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• Square Peg Web: Gets you the traffic to where it matters most: Your Website!

  - by demetriusalwyn

  Have you decided to start your business online or is your business not reaching the targeted audience? Come to Square Peg Web; where you will find what you want to make your business reach new heights. The team at Square Peg Web is professionals who understand what you want and make sure you get it right. Our confidence stems from the fact of thousands of satisfied clients who keep referring friends and business associates to us and we do not let our clients down. Many companies promise the sky but how far is does their work live up to the promises? We do not know about the others however, we are sure that we strive to put together all our ideas and thoughts to make your website rank among the top. Web hosting is something that needs to have a personal touch; Square Peg Web customizes everything to suit your requirements so that you do not have to look further. With Square Peg Web you have a host of features to make your Business go viral. Some of the product details that are offered with Square Peg Web are unlimited product options/ variants/ properties giving you an option on price modifiers. You get unlimited customized input fields for your products and you can also Customer-define the prices. Square Peg Web provides you an option of using multiple product images with zoom features and one can also list a particular product in several categories. There are other aspects which make Square Peg Web the best choice for your website needs; every sale of yours’ is important to you and to us. We make sure that each sale is tracked by the product and also the list of bestsellers that appeal to the audience. Other comprehensive statistics of Square Peg Web includes searchable order data, an interface for shipments and order fulfillments, export sales & customer data for usage in a spreadsheet and the ability to export orders to QuickBooks format. With Square Peg Web; Admin Panel is a lot simpler. Administrative access is completely password protected and any changes done are all in real-time. You can have absolute control on the cart from anywhere around the world using your web browser and the topping on the cake is the unlimited amount of admin accounts that can be created for you. Square Peg Web offers you a world of experience with the options of choosing from marketing websites to e-commerce and from customized applications to community oriented sites. Some of the projects which appear in the portfolio of Square Peg Web are Online Marketing Web Sites, E-Commerce Web Sites, customized web applications, Blog designing and programming, video sharing and the option of downloading web sites, online advertisements, flash animation, customer and product support web sites, web site re-designing and planning and complete information architecture.

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• The best way to separate admin functionality from a public site?

  - by AndrewO

  I'm working on a site that's grown both in terms of user-base and functionality to the point where it's becoming evident that some of the admin tasks should be separate from the public website. I was wondering what the best way to do this would be. For example, the site has a large social component to it, and a public sales interface. But at the same time, there's back office tasks, bulk upload processing, dashboards (with long running queries), and customer relations tools in the admin section that I would like to not be effected by spikes in public traffic (or effect the public-facing response time). The site is running on a fairly standard Rails/MySQL/Linux stack, but I think this is more of an architecture problem than an implementation one: mainly, how does one keep the data and business logic in sync between these different applications? Some strategies that I'm evaluating: 1) Create a slave database of the public facing database on another machine. Extract out all of the model and library code so that it can be shared between the applications. Create new controllers and views for the admin interfaces. I have limited experience with replication and am not even sure that it's supposed to be used this way (most of the time I've seen it, it's been for scaling out the read capabilities of the same application, rather than having multiple different ones). I'm also worried about the potential for latency issues if the slave is not on the same network. 2) Create new more task/department-specific applications and use a message oriented middleware to integrate them. I read Enterprise Integration Patterns awhile back and they seemed to advocate this for distributed systems. (Alternatively, in some cases the basic Rails-style RESTful API functionality might suffice.) But, I have nightmares about data synchronization issues and the massive re-architecting that this would entail. 3) Some mixture of the two. For example, the only public information necessary for some of the back office tasks is a read-only completion time or status. Would it make sense to have that on a completely separate system and send the data to public? Meanwhile, the user/group admin functionality would be run on a separate system sharing the database? The downside is, this seems to keep many of the concerns I have with the first two, especially the re-architecting. I'm sure the answers are going to be highly dependent on a site's specific needs, but I'd love to hear success (or failure) stories.

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• CSV File Content Display Issue

  - by Pankaj Khurana

  Hi, I want to retrieve contents from a csv file for that i am using following code: <?php $fo = fopen("record.csv", "rb+"); while(!feof($fo)) { $contents[] = fgetcsv($fo,0,';'); } print_r($contents); fclose($fo); ?> But my records are displayed in the following format: ????††???????†††??†††††????"Search Transactions Results" ††††??†???????††††?††††††??? ???????????? ?????????????? ?????????? My csv file format: "Search Transactions Results" "Transaction ID","Reference Transaction ID","Date","Type","Subject","Item Number","Item Name","Invoice ID","Name","Email","Shipping Name","Shipping Address Line 1","Shipping Address Line 2","Shipping Address City","Shipping State/Province","Shipping Zip/Postal Code","Shipping Address Country","Shipping Method","Address Status","Contact Phone Number","Gross Amount","Receipt ID","Custom Field","Option 1 Name","Option 1 Value","Option 2 Name","Option 2 Value","Note","Auction Site","Auction User ID","Item URL","Auction Closing Date","Insurance Amount","Currency","Fees","Net Amount","Shipping & Handling Amount","Sales Tax Amount","To Email","Time","Time Zone" "1T","",5/5/2010 2:10:44 PM,"Payment Processed","CFP Self Study Kit","1","CFP Self Study Kit","","User1","[email protected]","","","","","","","","","N","","68.18","R1","","","","","","","","","",,"","USD","-2.62","65.56","0","0","[email protected]","01:40","Asia/Calcutta" "2T","",5/19/2010 4:04:08 PM,"Payment Processed","CFP Self Study Kit","1","CFP Self Study Kit","","User2","[email protected]","","","","","","","","","N","","68.18","R2","","","","","","","","","",,"","USD","-2.62","65.56","0","0","[email protected]","03:34","Asia/Calcutta" "3T","1RT",5/19/2010 5:28:45 PM,"Currency Conversion Completed","","","",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","17492.6","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","17492.6","0","0","","04:58","Asia/Calcutta" "4T","2RT",5/19/2010 5:28:45 PM,"Currency Conversion Completed","","","",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-393.36","","","","","","","","","","",,"","USD","0","-393.36","0","0","","04:58","Asia/Calcutta" "5T","",5/19/2010 5:28:45 PM,"Transfer to Bank Initiated","P1006","","P1006",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-17492.6","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","-17492.6","0","0","","04:58","Asia/Calcutta" "6T","",5/20/2010 5:38:02 PM,"Transfer to Bank Completed","P1006","","P1006",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-17492.6","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","-17492.6","0","0","","05:08","Asia/Calcutta" "7T","",5/21/2010 12:32:37 PM,"Payment Processed","FP - LVC Plus","","FP - LVC Plus","","User3","[email protected]","User3","NEW DELHI","BEHIND KARNATAKA BANK LD","SOUTH","NEW DELHI","110023","IN","","N","","283.96","","","","","","","","","","",,"","USD","-9.95","274.01","0","0","[email protected]","00:02","Asia/Calcutta" "8T","",5/25/2010 4:40:48 PM,"Transfer to Bank Initiated","P1006","","P1006",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-12569.85","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","-12569.85","0","0","","04:10","Asia/Calcutta" "9T","3RT",5/25/2010 4:40:48 PM,"Currency Conversion Completed","","","",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-274.01","","","","","","","","","","",,"","USD","0","-274.01","0","0","","04:10","Asia/Calcutta" "10T","4RT",5/25/2010 4:40:48 PM,"Currency Conversion Completed","","","",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","12569.85","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","12569.85","0","0","","04:10","Asia/Calcutta" "11T","",5/26/2010 4:57:39 PM,"Transfer to Bank Completed","P1006","","P1006",""," ","","","","","","","","","","N","","-12569.85","","","","","","","","","","",,"","INR","0","-12569.85","0","0","","04:27","Asia/Calcutta" "Total","-247.05 USD","-15.19","-262.24" "Total","0.00 INR","0.00","0.00" I want to retrieve the records where "Type"="Payment Processed". I want to retrieve content in a key value format that is for e.g. Transaction ID-1T as i have to store this values in a database but display is not proper. I am unable to find out the reason for the same please help me on this. Thanks

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• Inserting checkbox values

  - by rabeea

  hey i have registration form that has checkboxes along with other fields. i cant insert the selected checkbox values into the data base. i have made one field in the database for storing all checked values. this is the code for checkbox part in the form: Websites, IT and Software Writing and Content <pre><input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Design and Media"> Design and Media <input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Data entry and Admin"> Data entry and Admin </pre> <pre><input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Engineering and Skills"> Engineering and Science <input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Seles and Marketing"> Sales and Marketing </pre> <pre><input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Business and Accounting"> Business and Accounting <input type="checkbox" name="expertise[]" value="Others"> Others </pre> and this is the corresponding php code for inserting data $checkusername=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM freelancer WHERE fusername='{$_POST['username']}'"); if (mysql_num_rows($checkusername)==1) { echo "username already exist"; } else { $query = "insert into freelancer(ffname,flname,fgender,femail,fusername,fpwd,fphone,fadd,facc,facc_name,fbank_details,fcity,fcountry,fexpertise,fprofile,fskills,fhourly_rate,fresume) values ('".$_POST['first_name']."','".$_POST['last_name']."','".$_POST['gender']."','".$_POST['email']."','".$_POST['username']."','".$_POST['password']."','".$_POST['phone']."','".$_POST['address']."','".$_POST['acc_num']."','".$_POST['acc_name']."','".$_POST['bank']."','".$_POST['city']."','".$_POST['country']."','".implode(',',$_POST['expertise'])."','".$_POST['profile']."','".$_POST['skills']."','".$_POST['rate']."','".$_POST['resume']."')"; $result = ($query) or die (mysql_error()); this code inserts data for all fields but the checkbox value field remains empty???

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• Parsing CSV File to MySQL DB in PHP

  - by Austin

  I have a some 350-lined CSV File with all sorts of vendors that fall into Clothes, Tools, Entertainment, etc.. categories. Using the following code I have been able to print out my CSV File. <?php $fp = fopen('promo_catalog_expanded.csv', 'r'); echo '<tr><td>'; echo implode('</td><td>', fgetcsv($fp, 4096, ',')); echo '</td></tr>'; while(!feof($fp)) { list($cat, $var, $name, $var2, $web, $var3, $phone,$var4, $kw,$var5, $desc) = fgetcsv($fp, 4096); echo '<tr><td>'; echo $cat. '</td><td>' . $name . '</td><td><a href="http://www.' . $web .'" target="_blank">' .$web.'</a></td><td>'.$phone.'</td><td>'.$kw.'</td><td>'.$desc.'</td>' ; echo '</td></tr>'; } fclose($file_handle); show_source(__FILE__); ?> First thing you will probably notice is the extraneous vars within the list(). this is because of how the excel spreadsheet/csv file: Category,,Company Name,,Website,,Phone,,Keywords,,Description ,,,,,,,,,, Clothes,,4imprint,,4imprint.com,,877-466-7746,,"polos, jackets, coats, workwear, sweatshirts, hoodies, long sleeve, pullovers, t-shirts, tees, tshirts,",,An embroidery and apparel company based in Wisconsin. ,,Apollo Embroidery,,apolloemb.com,,1-800-982-2146,,"hats, caps, headwear, bags, totes, backpacks, blankets, embroidery",,An embroidery sales company based in California. One thing to note is that the last line starts with two commas as it is also listed within "Clothes" category. My concern is that I am going about the CSV output wrong. Should I be using a foreach loop instead of this list way? Should I first get rid of any unnecessary blank columns? Please advise any flaws you may find, improvements I can use so I can be ready to import this data to a MySQL DB.

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• Can highlight the current menu item, but can't add the class= to style unhighleted menu items

  - by bradpotts

  <?php $activesidebar[$currentsidebar]="id=isactive";?> <div class="span3"> <div class="well sidebar-nav hidden-phone"> <ul class="nav nav-list"> <li class="nav-header" <?php echo $activesidebar[1] ?>>Marketing Services</li> <li><a href="#">Marketing Technology</a></li> <li><a href="#">Generate More Sales</a></li> <li><a href="#">Direct Email Marketing</a></li> <li class="nav-header" <?php echo $activesidebar[2] ?>>Advertising Services</li> <li><a href="../services-advertising-mass-media-network.php">Traditional Medias</a></li> <li><a href="#">Online & Social Medias</a></li> <li><a href="#">Media Planing & Purchasing</a></li> <li class="nav-header" <?php echo $activesidebar[3] ?>>Technology Services</li> <li><a href="#">Managed Websites</a></li> <li><a href="#">Managed Web Servers</a></li> <li><a href="#">Managed Databases</a></li> <li class="nav-header" <?php echo $activesidebar[4] ?>>About Us</li> <li><a href="../aboutus-contactus.php">Contact Us</a></li> </ul> </div> This is added to the current page I want to add this on. <?php $currentsidebar =2; include('module-sidebar-navigation.php');?> I had programmed this menu individually on each page, but to make my website dynamic I used one file and use php includes to load the file. I can get the menu to highlight on the current page assigning an id="isactive", how can I assign id="notactive" to the other 3 menu items that are not active on that page. Is there an else or elseif I have to include?

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• HttpWebRequest possibly slowing website

  - by Steven Smith

  Using Visual studio 2012, C#.net 4.5 , SQL Server 2008, Feefo, Nopcommerce Hey guys I have Recently implemented a new review service into a current site we have. When the change went live the first day all worked fine. Since then though the sending of sales to Feefo hasnt been working, There are no logs either of anything going wrong. In the OrderProcessingService.cs in Nop Commerce's Service, i call a HttpWebrequest when an order has been confirmed as completed. Here is the code. var email = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(order.Customer.Email.ToString()); var name = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(order.Customer.GetFullName().ToString()); var description = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(productVariant.ProductVariant.Product.MetaDescription != null ? productVariant.ProductVariant.Product.MetaDescription.ToString() : "product"); var orderRef = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(order.Id.ToString()); var productLink = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(string.Format("myurl/p/{0}/{1}", productVariant.ProductVariant.ProductId, productVariant.ProductVariant.Name.Replace(" ", "-"))); string itemRef = ""; try { itemRef = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(productVariant.ProductVariant.ProductId.ToString()); } catch { itemRef = "0"; } var url = string.Format("feefo Url", login, password,email,name,description,orderRef,productLink,itemRef); var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url); request.KeepAlive = false; request.Timeout = 5000; request.Proxy = null; using (var response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse()) { if (response.StatusDescription == "OK") { var stream = response.GetResponseStream(); if(stream != null) { using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream)) { var content = reader.ReadToEnd(); } } } } So as you can see its a simple webrequest that is processed on an order, and all product variants are sent to feefo. Now: this hasnt been happening all week since the 15th (day of the implementation) the site has been grinding to a halt recently. The stream and reader in the the var content is there for debugging. Im wondering does the code redflag anything to you that could relate to the process of website? Also note i have run some SQL statements to see if there is any deadlocks or large escalations, so far seems fine, Logs have also been fine just the usual logging of Bots. Any help would be much appreciated! EDIT: also note that this code is in a method that is called and wrapped in A try catch UPDATE: well forget about the "not sending", thats because i was just told my code was rolled back last week

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• Inventory count in CakePHP

  - by metrobalderas

  We are developing an inventory tracking system. Basically we've got an order table in which orders are placed. When an order is payed, the status changes from 0 to 1. This table has multiple children in another table order_items. This is the main structure. CREATE TABLE order( id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, user_id INT UNSIGNED, status INT(1), total INT UNSIGNED ); CREATE TABLE order_items( id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, order_id INT UNSIGNED, article_id INT UNSIGNED, size enum('s', 'm', 'l', 'xl'), quantity INT UNSIGNED ); Now, we've got a stocks table with similar architecture for the acquisitions. This is the structure. CREATE TABLE stock( id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, article_id INT UNSIGNED ); CREATE TABLE stock_items( id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, stock_id INT UNSIGNED, size enum('s', 'm', 'l', 'xl'), quantity INT(2) ); The main difference is that stocks has no status field. What we are looking for is a way to sum each article size from stock_items, then sum each article size from order_items where Order.status = 1 and substract both these items to find our current inventory. This is the table we want to get from a single query: Size | Stocks | Sales | Available s | 10 | 3 | 7 m | 15 | 13 | 2 l | 7 | 4 | 3 Initially we thought abouth using complex find conditions, but perhaps that's the wrong approach. Also, since it's not a direct join, it turns out to be quite hard. This is the code we have to retrieve the stock's total for each item. function stocks_total($id){ $find = $this->StockItem->find('all', array( 'conditions' => array( 'StockItem.stock_id' => $this->find('list', array('conditions' => array('Stock.article_id' => $id))) ), 'fields' => array_merge( array( 'SUM(StockItem.cantidad) as total' ), array_keys($this->StockItem->_schema) ), 'group' => 'StockItem.size', 'order' => 'FIELD(StockItem.size, \'s\', \'m\' ,\'l\' ,\'xl\') ASC' )); return $find; } Thanks.

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• Advice needed: stay with Java team or move to C++ team?

  - by user68759

  Some background - I have been programming in Java as a professional for the last few years. This is mainly using Java SE. I have also touched bits and pieces of other various Java technologies and have some basic knowledge about them. I consider my self as an intermediate Java programmer. I like Java very much. I think it is only going to get bigger. Recently, my manager asked my opinion on whether I would like to be transferred to another team within the company that is developing a product in C++. This is mainly because my current Java team simply didn't make enough money due to poor sales and the economic downturn. Now, I have never had any experience with C++ nor have I ever coded a single line of code in C++. I have always wanted to learn it and now is my chance. But I really want to make sure I get benefit out of it in the future, in the sense that I will have the skills that will still be on-demand in the future. So, what do you experts think? Is C++ still the language to learn these days to secure yourself for the future? What will I learn more in C++ but not in Java? And are they worthy to learn considering the current and possible future demands in IT industry? (Apart from the obvious more control over memory management and something along that line.) What is a good excuse to refuse the offer in order to stay with the Java team? I don't want to blatantly refuse it because you can never predict the future and I could possibly come back to my manager in the future and ask him to transfer me to the C++ team. How do I say it nicely that I am taking the offer but I would like to still be involved with Java one way or another, such as when there is a new Java project I would like to be considered. I have to admit that I am kind of 50-50 at the moment. I want to learn C++ for the sake of improving my skills and also helping my company to reduce the fund required for the Java team. But it is also hard for me to leave Java because I know Java is going to get bigger, so I am afraid of getting behind when I start concentrating on C++. I could, of course, decide to just join the C++ team, and then spend my free time reading about Java to keep in touch with it, but I thought I would ask anyway in case some people can point out the strong points of either over the other given the current and possibly future circumstances.

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• How does the Cloud compare to Colocation? And development too

  - by David

  Currently I/we run a SaaS web application where each subscriber has their own physical instance of the application in addition to their own database. The setup has each web application instance deployed on two different IIS boxes both for load-balancing and redundancy (the machines have their Windows Update install times 12 hours apart, for example). Databases are mirrored on two different SQL Server 2012 machines with AlwaysOn for uptime. I don't make use of SQL Server clustering (as it doesn't provide storage-level failover: we don't have a shared storage box). Because it's a Windows setup it means there are two Domain Controllers (we cheat: they're both Mac Minis, 17W each, which keeps our colo power costs low). Finally there's also an Exchange server (Mailbox, Hub Transport and Client Access). One of the SQL Servers also doubles-up as an Exchange Hub Transport. Running costs are about $700 a month for our quarter-rack colocation (which includes power and peering/transfer), then there's about $150 a month for SPLA licensing, so $850 a month in total. Then there's the hard-to-quantify cost of administration, but I reckon I spend a couple of hours a week checking-in on the servers: reviewing event logs, etc. I keep getting bombarded by ads and manufactured news stories about how great "the cloud" is. Back in 2008 when the cloud was taking off I was reading up about the proper "cloud" services like Google AppEngine, where you write in Python against Google's API and that's how they scale your application across servers and also use their database provider for scaling storage. Simple enough to understand. Then came along Amazon, and I understand how Amazon Storage works, but I'm not sure how Amazon Compute works: web application pages don't take much CPU time to compute, how do you even quantify usage anyway? Finally, RackSpace gets in the act and now I'm really confused. RackSpace advertise "Cloud" SQL Server 2012 available for about "$0.70 per hour", going by how they advertise it I thought the "hour" meant the sum of CPU time, IO blocking time, maybe time spent transferring data, so for a low-intensity application that works out pretty cheap then? Nope. I went on to a Sales Chat window and spoke to one of their advisors. They told me the $0.70/hour was actually for every hour the SQL Server is running... but who wants a SQL Server for only a few hours? You're going to need it available 24 hours a day for months on end. $0.70 * 24 * 31 works out at $520 a month, which is rediculously expensive for SQL Server. An SPLA license for SQL Server is only $50 a month or so. That $520 a month does not include "fanatical support", and you also need to stack on top the costs of the host Windows server instance too. From what I can tell, Rackspace's "Cloud" products seem like like an cynical rebranding of an overpriced VPS service, but priced by the hour. I have the same confusion about Windows Azure which uses similar terms to describe the products available, but I think that's because Azure offers both traditional shared webhosting in addition to their own APIs you can target for scalable applications.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, February 25, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Thursday, February 25, 2010New ProjectsAptusSoftware.Threading: AptusSoftware.Threading is a class library designed primarily to assist in the development of multi-threaded WinForm applications, although there i...AxiomGameDesigner: It is going to be a universal scene editor for Axiom 3D game engine. It is in pure C# and will be kept portable to MONO for compatibility with linu...Badger - Unity Productivity Extensions: A set of Microsoft Unity Extensions. Why Badger? Because I love badgers.Business & System Analysis Templates and Best Practices for Russian: http://saway.codeplex.com/Conectayas: Conectayas is an open source "Connect Four" alike game but transformable to "Tic-Tac-Toe" and to a lot of similar games that uses mouse. Written in...FastCode: .NET 3.5 Extensions set to increase coding speed.Hundiyas: Hundiyas is an open source "Battleship" alike game totally written in DHTML (JavaScript, CSS and HTML) that uses mouse. This cross-platform and cro...Icelandic Online Banking: Icelandic Online Banking is project defining a web service interface for online banking.IE8 AddOns XML Creator: Application that helps on creating the xml files for IE8 Accelerators, Search Providers and the markup for Web Slices.iKnowledge: a asp.net mvc demoLearn ASP.NET MVC: Learn ASP.NET MVC is a project for the members of the Peer Learning group in Silicon Valley. It contains the SportsStore solution from the Pro ASP...Live at Education Meta Web-Service: Live at Education Meta Web-Service is intended to abstract from several technologies that are included in Live@edu set of services. This web-ser...Low level wave sound output for VB.NET: Low level sound output class for VB.NET using platform invocation services to call winmm.dllMailQ: MailQ makes it easier for developers to send mail messages from an application. The system sends mails based on a database queue system (store, se...Managed DXGI: Managed DXGI library is Fully managed wrapper writen on C# for DXGI 1.0 and 1.1 technology. It makes easier to support DXGI in managed application....Multivalue AutoComplete WinForms TextBox in C#: This project is a sample application that demonstrates how to create a multivalue WinForms textbox in C# using .NET Framework 3.5.Nifty CSharp Tools: Nifty CSharp Tools, will contain various tools and snippets. IRCBot, splashscreens, linq, world of warcraft log parsing, screenshot uploaders, twi...PHP MPQ: A port of StormLib to PHP for handling Blizzard MPQ files.RedDevils strategy - Project Hoshimi Programming Battle: Source Code of RedDevils strategy. Imagine Cup 2008 - Project Hoshimi Programming Battle.RNUNIT: rNunit is a distributed Nunit project. Many application these days are client-server application, distributed application and regular unit testing ...Samar Solution: Samar Solutions is a business system for office automation.Silverlight OOMRPG Game Engine: Silverlight OOMRPG Game EngineSimulator: GPSSimulatorSLARToolkit - Silverlight Augmented Reality Toolkit: SLARToolkit is a flexible Augmented Reality library for Silverlight with the aim to make real time Augmented Reality applications with Silverlight ...Spiral Architecture Driven Development (SADD) for Russian: Это русская версия сайта sadd.codeplex.comSQLSnapshotManager: Easily manage SQL Server database snapshots in a easy to use visual interface.Twilio with VB.NET MVC: Twilio with VB.NET MVC is a sample application for developing with Twilio's REST based telephony API. It includes an XML Schema of the TwiML respon...Ultra Speed Dial: UltraSpeedDial.com - Online Speed Dial Page.Visual HTML Editor justHTML: justHTML - is simle windows-application WYSIWYG editor that allow everyone - without any knowledge of HTML - to create and edit web-pages. It supp...WinMTR.NET: .NET Clone of the popular Windows clone of the popular Linux Matt's TracerouteWPF Dialogs: "WPF Dialogs" is a library for different Dialogs in WPF (e.g. FolderBrowseDialog, SaveFileDialog, OpenFileDialog etc.). These Dialogs are written i...WPFLogin: A small Login window in WPF and C#XNA PerformanceTimers: CPU Timers for Windows and Xbox360. Can track multiple threads, and presents output as a log on-screen.New ReleasesAptusSoftware.Threading: 2.0.0: First public release. This release is in production as part of several commercial applications and is stable. The source code download includes a...BizTalk Software Factory: BizTalk Software Factory v2.1: This is a service release for the BizTalk Software Factory for BizTalk Server 2009, containing so far: Fix for x64: the SN.EXE tool is now locate...Business & System Analysis Templates and Best Practices for Russian: R00 The Place reserver: Just to reserve the place Will be filled out soonChronos WPF: Chronos v1.0 Beta 2: Added a new SplashScreen Added a new Login View and implemented Log Off Added a new PasswordBoxHelper (http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/371...dotNetTips: dotNetTips.Utility 3.5 R2: This is a new release (version 3.5.0.3) compatible with .NET 3.5. Lots of new classes/features!! Requires SP1 if using the Entity Framework extensi...fleXdoc: template-based server-side document generator (docx): fleXdoc 1.0 beta 3: The third and final beta of fleXdoc. fleXdoc consists of a webservice and a (test)client for the service. 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(ORM). CTP 2Common Context Adapters

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• Reporting Services - It's a Wrap!

