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• Do we have enough time to build an electric car future?

  - by julien.groues

  A recent article from Greenbang has posed the question 'Do we have enough time to build an electric car future?'. The writer discusses that, although the future of transport might lie with electric cars, there is concern regarding whether we'll be able to build the market and infrastructure required to support them, before carbon and oil constraints create difficulties in powering the vehicles. Of course, the increasing use of Electric vehicles (EVs) is going to put excessive pressure on energy grids, as large volumes of electricity will need to be directed to charging points, which in turn must handle fluctuating demand at peak times. EVs are increasing in popularity as a sustainable method of transport to reduce carbon consumption, and electric utilities will have the opportunity, and the challenge, to quickly determine the best methods to fuel these vehicles and accommodate the associated increases in demand for energy. Critically, efficient software is required to provide diagnostic and predictive capabilities related to EV refuelling - for example, anticipated electricity flow will need to be addressed as the number of EVs on the road increases, and electricity will need to be directed to specific areas on-demand as vehicles attempt to recharge en-mass. But a smart grid infrastructure can meet these demands, intelligently. The implementation of a smart grid is not in the distant future, it is an achievable reality for utilities via simple installation of new software and technologies, which can be done incrementally for those facing existing legacy systems or concerned with upfront costs. The smart grid is integral to the monitoring and control of energy use as well as the future-proofing of the energy grid. A smart grid will be critical to meeting the electricity requirements of new EVs and will ensure their successful deployment by providing a reliable foundation for the data handling required to record and manage electricity distribution - from recording and assessing energy usage, to analysing data and sharing information with consumers via green billing. http://www.greenbang.com/do-we-have-enough-time-to-build-an-electric-car-future_14248.html

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• UPDATE FOR BI PUBLISHER ENTERPRISE 10.1.3.4.2 NOVEMBER 2011

  - by Tim Dexter

  It's Friday, that means its patch release time. Why do we do this to ourselves, 'we'll release on Friday!' It might 11.59 on Friday but by golly we'll have released on Friday. I can remember a release of BIP years ago that for some reason we went for 12/31 as a release date ... were we mad? I seem to remember we made it but talk about ridiculous pressure! The latest 10g rollup is out in the wild and available from Oracle support. A bug fixing rollup but worth getting to and know that support will want you to get to it and re-test before going forward on an SR. One simple but very useful fix or enhancement:[Cause of the bug] @ ================== @ Customer reports that despite the clock being shown, end users are clicking @ on the View button repeatedly as the initial generation is taking some time.   @ If the button were to be grayed out then  this would prevent the users @ requesting the report more than  once.  Repeated requests are causing a @ system overload and as this is their Production  instance this is extremely @ important to the customer. @ . @ [The Fix] @ ========= @ Added the logic to disable the button after the user clicks on the "view" @ button and re-enable it when the report is loaded. I told a group of customers once that they have a headache and we have a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, alright, I actually said 'aspirin'. This little gem of a fix helps relieve another little headache that our aspirin was causing. The patch number for all this BIP pain killing is 13399232, enjoy!

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• Does Agile force developers to work more?

  - by Shooshpanchick

  Looking at common Agile practices it seems to me that they (intentionally or unintentionally?) force developer to spend more time actually working as opposed to reading blogs/articles, chatting, coffee breaks and just plain procrastinating. In particular: 1) Pair programming - the biggest work-forcer, just because it is inconvenient to do all that procrastination when there are two of you sitting together. 2) Short stories - when you have a HUGE chunk of work that must be done in e.g. a month, it is pretty common to slack off in the first three weeks and switch to OMG DEADLINE mode for the last one. And with the little chunks (that must be done in a day or less) it is exact opposite - you feel that time is tight, there is no space for maneuvering, and you will be held accountable for the task pretty soon, so you start working immediately. 3) Team communication and cohesion - when you underperform in a slow, distanced and silent environment it may feel ok, but when at the end of the day at Scrum meeting everyone boasts what they have accomplished and you have nothing to say you may actually feel ashamed. 4) Testing and feedback - again, it prevents you from keeping tasks "99% ready" (when it's actually around 20%) until the deadline suddenly happens. Do you feel that under Agile you work more than under "conventional" methodologies? Is this pressure compensated by the more comfortable environment and by the feeling of actually getting right things done quickly?

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• what are some good interview questions for a position that consists of reviewing code for security vulnerabilities?

  - by John Smith

  The position is an entry-level position that consists of reading C++ code and identifying lines of code that are vulnerable to buffer overflows, out-of-bounds reads, uncontrolled format strings, and a bunch of other CWE's. We don't expect the average candidate to be knowledgeable in the area of software security nor do we expect him or her to be an expert computer programmer; we just expect them to be able to read the code and correctly identify vulnerabilities. I guess I could ask them the typical interview questions: reverse a string, print a list of prime numbers, etc, but I'm not sure that their ability to write code under pressure (or lack thereof) tells me anything about their ability to read code. Should I instead focus on testing their knowledge of C++? Ask them if they understand what a pointer is and how bitwise operators work? My only concern about asking that kind of question is that I might unfairly weed out people who don't happen to have the knowledge but have the ability to acquire it. After all, it's not like they will be writing a single line of code, and it's not like we are looking only for people who already know C++, since we are willing to train the right candidate. (It is true that I could ask those questions only to those candidates who claim to know C++, but I'd like to give the same "test" to everyone.) Should I just focus on trying to get an idea of their level of intelligence? In other words, should I get them to talk and pay attention to the way they articulate their thoughts, and so on?

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• flat files vs. RDBMS database, few read/writes, few changes

  - by Bob Lapique

  I have to handle data from long term (years, decades) climate monitoring stations. The data flow usually starts with raw data (voltages, etc.) plus quality check information (pressure, temperature, flow rate, etc.) generally recorded @ 1Hz. Then, the data are assigned a quality flag (human and/or program), processed (apply calibration curves) and flagged. So, we basically end up with 2 datasets : raw and processed data. New data are typically added once a day (~500Ko/day/instrument). Simultaneous queries are not likely to ever happen. I wanted to go for a RDBMS (we have a MySQL server) and have some experience in database design, but the IT guy keeps telling me that flat files will to the job just as well. I suspect him to try to make his life easier when it comes to backup/upgrade the MySQL. There are not so many links between data, they don't change much, but the quality flags will change. A RDBMS is easier to compare data from different instruments on a "many days" scale, compared to daily text files. Well, what would you advise ? Thanks.

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• Hydraulics in game

  - by Mungoid

  I'm not completely sure if this would be better in the Physics site or not as this question is more about how hydraulics should work in game as opposed to how they really work (although that is taken into account) - So I apologize if this is in the wrong place. A project we are on, we have a machine with hydraulics that are powered (They don't just look like they move something, they are the only thing moving/turning/lifting something) - However, the hydraulic extends the same speed no matter what it is pushing. So, say there is a 10 ton object attached to one end of the hydraulic and the other end is attached to a plate on the ground. In real life it takes a few seconds to build up pressure depending on how heavy the object is, but in our project the hydraulics don't care about that. It will lift a 100 ton object the same speed as a 10 ton object. We have a way to fake the hydraulic pressurizing by reducing the 'drive amount' (how fast or slow the hydraulic extends) when we sense that it is touching the ground and that does a relatively decent job but we would like to be able to take other things into account like engine speed, ratios, loads, etc. but we aren't too sure what we need to think about. I'm kinda wondering if anyone here has any experience with this and could offer some suggestions on what to take into account?

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• How can rotating release managers improve a project's velocity and stability?

  - by Yannis Rizos

  The Wikipedia article on Parrot VM includes this unreferenced claim: Core committers take turns producing releases in a revolving schedule, where no single committer is responsible for multiple releases in a row. This practice has improved the project's velocity and stability. Parrot's Release Manager role documentation doesn't offer any further insight into the process, and I couldn't find any reference for the claim. My first thoughts were that rotating release managers seems like a good idea, sharing the responsibility between as many people as possible, and having a certain degree of polyphony in releases. Is it, though? Rotating release managers has been proposed for Launchpad, and there were some interesting counterarguments: Release management is something that requires a good understanding of all parts of the code and the authority to make calls under pressure if issues come up during the release itself The less change we can have to the release process the better from an operational perspective Don't really want an engineer to have to learn all this stuff on the job as well as have other things to take care of (regular development responsibilities) Any change of timezones of the releases would need to be approved with the SAs and: I think this would be a great idea (mainly because of my lust for power), but I also think that there should be some way making sure that a release manager doesn't get overwhelmed if something disastrous happens during release week, maybe by have a deputy release manager at the same time (maybe just falling back to Francis or Kiko would be sufficient). The practice doesn't appear to be very common, and the counterarguments seem reasonalbe and convincing. I'm quite confused on how it would improve a project's velocity and stability, is there something I'm missing, or is this just a bad edit on the Wikipedia article? Worth noting that the top voted answer in the related "Is rotating the lead developer a good or bad idea?" question boldly notes: Don't rotate.

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• Design pattern for an automated mechanical test bench

  - by JJS

  Background I have a test fixture with a number of communication/data acquisition devices on it that is used as an end of line test for a product. Because of all the various sensors used in the bench and the need to run the test procedure in near real-time, I'm having a hard time structuring the program to be more friendly to modify later on. For example, a National Instruments USB data acquisition device is used to control an analog output (load) and monitor an analog input (current), a digital scale with a serial data interface measures position, an air pressure gauge with a different serial data interface, and the product is interfaced through a proprietary DLL that handles its own serial communication. The hard part The "real-time" aspect of the program is my biggest tripping point. For example, I need to time how long the product needs to go from position 0 to position 10,000 to the tenth of a second. While it's traveling, I need to ramp up an output of the NI DAQ when it reaches position 6,000 and ramp it down when it reaches position 8,000. This sort of control looks easy from browsing NI's LabVIEW docs but I'm stuck with C# for now. All external communication is done by polling which makes for lots of annoying loops. I've slapped together a loose Producer Consumer model where the Producer thread loops through reading the sensors and sets the outputs. The Consumer thread executes functions containing timed loops that poll the Producer for current data and execute movement commands as required. The UI thread polls both threads for updating some gauges indicating current test progress. Unsure where to start Is there a more appropriate pattern for this type of application? Are there any good resources for writing control loops in software (non-LabVIEW) that interface with external sensors and whatnot?

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• How do I keep controversy in check?

  - by Aaron Digulla

  This is probably OT but it's less OT here than on any other SO site, so please bear with me. I'm working on a new project votEm. The goal is to give independent candidates a platform to introduce themselves to get elected for a political office. My main reason is that today, it's too expensive to run for an office. Some politicians in the US spend as much as 30 million dollars (!) for a single campaign. That money is better spent elsewhere. In a similar fashion, people who want to change countries like Egypt, could use such a platform to present themselves. Now I expect a lot of emotions and pressure on my site. People with a lot of money (and a lot to lose) will try to game it (political parties, secret services of ... errr ... "not 100% democratic countries", big companies, ...) To avoid as many mistakes as possible, I need a list of resources, ideas and tips how to keep such a site out of too much trouble. PS: I'd make this CW but the option seems to be gone...

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• Do your own design jobs and make it look professional

  - by Webgui

  Looks and design is becoming more and more important for customers and organizations event when we deal with internal enterprise applications. However,  many web developers who work on business apps end up not investing resources on the design. The reason may be that they ran out of time so with their client's pressure there was no choice but to skip past the design process. In some cases, especially in sall software houses, there are no trained professional designers and the developers have to do both jobs. Since designing web applications can be very complex and requires mastering several languages and concepts, unless a big budget was allocated to the project it is very hard to produce a professional custom design. For that exact reasons, Visual WebGui integrated Point & Click Design Tools within its Web/Cloud Development Platform. Those tools allow developers to customize the UI look of the applications they build in a visual way that is fairly simple and doesn't require coding or mastering HTML, CSS and JavaScript in order to design. The development tools also allow professional designers easier work interface with the developers and quicly create new skins. So if you are interested in getting your design job done much easier, you should probably tune in for about an hour and find out how. Click here to register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/740450625

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• Where to look for challenging jobs with a relaxed atmosphere?

  - by RBTree

  I'm a dev at one of the big-name tech companies. I like the job for many reasons: I do interesting work on a cool product I solve challenging problems and use a lot of high-level skills (quantitative, creative, writing, presenting) It pays well The problem is that I feel I need a more relaxed atmosphere (shorter hours, less performance pressure, and more flexibility), in order to free up time for other pursuits and reduce stress. The ideal would be a job that's around 30-35 hours a week, where there is flexibility to work more or less in a given week. Can anyone suggest where to look for a job like this, where I wouldn't have to sacrifice too much on the above points? (Obviously I would have to sacrifice pay.) My employer does not generally offer part-time employment. The closest thing I can think of is when I did summer internships at my university's CS department. The work was very intellectually challenging, but if I needed to go home a couple hours early or get flexibility on a due date, nobody batted an eyelash. However, I'd like to find out if there are alternatives to academia since from what I've seen the pay there is a gigantic drop from what I'm currently making. I've done freelance development before, but I do like that as an employee of a large company I have a lot of things taken care of for me (e.g. benefits and guaranteed stable employment).

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• Is there really anything to gain with complex design? [duplicate]

  - by SB2055

  This question already has an answer here: What is enterprise software, exactly? 8 answers I've been working for a consulting firm for some time, with clients of various sizes, and I've seen web applications ranging in complexity from really simple: MVC Service Layer EF DB To really complex: MVC UoW DI / IoC Repository Service UI Tests Unit Tests Integration Tests But on both ends of the spectrum, the quality requirements are about the same. In simple projects, new devs / consultants can hop on, make changes, and contribute immediately, without having to wade through 6 layers of abstraction to understand what's going on, or risking misunderstanding some complex abstraction and costing down the line. In all cases, there was never a need to actually make code swappable or reusable - and the tests were never actually maintained past the first iteration because requirements changed, it was too time-consuming, deadlines, business pressure, etc etc. So if - in the end - testing and interfaces aren't used rapid development (read: cost-savings) is a priority the project's requirements will be changing a lot while in development ...would it be wrong to recommend a super-simple architecture, even to solve a complex problem, for an enterprise client? Is it complexity that defines enterprise solutions, or is it the reliability, # concurrent users, ease-of-maintenance, or all of the above? I know this is a very vague question, and any answer wouldn't apply to all cases, but I'm interested in hearing from devs / consultants that have been in the business for a while and that have worked with these varying degrees of complexity, to hear if the cool-but-expensive abstractions are worth the overall cost, at least while the project is in development.

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• More Denali Execution Plan Warning Goodies

  - by Dave Ballantyne

  In my last blog, I showed how the execution plan in denali has been enhanced by 2 new warnings ,conversion affecting cardinality and conversion affecting seek, which are shown when a data type conversion has happened either implicitly or explicitly. That is not all though, there is more .  Also added are two warnings when performance has been affected due to memory issues. Memory spills to tempdb are a costly operation and happen when SqlServer is under memory pressure and needs to free some up. For a long time you have been able to see these as warnings in a profiler trace as a sort or hash warning event,  but now they are included right in the execution plan.  Not only that but also you can see which operator caused the spill , not just which statement.  Pretty damn handy. Another cause of performance problems relating to memory are memory grant waits.  Here is an informative write up on them,  but simply speaking , SQLServer has to allocate a certain amount of memory for each statement. If it is unable to you get a “memory grant wait”.  Once again there are other methods of analyzing these,  but the plan now shows these too. Don't worry that’s not real production code There is one other new warning that is of interest to me, “Unmatched Indexes”.  Once I find out the conditions under which that fires ill blog about it.

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• Opportunities in Cloud Computing

  - by Paul Sorensen

  A recent article from CIO Journal indicates that there is an extreme labor shortage (in certain technology areas) that is is leading to upward pressure on wages for IT Workers. This represents a great opportunity for those with certain skill-sets, among which include Java (Oracle certification is mentioned specifically). The article points out that a key driver of the labor shortage is the expansion of cloud computing. Cloud computing is set up to make life extremely simple for end-users, but the model pushes the complexity to back-end systems which are sophisticated, enterprise-level computing stacks (Oracle has an extensive set of cloud computing solutions). These complex systems require very highly-skilled IT professionals (the best-of-the-best) to successfully develop, implement, administer and maintain them. What this mean for you is that there is opportunity for those who have the appropriate skills at the appropriate levels. If you want to be a part of this opportunity you should do a self-assessment of your own skill-sets and experience. Based upon your results you can decide where it would be most appropriate to spend your time and resources for the highest return on your investment. By expanding and sharpening your skills and by gaining greater experience you will be better prepared to take advantage of career opportunities (like this) that come along periodically. As you evaluate your needs remember that Oracle University has a tremendous selection of high-quality eduction offerings (including training and certification) that can you help move your career forward. Thanks and best of luck!

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• FP for simulation and modelling

  - by heaptobesquare

  I'm about to start a simulation/modelling project. I already know that OOP is used for this kind of projects. However, studying Haskell made me consider using the FP paradigm for modelling a system of components. Let me elaborate: Let's say I have a component of type A, characterised by a set of data (a parameter like temperature or pressure,a PDE and some boundary conditions,etc.) and a component of type B, characterised by a different set of data(different or same parameter, different PDE and boundary conditions). Let's also assume that the functions/methods that are going to be applied on each component are the same (a Galerkin method for example). If I were to use an OOP approach, I would create two objects that would encapsulate each type's data, the methods for solving the PDE(inheritance would be used here for code reuse) and the solution to the PDE. On the other hand, if I were to use an FP approach, each component would be broken down to data parts and the functions that would act upon the data in order to get the solution for the PDE. This approach seems simpler to me assuming that linear operations on data would be trivial and that the parameters are constant. What if the parameters are not constant(for example, temperature increases suddenly and therefore cannot be immutable)? In OOP, the object's (mutable) state can be used. I know that Haskell has Monads for that. To conclude, would implementing the FP approach be actually simpler,less time consuming and easier to manage (add a different type of component or new method to solve the pde) compared to the OOP one? I come from a C++/Fortran background, plus I'm not a professional programmer, so correct me on anything that I've got wrong.

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• Quitting a small start-up where you are a primary developer?

  - by programmx10

  Just curious to hear from other people who may have been in similar situations. I work for a small startup (very small) where I am the main developer for a major part of the app they are building, the other dev they have does a different area of work than I do so couldn't take over my part. I've been with the company 5 months, or so, but I am looking at going to a more stable company soon because its just getting to be too much stress, overtime, pressure, etc for too little benefit and I miss working with other developers who can help out on a project. The guy is happy with my work and I think I've helped them get pretty far but I've realized I just don't like being this much "on the edge" as its hard to tell what the direction of the company is going to be since its so new. Also, even though I'm the main dev for the project, I would still only consider myself a mid-level dev and am selling myself as such for the new job search. Just to add more detail, I'm not a partner or anything in the company and this was never discussed, so I just work on a W2 (with no benefits of course). I work at home so that makes it easier to leave, I guess, but I don't want to just screw the guy over but also don't want to be tied in for too long. Obviously I would plan to give 2 weeks notice at least, but should I give more? How should I bring up the subject because I know its going to be a touchy thing to bring up. Any advice is appreciated UPDATE: Thanks everyone for posting on this, I have now just completed the process of accepting an offer with a larger company and quitting the startup. I have given 2 weeks notice and have offered to make myself available after that if needed, basically its a really small company at this point so it would only be 1 dev that I would have to deal with... anyways, it looks like it may work out well as far as me maintaining a good relationship with the founder for future work together, I made it out to be more of a personal / lifestyle issue than about their flaws / shortcomings which definitely seems to help in leaving on a good note

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• How to maintain Motivation and enthusiasm once you have figured out the solution needed

  - by Pocket_Pie

  I am currently undertaking a software project on my own time. When I first got the project I put in many hours working out how to do the "tricky" parts of the solution. I spent many hours googling and reading up on classes available on MSDN that I could use for the project. I was madly excited and passionate about doing this work. However once, I got a working samples of how I could get around the "tricky" parts and got to the part where all that I needed to do was "grunt" work to finish the project, I lost all interest and desire to work on he project. Suddenly instead of looking forward to sitting down and working on this project it became a chore and a major hassle to motivate myself. I am now fast approaching the deadline and I am getting the work done now, but it is under very high pressure as I have left it almost too close to the deadline! I will manage to get it done but it will involve several all-nighters. (BTW I completely despise doing these all-nighters and would love to eliminate these by maintaining my motivation and working at the project continuously.) So my questions are is this normal? Does everyone else notice such spikes and troughs in their enthusiasm for projects? Anyone more experienced have any advice on how to keep the motivation going? Or am I just not designed to work on a full project lifecycle, should i and people like me being doing an R&D type role where I can do the fun figuring out part of the projects and leave it for someone else to finish the "les interesting/mundane" coding?

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• My proposed design is usually worse than my colleague's - how do I get better?

  - by user151193

  I have been programming for couple of years and am generally good when it comes to fixing problems and creating small-to-medium scripts, however, I'm generally not good at designing large scale programs in object oriented way. Few questions Recently, a colleague who has same number of years of experience as me and I were working on a problem. I was working on a problem longer than him, however, he came up with a better solution and in the end we're going to use his design. This really affected me. I admit his design is better, but I wanted to come up with a design as good as his. I'm even contemplating quitting the job. Not sure why but suddenly I feel under some pressure e.g. what would juniors think of me and etc? Is it normal? Or I'm thinking a little too much into this? My job involves programming in Python. I try to read source code but how do you think I can improve me design skills? Are there any good books or software that I should study? Please enlighten me. I will really appreciate your help.

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• Moving soon, fiancee has new job: how to transition?

  - by Anonymous

  I've found myself in a sort of conundrum lately and I figured Stack Overflow would be the place to ask this question. I normally post under my personal account here, but I'm writing in anonymously this time so as to make sure my co-workers don't find out too early that I'll be leaving them behind in a few months. My fiancee just landed a great software development job at a very large, stable company. She'll be starting after she graduates and just after we get married (May to June-ish). Her compensation and benefits package will be more than enough to take care of both of us, so I agreed to step down from my current position so we could move to a larger city with more opportunities. I'll probably take a few weeks off to decompress, but I don't want to stay unemployed very long. Since there will be less pressure on me to bring home a second income though, we're not as adverse to risk as we normally would be. I'm currently debating whether to eventually seek employment at a small company, a larger company, do contract work, or do something else entirely. I haven't been in the software development business long (2-3 years plus some small personal projects), but I've seen what things can be like at a startup (my first job) and at a more established, mid-sized business (my current job). Most importantly what I'm looking for out of a new employment opportunity is challenge and variety. Does this situation describe anyone on SO? If so, what did you do/what are you doing? How is it working out for you? Programming is a pleasure as well as a career skill for me, so I want to make sure it stays that way. Thanks to all in advance for any responses.

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• Social Shopping

  - by David Dorf

  I've written about various breeds of social shopping in the past, so I decided to give some thought into a categorization with examples. Below I've listed the different types of social shopping I've observed and some companies that support them. Comments and Ratings -- Commenting on products has been around almost as long as e-commerce. Two popular players in this space are BazaarVoice and PowerReviews. Most shoppers prefer relying on peer reviews rather than retailer descriptions, so the influence over sales is very strong. f-commerce -- A new term that was sure to rear its ugly head when retailers started allowing shopping on Facebook, And its all Elastic Path and Alvenda's fault! Co-shopping -- Retailers like Wet Seal are enabling multiple people to shop together online. This is particularly applicable to fashion, where the real-time exchange of opinions is important. I actually tried this with a co-worker and its pretty cool. Bragging -- Blippy is Twitter for shoppers, allowing purchases to be "tweeted" so you can keep up with your friends. I get alerted when friends download music or apps from iTunes because chances are I'll be interested as well. This covert influence is one-up'ed by Snatter, a service that gives people discounts for tweeting or posting promotions from retailers. This is the petri dish of viral marketing. Advice -- Combine the bragging of Blippy and the opinions from BazaarVoice and you'd get ShopSocially, a social network dedicated to spreading product knowledge amongst informed shoppers. I'm sure if I gave it more thought, a few more types would come to mind, but I've got to get back to work. Now is not the time to be blogging at Oracle!

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• HTG Reviews the CODE Keyboard: Old School Construction Meets Modern Amenities

  - by Jason Fitzpatrick

  There’s nothing quite as satisfying as the smooth and crisp action of a well built keyboard. If you’re tired of  mushy keys and cheap feeling keyboards, a well-constructed mechanical keyboard is a welcome respite from the $10 keyboard that came with your computer. Read on as we put the CODE mechanical keyboard through the paces. What is the CODE Keyboard? The CODE keyboard is a collaboration between manufacturer WASD Keyboards and Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror (the guy behind the Stack Exchange network and Discourse forum software). Atwood’s focus was incorporating the best of traditional mechanical keyboards and the best of modern keyboard usability improvements. In his own words: The world is awash in terrible, crappy, no name how-cheap-can-we-make-it keyboards. There are a few dozen better mechanical keyboard options out there. I’ve owned and used at least six different expensive mechanical keyboards, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them, either: they didn’t have backlighting, were ugly, had terrible design, or were missing basic functions like media keys. That’s why I originally contacted Weyman Kwong of WASD Keyboards way back in early 2012. I told him that the state of keyboards was unacceptable to me as a geek, and I proposed a partnership wherein I was willing to work with him to do whatever it takes to produce a truly great mechanical keyboard. Even the ardent skeptic who questions whether Atwood has indeed created a truly great mechanical keyboard certainly can’t argue with the position he starts from: there are so many agonizingly crappy keyboards out there. Even worse, in our opinion, is that unless you’re a typist of a certain vintage there’s a good chance you’ve never actually typed on a really nice keyboard. Those that didn’t start using computers until the mid-to-late 1990s most likely have always typed on modern mushy-key keyboards and never known the joy of typing on a really responsive and crisp mechanical keyboard. Is our preference for and love of mechanical keyboards shining through here? Good. We’re not even going to try and hide it. So where does the CODE keyboard stack up in pantheon of keyboards? Read on as we walk you through the simple setup and our experience using the CODE. Setting Up the CODE Keyboard Although the setup of the CODE keyboard is essentially plug and play, there are two distinct setup steps that you likely haven’t had to perform on a previous keyboard. Both highlight the degree of care put into the keyboard and the amount of customization available. Inside the box you’ll find the keyboard, a micro USB cable, a USB-to-PS2 adapter, and a tool which you may be unfamiliar with: a key puller. We’ll return to the key puller in a moment. Unlike the majority of keyboards on the market, the cord isn’t permanently affixed to the keyboard. What does this mean for you? Aside from the obvious need to plug it in yourself, it makes it dead simple to repair your own keyboard cord if it gets attacked by a pet, mangled in a mechanism on your desk, or otherwise damaged. It also makes it easy to take advantage of the cable routing channels in on the underside of the keyboard to  route your cable exactly where you want it. While we’re staring at the underside of the keyboard, check out those beefy rubber feet. By peripherals standards they’re huge (and there is six instead of the usual four). Once you plunk the keyboard down where you want it, it might as well be glued down the rubber feet work so well. After you’ve secured the cable and adjusted it to your liking, there is one more task  before plug the keyboard into the computer. On the bottom left-hand side of the keyboard, you’ll find a small recess in the plastic with some dip switches inside: The dip switches are there to switch hardware functions for various operating systems, keyboard layouts, and to enable/disable function keys. By toggling the dip switches you can change the keyboard from QWERTY mode to Dvorak mode and Colemak mode, the two most popular alternative keyboard configurations. You can also use the switches to enable Mac-functionality (for Command/Option keys). One of our favorite little toggles is the SW3 dip switch: you can disable the Caps Lock key; goodbye accidentally pressing Caps when you mean to press Shift. You can review the entire dip switch configuration chart here. The quick-start for Windows users is simple: double check that all the switches are in the off position (as seen in the photo above) and then simply toggle SW6 on to enable the media and backlighting function keys (this turns the menu key on the keyboard into a function key as typically found on laptop keyboards). After adjusting the dip switches to your liking, plug the keyboard into an open USB port on your computer (or into your PS/2 port using the included adapter). Design, Layout, and Backlighting The CODE keyboard comes in two flavors, a traditional 87-key layout (no number pad) and a traditional 104-key layout (number pad on the right hand side). We identify the layout as traditional because, despite some modern trapping and sneaky shortcuts, the actual form factor of the keyboard from the shape of the keys to the spacing and position is as classic as it comes. You won’t have to learn a new keyboard layout and spend weeks conditioning yourself to a smaller than normal backspace key or a PgUp/PgDn pair in an unconventional location. Just because the keyboard is very conventional in layout, however, doesn’t mean you’ll be missing modern amenities like media-control keys. The following additional functions are hidden in the F11, F12, Pause button, and the 2×6 grid formed by the Insert and Delete rows: keyboard illumination brightness, keyboard illumination on/off, mute, and then the typical play/pause, forward/backward, stop, and volume +/- in Insert and Delete rows, respectively. While we weren’t sure what we’d think of the function-key system at first (especially after retiring a Microsoft Sidewinder keyboard with a huge and easily accessible volume knob on it), it took less than a day for us to adapt to using the Fn key, located next to the right Ctrl key, to adjust our media playback on the fly. Keyboard backlighting is a largely hit-or-miss undertaking but the CODE keyboard nails it. Not only does it have pleasant and easily adjustable through-the-keys lighting but the key switches the keys themselves are attached to are mounted to a steel plate with white paint. Enough of the light reflects off the interior cavity of the keys and then diffuses across the white plate to provide nice even illumination in between the keys. Highlighting the steel plate beneath the keys brings us to the actual construction of the keyboard. It’s rock solid. The 87-key model, the one we tested, is 2.0 pounds. The 104-key is nearly a half pound heavier at 2.42 pounds. Between the steel plate, the extra-thick PCB board beneath the steel plate, and the thick ABS plastic housing, the keyboard has very solid feel to it. Combine that heft with the previously mentioned thick rubber feet and you have a tank-like keyboard that won’t budge a millimeter during normal use. Examining The Keys This is the section of the review the hardcore typists and keyboard ninjas have been waiting for. We’ve looked at the layout of the keyboard, we’ve looked at the general construction of it, but what about the actual keys? There are a wide variety of keyboard construction techniques but the vast majority of modern keyboards use a rubber-dome construction. The key is floated in a plastic frame over a rubber membrane that has a little rubber dome for each key. The press of the physical key compresses the rubber dome downwards and a little bit of conductive material on the inside of the dome’s apex connects with the circuit board. Despite the near ubiquity of the design, many people dislike it. The principal complaint is that dome keyboards require a complete compression to register a keystroke; keyboard designers and enthusiasts refer to this as “bottoming out”. In other words, the register the “b” key, you need to completely press that key down. As such it slows you down and requires additional pressure and movement that, over the course of tens of thousands of keystrokes, adds up to a whole lot of wasted time and fatigue. The CODE keyboard features key switches manufactured by Cherry, a company that has manufactured key switches since the 1960s. Specifically the CODE features Cherry MX Clear switches. These switches feature the same classic design of the other Cherry switches (such as the MX Blue and Brown switch lineups) but they are significantly quieter (yes this is a mechanical keyboard, but no, your neighbors won’t think you’re firing off a machine gun) as they lack the audible click found in most Cherry switches. This isn’t to say that they keyboard doesn’t have a nice audible key press sound when the key is fully depressed, but that the key mechanism isn’t doesn’t create a loud click sound when triggered. One of the great features of the Cherry MX clear is a tactile “bump” that indicates the key has been compressed enough to register the stroke. For touch typists the very subtle tactile feedback is a great indicator that you can move on to the next stroke and provides a welcome speed boost. Even if you’re not trying to break any word-per-minute records, that little bump when pressing the key is satisfying. The Cherry key switches, in addition to providing a much more pleasant typing experience, are also significantly more durable than dome-style key switch. Rubber dome switch membrane keyboards are typically rated for 5-10 million contacts whereas the Cherry mechanical switches are rated for 50 million contacts. You’d have to write the next War and Peace  and follow that up with A Tale of Two Cities: Zombie Edition, and then turn around and transcribe them both into a dozen different languages to even begin putting a tiny dent in the lifecycle of this keyboard. So what do the switches look like under the classicly styled keys? You can take a look yourself with the included key puller. Slide the loop between the keys and then gently beneath the key you wish to remove: Wiggle the key puller gently back and forth while exerting a gentle upward pressure to pop the key off; You can repeat the process for every key, if you ever find yourself needing to extract piles of cat hair, Cheeto dust, or other foreign objects from your keyboard. There it is, the naked switch, the source of that wonderful crisp action with the tactile bump on each keystroke. The last feature worthy of a mention is the N-key rollover functionality of the keyboard. This is a feature you simply won’t find on non-mechanical keyboards and even gaming keyboards typically only have any sort of key roller on the high-frequency keys like WASD. So what is N-key rollover and why do you care? On a typical mass-produced rubber-dome keyboard you cannot simultaneously press more than two keys as the third one doesn’t register. PS/2 keyboards allow for unlimited rollover (in other words you can’t out type the keyboard as all of your keystrokes, no matter how fast, will register); if you use the CODE keyboard with the PS/2 adapter you gain this ability. If you don’t use the PS/2 adapter and use the native USB, you still get 6-key rollover (and the CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT don’t count towards the 6) so realistically you still won’t be able to out type the computer as even the more finger twisting keyboard combos and high speed typing will still fall well within the 6-key rollover. The rollover absolutely doesn’t matter if you’re a slow hunt-and-peck typist, but if you’ve read this far into a keyboard review there’s a good chance that you’re a serious typist and that kind of quality construction and high-number key rollover is a fantastic feature.  The Good, The Bad, and the Verdict We’ve put the CODE keyboard through the paces, we’ve played games with it, typed articles with it, left lengthy comments on Reddit, and otherwise used and abused it like we would any other keyboard. The Good: The construction is rock solid. In an emergency, we’re confident we could use the keyboard as a blunt weapon (and then resume using it later in the day with no ill effect on the keyboard). The Cherry switches are an absolute pleasure to type on; the Clear variety found in the CODE keyboard offer a really nice middle-ground between the gun-shot clack of a louder mechanical switch and the quietness of a lesser-quality dome keyboard without sacrificing quality. Touch typists will love the subtle tactile bump feedback. Dip switch system makes it very easy for users on different systems and with different keyboard layout needs to switch between operating system and keyboard layouts. If you’re investing a chunk of change in a keyboard it’s nice to know you can take it with you to a different operating system or “upgrade” it to a new layout if you decide to take up Dvorak-style typing. The backlighting is perfect. You can adjust it from a barely-visible glow to a blazing light-up-the-room brightness. Whatever your intesity preference, the white-coated steel backplate does a great job diffusing the light between the keys. You can easily remove the keys for cleaning (or to rearrange the letters to support a new keyboard layout). The weight of the unit combined with the extra thick rubber feet keep it planted exactly where you place it on the desk. The Bad: While you’re getting your money’s worth, the $150 price tag is a shock when compared to the $20-60 price tags you find on lower-end keyboards. People used to large dedicated media keys independent of the traditional key layout (such as the large buttons and volume controls found on many modern keyboards) might be off put by the Fn-key style media controls on the CODE. The Verdict: The keyboard is clearly and heavily influenced by the needs of serious typists. Whether you’re a programmer, transcriptionist, or just somebody that wants to leave the lengthiest article comments the Internet has ever seen, the CODE keyboard offers a rock solid typing experience. Yes, $150 isn’t pocket change, but the quality of the CODE keyboard is so high and the typing experience is so enjoyable, you’re easily getting ten times the value you’d get out of purchasing a lesser keyboard. Even compared to other mechanical keyboards on the market, like the Das Keyboard, you’re still getting more for your money as other mechanical keyboards don’t come with the lovely-to-type-on Cherry MX Clear switches, back lighting, and hardware-based operating system keyboard layout switching. If it’s in your budget to upgrade your keyboard (especially if you’ve been slogging along with a low-end rubber-dome keyboard) there’s no good reason to not pickup a CODE keyboard. Key animation courtesy of Geekhack.org user Lethal Squirrel.       

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• Can't get the L2TP IPSEC up and running

  - by Maciej Swic

  i have an Ubuntu 11.10 (oneiric) server running on a ReadyNAS. Im planning to use this to accept ipsec+l2tp connections through a router. However, the connection is failing somewhere half through. Using Openswan IPsec U2.6.28/K3.0.0-12-generic and trying to connect with an iOS 5 iPhone 4S. This is how far i can get: auth.log: Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: added connection description "PSK" Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: added connection description "L2TP-PSK-NAT" Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: added connection description "L2TP-PSK-noNAT" Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: added connection description "passthrough-for-non-l2tp" Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: listening for IKE messages Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: NAT-Traversal: Trying new style NAT-T Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: NAT-Traversal: ESPINUDP(1) setup failed for new style NAT-T family IPv4 (errno=19) Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: NAT-Traversal: Trying old style NAT-T Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface eth0/eth0 192.168.19.99:500 Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface eth0/eth0 192.168.19.99:4500 Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface lo/lo 127.0.0.1:500 Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface lo/lo 127.0.0.1:4500 Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface lo/lo ::1:500 Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: adding interface eth0/eth0 2001:470:28:81:a00:27ff:* Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: loading secrets from "/etc/ipsec.secrets" Jan 19 13:54:11 ubuntu pluto[1990]: loading secrets from "/var/lib/openswan/ipsec.secrets.inc" Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [RFC 3947] method set to=109 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike] method set to=110 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [8f8d83826d246b6fc7a8a6a428c11de8] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [439b59f8ba676c4c7737ae22eab8f582] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [4d1e0e136deafa34c4f3ea9f02ec7285] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [80d0bb3def54565ee84645d4c85ce3ee] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: ignoring unknown Vendor ID payload [9909b64eed937c6573de52ace952fa6b] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-03] meth=108, but already using method 110 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02] meth=107, but already using method 110 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike-02_n] meth=106, but already using method 110 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: packet from 95.*.*.233:500: received Vendor ID payload [Dead Peer Detection] Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: responding to Main Mode from unknown peer 95.*.*.233 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: transition from state STATE_MAIN_R0 to state STATE_MAIN_R1 Jan 19 14:04:31 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: STATE_MAIN_R1: sent MR1, expecting MI2 Jan 19 14:04:33 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: NAT-Traversal: Result using draft-ietf-ipsec-nat-t-ike (MacOS X): both are NATed Jan 19 14:04:33 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: transition from state STATE_MAIN_R1 to state STATE_MAIN_R2 Jan 19 14:04:33 ubuntu pluto[1990]: "PSK"[1] 95.*.*.233 #1: STATE_MAIN_R2: sent MR2, expecting MI3 Jan 19 14:05:03 ubuntu pluto[1990]: ERROR: asynchronous network error report on eth0 (sport=500) for message to 95.*.*.233 port 500, complainant 95.*.*.233: Connection refused [errno 111, origin ICMP type 3 code 3 (not authenticated)] Router config UDP 500, 1701 and 4500 forwarded to 192.168.19.99 (Ubuntu server for ipsec). Ipsec passthrough enabled. /etc/ipsec.conf # /etc/ipsec.conf - Openswan IPsec configuration file # This file: /usr/share/doc/openswan/ipsec.conf-sample # # Manual: ipsec.conf.5 version 2.0 # conforms to second version of ipsec.conf specification config setup nat_traversal=yes #charonstart=yes #plutostart=yes protostack=netkey conn PSK authby=secret forceencaps=yes pfs=no auto=add keyingtries=3 dpdtimeout=60 dpdaction=clear rekey=no left=192.168.19.99 leftnexthop=192.168.19.1 leftprotoport=17/1701 right=%any rightprotoport=17/%any rightsubnet=vhost:%priv,%no dpddelay=10 #dpdtimeout=10 #dpdaction=clear include /etc/ipsec.d/l2tp-psk.conf /etc/ipsec.d/l2tp-psk.conf conn L2TP-PSK-NAT rightsubnet=vhost:%priv also=L2TP-PSK-noNAT conn L2TP-PSK-noNAT # # PreSharedSecret needs to be specified in /etc/ipsec.secrets as # YourIPAddress %any: "sharedsecret" authby=secret pfs=no auto=add keyingtries=3 # we cannot rekey for %any, let client rekey rekey=no # Set ikelifetime and keylife to same defaults windows has ikelifetime=8h keylife=1h # l2tp-over-ipsec is transport mode type=transport # left=192.168.19.99 # # For updated Windows 2000/XP clients, # to support old clients as well, use leftprotoport=17/%any leftprotoport=17/1701 # # The remote user. # right=%any # Using the magic port of "0" means "any one single port". This is # a work around required for Apple OSX clients that use a randomly # high port, but propose "0" instead of their port. rightprotoport=17/%any dpddelay=10 dpdtimeout=10 dpdaction=clear conn passthrough-for-non-l2tp type=passthrough left=192.168.19.99 leftnexthop=192.168.19.1 right=0.0.0.0 rightsubnet=0.0.0.0/0 auto=route /etc/ipsec.secrets include /var/lib/openswan/ipsec.secrets.inc %any %any: PSK "my-key" 192.168.19.99 %any: PSK "my-key" /etc/xl2tpd/xl2tpd.conf [global] debug network = yes debug tunnel = yes ipsec saref = no listen-addr = 192.168.19.99 [lns default] ip range = 192.168.19.201-192.168.19.220 local ip = 192.168.19.99 require chap = yes refuse chap = no refuse pap = no require authentication = no ppp debug = yes pppoptfile = /etc/ppp/options.xl2tpd length bit = yes /etc/ppp/options.xl2tpd pcp-accept-local ipcp-accept-remote noccp auth crtscts idle 1800 mtu 1410 mru 1410 defaultroute debug lock proxyarp connect-delay 5000 ipcp-accept-local /etc/ppp/chap-secrets # Secrets for authentication using CHAP # client server secret IP addresses maciekish * my-secret * * maciekish my-secret * I can't seem to find the problem. Other ipsec connections to other hosts work from the network im currently at.

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• Issue 15: Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ Oracle OpenWorld

  - by rituchhibber

       ORACLE FOCUS Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange@ ORACLE OpenWorld Sylvie MichouSenior DirectorPartner Marketing & Communications and Strategic Programs RESOURCES -- Oracle OpenWorld 2012 Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld Registration Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange SpecializationTest Fest Oracle OpenWorld Schedule Builder Oracle OpenWorld Promotional Toolkit for Partners Oracle Partner Events Oracle Partner Webcasts Oracle EMEA Partner News SUBSCRIBE FEEDBACK PREVIOUS ISSUES If you are attending our forthcoming Oracle OpenWorld 2012 conference in San Francisco from 30 September to 4 October, you will discover a new dedicated programme of keynotes and sessions tailored especially for you, our valued partners. Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld has been created to enhance the opportunities for you to learn from and network with Oracle executives and experts. The programme also provides more informal opportunities than ever throughout the week to meet up with the people who are most important to your business: customers, prospects, colleagues and the Oracle EMEA Alliances & Channels management team. Oracle remains fully focused on building the industry's most admired partner ecosystem—which today spans over 25,000 partners. This new OPN Exchange programme offers an exciting change of pace for partners throughout the conference. Now it will be possible to enjoy a fully-integrated, partner-dedicated session schedule throughout the week, as well as key social events such as the Sunday night Welcome Reception, networking lunches from Monday to Thursday at the Howard Street Tent, and a fantastic closing event on the last Thursday afternoon. In addition to the regular Oracle OpenWorld conference schedule, if you have registered for the Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld programme, you will be invited to attend a much anticipated global partner keynote presentation, plus more than 40 conference sessions aimed squarely at what's most important to you, as partners. Prominent topics for discussion will include: Oracle technologies and roadmaps and how they fit with partners' business plans; business development; regional distinctions in business practices; and much more. Each session will provide plenty of food for thought ahead of the numerous networking opportunities throughout the week, encouraging the knowledge exchange with Oracle executives, customers, prospects, and colleagues that will make this conference of even greater value for you. At Oracle we always work closely with our partners to deliver solution offerings that improve business value, simplify the IT experience and drive innovation and efficiencies for joint customers. The most important element of our new OPN Exchange is content that helps you get more from technology investments, more from your peer-to-peer connections, and more from your interactions with customers. To this end we've created some partner-specific tools which can be used by OPN members ahead of the conference itself. Crucially, a comprehensive Content Catalog already lists and organises details of every OPN Exchange session, speaker, exhibitor, demonstration and related materials. This Content Catalog can be used by all our partners to identify interesting content that you can add to your own personalised Oracle OpenWorld Schedule Builder, allowing more effective planning and pre-enrolment for vital sessions. There are numerous highlights that you will definitely want to include in those personal schedules. On Sunday morning, 30 September we will start the week with partner dedicated OPN Exchange sessions, following our Global Partner Keynote at 13:00 with Judson Althoff, SVP, Worldwide Alliances & Channels and Embedded Sales and senior executives, giving insight into Oracle's partner vision, strategy, and resources—all designed to help build and strengthen market opportunities for you. This will be followed by a number of OPN Exchange general sessions, the Oracle OpenWorld Opening Keynote with Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle and concluded with the OPN Exchange AfterDark Welcome Reception, starting at 19:30 at the Metreon. From Monday 1 to Thursday 4 October, you can attend the OPN Exchange sessions that are most relevant to your business today and over the coming year. Oracle's top product and sales leaders will be on hand to discuss Oracle's strategic direction in 40+ targeted and in-depth sessions focussing on critical success factors to develop your business. Oracle's dedication to innovation, specialization, enablement and engineering provides Oracle partners with a huge opportunity to create new services and solutions, differentiate themselves and deliver extreme value to joint customers across the globe. Oracle will even be helping over 1000 partners to earn OPN Specialization certification during the Oracle OpenWorld OPN Exchange Test Fest, which will be providing all the study materials and exams required to drive Specialization for free at the conference. You simply need to check the list of current certification tracks available, and make sure you pre-register to reserve a seat in one of the ten sessions being offered free to OPN Exchange registered attendees. And finally, let's not forget those all-important networking opportunities, which can so often provide partners with valuable long-term alliances as well as exciting new business leads. The Oracle PartnerNetwork Lounge, located at Moscone South, exhibition hall, room 100 is the place where partners can meet formally or informally with colleagues, customers, prospects, and other industry professionals. OPN Specialized partners with OPN Exchange passes can also visit the OPN Video Blogging room to record and share ideas, and at the OPN Information Station you will find consultants available to answer your questions. "For the first time ever we will have a full partner conference within OpenWorld. OPN Exchange @ OpenWorld will kick-off on the first Sunday and run the entire week. We'll have over 40 sessions throughout that time and partners will hear from our top development executives, with special sessions dedicated to partnering throughout. It's going to be a phenomenal event, and we look forward to seeing our partners there." Judson Althoff, SVP, Oracle Worldwide Alliances & Channels and Embedded Sales So if you haven't done so already, please register for Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ OpenWorld today or add OPN Exchange to your existing registration for just $100 through My Account. And if you have any further questions regarding partner activities at Oracle OpenWorld, please don't hesitate to contact the Oracle PartnerNetwork team at [email protected] will be on hand to share the very latest information about: Oracle's SPARC Superclusters: the latest Engineered Systems from Oracle, delivering radically improved performance, faster deployment and greatly reduced operational costs for mixed database and enterprise application consolidation Oracle's SPARC T4 servers: with the newly developed T4 processor and Oracle Solaris providing up to five times the single threaded performance and better overall system throughput for expanded application versatility Oracle Database Appliance: a new way to take advantage of the world's most popular database, Oracle Database 11g, in a single, easy-to-deploy and manage system. It's a complete package engineered to deliver simple, reliable and affordable database services to small and medium size businesses and departmental systems. All hardware and software components are supported together and offer customers unique pay-as-you-grow software licensing to quickly scale from two to 24 processor cores without incurring the costs and downtime usually associated with hardware upgrades Oracle Exalogic: the world's only integrated cloud machine, featuring server hardware and middleware software engineered together for maximum performance with minimum set-up and operational cost Oracle Exadata Database Machine: the only database machine that provides extreme performance for both data warehousing and online transaction processing (OLTP) applications, making it the ideal platform for consolidating onto grids or private clouds. It is a complete package of servers, storage, networking and software that is massively scalable, secure and redundant Oracle Sun ZFS Storage Appliances: providing enterprise-class NAS performance, price-performance, manageability and TCO by combining third-generation software with high-performance controllers, flash-based caches and disks Oracle Pillar Axiom Quality-of-Service: confidently consolidate storage for multiple applications into a single datacentre storage solution Oracle Solaris 11: delivering secure enterprise cloud deployments with the ability to run hundreds of virtual application with no overhead and co-engineered with other Oracle software products to provide the highest levels of security, manageability and performance Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c: Oracle's integrated enterprise IT management product, providing the industry's only complete, integrated and business-driven enterprise cloud management solution Oracle VM 3.0: the latest release of Oracle's server virtualisation and management solution, helping to move datacentres beyond server consolidation to improve application deployment and management. Register today and ensure your place at the Extreme Performance Tour! Extreme Performance Tour events are free to attend, but places are limited. To make sure that you don't miss out, please visit Oracle's Extreme Performance Tour website, select the city that you'd be interest in attending an event in, and then click on the 'Register Now' button for that city to secure your interest. Each individual city page also contains more in-depth information about your local event, including logistics, agenda and maybe even a preview of VIP guest speakers. -- Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Whether you attended Oracle OpenWorld 2009 or not, don't forget to save the date now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010. The event will be held a little earlier next year, from 19th-23rd September, so please don't miss out. With thousands of sessions and hundreds of exhibits and demos already lined up, there's no better place to learn how to optimise your existing systems, get an inside line on upcoming technology breakthroughs, and meet with your partner peers, Oracle strategists and even the developers responsible for the products and services that help you get better results for your end customers. Register Now for Oracle OpenWorld 2010! Perhaps you are interested in learning more about Oracle OpenWorld 2010, but don't wish to register at this time? Great! Please just enter your contact information here and we will contact you at a later date. How to Exhibit at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Sponsorship Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 Advertising Opportunities at Oracle OpenWorld 2010 -- Back to the welcome page

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• Start small, grow fast your SOA footprint by Edwin Biemond, Ronald van Luttikhuizen and Demed L’Her

  - by JuergenKress

  A set of pragmatic best practices for deploying a simple and sound SOA footprint that can grow with business demand. The paper contains details about Administrative considerations & Infrastructure considerations & Development considerations& Architectural considerations.  Edwin Biemond Ronald van Luttikhuizen Demed L’Her We are very interested to publish papers jointly with our partner community. Here is a list of possible SOA whitepapers that I am very interested in seeing published (note that the list is not exhaustive and I welcome any other topic you would like to volunteer). The format for these whitepapers would ideally be a 5 to 12 pages document, possibly with a companion sample (to be hosted on http://java.net/projects/oraclesoasuite11g ). It is not a marketing stuff. We will get them published on OTN, with proper credits and use social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to promote them. For information, the "quickstart guide" was downloaded more than 11,000 titles over just 2 months, following a similar approach. These papers are a great way to get exposure and build your resume. We would prefer if we could get 2 people to collaborate on these papers (ideally 1 partner or customer and 1 oracle person). This guarantees some level of peer review and gives greater legitimacy to the paper. If you are Interested? Please contact Demed L’Her Thank you! SOA Partner Community For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA Partner Community for registration please visit  www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Mix Forum Technorati Tags: Start small grow fast,Edwin Biemond,Ronald van Luttikhuizen,Demed L’Her,SOA Suite,Oracle,OTN,SOA Partner Community,Jürgen Kress

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• Setting up a VPN connection to Amazon VPC - routing

  - by Keeno

  I am having some real issues setting up a VPN between out office and AWS VPC. The "tunnels" appear to be up, however I don't know if they are configured correctly. The device I am using is a Netgear VPN Firewall - FVS336GV2 If you see in the attached config downloaded from VPC (#3 Tunnel Interface Configuration), it gives me some "inside" addresses for the tunnel. When setting up the IPsec tunnels do I use the inside tunnel IP's (e.g. 169.254.254.2/30) or do I use my internal network subnet (10.1.1.0/24) I have tried both, when I tried the local network (10.1.1.x) the tracert stops at the router. When I tried with the "inside" ips, the tracert to the amazon VPC (10.0.0.x) goes out over the internet. this all leads me to the next question, for this router, how do I set up stage #4, the static next hop? What are these seemingly random "inside" addresses and where did amazon generate them from? 169.254.254.x seems odd? With a device like this, is the VPN behind the firewall? I have tweaked any IP addresses below so that they are not "real". I am fully aware, this is probably badly worded. Please if there is any further info/screenshots that will help, let me know. Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud IPSec Tunnel #1 ================================================================================ #1: Internet Key Exchange Configuration Configure the IKE SA as follows - Authentication Method : Pre-Shared Key - Pre-Shared Key : --- - Authentication Algorithm : sha1 - Encryption Algorithm : aes-128-cbc - Lifetime : 28800 seconds - Phase 1 Negotiation Mode : main - Perfect Forward Secrecy : Diffie-Hellman Group 2 #2: IPSec Configuration Configure the IPSec SA as follows: - Protocol : esp - Authentication Algorithm : hmac-sha1-96 - Encryption Algorithm : aes-128-cbc - Lifetime : 3600 seconds - Mode : tunnel - Perfect Forward Secrecy : Diffie-Hellman Group 2 IPSec Dead Peer Detection (DPD) will be enabled on the AWS Endpoint. We recommend configuring DPD on your endpoint as follows: - DPD Interval : 10 - DPD Retries : 3 IPSec ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) inserts additional headers to transmit packets. These headers require additional space, which reduces the amount of space available to transmit application data. To limit the impact of this behavior, we recommend the following configuration on your Customer Gateway: - TCP MSS Adjustment : 1387 bytes - Clear Don't Fragment Bit : enabled - Fragmentation : Before encryption #3: Tunnel Interface Configuration Your Customer Gateway must be configured with a tunnel interface that is associated with the IPSec tunnel. All traffic transmitted to the tunnel interface is encrypted and transmitted to the Virtual Private Gateway. The Customer Gateway and Virtual Private Gateway each have two addresses that relate to this IPSec tunnel. Each contains an outside address, upon which encrypted traffic is exchanged. Each also contain an inside address associated with the tunnel interface. The Customer Gateway outside IP address was provided when the Customer Gateway was created. Changing the IP address requires the creation of a new Customer Gateway. The Customer Gateway inside IP address should be configured on your tunnel interface. Outside IP Addresses: - Customer Gateway : 217.33.22.33 - Virtual Private Gateway : 87.222.33.42 Inside IP Addresses - Customer Gateway : 169.254.254.2/30 - Virtual Private Gateway : 169.254.254.1/30 Configure your tunnel to fragment at the optimal size: - Tunnel interface MTU : 1436 bytes #4: Static Routing Configuration: To route traffic between your internal network and your VPC, you will need a static route added to your router. Static Route Configuration Options: - Next hop : 169.254.254.1 You should add static routes towards your internal network on the VGW. The VGW will then send traffic towards your internal network over the tunnels. IPSec Tunnel #2 ================================================================================ #1: Internet Key Exchange Configuration Configure the IKE SA as follows - Authentication Method : Pre-Shared Key - Pre-Shared Key : --- - Authentication Algorithm : sha1 - Encryption Algorithm : aes-128-cbc - Lifetime : 28800 seconds - Phase 1 Negotiation Mode : main - Perfect Forward Secrecy : Diffie-Hellman Group 2 #2: IPSec Configuration Configure the IPSec SA as follows: - Protocol : esp - Authentication Algorithm : hmac-sha1-96 - