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• HTG Explains: Just How Bad Are Android Tablet Apps?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Apple loves to criticize the state of Android tablet apps when pushing its own iPad tablets. But just how bad is the Android tablet app situation? Should you avoid Android tablets like the Nexus 7 because of the apps? It’s clear that Apple’s iPad is way ahead when it comes to the sheer quantity of tablet-optimized apps. It’s also clear that some popular apps — particularly touch-optimized games — only show up on iPad. But that’s not the whole story. The Basics First, let’s get an idea of the basic stuff that will work well for you on Android. An excellent web browser. Chrome has struggled with performance on Android, but hits its stride on the Nexus 7 (2013). Great, tablet-optimized apps for all of Google’s services, from YouTube to Gmail and Google Maps. Everything you need for reading, from Amazon’s Kindle app for eBooks, Flipboard and Feedly for new articles from websites, and other services like the popular Pocket read-it-later service. Apps for most popular media services, from Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube for videos to Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio for music. A few things aren’t available — you won’t find Apple’s iTunes and Amazon still doesn’t offer an Amazon Instant Video app for Android, while they do for iPad and even their own Android-based Kindle Fire devices. Android has very good app coverage when it comes to consuming content, whether you’re reading websites and ebooks or watching videos and listening to music. You can play almost any Android smartphone game, too. For content consumption, Android is better than something like Windows 8, which lacks apps for Google services like YouTube and still doesn’t have apps for popular media services like Spotify and Rdio. How Android Scales Smartphone Apps Let’s look at how Android scales smartphone apps. Now, bear with us here — we know “scaling” is a dirty word considering how poorly Apple’s iPad scales iPhone apps, but it’s not as bad on Android. When an iPad runs an iPhone app, it simply doubles the pixels and effectively zooms in. For example, if you had  Twitter app with five tweets visible at once on an iPhone and ran the same app on an iPad, the iPad would simply “zoom in” and enlarge the same screen — you’d still see five tweets, but each tweet would appear larger. This is why developers create optimized iPad apps with their own interfaces. It’s especially important on Apple’s iOS. Android devices come in all shapes and sizes, so Android apps have a smarter, more intelligent way to adapt to different screen sizes. Let’s say you have a Twitter app designed for smartphones and it only shows five tweets at once when run on a phone. If you ran the same app on a tablet, you wouldn’t see the same five tweets — you’d see ten or more tweets. Rather than simply zooming in, the app can show more content at the same time on a tablet, even if it was never optimized for tablet-size screens. While apps designed for smartphones aren’t generally ideal, they adapt much better on Android than they do on an iPad. This is particularly true when it comes to games. You’re capable of playing almost any Android smartphone game on an Android tablet, and games generally adapt very well to the larger screen. This gives you access to a huge catalog of games. It’s a great option to have, especially when you look at Microsoft’s Window 8 and consider how much better the touch-based app and game selection would be if Microsoft allowed its users to run Windows Phone games on Windows 8. 7-inch vs 10-inch Tablets The Twitter example above wasn’t just an example. The official Twitter app for Android still doesn’t have a tablet-optimized interface, so this is the sort of situation you’d have to deal with on an Android tablet. On the popular Nexus 7, Twitter is an example of a smartphone app that actually works fairly well — in portrait mode, you can see many more tweets on screen at the same time and none of the space really feels all that wasted. This is important to consider — smartphone apps like Twitter often scale quite well to 7-inch screens because a 7-inch screen is much closer in form factor to a smartphone than a 10-inch screen is. When you begin to look at 10-inch Android tablets that are the same size as an iPad, the situation changes. While the Twitter app works well enough on a Nexus 7, it looks horrible on a Nexus 10 or other 10-inch tablet. Running many smartphone-designed apps — possible with the exception of games — on a 10-inch tablet is a frustrating, poor experience. There’s much more white, empty space in the interface. It feels like you’re using a smartphone app on a large screen, and what’s the point of that? A tablet-optimized Twitter app for Android is finally on its way, but this same situation will repeat with many other types of apps. For example, Facebook doesn’t offer a tablet-optimized interface, but it’s okay on a Nexus 7 anyway. On a 10-inch screen, it probably wouldn’t be anywhere near as nice an experience. It goes without saying that Facebook and Twitter both offer iPad apps with interfaces designed for a tablet-size screen. Here’s another problematic app — the official Yelp app for Android. Even just using it on a 7-inch Nexus 7 will be a poor experience, while it would be much worse on a larger 10-inch tablet app. Now, it’s true that many — maybe even most — of the popular apps you might want to run today are optimized for Android tablets. But, when you look at the situation when it comes to popular apps like Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp, it’s clear Android is still behind in a meaningful way. Price Let’s be honest. The thing that really makes Android tablets compelling — and the only reason Android tablets started seeing real traction after years of almost complete dominance by Apple’s iPads — is that Android tablets are available for so much cheaper than iPads. Google’s latest Nexus 7 (2013) is available for only $230. Apple’s non-retina iPad Mini is available at $300, which is already $70 more. In spite of that, the iPad Mini has much older, slower internals and a much lower resolution screen. It’s not as nice to look at when it comes to reading or watching movies, and the iPad Mini reportedly struggles to run Apple’s latest iOS 7. In contrast, the new Nexus 7 has a very high resolution screen, speedy internals, and runs Android very well with little-to-no lag in real use. We haven’t had any problems with it, unlike all the problems we unfortunately encountered with the first Nexus 7. For a really comparable experience to the current Nexus 7, you’d want to get one of Apple’s new retina iPad Minis. That would cost you $400, another $170 over the Nexus 7. In fact, it’s possible to regularly find sales on the Nexus 7, so if you waited you could get it for just $200 — half the price of the iPad mini with a comparable screen and internals. (In fairness, the iPad certainly has better hardware — but you won’t feel if it you’re just using your tablet to browse the web, watch videos, and do other typical tablet things.) This makes a tablet like the popular Nexus 7 a very good option for budget-conscious users who just want a high-quality device they can use to browse the web, watch videos, play games, and generally do light computing. There’s a reason we’re focusing on the Nexus 7 here. The combination of price and size brings it to a very good place. It’s awfully cheap for the high-quality experience you get, and the 7-inch screen means that even the non-tablet-optimized apps you may stumble across will often work fairly well. On the other hand, more expensive 10-inch Android tablets are still a tougher sell. For $400-$500, you’re getting awfully close to Apple’s full-size iPad price range and Android tablets don’t have as good an app ecosystem as an iPad. It’s hard to recommend an expensive, 10-inch Android tablet over a full-size iPad to average users. In summary, the Android app tablet app situation is nowhere near as bad as it was a few years ago. The success of the Nexus 7 proves that Android tablets can be compelling experiences, and there are a wide variety of strong apps. That said, more expensive 10-inch Android tablets that compete directly with the full-size iPad on price still don’t make much sense for most people.  Unless you have a specific reason for preferring an Android tablet, it’s tough not to recommend an iPad if you’re looking at spending $400+ on a 10-inch tablet. Image Credit: Christian Ghanime on Flickr, Christian Ghanime on Flickr     

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• OK - What now? How do we become a Social Business?

  - by Michael Snow

  We hope that those of you that attended yesterday's Webcast with Brian Solis enjoyed Brian's discussion with Christian Finn for our last Webcast of the season for the Oracle Social Business Thought Leaders Series.  For those of you that may have missed the webcast or were stuck at a company holiday party - you'll be glad to hear that the webcast will be available On-Demand starting later today (12/14/12). And any of you who'd like to listen to a quick but informative podcast with Brian - can listen to that here. Some of you may still be left with questions about how to get from point A to point B and even more confused than when you started thinking about this new world of Digital Darwinism. The post below, grabbed from an abundance of great thought leadership prose on Brian's blog may help you frame the path you need to start walking sooner versus later to stay off of the endangered species list.  As you explore your path forward, please keep Oracle in mind - we do offer a wide range of solutions to help your organization 12.00 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;} optimize the engagement for your customers, employees and partners. The Path from a Social Brand to a Social Business Brian Solis Originally posted May 2, 2012 I’ve been a long-time supporter of MediaTemple’s (MT)Residence program along with Gary Vaynerchuk, Neil Patel, and many others whom I respect. I wanted to share my “7 questions to answer to become a social business” with you here.. Social Media is pervasive and is becoming the new normal in corporate marketing. Brands who get this right are starting to build their own media networks rich with customer connections numbering in the millions. Right now, Coca-Cola has over 34 million fans on Facebook, but they’re hardly alone. Disney follows just behind with 29 million fans, Starbucks boasts 25 million, and Oreo, Red Bull, and Converse play host to over 20 million fans. If we were to look at other networks such as Twitter and Youtube, we would see a recurring theme. People are connecting en masse with the businesses they support and new media represents the ability to cultivate consumer relationships in ways not possible with traditional earned or paid media. Sounds great right? This might sound abrupt, but the truth is that we’re hardly realizing the potential of what lies before us. Everything begins with understanding not just how other brands are marketing themselves in social media, but also seeing what they’re not doing and envisioning what’s possible. We’re already approaching the first of many crossroads that new media will present. Do we take the path of a social brand or that of a social business? What’s the difference? A social brand is just that, a business that is remodeling or retrofitting its existing marketing practices to new media. A social business is something altogether different as it embraces introspection and extrospection to reevaluate internal and external processes, systems, and opportunities to transform into a living, breathing entity that adapts to market conditions and opportunities. It’s a tough decision to make right now especially at a time when all we read about is how much success many businesses are finding without having to answer this very question. With all of the newfound success in social networks, the truth is that we’re only just beginning to learn what’s possible and that’s where you come in. When compared to the investment in time and resources across the board, social media represents only a small part of the mix. But with your help, that’s all about to change. The CMO Survey, an organization that disseminates the opinions of top marketers in order to predict the future of markets, recently published a report that gave credence to the fact that social media is taking off. One of the most profound takeaways from the report was this gem; “The “like button” [in Facebook] packs more customer-acquisition punch than other demand-generating activities.” With insights like this, it’s easy to see why the race to social is becoming heated. The report also highlighted exactly where social fits in the marketing mix today and as you can see, despite all of the hype, it’s not a dominant focus yet. As of August 2011, the percentage of overall marketing budgets dedicated to social media hovered at around 7%. However, in 2012 the investment in social media will climb to 10%. And, in five years, social media is expected to represent almost 18% of the total marketing budget. Think about that for a moment. In 2016, social media will only represent 18%? Queue the sound of a record scratching here. With businesses finding success in social networks, why are businesses failing to realize the true opportunity brought forth by the ability to listen to, connect with, and engage with customers? While there’s value in earning views, driving traffic, and building connections through the 3F’s (friends, fans and followers), success isn’t just defined simply by what really amounts to low-hanging fruit. The truth is that businesses cannot measure what it is they don’t know to value. As a result, innovation in new engagement initiatives is stifled because we’re applying dated or inflexible frameworks to new paradigms. Social media isn’t owned by marketing, but instead the entire organization. This changes everything and makes your role so much more important. It’s up to you to learn how to think outside of the proverbial social media box to see what others don’t, the ability to improve customers experiences through the evolution of a social brand into a social business. Doing so will translate customer insights from what they do and don’t share in social networks into better products, services, and processes. See, customers want something more from their favorite businesses than creative campaigns, viral content, and everyday dialogue in social networks. Customers want to be heard and they want to know that you’re listening. How businesses use social media must remind them that they’re more than just an audience, consumer, or a conduit to “trigger” a desired social effect. Herein lies both the challenge and opportunity of social media. It’s bigger than marketing. It’s also bigger than customer service. It’s about building relationships with customers that improve experiences and more importantly, teaches businesses how to re-imagine products and internal processes to better adapt to potential crises and seize new opportunities. When it comes down to it, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Foursquare, are all channels for listening, learning, and engaging. It’s what you do within each channel that builds a community around your brand. And, at the end of the day, the value of the community you build counts for everything. It’s important to understand that we cannot assume that these networks simply exist for people to lineup for our marketing messages or promotional campaigns. Nor can we assume that they’re reeling in anticipation for simple dialogue. They want value. They want recognition. They want access to exclusive information and offers. They need direction, answers and resolution. What we’re talking about here is the multidimensional makeup of consumers and how a one-sided approach to social media forces the needs for social media to expand beyond traditional marketing to socialize the various departments, lines of business, and functions to engage based on the nature of the situation or opportunity. In the same CMO study, it was revealed that marketers believe that social media has a long way to go toward integrating into the overall company strategy. On a scale of 1-7, with one being “not integrated at all” and seven being “very integrated,” 22% chose “one.” Critical functions such as service, HR, sales, R&D, product marketing and development, IR, CSR, etc. are either not engaged or are operating social media within a silo disconnected from other efforts or possibilities. The problem is that customers don’t view a company by silo, instead they see one company, one brand, and their experience in social media forms an impression that eventually contributes to their view of your brand. The first step here is to understand business priorities and objectives to assess how social media can be additive in achieving these goals. Additionally, surveying the landscape to determine other areas of interest as its specifically related to your business. • Are customers seeking help or direction? • Who are your most valuable customers and what are they sharing? • How can you use social media to acquire and retain customers? - What ideas are circulating and how can you harness user generated activity and content to innovate or adapt to better meet the needs of customers? - How can you broaden a single customer view to recognize the varying needs of customers and how your organization can organize around each circumstance? - What insights exist based on how consumers are interacting with one another? How can this intelligence inform marketing, service, products and other important business initiatives? - How can your business extend their current efforts to deliver better customer experiences and in turn more effectively unit internal collaboration and communication? Customer demands far exceed the capabilities of the marketing department. While creating a social brand is a necessary endeavor, building a social business is an investment in customer relevance now and over time. Beyond relevance, a social business fosters a culture of change that unites employees and customers and sets a foundation for meaningful and beneficial relationships. Innovation, communication, and creativity are the natural byproducts of engagement and transformation. As a social brand, we are competing for the moment. As a social business, we are competing the future in all that we do today.

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• Why does apt-get install Skype easily while aptitude complains about MAJOR dependency errors?

  - by Prateek

  I was trying to install Skype on Ubuntu 13.04, from the Canonical repositories. With apt-get it worked easily, while aptitude had a huge problem with dependencies and proposed a complicated solution. Why is this so? Why doesn't aptitude offer whatever apt-get does as a potential solution? Here is the output of both: apt-get install skype: Reading package lists... Building dependency tree... Reading state information... The following extra packages will be installed: gcc-4.7-base:i386 libasound2 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libasyncns0:i386 libaudio2:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386 libavahi-common3:i386 libc6:i386 libcomerr2:i386 libcups2:i386 libdbus-1-3 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbusmenu-qt2:i386 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2 libdrm2:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386 libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgcrypt11 libgcrypt11:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgnutls26 libgnutls26:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 libice6:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjbig0:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386 libllvm3.2:i386 liblzma5:i386 libmng1:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386 libogg0:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libpulse0:i386 libqt4-dbus libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative libqt4-declarative:i386 libqt4-designer libqt4-help libqt4-network libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl libqt4-opengl:i386 libqt4-script libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-scripttools libqt4-sql libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4 libqtgui4:i386 libqtwebkit4:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libselinux1:i386 libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl1.0.0 libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtiff5 libtiff5:i386 libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 libuuid1:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1 libx11-xcb1:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-dri2-0:i386 libxcb-glx0 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb1 libxcb1:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3 libxfixes3:i386 libxi6 libxi6:i386 libxml2 libxml2:i386 libxrender1 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386 libxt6 libxt6:i386 libxv1 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common qdbus skype-bin:i386 sni-qt:i386 zlib1g:i386 Suggested packages: nas:i386 glibc-doc:i386 locales:i386 rng-tools rng-tools:i386 libglide3 libglide3:i386 gnutls-bin gnutls-bin:i386 krb5-doc:i386 krb5-user:i386 libvisual-0.4-plugins:i386 gstreamer-codec-install:i386 gnome-codec-install:i386 gstreamer0.10-tools:i386 gstreamer0.10-plugins-base:i386 jackd2:i386 liblcms-utils:i386 pulseaudio:i386 libqt4-declarative-folderlistmodel libqt4-declarative-gestures libqt4-declarative-particles libqt4-declarative-shaders qt4-qmlviewer libqt4-declarative-folderlistmodel:i386 libqt4-declarative-gestures:i386 libqt4-declarative-particles:i386 libqt4-declarative-shaders:i386 qt4-qmlviewer:i386 libqt4-dev libqt4-dev:i386 libthai0:i386 libicu48:i386 qt4-qtconfig qt4-qtconfig:i386 Recommended packages: libtxc-dxtn0:i386 xml-core:i386 The following NEW packages will be installed gcc-4.7-base:i386 libasound2:i386 libasound2-plugins:i386 libasyncns0:i386 libaudio2:i386 libavahi-client3:i386 libavahi-common-data:i386 libavahi-common3:i386 libc6:i386 libcomerr2:i386 libcups2:i386 libdbus-1-3:i386 libdbusmenu-qt2:i386 libdrm-intel1:i386 libdrm-nouveau2:i386 libdrm-radeon1:i386 libdrm2:i386 libexpat1:i386 libffi6:i386 libflac8:i386 libfontconfig1:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libgcrypt11:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libglapi-mesa:i386 libglib2.0-0:i386 libgnutls26:i386 libgpg-error0:i386 libgssapi-krb5-2:i386 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386 libgstreamer0.10-0:i386 libice6:i386 libjack-jackd2-0:i386 libjbig0:i386 libjpeg-turbo8:i386 libjpeg8:i386 libjson0:i386 libk5crypto3:i386 libkeyutils1:i386 libkrb5-3:i386 libkrb5support0:i386 liblcms1:i386 libllvm3.2:i386 liblzma5:i386 libmng1:i386 libmysqlclient18:i386 libogg0:i386 liborc-0.4-0:i386 libp11-kit0:i386 libpciaccess0:i386 libpcre3:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libpulse0:i386 libqt4-dbus:i386 libqt4-declarative:i386 libqt4-network:i386 libqt4-opengl:i386 libqt4-script:i386 libqt4-sql:i386 libqt4-sql-mysql:i386 libqt4-xml:i386 libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386 libqtcore4:i386 libqtgui4:i386 libqtwebkit4:i386 libsamplerate0:i386 libselinux1:i386 libsm6:i386 libsndfile1:i386 libspeexdsp1:i386 libsqlite3-0:i386 libssl1.0.0:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libtasn1-3:i386 libtiff5:i386 libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 libuuid1:i386 libvorbis0a:i386 libvorbisenc2:i386 libwrap0:i386 libx11-6:i386 libx11-xcb1:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb-dri2-0:i386 libxcb-glx0:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxdamage1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxfixes3:i386 libxi6:i386 libxml2:i386 libxrender1:i386 libxslt1.1:i386 libxss1:i386 libxt6:i386 libxv1:i386 libxxf86vm1:i386 mysql-common skype skype-bin:i386 sni-qt:i386 zlib1g:i386 The following packages will be upgraded: libasound2 libdbus-1-3 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libgcrypt11 libgl1-mesa-dri libgnutls26 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-designer libqt4-help libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-scripttools libqt4-sql libqt4-sql-sqlite libqt4-svg libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libssl1.0.0 libtiff5 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-glx0 libxcb1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxml2 libxrender1 libxt6 libxv1 libxxf86vm1 qdbus 41 upgraded, 105 newly installed, 0 to remove and 138 not upgraded. Need to get 85.9 MB/89.2 MB of archives. After this operation, 204 MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? aptitude install skype: Reading package lists... Building dependency tree... Reading state information... Reading extended state information... Initialising package states... The following NEW packages will be installed: gcc-4.7-base:i386{a} libasound2:i386{a} libasound2-plugins:i386{a} libasyncns0:i386{a} libaudio2:i386{a} libavahi-client3:i386{a} libavahi-common-data:i386{a} libavahi-common3:i386{a} libc6:i386{a} libcomerr2:i386{a} libcups2:i386{a} libdbus-1-3:i386{a} libdbusmenu-qt2:i386{a} libdrm-intel1:i386{a} libdrm-nouveau2:i386{a} libdrm-radeon1:i386{a} libdrm2:i386{a} libexpat1:i386{a} libffi6:i386{a} libflac8:i386{a} libfontconfig1:i386{a} libfreetype6:i386{a} libgcc1:i386{a} libgcrypt11:i386{a} libgl1-mesa-dri:i386{a} libgl1-mesa-glx:i386{a} libglapi-mesa:i386{a} libglib2.0-0:i386{a} libgnutls26:i386{a} libgpg-error0:i386{a} libgssapi-krb5-2:i386{a} libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0:i386{a} libgstreamer0.10-0:i386{a} libice6:i386{a} libjack-jackd2-0:i386{a} libjbig0:i386{a} libjpeg-turbo8:i386{a} libjpeg8:i386{a} libjson0:i386{a} libk5crypto3:i386{a} libkeyutils1:i386{a} libkrb5-3:i386{a} libkrb5support0:i386{a} liblcms1:i386{a} libllvm3.2:i386{a} liblzma5:i386{a} libmng1:i386{a} libmysqlclient18:i386{a} libogg0:i386{a} liborc-0.4-0:i386{a} libp11-kit0:i386{a} libpciaccess0:i386{a} libpcre3:i386{a} libpng12-0:i386{a} libpulse0:i386{a} libqt4-dbus:i386{a} libqt4-declarative:i386{a} libqt4-network:i386{a} libqt4-opengl:i386{a} libqt4-script:i386{a} libqt4-sql:i386{a} libqt4-sql-mysql:i386{a} libqt4-xml:i386{a} libqt4-xmlpatterns:i386{a} libqtcore4:i386{a} libqtgui4:i386{a} libqtwebkit4:i386{a} libsamplerate0:i386{a} libselinux1:i386{a} libsm6:i386{a} libsndfile1:i386{a} libspeexdsp1:i386{a} libsqlite3-0:i386{a} libssl1.0.0:i386{a} libstdc++6:i386{a} libtasn1-3:i386{a} libtiff5:i386{a} libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386{a} libuuid1:i386{a} libvorbis0a:i386{a} libvorbisenc2:i386{a} libwrap0:i386{a} libx11-6:i386{a} libx11-xcb1:i386{a} libxau6:i386{a} libxcb-dri2-0:i386{a} libxcb-glx0:i386{a} libxcb1:i386{a} libxdamage1:i386{a} libxdmcp6:i386{a} libxext6:i386{a} libxfixes3:i386{a} libxi6:i386{a} libxml2:i386{a} libxrender1:i386{a} libxslt1.1:i386{a} libxss1:i386{a} libxt6:i386{a} libxv1:i386{a} libxxf86vm1:i386{a} mysql-common{a} skype skype-bin:i386{a} sni-qt:i386{a} zlib1g:i386{a} The following packages will be upgraded: libasound2 libdbus-1-3 libdrm-intel1 libdrm-nouveau2 libdrm-radeon1 libdrm2 libgcrypt11 libgl1-mesa-dri libgnutls26 libqt4-dbus libqt4-declarative libqt4-network libqt4-opengl libqt4-script libqt4-sql libqt4-xml libqt4-xmlpatterns libqtcore4 libqtgui4 libssl1.0.0 libtiff5 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb-dri2-0 libxcb-glx0 libxcb1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxml2 libxrender1 libxt6 libxv1 libxxf86vm1 qdbus 35 packages upgraded, 105 newly installed, 0 to remove and 144 not upgraded. Need to get 81.7 MB/85.0 MB of archives. After unpacking 204 MB will be used. The following packages have unmet dependencies: libqt4-test : Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-designer : Depends: libqt4-script (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqt4-xml (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-sql-sqlite : Depends: libqt4-sql (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-help : Depends: libqt4-network (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqt4-sql (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-svg : Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. libqt4-scripttools : Depends: libqt4-script (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtcore4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. Depends: libqtgui4 (= 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9) but 4:4.8.4+dfsg-0ubuntu9.2 is to be installed. The following actions will resolve these dependencies: Remove the following packages: 1) account-plugin-aim 2) account-plugin-facebook 3) account-plugin-flickr 4) account-plugin-generic-oauth 5) account-plugin-google 6) account-plugin-jabber 7) account-plugin-salut 8) account-plugin-twitter 9) account-plugin-windows-live 10) account-plugin-yahoo 11) empathy 12) friends 13) friends-dispatcher 14) friends-facebook 15) friends-twitter 16) gir1.2-signon-1.0 17) gnome-control-center-signon 18) libaccount-plugin-1.0-0 19) libfriends0 20) libqt4-designer 21) libqt4-help 22) libqt4-scripttools 23) libqt4-sql-sqlite 24) libqt4-svg 25) libqt4-test 26) libsignon-glib1 27) mcp-account-manager-uoa 28) nautilus-sendto-empathy 29) python-qt4 30) shotwell 31) signon-plugin-oauth2 32) signon-plugin-password 33) signon-ui 34) signond 35) ubuntu-sso-client-qt 36) ubuntuone-control-panel-qt 37) unity-lens-friends 38) unity-lens-photos 39) unity-scope-gdrive 40) webaccounts-extension-common 41) xul-ext-webaccounts Leave the following dependencies unresolved: 42) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends gnome-control-center-signon 43) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-aim 44) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-jabber 45) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-google 46) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-facebook 47) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-windows-live 48) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-yahoo 49) mcp-account-manager-uoa recommends account-plugin-salut 50) ubuntu-desktop recommends empathy 51) ubuntu-desktop recommends libqt4-sql-sqlite 52) ubuntu-desktop recommends shotwell 53) ubuntu-desktop recommends ubuntuone-control-panel-qt 54) ubuntu-desktop recommends xul-ext-webaccounts 55) unity recommends unity-lens-photos 56) unity recommends unity-lens-friends 57) unity-lens-files recommends unity-scope-gdrive 58) libqt4-sql recommends libqt4-sql-mysql | libqt4-sql-odbc | libqt4-sql-ps Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] And in case this helps, aptitude show skype: Package: skype State: not installed Version: 4.2.0.11-0ubuntu0.12.04.2 Priority: extra Section: net Maintainer: Steve Langasek <[email protected]> Architecture: amd64 Uncompressed Size: 62.5 k Depends: skype-bin Conflicts: skype Description: client for Skype VOIP and instant messaging service Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Every day, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles. * Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to anyone else, anywhere in the world. * Call to landlines and mobiles at great rates. * Group chat with up to 200 people or conference call with up to 25 others. * Free to download.

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• Clean Code Development & Flexible work environment - MSCC 26.10.2013

  Finally, some spare time to summarize my impressions and experiences of the recent meetup of Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community. I already posted my comment on the event and on our social media networks: Professional - It's getting better with our meetups and I really appreciated that 'seniors' and 'juniors' were present today. Despite running a little bit out of time it was really great to see more students coming to the gathering. This time we changed location for our Saturday meetup and it worked out very well. A big thank you to Ebene Accelerator, namely Mrs Poonum, for the ability to use their meeting rooms for our community get-together. Already some weeks ago I had a very pleasant conversation with her about the MSCC aims, 'mission' and how we organise things. Additionally, I think that an environment like the Ebene Accelerator is a good choice as it acts as an incubator for young developers and start-ups. Reactions from other craftsmen Before I put my thoughts about our recent meeting down, I'd like to mention and cross-link to some of the other craftsmen that were present: "MSCC meet up is a massive knowledge gaining strategies for students, future entrepreneurs, or for geeks all around. Knowledge sharing becomes a fun. For those who have not been able to made it do subscribe on our MSCC meet up group at meetup.com." -- Nitin on Learning is fun with #MSCC #Ebene Accelerator "We then talked about the IT industry in Mauritius, salary issues in various field like system administration, software development etc. We analysed the reasons why people tend to hop from one company to another. That was a fun debate." -- Ish on MSCC meetup - Gang of Geeks "Flexible Learning Environment was quite interesting since these lines struck cords : "You're not a secretary....9 to 5 shouldn't suit you"....This allowed reflection...deep reflection....especially regarding the local mindset...which should be changed in a way which would promote creativity rather than choking it till death..." -- Yannick on 2nd MSCC Monthly Meet-up And others on Facebook... ;-) Visual impressions are available on our Meetup event page. More first time attendees We great pleasure I noticed that we have once again more first time visitors. A quick overlook showed that we had a majority of UoM students in first, second or last year. Some of them are already participating in the UoM Computer Club or are nominated as members of the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) programme. Personally, I really appreciate the fact that the MSCC is able to gather such a broad audience. And as I wrote initially, the MSCC is technology-agnostic; we want IT people from any segment of this business. Of course, students which are about to delve into the 'real world' of working are highly welcome, and I hope that they might get one or other glimpse of experience or advice from employees. Sticking to the schedule? No, not really... And honestly, it was a good choice to go a little bit of the beaten tracks. I mean, yes we have a 'rough' agenda of topics that we would like to talk about or having a presentation about. But we keep it 'agile'. Due to the high number of new faces, we initiated another quick round of introductions and I gave a really brief overview of the MSCC. Next, we started to reflect on the Clean Code Developer (CCD) - Red Grade which we introduced on the last meetup. Nirvan was the lucky one and he did a good job on summarizing the various abbreviations of the first level of being a CCD. Actually, more interesting, we exchanged experience about the principles and practices of Red Grade, and it was very informative to get to know that Yann actually 'interviewed' a couple of friends, other students, local guys working in IT companies as well as some IT friends from India in order to counter-check on what he learned first-hand about Clean Code. Currently, he is reading the book of Robert C. Martin on that topic and I'm looking forward to his review soon. More output generates more input What seems to be like a personal mantra is working out pretty well for me since the beginning of this year. Being more active on social media networks, writing more article on my blog, starting the Mauritius Software Craftsmanship Community, and contributing more to other online communities has helped me to receive more project requests, job offers and possibilities to expand my business at IOS Indian Ocean Software Ltd. Actually, it is not a coincidence that one of the questions new craftsmen should answer during registration asks about having a personal blog. Whether you are just curious about IT, right in the middle of your Computer Studies, or already working in software development or system administration since a while you should consider to advertise and market yourself online. Easiest way to resolve this are to have online profiles on professional social media networks like LinkedIn, Xing, Twitter, and Google+ (no Facebook should be considered for private only), and considering to have a personal blog. Why? -- Be yourself, be proud of your work, and let other people know that you're passionate about your profession. Trust me, this is going to open up opportunities you might not have dreamt about... Exchanging ideas about having a professional online presence - MSCC meetup on the 26th October 2013 Furthermore, consider to put your Curriculum Vitae online, too. There are quite a number of service providers like 1ClickCV, Stack Overflow Careers 2.0, etc. which give you the ability to have an up to date CV online. At least put it on your site, next to your personal blog. Similar to what you would be able to see on my site here. Cyber Island Mauritius - are we there? A couple of weeks ago I got a 'cold' message on LinkedIn from someone living in the U.S. asking about the circumstances and conditions of the IT world of Mauritius. He has a great business idea, venture capital and is currently looking for a team of software developers (mainly mobile - iOS) for a new startup here in Mauritius. Since then we exchanged quite some details through private messages and Skype conversations, and I suggested that it might be a good chance to join our meetup through a conference call and see for yourself about potential candidates. During approximately 30 to 40 minutes the brief idea of the new startup was presented - very promising state-of-the-art technology aspects and integration of various public APIs -, and we had a good Q&A session about it. Also thanks to the excellent bandwidth provided by the Ebene Accelerator the video conference between three parties went absolutely well. Clean Code Developer - Orange Grade Hahaha - nice one... Being at the Orange Tower at Ebene and then talking about an Orange Grade as CCD. Well, once again I provided an overview of the principles and practices in that rank of Clean Code, and similar to our last meetup we discussed on the various aspect of each principle, whether someone already got in touch with it during studies or work, and how it could affect their future view on their source code. Following are the principles and practices of Clean Code Developer - Orange Grade: CCD Orange Grade - Principles Single Level of Abstraction (SLA) Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) Separation of Concerns (SoC) Source Code conventions CCD Orange Grade - Practices Issue Tracking Automated Integration Tests Reading, Reading, Reading Reviews Especially the part on reading technical books got some extra attention. We quickly gathered our views on that and came up with a result that ranges between Zero (0) and up to Fifteen (15) book titles per year. Personally, I'm keeping my progress between Six (6) and Eight (8) titles per year, but at least One (1) per quarter of a year. Which is also connected to the fact that I'm participating in the O'Reilly Reader Review Program and have a another benefit to get access to free books only by writing and publishing a review afterwards. We also had a good exchange on the extended topic of 'Reviews' - which to my opinion is abnormal difficult here in Mauritius for various reasons. As far as I can tell from my experience working with Mauritian software developers, either as colleagues, employees or during consulting services there are unfortunately two dominant pattern on that topic: Keeping quiet Running away Honestly, I have no evidence about why these are the two 'solutions' on reviews but that's the situation that I had to face over the last couple of years. Sitting together and talking about problematic issues, tackling down root causes of de-motivational activities and working on general improvements doesn't seem to have a ground within the IT world of Mauritius. Are you a typist or a creative software craftsman? - MSCC meetup on the 26th October 2013 One very good example that we talked about was the fact of 'job hoppers' as you can easily observe it on someone's CV - those people change job every single year; for no obvious reason! Frankly speaking, I wouldn't even consider an IT person like to for an interview. As a company you're investing money and effort into the abilities of your employees. Hiring someone that won't stay for a longer period is out of question. And sorry to say, these kind of IT guys smell fishy about their capabilities and more likely to cause problems than actually produce productive results. One of the reasons why there is a probation period on an employment contract is to give you the liberty to leave as early as possible in case that you don't like your new position. Don't fool yourself or waste other people's time and money by hanging around a full year only to snatch off the bonus payment... Future outlook: Developer's Conference Even though it is not official yet I already mentioned it several times during our weekly Code & Coffee sessions. The MSCC is looking forward to be able to organise or to contribute to an upcoming IT event. Currently, the rough schedule is set for April 2014 but this mainly depends on availability of location(s), a decent time frame for preparations, and the underlying procedures with public bodies to have it approved and so on. As soon as the information about date and location has been fixed there will be a 'Call for Papers' period in order to attract local IT enthusiasts to apply for a session slot and talk about their field of work and their passion in IT. More to come for sure... My resume of the day It was a great gathering and I am very pleased about the fact that we had another 15 craftsmen (plus 2 businessmen on conference call plus 2 young apprentices) in the same room, talking about IT related topics and sharing their experience as employees and students. Personally, I really appreciated the feedback from the students about their current view on their future career, and I really hope that some of them are going to pursue their dreams. Start promoting yourself and it will happen... Looking forward to your blogs! And last but not least our numbers on Meetup and Facebook have been increased as a direct consequence of this meetup. Please, spread the word about the MSCC and get your friends and colleagues to join our official site. The higher the number of craftsmen we have the better chances we have t achieve something great! Thanks!

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• Wordpress Template HTML CSS Layout Confusion

  - by Jess McKenzie

  I am having huge confusion with a template that I have purchased and I am trying to modify to handle a widget contact form. I am getting close with this but I have now muddled up the CSS or I have a feeling every page has a different CSS structure. The General Layout: What I Manage To Get: HTML View Source: <div id="innerright"> <div id="home" class="page"> <div id="homeslides"> <div class="welcomeslide"> <h1 class="large">Welcome</h1> </div> </div><!-- end home slides --> </div><!-- end page --> <div id="portfolio" class="page"> <div class="verticalline"> <div class="scrollprevnext"></div> </div> <div class="pageheader"> <h3><span>P</span>ortfolio</h3> </div><!--end pageheader --> <div id="portfolioscroller" class="scrollerenabledpage"> <div class="content"> <h5>Recent Work</h5> <ul class="thumb"> <li><a rel="precision_gallery" href="" title=""><img alt="" src="" /></a></li> </ul> </div> </div><!--end v scroll inner--> </div><!-- end page --> <div id="contact" class="page"> <div class="verticalline"> <div class="scrollprevnext"></div> </div> <div class="pageheader"> <h3><span>C</span>ontact</h3> </div><!--end pageheader --> <div id="contactscroller"> <h5>Get In Touch</h5> <div id="contactform">content</div> </div><!--end v scroll inner--> </div><!-- end page --> </div><!--end innerright--> CSS: CSS index.php: <!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title><?php bloginfo('name'); ?></title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/style.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.css" media="screen" /> <?php // jquery will be included by wp_head function as well as scripts and styles by third party plugins wp_head(); ?> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/plugins.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/js/script.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.pack.js"></script> <?php // background image if one has been set via options if (function_exists('get_option_tree')) { $background_image = get_option_tree('precision_background_image'); //$background_image = ''; $background_color = get_option_tree('precision_background_color'); if ($background_color != '') { echo '<style>body { background-color:'.$background_color.'; }</style>'; } } ?> <script type="text/javascript"> jQuery(document).ready(function($) { $('.page').each(function(index, element) { $(this).css('left', index * 500); }); <?php // if background is set via the OptionTree then load it first if ($background_image != '') { ?> $.vegas({ src:'<?php echo $background_image; ?>', fade:1000, complete:function() { $("#wrapper").fadeIn(1000); $("#bgpanel").fadeIn(1000); $('#mainslide').crossSlide( { speed: 15, fade: 1 }, [ <?php echo $slides; ?> ] ) $('#homeslides').bxSlider({ mode: 'fade', auto: true, controls:false, speed:1000, pause:5000 }); } }); <?php } else { // if no background has been set then fade-in the page ?> $("#wrapper").fadeIn(1000); $("#bgpanel").fadeIn(1000); $('#mainslide').crossSlide( { speed: 15, fade: 1 }, [ //ENTER YOUR MAIN SLIDESHOW IMAGES HERE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <?php echo $slides; ?> ] ) $('#homeslides').bxSlider({ mode: 'fade', auto: true, controls:false, speed:1000, pause:5000 }); <?php } ?> //BX SLIDER INNER PAGE SCROLLERS//////////////////////// $('.scrollerenabledpage').each(function(index, element) { $('#' + $(this).attr('id')).bxSlider({ mode: 'vertical', easing: 'easeInOutQuint', auto: false, controls: true, prevImage:'<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/images/up.png', nextImage:'<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/images/down.png', infiniteLoop: false, hideControlOnEnd: true, pager: true, pagerType:'short', pagerShortSeparator:'of', speed:800, }); }); //END BX SLIDER INNER PAGE SCROLLERS///////////////// $('#submit').click(function(e) { e.preventDefault(); $('form').submit(); }); // contact form $('form').submit(function(e) { $('#main').append('<img src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/images/loader.gif" class="loaderIcon" alt="Loading..." />'); $.post("<?php bloginfo('wpurl'); ?>/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php", {action:'precision_contact_form_handler', uname:$('input#uname').val(), uemail:$('input#uemail').val(), ucomments:$('textarea#ucomments').val()}, function(data) { $('#main img.loaderIcon').fadeOut(1000); if (data.status == "success") { $('#response').html("Forum has been successfully submitted."); } else { if (data.response != '') { $('#response').html(data.response); } else { $('#response').html("An error occurred while submitting the form. Please try again."); } } }, "json"); return false; }); }); //hides contact form labels when a field gets focus function initOverLabels () { if (!document.getElementById) return; var labels, id, field; labels = document.getElementsByTagName('label'); for (var i = 0; i < labels.length; i++) { if (labels[i].className == 'overlabel') { id = labels[i].htmlFor || labels[i].getAttribute('for'); if (!id || !(field = document.getElementById(id))) { continue; } labels[i].className = 'overlabel-apply'; if (field.value !== '') { hideLabel(field.getAttribute('id'), true); } field.onfocus = function () { hideLabel(this.getAttribute('id'), true); }; field.onblur = function () { if (this.value === '') { hideLabel(this.getAttribute('id'), false); } }; labels[i].onclick = function () { var id, field; id = this.getAttribute('for'); if (id && (field = document.getElementById(id))) { field.focus(); } }; } } }; function hideLabel(field_id, hide) { var field_for; var labels = document.getElementsByTagName('label'); for (var i = 0; i < labels.length; i++) { field_for = labels[i].htmlFor || labels[i].getAttribute('for'); if (field_for == field_id) { labels[i].style.textIndent = (hide) ? '-1000px' : '0px'; return true; } } } window.onload = function () { setTimeout(initOverLabels, 50); }; </script> <?php if (function_exists('get_option_tree')) { $precision_font_family_1 = get_option_tree('precision_font_family_1'); ?> <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=<?php echo $precision_font_family_1; ?>' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'> <?php } ?> <style> h1, h2 { font-family:<?php echo $precision_font_family_1; ?>; } </style> </head> <body> <div id="wrapper"> <div id="innerleft"> <div id="header"> <?php if (function_exists('get_option_tree')) { $site_logo = get_option_tree('precision_site_logo'); ?> <a href="/" title="<?php bloginfo('name');?>"><img src="<?php echo $site_logo; ?>" alt="<?php bloginfo('name');?>" /></a> <?php } ?> </div><!--end header--> <?php if (function_exists('get_option_tree')) { $precision_slideshow_image = get_option_tree('precision_slideshow_image'); } ?> <ul id="nav"><!--Navigation--> <?php //instead of using wp_nav_menu, we use wp_get_nav_menu_items so that we can store the data in array and re-use it again //wp_nav_menu(array('theme_location' => 'precision-main-menu', 'container' => 'false')); 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?>/images/social-icons/vimeo.png" width="16" height="16" alt="vimeo" /></a></li> <?php } ?> <!--end vimeo icon--> <!--start youtube icon--> <?php if ($youtube_link != '') { ?> <li><a href="<?php echo $youtube_link; ?>"><img src="<?php echo get_template_directory_uri(); ?>/images/social-icons/youtube.png" width="16" height="16" alt="youtube" /></a></li> <?php } ?> <!--end youtube icon--> <?php } ?> </ul> </div> </div><!--end innerleft--> <div id="innerright"> <?php if (function_exists('get_option_tree')) { $precision_home_page_option = get_option_tree('precision_home_page'); $precision_home_page = strtolower(get_the_title($precision_home_page_option)); if ($precision_home_page == '') { $precision_home_page = 'home'; } $precision_contact_page_option = get_option_tree('precision_contact_page'); $precision_contact_page = strtolower(get_the_title($precision_contact_page_option)); if ($precision_contact_page == '') { $precision_contact_page = 'contact'; } } foreach ($menusItems as $menuItem) { ?> <div id="<?php echo strtolower($menuItem->title); ?>" class="page"> <?php if (strtolower($menuItem->title) == $precision_home_page) { ?> <div id="homeslides"> <?php $page_data = get_page($menuItem->page_id); $content = apply_filters('the_content', $page_data->post_content); echo $content; ?> </div><!-- end home slides --> <?php } else { ?> <div class="verticalline"> <div class="scrollprevnext"></div> </div> <div class="pageheader"> <h3><span><?php echo substr($menuItem->title, 0, 1); ?></span><?php echo substr($menuItem->title, 1); ?></h3> </div><!--end pageheader --> <?php $classes = ''; if (strtolower($menuItem->title) == $precision_contact_page) { ?> <div id="<?php echo strtolower($menuItem->title); ?>scroller"> <?php $page_data = get_page($menuItem->page_id); $content = apply_filters('the_content', $page_data->post_content); echo $content; ?> </div><!--end v scroll inner--> <?php } else { $classes = 'scrollerenabledpage'; ?> <div id="<?php echo strtolower($menuItem->title); ?>scroller" class="<?php echo $classes; ?>"> <?php $page_data = get_page($menuItem->page_id); $content = apply_filters('the_content', $page_data->post_content); echo $content; ?> </div><!--end v scroll inner--> <?php } } ?> </div><!-- end page --> <?php } ?> </div><!--end innerright--> <div id="footer"> <p>&copy; <a href="/"><?php bloginfo('name');?></a> | <?php echo date('Y');?></p> </div> </div><!--end wrapper--> </div> <!--Live Preview--> </body> </html>

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• Links to my “Best of 2010” Posts

  - by ScottGu

  I hope everyone is having a Happy New Years! 2010 has been a busy blogging year for me (this is the 100th blog post I’ve done in 2010).  Several people this week suggested I put together a summary post listing/organizing my favorite posts from the year.  Below is a quick listing of some of my favorite posts organized by topic area: VS 2010 and .NET 4 Below is a series of posts I wrote (some in late 2009) about the VS 2010 and .NET 4 (including ASP.NET 4 and WPF 4) release we shipped in April: Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Released Clean Web.Config Files Starter Project Templates Multi-targeting Multiple Monitor Support New Code Focused Web Profile Option HTML / ASP.NET / JavaScript Code Snippets Auto-Start ASP.NET Applications URL Routing with ASP.NET 4 Web Forms Searching and Navigating Code in VS 2010 VS 2010 Code Intellisense Improvements WPF 4 Add Reference Dialog Improvements SEO Improvements with ASP.NET 4 Output Cache Extensibility with ASP.NET 4 Built-in Charting Controls for ASP.NET and Windows Forms Cleaner HTML Markup with ASP.NET 4 - Client IDs Optional Parameters and Named Arguments in C# 4 - and a cool scenarios with ASP.NET MVC 2 Automatic Properties, Collection Initializers and Implicit Line Continuation Support with VB 2010 New <%: %> Syntax for HTML Encoding Output using ASP.NET 4 JavaScript Intellisense Improvements with VS 2010 VS 2010 Debugger Improvements (DataTips, BreakPoints, Import/Export) Box Selection and Multi-line Editing Support with VS 2010 VS 2010 Extension Manager (and the cool new PowerCommands Extension) Pinning Projects and Solutions VS 2010 Web Deployment Debugging Tips/Tricks with Visual Studio Search and Navigation Tips/Tricks with Visual Studio Visual Studio Below are some additional Visual Studio posts I’ve done (not in the first series above) that I thought were nice: Download and Share Visual Studio Color Schemes Visual Studio 2010 Keyboard Shortcuts VS 2010 Productivity Power Tools Fun Visual Studio 2010 Wallpapers Silverlight We shipped Silverlight 4 in April, and announced Silverlight 5 the beginning of December: Silverlight 4 Released Silverlight 4 Tools for VS 2010 and WCF RIA Services Released Silverlight 4 Training Kit Silverlight PivotViewer Now Available Silverlight Questions Announcing Silverlight 5 Silverlight for Windows Phone 7 We shipped Windows Phone 7 this fall and shipped free Visual Studio development tools with great Silverlight and XNA support in September: Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools Released Building a Windows Phone 7 Twitter Application using Silverlight ASP.NET MVC We shipped ASP.NET MVC 2 in March, and started previewing ASP.NET MVC 3 this summer.  ASP.NET MVC 3 will RTM in less than 2 weeks from today: ASP.NET MVC 2: Strongly Typed Html Helpers ASP.NET MVC 2: Model Validation Introducing ASP.NET MVC 3 (Preview 1) Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Beta and NuGet (nee NuPack) Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Release Candidate 1  Announcing ASP.NET MVC 3 Release Candidate 2 Introducing Razor – A New View Engine for ASP.NET ASP.NET MVC 3: Layouts with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: New @model keyword in Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Server-Side Comments with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Razor’s @: and <text> syntax ASP.NET MVC 3: Implicit and Explicit code nuggets with Razor ASP.NET MVC 3: Layouts and Sections with Razor IIS and Web Server Stack The IIS and Web Stack teams have made a bunch of great improvements to the core web server this year: Fix Common SEO Problems using the URL Rewrite Extension Introducing the Microsoft Web Farm Framework Automating Deployment with Microsoft Web Deploy Introducing IIS Express SQL CE 4 (New Embedded Database Support with ASP.NET) Introducing Web Matrix EF Code First EF Code First is a really nice new data option that enables a very clean code-oriented data workflow: Announcing Entity Framework Code-First CTP5 Release Class-Level Model Validation with EF Code First and ASP.NET MVC 3 Code-First Development with Entity Framework 4 EF 4 Code First: Custom Database Schema Mapping Using EF Code First with an Existing Database jQuery and AJAX Contributions My team began making some significant source code contributions to the jQuery project this year: jQuery Templates, Data Link and Globalization Accepted as Official jQuery Plugins jQuery Templates and Data Linking (and Microsoft contributing to jQuery) jQuery Globalization Plugin from Microsoft Patches and Hot Fixes Some useful fixes you can download prior to VS 2010 SP1: Patch for Cut/Copy “Insufficient Memory” issue with VS 2010 Patch for VS 2010 Find and Replace Dialog Growing Patch for VS 2010 Scrolling Context Menu Videos of My Talks Some recordings of technical talks I’ve done this year: ASP.NET 4, ASP.NET MVC, and Silverlight 4 Talks I did in Europe VS 2010 and ASP.NET 4 Web Forms Talk in Arizona Other About Technical Debates (and ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC debates in particular) ASP.NET Security Fix Now on Windows Update Upcoming Web Camps I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who follows my blog – I really appreciate you reading it (the comments you post help encourage me to write it).  See you in the New Year! Scott P.S. In addition to blogging, I am also now using Twitter for quick updates and to share links. Follow me at: twitter.com/scottgu

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• Airtel 3G in Chennai – User experience, Price & What’s the catch?

  - by Boonei

  Finally ! Here we are with Airtel 3G in India. Now Airtel customers can have a go at real 3G speed. Sources suggest that the delay in rolling out 3G was due to hardware problems. It was provided by Ericsson. Now first things first. Let me get to the point. I had subscribed to Airtel’s 3G pack Rs.100 for 100 MB. This is to check out how good it is, did not want to pay a hefty sum at the first instance. It was pretty smooth upgrading.. After the upgrade I did see the much awaited 3G signal bar on my phone. Ok! now its testing time. User experience First I did a bit of browsing, boy ! it was pretty quick, web pages loaded in a jiffy. I really did not time it because it loaded really quick. I loaded a YouTube Video, no buffering, watched the 4 min Video with no problems, it took around 6 MB of data usage Made a Skype call for about 6 min, voice clarity was really good and data usage was around 4-5 MB Tried Google Maps everything was so fast could not see the difference between computer and my phone, used it for about couple of minutes. Did listen to an Online Radio for about 5 min took about 8 MB of data usage Guess there is no need to say about Facebook or Twitter. It was good obviously. Video Call – Not yet tested Price – Do you get what you pay for ? 3G speed is fantastic, you have to really feel it to enjoy it. But currently in Airtel, 3G is available only in 3 places wiz. Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore. ok ! Its not even there in all the metros? hmmm. 3G signal was not available in all parts of Chennai, often in many places it changed to 2G. Let alone all the places, even in my house when walking from one room to another sometimes its shows 2G. When it chaged from 3G to 2G there was lag in the application when it was loading data which often made me wonder if the application hanged. Currently prices not low. 2G plans in Airtel is Rs.98 for 2GB and for Rs.100 its only 100MB in 3G. Now you decide please, it’s quite a debate. The Catch – There is always a catch right ? If you have bought 3G connection and in places where 3G is not available (2G) and use any application that requires data connections (youtube, browse, chat etc) its changed with 3G!. Meaning if you have bought 100MB of 3G by paying Rs.100 like I did, suppose you used the connection for about 10MB using 2G, then it would reduce from the 100MB to 90 MB….That’s bad ! You cannot have 2G and 3G plans activated at the same point of time in your phone. You will pay 3G price for using 2G. This article titled,Airtel 3G in Chennai – User experience, Price & What’s the catch?, was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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• Oracle Announces Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine

  - by jgelhaus

  Fourth Generation Exadata X3 Systems are Ideal for High-End OLTP, Large Data Warehouses, and Database Clouds; Eighth-Rack Configuration Offers New Low-Cost Entry Point ORACLE OPENWORLD, SAN FRANCISCO – October 1, 2012 News Facts During his opening keynote address at Oracle OpenWorld, Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison announced the Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine - the latest generation of its Oracle Exadata Database Machines. The Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine is a key component of the Oracle Cloud. Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine and Oracle Exadata X3-8 Database In-Memory Machine can store up to hundreds of Terabytes of compressed user data in Flash and RAM memory, virtually eliminating the performance overhead of reads and writes to slow disk drives, making Exadata X3 systems the ideal database platforms for the varied and unpredictable workloads of cloud computing. In order to realize the highest performance at the lowest cost, the Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine implements a mass memory hierarchy that automatically moves all active data into Flash and RAM memory, while keeping less active data on low-cost disks. With a new Eighth-Rack configuration, the Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine delivers a cost-effective entry point for smaller workloads, testing, development and disaster recovery systems, and is a fully redundant system that can be used with mission critical applications. Next-Generation Technologies Deliver Dramatic Performance Improvements Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machines use a combination of scale-out servers and storage, InfiniBand networking, smart storage, PCI Flash, smart memory caching, and Hybrid Columnar Compression to deliver extreme performance and availability for all Oracle Database Workloads. Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine systems leverage next-generation technologies to deliver significant performance enhancements, including: Four times the Flash memory capacity of the previous generation; with up to 40 percent faster response times and 100 GB/second data scan rates. Combined with Exadata’s unique Hybrid Columnar Compression capabilities, hundreds of Terabytes of user data can now be managed entirely within Flash; 20 times more capacity for database writes through updated Exadata Smart Flash Cache software. The new Exadata Smart Flash Cache software also runs on previous generation Exadata systems, increasing their capacity for writes tenfold; 33 percent more database CPU cores in the Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine, using the latest 8-core Intel® Xeon E5-2600 series of processors; Expanded 10Gb Ethernet connectivity to the data center in the Oracle Exadata X3-2 provides 40 10Gb network ports per rack for connecting users and moving data; Up to 30 percent reduction in power and cooling. Configured for Your Business, Available Today Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine systems are available in a Full-Rack, Half-Rack, Quarter-Rack, and the new low-cost Eighth-Rack configuration to satisfy the widest range of applications. Oracle Exadata X3-8 Database In-Memory Machine systems are available in a Full-Rack configuration, and both X3 systems enable multi-rack configurations for virtually unlimited scalability. Oracle Exadata X3-2 and X3-8 Database In-Memory Machines are fully compatible with prior Exadata generations and existing systems can also be upgraded with Oracle Exadata X3-2 servers. Oracle Exadata X3 Database In-Memory Machine systems can be used immediately with any application certified with Oracle Database 11g R2 and Oracle Real Application Clusters, including SAP, Oracle Fusion Applications, Oracle’s PeopleSoft, Oracle’s Siebel CRM, the Oracle E-Business Suite, and thousands of other applications. Supporting Quotes “Forward-looking enterprises are moving towards Cloud Computing architectures,” said Andrew Mendelsohn, senior vice president, Oracle Database Server Technologies. “Oracle Exadata’s unique ability to run any database application on a fully scale-out architecture using a combination of massive memory for extreme performance and low-cost disk for high capacity delivers the ideal solution for Cloud-based database deployments today.” Supporting Resources Oracle Press Release Oracle Exadata Database Machine Oracle Exadata X3-2 Database In-Memory Machine Oracle Exadata X3-8 Database In-Memory Machine Oracle Database 11g Follow Oracle Database via Blog, Facebook and Twitter Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Keynotes Like Oracle OpenWorld on Facebook Follow Oracle OpenWorld on Twitter Oracle OpenWorld Blog Oracle OpenWorld on LinkedIn Mark Hurd's keynote with Andy Mendelsohn and Juan Loaiza - - watch for the replay to be available soon at http://www.youtube.com/user/Oracle or http://www.oracle.com/openworld/live/on-demand/index.html

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• Performance and Optimization Isn’t Evil

  - by Reed

  Donald Knuth is a fairly amazing guy.  I consider him one of the most influential contributors to computer science of all time.  Unfortunately, most of the time I hear his name, I cringe.  This is because it’s typically somebody quoting a small portion of one of his famous statements on optimization: “premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I mention that this is only a portion of the entire quote, and, as such, I feel that Knuth is being quoted out of context.  Optimization is important.  It is a critical part of every software development effort, and should never be ignored.  A developer who ignores optimization is not a professional.  Every developer should understand optimization – know what to optimize, when to optimize it, and how to think about code in a way that is intelligent and productive from day one. I want to start by discussing my own, personal motivation here.  I recently wrote about a performance issue I ran across, and was slammed by multiple comments and emails that effectively boiled down to: “You’re an idiot.  Premature optimization is the root of all evil.  This doesn’t matter.”  It didn’t matter that I discovered this while measuring in a profiler, and that it was a portion of my code base that can take “many hours to complete.”  Even so, multiple people instantly jump to “it’s premature – it doesn’t matter.” This is a common thread I see.  For example, StackOverflow has many pages of posts with answers that boil down to (mis)quoting Knuth.  In fact, just about any question relating to a performance related issue gets this quote thrown at it immediately – whether it deserves it or not.  That being said, I did receive some positive comments and emails as well.  Many people want to understand how to optimize their code, approaches to take, tools and techniques they can use, and any other advice they can discover. First, lets get back to Knuth – I mentioned before that Knuth is being quoted out of context.  Lets start by looking at the entire quote from his 1974 paper Structured Programming with go to Statements: “We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil. Yet we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%. A good programmer will not be lulled into complacency by such reasoning, he will be wise to look carefully at the critical code; but only after that code has been identified.” Ironically, if you read Knuth’s original paper, this statement was made in the middle of a discussion of how Knuth himself had changed how he approaches optimization.  It was never a statement saying “don’t optimize”, but rather, “optimizing intelligently provides huge advantages.”  His approach had three benefits: “a) it doesn’t take long” … “b) the payoff is real”, c) you can “be less efficient in the other parts of my programs, which therefore are more readable and more easily written and debugged.” Looking at Knuth’s premise here, and reading that section of his paper, really leads to a few observations: Optimization is important  “he will be wise to look carefully at the critical code” Normally, 3% of your code – three lines out of every 100 you write, are “critical code” and will require some optimization: “we should not pass up our opportunities in that critical 3%” Optimization, if done well, should not be time consuming: “it doesn’t take long” Optimization, if done correctly, provides real benefits: “the payoff is real” None of this is new information.  People who care about optimization have been discussing this for years – for example, Rico Mariani’s Designing For Performance (a fantastic article) discusses many of the same issues very intelligently. That being said, many developers seem unable or unwilling to consider optimization.  Many others don’t seem to know where to start.  As such, I’m going to spend some time writing about optimization – what is it, how should we think about it, and what can we do to improve our own code.

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• Redaction in AutoVue

  - by [email protected]

  As the trend to digitize all paper assets continues, so does the push to digitize all the processes around these assets. One such process is redaction - removing sensitive or classified information from documents. While for some this may conjure up thoughts of old CIA documents filled with nothing but blacked out pages, there are actually many uses for redaction today beyond military and government. Many companies have a need to remove names, phone numbers, social security numbers, credit card numbers, etc. from documents that are being scanned in and/or released to the public or less privileged users - insurance companies, banks and legal firms are a few examples. The process of digital redaction actually isn't that far from the old paper method: Step 1. Find a folder with a big red stamp on it labeled "TOP SECRET" Step 2. Make a copy of that document, since some folks still need to access the original contents Step 3. Black out the text or pages you want to hide Step 4. Release or distribute this new 'redacted' copy So where does a solution like AutoVue come in? Well, we've really been doing all of these things for years! 1. With AutoVue's VueLink integration and iSDK, we can integrate to virtually any content management system and view documents of almost any format with a single click. Finding the document and opening it in AutoVue: CHECK! 2. With AutoVue's markup capabilities, adding filled boxes (or other shapes) around certain text is a no-brainer. You can even leverage AutoVue's powerful APIs to automate the addition of markups over certain text or pre-defined regions using our APIs. Black out the text you want to hide: CHECK! 3. With AutoVue's conversion capabilities, you can 'burn-in' the comments into a new file, either as a TIFF, JPEG or PDF document. Burning-in the redactions avoids slip-ups like the recent (well-publicized) TSA one. Through our tight integrations, the newly created copies can be directly checked into the content management system with no manual intervention. Make a copy of that document: CHECK! 4. Again, leveraging AutoVue's integrations, we can now define rules in the system based on a user's privileges. An 'authorized' user wishing to view the document from the repository will get exactly that - no redactions. An 'unauthorized' user, when requesting to view that same document, can get redirected to open the redacted copy of the same document. Release or distribute the new 'redacted' copy: CHECK! See this movie (WMV format, 2mins, 20secs, no audio) for a quick illustration of AutoVue's redaction capabilities. It shows how redactions can be added based on text searches, manual input or pre-defined templates/regions. Let us know what you think in the comments. And remember - this is all in our flagship AutoVue product - no additional software required!

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• Tool to convert blogger.com content to dasBlog

  - by Daniel Moth

  Due to blogger.com dropping FTP support, I've had to move my blog. If you are in a similar situation, this post will help you by showing you the necessary steps to take. Goals No loss on blog posts, comments AND all existing permalinks continue to work (redirect to the correct place). Steps Download the XML files corresponding to your blogger.com content and store them in a folder. Install and configure dasBlog on your local machine. Configure your web.config file (will need updating once you run step 4). Use the tool I describe further down to generate the content and place it at the right place. Test your site locally. Once you are happy, repeat step 2 on your hosting provider of choice. Remember to copy up your dasBlog theme folder if you created one. Copy up the local web.config file and the XML dasBlog content files generated by the tool of step 4. Test your site on the server. Once you are happy, go live (following instructions from your hoster). In my case, I gave the nameservers from my new hoster to my existing domain registrar and they made the switch. Tool (code) At step 4 above I referred to a tool. That is an overstatement, it is simply one 450-line C#code file that you can download here: BloggerToDasBlog.cs. I used this from a .NET 2.0 console app (and I run it under the Visual Studio debugger, i.e. F5) like this: Program.cs. The console app referenced the dasBlog 2.3 ASP.NET Blogging Engine i.e. the newtelligence.DasBlog.Runtime.dll assembly. Let me describe what the code does: Input: A path to a folder where the XML files from the old blogger.com blog reside. It can deal with both types of XML file. A full file path to a file where it creates XML redirect input (as required by the rewriteMap mentioned here). The blog URL. The author's email. The blog author name. A path to an empty folder where the new XML dasBlog content files will get created. The subfolder name used after the domain name in the URL. The 3 reg ex patterns to use. You can use the same as mine, but will need to tweak the monthly_archive rule. Again, to see what values I passed for all the above, see my Program.cs file. Output: It creates dasBlog XML files in the folder specified. It creates those by parsing the old blogger.com XML files that reside in the folder specified. After that is generated, copy it to the "Content" folder under your dasBlog installation. It creates an XML file with a single ignorable root element and a bunch of inner XML elements. You can copy paste these in the web.config file as discussed in this post. Other notes: For each blog post, it detects outgoing links to itself (i.e. to the same blog), and rewrites those to point to the new URLs. So internal links do not rely on the web.config redirects. It deals with duplicate post titles; it does not deal with triplicates and higher. Removes all references to blogger.com (e.g. references to [email protected], the injected hidden footer for statistics that each blog post has and others – see the code). It creates a lot of diagnostic output (in the Output window) and indeed the documentation for the code is in the Debug.WriteLine statements ;) This is not code I will maintain or support – it was a throwaway one-use project that I am sharing here as a starting point for anyone finding themselves in the same boat that I was. Enjoy "as is". Comments about this post welcome at the original blog.

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• Christian Radio Locator iPhone app

  - by Tim Hibbard

  For the last three months or so I've been working on an iPhone (and iPad) app in my spare time. It all started when I took the kids to Minneapolis and had a hard time finding radio stations to listen to on the trip. I looked in the App Store for an app that would use my GPS to show me Christian radio stations nearby, but there wasn't one. So I decided to build my own. Using public information from the FCC and a few other sources, I built a database in Google docs that contains the frequency for all Christian radio stations, where the tower is located and how far the tower can reach. I also included any streaming audio information and other contact information like Facebook or Twitter that I could find. Google spreadsheets publish in JSON format (yes, really) and Xcode can automatically deserialize JSON into a properly formatted entity. This is one area that Xcode is far superior to C#. In a just a few lines of code, I can have a list of in-memory strongly typed objects from a web-based JSON feed. To accomplish the same thing natively in .NET would be much more work and wouldn't feel nearly as clean when it was said and done. The snazzy icon shown above was built by my very talented wife. She hasn't yet provided any feedback on the app's user interface, which is why it is so plain and boring. I used a navigation view controller and EGO pull to refresh table view to construct the main window. Pulling down to refresh initiates a GPS lookup, which queries the database for radio stations in range (yes, you can pass parameters to Google spreadsheets and get a subset back in JSON). Pulling up on the table extends the range of the search and includes stations that may not be close enough to get clear audio. This feature is not that intuitive and the next version contains an update to that functionality. Tapping a cell will show a detail view that displays additional information about the station. The user can click to view the station on a map, click to listen to an online stream (if available) or click to see the station's Facebook or Twitter pages. Swiping back and forth on the table changes the information that is displayed on the right hand side of the table cell. It scrolls through the city where the tower is located, how far the phone is from the tower, the range of the tower and in the next version a signal strength indicator. This was pretty easy to implement once I figured out how to assign the gesture recognizer delegate.  Tapping and holding on a cell will jump the user to the map view screen. Which is pretty cool, but very hard for even a power user to discover. To tackle the issue of discoverability, the next version has a series of instructions displayed at the bottom of the screen to show the user the various shortcuts. Once the user has performed the swipes and long holds, the instructions disappear. I've learned a lot developing this app. Spending over a decade exclusively in .NET made the learning curve a bit steep, but once I learned the structure and syntax of Objective-C, I've learned to appreciate the power and simplicity of it. Here are a few screenshots. I would really appreciate any feedback and especially iTunes reviews. Technically it is open source and a smart googler could probably find it. I just haven't promoted it as open source.     Cross posted from timhibbard.com

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• What's new in ASP.Net 4.5 and VS 2012 - part 2

  - by nikolaosk

  This is the second post in a series of posts titled "What's new in ASP.Net 4.5 and VS 2012".You can have a look at the first post in this series, here. Please find all my posts regarding VS 2012, here. In this post I will be looking into the various new features available in ASP.Net 4.5 and VS 2012.I will be looking into the enhancements in the HTML Editor,CSS Editor and Javascript Editor.In order to follow along this post you must have Visual Studio 2012 and .Net Framework 4.5 installed in your machine.Download and install VS 2012 using this link.My machine runs on Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 works just fine.I will work fine in Windows 7 as well so do not worry if you do not have the latest Microsoft operating system.1) Launch VS 2012 and create a new Web Forms application by going to File - >New Web Site - > ASP.Net Web Forms Site.2) Choose an appropriate name for your web site.3) I would like to point out the new enhancements in the CSS editor in VS 2012. In the Solution Explorer in the Content folder and open the Site.cssThen when I try to change the background-color property of the html element, I get a brand new handy color-picker. Have a look at the picture below  Please note that the color-picker shows all the colors that have been used in this website. Then you can expand the color-picker by clicking on the arrows. Opacity is also supported. Have a look at the picture below4) There are also mobile styles in the Site.css .These are based on media queries.Please have a look at another post of mine on CSS3 media queries. Have a look at the picture below In this case when the maximum width of the screen is less than 850px there will be a new layout that will be dictated by these new rules. Also CSS snippets are supported. Have a look at the picture below I am writing a new CSS rule for an image element. I write the property transform and hit tab and then I have cross-browser CSS handling all of the major vendors.Then I simply add the value rotate and it is applied to all the cross browser options.Have a look at the picture below.  I am sure you realise how productive you can become with all these CSS snippets. 5) Now let's have a look at the new HTML editor enhancements in VS 2012You can drag and drop a GridView web server control from the Toolbox in the Site.master file.You will see a smart tag (that was only available in the Design View) that you can expand and add fields, format the web server control.Have a look at the picture below 6) We also have available code snippets. I type <video and then press tab twice.By doing that I have the rest of the HTML 5 markup completed.Have a look at the picture below 7) I have new support for the input tag including all the HTML 5 types and all the new accessibility features.Have a look at the picture below   8) Another interesting feature is the new Intellisense capabilities. When I change the DocType to 4.01 and the type <audio>,<video> HTML 5 tags, Intellisense does not recognise them and add squiggly lines.Have a look at the picture below All these features support ASP.Net Web forms, ASP.Net MVC applications and Web Pages. 9) Finally I would like to show you the enhanced support that we have for Javascript in VS 2012. I have full Intellisense support and code snippets support.I create a sample javascript file. I type If and press tab. I type while and press tab.I type for and press tab.In all three cases code snippet support kicks in and completes the code stack. Have a look at the picture below We also have full Intellisense support.Have a look at the picture below I am creating a simple function and then type some sort of XML like comments for the input parameters. Have a look at the picture below. Then when I call this function, Intellisense has picked up the XML comments and shows the variables data types.Have a look at the picture below Hope it helps!!!

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• Regular Expressions Cookbook Is in The Money—Win a Copy

  - by Jan Goyvaerts

  %COOKBOOKFRAME%You may have heard some people say that most book authors never get any royalties. That’s not true because most authors get an advance royalty that is paid before the book is published. That’s the author’s main incentive for writing the book, at least as far as money is concerned. (If money is your main concern, don’t write books.) What is true is that most authors never see any money beyond the advance royalty. Royalty rates are very low. A 10% royalty of the publisher’s price is considered normal. The publisher’s price is usually 45% of the retail price. So if you pay full price in a bookstore, the author gets 4.5% of your money. If there’s more than one author, they split the royalty. It doesn’t take a math degree to figure out that a book needs to sell quite a few copies for the royalty to add up to a meaningful amount of money. But Steven and I must have done something right. Regular Expressions Cookbook is in the money. My royalty statement for the 3rd quartier of 2009, which is the 2nd quarter that the book was on the market, came with a check. I actually received it last month but didn’t get around to blogging about. The amount of the check is insignificant. The point is that the balance is no longer negative. I’m taking this opportunity to pat myself and my co-author on the back. To celebrate the occassion O’Reilly has offered to sponsor a give-away of five (5) copies of Regular Expressions Cookbook. These are the rules of the game: You must post a comment to this blog article including your actual name and actual email address. Names are published, email addresses are not. Comments are moderated by myself (Jan Goyvaerts). If I consider a comment to be offensive or spam it will not be published and not be eligible for any prize. If you don’t know what to say in the comment, just wish me a happy 100000nd birthday, so I don’t have to feel so bad about entering the 6-bit era. Each person commenting has only one chance to win, regardless of the number of comments posted. O’Reilly will be provided with the names and email addresses of the winners (and those email addresses only) in order to arrange delivery. Each winner can choose to receive a printed copy or ebook (DRM-free PDF). If you choose the printed book, O’Reilly pays for shipping to anywhere in the world but not for any duties or taxes your country may impose on books imported from the USA. If you choose the ebook, you’ll need to create an O’Reilly account that is then granted access to the PDF download. You can make your choice after you’ve won, so it doesn’t influence your chance of winning. Contest ends 28 February 2010, GMT+7 (Thai time). Chosen by five calls to Random(78)+1 in Delphi 2010, the winners are: 48: Xiaozu 45: David Chisholm 19: Miquel Burns 33: Aaron Rice 17: David Laing Thanks to everybody who participated. The winners have been notified by email on how to collect their prize.

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• Oracle Database 12 c Training and Certification: What’s in it for Me?

  - by KJones

  Oracle Database 12c has officially launched! Through Oracle University, our expert instructors can introduce you to the features and functions of this new Oracle Database 12c product. Through training courses and certification exam prep seminars, you can build up your database knowledge and apply this knowledge to advance your career. Already an Oracle Database Expert? Why Oracle Database 12c Training is still a Good Idea Oracle is the industry leader for database technology and takes the release of new products very seriously. We continue to listen to customer needs and add features and functionality to address those needs. Oracle Database 12c is no exception. The following areas have been greatly enhanced and should be considered for your additional training or certification: • Database for Cloud Computing • Compression and Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) • Improved Performance & Scalability • Extreme Availability • Security Defense in Depth • Manageability Oracle Certified Database Administrators Reap Career Rewards Becoming an expert user of database technology through Oracle University's certification program widens your skill set to demonstrate your expertise implementing the most advanced database technology available. By doing so, you'll make yourself a more marketable employee and candidate in the job market.  Reasons to Become an Oracle Certified Database Administrator of Oracle Database 12c: • The new Oracle Database 12c certifications emphasize more advanced skills that align with industry standards, resulting in an even more valuable credential for customers and partners. • The Oracle Certified Associate (OCA) for Oracle Database 12c centers upon certification objectives that measure IT professionals' day-to-day skills, along with your ability to manage challenges. • Building upon all of the competencies incorporated into Oracle's Database 12c OCA certification, the Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) for Oracle Database 12c certification includes advanced knowledge and skills required of top-performing database administrators. • The Oracle Certified Master (OCM) for Oracle Database 12c - a very challenging and elite top-level certification - certifies the most highly skilled and experienced database experts. • Oracle offers 12c upgrade paths for existing Oracle Certified Professionals (OCP) and Oracle Certified Masters (OCM). Database 12c Training and Certification: Built with Your Input When creating Oracle Database 12c training courses and certifications, we wanted to know which tasks are most important in a DBA's day-to-day work. Instead of assuming what those tasks might be, we decided to develop a job task analysis survey for DBAs. The response rate from DBAs from around the world was overwhelming! The survey focused on the following key database areas: • DBA Core Essentials • Database Storage • High Availability • Scalability • Networking • Security • Very Large Database Administration • Distributed Databases After conducting this survey, we took this specific feedback and used it to help mold the new Oracle Database 12c training and certification curriculum. The benefit to you? You now have access to Oracle Database 12c courses and certification exams that were created with your specific on-the-job tasks in mind. Explore Oracle Database 12c Training & Certification Today Investing in Oracle Database 12c training courses and certifications will help you develop a great deal of knowledge, experience and expertise. Explore our portfolio of offerings to determine which skills you need as a DBA to get up-to-speed on Oracle Database 12c technology. Questions or comments about the new Oracle Database 12c offerings? Let us know in the comments below. - Diana Gray, Principle Curriculum Product Manager and Raza Siddiqui, Senior Principle Curriculum Product Manager

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• Silverlight Cream for June 08, 2010 -- #877

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: Miroslav Miroslavov, Chris Klug, Beau, Christian Schormann(-2-), Dan Wahlin, Pete Brown, Michael S. Scherotter, Philipp Sumi, Andy Wigley, and Phil Middlemiss. Shoutouts: Mark Tucker set about learning Caliburn, and in the process is writing a Caliburn Book: Chapters 1-3 Jesse Liberty has a great link-laden post up about why we should all be learning/using Blend: Why Developers Should, Must, Do Care About The New Expression Blend be sure to read what he says about WP7 development, however! Charlie Kindel announced an Install problem with the Developer Tools CTP Refresh and the WP7 tools... check this out if you're having problems. John Papa has a good post up on the happenings yesterday: Expression Studio 4 Launch of Blend, SketchFlow, Encoder and More! Erik Mork & Company's latest "This Week in Silverlight" is titled First Drop: Prism v4 – First Drop is Available From SilverlightCream.com: Animated navigation between Pages Miroslav Miroslavov has Part 8 of his "Silverlight in Action" series up, detailing cool things from the CompleteIT site... this one is on Animated navigation between pages. Subtitling videos Chris Klug got a gig adding subtitles to videos for Microsoft (sweet) ... and no, not *that* kind of subtitles... read how he approached the final solution. Silverlight Watermark TextBox I'm not sure we can have too many Watermark TextBoxes, and neither does Beau , who sent me a link to this one... give it a dance and decide. Blend 4: Collaborative SketchFlow Feedback with SharePoint With the new Blend release, Christian Schormann has a post up describing the lashup to Sharepoint for sharing Sketchflow and getting feedback. New Utility, Links, and Tutorials for Path-Based Layout Christian Schormann also has a collection of resources for Path-Based Layouts, including a utility "that lets you apply a whole bunch of position-specific effects without having to write any code"... lots of links to resources here. Tales from the Trenches – Building a Real-World Silverlight Line of Business Application Dan Wahlin draws on his recent experience and lays out some of the fun and pitfalls of building LOB apps in Silverlight... WCF, MVVM, slides, and code included WPF (and Silverlight): Choose your Fonts and Text Rendering Options Wisely Pete Brown has a great post up on using fonts wisely across multiple platforms... lots of info and good discussion in the comments as well. Ball Watch USA Remember the awesome watch Michael S. Scherotter did in Silverlight 1 and then converted to Updated Ball Trainmaster Cannonball Watch to Silverlight 2? Well... there's now a contest underfoot and 8 videos to help you get started... all good stuff, and good luck! ... Michael has a post up about the contest: Enter to Win a Ball Watch by Creating One in Silverlight Announcing Sketchables – Rapid Mockup Creation with SketchFlow By way of Jesse Libertyhttp://jesseliberty.com/2010/06/08/why-developers-should-must-do-care-about-the-new-expression-blend/, this is a cool production by Philipp Sumi about a simple mockup framework he's created. Perst - a database for Windows Phone 7 Silverlight I think one of my first comments to Michael Washington back at the MVP Summit 2010 was that we'd need a database engine, and too cool, but we've got one, Andy Wigley discusses Perst in this post... to save you some time, here's the Perst site A Chrome and Glass Theme - Part 7 Phil Middlemiss has part 7 of his great theme-building series up... this time he's giving the accordian control a once-over. Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Don&rsquo;t Kill the Password

  - by Anthony Trudeau

  A week ago Mr. Honan from Wired.com penned an article on security he titled “Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can’t Protect Us Anymore.” He asserts that the password is not effective and a new solution is needed. Unfortunately, Mr. Honan was a victim of hacking. As a result he has a victim’s vendetta. His conclusion is ill conceived even though there are smatterings of truth and good advice. The password is a security barrier much like a lock on your door. In of itself it’s not guaranteeing protection. You can have a good password akin to a steel reinforced door with the best lock money can buy, or you can have a poor password like “password” which is like a sliding lock like on a bathroom stall. But, just like in the real world a lock isn’t always enough. You can have a lock, security system, video cameras, guard dogs, and even armed security guards; but none of that guarantees your protection. Even top secret government agencies can be breached by someone who is just that good (as dramatized in movies like Mission Impossible). And that’s the crux of it. There are real hackers out there that are that good. Killer coding ninja monkeys do exist! We still have locks on our doors, because they still serve their role. Passwords are no different. Security doesn’t end with the password. Most people would agree that stuffing your mattress with your life savings isn’t a good idea even if you have the best locks and security system. Most people agree its safest to have the money in a bank. Essentially this is compartmentalization. Compartmentalization extends to the online world as well. You’re at risk if your online banking accounts are linked to the same account as your social networks. This is especially true if you’re lackadaisical about linking those social networks to outside sources including apps. The object here is to minimize the damage that can be done. An attacker should not be able to get into your bank account, because they breached your Twitter account. It’s time to prioritize once you’ve compartmentalized. This simply means deciding how much security you want for the different compartments which I’ll call security zones. Social networking applications like Facebook provide a lot of security features. However, security features are almost always a compromise with privacy and convenience. It’s similar to an engineering adage, but in this case it’s security, convenience, and privacy – pick two. For example, you might use a safe instead of bank to store your money, because the convenience of having your money closer or the privacy of not having the bank records is more important than the added security. The following are lists of security do’s and don’ts (these aren’t meant to be exhaustive and each could be an article in of themselves): Security Do’s: Use strong passwords based on a phrase Use encryption whenever you can (e.g. HTTPS in Facebook) Use a firewall (and learn to use it properly) Configure security on your router (including port blocking) Keep your operating system patched Make routine backups of important files Realize that if you’re not paying for it, you’re the product Security Don’ts Link accounts if at all possible Reuse passwords across your security zones Use real answers for security questions (e.g. mother’s maiden name) Trust anything you download Ignore message boxes shown by your system or browser Forget to test your backups Share your primary email indiscriminately Only you can decide your comfort level between convenience, privacy, and security. Attackers are going to find exploits in software. Software is complex and depends on other software. The exploits are the responsibility of the software company. But your security is always your responsibility. Complete security is an illusion. But, there is plenty you can do to minimize the risk online just like you do in the physical world. Be safe and enjoy what the Internet has to offer. I expect passwords to be necessary just as long as locks.

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• Challenges and Opportunities to Drive Change in the Healthcare System Explored at America’s Health Insurance Plans Exchange Conference and Institute 2013

  - by elaine blog

  The program theme at the June America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Exchange Conference and AHIP’s Institute 2013 was Transforming Our Health Care System: Navigating and Succeeding in the New Marketplace.  Topics included care delivery transformation, innovation for a new healthcare eco system, Health Insurance Exchanges, the nexus of consumerism, retail and healthcare, driving value through improved operations and leveraging technology, data and innovation to transform care. Oracle participated as a sponsor of both conferences, signaling the significant investment and activity Oracle continues to make in helping health plans, providers and government agencies become more efficient and more relevant in the healthcare market place. AHIP is a national trade association representing the health insurance industry. AHIP’s members provide health and supplemental benefits to more than 200 million Americans through employer-sponsored coverage, the individual insurance market and public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.   AHIP advocates for public policies that expand access to affordable health care. Health plans are focusing on the Health Insurance Exchanges and the opportunities they offer to provide better access and higher quality healthcare.  With the opportunities come operational challenges to implementation and innovative technology solutions to consider.   At the Exchange Conference, Oracle hosted a breakfast symposium on “Strategies for Success:  Driving Business Transformation in the Growing Health Insurance Exchange Market”. With Health Insurance Exchanges as catalysts for change, attendees learned about how to achieve integration within an Exchange and deploy new business strategies to support health reform initiatives. Discussion covered steps and processes to successfully establish and implement enrollment systems, quote to card activities, program pricing, claims billing, automated claims processing and new customer service tools. Piyush Pushkar, COO of Benefitalign, an Oracle partner that provides solutions to adopt innovative business models for retail, HIX, consumer-centric health plan and benefits administration, spoke on the state of the Exchanges in the U.S. and the activities health plans are engaged in to support individuals entering the healthcare system, including sales automation, member enrollment automation/portals and integration strategies with the Exchanges. The Oracle and Benefitalign partnership allows seamless integration between a health plan enrollment solution with the HIX individual market and allows for the health plan to customize and characterize the offerings available to the HIX that may or may not be available through other channels.  This approach can benefit the health plan through separation of interests, but also because some state-run HIXs require such separation. Janice W. Young, Program Director, Payer IT Strategies, IDC Health Insights, reviewed a survey of health plans on their investment priorities for this last year as well as this year.  She also identified the 2013-2015 strategies of go/get to market with front end and compliance investments; leveraging existing business processes and internal technologies; and establishing best practices.  Of key interest to the audience was a reform era payer solutions platform overview mapping technologies to support the business operations. David Bonham of the Oracle Health Insurance organization moderated the panel and spoke on Oracle’s presence in healthcare and products for payers to help them drive efficiencies and gain a competitive advantage in an ever changing market. Oracle serves healthcare stakeholders with applications such as billing, rating and underwriting, analytics, CRM, enrollment, and products for processing of health insurance claims including pricing and benefits administration, as well as payment of providers through alternative, non-fee for service reimbursement methods. Oracle in Healthcare….Did you know? More than 80 healthcare payers run Oracle applications. More than 300 leading healthcare providers run Oracle applications. 10 out of the top 12 fortune Global 500 healthcare organizations run Oracle applications. For more information on Oracle solutions for healthcare payers, please visit oracle.com/insurance or these individual solution pages: Oracle Health Insurance Components Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting Oracle Insurance Revenue Management and Billing Oracle Documaker Oracle Healthcare Oracle CRM Related Resources Webcast On Demand: Strategies for Success: Driving Business Transformation in the Growing Health Insurance Exchange Market Strategy Brief: Executing on the Individual Mandate: Opportunities and Challenges for Healthcare Payers White Paper: White paper: Navigating Alternative Provider Reimbursement Models of the Future Strategy Brief: Enterprise Rating Agility Improves Payer Response to Healthcare Reform Podcast: Technology Implications of Healthcare Reform Don’t forget to keep up with us year-round: Facebook: www.facebook.com/oracleinsurance Twitter: www.twitter.com/oracleinsurance YouTube: www.youtube.com/oracleinsurance

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• Enterprise 2.0 - Connecting People, Processes & Content

  - by kellsey.ruppel(at)oracle.com

  With recent technological advances, the Internet is changing. When users head to the web, they are no longer just looking for information from a simple text and picture based website. Users want a more interactive experience - they want to participate, to share their views and get the feedback of others. And this is precisely what Web 2.0 technology addresses. Web 2.0 is about web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Web 2.0 technology is everywhere on the Internet and is radically changing the speed and medium in which we interact and communicate. There are thousands of examples in the consumer world of Web 2.0 applications, technologies and solutions at work. You might be familiar with some of them...blogs, wikis (Wikipedia), Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn - these are all examples of Web 2.0. And these technologies are transforming our world into a real-time, participation-oriented, user-driven, content-centric world. With all of these Web 2.0 solutions it's about the user, the consumer and all the content they are generating. It's a world full of online communities where people share and participate. We're not talking about disseminating information top-down , nor is it a bottom-up fight. Everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and share. The more you participate, the more you share, the more valued you are in the community. The web is not just a collection of documents online. It is the social web.  For the active users in the community, staying connected becomes critically important so they can participate at anytime and from anywhere. And because feedback and interaction are so critical, time is of the essence. When everyone is providing immediate responses, you feel the urge to do the same. Hence everything needs to be done right now, together...and collaboratively. With all the content being generated online by users, there is complete information overload out there. (That's a good thing for Google). But...it's no longer just about search. Sometimes you want the information to just come to you. Recommendations and discovery engines will deliver you more applicable results than a non-contextual search. How many of you have heard about a news headline on Facebook as part of your feed before you read the paper or see it on TV? This is how the new generation of workers live their daily lives...and as they enter the workforce, these trends and technologies are showing up in the enterprise too. A lot of the Web 2.0 technologies and solutions in the consumer world are geared for just that....consumers. But the core concepts that put them into the Web 2.0 category can be applied to the enterprise as well. And that is what we mean when we talk about Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise 2.0 is the use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies in the workplace.  It provides a modern user experience by connecting the people, content and business processes inside and outside the enterprise. Enterprise 2.0 empowers users to collaborate more effectively, find and share information in the proper content and improves the overall business processes which they participate in. As we head into 2011, is your organization using Enterprise 2.0 capabilities to the fullest? Are you connecting your people, processes and content together to provide a modern user experience?

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• Oracle Text query parser

  - by Roger Ford

  Oracle Text provides a rich query syntax which enables powerful text searches.However, this syntax isn't intended for use by inexperienced end-users.  If you provide a simple search box in your application, you probably want users to be able to type "Google-like" searches into the box, and have your application convert that into something that Oracle Text understands.For example if your user types "windows nt networking" then you probably want to convert this into something like"windows ACCUM nt ACCUM networking".  But beware - "NT" is a reserved word, and needs to be escaped.  So let's escape all words:"{windows} ACCUM {nt} ACCUM {networking}".  That's fine - until you start introducing wild cards. Then you must escape only non-wildcarded searches:"win% ACCUM {nt} ACCUM {networking}".  There are quite a few other "gotchas" that you might encounter along the way.Then there's the issue of scoring.  Given a query for "oracle text query syntax", it would be nice if we could score a full phrase match higher than a hit where all four words are present but not in a phrase.  And then perhaps lower than that would be a document where three of the four terms are present.  Progressive relaxation helps you with this, but you need to code the "progression" yourself in most cases.To help with this, I've developed a query parser which will take queries in Google-like syntax, and convert them into Oracle Text queries. It's designed to be as flexible as possible, and will generate either simple queries or progressive relaxation queries. The input string will typically just be a string of words, such as "oracle text query syntax" but the grammar does allow for more complex expressions:  word : score will be improved if word exists  +word : word must exist  -word : word CANNOT exist  "phrase words" : words treated as phrase (may be preceded by + or -)  field:(expression) : find expression (which allows +,- and phrase as above) within "field". So for example if I searched for   +"oracle text" query +syntax -ctxcatThen the results would have to contain the phrase "oracle text" and the word syntax. Any documents mentioning ctxcat would be excluded from the results. All the instructions are in the top of the file (see "Downloads" at the bottom of this blog entry).  Please download the file, read the instructions, then try it out by running "parser.pls" in either SQL*Plus or SQL Developer.I am also uploading a test file "test.sql". You can run this and/or modify it to run your own tests or run against your own text index. test.sql is designed to be run from SQL*Plus and may not produce useful output in SQL Developer (or it may, I haven't tried it).I'm putting the code up here for testing and comments. I don't consider it "production ready" at this point, but would welcome feedback.  I'm particularly interested in comments such as "The instructions are unclear - I couldn't figure out how to do XXX" "It didn't work in my environment" (please provide as many details as possible) "We can't use it in our application" (why not?) "It needs to support XXX feature" "It produced an invalid query output when I fed in XXXX" Downloads: parser.pls test.sql

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• Experience the iPad UI On Your PC

  - by Matthew Guay

  Want to test drive iPad without heading over to an Apple store?  Here’s a way you can experience some of the iPad UI straight from your browser! The iPad is the latest gadget from Apple to wow the tech world, and people even waited in line all night to be one of the first to get their hands on one.  Thanks to a simple JavaScript trick, however, you can get a feel for some of its new features without leaving your computer.  This won’t let you try out everything on the iPad, but it will let you see how the new lists and pop-over menus work just like they do in the new apps. Test drive the iPad’s UI from your browser Normally, the Apple iPhone developer library online looks like a standard webpage. But, on the iPad, it looks and feels like a full-blown native iPad app.  With a nifty JavaScript trick from boredzo.org you can use this same interface on your PC.  Since the iPad uses the Safari browser, we ran this test in Safari for Windows.  If you don’t already have it installed, you can download it from Apple (link below) and setup as normal. Now, open Safari and browse to Apple’s developer page at: http://www.developer.apple.com   Now, enter the following in the address bar, and press Enter. javascript:localStorage.setItem('debugSawtooth', 'true')   Finally, click this link to go to the iPhone OS documentation. http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/iPad/ After a short delay, it should open in full iPad style! The left menu works just like the menus on the iPad, complete with transitions.  It feels entirely like a native application, instead of a webpage.  To scroll through text, click and pull up or down similar to the way you would use it on a touch screen. Some pages even include a pop-over menu like many of the new iPad apps use. Note that the page will be rendered for the size of your browser, and if you resize your window the page will not resize with it.  Simply press F5 to reload the page, and it will resize to fit the new window size.  If you resize your window to be tall and narrow, like the iPad in horizontal mode, the webpage will change and the left menu will disappear in lieu of a drop-down menu just like it would if you rotated the iPad. This works in Chrome as well, since it, like Safari, is based on Webkit.  However, it didn’t seem to work in our test on Firefox or other browsers. We’ve previously covered how you can experience some of the iPhone’s UI with the online iPhone user guide.  Check it out if you haven’t yet: View Mobile Websites in Windows with Safari 4 Developer Tools Conclusion Although this doesn’t let you really try out all of the iPad’s interface, it at least gives you a taste of how it works.  It’s exciting to see how much functionality can be packed into webapps today.  And don’t forget, How-to Geek is giving away an iPad to a random fan!  Head over to our Facebook page and fan How-to Geek if you haven’t already done so. Win an iPad on the How-To Geek Facebook Fan Page Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Want an iPad? How-To Geek is Giving One Away!Why Wait? Amazing New Add-on Turns Your iPhone into an iPad! [Comic]The Complete List of iPad Tips, Tricks, and TutorialsShare Your Windows Vista Experience Index ScoreAnother Blog You Should Subscribe To TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 Awesome Lyrics Finder for Winamp & Windows Media Player Download Videos from Hulu Pixels invade Manhattan Convert PDF files to ePub to read on your iPad Hide Your Confidential Files Inside Images Get Wildlife Photography Tips at BBC’s PhotoMasterClasses

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• 2 eventos, 2 países, 1 jornada.

  - by Noelia Gomez

  Normal 0 21 false false false ES 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:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";} El pasado Martes 23 de Octubre fue un día de gran actividad tanto en España como en Portugal. El Dialogo CxO , organizado por Econique, y en el que participó Oracle, tuvo lugar en Madrid en el Hotel Puerta de Ámerica. Este encuentro tenía como objetivo intercambiar opiniones sobre todos los aspectos relacionados con la gestión estratégica de clientes y el Contact Centre. En este marco, los asistentes tuvieron la oportunidad de realizar reuniones “one to one” con nuestros mejores expertos. Además Oracle presentó dos coloquios relacionados con la visión de las "Nuevas necesidades, estrategias y tendencias en la gestión del Marketing", de la mano de Gema Sebastian, Principal Sales Consultant de Oracle. En dichos coloquios los participantes de empresas, como Caprabo, Carrefour, Endesa, Jaguar Land Rover y Repsol (entre otros) trataron temas de máxima actualidad para los directivos de Marketing. Esta mesa redonda se centró sobre todo en el Marketing en redes sociales, compartiendo entre todos nuestra percepción de que es algo necesario pero que todavía el mercado no sabe muy bien cómo tratar. La escucha activa dentro de las redes y la posibilidad de reaccionar ante determinados factores se veía como un claro punto donde comenzar a trabajar de manera activa y donde Oracle puede ayudar. La experiencia de cliente fue otro de los puntos tratados en esta mesa, donde se dejó claro que ahora es el consumidor el que manda, el que quiere ver las cosas donde quiere y como quiere y que un mensaje de marketing ha de darse en el momento adecuado y aportando un valor real para que el consumidor lo acepte como algo interesante. Igualmente Oracle dispone de herramientas para hacer que esto sea posible. Por otro lado, en Lisboa, tenía lugar el Total Training 2012, una conferencia organizada por el Grupo IFE. En ella participaron más de 100 profesionales de los recursos humanos de las empresas más importantes de Portugal y tuvo como base de partida los conocimientos y experiencias, el intercambio de ideas y la discusión de oportunidades a las que actualmente se enfrentan los profesionales de este área. En este marco Oracle realizó una ponencia sobre “Los nuevos conceptos en RRHH”, de la mano de Julio Rodriguez, Principal Sales Consultant de Oracle, y que puso de manifiesto algunos conceptos tecnológicos relevantes para la gestión del talento que por su novedad, no eran muy conocidos por los profesionales de los RRHH cómo: · Saas (Software as a service) · BI (Business Intelligence) para RRHH · Social Networking y cómo integrarla dentro de la empresa · El mapa del talento, por fin fuera del Excel y en una aplicación · La movilidad en las aplicaciones de RRHH. Sin duda, esta fue una jornada cargada de intercambio de experiencias y de conocimientos para dos grandes áreas: los Recursos Humanos y la Gestión Estratégica del cliente. Si quieres saber más sobre la experiencia del cliente: Customer Concepts Magazine Customer Concepts Exchange in LinkedIn Customer Concepts Web TV Customer Experience @ Oracle.com Customer Experience Facebook Hub Customer Experience YouTube Channel Customer Experience Twitter Puede conocer más sobre HCM (Gestión de RRHH): Oracle Fusion Applications Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management Oracle PartnerNetwork Oracle Consulting Services Oracle Human Capital Management Blog Oracle HCM on Twitter Oracle HCM on Facebook

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• Focus on Social Relationship Management at Oracle OpenWorld

  - by Pat Ma

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} 0 0 1 422 2408 involver 20 5 2825 14.0 Normal 0 false false false false EN-US JA 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-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:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Greetings from Oracle OpenWorld 2012. Today, we’re going to focus on Social Relationship Management at Oracle OpenWorld.?Social networking is touching all businesses today.  Customers are speaking about your brand right now on social media sites. Your employees are speaking to one another on social media sites. In an Oracle survey, 40% of consumers factor in Facebook recommendations when making purchasing decisions. Despite the rise of social networking, 70% of marketers report having little understanding of social media conversations happening around their brand. Oracle has invested in technologies that will help companies leverage social media technologies for their enterprise. Our suite of social products is collectively known as Social Relationship Management. Customers are using Social Relationship Management to get analytics to social media conversations around their brand, manage multiple social media channels while keeping their brand consistent, optimize internal workflows and processes, and create better customer relationships and experiences. In this example, using Social Relationship Management, a high-end national grocery chain is able to see that “Coconut Water” is trending in San Francisco. They are now able to send a $2-off coconut water coupon to shoppers who have checked into their San Francisco locations. This promotion further drives sales of coconut water in San Francisco. In another example, using Social Relationship Management, a technology company creates multiple Facebook pages and runs campaigns on them. These social campaigns are now integrated and tracked as another marketing channel in Oracle Fusion CRM. The technology company can now track and respond to a particular customer as he moves across multiple channels – without having to restart the conversation each time the customer contacts the company. Furthermore, the technology company can see in one interface what marketing channels – including social – is performing best for each promotion. Besides being a Software-as-a-Service solution, social is also a Platform-as-a-Service solution. The benefit here is that customers can extend the functionality of our social applications to suit their particular needs or create their own social application from scratch. During the Social Developer track, developers are learning how to use Java and other industry-standard programming languages to plug in social functionality to enterprise applications. To see how Social Relationship Management can help your business build better relationships and experience with customers, visit us on the web at oracle.com/social. There are a lot more social-oriented sessions left at OpenWorld. To view a schedule of the upcoming social-oriented sessions, go here.

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• ORACLE is WEB 2.0

  - by anca.rosu

  You never know what to expect in life, where it can take you and what kind of fulfillment it can offer you. It’s just like an amazing lottery with millions of winning tickets. My name is Paula, I am an Online Marketing Specialist at Oracle University and this is my story. Having graduated from a technical profile college, it seemed almost normal to follow the same career path. But I said no. I wanted to try something else, so I took an Advertising Masters Program and I really became in love with this entire industry. Advertising and the new impact of the Internet through social networking is my current fascination. I knew I had to work to incorporate both my skills intro one dream job. I want to believe that I have come to work at Oracle as part of a great plan that life has for me. It’s not the most glamorous job in advertising or in the fashion industry, but it’s everything you need to start investing in your development and to build relationships. A normal day at work begins at 9.30 at our Oracle Office in Bucharest. After a short chit-chat, coffee and some conference calls, marketing gets to work! Some of the members of my team are working besides me but others are based all over Europe. This is extremely useful when coordinating the EMEA Marketing for Oracle University, because this way it’s easier to keep an eye on these various locations. Even though it’s a team play, you need to speak up and make your mark. I am the kind of person that never stands-by and waits to be given directions, I am curious and intuitive. This makes things easier. In Oracle you really need to find your own way and to discover how to organize your time and how to get involved with people. People to people, this is the focus. But everything is up to you and it strongly depends on the type of personality that you have. I try to get involved in various activities, participate in Oracle Days Events, interact and meet all kinds of people. For those who are newly graduates or interns, Oracle has lots of trainings and webcasts you can attend to help you develop your career shape and to understand better the way the business works. You can also be awarded for ideas and setting the trends so that makes it worth it. What I like most about my job is the fact that I can come with ideas and bring them to life. For example Oracle University has a special seminar program called “Celebrity Seminars” where top industry speakers teach 1-day or 2-day condensed seminars. We thought of creating something exclusive and a video was the best idea. So my colleague and I became reporters for a day and interviewed this well-known speaker regarding his seminar. I think this is a good way to market this business. Live footage is a very good marketing tool so we are planning to use the video to target our online audiences via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. This can even go in the newsletters that marketing sends regarding the Celebrity Seminars. This is what I meant when I said Oracle is a free spirited organization and you can surely find your place here among us. The best way to describe my job is WEB 2.0. The modern online approach comes to life while we are trying to sell our business. We need to be out there and we are responsible of spreading the buzz regarding our training offerings and our official courseware materials. There are so many new ways to interact with the target audience nowadays and I am so eager to discover the best online techniques! If you have any questions related to this article feel free to contact  [email protected].  You can find our job opportunities via http://campus.oracle.com Technorati Tags: WEB 2.0,Online Marketing,Oracle University,Bucharest,events,graduates,interns,training,webcast,seminar,newsletters,business,Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn

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• Exposed: Fake Social Marketing

  - by Mike Stiles

  Brands and marketers who want to build their social popularity on a foundation of lies are starting to face more of an uphill climb. Fake social is starting to get exposed, and there are a lot of emperors getting caught without any clothes. Facebook is getting ready to do a purge of “Likes” on Pages that were a result of bots, fake accounts, and even real users who were duped or accidentally Liked a Page. Most of those accidental Likes occur on mobile, where it’s easy for large fingers to hit the wrong space. Depending on the degree to which your Page has been the subject of such activity, you may see your number of Likes go down. But don’t sweat it, that’s a good thing. The social world has turned the corner and assessed the value of a Like. And the verdict is that a Like is valuable as an opportunity to build a real relationship with a real customer. Its value pales immensely compared to a user who’s actually engaged with the brand. Those fake Likes aren’t doing you any good. Huge numbers may once have impressed, but it’s not fooling anybody anymore. Facebook’s selling point to marketers is the ability to use a brand’s fans to reach friends of those fans. Consequently, there has to be validity and legitimacy to a fan count. Speaking of mobile, Trademob recently reported 40% of clicks are essentially worthless, because 22% of them are accidental (again with the fat fingers), while 18% are trickery. Publishers will but huge banner ads next to tiny app buttons to increase the odds of an accident. Others even hide a banner behind another to score 2 clicks instead of 1. Pontiflex and Harris Interactive last year found 47% of users were more likely to click a mobile ad accidentally than deliberately. Beyond that, hijacked devices are out there manipulating click data. But to what end for a marketer? What’s the value of a click on something a user never even saw? What’s the value of a seen but accidentally clicked ad if there’s no resulting transaction? Back to fake Likes, followers and views; they’re definitely for sale on numerous sites, none of which I’ll promote. $5 can get you 1,000 Twitter followers. You can even get followers targeted by interests. One site was set up by an unemployed accountant out of his house in England. He gets them from a wholesaler in Brooklyn, who gets them from a 19-year-old supplier in India. The unemployed accountant is making $10,000 a day. That means a lot of brands, celebrities and organizations are playing the fake social game, apparently not coming to grips with the slim value of the numbers they’re buying. But now, in addition to having paid good money for non-ROI numbers, there’s the embarrassment factor. At least a couple of sites have popped up allowing anyone to see just how many fake and inactive followers you have. Britain’s Fake Follower Check and StatusPeople are the two getting the most attention. Enter any Twitter handle and the results are there for all to see. Fake isn’t good, period. “Inactive” could be real followers, but if they’re real, they’re just watching, not engaging. If someone runs a check on your Twitter handle and turns up fake followers, does that mean you’re suspect or have purchased followers? No. Anyone can follow anyone, so most accounts will have some fakes. Even account results like Barack Obama’s (70% fake according to StatusPeople) and Lady Gaga’s (71% fake) don’t mean these people knew about all those fakes or initiated them. Regardless, brands should realize they’re now being watched, and users are judging the legitimacy of their social channels. Use one of any number of tools available to assess and clean out fake Likes and followers so that your numbers are as genuine as possible. And obviously, skip the “buying popularity” route of social marketing strategy. It doesn’t work and it gets you busted…a losing combination.

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