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• Yes, I did it - Skydiving in Mauritius

  Finally, I did it or better said we did it. Already back in November last year I saw the big billboard advertisement of Skydive Austral Mauritius near Caudan Waterfront in Port Louis and decided for myself that this is going to be the perfect birthday gift for my wife. Simply out of curiosity I would join her tandem jump with a second instructor. Due to her pregnancy of our son I had to be patient... But then finally, her birthday had arrived and on our midnight celebration session I showed her her netbook with the website preloaded. Actually, it was the "perfect" timing... Recovery from her cesarean is fine, local weather conditions are gorgious and the children were under surveillance of my mum - spending her annual holidays on the island. So, after late wake-up in the morning, we packed our stuff and off we went. According to Google Maps direction indication we had to drive for roughly 50km (only) but traffic here in Mauritius is always challenging. The dropzone is at the Zone Industrielle Mon Loisir Sugar Estate near Riviere du Rempart at the northern east coast. Anyways, we were not in a hurry and arrived there shortly after noon. The access road to the airfield are just small down-driven paths through sugar cane fields and according to our daughter "it's bumpy!". True true true... The facilities at Skydive Austral Mauritius are complete except for food. Enough space for parking, easy handling at the reception and a lot to see for the kids. There's even a big terrace with several sets of tables and chairs, small bar for soft drinks, strictly non-alcoholic. The team over there is all welcoming and warm-hearthy! Having the kids with us was no issue at all. Quite the opposite, our daugther was allowed to discover a lot of things than we adults did. Even visiting the small air plane was on the menu for her. Really great stuff! While waiting for our turn we enjoyed watching other people getting ready in the jump gear, taking off with the Cessna, and finally coming back down on the tandem parachute. Actually, the different expressions on their faces was one of the best parts while waiting. Great mental preparation as my wife was getting more anxious about her first jump... {loadposition content_adsense} First, we got some information about the procedures on the plane about how to get seated, tight up with our instructors and how to get ready for the jump off the plane as soon as we arrive the height of 10.000 ft. All well explained and easy to understand after all.Next, we met with our jumpers Chris and Lee aka "Rasta" to get dressed and ready for take-off. Those guys are really cool and relaxed for their job. From that point on, the DVD session / recording for my wife's birthday started and we really had a lot of fun... The difference between that small Cessna and a commercial flight with an Airbus or a Boeing is astronomic! The climb up to 10.000 ft took us roughly 25 minutes and we enjoyed the magnificent view over the turquoise lagunes near Poste de Flacq, Lafayette and Isle d'Ambre on the north-east coast. After flying through the clouds we sun-bathed and looked over "iced-sugar covered" Mauritius. You might have a look at the picture gallery of Skydive Mauritius for better imagination. The moment of truth, or better said, point of no return came after approximately 25 minutes. The door opens, moving into position on the side on top of the wheel and... out! Back flip and free fall! Slight turns and Wooooohooooo! through the clouds... It so amazing and breath-taking! So undescribable! You have to experience this yourself! Some seconds later the parachute opened and we glided smoothly with some turns and spins back down to the dropzone. The rest of the family could hear and see us soon and the landing was easy going. We never had any doubts or fear about our instructors. They did a great job and we are looking forward to book our next job. I might even consider to follow educational classes on skydiving and earn a license. By the way, feel free to get in touch with Skydive Austral Mauritius. Either via contact details on their website or tweeting a little bit with them. Follow the tweets of Chris and fellows on SkydiveAustral.

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• The Unintended Consequences of Sound Security Policy

  - by Tanu Sood

  v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} Author: Kevin Moulton, CISSP, CISM Meet the Author: Kevin Moulton, Senior Sales Consulting Manager, Oracle Kevin Moulton, CISSP, CISM, has been in the security space for more than 25 years, and with Oracle for 7 years. He manages the East Enterprise Security Sales Consulting Team. He is also a Distinguished Toastmaster. Follow Kevin on Twitter at twitter.com/kevin_moulton, where he sometimes tweets about security, but might also tweet about running, beer, food, baseball, football, good books, or whatever else grabs his attention. Kevin will be a regular contributor to this blog so stay tuned for more posts from him. When I speak to a room of IT administrators, I like to begin by asking them if they have implemented a complex password policy. Generally, they all nod their heads enthusiastically. I ask them if that password policy requires long passwords. More nodding. I ask if that policy requires upper and lower case letters – faster nodding – numbers – even faster – special characters – enthusiastic nodding all around! I then ask them if their policy also includes a requirement for users to regularly change their passwords. Now we have smiles with the nodding! I ask them if the users have different IDs and passwords on the many systems that they have access to. Of course! I then ask them if, when they walk around the building, they see something like this: Thanks to Jake Ludington for the nice example. Can these administrators be faulted for their policies? Probably not but, in the end, end-users will find a way to get their job done efficiently. Post-It Notes to the rescue! I was visiting a business in New York City one day which was a perfect example of this problem. First I walked up to the security desk and told them where I was headed. They asked me if they should call upstairs to have someone escort me. Is that my call? Is that policy? I said that I knew where I was going, so they let me go. Having the conference room number handy, I wandered around the place in a search of my destination. As I walked around, unescorted, I noticed the post-it note problem in abundance. Had I been so inclined, I could have logged in on almost any machine and into any number of systems. When I reached my intended conference room, I mentioned my post-it note observation to the two gentlemen with whom I was meeting. One of them said, “You mean like this,” and he produced a post it note full of login IDs and passwords from his breast pocket! I gave him kudos for not hanging the list on his monitor. We then talked for the rest of the meeting about the difficulties faced by the employees due to the security policies. These policies, although well-intended, made life very difficult for the end-users. Most users had access to 8 to 12 systems, and the passwords for each expired at a different times. The post-it note solution was understandable. Who could remember even half of them? What could this customer have done differently? I am a fan of using a provisioning system, such as Oracle Identity Manager, to manage all of the target systems. With OIM, and email could be automatically sent to all users when it was time to change their password. The end-users would follow a link to change their password on a web page, and then OIM would propagate that password out to all of the systems that the user had access to, even if the login IDs were different. Another option would be an Enterprise Single-Sign On Solution. With Oracle eSSO, all of a user’s credentials would be stored in a central, encrypted credential store. The end-user would only have to login to their machine each morning and then, as they moved to each new system, Oracle eSSO would supply the credentials. Good-bye post-it notes! 3M may be disappointed, but your end users will thank you. I hear people say that this post-it note problem is not a big deal, because the only people who would see the passwords are fellow employees. Do you really know who is walking around your building? What are the password policies in your business? How do the end-users respond?

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• Inside Red Gate - Be Reasonable!

  - by simonc

  As I discussed in my previous posts, divisions and project teams within Red Gate are allowed a lot of autonomy to manage themselves. It's not just the teams though, there's an awful lot of freedom given to individual employees within the company as well. Reasonableness How Red Gate treats it's employees is embodied in the phrase 'You will be reasonable with us, and we will be reasonable with you'. As an employee, you are trusted to do your job to the best of you ability. There's no one looking over your shoulder, no one clocking you in and out each day. Everyone is working at the company because they want to, and one of the core ideas of Red Gate is that the company exists to 'let people do the best work of their lives'. Everything is geared towards that. To help you do your job, office services and the IT department are there. If you need something to help you work better (a third or fourth monitor, footrests, or a new keyboard) then ask people in Information Systems (IS) or Office Services and you will be given it, no questions asked. Everyone has administrator access to their own machines, and you can install whatever you want on it. If there's a particular bit of software you need, then ask IS and they will buy it. As an example, last year I wanted to replace my main hard drive with an SSD; I had a summer job at school working in a computer repair shop, so knew what to do. I went to IS and asked for 'an SSD, a SATA cable, and a screwdriver'. And I got it there and then, even the screwdriver. Awesome. I screwed it in myself, copied all my main drive files across, and I was good to go. Of course, if you're not happy doing that yourself, then IS will sort it all out for you, no problems. If you need something that the company doesn't have (say, a book off Amazon, or you need some specifications printing off & bound), then everyone has a expense limit of £100 that you can use without any sign-off needed from your managers. If you need a company credit card for whatever reason, then you can get it. This freedom extends to working hours and holiday; you're expected to be in the office 11am-3pm each day, but outside those times you can work whenever you want. If you need a half-day holiday on a days notice, or even the same day, then you'll get it, unless there's a good reason you're needed that day. If you need to work from home for a day or so for whatever reason, then you can. If it's reasonable, then it's allowed. Trust issues? A lot of trust, and a lot of leeway, is given to all the people in Red Gate. Everyone is expected to work hard, do their jobs to the best of their ability, and there will be a minimum of bureaucratic obstacles that stop you doing your work. What happens if you abuse this trust? Well, an example is company trip expenses. You're free to expense what you like; food, drink, transport, etc, but if you expenses are not reasonable, then you will never travel with the company again. Simple as that. Everyone knows when they're abusing the system, so simply don't do it. Along with reasonableness, another phrase used is 'Don't be an a**hole'. If you act like an a**hole, and abuse any of the trust placed in you, even if you're the best tester, salesperson, dev, or manager in the company, then you won't be a part of the company any more. From what I know about other companies, employee trust is highly variable between companies, all the way up to CCTV trained on employee's monitors. As a dev, I want to produce well-written & useful code that solves people's problems. Being able to get whatever I need - install whatever tools I need, get time off when I need to, obtain reference books within a day - all let me do my job, and so let Red Gate help other people do their own jobs through the tools we produce. Plus, I don't think I would like working for a company that doesn't allow admin access to your own machine and blocks Facebook! Cross posted from Simple Talk.

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• How to Hashtag (Without Being #Annoying)

  - by Mike Stiles

  The right tool in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing. Giving a chimpanzee a chain saw would not be a pretty picture. And putting Twitter hashtags in the hands of social marketers who were never really sure how to use them can be equally unattractive. Boiled down, hashtags are for search and organization of tweets. A notch up from that, they can also be used as part of a marketing strategy. In terms of search, if you’re in the organic apple business, you want anyone who searches “organic” on Twitter to see your posts about your apples. It’s keyword tactics not unlike web site keyword search tactics. So get a clear idea of what keywords are relevant for your tweet. It’s reasonable to include #organic in your tweet. Is it fatal if you don’t hashtag the word? It depends on the person searching. If they search “organic,” your tweet’s going to come up even if you didn’t put the hashtag in front of it. If the searcher enters “#organic,” your tweet needs the hashtag. Err on the side of caution and hashtag it so it comes up no matter how the searcher enters it. You’ll also want to hashtag it for the second big reason people hashtag, organization. You can follow a hashtag. So can the rest of the Twitterverse. If you’re that into organic munchies, you can set up a stream populated only with tweets hashtagged #organic. If you’ve established a hashtag for your brand, like #nobugsprayapples, you (and everyone else) can watch what people are tweeting about your company. So what kind of hashtags should you include? They should be directly related to the core message of your tweet. Ancillary or very loosely-related hashtags = annoying. Hashtagging your brand makes sense. Hashtagging your core area of interest makes sense. Creating a specific event or campaign hashtag you want others to include and spread makes sense (the burden is on you to promote it and get it going). Hashtagging nearly every word in the tweet is highly annoying. Far and away, the majority of hashtagged words in such tweets have no relevance, are not terms that would be searched, and are not terms needed for categorization. It looks desperate and spammy. Two is fine. One is better. And it is possible to tweet with --gasp-- no hashtags! Make your hashtags as short as you can. In fact, if your brand’s name really is #nobugsprayapples, you’re burning up valuable, limited characters and risking the inability of others to retweet with added comments. Also try to narrow your topic hashtag down. You’ll find a lot of relevant users with #organic, but a lot of totally uninterested users with #food. Just as you can join online forums and gain credibility and a reputation by contributing regularly to that forum, you can follow hashtagged topics and gain the same kind of credibility in your area of expertise. Don’t just parachute in for the occasional marketing message. And if you’re constantly retweeting one particular person, stop it. It’s kissing up and it’s obvious. Which brings us to the king of hashtag annoyances, “hashjacking.” This is when you see what terms are hot and include them in your marketing tweet as a hashtag, even though it’s unrelated to your content. Justify it all you want, but #justinbieber has nothing to do with your organic apples. Equally annoying, piggybacking on a popular event’s hashtag to tweet something not connected to the event. You’re only fostering ill will and mistrust toward your account from the people you’ve tricked into seeing your tweet. Lastly, don’t @ mention people just to make sure they see your tweet. If the tweet’s not for them or about them, it’s spammy. What I haven’t covered is use of the hashtag for comedy’s sake. You’ll see this a lot and is a matter of personal taste. No one will search these hashtagged terms or need to categorize then, they’re just there for self-expression and laughs. Twitter is, after all, supposed to be fun.  What are some of your biggest Twitter pet peeves? #blogsovernow

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• How do I dig myself out of this DEEP hole? [closed]

  - by user74847

  I may be a bit bias in the way i word this but any opinions and suggestions are welcome. I should start by saying i have a MSc in CS and a degree in new media +6 years expereince and im probably around a middleweight developer. I started a web development company with my friend from uni a year ago, there was a 4 month gap in the middle where i went miles away work on a big project. Ive since returned and picked up where we left off. A year on though i find im still staying up til 5am and getting up at 9 sometimes 2-3 days without sleep. While i was away i was working 9-5 and struggling to keep up with doing stuff for my clients 8 hours ahead, after work, so things stagnated. We currently have about 12 active projects, with one other part time developer and a full time freelancer who is dealing with one of our major projects. I am solely responsible for concurrently developing 2 big sites similar to gumtree in functionality, at the same time as about 5-6+ small WordPress based 5-10page sites. a lot of the content isnt in yet or the client is delaying so i chop and change project every other day which does my head in. Is it reasonable to expect myself to remember the intricate details of each project when i come back to it a week later? and remember the details of a task which hasnt been written down? my business partner seems to think so. or am i just forgetful? Im particularly bad at estimating timescales which doesnt help, added to that a lot of the technologies im am using are new to me (a magento site took weeks to theme rather than days and was full of bugs, even after 1000's of google searches and hours reading forums) im still trying to learn and find the best CMS for us to use and getting my head around the likes of Bootstrap and jquery, Cpanel / Linux (we just got a blank vps for me to set up with no experience) even installing an SSL certificate caused everyone's mail clients to go down which was more stress for me to sort out. I find the pressure of the workload and timescales and trying to learn this stuff so fast is beginning to turn me against my career path. The fact that i never seem to get anything done really winds up my business partner and iv come to associate him with the stress and pain of the whole situation especially when I get berated or a look that says "oh you retard" when I forget something. Even today i spent hours learning how a particular themeforest theme worked with wordpress and how i could twist it to work for our partiuclar needs, on the surface had done no work, that triggered a 30 minute tirade of anger and stress and questioning what i had done from my business partner. had i taken too long to work on that? shoudl i have done it in 2 hours instead of 6? i told him i would take 2 hours. i was wrong. I feel like im running myself into the ground. My sleeping pattern has got so bad that when im working im half asleep and making mistakes, my eyes are constantly purple underneath, i literally fall asleep at my desk, its affecting my social life too, ive not slept more than lightly for the last year and grind through impossible code puzzles in my half sleep wich keeps me awake, when im already exhausted. plus the work is rushed and buggy when it does get done so drags on into the next project. I also procrastinate quite badly, pacing the livingroom, looking out the window when Im alone for three days straight in the flat and start to get cabin fever which means i do even less work and the negative feedback loop continues. I get told im the only one with the problem when i say that i cant work from home any more, and examples of other freelancers get brought up. an office wouldnt bring any extra cash in to the company but im convinced having that moving more than 2 meters away from my bed to go to "work" would get me working, at the moment i feel guilty like i should be working 24-7. It is important that we do all this work to raise enough cash to get our business to the next level but every month still feels like a struggle to pay the rent (there is about £20K coming in by Jan) and i have to borrow money from friends often to buy food or get a taxi to a meeting, so it is vital the money keeps coming in. (im also 20 mins late for nearly all meetings but thats a different issue) have you experienced anything similar? how can i deal with the issues ive raised? is it realistic to develop 10 sites at once? how can i improve my relationship with my business partner? do you struggle to work at home? how do you deal with that? i think if i dont get my life on track by feb i will seriously consider giving it all up, but that seems like such a waste. any ideas!!? i need help! Thanks.

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• insert/update/delete with xml in .net 3.5

  - by Radhi

  Hello guys, i have "UserProfile" in my site which we have stored in xml fromat of xml is as below <UserProfile xmlns=""> <BasicInfo> <Title value="Basic Details" /> <Fields> <UserId title="UserId" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <EmailAddress title="Email Address" display="Yes" right="Public" value="[email protected]" /> <FirstName title="First Name" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Radhi" /> <LastName title="Last Name" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Patel" /> <DisplayName title="Display Name" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Radhi Patel" /> <RegistrationStatusId title="RegistrationStatusId" display="No" right="Public" value="10" /> <RegistrationStatus title="Registration Status" display="Yes" right="Private" value="Registered" /> <CountryName title="Country" display="Yes" right="Public" value="India" /> <StateName title="State" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Maharashtra" /> <CityName title="City" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Mumbai" /> <Gender title="Gender" display="Yes" right="Public" value="FeMale" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="0" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Nov 27 2009 3:08PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Feb 18 2010 1:43PM " /> <LogInStatusId title="LogInStatusId" display="No" right="Public" value="1" /> <LogInStatus title="LogIn Status" display="Yes" right="Private" value="Free" /> <ProfileImagePath title="Profile Pic" display="No" right="Public" value="~/Images/96.jpg" /> </Fields> </BasicInfo> <PersonalInfo> <Title value="Personal Details" /> <Fields> <Nickname title="Nick Name" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Rahul" /> <NativeLocation title="Native" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Amreli" /> <DateofAnniversary title="Anniversary Dt." display="Yes" right="Public" value="12/29/2008" /> <BloodGroupId title="BloodGroupId" display="No" right="Public" value="25" /> <BloodGroupName title="Blood Group" display="Yes" right="Public" value="25" /> <MaritalStatusId title="MaritalStatusId" display="No" right="Public" value="34" /> <MaritalStatusName title="Marital status" display="Yes" right="Private" value="34" /> <DateofDeath title="Death dt" display="Yes" right="Private" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Jan 6 2010 2:59PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="3/10/2010 5:34:14 PM" /> </Fields> </PersonalInfo> <FamilyInfo> <Title value="Family Details" /> <Fields> <GallantryHistory title="Gallantry History" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Gallantry history rahul" /> <Ethinicity title="Ethinicity" display="Yes" right="Public" value="ethnicity rahul" /> <KulDev title="KulDev" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Krishna" /> <KulDevi title="KulDevi" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Khodiyar" /> <Caste title="Caste" display="Yes" right="Private" value="Brhamin" /> <SunSignId title="SunSignId" display="No" right="Public" value="20" /> <SunSignName title="SunSignName" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Scorpio" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Dec 29 2009 4:59PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="3/10/2010 6:29:56 PM" /> </Fields> </FamilyInfo> <HobbyInfo> <Title value="Hobbies/Interests" /> <Fields> <AbountMe title="Abount Me" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Naughty.... " /> <Hobbies title="Hobbies" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Dance, Music, decoration, Shopping" /> <Food title="Food" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Maxican salsa, Pizza, Khoya kaju " /> <Movies title="Movies" display="Yes" right="Public" value="day after tommorrow. wake up sid. avatar" /> <Music title="Music" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Chu kar mere man ko... wake up sid songs, slow music, apgk songs" /> <TVShows title="TV Shows" display="Yes" right="Public" value="business bazzigar, hanah montana" /> <Books title="Books" display="Yes" right="Public" value="mystry novels" /> <Sports title="Sports" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Badminton" /> <Will title="Will" display="Yes" right="Public" value="do photography, to have my own super home... and i can decorate it like anything..." /> <FavouriteQuotes title="Favourite Quotes" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Live like a king nothing lasts forever. not even your troubles smooth sea do not makes skillfull sailors" /> <CremationPrefernces title="Cremation Prefernces" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Feb 24 2010 2:13PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Mar 2 2010 4:34PM " /> </Fields> </HobbyInfo> <PermenantAddr> <Title value="Permenant Address" /> <Fields> <Address title="Address" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Test Entry" /> <CityId title="CityId" display="No" right="Public" value="93" /> <CityName title="City" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Chennai" /> <StateId title="StateId" display="No" right="Public" value="89" /> <StateName title="State" display="Yes" right="Public" value="Tamil Nadu" /> <CountryId title="CountryId" display="No" right="Public" value="108" /> <CountryName title="Country" display="Yes" right="Public" value="India" /> <ZipCode title="ZipCode" display="Yes" right="Private" value="360019" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Jan 6 2010 1:29PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value=" " /> </Fields> </PermenantAddr> <PresentAddr> <Title value="Present Address" /> <Fields> <Address title="Ethinicity" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <CityId title="CityId" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <CityName title="City" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <StateId title="StateId" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <StateName title="State" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <CountryId title="CountryId" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <CountryName title="Country" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <ZipCode title="ZipCode" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="" /> </Fields> </PresentAddr> <ContactInfo> <Title value="Contact Details" /> <Fields> <DayPhoneNo title="Day Phone" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <NightPhoneNo title="Night Phone" display="Yes" right="Public" value="" /> <MobileNo title="Mobile No" display="Yes" right="Private" value="" /> <FaxNo title="Fax No" display="Yes" right="CUG" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Jan 5 2010 12:37PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" right="Public" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" right="Public" value="Feb 17 2010 1:37PM " /> </Fields> </ContactInfo> <EmailInfo> <Title value="Alternate Email Addresses" /> <Fields /> </EmailInfo> <AcademicInfo> <Title value="Education Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Education title="Education" display="Yes" value="Full Attendance" /> <Institute title="Institute" display="Yes" value="Attendance" /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" display="Yes" value="2000" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 12:41PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 12:41PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Education title="Education" display="Yes" value="D.C.E." /> <Institute title="Institute" display="Yes" value="G.P.G" /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" display="Yes" value="2005" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 12:45PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 12:45PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Education title="Education" display="Yes" value="MCSE" /> <Institute title="Institute" display="Yes" value="MCSE" /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" display="Yes" value="2009" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 6:12PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Mar 2 2010 4:33PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Education title="Education" display="Yes" value="H.S.C." /> <Institute title="Institute" display="Yes" value="G.H.S.E.B." /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" display="Yes" value="2002" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 6:17PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 6:17PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Education title="Education" display="Yes" value="S.S.C." /> <Institute title="Institute" display="Yes" value="G.S.E.B." /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" display="Yes" value="2000" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 6:17PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 6:17PM " /> </Record> </Fields> </AcademicInfo> <AchievementInfo> <Title value="Achievement Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Awards title="Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <FieldOfAward title="Field Of Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Tournament title="Tournament" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <AwardDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <AwardYear title="Award Year" display="Yes" value="2002" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 3:51PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 3:51PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Awards title="Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <FieldOfAward title="Field Of Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Tournament title="Tournament" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <AwardDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <AwardYear title="Award Year" display="Yes" value="2005" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Jan 8 2010 10:19AM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Jan 8 2010 10:19AM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Awards title="Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry3" /> <FieldOfAward title="Field Of Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry3" /> <Tournament title="Tournament" display="Yes" value="Test Entry3" /> <AwardDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry3" /> <AwardYear title="Award Year" display="Yes" value="2007" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="true" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 11:47AM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 11:47AM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Awards title="Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry4" /> <FieldOfAward title="Field Of Award" display="Yes" value="Test Entry4" /> <Tournament title="Tournament" display="Yes" value="Test Entry4" /> <AwardDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry3" /> <AwardYear title="Award Year" display="Yes" value="2000" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 11:47AM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Dec 31 2009 11:47AM " /> </Record> </Fields> </AchievementInfo> <ProfessionalInfo> <Title value="Professional Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Occupation title="Occupation" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Organization title="Organization" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Duration title="Duration" display="Yes" value="26" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Occupation title="Occupation" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Organization title="Organization" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Duration title="Duration" display="Yes" value="10" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Occupation title="Occupation" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Organization title="Organization" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" display="Yes" value="Test Entry" /> <Duration title="Duration" display="Yes" value="15" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" display="No" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" display="No" value="12" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" display="No" value="Jan 4 2010 3:01PM " /> </Record> </Fields> </ProfessionalInfo> </UserProfile> now for tags like PersonalInfo,contactInfo,Address there will be only one record, but for tags like "OtherInfo","academicInfo","ProfessionalInfo" there will be multiple records so in xml there are tags for that. now to edit tags having one record only for one user i did coding like: private void FillFamilyInfoControls(XElement rootElement) { ddlSunsign.DataBind(); XElement parentElement; string xPathQuery = "FamilyInfo/Fields"; parentElement = rootElement.XPathSelectElement(xPathQuery); txtGallantryHistory.Text = parentElement.Element("GallantryHistory").Attribute("value").Value; txtEthinicity.Text = parentElement.Element("Ethinicity").Attribute("value").Value; txtKulDev.Text = parentElement.Element("KulDev").Attribute("value").Value; txtKulDevi.Text = parentElement.Element("KulDevi").Attribute("value").Value; txtCaste.Text = parentElement.Element("Caste").Attribute("value").Value; ddlSunsign.SelectedValue = parentElement.Element("SunSignId").Attribute("value").Value; ddlSunsign.SelectedItem.Text = parentElement.Element("SunSignName").Attribute("value").Value; } private XElement UpdateFamilyInfoXML(XElement rootElement) { XElement parentElement; string xPathQuery = "FamilyInfo/Fields"; parentElement = rootElement.XPathSelectElement(xPathQuery); parentElement.Element("GallantryHistory").Attribute("value").Value = txtGallantryHistory.Text; parentElement.Element("Ethinicity").Attribute("value").Value = txtEthinicity.Text; parentElement.Element("KulDev").Attribute("value").Value = txtKulDev.Text; parentElement.Element("KulDevi").Attribute("value").Value = txtKulDevi.Text; parentElement.Element("Caste").Attribute("value").Value = txtCaste.Text; parentElement.Element("SunSignId").Attribute("value").Value = ddlSunsign.SelectedItem.Value; parentElement.Element("SunSignName").Attribute("value").Value = ddlSunsign.SelectedItem.Text; parentElement.Element("ModifiedBy").Attribute("value").Value = UMSession.CurrentLoggedInUser.UserId.ToString(); parentElement.Element("ModifiedOn").Attribute("value").Value = System.DateTime.Now.ToString(); return rootElement; //rootElement.XPathSelectElement(xPathQuery) = parentElement; } these 2 functions i have used to update xml and to get data from xml and fill into controls. but for the tags where there are multiple records... i am not able to find any solution /control using which i an do it easily. coz my field's value is in attribute named "Value" when in the examples i saw its between opening and closing tag.. i have 2 methods to do so. 1 . i make one page to edit a single record and pass id of record to that page on editing. open the page in iframe on same page to edit and in page_load get data from database for id passed and fill it in control. 2 . i store xml on server as physical file and use it in page i opened in iframe to edit the record. so i am confused... can anybody please guide me that what shpould i do to let user provide interface to edit this xml data/user profile ?

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• how to do gedcom import with minimal database roundtrip. what is best practice for this kind of dev

  - by Radhi

  In My current application, I need to import users from gedcom file. these users may exist in my registered users or i need to create one registered user for the same. now gedcom file contain s many information e.g. PersonalDetails,Addresses, Education Details, ProfessionalDetails this is one sample of xml file we are storing to store user's profile. <UserProfile xmlns=""> <BasicInfo> <Title value="Basic Details" /> <Fields> <UserId title="UserId" right="Public" value="151" /> <EmailAddress title="Email Address" right="CUG" value="[email protected]" /> <FirstName title="First Name" right="Public" value="Anju" /> <LastName title="Last Name" right="Public" value="Trivedi" /> <DisplayName title="Display Name" right="Private" value="Anju" /> <RegistrationStatusId title="RegistrationStatusId" right="Public" value="10" /> <RegistrationStatus title="Registration Status" right="Private" value="Registered" /> <CityId title="CityId" right="Private" value="19" /> <CityName title="City" right="Public" value="Delhi" /> <StateId title="StateId" right="Private" value="69" /> <StateName title="State" right="Public" value="Delhi" /> <CountryId title="CountryId" right="Private" value="109" /> <CountryName title="Country" right="Public" value="India" /> <Gender title="Gender" right="Private" value="Male" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Nov 27 2009 3:08PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Mar 3 2010 6:56PM " /> <LogInStatusId title="LogInStatusId" right="Public" value="1" /> <LogInStatus title="LogIn Status" right="Private" value="Free" /> <ProfileImagePath title="Profile Pic" right="Public" value="~/Images/13_HolidayBarbie07CL2010427143129.jpg" /> <ProfileThumbnailPath title="Profile Thumbnail" right="Public" value="~/Images/Thumb13_HolidayBarbie07CL2010427143129.jpg" /> </Fields> </BasicInfo> <PersonalInfo> <Title value="Personal Details" /> <Fields> <Nickname title="Nick Name" right="Public" value="Anju" /> <NativeLocation title="Native" right="Public" value="Mehsana" /> <DateofAnniversary title="Anniversary Dt." right="Private" value="4/1/2010" /> <BloodGroupId title="BloodGroupId" right="Public" value="24" /> <BloodGroupName title="Blood Group" right="Public" value="A+" /> <MaritalStatusId title="MaritalStatusId" right="Private" value="35" /> <MaritalStatusName title="Marital status" right="Private" value="UnMarried" /> <DateofDeath title="Death dt" right="Private" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="4/27/2010 2:32:07 PM" /> <DateOfBirth title="Birth Date" value="" right="CUG" /> <BirthPlace title="Birth Place" value="Jaipur" right="Private" /> </Fields> </PersonalInfo> <FamilyInfo> <Title value="Family Details" /> <Fields> <GallantryHistory title="Gallantry History" right="Public" value="Anjli History" /> <Ethinicity title="Ethinicity" right="Public" value="Indian" /> <KulDev title="KulDev" right="Public" value="Krishna" /> <KulDevi title="KulDevi" right="Public" value="Lakhsmi" /> <Caste title="Caste" right="Private" value="Vaishnav" /> <SunSignId title="SunSignId" right="Public" value="15" /> <SunSignName title="SunSignName" right="Public" value="Gemini" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Dec 11 2009 12:00AM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Dec 11 2009 12:00AM " /> </Fields> </FamilyInfo> <HobbyInfo> <Title value="Hobbies/Interests" /> <Fields> <AbountMe title="Abount Me" right="Public" value="" /> <Hobbies title="Hobbies" right="Public" value="" /> <Food title="Food" right="Public" value="" /> <Movies title="Movies" right="Public" value="" /> <Music title="Music" right="Public" value="" /> <TVShows title="TV Shows" right="Public" value="" /> <Books title="Books" right="Public" value="" /> <Sports title="Sports" right="Public" value="" /> <Will title="Will" right="Public" value="" /> <FavouriteQuotes title="Favourite Quotes" right="Public" value="" /> <CremationPrefernces title="Cremation Prefernces" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="" /> </Fields> </HobbyInfo> <PermenantAddr> <Title value="Permenant Address" /> <Fields> <Address title="Address" right="Public" value="Select" /> <CityId title="CityId" right="Public" value="116" /> <CityName title="City" right="Public" value="Iran" /> <StateId title="StateId" right="Public" value="95" /> <StateName title="State" right="Public" value="Iran" /> <CountryId title="CountryId" right="Public" value="7" /> <CountryName title="Country" right="Public" value="Afghanistan" /> <ZipCode title="ZipCode" right="Private" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="4/6/2010 10:48:39 AM" /> </Fields> </PermenantAddr> <PresentAddr> <Title value="Present Address" /> <Fields> <Address title="Address" right="Public" value="Select" /> <CityId title="CityId" right="Public" value="1" /> <CityName title="City" right="Public" value="Select" /> <StateId title="StateId" right="Public" value="1" /> <StateName title="State" right="Public" value="Select" /> <CountryId title="CountryId" right="Public" value="1" /> <CountryName title="Country" right="Public" value="Select" /> <ZipCode title="ZipCode" right="Private" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="" /> </Fields> </PresentAddr> <ContactInfo> <Title value="Contact Details" /> <Fields> <DayPhoneNo title="Day Phone" right="Public" value="" /> <NightPhoneNo title="Night Phone" right="Public" value="" /> <MobileNo title="Mobile No" right="Private" value="" /> <FaxNo title="Fax No" right="CUG" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="" /> </Fields> </ContactInfo> <EmailInfo> <Title value="Alternate Email Addresses" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="3" /> <Provider title="Provider" right="Public" value="google" /> <EmailAddress title="Email Address" right="Public" value="[email protected]" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Mar 3 2010 10:17AM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value=" " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="4" /> <Provider title="Provider" right="Public" value="Yahoo" /> <EmailAddress title="Email Address" right="Public" value="[email protected]" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Mar 3 2010 6:53PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value=" " /> </Record> <Record right="Private"> <Provider value="111" right="Private" /> <EmailAddress value="[email protected]" right="Private" /> <Id value="5" /> <IsActive value="true" right="Private" /> <ModifiedBy value="13" right="Private" /> <ModifiedOn value="Tuesday, March 16, 2010" right="Private" /> </Record> </Fields> </EmailInfo> <AcademicInfo> <Title value="Education Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="0" /> <Education title="Education" right="Public" value="" /> <Institute title="Institute" right="Public" value="" /> <PassingYear title="Passing Year" right="Public" value="" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="" /> </Record> </Fields> </AcademicInfo> <AchievementInfo> <Title value="Achievement Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="0" /> <Awards title="Award" right="Public" value="" /> <FieldOfAward title="Field Of Award" right="Public" value="" /> <Tournament title="Tournament" right="Public" value="" /> <AwardDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="" /> <AwardYear title="Award Year" right="Public" value="" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="" /> </Record> </Fields> </AchievementInfo> <ProfessionalInfo> <Title value="Professional Details" /> <Fields> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="4" /> <Occupation title="Occupation" right="Public" value="a" /> <Organization title="Organization" right="Public" value="a" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="a" /> <Duration title="Duration" right="Public" value="2" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 7 2010 1:14PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 7 2010 1:14PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="5" /> <Occupation title="Occupation" right="Public" value="ab" /> <Organization title="Organization" right="Public" value="zsd" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="sd" /> <Duration title="Duration" right="Public" value="5" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 7 2010 1:15PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 7 2010 1:15PM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="8" /> <Occupation title="Occupation" right="Public" value="fgdf" /> <Organization title="Organization" right="Public" value="gdfg" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="dfgdf" /> <Duration title="Duration" right="Public" value="12" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Feb 22 2010 5:07PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 1 1900 12:00AM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="9" /> <Occupation title="Occupation" right="Public" value="fgdf" /> <Organization title="Organization" right="Public" value="gdfg" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="dfgdf" /> <Duration title="Duration" right="Public" value="12" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Feb 22 2010 5:11PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 1 1900 12:00AM " /> </Record> <Record right="Public"> <Id title="Id" right="Public" value="10" /> <Occupation title="Occupation" right="Public" value="fgdf" /> <Organization title="Organization" right="Public" value="gdfg" /> <ProjectsDescription title="Description" right="Public" value="dfgdf" /> <Duration title="Duration" right="Public" value="12" /> <IsActive title="IsActive" right="Public" value="false" /> <CreatedBy title="CreatedBy" right="Public" value="13" /> <CreatedOn title="CreatedOn" right="Public" value="Feb 22 2010 5:13PM " /> <ModifiedBy title="ModifiedBy" right="Public" value="0" /> <ModifiedOn title="ModifiedOn" right="Public" value="Jan 1 1900 12:00AM " /> </Record> </Fields> </ProfessionalInfo> <SecuritySettings> <AlbumRights> <Create value="Private" /> <View value="CUG" /> <Edit value="CUG" /> <Delete value="CUG" /> <PostComments value="CUG" /> <AddToAlbum value="CUG" /> </AlbumRights> <ImageRights> <Create value="Private" /> <View value="CUG" /> <Edit value="CUG" /> <Delete value="CUG" /> <PostComments value="Private" /> </ImageRights> </SecuritySettings> </UserProfile> now when i am importing data from gedcom, i am creating one person object which contains all this info. but before i insert it itodatabase have to check if userid exist for the emailaddress dont update data else create a user and update its profilexml from data fecthed from gedcom. for this i think i need some soln by which i can do only one roundtrip to database and can update all user's xml. or i can execute one sp to get userid from all users where i'll check if user exist then return userid else insert basic data and return inserted userid then for every user make xml from data and update it. please provide be suggestion what is best practice to do this kind of development. if need any more details please write me

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• T-SQL: Omit/Ignore repetitive data from a specific column

  - by Dsyfa

  Hi, For my question lets consider the following sample table data: ProductID    ProductName    Price   Category 1                Apple                 5.00       Fruits 2                Apple                 5.00       Food 3                Orange               3.00       Fruits 4                Banana                 2.00       Fruits I need a query which will result in the following data set: ProductID    ProductName    Price   Category 1                Apple                 5.00       Fruits 3                Orange               3.00       Fruits 4                Banana                 2.00       Fruits As you can see ProductID 2 has been omitted/ignored because Apple is already present in the result i.e. each product must appear only once irrespective of Category or Price. Thanks

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• JSON and WebOS simple example?

  - by user558361

  I have been following this tutorial http://tinyurl.com/327p325 which has been GREAT up until this point where I can't get his code to work. I get the list working with static items but I can't get it to work with the json items. I've tried to simplify it with what I really want it to do to try and debug what is wrong (also if someone could please tell me how to view the Mojo log that would be awesome) In the tutorial he has to use the yahoo service to convert the site into json data, while the site I want to interact with already has json data generated so this is what I have PageAssistant.prototype.setup = function() { this.myListModel = { items : [] }; this.myListAttr = { itemTemplate: "page/itemTemplate", renderLimit: 20, }; this.controller.setupWidget("MyList",this.myListAttr,this.myListModel); this.controller.setupWidget("search_divSpinner", { spinnerSize : "large" }, { spinning: true } ); }; PageAssistant.prototype.activate = function(event) { this.getData(); }; PageAssistant.prototype.getData = function () { // the spinner doesn't show up at all $("search_divScrim").show(); var url = "http://www.website.com/.json"; var request = new Ajax.Request(url, { method: 'get', asynchronous: true, evalJSON: "false", onSuccess: this.parseResult.bind(this), on0: function (ajaxResponse) { // connection failed, typically because the server is overloaded or has gone down since the page loaded Mojo.Log.error("Connection failed"); }, onFailure: function(response) { // Request failed (404, that sort of thing) Mojo.Log.error("Request failed"); }, onException: function(request, ex) { // An exception was thrown Mojo.Log.error("Exception"); }, }); } PageAssistant.prototype.parseResult = function (transport){ var newData = []; var theStuff=transport.responseText; try { var json = theStuff.evalJSON(); } catch(e) { Mojo.Log.error(e); } // this is where I believe I am wrong for (j=0;j < json.data.count;j++) { var thread=json.data.children[j]; newData[j] = { title: thread.data.author }; } this.myListModel["items"] = newData; this.controller.modelChanged(this.myListModel , this); $("search_divScrim").hide(); } So where I commented that I believe I am wrong I am just trying to get the title out of this json data { kind: Listing data: { children: [ { kind: food data: { author: Foodmaster hidden: false title: You should eat this } }, // then it repeats with the kind: and data Anyone see where I went wrong? I would like to know how to view the log as I have log events but can't figure out where to look to see if any of them are being thrown.

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• Checking to see if a number is evenly divisible by other numbers with recursion in Python

  - by Ernesto

  At the risk of receiving negative votes, I will preface this by saying this is a midterm problem for a programming class. However, I have already submitted the code and passed the question. I changed the name of the function(s) so that someone can't immediately do a search and find the correct code, as that is not my purpose. I am actually trying to figure out what is actually MORE CORRECT from two pieces that I wrote. The problem tells us that a certain fast food place sells bite-sized pieces of chicken in packs of 6, 9, and 20. It wants us to create a function that will tell if a given number of bite-sized piece of chicken can be obtained by buying different packs. For example, 15 can be bought, because 6 + 9 is 15, but 16 cannot be bought, because no combination of the packs will equal 15. The code I submitted and was "correct" on, was: def isDivisible(n): """ n is an int Returns True if some integer combination of 6, 9 and 20 equals n Otherwise returns False. """ a, b, c = 20, 9, 6 if n == 0: return True elif n < 0: return False elif isDivisible(n - a) or isDivisible(n - b) or isDivisible(n - c): return True else: return False However, I got to thinking, if the initial number is 0, it will return True. Would an initial number of 0 be considered "buying that amount using 6, 9, and/or 20"? I cannot view the test cases the grader used, so I don't know if the grader checked 0 as a test case and decided that True was an acceptable answer or not. I also can't just enter the new code, because it is a midterm. I decided to create a second piece of code that would handle an initial case of 0, and assuming 0 is actually False: def isDivisible(n): """ n is an int Returns True if some integer combination of 6, 9 and 20 equals n Otherwise returns False. """ a, b, c = 20, 9, 6 if n == 0: return False else: def helperDivisible(n): if n == 0: return True elif n < 0: return False elif helperDivisible(n - a) or helperDivisible(n - b) or helperDivisible(n - c): return True else: return False return helperDivisible(n) As you can see, my second function had to use a "helper" function in order to work. My overall question, though, is which function do you think would provide the correct answer, if the grader had tested for 0 as an initial input?

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• Error implementing Dynamic Tab with ListView within each Tab - Tabs don't show up

  - by Jon

  I am trying to create a dyanmic tab application that has tabs on the left for each type of Food (e.g. Pasta, Dairy, etc. including those dynamically defined by user) and for each tab, have a listview connected to a SQLite database that updates. This is in the onCreate method: setContentView(R.layout.foodCabinet_layout); dbHelper = new FoodStorageDBHelper(this); dbHelper.open(); Cursor foodTypes = dbHelper.getAllFoodTypes(); ArrayList<String> typeOfFood = new ArrayList<String>(); typeOfFoods.add(foodTypes.getString(1)); while(foodTypes.moveToNext()){ typeOfFoods.add(foodTypes.getString(1)); } final TabHost tbh = (TabHost)findViewById(R.id.food_tabhost_cabinet); tbh.setup(); for(final String s : typeOfFood){ TabSpec nts = tbh.newTabSpec(s); nts.setIndicator(s.replace('_', ' ')); nts.setContent(new TabHost.TabContentFactory(){ public View createTabContent(String tag) { ListView foodCabinetLV = new ListView(FoodCabinet.this); Cursor mCursor = dbHelper.getAllFoodsWithType(s); // Create an array to specify the fields we want to display in the list (only TITLE) String[] from = new String[]{FoodStorageDBHelper.KEY_NAME, FoodStorageDBHelper.KEY_YEAR,FoodStorageDBHelper.KEY_RANK}; // and an array of the fields we want to bind those fields to (in this case just text1) int[] to = new int[]{R.id.childname,R.id.childyear,R.id.childrank}; // Now create a simple cursor adapter and set it to display SimpleCursorAdapter notes = new SimpleCursorAdapter(FoodCabinet.this, R.layout.food_row, mCursor, from, to); foodCabinetLV.setAdapter(notes); startManagingCursor(mCursor); foodCabinetLV.setOnItemClickListener( new AdapterView.OnItemClickListener() { public void onItemClick(AdapterView arg0, View arg1, int arg2, long arg3) { Intent i = new Intent(); i.setClass(arg0.getContext(), EditFoodDialog.class); i.putExtra(FoodStorageDBHelper.KEY_ROWID, Long.toString(arg3)); startActivityForResult(i, LoadFoodOrganizer.ACTIVITY_EDIT); } }); return foodCabinetLV; } }); } For some reason, it doesn't show anything... it's a blank screen. Any help would be very much appreciated. Let me know! Thanks! Jon

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• How do I create a simple seach box with a submit button to bring back a result set in MVC?

  - by RJ

  I am very new to MVC and just learning the basics. I have been following along in Nerd Dinner and used the demo as a way to create my own app. I have created a page that lists out some food items with calories, fat, protein,etc... (http://rjsfitness.net/CalorieList) This is one of my own personal sites that I set up to test out MVC. I got a lot of it working but I am stuck on the textbox with a search button. My view page has this code for the search: <form action="/CalorieList/Search" method="post" id="searchForm"> <input type="text" name="searchTerm" id="searchTerm" value="" size="10" maxlength ="30" /> <input type ="submit" value="Search" /> </form> My global.asax has this code for the routing: routes.MapRoute( "Search", // Route name "CalorieList/Search/{searchTerm}", // URL with parameters new { controller = "CalorieList", action = "Search", search = "" } // Parameter defaults ); My Controller has this code: public ActionResult Index(int? page) { const int pageSize = 10; //load a list with the calorie list var calorieLists = calorieListRepository.GetAllCalorieLists(); //var paginatedCalorieLists = calorieLists.Skip((page ?? 0) * pageSize).Take(pageSize).ToList(); var paginatedCalorieLists = new PaginatedList<CalorieList>(calorieLists, page ?? 0, pageSize); return View("Index", paginatedCalorieLists); } public ActionResult Search(String searchTerm) { const int pageSize = 100; int? page = 0; var calorieLists = calorieListRepository.GetCalorieListsBySearch(searchTerm); var paginatedCalorieLists = new PaginatedList<CalorieList>(calorieLists, page ?? 0, pageSize); return View("Index", paginatedCalorieLists); } return View("Index", paginatedCalorieLists); } When I enter a value and click the button, the Index method fires instead of the Seach method in the controller and I get the full list again. If I manually type the url (http://rjsfitness.net/CalorieList/Search/choc) I get the right listing. Why isn't my button click using the right routing and giving me the search results?

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• SQLite/iPhone read copyright symbol

  - by Marco A

  Hi All, I am having problems reading the copyright symbol from a sqlite db that I have for my App that I am developing. I import the information manually, ie, from an excel sheet. I have tried two ways of doing it and failed with both: 1) Tried replacing the copyright symbol with "\u00ae" (unicode combination) within excel and then importing the modified file. - Result: I get the combination of \u00ae as a part of the string, it doesnt detect the unicode combination. 2) Tried leaving as it is. Importing the excel with the copyright symbol. - Result: I get a symbol that is different from the copyright, its something like an AE put together.looks like this: Æ Heres my code how I read from DB: -(void) readCategoriesFromDatabase:(NSString *) rest_input { // Init the products Array categories = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; // Open the database from the users filessytem rest_input = [rest_input stringByAppendingString:@"'"]; NSString *newString; newString = [@"select distinct category from food where restaurant='" stringByAppendingString:rest_input]; const char *cat_sqlStatement = [newString UTF8String]; sqlite3_stmt *cat_compiledStatement; if(sqlite3_prepare_v2(database, cat_sqlStatement, -1, &cat_compiledStatement, NULL) == SQLITE_OK) { // Loop through the results and add them to the feeds array while(sqlite3_step(cat_compiledStatement) == SQLITE_ROW) { NSString *catName = [NSString stringWithUTF8String:(char *)sqlite3_column_text(cat_compiledStatement,0)]; // Create a new product object with the data from the database Product *category = [[Product alloc] initWithName:catName]; // Add the product object to the respective Array [categories addObject:category]; [category release]; } sqlite3_finalize(cat_compiledStatement); } NSLog(@"Finished Accessing Database to gather Categories...."); } I open the DB with this function: -(void) checkAndCreateDatabase{ NSLog(@"Checking/Creating Database...."); NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager]; success = [fileManager fileExistsAtPath:databasePath]; [fileManager removeFileAtPath:databasePath handler:nil]; NSString *databasePathFromApp = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] resourcePath] stringByAppendingPathComponent:databaseName]; [fileManager copyItemAtPath:databasePathFromApp toPath:databasePath error:nil]; [fileManager release]; if (sqlite3_open([databasePath UTF8String], &database) != SQLITE_OK) { sqlite3_close(database); database = nil; } NSLog(@"Finished Checking/Creating Database...."); } Thanks to anything that can help me out.

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• Firefox can not layout nested tables properly?

  - by ooplidi

  I want to implement a collapsible menu. I plan to use table component to simulate a menu, and nest a sub table into a table cell to simulate a sub menu. Below is my code, it works as expected in IE, Chrome and Safari, but it doesn't work well in Firefox: <html> <body> <div id="menu" style="position:absolute; left:150px; top:100px; z-index:1"> <table width="200px" height="90" border=1 cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td colspan=2>Money</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan=2>Tool</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Food <table style="position:absolute; left:200px; top:60px; z-index:1" width="200px" height="60px" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td>Cookie</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Fruit <table style="position:absolute; left:200px; top:30px; z-index:1" width="200px" height="60px" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td>Apple</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Banana</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </div> </body> </html> It seems that Firefox think the "left" and "top" attribute for the level 3 menu is relative to the level 1 menu, so it layout the level 3 menu incorrectly. Other browsers will calculate the offset base on the level 2 menu, that works as expected. Is it a bug in Firefox? If so how can I work around it? I want my code to have the same behavior in all major browsers.

