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• New Communications Industry Data Model with "Factory Installed" Predictive Analytics using Oracle Da

  - by charlie.berger

  Oracle Introduces Oracle Communications Data Model to Provide Actionable Insight for Communications Service Providers   We've integrated pre-installed analytical methodologies with the new Oracle Communications Data Model to deliver automated, simple, yet powerful predictive analytics solutions for customers.  Churn, sentiment analysis, identifying customer segments - all things that can be anticipated and hence, preconcieved and implemented inside an applications.  Read on for more information! TM Forum Management World, Nice, France - 18 May 2010 News Facts To help communications service providers (CSPs) manage and analyze rapidly growing data volumes cost effectively, Oracle today introduced the Oracle Communications Data Model. With the Oracle Communications Data Model, CSPs can achieve rapid time to value by quickly implementing a standards-based enterprise data warehouse that features communications industry-specific reporting, analytics and data mining. The combination of the Oracle Communications Data Model, Oracle Exadata and the Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) Foundation represents the most comprehensive data warehouse and BI solution for the communications industry. Also announced today, Hong Kong Broadband Network enhanced their data warehouse system, going live on Oracle Communications Data Model in three months. The leading provider increased its subscriber base by 37 percent in six months and reduced customer churn to less than one percent. Product Details Oracle Communications Data Model provides industry-specific schema and embedded analytics that address key areas such as customer management, marketing segmentation, product development and network health. CSPs can efficiently capture and monitor critical data and transform it into actionable information to support development and delivery of next-generation services using: More than 1,300 industry-specific measurements and key performance indicators (KPIs) such as network reliability statistics, provisioning metrics and customer churn propensity. Embedded OLAP cubes for extremely fast dimensional analysis of business information. Embedded data mining models for sophisticated trending and predictive analysis. Support for multiple lines of business, such as cable, mobile, wireline and Internet, which can be easily extended to support future requirements. With Oracle Communications Data Model, CSPs can jump start the implementation of a communications data warehouse in line with communications-industry standards including the TM Forum Information Framework (SID), formerly known as the Shared Information Model. Oracle Communications Data Model is optimized for any Oracle Database 11g platform, including Oracle Exadata, which can improve call data record query performance by 10x or more. Supporting Quotes "Oracle Communications Data Model covers a wide range of business areas that are relevant to modern communications service providers and is a comprehensive solution - with its data model and pre-packaged templates including BI dashboards, KPIs, OLAP cubes and mining models. It helps us save a great deal of time in building and implementing a customized data warehouse and enables us to leverage the advanced analytics quickly and more effectively," said Yasuki Hayashi, executive manager, NTT Comware Corporation. "Data volumes will only continue to grow as communications service providers expand next-generation networks, deploy new services and adopt new business models. They will increasingly need efficient, reliable data warehouses to capture key insights on data such as customer value, network value and churn probability. With the Oracle Communications Data Model, Oracle has demonstrated its commitment to meeting these needs by delivering data warehouse tools designed to fill communications industry-specific needs," said Elisabeth Rainge, program director, Network Software, IDC. "The TM Forum Conformance Mark provides reassurance to customers seeking standards-based, and therefore, cost-effective and flexible solutions. TM Forum is extremely pleased to work with Oracle to certify its Oracle Communications Data Model solution. Upon successful completion, this certification will represent the broadest and most complete implementation of the TM Forum Information Framework to date, with more than 130 aggregate business entities," said Keith Willetts, chairman and chief executive officer, TM Forum. Supporting Resources Oracle Communications Oracle Communications Data Model Data Sheet Oracle Communications Data Model Podcast Oracle Data Warehousing Oracle Communications on YouTube Oracle Communications on Delicious Oracle Communications on Facebook Oracle Communications on Twitter Oracle Communications on LinkedIn Oracle Database on Twitter The Data Warehouse Insider Blog

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• Windows Phone appointment task

  - by Dennis Vroegop

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/dvroegop/archive/2014/08/10/windows-phone-appointment-task.aspxI am currently working on a new version of my AgeInDays app for Windows Phone. This app calculates how old you are in days (or weeks, depending on your preferences). The inspiration for this app came from my father, who once told me he proposed to my mother when she was 1000 weeks old. That left me wondering: how old in weeks or days am I? And being the geek I am, I wrote an app for it. If you have a Windows Phone, you can find it at http://www.windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/age-in-days/7ed03603-0e00-4214-ad04-ce56773e5dab A new version of the app was published quite quickly, adding the possibility to mark a date in your agenda when you would have reached a certain age. Of course the logic behind this if extremely simple. Just take a DateTime, populate it with the given date from the DatePicker, then call AddDays(numDays) and voila, you have the date. Now all I had to do was implement a way to store this in the users calendar so he would get a reminder when that date occurred. Luckily, the Windows Phone SDK makes that extremely simple: public void PublishTask(DateTime occuranceDate, string message) { var task = new SaveAppointmentTask() { StartTime = occuranceDate, EndTime = occuranceDate, Subject = message, Location = string.Empty, IsAllDayEvent = true, Reminder = Reminder.None, AppointmentStatus = AppointmentStatus.Free };   task.Show(); }  And that's it. Whenever I call the PublishTask Method an appointment will be made and put in the calendar. Well, not exactly: a template will be made for that appointment and the user will see that template, giving him the option to either discard or save the reminder. The user can also make changes before submitting this to the calendar: it would be useful to be able to change the text in the agenda and that's exactly what this allows you to do. Now, see at the bottom of the screen the option "Occurs". This tiny field is what this post is about. You cannot set it from the code. I want to be able to have repeating items in my agenda. Say for instance you're counting down to a certain date, I want to be able to give you that option as well. However, I cannot. The field "occurs" is not part of the Task you create in code. Of course, you could create a whole series of events yourself. Have the "Occurs" field in your own user interface and make all the appointments. But that's not the same. First, the system doesn't recognize them as part of a series. That means if you want to change the text later on on one of the occurrences it will not ask you if you want to open this one or the whole series. More important however, is that the user has to acknowledge each and every single occurrence and save that into the agenda. Now, I understand why they implemented the system in such a way that the user has to approve an entry. You don't want apps to automatically fill your agenda with messages such as "Remember to pay for my app!". But why not include the "Occurs" option? The user can still opt out if they see this happening. I hope an update will fix this soon. But for now: you just have to countdown to your birthday yourself. My app won't support this.

