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• Hiring New IT Employees versus Promoting Internally for IT Positions

  Recently I was asked my opinion regarding the hiring of IT professionals in regards to the option of hiring new IT employees versus promoting internally for IT positions. After thinking a little more about this question regarding staffing, specifically pertaining to promoting internally verses new employees; I think my answer to this question is that it truly depends on the situation. However, in most cases I would side with promoting internally. The key factors in this decision should be based on a company/department’s current values, culture, attitude, and existing priorities.  For example if a company values retaining all of its hard earned business knowledge then they would tend to promote existing employees internal over hiring a new employee. Moreover, the company will have to pay to train an existing employee to learn a new technology and the learning curve for some technologies can be very steep. Conversely, if a company values new technologies and technical proficiency over business knowledge then a company would tend to hire new employees because they may already have experience with a technology that the company is planning on using. In this scenario, the company would have to take on the additional overhead of allowing a new employee to learn how the business operates prior to them being fully effective. To illustrate my points above let us look at contractor that builds in ground pools for example.  He has the option to hire employees that are very strong but use small shovels to dig, or employees weak in physical strength but use large shovels to dig. Which employee should the contractor use to dig a hole for a new in ground pool? If we compare the possible candidates for this job we will find that they are very similar to hiring someone internally verses a new hire. The first example represents the existing workers that are very strong regarding the understanding how the business operates and the reasons why in a specific manner. However this employee could be potentially weaker than an outsider pertaining to specific technologies and would need some time to build their technical prowess for a new position much like the strong worker upgrading their shovels in order to remove more dirt at once when digging. The other employee is very similar to hiring a new person that may already have the large shovel but will need to increase their strength in order to use the shovel properly and efficiently so that they can move a maximum amount of dirt in a minimal amount of time. This can be compared to new employ learning how a business operates before they can be fully functional and integrated in the company/department. Another key factor in this dilemma pertains to existing employee and their passion for their work, their ability to accept new responsibility when given, and the willingness to take on responsibilities when they see a need in the business. As much as possible should be considered in this decision down to the mood of the team, the quality of existing staff, learning cure for both technology and business, and the potential side effects of the existing staff.  In addition, there are many more consideration based on the current team/department/companies culture and mood. There are several factors that need to be considered when promoting an individual or hiring new blood for a team. They both can provide great benefits as well as create controversy to a group. Personally, staffing especially in the IT world is like building a large scale system in that all of the components and modules must fit together and preform as one cohesive system in the same way a team must come together using their individually acquired skills so that they can work as one team.  If a module is out of place or is nonexistent then the rest of the team will suffer until the all of its issues are addressed and resolved. Benefits of Promoting Internally Internal promotions give employees a reason to constantly upgrade their technology, business, and communication skills if they want to further their career Employees can control their own destiny based on personal desires Employee already knows how the business operates Companies can save money by promoting internally because the initial overhead of allowing new hires to learn how a company operates is very expensive Newly promoted employees can assist in training their replacements while transitioning to their new role within a company. Existing employees already have a proven track record in regards fitting in with the business culture; this is always an unknown with all new hires Benefits of a New Hire New employees can energize and excite existing employees New employees can bring new ideas and advancements in technology New employees can offer a different perspective on existing issues based on their past experience. As you can see the decision to promote an existing employee from within a company verses hiring a new person should be based on several factors that should ultimately place the business in the best possible situation for the immediate and long term future. How would you handle this situation? Would you hire a new employee or promote from within?

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• What Counts For a DBA: Fitness

  - by Louis Davidson

  If you know me, you can probably guess that physical exercise is not really my thing. There was a time in my past when it a larger part of my life, but even then never in the same sort of passionate way as a number of our SQL friends.  For me, I find that mental exercise satisfies what I believe to be the same inner need that drives people to run farther than I like to drive on most Saturday mornings, and it is certainly just as addictive. Mental fitness shares many common traits with physical fitness, especially the need to attain it through repetitive training. I only wish that mental training burned off a bacon cheeseburger in the same manner as does jogging around a dewy park on Saturday morning. In physical training, there are at least two goals, the first of which is to be physically able to do a task. The second is to train the brain to perform the task without thinking too hard about it. No matter how long it has been since you last rode a bike, you will be almost certainly be able to hop on and start riding without thinking about the process of pedaling or balancing. If you’ve never ridden a bike, you could be a physics professor /Olympic athlete and still crash the first few times you try, even though you are as strong as an ox and your knowledge of the physics of bicycle riding makes the concept child’s play. For programming tasks, the process is very similar. As a DBA, you will come to know intuitively how to backup, optimize, and secure database systems. As a data programmer, you will work to instinctively use the clauses of Transact-SQL DML so that, when you need to group data three ways (and not four), you will know to use the GROUP BY clause with GROUPING SETS without resorting to a search engine.  You have the skill. Making it naturally then requires repetition and experience is the primary requirement, not just simply learning about a topic. The hardest part of being really good at something is this difference between knowledge and skill. I have recently taken several informative training classes with Kimball University on data warehousing and ETL. Now I have a lot more knowledge about designing data warehouses than before. I have also done a good bit of data warehouse designing of late and have started to improve to some level of proficiency with the theory. Yet, for all of this head knowledge, it is still a struggle to take what I have learned and apply it to the designs I am working on.  Data warehousing is still a task that is not yet deeply ingrained in my brain muscle memory. On the other hand, relational database design is something that no matter how much or how little I may get to do it, I am comfortable doing it. I have done it as a profession now for well over a decade, I teach classes on it, and I also have done (and continue to do) a lot of mental training beyond the work day. Sometimes the training is just basic education, some reading blogs and attending sessions at PASS events.  My best training comes from spending time working on other people’s design issues in forums (though not nearly as much as I would like to lately). Working through other people’s problems is a great way to exercise your brain on problems with which you’re not immediately familiar. The final bit of exercise I find useful for cultivating mental fitness for a data professional is also probably the nerdiest thing that I will ever suggest you do.  Akin to running in place, the idea is to work through designs in your head. I have designed more than one database system that would revolutionize grocery store operations, sales at my local Target store, the ordering process at Amazon, and ways to improve Disney World operations to get me through a line faster (some of which they are starting to implement without any of my help.) Never are the designs truly fleshed out, but enough to work through structures and processes.  On “paper”, I have designed database systems to catalog things as trivial as my Lego creations, rental car companies and my audio and video collections. Once I get the database designed mentally, sometimes I will create the database, add some data (often using Red-Gate’s Data Generator), and write a few queries to see if a concept was realistic, but I will rarely fully flesh out the database since I have no desire to do any user interface programming anymore.  The mental training allows me to keep in practice for when the time comes to do the work I love the most for real…even if I have been spending most of my work time lately building data warehouses.  If you are really strong of mind and body, perhaps you can mix a mental run with a physical run; though don’t run off of a cliff while contemplating how you might design a database to catalog the trees on a mountain…that would be contradictory to the purpose of both types of exercise.

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• Lessons learnt in implementing Scrum in a Large Organization that has traditional values

  - by MarkPearl

  I recently had the experience of being involved in a “test” scrum implementation in a large organization that was used to a traditional project management approach. Here are some lessons that I learnt from it. Don’t let the Project Manager be the Product Owner First lesson learnt is to identify the correct product owner – in this instance the product manager assumed the role of the product owner which was a mistake. The product owner is the one who has the most to loose if the project fails. With a methodology that advocates removing the role of the project manager from the process then it is not in the interests of the person who is employed as a project manager to be the product owner – in fact they have the most to gain should the project fail. Know the time commitments of team members to the Project Second lesson learnt is to get a firm time commitment of the members on a team for the sprint and to hold them to it. In this project instance many of the issues we faced were with team members having to double up on supporting existing projects/systems and the scrum project. In many situations they just didn’t get round to doing any work on the scrum project for several days while they tried to meet other commitments. Initially this was not made transparent to the team – in stand up team members would say that had done some work but would be very vague on how much time they had actually spent using the blackhole of their other legacy projects as an excuse – putting up a time burn down chart made time allocations transparent and easy to hold the team to. In addition, how can you plan for a sprint without knowing the actual time available of the members – when I mean actual time, the exercise of getting them to go through all their appointments and lunch times and breaks and removing them from their time commitment helps get you to a realistic time that they can dedicate. Make sure you meet your minimum team sizes In a recent post I wrote about the difference between a partnership and a team. If you are going to do scrum in a large organization make sure you have a minimum team size of at least 3 developers. My experience with larger organizations is that people have a tendency to be sick more, take more leave and generally not be around – if you have a team size of two it is so easy to loose momentum on the project – the more people you have in the team (up to about 9) the more the momentum the project will have when people are not around. Swapping from one methodology to another can seem as waste to the customer It sounds bad, but most customers don’t care what methodology you use. Often they have bought into the “big plan upfront”. If you can, avoid taking a project on midstream from a traditional approach unless the customer has not bought into the process – with this particular project they had a detailed upfront planning breakaway with the customer using the traditional approach and then before the project started we moved onto a scrum implementation – this seemed as waste to the customer. We should have managed the customers expectation properly. Don’t play the role of the scrum master if you can’t be the scrum master With this particular implementation I was the “scrum master”. But all I did was go through the process of the formal meetings of scrum – I attended stand up, retrospectives and planning – but I was not hands on the ground. I was not performing the most important role of removing blockages – and by the end of the project there were a number of blockages “cropping up”. What could have been a better approach was to take someone on the team and train them to be the scrum master and be present to coach them. Alternatively actually be on the team on a fulltime basis and be the scrum master. By just going through the meetings of scrum didn’t mean we were doing scrum. So we failed with this one, if you fail look at it from an agile perspective As this particular project drew to a close and it became more and more apparent that it was not going to succeed the failure of it became depressing. Emotions were expressed by various people on the team that we not encouraging and enforced the failure. Embracing the failure and looking at it for what it is instead of taking it as the end of the world can change how you grow from the experience. Acknowledging that it failed and then focussing on learning from why and how to avoid the failure in the future can change how you feel emotionally about the team, the project and the organization.