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• Incorrect gzipping of http requests, can't find who's doing it

  - by Ned Batchelder

  We're seeing some very strange mangling of HTTP responses, and we can't figure out what is doing it. We have an app server handling JSON requests. Occasionally, the response is returned gzipped, but with incorrect headers that prevent the browser from interpreting it correctly. The problem is intermittent, and changes behavior over time. Yesterday morning it seemed to fail 50% of the time, and in fact, seemed tied to one of our two load-balanced servers. Later in the afternoon, it was failing only 20 times out of 1000, and didn't correlate with an app server. The two app servers are running Apache 2.2 with mod_wsgi and a Django app stack. They have identical Apache configs and source trees, and even identical packages installed on Red Hat. There's a hardware load balancer in front, I don't know the make or model. Akamai is also part of the food chain, though we removed Akamai and still had the problem. Here's a good request and response: * Connected to example.com (97.7.79.129) port 80 (#0) > POST /claim/ HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15 > Host: example.com > Accept: */* > Referer: http://example.com/apps/ > Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate > Content-Length: 29 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded > } [data not shown] < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Server: Apache/2 < Content-Language: en-us < Content-Encoding: identity < Content-Length: 47 < Content-Type: application/x-javascript < Connection: keep-alive < Vary: Accept-Encoding < { [data not shown] * Connection #0 to host example.com left intact * Closing connection #0 {"msg": "", "status": "OK", "printer_name": ""} And here's a bad one: * Connected to example.com (97.7.79.129) port 80 (#0) > POST /claim/ HTTP/1.1 > User-Agent: curl/7.19.7 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15 > Host: example.com > Accept: */* > Referer: http://example.com/apps/ > Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate > Content-Length: 29 > Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded > } [data not shown] < HTTP/1.1 200 OK < Server: Apache/2 < Content-Language: en-us < Content-Encoding: identity < Content-Type: application/x-javascript < Content-Encoding: gzip < Content-Length: 59 < Connection: keep-alive < Vary: Accept-Encoding < X-N: S < { [data not shown] * Connection #0 to host example.com left intact * Closing connection #0 ?V?-NW?RPR?QP*.I,)-???A??????????T??Z? ??/ There are two things to notice about the bad response: It has two Content-Encoding headers, and the browsers seem to use the first. So they see an identity encoding header, and gzipped content, so they can't interpret the response. The bad response has an extra "X-N: S" header. Perhaps if I could find out what intermediary adds "X-N: S" headers to responses, I could track down the culprit...

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• 2 Days of Share &amp; Point

  - by Mark Rackley

  Groovy man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back for 2010, bigger and better than before. Join us for a far out time and learn more about SharePoint in one day than you could in a year from the man… Yes! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is back! SharePoint Saturday Ozarks is the largest SharePoint conference in Arkansas, Southern Missouri, and the very north east tip of Oklahoma. Last year we had a great turn out with 20 speakers, 5 MVPs, and attendees coming from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Alabama, Michigan, and Washington. Hey Man… what’s SharePoint Saturday anyway? Sounds like a conspiracy man… Not to worry, SharePoint Saturday is not an arm of the government bent on mind control or any attempt what-so-ever to bring you down man. SharePoint Saturday is grass roots effort started by Michael Lotter (http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/pages/about.aspx). It is a FREE one day event where the best SharePoint speakers gather to present their love, hatred, and frustrations of SharePoint to those lucky individuals who attend. Lessons are learned, contacts are made, prizes are won, food is eaten, assorted beverages are consumed until wee hours of the morning. SharePoint Saturday started with just a few sporadic one day events here and there. However, over the past year SharePoint Saturday has exploded and it’s hard to find a weekend where there is NOT a SharePoint Saturday event happing in some corner of the globe. There are even occasions where there are two SharePoint Saturdays on the same day! Many people are pleasantly surprised at the caliber of speakers at these SharePoint Saturday events. For the most part, these speakers are more eloquent, practiced, and practical than those speakers you find at the major multi-day conferences. These guys aren’t even paid to speak.. they do it out of love man… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2009 Alumni We had a star studded cast last year with many returning this year! Just check out the fun that they had… John Ferringer – Admin rockstar… I can still sense the awesomeness   SharePoint poster children Mike Watson & Laura Rogers     Lori Gowin spreading the SharePoint Love Eric Shupps is a little bit country and a little bit rock and roll       Cathy Dew, Sean McDonough, and JD Wade relaxing between gigs Actually, you can see real photos from last year’s SharePoint Saturday ozarks here:  picasaweb.google.com/mrackley/SharePointSaturdayOzarks#    What’s new for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will totally blow your mind man. We’re getting the band back to together with many returning speakers and few new faces. Joel Oleson will be speaking this year, maybe he’ll grace us with his song stylings. Sadly, once again, Andrew Connell will not be able to attend SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, however he did feel the need to show his support in his own way. Prizes this year currently include books, software, a Zune HD, and much more! Wait Man… You said 2 days? I thought it was a one day event? Correct you are my herbal smelling friend… SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 2010 will spread the love an additional day this year. The first day will be all about the SharePoint love, on day 2 we will be taking a leisurely float down the Buffalo National River for those interested in a truly unique experience (no banjos allowed please).   Here are the details: WHAT 4 – 5 hour float down the Buffalo National River WHEN & WHERE Sunday June 13th. We will be leaving at 10am from the Parking Lot of: Gordon’s Motel & Canoe Rental Old Highway 7 Jasper, AR 72641 (870) 446-5252 Jasper is about 30 minutes south of Harrison, AR on Highway 7 South. You are responsible for bumming a ride to/from Gordon’s Motel, but they will be shuttling us to/from the river and providing canoes and a boxed lunch. WHAT ELSE? The float trip is dependent on the weather of course, we won’t be floating down the river in a thunderstorm, however I planned SPS Ozarks around a time of year ideal for floating. We aren’t talking class 5 rapids here, you don’t need any real skill, but you need to be okay with possibly tipping your canoe over once or twice. You can bring your own assorted beverages with you, but glass containers are not allowed on the river. I suggest a small cooler with extra snacks and drinks. Also bring clothing you can get wet in (these SharePoint people can get ornery). HOW DO I SIGN UP? When you register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, you will have the option to also sign up for the float trip. Seats are limited though! If you do not intend to go, please do not take someone else’s place.  The cost for the float trip will be about $35 dollars per person (which you are responsible for unless we find a sponsor). The price includes shuttle to/from river, canoe, life jackets, paddles, and boxed lunch. Far out man… how do I register??? You can register for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks by going to http://spsozarks.eventbrite.com/ We are limited to 200 people for the conference and 50 people for the float trip, so register today before we are sold out. Lodging for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks will once again take place at the Hotel Seville: Annex Suites are available for $103.20 This is So Groovy.. How can I help? I’m glad you asked! We are still looking for a few sponsors and one or two more speakers. If you are interested please let me know!  You can find out more information at http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/ozarks Hey… wait a minute…. what exactly IS SharePoint man??? Come to SharePoint Saturday Ozarks and find out!!  See you guys there!

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• South Florida Code Camp 2010 &ndash; VI &ndash; 2010-02-27

  - by Dave Noderer

  Catching up after our sixth code camp here in the Ft Lauderdale, FL area. Website at: http://www.fladotnet.com/codecamp. For the 5th time, DeVry University hosted the event which makes everything else really easy! Statistics from 2010 South Florida Code Camp: 848 registered (we use Microsoft Group Events) ~ 600 attended (516 took name badges) 64 speakers (including speaker idol) 72 sessions 12 parallel tracks Food 400 waters 600 sodas 900 cups of coffee (it was cold!) 200 pounds of ice 200 pizza's 10 large salad trays 900 mouse pads Photos on facebook Dave Noderer: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=190812&id=693530361 Joe Healy: http://www.facebook.com/devfish?ref=mf#!/album.php?aid=202787&id=720054950 Will Strohl:http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=2045553&id=1046966128&ref=mf Veronica Gonzalez: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/album.php?aid=150954&id=672439484 Florida Speaker Idol One of the sessions at code camp was the South Florida Regional speaker idol competition. After user group level competitions there are five competitors. I acted as MC and score keeper while Ed Hill, Bob O’Connell, John Dunagan and Shervin Shakibi were judges. This statewide competition is being run by Roy Lawsen in Lakeland and the winner, Jeff Truman from Naples will move on to the state finals to be held at the Orlando Code Camp on 3/27/2010: http://www.orlandocodecamp.com/. Each speaker has 10 minutes. The participants were: Alex Koval Jeff Truman Jared Nielsen Chris Catto Venkat Narayanasamy They all did a great job and I’m working with each to make sure they don’t stop there and start speaking at meetings. Thanks to everyone involved! Volunteers As always events like this don’t happen without a lot of help! The key people were: Ed Hill, Bob O’Connell – DeVry For the months leading up to the event, Ed collects all of the swag, books, etc and stores them. He holds meeting with various DeVry departments to coordinate the day, he works with the students in the days  before code camp to stuff bags, print signs, arrange tables and visit BJ’s for our supplies (I go and pay but have a small car!). And of course the day of the event he is there at 5:30 am!! We took two SUV’s to BJ’s, i was really worried that the 36 cases of water were going to break his rear axle! He also helps with the students and works very hard before and after the event. Rainer Haberman – Speakers and Volunteer of the Year Rainer has helped over the past couple of years but this time he took full control of arranging the tracks. I did some preliminary work solicitation speakers but he took over all communications after that. We have tried various organizations around speakers, chair per track, central team but having someone paying attention to the details is definitely the way to go! This was the first year I did not have to jump in at the last minute and re-arrange everything. There were lots of kudo’s from the speakers too saying they felt it was more organized than they have experienced in the past from any code camp. Thanks Rainer! Ray Alamonte – Book Swap We saw the idea of a book swap from the Alabama Code Camp and thought we would give it a try. Ray jumped in and took control. The idea was to get people to bring their old technical books to swap or for others to buy. You got a ticket for each book you brought that you could then turn in to buy another book. If you did not have a ticket you could buy a book for $1. Net proceeds were $153 which I rounded up and donated to the Red Cross. There is plenty going on in Haiti and Chile! I don’t think we really got a count of how many books came in. I many cases the books barely hit the table before being picked up again. At the end we were left with a dozen books which we donated to the DeVry library. A great success we will definitely do again! Jace Weiss / Ratchelen Hut – Coffee and Snacks Wow, this was an eye opener. In past years a few of us would struggle to give some attention to coffee, snacks, etc. But it was always tenuous and always ended up running out of coffee. In the past we have tried buying Dunkin Donuts coffee, renting urns, borrowing urns, etc. This year I actually purchased 2 – 100 cup Westbend commercial brewers plus a couple of small urns (30 and 60 cup we used for decaf). We got them both started early (although i forgot to push the on button on one!) and primed it with 10 boxes of Joe from Dunkin. then Jace and Rachelen took over.. once a batch was brewed they would refill the boxes, keep the area clean and at one point were filling cups. We never ran out of coffee and served a few hundred more than last  year. We did look but next year I’ll get a large insulated (like gatorade) dispensing container. It all went very smoothly and having help focused on that one area was a big win. Thanks Jace and Rachelen! Ken & Shirley Golding / Roberta Barbosa – Registration Ken & Shirley showed up and took over registration. This year we printed small name tags for everyone registered which was great because it is much easier to remember someone’s name when they are labeled! In any case it went the smoothest it has ever gone. All three were actively pulling people through the registration, answering questions, directing them to bags and information very quickly. I did not see that there was too big a line at any time. Thanks!! Scott Katarincic / Vishal Shukla – Website For the 3rd?? year in a row, Scott was in charge of the website starting in August or September when I start on code camp. He handles all the requests, makes changes to the site and admin. I think two years ago he wrote all the backend administration and tunes it and the website a bit but things are pretty stable. The only thing I do is put up the sponsors. It is a big pressure off of me!! Thanks Scott! Vishal jumped into the web end this year and created a new Silverlight agenda page to replace the old ajax page. We will continue to enhance this but it is definitely a good step forward! Thanks! Alex Funkhouser – T-shirts/Mouse pads/tables/sponsors Alex helps in many areas. He helps me bring in sponsors and handles all the logistics for t-shirts, sponsor tables and this year the mouse pads. He is also a key person to help promote the event as well not to mention the after after party which I did not attend and don’t want to know much about! Students There were a number of student volunteers but don’t have all of their names. But thanks to them, they stuffed bags, patrolled pizza and helped with moving things around. Sponsors We had a bunch of great sponsors which allowed us to feed people and give a way a lot of great swag. Our major sponsors of DeVry, Microsoft (both DPE and UGSS), Infragistics, Telerik, SQL Share (End to End, SQL Saturdays), and Interclick are very much appreciated. The other sponsors Applied Innovations (also supply code camp hosting), Ultimate Software (a great local SW company), Linxter (reliable cloud messaging we are lucky to have here!), Mediascend (a media startup), SoftwareFX (another local SW company we are happy to have back participating in CC), CozyRoc (if you do SSIS, check them out), Arrow Design (local DNN and Silverlight experts),Boxes and Arrows (a local SW consulting company) and Robert Half. One thing we did this year besides a t-shirt was a mouse pad. I like it because it will be around for a long time on many desks. After much investigation and years of using mouse pad’s I’ve determined that the 1/8” fabric top is the best and that is what we got!   So now I get a break for a few months before starting again!

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• When OneTug Just Isn&rsquo;t Enough&hellip;

  - by onefloridacoder

  I stole that from the back of a T-shirt I saw at the Orlando Code Camp 2010.  This was my first code camp and my first time volunteering for an event like this as well.  It was an awesome day.  I cannot begin to count the “aaahh”, “I did-not-know I could do that”, in the crowds and for myself.  I think it was a great day of learning for everyone at all levels.  All of the presenters were different and provided great insights into the topics they were presenting.  Here’s a list of the ones that I attended. KodeFuGuru, “Pirates vs. Ninjas” He touched on many good topics to relax some of the ways we think when we are writing out code, and still looks good, readable, etc.  As he pointed out in all of his examples, we might not always realize everything that’s going on under the covers.  He exposed a bug in his own code, and verbalized the mental gymnastics he went through when he knew there was something wrong with one of his IEnumerable implementations.  For me, it was great to hear that someone else labors over these gut reactions to code quickly snapped together, to the point that we rush to the refactor stage to fix what’s bothering us – and learn.  He has some content on extension methods that was very interesting.  My “that is so cool” moment was when he swapped out AddEntity method on an entity class and used a With extension method instead.  Some of the LINQ scales fell off my eyes at that moment, and I realized my own code could be a lot more powerful (and readable) if incorporate a few of these examples at the appropriate times.  And he cautioned as well… “don’t go crazy with this stuff”, there’s a place and time for everything.  One of his examples demo’d toward the end of the talk is on his sight where he’s chaining methods together, cool stuff. Quotes I liked: “Extension Methods - Extension methods to put features back on the model type, without impacting the type.” “Favor Declarative Code” – Check out the ? and ?? operators if you’re not already using them. “Favor Fluent Code” “Avoid Pirate Ninja Zombies!  If you see one run!” I’m definitely going to be looking at “Extract Projection” when I get into VS2010. BDD 101 – Sean Chambers http://github.com/schambers This guy had a whole host of gremlins against him, final score Sean 5, Gremlins 1.  He ran the code samples from his github repo  in the code github code viewer since the PC they school gave him to use didn’t have VS installed. He did a great job of converting the grammar between BDD and TDD, and how this style of development can be used in integration tests as well as the different types of gated builds on a CI box – he didn’t go into a discussion around CI, but we could infer that it could work. Like when we use WSSF, it does cause a class explosion to happen however the amount of code per class it limit to just covering the concern at hand – no more, no less.  As in “When I as a <Role>, expect {something} to happen, because {}”  This keeps us (the developer) from gold plating our solutions and creating less waste.  He basically keeps the code that prove out the requirement to two lines of code.  Nice. He uses SpecUnit to merge this grammar into his .NET projects and gave an overview on how this ties into writing his own BDD tests.  Some folks were familiar with Given / When / Then as story acceptance criteria and here’s how he mapped it: “Given <Context>  When <Something Happens> Then <I expect...>”  There are a few base classes and overrides in the SpecUnit framework that help with setting up the context for each test which looked very handy. Successfully Running Your Own Coding Business The speaker ran through a list of items that sounded like common sense stuff LLC, banking, separating expenses, etc.  Then moved into role playing with business owners and an ISV.  That was pretty good stuff, it pays to be a good listener all of the time even if your client is sitting on the other side of the phone tearing you head off for you – but that’s all it is, and get used to it its par for the course.  Oh, yeah always answer the phone was one simple thing that you can do to move  your business forward.  But like Cory Foy tweeted this week, “If you owe me a lot of money, don’t have a message that says your away for five weeks skiing in Colorado.”  Lots of food for thought that’s on my list of “todo’s and to-don’ts”. Speaker Idol Next, I had the pleasure of helping Russ Fustino tape this part of Code Camp as my primary volunteer opportunity that day.  You remember Russ, “know the code” from the awesome Russ’ Tool Shed series.  He did a great job orchestrating and capturing the Speaker Idol finals.   So I didn’t actually miss any sessions, but was able to see three back to back in one setting.  The idol finalists gave a 10 minute talk and very deep subjects, but different styles of talks.  No one walked away empty handed for jobs very well done.  Russ has details on his site.  The pictures and  video captured is supposed to be published on Channel 9 at a later date.  It was also a valuable experience to see what makes technical speakers effective in their talks.  I picked up quite a few speaking tips from what I heard from the judges and contestants. Design For Developers – Diane Leeper If you are a great developer, you’re probably a lousy designer.  Diane didn’t come to poke holes in what we think we can do with UI layout and design, but she provided some tools we can use to figure out metaphors for visualizing data.  If you need help with that check out Silverlight Pivot – that’s what she was getting at.  I was first introduced to her at one of John Papa’s talks last year at a Lakeland User Group meeting and she’s very passionate about design.  She was able to discuss different elements of Pivot, while to a developer is just looked cool. I believe she was providing the deck from her talk to folks after her talk, so send her an email if you’re interested.   She says she can talk about design for hours and hours – we all left that session believing her.   Rinse and Repeat Orlando Code Camp 2010 was awesome, and would totally do it again.  There were lots of folks from my shop there, and some that have left my shop to go elsewhere.  So it was a reunion of sorts and a great celebration for the simple fact that its great to be a developer and there’s a community that supports and recognizes it as well.  The sponsors were generous and the organizers were very tired, namely Esteban Garcia and Will Strohl who were responsible for making a lot of this magic happen.  And if you don’t believe me, check out the chatter on Twitter.

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• Feedback Filtration&ndash;Processing Negative Comments for Positive Gains

  - by D'Arcy Lussier

  After doing 7 conferences, 5 code camps, and countless user group events, I feel that this is a post I need to write. I actually toyed with other names for this post, however those names would just lend itself to the type of behaviour I want people to avoid – the reactionary, emotional response that speaks to some deeper issue beyond immediate facts and context. Humans are incredibly complex creatures. We’re also emotional, which serves us well in certain situations but can hinder us in others. Those of us in leadership build up a thick skin because we tend to encounter those reactionary, emotional responses more often, and we’re held to a higher standard because of our positions. While we could react with emotion ourselves, as the saying goes – fighting fire with fire just makes a bigger fire. So in this post I’ll share my thought process for dealing with negative feedback/comments and how you can still get value from them. The Thought Process Let’s take a real-world example. This week I held the Prairie IT Pro & Dev Con event. We’ve gotten a lot of session feedback already, most of it overwhelmingly positive. But some not so much – and some to an extreme I rarely see but isn’t entirely surprising to me. So here’s the example from a person we’ll refer to as Mr. Horrible: How was the speaker? Horrible! Worst speaker ever! Did the session meet your expectations? Hard to tell, speaker ruined it. Other Comments: DO NOT bring this speaker back! He was at this conference last year and I hoped enough negative feedback would have taught you to not bring him back...obviously not...I will not return to this conference next year if this speaker is brought back. Now those are very strong words. “Worst speaker ever!” “Speaker ruined it” “I will not return to this conference next year if the speaker is brought back”. The speakers I invite to speak at my conference are not just presenters but friends and colleagues. When I see this, my initial reaction is of course very emotional: I get defensive, I get angry, I get offended. So that’s where the process kicks in. Step 1 – Take a Deep Breath Take a deep breath, calm down, and walk away from the keyboard. I didn’t do that recently during an email convo between some colleagues and it ended up in my reacting emotionally on Twitter – did I mention those colleagues follow my Twitter feed? Yes, I ate some crow. Ok, now that we’re calm, let’s move on to step 2. Step 2 – Strip off the Emotion We need to take off the emotion that people wrap their words in and identify the root issues. For instance, if I see: “I hated this session, the presenter was horrible! He spoke so fast I couldn’t make out what he was saying!” then I drop off the personal emoting (“I hated…”) and the personal attack (“the presenter was horrible”) and focus on the real issue this person had – that the speaker was talking too fast. Now we have a root cause of the displeasure. However, we’re also dealing with humans who are all very different. Before I call up the speaker to talk about his speaking pace, I need to do some other things first. Back to our Mr. Horrible example, I don’t really have much to go on. There’s no details of how the speaker “ruined” the session or why he’s the “worst speaker ever”. In this case, the next step is crucial. Step 3 – Validate the Feedback When I tell people that we really like getting feedback for the sessions, I really really mean it. Not just because we want to hear what individuals have to say but also because we want to know what the group thought. When a piece of negative feedback comes in, I validate it against the group. So with the speaker Mr. Horrible commented on, I go to the feedback and look at other people’s responses: 2 x Excellent 1 x Alright 1 x Not Great 1 x Horrible (our feedback guy) That’s interesting, it’s a bit all over the board. If we look at the comments more we find that the people who rated the speaker excellent liked the presentation style and found the content valuable. The one guy who said “Not Great” even commented that there wasn’t anything really wrong with the presentation, he just wasn’t excited about it. In that light, I can try to make a few assumptions: - Mr. Horrible didn’t like the speakers presentation style - Mr. Horrible was expecting something else that wasn’t communicated properly in the session description - Mr. Horrible, for whatever reason, just didn’t like this presenter Now if the feedback was overwhelmingly negative, there’s a different pattern – one that validates the negative feedback. Regardless, I never take something at face value. Even if I see really good feedback, I never get too happy until I see that there’s a group trend towards the positive. Step 4 – Action Plan Once I’ve validated the feedback, then I need to come up with an action plan around it. Let’s go back to the other example I gave – the one with the speaker going too fast. I went and looked at the feedback and sure enough, other people commented that the speaker had spoken too quickly. Now I can go back to the speaker and let him know so he can get better. But what if nobody else complained about it? I’d still mention it to the speaker, but obviously one person’s opinion needs to be weighed as such. When we did PrDC Winnipeg in 2011, I surveyed the attendees about the food. Everyone raved about it…except one person. Am I going to change the menu next time for that one person while everyone else loved it? Of course not. There’s a saying – A sure way to fail is to try to please everyone. Let’s look at the Mr. Horrible example. What can I communicate to the speaker with such limited information provided in the feedback from Mr. Horrible? Well looking at the groups feedback, I can make a few suggestions: - Ensure that people understand in the session description the style of the talk - Ensure that people understand the level of detail/complexity of the talk and what prerequisite knowledge they should have I’m looking at it as possibly Mr. Horrible assumed a much more advanced talk and was disappointed, while the positive feedback by people who – from their comments – suggested this was all new to them, were thrilled with the session level. Step 5 – Follow Up For some feedback, I follow up personally. Especially with negative or constructive feedback, its important to let the person know you heard them and are making changes because of their comments. Even if their comments were emotionally charged and overtly negative, it’s still important to reach out personally and professionally. When you remove the emotion, negative comments can be the best feedback you get. Also, people have bad days. We’ve all had one of “those days” where we talked more sternly than normal to someone, or got angry at something we’d normally shrug off. We have various stresses in our lives and sometimes they seep out in odd ways. I always try to give some benefit of the doubt, and re-evaluate my view of the person after they’ve responded to my communication. But, there is such a thing as garbage feedback. What Mr. Horrible wrote is garbage. It’s mean spirited. It’s hateful. It provides nothing constructive at all. And a tell-tale sign that feedback is garbage – the person didn’t leave their name even though there was a field for it. Step 6 – Delete It Feedback must be processed in its raw form, and the end products should drive improvements. But once you’ve figured out what those things are, you shouldn’t leave raw feedback lying around. They are snapshots in time that taken alone can be damaging. Also, you should never rest on past praise. In a future blog post, I’m going to talk about how we can provide great feedback that, even when its critical, can still be constructive.