  - by smisner

  If you have any experience at all with Reporting Services, you have probably developed a report using the matrix data region. It's handy when you want to generate columns dynamically based on data. If users view a matrix report online, they can scroll horizontally to view all columns and all is well. But if they want to print the report, the experience is completely different and you'll have to decide how you want to handle dynamic columns. By default, when a user prints a matrix report for which the number of columns exceeds the width of the page, Reporting Services determines how many columns can fit on the page and renders one or more separate pages for the additional columns. In this post, I'll explain two techniques for managing dynamic columns. First, I'll show how to use the RepeatRowHeaders property to make it easier to read a report when columns span multiple pages, and then I'll show you how to "wrap" columns so that you can avoid the horizontal page break. Included with this post are the sample RDLs for download. First, let's look at the default behavior of a matrix. A matrix that has too many columns for one printed page (or output to page-based renderer like PDF or Word) will be rendered such that the first page with the row group headers and the inital set of columns, as shown in Figure 1. The second page continues by rendering the next set of columns that can fit on the page, as shown in Figure 2.This pattern continues until all columns are rendered. The problem with the default behavior is that you've lost the context of employee and sales order - the row headers - on the second page. That makes it hard for users to read this report because the layout requires them to flip back and forth between the current page and the first page of the report. You can fix this behavior by finding the RepeatRowHeaders of the tablix report item and changing its value to True. The second (and subsequent pages) of the matrix now look like the image shown in Figure 3. The problem with this approach is that the number of printed pages to flip through is unpredictable when you have a large number of potential columns. What if you want to include all columns on the same page? You can take advantage of the repeating behavior of a tablix and get repeating columns by embedding one tablix inside of another. For this example, I'm using SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services. You can get similar results with SQL Server 2008. (In fact, you could probably do something similar in SQL Server 2005, but I haven't tested it. The steps would be slightly different because you would be working with the old-style matrix as compared to the new-style tablix discussed in this post.) I created a dataset that queries AdventureWorksDW2008 tables: SELECT TOP (100) e.LastName + ', ' + e.FirstName AS EmployeeName, d.FullDateAlternateKey, f.SalesOrderNumber, p.EnglishProductName, sum(SalesAmount) as SalesAmount FROM FactResellerSales AS f INNER JOIN DimProduct AS p ON p.ProductKey = f.ProductKey INNER JOIN DimDate AS d ON d.DateKey = f.OrderDateKey INNER JOIN DimEmployee AS e ON e.EmployeeKey = f.EmployeeKey GROUP BY p.EnglishProductName, d.FullDateAlternateKey, e.LastName + ', ' + e.FirstName, f.SalesOrderNumber ORDER BY EmployeeName, f.SalesOrderNumber, p.EnglishProductName To start the report: Add a matrix to the report body and drag Employee Name to the row header, which also creates a group. Next drag SalesOrderNumber below Employee Name in the Row Groups panel, which creates a second group and a second column in the row header section of the matrix, as shown in Figure 4. Now for some trickiness. Add another column to the row headers. This new column will be associated with the existing EmployeeName group rather than causing BIDS to create a new group. To do this, right-click on the EmployeeName textbox in the bottom row, point to Insert Column, and then click Inside Group-Right. Then add the SalesOrderNumber field to this new column. By doing this, you're creating a report that repeats a set of columns for each EmployeeName/SalesOrderNumber combination that appears in the data. Next, modify the first row group's expression to group on both EmployeeName and SalesOrderNumber. In the Row Groups section, right-click EmployeeName, click Group Properties, click the Add button, and select [SalesOrderNumber]. Now you need to configure the columns to repeat. Rather than use the Columns group of the matrix like you might expect, you're going to use the textbox that belongs to the second group of the tablix as a location for embedding other report items. First, clear out the text that's currently in the third column - SalesOrderNumber - because it's already added as a separate textbox in this report design. Then drag and drop a matrix into that textbox, as shown in Figure 5. Again, you need to do some tricks here to get the appearance and behavior right. We don't really want repeating rows in the embedded matrix, so follow these steps: Click on the Rows label which then displays RowGroup in the Row Groups pane below the report body. Right-click on RowGroup,click Delete Group, and select the option to delete associated rows and columns. As a result, you get a modified matrix which has only a ColumnGroup in it, with a row above a double-dashed line for the column group and a row below the line for the aggregated data. Let's continue: Drag EnglishProductName to the data textbox (below the line). Add a second data row by right-clicking EnglishProductName, pointing to Insert Row, and clicking Below. Add the SalesAmount field to the new data textbox. Now eliminate the column group row without eliminating the group. To do this, right-click the row above the double-dashed line, click Delete Rows, and then select Delete Rows Only in the message box. Now you're ready for the fit and finish phase: Resize the column containing the embedded matrix so that it fits completely. Also, the final column in the matrix is for the column group. You can't delete this column, but you can make it as small as possible. Just click on the matrix to display the row and column handles, and then drag the right edge of the rightmost column to the left to make the column virtually disappear. Next, configure the groups so that the columns of the embedded matrix will wrap. In the Column Groups pane, right-click ColumnGroup1 and click on the expression button (labeled fx) to the right of Group On [EnglishProductName]. Replace the expression with the following: =RowNumber("SalesOrderNumber" ). We use SalesOrderNumber here because that is the name of the group that "contains" the embedded matrix. The next step is to configure the number of columns to display before wrapping. Click any cell in the matrix that is not inside the embedded matrix, and then double-click the second group in the Row Groups pane - SalesOrderNumber. Change the group expression to the following expression: =Ceiling(RowNumber("EmployeeName")/3) The last step is to apply formatting. In my example, I set the SalesAmount textbox's Format property to C2 and also right-aligned the text in both the EnglishProductName and the SalesAmount textboxes. And voila - Figure 6 shows a matrix report with wrapping columns. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• Visual Studio 2010 Extension Manager (and the new VS 2010 PowerCommands Extension)

  - by ScottGu

  This is the twenty-third in a series of blog posts I’m doing on the VS 2010 and .NET 4 release. Today’s blog post covers some of the extensibility improvements made in VS 2010 – as well as a cool new "PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010” extension that Microsoft just released (and which can be downloaded and used for free). [In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu] Extensibility in VS 2010 VS 2010 provides a much richer extensibility model than previous releases.  Anyone can build extensions that add, customize, and light-up the Visual Studio 2010 IDE, Code Editors, Project System and associated Designers. VS 2010 Extensions can be created using the new MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework) which is built-into .NET 4.  You can learn more about how to create VS 2010 extensions from this this blog post from the Visual Studio Team Blog. VS 2010 Extension Manager Developers building extensions can distribute them on their own (via their own web-sites or by selling them).  Visual Studio 2010 also now includes a built-in “Extension Manager” within the IDE that makes it much easier for developers to find, download, and enable extensions online.  You can launch the “Extension Manager” by selecting the Tools->Extension Manager menu option: This loads an “Extension Manager” dialog which accesses an “online gallery” at Microsoft, and then populates a list of available extensions that you can optionally download and enable within your copy of Visual Studio: There are already hundreds of cool extensions populated within the online gallery.  You can browse them by category (use the tree-view on the top-left to filter them).  Clicking “download” on any of the extensions will download, install, and enable it. PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010 This weekend Microsoft released the free PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010 extension to the online gallery.  You can learn more about it here, and download and install it via the “Extension Manager” above (search for PowerCommands to find it). The PowerCommands download adds dozens of useful commands to Visual Studio 2010.  Below is a screen-shot of just a few of the useful commands that it adds to the Solution Explorer context menus: Below is a list of all the commands included with this weekend’s PowerCommands for Visual Studio 2010 release: Enable/Disable PowerCommands in Options dialog This feature allows you to select which commands to enable in the Visual Studio IDE. Point to the Tools menu, then click Options. Expand the PowerCommands options, then click Commands. Check the commands you would like to enable. Note: All power commands are initially defaulted Enabled. Format document on save / Remove and Sort Usings on save The Format document on save option formats the tabs, spaces, and so on of the document being saved. It is equivalent to pointing to the Edit menu, clicking Advanced, and then clicking Format Document. The Remove and sort usings option removes unused using statements and sorts the remaining using statements in the document being saved. Note: The Remove and sort usings option is only available for C# documents. Format document on save and Remove and sort usings both are initially defaulted OFF. Clear All Panes This command clears all output panes. It can be executed from the button on the toolbar of the Output window. Copy Path This command copies the full path of the currently selected item to the clipboard. It can be executed by right-clicking one of these nodes in the Solution Explorer: The solution node; A project node; Any project item node; Any folder. Email CodeSnippet To email the lines of text you select in the code editor, right-click anywhere in the editor and then click Email CodeSnippet. Insert Guid Attribute This command adds a Guid attribute to a selected class. From the code editor, right-click anywhere within the class definition, then click Insert Guid Attribute. Show All Files This command shows the hidden files in all projects displayed in the Solution Explorer when the solution node is selected. It enhances the Show All Files button, which normally shows only the hidden files in the selected project node. Undo Close This command reopens a closed document , returning the cursor to its last position. To reopen the most recently closed document, point to the Edit menu, then click Undo Close. Alternately, you can use the CtrlShiftZ shortcut. To reopen any other recently closed document, point to the View menu, click Other Windows, and then click Undo Close Window. The Undo Close window appears, typically next to the Output window. Double-click any document in the list to reopen it. Collapse Projects This command collapses a project or projects in the Solution Explorer starting from the root selected node. Collapsing a project can increase the readability of the solution. This command can be executed from three different places: solution, solution folders and project nodes respectively. Copy Class This command copies a selected class entire content to the clipboard, renaming the class. This command is normally followed by a Paste Class command, which renames the class to avoid a compilation error. It can be executed from a single project item or a project item with dependent sub items. Paste Class This command pastes a class entire content from the clipboard, renaming the class to avoid a compilation error. This command is normally preceded by a Copy Class command. It can be executed from a project or folder node. Copy References This command copies a reference or set of references to the clipboard. It can be executed from the references node, a single reference node or set of reference nodes. Paste References This command pastes a reference or set of references from the clipboard. It can be executed from different places depending on the type of project. For CSharp projects it can be executed from the references node. For Visual Basic and Website projects it can be executed from the project node. Copy As Project Reference This command copies a project as a project reference to the clipboard. It can be executed from a project node. Edit Project File This command opens the MSBuild project file for a selected project inside Visual Studio. It combines the existing Unload Project and Edit Project commands. Open Containing Folder This command opens a Windows Explorer window pointing to the physical path of a selected item. It can be executed from a project item node Open Command Prompt This command opens a Visual Studio command prompt pointing to the physical path of a selected item. It can be executed from four different places: solution, project, folder and project item nodes respectively. Unload Projects This command unloads all projects in a solution. This can be useful in MSBuild scenarios when multiple projects are being edited. This command can be executed from the solution node. Reload Projects This command reloads all unloaded projects in a solution. It can be executed from the solution node. Remove and Sort Usings This command removes and sort using statements for all classes given a project. It is useful, for example, in removing or organizing the using statements generated by a wizard. This command can be executed from a solution node or a single project node. Extract Constant This command creates a constant definition statement for a selected text. Extracting a constant effectively names a literal value, which can improve readability. This command can be executed from the code editor by right-clicking selected text. Clear Recent File List This command clears the Visual Studio recent file list. The Clear Recent File List command brings up a Clear File dialog which allows any or all recent files to be selected. Clear Recent Project List This command clears the Visual Studio recent project list. The Clear Recent Project List command brings up a Clear File dialog which allows any or all recent projects to be selected. Transform Templates This command executes a custom tool with associated text templates items. It can be executed from a DSL project node or a DSL folder node. Close All This command closes all documents. It can be executed from a document tab. How to temporarily disable extensions Extensions provide a great way to make Visual Studio even more powerful, and can help improve your overall productivity.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that extensions run within the Visual Studio process (DevEnv.exe) and so a bug within an extension can impact both the stability and performance of Visual Studio.  If you ever run into a situation where things seem slower than they should, or if you crash repeatedly, please temporarily disable any installed extensions and see if that fixes the problem.  You can do this for extensions that were installed via the online gallery by re-running the extension manager (using the Tools->Extension Manager menu option) and by selecting the “Installed Extensions” node on the top-left of the dialog – and then by clicking “Disable” on any of the extensions within your installed list: Hope this helps, Scott

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• Bye Bye Year of the Dragon, Hello BPM

  - by Ajay Khanna

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} As 2012 fades and we usher in a New Year, let’s look back at some of the hottest BPM trends and those we’ll be seeing more of in the coming months. BPM is as much about people as it is about technology. As people adopt new ways of engagement, new channels of communications and new devices to interact , the changes are reflected in BPM practices. As Social and Mobile have become an integral part of our personal and professional lives, we’ll see tighter integration of social and mobile with BPM, and more use cases emerging for smarter process management in 2013. And with products and services becoming less differentiated, organizations will strive to differentiate on Customer Experience. Concepts like Pace Layered Architecture and Dynamic Case Management will provide more flexibility and agility to IT groups and knowledge workers. Take a look at some of these capabilities we showcased (see video) at Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Some of these trends that will continue to gain momentum in 2013: Social networks and social media have provided a new way for businesses to engage with customers. A prospect is likely to reach out to their social network before making any purchase. Companies are increasingly engaging with customers in social networks to influence their purchasing decisions, as well as listening to customers via tools like sentiment analysis to see what customers think about a particular product or process. These insights are valuable as companies look to improve their processes. Inside organizations, workers are using social tools to engage with each other to design new products and processes. Social collaboration tools are being used to resolve issues where an employee needs consultation to reach a decision. Oracle BPM Suite includes social interaction as an integral part of its process design and work management to empower today’s business users. Ubiquitous smart mobile devices are trending as a tool of choice for many workers. Many companies are adopting the policy of “Bring Your Own Device,” and the device of choice is a tablet. Devices like smart phones and tablets not only provide mobility to workers and customers, but they also provide additional important information – the context. By integrating the mobile context (location, photos, and preferences) into your processes, organizations can make much more informed decisions, as well as offer more personalized service to customers. Using Oracle ADF Mobile, you can easily create user interfaces for mobile devices and also capture location data for process execution. Customer experience was at the forefront of trending topics in 2012. Organizations are trying to understand their customers better and offer them more personalized and differentiated services. Customer experience is paramount when companies design sales and support processes. Companies are looking to BPM to consistently and efficiently orchestrate customer facing processes across disparate systems, departments and channels of communication. Oracle BPM Suite provides just the right capabilities for organizations to design and deliver an excellent customer experience. Pace Layered Architecture strategy is gaining traction as a way to maximize agility and minimize disruption in organizations. It provides a framework to manage the evolution of your information system when different pieces of it are changing at different rates and need to be updated independent of one another. Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle BPM Suite are designed with this in mind. The database layer, integration layer, application layer, and process layer should not be required to change at the same time. Most of the business changes to policy or process can be done at the process layer without disrupting the whole infrastructure. By understanding the type of change needed at a particular level, organizations can become much more agile and efficient. Adaptive Case Management proposes more flexibility to manage processes or cases that do not follow a structured process flow. In such situations, the knowledge worker managing the case needs to evaluate what step should occur next because the sequence of steps can’t be predetermined. Another characteristic is that it requires much more collaboration than straight-through process. As simple processes become automated, and customers adopt more and more self-service, cases that reach the case workers are much more complex and need more investigation. Oracle BPM suite includes comprehensive adaptive case management capability to manage such unstructured and complex processes. Smart BPM or making your BPM intelligent has been the holy grail for BPM practitioners who imagined that one day BPM would become one with Business Intelligence, Business Activity Monitoring and Complex Event Processing, making it much more responsive and helpful in organizational decision making. In 2013, organizations will begin to deploy these intelligent BPM solutions. Oracle offers an integrated solution that brings together the powerful functionality of BI, BAM, event processing, and Real Time Decisions to help organizations create smart process based solutions. In order to help customers reach their BPM goals faster and remove risks associated with BPM initiatives, Oracle has introduced Oracle Process Accelerators, pre-built best practices applications built on Oracle BPM Suite that are fully production grade and ready to deploy. These are exiting times for BPM practitioners and there is so much to look forward to in 2013. We wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year 2013. Happy BPMing!