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• The design of a generic data synchronizer, or, an [object] that does [actions] with the aid of [helpers]

  - by acheong87

  I'd like to create a generic data-source "synchronizer," where data-source "types" may include MySQL databases, Google Spreadsheets documents, CSV files, among others. I've been trying to figure out how to structure this in terms of classes and interfaces, keeping in mind (what I've read about) composition vs. inheritance and is-a vs. has-a, but each route I go down seems to violate some principle. For simplicity, assume that all data-sources have a header-row-plus-data-rows format. For example, assume that the first rows of Google Spreadsheets documents and CSV files will have column headers, a.k.a. "fields" (to parallel database fields). Also, eventually, I would like to implement this in PHP, but avoiding language-specific discussion would probably be more productive. Here's an overview of what I've tried. Part 1/4: ISyncable class CMySQL implements ISyncable GetFields() // sql query, pdo statement, whatever AddFields() RemFields() ... _dbh class CGoogleSpreadsheets implements ISyncable GetFields() // zend gdata api AddFields() RemFields() ... _spreadsheetKey _worksheetId class CCsvFile implements ISyncable GetFields() // read from buffer AddFields() RemFields() ... _buffer interface ISyncable GetFields() AddFields($field1, $field2, ...) RemFields($field1, $field2, ...) ... CanAddFields() // maybe the spreadsheet is locked for write, or CanRemFields() // maybe no permission to alter a database table ... AddRow() ModRow() RemRow() ... Open() Close() ... First Question: Does it make sense to use an interface, as above? Part 2/4: CSyncer Next, the thing that does the syncing. class CSyncer __construct(ISyncable $A, ISyncable $B) Push() // sync A to B Pull() // sync B to A Sync() // Push() and Pull() only differ in direction; factor. // Sync()'s job is to make sure that the fields on each side // match, to add fields where appropriate and possible, to // account for different column-orderings, etc., and of // course, to add and remove rows as necessary to sync. ... _A _B Second Question: Does it make sense to define such a class, or am I treading dangerously close to the "Kingdom of Nouns"? Part 3/4: CTranslator? ITranslator? Now, here's where I actually get lost, assuming the above is passable. Sometimes, two ISyncables speak different "dialects." For example, believe it or not, Google Spreadsheets (accessed through the Google Data API "list feed") returns column headers lower-cased and stripped of all spaces and symbols! That is, sys_TIMESTAMP is systimestamp, as far as my code can tell. (Yes, I am aware that the "cell feed" does not strip the name so; however cell-by-cell manipulation is too slow for what I'm doing.) One can imagine other hypothetical examples. Perhaps even the data itself can be in different "dialects." But let's take it as given for now, and not argue this if possible. Third Question: How would you implement "translation"? Note: Taking all this as an exercise, I'm more interested in the "idealized" design, rather than the practical one. (God knows that shipped sailed when I began this project.) Part 4/4: Further Thought Here's my train of thought to demonstrate I've thunk, albeit unfruitfully: First, I thought, primitively, "I'll just modify CMySQL::GetFields() to lower-case and strip field names so they're compatible with Google Spreadsheets." But of course, then my class should really be called, CMySQLForGoogleSpreadsheets, and that can't be right. So, the thing which translates must exist outside of an ISyncable implementor. And surely it can't be right to make each translation a method in CSyncer. If it exists outside of both ISyncable and CSyncer, then what is it? (Is it even an "it"?) Is it an abstract class, i.e. abstract CTranslator? Is it an interface, since a translator only does, not has, i.e. interface ITranslator? Does it even require instantiation? e.g. If it's an ITranslator, then should its translation methods be static? (I learned what "late static binding" meant, today.) And, dear God, whatever it is, how should a CSyncer use it? Does it "have" it? Is it, "it"? Who am I? ...am I, "I"? I've attempted to break up the question into sub-questions, but essentially my question is singular: How does one implement an object A that conceptually "links" (has) two objects b1 and b2 that share a common interface B, where certain pairs of b1 and b2 require a helper, e.g. a translator, to be handled by A? Something tells me that I've overcomplicated this design, or violated a principle much higher up. Thank you all very much for your time and any advice you can provide.

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• Why is Git telling me "Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 11 commits." and how do I get it t

  - by spilth

  I'm a Git newbie. I recently moved a Rails project from Subversion to Git. I followed the tutorial here: http://www.simplisticcomplexity.com/2008/03/05/cleanly-migrate-your-subversion-repository-to-a-git-repository/ I am also using unfuddle.com to store my code. I make changes on my Mac laptop on the train to/from work and then push them to unfuddle when I have a network connection using the following command: git push unfuddle master I use Capistrano for deployments and pull code from the unfuddle repository using the master branch. Lately I've noticed the following message when I run "git status" on my laptop: # On branch master # Your branch is ahead of 'origin/master' by 11 commits. # nothing to commit (working directory clean) And I'm confused as to why. I thought my laptop was the origin... but don't know if either the fact that I originally pulled from Subversion or push to Unfuddle is what's causing the message to show up. How can I: Find out where Git thinks 'origin/master' is? If it's somewhere else, how do I turn my laptop into the 'origin/master'? Get this message to go away. It makes me think Git is unhappy about something. My mac is running Git version 1.6.0.1. When I run git remote show origin as suggested by dbr, I get the following: ~/Projects/GeekFor/geekfor 10:47 AM $ git remote show origin fatal: '/Users/brian/Projects/GeekFor/gf/.git': unable to chdir or not a git archive fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly When I run git remote -v as suggested by Aristotle Pagaltzis, I get the following: ~/Projects/GeekFor/geekfor 10:33 AM $ git remote -v origin /Users/brian/Projects/GeekFor/gf/.git unfuddle [email protected]:spilth/geekfor.git Now, interestingly, I'm working on my project in the geekfor directory but it says my origin is my local machine in the gf directory. I believe gf was the temporary directory I used when converting my project from Subversion to Git and probably where I pushed to unfuddle from. Then I believe I checked out a fresh copy from unfuddle to the geekfor directory. So it looks like I should follow dbr's advice and do: git remote rm origin git remote add origin [email protected]:spilth/geekfor.git

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• Snow Leopard sqlite3-ruby install problem

  - by JZ

  UPDATE 3/20/10 I'm running Mac OSX Snow Leopard, this problem is caused by a recent train wreck in which I updated ruby without RVM. I've attempted to properly install/run RVM, however I can't get it to work. I am unable to install the sqlite3-ruby gem. I get the following ERROR: Error installing sqlite3-ruby: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. How do I fix this? justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ rails -v Rails 2.3.5 justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ ruby -v ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [i686-darwin10.2.0] justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ gem -v 1.3.5 justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ which gem /usr/local/bin/gem justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ whereis gem /usr/bin/gem justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ which ruby /usr/local/bin/ruby justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ whereis ruby /usr/bin/ruby justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ which rails /usr/local/bin/rails justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ whereis rails /usr/bin/rails justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ gem list *** LOCAL GEMS *** actionmailer (2.3.5) actionpack (2.3.5) activerecord (2.3.5) activeresource (2.3.5) activesupport (2.3.5) builder (2.1.2) bundler (0.9.11) columnize (0.3.1) erubis (2.6.5) fastercsv (1.5.1) ffi (0.6.3) gbarcode (0.98.16) i18n (0.3.5) linecache (0.43) mail (2.1.3) memcache-client (1.8.0) prawn (0.8.4) prawn-core (0.8.4) prawn-layout (0.8.4) prawn-security (0.8.4) rack (1.1.0, 1.0.1) rack-mount (0.6.1) rack-test (0.5.3) rails (2.3.5) rake (0.8.7) ruby-debug (0.10.3) ruby-debug-base (0.10.3) rubygems-update (1.3.6) sqlite3 (0.0.8) text-format (1.0.0) thor (0.13.4) tzinfo (0.3.17) justin-zollarss-mac-pro:~ justinz$ sudo gem install sqlite3-ruby Password: Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: Error installing sqlite3-ruby: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. /usr/local/bin/ruby extconf.rb checking for fdatasync() in -lrt... no checking for sqlite3.h... yes checking for sqlite3_open() in -lsqlite3... no *** extconf.rb failed *** Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may need configuration options. Provided configuration options: --with-opt-dir --without-opt-dir --with-opt-include --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include --with-opt-lib --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib --with-make-prog --without-make-prog --srcdir=. --curdir --ruby=/usr/local/bin/ruby --with-sqlite3-dir --without-sqlite3-dir --with-sqlite3-include --without-sqlite3-include=${sqlite3-dir}/include --with-sqlite3-lib --without-sqlite3-lib=${sqlite3-dir}/lib --with-rtlib --without-rtlib --with-sqlite3lib --without-sqlite3lib Gem files will remain installed in /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5 for inspection. Results logged to /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-ruby-1.2.5/ext/sqlite3_api/gem_make.out

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• Best programming aids for a quadriplegic programmer

  - by Peter Rowell

  Before you jump to conclusions, yes, this is programming related. It covers a situation that comes under the heading of, "There, but for the grace of God, go you or I." This is brand new territory for me so I'm asking for some serious help here. A young man, Honza Ripa, in a nearby town did the classic Dumb Thing two weeks after graduating from High School -- he dove into shallow water in the Russian River and had a C-4/C-5 break, sometimes called a Swimming Pool break. In a matter of seconds he went from an exceptional golfer and wrestler to a quadriplegic. (Read the story ... all of us should have been so lucky as to have a girlfriend like Brianna.) That was 10 months ago and he has regained only tiny amounts of control of his right index finger and a couple of other hand/foot motions, none of them fine-grained. His total control of his computer (currently running Win7, but we can change that as needed) is via voice command. Honza's not dumb. He had a 3.7 GPA with AP math and physics. The Problems: Since all of his input is via voice command, he is concerned that the predominance of special characters in programming will require vast amount of verbose commands. Does anyone know of any well done voice input system specifically designed for programmers? I'm thinking about something that might be modal--e.g. you say "Python input" and it goes into a macro mode for doing class definitions, etc. Given all of the RSI in programmer-land there's got to be something out there. What OS(es) does it run on? I am planning on teaching him Python, which is my preferred language for programming and teaching. Are there any applications / whatevers that are written in Python and would be a particularly good match for engaging him mentally while supporting his disability? One of his expressed interests is in stock investing, but that not might be a good starting point for a brand-new programmer. There are a lot of environments (Flash, JavaScript, etc) that are not particularly friendly to people with accessibility challenges. I vaguely remember (but cannot find) a research project that basically created an overlay system on top of a screen environment and then allowed macro command construction on top of the screen image. If we can get/train this system, we may be able to remove many hurdles to using the net. I am particularly interested in finding open source Python-based robotics and robotic prostheses projects so that he can simultaneously learn advanced programming concepts while learning to solve some of his own immediate problems. I've done a ton of googling on this, but I know there things I'm missing. I'm asking the SO community to step up to the plate here. I know this group has the answers, so let me hear them! Overwhelm me with the opportunities that any of us might have/need to still program after such a life-changing event.

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• Keeping files or database records? Java and Python

  - by danpalmer

  My website will use a Neural Network to predict thing based on user data. The user can select the data to be used in training the network and then use their trained network to predict things. I am using a framework to create, train and query the networks. This uses Java. The framework has persistence for saving a network to an XML file. What is the best way to store these files? I can see several potential ideas, but I need help on choosing which is best: Save each network to a separate XML file with a name that is stored in the database. Load this each time. Save all the networks to the same XML file with each network having a different name that is stored in the database. Somehow pass what would normally be written to an XML file to the Django site for writing to the database. This would need to be returned to the Java code when a prediction needs to be made. I am able to do 1 or 2, but I think their performance will be quite limited and I am on shared hosting at the moment, so I don't know how pleased they would be with thousands of files. Also, after adding a few thousand records to one XML file, I was noticing a massive performance hit on saving to it. If I were able to implement version 3 somehow I think it would be best. No issues with separate processes accessing the database and I think performance would be better. Not to mention having no files lying around. However, the stuff in the neural network framework I am using (Encog) for saving to a file needs access to a Java file object, not a string that could be saved to a database. Unless there is some Java magic I can do here (I know very little Java), the only way I can see of doing this would be with a temporary files but I don't know if this is the correct way to do it. I would appreciate any ideas on the best way to implement any of the above 3 ideas or any alternatives. Thanks!

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• IE and Content-disposition inline vs. extension-token

  - by pinkgothic

  Preamble So IE does Mime-Type sniffing. That part's old news. Suggestions of how to combat it tend to be along the lines of 'supply a content-type IE trusts' (i.e. anything that isn't text/plain or application/octet-stream) or 'add extraneous data at the start of the file that is definitely of the type you're serving'. Now, I'm working on an application that has to allow message attachments (like in e-mails), and we want to close up XSS vectors. IE's mime sniffing is one of those vectors - a text/plain file with html content will trigger as html. Recoding isn't an option at this point, changing the attachments the user has provided can only happen if there is absolutely no doubt about the maliciousness of the file - and someone might want to send HTML as text. Now, Microsoft's MSDN article implies the situation might be easier to fix than advertised: If Internet Explorer knows the Content-Type specified and there is no Content-Disposition data, Internet Explorer performs a "MIME sniff," [...] Great! Except I don't have IE nor current means to reliably install it (I realise this is a fairly sad state for a webdeveloper to be in, I hope to fix this soon) and this is grey theory that I can't quite seem to get confirmed one way or the other. Local sources say that line is hogwash - IE will mime sniff anything that is Content-Disposition: inline / <default> and not specific enough for its tastes in -Type. But what about x-* ('extension-token' in the RFC)? Trying to google for how browsers handle Content-Disposition: <extension-token> hasn't yielded anything (though I may just be doing it wrong, my understanding of Google is seriously slipping lately). I found one question that looked promising, but turned out to be a misunderstanding on side of the thread author, meaning that the train of thought was never actually addressed there. Question(s) Does IE really Mime sniff if you expressly pass Content-Disposition: inline? If so: Does anyone here know how browsers handle Content-Disposition: <extension-token>? If they do this in a way that is for my purposes benign, by presuming it to be synonymous with the default (effectively 'inline', though I hear it's not defined anywhere?), is it specific enough for IE not to Mime sniff? Or am I actually shooting myself in the foot by thinking of pursuing this avenue?

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• Garbage Collector not doing its job. Memory Consumption = 1.5GB & OutOFMemory Exception.

  - by imageWorker

  I'm working with images (each of size = 5MB). The following code extract some information from each image that is present in the given directory. I'm getting out of memory exception. The size of the process is around (1.5GB). I don't know why garbage collector is not freeing memory. I even tried adding GC.Collect() as last line of foreach loop. Still I'm getting 'OutOFMemory' using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Threading; using System.IO; using System.Drawing; using System.Drawing.Imaging; namespace TrainSVM { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { FileStream fs = new FileStream("dg.train",FileMode.OpenOrCreate,FileAccess.Write); StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(fs); String[] filePathArr = Directory.GetFiles("E:\\images\\"); foreach (string filePath in filePathArr) { if (filePath.Contains("lmn")) { sw.Write("1 "); Console.Write("1 "); } else { sw.Write("1 "); Console.Write("1 "); } Bitmap originalBMP = new Bitmap(filePath); /***********************/ Bitmap imageBody; ImageBody.ImageBody im = new ImageBody.ImageBody(originalBMP); imageBody = im.GetImageBody(-1); /* white coat */ Bitmap whiteCoatBitmap = Rgb2Hsi.Rgb2Hsi.GetHuePlane(imageBody); float WhiteCoatPixelPercentage = Rgb2Hsi.Rgb2Hsi.GetWhiteCoatPixelPercentage(whiteCoatBitmap); //Console.Write("whiteDone\t"); sw.Write("1:" + WhiteCoatPixelPercentage + " "); Console.Write("1:" + WhiteCoatPixelPercentage + " "); /******************/ Quaternion.Quaternion qtr = new Quaternion.Quaternion(-15); Bitmap yellowCoatBMP = qtr.processImage(imageBody); //yellowCoatBMP.Save("yellowCoat.bmp"); float yellowCoatPixelPercentage = qtr.GetYellowCoatPixelPercentage(yellowCoatBMP); //Console.Write("yellowCoatDone\t"); sw.Write("2:" + yellowCoatPixelPercentage + " "); Console.Write("2:" + yellowCoatPixelPercentage + " "); /**********************/ Bitmap balckPatchBitmap = BlackPatchDetection.BlackPatchDetector.MarkBlackPatches(imageBody); float BlackPatchPixelPercentage = BlackPatchDetection.BlackPatchDetector.BlackPatchPercentage; //Console.Write("balckPatchDone\n"); sw.Write("3:" + BlackPatchPixelPercentage + "\n"); Console.Write("3:" + BlackPatchPixelPercentage + "\n"); balckPatchBitmap.Dispose(); yellowCoatBMP.Dispose(); whiteCoatBitmap.Dispose(); originalBMP.Dispose(); sw.Flush(); } sw.Dispose(); fs.Dispose(); } } }

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• How build my own Application Setting

  - by adisembiring

  I want to build a ApplicationSetting for my application. The ApplicationSetting can be stored in a properties file or in a database table. The settings are stored in key-value pairs. E.g. ftp.host = blade ftp.username = dummy ftp.pass = pass content.row_pagination = 20 content.title = How to train your dragon. I have designed it as follows: Application settings reader: interface IApplicationSettingReader { read(); } DatabaseApplicationSettingReader { dao appSettingDao; AppSettings read() { List<AppSettingEntity> listEntity = appSettingsDao.findAll(); Map<String, String> map = new HaspMap<String, String>(); foreach (AppSettingEntity entity : listEntity) { map.put(entity.getConfigName(), entity.getConfigValue()); } return new AppSettings(map); } } DatabaseApplicationSettingReader { dao appSettingDao; AppSettings read() { //read from some properties file return new AppSettings(map); } } Application settings class: AppSettings { private static AppSettings instance; private Map map; Public AppSettings(Map map) { this.map = map; } public static AppSettings getInstance() { if (instance == null) { throw new RuntimeException("Object not configure yet"); } return instance; } public static configure(IApplicationSettingReader reader) { instance = reader.read(); } public String getFtpSetting(String param) { return map.get("ftp." + param); } public String getContentSetting(String param) { return map.get("content." + param); } } Test class: AppSettingsTest { IApplicationSettingReader reader; @Before public void setUp() throws Exception { reader = new DatabaseApplicationSettingReader(); } @Test public void getContentSetting_should_get_content_title() { AppSettings.configure(reader); Instance settings = AppSettings.getInstance(); String title = settings.getContentSetting("title"); assertNotNull(title); Sysout(title); } } My questions are: Can you give your opinion about my code, is there something wrong? I configure my application setting once, while the application start, I configure the application setting with appropriate reader (DbReader or PropertiesReader), I make it singleton. The problem is, when some user edit the database or file directly to database or file, I can't get the changed values. Now, I want to implement something like ApplicationSettingChangeListener. So if the data changes, I will refresh my application settings. Do you have any suggestions how this can be implemented?

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• Container item implementation

  - by onurozcelik

  Hi, I am working in Train Traffic Controller software project. My responsibility in this project is to develop the visual railroad GUI. We are implementing the project with Qt. By now I am using QGraphicsLinearLayout to hold my items. I am using the layout because I do not want to calculate coordinates of each item. So far I wrote item classes to add the layout. For instance SwitchItem class symbolizes railroad switch in real world. Each item class is responsible for its own painting and events. So far so good. Now I need a composite item that can contain two or more item. This class is going to be responsible for painting the items contained in it. I need this class because I have to put two or more items inside same layout cell. If I don' t put them in same cell I can' t use layout. See the image below. BlockSegmentItem and SignalItem inside same cell. Here is my compositeitem implementation. #include "compositeitem.h" CompositeItem::CompositeItem(QString id,QList<FieldItem *> _children) { children = _children; } CompositeItem::~CompositeItem() { } QRectF CompositeItem::boundingRect() const { FieldItem *child; QRectF rect(0,0,0,0); foreach(child,children) { rect = rect.united(child->boundingRect()); } return rect; } void CompositeItem::paint(QPainter *painter, const QStyleOptionGraphicsItem *option, QWidget *widget ) { FieldItem *child; foreach(child,children) { child->paint(painter,option,widget); } } QSizeF CompositeItem::sizeHint(Qt::SizeHint which, const QSizeF &constraint) const { QSizeF itsSize(0,0); FieldItem *child; foreach(child,children) { // if its size empty set first child size to itsSize if(itsSize.isEmpty()) itsSize = child->sizeHint(Qt::PreferredSize); else { QSizeF childSize = child->sizeHint(Qt::PreferredSize); if(itsSize.width() < childSize.width()) itsSize.setWidth(childSize.width()); itsSize.setHeight(itsSize.height() + childSize.height()); } } return itsSize; } void CompositeItem::contextMenuEvent(QGraphicsSceneContextMenuEvent *event) { qDebug()<<"Test"; } This code works good with painting but when it comes to item events it is problematic. QGraphicsScene treats the composite item like a single item which is right for layout but not for events. Because each item has its own event implementation.(e.g. SignalItem has its special context menu event.) I have to handle item events seperately. Also I need a composite item implementation for the layout. How can I overcome this dilemma?

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• How to clean and simplify this code?

  - by alkalim

  After thinking about This Question and giving an answer to it I wanted to do more about that to train myself. So I wrote a function which will calc the length of an given function. Th given php-file has to start at the beginning of the needed function. Example: If the function is in a big phpfile with lots of functions, like /* lots of functions */ function f_interesting($arg) { /* function */ } /* lots of other functions */ then $part3 of my function will require to begin like that (after the starting-{ of the interesting function): /* function */ } /* lots of other functions */ Now that's not the problem, but I would like to know if there are an cleaner or simplier ways to do this. Here's my function: (I already cleaned a lot of testing-echo-commands) (The idea behind it is explained here) function f_analysis ($part3) { if(isset($part3)) { $char_array = str_split($part3); //get array of chars $end_key = false; //length of function $depth = 0; //How much of unclosed '{' $in_sstr = false; //is next char inside in ''-String? $in_dstr = false; //is nect char inside an ""-String? $in_sl_comment = false; //inside an //-comment? $in_ml_comment = false; //inside an /* */-comment? $may_comment = false; //was the last char an '/' which can start a comment? $may_ml_comment_end = false; //was the last char an '*' which may end a /**/-comment? foreach($char_array as $key=>$char) { if($in_sstr) { if ($char == "'") { $in_sstr = false; } } else if($in_dstr) { if($char == '"') { $in_dstr = false; } } else if($in_sl_comment) { if($char == "\n") { $in_sl_comment = false; } } else if($in_ml_comment) { if($may_ml_comment_end) { $may_ml_comment_end = false; if($char == '/') { $in_ml_comment = false; } } if($char == '*') { $may_ml_comment_end = true; } } else if ($may_comment) { if($char == '/') { $in_sl_comment = true; } else if($char == '*') { $in_ml_comment = true; } $may_comment = false; } else { switch ($char) { case '{': $depth++; break; case '}': $depth--; break; case '/': $may_comment = true; break; case '"': $in_dstr = true; break; case "'": $in_sstr = true; break; } } if($depth < 0) { $last_key = $key; break; } } } else echo '<br>$part3 of f_analysis not set!'; return ($last_key===false) ? false : $last_key+1; //will be false or the length of the function }

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• Optimising speeds in HDF5 using Pytables

  - by Sree Aurovindh

  The problem is with respect to the writing speed of the computer (10 * 32 bit machine) and the postgresql query performance.I will explain the scenario in detail. I have data about 80 Gb (along with approprite database indexes in place). I am trying to read it from Postgresql database and writing it into HDF5 using Pytables.I have 1 table and 5 variable arrays in one hdf5 file.The implementation of Hdf5 is not multithreaded or enabled for symmetric multi processing.I have rented about 10 computers for a day and trying to write them inorder to speed up my data handling. As for as the postgresql table is concerned the overall record size is 140 million and I have 5 primary- foreign key referring tables.I am not using joins as it is not scalable So for a single lookup i do 6 lookup without joins and write them into hdf5 format. For each lookup i do 6 inserts into each of the table and its corresponding arrays. The queries are really simple select * from x.train where tr_id=1 (primary key & indexed) select q_t from x.qt where q_id=2 (non-primary key but indexed) (similarly five queries) Each computer writes two hdf5 files and hence the total count comes around 20 files. Some Calculations and statistics: Total number of records : 14,37,00,000 Total number of records per file : 143700000/20 =71,85,000 The total number of records in each file : 71,85,000 * 5 = 3,59,25,000 Current Postgresql database config : My current Machine : 8GB RAM with i7 2nd generation Processor. I made changes to the following to postgresql configuration file : shared_buffers : 2 GB effective_cache_size : 4 GB Note on current performance: I have run it for about ten hours and the performance is as follows: The total number of records written for each file is about 6,21,000 * 5 = 31,05,000 The bottle neck is that i can only rent it for 10 hours per day (overnight) and if it processes in this speed it will take about 11 days which is too high for my experiments. Please suggest me on how to improve. Questions: 1. Should i use Symmetric multi processing on those desktops(it has 2 cores with about 2 GB of RAM).In that case what is suggested or prefereable? 2. If i change my postgresql configuration file and increase the RAM will it enhance my process. 3. Should i use multi threading.. In that case any links or pointers would be of great help Thanks Sree aurovindh V

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• dismissing uiwebview

  - by chimgrrl

  Ok, I really spend 2 days on this and it has gotten me stumped. From my main UIViewController I called a WebViewController which is a UIViewController with a UIWebView inside: UOLCategoriesWebViewController *ucwvcontroller = [[UOLCategoriesWebViewController alloc] initWithNibName:@"UOLCategoriesWebViewController" bundle:nil]; [self presentModalViewController:ucwvcontroller animated:YES]; [ucwvcontroller release]; Inside the UOLCategoriesWebViewController I've call the delegate method shouldStartLoadWithRequest where when the user clicks on a particular type of link it parses out the params and return back to the main UIViewController (or at least that's what I want it to do): - (BOOL)webView:(UIWebView*)webView shouldStartLoadWithRequest:(NSURLRequest*)request navigationType:(UIWebViewNavigationType)navigationType { BOOL continueOrExit = YES; NSURL *url = request.URL; NSString *urlString = [url relativeString]; NSString *urlParams = [url query]; NSArray *urlParamArr = [urlParams componentsSeparatedByString:@"&"]; NSLog(@"the url is: %@",urlString); //NSLog(@"the params are: %@,%@",[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:0],[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:1]); //BOOL endTrain1 = [[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:1] hasPrefix:@"subCatValue"]; //BOOL endTrain2 = ([urlParamArr objectAtIndex:1 //NSLog(@"Number of elements: %@",[urlParamArr count]); if (navigationType == UIWebViewNavigationTypeLinkClicked) { //NSLog(@"Enter into His glory"); if ([urlString hasSuffix:@"categories_list.php"]) { //NSLog(@"2nd Heaven"); continueOrExit = YES; }else if ([[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:1] hasPrefix:@"subCatValue"]) { continueOrExit = NO; NSLog(@"end of the train"); NSArray *firstParamStringArr = [[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:0] componentsSeparatedByString:@"="]; NSArray *secondParamStringArr = [[urlParamArr objectAtIndex:1] componentsSeparatedByString:@"="]; NSString *catSelected = [firstParamStringArr objectAtIndex:1]; NSString *subCatSelected = [secondParamStringArr objectAtIndex:1]; //go back to native app [self goBackToMain:catSelected andSubCat:subCatSelected]; } } return continueOrExit; } Actually in the above function where I am calling the goBackToMain method I want it to call the delegate method and return to the mainviewcontroller. Unfortunately after executing that goBackToMain method it goes back to this method and continue to return continueOrExit. Is there anyway to make it truly exit without returning anything? I've tried putting in multiple returns to no avail. Or can I in the html page pass some javascript to directly call this method so that I don't have to go through this delegate method? Thanks for the help in advance!

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• Several C# Language Questions

  - by Water Cooler v2

  1) What is int? Is it any different from the struct System.Int32? I understand that the former is a C# alias (typedef or #define equivalant) for the CLR type System.Int32. Is this understanding correct? 2) When we say: IComparable x = 10; Is that like saying: IComparable x = new System.Int32(); But we can't new a struct, right? or in C like syntax: struct System.In32 *x; x=>someThing = 10; 3) What is String with a capitalized S? I see in Reflector that it is the sealed String class, which, of course, is a reference type, unlike the System.Int32 above, which is a value type. What is string, with an uncapitalized s, though? Is that also the C# alias for this class? Why can I not see the alias definitions in Reflector? 4) Try to follow me down this subtle train of thought, if you please. We know that a storage location of a particular type can only access properties and members on its interface. That means: Person p = new Customer(); p.Name = "Water Cooler v2"; // legal because as Name is defined on Person. but // illegal without an explicit cast even though the backing // store is a Customer, the storage location is of type // Person, which doesn't support the member/method being // accessed/called. p.GetTotalValueOfOrdersMade(); Now, with that inference, consider this scenario: int i = 10; // obvious System.object defines no member to // store an integer value or any other value in. // So, my question really is, when the integer is // boxed, what is the *type* it is actually boxed to. // In other words, what is the type that forms the // backing store on the heap, for this operation? object x = i; Update Thank you for your answers, Eric Gunnerson and Aaronought. I'm afraid I haven't been able to articulate my questions well enough to attract very satisfying answers. The trouble is, I do know the answers to my questions on the surface, and I am, by no means, a newbie programmer. But I have to admit, a deeper understanding to the intricacies of how a language and its underlying platform/runtime handle storage of types has eluded me for as long as I've been a programmer, even though I write correct code.

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• Cisco 678 Will Not Work using PPPoE - Possibly Because I Configured it Incorrectly..?

  - by Brian Stinar

  I am attempting to configure a Cisco 678 because I am totally sick on my Actiontec. However, I am running into some problems. It seems as though the Cisco is able to train the line, but I am unable to ping out. I am all right at programming, but still learning a lot when it comes to being a system administrator. I apologize in advance if I did something ridiculous, or am attempting to configure this device to do something it was not designed to do. It is almost like I am not correctly configuring the device to grab it's IP using PPPoA (like my Actiontec.) The output from "show running" (below) makes me think this too. Below are the commands I ran in order to configure this: # en # set nvram erase # write # reboot # en # set nat enable # set dhcp server enable # set PPP wan0-0 ipcp 0.0.0.0 # set ppp wan0-0 dns 0.0.0.0 # set PPP wan0-0 login xxxxx // My actual login # set PPP wan0-0 password yyyyy // My actual password # set PPP restart enabled # set int wan0-0 close # set int wan0-0 vpi 0 # set int wan0-0 vci 32 # set int wan0-0 open # write # reboot Here is the output from a few commands I thought could provide some useful information: cbos#ping 74.125.224.113 Sending 1 8 byte ping(s) to 74.125.224.113 every 2 second(s) Request timed out cbos#show version Cisco Broadband Operating System CBOS (tm) 678 Software (C678-I-M), Version v2.4.9 - Release Software Copyright (c) 1986-2001 by cisco Systems, Inc. Compiled Nov 17 2004 15:26:29 DMT FULL firmware version G96 NVRAM image at 0x1030f000 cbos#show errors - Current Error Messages - ## Ticks Module Level Message 0 000:00:00:00 PPP Info IPCP Open Event on wan0-0 1 000:00:00:14 ATM Info Wan0 Up 2 000:00:00:14 PPP Info PPP Up Event on wan0-0 3 000:00:01:54 PPP Info PPP Down Event on wan0-0 Total Number of Error Messages: 4 cbos#show interface wan0 wan0 ADSL Physical Port Line Trained Actual Configuration: Overhead Framing: 3 Trellis Coding: Enabled Standard Compliance: T1.413 Downstream Data Rate: 1184 Kbps Upstream Data Rate: 928 Kbps Interleave S Downstream: 4 Interleave D Downstream: 16 Interleave R Downstream: 16 Interleave S Upstream: 4 Interleave D Upstream: 8 Interleave R Upstream: 16 Modem Microcode: G96 DSP version: 0 Operating State: Showtime/Data Mode Configured: Echo Cancellation: Disabled Overhead Framing: 3 Coding Gain: Auto TX Power Attenuation: 0dB Trellis Coding: Enabled Bit Swapping: Disabled Standard Compliance: T1.413 Remote Standard Compliance: T1.413 Tx Start Bin: 0x6 Tx End Bin: 0x1f Data Interface: Utopia L1 Status: Local SNR Margin: 19.0dB Local Coding Gain: 7.5dB Local Transmit Power: 12.5dB Local Attenuation: 46.0dB Remote Attenuation: 31.0dB Local Counters: Interleaved RS Corrected Bytes: 0 Interleaved Symbols with CRC Errors: 2 No Cell Delineation Interleaved: 0 Out of Cell Delineation Interleaved: 0 Header Error Check Counter Interleaved: 0 Count of Severely Errored Frames: 0 Count of Loss of Signal Frames: 0 Remote Counters: Interleaved RS Corrected Bytes: 0 Interleaved Symbols with CRC Errors: 1 No Cell Delineation Interleaved: 0 Header Error Check Counter Interleaved: 0 Count of Severely Errored Frames: 0 Count of Loss of Signal Frames: 0 cbos#show int wan0-0 WAN0-0 ATM Logical Port PVC (VPI 0, VCI 32) is configured. ScalaRate set to Auto AAL 5 UBR Traffic IP Port Enabled cbos#show running Warning: traffic may pause while NVRAM is being accessed [[ CBOS = Section Start ]] NSOS MD5 Enable Password = XXXX NSOS MD5 Root Password = XXXX NSOS MD5 Commander Password = XXXX [[ PPP Device Driver = Section Start ]] PPP Port User Name = 00, "XXXX" PPP Port User Password = 00, XXXX PPP Port Option = 00, IPCP,IP Address,3,Auto,Negotiation Not Required,Negotiable ,IP,0.0.0.0 PPP Port Option = 00, IPCP,Primary DNS Server,129,Auto,Negotiation Not Required, Negotiable,IP,0.0.0.0 PPP Port Option = 00, IPCP,Secondary DNS Server,131,Auto,Negotiation Not Require d,Negotiable,IP,0.0.0.0 [[ ATM WAN Device Driver = Section Start ]] ATM WAN Virtual Connection Parms = 00, 0, 32, 0 [[ DHCP = Section Start ]] DHCP Server = enabled [[ IP Routing = Section Start ]] IP NAT = enabled [[ WEB = Section Start ]] WEB = enabled cbos# wtf...? Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this, and the help.