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• CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 19, 2010

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Wednesday, May 19, 2010New Projects3FD - Framework For Fast Development: This is a C++ framework that provides a solid error handling structure, garbage collection, multi-threading and portability between compilers. The ...ali test project: test projectAttribute Builder: The Attribute Builder builds an attribute from a lambda expression because it can.BDK0008: it is a food lovers websitecgdigest: cg digest template for non-profit orgCokmez: Bilmuh cokmez duyuru sistemiDot Game: It is a dot game that our Bangladeshi people used to play at their childhood time and their last time when they are poor for working.ESRI Javascript .NET Integration: Visual Studio project that shows how to integrate the Esri Javascript API with .NET Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI): Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI) Developed in C# and using Powershell behind the scenes RBAC tool to simplfy RBAC administrationFile Validator (Validador de Archivos): Componente que permite realizar la validación de archivos (txt, imagenes, PDF, etc) actualmente solo tiene implementado la parte de los txt, permit...Grip 09 Lab4: GripjPageFlipper: This is a wonderful implementation of page flipper entirely based on HTML 5 <canvas> tag. It means that it can work in any browser that supports HT...Main project: Index bird families and associated species. Malware Analysis and Can Handler: MACH is a tool to organize and catalog your malware analysis canned responses, and to track the topic response lifecycle for forum experts.Perf Web: Performance team web sitePiPiBugNet: PiPiBugNet是一套全新的开源Bug管理系统。 PiPiBugNet代码基于ASP.NET 2.0平台开发，编程语言为C#。 PiPiBugNet界面基于Ext JS设计，提供了极佳的用户体验。RemoteDesktop: integrated remote console, desktop and chat utilityRuneScape emulation done right.: RuneScape emulator.Sandkasten: SandkastenSilverlight Metro Theme: Metro Theme for Silverlight.Silverlight Stereoscopy: Stereoscopy with Silverlight.Twitivia: Twitivia is an online trivia service that runs through twitter and is being used as an example set of projects. C#, MVC, Windows Services, Linq ...XPool: A simple school project.New ReleasesDot Game: 'Dot Game' first release: Dot Game first release This is the 'Dot Game' first release.DotNetNuke® Store: 02.01.35: What's New in this release? Bugs corrected: - Fixed a resource for the header in the Category list of the Store Admin module. - Added several test...ESRI Javascript .NET Integration: Map search results in a DataView: Visual Studio 2010 example showing how to pass Map results back to ASP.NET for use in a DataView.Exchange 2010 RBAC Editor (RBAC GUI): RBAC Editor: This binary is still beta (0.0.9.1) but in most case it's very stableExtending C# editor - Outlining, classification: first revision: a couple of bug has been eliminated, performance improvementFloe IRC Client: Floe IRC Client 2010-05 R6: Corrected bug where text would be unexpectedly copied to the clipboard.Floe IRC Client: Floe IRC Client 2010-05 R7: - Fixed bug where text would show up in a query window with someone if they said something on a channel that you are both present on.Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.0.9 GA released: Hi, Today we have released the final version of Visifire v3.0.9 which contains the following enhancements: * Two new properties ActualAxisMin...Free Silverlight & WPF Chart Control - Visifire: Visifire SL and WPF Charts v3.5.2 GA Released: Hi, Today we have released the final version of Visifire v3.5.2 which contains the following enhancements: Two new properties ActualAxisMinimum a...HB Batch Encoder Mk 2: HB Batch Encoder Mk2 v1.02: Added .mov support.jPageFlipper: jPageFlipper 0.9: This is an initial community preview of jPageFlipper. It's not ready for production usage but has almost all functionality implemented.linq.js - LINQ for JavaScript: ver 2.1.0.0: Add Class Dictionary Lookup Grouping OrderedEnumerable Add Method ToDictionary MemoizeAll Share Let Add Overload ...Microsoft Research Biology Extension for Excel: MSR Biology Extension for Excel - M9: M9 Release includes the following updates to the previous release: > Import / Export support from Excel for multiple file formats > Bug fixes and ...Nifty CSharp Tools: Event Watcher: Event Watcher!Paint.NET Bulk Image Processor: Paint.NET Bulk Image Processor v1.0: This is the initial release of the Paint.NET Bulk Image processor plugin. All feedback is welcome.PiPiBugNet: PiPiBugNet架构设计: PiPiBugNet架构设计，未包含功能实现RuneScape emulation done right.: rc0: Release cantidate 0.Rx Contrib: V1.6: Adding CCR queue as adapter for the ReactiveQueue credits goes to Yuval Mazor http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/yuvmaz/Silverlight Metro Theme: Silverlight Metro Theme Alpha 1: Silverlight Metro Theme Alpha 1Silverlight Stereoscopy: Silverlight Stereoscopy Alpha 1: Silverlight Stereoscopy Alpha 20100518Stratosphere: Stratosphere 1.0.6.0: Introduced support for batch put Introduced Support for conditional updates and consistent read Added support for select conditions Brought t...VCC: Latest build, v2.1.30518.0: Automatic drop of latest buildVideo Downloader: Example Program - 1.1: Example Program showing the features of the DLL and what can be achieved using it. For DLL Version 1.1.Video Downloader: Version 1.1: Version 1.1 See Home Page for usage and more information regarding new features. Please remember changes at You-Tube can prevent this software from...WatchersNET.TagCloud: WatchersNET.TagCloud 01.06.00: Whats New New Tag Mode: Show Tags from Ventrian.com NewsArticles Module New Tag Mode: Show Tags from Ventrian.com SimpleGallery Module Hyperlin...Windows Double Explorer: WDE v0.4: -optimization -switch to new vst2010 -viewer close now by pressing escape -reorder tabs -send selected fullname or shortnames via email (eye button...Most Popular ProjectsRawrWBFS ManagerAJAX Control ToolkitMicrosoft SQL Server Product Samples: DatabaseSilverlight ToolkitWindows Presentation Foundation (WPF)patterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryMicrosoft SQL Server Community & SamplesPHPExcelASP.NETMost Active Projectspatterns & practices – Enterprise LibraryRawrPHPExcelGMap.NET - Great Maps for Windows Forms & PresentationCustomer Portal Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRMBlogEngine.NETWindows Azure Command-line Tools for PHP DevelopersCassiniDev - Cassini 3.5/4.0 Developers EditionSQL Server PowerShell ExtensionsFluent Ribbon Control Suite

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• The Business of Winning Innovation: An Exclusive Blog Series

  - by Kerrie Foy

  "The Business of Winning Innovation” is a series of articles authored by Oracle Agile PLM experts on what it takes to make innovation a successful and lucrative competitive advantage. Our customers have proven Agile PLM applications to be enormously flexible and comprehensive, so we’ve launched this article series to showcase some of the most fascinating, value-packed use cases. In this article by Keith Colonna, we kick-off the series by taking a look at the science side of innovation within the Consumer Products industry and how PLM can help companies innovate faster, cheaper, smarter. This article will review how innovation has become the lifeline for growth within consumer products companies and how certain companies are “winning” by creating a competitive advantage for themselves by taking a more enterprise-wide,systematic approach to “innovation”.   Managing the Science of Innovation within the Consumer Products Industry By: Keith Colonna, Value Chain Solution Manager, Oracle The consumer products (CP) industry is very mature and competitive. Most companies within this industry have saturated North America (NA) with their products thus maximizing their NA growth potential. Future growth is expected to come from either expansion outside of North America and/or by way of new ideas and products. Innovation plays an integral role in both of these strategies, whether you’re innovating business processes or the products themselves, and may cause several challenges for the typical CP company, Becoming more innovative is both an art and a science. Most CP companies are very good at the art of coming up with new innovative ideas, but many struggle with perfecting the science aspect that involves the best practice processes that help companies quickly turn ideas into sellable products and services. Symptoms and Causes of Business Pain Struggles associated with the science of innovation show up in a variety of ways, like: · Establishing and storing innovative product ideas and data · Funneling these ideas to the chosen few · Time to market cycle time and on-time launch rates · Success rates, or how often the best idea gets chosen · Imperfect decision making (i.e. the ability to kill projects that are not projected to be winners) · Achieving financial goals · Return on R&D investment · Communicating internally and externally as more outsource partners are added globally · Knowing your new product pipeline and project status These challenges (and others) can be consolidated into three root causes: A lack of visibility Poor data with limited access The inability to truly collaborate enterprise-wide throughout your extended value chain Choose the Right Remedy Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions are uniquely designed to help companies solve these types challenges and their root causes. However, PLM solutions can vary widely in terms of configurability, functionality, time-to-value, etc. Business leaders should evaluate PLM solution in terms of their own business drivers and long-term vision to determine the right fit. Many of these solutions are point solutions that can help you cure only one or two business pains in the short term. Others have been designed to serve other industries with different needs. Then there are those solutions that demo well but are owned by companies that are either unable or unwilling to continuously improve their solution to stay abreast of the ever changing needs of the CP industry to grow through innovation. What the Right PLM Solution Should Do for You Based on more than twenty years working in the CP industry, I recommend investing in a single solution that can help you solve all of the issues associated with the science of innovation in a totally integrated fashion. By integration I mean the (1) integration of the all of the processes associated with the development, maintenance and delivery of your product data, and (2) the integration, or harmonization of this product data with other downstream sources, like ERP, product catalogues and the GS1 Global Data Synchronization Network (or GDSN, which is now a CP industry requirement for doing business with most retailers). The right PLM solution should help you: Increase Revenue. A best practice PLM solution should help a company grow its revenues by consolidating product development cycle-time and helping companies get new and improved products to market sooner. PLM should also eliminate many of the root causes for a product being returned, refused and/or reclaimed (which takes away from top-line growth) by creating an enterprise-wide, collaborative, workflow-driven environment. Reduce Costs. A strong PLM solution should help shave many unnecessary costs that companies typically take for granted. Rationalizing SKU’s, components (ingredients and packaging) and suppliers is a major opportunity at most companies that PLM should help address. A natural outcome of this rationalization is lower direct material spend and a reduction of inventory. Another cost cutting opportunity comes with PLM when it helps companies avoid certain costs associated with process inefficiencies that lead to scrap, rework, excess and obsolete inventory, poor end of life administration, higher cost of quality and regulatory and increased expediting. Mitigate Risk. Risks are the hardest to quantify but can be the most costly to a company. Food safety, recalls, line shutdowns, customer dissatisfaction and, worst of all, the potential tarnishing of your brands are a few of the debilitating risks that CP companies deal with on a daily basis. These risks are so uniquely severe that they require an enterprise PLM solution specifically designed for the CP industry that safeguards product information and processes while still allowing the art of innovation to flourish. Many CP companies have already created a winning advantage by leveraging a single, best practice PLM solution to establish an enterprise-wide, systematic approach to innovation. Oracle’s Answer for the Consumer Products Industry Oracle is dedicated to solving the growth and innovation challenges facing the CP industry. Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management for Process solution was originally developed with and for CP companies and is driven by a specialized development staff solely focused on maintaining and continuously improving the solution per the latest industry requirements. Agile PLM for Process helps CP companies handle all of the processes associated with managing the science of the innovation process, including: specification management, new product development/project and portfolio management, formulation optimization, supplier management, and quality and regulatory compliance to name a few. And as I mentioned earlier, integration is absolutely critical. Many Oracle CP customers, both with Oracle ERP systems and non-Oracle ERP systems, report benefits from Oracle’s Agile PLM for Process. In future articles we will explain in greater detail how both existing Oracle customers (like Gallo, Smuckers, Land-O-Lakes and Starbucks) and new Oracle customers (like ConAgra, Tyson, McDonalds and Heinz) have all realized the benefits of Agile PLM for Process and its integration to their ERP systems. More to Come Stay tuned for more articles in our blog series “The Business of Winning Innovation.” While we will also feature articles focused on other industries, look forward to more on how Agile PLM for Process addresses innovation challenges facing the CP industry. Additional topics include: Innovation Data Management (IDM), New Product Development (NPD), Product Quality Management (PQM), Menu Management,Private Label Management, and more! . Watch this video for more info about Agile PLM for Process

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• Grow Your Business with Security