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• Oracle OpenWorld Preview: Oracle WebCenter Sessions You Won’t Want to Miss

  - by Christie Flanagan

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} The beginning of Oracle OpenWorld is only a few short days away. This week on the WebCenter blog, we’ll focus in on the sessions you definitely don’t want to miss while you’re in San Francisco next week.  Monday, October 1 will be a day focused on strategy.  Here are the sessions you want to add to your calendar: CON8268 - Oracle WebCenter Strategy: Engaging Your Customers. Empowering Your Business Monday, Oct 1, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM - Moscone West – 3001 Start things off with Oracle WebCenter’s Christian Finn, Senior Director of Evangelism and Roel Stalman, VP of Product Management to learn more about the Oracle WebCenter strategy, and to understand where Oracle is taking the platform to help companies engage, customers, empower employees, and enable partners. This session will also feature Richard Backx, Business IT Architect/Consultant, for the Dutch telecom, KPN. Richard has played a key role in the roll-out of WebCenter products for KPN’s multibrand portals with a specific focus on creating the best customer journey platform for all the company’s digital channels. Business success starts with ensuring that everyone is engaged with the right people and the right information and can access what they need through the channel of their choice—web, mobile, or social. Are you giving customers, employees, and partners the best-possible experience? Come learn how you can! Dig deeper into WebCenter’s strategy for its ECM, portal, web experience management and social collaboration in the following sessions: CON8270 - Oracle WebCenter Content Strategy and Vision Monday, Oct 1, 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM - Moscone West – 3001 Oracle WebCenter Content provides a strategic content infrastructure for managing documents, images, e-mails, and rich media files. With a single repository, organizations can address any content use case, such as accounts payable, HR onboarding, document management, compliance, records management, digital asset management, or Website management. In this session, learn about future plans for how Oracle WebCenter will address new use cases as well as new integrations with Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications, leveraging your investments by making your users more productive and error-free. CON8269 - Oracle WebCenter Sites Strategy and Vision Monday, Oct 1, 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM - Moscone West - 3009 Oracle’s Web experience management solution, Oracle WebCenter Sites, enables organizations to use the online channel to drive customer acquisition and brand loyalty. It helps marketers and business users easily create and manage contextually relevant, social, interactive online experiences across multiple channels on a global scale. In this session, learn about future plans for how Oracle WebCenter Sites will provide you with the tools, capabilities, and integrations you need in order to continue to address your customers’ evolving requirements for engaging online experiences and keep moving your business forward. CON8271 - Oracle WebCenter Portal Strategy and Vision Monday, Oct 1, 3:15 PM - 4:15 PM - Moscone West - 3001 To innovate and keep a competitive edge, organizations need to leverage the power of agile and responsive Web applications. Oracle WebCenter Portal enables you to do just that, by delivering intuitive user experiences for enterprise applications to drive innovation with composite applications and mashups. Attend this session to learn firsthand from Oracle WebCenter Portal customers like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, extend the value of existing enterprise applications, business processes, and content; delivers a superior business user experience; and maximizes limited IT resources. CON8272 - Oracle Social Network Strategy and Vision Monday, Oct 1, 4:45 PM - 5:45 PM - Moscone West - 3001 One key way of increasing employee productivity is by bringing people, processes, and information together—providing new social capabilities to enable business users to quickly correspond and collaborate on business activities. Oracle WebCenter provides a user engagement platform with social and collaborative technologies to empower business users to focus on their key business processes, applications, and content in the context of their role and process. Attend this session to hear how the latest social capabilities in Oracle Social Network are enabling organizations to transform themselves into social businesses.Attention WebCenter Customers: Last Day to RSVP for WebCenter Customer Appreciation Reception Oracle WebCenter partners Fishbowl Solutions, Fujitsu, Keste, Mythics, Redstone Content Solutions, TEAM Informatics, and TekStream invite Oracle WebCenter customers to a private cocktail reception at one of San Francisco's finest hotels. Please join us and fellow Oracle WebCenter customers for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails at this exclusive reception. Don't miss this opportunity to meet and talk with executives from Oracle WebCenter product management and product marketing, and premier Oracle WebCenter partners. We look forward to seeing you! RSVP today.

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• Refreshing Your PC Won’t Help: Why Bloatware is Still a Problem on Windows 8

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Bloatware is still a big problem on new Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs. Some websites will tell you that you can easily get rid of manufacturer-installed bloatware with Windows 8′s Reset feature, but they’re generally wrong. This junk software often turns the process of powering on your new PC from what could be a delightful experience into a tedious slog, forcing you to spend hours cleaning up your new PC before you can enjoy it. Why Refreshing Your PC (Probably) Won’t Help Manufacturers install software along with Windows on their new PCs. In addition to hardware drivers that allow the PC’s hardware to work properly, they install more questionable things like trial antivirus software and other nagware. Much of this software runs at boot, cluttering the system tray and slowing down boot times, often dramatically. Software companies pay computer manufacturers to include this stuff. It’s installed to make the PC manufacturer money at the cost of making the Windows computer worse for actual users. Windows 8 includes “Refresh Your PC” and “Reset Your PC” features that allow Windows users to quickly get their computers back to a fresh state. It’s essentially a quick, streamlined way of reinstalling Windows.  If you install Windows 8 or 8.1 yourself, the Refresh operation will give your PC a clean Windows system without any additional third-party software. However, Microsoft allows computer manufacturers to customize their Refresh images. In other words, most computer manufacturers will build their drivers, bloatware, and other system customizations into the Refresh image. When you Refresh your computer, you’ll just get back to the factory-provided system complete with bloatware. It’s possible that some computer manufacturers aren’t building bloatware into their refresh images in this way. It’s also possible that, when Windows 8 came out, some computer manufacturer didn’t realize they could do this and that refreshing a new PC would strip the bloatware. However, on most Windows 8 and 8.1 PCs, you’ll probably see bloatware come back when you refresh your PC. It’s easy to understand how PC manufacturers do this. You can create your own Refresh images on Windows 8 and 8.1 with just a simple command, replacing Microsoft’s image with a customized one. Manufacturers can install their own refresh images in the same way. Microsoft doesn’t lock down the Refresh feature. Desktop Bloatware is Still Around, Even on Tablets! Not only is typical Windows desktop bloatware not gone, it has tagged along with Windows as it moves to new form factors. Every Windows tablet currently on the market — aside from Microsoft’s own Surface and Surface 2 tablets — runs on a standard Intel x86 chip. This means that every Windows 8 and 8.1 tablet you see in stores has a full desktop with the capability to run desktop software. Even if that tablet doesn’t come with a keyboard, it’s likely that the manufacturer has preinstalled bloatware on the tablet’s desktop. Yes, that means that your Windows tablet will be slower to boot and have less memory because junk and nagging software will be on its desktop and in its system tray. Microsoft considers tablets to be PCs, and PC manufacturers love installing their bloatware. If you pick up a Windows tablet, don’t be surprised if you have to deal with desktop bloatware on it. Microsoft Surfaces and Signature PCs Microsoft is now selling their own Surface PCs that they built themselves — they’re now a “devices and services” company after all, not a software company. One of the nice things about Microsoft’s Surface PCs is that they’re free of the typical bloatware. Microsoft won’t take money from Norton to include nagging software that worsens the experience. If you pick up a Surface device that provides Windows 8.1 and 8 as Microsoft intended it — or install a fresh Windows 8.1 or 8 system — you won’t see any bloatware. Microsoft is also continuing their Signature program. New PCs purchased from Microsoft’s official stores are considered “Signature PCs” and don’t have the typical bloatware. For example, the same laptop could be full of bloatware in a traditional computer store and clean, without the nasty bloatware when purchased from a Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also continue to charge you $99 if you want them to remove your computer’s bloatware for you — that’s the more questionable part of the Signature program. Windows 8 App Bloatware is an Improvement There’s a new type of bloatware on new Windows 8 systems, which is thankfully less harmful. This is bloatware in the form of included “Windows 8-style”, “Store-style”, or “Modern” apps in the new, tiled interface. For example, Amazon may pay a computer manufacturer to include the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store. (The manufacturer may also just receive a cut of book sales for including it. We’re not sure how the revenue sharing works — but it’s clear PC manufacturers are getting money from Amazon.) The manufacturer will then install the Amazon Kindle app from the Windows Store by default. This included software is technically some amount of clutter, but it doesn’t cause the problems older types of bloatware does. It won’t automatically load and delay your computer’s startup process, clutter your system tray, or take up memory while you’re using your computer. For this reason, a shift to including new-style apps as bloatware is a definite improvement over older styles of bloatware. Unfortunately, this type of bloatware has not replaced traditional desktop bloatware, and new Windows PCs will generally have both. Windows RT is Immune to Typical Bloatware, But… Microsoft’s Windows RT can’t run Microsoft desktop software, so it’s immune to traditional bloatware. Just as you can’t install your own desktop programs on it, the Windows RT device’s manufacturer can’t install their own desktop bloatware. While Windows RT could be an antidote to bloatware, this advantage comes at the cost of being able to install any type of desktop software at all. Windows RT has also seemingly failed — while a variety of manufacturers came out with their own Windows RT devices when Windows 8 was first released, they’ve all since been withdrawn from the market. Manufacturers who created Windows RT devices have criticized it in the media and stated they have no plans to produce any future Windows RT devices. The only Windows RT devices still on the market are Microsoft’s Surface (originally named Surface RT) and Surface 2. Nokia is also coming out with their own Windows RT tablet, but they’re in the process of being purchased by Microsoft. In other words, Windows RT just isn’t a factor when it comes to bloatware — you wouldn’t get a Windows RT device unless you purchased a Surface, but those wouldn’t come with bloatware anyway. Removing Bloatware or Reinstalling Windows 8.1 While bloatware is still a problem on new Windows systems and the Refresh option probably won’t help you, you can still eliminate bloatware in the traditional way. Bloatware can be uninstalled from the Windows Control Panel or with a dedicated removal tool like PC Decrapifier, which tries to automatically uninstall the junk for you. You can also do what Windows geeks have always tended to do with new computers — reinstall Windows 8 or 8.1 from scratch with installation media from Microsoft. You’ll get a clean Windows system and you can install only the hardware drivers and other software you need. Unfortunately, bloatware is still a big problem for Windows PCs. Windows 8 tries to do some things to address bloatware, but it ultimately comes up short. Most Windows PCs sold in most stores to most people will still have the typical bloatware slowing down the boot process, wasting memory, and adding clutter. Image Credit: LG on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Wilson Hui on Flickr, Intel Free Press on Flickr, Vernon Chan on Flickr     

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• Big Data – Is Big Data Relevant to me? – Big Data Questionnaires – Guest Post by Vinod Kumar

  - by Pinal Dave

  This guest post is by Vinod Kumar. Vinod Kumar has worked with SQL Server extensively since joining the industry over a decade ago. Working on various versions of SQL Server 7.0, Oracle 7.3 and other database technologies – he now works with the Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) as a Technology Architect. Let us read the blog post in Vinod’s own voice. I think the series from Pinal is a good one for anyone planning to start on Big Data journey from the basics. In my daily customer interactions this buzz of “Big Data” always comes up, I react generally saying – “Sir, do you really have a ‘Big Data’ problem or do you have a big Data problem?” Generally, there is a silence in the air when I ask this question. Data is everywhere in organizations – be it big data, small data, all data and for few it is bad data which is same as no data :). Wow, don’t discount me as someone who opposes “Big Data”, I am a big supporter as much as I am a critic of the abuse of this term by the people. In this post, I wanted to let my mind flow so that you can also think in the direction I want you to see these concepts. In any case, this is not an exhaustive dump of what is in my mind – but you will surely get the drift how I am going to question Big Data terms from customers!!! Is Big Data Relevant to me? Many of my customers talk to me like blank whiteboard with no idea – “why Big Data”. They want to jump into the bandwagon of technology and they want to decipher insights from their unexplored data a.k.a. unstructured data with structured data. So what are these industry scenario’s that come to mind? Here are some of them: Financials Fraud detection: Banks and Credit cards are monitoring your spending habits on real-time basis. Customer Segmentation: applies in every industry from Banking to Retail to Aviation to Utility and others where they deal with end customer who consume their products and services. Customer Sentiment Analysis: Responding to negative brand perception on social or amplify the positive perception. Sales and Marketing Campaign: Understand the impact and get closer to customer delight. Call Center Analysis: attempt to take unstructured voice recordings and analyze them for content and sentiment. Medical Reduce Re-admissions: How to build a proactive follow-up engagements with patients. Patient Monitoring: How to track Inpatient, Out-Patient, Emergency Visits, Intensive Care Units etc. Preventive Care: Disease identification and Risk stratification is a very crucial business function for medical. Claims fraud detection: There is no precise dollars that one can put here, but this is a big thing for the medical field. Retail Customer Sentiment Analysis, Customer Care Centers, Campaign Management. Supply Chain Analysis: Every sensors and RFID data can be tracked for warehouse space optimization. Location based marketing: Based on where a check-in happens retail stores can be optimize their marketing. Telecom Price optimization and Plans, Finding Customer churn, Customer loyalty programs Call Detail Record (CDR) Analysis, Network optimizations, User Location analysis Customer Behavior Analysis Insurance Fraud Detection & Analysis, Pricing based on customer Sentiment Analysis, Loyalty Management Agents Analysis, Customer Value Management This list can go on to other areas like Utility, Manufacturing, Travel, ITES etc. So as you can see, there are obviously interesting use cases for each of these industry verticals. These are just representative list. Where to start? A lot of times I try to quiz customers on a number of dimensions before starting a Big Data conversation. Are you getting the data you need the way you want it and in a timely manner? Can you get in and analyze the data you need? How quickly is IT to respond to your BI Requests? How easily can you get at the data that you need to run your business/department/project? How are you currently measuring your business? Can you get the data you need to react WITHIN THE QUARTER to impact behaviors to meet your numbers or is it always “rear-view mirror?” How are you measuring: The Brand Customer Sentiment Your Competition Your Pricing Your performance Supply Chain Efficiencies Predictive product / service positioning What are your key challenges of driving collaboration across your global business?  What the challenges in innovation? What challenges are you facing in getting more information out of your data? Note: Garbage-in is Garbage-out. Hold good for all reporting / analytics requirements Big Data POCs? A number of customers get into the realm of setting a small team to work on Big Data – well it is a great start from an understanding point of view, but I tend to ask a number of other questions to such customers. Some of these common questions are: To what degree is your advanced analytics (natural language processing, sentiment analysis, predictive analytics and classification) paired with your Big Data’s efforts? Do you have dedicated resources exploring the possibilities of advanced analytics in Big Data for your business line? Do you plan to employ machine learning technology while doing Advanced Analytics? How is Social Media being monitored in your organization? What is your ability to scale in terms of storage and processing power? Do you have a system in place to sort incoming data in near real time by potential value, data quality, and use frequency? Do you use event-driven architecture to manage incoming data? Do you have specialized data services that can accommodate different formats, security, and the management requirements of multiple data sources? Is your organization currently using or considering in-memory analytics? To what degree are you able to correlate data from your Big Data infrastructure with that from your enterprise data warehouse? Have you extended the role of Data Stewards to include ownership of big data components? Do you prioritize data quality based on the source system (that is Facebook/Twitter data has lower quality thresholds than radio frequency identification (RFID) for a tracking system)? Do your retention policies consider the different legal responsibilities for storing Big Data for a specific amount of time? Do Data Scientists work in close collaboration with Data Stewards to ensure data quality? How is access to attributes of Big Data being given out in the organization? Are roles related to Big Data (Advanced Analyst, Data Scientist) clearly defined? How involved is risk management in the Big Data governance process? Is there a set of documented policies regarding Big Data governance? Is there an enforcement mechanism or approach to ensure that policies are followed? Who is the key sponsor for your Big Data governance program? (The CIO is best) Do you have defined policies surrounding the use of social media data for potential employees and customers, as well as the use of customer Geo-location data? How accessible are complex analytic routines to your user base? What is the level of involvement with outside vendors and third parties in regard to the planning and execution of Big Data projects? What programming technologies are utilized by your data warehouse/BI staff when working with Big Data? These are some of the important questions I ask each customer who is actively evaluating Big Data trends for their organizations. These questions give you a sense of direction where to start, what to use, how to secure, how to analyze and more. Sign off Any Big data is analysis is incomplete without a compelling story. The best way to understand this is to watch Hans Rosling – Gapminder (2:17 to 6:06) videos about the third world myths. Don’t get overwhelmed with the Big Data buzz word, the destination to what your data speaks is important. In this blog post, we did not particularly look at any Big Data technologies. This is a set of questionnaire one needs to keep in mind as they embark their journey of Big Data. I did write some of the basics in my blog: Big Data – Big Hype yet Big Opportunity. Do let me know if these questions make sense?  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• Base de Datos Oracle, su mejor opción para reducir costos de IT

  - by Ivan Hassig

  Por Victoria Cadavid Sr. Sales Cosultant Oracle Direct Uno de los principales desafíos en la administración de centros de datos es la reducción de costos de operación. A medida que las compañías crecen y los proveedores de tecnología ofrecen soluciones cada vez más robustas, conservar el equilibrio entre desempeño, soporte al negocio y gestión del Costo Total de Propiedad es un desafío cada vez mayor para los Gerentes de Tecnología y para los Administradores de Centros de Datos. Las estrategias más comunes para conseguir reducción en los costos de administración de Centros de Datos y en la gestión de Tecnología de una organización en general, se enfocan en la mejora del desempeño de las aplicaciones, reducción del costo de administración y adquisición de hardware, reducción de los costos de almacenamiento, aumento de la productividad en la administración de las Bases de Datos y mejora en la atención de requerimientos y prestación de servicios de mesa de ayuda, sin embargo, las estrategias de reducción de costos deben contemplar también la reducción de costos asociados a pérdida y robo de información, cumplimiento regulatorio, generación de valor y continuidad del negocio, que comúnmente se conciben como iniciativas aisladas que no siempre se adelantan con el ánimo de apoyar la reducción de costos. Una iniciativa integral de reducción de costos de TI, debe contemplar cada uno de los factores que  generan costo y pueden ser optimizados. En este artículo queremos abordar la reducción de costos de tecnología a partir de la adopción del que según los expertos es el motor de Base de Datos # del mercado.Durante años, la base de datos Oracle ha sido reconocida por su velocidad, confiabilidad, seguridad y capacidad para soportar cargas de datos tanto de aplicaciones altamente transaccionales, como de Bodegas de datos e incluso análisis de Big Data , ofreciendo alto desempeño y facilidades de administración, sin embrago, cuando pensamos en proyectos de reducción de costos de IT, además de la capacidad para soportar aplicaciones (incluso aplicaciones altamente transaccionales) con alto desempeño, pensamos en procesos de automatización, optimización de recursos, consolidación, virtualización e incluso alternativas más cómodas de licenciamiento. La Base de Datos Oracle está diseñada para proveer todas las capacidades que un área de tecnología necesita para reducir costos, adaptándose a los diferentes escenarios de negocio y a las capacidades y características de cada organización.Es así, como además del motor de Base de Datos, Oracle ofrece una serie de soluciones para optimizar la administración de la información a través de mecanismos de optimización del uso del storage, continuidad del Negocio, consolidación de infraestructura, seguridad y administración automática, que propenden por un mejor uso de los recursos de tecnología, ofrecen opciones avanzadas de configuración y direccionan la reducción de los tiempos de las tareas operativas más comunes. Una de las opciones de la base de datos que se pueden provechar para reducir costos de hardware es Oracle Real Application Clusters. Esta solución de clustering permite que varios servidores (incluso servidores de bajo costo) trabajen en conjunto para soportar Grids o Nubes Privadas de Bases de Datos, proporcionando los beneficios de la consolidación de infraestructura, los esquemas de alta disponibilidad, rápido desempeño y escalabilidad por demanda, haciendo que el aprovisionamiento, el mantenimiento de las bases de datos y la adición de nuevos nodos se lleve e cabo de una forma más rápida y con menos riesgo, además de apalancar las inversiones en servidores de menor costo. Otra de las soluciones que promueven la reducción de costos de Tecnología es Oracle In-Memory Database Cache que permite almacenar y procesar datos en la memoria de las aplicaciones, permitiendo el máximo aprovechamiento de los recursos de procesamiento de la capa media, lo que cobra mucho valor en escenarios de alta transaccionalidad. De este modo se saca el mayor provecho de los recursos de procesamiento evitando crecimiento innecesario en recursos de hardware. Otra de las formas de evitar inversiones innecesarias en hardware, aprovechando los recursos existentes, incluso en escenarios de alto crecimiento de los volúmenes de información es la compresión de los datos. Oracle Advanced Compression permite comprimir hasta 4 veces los diferentes tipos de datos, mejorando la capacidad de almacenamiento, sin comprometer el desempeño de las aplicaciones. Desde el lado del almacenamiento también se pueden conseguir reducciones importantes de los costos de IT. En este escenario, la tecnología propia de la base de Datos Oracle ofrece capacidades de Administración Automática del Almacenamiento que no solo permiten una distribución óptima de los datos en los discos físicos para garantizar el máximo desempeño, sino que facilitan el aprovisionamiento y la remoción de discos defectuosos y ofrecen balanceo y mirroring, garantizando el uso máximo de cada uno de los dispositivos y la disponibilidad de los datos. Otra de las soluciones que facilitan la administración del almacenamiento es Oracle Partitioning, una opción de la Base de Datos que permite dividir grandes tablas en estructuras más pequeñas. Esta aproximación facilita la administración del ciclo de vida de la información y permite por ejemplo, separar los datos históricos (que generalmente se convierten en información de solo lectura y no tienen un alto volumen de consulta) y enviarlos a un almacenamiento de bajo costos, conservando la data activa en dispositivos de almacenamiento más ágiles. Adicionalmente, Oracle Partitioning facilita la administración de las bases de datos que tienen un gran volumen de registros y mejora el desempeño de la base de datos gracias a la posibilidad de optimizar las consultas haciendo uso únicamente de las particiones relevantes de una tabla o índice en el proceso de búsqueda. Otros factores adicionales, que pueden generar costos innecesarios a los departamentos de Tecnología son: La pérdida, corrupción o robo de datos y la falta de disponibilidad de las aplicaciones para dar soporte al negocio. Para evitar este tipo de situaciones que pueden acarrear multas y pérdida de negocios y de dinero, Oracle ofrece soluciones que permiten proteger y auditar la base de datos, recuperar la información en caso de corrupción o ejecución de acciones que comprometan la integridad de la información y soluciones que permitan garantizar que la información de las aplicaciones tenga una disponibilidad de 7x24. Ya hablamos de los beneficios de Oracle RAC, para facilitar los procesos de Consolidación y mejorar el desempeño de las aplicaciones, sin embrago esta solución, es sumamente útil en escenarios dónde las organizaciones de quieren garantizar una alta disponibilidad de la información, ante fallo de los servidores o en eventos de desconexión planeada para realizar labores de mantenimiento. Además de Oracle RAC, existen soluciones como Oracle Data Guard y Active Data Guard que permiten replicar de forma automática las bases de datos hacia un centro de datos de contingencia, permitiendo una recuperación inmediata ante eventos que deshabiliten por completo un centro de datos. Además de lo anterior, Active Data Guard, permite aprovechar la base de datos de contingencia para realizar labores de consulta, mejorando el desempeño de las aplicaciones. Desde el punto de vista de mejora en la seguridad, Oracle cuenta con soluciones como Advanced security que permite encriptar los datos y los canales a través de los cueles se comparte la información, Total Recall, que permite visualizar los cambios realizados a la base de datos en un momento determinado del tiempo, para evitar pérdida y corrupción de datos, Database Vault que permite restringir el acceso de los usuarios privilegiados a información confidencial, Audit Vault, que permite verificar quién hizo qué y cuándo dentro de las bases de datos de una organización y Oracle Data Masking que permite enmascarar los datos para garantizar la protección de la información sensible y el cumplimiento de las políticas y normas relacionadas con protección de información confidencial, por ejemplo, mientras las aplicaciones pasan del ambiente de desarrollo al ambiente de producción. Como mencionamos en un comienzo, las iniciativas de reducción de costos de tecnología deben apalancarse en estrategias que contemplen los diferentes factores que puedan generar sobre costos, los factores de riesgo que puedan acarrear costos no previsto, el aprovechamiento de los recursos actuales, para evitar inversiones innecesarias y los factores de optimización que permitan el máximo aprovechamiento de las inversiones actuales. Como vimos, todas estas iniciativas pueden ser abordadas haciendo uso de la tecnología de Oracle a nivel de Base de Datos, lo más importante es detectar los puntos críticos a nivel de riesgo, diagnosticar las proporción en que están siendo aprovechados los recursos actuales y definir las prioridades de la organización y del área de IT, para así dar inicio a todas aquellas iniciativas que de forma gradual, van a evitar sobrecostos e inversiones innecesarias, proporcionando un mayor apoyo al negocio y un impacto significativo en la productividad de la organización. Más información http://www.oracle.com/lad/products/database/index.html?ssSourceSiteId=otnes 1Fuente: Market Share: All Software Markets, Worldwide 2011 by Colleen Graham, Joanne Correia, David Coyle, Fabrizio Biscotti, Matthew Cheung, Ruggero Contu, Yanna Dharmasthira, Tom Eid, Chad Eschinger, Bianca Granetto, Hai Hong Swinehart, Sharon Mertz, Chris Pang, Asheesh Raina, Dan Sommer, Bhavish Sood, Marianne D'Aquila, Laurie Wurster and Jie Zhang. - March 29, 2012 2Big Data: Información recopilada desde fuentes no tradicionales como blogs, redes sociales, email, sensores, fotografías, grabaciones en video, etc. que normalmente se encuentran de forma no estructurada y en un gran volumen

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• Understanding LINQ to SQL (11) Performance

  - by Dixin

  [LINQ via C# series] LINQ to SQL has a lot of great features like strong typing query compilation deferred execution declarative paradigm etc., which are very productive. Of course, these cannot be free, and one price is the performance. O/R mapping overhead Because LINQ to SQL is based on O/R mapping, one obvious overhead is, data changing usually requires data retrieving:private static void UpdateProductUnitPrice(int id, decimal unitPrice) { using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { Product product = database.Products.Single(item => item.ProductID == id); // SELECT... product.UnitPrice = unitPrice; // UPDATE... database.SubmitChanges(); } } Before updating an entity, that entity has to be retrieved by an extra SELECT query. This is slower than direct data update via ADO.NET:private static void UpdateProductUnitPrice(int id, decimal unitPrice) { using (SqlConnection connection = new SqlConnection( "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Northwind;Integrated Security=True")) using (SqlCommand command = new SqlCommand( @"UPDATE [dbo].[Products] SET [UnitPrice] = @UnitPrice WHERE [ProductID] = @ProductID", connection)) { command.Parameters.Add("@ProductID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = id; command.Parameters.Add("@UnitPrice", SqlDbType.Money).Value = unitPrice; connection.Open(); command.Transaction = connection.BeginTransaction(); command.ExecuteNonQuery(); // UPDATE... command.Transaction.Commit(); } } The above imperative code specifies the “how to do” details with better performance. For the same reason, some articles from Internet insist that, when updating data via LINQ to SQL, the above declarative code should be replaced by:private static void UpdateProductUnitPrice(int id, decimal unitPrice) { using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { database.ExecuteCommand( "UPDATE [dbo].[Products] SET [UnitPrice] = {0} WHERE [ProductID] = {1}", id, unitPrice); } } Or just create a stored procedure:CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[UpdateProductUnitPrice] ( @ProductID INT, @UnitPrice MONEY ) AS BEGIN BEGIN TRANSACTION UPDATE [dbo].[Products] SET [UnitPrice] = @UnitPrice WHERE [ProductID] = @ProductID COMMIT TRANSACTION END and map it as a method of NorthwindDataContext (explained in this post):private static void UpdateProductUnitPrice(int id, decimal unitPrice) { using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { database.UpdateProductUnitPrice(id, unitPrice); } } As a normal trade off for O/R mapping, a decision has to be made between performance overhead and programming productivity according to the case. In a developer’s perspective, if O/R mapping is chosen, I consistently choose the declarative LINQ code, unless this kind of overhead is unacceptable. Data retrieving overhead After talking about the O/R mapping specific issue. Now look into the LINQ to SQL specific issues, for example, performance in the data retrieving process. The previous post has explained that the SQL translating and executing is complex. Actually, the LINQ to SQL pipeline is similar to the compiler pipeline. It consists of about 15 steps to translate an C# expression tree to SQL statement, which can be categorized as: Convert: Invoke SqlProvider.BuildQuery() to convert the tree of Expression nodes into a tree of SqlNode nodes; Bind: Used visitor pattern to figure out the meanings of names according to the mapping info, like a property for a column, etc.; Flatten: Figure out the hierarchy of the query; Rewrite: for SQL Server 2000, if needed Reduce: Remove the unnecessary information from the tree. Parameterize Format: Generate the SQL statement string; Parameterize: Figure out the parameters, for example, a reference to a local variable should be a parameter in SQL; Materialize: Executes the reader and convert the result back into typed objects. So for each data retrieving, even for data retrieving which looks simple: private static Product[] RetrieveProducts(int productId) { using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { return database.Products.Where(product => product.ProductID == productId) .ToArray(); } } LINQ to SQL goes through above steps to translate and execute the query. Fortunately, there is a built-in way to cache the translated query. Compiled query When such a LINQ to SQL query is executed repeatedly, The CompiledQuery can be used to translate query for one time, and execute for multiple times:internal static class CompiledQueries { private static readonly Func<NorthwindDataContext, int, Product[]> _retrieveProducts = CompiledQuery.Compile((NorthwindDataContext database, int productId) => database.Products.Where(product => product.ProductID == productId).ToArray()); internal static Product[] RetrieveProducts( this NorthwindDataContext database, int productId) { return _retrieveProducts(database, productId); } } The new version of RetrieveProducts() gets better performance, because only when _retrieveProducts is first time invoked, it internally invokes SqlProvider.Compile() to translate the query expression. And it also uses lock to make sure translating once in multi-threading scenarios. Static SQL / stored procedures without translating Another way to avoid the translating overhead is to use static SQL or stored procedures, just as the above examples. Because this is a functional programming series, this article not dive into. For the details, Scott Guthrie already has some excellent articles: LINQ to SQL (Part 6: Retrieving Data Using Stored Procedures) LINQ to SQL (Part 7: Updating our Database using Stored Procedures) LINQ to SQL (Part 8: Executing Custom SQL Expressions) Data changing overhead By looking into the data updating process, it also needs a lot of work: Begins transaction Processes the changes (ChangeProcessor) Walks through the objects to identify the changes Determines the order of the changes Executes the changings LINQ queries may be needed to execute the changings, like the first example in this article, an object needs to be retrieved before changed, then the above whole process of data retrieving will be went through If there is user customization, it will be executed, for example, a table’s INSERT / UPDATE / DELETE can be customized in the O/R designer It is important to keep these overhead in mind. Bulk deleting / updating Another thing to be aware is the bulk deleting:private static void DeleteProducts(int categoryId) { using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { database.Products.DeleteAllOnSubmit( database.Products.Where(product => product.CategoryID == categoryId)); database.SubmitChanges(); } } The expected SQL should be like:BEGIN TRANSACTION exec sp_executesql N'DELETE FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[CategoryID] = @p0',N'@p0 int',@p0=9 COMMIT TRANSACTION Hoverer, as fore mentioned, the actual SQL is to retrieving the entities, and then delete them one by one:-- Retrieves the entities to be deleted: exec sp_executesql N'SELECT [t0].[ProductID], [t0].[ProductName], [t0].[SupplierID], [t0].[CategoryID], [t0].[QuantityPerUnit], [t0].[UnitPrice], [t0].[UnitsInStock], [t0].[UnitsOnOrder], [t0].[ReorderLevel], [t0].[Discontinued] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[CategoryID] = @p0',N'@p0 int',@p0=9 -- Deletes the retrieved entities one by one: BEGIN TRANSACTION exec sp_executesql N'DELETE FROM [dbo].[Products] WHERE ([ProductID] = @p0) AND ([ProductName] = @p1) AND ([SupplierID] IS NULL) AND ([CategoryID] = @p2) AND ([QuantityPerUnit] IS NULL) AND ([UnitPrice] = @p3) AND ([UnitsInStock] = @p4) AND ([UnitsOnOrder] = @p5) AND ([ReorderLevel] = @p6) AND (NOT ([Discontinued] = 1))',N'@p0 int,@p1 nvarchar(4000),@p2 int,@p3 money,@p4 smallint,@p5 smallint,@p6 smallint',@p0=78,@p1=N'Optimus Prime',@p2=9,@p3=$0.0000,@p4=0,@p5=0,@p6=0 exec sp_executesql N'DELETE FROM [dbo].[Products] WHERE ([ProductID] = @p0) AND ([ProductName] = @p1) AND ([SupplierID] IS NULL) AND ([CategoryID] = @p2) AND ([QuantityPerUnit] IS NULL) AND ([UnitPrice] = @p3) AND ([UnitsInStock] = @p4) AND ([UnitsOnOrder] = @p5) AND ([ReorderLevel] = @p6) AND (NOT ([Discontinued] = 1))',N'@p0 int,@p1 nvarchar(4000),@p2 int,@p3 money,@p4 smallint,@p5 smallint,@p6 smallint',@p0=79,@p1=N'Bumble Bee',@p2=9,@p3=$0.0000,@p4=0,@p5=0,@p6=0 -- ... COMMIT TRANSACTION And the same to the bulk updating. This is really not effective and need to be aware. Here is already some solutions from the Internet, like this one. The idea is wrap the above SELECT statement into a INNER JOIN:exec sp_executesql N'DELETE [dbo].[Products] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [j0] INNER JOIN ( SELECT [t0].[ProductID], [t0].[ProductName], [t0].[SupplierID], [t0].[CategoryID], [t0].[QuantityPerUnit], [t0].[UnitPrice], [t0].[UnitsInStock], [t0].[UnitsOnOrder], [t0].[ReorderLevel], [t0].[Discontinued] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[CategoryID] = @p0) AS [j1] ON ([j0].[ProductID] = [j1].[[Products])', -- The Primary Key N'@p0 int',@p0=9 Query plan overhead The last thing is about the SQL Server query plan. Before .NET 4.0, LINQ to SQL has an issue (not sure if it is a bug). LINQ to SQL internally uses ADO.NET, but it does not set the SqlParameter.Size for a variable-length argument, like argument of NVARCHAR type, etc. So for two queries with the same SQL but different argument length:using (NorthwindDataContext database = new NorthwindDataContext()) { database.Products.Where(product => product.ProductName == "A") .Select(product => product.ProductID).ToArray(); // The same SQL and argument type, different argument length. database.Products.Where(product => product.ProductName == "AA") .Select(product => product.ProductID).ToArray(); } Pay attention to the argument length in the translated SQL:exec sp_executesql N'SELECT [t0].[ProductID] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[ProductName] = @p0',N'@p0 nvarchar(1)',@p0=N'A' exec sp_executesql N'SELECT [t0].[ProductID] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[ProductName] = @p0',N'@p0 nvarchar(2)',@p0=N'AA' Here is the overhead: The first query’s query plan cache is not reused by the second one:SELECT sys.syscacheobjects.cacheobjtype, sys.dm_exec_cached_plans.usecounts, sys.syscacheobjects.[sql] FROM sys.syscacheobjects INNER JOIN sys.dm_exec_cached_plans ON sys.syscacheobjects.bucketid = sys.dm_exec_cached_plans.bucketid; They actually use different query plans. Again, pay attention to the argument length in the [sql] column (@p0 nvarchar(2) / @p0 nvarchar(1)). Fortunately, in .NET 4.0 this is fixed:internal static class SqlTypeSystem { private abstract class ProviderBase : TypeSystemProvider { protected int? GetLargestDeclarableSize(SqlType declaredType) { SqlDbType sqlDbType = declaredType.SqlDbType; if (sqlDbType <= SqlDbType.Image) { switch (sqlDbType) { case SqlDbType.Binary: case SqlDbType.Image: return 8000; } return null; } if (sqlDbType == SqlDbType.NVarChar) { return 4000; // Max length for NVARCHAR. } if (sqlDbType != SqlDbType.VarChar) { return null; } return 8000; } } } In this above example, the translated SQL becomes:exec sp_executesql N'SELECT [t0].[ProductID] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[ProductName] = @p0',N'@p0 nvarchar(4000)',@p0=N'A' exec sp_executesql N'SELECT [t0].[ProductID] FROM [dbo].[Products] AS [t0] WHERE [t0].[ProductName] = @p0',N'@p0 nvarchar(4000)',@p0=N'AA' So that they reuses the same query plan cache: Now the [usecounts] column is 2.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 30, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Sunday, May 30, 2010New ProjectsAviva Solutions C# Coding Guidelines: A set of C# coding guidelines, coding standards, layout rules, FxCop rulesets and (upcoming) custom FxCop and StyleCop rules for improving the over...BKWork: private project.classbook: du an trong vong 10 ngay. Nhom (Do Bao Linh, Phan Thanh Tai, Nguyen Dang Loc)Du an - 01: Du an mon thay LuongEndNote助手: EndNote Helper is a assistant tool for EndNote, which make your task of reference management more convinent. EndNote 助手是一个用于辅助EndNote进行文献管理的小工具，它可...Evoucher: Simple Evoucher Sales SystemFiddler Delayed Responses Extension: A fiddler extension that help developers delay the delivery of HTML Responses to applications. Some delay user stories: - Delivery of css to HTML ...Generic Entity Model 2: GEM2 is lightweight entity framework for building custom business solutions. It enables rapid approach to entity logic design, while offering out o...GY06: 这个是长大工院于2009年发起的项目，因为种种原因没有完成。JoshDOS: JoshDOS is a command line operating system kernel based off COSMOS. It can be booted from actual hardware and built in Visual Studio using .NET la...PhysicsFMUDeluxe.NET: Este projeto é desenvolvido com o intuíto de treinar o desenvolvimento de aplicações em C#. Ele contém ferramentas para cálculos de física e matemá...Reactor Services Platform: Reactor is a service composition and deployment grid that streamlines developing, composing, deploying and managing services. Reactor Services are ...SerafinApartment: Simple MVC 2 application for apartment rental. It is multingual booking system, that allows users to register, book and subscribe for notifications...Silverlight Audio Effect Box: This is a C# Silverlight 4 sample application which process audio sample in near real time. It allows to capture the default audio input device and...Smart Voice: Smart Voice let's you control Skype using your voice. It allows you to write messages, issue phone calls, etc. This application was developed think...WebDotNet - The minimalist web framework inspired by web.py: WebDotNet is an experiment in web frameworks. Inspired by the python web framework, web.py, it is an exercise in extreme minimalism in a framework...New ReleasesAcies: Acies - Alpha Build 0.0.7: Alpha release. Requires Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.1 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=53867a2a-e249-4560-...AdventureWorksLT 2008 Sample Database Script: AdventureWorksLT 2008 R2 DB Script: This script is based on latest download from the Sample database for SQL Server 2008 R2. The original download from the sample is approx 84 MB and ...ASP.NET Wiki Control: Release 1.3.1: - Removed ASP.NET Session dependency. BreadCrumbs will now work with sessions disabled. Can now also share a URL and have the breadcrumb appropriat...Aviva Solutions C# Coding Guidelines: Visual Studio 2010 Rule Sets: Rule Sets targetting different styles of projects.bvcms - Bellevue Church Management System: Source: This source was used to build the latest {church}.bvcms.comCC.Yacht: CC.Yacht 1.0.10.529: This is the initial release of CC.Yacht. Marked as beta since I don't have any testing/feedback beyond that of myself and my wife.Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V14: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has add...Community Forums NNTP bridge: Community Forums NNTP Bridge V15: Release of the Community Forums NNTP Bridge to access the social and anwsers MS forums with a single, open source NNTP bridge. This release has add...Coronasoft Cryostasis scripting engine: CCSE v0.0.1.0 BETA: This is the 0.0.1.0 Beta Release. If you find any bugs Post them as a comment or in the Discussions tabEndNote助手: EndNote助手2.1.0..0: 去除了注册验证机制。Fiddler Delayed Responses Extension: v0.1: Version 0.1 of Fiddler Delayed Responses Extension. See ChangeLog for more information.Generic Entity Model 2: GEM2 build 52510: This is first BETA release of GEM2! Following implementation is still missing from initial plan: Detailed documentation MySQL operational databa...JoshDOS: JoshDOS Souce: This is the souce for the JoshDOS 1.0 OS kernel. You need the COSMOS user kit to use.JoshDOS: Shell Version 1.0: Whats in this download *JoshDOS user kit *JoshDOS VStudio starter kit *JoshDOS documentation Note: You will need the COSMOS user kit to start deve...miniTodo: mini Todo version 0.3: Todo完了時に音が出なかったのを修正Model Virtual Casting - ASPItalia.com: Model Virtual Casting 0.2: Model Virtual Casting 0.2Questa seconda release di ModelVC è corrispondente a quella mostrata in occasione della Real Code Conference 4.0 tenutasi ...PhysicsFMUDeluxe.NET: PhysicsFMUDeluxe.NET - Setup: Primeira versão pública do PhysicsFMUDeluxe.NETSilverlight Audio Effect Box: Echo Box 1.0: First realease - zip contains : web page + xap file :Smart Voice: Smart Voice 0.1: Here is the first alpha release of Smart Voice. Please remember this was done for a curricular unit project at my university and i understand that ...StyleCop Contrib: Custom rules v0.2: This release of the custom rules target StyleCop 4.3.3. Included rules are: Spacing Rules - NoTrailingWhiteSpace - IndentUsingTabs Ordering Rules ...System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations Contrib: 0.2.46280.0: Built with Visual Studio 2010/.Net 4.0. Compiled from source code changeset 46280.VB Styler: VB Styler Suite V 1.3.0.0: This is the newest version of the VB Styler. Here are the new features. New Imaging ColorPicker A template for getting colors via sliders ColorR...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30529.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWPF Application Framework (WAF): WPF Application Framework (WAF) 1.0.0.90 RC: Version: 1.0.0.90 (Release Candidate): This release contains the source code of the WPF Application Framework (WAF) and the sample applications. ...XNA Collision Detection: XNA Collision Detection Sample Program: I have coded a compact program which shows the collision detection working, and provides a camera class for rendering and moving the "player." Agai...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active ProjectsAStar.netpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryCommunity Forums NNTP bridgeBlogEngine.NETGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationIonics Isapi Rewrite FilterRawrCustomer Portal Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRMFacebook Developer ToolkitPAP

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• A Look Back at 2010 Predictions

  - by David Dorf

  Now is the time of year people make their predictions for next year, but before I start thinking about 2011 it's worth a look back to see how my predictions for 2010 fared. 1. Borders and Blockbuster bite the dust. I would have never predicted a strong brand such as Circuit City could die, but now I know it can happen to anyone. Borders has lost the battle with Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster has lost to Netflix. And just to be sure, Amazon put an extra nail in each coffin. Borders received additional investment from Bennett LeBow to keep it afloat, but the stock is down around $1.25 with no profits in sight. Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy back in September. 2. Every retailer finally has a page on Facebook... but very few figure out how to keep fans engaged. Retailer postings become noise, and fans start to unsubscribe. Twitter goes in the same direction. A few standout retailers will figure out how to use social media, and the rest will remain dumbfounded. Most retailers are on the Facebook bandwagon, and their fan bases seem to be increasing thanks to promotions like The Gap's logo redesign, Lowes' black Friday sneak peak, and Walmart's Crowd Savers. There are several examples of f-commerce advancements, including some interesting integrations from Amazon.3. Smartphones consolidate and grow. More and more people will step-up to smartphones, most of which will choose iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones. Other smartphones will vanish, and networks will start to strain. But retailers will finally embrace mobile as the next big channel. Retail marketing departments will build mobile apps without the help of their IT department, and eventually they will get into a bind. Android has been on a tear lately stealing market share from Blackberry. Palm and Microsoft are trending down, and Apple is holding steady. Smartphone sales are up 15% and expected to continue. Retailers understand the importance of mobile, and some innovative applications have been produced this year. 4. Google helps the little guys. Google will push its Favorite Places project to help give exposure to small retailers and restaurants. They will enable small retailers to act like big ones by providing storefronts, detailed product information, and coupons for consumers. Google will find a way to bring augmented reality to the masses. I can't say I've seen much new from Google regarding Favorite Places, but they've continued to push local product search. From the PC or smartphone, consumers can search for products and see which nearby stores have it stock. Oracle Retail even productized an integration to Google to support this effort. I suppose if Google ever buys Groupon then it will bring them even closer to local shopping. Google talked about augmented humanity, but that has nothing to do with augmented reality. 5. Steve Jobs Is Bugs Bunny and Steve Ballmer is Elmer Fudd. (OK, I stole that headline from an InformationWeek article. I couldn't resist.) Both Apple and Microsoft will continue to open new stores, but only Apple will show real growth. POSReady 2009 (formerly WEPOS) will continue to share the POS market with Linux. The iPhone and iPod will continue to capture market share, but there won't be an Apple tablet. There won't be an Apple tablet? What was I thinking? While Apple has well over 300 stores, there are less than 10 Microsoft stores. Initial impressions show that even though Microsoft is locating its store near Apple Stores, they are not converting customers, with shoppers citing a lack of assortment and high prices. 6. Consolidation of e-commerce software providers. Software vendors in the areas of search, reviews, online call-centers, payments, and e-commerce will consolidate, partly driven by the success of m-commerce and SaaS. Amazon will find someone else to buy, and eBay will continue to lose momentum. Consolidation of e-commerce providers continued with IBM acquiring Sterling Commerce and CoreMetrics, and Oracle recently announcing the acquisition of ATG. Amazon grabbed Zappos, Woot, and Diapers.com to continue its dominance of online selling. While eBay's Marketplace growth may have slowed, its PayPal division is doing quite well, fueled in part by demand for mobile payments. 7. Book publishers mirror music labels. Just as the iPod brought digital downloads to the masses, the Kindle and Nook will power the e-book revolution. Books will continue to use DRM for a few more years before following the path of music. Publishers will try to preserve the margins of hardbacks by associating e-book releases with paperbacks. Amazon has done a good job providing e-reader clients for smartphones, PCs, and tablets. Competition from Barnes & Noble has forced Amazon to support book loaning, and both companies are making it easier for people to publish ebooks (with or without DRM). Progress is slow but steady. 8. NFC makes inroads, RFID treads water. Near Field Communications start to appear in mobile phones, and retailers beta test its use for payments and loyalty programs. RFID tag costs come down a bit, but not enough to spur accelerated adoption.Nokia announced plans to offer NFC-enabled phones in 2011, and rumors are swirling about NFC in the upcoming iPhone.  I think NFC is heading in the right direction, and I've heard more interest from retailers about specialized uses for RFID.9. Digital Signage goes the way of augmented reality. People use their camera phones to leave geo-tagged notes all over cities, rating stores and restaurants, and "painting" graffiti. But people get tired of holding their phones in front of their faces, so AR glasses are offered in much the same way bluetooth headsets emerged. Retailers experiement with in-store advertising using AR. Several retailers like Pizza Hut, Benetton, and Target have experimented with AR but its still somewhat of a gimmick used by marketing.  I think this prediction is a year or two too early. 10. JDA flip-flops again. After announcing their embracing of the .Net architecture, then switching to J2EE after the Manugistics acquisition, JDA will finally decide to standardize on Apple's Objective C. Everything will be ported to the iPhone and be available on the AppStore. After all, there's not much left to try. This was, of course, a joke but the sentiment is still valid.  JDA seems more supply-chain focused than retail focused, which is a an outcrop if their i2 acquisition.  Of the 10 predictions, I'm going to say I got 6 somewhat correct.  (Don't you just love grading your own paper?)  Soon I'll post my predictions for 2011 so be on the lookout.  Until then here's one more prediction:  Va Tech beats Stanford in the Orange Bowl -- count on it!

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• LLBLGen Pro feature highlights: grouping model elements

  - by FransBouma

  (This post is part of a series of posts about features of the LLBLGen Pro system) When working with an entity model which has more than a few entities, it's often convenient to be able to group entities together if they belong to a semantic sub-model. For example, if your entity model has several entities which are about 'security', it would be practical to group them together under the 'security' moniker. This way, you could easily find them back, yet they can be left inside the complete entity model altogether so their relationships with entities outside the group are kept. In other situations your domain consists of semi-separate entity models which all target tables/views which are located in the same database. It then might be convenient to have a single project to manage the complete target database, yet have the entity models separate of each other and have them result in separate code bases. LLBLGen Pro can do both for you. This blog post will illustrate both situations. The feature is called group usage and is controllable through the project settings. This setting is supported on all supported O/R mapper frameworks. Situation one: grouping entities in a single model. This situation is common for entity models which are dense, so many relationships exist between all sub-models: you can't split them up easily into separate models (nor do you likely want to), however it's convenient to have them grouped together into groups inside the entity model at the project level. A typical example for this is the AdventureWorks example database for SQL Server. This database, which is a single catalog, has for each sub-group a schema, however most of these schemas are tightly connected with each other: adding all schemas together will give a model with entities which indirectly are related to all other entities. LLBLGen Pro's default setting for group usage is AsVisualGroupingMechanism which is what this situation is all about: we group the elements for visual purposes, it has no real meaning for the model nor the code generated. Let's reverse engineer AdventureWorks to an entity model. By default, LLBLGen Pro uses the target schema an element is in which is being reverse engineered, as the group it will be in. This is convenient if you already have categorized tables/views in schemas, like which is the case in AdventureWorks. Of course this can be switched off, or corrected on the fly. When reverse engineering, we'll walk through a wizard which will guide us with the selection of the elements which relational model data should be retrieved, which we can later on use to reverse engineer to an entity model. The first step after specifying which database server connect to is to select these elements. below we can see the AdventureWorks catalog as well as the different schemas it contains. We'll include all of them. After the wizard completes, we have all relational model data nicely in our catalog data, with schemas. So let's reverse engineer entities from the tables in these schemas. We select in the catalog explorer the schemas 'HumanResources', 'Person', 'Production', 'Purchasing' and 'Sales', then right-click one of them and from the context menu, we select Reverse engineer Tables to Entity Definitions.... This will bring up the dialog below. We check all checkboxes in one go by checking the checkbox at the top to mark them all to be added to the project. As you can see LLBLGen Pro has already filled in the group name based on the schema name, as this is the default and we didn't change the setting. If you want, you can select multiple rows at once and set the group name to something else using the controls on the dialog. We're fine with the group names chosen so we'll simply click Add to Project. This gives the following result:   (I collapsed the other groups to keep the picture small ;)). As you can see, the entities are now grouped. Just to see how dense this model is, I've expanded the relationships of Employee: As you can see, it has relationships with entities from three other groups than HumanResources. It's not doable to cut up this project into sub-models without duplicating the Employee entity in all those groups, so this model is better suited to be used as a single model resulting in a single code base, however it benefits greatly from having its entities grouped into separate groups at the project level, to make work done on the model easier. Now let's look at another situation, namely where we work with a single database while we want to have multiple models and for each model a separate code base. Situation two: grouping entities in separate models within the same project. To get rid of the entities to see the second situation in action, simply undo the reverse engineering action in the project. We still have the AdventureWorks relational model data in the catalog. To switch LLBLGen Pro to see each group in the project as a separate project, open the Project Settings, navigate to General and set Group usage to AsSeparateProjects. In the catalog explorer, select Person and Production, right-click them and select again Reverse engineer Tables to Entities.... Again check the checkbox at the top to mark all entities to be added and click Add to Project. We get two groups, as expected, however this time the groups are seen as separate projects. This means that the validation logic inside LLBLGen Pro will see it as an error if there's e.g. a relationship or an inheritance edge linking two groups together, as that would lead to a cyclic reference in the code bases. To see this variant of the grouping feature, seeing the groups as separate projects, in action, we'll generate code from the project with the two groups we just created: select from the main menu: Project -> Generate Source-code... (or press F7 ;)). In the dialog popping up, select the target .NET framework you want to use, the template preset, fill in a destination folder and click Start Generator (normal). This will start the code generator process. As expected the code generator has simply generated two code bases, one for Person and one for Production: The group name is used inside the namespace for the different elements. This allows you to add both code bases to a single solution and use them together in a different project without problems. Below is a snippet from the code file of a generated entity class. //... using System.Xml.Serialization; using AdventureWorks.Person; using AdventureWorks.Person.HelperClasses; using AdventureWorks.Person.FactoryClasses; using AdventureWorks.Person.RelationClasses; using SD.LLBLGen.Pro.ORMSupportClasses; namespace AdventureWorks.Person.EntityClasses { //... /// <summary>Entity class which represents the entity 'Address'.<br/><br/></summary> [Serializable] public partial class AddressEntity : CommonEntityBase //... The advantage of this is that you can have two code bases and work with them separately, yet have a single target database and maintain everything in a single location. If you decide to move to a single code base, you can do so with a change of one setting. It's also useful if you want to keep the groups as separate models (and code bases) yet want to add relationships to elements from another group using a copy of the entity: you can simply reverse engineer the target table to a new entity into a different group, effectively making a copy of the entity. As there's a single target database, changes made to that database are reflected in both models which makes maintenance easier than when you'd have a separate project for each group, with its own relational model data. Conclusion LLBLGen Pro offers a flexible way to work with entities in sub-models and control how the sub-models end up in the generated code.