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• SQL SERVER – Step by Step Guide to Beginning Data Quality Services in SQL Server 2012 – Introduction to DQS

  - by pinaldave

  Data Quality Services is a very important concept of SQL Server. I have recently started to explore the same and I am really learning some good concepts. Here are two very important blog posts which one should go over before continuing this blog post. Installing Data Quality Services (DQS) on SQL Server 2012 Connecting Error to Data Quality Services (DQS) on SQL Server 2012 This article is introduction to Data Quality Services for beginners. We will be using an Excel file Click on the image to enlarge the it. In the first article we learned to install DQS. In this article we will see how we can learn about building Knowledge Base and using it to help us identify the quality of the data as well help correct the bad quality of the data. Here are the two very important steps we will be learning in this tutorial. Building a New Knowledge Base  Creating a New Data Quality Project Let us start the building the Knowledge Base. Click on New Knowledge Base. In our project we will be using the Excel as a knowledge base. Here is the Excel which we will be using. There are two columns. One is Colors and another is Shade. They are independent columns and not related to each other. The point which I am trying to show is that in Column A there are unique data and in Column B there are duplicate records. Clicking on New Knowledge Base will bring up the following screen. Enter the name of the new knowledge base. Clicking NEXT will bring up following screen where it will allow to select the EXCE file and it will also let users select the source column. I have selected Colors and Shade both as a source column. Creating a domain is very important. Here you can create a unique domain or domain which is compositely build from Colors and Shade. As this is the first example, I will create unique domain – for Colors I will create domain Colors and for Shade I will create domain Shade. Here is the screen which will demonstrate how the screen will look after creating domains. Clicking NEXT it will bring you to following screen where you can do the data discovery. Clicking on the START will start the processing of the source data provided. Pre-processed data will show various information related to the source data. In our case it shows that Colors column have unique data whereas Shade have non-unique data and unique data rows are only two. In the next screen you can actually add more rows as well see the frequency of the data as the values are listed unique. Clicking next will publish the knowledge base which is just created. Now the knowledge base is created. We will try to take any random data and attempt to do DQS implementation over it. I am using another excel sheet here for simplicity purpose. In reality you can easily use SQL Server table for the same. Click on New Data Quality Project to see start DQS Project. In the next screen it will ask which knowledge base to use. We will be using our Colors knowledge base which we have recently created. In the Colors knowledge base we had two columns – 1) Colors and 2) Shade. In our case we will be using both of the mappings here. User can select one or multiple column mapping over here. Now the most important phase of the complete project. Click on Start and it will make the cleaning process and shows various results. In our case there were two columns to be processed and it completed the task with necessary information. It demonstrated that in Colors columns it has not corrected any value by itself but in Shade value there is a suggestion it has. We can train the DQS to correct values but let us keep that subject for future blog posts. Now click next and keep the domain Colors selected left side. It will demonstrate that there are two incorrect columns which it needs to be corrected. Here is the place where once corrected value will be auto-corrected in future. I manually corrected the value here and clicked on Approve radio buttons. As soon as I click on Approve buttons the rows will be disappeared from this tab and will move to Corrected Tab. If I had rejected tab it would have moved the rows to Invalid tab as well. In this screen you can see how the corrected 2 rows are demonstrated. You can click on Correct tab and see previously validated 6 rows which passed the DQS process. Now let us click on the Shade domain on the left side of the screen. This domain shows very interesting details as there DQS system guessed the correct answer as Dark with the confidence level of 77%. It is quite a high confidence level and manual observation also demonstrate that Dark is the correct answer. I clicked on Approve and the row moved to corrected tab. On the next screen DQS shows the summary of all the activities. It also demonstrates how the correction of the quality of the data was performed. The user can explore their data to a SQL Server Table, CSV file or Excel. The user also has an option to either explore data and all the associated cleansing info or data only. I will select Data only for demonstration purpose. Clicking explore will generate the files. Let us open the generated file. It will look as following and it looks pretty complete and corrected. Well, we have successfully completed DQS Process. The process is indeed very easy. I suggest you try this out yourself and you will find it very easy to learn. In future we will go over advanced concepts. Are you using this feature on your production server? If yes, would you please leave a comment with your environment and business need. It will be indeed interesting to see where it is implemented. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Data Quality Services, DQS

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• Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 3 @ Bangalore

  - by sathya

  Microsoft TechEd 2010 - Day 3 @ Bangalore Sorry for my delayed post on day 3 because I had to travel from Blore to Chennai So I couldnt write for the past two days. On day 3 as usual we had lot of simultaneous tracks on various sessions. This day I choose the Your Data, Our Platform Track. It had sessions on the following 5 topics :   Developing Data-tier Applications in Visual Studio 2010 - by Sanjay Nagamangalam SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance - by Vinod Kumar M SQL Server Utility - Its about more than 1 SQL Server - by Vinod Kumar Jagannathan Data Recovery / Consistency with CheckDB - by Vinod Kumar M Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep dive into Spatial Indexing - by Pinal Dave Developing Data-tier Applications in Visual Studio 2010 - by Sanjay Nagamangalam This was one of the superb sessions i have attended. He explained all the concepts in detail with a demo. The important thing in this is there is something called Data-Tier application project which is newly introduced in this VS2010 with which we can manage all our data along with our application inside our VS itself. We can create DB,Tables,Procs,Views etc. here itself and once we deploy it creates a compressed file called .dacpac which stores all the changes in Table Schema,Created procs, etc. on to that single file which reduces our (developer's) effort in preparing the deployment scripts and giving it to the DBA. It also has some policy configurations which can be managed easily by checking some rules like in outlook. For Ex : IF the SQL Server Version > 10 then deploy else dont. This rule specifies that even if we try to deploy on SQL Server DB with version less than 10 It will not do it. And if we deploy some .dacpac to SQL server production db with the option upgrade DB with this dacpac once everything completes successfully it will say success else it rollsback to the prior version. Even if it gets deployed successfully and later @ a point of time you wish to revert it back to the prior version, you can go ahead and delete the existing dacpac version so that it reverts to the older version of the db changes. And for the good questions that were asked in the session T-Shirts were given. SQL Server Query Optimization, Execution and Debugging Query Performance - by Vinod Kumar M This one too was the best session. The speaker Vinod explained everything very much clearly. This was really useful session and you dont believe, as per my knowledge, in the total 3 days in the TechEd except the Keynote, for this session seats were full (House FULL)  People were even standing out to attend this session. Such a great one it was. The speaker did a deep dive in to the Query Plan section and showed which actually causes the problem. Its all about the thing that we need to understand about the execution of SQL server Queries. We think in a way and SQL Server never executes in that way. We need to understand that first. He also told about there might be two plans generated for a single query at a point of time because of parallel processors in the system. The Key is here in every query. There is something called Estimated Row Count and Actual Row Count in the query plan. If the estimated row count by SQL server tallies with the actual row count your performance will be awesome. He said some tweaks to achieve the same. After this as usual we had lunch SQL Server Utility - Its about more than 1 SQL Server - by Vinod Kumar Jagannathan This was more of a DBA's session. Am really sorry I was totally blank and I was not interested to attend this session and walked out to attend Migrating to the cloud by Harish Ranganathan (My favorite Speaker) but unfortunately that was some other persons session. There the speaker was telling about how to configure the connection strings in such a way that we can connect to the SQL Azure platform from our VS and also showed us how to deploy the same in to Windows Azure. In between there were lot of technical problems like laptop hang, user locked and he was switching between systems, also i came in the half so i wasnt able to listen that fully. In between, Since I got an MCTS certification they gave me T-Shirt with the lines 'Iam Certified. Are you?' and they asked me to wear that. If we wear that we might get spotted and they would give us some goodies  So on the 3rd day I was wearing that T-Shirt. I got spotted by the person Tarun who was coordinating things about the certification, and he was accompanied with a cameraman and they interviewed me about the certification and I was shown live in the Teched and was seen by 60000 live viewers of the TechEd. I was really happy on that. Data Recovery / Consistency with CheckDB - by Vinod Kumar M This was one of the best sessions too in the TechEd. This guy is really amazing. In front of us he crashed a DB and showed how to recover the same in 6 different ways for different no of failures. Showed about Different types of error msgs like : 823,824,825 msdb..suspect_pages DBCC CheckDB (different parameters to it) I am really waiting for his session to get uploaded live in the Teched Website. Here is his contact info If you wish to connect to him : Twitter : @vinodk_sql Website : www.ExtremeExperts.com Blog : http://blogs.sqlxml.org/vinodkumar Developing with SQL Server Spatial and Deep dive into Spatial Indexing - by Pinal Dave Pinal Dave is a King in SQL and he is a SQL MVP and he is the owner of SQLAuthority.com He took the session on Spatial Databases from the start. Showed about the different types of Spatial : Geometric and Geographic Geometric : x and y axis its a planar surface Geographic : Spherical surface with 3600  as the maximum which is used to represent the geographic points on the earth and easy to draw maps of different kinds. He had a lot of obstacles during his session like rain coming inside the hall, mic wires got bursted due to rain, Videos off on the display screens. In spite of that he asked the audience to come in the front rows and managed to take a good session without ppts and finally we got the displays on and he was showing demos on the same what he explained orally. That was really a fun filled informative session. He gave some books for the persons who asked good questions and answered well for his questions and I got one too  (It was a book on Data Mining - Wrox Publishers) And finally after all these things there was Keynote session for close of the TechEd. and we all assembled in a big hall where Mr.Ashok Soota, a man of age around 70  co-founder of Mindtree was called to give some lecture on his successes. He was explaining about his past and what all companies he switched and for what reasons and what are all his successes and what are all his failures and the learnings of him from his past failures. and his success and failures on his partnerships with the other concern. And there were some questions for him like What is your suggestion on young entrepreneur? How did you learn from past failures? What is reiterating your success? What is your suggestion on partnerships? How to choose partnerships? etc. And they said @ 7.30 Pm there would be a party night, but unfortunately i was not able to attend that because I had to catch my train and before that i had to pack things, so I started @ 7 itself. Thats it about the TechED!!! Stay tuned for further Technology updates.

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• Pre-rentrée Oracle Open World 2012 : à vos agendas

