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• Time to stop using &ldquo;Execute Package Task&rdquo;&ndash; a way to execute package in SSIS catalog taking advantage of the new project deployment model ,and the logging and reporting feature

  - by Kevin Shyr

  I set out to find a way to dynamically call package in SSIS 2012.  The following are 2 excellent blogs I found; I used them heavily.  The code below has some addition to parameter types and message types, but was made essentially derived entirely from the blogs. http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2011/07/16/ssis-logging-in-denali.aspx http://www.ssistalk.com/2012/07/24/quick-tip-run-ssis-2012-packages-synchronously-and-other-execution-options/   The code: Every package will be called by a PackageController package.  The packageController is initialized with some information on which package to run and what information to pass in.   The following is the stored procedure called from the “Execute SQL Task”.  Here is the highlight of the stored procedure It takes in packageName, project name, and folder name (folder in SSIS project deployment to SSIS catalog) The stored procedure sets the package variables of the upcoming package execution Execute package in SSIS Catalog Get the status of the execution.  Also, if exists, get the error message’s message_id and store them in the management database. Return value to “Execute SQL Task” to manage failure properly CREATE PROCEDURE [AUDIT].[LaunchPackageExecutionInSSISCatalog]        @PackageName NVARCHAR(255)        , @ProjectFolder NVARCHAR(255)        , @ProjectName NVARCHAR(255)        , @AuditKey INT        , @DisableNotification BIT        , @PackageExecutionLogID INT AS BEGIN TRY        DECLARE @execution_id BIGINT = 0;        -- Create a package execution        EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[create_execution]                     @package_name=@PackageName,                     @execution_id=@execution_id OUTPUT,                     @folder_name=@ProjectFolder,                     @project_name=@ProjectName,                     @use32bitruntime=False;          UPDATE [AUDIT].[PackageInstanceExecutionLog] WITH(ROWLOCK)        SET [SSISCatalogExecutionID] = @execution_id        WHERE [PackageInstanceExecutionLogID] = @PackageExecutionLogID          -- this is to set the execution synchronized so that I can check the result in the end        EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=50,                     @parameter_name=N'SYNCHRONIZED',                     @parameter_value=1; -- true          /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: setting parameters                     Source table:  SSISDB.internal.object_parameters              object_type list:                     20: project level variables                     30: package level variables                     50: execution parameter         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/        EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=30,                     @parameter_name=N'FromParent_AuditKey',                     @parameter_value=@AuditKey; -- true          EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=30,                     @parameter_name=N'FromParent_DisableNotification',                     @parameter_value=@DisableNotification; -- true          EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=30,                     @parameter_name=N'FromParent_PackageInstanceExecutionID',                     @parameter_value=@PackageExecutionLogID; -- true        /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: setting variables END         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/            /* This section is carried over from example code           I don't see a reason to change them yet        */        -- Set our package parameters        EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=50,                     @parameter_name=N'DUMP_ON_EVENT',                     @parameter_value=1; -- true          EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=50,                     @parameter_name=N'DUMP_EVENT_CODE',                     @parameter_value=N'0x80040E4D;0x80004005';          EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=50,                     @parameter_name=N'LOGGING_LEVEL',                     @parameter_value= 1; -- Basic          EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[set_execution_parameter_value]                     @execution_id,                      @object_type=50,                     @parameter_name=N'DUMP_ON_ERROR',                     @parameter_value=1; -- true                              /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: EXECUTING         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/        EXEC [SSISDB].[catalog].[start_execution]                     @execution_id;        /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: EXECUTING END         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/            /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: checking execution result                     Source table:  [SSISDB].[catalog].[executions]              status:                     1: created                     2: running                     3: cancelled                     4: failed                     5: pending                     6: ended unexpectedly                     7: succeeded                     8: stopping                     9: completed         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/        if EXISTS(SELECT TOP 1 1                            FROM [SSISDB].[catalog].[executions] WITH(NOLOCK)                            WHERE [execution_id] = @execution_id                                  AND [status] NOT IN (2, 7, 9)) BEGIN                /********************************************************               ********************************************************                     Section: logging error messages                            Source table:  [SSISDB].[internal].[operation_messages]                     message type:                            10:  OnPreValidate                             20:  OnPostValidate                             30:  OnPreExecute                             40:  OnPostExecute                             60:  OnProgress                             70:  OnInformation                             90:  Diagnostic                             110:  OnWarning                            120:  OnError                            130:  Failure                            140:  DiagnosticEx                             200:  Custom events                             400:  OnPipeline                     message source type:                            10:  Messages logged by the entry APIs (e.g. T-SQL, CLR Stored procedures)                             20:  Messages logged by the external process used to run package (ISServerExec)                             30:  Messages logged by the package-level objects                             40:  Messages logged by tasks in the control flow                             50:  Messages logged by containers (For, ForEach, Sequence) in the control flow                             60:  Messages logged by the Data Flow Task                                    ********************************************************               ********************************************************/                INSERT INTO AUDIT.PackageInstanceExecutionOperationErrorLink                     SELECT @PackageExecutionLogID                                  ,[operation_message_id]                            FROM [SSISDB].[internal].[operation_messages] WITH(NOLOCK)                            WHERE operation_id = @execution_id                                  AND message_type IN (120, 130)                           EXEC [AUDIT].[FailPackageInstanceExecution] @PackageExecutionLogID, 'SSISDB Internal operation_messages found'                GOTO ReturnTrueAsErrorFlag                /********************************************************               ********************************************************                     Section: checking messages END               ********************************************************               ********************************************************/                /* This part is not really working, so now using rowcount to pass status              --DECLARE @PackageErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000)              --SET @PackageErrorMessage = @PackageName + 'failed with executionID: ' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), @execution_id)                --RAISERROR (@PackageErrorMessage -- Message text.              --     , 18 -- Severity,              --     , 1 -- State,              --     , N'check table AUDIT.PackageInstanceExecutionErrorMessages' -- First argument.              --     );              */        END        ELSE BEGIN              GOTO ReturnFalseAsErrorFlagToSignalSuccess        END        /********************************************************         ********************************************************              Section: checking execution result END         ********************************************************         ********************************************************/ END TRY BEGIN CATCH        DECLARE @SSISCatalogCallError NVARCHAR(MAX)        SELECT @SSISCatalogCallError = ERROR_MESSAGE()          EXEC [AUDIT].[FailPackageInstanceExecution] @PackageExecutionLogID, @SSISCatalogCallError          GOTO ReturnTrueAsErrorFlag END CATCH;     /********************************************************  ********************************************************    Section: end result  ********************************************************  ********************************************************/ ReturnTrueAsErrorFlag:        SELECT CONVERT(BIT, 1) AS PackageExecutionErrorExists ReturnFalseAsErrorFlagToSignalSuccess:        SELECT CONVERT(BIT, 0) AS PackageExecutionErrorExists   GO

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• SQL SERVER – Integrate Your Data with Skyvia – Cloud ETL Solution

  - by Pinal Dave

  In our days data integration often becomes a key aspect of business success. For business analysts it’s very important to get integrated data from various sources, such as relational databases, cloud CRMs, etc. to make correct and successful decisions. There are various data integration solutions on market, and today I will tell about one of them – Skyvia. Skyvia is a cloud data integration service, which allows integrating data in cloud CRMs and different relational databases. It is a completely online solution and does not require anything except for a browser. Skyvia provides powerful etl tools for data import, export, replication, and synchronization for SQL Server and other databases and cloud CRMs. You can use Skyvia data import tools to load data from various sources to SQL Server (and SQL Azure). Skyvia supports such cloud CRMs as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM and such databases as MySQL and PostgreSQL. You even can migrate data from SQL Server to SQL Server, or from SQL Server to other databases and cloud CRMs. Additionally Skyvia supports import of CSV files, either uploaded manually or stored on cloud file storage services, such as Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, or FTP servers. When data import is not enough, Skyvia offers bidirectional data synchronization. With this tool, you can synchronize SQL Server data with other databases and cloud CRMs. After performing the first synchronization, Skyvia tracks data changes in the synchronized data storages. In SQL Server databases (and other relational databases) it creates additional tracking tables and triggers. This allows synchronizing only the changed data. Skyvia also maps records by their primary key values to each other, so it does not require different sources to have the same primary key structure. It still can match the corresponding records without having to add any additional columns or changing data structure. The only requirement for synchronization is that primary keys must be autogenerated. With Skyvia it’s not necessary for data to have the same structure in integrated data storages. Skyvia supports powerful mapping mechanisms that allow synchronizing data with completely different structure. It provides support for complex mathematical and string expressions when mapping data, using lookups, etc. You may use data splitting – loading data from a single CSV file or source table to multiple related target tables. Or you may load data from several source CSV files or tables to several related target tables. In each case Skyvia preserves data relations. It builds corresponding relations between the target data automatically. When you often work with cloud CRM data, native CRM data reporting and analysis tools may be not enough for you. And there is a vast set of professional data analysis and reporting tools available for SQL Server. With Skyvia you can quickly copy your cloud CRM data to an SQL Server database and apply corresponding SQL Server tools to the data. In such case you can use Skyvia data replication tools. It allows you to quickly copy cloud CRM data to SQL Server or other databases without customizing any mapping. You need just to specify columns to copy data from. Target database tables will be created automatically. Skyvia offers powerful filtering settings to replicate only the records you need. Skyvia also provides capability to export data from SQL Server (including SQL Azure) and other databases and cloud CRMs to CSV files. These files can be either downloadable manually or loaded to cloud file storages or FTP server. You can use export, for example, to backup SQL Azure data to Dropbox. Any data integration operation can be scheduled for automatic execution. Thus, you can automate your SQL Azure data backup or data synchronization – just configure it once, then schedule it, and benefit from automatic data integration with Skyvia. Currently registration and using Skyvia is completely free, so you can try it yourself and find out whether its data migration and integration tools suits for you. Visit this link to register on Skyvia: https://app.skyvia.com/register Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL Tagged: Cloud Computing

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• Oracle at The Forrester Customer Intelligence and Marketing Leadership Forums

  - by Christie Flanagan

  The Forrester Customer Intelligence Forum and the Forrester Marketing Leadership Forums will soon be here.  This year’s events will be co-located on April 18-19 at the J.W. Marriott at the L.A. Live entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles.  Last year’s Marketing Forum was quite memorable for me.  You see, while Forrester analysts and business marketers were busy mingling over at the Marriott, another marketing powerhouse was taking up residence a few feet away at The Staples Center.  That’s right folks. Lada Gaga was coming to town.  And, as I came to learn, it made perfect sense for Lady Gaga and her legions of fans to be sharing a small patch of downtown L.A. with marketing leaders from all over the world.  After all, whether you like Lady Gaga or not, what pop star in recent memory has done more to build herself into a brand and to create an engaging, social and interactive customer experience for her Little Monsters?  While Lady Gaga won’t be back in town for this year’s Forrester events, there are still plenty of compelling reasons to make the trip out to Los Angeles.   The theme for The Forrester Customer Intelligence and Marketing Leadership Forums this year is “From Cool To Critical: Creating Engagement In The Age Of The Customer” and will tackle the important questions about how marketers can survive and thrive in the age of the empowered customer: •    How can you assess consumer uptake of new innovations?•    How do you build deep customer knowledge to drive competitive advantage?•    How do you drive deep, personalized customer engagement?•    What is more valuable — eyeballs or engagement?•    How do business customers engage in new media types?•    How can you tie social data to corporate data?•    Who should lead the movement to customer obsession?•    How should you shift your planning and measurement approaches to accommodate more data and a higher signal-to-noise ratio?•    What role does technology play in customizing and synchronizing marketing efforts across channels?As a platinum sponsor of the event, there will be a numbers of ways to interact with Oracle while you’re attending the Forums.  Here are some of the highlights:Oracle Speaking SessionThursday, April 19, 9:15am – 9:55amMaximize Customer Engagement and Retention with Integrated Marketing & LoyaltyMelissa Boxer, Vice President, Oracle CRM Marketing & LoyaltyCustomers expect to interact with your company, brand and products in more ways than ever before.   New devices and channels, such as mobile, social and web, are creating radical shifts in the customer buying process and the ways your company can reach and communicate with existing and potential customers. While Marketing's objectives (attract, convert, retain) remain fundamentally the same, your approach and tools must adapt quickly to succeed in this more complex, cross-channel world. Hear how leading brands are using Oracle's integrated marketing and loyalty solutions to maximize customer engagement and retention through better planning, execution, and measurement of synchronized cross-channel marketing initiatives.Solution ShowcaseWednesday, April 1810:20am – 11:50am 12:30pm – 1:30pm2:55pm – 3:40pmThursday, April 199:55am – 10:40am12:00pm – 1:00pmSolution Showcase & Networking ReceptionWednesday, April 185:10pm – 6:20pmBe sure to follow the #webcenter hashtag for updates on these events.  And for a more considered perspective on what Lady Gaga can teach businesses about branding and customer experience, check out Denise Lee Yohn’s post, Lessons from Lady Gaga from the Brand as Business Bites blog.

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• How to switch between views in android?

  - by aurezza

  I've tried several methods to switch between two views in my program. I've tried creating a new thread then have the view run for 5 seconds before creating intent to start my main activity. This is the code snippet from the said view class: mHelpThread = new Thread(){ @Override public void run(){ try { synchronized(this){ // Wait given period of time or exit on touch wait(5000); } } catch(InterruptedException ex){ } finish(); // Run next activity Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_MAIN, null); intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_HOME); startActivity(intent); //stop(); } }; mHelpThread.start(); I can access the said view without error but it doesn't disappear after 5 seconds nor did it switched to main view when I even utilized an onTouchEvent() to detect touch on the screen of which it should have automatically closed. I've also tried adding a button on the said view to manually switch to main view: @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.help); final HelpView helpView = this; final Button btnback = (Button) findViewById(R.id.back); btnback.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){ public void onClick(View v) { Intent intent = new Intent(helpView, MainActivity.class); startActivity(intent); } }); } These codes worked, though, for creating a launcher for my program. So I thought that it would work the same if I added an option for help/rules(for the game) that would switch to another view. I've only since started using eclipse for android so pardon my lack of knowledge. Here is also the snippet from my manifest: <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="11" android:targetSdkVersion="15" /> <application android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher" android:label="@string/app_name" android:theme="@style/AppTheme" > <activity android:name="MainActivity" android:label="@string/title_activity_main"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" /> <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/> </intent-filter> <intent-filter></intent-filter> </activity> <activity android:name="SplashScreen" android:theme="@style/Theme.Transparent"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/> <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/> </intent-filter> </activity> <activity android:name="HelpView" android:theme="@style/Theme.Transparent"> <intent-filter> <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/> <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/> </intent-filter> <intent-filter></intent-filter> </activity> </application>

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• Database Mirroring on SQL Server Express Edition

  - by Most Valuable Yak (Rob Volk)

  Like most SQL Server users I'm rather frustrated by Microsoft's insistence on making the really cool features only available in Enterprise Edition.  And it really doesn't help that they changed the licensing for SQL 2012 to be core-based, so now it's like 4 times as expensive!  It almost makes you want to go with Oracle.  That, and a desire to have Larry Ellison do things to your orifices. And since they've introduced Availability Groups, and marked database mirroring as deprecated, you'd think they'd make make mirroring available in all editions.  Alas…they don't…officially anyway.  Thanks to my constant poking around in places I'm not "supposed" to, I've discovered the low-level code that implements database mirroring, and found that it's available in all editions! It turns out that the query processor in all SQL Server editions prepends a simple check before every edition-specific DDL statement: IF CAST(SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') as nvarchar(max)) NOT LIKE '%e%e%e% Edition%' print 'Lame' else print 'Cool' If that statement returns true, it fails. (the print statements are just placeholders)  Go ahead and test it on Standard, Workgroup, and Express editions compared to an Enterprise or Developer edition instance (which support everything). Once again thanks to Argenis Fernandez (b | t) and his awesome sessions on using Sysinternals, I was able to watch the exact process SQL Server performs when setting up a mirror.  Surprisingly, it's not actually implemented in SQL Server!  Some of it is, but that's something of a smokescreen, the real meat of it is simple filesystem primitives. The NTFS filesystem supports links, both hard links and symbolic, so that you can create two entries for the same file in different directories and/or different names.  You can create them using the MKLINK command in a command prompt: mklink /D D:\SkyDrive\Data D:\Data mklink /D D:\SkyDrive\Log D:\Log This creates a symbolic link from my data and log folders to my Skydrive folder.  Any file saved in either location will instantly appear in the other.  And since my Skydrive will be automatically synchronized with the cloud, any changes I make will be copied instantly (depending on my internet bandwidth of course). So what does this have to do with database mirroring?  Well, it seems that the mirroring endpoint that you have to create between mirror and principal servers is really nothing more than a Skydrive link.  Although it doesn't actually use Skydrive, it performs the same function.  So in effect, the following statement: ALTER DATABASE Mir SET PARTNER='TCP://MyOtherServer.domain.com:5022' Is turned into: mklink /D "D:\Data" "\\MyOtherServer.domain.com\5022$" The 5022$ "port" is actually a hidden system directory on the principal and mirror servers. I haven't quite figured out how the log files are included in this, or why you have to SET PARTNER on both principal and mirror servers, except maybe that mklink has to do something special when linking across servers.  I couldn't get the above statement to work correctly, but found that doing mklink to a local Skydrive folder gave me similar functionality. To wrap this up, all you have to do is the following: Install Skydrive on both SQL Servers (principal and mirror) and set the local Skydrive folder (D:\SkyDrive in these examples) On the principal server, run mklink /D on the data and log folders to point to SkyDrive: mklink /D D:\SkyDrive\Data D:\Data On the mirror server, run the complementary linking: mklink /D D:\Data D:\SkyDrive\Data Create your database and make sure the files map to the principal data and log folders (D:\Data and D:\Log) Viola! Your databases are kept in sync on multiple servers! One wrinkle you will encounter is that the mirror server will show the data and log files, but you won't be able to attach them to the mirror SQL instance while they are attached to the principal. I think this is a bug in the Skydrive, but as it turns out that's fine: you can't access a mirror while it's hosted on the principal either.  So you don't quite get automatic failover, but you can attach the files to the mirror if the principal goes offline.  It's also not exactly synchronous, but it's better than nothing, and easier than either replication or log shipping with a lot less latency. I will end this with the obvious "not supported by Microsoft" and "Don't do this in production without an updated resume" spiel that you should by now assume with every one of my blog posts, especially considering the date.

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• Reduce ERP Consolidation Risks with Oracle Master Data Management

  - by Dain C. Hansen

  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:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Reducing the Risk of ERP Consolidation starts first and foremost with your Data.This is nothing new; companies with multiple misaligned ERP systems are often putting inordinate risk on their business. It can translate to too much inventory, long lead times, and shipping issues from poorly organized and specified goods. And don’t forget the finance side! When goods are shipped and promises are kept/not kept there’s the issue of accounts. No single chart of counts translates to no accountability. So – I’ve decided. I need to consolidate! Well, you can’t consolidate ERP applications [for that matter any of your applications] without first considering your data. This means looking at how your data is being integrated by these ERP systems, how it is being synchronized, what information is being shared, or not being shared. Most importantly, making sure that the data is mastered. What is the best way to do this? In the recent webcast: Reduce ERP consolidation Risks with Oracle Master Data Management we outlined 3 key guidelines: #1: Consolidate your Product Data#2: Consolidate your Customer, Supplier (Party Data) #3: Consolidate your Financial Data Together these help customers achieve reduced risk, better customer intimacy, reducing inventory levels, elimination of product variations, and finally a single master chart of accounts. In the case of Oracle's customer Zebra Technologies, they were able to consolidate over 140 applications by mastering their data. Ultimately this gave them 60% cost savings for the year on IT spend. Oracle’s Solution for ERP Consolidation: Master Data Management Oracle's enterprise master data management (MDM) can play a big role in ERP consolidation. It includes a set of products that consolidates and maintains complete, accurate, and authoritative master data across the enterprise and distributes this master information to all operational and analytical applications as a shared service. It’s optimized to work with any application source (not just Oracle’s) and can integrate using technology from Oracle Fusion Middleware (i.e. GoldenGate for data synchronization and real-time replication or ODI with its E-LT optimized bulk data and transformation capability). In addition especially for ERP consolidation use cases it’s important to leverage the AIA and SOA capabilities as part of Fusion Middleware to connect these multiple applications together and relay the data into the correct hub. Oracle’s MDM strategy is a unique offering in the industry, one that has common elements across the top and bottom in Middleware, BI/DW, Engineered systems combined with Enterprise Data Quality to enable comprehensive Data Governance at all levels. In addition, Oracle MDM provides the best-in-class capabilities to master all variations of data, including customer, supplier, product, financial data. But ultimately at the center of Oracle MDM is your data, making it more trusted, making it secure and accessible as part of a role-based approach, and getting it to make sense to you in any situation, whether it’s a specific ERP process like we talked about or something that is custom to your organization. To learn more about these techniques in ERP consolidation watch our webcast or goto our Oracle MDM website at www.oracle.com/goto/mdm

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• Enterprise Integration: Can Companies Afford It?

