel free to chime in with missing or incorrect information. I am after all human. Well, most of me is.

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• The Virtues and Challenges of Implementing Basel III: What Every CFO and CRO Needs To Know

  - by Jenna Danko

  The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) is a group tasked with providing thought-leadership to the global banking industry.  Over the years, the BCBS has released volumes of guidance in an effort to promote stability within the financial sector.  By effectively communicating best-practices, the Basel Committee has influenced financial regulations worldwide.  Basel regulations are intended to help banks: More easily absorb shocks due to various forms of financial-economic stress Improve risk management and governance Enhance regulatory reporting and transparency In June 2011, the BCBS released Basel III: A global regulatory framework for more resilient banks and banking systems.  This new set of regulations included many enhancements to previous rules and will have both short and long term impacts on the banking industry.  Some of the key features of Basel III include: A stronger capital base More stringent capital standards and higher capital requirements Introduction of capital buffers  Additional risk coverage Enhanced quantification of counterparty credit risk Credit valuation adjustments  Wrong  way risk  Asset Value Correlation Multiplier for large financial institutions Liquidity management and monitoring Introduction of leverage ratio Even more rigorous data requirements To implement these features banks need to embark on a journey replete with challenges. These can be categorized into three key areas: Data, Models and Compliance. Data Challenges Data quality - All standard dimensions of Data Quality (DQ) have to be demonstrated.  Manual approaches are now considered too cumbersome and automation has become the norm. Data lineage - Data lineage has to be documented and demonstrated.  The PPT / Excel approach to documentation is being replaced by metadata tools.  Data lineage has become dynamic due to a variety of factors, making static documentation out-dated quickly.  Data dictionaries - A strong and clean business glossary is needed with proper identification of business owners for the data.  Data integrity - A strong, scalable architecture with work flow tools helps demonstrate data integrity.  Manual touch points have to be minimized.   Data relevance/coverage - Data must be relevant to all portfolios and storage devices must allow for sufficient data retention.  Coverage of both on and off balance sheet exposures is critical.   Model Challenges Model development - Requires highly trained resources with both quantitative and subject matter expertise. Model validation - All Basel models need to be validated. This requires additional resources with skills that may not be readily available in the marketplace.  Model documentation - All models need to be adequately documented.  Creation of document templates and model development processes/procedures is key. Risk and finance integration - This integration is necessary for Basel as the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) is calculated by Finance, yet Expected Loss (EL) is calculated by Risk Management – and they need to somehow be equal.  This is tricky at best from an implementation perspective.  Compliance Challenges Rules interpretation - Some Basel III requirements leave room for interpretation.  A misinterpretation of regulations can lead to delays in Basel compliance and undesired reprimands from supervisory authorities. Gap identification and remediation - Internal identification and remediation of gaps ensures smoother Basel compliance and audit processes.  However business lines are challenged by the competing priorities which arise from regulatory compliance and business as usual work.  Qualification readiness - Providing internal and external auditors with robust evidence of a thorough examination of the readiness to proceed to parallel run and Basel qualification  In light of new regulations like Basel III and local variations such as the Dodd Frank Act (DFA) and Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) in the US, banks are now forced to ask themselves many difficult questions.  For example, executives must consider: How will Basel III play into their Risk Appetite? How will they create project plans for Basel III when they haven’t yet finished implementing Basel II? How will new regulations impact capital structure including profitability and capital distributions to shareholders? After all, new regulations often lead to diminished profitability as well as an assortment of implementation problems as we discussed earlier in this note.  However, by requiring banks to focus on premium growth, regulators increase the potential for long-term profitability and sustainability.  And a more stable banking system: Increases consumer confidence which in turn supports banking activity  Ensures that adequate funding is available for individuals and companies Puts regulators at ease, allowing bankers to focus on banking Stability is intended to bring long-term profitability to banks.  Therefore, it is important that every banking institution takes the steps necessary to properly manage, monitor and disclose its risks.  This can be done with the assistance and oversight of an independent regulatory authority.  A spectrum of banks exist today wherein some continue to debate and negotiate with regulators over the implementation of new requirements, while others are simply choosing to embrace them for the benefits I highlighted above. Do share with me how your institution is coping with and embracing these new regulations within your bank. Dr. Varun Agarwal is a Principal in the Banking Practice for Capgemini Financial Services.  He has over 19 years experience in areas that span from enterprise risk management, credit, market, and to country risk management; financial modeling and valuation; and international financial markets research and analyses.

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• In Social Relationship Management, the Spirit is Willing, but Execution is Weak

  - by Mike Stiles

  In our final talk in this series with Aberdeen’s Trip Kucera, we wanted to find out if enterprise organizations are actually doing anything about what they’re learning around the importance of communicating via social and using social listening for a deeper understanding of customers and prospects. We found out that if your brand is lagging behind, you’re not alone. Spotlight: How was Aberdeen able to find out if companies are putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to implementing social across the enterprise? Trip: One way to think about the relative challenges a business has in a given area is to look at the gap between “say” and “do.” The first of those words reveals the brand’s priorities, while the second reveals their ability to execute on those priorities. In Aberdeen’s research, we capture this by asking firms to rank the value of a set of activities from one on the low end to five on the high end. We then ask them to rank their ability to execute those same activities, again on a one to five, not effective to highly effective scale. Spotlight: And once you get their self-assessments, what is it you’re looking for? Trip: There are two things we’re looking for in this analysis. The first is we want to be able to identify the widest gaps between perception of value and execution. This suggests impediments to adoption or simply a high level of challenge, be it technical or otherwise. It may also suggest areas where we can expect future investment and innovation. Spotlight: So the biggest potential pain points surface, places where they know something is critical but also know they aren’t doing much about it. What’s the second thing you look for? Trip: The second thing we want to do is look at specific areas in which high-performing companies, the Leaders, are out-executing the Followers. This points to the business impact of these activities since Leaders are defined by a set of business performance metrics. Put another way, we’re correlating adoption of specific business competencies with performance, looking for what high-performers do differently. Spotlight: Ah ha, that tells us what steps the winners are taking that are making them winners. So what did you find out? Trip: Generally speaking, we see something of a glass curtain when it comes to the social relationship management execution gap. There isn’t a single social media activity in which more than 50% of respondents indicated effectiveness, which would be a 4 or 5 on that 1-5 scale. This despite the fact that 70% of firms indicate that generating positive social media mentions is valuable or very valuable, a 4 or 5 on our 1-5 scale. Spotlight: Well at least they get points for being honest. The verdict they’re giving themselves is that they just aren’t cutting it in these highly critical social development areas. Trip: And the widest gap is around directly engaging with customers and/or prospects on social networks, which 69% of firms rated as valuable but only 34% of companies say they are executing well. Perhaps even more interesting is that these two are interdependent since you’re most likely to generate goodwill on social through happy, engaged customers. This data also suggests that social is largely being used as a broadcast channel rather than for one-to-one engagement. As we’ve discussed previously, social is an inherently personal media. Spotlight: And if they’re still using it as a broadcast channel, that shows they still fail to understand the root of social and see it as just another outlet for their ads and push-messaging. That’s depressing. Trip: A second way to evaluate this data is by using Aberdeen’s performance benchmarking. The story is both a bit different, but consistent in its own way. The first thing we notice is that Leaders are more effective in their execution of several key social relationship management capabilities, namely generating positive mentions and engaging with “influencers” and customers. Based on the fact that Aberdeen uses a broad set of performance metrics to rank the respondents as either “Leaders” (top 35% in weighted performance) or “Followers” (bottom 65% in weighted performance), from website conversion to annual revenue growth, we can then correlated high social effectiveness with company performance. We can also connect the specific social capabilities used by Leaders with effectiveness. We spoke about a few of those key capabilities last time and also discuss them in a new report: Social Powers Activate: Engineering Social Engagement to Win the Hidden Sales Cycle. Spotlight: What all that tells me is there are rewards for making the effort and getting it right. That’s how you become a Leader. Trip: But there’s another part of the story, which is that overall effectiveness, even among Leaders, is muted. There’s just one activity in which more than a majority of Leaders cite high effectiveness, effectiveness being the generation of positive buzz. While 80% of Leaders indicate “directly engaging with customers” through social media channels is valuable, the highest rated activity among Leaders, only 42% say they’re effective. This gap even among Leaders shows the challenges still involved in effective social relationship management. @mikestilesPhoto: stock.xchng

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• To My 24 Year Old Self, Wherever You Are&hellip;

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  A decade is a milestone in one’s life, regardless of when it occurs. 2011 might seem like a weird year to mark a decade, but 2001 was a defining year for me. It marked my emergence into the technology industry, an unexpected loss of innocence, and triggered an ongoing struggle with faith and belief. Once you go through a valley, climbing the mountain and looking back over where you travelled, you can take in the entirety of the journey. Over the last 10 years I kept journals, and in this new year I took some time to review them. For those today that are me a decade ago, I share with you what I’ve gleamed from my experiences. Take it for what it’s worth, and safe travels on your own journeys through life. Life is a Performance-Based Sport Have confidence, believe you’re capable, but realize that life is a performance-based sport. Everything you get in life is based on whether you can show that you deserve it. Performance is also your best defense against personal attacks. Just make sure you know what standards you’re expected to hit and if people want to poke holes at you let them do the work of trying to find them. Sometimes performance won’t matter though. Good things will happen to bad people, and bad things to good people. What’s important is that you do the right things and ensure the good and bad even out in your own life. How you finish is just as important as how you start. Start strong, end strong. Respect is Your Most Prized Reward Respect is more important than status or ego. The formula is simple: Performing Well + Building Trust + Showing Dedication = Respect Focus on perfecting your craft and helping your team and respect will come. Life is a Team Sport Whatever aspect of your life, you can’t do it alone. You need to rely on the people around you and ensure you’re a positive aspect of their lives; even those that may be difficult or unpleasant. Avoid criticism and instead find ways to help colleagues and superiors better whatever environment you’re in (work, home, etc.). Don’t just highlight gaps and issues, but also come to the table with solutions. At the same time though, stand up for yourself and hold others accountable for the commitments they make to the team. A healthy team needs accountability. Give feedback early and often, and make it verbal. Issues should be dealt with immediately, and positives should be celebrated as they happen. Life is a Contact Sport Difficult moments will happen. Don’t run from them or shield yourself from experiencing them. Embrace them. They will further mold you and reveal who you will become. Find Your Tribe and Embrace Your Community We all need a tribe: a group of people that we gravitate to for support, guidance, wisdom, and friendship. Discover your tribe and immerse yourself in them. Don’t look for a non-existent tribe just to fill the need of belonging though that will leave you empty and bitter when they don’t meet your unrealistic expectations. Try to associate with people more experienced and more knowledgeable than you. You’ll always learn, and you’ll always remember you have much to learn. Put yourself out there, get involved with the community. Opportunities will present themselves. When we open ourselves up to be vulnerable, we also give others the chance to do the same. This helps us all to grow and help each other, it’s very important. And listen to your wife. (Easter *is* a romantic holiday btw, regardless of what you may think.) Don’t Believe Your Own Press Clippings (and by that I mean the ones you write) Until you have a track record of performance to refer to, any notions of grandeur are just that: notions. You lose your rookie status through trials and tribulations, not by the number of stamps in your passport. Be realistic about your own “experience and leadership” and be honest when you aren’t ready for something. And always remember: nobody really cares about you as much as you think they do. Don’t Let Assholes Get You Down The world isn’t evil, but there is evil in the world. Know the difference and don’t paint all people with the same brush. Do be wary of those that use personal beliefs to describe their business (i.e. “We’re a [religion] company”). What matters is the culture of the organization, and that will tell you the moral compass and what is truly valued. Don’t make someone or something a priority that only makes you an option. Life is unfair and enemies/opponents will succeed when you fail. Don’t waste your energy getting upset at this; the only one that will lose out is you. As mentioned earlier, nobody really cares about you as much as you think they do. Misc Ecclesiastes is bullshit. Everything is certainly *not* meaningless. Software development is about delivery, not the process. Having a great process means nothing if you don’t produce anything. Watch “The Weatherman” (“It’s not easy, but easy doesn’t enter into grownup life.”). Read Tony Dungee’s autobiography, even if you don’t like football, and even if you aren’t a Christian. Say no, don’t feel like you have to commit right away when someone asks you to.

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• Developing Schema Compare for Oracle (Part 6): 9i Query Performance

  - by Simon Cooper

  All throughout the EAP and beta versions of Schema Compare for Oracle, our main request was support for Oracle 9i. After releasing version 1.0 with support for 10g and 11g, our next step was then to get version 1.1 of SCfO out with support for 9i. However, there were some significant problems that we had to overcome first. This post will concentrate on query execution time. When we first tested SCfO on a 9i server, after accounting for various changes to the data dictionary, we found that database registration was taking a long time. And I mean a looooooong time. The same database that on 10g or 11g would take a couple of minutes to register would be taking upwards of 30 mins on 9i. Obviously, this is not ideal, so a poke around the query execution plans was required. As an example, let's take the table population query - the one that reads ALL_TABLES and joins it with a few other dictionary views to get us back our list of tables. On 10g, this query takes 5.6 seconds. On 9i, it takes 89.47 seconds. The difference in execution plan is even more dramatic - here's the (edited) execution plan on 10g: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation | Name | Bytes | Cost |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 108K| 939 || 1 | SORT ORDER BY | | 108K| 939 || 2 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 108K| 938 ||* 3 | HASH JOIN RIGHT OUTER | | 103K| 762 || 4 | VIEW | ALL_EXTERNAL_LOCATIONS | 2058 | 3 ||* 20 | HASH JOIN RIGHT OUTER | | 73472 | 759 || 21 | VIEW | ALL_EXTERNAL_TABLES | 2097 | 3 ||* 34 | HASH JOIN RIGHT OUTER | | 39920 | 755 || 35 | VIEW | ALL_MVIEWS | 51 | 7 || 58 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 39104 | 748 || 59 | VIEW | ALL_TABLES | 6704 | 668 || 89 | VIEW PUSHED PREDICATE | ALL_TAB_COMMENTS | 2025 | 5 || 106 | VIEW | ALL_PART_TABLES | 277 | 11 |------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And the same query on 9i: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation | Name | Bytes | Cost |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 16P| 55G|| 1 | SORT ORDER BY | | 16P| 55G|| 2 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 16P| 862M|| 3 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 5251G| 992K|| 4 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 4243M| 2578 || 5 | NESTED LOOPS OUTER | | 2669K| 1440 ||* 6 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 398K| 302 || 7 | VIEW | ALL_TABLES | 342K| 276 || 29 | VIEW | ALL_MVIEWS | 51 | 20 ||* 50 | VIEW PUSHED PREDICATE | ALL_TAB_COMMENTS | 2043 | ||* 66 | VIEW PUSHED PREDICATE | ALL_EXTERNAL_TABLES | 1777K| ||* 80 | VIEW PUSHED PREDICATE | ALL_EXTERNAL_LOCATIONS | 1744K| ||* 96 | VIEW | ALL_PART_TABLES | 852K| |------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have a look at the cost column. 10g's overall query cost is 939, and 9i is 55,000,000,000 (or more precisely, 55,496,472,769). It's also having to process far more data. What on earth could be causing this huge difference in query cost? After trawling through the '10g New Features' documentation, we found item 1.9.2.21. Before 10g, Oracle advised that you do not collect statistics on data dictionary objects. From 10g, it advised that you do collect statistics on the data dictionary; for our queries, Oracle therefore knows what sort of data is in the dictionary tables, and so can generate an efficient execution plan. On 9i, no statistics are present on the system tables, so Oracle has to use the Rule Based Optimizer, which turns most LEFT JOINs into nested loops. If we force 9i to use hash joins, like 10g, we get a much better plan: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------| Id | Operation | Name | Bytes | Cost |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 0 | SELECT STATEMENT | | 7587K| 3704 || 1 | SORT ORDER BY | | 7587K| 3704 ||* 2 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 7587K| 822 ||* 3 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 5262K| 616 ||* 4 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 2980K| 465 ||* 5 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 710K| 432 ||* 6 | HASH JOIN OUTER | | 398K| 302 || 7 | VIEW | ALL_TABLES | 342K| 276 || 29 | VIEW | ALL_MVIEWS | 51 | 20 || 50 | VIEW | ALL_PART_TABLES | 852K| 104 || 78 | VIEW | ALL_TAB_COMMENTS | 2043 | 14 || 93 | VIEW | ALL_EXTERNAL_LOCATIONS | 1744K| 31 || 106 | VIEW | ALL_EXTERNAL_TABLES | 1777K| 28 |------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's much more like it. This drops the execution time down to 24 seconds. Not as good as 10g, but still an improvement. There are still several problems with this, however. 10g introduced a new join method - a right outer hash join (used in the first execution plan). The 9i query optimizer doesn't have this option available, so forcing a hash join means it has to hash the ALL_TABLES table, and furthermore re-hash it for every hash join in the execution plan; this could be thousands and thousands of rows. And although forcing hash joins somewhat alleviates this problem on our test systems, there's no guarantee that this will improve the execution time on customers' systems; it may even increase the time it takes (say, if all their tables are partitioned, or they've got a lot of materialized views). Ideally, we would want a solution that provides a speedup whatever the input. To try and get some ideas, we asked some oracle performance specialists to see if they had any ideas or tips. Their recommendation was to add a hidden hook into the product that allowed users to specify their own query hints, or even rewrite the queries entirely. However, we would prefer not to take that approach; as well as a lot of new infrastructure & a rewrite of the population code, it would have meant that any users of 9i would have to spend some time optimizing it to get it working on their system before they could use the product. Another approach was needed. All our population queries have a very specific pattern - a base table provides most of the information we need (ALL_TABLES for tables, or ALL_TAB_COLS for columns) and we do a left join to extra subsidiary tables that fill in gaps (for instance, ALL_PART_TABLES for partition information). All the left joins use the same set of columns to join on (typically the object owner & name), so we could re-use the hash information for each join, rather than re-hashing the same columns for every join. To allow us to do this, along with various other performance improvements that could be done for the specific query pattern we were using, we read all the tables individually and do a hash join on the client. Fortunately, this 'pure' algorithmic problem is the kind that can be very well optimized for expected real-world situations; as well as storing row data we're not using in the hash key on disk, we use very specific memory-efficient data structures to store all the information we need. This allows us to achieve a database population time that is as fast as on 10g, and even (in some situations) slightly faster, and a memory overhead of roughly 150 bytes per row of data in the result set (for schemas with 10,000 tables in that means an extra 1.4MB memory being used during population). Next: fun with the 9i dictionary views.

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• Tips / techniques for high-performance C# server sockets

  - by McKenzieG1

  I have a .NET 2.0 server that seems to be running into scaling problems, probably due to poor design of the socket-handling code, and I am looking for guidance on how I might redesign it to improve performance. Usage scenario: 50 - 150 clients, high rate (up to 100s / second) of small messages (10s of bytes each) to / from each client. Client connections are long-lived - typically hours. (The server is part of a trading system. The client messages are aggregated into groups to send to an exchange over a smaller number of 'outbound' socket connections, and acknowledgment messages are sent back to the clients as each group is processed by the exchange.) OS is Windows Server 2003, hardware is 2 x 4-core X5355. Current client socket design: A TcpListener spawns a thread to read each client socket as clients connect. The threads block on Socket.Receive, parsing incoming messages and inserting them into a set of queues for processing by the core server logic. Acknowledgment messages are sent back out over the client sockets using async Socket.BeginSend calls from the threads that talk to the exchange side. Observed problems: As the client count has grown (now 60-70), we have started to see intermittent delays of up to 100s of milliseconds while sending and receiving data to/from the clients. (We log timestamps for each acknowledgment message, and we can see occasional long gaps in the timestamp sequence for bunches of acks from the same group that normally go out in a few ms total.) Overall system CPU usage is low (< 10%), there is plenty of free RAM, and the core logic and the outbound (exchange-facing) side are performing fine, so the problem seems to be isolated to the client-facing socket code. There is ample network bandwidth between the server and clients (gigabit LAN), and we have ruled out network or hardware-layer problems. Any suggestions or pointers to useful resources would be greatly appreciated. If anyone has any diagnostic or debugging tips for figuring out exactly what is going wrong, those would be great as well. Note: I have the MSDN Magazine article Winsock: Get Closer to the Wire with High-Performance Sockets in .NET, and I have glanced at the Kodart "XF.Server" component - it looks sketchy at best.

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• How to configure Hudson and git plugin with an SSH key

  - by jlpp

  I've got Hudson (continuous integration system) with the git plugin running on a Tomcat Windows Service. msysgit is installed and the msysgit bin dir is in the path. PuTTY/Pageant/plink are installed and msysgit is configured to use them. When I run a job that attempts to clone the git repository I get the following error: $ git clone -o origin git@hostname:project.git "e:\HUDSON_HOME\jobs\Project Trunk\workspace" ERROR: Error cloning remote repo 'origin' : Could not clone git@hostname:project.git ERROR: Cause: Error performing git clone -o origin git@hostname:project.git e:\HUDSON_HOME\jobs\Project Trunk\workspace Trying next repository ERROR: Could not clone from a repository FATAL: Could not clone hudson.plugins.git.GitException: Could not clone Running git clone -o origin git@hostname:project.git "e:\HUDSON_HOME\jobs\Project Trunk\workspace" from the command line works without error. I've confirmed that my issue is not the same as http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1177292/hudson-git-clone-error because git is in the path and I don't get any error about the git executable on Hudson's Configure System page. This leads me to believe that the problem is that the user who owns the Tomcat/Hudson Windows service (Local System) has no SSH key set up to be able to clone the git repository. My question is, how can I set things up so that the git plugin/msysgit know to use a particular SSH key when trying to clone? I don't think Pageant will work because the Tomcat service is running as the "Local System" user, but I may be wrong. I have tried setting Pageant up as a service (using runassvc.exe), passing the appropriate key, and having it run as "Local System". The Tomcat/Hudson service doesn't seem to be able to see the key from the pageant service. Are there any other techniques for setting up a key? Thanks. EDIT: The discussion on http://n4.nabble.com/Hudson-with-git-and-ssh-td375633.html shows that someone else had a similar question. ssh-agent was suggested and this tool does come with msysgit but I'm not sure how to use it in conjunction with the Hudson service. Still, good clue if anyone can fill in the gaps. Thanks to Peter for the comment with the link. Also, the discussion on http://n4.nabble.com/questions-about-git-and-github-plug-ins-td383420.html starts off with the same question. I'm trying to resurrect that thread.

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• annotationView didChangeDragState being fired multiple times

  - by RodH257

  I've got a draggable annotation in IOS4 mapkit, and I'm trying to call an event when the annotation is dragged to a new position. my code currently looks like: - (void)mapView:(MKMapView *)mapView annotationView:(MKAnnotationView *)annotationView didChangeDragState:(MKAnnotationViewDragState)newState fromOldState:(MKAnnotationViewDragState)oldState { if (newState == MKAnnotationViewDragStateEnding) { CLLocationCoordinate2D droppedAt = annotationView.annotation.coordinate; NSLog(@"dropped at %f,%f", droppedAt.latitude, droppedAt.longitude); //update the annotation //see if its an information annotation if ([annotationView.annotation isKindOfClass:[InfoAnnotation class]]) { NSLog(@"Info annotation updating.."); InfoAnnotation* userAnnotation = ((InfoAnnotation *)annotationView.annotation); [userAnnotation updateLocationWithServerForConvoy: self.title]; } } } the code simply logs the update and then tells the annotation to send its update to my server, which is a custom method. This method seems to be getting fired multiple times, see the log here: 2011-06-15 01:12:39.347 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.340206,-122.027550 2011-06-15 01:12:39.347 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:39.658 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.340206,-122.027550 2011-06-15 01:12:39.659 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:39.957 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.340206,-122.027550 2011-06-15 01:12:39.958 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:43.415 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.339251,-122.026691 2011-06-15 01:12:43.416 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:43.713 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.339251,-122.026691 2011-06-15 01:12:43.713 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:44.006 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.339251,-122.026691 2011-06-15 01:12:44.006 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:44.297 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.339251,-122.026691 2011-06-15 01:12:44.297 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:54.825 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.337135,-122.025833 2011-06-15 01:12:54.825 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:55.150 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.337135,-122.025833 2011-06-15 01:12:55.150 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:55.475 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.337135,-122.025833 2011-06-15 01:12:55.476 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:55.771 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.337135,-122.025833 2011-06-15 01:12:55.772 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. 2011-06-15 01:12:56.070 Convoy[1699:207] dropped at 37.337135,-122.025833 2011-06-15 01:12:56.070 Convoy[1699:207] Info annotation updating.. Each time I drag it (ie in the gaps) it seems to add 1 to the amount of times it's called. Can anyone give me any idea what may be causing this?