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• July, the 31 Days of SQL Server DMO’s – Day 23 (sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats)

  - by Tamarick Hill

  The sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats Dynamic Management View is used to return usage information about the various indexes on your SQL Server instance. Let’s have a look at this DMV against our AdventureWorks2012 database so we can examine the information returned. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats WHERE database_id = db_id('AdventureWorks2012') The first three columns in the result set represent the database_id, object_id, and index_id of a given row. You can join these columns back to other system tables to extract the actual database, object, and index names. The next four columns are probably the most beneficial columns within this DMV. First, the user_seeks column represents the number of times that a user query caused a seek operation against a particular index. The user_scans column represents how many times a user query caused a scan operation on a particular index. The user_lookups column represents how many times an index was used to perform a lookup operation. The user_updates column refers to how many times an index had to be updated due to a write operation that effected a particular index. The last_user_seek, last_user_scan, last_user_lookup, and last_user_update columns provide you with DATETIME information about when the last user scan, seek, lookup, or update operation was performed. The remaining columns in the result set are the same as the ones we previously discussed, except instead of the various operations being generated from user requests, they are generated from system background requests. This is an extremely useful DMV and one of my favorites when it comes to Index Maintenance. As we all know, indexes are extremely beneficial with improving the performance of your read operations. But indexes do have a downside as well. Indexes slow down the performance of your write operations, and they also require additional resources for storage. For this reason, in my opinion, it is important to regularly analyze the indexes on your system to make sure the indexes you have are being used efficiently. My AdventureWorks2012 database is only used for demonstrating or testing things, so I dont have a lot of meaningful information here, but for a Production system, if you see an index that is never getting any seeks, scans, or lookups, but is constantly getting a ton of updates, it more than likely would be a good candidate for you to consider removing. You would not be getting much benefit from the index, but yet it is incurring a cost on your system due to it constantly having to be updated for your write operations, not to mention the additional storage it is consuming. You should regularly analyze your indexes to ensure you keep your database systems as efficient and lean as possible. One thing to note is that these DMV statistics are reset every time SQL Server is restarted. Therefore it would not be a wise idea to make decisions about removing indexes after a Server Reboot or a cluster roll. If you restart your SQL Server instances frequently, for example if you schedule weekly/monthly cluster rolls, then you may not capture indexes that are being used for weekly/monthly reports that run for business users. And if you remove them, you may have some upset people at your desk on Monday morning. If you would like to begin analyzing your indexes to possibly remove the ones that your system is not using, I would recommend building a process to load this DMV information into a table on scheduled basis, depending on how frequently you perform an operation that would reset these statistics, then you can analyze the data over a period of time to get a more accurate view of what indexes are really being used and which ones or not. For more information about this DMV, please see the below Books Online link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188755.aspx Follow me on Twitter @PrimeTimeDBA

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• SQL SERVER – #TechEdIn – Presenting Tomorrow on SQL Server Misconception and Resolution with Vinod Kumar at TechEd India 2012

  - by pinaldave

  I am excited AND nervous at the same time. I am going to present a very interesting topic tomorrow at an SQL Server track in India. This will be my fourth time presenting at TechEd India. So far, I have received so much feedback about this one session. It seems like every single person out there has their own wishes and requests. I am sure that it is going to very challenging experience to satisfy everyone who attends the event through my presentation. Surprise Element Here is the good news: I am going to co-present this session with Vinod Kumar, my long time friend and co-worker. We have known each other for almost four years now, but this is the very first time that we are going to present together on the big stage of TechEd.  When there are more than two presenters, the usual trick is to practice the session multiple times and know exactly what each other is going to present and talk about. However, there’s a catch – we decided to make it different this time and have shared nothing to each other regarding what exactly we are going to present. This makes everything extremely interesting as each of us will be as clueless as the audience when other person is going to talk. Action Item Here are a few of the action items for all of those who are going to attend this session. Vinod and I will be present at the venue 15 minutes before the session. Do come in early and talk with us. We would be glad to talk with you and see if either of us can accommodate your suggestion in our session. If we do, we will give a surprise gift for you. As discussed, this session is going to be a unique two-presenter session. You will have chance to take a side with one speaker and stump the other speaker. Come early to decide which speaker you want to cheer during the session. Quiz and Goodies By now, you must have figured out that this session is going to be an extremely interactive session. We need your support through your active participation. We will have some really brain-twisting quiz line up just for you. You will have to take part and win surprises from us! Trust me. If you get it right, we will give you something which can help you learn more! We will have a quiz on Twitter as well. We will ask a question in person and you will be able to participate on Twitter. 10 – Demos As I said, both of us do not know what each other is going to present, but there are few things which we know very well. We have 10 demos and 6 slides. I think this is going to be an exciting demo marathon. Trust me, you will love it and the taste of this session will be in your mouth till the next TechEd. Session Details Title: SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective (Add to Calendar) Abstract: “The earth is flat”! – An ancient common misconception, which has been proven incorrect as we progressed in modern times. In this session, we will see various database misconceptions prevailing and their resolutions with the aid of the demos. In this unique session, the audience will be a part of the conversation and resolution. Date and Time: March 21, 2012, 15:15 to 16:15 Location: Hotel Lalit Ashok - Kumara Krupa High Grounds, Bengaluru – 560001, Karnataka, India. Add to Calendar Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Guest Post – Glenn Berry – Wait Type – Day 26 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  Glenn Berry works as a Database Architect at NewsGator Technologies in Denver, CO. He is a SQL Server MVP, and has a whole collection of Microsoft certifications, including MCITP, MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD, MCAD, and MCTS. He is also an Adjunct Faculty member at University College – University of Denver, where he has been teaching since 2000. He is one wonderful blogger and often blogs at here. I am big fan of the Dynamic Management Views (DMV) scripts of Glenn. His script are extremely popular and the reality is that he has inspired me to start this series with his famous DMV which I have mentioned in very first  wait stats blog post (I had forgot to request his permission to re-use the script but when asked later on his whole hearty approved it). Here is is his excellent blog post on this subject of wait stats: Analyzing cumulative wait stats in SQL Server 2005 and above has become a popular and effective technique for diagnosing performance issues and further focusing your troubleshooting and diagnostic  efforts.  Rather than just guessing about what resource(s) that SQL Server is waiting on, you can actually find out by running a relatively simple DMV query. Once you know what resources that SQL Server is spending the most time waiting on, you can run more specific queries that focus on that resource to get a better idea what is causing the problem. I do want to throw out a few caveats about using wait stats as a diagnostic tool. First, they are most useful when your SQL Server instance is experiencing performance problems. If your instance is running well, with no indication of any resource pressure from other sources, then you should not worry that much about what the top wait types are. SQL Server will always be waiting on some resource, but many wait types are quite benign, and can be safely ignored. In spite of this, I quite often see experienced DBAs obsessing over the top wait type, even when their SQL Server instance is running extremely well. Second, I often see DBAs jump to the wrong conclusion based on seeing a particular well-known wait type. A good example is CXPACKET waits. People typically jump to the conclusion that high CXPACKET waits means that they should immediately change their instance-level MADOP setting to 1. This is not always the best solution. You need to consider your workload type, and look carefully for any important “missing” indexes that might be causing the query optimizer to use a parallel plan to compensate for the missing index. In this case, correcting the index problem is usually a better solution than changing MAXDOP, since you are curing the disease rather than just treating the symptom. Finally, you should get in the habit of clearing out your cumulative wait stats with the  DBCC SQLPERF(‘sys.dm_os_wait_stats’, CLEAR); command. This is especially important if you have made an configuration or index changes, or if your workload has changed recently. Otherwise, your cumulative wait stats will be polluted with the old stats from weeks or months ago (since the last time SQL Server was started or the stats were cleared).  If you make a change to your SQL Server instance, or add an index, you should clear out your wait stats, and then wait a while to see what your new top wait stats are. At any rate, enjoy Pinal Dave’s series on Wait Stats. This blog post has been written by Glenn Berry (Twitter | Blog) Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• Impressions of my ASUS eee slate EP121 - Dual core 4GB, 64GB SSD

  - by tonyrogerson

  This thing is lovely, very nice bluetooth keyboard that has nice feedback on the keypress, there is no mouse but you can use the stylus or get yourself a bluetooth mouse, me, I've opted for a Microsoft ARC mouse which is a delight to use, the USB doors are a pain to open for the first time if like me you don't have any finger nails. It came as a suprise that the slate shows four processors, Dual Core with multi-threading, I didn't really look at the processor I was more interested in the amount of memory and the SSD; you don't get the full 4GB even with the 64 bit version of Windows 7 installed (which I immediately upgraded to Ultimate through my MSDN subscription). The box is extremely responsive - extremely, it loads Winword in literally a second. I've got office 2010 and onenote 2010 on there now; one problem is that on applying all (43) windows updates since the upgrade the machine is still sat on step 3 of 3 on the start up configuring updates screen after about an hour, you can't turn this machine off without using a paper clip to reset it and as I have just found you need a paper clip :). Installing Windows 7 SP1 was effortless. One of the first things I did on it was to reduce the size of the font, by default its set at 125%, my eye sight is ok :) so I've set that back down. Amazon Kindle for the PC works really well, plenty of text on the screen when viewed portrait, the case it comes with also allows the slate to stand up in various positions - portrait, horizontal - seems stable enough. The wireless works well, seems to have a better signal than my other two laptop machines which is good news. The gadget passed the pose test at work :). I use offline files to keep a copy of all my work stuff locally, I'm not sure what it is, well, its probably my server but whenever I try and sync it runs for a couple of minutes then fails with network name no longer contactable, funnily enough its fine from my big laptop so I can only guess this may be a driver type issue on the EP121 itself - very odd and very annoying. I do a lot of presenting and need to plug into a VGA project because most sites that's all that is offered, the EP121 has a mini-hdmi output which is great except for this scenario, hdmi is digital, vga is analogue, you will struggle to find a cost effective solution, I found HDFury and also a device HP do, however, a better solution appears to be getting a USB graphics adapter for instance the one I've ordered is the ClimaxDigital USB 2.0 to DVI,VGA or HDMI Adaptor which gives everything I need - VGA and DVI output and great resolution as well - ok, so fingers crossed because I'm presenting next Wednesday in Edinburgh and not taking my 300kg lenovo w700 (I'm sure my back just sighed in relief) - it certainly works really well on my LED TV, the install was simple - it just works! One of the several reasons for buying this piece of kit was to use it on my LED TV to remote into my main machine to check stuff whilst sat in my living room, also to watch webcasts and lecture videos in comfort away from my office, because of the wireless speed and limitation I'm opting for a USB network adapter from Belkin - that will also allow me to take advantage of my home gigabit network, there are only 2 usb ports on the slate so I'm going to knock up a hub so connecting it in is straight forward and simple, I'm also going to purchase a second power supply so I don't have to faff about with that either.I now have the developer x64 edition of SQL Server 2008 R2, yes everything :) - about 16GB left to play with on the machine now but that will be fine, I'll put AdventureWorks on there so I can play and demo stuff which is all I'm after from this, my development machine is significantly more powerful and meets my storage needs too.Travel test this weekend and next week, I'm in Dundee for my final exam for the masters degree.