  - by Ralph Wheaton

  Each year, my company holds a global sales conference where employees and partners from around the world some together to collaborate, share knowledge and ideas and learn about future plans.  As a member of the professional services division, several of us had been asked to make a presentation, an elevator pitch in 3 minutes or less that relates to a success we have worked on or directly relates to our tag (that is, our primary technology focus).  Mine happens to be Enterprise Integration as it relates Business Intelligence.  I found it rather difficult to present that pitch in a short amount of time and had to pare it down.  At any rate, in just a little over 3 minutes, this is the presentation I submitted.  Here is a link to the full presentation video in WMV format.   Many companies today subscribe to a buy versus build mentality in an attempt to drive down costs and improve time to implementation. Sometimes this makes sense, especially as it relates to specialized software or software that performs a small number of tasks extremely well. However, if not carefully considered or planned out, this oftentimes leads to multiple disparate systems with silos of data or multiple versions of the same data. For instance, client data (contact information, addresses, phone numbers, opportunities, sales) stored in your CRM system may not play well with Accounts Receivables. Employee data may be stored across multiple systems such as HR, Time Entry and Payroll. Other data (such as member data) may not originate internally, but be provided by multiple outside sources in multiple formats. And to top it all off, some data may have to be manually entered into multiple systems to keep it all synchronized. When left to grow out of control like this, overall performance is lacking, stability is questionable and maintenance is frequent and costly. Worse yet, in many cases, this topology, this hodgepodge of data creates a reporting nightmare. Decision makers are forced to try to put together pieces of the puzzle attempting to find the information they need, wading through multiple systems to find what they think is the single version of the truth. More often than not, they find they are missing pieces, pieces that may be crucial to growing the business rather than closing the business. across applications. Master data owners are defined to establish single sources of data (such as the CRM system owns client data). Other systems subscribe to the master data and changes are replicated to subscribers as they are made. This can be one way (no changes are allowed on the subscriber systems) or bi-directional. But at all times, the master data owner is current or up to date. And all data, whether internal or external, use the same processes and methods to move data from one place to another, leveraging the same validations, lookups and transformations enterprise wide, eliminating inconsistencies and siloed data. Once implemented, an enterprise integration solution improves performance and stability by reducing the number of moving parts and eliminating inconsistent data. Overall maintenance costs are mitigated by reducing touch points or the number of places that require modification when a business rule is changed or another data element is added. Most importantly, however, now decision makers can easily extract and piece together the information they need to grow their business, improve customer satisfaction and so on. So, in implementing an enterprise integration solution, companies can position themselves for the future, allowing for easy transition to data marts, data warehousing and, ultimately, business intelligence. Along this path, companies can achieve growth in size, intelligence and complexity. Truly, the question is not can companies afford to implement an enterprise integration solution, but can they afford not to.   Ralph Wheaton Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist Microsoft Certified Professional Developer Microsoft VTS-P BizTalk, .Net

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• Moving monarchs and dragons: migrating the JDK bugs to JIRA

  - by darcy

  Among insects, monarch butterflies and dragonflies have the longest migrations; migrating JDK bugs involves a long journey as well! As previously announced by Mark back in March, we've been working according to a revised plan to transition the JDK bug management from Sun's legacy system to initially an Oracle-internal JIRA instance which is afterward made visible and usable externally. I've been busily working on this project for the last few months and the team has made good progress on many aspects of the effort: JDK bugs will be imported into JIRA regardless of age; bugs will also be imported regardless of state, including closed bugs. Consequently, the JDK bug project will start pre-populated with over 100,000 existing bugs, some dating all the way back to 1994. This will allow a continuity of information and allow new issues to be linked to old ones. Using a custom import process, the Sun bug numbers will be preserved in JIRA. For example, the Sun bug with bug number 4040458 will become "JDK-4040458" in JIRA. In JIRA the project name, "JDK" in our case, is part of the bug's identifier. Bugs created after the JIRA migration will be numbered starting at 8000000; bugs imported from the legacy system have numbers ranging between 1000000 and 79999999. We're working with the bugs.sun.com team to try to maintain continuity of the ability to both read JDK bug information as well as to file new incidents. At least for now, the overall architecture of bugs.sun.com will be the same as it is today: it will be a gateway bridging to an Oracle-internal system, but the internal system will change to JIRA from the legacy database. Generally we are aiming to preserve the visibility of bugs currently viewable on bugs.sun.com; however, bugs in areas not related to the JDK will not be visible after the transition to JIRA. New incoming incidents will be sent to a separate JIRA project for initial triage before possibly being moved into the JDK project. JDK bug management leans heavily on being able to track the state of bugs in multiple releases, especially to coordinate delivering synchronized security releases (known as CPUs, critital patch updates, in Oracle parlance). For a security release, it is common for half a dozen or more release trains to be affected (for example, JDK 5, JDK 6 update, OpenJDK 6, JDK 7 update, JDK 8, virtual releases for HotSpot express, etc.). We've determined we need to track at least the tuple of (release, responsible engineer/assignee for the release, status in the release) for the release trains a fix is going into. To do this in JIRA, we are creating a separate port/backport issue type along with a custom link type to allow the multiple release information to be easily grouped and presented together. The Sun legacy system had a three-level classification scheme, product, category, and subcategory. Out of the box, JIRA only has a one-level classification, component. We've implemented a custom second-level classification, subcomponent. As part of the bug migration we've taken the opportunity to think about how bugs should be grouped under a two-level system and we'll the new system will be simpler and more regular. The main top-level components of the JDK product will include: core-libs client-libs deploy install security-libs other-libs tools hotspot For the libs areas, the primary name of the subcomportment will be the package of the API in question. In the core-libs component, there will be subcomponents like: java.lang java.lang.class_loading java.math java.util java.util:i18n In the tools component, subcomponents will primarily correspond to command names in $JDK/bin like, jar, javac, and javap. The first several bulk imports of the JDK bugs into JIRA have gone well and we're continuing to refine the import to have greater fidelity to the current data, including by reconstructing information not brought over in a structured fashion during the previous large JDK bug system migration back in 2004. We don't currently have a firm timeline of when the new system will be usable externally, but as it becomes available, I'll share further information in follow-up blog posts.

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• Accounts in Work Items after migration to TFS 2010 and to new domain

  - by Clara Oscura

  Lately I’ve been doing some tests on migrating our TFS 2008 installation to TFS 2010, coupled with a machine and domain change. One particular topic that was tricky is user accounts. We installed first a new machine with TFS 2010 and then migrated the projects in the old server. The work items were migrated with the projects. Great, but if I try to edit one of the old work items I cannot save it anymore because some fields contain old user names (ex. OLDDOMAIN\user) which are not known in the new domain (it should be NEWDOMAIN\user). The errors look like this: When I correct the ‘Assigned To’ field value, I get another error regarding another field: Before TFS 2010, we had TFSUsers power tool. It allow you to map an old user name to a new user name. This is not available anymore because WI fields with user accounts are now synchronized with AD display names changes (explained here). The correct way to go about this in TFS 2010 is to use TFSConfig Identities before adding the new domain accounts into the TFS groups (documented here). So, too late for us. I’ve found a (tedious) workaround to change those old account in work items in order to allow people to keep working with them. 1. Install TFS 2010 power tools 2. Export WIT from your project (VS | Tools | Process Editor | Work Item Types). Save the definition, for example: Original_MyProject_Task.xml 3. Copy the xml (NoReadOnly_MyProject_Task.xml) and edit it. From the field definition of ‘Activated By’, ‘Closed By’ and ‘Resolved By’, remove the following:        <WHENNOTCHANGED field="System.State">           <READONLY />         </WHENNOTCHANGED> 4. Import WIT in VS. Choose the new file (NoReadOnly_MyProject_Task.xml) and import it in MyProject 5. Open all tasks in Excel (flat list). Display the following columns: Asssigned To Activated By Closed By Resolved By Change the user accounts to the new ones (I usually sort each column alphabetically to make it easier). 6. Publish. If you get a conflict on a field, tough luck. You will have to manually choose “Local version” for each work item. I told you it was a tedious process. 7. Import original WIT (Original_MyProject_Task.xml) in MyProject. We only changed the WI definition so that we could change some fields. The original definition should be put back. And what about these other fields? Created By Authorized As These fields are not editable by definition (VS | Tools | Process Editor | Work Item Fields Explorer), even if they are not marked as read-only in the WIT. You can leave the old values. It doesn’t seem to matter to TFS. The other four fields are editable by definition, so only the WIT readonly rule prevents us from changing them. Technorati Tags: TFS,Team Foundation Server 2010,Work Item,Domain change

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• Unable to Sign in to the Microsoft Online Services Signin application from Windows 7 client located behind ISA firewall

  - by Ravindra Pamidi

  A while ago i helped a customer troubleshoot authentication problem with Microsoft Online Services Signin application.  This customer was evaluating Microsoft BPOS (Business Productivity Online Services) and was having trouble using the single sign on application behind ISA 2004 firewall.The network structure is fairly simple with single Windows 2003 Active Directory domain and Windows 7 clients. On a successful logon to the Microsoft Online Services Signin application, this application provides single signon functionality to all of Microsoft online services in the BPOS package. Symptoms:When trying to signin it fails with error "The service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. If problems continue, contact your service administrator". If ISA 2004 firewall is removed from the picture the authentication succeeds.Troubleshooting: Enabled ISA Server firewall logging along with Microsoft Network Monitor tool on the Windows 7 Client while reproducing the issue. Analysis of the ISA Server Firewall logs and Microsoft Network capture revealed that the Microsoft Online Services Sign In application when sending request to ISA Server does not send the domain credentials and as a result ISA Server responds with an error code of HTTP 407 Proxy authentication required listing out the supported authentication mechanisms.  The application in question is expected to send the credentials of the domain user in response to this request. However in this case, it fails to send the logged on user's domain credentials. Bit of researching on the Internet revealed that The "Microsoft Online Services Sign In" application by default does not support Outbound Internet Proxy authentication. In order for it to send the logged on user's domain credentials we had to make  changes to its configuration file "SignIn.exe.config" located under "Program Files\Microsoft Online Services\Sign In" folder. Step by Step details to configure the configuration file are documented on Microsoft TechNet website given below.  Configure your outbound authenticating proxy serverhttp://www.microsoft.com/online/help/en-us/helphowto/cc54100d-d149-45a9-8e96-f248ecb1b596.htm After the above problem was addressed we were still not able to use the "Microsoft Online Services Sign In" application and it failed with the same error.  Analysis of another network capture revealed that the application in question is now sending the required credentials and the connection seems to terminate at a later stage. Enabled verbose logging for the "Microsoft Online Services Sign In" application and then reproduced the problem. Analysis of the logs revealed a time difference between the local client and Microsoft Online services server of around seven minutes which is above the acceptable time skew of five minutes. Excerpt from Microsoft Online Services Sign In application verbose log:  1/26/2012 1:57:51 PM Verbose SingleSignOn.GetSSOGenericInterface SSO Interface URL: https://signinservice.apac.microsoftonline.com/ssoservice/UID1/26/2012 1:57:52 PM Exception SSOSignIn.SignIn The security timestamp is invalid because its creation time ('2012-01-26T08:34:52.767Z') is in the future. Current time is '2012-01-26T08:27:52.987Z' and allowed clock skew is '00:05:00'.1/26/2012 1:57:52 PM Exception SSOSignIn.SignIn  Although the Windows 7 Clients successfully synchronized time to the domain controller for the domain, the domain controller was not configured to synchronize time with external NTP servers. This caused a gradual drift in time on the network thus resulting in the above issue. Reconfigured the domain controller holding the PDC FSMO role to synchronize time with external time source ( time.nist.gov ) and edited the system policy on the ISA server firewall to allow NTP traffic to time.nist.gov Configure the time source for the forest:Windows Time Servicehttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794937(WS.10).aspx Forced synchronization of Windows time using the command w32tm /resync on the domain controller and later on the clients each of which had corrected the seven minutes difference. This resolved the problem with logon to Microsoft Online Services Sign In.

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• What is a good design pattern / lib for iOS 5 to synchronize with a web service?

  - by Junto

  We are developing an iOS application that needs to synchronize with a remote server using web services. The existing web services have an "operations" style rather than REST (implemented in WCF but exposing JSON HTTP endpoints). We are unsure of how to structure the web services to best fit with iOS and would love some advice. We are also interested in how to manage the synchronization process within iOS. Without going into detailed specifics, the application allows the user to estimate repair costs at a remote site. These costs are broken down by room and item. If the user has an internet connection this data can be sent back to the server. Multiple photographs can be taken of each item, but they will be held in a separate queue, which sends when the connection is optimal (ideally wifi). Our backend application controls the unique ids for each room and item. Thus, each time we send these costs to the server, the server echoes the central database ids back, thus, that they can be synchronized in the mobile app. I have simplified this a little, since the operations contract is actually much larger, but I just want to illustrate the basic requirements without complicating matters. Firstly, the web service architecture: We currently have two operations: GetCosts and UpdateCosts. My assumption is that if we used a strict REST architecture we would need to break our single web service operations into multiple smaller services. This would make the services much more chatty and we would also have to guarantee a delivery order from the app. For example, we need to make sure that containing rooms are added before the item. Although this seems much more RESTful, our perception is that these extra calls are expensive connections (security checks, database calls, etc). Does the type of web api (operation over service focus) determine chunky vs chatty? Since this is mobile (3G), are we better handling lots of smaller messages, or a few large ones? Secondly, the iOS side. What is the current advice on how to manage data synchronization within the iOS (5) app itself. We need multiple queues and we need to guarantee delivery order in each queue (and technically, ordering between queues). The server needs to control unique ids and other properties and echo them back to the application. The application then needs to update an internal database and when re-updating, make sure the correct ids are available in the update message (essentially multiple inserts and updates in one call). Our backend has a ton of business logic operating on these cost estimates. We don't want any of this in the app itself. Currently the iOS app sends the cost data, and then the server echoes that data back with populated ids (and other data). The existing cost data is deleted and the echoed response data is added to the client database on the device. This is causing us problems, because any photos might not have been sent, but the original entity tree has been removed and replaced. Obviously updating the costs tree rather than replacing it would remove this problem, but I'm not sure if there are any nice xcode libraries out there to do such things. I welcome any advice you might have.

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• Pantech Link II, Ubuntu and Virtual XP

  - by user85041

  Okay this is my problem. I have a Pantech Link II, dmesg states: [ 896.072037] usb 2-3: new high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd [ 896.258562] cdc_acm 2-3:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device [ 896.260039] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_acm [ 896.260042] cdc_acm: USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters Have it installed through wine (pc suite and driver) and it doesn't see it. Virtual XP through VMWare Player sees my device, knows it needs a driver. The removable devices says Curitel Pantech USB Device (Maybe Driver). I have PC Suite installed in XP, I install the driver through the executable.. it says problem with installing hardware, and then it disappears. Ubuntu sees it after restart, but if I start XP with that driver installed, it disappears from both and I get these errors in dmesg: [ 1047.760555] /dev/vmmon[2882]: PTSC: initialized at 3093322000 Hz using TSC, TSCs are synchronized. [ 1048.174033] /dev/vmmon[2882]: Monitor IPI vector: 0 [ 1055.293060] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1055.293074] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1055.293088] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1055.293094] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1072.446305] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1072.446316] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1072.446328] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1072.446334] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1072.856024] usb 1-1: reset high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd [ 1079.292024] usb 1-1: reset high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd [ 1079.732024] usb 1-1: reset high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci_hcd [ 1127.743034] NET: Registered protocol family 39 [ 1127.749320] [3163]: VMCI: IOCTL_VMCI_QUEUEPAIR_ALLOC (cid=1522210225,result=4). [ 1144.104031] usb 2-3: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd [ 1144.412031] usb 2-3: reset high-speed USB device number 3 using ehci_hcd [ 1155.889976] ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: force halt; handshake ffffc90000642024 00004000 00000000 -> -110 [ 1155.889980] ehci_hcd 0000:00:13.2: HC died; cleaning up [ 1155.890008] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, device number 3 [ 1155.890013] usb 2-3: usbfs: usb_submit_urb returned -110 [ 1658.310777] [3163]: VMCI: IOCTL_VMCI_QUEUEPAIR_DETACH (cid=1522210225,result=3). [ 1658.392018] NET: Unregistered protocol family 39 [ 1666.546438] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1666.546450] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1666.546462] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1666.546467] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1671.431383] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB2.0 Camera (1871:0101) [ 1671.432533] input: USB2.0 Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input13 lessa@X:~$ dmesg|tail [ 1155.890008] usb 2-3: USB disconnect, device number 3 [ 1155.890013] usb 2-3: usbfs: usb_submit_urb returned -110 [ 1658.310777] [3163]: VMCI: IOCTL_VMCI_QUEUEPAIR_DETACH (cid=1522210225,result=3). [ 1658.392018] NET: Unregistered protocol family 39 [ 1666.546438] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1666.546450] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1666.546462] /dev/vmnet: open called by PID 3163 (vmx-vcpu-0) [ 1666.546467] /dev/vmnet: port on hub 8 successfully opened [ 1671.431383] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB2.0 Camera (1871:0101) [ 1671.432533] input: USB2.0 Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.2/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input13 I have tried uninstalling, and installing manually from the device manager update driver while it's still has the warning sign.. it doesn't see the drivers as valid. No idea how to fix this.. would prefer to not have to go to another computer. I'm not trying to do anything but get the pictures off of it. I have to restart ubuntu, plug in device, for ubuntu to see it correctly again. I am like a month and a half old linux newbie so I have no idea the commands I could use for this, and I don't have a memory card in the phone to mount.

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• Web Service Example - Part 3: Asynchronous

  - by Denis T

  In this edition of the ADF Mobile blog we'll tackle part 3 of our Web Service examples.  In this posting we'll take a look at firing the web service asynchronously and then filling in the UI when it completes.  This can be useful when you have data on the device in a local store and want to show that to the user while the application uses lazy loading from a web service to load more data. Getting the sample code: Just click here to download a zip of the entire project.  You can unzip it and load it into JDeveloper and deploy it either to iOS or Android.  Please follow the previous blog posts if you need help getting JDeveloper or ADF Mobile installed.  Note: This is a different workspace than WS-Part2 What's different? In this example, when you click the Search button on the Forecast By Zip option, now it takes you directly to the results page, which is initially blank.  When the web service returns a second or two later the data pops into the UI.  If you go back to the search page and hit Search it will again clear the results and invoke the web service asynchronously.  This isn't really that useful for this particular example but it shows an important technique that can be used for other use cases. How it was done 1)  First we created a new class, ForecastWorker, that implements the Runnable interface.  This is used as our worker class that we create an instance of and pass to a new thread that we create when the Search button is pressed inside the retrieveForecast actionListener handler.  Once the thread is started, the retrieveForecast returns immediately.  2)  The rest of the code that we had previously in the retrieveForecast method has now been moved to the retrieveForecastAsync.  Note that we've also added synchronized specifiers on both these methods so they are protected from re-entrancy. 3)  The run method of the ForecastWorker class then calls the retrieveForecastAsync method.  This executes the web service code that we had previously, but now on a separate thread so the UI is not locked.  If we had already shown data on the screen it would have appeared before this was invoked.  Note that you do not see a loading indicator either because this is on a separate thread and nothing is blocked. 4)  The last but very important aspect of this method is that once we update data in the collections from the data we retrieve from the web service, we call AdfmfJavaUtilities.flushDataChangeEvents().   We need this because as data is updated in the background thread, those data change events are not propagated to the main thread until you explicitly flush them.  As soon as you do this, the UI will get updated if any changes have been queued. Summary of Fundamental Changes In This Application The most fundamental change is that we are invoking and handling our web services in a background thread and updating the UI when the data returns.  This allows an application to provide a better user experience in many cases because data that is already available locally is displayed while lengthy queries or web service calls can be done in the background and the UI updated when they return.  There are many different use cases for background threads and this is just one example of optimizing the user experience and generating a better mobile application. 

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• Android Game Development. Async Task. Loading Bitmap Images Sounds

  - by user2534694

  Im working on this game for android. And wanted to know if my thread architecture was right or wrong. Basically, what is happening is, i am loading All the bitmaps,sounds etc in the initializevariables() method. But sometimes the game crashes and sometimes it doesnt. So i decided to use async task. But that doesnt seem to work either (i too loads at times and crashes at times) @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setFullScreen(); initializeVariables(); new initVariables().execute(); // setContentView(ourV); } private void setFullScreen() { requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_NO_TITLE); getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_FULLSCREEN); getWindow().setFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON, WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON ); } private void initializeVariables() { ourV=new OurView(this); stats = getSharedPreferences(filename, 0); ballPic = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.ball5); platform = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.platform3); gameB = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.game_back2); waves = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.waves); play = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.play_icon); pause = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.pause_icon); platform2 = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.platform4); countdown = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.countdown); bubbles = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.waves_bubbles); backgroundMusic = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.music); jump = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.jump); click = MediaPlayer.create(this, R.raw.jump_crack); sm = (SensorManager) getSystemService(SENSOR_SERVICE); acc = sm.getDefaultSensor(Sensor.TYPE_ACCELEROMETER); sm.registerListener(this, acc, SensorManager.SENSOR_DELAY_GAME); ourV.setOnTouchListener(this); dialog = new Dialog(this,android.R.style.Theme_Translucent_NoTitleBar_Fullscreen); dialog.setContentView(R.layout.pausescreen); dialog.hide(); dialog.setOnDismissListener(this); resume = (Button) dialog.findViewById(R.id.bContinue); menu = (Button) dialog.findViewById(R.id.bMainMenu); newTry = (Button) dialog.findViewById(R.id.bNewTry); tv_time = (TextView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.tv_time); tv_day = (TextView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.tv_day); tv_date = (TextView) dialog.findViewById(R.id.tv_date); resume.setOnClickListener(this); menu.setOnClickListener(this); newTry.setOnClickListener(this); } @Override protected void onResume() { //if its running the first time it goes in the brackets if(firstStart) { ourV.onResume(); firstStart=false; } } Now what onResume in ourV does is , its responsible for starting the thread //this is ourV.onResume public void onResume() { t=new Thread(this); isRunning=true; t.start(); } Now what I want is to initialise all bitmaps sounds etc in the async background method public class initVariables extends AsyncTask<Void, Integer, Void> { ProgressDialog pd; @Override protected void onPreExecute() { pd = new ProgressDialog(GameActivity.this); pd.setProgressStyle(ProgressDialog.STYLE_HORIZONTAL); pd.setMax(100); pd.show(); } @Override protected Void doInBackground(Void... arg0) { synchronized (this) { for(int i=0;i<20;i++) { publishProgress(5); try { Thread.sleep(89); } catch (InterruptedException e) { // TODO Auto-generated catch block e.printStackTrace(); } } } return null; } @Override protected void onProgressUpdate(Integer... values) { pd.incrementProgressBy(values[0]); } @Override protected void onPostExecute(Void result) { pd.dismiss(); setContentView(ourV); } } Now since I am new to this. You could tellme maybe if async is not required for such stuff and there is another way of doing it normally.

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• Users loggin to 3Com switches authenticated by radius not getting admin priv and no access available

  - by 3D1L

  Hi, Following the setup that I have for my Cisco devices, I got some basic level of functionality authenticating users that loggin to 3Com switches authenticated against a RADIUS server. Problem is that I can not get the user to obtain admin privileges. I'm using Microsoft's IAS service. According to 3Com documentation when configuring the access policy on IAS the value of 010600000003 have to be used to specify admin access level. That value have to be input in the Dial-in profile section: 010600000003 - indicates admin privileges 010600000002 - manager 010600000001 - monitor 010600000000 - visitor Here is the configuration on the switch: radius scheme system server-type standard primary authentication XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX accounting optional key authentication XXXXXX key accounting XXXXXX domain system scheme radius-scheme system local-user admin service-type ssh telnet terminal level 3 local-user manager service-type ssh telnet terminal level 2 local-user monitor service-type ssh telnet terminal level 1 The configuration is working with the IAS server because I can check user login events with the Eventviewer tool. Here is the output of the DISPLAY RADIUS command at the switch: [4500]disp radius SchemeName =system Index=0 Type=standard Primary Auth IP =XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX Port=1645 State=active Primary Acct IP =127.0.0.1 Port=1646 State=active Second Auth IP =0.0.0.0 Port=1812 State=block Second Acct IP =0.0.0.0 Port=1813 State=block Auth Server Encryption Key= XXXXXX Acct Server Encryption Key= XXXXXX Accounting method = optional TimeOutValue(in second)=3 RetryTimes=3 RealtimeACCT(in minute)=12 Permitted send realtime PKT failed counts =5 Retry sending times of noresponse acct-stop-PKT =500 Quiet-interval(min) =5 Username format =without-domain Data flow unit =Byte Packet unit =1 Total 1 RADIUS scheme(s). 1 listed Here is the output of the DISPLAY DOMAIN and DISPLAY CONNECTION commands after users log into the switch: [4500]display domain 0 Domain = system State = Active RADIUS Scheme = system Access-limit = Disable Domain User Template: Idle-cut = Disable Self-service = Disable Messenger Time = Disable Default Domain Name: system Total 1 domain(s).1 listed. [4500]display connection Index=0 ,Username=admin@system IP=0.0.0.0 Index=2 ,Username=user@system IP=xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx On Unit 1:Total 2 connections matched, 2 listed. Total 2 connections matched, 2 listed. [4500] Here is the DISP RADIUS STATISTICS: [4500] %Apr 2 00:23:39:957 2000 4500 SHELL/5/LOGIN:- 1 - ecajigas(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) in un it1 logindisp radius stat state statistic(total=1048): DEAD=1046 AuthProc=0 AuthSucc=0 AcctStart=0 RLTSend=0 RLTWait=2 AcctStop=0 OnLine=2 Stop=0 StateErr=0 Received and Sent packets statistic: Unit 1........................................ Sent PKT total :4 Received PKT total:1 Resend Times Resend total 1 1 2 1 Total 2 RADIUS received packets statistic: Code= 2,Num=1 ,Err=0 Code= 3,Num=0 ,Err=0 Code= 5,Num=0 ,Err=0 Code=11,Num=0 ,Err=0 Running statistic: RADIUS received messages statistic: Normal auth request , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 EAP auth request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Account request , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 Account off request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT auth timeout , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT acct_timeout , Num=3 , Err=1 , Succ=2 Realtime Account timer , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PKT response , Num=1 , Err=0 , Succ=1 EAP reauth_request , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PORTAL access , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Update ack , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 PORTAL access ack , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 Session ctrl pkt , Num=0 , Err=0 , Succ=0 RADIUS sent messages statistic: Auth accept , Num=0 Auth reject , Num=0 EAP auth replying , Num=0 Account success , Num=0 Account failure , Num=0 Cut req , Num=0 RecError_MSG_sum:0 SndMSG_Fail_sum :0 Timer_Err :0 Alloc_Mem_Err :0 State Mismatch :0 Other_Error :0 No-response-acct-stop packet =0 Discarded No-response-acct-stop packet for buffer overflow =0 The other problem is that when the RADIUS server is not available I can not log in to the switch. The switch have 3 local accounts but none of them works. How can I specify the switch to use the local accounts in case that the RADIUS service is not available?

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• why nginx rewrite post request from /login to //login?

  - by jiangchengwu

  There is a if statement, which will rewrite url when the client is Android. Everything ok. But, something got strange. Nginx will write post request /login to //login, even if the block of if statement is bank. So I got a 404 page. As the jetty server only accept /login request. Server conf: location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:8785/; proxy_set_header Host $http_host; proxy_set_header Remote-Addr $http_remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; if ( $http_user_agent ~ Android ){ # rewrite something, been commented } } Debug info, origin log https://gist.github.com/3799021 ... 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script regex: "Android" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [notice] 26416#0: *1 "Android" matches "Android/1.0", client: 106.187.97.22, server: ireedr.com, request: "POST /login HTTP/1.1", host: "ireedr.com" ... 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http proxy header: "POST //login HTTP/1.0 Host: ireedr.com X-Real-IP: 106.187.97.22 Connection: close Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Accept: */* User-Agent: Android/1.0 " ... 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found Server: nginx/1.2.1 Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:29:49 GMT Content-Type: text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1 Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: must-revalidate,no-cache,no-store Content-Encoding: gzip ... Only when I commented the block in the configration file: location / { proxy_pass http://localhost:8785/; proxy_set_header Host $http_host; proxy_set_header Remote-Addr $http_remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; #if ( $http_user_agent ~ Android ){ # #} } The client can get an 200 response. Debug info, origin log https://gist.github.com/3799023 ... "POST /login HTTP/1.0 Host: ireedr.com X-Real-IP: 106.187.97.22 Connection: close Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Accept: */* User-Agent: Android/1.0 " ... 2012/09/28 16:27:19 [debug] 26319#0: *1 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.1 Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:27:19 GMT Content-Type: application/json;charset=UTF-8 Content-Length: 17 Connection: keep-alive ... As the log: 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [notice] 26416#0: *1 "Android" matches "Android/1.0", client: 106.187.97.22, server: ireedr.com, request: "POST /login HTTP/1.1", host: "ireedr.com" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script if 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 post rewrite phase: 4 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 generic phase: 5 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 generic phase: 6 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 generic phase: 7 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 access phase: 8 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 access phase: 9 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 access phase: 10 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 post access phase: 11 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 try files phase: 12 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 posix_memalign: 0000000001E798F0:4096 @16 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http init upstream, client timer: 0 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 epoll add event: fd:13 op:3 ev:80000005 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: "Host: " 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script var: "ireedr.com" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: " " 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: "" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: "" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: "X-Real-IP: " 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script var: "106.187.97.22" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: " " 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http script copy: "Connection: close " 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http proxy header: "Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http proxy header: "Accept: */*" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http proxy header: "User-Agent: Android/1.0" 2012/09/28 16:29:49 [debug] 26416#0: *1 http proxy header: "POST //login HTTP/1.0 Host: ireedr.com X-Real-IP: 106.187.97.22 Connection: close Accept-Encoding: identity, deflate, compress, gzip Accept: */* User-Agent: Android/1.0 " ... Maybe post rewrite phase had rewrite the request. Anybody can help me to solve this problem or know why nginx do that ? Much appreciated.

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• How to use more than 3 virtual disks in Linux using CentOS and XenServer

  - by 010110110101

  I've attached 5 virtual disks to a Virtual Machine in Citrix XenServer. The VM has the xs-tools installed. Initially it said that it couldn't add so many disks. After I installed the xs-tools, it let me add all the disks. But /dev doesn't show all the disks. It shows these: /dev/xvda /dev/xvdb /dev/xvdc /dev/cdrom Perhaps it is bound by the limits of an IDE bus? (3 disks + CD-ROM) If so, how does one change the VM to use SCSI? Edit: According to the documentation: 2.6.3. VM Block Devices In the PV Linux case, block devices are passed through as PV devices. XenServer does not attempt to emulate SCSI or IDE, but instead provides a more suitable interface in the virtual environment in the form of xvd* devices. It is also possible to get an sd* device using the same mechanism, where the PV driver inside the VM takes over the SCSI device namespace. This is not desirable so it is best to use xvd* where possible for PV guests (this is the default for Debian and RHEL). For Windows or other fully virtualized guests, XenServer emulates an IDE bus in the form of an hd* device. When using Windows, installing the Citrix Tools for Virtual Machines installs a special PV driver that works in a similar way to Linux, except in the fully virtualized environment. Still, with 5 virtual disks attached, I don't see the other xvd devices. Edit #2: (attached requested info) Host Machine: XenServer 6.1 Linux version 2.6.32.43-0.4.1.xs1.6.10.777.170770xen (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-51)) #1 SMP Wed Apr 17 05:52:03 EDT 2013 Guest Machine: CentOS release 6.4 (Final) Linux version 2.6.32-358.6.2.el6.x86_64 ([email protected]) (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-3) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Thu May 16 20:59:36 UTC 2013 Output of 'fdisk -l' on Guest Machine: Note, the disk beyond the first 3 attached are not displaying -- there should be 4 100GB disks. (There are a total of 5 disks displayed in XenCenter -- 16GB, 100GB, 100GB, 100GB, 100GB) Disk /dev/xvdb: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13054 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xfb6c95b9 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvdb1 1 13054 104856223+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/xvda: 17.2 GB, 17179869184 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2088 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e5f41 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvda1 * 1 64 512000 83 Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. /dev/xvda2 64 2089 16264192 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/xvdc: 107.4 GB, 107374182400 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 13054 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0xed249ced Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/xvdc1 1 13054 104856223+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/mapper/vg_blue-lv_root: 14.6 GB, 14571012096 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1771 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Disk /dev/mapper/vg_blue-lv_swap: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 I see that the Linux versions say SMP. The Guest VM doesn't say "xen" in the name. However, I have already run yum install kernel-xen. Could be a clue?

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• Configuring nginx server to handle requests from multiple domains

  - by KillABug

  Use Case:- I am working on a web application which allows to create HTML templates and publish them on amazon S3.Now to publish the websites I use nginx as a proxy server. What the proxy server does is,when a user enters the website URL,I want to identify how to check if the request comes from my application i.e app.mysite.com(This won't change) and route it to apache for regular access,if its coming from some other domain like a regular URL www.mysite.com(This needs to be handled dynamically.Can be random) it goes to the S3 bucket that hosts the template. My current configuration is: user nginx; worker_processes 1; error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log; pid /var/run/nginx.pid; events { worker_connections 1024; } http { include /etc/nginx/mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main; charset utf-8; keepalive_timeout 65; server_tokens off; sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; tcp_nodelay off; Default Server Block to catch undefined host names server { listen 80; server_name app.mysite.com; access_log off; error_log off; location / { proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header Host $host; proxy_redirect off; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_connect_timeout 90; proxy_send_timeout 90; proxy_read_timeout 90; client_max_body_size 10m; client_body_buffer_size 128k; proxy_buffer_size 4k; proxy_buffers 4 32k; proxy_busy_buffers_size 64k; } } } Load all the sites include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; Updates as I was not clear enough :- My question is how can I handle both the domains in the config file.My nginx is a proxy server on port 80 on an EC2 instance.This also hosts my application that runs on apache on a differnet port.So any request coming for my application will come from a domain app.mysite.com and I also want to proxy the hosted templates on S3 which are inside a bucket say sites.mysite.com/coolsite.com/index.html.So if someone hits coolsite.com I want to proxy it to the folder sites.mysite.com/coolsite.com/index.html and not to app.syartee.com.Hope I am clear The other server block: # Server for S3 server { # Listen on port 80 for all IPs associated with your machine listen 80; # Catch all other server names server_name _; //I want it to handle other domains then app.mysite.com # This code gets the host without www. in front and places it inside # the $host_without_www variable # If someone requests www.coolsite.com, then $host_without_www will have the value coolsite.com set $host_without_www $host; if ($host ~* www\.(.*)) { set $host_without_www $1; } location / { # This code rewrites the original request, and adds the host without www in front # E.g. if someone requests # /directory/file.ext?param=value # from the coolsite.com site the request is rewritten to # /coolsite.com/directory/file.ext?param=value set $foo 'http://sites.mysite.com'; # echo "$foo"; rewrite ^(.*)$ $foo/$host_without_www$1 break; # The rewritten request is passed to S3 proxy_pass http://sites.mysite.com; include /etc/nginx/proxy_params; } } Also I understand I will have to make the DNS changes in the cname of the domain.I guess I will have to add app.mysite.com under the CNAME of the template domain name?Please correct if wrong. Thank you for your time

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• Parallelism in .NET – Part 14, The Different Forms of Task

  - by Reed

  Before discussing Task creation and actual usage in concurrent environments, I will briefly expand upon my introduction of the Task class and provide a short explanation of the distinct forms of Task.  The Task Parallel Library includes four distinct, though related, variations on the Task class. In my introduction to the Task class, I focused on the most basic version of Task.  This version of Task, the standard Task class, is most often used with an Action delegate.  This allows you to implement for each task within the task decomposition as a single delegate. Typically, when using the new threading constructs in .NET 4 and the Task Parallel Library, we use lambda expressions to define anonymous methods.  The advantage of using a lambda expression is that it allows the Action delegate to directly use variables in the calling scope.  This eliminates the need to make separate Task classes for Action<T>, Action<T1,T2>, and all of the other Action<…> delegate types.  As an example, suppose we wanted to make a Task to handle the ”Show Splash” task from our earlier decomposition.  Even if this task required parameters, such as a message to display, we could still use an Action delegate specified via a lambda: // Store this as a local variable string messageForSplashScreen = GetSplashScreenMessage(); // Create our task Task showSplashTask = new Task( () => { // We can use variables in our outer scope, // as well as methods scoped to our class! this.DisplaySplashScreen(messageForSplashScreen); }); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } This provides a huge amount of flexibility.  We can use this single form of task for any task which performs an operation, provided the only information we need to track is whether the task has completed successfully or not.  This leads to my first observation: Use a Task with a System.Action delegate for any task for which no result is generated. This observation leads to an obvious corollary: we also need a way to define a task which generates a result.  The Task Parallel Library provides this via the Task<TResult> class. Task<TResult> subclasses the standard Task class, providing one additional feature – the ability to return a value back to the user of the task.  This is done by switching from providing an Action delegate to providing a Func<TResult> delegate.  If we decompose our problem, and we realize we have one task where its result is required by a future operation, this can be handled via Task<TResult>.  For example, suppose we want to make a task for our “Check for Update” task, we could do: Task<bool> checkForUpdateTask = new Task<bool>( () => { return this.CheckWebsiteForUpdate(); }); Later, we would start this task, and perform some other work.  At any point in the future, we could get the value from the Task<TResult>.Result property, which will cause our thread to block until the task has finished processing: // This uses Task<bool> checkForUpdateTask generated above... // Start the task, typically on a background thread checkForUpdateTask.Start(); // Do some other work on our current thread this.DoSomeWork(); // Discover, from our background task, whether an update is available // This will block until our task completes bool updateAvailable = checkForUpdateTask.Result; This leads me to my second observation: Use a Task<TResult> with a System.Func<TResult> delegate for any task which generates a result. Task and Task<TResult> provide a much cleaner alternative to the previous Asynchronous Programming design patterns in the .NET framework.  Instead of trying to implement IAsyncResult, and providing BeginXXX() and EndXXX() methods, implementing an asynchronous programming API can be as simple as creating a method that returns a Task or Task<TResult>.  The client side of the pattern also is dramatically simplified – the client can call a method, then either choose to call task.Wait() or use task.Result when it needs to wait for the operation’s completion. While this provides a much cleaner model for future APIs, there is quite a bit of infrastructure built around the current Asynchronous Programming design patterns.  In order to provide a model to work with existing APIs, two other forms of Task exist.  There is a constructor for Task which takes an Action<Object> and a state parameter.  In addition, there is a constructor for creating a Task<TResult> which takes a Func<Object, TResult> as well as a state parameter.  When using these constructors, the state parameter is stored in the Task.AsyncState property. While these two overloads exist, and are usable directly, I strongly recommend avoiding this for new development.  The two forms of Task which take an object state parameter exist primarily for interoperability with traditional .NET Asynchronous Programming methodologies.  Using lambda expressions to capture variables from the scope of the creator is a much cleaner approach than using the untyped state parameters, since lambda expressions provide full type safety without introducing new variables.

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• The hidden cost of interrupting knowledge workers

  - by Piet

  The November issue of pragpub has an interesting article on interruptions. The article is written by Brian Tarbox, who also mentions the article on his blog. I like the subtitle: ‘Simple Strategies for Avoiding Dumping Your Mental Stack’. Brian talks about the effective cost of interrupting a ‘knowledge worker’, often with trivial questions or distractions. In the eyes of the interruptor, the interruption only costs the time the interrupted had to listen to the question and give an answer. However, depending on what the interrupted was doing at the time, getting fully immersed in their task again might take up to 15-20 minutes. Enough interruptions might even cause a knowledge worker to mentally call it a day. According to this article interruptions can consume about 28% of a knowledge worker’s time, translating in a $588 billion loss for US companies each year. Looking for a new developer to join your team? Ever thought about optimizing your team’s environment and the way they work instead? Making non knowledge workers aware You can’t. Well, I haven’t succeeded yet. And believe me: I’ve tried. When you’ve got a simple way to really increase your productivity (’give me 2 hours of uninterrupted time a day’) it wouldn’t be right not to tell your boss or team-leader about it. The problem is: only productive knowledge workers seem to understand this. People who don’t fall into this category just seem to think you’re joking, being arrogant or anti-social when you tell them the interruptions can really have an impact on your productivity. Also, knowledge workers often work in a very concentrated mental state which is described here as: It is the same mindfulness as ecstatic lovemaking, the merging of two into a fluidly harmonious one. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task. Yes, coding can be addictive and if you’re interrupting a programmer at the wrong moment, you’re effectively bringing down a junkie from his high in just a few seconds. This can result in seemingly arrogant, almost aggressive reactions. How to make people aware of the production-cost they’re inflicting: I’ve been often pondering that question myself. The article suggests that solutions based on that question never seem to work. To be honest: I’ve never even been able to find a half decent solution for this question. People who are not in this situations just don’t understand the issue, no matter how you try to explain it. Fun (?) thing I’ve noticed: Programmers or IT people in general who don’t get this are often the kind of people who just don’t get anything done. Interrupt handling (interruption management?) IRL Have non-urgent questions handled in a non-interruptive way It helps a bit to educate people into using non-interruptive ways to ask questions: “duh, I have no idea, but I’m a bit busy here now could you put it in an email so I don’t forget?”. Eventually, a considerable amount of people will skip interrupting you and just send an email right away. Some stubborn-headed people however will continue to just interrupt you, saying “you’re 10 meters from my desk, why can’t we just talk?”. Just remember to disable your email notifications, it can be hard to resist opening your email client when you know a new email just arrived. Use Do Not Disturb signals When working in a group of programmers, often the unofficial sign you can only be interrupted for something important is to put on headphones. And when the environment is quiet enough, often people aren’t even listening to music. Otherwise music can help to block the indirect distractions (someone else talking on the phone or tapping their feet). You might get a “they’re all just surfing and listening to music”-reaction from outsiders though. Peopleware talks about a team where the no-interruption sign was placing a shawl on the desk. If I remember correctly, I am unable to locate my copy of this really excellent must-read book. If you have all standardized on the same IM tool, maybe that tool has a ‘do not disturb’ setting. Also some phone-systems have a ‘DND’ (do not disturb) setting. Hide Brian offers a number of good suggestions, some obvious like: hide away somewhere they can’t find you. Not sure how long it’ll be till someone thinks you’re just taking a nap somewhere though. Also, this often isn’t possible or your boss might not understand this. And if you really get caught taking a nap, make sure to explain that your were powernapping. Counter-act interruptions Another suggestion he offers is when you’re being interrupted to just hold up your hand, blocking the interruption, and at least giving you time to finish your sentence or your block/line of code. The last suggestion works more as a way to make it obvious to the interruptor that they really are interrupting your work and to offload some of the cost on the interruptor. In practice, this can also helps you cool down a bit so you don’t start saying nasty things to the interruptor. Unfortunately I’ve sometimes been confronted with people who just ignore this signal and keep talking, as if they’re sure that whatever they’ve got to say is really worth listening to and without a doubt more important than anything you might be doing. This behaviour usually leaves me speechless (not good when someone just asked a question). I’ve noticed that these people are usually also the first to complain when being interrupted themselves. They’re generally not very liked as colleagues, so try not to imitate their behaviour. TDD as a way to minimize recovery time I don’t like Test Driven Development. Mainly for only one reason: It interrupts flow. At least, that’s what it does for me, but maybe I’m just not grown used to TDD yet. BUT a positive effect TDD has on me when I have to work in an interruptive environment and can’t really get into the ‘flow’ (also supposedly called ‘the zone’ by software developers, although I’ve never heard it 1st hand), TDD helps me to concentrate on the tasks at hand and helps me to get back at work after an interruption. I feel when using TDD, I can get by without the need for being totally ‘in’ the project and I can be reasonably productive without obtaining ‘flow’. Do you have a suggestion on how to make people aware of the concept of ‘flow’ and the cost of interruptions? (without looking like an arrogant ass or a weirdo)

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 03, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 03, 2010New Projects.radiko: エアログラス採用のシンプルなradiko(http://radiko.jp/)クライアントです。タスクトレイのアイコンからラジオ局の切り替えができます。7Scale: EmptyB2C MVC Plattform: The B2C MVC Plattform aims to be pluggable site framework to help small busisness accomplish basic tasks between business and customers.ElValWeb: The goal of the project to create full featured implementation of ModelValidatorProvider for Enterprise Library Application Validation Block, wich ...esatis yazilimi: asp.net yazılımı ile satış magazasi websitesi kur.IEnumerable.It sample code: IEnumerable.It sample codejQuery MicroAjax for ASP.NET: MicroAjax is a set of jQuery plugins and .NET components designed to provide simple, powerful and efficient Ajax centric web application design pat...Karbon VOS: Karbon VOS is an advanced Virtual Operating System Template for Visual Basic Express. It's developed in Visual Basic. Karbon VOS hopes to one day b...LINQ Mapper: LINQ Mapper translates simple LINQ queries between different sources. It allows you to write queries against your domain model, but have them run ...Meccano Silverlight Framework: Meccano is a new generation of frameworks for creation of LOB Silverlight applications based on MEF, RX, WCF, ADO.NET Data Services etc. It is inte...Multiuse Model View (MMV) Library: This project is an open source library for the Multiuse Model View (MMV) pattern for building robust WPF and ASP.Net applications. Visit my blog ht...Process Affinity Control: Process Affinity Control allows to set the affinity masks of processes based on rules.SilverSpatial: This project helps bridge the gap between Silverlight and Geo-Spatial data type (such as SQL Spatial). It implements the Well-Known-Binary (WKB) fo...StageAssets: Application for storing data about "things" and people in theatre. For example equipment, actors and so on.Stratosphere: Mono compatible library with set of primitives to work with scalable table, queue and block containers with corresponding implementations for Amazo...TRX Web-Viewer: A simple web-based application to upload and view VSTS 2008 and VSTS 2010 test result files with some basic lookup and feature-wise management of r...WDT2: WDT 2 is the school project to begin learning .NET enviroment, The main focus is on learning the use of almost all the componenets.WPF Behavior Library: WPF Behavior Library is a set of additional actions for WPF that allow you to add extra behaviors to a control quickly and easily. Currently the on...YouTubeEmbeddedVideo WebControl for ASP.NET: A Control to embed YouTube videos in ASP.NET pages. Works in C# and VB.NETNew Releases.radiko: beta: 東京局のみ対応 あとは手抜きActiveWorlds Managed .NET SDK: AwManaged Technology Preview - WIN32 (Alpha): This WIN32 release contains the Server Console Application. The Setup executable should be run as administrator on O.S. using UAC (Vista/Win7)AJAX Control Framework: v1.0.1.0: v1.0.1.0 - Contains a Bing Maps sample project, a number of bug fixes and a few performance improvements. - AJAX enable ANY custom control that der...App_Code (and Usercontrol) Editor (ACE): v1.0.0 alpha: The first alpha release of the AppCode Editor for Umbraco 4.0.3 is now available to download! Tested to work with usercontrols - pre-compilation wi...ElValWeb: ElValWeb 0.0.1.0: Version 0.0.1.0 contains client validation support forAndCompositeValidator ContainsCharactersValidator DomainValidator NotNullValidator Or...esatis yazilimi: magaza: magazanın yazılımları ve veri tabanının yazılımlarıGrunty OS: Grunty OS USB: Download Grunty OS for USBGrunty OS: Grunty OS.ISO: Grunty OS ISOKarbon VOS: Milestone 1 (Kaptua): Milestone 1...Live Meeting API Wrapper: LiveMeetingAPIWrapperV1.2: Added get meeting and update meeting.Multiuse Model View (MMV) Library: v0.3: first alpha release. Medium amount of functionality and some use cases tested.MVC Foolproof Validation: Beta 0.9.3774: Adds resource provided error messages, regular expression operators and a new RegularExpressionIf attribute.Process Affinity Control: Version 1.0.0: This is the first release. Planned features for the next release: No administrative privileges needed to run the manager Select the active scena...SharePoint 2010 Service Manager: SharePoint 2010 Service Manager 1.1: Added support to run under UAC with automatic security elevationSharePoint Event Handler Manager: Event Handler Manager 2.0: Please download the application here: http://www.ackermantech.com/registerevents.aspxSkyDrive Synchronizer: SkyDrive Sync Beta 0.1: Beta release includes: Upload and download Synchronize updated files Delete files on web/locally if not in source Split larger files into sma...Stratosphere: Stratosphere 1.0.0.0: Initial beta releaseSuggested Resources for .NET Developers: 0.8.0.0 VS2010 - focus on displaying content: This is the first release of Suggested Resources that can be downloaded from the internet. While there is still a lot of work to be done this rele...TRX Web-Viewer: TRX Web-Viewer V1.0: First working versionVCC: Latest build, v2.1.30502.0: Automatic drop of latest buildWatchersNET.TagCloud: WatchersNET.TagCloud 01.04.00: !Whats New New Tag Mode: Search Referrers (Shows Search Tags From Google, Ask, Bing, Yahoo and the Dnn Site Search) Taxonomy Tags now contains L...Web/Cloud Applications Development Framework | Visual WebGui: 6.4 Beta 2e: Fully featured beta version of Visual WebGui Web/Cloud Applicaiton Development FrameworkWPF Behavior Library: WPF Behavior Library 0.1 Release: First alpha release of the WPF Behavior Library. It should be stable but doesn't have all of the features it will have in the future and the API ma...xvanneste: Sharepoint Social Network Client: Client permettant d'avoir accés au social network de sharepoint a l'exterieur du navigateur.Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control Toolkitpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)iTuner - The iTunes CompanionASP.NETDotNetNuke® Community EditionMost Active ProjectsIonics Isapi Rewrite Filterpatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryRawrHydroServer - CUAHSI Hydrologic Information System ServerAJAX Control Frameworkpatterns & practices: Azure Security GuidanceTinyProjectBlogEngine.NETNB_Store - Free DotNetNuke Ecommerce Catalog ModuleDambach Linear Algebra Framework

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• jQuery Templates - XHTML Validation

  - by hajan

  Many developers have already asked me about this. How to make XHTML valid the web page which uses jQuery Templates. Maybe you have already tried, and I don't know what are your results but here is my opinion regarding this. By default, Visual Studio.NET adds the xhtml1-transitional.dtd schema <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> So, if you try to validate your page which has jQuery Templates against this schema, your page won't be XHTML valid. Why? It's because when creating templates, we use HTML tags inside <script> ... </script> block. Yes, I know that the script block has type="text/html" but it's not supported in this schema, thus it's not valid. Let's try validate the following code Code <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" > <head>     <title>jQuery Templates :: XHTML Validation</title>     <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.4.4.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>     <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.templates/beta1/jquery.tmpl.js" type="text/javascript"></script>          <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">         $(function () {             var attendees = [                 { Name: "Hajan", Surname: "Selmani", speaker: true, phones: [070555555, 071888999, 071222333] },                 { Name: "Denis", Surname: "Manski", phones: [070555555, 071222333] }             ];             $("#myTemplate").tmpl(attendees).appendTo("#attendeesList");         });     </script>     <script id="myTemplate" type="text/html">          <li>             ${Name} ${Surname}             {{if speaker}}                 (<font color="red">speaks</font>)             {{else}}                 (attendee)             {{/if}}         </li>     </script>      </head>     <body>     <ol id="attendeesList"></ol> </body> </html> To validate it, go to http://validator.w3.org/#validate_by_input and copy paste the code rendered on client-side browser (it’s almost the same, only the template is rendered inside OL so LI tags are created for each item). Press CHECK and you will get: Result: 1 Errors, 2 warning(s)  The error message says: Validation Output: 1 Error Line 21, Column 13: document type does not allow element "li" here <li> Yes, the <li> HTML element is not allowed inside the <script>, so how to make it valid? FIRST: Using <![CDATA][…]]> The first thing that came in my mind was the CDATA. So, by wrapping any HTML tag which is in script blog, inside <![CDATA[ ........ ]]> it will make our code valid. However, the problem is that the template won't render since the template tags {} cannot get evaluated if they are inside CDATA. Ok, lets try with another approach. SECOND: HTML5 validation Well, if we just remove the strikethrough part bellow of the !DOPCTYPE <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> our template is going to be checked as HTML5 and will be valid. Ok, there is another approach I've also tried: THIRD: Separate template to an external file We can separate the template to external file. I didn’t show how to do this previously, so here is the example. 1. Add HTML file with name Template.html in your ASPX website. 2. Place your defined template there without <script> tag Content inside Template.html <li>     ${Name} ${Surname}     {{if speaker}}         (<font color="red">speaks</font>)     {{else}}         (attendee)     {{/if}} </li> 3. Call the HTML file using $.get() jQuery ajax method and render the template with data using $.tmpl() function. $.get("/Templates/Template.html", function (template) {     $.tmpl(template, attendees).appendTo("#attendeesList"); }); So the complete code is: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" > <head>     <title>jQuery Templates :: XHTML Validation</title>     <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-1.4.4.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>     <script src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.templates/beta1/jquery.tmpl.js" type="text/javascript"></script>          <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">         $(function () {             var attendees = [                 { Name: "Hajan", Surname: "Selmani", speaker: true, phones: [070555555, 071888999, 071222333] },                 { Name: "Denis", Surname: "Manski", phones: [070555555, 071222333] }             ];             $.get("/Templates/Template.html", function (template) {                 $.tmpl(template, attendees).appendTo("#attendeesList");             });         });     </script>      </head>     <body>     <ol id="attendeesList"></ol> </body> </html> This document was successfully checked as XHTML 1.0 Transitional! Result: Passed If you have any additional methods for XHTML validation, you can share it :). Thanks,Hajan

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 03, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Saturday, April 03, 2010New ProjectsASP.NET MVC Demo: aspnetmvcdemoClasslessInterDomainRouting: ClasslessInterDomainRouting provides a class that is designed to detail with CIDR requests and ranges, it is developed within the C# Langauge and f...ClientSideRefactor: Plugin for Visual Studio.ColinTest: ColinTestePMS: An educational project to learn ASP.Net MVC, entity framework using vs 2010Extensible ASP.NET: Extensible Framework on top of ASP.NET - infrastructure level. Uses MEF for extensibility.Franchise Computing Model: Franchise Computing is a client-centric, contract-oriented, consumption-based computing model. Its framework allows service providers and consumers...GameEngine ReactorFX: Set of tools and code snippets for creation DirectX based games. Also provides a number of ideas, algorythms and problem-solutions.It's All Just Ones And Zeros: Utility code libraries for Vault API developers.Live Writer Picasa Plugin: Live Writer Picasa Plugin is a plugin for Windows Live Writer that allows you to embed photos from your Picasa Web Albums into your blog posts. Liv...Managed SDK for Meizu Cell Phone: The goal of this project is to deliver an open source managed SDK for Meizu cell phones, currently for M8. Media Player Field Type: Display a media player in a column of you document library. The library can contain movie files of diferent formats. The player will appear in the ...praca magisterska: This is my thesis: Algebraical aspects of modern cryptography,Pyx: An experimental programming language for statistics.SharpHydroLiDAR: A C# version of Lidar Hydrographic ExtractionSql Server Mds Destination: SSIS destination transform component for SQL Server Master Data ServicesStackOverflow.Net: A C# library for the StackOverflow API (currently in beta). Provides methods for every call currently in the StackOverflow API.TRX Merger Utility: People working on test projects that involve test management and execution from Visual Studio Team System 2008 and who do not have a TFS server for...UniPlanner: The UniPlanner project goal is to develop a web application able to visualize and schedule a university timetable.WikiNETParser: Wiki .NET Parser, Open Source project powered by ANTLR. Syntax defined in 3(4) files Lexer, Grammar, AST Parser.New ReleasesaaronERP builder - a framework to create customized ERP solutions: aaronERP_0.4.0.0: Changes (compared to version 0.3.0.0) : Businesslayer : - Caching of data-tables - ITranslatable Interface for mutli-language DAOs Web-Frontend: ...BatterySaver: Version 0.5: Add support for executing a power state event manually (Issue) Add support for battery percentage thresholds (Issue)ColinTest: asdfzxcv: asdfasdfComposer: V1.0.402.2001 Beta: Minor bug fixes Minor changes in interfaces Added documentation to the setup packageDynamic Configuration: Dynamic Configuration Release 2: Added ConfigurationChanged event fired whenever changes in .config file detected. Improved file watching filtering.Facebook Developer Toolkit: Version 3.1 BETA: Lots of bug fixes. Issues addressed: http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/WorkItem/View.aspx?WorkItemId=14808 http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/W...iExporter - iTunes playlist exporting: iExporter gui v2.5.0.0 - console v1.2.1.0: Paypal donate! New features and redesign for iExporter Gui You can now select/deselect all visible items with one click in the overview When yo...Line Counter: 1.5.5: The Line Counter is a tool to calculate lines of your code files. The tool was written in .NET 2.0. Line Counter 1.5.5 Fixed bugs in C# counter an...Live Writer Picasa Plugin: Live Writer Picasa Plugin 1.0.0: Changelog Since this is the first version there are no changes.Media Player Field Type: Media Player Field Type v1.0: Display a media player in a column of you document library. The library can contain movie files of diferent formats. The player will appear in the ...Numina Application/Security Framework: Numina.Framework Core 49601: Added .LESS library for CSS Updated default style and logo Added a few methods and method overloads to the .NET libraryOver Store: OverStore 1.16.0.0: Version 1.16.0.0 Runtime components uses PersistingRuntimeException instead of many exception types. PersistingRuntimeException message includes...patterns & practices Web Client Developer Guidance: Web Client Software Factory 2010 beta source code: The Web Client Software Factory 2010 provides an integrated set of guidance that assists architects and developers in creating web client applicati...SCSI Interface for Multimedia and Block Devices: Release 12 - View CD-DVD Drive Features: Changes in this version: - Added the ability to view the features of a CD/DVD device (e.g.: what discs it supports, whether it supports Mount Raini...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5006A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5006A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a Feature within Visual Studio, how to brand it, how to incorporate ressou...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5007A-FRA-Level300: SPLab5007A-FRA-Level300 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a reusable and distributable project model for developping Features within...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5008A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5008A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to add an option in the ECB menu (Edit Control Block) only for specific file types w...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5009A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5009A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the "Site Pages" model and the differences between customized/uncustomized pages (ghoste...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5010A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5010A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you the "Application Pages" model and the differences between "Site Pages" and "Application ...SharePoint Labs: SPLab5011A-FRA-Level100: SPLab5011A-FRA-Level100 This SharePoint Lab will teach you how to create a basic Application Page in the 12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS. Lab Language : French...sPATCH: sPatch v0.9b: + Fixed: an issue most webservers need leading slash to return filestreamsTASKedit: sTASKedit (pre-Alpha Release): This release is only for playing around, currently not useful Supported Files:Open 1.3.6 client tasks.data Export to 1.3.6 client tasks.data E...TRX Merger Utility: TRX Merger v1.0: First versionttgLib: ttgLib-0.01-beta1: In beta-version we've implemented basic functionality of ttgLib - now it can solve various problems using CPU+GPU bundle. Most important things: ...WikiNETParser: Wiki .NET Parser 2.5: Wiki .NET Parser 2.5 The documentation, binaries and source code could be downloaded from http://catarsa.com portal The latest release to downloa...WPF Zen Garden: Release 1.0: This is the first release.XNA 3D World Studio Content Pipeline: XNA 3DWS Content Pipeline - R2: This version adds terrains and brush based modelsMost Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseASP.NET Ajax LibrarySilverlight ToolkitAJAX Control ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)ASP.NETMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesDotNetNuke® Community EditionMost Active ProjectsGraffiti CMSRawrjQuery Library for SharePoint Web ServicesFacebook Developer ToolkitBlogEngine.NETN2 CMSBase Class LibrariesFarseer Physics EngineLINQ to TwitterMicrosoft Biology Foundation

