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  • The 2013 PASS Summit - Day 1

    - by AllenMWhite
    It's SQL Server Geek Week once again! Every year at the PASS Summit the SQL Server faithful descend on the city of choice for the annual Summit, and this year it's Charlotte, North Carolina. Once again I've been given the privilege of sitting at the bloggers table, so my laptop is on a table! So far this week it's been great seeing people I get to see just once a year. I attended Red Gate's SQL in the City event on Monday, and saw some great sessions from Grant Fritchey, Steve Jones and Nigel Sammy....(read more)

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  • Have a Couple of Minutes? We’d Like Your Opinion.

    - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team
    by Kate Jones Last year’s Oracle University training offered prior to Oracle OpenWorld was a great success, so we’re doing it again this year—on Sunday, September 30. Our problem (and it’s a good one to have) is that we have more potential sessions than we have time in the day. So we’re looking for followers of Oracle OpenWorld to let us know what you think the most valuable and relevant topics are for these technical sessions. To see a preview of the sessions we’re considering and take the brief survey, click here. Don’t be shy—let us know what you think.

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  • What is the effect of this order_by clause?

    - by bread
    I don't understand what this order_by clause is doing and whether I need it or not: select c.customerid, c.firstname, c.lastname, i.order_date, i.item, i.price from items_ordered i, customers c where i.customerid = c.customerid group by c.customerid, i.item, i.order_date order by i.order_date desc; This produces this data: 10330 Shawn Dalton 30-Jun-1999 Pogo stick 28.00 10101 John Gray 30-Jun-1999 Raft 58.00 10410 Mary Ann Howell 30-Jan-2000 Unicycle 192.50 10101 John Gray 30-Dec-1999 Hoola Hoop 14.75 10449 Isabela Moore 29-Feb-2000 Flashlight 4.50 10410 Mary Ann Howell 28-Oct-1999 Sleeping Bag 89.22 10339 Anthony Sanchez 27-Jul-1999 Umbrella 4.50 10449 Isabela Moore 22-Dec-1999 Canoe 280.00 10298 Leroy Brown 19-Sep-1999 Lantern 29.00 10449 Isabela Moore 19-Mar-2000 Canoe paddle 40.00 10413 Donald Davids 19-Jan-2000 Lawnchair 32.00 10330 Shawn Dalton 19-Apr-2000 Shovel 16.75 10439 Conrad Giles 18-Sep-1999 Tent 88.00 10298 Leroy Brown 18-Mar-2000 Pocket Knife 22.38 10299 Elroy Keller 18-Jan-2000 Inflatable Mattress 38.00 10438 Kevin Smith 18-Jan-2000 Tent 79.99 10101 John Gray 18-Aug-1999 Rain Coat 18.30 10449 Isabela Moore 15-Dec-1999 Bicycle 380.50 10439 Conrad Giles 14-Aug-1999 Ski Poles 25.50 10449 Isabela Moore 13-Aug-1999 Unicycle 180.79 10101 John Gray 08-Mar-2000 Sleeping Bag 88.70 10299 Elroy Keller 06-Jul-1999 Parachute 1250.00 10438 Kevin Smith 02-Nov-1999 Pillow 8.50 10101 John Gray 02-Jan-2000 Lantern 16.00 10315 Lisa Jones 02-Feb-2000 Compass 8.00 10449 Isabela Moore 01-Sep-1999 Snow Shoes 45.00 10438 Kevin Smith 01-Nov-1999 Umbrella 6.75 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Jul-1999 Skateboard 33.00 10101 John Gray 01-Jul-1999 Life Vest 125.00 10330 Shawn Dalton 01-Jan-2000 Flashlight 28.00 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Dec-1999 Helmet 22.00 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Apr-2000 Ear Muffs 12.50 While if I remove the order_by clause completely, as in this query: select c.customerid, c.firstname, c.lastname, i.order_date, i.item, i.price from items_ordered i, customers c where i.customerid = c.customerid group by c.customerid, i.item, i.order_date; I get these results: 10101 John Gray 30-Dec-1999 Hoola Hoop 14.75 10101 John Gray 02-Jan-2000 Lantern 16.00 10101 John Gray 01-Jul-1999 Life Vest 125.00 10101 John Gray 30-Jun-1999 Raft 58.00 10101 John Gray 18-Aug-1999 Rain Coat 18.30 10101 John Gray 08-Mar-2000 Sleeping Bag 88.70 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Apr-2000 Ear Muffs 12.50 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Dec-1999 Helmet 22.00 10298 Leroy Brown 19-Sep-1999 Lantern 29.00 10298 Leroy Brown 18-Mar-2000 Pocket Knife 22.38 10298 Leroy Brown 01-Jul-1999 Skateboard 33.00 10299 Elroy Keller 18-Jan-2000 Inflatable Mattress 38.00 10299 Elroy Keller 06-Jul-1999 Parachute 1250.00 10315 Lisa Jones 02-Feb-2000 Compass 8.00 10330 Shawn Dalton 01-Jan-2000 Flashlight 28.00 10330 Shawn Dalton 30-Jun-1999 Pogo stick 28.00 10330 Shawn Dalton 19-Apr-2000 Shovel 16.75 10339 Anthony Sanchez 27-Jul-1999 Umbrella 4.50 10410 Mary Ann Howell 28-Oct-1999 Sleeping Bag 89.22 10410 Mary Ann Howell 30-Jan-2000 Unicycle 192.50 10413 Donald Davids 19-Jan-2000 Lawnchair 32.00 10438 Kevin Smith 02-Nov-1999 Pillow 8.50 10438 Kevin Smith 18-Jan-2000 Tent 79.99 10438 Kevin Smith 01-Nov-1999 Umbrella 6.75 10439 Conrad Giles 14-Aug-1999 Ski Poles 25.50 10439 Conrad Giles 18-Sep-1999 Tent 88.00 10449 Isabela Moore 15-Dec-1999 Bicycle 380.50 10449 Isabela Moore 22-Dec-1999 Canoe 280.00 10449 Isabela Moore 19-Mar-2000 Canoe paddle 40.00 10449 Isabela Moore 29-Feb-2000 Flashlight 4.50 10449 Isabela Moore 01-Sep-1999 Snow Shoes 45.00 10449 Isabela Moore 13-Aug-1999 Unicycle 180.79 I'm not sure what the order_by is doing here and if it's having the intended effects.

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  • Comparing strings with user-created string class

    - by meepz
    Basically, I created my own string class, mystring.h and mystring.c. What I want to do is write a function that compares two "strings" and then returns 1 first word is larger than the second, the opposite if word 2 is larger than word 1, and 0 if the two words are equal. What I have so far is this: int compareto(void * S1, void * S2){ String s1 = (String S1); String s2 = (String S2); int i, cs1 = 0, cs2 = 0; //cs1 is count of s1, cs2 is count of s2 while(s1->c[i] != '\0'){ //basically, while there is a word if(s1->c[i] < s2->c[i]) // if string 1 char is less than string 2 char cs2++; //add to string 2 count else (s1->c[i] > s2->c[i]) //vice versa cs1++; i++; } for my return I basically have if(cs1>cs2){ return 1; } else if(cs2 > cs1){ return 2; } return 0; here is mystring.h typedef struct mystring { char * c; int length; int (*sLength)(void * s); char (*charAt)(void * s, int i); int (*compareTo)(void * s1, void * s2); struct mystring * (*concat)(void * s1, void * s2); struct mystring * (*subString)(void * s, int begin, int end); void (*printS)(void * s); } string_t; typedef string_t * String; This does what I want, but only for unspecified order. What I want to do is search through my linked list for the last name. Ex. I have two entries in my linked list, smith and jones; Jones will be output as greater than smith, but alphabetically it isnt. (I'm using this to remove student entries from a generic link list I created) Any suggestions, all of my google searches involve using the library, so I've had no luck)

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  • sorting two tables (full join)

    - by Ruslan
    i'm joining tables like: select * from tableA a full join tableB b on a.id = b.id But the output should be: row without null fields row with null fields in tableB row with null fields in tableA Like: a.id a.name b.id b.name 5 Peter 5 Jones 2 Steven 2 Pareker 6 Paul null null 4 Ivan null null null null 1 Smith null null 3 Parker

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  • Find Shortest element in Array

    - by Ani
    I have a Array string[] names = { "Jim Rand", "Barry Williams", "Nicole Dyne", "Peter Levitt", "Jane Jones", "Cathy Hortings"}; Is there any way to find which is the shortest(Length wise) element in this array and then store rest of elements in a different array. Thanks, Ani

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  • Summary of the last decade of garbage collection?

    - by Ben Karel
    I've been reading through the Jones & Lin book on garbage collection, which was published in 1996. Obviously, the computing world has changed dramatically since then: multicore, out-of-order chips with large caches, and even larger main memory in desktops. The world has also more-or-less settled on the x86 and ARM microarchitectures for most consumer-facing systems. How has the field of garbage collection changed since the seminal book was published?