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• Fragmented Log files could be slowing down your database

  - by Fatherjack

  Something that is sometimes forgotten by a lot of DBAs is the fact that database log files get fragmented in the same way that you get fragmentation in a data file. The cause is very different but the effect is the same – too much effort reading and writing data. Data files get fragmented as data is changed through normal system activity, INSERTs, UPDATEs and DELETEs cause fragmentation and most experienced DBAs are monitoring their indexes for fragmentation and dealing with it accordingly. However, you don’t hear about so many working on their log files. How can a log file get fragmented? I’m glad you asked. When you create a database there are at least two files created on the disk storage; an mdf for the data and an ldf for the log file (you can also have ndf files for extra data storage but that’s off topic for now). It is wholly possible to have more than one log file but in most cases there is little point in creating more than one as the log file is written to in a ‘wrap-around’ method (more on that later). When a log file is created at the time that a database is created the file is actually sub divided into a number of virtual log files (VLFs). The number and size of these VLFs depends on the size chosen for the log file. VLFs are also created in the space added to a log file when a log file growth event takes place. Do you have your log files set to auto grow? Then you have potentially been introducing many VLFs into your log file. Let’s get to see how many VLFs we have in a brand new database. USE master GO CREATE DATABASE VLF_Test ON ( NAME = VLF_Test, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test.mdf', SIZE = 100, MAXSIZE = 500, FILEGROWTH = 50 ) LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5MB, MAXSIZE = 250MB, FILEGROWTH = 5MB ); go USE VLF_Test go DBCC LOGINFO; The results of this are firstly a new database is created with specified files sizes and the the DBCC LOGINFO results are returned to the script editor. The DBCC LOGINFO results have plenty of interesting information in them but lets first note there are 4 rows of information, this relates to the fact that 4 VLFs have been created in the log file. The values in the FileSize column are the sizes of each VLF in bytes, you will see that the last one to be created is slightly larger than the others. So, a 5MB log file has 4 VLFs of roughly 1.25 MB. Lets alter the CREATE DATABASE script to create a log file that’s a bit bigger and see what happens. Alter the code above so that the log file details are replaced by LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 1GB, MAXSIZE = 25GB, FILEGROWTH = 1GB ); With a bigger log file specified we get more VLFs What if we make it bigger again? LOG ON ( NAME = VLF_Test_Log, FILENAME = 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.ROCK_2008\MSSQL\DATA\VLF_Test_log.ldf', SIZE = 5GB, MAXSIZE = 250GB, FILEGROWTH = 5GB ); This time we see more VLFs are created within our log file. We now have our 5GB log file comprised of 16 files of 320MB each. In fact these sizes fall into all the ranges that control the VLF creation criteria – what a coincidence! The rules that are followed when a log file is created or has it’s size increased are pretty basic. If the file growth is lower than 64MB then 4 VLFs are created If the growth is between 64MB and 1GB then 8 VLFs are created If the growth is greater than 1GB then 16 VLFs are created. Now the potential for chaos comes if the default values and settings for log file growth are used. By default a database log file gets a 1MB log file with unlimited growth in steps of 10%. The database we just created is 6 MB, let’s add some data and see what happens. USE vlf_test go -- we need somewhere to put the data so, a table is in order IF OBJECT_ID('A_Table') IS NOT NULL DROP TABLE A_Table go CREATE TABLE A_Table ( Col_A int IDENTITY, Col_B CHAR(8000) ) GO -- Let's check the state of the log file -- 4 VLFs found EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- We can go ahead and insert some data and then check the state of the log file again INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 500 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO -- insert 500 rows and we get 22 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); go -- Let's insert more rows INSERT A_Table (col_b) SELECT TOP 2000 REPLICATE('a',2000) FROM sys.columns AS sc, sys.columns AS sc2 GO 10 -- insert 2000 rows, in 10 batches and we suddenly have 107 VLFs EXECUTE ('DBCC LOGINFO'); Well, that escalated quickly! Our log file is split, internally, into 107 fragments after a few thousand inserts. The same happens with any logged transactions, I just chose to illustrate this with INSERTs. Having too many VLFs can cause performance degradation at times of database start up, log backup and log restore operations so it’s well worth keeping a check on this property. How do we prevent excessive VLF creation? Creating the database with larger files and also with larger growth steps and actively choosing to grow your databases rather than leaving it to the Auto Grow event can make sure that the growths are made with a size that is optimal. How do we resolve a situation of a database with too many VLFs? This process needs to be done when the database is under little or no stress so that you don’t affect system users. The steps are: BACKUP LOG YourDBName TO YourBackupDestinationOfChoice Shrink the log file to its smallest possible size DBCC SHRINKFILE(FileNameOfTLogHere, TRUNCATEONLY) * Re-size the log file to the size you want it to, taking in to account your expected needs for the coming months or year. ALTER DATABASE YourDBName MODIFY FILE ( NAME = FileNameOfTLogHere, SIZE = TheSizeYouWantItToBeIn_MB) * – If you don’t know the file name of your log file then run sp_helpfile while you are connected to the database that you want to work on and you will get the details you need. The resize step can take quite a while This is already detailed far better than I can explain it by Kimberley Tripp in her blog 8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx. The result of this will be a log file with a VLF count according to the bullet list above. Knowing when VLFs are being created By complete coincidence while I have been writing this blog (it’s been quite some time from it’s inception to going live) Jonathan Kehayias from SQLSkills.com has written a great article on how to track database file growth using Event Notifications and Service Broker. I strongly recommend taking a look at it as this is going to catch any sneaky auto grows that take place and let you know about them right away. Hassle free monitoring of VLFs If you are lucky or wise enough to be using SQL Monitor or another monitoring tool that let’s you write your own custom metrics then you can keep an eye on this very easily. There is a custom metric for VLFs (written by Stuart Ainsworth) already on the site and there are some others there are very useful so take a moment or two to look around while you are there. Resources MSDN – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179355(v=sql.105).aspx Kimberly Tripp from SQLSkills.com – http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/KIMBERLY/post/8-Steps-to-better-Transaction-Log-throughput.aspx Thomas LaRock at Simple-Talk.com – http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/monitoring-sql-server-virtual-log-file-fragmentation/ Disclosure I am a Friend of Red Gate. This means that I am more than likely to say good things about Red Gate DBA and Developer tools. No matter how awesome I make them sound, take the time to compare them with other products before you contact the Red Gate sales team to make your order.

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• Visiting the Emtel Data Centre

  Back in February at the first event of the Emtel Knowledge Series (EKS) I spoke to various people at Emtel about their data centre here on the island. I was trying to see whether it would be possible to arrange a meeting over there for a selected group of our community members. Well, let's say it like this... My first approach wasn't that promising and far from successful but during the following months there were more and more occasions to get in touch with the "right" contact persons at Emtel to make it happen... Setting up an appointment and pre-requisites The major improvement came during a Boot Camp for Windows Phone 8.1 App development organised by Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands in cooperation with Emtel at the Emtel World, Ebene. Apart from learning bits and pieces regarding Universal Apps I took the opportunity to get in touch with Arvin Lockee, Sales Executive - Data, during our lunch break. And this really kicked off the whole procedure. Prior to get access to the Emtel data centre it is requested that you provide full name and National ID of anyone going to visit. Also, it should be noted that there was only a limited amount of seats available. Anyways, packed with this information I posted through the usual social media channels. Responses came in very quickly and based on First-come, first-serve (FCFS) principle I noted down the details and forwarded them to Emtel in order to fix a date and time for the visit. In preparation on our side, all attendees exchanged contact details and we organised transport options to go to the data centre in Arsenal. The day before and on the day of our meeting, Arvin send me a reminder to check whether everything is still confirmed and ready to go... Of course, it was! Arriving at the Emtel Data Centre As I'm coming from Flic En Flac towards the North, we agreed that I'm going to pick up a couple of young fellows near the old post office in Port Louis. All went well, except that Sean eventually might be living in another time zone compared to the rest of us. Anyway, after some extended stop we were complete and arrived just in time in Arsenal to meet and greet with Ish and Veer. Again, Emtel is taking access procedures to their data centre very serious and the gate stayed close until all our IDs had been noted and compared to the list of registered attendees. Despite having a good laugh at the mixture of old and new ID cards it was a straight-forward processing. The ward was very helpful and guided us to the waiting area at the entrance section of the building. Shortly after we were welcomed by Kamlesh Bokhoree, the Data Centre Officer. He gave us brief introduction into the rules and regulations during our visit, like no photography allowed, not touching the buttons, and following his instructions through the whole visit. Of course! Inside the data centre Next, he explained us the multi-factor authentication system using a combination of bio-metric data, like finger print reader, and "classic" pin panel. The Emtel data centre provides multiple services and next to co-location for your own hardware they also offer storage options for your backup and archive data in their massive, fire-resistant vault. Very impressive to get to know about the considerations that have been done in choosing the right location and how to set up the whole premises. It should also be noted that there is 24/7 CCTV surveillance inside and outside the buildings. Strengths of the Emtel TIER 3 Data Centre, Mauritius Finally, we were guided into the first server room. And wow, the whole setup is cleverly planned and outlined in the architecture. From the false floor and ceilings in order to provide optimum air flow, over to the separation of cold and hot aisles between the full-size server racks, and of course the monitored air conditions in order to analyse and watch changes in temperature, smoke detection and other parameters. And not surprisingly everything has been implemented in two independent circuits. There is a standardised classification for the construction and operation of data centres world-wide, and the Emtel's one has been designed to be a TIER 4 building but due to the lack of an alternative power supplier on the island it is officially registered as a TIER 3 compliant data centre. Maybe in the long run there might be a second supplier of energy next to CEB... time will tell. Luckily, the data centre is integrated into the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and Emtel already connects internationally through diverse undersea cable routes like SAFE & LION/LION2 out of Mauritius and through several other providers for onwards connectivity. The data centre is part of the National Fibre Optic Gigabit Ring and has redundant internet connectivity onwards. Meanwhile, Arvin managed to join our little group of geeks and he supported Kamlesh in answering our technical questions regarding the capacities and general operation of the data centre. Visiting the NOC and its dedicated team of IT professionals was surely one of the visual highlights. Seeing their wall of screens to monitor any kind of activities on the data lines, the managed servers and the activity in and around the building was great. Even though I'm using a multi-head setup since years I cannot keep it up with that setup... ;-) But I got a couple of ideas on how to improve my work spaces here at the office. Clear advantages of hosting your e-commerce and mobile backends locally After the completely isolated NOC area we continued our Q&A session with Kamlesh and Arvin in the second server room which is dedictated to shared environments. On first thought it should be well-noted that there is lots of space for full-sized racks and therefore co-location of your own hardware. Actually, given the feedback that there will be upcoming changes in prices the facilities at the Emtel data centre are getting more and more competitive and interesting for local companies, especially small and medium enterprises. After seeing this world-class infrastructure available on the island, I'm already considering of moving one of my root servers abroad to be co-located here on the island. This would provide an improved user experience in terms of site performance and latency. This would be a good improvement, especially for upcoming e-commerce solutions for two of my local clients. Later on, we actually started the conversation of additional services that could be a catalyst for the local market in order to attract more small and medium companies to take the data centre into their evaluations regarding online activities. Until today Emtel does not provide virtualised server environments but there might be ongoing plans in the future to cover this field as well. Emtel is a mobile operator and internet connectivity provider in the first place, entering a market of managed and virtualised server infrastructures including capacities in terms of cloud storage and computing are rather new and there is a continuous learning curve at Emtel, too. You cannot just jump into a new market and see how it works out... And I appreciate Emtel's approach towards a solid fundament and then building new services on top of that. Emtel as a future one-stop-shop service provider for all your internet and telecommunications needs. Emtel's promotional video about their TIER 3 data centre in Arsenal, Mauritius More details are thoroughly described in Emtel's brochure of their data centre. Check out their PDF document here. Thanks for this opportunity Visiting and walking through the Emtel data centre for more than 2 hours was a great experience. As representative of the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community (MSCC) I would like to thank anyone at Emtel involved in the process of making it happen, and especially to Arvin Lockee and Kamlesh Bokhoree for their time and patience in explaining the infrastructure and answering all the endless questions from our members. Thank You!

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• Best of Breed vs. Suite – Oracle’s SaaS Delivers Both

  - by yaldahhakim

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The debate of which is better: “best of breed” business applications vs. an integrated suite is certainly not a new conversation. This has been argued between IT vendors and CIOs for years. It’s also important to clarify that “best of breed” does not necessarily translate into being the richest functionality; rather it’s often about just having the best fit solution to solve a specific business problem or need. So what does cloud have to do with the niche vs. suite debate? Consuming business applications in a cloud or SaaS deployment model can change the best of breed vs. suite discussion - if the cloud is done right. It’s having your cake and eating it too only better: you don’t have to gather all the ingredients or wait to bake your cake, and you can adjust how big of slice you take. Before you eat, it’s worth pausing to recall much of what we learned about IT over the last decade. These basic IT principles still hold true even though the financial model has changed from buying to renting. In other words, what’s under the technology hood still matters. Architecture and development methodologies like building an application based on open standards so it works with other systems - is still important. Data and information silos, complex integrations, and proprietary technologies that lock you in, are still bad. While some may argue that IT no longer matters with cloud, the opposite is actually true. If anything cloud can help return IT back to its rightful place as key strategic asset vs. a liability on the balance sheet. The “I” in CIO was never meant to stand for “integration” yet it’s amazing how much time and money is poured into these types of initiatives for most organizations each year. Rather the “I” needs to stand for “innovation”. This is where Oracle SaaS can uniquely help. Oracle’s application strategy has not really changed over the years. It’s always been about bringing the best and richest functionality across the enterprise to our customers while leveraging a common, standards-based, and enterprise-grade platform. So not jut best fit, but the best capabilities based on the input of thousands of enterprise customers across the globe. Oracle invests billions in R&D every year to add new capabilities to the broadest cloud portfolio in the industry, spanning across functional pillars like CRM, HCM, ERP, etc. And where it makes sense, Oracle combines key strategic acquisitions to complement organic functionality. The result is best of breed delivered in a suite. Again this is not something new. The game changer now with cloud is that it impacts HOW Oracle customers adopt the richest, most modern applications across the business – and continue on getting it. Consuming oracle applications in the cloud means you can adopt new capabilities and updates very quickly and easily. There’s no hardware to buy or software to manage. Oracle does it for you. Low upfront costs and an OpEx financial model is the easy part. Oracle Cloud Applications take it a big step further. For organizations that demand having the latest and richest functionality and accelerating the time to value from their IT investment, Oracle Cloud is the right path. It’s about holistically changing the “hows” and the “whys” of the organization by leveraging transformational innovations like social, mobile, and big data in a consistent and more powerful way. Not just about sales force automation or talent management. These technologies should impact all parts of the company and Oracle Cloud is the enterprise-grade delivery vehicle. Oracle SaaS helps break down barriers of adoption and is eases the headache of upgrades, investing in new supporting hardware, or adding internal expertise to manage it all. With Oracle Cloud, customers can get best of breed capabilities in either a full suite model or a la carte. And because it’s entirely built on open standards, it’s built to co-exist with existing IT investments. Updates can be automatic or delayed based on a customer’s requirements. And it’s complete – a full suite of cross pillar functionality. Even better, if you don’t like it, need more or less, just turn the dial up or down. Just like your utility bill, you pay for what you use, and can consume more or less power whenever you need it. Lower cost, lower investment risk, without compromising on functionality, security, or performance. Technology still matters in the cloud. So our cloud customers also like that when they adopt our cloud applications, they also get the best underlying technology, from the middleware and database platform down to infrastructure and Oracle’s engineered systems. Therefore it’s not just the greatest and latest in application functionality, but everything underneath that makes it work is also the latest and greatest. The best of breed technology stack powering best of breed business applications, and all delivered in a subscription based model. The best of both worlds. Yep, that’s the idea.

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