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• ASP.NET MVC 3 Hosting :: Rolling with Razor in MVC v3 Preview

  - by mbridge

  Razor is an alternate view engine for asp.net MVC.  It was introduced in the “WebMatrix” tool and has now been released as part of the asp.net MVC 3 preview 1.  Basically, Razor allows us to replace the clunky <% %> syntax with a much cleaner coding model, which integrates very nicely with HTML.  Additionally, it provides some really nice features for master page type scenarios and you don’t lose access to any of the features you are currently familiar with, such as HTML helper methods. First, download and install the ASP.NET MVC Preview 1.  You can find this at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=cb42f741-8fb1-4f43-a5fa-812096f8d1e8&displaylang=en. Now, follow these steps to create your first asp.net mvc project using Razor: 1. Open Visual Studio 2010 2. Create a new project.  Select File->New->Project (Shift Control N) 3. You will see the list of project types which should look similar to what’s shown:   4. Select “ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Application (Razor).”  Set the application name to RazorTest and the path to c:projectsRazorTest for this tutorial. If you select accidently select ASPX, you will end up with the standard asp.net view engine and template, which isn’t what you want. 5. For this tutorial, and ONLY for this tutorial, select “No, do not create a unit test project.”  In general, you should create and use a unit test project.  Code without unit tests is kind of like diet ice cream.  It just isn’t very good. Now, once we have this done, our brand new project will be created.    In all likelihood, Visual Studio will leave you looking at the “HomeController.cs” class, as shown below: Immediately, you should notice one difference.  The Index action used to look like: public ActionResult Index () { ViewData[“Message”] = “Welcome to ASP.Net MVC!”; Return View(); } While this will still compile and run just fine, ASP.Net MVC 3 has a much nicer way of doing this: public ActionResult Index() { ViewModel.Message = “Welcome to ASP.Net MVC!”; Return View(); } Instead of using ViewData we are using the new ViewModel object, which uses the new dynamic data typing of .Net 4.0 to allow us to express ourselves much more cleanly.  This isn’t a tutorial on ALL of MVC 3, but the ViewModel concept is one we will need as we dig into Razor. What comes in the box? When we create a project using the ASP.Net MVC 3 Template with Razor, we get a standard project setup, just like we did in ASP.NET MVC 2.0 but with some differences.  Instead of seeing “.aspx” view files and “.ascx” files, we see files with the “.cshtml” which is the default razor extension.  Before we discuss the details of a razor file, one thing to keep in mind is that since this is an extremely early preview, intellisense is not currently enabled with the razor view engine.  This is promised as an updated before the final release.  Just like with the aspx view engine, the convention of the folder name for a set of views matching the controller name without the word “Controller” still stands.  Similarly, each action in the controller will usually have a corresponding view file in the appropriate view directory.  Remember, in asp.net MVC, convention over configuration is key to successful development! The initial template organizes views in the following folders, located in the project under Views: - Account – The default account management views used by the Account controller.  Each file represents a distinct view. - Home – Views corresponding to the appropriate actions within the home controller. - Shared – This contains common view objects used by multiple views.  Within here, master pages are stored, as well as partial page views (user controls).  By convention, these partial views are named “_XXXPartial.cshtml” where XXX is the appropriate name, such as _LogonPartial.cshtml.  Additionally, display templates are stored under here. With this in mind, let us take a look at the index.cshtml file under the home view directory.  When you open up index.cshtml you should see 1:   @inherits System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage 2:  @{ 3:          View.Title = "Home Page"; 4:       LayoutPage = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml"; 5:   } 6:  <h2>@View.Message</h2> 7:  <p> 8:     To learn more about ASP.NET MVC visit <a href="http://asp.net/mvc" title="ASP.NET MVC     9:    Website">http://asp.net/mvc</a>. 10:  </p> So looking through this, we observe the following facts: Line 1 imports the base page that all views (using Razor) are based on, which is System.Web.Mvc.WebViewPage.  Note that this is different than System.Web.MVC.ViewPage which is used by asp.net MVC 2.0 Also note that instead of the <% %> syntax, we use the very simple ‘@’ sign.  The View Engine contains enough context sensitive logic that it can even distinguish between @ in code and @ in an email.  It’s a very clean markup.  Line 2 introduces the idea of a code block in razor.  A code block is a scoping mechanism just like it is in a normal C# class.  It is designated by @{… }  and any C# code can be placed in between.  Note that this is all server side code just like it is when using the aspx engine and <% %>.  Line 3 allows us to set the page title in the client page’s file.  This is a new feature which I’ll talk more about when we get to master pages, but it is another of the nice things razor brings to asp.net mvc development. Line 4 is where we specify our “master” page, but as you can see, you can place it almost anywhere you want, because you tell it where it is located.  A Layout Page is similar to a master page, but it gains a bit when it comes to flexibility.  Again, we’ll come back to this in a later installment.  Line 6 and beyond is where we display the contents of our view.  No more using <%: %> intermixed with code.  Instead, we get to use very clean syntax such as @View.Message.  This is a lot easier to read than <%:@View.Message%> especially when intermixed with html.  For example: <p> My name is @View.Name and I live at @View.Address </p> Compare this to the equivalent using the aspx view engine <p> My name is <%:View.Name %> and I live at <%: View.Address %> </p> While not an earth shaking simplification, it is easier on the eyes.  As  we explore other features, this clean markup will become more and more valuable.

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• My Thoughts On the Xbox 180

  - by Chris Gardner

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/freestylecoding/archive/2013/06/21/my-thoughts-on-the-xbox-180.aspx Everyone seems to be putting their 0.00237 cents into the wishing well over Microsoft's recent decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. However, there have been a few issues that nobody has touched. As such, I have decided to dig 0.00237 cents out of my pocket. First, let me be clear about this point. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. I wanted that point to be expressed first and unambiguously. I will say it again. I do not support the decision to reverse the DRM policy on the Xbox One. Now that I have that out of the way, let me go into my rationale. This decision removes most of the cool features that enticed me to pre-order the console. No, I didn't cancel my pre-order. There is still five months before the release of the console, and there is still a plethora of information that we, as consumers, do not have. With that, it should be noted that much of the talk in this post is speculation and rhetoric. I do not have any insider information that you do not possess. The persistent connection would have allowed the console to do many of the functions for which we have been begging. That demo where someone was playing Ryse, seamlessly accepted a multiplayer challenge in Killer Instinct, played the match (and a rematch,) and then jumped back into Ryse. That's gone, if you bought the game on disc. The new, DRM free system will require the disc in the system to play a game. That bullet point where one Xbox Live account could have up to 10 slave accounts so families could play together, no matter where they were located. That's gone as well. The promise of huge, expansive, dynamically changing worlds that was brought to us with the power of cloud computing. Well, "the people" didn't want there to be a forced, persistent connection. As such, developers can't rely on a connection and, as such, that feature is gone. This is akin to the removal of the hard drive on the Xbox 360. The list continues, but the enthusiast press has enumerated the list far better than I wish. All of this is because the Xbox team saw the HUGE success of Steam and decided to borrow a few ideas. Yes, Steam. The service that everyone hated for the first six months (for the same reasons the Xbox One is getting flack.) There was an initial growing pain. However, it is now lauded as the way games distribution should be handled. Unless you are Microsoft. I do find it curious that many of the features were originally announced for the PS4 during its unveiling. However, much of that was left strangely absent for Sony's E3 press conference. Instead, we received a single, static slide that basically said the exact opposite of Microsoft's plans. It is not farfetched to believe that slide came into existence during the approximately seven hours between the two media briefings. The thing that majorly annoys me over this whole kerfuffle is that the single thing that caused the call to arms is, really, not an issue. Microsoft never said they were going to block used sales. They said it was up to the publisher to make that decision. This would have allowed publishers to reclaim some of the costs of development in subsequent sales of the product. If you sell your game to GameStop for 7 USD, GameStop is going to sell it for 55 USD. That is 48 USD pure profit for them. Some publishers asked GameStop for a small cut. Was this a huge, money grubbing scheme? Well, yes, but the idea was that they have to handle server infrastructure for dormant accounts, etc. Of course, GameStop flatly refused, and the Online Pass was born. Fortunately, this trend didn’t last, and most publishers have stopped the practice. The ability to sell "licenses" has already begun to be challenged. Are you living in the EU? If so, companies must allow you to sell digital property. With this precedent in place, it's only a matter of time before other areas follow suit. If GameStop were smart, they should have immediately contacted every publisher out there to get the rights to become a clearing house for these licenses. Then, they keep their business model and could reduce their brick and mortar footprint. The digital landscape is changing. We need to not block this process. As Seth MacFarlane best said "Some issues are so important that you should drag people kicking and screaming." I believe this was said on an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher about the issue of Gay Marriages. Much like the original source, this is an issue that we need to drag people to the correct, progressive position. Microsoft, as a company, actually has the resources to weather the transition period. They have a great pool of first and second party developers that can leverage this new framework to prove the validity. Over time, the third party developers will get excited to use these tools. As an old C++ guy, I resisted C# for years. Now, I think it's one of the best languages I've ever used. I have a server room and a Co-Lo full of servers, so I originally didn't see the value in Azure. Now, I wish I could move every one of my projects into the cloud. I still LOVE getting physical packaging, which my music and games collection will proudly attest. However, I have started to see the value in pure digital, and have found ways to integrate this into the ways I consume those products. I can, honestly, understand how some parts of the population would be very apprehensive about this new landscape. There were valid arguments about people with no internet access. There are ways to combat these problems. These methods do not require us to throw the baby out with the bathwater. However, the number of people in the computer industry that I have seen cry foul is truly appalling. We are the forward looking people that help show how technology can improve people's lives. If we can't see the value of the brief pain involved with an exciting new ecosystem, than who will?

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