  - by Eric Bezille

  A maintenant moins d'un mois de l’événement majeur d'Oracle, qui se tient comme chaque année à San Francisco, fin septembre, début octobre, les spéculations vont bon train sur les annonces qui vont y être dévoilées... Et sans lever le voile, je vous engage à prendre connaissance des sujets des "Key Notes" qui seront tenues par Larry Ellison, Mark Hurd, Thomas Kurian (responsable des développements logiciels) et John Fowler (responsable des développements systèmes) afin de vous donner un avant goût. Stratégie et Roadmaps Oracle Bien entendu, au-delà des séances plénières qui vous donnerons  une vision précise de la stratégie, et pour ceux qui seront sur place, je vous engage à ne pas manquer les séances d'approfondissement qui auront lieu dans la semaine, dont voici quelques morceaux choisis : "Accelerate your Business with the Oracle Hardware Advantage" avec John Fowler, le lundi 1er Octobre, 3:15pm-4:15pm "Why Oracle Softwares Runs Best on Oracle Hardware" , avec Bradley Carlile, le responsable des Benchmarks, le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-13:15pm "Engineered Systems - from Vision to Game-changing Results", avec Robert Shimp, le lundi 1er Octobre 1:45pm-2:45pm "Database and Application Consolidation on SPARC Supercluster", avec Hugo Rivero, responsable dans les équipes d'intégration matériels et logiciels, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Oracle’s SPARC Server Strategy Update", avec Masood Heydari, responsable des développements serveurs SPARC, le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am - 11:15am "Oracle Solaris 11 Strategy, Engineering Insights, and Roadmap", avec Markus Flier, responsable des développements Solaris, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 10:15am - 11:15am "Oracle Virtualization Strategy and Roadmap", avec Wim Coekaerts, responsable des développement Oracle VM et Oracle Linux, le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Big Data: The Big Story", avec Jean-Pierre Dijcks, responsable du développement produits Big Data, le lundi 1er Octobre, 3:15pm-4:15pm "Scaling with the Cloud: Strategies for Storage in Cloud Deployments", avec Christine Rogers,  Principal Product Manager, et Chris Wood, Senior Product Specialist, Stockage , le lundi 1er Octobre, 10:45am-11:45am Retours d'expériences et témoignages Si Oracle Open World est l'occasion de partager avec les équipes de développement d'Oracle en direct, c'est aussi l'occasion d'échanger avec des clients et experts qui ont mis en oeuvre  nos technologies pour bénéficier de leurs retours d'expériences, comme par exemple : "Oracle Optimized Solution for Siebel CRM at ACCOR", avec les témoignages d'Eric Wyttynck, directeur IT Multichannel & CRM  et Pascal Massenet, VP Loyalty & CRM systems, sur les bénéfices non seulement métiers, mais également projet et IT, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Tips from AT&T: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Database, and SPARC Enterprise", avec le retour d'expérience des experts Oracle, le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Creating a Maximum Availability Architecture with SPARC SuperCluster", avec le témoignage de Carte Wright, Database Engineer à CKI, le mercredi 3 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Multitenancy: Everybody Talks It, Oracle Walks It with Pillar Axiom Storage", avec le témoignage de Stephen Schleiger, Manager Systems Engineering de Navis, le lundi 1er Octobre, 1:45pm-2:45pm "Oracle Exadata for Database Consolidation: Best Practices", avec le retour d'expérience des experts Oracle ayant participé à la mise en oeuvre d'un grand client du monde bancaire, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Oracle Exadata Customer Panel: Packaged Applications with Oracle Exadata", animé par Tim Shetler, VP Product Management, mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Big Data: Improving Nearline Data Throughput with the StorageTek SL8500 Modular Library System", avec le témoignage du CTO de CSC, Alan Powers, le jeudi 4 Octobre, 12:45pm-1:45pm "Building an IaaS Platform with SPARC, Oracle Solaris 11, and Oracle VM Server for SPARC", avec le témoignage de Syed Qadri, Lead DBA et Michael Arnold, System Architect d'US Cellular, le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am-11:15am "Transform Data Center TCO with Oracle Optimized Servers: A Customer Panel", avec les témoignages notamment d'AT&T et Liberty Global, le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm "Data Warehouse and Big Data Customers’ View of the Future", avec The Nielsen Company US, Turkcell, GE Retail Finance, Allianz Managed Operations and Services SE, le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Extreme Storage Scale and Efficiency: Lessons from a 100,000-Person Organization", le témoignage de l'IT interne d'Oracle sur la transformation et la migration de l'ensemble de notre infrastructure de stockage, mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm Echanges avec les groupes d'utilisateurs et les équipes de développement Oracle Si vous avez prévu d'arriver suffisamment tôt, vous pourrez également échanger dès le dimanche avec les groupes d'utilisateurs, ou tous les soirs avec les équipes de développement Oracle sur des sujets comme : "To Exalogic or Not to Exalogic: An Architectural Journey", avec Todd Sheetz - Manager of DBA and Enterprise Architecture, Veolia Environmental Services, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 2:30pm-3:30pm "Oracle Exalytics and Oracle TimesTen for Exalytics Best Practices", avec Mark Rittman, de Rittman Mead Consulting Ltd, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 10:30am-11:30am "Introduction of Oracle Exadata at Telenet: Bringing BI to Warp Speed", avec Rudy Verlinden & Eric Bartholomeus - Managers IT infrastructure à Telenet, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 1:15pm-2:00pm "The Perfect Marriage: Sun ZFS Storage Appliance with Oracle Exadata", avec Melanie Polston, directeur, Data Management, de Novation et Charles Kim, Managing Director de Viscosity, le dimanche 30 Septembre, 9:00am-10am "Oracle’s Big Data Solutions: NoSQL, Connectors, R, and Appliance Technologies", avec Jean-Pierre Dijcks et les équipes de développement Oracle, le lundi 1er Octobre, 6:15pm-7:00pm Testez et évaluez les solutions Et pour finir, vous pouvez même tester les technologies au travers du Oracle DemoGrounds, (1133 Moscone South pour la partie Systèmes Oracle, OS, et Virtualisation) et des "Hands-on-Labs", comme : "Deploying an IaaS Environment with Oracle VM", le mardi 2 Octobre, 10:15am-11:15am "Virtualize and Deploy Oracle Applications in Minutes with Oracle VM: Hands-on Lab", le mardi 2 Octobre, 11:45am-12:45pm (il est fortement conseillé d'avoir suivi le "Hands-on-Labs" précédent avant d'effectuer ce Lab. "x86 Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure with Oracle VM 3.x and Sun ZFS Storage Appliance", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 5:00pm-6:00pm "StorageTek Tape Analytics: Managing Tape Has Never Been So Simple", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Oracle’s Pillar Axiom 600 Storage System: Power and Ease", le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Enterprise Cloud Infrastructure for SPARC with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c", le lundi 1er Octobre, 1:45pm-2:45pm "Managing Storage in the Cloud", le mardi 2 Octobre, 5:00pm-6:00pm "Learn How to Write MapReduce on Oracle’s Big Data Platform", le lundi 1er Octobre, 12:15pm-1:15pm "Oracle Big Data Analytics and R", le mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Reduce Risk with Oracle Solaris Access Control to Restrain Users and Isolate Applications", le lundi 1er Octobre, 10:45am-11:45am "Managing Your Data with Built-In Oracle Solaris ZFS Data Services in Release 11", le lundi 1er Octobre, 4:45pm-5:45pm "Virtualizing Your Oracle Solaris 11 Environment", le mardi 2 Octobre, 1:15pm-2:15pm "Large-Scale Installation and Deployment of Oracle Solaris 11", le mercredi 3 Octobre, 3:30pm-4:30pm En conclusion, une semaine très riche en perspective, et qui vous permettra de balayer l'ensemble des sujets au coeur de vos préoccupations, de la stratégie à l'implémentation... Cette semaine doit se préparer, pour tailler votre agenda sur mesure, à travers les plus de 2000 sessions dont je ne vous ai fait qu'un extrait, et dont vous pouvez retrouver l'ensemble en ligne.

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• The Internet of Things Is Really the Internet of People

  - by HCM-Oracle

  By Mark Hurd - Originally Posted on LinkedIn As I speak with CEOs around the world, our conversations invariably come down to this central question: Can we change our corporate cultures and the ways we train and reward our people as rapidly as new technology is changing the work we do, the products we make and how we engage with customers? It’s a critical consideration given today’s pace of disruption, which already is straining traditional management models and HR strategies. Winning companies will bring innovation and vision to their employees and partners by attracting people who will thrive in this emerging world of relentless data, predictive analytics and unlimited what-if scenarios. So, where are we going to find employees who are as familiar with complex data as I am with orderly financial statements and business plans? I’m not just talking about high-end data scientists who most certainly will sit at or near the top of the new decision-making pyramid. Global organizations will need creative and motivated people who will devote their time to manipulating, reviewing, analyzing, sorting and reshaping data to drive business and delight customers. This might seem evident, but my conversations with business people across the globe indicate that only a small number of companies get it. In the past few years, executives have been busy keeping pace with seismic upheavals, including the rise of social customer engagement, the rapid acceleration of product-development cycles and the relentless move to mobile-first. But all of that, I think, is the start of an uphill climb to the top of a roller-coaster. Today, about 10 billion devices across the globe are connected to the Internet. In a couple of years, that number will probably double, and not because we will have bought 10 billion more computers, smart phones and tablets. This unprecedented explosion of Big Data is being triggered by the Internet of Things, which is another way of saying that the numerous intelligent devices touching our everyday lives are all becoming interconnected. Home appliances, food, industrial equipment, pets, pharmaceutical products, pallets, cars, luggage, packaged goods, athletic equipment, even clothing will be streaming data. Some data will provide important information about how to run our businesses and lead healthier lives. Much of it will be extraneous. How does a CEO cope with this unimaginable volume and velocity of data, much less harness it to excite and delight customers? Here are three things CEOs must do to tackle this challenge: 1) Take care of your employees, take care of your customers. Larry Ellison recently noted that the two most important priorities for any CEO today revolve around people: Taking care of your employees and taking care of your customers. Companies in today’s hypercompetitive business environment simply won’t be able to survive unless they’ve got world-class people at all levels of the organization. CEOs must demonstrate a commitment to employees by becoming champions for HR systems that empower every employee to fully understand his or her job, how it ties into the corporate framework, what’s expected of them, what training is available, and how they can use an embedded social network to communicate, collaborate and excel. Over the next several years, many of the world’s top industrialized economies will see a turnover in the workforce on an unprecedented scale. Across the United States, Europe, China and Japan, the “baby boomer” generation will be retiring and, by 2020, we’ll see turnovers in those regions ranging from 10 to 30 percent. How will companies replace all that brainpower, experience and know-how? How will CEOs perpetuate the best elements of their corporate cultures in the midst of this profound turnover? The challenge will be daunting, but it can be met with world-class HR technology. As companies begin replacing up to 30 percent of their workforce, they will need thousands of new types of data-native workers to exploit the Internet of Things in the service of the Internet of People. The shift in corporate mindset here can’t be overstated. The CEO has to be at the forefront of this new way of recruiting, training, motivating, aligning and developing truly 21-century talent. 2) Start thinking today about the Internet of People. Some forward-looking companies have begun pursuing the “democratization of data.” This allows more people within a company greater access to data that can help them make better decisions, move more quickly and keep pace with the changing interests and demands of their customers. As a result, we’ve seen organizations flatten out, growing numbers of well-informed people authorized to make decisions without corporate approval and a movement of engagement away from headquarters to the point of contact with the customer. These are profound changes, and I’m a huge proponent. As I think about what the next few years will bring as companies become deluged with unprecedented streams of data, I’m convinced that we’ll need dramatically different organizational structures, decision-making models, risk-management profiles and reward systems. For example, if a car company’s marketing department mines incoming data to determine that customers are shifting rapidly toward neon-green models, how many layers of approval, review, analysis and sign-off will be needed before the factory starts cranking out more neon-green cars? Will we continue to have organizations where too many people are empowered to say “No” and too few are allowed to say “Yes”? If so, how will those companies be able to compete in a world in which customers have more choices, instant access to more information and less loyalty than ever before? That’s why I think CEOs need to begin thinking about this problem right now, not in a year or two when competitors are already reshaping their organizations to match the marketplace’s new realities. 3) Partner with universities to help create a new type of highly skilled workers. Several years ago, universities introduced new undergraduate as well as graduate-level programs in analytics and informatics as the business need for deeper insights into the booming world of data began to explode. Today, as the growth rate of data continues to soar, we know that the Internet of Things will only intensify that growth. Moreover, as Big Data fuels insights that can be shaped into products and services that generate revenue, the demand for data scientists and data specialists will go on unabated. Beyond that top-level expertise, companies are going to need data-native thinkers at all levels of the organization. Where will this new type of worker come from? I think it’s incumbent on the business community to collaborate with universities to develop new curricula designed to turn out graduates who can capitalize on the data-driven world that the Internet of Things is surely going to create. These new workers will create opportunities to help their companies in fields as diverse as product design, customer service, marketing, manufacturing and distribution. They will become innovative leaders in fashioning an entirely new type of workforce and organizational structure optimized to fully exploit the Internet of Things so that it becomes a high-value enabler of the Internet of People. Mark Hurd is President of Oracle Corporation and a member of the company's Board of Directors. He joined Oracle in 2010, bringing more than 30 years of technology industry leadership, computer hardware expertise, and executive management experience to his role with the company. As President, Mr. Hurd oversees the corporate direction and strategy for Oracle's global field operations, including marketing, sales, consulting, alliances and channels, and support. He focuses on strategy, leadership, innovation, and customers.