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  • f# types' properties in inconsistent order and of slightly differing types

    - by philbrowndotcom
    I'm trying to iterate through an array of objects and recursively print out each objects properties. Here is my object model: type firmIdentifier = { firmId: int ; firmName: string ; } type authorIdentifier = { authorId: int ; authorName: string ; firm: firmIdentifier ; } type denormalizedSuggestedTradeRecommendations = { id: int ; ticker: string ; direction: string ; author: authorIdentifier ; } Here is how I am instantiating my objects: let getMyIdeasIdeas = [| {id=1; ticker="msfqt"; direction="buy"; author={authorId=0; authorName="john Smith"; firm={firmId=12; firmName="Firm1"}};}; {id=2; ticker="goog"; direction="sell"; author={authorId=1; authorName="Bill Jones"; firm={firmId=13; firmName="ABC Financial"}};}; {id=3; ticker="DFHF"; direction="buy"; author={authorId=2; authorName="Ron James"; firm={firmId=2; firmName="DEFFirm"}};}|] And here is my algorithm to iterate, recurse and print: let rec recurseObj (sb : StringBuilder) o= let props : PropertyInfo [] = o.GetType().GetProperties() sb.Append( o.GetType().ToString()) |> ignore for x in props do let getMethod = x.GetGetMethod() let value = getMethod.Invoke(o, Array.empty) ignore <| match value with | :? float | :? int | :? string | :? bool as f -> sb.Append(x.Name + ": " + f.ToString() + "," ) |> ignore | _ -> recurseObj sb value for x in getMyIdeas do recurseObj sb x sb.Append("\r\n") |> ignore If you couldnt tell, I'm trying to create a csv file and am printing out the types for debugging purposes. The problem is, the first element comes through in the order you'd expect, but all subsequent elements come through with a slightly different (and confusing) ordering of the "child" properties like so: RpcMethods+denormalizedSuggestedTradeRecommendationsid: 1,ticker: msfqt,direction: buy,RpcMethods+authorIdentifierauthorId: 0,authorName: john Smith,RpcMethods+firmIdentifierfirmId: 12,firmName: Firm1, RpcMethods+denormalizedSuggestedTradeRecommendationsid: 2,ticker: goog,direction: sell,RpcMethods+authorIdentifierauthorName: Bill Jones,RpcMethods+firmIdentifierfirmName: ABC Financial,firmId: 13,authorId: 1, RpcMethods+denormalizedSuggestedTradeRecommendationsid: 3,ticker: DFHF,direction: buy,RpcMethods+authorIdentifierauthorName: Ron James,RpcMethods+firmIdentifierfirmName: DEFFirm,firmId: 2,authorId: 2, Any idea what is going on here?

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  • How to configure oracle instantclient for mono?

    - by funwithcoding
    Mono is really awesome. Some of our applications worked in linux out of the box even without recompiling the binary. However I am having tough time to configure oracle instantclient to use it with mono. I installed instantclient on a CentOS VM(by installing instantclient rpm) but however I did not find TNSNAMES.ORA anywhere. I searched for oracle and I found the following path contains the oracle libraries. [root@bagvapp rupert]# ll /usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client/lib/ total 143280 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7456 Aug 14 2009 cobsqlintf.o -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 342 Aug 14 2009 glogin.sql lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Mar 9 06:52 libclntsh.so -> libclntsh.so.11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40088477 Aug 14 2009 libclntsh.so.11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6986848 Aug 14 2009 libnnz11.so lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Mar 9 06:52 libocci.so -> libocci.so.11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1879549 Aug 14 2009 libocci.so.11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 89377610 Aug 14 2009 libociei.so -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 152304 Aug 14 2009 libocijdbc11.so -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1501651 Aug 14 2009 libsqlplusic.so -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1218075 Aug 14 2009 libsqlplus.so -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 777979 Aug 14 2009 libsqora.so.11.1 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1996228 Aug 14 2009 ojdbc5.jar -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2111220 Aug 14 2009 ojdbc6.jar -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 298388 Aug 14 2009 ottclasses.zip drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Mar 9 06:52 precomp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 37807 Aug 14 2009 xstreams.jar no TNSPING available, no TNSNAMES.ORA, Now how to configure the mono to use this as the oracle client? and how to specify oracle database in app.config connection string section? Though mono is a powerful framework, seems like it is having problems like linux does, all the documentation is only available in mailing lists and whatever is available on official site is either outdated or not clear for normal user. Hope things will change soon and Mono will THE programming framework for linux.

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  • HTG Explains: Should You Build Your Own PC?

    - by Chris Hoffman
    There was a time when every geek seemed to build their own PC. While the masses bought eMachines and Compaqs, geeks built their own more powerful and reliable desktop machines for cheaper. But does this still make sense? Building your own PC still offers as much flexibility in component choice as it ever did, but prebuilt computers are available at extremely competitive prices. Building your own PC will no longer save you money in most cases. The Rise of Laptops It’s impossible to look at the decline of geeks building their own PCs without considering the rise of laptops. There was a time when everyone seemed to use desktops — laptops were more expensive and significantly slower in day-to-day tasks. With the diminishing importance of computing power — nearly every modern computer has more than enough power to surf the web and use typical programs like Microsoft Office without any trouble — and the rise of laptop availability at nearly every price point, most people are buying laptops instead of desktops. And, if you’re buying a laptop, you can’t really build your own. You can’t just buy a laptop case and start plugging components into it — even if you could, you would end up with an extremely bulky device. Ultimately, to consider building your own desktop PC, you have to actually want a desktop PC. Most people are better served by laptops. Benefits to PC Building The two main reasons to build your own PC have been component choice and saving money. Building your own PC allows you to choose all the specific components you want rather than have them chosen for you. You get to choose everything, including the PC’s case and cooling system. Want a huge case with room for a fancy water-cooling system? You probably want to build your own PC. In the past, this often allowed you to save money — you could get better deals by buying the components yourself and combining them, avoiding the PC manufacturer markup. You’d often even end up with better components — you could pick up a more powerful CPU that was easier to overclock and choose more reliable components so you wouldn’t have to put up with an unstable eMachine that crashed every day. PCs you build yourself are also likely more upgradable — a prebuilt PC may have a sealed case and be constructed in such a way to discourage you from tampering with the insides, while swapping components in and out is generally easier with a computer you’ve built on your own. If you want to upgrade your CPU or replace your graphics card, it’s a definite benefit. Downsides to Building Your Own PC It’s important to remember there are downsides to building your own PC, too. For one thing, it’s just more work — sure, if you know what you’re doing, building your own PC isn’t that hard. Even for a geek, researching the best components, price-matching, waiting for them all to arrive, and building the PC just takes longer. Warranty is a more pernicious problem. If you buy a prebuilt PC and it starts malfunctioning, you can contact the computer’s manufacturer and have them deal with it. You don’t need to worry about what’s wrong. If you build your own PC and it starts malfunctioning, you have to diagnose the problem yourself. What’s malfunctioning, the motherboard, CPU, RAM, graphics card, or power supply? Each component has a separate warranty through its manufacturer, so you’ll have to determine which component is malfunctioning before you can send it off for replacement. Should You Still Build Your Own PC? Let’s say you do want a desktop and are willing to consider building your own PC. First, bear in mind that PC manufacturers are buying in bulk and getting a better deal on each component. They also have to pay much less for a Windows license than the $120 or so it would cost you to to buy your own Windows license. This is all going to wipe out the cost savings you’ll see — with everything all told, you’ll probably spend more money building your own average desktop PC than you would picking one up from Amazon or the local electronics store. If you’re an average PC user that uses your desktop for the typical things, there’s no money to be saved from building your own PC. But maybe you’re looking for something higher end. Perhaps you want a high-end gaming PC with the fastest graphics card and CPU available. Perhaps you want to pick out each individual component and choose the exact components for your gaming rig. In this case, building your own PC may be a good option. As you start to look at more expensive, high-end PCs, you may start to see a price gap — but you may not. Let’s say you wanted to blow thousands of dollars on a gaming PC. If you’re looking at spending this kind of money, it would be worth comparing the cost of individual components versus a prebuilt gaming system. Still, the actual prices may surprise you. For example, if you wanted to upgrade Dell’s $2293 Alienware Aurora to include a second NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 graphics card, you’d pay an additional $600 on Alienware’s website. The same graphics card costs $650 on Amazon or Newegg, so you’d be spending more money building the system yourself. Why? Dell’s Alienware gets bulk discounts you can’t get — and this is Alienware, which was once regarded as selling ridiculously overpriced gaming PCs to people who wouldn’t build their own. Building your own PC still allows you to get the most freedom when choosing and combining components, but this is only valuable to a small niche of gamers and professional users — most people, even average gamers, would be fine going with a prebuilt system. If you’re an average person or even an average gamer, you’ll likely find that it’s cheaper to purchase a prebuilt PC rather than assemble your own. Even at the very high end, components may be more expensive separately than they are in a prebuilt PC. Enthusiasts who want to choose all the individual components for their dream gaming PC and want maximum flexibility may want to build their own PCs. Even then, building your own PC these days is more about flexibility and component choice than it is about saving money. In summary, you probably shouldn’t build your own PC. If you’re an enthusiast, you may want to — but only a small minority of people would actually benefit from building their own systems. Feel free to compare prices, but you may be surprised which is cheaper. Image Credit: Richard Jones on Flickr, elPadawan on Flickr, Richard Jones on Flickr     

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  • Agile Development

    - by James Oloo Onyango
    Alot of literature has and is being written about agile developement and its surrounding philosophies. In my quest to find the best way to express the importance of agile methodologies, i have found Robert C. Martin's "A Satire Of Two Companies" to be both the most concise and thorough! Enjoy the read! Rufus Inc Project Kick Off Your name is Bob. The date is January 3, 2001, and your head still aches from the recent millennial revelry. You are sitting in a conference room with several managers and a group of your peers. You are a project team leader. Your boss is there, and he has brought along all of his team leaders. His boss called the meeting. "We have a new project to develop," says your boss's boss. Call him BB. The points in his hair are so long that they scrape the ceiling. Your boss's points are just starting to grow, but he eagerly awaits the day when he can leave Brylcream stains on the acoustic tiles. BB describes the essence of the new market they have identified and the product they want to develop to exploit this market. "We must have this new project up and working by fourth quarter October 1," BB demands. "Nothing is of higher priority, so we are cancelling your current project." The reaction in the room is stunned silence. Months of work are simply going to be thrown away. Slowly, a murmur of objection begins to circulate around the conference table.   His points give off an evil green glow as BB meets the eyes of everyone in the room. One by one, that insidious stare reduces each attendee to quivering lumps of protoplasm. It is clear that he will brook no discussion on this matter. Once silence has been restored, BB says, "We need to begin immediately. How long will it take you to do the analysis?" You raise your hand. Your boss tries to stop you, but his spitwad misses you and you are unaware of his efforts.   "Sir, we can't tell you how long the analysis will take until we have some requirements." "The requirements document won't be ready for 3 or 4 weeks," BB says, his points vibrating with frustration. "So, pretend that you have the requirements in front of you now. How long will you require for analysis?" No one breathes. Everyone looks around to see whether anyone has some idea. "If analysis goes beyond April 1, we have a problem. Can you finish the analysis by then?" Your boss visibly gathers his courage: "We'll find a way, sir!" His points grow 3 mm, and your headache increases by two Tylenol. "Good." BB smiles. "Now, how long will it take to do the design?" "Sir," you say. Your boss visibly pales. He is clearly worried that his 3 mms are at risk. "Without an analysis, it will not be possible to tell you how long design will take." BB's expression shifts beyond austere.   "PRETEND you have the analysis already!" he says, while fixing you with his vacant, beady little eyes. "How long will it take you to do the design?" Two Tylenol are not going to cut it. Your boss, in a desperate attempt to save his new growth, babbles: "Well, sir, with only six months left to complete the project, design had better take no longer than 3 months."   "I'm glad you agree, Smithers!" BB says, beaming. Your boss relaxes. He knows his points are secure. After a while, he starts lightly humming the Brylcream jingle. BB continues, "So, analysis will be complete by April 1, design will be complete by July 1, and that gives you 3 months to implement the project. This meeting is an example of how well our new consensus and empowerment policies are working. Now, get out there and start working. I'll expect to see TQM plans and QIT assignments on my desk by next week. Oh, and don't forget that your crossfunctional team meetings and reports will be needed for next month's quality audit." "Forget the Tylenol," you think to yourself as you return to your cubicle. "I need bourbon."   Visibly excited, your boss comes over to you and says, "Gosh, what a great meeting. I think we're really going to do some world shaking with this project." You nod in agreement, too disgusted to do anything else. "Oh," your boss continues, "I almost forgot." He hands you a 30-page document. "Remember that the SEI is coming to do an evaluation next week. This is the evaluation guide. You need to read through it, memorize it, and then shred it. It tells you how to answer any questions that the SEI auditors ask you. It also tells you what parts of the building you are allowed to take them to and what parts to avoid. We are determined to be a CMM level 3 organization by June!"   You and your peers start working on the analysis of the new project. This is difficult because you have no requirements. But from the 10-minute introduction given by BB on that fateful morning, you have some idea of what the product is supposed to do.   Corporate process demands that you begin by creating a use case document. You and your team begin enumerating use cases and drawing oval and stick diagrams. Philosophical debates break out among the team members. There is disagreement as to whether certain use cases should be connected with <<extends>> or <<includes>> relationships. Competing models are created, but nobody knows how to evaluate them. The debate continues, effectively paralyzing progress.   After a week, somebody finds the iceberg.com Web site, which recommends disposing entirely of <<extends>> and <<includes>> and replacing them with <<precedes>> and <<uses>>. The documents on this Web site, authored by Don Sengroiux, describes a method known as stalwart-analysis, which claims to be a step-by-step method for translating use cases into design diagrams. More competing use case models are created using this new scheme, but again, people can't agree on how to evaluate them. The thrashing continues. More and more, the use case meetings are driven by emotion rather than by reason. If it weren't for the fact that you don't have requirements, you'd be pretty upset by the lack of progress you are making. The requirements document arrives on February 15. And then again on February 20, 25, and every week thereafter. Each new version contradicts the previous one. Clearly, the marketing folks who are writing the requirements, empowered though they might be, are not finding consensus.   At the same time, several new competing use case templates have been proposed by the various team members. Each template presents its own particularly creative way of delaying progress. The debates rage on. On March 1, Prudence Putrigence, the process proctor, succeeds in integrating all the competing use case forms and templates into a single, all-encompassing form. Just the blank form is 15 pages long. She has managed to include every field that appeared on all the competing templates. She also presents a 159- page document describing how to fill out the use case form. All current use cases must be rewritten according to the new standard.   You marvel to yourself that it now requires 15 pages of fill-in-the-blank and essay questions to answer the question: What should the system do when the user presses Return? The corporate process (authored by L. E. Ott, famed author of "Holistic Analysis: A Progressive Dialectic for Software Engineers") insists that you discover all primary use cases, 87 percent of all secondary use cases, and 36.274 percent of all tertiary use cases before you can complete analysis and enter the design phase. You have no idea what a tertiary use case is. So in an attempt to meet this requirement, you try to get your use case document reviewed by the marketing department, which you hope will know what a tertiary use case is.   Unfortunately, the marketing folks are too busy with sales support to talk to you. Indeed, since the project started, you have not been able to get a single meeting with marketing, which has provided a never-ending stream of changing and contradictory requirements documents.   While one team has been spinning endlessly on the use case document, another team has been working out the domain model. Endless variations of UML documents are pouring out of this team. Every week, the model is reworked.   The team members can't decide whether to use <<interfaces>> or <<types>> in the model. A huge disagreement has been raging on the proper syntax and application of OCL. Others on the team just got back from a 5-day class on catabolism, and have been producing incredibly detailed and arcane diagrams that nobody else can fathom.   On March 27, with one week to go before analysis is to be complete, you have produced a sea of documents and diagrams but are no closer to a cogent analysis of the problem than you were on January 3. **** And then, a miracle happens.   **** On Saturday, April 1, you check your e-mail from home. You see a memo from your boss to BB. It states unequivocally that you are done with the analysis! You phone your boss and complain. "How could you have told BB that we were done with the analysis?" "Have you looked at a calendar lately?" he responds. "It's April 1!" The irony of that date does not escape you. "But we have so much more to think about. So much more to analyze! We haven't even decided whether to use <<extends>> or <<precedes>>!" "Where is your evidence that you are not done?" inquires your boss, impatiently. "Whaaa . . . ." But he cuts you off. "Analysis can go on forever; it has to be stopped at some point. And since this is the date it was scheduled to stop, it has been stopped. Now, on Monday, I want you to gather up all existing analysis materials and put them into a public folder. Release that folder to Prudence so that she can log it in the CM system by Monday afternoon. Then get busy and start designing."   As you hang up the phone, you begin to consider the benefits of keeping a bottle of bourbon in your bottom desk drawer. They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the analysis phase. BB gave a colon-stirring speech on empowerment. And your boss, another 3 mm taller, congratulated his team on the incredible show of unity and teamwork. Finally, the CIO takes the stage to tell everyone that the SEI audit went very well and to thank everyone for studying and shredding the evaluation guides that were passed out. Level 3 now seems assured and will be awarded by June. (Scuttlebutt has it that managers at the level of BB and above are to receive significant bonuses once the SEI awards level 3.)   As the weeks flow by, you and your team work on the design of the system. Of course, you find that the analysis that the design is supposedly based on is flawedno, useless; no, worse than useless. But when you tell your boss that you need to go back and work some more on the analysis to shore up its weaker sections, he simply states, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it."   So, you and your team hack the design as best you can, unsure of whether the requirements have been properly analyzed. Of course, it really doesn't matter much, since the requirements document is still thrashing with weekly revisions, and the marketing department still refuses to meet with you.     The design is a nightmare. Your boss recently misread a book named The Finish Line in which the author, Mark DeThomaso, blithely suggested that design documents should be taken down to code-level detail. "If we are going to be working at that level of detail," you ask, "why don't we simply write the code instead?" "Because then you wouldn't be designing, of course. And the only allowable activity in the design phase is design!" "Besides," he continues, "we have just purchased a companywide license for Dandelion! This tool enables 'Round the Horn Engineering!' You are to transfer all design diagrams into this tool. It will automatically generate our code for us! It will also keep the design diagrams in sync with the code!" Your boss hands you a brightly colored shrinkwrapped box containing the Dandelion distribution. You accept it numbly and shuffle off to your cubicle. Twelve hours, eight crashes, one disk reformatting, and eight shots of 151 later, you finally have the tool installed on your server. You consider the week your team will lose while attending Dandelion training. Then you smile and think, "Any week I'm not here is a good week." Design diagram after design diagram is created by your team. Dandelion makes it very difficult to draw these diagrams. There are dozens and dozens of deeply nested dialog boxes with funny text fields and check boxes that must all be filled in correctly. And then there's the problem of moving classes between packages. At first, these diagram are driven from the use cases. But the requirements are changing so often that the use cases rapidly become meaningless. Debates rage about whether VISITOR or DECORATOR design patterns should be used. One developer refuses to use VISITOR in any form, claiming that it's not a properly object-oriented construct. Someone refuses to use multiple inheritance, since it is the spawn of the devil. Review meetings rapidly degenerate into debates about the meaning of object orientation, the definition of analysis versus design, or when to use aggregation versus association. Midway through the design cycle, the marketing folks announce that they have rethought the focus of the system. Their new requirements document is completely restructured. They have eliminated several major feature areas and replaced them with feature areas that they anticipate customer surveys will show to be more appropriate. You tell your boss that these changes mean that you need to reanalyze and redesign much of the system. But he says, "The analysis phase is system. But he says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it."   