  - by Darin Pendergraft

  Author: Kevin Moulton Kevin Moulton has been in the security space for more than 25 years, and with Oracle for 7 years. He manages the East EnterpriseSecurity Sales Consulting Team. He is also a Distinguished Toastmaster. Follow Kevin on Twitter at twitter.com/kevin_moulton, where he sometimes tweets about security, but might also tweet about running, beer, food, baseball, football, good books, or whatever else grabs his attention. Kevin will be a regular contributor to this blog so stay tuned for more posts from him. It happened again! There I was, reading something interesting online, and realizing that a friend might find it interesting too. I clicked on the little email link, thinking that I could easily forward this to my friend, but no! Instead, a new screen popped up where I was asked to create an account. I was expected to create a User ID and password, not to mention providing some personally identifiable information, just for the privilege of helping that website spread their word. Of course, I didn’t want to have to remember a new account and password, I didn’t want to provide the requisite information, and I didn’t want to waste my time. I gave up, closed the web page, and moved on to something else. I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, and my friend might never find her way to this interesting website. If you were this content provider, would this be the outcome you were looking for? A few days later, I had a similar experience, but this one went a little differently. I was surfing the web, when I happened upon some little chotcke that I just had to have. I added it to my cart. When I went to buy the item, I was again brought to a page to create account. Groan! But wait! On this page, I also had the option to sign in with my OpenID account, my Facebook account, my Yahoo account, or my Google Account. I have all of those! No new account to create, no new password to remember, and no personally identifiable information to be given to someone else (I’ve already given it all to those other guys, after all). In this case, the vendor was easy to deal with, and I happily completed the transaction. That pleasant experience will bring me back again. This is where security can grow your business. It’s a differentiator. You’ve got to have a presence on the web, and that presence has to take into account all the smart phones everyone’s carrying, and the tablets that took over cyber Monday this year. If you are a company that a customer can deal with securely, and do so easily, then you are a company customers will come back to again and again. I recently had a need to open a new bank account. Every bank has a web presence now, but they are certainly not all the same. I wanted one that I could deal with easily using my laptop, but I also wanted 2-factor authentication in case I had to login from a shared machine, and I wanted an app for my iPad. I found a bank with all three, and that’s who I am doing business with. Let’s say, for example, that I’m in a regular Texas Hold-em game on Friday nights, so I move a couple of hundred bucks from checking to savings on Friday afternoons. I move a similar amount each week and I do it from the same machine. The bank trusts me, and they trust my machine. Most importantly, they trust my behavior. This is adaptive authentication. There should be no reason for my bank to make this transaction difficult for me. Now let's say that I login from a Starbucks in Uzbekistan, and I transfer $2,500. What should my bank do now? Should they stop the transaction? Should they call my home number? (My former bank did exactly this once when I was taking money out of an ATM on a business trip, when I had provided my cell phone number as my primary contact. When I asked them why they called my home number rather than my cell, they told me that their “policy” is to call the home number. If I'm on the road, what exactly is the use of trying to reach me at home to verify my transaction?) But, back to Uzbekistan… Should my bank assume that I am happily at home in New Jersey, and someone is trying to hack into my account? Perhaps they think they are protecting me, but I wouldn’t be very happy if I happened to be traveling on business in Central Asia. What if my bank were to automatically analyze my behavior and calculate a risk score? Clearly, this scenario would be outside of my typical behavior, so my risk score would necessitate something more than a simple login and password. Perhaps, in this case, a one-time password to my cell phone would prove that this is not just some hacker half way around the world. But, what if you're not a bank? Do you need this level of security? If you want to be a business that is easy to deal with while also protecting your customers, then of course you do. You want your customers to trust you, but you also want them to enjoy doing business with you. Make it easy for them to do business with you, and they’ll come back, and perhaps even Tweet about it, or Like you, and then their friends will follow. How can Oracle help? Oracle has the technology and expertise to help you to grown your business with security. Oracle Adaptive Access Manager will help you to prevent fraud while making it easier for your customers to do business with you by providing the risk analysis I discussed above, step-up authentication, and much more. Oracle Mobile and Social Access Service will help you to secure mobile access to applications by expanding on your existing back-end identity management infrastructure, and allowing your customers to transact business with you using the social media accounts they already know. You also have device fingerprinting and metrics to help you to grow your business securely. Security is not just a cost anymore. It’s a way to set your business apart. With Oracle’s help, you can be the business that everyone’s tweeting about. Image courtesy of Flickr user shareski

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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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• Evaluating Solutions to Manage Product Compliance? Don't Wait Much Longer

  - by Kerrie Foy

  Depending on severity, product compliance issues can cause all sorts of problems from run-away budgets to business closures. But effective policies and safeguards can create a strong foundation for innovation, productivity, market penetration and competitive advantage. If you’ve been putting off a systematic approach to product compliance, it is time to reconsider that decision, or indecision. Why now?  No matter what industry, companies face a litany of worldwide and regional regulations that require proof of product compliance and environmental friendliness for market access.  For example, Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) is a regulation that restricts the use of six dangerous materials used in the manufacture of electronic and electrical equipment.  ROHS was originally adopted by the European Union in 2003 for implementation in 2006, and it has evolved over time through various regional versions for North America, China, Japan, Korea, Norway and Turkey.  In addition, the RoHS directive allowed for material exemptions used in Medical Devices, but that exemption ends in 2014.   Additional regulations worth watching are the Battery Directive, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), and Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) directives.  Additional evolving regulations are coming from governing bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Corporate sustainability initiatives are also gaining urgency and influencing product design. In a survey of 405 corporations in the Global 500 by Carbon Disclosure Project, co-written by PwC (CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report 2012 entitled Business Resilience in an Uncertain, Resource-Constrained World), 48% of the respondents indicated they saw potential to create new products and business services as a response to climate change. Just 21% reported a dedicated budget for the research. However, the report goes on to explain that those few companies are winning over new customers and driving additional profits by exploiting their abilities to adapt to environmental needs. The article cites Dell as an example – Dell has invested in research to develop new products designed to reduce its customers’ emissions by more than 10 million metric tons of CO2e per year. This reduction in emissions should save Dell’s customers over $1billion per year as a result! Over time we expect to see many additional companies prove that eco-design provides marketplace benefits through differentiation and direct customer value. How do you meet compliance requirements and also successfully invest in eco-friendly designs? No doubt companies struggle to answer this question. After all, the journey to get there may involve transforming business models, go-to-market strategies, supply networks, quality assurance policies and compliance processes per the rapidly evolving global and regional directives. There may be limited executive focus on the initiative, inability to quantify noncompliance, or not enough resources to justify investment. To make things even more difficult to address, compliance responsibility can be a passionate topic within an organization, making the prospect of change on an enterprise scale problematic and time-consuming. Without a single source of truth for product data and without proper processes in place, ensuring product compliance burgeons into a crushing task that is cost-prohibitive and overwhelming to an organization. With all the overhead, certain markets or demographics become simply inaccessible. Therefore, the risk to consumer goodwill and satisfaction, revenue, business continuity, and market potential is too great not to solve the compliance challenge. Companies are beginning to adapt and even thrive in today’s highly regulated and transparent environment by implementing systematic approaches to product compliance that are more than functional bandages but revenue-generating engines. Consider partnering with Oracle to help you address your compliance needs. Many of the world’s most innovative leaders and pioneers are leveraging Oracle’s Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) portfolio of enterprise applications to manage the product value chain, centralize product data, automate processes, and launch more eco-friendly products to market faster.   Particularly, the Agile Product Governance & Compliance (PG&C) solution provides out-of-the-box functionality to integrate actionable regulatory information into the enterprise product record from the ideation to the disposal/recycling phase. Agile PG&C makes it possible to efficiently manage compliance per corporate green initiatives as well as regional and global directives. Options are critical, but so is ease-of-use. Anyone who’s grappled with compliance policy knows legal interpretation plays a major role in determining how an organization responds to regulation. Agile PG&C gives you the freedom to configure product compliance per your needs, while maintaining rigorous control over the product record in an easy-to-use interface that facilitates adoption efforts. It allows you to assign regulations as specifications for a part or BOM roll-up. Each specification has a threshold value that alerts you to a non-compliance issue if the threshold value is exceeded. Set however many regulations as specifications you need to make sure a product can be sold in your target countries. Another option is to implement like one of our leading consumer electronics customers and define your own “catch-all” specification to ensure compliance in all markets. You can give your suppliers secure access to enter their component data or integrate a third party’s data. With Agile PG&C you are able to design compliance earlier into your products to reduce cost and improve quality downstream when stakes are higher. Agile PG&C is a comprehensive solution that makes product compliance more reliable and efficient. Throughout product lifecycles, use the solution to support full material disclosures, efficiently manage declarations with your suppliers, feed compliance data into a corrective action if a product must be changed, and swiftly satisfy audits by showing all due diligence tracked in one solution. Given the compounding regulation and consumer focus on urgent environmental issues, now is the time to act. Implementing an enterprise, systematic approach to product compliance is a competitive investment. From the start, Agile Product Governance & Compliance enables companies to confidently design for compliance and sustainability, reduce the cost of compliance, minimize the risk of business interruption, deliver responsible products, and inspire new innovation.  Don’t wait any longer! To find out more about Agile Product Governance & Compliance download the data sheet, contact your sales representative, or call Oracle at 1-800-633-0738. Many thanks to Shane Goodwin, Senior Manager, Oracle Agile PLM Product Management, for contributions to this article. 

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• Master Data

  - by david.butler(at)oracle.com

  Let's take a deeper look at what we mean when we talk about 'Master' data. In its most general sense, master data is data that exists in more than one operational application. These are the applications that automate business processes. These applications require significant amounts of data to function correctly.  This includes data about the objects that are involved in transactions, as well as the transaction data itself.  For example, when a customer buys a product, the transaction is managed by a sales application.  The objects of the transaction are the Customer and the Product.  The transactional data is the time, place, price, discount, payment methods, etc. used at the point of sale. Many thousands of transactional data attributes are needed within the application. These important data elements are local to the applications and have no bearing on other applications. Harmonization and synchronization across applications is not necessary. The Customer and Product objects of the transaction also have a large number of attributes. Customer for example, includes hierarchies, hierarchical and matrixed relationships, contacts, classifications, preferences, accounts, identifiers, profiles, and addresses galore for 'ship to', 'mail to'; 'service at'; etc. Dozens of attributes exist for individuals, hundreds for organizations, and thousands for products. This data has meaning beyond any particular application. It exists in many applications and drives the vital cross application enterprise business processes. These are the processes that define and differentiate the organization. At every decision point, information about the objects of the process determines the direction of the process flow. This is the nature of the data that exists in more than one application, and this is why we call it 'master data'. Let me elaborate. Parties Oracle has developed a party schema to model all participants in your daily business operations. It models people, organizations, groups, customers, contacts, employees, and suppliers. It models their accounts, locations, classifications, and preferences.  And most importantly, it models the vast array of hierarchical and matrixed relationships that exist between all the participants in your real world operations.  The model logically separates people and organizations from their relationships and accounts.  This separation creates flexibility unmatched in the industry and accounts for the fact that the Oracle schema for Customers, Suppliers, and Accounts is a true superset of the wide variety of commercial and homegrown customer models in existence. Sites Sites are places where business is conducted. They can be addresses, clusters such as retail malls, locations within a cluster, floors within a building, places where meters are located, rooms on floors, etc.  Fully understanding all attributes of a site is key to many business processes. Attributes such as 'noise abatement policy' at a point of delivery, or the size of an oven in a business kitchen drive day-to-day activities such as delivery schedules or food promotions. Typically this kind of data is siloed in departments and scattered across applications and spreadsheets.  This leads to conflicting information and poor operational efficiencies. Oracle's Global Single Schema can hold all site attributes in one place and enables a single version of authoritative site information across the enterprise. Products and Services The Oracle Global Single Schema also includes a number of entities that define the products and services a company creates and offers for sale. Key entities include Items organized into Catalogs and Price Lists. The Catalog structures provide for the ability to capture different views of a product such as engineering, manufacturing, and service which are based on a unified product model. As a result, designers, manufacturing engineers, purchasers and partners can work simultaneously on a common product definition. The Catalog schema allows for unlimited attributes, combines them into meaningful groups, and maps them to catalog categories to track these different types of information. The model also maps an unlimited number of functional structures for each item. For example, multiple Bills of Material (BOMs) can be constructed representing requirements BOM, features BOM, and packaging BOM for an item. The Catalog model also supports hierarchical information about each item and all standard Global Data Synchronization attributes. Business Processes Utilizing Linked Data Entities Each business entity codified into a centralized master data environment significantly improves the efficiency of the automated business processes that use the consolidated data.  When all the key business entities used by an organization's process are so consolidated, the advantages are multiplied.  The primary reason for business process breakdowns (i.e. data errors across application boundaries) is eliminated. All processes are positively impacted and business process automation is itself automated.  I like to use the "Call to Resolution" business process as an example to help illustrate this important point. It involves call center applications, service applications, RMA applications, transportation applications, inventory applications, etc. Customer, Site, Product and Supplier master data must all be correct and consistent across these applications.  What's more, the data relationships between customer and product, and product and suppliers must be right. This is the minimum quality needed to insure the business process flows without error. But that is not the end of the story. Critical master data attributes such as customer loyalty, profitability, credit worthiness, and propensity to buy can optimize the call center point of contact component of the process. Critical product information such as alternative parts or equivalent products can optimize the resolution selected by the process. A comprehensive understanding of the 'service at' location can help insure multiple trips are avoided in the process. Full supplier information on reliability, delivery delays, and potential alternates can prevent supplier exceptions and play a significant role in optimizing the process.  In other words, these master data attributes enable the optimization of the "Call to Resolution" enterprise business process. Master data supports and guides business process flows. Thus the phrase 'Master Data' is indeed appropriate. MDM is the software that houses, manages, and governs the master data that resides in all applications and controls the enterprise business processes. A complete master data solution takes a data model that holds fully attributed master data entities and their inter-relationships. Oracle has this model. Oracle, with its deep understanding of application data is the logical choice for managing all your master data within the enterprise whether or not your organization actually runs any Oracle Applications.

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