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• Contracting as a Software Developer in the UK

  - by Frez

  Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Having had some 15 years’ experience of working as a software contractor, I am often asked by developers who work as permanent employees (permies) about the pros and cons of working as a software consultant through my own limited company and whether the move would be a good one for them. Whilst it is possible to contract using other financial vehicles such as umbrella companies, this article will only consider limited companies as that is what I have experience of using. Contracting or consultancy requires a different mind-set from being a permanent member of staff, and not all developers are capable of this shift in attitude. Whilst you can look forward to an increase in the money you take home, there are real risks and expenses you would not normally be exposed to as a permie. So let us have a look at the pros and cons: Pros: More money There is no doubt that whilst you are working on contracts you will earn significantly more than you would as a permanent employee. Furthermore, working through a limited company is more tax efficient. Less politics You really have no need to involve yourself in office politics. When the end of the day comes you can go home and not think or worry about the power struggles within the company you are contracted to. Your career progression is not tied to the company. Expenses from gross income All your expenses of trading as a business will come out of your company’s gross income, i.e. before tax. This covers travelling expenses provided you have not been at the same client/location for more than two years, internet subscriptions, professional subscriptions, software, hardware, accountancy services and so on. Cons: Work is more transient Contracts typically range from a couple of weeks to a year, although will most likely start at 3 months. However, most contracts are extended either because the project you have been brought in to help with takes longer to deliver than expected, the client decides they can use you on other aspects of the project, or the client decides they would like to use you on other projects. The temporary nature of the work means that you will have down-time between contracts while you secure new opportunities during which time your company will have no income. You may need to attend several interviews before securing a new contract. Accountancy expenses Your company is a separate entity and there are accountancy requirements which, unless you like paperwork, means your company will need to appoint an accountant to prepare your company’s accounts. It may also be worth purchasing some accountancy software, so talk to your accountant about this as they may prefer you to use a particular software package so they can integrate it with their systems. VAT You will need to register your company for VAT. This is tax neutral for you as the VAT you charge your clients you will pass onto the government less any VAT you are reclaiming from expenses, but it is additional paperwork to undertake each quarter. It is worth checking out the Fixed Rate VAT Scheme that is available, particularly after the initial expenses of setting up your company are over. No training Clients take you on based on your skills, not to train you when they will lose that investment at the end of the contract, so understand that it is unlikely you will receive any training funded by a client. However, learning new skills during a contract is possible and you may choose to accept a contract on a lower rate if this is guaranteed as it will help secure future contracts. No financial extras You will have no free pension, life, accident, sickness or medical insurance unless you choose to purchase them yourself. A financial advisor can give you all the necessary advice in this area, and it is worth taking seriously. A year after I started as a consultant I contracted a serious illness, this kept me off work for over two months, my client was very understanding and it could have been much worse, so it is worth considering what your options might be in the case of illness, death and retirement. Agencies Whilst it is possible to work directly for end clients there are pros and cons of working through an agency.  The main advantage is cash flow, you invoice the agency and they typically pay you within a week, whereas working directly for a client could have you waiting up to three months to be paid. The downside of working for agencies, especially in the current difficult times, is that they may go out of business and you then have difficulty getting the money you are owed. Tax investigation It is possible that the Inland Revenue may decide to investigate your company for compliance with tax law. Insurance is available to cover you for this. My personal recommendation would be to join the PCG as this insurance is included as a benefit of membership, Professional Indemnity Some agencies require that you are covered by professional indemnity insurance; this is a cost you would not incur as a permie. Travel Unless you live in an area that has an abundance of opportunities, such as central London, it is likely that you will be travelling further, longer and with more expense than if you were permanently employed at a local company. This not only affects you monetarily, but also your quality of life and the ability to keep fit and healthy. Obtaining finance If you want to secure a mortgage on a property it can be more difficult or expensive, especially if you do not have three years of audited accounts to show a mortgage lender.   Caveat This post is my personal opinion and should not be used as a definitive guide or recommendation to contracting and whether it is suitable for you as an individual, i.e. I accept no responsibility if you decide to take up contracting based on this post and you fare badly for whatever reason.

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• Source-control 'wet-work'?

  - by Phil Factor

  When a design or creative work is flawed beyond remedy, it is often best to destroy it and start again. The other day, I lost the code to a long and intricate SQL batch I was working on. I’d thought it was impossible, but it happened. With all the technology around that is designed to prevent this occurring, this sort of accident has become a rare event.  If it weren’t for a deranged laptop, and my distraction, the code wouldn’t have been lost this time.  As always, I sighed, had a soothing cup of tea, and typed it all in again.  The new code I hastily tapped in  was much better: I’d held in my head the essence of how the code should work rather than the details: I now knew for certain  the start point, the end, and how it should be achieved. Instantly the detritus of half-baked thoughts fell away and I was able to write logical code that performed better.  Because I could work so quickly, I was able to hold the details of all the columns and variables in my head, and the dynamics of the flow of data. It was, in fact, easier and quicker to start from scratch rather than tidy up and refactor the existing code with its inevitable fumbling and half-baked ideas. What a shame that technology is now so good that developers rarely experience the cleansing shock of losing one’s code and having to rewrite it from scratch.  If you’ve never accidentally lost  your code, then it is worth doing it deliberately once for the experience. Creative people have, until Technology mistakenly prevented it, torn up their drafts or sketches, threw them in the bin, and started again from scratch.  Leonardo’s obsessive reworking of the Mona Lisa was renowned because it was so unusual:  Most artists have been utterly ruthless in destroying work that didn’t quite make it. Authors are particularly keen on writing afresh, and the results are generally positive. Lawrence of Arabia actually lost the entire 250,000 word manuscript of ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by accidentally leaving it on a train at Reading station, before rewriting a much better version.  Now, any writer or artist is seduced by technology into altering or refining their work rather than casting it dramatically in the bin or setting a light to it on a bonfire, and rewriting it from the blank page.  It is easy to pick away at a flawed work, but the real creative process is far more brutal. Once, many years ago whilst running a software house that supplied commercial software to local businesses, I’d been supervising an accounting system for a farming cooperative. No packaged system met their needs, and it was all hand-cut code.  For us, it represented a breakthrough as it was for a government organisation, and success would guarantee more contracts. As you’ve probably guessed, the code got mangled in a disk crash just a week before the deadline for delivery, and the many backups all proved to be entirely corrupted by a faulty tape drive.  There were some fragments left on individual machines, but they were all of different versions.  The developers were in despair.  Strangely, I managed to re-write the bulk of a three-month project in a manic and caffeine-soaked weekend.  Sure, that elegant universally-applicable input-form routine was‘nt quite so elegant, but it didn’t really need to be as we knew what forms it needed to support.  Yes, the code lacked architectural elegance and reusability. By dawn on Monday, the application passed its integration tests. The developers rose to the occasion after I’d collapsed, and tidied up what I’d done, though they were reproachful that some of the style and elegance had gone out of the application. By the delivery date, we were able to install it. It was a smaller, faster application than the beta they’d seen and the user-interface had a new, rather Spartan, appearance that we swore was done to conform to the latest in user-interface guidelines. (we switched to Helvetica font to look more ‘Bauhaus’ ). The client was so delighted that he forgave the new bugs that had crept in. I still have the disk that crashed, up in the attic. In IT, we have had mixed experiences from complete re-writes. Lotus 123 never really recovered from a complete rewrite from assembler into C, Borland made the mistake with Arago and Quattro Pro  and Netscape’s complete rewrite of their Navigator 4 browser was a white-knuckle ride. In all cases, the decision to rewrite was a result of extreme circumstances where no other course of action seemed possible.   The rewrite didn’t come out of the blue. I prefer to remember the rewrite of Minix by young Linus Torvalds, or the rewrite of Bitkeeper by a slightly older Linus.  The rewrite of CP/M didn’t do too badly either, did it? Come to think of it, the guy who decided to rewrite the windowing system of the Xerox Star never regretted the decision. I’ll agree that one should often resist calls for a rewrite. One of the worst habits of the more inexperienced programmer is to denigrate whatever code he or she inherits, and then call loudly for a complete rewrite. They are buoyed up by the mistaken belief that they can do better. This, however, is a different psychological phenomenon, more related to the idea of some motorcyclists that they are operating on infinite lives, or the occasional squaddies that if they charge the machine-guns determinedly enough all will be well. Grim experience brings out the humility in any experienced programmer.  I’m referring to quite different circumstances here. Where a team knows the requirements perfectly, are of one mind on methodology and coding standards, and they already have a solution, then what is wrong with considering  a complete rewrite? Rewrites are so painful in the early stages, until that point where one realises the payoff, that even I quail at the thought. One needs a natural disaster to push one over the edge. The trouble is that source-control systems, and disaster recovery systems, are just too good nowadays.   If I were to lose this draft of this very blog post, I know I’d rewrite it much better. However, if you read this, you’ll know I didn’t have the nerve to delete it and start again.  There was a time that one prayed that unreliable hardware would deliver you from an unmaintainable mess of a codebase, but now technology has made us almost entirely immune to such a merciful act of God. An old friend of mine with long experience in the software industry has long had the idea of the ‘source-control wet-work’,  where one hires a malicious hacker in some wild eastern country to hack into one’s own  source control system to destroy all trace of the source to an application. Alas, backup systems are just too good to make this any more than a pipedream. Somehow, it would be difficult to promote the idea. As an alternative, could one construct a source control system that, on doing all the code-quality metrics, would systematically destroy all trace of source code that failed the quality test? Alas, I can’t see many managers buying into the idea. In reading the full story of the near-loss of Toy Story 2, it set me thinking. It turned out that the lucky restoration of the code wasn’t the happy ending one first imagined it to be, because they eventually came to the conclusion that the plot was fundamentally flawed and it all had to be rewritten anyway.  Was this an early  case of the ‘source-control wet-job’?’ It is very hard nowadays to do a rapid U-turn in a development project because we are far too prone to cling to our existing source-code.

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• Creating a Training Lab on Windows Azure

  - by Michael Stephenson

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/michaelstephenson/archive/2013/06/17/153149.aspxThis week we are preparing for a training course that Alan Smith will be running for the support teams at one of my customers around Windows Azure. In order to facilitate the training lab we have a few prerequisites we need to handle. One of the biggest ones is that although the support team all have MSDN accounts the local desktops they work on are not ideal for running most of the labs as we want to give them some additional developer background training around Azure. Some recent Azure announcements really help us in this area: MSDN software can now be used on Azure VM You don't pay for Azure VM's when they are no longer used  Since the support team only have limited experience of Windows Azure and the organisation also have an Enterprise Agreement we decided it would be best value for money to spin up a training lab in a subscription on the EA and then we can turn the machines off when we are done. At the same time we would be able to spin them back up when the users need to do some additional lab work once the training course is completed. In order to achieve this I wanted to create a powershell script which would setup my training lab. The aim was to create 18 VM's which would be based on a prebuilt template with Visual Studio and the Azure development tools. The script I used is described below The Start & Variables The below text will setup the powershell environment and some variables which I will use elsewhere in the script. It will also import the Azure Powershell cmdlets. You can see below that I will need to download my publisher settings file and know some details from my Azure account. At this point I will assume you have a basic understanding of Azure & Powershell so already know how to do this. Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestrictedcls $startTime = get-dateImport-Module "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Azure\PowerShell\Azure\Azure.psd1"# Azure Publisher Settings $azurePublisherSettings = '<Your settings file>.publishsettings'  # Subscription Details $subscriptionName = "<Your subscription name>" $defaultStorageAccount = "<Your default storage account>"  # Affinity Group Details $affinityGroup = '<Your affinity group>' $dataCenter = 'West Europe' # From Get-AzureLocation  # VM Details $baseVMName = 'TRN' $adminUserName = '<Your admin username>' $password = '<Your admin password>' $size = 'Medium' $vmTemplate = '<The name of your VM template image>' $rdpFilePath = '<File path to save RDP files to>' $machineSettingsPath = '<File path to save machine info to>'    Functions In the next section of the script I have some functions which are used to perform certain actions. The first is called CreateVM. This will do the following actions: If the VM already exists it will be deleted Create the cloud service Create the VM from the template I have created Add an endpoint so we can RDP to them all over the same port Download the RDP file so there is a short cut the trainees can easily access the machine via Write settings for the machine to a log file  function CreateVM($machineNo) { # Specify a name for the new VM $machineName = "$baseVMName-$machineNo" Write-Host "Creating VM: $machineName"       # Get the Azure VM Image      $myImage = Get-AzureVMImage $vmTemplate   #If the VM already exists delete and re-create it $existingVm = Get-AzureVM -Name $machineName -ServiceName $serviceName if($existingVm -ne $null) { Write-Host "VM already exists so deleting it" Remove-AzureVM -Name $machineName -ServiceName $serviceName }   "Creating Service" $serviceName = "bupa-azure-train-$machineName" Remove-AzureService -Force -ServiceName $serviceName New-AzureService -Location $dataCenter -ServiceName $serviceName   Write-Host "Creating VM: $machineName" New-AzureQuickVM -Windows -name $machineName -ServiceName $serviceName -ImageName $myImage.ImageName -InstanceSize $size -AdminUsername $adminUserName -Password $password  Write-Host "Updating the RDP endpoint for $machineName" Get-AzureVM -name $machineName -ServiceName $serviceName ` | Add-AzureEndpoint -Name RDP -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 3389 -PublicPort 550 ` | Update-AzureVM    Write-Host "Get the RDP File for machine $machineName" $machineRDPFilePath = "$rdpFilePath\$machineName.rdp" Get-AzureRemoteDesktopFile -name $machineName -ServiceName $serviceName -LocalPath "$machineRDPFilePath"   WriteMachineSettings "$machineName" "$serviceName" }    The delete machine settings function is used to delete the log file before we start re-running the process.  function DeleteMachineSettings() { Write-Host "Deleting the machine settings output file" [System.IO.File]::Delete("$machineSettingsPath"); }    The write machine settings function will get the VM and then record its details to the log file. The importance of the log file is that I can easily provide the information for all of the VM's to our infrastructure team to be able to configure access to all of the VM's    function WriteMachineSettings([string]$vmName, [string]$vmServiceName) { Write-Host "Writing to the machine settings output file"   $vm = Get-AzureVM -name $vmName -ServiceName $vmServiceName $vmEndpoint = Get-AzureEndpoint -VM $vm -Name RDP   $sb = new-object System.Text.StringBuilder $sb.Append("Service Name: "); $sb.Append($vm.ServiceName); $sb.Append(", "); $sb.Append("VM: "); $sb.Append($vm.Name); $sb.Append(", "); $sb.Append("RDP Public Port: "); $sb.Append($vmEndpoint.Port); $sb.Append(", "); $sb.Append("Public DNS: "); $sb.Append($vmEndpoint.Vip); $sb.AppendLine(""); [System.IO.File]::AppendAllText($machineSettingsPath, $sb.ToString());  } # end functions    Rest of Script In the rest of the script it is really just the bit that orchestrates the actions we want to happen. It will load the publisher settings, select the Azure subscription and then loop around the CreateVM function and create 16 VM's  Import-AzurePublishSettingsFile $azurePublisherSettings Set-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $subscriptionName -CurrentStorageAccount $defaultStorageAccount Select-AzureSubscription -SubscriptionName $subscriptionName  DeleteMachineSettings    "Starting creating Bupa International Azure Training Lab" $numberOfVMs = 16  for ($index=1; $index -le $numberOfVMs; $index++) { $vmNo = "$index" CreateVM($vmNo); }    "Finished creating Bupa International Azure Training Lab" # Give it a Minute Start-Sleep -s 60  $endTime = get-date "Script run time " + ($endTime - $startTime)    Conclusion As you can see there is nothing too fancy about this script but in our case of creating a small isolated training lab which is not connected to our corporate network then we can easily use this to provision the lab. Im sure if this is of use to anyone you can easily modify it to do other things with the lab environment too. A couple of points to note are that there are some soft limits in Azure about the number of cores and services your subscription can use. You may need to contact the Azure support team to be able to increase this limit. In terms of the real business value of this approach, it was not possible to use the existing desktops to do the training on, and getting some internal virtual machines would have been relatively expensive and time consuming for our ops team to do. With the Azure option we are able to spin these machines up for a temporary period during the training course and then throw them away when we are done. We expect the costing of this test lab to be very small, especially considering we have EA pricing. As a ball park I think my 18 lab VM training environment will cost in the region of $80 per day on our EA. This is a fraction of the cost of the creation of a single VM on premise.

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• Source-control 'wet-work'?

  - by Phil Factor

  When a design or creative work is flawed beyond remedy, it is often best to destroy it and start again. The other day, I lost the code to a long and intricate SQL batch I was working on. I’d thought it was impossible, but it happened. With all the technology around that is designed to prevent this occurring, this sort of accident has become a rare event.  If it weren’t for a deranged laptop, and my distraction, the code wouldn’t have been lost this time.  As always, I sighed, had a soothing cup of tea, and typed it all in again.  The new code I hastily tapped in  was much better: I’d held in my head the essence of how the code should work rather than the details: I now knew for certain  the start point, the end, and how it should be achieved. Instantly the detritus of half-baked thoughts fell away and I was able to write logical code that performed better.  Because I could work so quickly, I was able to hold the details of all the columns and variables in my head, and the dynamics of the flow of data. It was, in fact, easier and quicker to start from scratch rather than tidy up and refactor the existing code with its inevitable fumbling and half-baked ideas. What a shame that technology is now so good that developers rarely experience the cleansing shock of losing one’s code and having to rewrite it from scratch.  If you’ve never accidentally lost  your code, then it is worth doing it deliberately once for the experience. Creative people have, until Technology mistakenly prevented it, torn up their drafts or sketches, threw them in the bin, and started again from scratch.  Leonardo’s obsessive reworking of the Mona Lisa was renowned because it was so unusual:  Most artists have been utterly ruthless in destroying work that didn’t quite make it. Authors are particularly keen on writing afresh, and the results are generally positive. Lawrence of Arabia actually lost the entire 250,000 word manuscript of ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ by accidentally leaving it on a train at Reading station, before rewriting a much better version.  Now, any writer or artist is seduced by technology into altering or refining their work rather than casting it dramatically in the bin or setting a light to it on a bonfire, and rewriting it from the blank page.  It is easy to pick away at a flawed work, but the real creative process is far more brutal. Once, many years ago whilst running a software house that supplied commercial software to local businesses, I’d been supervising an accounting system for a farming cooperative. No packaged system met their needs, and it was all hand-cut code.  For us, it represented a breakthrough as it was for a government organisation, and success would guarantee more contracts. As you’ve probably guessed, the code got mangled in a disk crash just a week before the deadline for delivery, and the many backups all proved to be entirely corrupted by a faulty tape drive.  There were some fragments left on individual machines, but they were all of different versions.  The developers were in despair.  Strangely, I managed to re-write the bulk of a three-month project in a manic and caffeine-soaked weekend.  Sure, that elegant universally-applicable input-form routine was‘nt quite so elegant, but it didn’t really need to be as we knew what forms it needed to support.  Yes, the code lacked architectural elegance and reusability. By dawn on Monday, the application passed its integration tests. The developers rose to the occasion after I’d collapsed, and tidied up what I’d done, though they were reproachful that some of the style and elegance had gone out of the application. By the delivery date, we were able to install it. It was a smaller, faster application than the beta they’d seen and the user-interface had a new, rather Spartan, appearance that we swore was done to conform to the latest in user-interface guidelines. (we switched to Helvetica font to look more ‘Bauhaus’ ). The client was so delighted that he forgave the new bugs that had crept in. I still have the disk that crashed, up in the attic. In IT, we have had mixed experiences from complete re-writes. Lotus 123 never really recovered from a complete rewrite from assembler into C, Borland made the mistake with Arago and Quattro Pro  and Netscape’s complete rewrite of their Navigator 4 browser was a white-knuckle ride. In all cases, the decision to rewrite was a result of extreme circumstances where no other course of action seemed possible.   The rewrite didn’t come out of the blue. I prefer to remember the rewrite of Minix by young Linus Torvalds, or the rewrite of Bitkeeper by a slightly older Linus.  The rewrite of CP/M didn’t do too badly either, did it? Come to think of it, the guy who decided to rewrite the windowing system of the Xerox Star never regretted the decision. I’ll agree that one should often resist calls for a rewrite. One of the worst habits of the more inexperienced programmer is to denigrate whatever code he or she inherits, and then call loudly for a complete rewrite. They are buoyed up by the mistaken belief that they can do better. This, however, is a different psychological phenomenon, more related to the idea of some motorcyclists that they are operating on infinite lives, or the occasional squaddies that if they charge the machine-guns determinedly enough all will be well. Grim experience brings out the humility in any experienced programmer.  I’m referring to quite different circumstances here. Where a team knows the requirements perfectly, are of one mind on methodology and coding standards, and they already have a solution, then what is wrong with considering  a complete rewrite? Rewrites are so painful in the early stages, until that point where one realises the payoff, that even I quail at the thought. One needs a natural disaster to push one over the edge. The trouble is that source-control systems, and disaster recovery systems, are just too good nowadays.   If I were to lose this draft of this very blog post, I know I’d rewrite it much better. However, if you read this, you’ll know I didn’t have the nerve to delete it and start again.  There was a time that one prayed that unreliable hardware would deliver you from an unmaintainable mess of a codebase, but now technology has made us almost entirely immune to such a merciful act of God. An old friend of mine with long experience in the software industry has long had the idea of the ‘source-control wet-work’,  where one hires a malicious hacker in some wild eastern country to hack into one’s own  source control system to destroy all trace of the source to an application. Alas, backup systems are just too good to make this any more than a pipedream. Somehow, it would be difficult to promote the idea. As an alternative, could one construct a source control system that, on doing all the code-quality metrics, would systematically destroy all trace of source code that failed the quality test? Alas, I can’t see many managers buying into the idea. In reading the full story of the near-loss of Toy Story 2, it set me thinking. It turned out that the lucky restoration of the code wasn’t the happy ending one first imagined it to be, because they eventually came to the conclusion that the plot was fundamentally flawed and it all had to be rewritten anyway.  Was this an early  case of the ‘source-control wet-job’?’ It is very hard nowadays to do a rapid U-turn in a development project because we are far too prone to cling to our existing source-code.

  Read the article

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