You suggest that it might be better to create a simple prototype to show to the marketing folks and even some potential customers. But your boss says, "The analysis phase is over. The only allowable activity is design. Now get back to it." Hack, hack, hack, hack. You try to create some kind of a design document that might reflect the new requirements documents. However, the revolution of the requirements has not caused them to stop thrashing. Indeed, if anything, the wild oscillations of the requirements document have only increased in frequency and amplitude.   You slog your way through them.   On June 15, the Dandelion database gets corrupted. Apparently, the corruption has been progressive. Small errors in the DB accumulated over the months into bigger and bigger errors. Eventually, the CASE tool just stopped working. Of course, the slowly encroaching corruption is present on all the backups. Calls to the Dandelion technical support line go unanswered for several days. Finally, you receive a brief e-mail from Dandelion, informing you that this is a known problem and that the solution is to purchase the new version, which they promise will be ready some time next quarter, and then reenter all the diagrams by hand.   ****   Then, on July 1 another miracle happens! You are done with the design!   Rather than go to your boss and complain, you stock your middle desk drawer with some vodka.   **** They threw a party to celebrate the on-time completion of the design phase and their graduation to CMM level 3. This time, you find BB's speech so stirring that you have to use the restroom before it begins. New banners and plaques are all over your workplace. They show pictures of eagles and mountain climbers, and they talk about teamwork and empowerment. They read better after a few scotches. That reminds you that you need to clear out your file cabinet to make room for the brandy. You and your team begin to code. But you rapidly discover that the design is lacking in some significant areas. Actually, it's lacking any significance at all. You convene a design session in one of the conference rooms to try to work through some of the nastier problems. But your boss catches you at it and disbands the meeting, saying, "The design phase is over. The only allowable activity is coding. Now get back to it."   ****   The code generated by Dandelion is really hideous. It turns out that you and your team were using association and aggregation the wrong way, after all. All the generated code has to be edited to correct these flaws. Editing this code is extremely difficult because it has been instrumented with ugly comment blocks that have special syntax that Dandelion needs in order to keep the diagrams in sync with the code. If you accidentally alter one of these comments, the diagrams will be regenerated incorrectly. It turns out that "Round the Horn Engineering" requires an awful lot of effort. The more you try to keep the code compatible with Dandelion, the more errors Dandelion generates. In the end, you give up and decide to keep the diagrams up to date manually. A second later, you decide that there's no point in keeping the diagrams up to date at all. Besides, who has time?   Your boss hires a consultant to build tools to count the number of lines of code that are being produced. He puts a big thermometer graph on the wall with the number 1,000,000 on the top. Every day, he extends the red line to show how many lines have been added. Three days after the thermometer appears on the wall, your boss stops you in the hall. "That graph isn't growing quickly enough. We need to have a million lines done by October 1." "We aren't even sh-sh-sure that the proshect will require a m-million linezh," you blather. "We have to have a million lines done by October 1," your boss reiterates. His points have grown again, and the Grecian formula he uses on them creates an aura of authority and competence. "Are you sure your comment blocks are big enough?" Then, in a flash of managerial insight, he says, "I have it! I want you to institute a new policy among the engineers. No line of code is to be longer than 20 characters. Any such line must be split into two or more preferably more. All existing code needs to be reworked to this standard. That'll get our line count up!"   You decide not to tell him that this will require two unscheduled work months. You decide not to tell him anything at all. You decide that intravenous injections of pure ethanol are the only solution. You make the appropriate arrangements. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. You and your team madly code away. By August 1, your boss, frowning at the thermometer on the wall, institutes a mandatory 50-hour workweek.   Hack, hack, hack, and hack. By September 1st, the thermometer is at 1.2 million lines and your boss asks you to write a report describing why you exceeded the coding budget by 20 percent. He institutes mandatory Saturdays and demands that the project be brought back down to a million lines. You start a campaign of remerging lines. Hack, hack, hack, and hack. Tempers are flaring; people are quitting; QA is raining trouble reports down on you. Customers are demanding installation and user manuals; salespeople are demanding advance demonstrations for special customers; the requirements document is still thrashing, the marketing folks are complaining that the product isn't anything like they specified, and the liquor store won't accept your credit card anymore. Something has to give.    On September 15, BB calls a meeting. As he enters the room, his points are emitting clouds of steam. When he speaks, the bass overtones of his carefully manicured voice cause the pit of your stomach to roll over. "The QA manager has told me that this project has less than 50 percent of the required features implemented. He has also informed me that the system crashes all the time, yields wrong results, and is hideously slow. He has also complained that he cannot keep up with the continuous train of daily releases, each more buggy than the last!" He stops for a few seconds, visibly trying to compose himself. "The QA manager estimates that, at this rate of development, we won't be able to ship the product until December!" Actually, you think it's more like March, but you don't say anything. "December!" BB roars with such derision that people duck their heads as though he were pointing an assault rifle at them. "December is absolutely out of the question. Team leaders, I want new estimates on my desk in the morning. I am hereby mandating 65-hour work weeks until this project is complete. And it better be complete by November 1."   As he leaves the conference room, he is heard to mutter: "Empowermentbah!" * * * Your boss is bald; his points are mounted on BB's wall. The fluorescent lights reflecting off his pate momentarily dazzle you. "Do you have anything to drink?" he asks. Having just finished your last bottle of Boone's Farm, you pull a bottle of Thunderbird from your bookshelf and pour it into his coffee mug. "What's it going to take to get this project done? " he asks. "We need to freeze the requirements, analyze them, design them, and then implement them," you say callously. "By November 1?" your boss exclaims incredulously. "No way! Just get back to coding the damned thing." He storms out, scratching his vacant head.   A few days later, you find that your boss has been transferred to the corporate research division. Turnover has skyrocketed. Customers, informed at the last minute that their orders cannot be fulfilled on time, have begun to cancel their orders. Marketing is re-evaluating whether this product aligns with the overall goals of the company. Memos fly, heads roll, policies change, and things are, overall, pretty grim. Finally, by March, after far too many sixty-five hour weeks, a very shaky version of the software is ready. In the field, bug-discovery rates are high, and the technical support staff are at their wits' end, trying to cope with the complaints and demands of the irate customers. Nobody is happy.   In April, BB decides to buy his way out of the problem by licensing a product produced by Rupert Industries and redistributing it. The customers are mollified, the marketing folks are smug, and you are laid off.     Rupert Industries: Project Alpha   Your name is Robert. The date is January 3, 2001. The quiet hours spent with your family this holiday have left you refreshed and ready for work. You are sitting in a conference room with your team of professionals. The manager of the division called the meeting. "We have some ideas for a new project," says the division manager. Call him Russ. He is a high-strung British chap with more energy than a fusion reactor. He is ambitious and driven but understands the value of a team. Russ describes the essence of the new market opportunity the company has identified and introduces you to Jane, the marketing manager, who is responsible for defining the products that will address it. Addressing you, Jane says, "We'd like to start defining our first product offering as soon as possible. When can you and your team meet with me?" You reply, "We'll be done with the current iteration of our project this Friday. We can spare a few hours for you between now and then. After that, we'll take a few people from the team and dedicate them to you. We'll begin hiring their replacements and the new people for your team immediately." "Great," says Russ, "but I want you to understand that it is critical that we have something to exhibit at the trade show coming up this July. If we can't be there with something significant, we'll lose the opportunity."   "I understand," you reply. "I don't yet know what it is that you have in mind, but I'm sure we can have something by July. I just can't tell you what that something will be right now. In any case, you and Jane are going to have complete control over what we developers do, so you can rest assured that by July, you'll have the most important things that can be accomplished in that time ready to exhibit."   Russ nods in satisfaction. He knows how this works. Your team has always kept him advised and allowed him to steer their development. He has the utmost confidence that your team will work on the most important things first and will produce a high-quality product.   * * *   "So, Robert," says Jane at their first meeting, "How does your team feel about being split up?" "We'll miss working with each other," you answer, "but some of us were getting pretty tired of that last project and are looking forward to a change. So, what are you people cooking up?" Jane beams. "You know how much trouble our customers currently have . . ." And she spends a half hour or so describing the problem and possible solution. "OK, wait a second" you respond. "I need to be clear about this." And so you and Jane talk about how this system might work. Some of her ideas aren't fully formed. You suggest possible solutions. She likes some of them. You continue discussing.   During the discussion, as each new topic is addressed, Jane writes user story cards. Each card represents something that the new system has to do. The cards accumulate on the table and are spread out in front of you. Both you and Jane point at them, pick them up, and make notes on them as you discuss the stories. The cards are powerful mnemonic devices that you can use to represent complex ideas that are barely formed.   At the end of the meeting, you say, "OK, I've got a general idea of what you want. I'm going to talk to the team about it. I imagine they'll want to run some experiments with various database structures and presentation formats. Next time we meet, it'll be as a group, and we'll start identifying the most important features of the system."   A week later, your nascent team meets with Jane. They spread the existing user story cards out on the table and begin to get into some of the details of the system. The meeting is very dynamic. Jane presents the stories in the order of their importance. There is much discussion about each one. The developers are concerned about keeping the stories small enough to estimate and test. So they continually ask Jane to split one story into several smaller stories. Jane is concerned that each story have a clear business value and priority, so as she splits them, she makes sure that this stays true.   The stories accumulate on the table. Jane writes them, but the developers make notes on them as needed. Nobody tries to capture everything that is said; the cards are not meant to capture everything but are simply reminders of the conversation.   As the developers become more comfortable with the stories, they begin writing estimates on them. These estimates are crude and budgetary, but they give Jane an idea of what the story will cost.   At the end of the meeting, it is clear that many more stories could be discussed. It is also clear that the most important stories have been addressed and that they represent several months worth of work. Jane closes the meeting by taking the cards with her and promising to have a proposal for the first release in the morning.   * * *   The next morning, you reconvene the meeting. Jane chooses five cards and places them on the table. "According to your estimates, these cards represent about one perfect team-week's worth of work. The last iteration of the previous project managed to get one perfect team-week done in 3 real weeks. If we can get these five stories done in 3 weeks, we'll be able to demonstrate them to Russ. That will make him feel very comfortable about our progress." Jane is pushing it. The sheepish look on her face lets you know that she knows it too. You reply, "Jane, this is a new team, working on a new project. It's a bit presumptuous to expect that our velocity will be the same as the previous team's. However, I met with the team yesterday afternoon, and we all agreed that our initial velocity should, in fact, be set to one perfectweek for every 3 real-weeks. So you've lucked out on this one." "Just remember," you continue, "that the story estimates and the story velocity are very tentative at this point. We'll learn more when we plan the iteration and even more when we implement it."   Jane looks over her glasses at you as if to say "Who's the boss around here, anyway?" and then smiles and says, "Yeah, don't worry. I know the drill by now."Jane then puts 15 more cards on the table. She says, "If we can get all these cards done by the end of March, we can turn the system over to our beta test customers. And we'll get good feedback from them."   You reply, "OK, so we've got our first iteration defined, and we have the stories for the next three iterations after that. These four iterations will make our first release."   "So," says Jane, can you really do these five stories in the next 3 weeks?" "I don't know for sure, Jane," you reply. "Let's break them down into tasks and see what we get."   So Jane, you, and your team spend the next several hours taking each of the five stories that Jane chose for the first iteration and breaking them down into small tasks. The developers quickly realize that some of the tasks can be shared between stories and that other tasks have commonalities that can probably be taken advantage of. It is clear that potential designs are popping into the developers' heads. From time to time, they form little discussion knots and scribble UML diagrams on some cards.   Soon, the whiteboard is filled with the tasks that, once completed, will implement the five stories for this iteration. You start the sign-up process by saying, "OK, let's sign up for these tasks." "I'll take the initial database generation." Says Pete. "That's what I did on the last project, and this doesn't look very different. I estimate it at two of my perfect workdays." "OK, well, then, I'll take the login screen," says Joe. "Aw, darn," says Elaine, the junior member of the team, "I've never done a GUI, and kinda wanted to try that one."   "Ah, the impatience of youth," Joe says sagely, with a wink in your direction. "You can assist me with it, young Jedi." To Jane: "I think it'll take me about three of my perfect workdays."   One by one, the developers sign up for tasks and estimate them in terms of their own perfect workdays. Both you and Jane know that it is best to let the developers volunteer for tasks than to assign the tasks to them. You also know full well that you daren't challenge any of the developers' estimates. You know these people, and you trust them. You know that they are going to do the very best they can.   The developers know that they can't sign up for more perfect workdays than they finished in the last iteration they worked on. Once each developer has filled his or her schedule for the iteration, they stop signing up for tasks.   Eventually, all the developers have stopped signing up for tasks. But, of course, tasks are still left on the board.   "I was worried that that might happen," you say, "OK, there's only one thing to do, Jane. We've got too much to do in this iteration. What stories or tasks can we remove?" Jane sighs. She knows that this is the only option. Working overtime at the beginning of a project is insane, and projects where she's tried it have not fared well.   So Jane starts to remove the least-important functionality. "Well, we really don't need the login screen just yet. We can simply start the system in the logged-in state." "Rats!" cries Elaine. "I really wanted to do that." "Patience, grasshopper." says Joe. "Those who wait for the bees to leave the hive will not have lips too swollen to relish the honey." Elaine looks confused. Everyone looks confused. "So . . .," Jane continues, "I think we can also do away with . . ." And so, bit by bit, the list of tasks shrinks. Developers who lose a task sign up for one of the remaining ones.   The negotiation is not painless. Several times, Jane exhibits obvious frustration and impatience. Once, when tensions are especially high, Elaine volunteers, "I'll work extra hard to make up some of the missing time." You are about to correct her when, fortunately, Joe looks her in the eye and says, "When once you proceed down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."   In the end, an iteration acceptable to Jane is reached. It's not what Jane wanted. Indeed, it is significantly less. But it's something the team feels that can be achieved in the next 3 weeks.   And, after all, it still addresses the most important things that Jane wanted in the iteration. "So, Jane," you say when things had quieted down a bit, "when can we expect acceptance tests from you?" Jane sighs. This is the other side of the coin. For every story the development team implements,   Jane must supply a suite of acceptance tests that prove that it works. And the team needs these long before the end of the iteration, since they will certainly point out differences in the way Jane and the developers imagine the system's behaviour.   "I'll get you some example test scripts today," Jane promises. "I'll add to them every day after that. You'll have the entire suite by the middle of the iteration."   * * *   The iteration begins on Monday morning with a flurry of Class, Responsibilities, Collaborators sessions. By midmorning, all the developers have assembled into pairs and are rapidly coding away. "And now, my young apprentice," Joe says to Elaine, "you shall learn the mysteries of test-first design!"   "Wow, that sounds pretty rad," Elaine replies. "How do you do it?" Joe beams. It's clear that he has been anticipating this moment. "OK, what does the code do right now?" "Huh?" replied Elaine, "It doesn't do anything at all; there is no code."   "So, consider our task; can you think of something the code should do?" "Sure," Elaine said with youthful assurance, "First, it should connect to the database." "And thereupon, what must needs be required to connecteth the database?" "You sure talk weird," laughed Elaine. "I think we'd have to get the database object from some registry and call the Connect() method. "Ah, astute young wizard. Thou perceives correctly that we requireth an object within which we can cacheth the database object." "Is 'cacheth' really a word?" "It is when I say it! So, what test can we write that we know the database registry should pass?" Elaine sighs. She knows she'll just have to play along. "We should be able to create a database object and pass it to the registry in a Store() method. And then we should be able to pull it out of the registry with a Get() method and make sure it's the same object." "Oh, well said, my prepubescent sprite!" "Hay!" "So, now, let's write a test function that proves your case." "But shouldn't we write the database object and registry object first?" "Ah, you've much to learn, my young impatient one. Just write the test first." "But it won't even compile!" "Are you sure? What if it did?" "Uh . . ." "Just write the test, Elaine. Trust me." And so Joe, Elaine, and all the other developers began to code their tasks, one test case at a time. The room in which they worked was abuzz with the conversations between the pairs. The murmur was punctuated by an occasional high five when a pair managed to finish a task or a difficult test case.   As development proceeded, the developers changed partners once or twice a day. Each developer got to see what all the others were doing, and so knowledge of the code spread generally throughout the team.   Whenever a pair finished something significant whether a whole task or simply an important part of a task they integrated what they had with the rest of the system. Thus, the code base grew daily, and integration difficulties were minimized.   The developers communicated with Jane on a daily basis. They'd go to her whenever they had a question about the functionality of the system or the interpretation of an acceptance test case.   Jane, good as her word, supplied the team with a steady stream of acceptance test scripts. The team read these carefully and thereby gained a much better understanding of what Jane expected the system to do. By the beginning of the second week, there was enough functionality to demonstrate to Jane. She watched eagerly as the demonstration passed test case after test case. "This is really cool," Jane said as the demonstration finally ended. "But this doesn't seem like one-third of the tasks. Is your velocity slower than anticipated?"   You grimace. You'd been waiting for a good time to mention this to Jane but now she was forcing the issue. "Yes, unfortunately, we are going more slowly than we had expected. The new application server we are using is turning out to be a pain to configure. Also, it takes forever to reboot, and we have to reboot it whenever we make even the slightest change to its configuration."   Jane eyes you with suspicion. The stress of last Monday's negotiations had still not entirely dissipated. She says, "And what does this mean to our schedule? We can't slip it again, we just can't. Russ will have a fit! He'll haul us all into the woodshed and ream us some new ones."   You look Jane right in the eyes. There's no pleasant way to give someone news like this. So you just blurt out, "Look, if things keep going like they're going, we're not going to be done with everything by next Friday. Now it's possible that we'll figure out a way to go faster. But, frankly, I wouldn't depend on that. You should start thinking about one or two tasks that could be removed from the iteration without ruining the demonstration for Russ. Come hell or high water, we are going to give that demonstration on Friday, and I don't think you want us to choose which tasks to omit."   "Aw forchrisakes!" Jane barely manages to stifle yelling that last word as she stalks away, shaking her head. Not for the first time, you say to yourself, "Nobody ever promised me project management would be easy." You are pretty sure it won't be the last time, either.   Actually, things went a bit better than you had hoped. The team did, in fact, have to drop one task from the iteration, but Jane had chosen wisely, and the demonstration for Russ went without a hitch. Russ was not impressed with the progress, but neither was he dismayed. He simply said, "This is pretty good. But remember, we have to be able to demonstrate this system at the trade show in July, and at this rate, it doesn't look like you'll have all that much to show." Jane, whose attitude had improved dramatically with the completion of the iteration, responded to Russ by saying, "Russ, this team is working hard, and well. When July comes around, I am confident that we'll have something significant to demonstrate. It won't be everything, and some of it may be smoke and mirrors, but we'll have something."   Painful though the last iteration was, it had calibrated your velocity numbers. The next iteration went much better. Not because your team got more done than in the last iteration but simply because the team didn't have to remove any tasks or stories in the middle of the iteration.   By the start of the fourth iteration, a natural rhythm has been established. Jane, you, and the team know exactly what to expect from one another. The team is running hard, but the pace is sustainable. You are confident that the team can keep up this pace for a year or more.   The number of surprises in the schedule diminishes to near zero; however, the number of surprises in the requirements does not. Jane and Russ frequently look over the growing system and make recommendations or changes to the existing functionality. But all parties realize that these changes take time and must be scheduled. So the changes do not cause anyone's expectations to be violated. In March, there is a major demonstration of the system to the board of directors. The system is very limited and is not yet in a form good enough to take to the trade show, but progress is steady, and the board is reasonably impressed.   The second release goes even more smoothly than the first. By now, the team has figured out a way to automate Jane's acceptance test scripts. The team has also refactored the design of the system to the point that it is really easy to add new features and change old ones. The second release was done by the end of June and was taken to the trade show. It had less in it than Jane and Russ would have liked, but it did demonstrate the most important features of the system. Although customers at the trade show noticed that certain features were missing, they were very impressed overall. You, Russ, and Jane all returned from the trade show with smiles on your faces. You all felt as though this project was a winner.   Indeed, many months later, you are contacted by Rufus Inc. That company had been working on a system like this for its internal operations. Rufus has canceled the development of that system after a death-march project and is negotiating to license your technology for its environment.   Indeed, things are looking up!

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  • How do I extract excel data from multiple worksheets and put into one sheet?

    - by user167210
    In a workbook I have 7 sheets(Totals and then Mon to Sat),I want to extract rows which have the word "CHEQ" in its cell (this is a dropdown list with two options-CHEQ/PAID)from all sheets. On my front sheet I used this formula: =IF(ROWS(A$13:A13)>$C$10,"",INDEX(Monday!A$3:A$62,SMALL(IF(Monday[Paid]=$A$10,ROW(Monday[Paid])-ROW(Monday!$I$3)+1),ROWS(A$13:A13)))) This formula works fine for one worksheet (eg. Monday) but is it possible to show the extracted rows from all 6 sheets on the front page? I only have Excel NOT Access. These are the 12 headers on row A12 Col Name Cod House Car Date Discount 2nd Paid Extra Letter Posted The exported data appears like this (this just an example): Col Name Cod House Car Date Discount 2nd Paid Extra Letter Posted 12 Robbs 1244 Ren 11/10 10% 5 CHEQ 0 0 No 15 Jones 7784 Ren 12/10 15% 1 CHEQ 0 0 No 18 Doese 1184 Ren 12/11 12% 1 CHEQ 0 0 No Any ideas on what to do to this formula? I am using Excel 2010.

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  • How to map email addresses on subdomains

    - by Glen Little
    Is it possible to create email addresses like these: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] and have them all handled by one mail server, as three different mail boxes? (Many examples I've seen talk about directing mail to [email protected] into the same mail box as [email protected] - but this is not what I'm looking for.) I haven't specified the server technology being used because I'm wondering if this is generally possible. If you know that server x can do this, please mention it in your answer! Is it correct that MX records can be set to direct email to all subdomains *.mydomain.com to one mail server? Is that still true if there are also web sites at those subdomains (using A records)? Thanks!

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  • NorthWest Arkansas TechFest

    - by dmccollough
    David Walker is taking Tulsa TechFest on the road to NorthWest Arkansas When Thursday, July 8th 2010 Where Center for Nonprofits @St. Mary’s 1200 West Walnut Street Rogers, Ar 72756 479-936-8218 Map it with Bing! What is NorthWest Arkansas TechFest ? It is a technical conference with a primary focus to provide training/teaching sessions that are immediately beneficial to the broadest range of IT professionals in their day-to-day jobs. We can accomplish this with numerous national and international speakers delivering 75 minute sessions. A charitable non-profit event organized by local area volunteers. Even though it its a free event, we ask that you support the community and PLEASE bring TWO CANS or TWO BUCKS. All canned food will be donated to the NWA Food Bank and all proceeds will be donated to the The Jones Center. Since our first event in the Tulsa area back in 1996, many other communities have been following our example by hosting their own TechFest events: Vancouver TechFest, Houston TechFest, Dallas TechFest, Alberta TechFest and Indy TechFest. We are very PROUD to now bring the event to NorthWest Arkansas! Who should Attend? Every IT Professional IT Job seekers and IT Recruiters and Hiring Managers Developers of all languages Graphic and Web Designers Infrastructure, IT and System Administrators eMarketing Professionals Project Managers Compliance Managers IT Directors and Mangers Chief Compliance Officers Chief Security Officers CIOs/CTOs CEOs/Executive Officers With this many hours of training, anyone in the or wanting to get into the IT Industry will definitely find interesting and instructional presentations by professional speakers. Want to keep informed? More information can be found here.

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  • That’s a wrap! Almost, there’s still one last chance to attend a SQL in the City event in 2012

    - by Red and the Community
    The communities team are back from the SQL in the City multi-city US Tour and we are delighted to have met so many happy SQL Server professionals and Red Gate customers. We set out to run a series of back-to-back events in order to meet, talk to and delight as many SQL Server and Red Gate enthusiasts as possible in 5 different cities in 11 days. We did it! The attendees had a good time too and 99% of them would attend another SQL in the City event in 2013 – so it seems we left an impression. There were a range of topics on the event agenda, ranging from ‘The Whys & Hows of Continuous Integration’, ‘Database Maintenance Essentials’, ‘Red Gate tools – The Complete Lifecycle’, ‘Automated Deployment: Application And Database Releases Without The Headache’, ‘The Ten Commandments of SQL Server Monitoring’ and many more. Videos and slides from the events will be posted to the event website in November, after our last event of 2012. SQL in the City Seattle – November 5 Join us for free and hear from some of the very best names in the SQL Server world. SQL Server MVPs such as; Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Brent Ozar, Gail Shaw and more will be presenting at the Bell Harbor conference center for one day only. We’re even taking on board some of the recent attendee-suggestions of how we can improve the events (feedback from the 65% of attendees who came to our US tour events), first off we’re extending the drinks celebration in the evening! Rather than just a 30 minute drink and run, attendees will have up to 2 hours to enjoy free drinks, relax and network in a fantastic environment amongst some really smart like-minded professionals. If you’re interested in expanding your SQL Server knowledge, would like to learn more about Red Gate tools, get yourself registered for the last SQL in the City event of 2012. It’s free, fun and we’re very friendly! I look forward to seeing you in Seattle on Monday November 5. Cheers, Annabel.