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• .NET RegEx "Memory Leak" investigation

  - by Kevin Pullin

  I recently looked into some .NET "memory leaks" (i.e. unexpected, lingering GC rooted objects) in a WinForms app. After loading and then closing a huge report, the memory usage did not drop as expected even after a couple of gen2 collections. Assuming that the reporting control was being kept alive by a stray event handler I cracked open WinDbg to see what was happening... Using WinDbg, the !dumpheap -stat command reported a large amount of memory was consumed by string instances. Further refining this down with the !dumpheap -type System.String command I found the culprit, a 90MB string used for the report, at address 03be7930. The last step was to invoke !gcroot 03be7930 to see which object(s) were keeping it alive. My expectations were incorrect - it was not an unhooked event handler hanging onto the reporting control (and report string), but instead it was held on by a System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexInterpreter instance, which itself is a descendant of a System.Text.RegularExpressions.CachedCodeEntry. Now, the caching of Regexs is (somewhat) common knowledge as this helps to reduce the overhead of having to recompile the Regex each time it is used. But what then does this have to do with keeping my string alive? Based on analysis using Reflector, it turns out that the input string is stored in the RegexInterpreter whenever a Regex method is called. The RegexInterpreter holds onto this string reference until a new string is fed into it by a subsequent Regex method invocation. I'd expect similar behaviour by hanging onto Regex.Match instances and perhaps others. The chain is something like this: Regex.Split, Regex.Match, Regex.Replace, etc Regex.Run RegexScanner.Scan (RegexScanner is the base class, RegexInterpreter is the subclass described above). The offending Regex is only used for reporting, rarely used, and therefore unlikely to be used again to clear out the existing report string. And even if the Regex was used at a later point, it would probably be processing another large report. This is a relatively significant problem and just plain feels dirty. All that said, I found a few options on how to resolve, or at least work around, this scenario. I'll let the community respond first and if no takers come forward I will fill in any gaps in a day or two.

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• Soon to be PhD in Computer Science - Which Path to Follow?

  - by mttr

  I am going to submit my PhD thesis within the next six months. My PhD is on managing the availabiity of large-scale distributed systems, so I have some experience actually building non-trivial systems (+ I have four years experience working as a programmer). I am now trying to figure out what I should do following the PhD. I enjoy research (a quick definition: identify problem, come up with solution, ask interesting questions, find ways to answer them, build system, experiment, contribute some new knowledge and publish). I also like teaching and supervising students. It would seem that a career in academia is the ideal thing to do (can work on non-trivial problems and contribute something of use to some or more people). However, a career in academia has two significant drawbacks. First, it can be difficult to gain access to real systems with real users which then display real problems. This creates the danger that you do work that seems important (to you and maybe to some of your colleagues), but is not really relevant to anything or anyone. Second, the pay is pretty sad. Apparently, you have to sacrifice this for the privilege of doing research. I enjoy programming, but don't just want to hack some web-based system for the rest of my life. That is, working in IT for a bank is not a future I see myself enjoying. I want to work on interesting problms (that's difficult to define clearly): things where you don't know how to start, that take some time to figure out and attack, that require a rigorous approach to demonstrate that the problem has been solved, and problems that need a solution in the real world. Give the experience of people on stackoverflow, what do you think suitable options are and why (or alternatively, what gaps in my thinking does the above reveal)? Is industrial research (aka IBM Research, Microsoft Research) the only alternative avenue to a career in academia? What other areas, companies, occupations, etc. could provide me with stimulating, inspiring work? Which regions, countries am I most likely to find such work? Please share your experience.

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• Going from a math career to a cs career: how to do it?

  - by Joseph

  Hey, I'm looking for some advice on how to successfully make the transition from mathematics to CS. My academic background is in mathematics (BS and MSc), and I've taken loads of math courses as well. You name it, and I took it: Measure Theory, Algebra, PDES, Manifolds, Complex Analysis, etc. I progressed quite far along this track, and at one point, I thought I would be a professional mathematician...But around the time I was finishing my MSc, I really got sick of it. Studying very abstract mathematics was fun, but it really lost it's appeal to me. Outside of a couple hundred people, I'm not sure if anybody would understand my research. I did not want to be 60 years old and say that my only contribution to the world consisted of published papers. Anyways, I've been an off and on hobbyist programmer since 2002. I've programmed in C and Java (just small projects), and I really started to be drawn to the area as time passed. There's a real appeal to CS work because, well, it actually means something to other people out there! I enjoy all parts of it: designing webpages (a real artistic appeal). On the other end, I do enjoy toying with compilers and more nitty-gritty stuff as well. Suffice to say, I have broad interests out there. Anyways, I know it's a bit late, but I was wondering if there were other folks out there who made the change, and if so, how I could do so. I know I have some fairly big gaps to fill in terms of data structures, lack of internship experience, etc. But I really would like to make this work. So my question is simply: How can I make the switch from math to CS? To pay the bills, I'll be doing financial analysis for a company, but I'd like to eventually transition into a developer type position. I've been reading "Algorithm Design" by Tardos and doing all the problems. It's not hard to make progress since the problems are far more concrete than the stuff I've been doing the past six years. I feel I can make fairly rapid progress in picking up all the materials from data structures, etc. but none of it can substitute the past several years I've lost. Anyways, I'm eager to learn but would love some advice/concrete direction. Thanks, Joseph

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• Animating gradient displays line artifacts in ActionScript

  - by TheDarkIn1978

  i've programatically created a simple gradient (blue to red) sprite rect using my own basic class called GradientRect, but moving or animation the sprite exhibits line artifacts. when the sprite is rotating, it kind of resembles bad reception of an old television set. i'm almost certain the cause is because each line slice of the gradient is vector so there are gaps between the lines - this is visible when the sprite is zoomed in. var colorPickerRect:GradientRect = new GradientRect(200, 200, 0x0000FF, 0xFF0000); addChild(colorPickerRect); colorPickerRect.cacheAsBitmap = true; colorPickerRect.x = colorPickerRect.y = 100; colorPickerRect.addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, rotate); function rotate(evt:Event):void { evt.target.rotation += 1; } ________________________ //CLASS PACKAGE package { import flash.display.CapsStyle; import flash.display.GradientType; import flash.display.LineScaleMode; import flash.display.Sprite; import flash.geom.Matrix; public class GradientRect extends Sprite { public function GradientRect(gradientRectWidth:Number, gradientRectHeight:Number, ...leftToRightColors) { init(gradientRectWidth, gradientRectHeight, leftToRightColors); } private function init(gradientRectWidth:Number, gradientRectHeight:Number, leftToRightColors:Array):void { var leftToRightAlphas:Array = new Array(); var leftToRightRatios:Array = new Array(); var leftToRightPartition:Number = 255 / (leftToRightColors.length - 1); var pixelColor:Number; var i:int; //Push arrays for (i = 0; i < leftToRightColors.length; i++) { leftToRightAlphas.push(1); leftToRightRatios.push(i * leftToRightPartition); } //Graphics matrix and lineStyle var leftToRightColorsMatrix:Matrix = new Matrix(); leftToRightColorsMatrix.createGradientBox(gradientRectWidth, 1); graphics.lineStyle(1, 0, 1, false, LineScaleMode.NONE, CapsStyle.NONE); for (i = 0; i < gradientRectWidth; i++) { graphics.lineGradientStyle(GradientType.LINEAR, leftToRightColors, leftToRightAlphas, leftToRightRatios, leftToRightColorsMatrix); graphics.moveTo(i, 0); graphics.lineTo(i, gradientRectHeight); } } } } how can i solve this problem?

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• problem in adding image to JFrame

  - by firestruq

  Hi, I'm having problems in adding a picture into JFrame, something is missing probebly or written wrong. here are the classes: main class: public class Tester { public static void main(String args[]) { BorderLayoutFrame borderLayoutFrame = new BorderLayoutFrame(); borderLayoutFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); borderLayoutFrame.setSize(600,600); borderLayoutFrame.setVisible(true); } } public class BorderLayoutFrame extends JFrame implements ActionListener { private JButton buttons[]; // array of buttons to hide portions private final String names[] = { "North", "South", "East", "West", "Center" }; private BorderLayout layout; // borderlayout object private PicPanel picture = new PicPanel(); // set up GUI and event handling public BorderLayoutFrame() { super( "Philosofic Problem" ); layout = new BorderLayout( 5, 5 ); // 5 pixel gaps setLayout( layout ); // set frame layout buttons = new JButton[ names.length ]; // set size of array // create JButtons and register listeners for them for ( int count = 0; count < names.length; count++ ) { buttons[ count ] = new JButton( names[ count ] ); buttons[ count ].addActionListener( this ); } add( buttons[ 0 ], BorderLayout.NORTH ); // add button to north add( buttons[ 1 ], BorderLayout.SOUTH ); // add button to south add( buttons[ 2 ], BorderLayout.EAST ); // add button to east add( buttons[ 3 ], BorderLayout.WEST ); // add button to west add( picture, BorderLayout.CENTER ); // add button to center } // handle button events public void actionPerformed( ActionEvent event ) { } } I'v tried to add the image into the center of layout. here is the image class: public class PicPanel extends JPanel { Image img; private int width = 0; private int height = 0; public PicPanel() { super(); img = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage("table.jpg"); } public void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponents(g); if ((width <= 0) || (height <= 0)) { width = img.getWidth(this); height = img.getHeight(this); } g.drawImage(img,0,0,width,height,this); } } Please your help, what is the problem? thanks BTW: i'm using eclipse, which directory the image suppose to be in?

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• sub menu border calls onmouseout event

  - by insanepaul

  I've created a simple menu and submenu with tags(not allowed to use ul elements). To access the submenu the user hovers their mouse over the menu item. I use the onmouseover and onmouseout events to either show or hide the sub menu depending on which item is selected. A pipe (|) is used to seperate each submenu item and this is what is causing me problems. When a user hovers their mouse above the pipe character the subMenu div calls the onmouseout event which is not what I want. So I added padding around the pipe character and a minus margin so that there were no gaps between the pipe character and the other elements. This worked for all browsers including IE8. But in IE7 (I haven't tested IE6 yet) the submenu div calls the onmouseout event when I touch the top bit of either the left or right border of the pipe character span element. <div id="subMenu" onmouseout="hideSubMenu()" > <div id="opinionSubMenu" onmouseover="showOpinionSubMenu()"> <a id="Blogs" href="HTMLNew.htm">BLOGS</a> <span class="SubMenuDelimiter">|</span> <a id="Comments" href="HTMLNew.htm">COMMENTS</a> <span class="SubMenuDelimiter">|</span> <a id="Views" href="HTMLNew.htm">VIEWS</a> </div> <div id="learningSubMenu" onmouseover="showLearningSubMenu()"> <a id="Articles" href="HTMLNew.htm">ARTICLES</a> <span class="SubMenuDelimiter">|</span> <a id="CoursesCases" href="HTMLNew.htm">COURSES & CASES</a> <span class="SubMenuDelimiter">|</span> <a id="PracticeImpact" href="HTMLNew.htm">PRACTICE IMPACT</a> </div> </div> This is my css class #subMenu{ padding:10px 0px; background-color:#F58F2D; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; font-family:Lucida Sans Unicode; font-size:14px; float:left; width:100%; display:none;} #Blogs, #Comments, #Views, #Articles { padding:10px 5px; background:none repeat scroll 0 0 transparent; color:#000000; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; border:solid 1px black;} #Blogs:hover, #Comments:hover, #Views:hover, #Articles:hover{ color:#ffffff; text-decoration:none;} .SubMenuDelimiter{ padding:10px 5px; margin:10px -5px;}

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• Navigating to rootViewController of non-visible UINavigationController CRASH

  - by Bertie

  First off I'n not sure if this is exactly the issue... but it appears to be central to the problem. There are vast gaps in what I know and this may be something very obvious. I have a split view controller with various Master and Detail Views. From one 'menu' branch I want to return to the rootView of both the Master & Detail Navigation Controllers when the user taps a 'Done' button. Initially I had the button positioned on the navigation bar of the master view. This is the code I was using: - (IBAction)doneClicked:(id)sender { UINavigationController *detailNav = [self.splitViewController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:1]; NSArray *allDetailViewControllers = detailNav.viewControllers; HomePage *destinationDetailVC = [allDetailViewControllers objectAtIndex:0]; destinationDetailVC.splitViewBarButtonItem = self.splitViewButton; [detailNav popToRootViewControllerAnimated:NO]; [self.navigationController popToRootViewControllerAnimated:NO]; } That works fine but if the device is in portrait mode it means the user has to open the menus to access the button. So I decided to put the 'Done' button onto the detail view NavBar instead. Using a delegate declared in the detailVC and adopted by the masterVC I am now using this method: - (void)theUserClickedDoneInTheDetailView:(DetailVC *)controller withButton:(UIBarButtonItem *)splitViewButton { UINavigationController *detailNav = [self.splitViewController.viewControllers objectAtIndex:1]; NSArray *allDetailViewControllers = detailNav.viewControllers; HomePage *destinationDetailVC = [allDetailViewControllers objectAtIndex:0]; destinationDetailVC.splitViewBarButtonItem = splitViewButton; [detailNav popToRootViewControllerAnimated: NO]; [self.navigationController popToRootViewControllerAnimated:NO]; } Both methods are in the MasterVC.m file The only difference between the two is that on is passed a UIBarButtonItem to use and the other has already had it passed when it is set in the detail view. That seems to be working because I do get a button. When the device is in Landscape mode both methods work fine. All behaviour as expected. When the device is in Portrait the first method still works fine. The second appears to work fine and the detail view is the rootView, the button for the menus is there BUT, as soon as I turn the device to landscape it crashes. The only thing I can think of is that it is because the masterView is hidden. Can anyone help...?

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