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• Very slow KVM in Ubuntu 12.04

  - by Guy Fawkes

  I use Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit and KVM, my CPU is Core i5 3.3 GHz and I have 8 GB of DDR3 RAM. I run Windows 7 in KVM and it's extremely slow. My co-worker use Debian on the same PC configuration and can run Windows 7 extremely fast! Where can be my problem? sudo cat /etc/libvirt/qemu/windows.xml <!-- WARNING: THIS IS AN AUTO-GENERATED FILE. CHANGES TO IT ARE LIKELY TO BE OVERWRITTEN AND LOST. Changes to this xml configuration should be made using: virsh edit windows or other application using the libvirt API. --> <domain type='kvm'> <name>windows</name> <uuid>5c685175-baea-0ca6-591f-8269d923ffb8</uuid> <memory>2097152</memory> <currentMemory>2097152</currentMemory> <vcpu>1</vcpu> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-1.0'>hvm</type> <boot dev='hd'/> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <pae/> </features> <clock offset='localtime'/> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/bin/kvm</emulator> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/> <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/windows.img'/> <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' unit='0'/> </disk> <controller type='ide' index='0'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/> </controller> <interface type='network'> <mac address='52:54:00:94:63:91'/> <source network='default'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <target port='0'/> </serial> <console type='pty'> <target type='serial' port='0'/> </console> <input type='tablet' bus='usb'/> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/> <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes'/> <sound model='ich6'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </sound> <video> <model type='vga' vram='262144' heads='1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </video> <memballoon model='virtio'> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </memballoon> </devices> </domain>

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• Move on and look elsewhere, or confront the boss?

  - by Meister

  Background: I have my Associates in Applied Science (Comp/Info Tech) with a strong focus in programming, and I'm taking University classes to get my Bachelors. I was recently hired at a local company to be a Software Engineer I on a team of about 8, and I've been told they're looking to hire more. This is my first job, and I was offered what I feel to be an extremely generous starting salary ($30/hr essentially + benefits and yearly bonus). What got me hired was my passion for programming and a strong set of personal projects. Problem: I had no prior experience when I interviewed, so I didn't know exactly what to ask them about the company when I was hired. I've spotted a number of warning signs and annoyances since then, such as: Four developers when I started, with everyone talking about "Ben" or "Ryan" leaving. One engineer hired thirty days before me, one hired two weeks after me. Most of the department has been hiring a large number of people since I started. Extremely limited internet access. I understand the idea from an IT point of view, but not only is Facebook blocked, but so it Youtube, Twitter, and Pandora. I've also figured out that they block all access to non-DNS websites (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/) and strangely enough Miranda-IM. Low cubicles. Which is fine because I like my immediate coworkers, but they put the developers with the customer service, customer training, and QA department in a huge open room. Noise, noise, noise, and people stop to chitchat all day long. Headphones only go so far. Several emails have been sent out by my boss since I started telling us programmers to not talk about non-work-related-things like Video Games at our cubicles, despite us only spending maybe five minutes every few hours doing so. Further digging tells me that this is because someone keeps complaining that the programmers are "slacking off". People are looking over my shoulder all day. I was in the Freenode webchat to get help with a programming issue, and within minutes I had an email from my boss (to all the developers) telling us that we should NOT be connected to any outside chat servers at work. Version control system from 2005 that we must access with IE and keep the Java 1.4 JRE installed to be able to use. I accidentally updated to Java 6 one day and spent the next two days fighting with my PC to undo this "problem". No source control, no comments on anything, no standards, no code review, no unit testing, no common sense. I literally found a problem in how they handle string resource translations that stems from the simple fact that they don't trim excess white spaces, leading to developers doing: getResource("Date: ") instead of: getResource("Date") + ": ", and I was told to just add the excess white spaces back to the database instead of dealing with the issue directly. Some of these things I'd like to try to understand, but I like having IRC open to talk in a few different rooms during the day and keep in touch with friends/family over IM. They don't break my concentration (not NEARLY as much as the lady from QA stopping by to talk about her son), but because people are looking over my shoulder all day as they walk by they complain when they see something that's not "programmer-looking work". I've been told by my boss and QA that I do good, fast work. I should be judged on my work output and quality, not what I have up on my screen for the five seconds you're walking by So, my question is, even though I'm just barely at my 90 days: How do you decide to move on from a job and looking elsewhere, or when you should start working with your boss to resolve these issues? Is it even possible to get the boss to work with me in many of these things? This is the only place I heard back from even though I sent out several resume's a day for several months, and this place does pay well for putting up with their many flaws, but I'm just starting to get so miserable working here already. Should I just put up with it?

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• Any tips on getting hired as a software project manager straight out of college?