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  • 4 Top Tips from the Exceptional DBA Award judges

    - by Rebecca Amos
    There's still time to celebrate your achievements as a DBA – or those of a DBA you know – by submitting a nomination for the Exceptional DBA Awards 2011. To help you get started, here are some top tips from the judges on what they're looking for from this year's winner [hint: it's very likely you're already exceptional!]: "An Exceptional DBA must be able to communicate effectively and clearly with both technical people and the client." Steve Jones. "Exceptional DBAs are like police officers: we're here to serve and protect. Both serving and protecting are vital parts of the job, and we can't just focus on one." Brent Ozar "DBA work can be routine. Exceptional DBAs are enthusiastic about their work and are rarely bored, as there is always something new to learn and master." Brad McGehee. "Remember that cost is an important factor for your company. The ability to save your company money with a different technical solution will make you an Exceptional DBA, and can make you exceptionally well liked." Rodney Landrum. So whether you've brought a team together for a project, taken steps to protect the security of your servers, or learnt a new topic to understand an element of your job better, it's likely you’re already taking the steps that make you the Exceptional DBA the judges are looking for. To get more insider info from the judges, download your free poster of their top tips, and then get started on your entry: www.exceptionaldba.com.

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  • When Your Boss Doesn't Want you to Succeed

    - by Phil Factor
    You're working hard to get an application finished. You are programming long into the evenings sometimes, and eating sandwiches at your desk instead of taking a lunch break. Then one day you glance up at the IT manager, serene in his mysterious round of meetings, and think 'Does he actually care whether this project succeeds or not?'. The question may seem absurd. Of course the project must succeed. The truth, as always, is often far more complex. Your manager may even be doing his best to make sure you don't succeed. Why? There have always been rich pickings for the unscrupulous in IT.  In extreme cases, where administrators struggle with scarcely-comprehended technical issues, huge sums of money can be lost and gained without any perceptible results. In a very few cases can fraud be proven: most of the time, the intricacies of the 'game' are such that one can do little more than harbor suspicion.  Where does over-enthusiastic salesmanship end and fraud begin? The Business of Information Technology provides rich opportunities for White-collar crime. The poor developer has his, or her, hands full with the task of wrestling with the sheer complexity of building an application. He, or she, has no time for following the complexities of the chicanery of the management that is directing affairs.  Most likely, the developers wouldn't even suspect that their company management had ulterior motives. I'll illustrate what I mean with an entirely fictional, hypothetical, example. The Opportunist and the Aged Charities often do good, unexciting work that is funded by the income from a bequest that dates back maybe hundreds of years.  In our example, it isn't exciting work, for it involves the welfare of elderly people who have fallen on hard times.  Volunteers visit, giving a smile and a chat, and check that they are all right, but are able to spend a little money on their discretion to ameliorate any pressing needs for these old folk.  The money is made to work very hard and the charity averts a great deal of suffering and eases the burden on the state. Daisy hears the garden gate creak as Mrs Rainer comes up the path. She looks forward to her twice-weekly visit from the nice lady from the trust. She always asked ‘is everything all right, Love’. Cheeky but nice. She likes her cheery manner. She seems interested in hearing her memories, and talking about her far-away family. She helps her with those chores in the house that she couldn’t manage and once even paid to fill the back-shed with coke, the other year. Nice, Mrs. Rainer is, she thought as she goes to open the door. The trustees are getting on in years themselves, and worry about the long-term future of the charity: is it relevant to modern society? Is it likely to attract a new generation of workers to take it on. They are instantly attracted by the arrival to the board of a smartly dressed University lecturer with the ear of the present Government. Alain 'Stalin' Jones is earnest, persuasive and energetic. The trustees welcome him to the board and quickly forgive his humorless political-correctness. He talks of 'diversity', 'relevance', 'social change', 'equality' and 'communities', but his eye is on that huge bequest. Alain first came to notice as a Trotskyite union official, who insinuated himself into one of the duller Trades Unions and turned it, through his passionate leadership, into a radical, headline-grabbing organization.  Middle age, and the rise of European federal socialism, had brought him quiet prosperity and charcoal suits, an ear in the current government, and a wide influence as a member of various Quangos (government bodies staffed by well-paid unelected courtiers).  He was employed as a 'consultant' by several organizations that relied on government contracts. After gaining the confidence of the trustees, and showing a surprising knowledge of mundane processes and the regulatory framework of charities, Alain launches his plan.  The trust will expand their work by means of a bold IT initiative that will coordinate the interventions of several 'caring agencies', and provide  emergency cover, a special Website so anxious relatives can see how their elderly charges are doing, and a vastly more efficient way of coordinating the work of the volunteer carers. It will also provide a special-purpose site that gives 'social networking' facilities, rather like Facebook, to the few elderly folk on the lists with access to the internet. The trustees perk up. Their own experience of the internet is restricted to the occasional scanning of railway timetables, but they can see that it is 'relevant'. In his next report to the other trustees, Alain proudly announces that all this glamorous and exciting technology can be paid for by a grant from the government. He admits darkly that he has influence. True to his word, the government promises a grant of a size that is an order of magnitude greater than any budget that the trustees had ever handled. There was the understandable proviso that the company that would actually do the IT work would have to be one of the government's preferred suppliers and the work would need to be tendered under EU competition rules. The only company that tenders, a multinational IT company with a long track record of government work, quotes ten million pounds for the work. A trustee questions the figure as it seems enormous for the reasonably trivial internet facilities being built, but the IT Salesmen dazzle them with presentations and three-letter acronyms until they subside into quiescent acceptance. After all, they can’t stay locked in the Twentieth century practices can they? The work is put in hand with a large project team, in a splendid glass building near west London. The trustees see rooms of programmers working diligently at screens, and who talk with enthusiasm of the project. Paul, the project manager, looked through his resource schedule with growing unease. His initial excitement at being given his first major project hadn’t lasted. He’d been allocated a lackluster team of developers whose skills didn’t seem right, and he was allowed only a couple of contractors to make good the deficit. Strangely, the presentation he’d given to his management, where he’d saved time and resources with a OTS solution to a great deal of the development work, and a sound conservative architecture, hadn’t gone down nearly as big as he’d hoped. He almost got the feeling they wanted a more radical and ambitious solution. The project starts slipping its dates. The costs build rapidly. There are certain uncomfortable extra charges that appear, such as the £600-a-day charge by the 'Business Manager' appointed to act as a point of liaison between the charity and the IT Company.  When he appeared, his face permanently split by a 'Mr Sincerity' smile, they'd thought he was provided at the cost of the IT Company. Derek, the DBA, didn’t have to go to the server room quite some much as he did: but It got him away from the poisonous despair of the development group. Wave after wave of events had conspired to delay the project.  Why the management had imposed hideous extra bureaucracy to cover ISO 9000 and 9001:2008 accreditation just as the project was struggling to get back on-schedule was  beyond belief.  Then  the Business manager was coming back with endless changes in scope, sorrowing saying that the Trustees were very insistent, though hopelessly out in touch with the reality of technical challenges. Suddenly, the costs mount to the point of consuming the government grant in its entirety. The project remains tantalizingly just out of reach. Alain Jones gives an emotional rallying speech at the trustees review meeting, urging them not to lose their nerve. Sadly, the trustees dip into the accumulated capital of the trust, the seed-corn of all their revenues, in order to save the IT project. A few months later it is all over. The IT project is never delivered, even though it had seemed so incredibly close.  With the trust's capital all gone, the activities it funded have to be terminated and the trust becomes just a shell. There aren't even the funds to mount a legal challenge against the IT company, even had the trust's solicitor advised such a foolish thing. Alain leaves as suddenly as he had arrived, only to pop up a few months later, bronzed and rested, at another charity. The IT workers who were permanent employees are dispersed to other projects, and the contractors leave to other contracts. Within months the entire project is but a vague memory. One or two developers remain  puzzled that their managers had been so obstructive when they should have welcomed progress toward completion of the project, but they put it down to incompetence and testosterone. Few suspected that they were actively preventing the project from getting finished. The relationships between the IT consultancy, and the government of the day are intricate, and made more complex by the Private Finance initiatives and political patronage.  The losers in this case were the taxpayers, and the beneficiaries of the trust, and, perhaps the soul of the original benefactor of the trust, whose bid to give his name some immortality had been scuppered by smooth-talking white-collar political apparatniks.  Even now, nobody is certain whether a crime was ever committed. The perfect heist, I guess. Where’s the victim? "I hear that Daisy’s cottage is up for sale. She’s had to go into a care home.  She didn’t want to at all, but then there is nobody to keep an eye on her since she had that minor stroke a while back.  A charity used to help out. The ‘social’ don’t have the funding, evidently for community care. Yes, her old cat was put down. There was a good clearout, and now the house is all scrubbed and cleared ready for sale. The skip was full of old photos and letters, memories. No room in her new ‘home’."

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  • SharePoint Saturday Charlotte 2010 Recap, Slides and Photos

    - by Brian Jackett
    This past weekend I attended SharePoint Saturday Charlotte (SPSCLT) in Charlotte, North Carolina.  For those unfamiliar, SharePoint Saturday is a community driven event where various speakers gather to present at a FREE conference on all topics related to SharePoint.  This made my fourth SharePoint Saturday attended and third I’ve spoken at.  The event was very well organized, attended, and a pleasure to be a part of along with many other great speakers.     At SharePoint Saturday Charlotte I had the opportunity to give two presentations.  First was “The Power of PowerShell + SharePoint 2007” and second was a new one “Managing SharePoint 2010 Farms with PowerShell.”  I want to thank everyone who attended either of my sessions and for all of the feedback given.  Below you will find links to my slides, demo scripts, and pictures taken throughout the event.  If anyone has any questions from the slides or scripts feel free to drop me a line.   Pictures SharePoint Saturday Charlotte Apr '10 Pictures on Facebook (recommend these with comments and tagging)   View Full Album   Slides, Scripts, and Rating Links SharePoint Saturday Charlotte Apr '10 Slides and Demo Scripts SpeakerRate: The Power of PowerShell + SharePoint 2007 SpeakerRate: Managing SharePoint 2010 Farms with PowerShell   Conclusion     Big thanks out to Brian Gough (@bkgough), Dan Lewis (@sharepointcomic) and all of the other organizers of this event.  Also a big thanks out to the other speakers and sponsors (too many to list) who made the event possible.  Lastly thanks to my Sogeti coworker Kelly Jones (@kellydjones) for picking me up from the airport and a ride back to Columbus.  I hope everyone that attended got something out of the event and will continue to grow the SharePoint community.  I’m on a break from conferences for a few weeks and then have 3 more back to back weekends in May, blog posts announcing those coming later.  Enjoy the slides, scripts, and pictures.         -Frog Out

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  • SQL SERVER – Difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX

    - by pinaldave
    Earlier I asked a simple question on Facebook regarding difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX in SQL Server. You can view the original conversation there over here. The conversion immediately became very interesting and lots of healthy discussion happened on facebook page. The best part of having conversation on facebook page is the comfort it provides and leaner commenting interface. Question Question from SQLAuthority.com: What is the difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX in SQL Server? Answer Answer from Rakesh Kumar: DATABASEPROPERTY is supported for backward compatibility but does not provide information about the properties added in this release. Also, many properties supported by DATABASEPROPERTY have been replaced by new properties in DATABASEPROPERTYEX.- source (MSDN). Answer from Alphonso Jones: The only real difference I can see is one, the number of properties contained and the other is that EX returns a sql_variant while DATABASEPROPERTY returns only int. Answer from Ambati Venkatasiva: Both are system meta data functions. DATABASEPROPERTYEX Returns the current setting of the specified database option. DATABASEPROPERTYEX returns the sq-varient value and DATABASEPROPERTY returns integer value. Answer from Rama Sankar Molleti:  Here is the best example about databasepropertyex SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('dbname', 'Collation') Result SQL_1xCompat_CP850_CI_AS Whereas with databaseproperty it retuns nothing as the return type for this is integer. Sql_variant datatype stores values of various sql server supported datatypes except text, ntext, image and timestamp. Answer from Alok Seth:  SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('AdventureWorks', 'Status') DatabaseStatus_DATABASEPROPERTYEX GO --Result - ONLINE SELECT DATABASEPROPERTY('AdventureWorks', 'Status') DatabaseStatus_DATABASEPROPERTY GO --Result - NULL Summary Use DATABASEPROPERTYEX as it is the only function supported in future version as well it returns status of various database properties which does not exists with DATABASEPROPERTY. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 11/30/2011

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Coding - the new Latin | @BBCRoryCJ BBC Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones reports on why "the campaign to boost the teaching of computer skills - particularly coding - in schools is gathering force." BPM Business Value Patterns | SOA Partner Community Blog Juergen Kress shares the presentation he and Matthias Ziegler from Accenture delivered at the SOA & BPM Integration Days event in Germany in October. Coherence 3.7.1 Resources Busy blogger Juergen Kress shares links to screencasts and other resources for those interested in Oracle Coherence 3.7.1. OBIEE 11.1.1 - Introduction to OBIEE 11g Full Sample App "The OBIEE 11g Full Sample App (FSA) is a comprehensive collection of examples designed to demonstrate the latest Oracle BIEE 11g capabilities and design best practices." Solaris 11 Customer Maintenance Lifecycle | Gerry Haskins Gerry Haskins launches a new blog devoted to Solaris "policies, best practices, clarifications, and lots of other stuff." Harnessing Business Events for Predictive Decision Making - part 1 / 3 | Sanjeev Sharma "Data growth is outpacing storage capacity by a factor of two and computing power is still very much bounded by Moore's Law, doubling only every 18 months," says Sanjeev Sharma. The Latest Research from the SEI | Douglas C. SchmidtSchmidt shares information on several recently published Software Engineering Institute (SEI) technical reports that "highlight the latest work of SEI technologists in Agile methods, insider threat,the SMART Grid Maturity Model, acquisition, and CMMI." Tiger/Line Shape Files and Oracle | Bradley D. Brown "Have you ever needed to load an ESRI "shape file" and wondered if that's an easy effort or a difficult effort? I know I have and I assumed that it was a pretty difficult effort. However, I learned today that's actually pretty easy!" -- Oracle ACE Director Bradley Brown of TUSC. Webcast: Enterprise Clouds with Oracle VM Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 9:00 am PT / Noon ET. Featuring Adam Hawley (Senior Director of Product Management, Oracle) and Dan Herrup (Principal Systems Engineer, Oracle Corporate Citizenship). SOA Made Simple; Architects in AZ; Cloud Migration Introduction This week on the Architect Home Page on OTN.

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  • Exploring various SharePoint blogs

    Quick summary on the activities I did yesterday - aka Day 4. Actually, it wasn't too much but I went through a number of articles on various blogs and online forums. Just for general purpose and to see whether my collection is going to have more entries. Well, so far I have to admit that the resources are good. Unfortunately, the blog of Doerfler is a little bit scarce. I went through it completely and there wasn't too much interesting information (yet) but this particular entry is worth mentioning: Wiederherstellen einer gelöschten Websitesammlung (How to restore a deleted site collection) Taking into consideration that there haven't been any new entries since November 2012 I would say that the blog is dormant. It would be great to have new entries in the future... My first (baby) steps in the following SharePoint communities are only scratching the surface, and I'm really looking forward to dig deeper. There seems to be a lot of valuable information available: SharePoint Community SharePointCommunity I think that I already found a true gem over there which is going to give me some extra time: How to begin learning SharePoint (for beginners) - Great overview and link collection Mark Jones. Interestingly, I already discovered a couple of his entries, like the video tutorials by Andrew Connell.

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  • ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for November 29, 2012

    - by Bob Rhubart
    Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud: Advanced I/O Virtualization Architecture for Consolidating High-Performance Workloads This new white paper by Adam Hawley (with contributions from Yoav Eilat) describes in great detail the incorporation into Oracle Exalogic of virtualized InfiniBand I/O interconnects using Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) technology. Developing Spring Portlet for use inside Weblogic Portal / Webcenter Portal | Murali Veligeti A detailed technical post with supporting downloads from Murali Veligeti. Business SOA: When to shout, the art of constructive destruction Communication skills are essential for architects. Sometimes that means raising your voice. Steve Jones shares some tips for effective communication when the time comes to let it all out. Centralized Transaction Management for ADF Data Control | Andrejus Baranovskis Oracle ACE Director and prolific blogger Andrejus Baranovskis shares instructions and a sample application to illustrate how to implement centralized Commit/Rollback management in an ADF application. Collaborative Police across multiple stakeholders and jurisdictions | Joop Koster Capgemini Oracle Solution Architect Joop Koster raises some interesting IT issues regarding the challenges facing international law enforcement. Architected Systems: "If you don't develop an architecture, you will get one anyway…" "Can you build a system without taking care of architecture?" asks Manuel Ricca. "You certainly can. But inevitably the system will be unbalanced, neglecting the interests of key stakeholders, and problems will soon emerge." Thought for the Day "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. " — Frederick P. Brooks Source: Quotes for Software Engineers

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  • TechEd 2010 Day Four: Learning how to help others learn

    - by BuckWoody
    I do quite a few presentations, and teach at the University of Washington, and also teach other classes. But I'm always learning from others how to help others learn. At events like TechEd I have access to some of the best speakers around, so I try to find out what they do that works. I attended a great session by allen White, in which he demonstrated a set of PowerShell scripts. He said that Dan Jones of the Microsoft Manageability team told him while he demonstrated a script he needed to provide some visual way to represent the process. Allen used one of the oldest visualizations around - a flowchart. It was the first time I'd seen one used to illustrate a PowerShell script, and it was very effective. I'm totally stealing the idea. All of us are teachers - we help others on our team understand what we're up to. Make sure you make notes for what you find effective in dealing with you, and then meld that into your own way of teaching. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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