  - by MHarrison

  I graduated with a BS in compsci last September, and I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to find a job as a project manager ever since. I fell in love with software engineering (the formal practice behind it all, not just coding) in school, and I've dedicated the last 3-4 years of my life to learning everything I can about project management and gaining experience. I've managed several projects (with teams around 12 people) while in school, and I worked with my university's software engineering research lab. My résumé is also decent - I worked as a programmer before I went to school (I'm 27 now), and I did Google Summer of Code for 3 summers. I also have general "people management" experience via working as the photo editor for my university's newspaper for 2 years. My first problem with the job hunt is not getting enough interviews. I use careers.stackoverflow.com, which is awesome because I usually get contacted by non-HR people who know what they're talking about, but there's just not enough companies using it for me to get interviews on a regular basis. I've also tried sites like monster.com, and in a fit of desperation, I sent out no less than 60 applications to project management positions. I've gotten 3 automated rejection letters and that's it. At least careers.stackoverflow gets me a phone interview with 8/10 places I apply to. But the main (and extremely frustrating) problem is the matter of experience. I've successfully managed projects from start to finish (in my software engineering classes we had real customers come in with a real software need and we built it for them), but I've never had to deal with budgets and money (I know this is why HR people immediately turn me away). Most of these positions require 5+ years PM experience, and I've seen absurd things like 12+ years required. Interviews are also maddening. I've had so many places who absolutely loved me and I made it to the final round of interviews, and I left thinking things went extremely well and they'd consider me. However, when I check in with them a week later, they tell me "We really liked you and your qualifications are excellent, but we're hoping to find someone with more experience." The bad interviews I can understand - like the PM position that would have had me managing developers both locally and overseas - I had 3 interviews with them and the ENTIRE interview process was them asking me CS brainteasers and having me waste time on things like writing quicksort on paper or writing binary search trees. Even when I tried steering the discussion towards more relevant PM stuff, they gave me some vague generic replies and went back to the "We want to be Google/MS" crap. But when I have a GOOD interview, they say my "qualifications are excellent" but they want "more experience"...that makes me want to tear my hair out. What else can I DO? While I'm aiming for technically-involved PM positions (not just crunching budget numbers), I really don't want a straight development job because I like creating software from the very high-level vs. spending a lot of time debugging memory leaks. In fact, I can't even GET development positions that I'm qualified for because I make the mistake of telling them that my future career goals are as PM (which usually results in them saying something like "Well we already have PMs and this position isn't really set up to get you there." - which I take to mean "No, that's my job, stay away.") My apologies on the long rant, but I'm seriously hellbent on getting hired as a PM since it's both my career goal and the passion that keeps me awake at night. Any suggestions on what the heck else I can do? I'm currently writing a blog where I talk about my philosophies about software engineering, and I'm writing up specs for an iOS app which I will design, code, and show employers, but this takes an awful lot of time that I don't have.

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• Dependency injection: How to sell it

  - by Mel

  Let it be known that I am a big fan of dependency injection (DI) and automated testing. I could talk all day about it. Background Recently, our team just got this big project that is to built from scratch. It is a strategic application with complex business requirements. Of course, I wanted it to be nice and clean, which for me meant: maintainable and testable. So I wanted to use DI. Resistance The problem was in our team, DI is taboo. It has been brought up a few times, but the gods do not approve. But that did not discourage me. My Move This may sound weird but third-party libraries are usually not approved by our architect team (think: "thou shalt not speak of Unity, Ninject, NHibernate, Moq or NUnit, lest I cut your finger"). So instead of using an established DI container, I wrote an extremely simple container. It basically wired up all your dependencies on startup, injects any dependencies (constructor/property) and disposed any disposable objects at the end of the web request. It was extremely lightweight and just did what we needed. And then I asked them to review it. The Response Well, to make it short. I was met with heavy resistance. The main argument was, "We don't need to add this layer of complexity to an already complex project". Also, "It's not like we will be plugging in different implementations of components". And "We want to keep it simple, if possible just stuff everything into one assembly. DI is an uneeded complexity with no benefit". Finally, My Question How would you handle my situation? I am not good in presenting my ideas, and I would like to know how people would present their argument. Of course, I am assuming that like me, you prefer to use DI. If you don't agree, please do say why so I can see the other side of the coin. It would be really interesting to see the point of view of someone who disagrees. Update Thank you for everyone's answers. It really puts things into perspective. It's nice enough to have another set of eyes to give you feedback, fifteen is really awesome! This are really great answers and helped me see the issue from different sides, but I can only choose one answer, so I will just pick the top voted one. Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer. I have decided that it is probably not the best time to implement DI, and we are not ready for it. Instead, I will concentrate my efforts on making the design testable and attempt to present automated unit testing. I am aware that writing tests is additional overhead and if ever it is decided that the additional overhead is not worth it, personally I would still see it as a win situation since the design is still testable. And if ever testing or DI is a choice in future, the design can easily handle it.

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• SSMS Tools Pack 2.7 is released. New website, improved licensing and features.

  - by Mladen Prajdic

  New website Nice, isn't it? Cleaner, simpler, better looking and more modern. If you have any suggestions for further improvements I'd be glad to hear them. Simpler licensing With SSMS tools Pack 2.7 the licensing is finally where it should be. It is now based on the activate/deactivate model. This way you can move a license from machine to machine with simple deactivation on one and reactivation on another machine. Much better, no? Because of very good feedback I have added an option for 6 machines and lowered the 4 machines option to 3 machines. This should make it much simpler for you to choose the right option for yourself. Improved features Version 2.5.3 was already extremely stable and 2.7 continues with that tradition. Because of that I could fully focus on features and why 3.0 will rock even more that 2.7! ;) In version 2.7 I have addressed quite a few improvements you were requesting for a while now. SQL History This is probably the biggest time saver out there, therefore it's only fair it gets a few important updates. If you have an existing .sql file opened, the Window Content History now saves your code to that existing file and also makes a backup in the SQL History log default location. Search is still done through the SQL History log but the Tab Sessions Restore opens your existing .sql file. This way you don't have to remember to save your existing files by yourself anymore. A bug when you couldn't search properly if you copied the log files to a new location was fixed. Unfortunately this removed the option to filter a search with the time component. The smallest search interval is now one day. The SSMS Tools Pack now remembers the visibility of the Current Window History window when you exit SSMS. SQL Snippets You can now set the position of the cursor in your snippets by placing {C} somewhere in your snippet. It's a small improvement but can be a huge time saver since you don't have to move through the snippet to the desired location anymore. Run script on multiple databases Database choices can now be saved with a name and then loaded again next time. You can also choose to run the script in a new window for each chosen database. Search through grid results You can now go previous/next search result with the Prev/Next control inside the search window. This is extremely useful if you have a large resultset. IT saves you the scrolling. CRUD generator Four new variables have been added: |CurrentDate| writes current date in format yyyy-MM-dd to your script |CurrentTime| writes current time in 24h format HH:mm:ss to your script |CurrentWinUser| writes current Windows logged on user to your script |CurrentSqlUser| writes current SQL logged on login to your script This was actually quite a requested feature so if you have any other ideas for extra variables, do let me know. That's about it. I hope you're going to enjoy this version as much as the previous ones. Have fun!

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• Open Source: Why not release into Public Domain?

  - by Goosey

  I have recently been wondering why so little code is ever released as 'Public Domain'. MIT and BSD licenses are becoming extremely popular and practically only have the restriction of license propagation. The reasons I can think of so far are: Credit - aka Prestige, Street-cred, 'Props', etc. Authors don't want usage of the code restricted, but they also want credit for creating the code. Two problems with this reason. I have seen projects copy/paste the MIT or BSD license without adding the 'Copyright InsertNameHere' thereby making it a tag-along license that doesn't give them credit. I have talked to authors who say they don't care about people giving them credit, they just want people to use their code. Public Domain would make it easier for people to do so. License Change - IANAL, but I believe by licensing their code, even with an extremely nonrestrictive license, this means they can change the license on a later revision? This reason is not good for explaining most BSD/MIT licensed code which seems to have no intent of ever becoming more restrictive. AS IS - All licenses seem to have the SCREAMING CAPS declaration saying that the software is 'as is' and that the author offers no implied or express warranty. IANAL, but isn't this implied in public domain? Am I missing some compelling reason? The authors I have talked to about this basically said something along the lines of "BSD/MIT just seems like what you do, no one does public domain". Is this groupthink in action, or is there a compelling anti-public domain argument? Thanks EDIT: I am specifically asking about Public Domain vs BSD/MIT/OtherEquallyUnrestrictiveLicense. Not GPL. Please understand what these licenses allow, and this includes: Selling the work, changing the work and not 'giving the changes back', and incorporating the work in a differently (such as commercially) licensed work. Thank You to everyone who has replied who understands what BSD/MIT means.

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• Most unintuitive behaviour in the .Net framework?

  - by BlueRaja

  Intended behavior is often another phrase for bug-which-we-knew-about-when-we-wrote-it, but-we-wrote-it-anyways. Because it was "intended" (or perhaps it is now too late or too difficult), many of these extremely-unintuitive bugs never get fixed. For instance, consider the following code (C#): TextInfo textInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.TextInfo; textInfo.ToTitleCase("hello world!"); //Returns "Hello World!" textInfo.ToTitleCase("hElLo WoRld!"); //Returns "Hello World!" textInfo.ToTitleCase("Hello World!"); //Returns "Hello World!" What would you expect textInfo.ToTitleCase("HELLO WORLD!"); to return? In fact, it returns "HELLO WORLD!". This was well-documented "intended behavior," but, in my eyes, is extremely unintuitive, and therefore a bug. What is some other unintuitive behavior like this in this in the .Net framework? Bonus points if you can provide a fix that does not break backwards-compatibility. Remember! Always keep these two simple rules in mind when designing an API (or anything else): Make the common case the default, and Keep It Simple, Stupid!

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• Using Pylint with Django

  - by rcreswick

  I would very much like to integrate pylint into the build process for my python projects, but I have run into one show-stopper: One of the error types that I find extremely useful--:E1101: *%s %r has no %r member*--constantly reports errors when using common django fields, for example: E1101:125:get_user_tags: Class 'Tag' has no 'objects' member which is caused by this code: def get_user_tags(username): """ Gets all the tags that username has used. Returns a query set. """ return Tag.objects.filter( ## This line triggers the error. tagownership__users__username__exact=username).distinct() # Here is the Tag class, models.Model is provided by Django: class Tag(models.Model): """ Model for user-defined strings that help categorize Events on on a per-user basis. """ name = models.CharField(max_length=500, null=False, unique=True) def __unicode__(self): return self.name How can I tune Pylint to properly take fields such as objects into account? (I've also looked into the Django source, and I have been unable to find the implementation of objects, so I suspect it is not "just" a class field. On the other hand, I'm fairly new to python, so I may very well have overlooked something.) Edit: The only way I've found to tell pylint to not warn about these warnings is by blocking all errors of the type (E1101) which is not an acceptable solution, since that is (in my opinion) an extremely useful error. If there is another way, without augmenting the pylint source, please point me to specifics :) See here for a summary of the problems I've had with pychecker and pyflakes -- they've proven to be far to unstable for general use. (In pychecker's case, the crashes originated in the pychecker code -- not source it was loading/invoking.)

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• Why does Hibernate ignore the JPA2 standardized properties in my persistence.xml?

  - by Ophidian

  I have an extremely simple web application running in Tomcat using Spring 3.0.1, Hibernate 3.5.1, JPA 2, and Derby. I am defining all of my database connectivity in persistence.xml and merely using Spring for dependency injection. I am using embedded Derby as my database. Everything works correctly when I define the driver and url properties in persistence.xml in the classic Hibernate manner as thus: <property name="hibernate.connection.driver_class" value="org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver"/> <property name="hibernate.connection.url" value="jdbc:derby:webdb;create=true"/> The problems occur when I switch my configuration to the JPA2 standardized properties as thus: <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.driver" value="org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver"/> <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.url" value="jdbc:derby:webdb;create=true"/> When using the JPA2 property keys, the application bails hard with the following exception: java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: The user must supply a JDBC connection Does anyone know why this is failing? NOTE: I have copied the javax... property strings straight from the Hibernate reference documentation, so a typo is extremely unlikely.

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• AJAX vs ActiveX/Flash for browser-based game

  - by iconiK

  I have been following the usage of JavaScript for the past few years, and with the release of extremely fast scripting engines (V8, SquirrelFish Extrene, TraceMonkey, etc.) the possibilities of JavaScript have increased dramatically. However, the usage share of Internet Explorer coupled with it's total lack of support for recent standards makes me want to drop a bomb on Microsoft's HQ, as it creates a huge amount of problems for any website. The game will need to be pretty dynamic client-side, with animations and other eye-candy things, but not a full-blown game like those that run directly in the OS using DirectX or OpenGL. However, this might be a little stretch for JavaScript and will certainly feel extremely slow in Internet Explorer (given that the current IE engine can be hundreds of times slower than SFX; gotta see what IE9 will bring), would it be better to just do the whole thing in Flash? I know this means requiring the plug-in AND I have no experience whatsoever with Flash (other than browsing YouTube :P). It also means I can't just output directly from PHP, I would have to use XML or some other format to pass data to it (JSON is directly integrated in JS and PHP can deal with it easily). Another idea would be to provide an alternative interface just for IE, though I don't know how (ActiveX maybe? or with Flash, then why not just provide it to all browsers) or totally not supporting it and requiring the use of other browsers, although this is plain stupid from a business perspective. So here am I, wondering what approach to take and thus asking for your advice. How should I build the client-side? AJAX in all browsers, Flash in all browsers or a mix (AJAX for "modern" browsers and something else for the "grandpa": IE).

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• Optimizing processing and management of large Java data arrays

  - by mikera

  I'm writing some pretty CPU-intensive, concurrent numerical code that will process large amounts of data stored in Java arrays (e.g. lots of double[100000]s). Some of the algorithms might run millions of times over several days so getting maximum steady-state performance is a high priority. In essence, each algorithm is a Java object that has an method API something like: public double[] runMyAlgorithm(double[] inputData); or alternatively a reference could be passed to the array to store the output data: public runMyAlgorithm(double[] inputData, double[] outputData); Given this requirement, I'm trying to determine the optimal strategy for allocating / managing array space. Frequently the algorithms will need large amounts of temporary storage space. They will also take large arrays as input and create large arrays as output. Among the options I am considering are: Always allocate new arrays as local variables whenever they are needed (e.g. new double[100000]). Probably the simplest approach, but will produce a lot of garbage. Pre-allocate temporary arrays and store them as final fields in the algorithm object - big downside would be that this would mean that only one thread could run the algorithm at any one time. Keep pre-allocated temporary arrays in ThreadLocal storage, so that a thread can use a fixed amount of temporary array space whenever it needs it. ThreadLocal would be required since multiple threads will be running the same algorithm simultaneously. Pass around lots of arrays as parameters (including the temporary arrays for the algorithm to use). Not good since it will make the algorithm API extremely ugly if the caller has to be responsible for providing temporary array space.... Allocate extremely large arrays (e.g. double[10000000]) but also provide the algorithm with offsets into the array so that different threads will use a different area of the array independently. Will obviously require some code to manage the offsets and allocation of the array ranges. Any thoughts on which approach would be best (and why)?

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• [php] Cookies only changing value every two page refreshes?

  - by Gazillion

  Hello, I'm trying to implement some pixel tracking where I will save certain values in a cookie to then forward users to another page. If users purchase a product after being forwarded to the online store by us the store adds an image tag in the page with our php script included. With the values set in the cookie we would like to track conversions. I understand this tracking technique has some limitations (like if a user has cookies turned off or if they do not load images but that's the direction my client wanted to go in). The problem I'm having is that the cookie's behaviour is extremely... random. I've been trying to track their values (with a var_dump so I don't have to wait for a page reload to view the cookie's value) but it seems the value for one field only gets refreshed every two page reloads. setcookie("tracking[cn]", $cn, time()+3600*24*7,'/','mydomain.com'); setcookie("tracking[t]", $t, time()+3600*24*7,'/','mydomain.com'); setcookie("tracking[kid]", $kid, time()+3600*24*7,'/','mydomain.com'); redirectTo($redirect_url); the values of cn, t are fine but for some reason kid is always wrong (having taken the value of the previous kid) Any help would be extremely appreciated I've been at this all evening! :)

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• Building a custom Linux Live CD

  - by Mike Heinz

  Can anyone point me to a good tutorial on creating a bootable Linux CD from scratch? I need help with a fairly specialized problem: my firm sells an expansion card that requires custom firmware. Currently we use an extremely old live CD image of RH7.2 that we update with current firmware. Manufacturing puts the cards in a machine, boots off the CD, the CD writes the firmware, they power off and pull the cards. Because of this cycle, it's essential that the CD boot and shut down as quickly as possible. The problem is that with the next generation of cards, I have to update the CD to a 2.6 kernel. It's easy enough to acquire a pre-existing live CD - but those all are designed for showing off Linux on the desktop - which means they take forever to boot. Can anyone fix me up with a current How-To? Update: So, just as a final update for anyone reading this later - the tool I ended up using was "livecd-creator". My reason for choosing this tool was that it is available for RedHat-based distributions like CentOs, Fedora and RHEL - which are all distributions that my company supports already. In addition, while the project is very poorly documented it is extremely customizable. I was able to create a minimal LiveCD and edit the boot sequence so that it booted directly into the firmware updater instead of a bash shell. The whole job would have only taken an hour or two if there had been a README explaining the configuration file!

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• Touch draw in Quatz 2D/Core Graphics

  - by OgreSwamp

  Hello, I'm trying to implement "hand draw tool". At the moment algorythm looks like that (I don't insert any code because methods are quite big, will try to explain an idea): Drawing In touchesStarted: method I create NSMutableArray *pointsArray and add point into it. Call setNeedsDisplay: method. In touchesMoved: method I calculate points between last added point from the pointsArray and current point. Add all points to the pointsArray. Call setNeedsDisplay: method. In touchesFinished: event I calculate points between last added point from the array and current point. Set flag touchesWereFinished. Call setNeedsDisplay:. Render: drawRect: method checks is pointsArray != nil and is there any data in it. If there is - it starts to traw circles in each point of this array. If flag touchesWereFinished is set - save current context to the UIImage, release pointsArray, set it to nil and reset the flag. There are a lot disadvantages of this method: It is slow It becomes extremely slow when user touches and move finger for long time. Array becomes enormous "Lines" composed by circles are ugly I would like to change my algorithm to make it bit faster and line smoother. In result I would like to have lines like on the picture at following URL (sorry, not enough reputation to insert an image): http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_r5VzEAUYXJ4/SrOYp8tJCPI/AAAAAAAAAMw/ZwDKXiHlhV0/s320/SketchBook+Mobile(4).png Can you advice me, ho I can draw lines this way (smooth and slim on the edges)? I thought to draw circles with alpha gradient on the edges (to make lines smoother), but it will be extremely slowly IMHO. Thanks for help

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• What is the best cross-platform language for desktop applications? (Java, Adobe Air, Flex, Silverlight??, Anything Else)

  - by Sootah

  My business partner needs a desktop application programmed, and it needs to be cross-platform as he wants Mac owners (OS X) to be able to run it as well. This, of course, is a bit of a problem for me as I program in PHP for my web projects and exclusively in C# (formerly used Visual Basic) for my desktop apps. I've been using (and love) NetBeans for my PHP stuff, and love Visual Studio just as much; they're both excellent IDEs. With this in mind, I'd like to find a language and IDE that's as similar to Visual Studio as possible (or at least something that makes development as easy as it does) for my cross-platform application development. In fact, if there is a language I can use with VS I'd be extremely happy. I realize that NetBeans has a Java Desktop App IDE, but have been having problems with it (my question in regards to that issue is here. I am also not sure that I really want to learn and use Java if there is a better, easier option out there. Obviously, the first language that came to mind that I can use cross-platform was Java, but I've also heard of people using Adobe Air, as well as Flex being used. I've never programmed in any of those languages, and as such have no frame of reference from which I can decide which would be best for me. I'm also not sure what other options there may be for me; perhaps there's another language I can use that'd be better than the three options I've already provided. (Can you make desktop apps with Silverlight? If so, did MS make an interpreter that will get them to work on OS X?) I like the syntax of C# quite a bit, and the Visual Studio IDE makes it extremely easy to make my apps with. As such, I'd like to find something that'll work as well for me with the cross-platform shatner as C# and its IDE does with my Windows apps. Thanks in advance for your help/opinions!

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• How does one gets started with Winforms style applications on Win32?

  - by Billy ONeal

  EDIT: I'm extremely tired and frustrated at the moment -- please ignore that bit in this question -- I'll edit it in the morning to be better. Okay -- a bit of background: I'm a C++ programmer mostly, but the only GUI stuff I've ever done was on top of .NET's WinForms platform. I'm completely new to Windows GUI programming, and despite Petzold's excellent book, I'm extremely confused. Namely, it seems that most every reference on getting started with Win32 is all about drawing lines and curves and things -- a topic about which (at least at present time) I couldn't care less. I need a checked list box, a splitter, and a textbox -- something that would take less than 10 minutes to do in Winforms land. It has been recommended to me to use the WTL library, which provides an implementation of all three of these controls -- but I keep getting hung up on simple things, such as getting the damn controls to use the right font, and getting High DPI working correctly. I've spent two freaking days on this, and I can't help but think there has to be a better reference for these kinds of things than I've been able to find. Petzold's book is good, but it hasn't been updated since Windows 95 days, and there's been a LOT changed w.r.t. how applications should be correctly developed since it was published. I guess what I'm looking for is a modern Petzold book. Where can I find such a resource, if any?

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• How to write automated tests for SQL queries?

  - by James

  The current system we are adopting at work is to write some extremely complex queries which perform multiple calculations and have multiple joins / sub-queries. I don't think I am experienced enough to say if this is correct or not so I am agreeing and attempting to function with this system as it has clear benefits. The problem we are having at the moment is that the person writing the queries makes a lot of mistakes and assumes everything is correct. We have now assigned a tester to analyse all of the queries but this still proves extremely time consuming and stressful. I would like to know how we could create an automated procedure (without specifically writing it with code if possible as I can work out how to do that the long way) to verify a set of 10+ different inputs, verify the output data and say if the calculations are correct. I know I could write a script using specific data in the database and create a script using c# (the db is SQL Server) and verify all the values coming out but I would like to know what the official "standard" is as my experience is lacking in this area and I would like to improve. I am happy to add more information if required, add a comment if necessary. Thank you. Edit: I am using c#

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• Application that depends heavily on stored procedures

  - by PieterG

  We currently have an application that depends largely on stored procedures. There is a heavy use of temp tables. It's an extremely large application. Facing this situation, I would like to use Entity Framework or Linq2Sql for a rewrite. I might consider using Fluent Hibernate or Subsonic, as i've used them quite extensively in the past. I've had problems with Linq2Sql generating the return types for the stored procedures because of the usage of the temp tables, and I think it's cumbersome to go and change all the stored procedures from temp tables to in-memory tables. Considering the 2 choices that I want to make, which one of the 2 is the best route to go and why? If my choices are extremely idiotic, please provide alternatives. Edit: The reason for the question and the change is that the data access layer is non-existent and was built 10 years ago. We currently still run into a lot of issues with it. I don't want to divulge too much, but if you saw it, your eyes would start bleeding :)

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• Get info from multiple files, match it and then display to end user, what is fastest?

  - by Patrick

  Hi, I need to build a website where we display data that is refreshed every 5minutes in a text file with a | separator. I currently use Java to do this. What I do now: I grab the textfile for every request through the website and process it and then display the data to the end user, this works fine, since Java can go through like 5000 lines of data fast, and when I filter it it is still extremely fast. However now the management wants the following: They added 3 textfiles with the | separator to it, and now want me to also read those files and match the information on certain fields, and if there is a match also display that information to the end user. I think soon enough, although Java is fast, I will run into trouble when 10 people want that information and I have to run through 4 total files matching the information. What can I do to make this process super fast? My Creative solutions so far: -Leave it this way, since Java is fast and end users can wait (probably less then 1second) -Have a background process that dumps new data into a MySQL database every 5minutes, since databases are extremely good at getting the same data from multiple tables. Thank you!

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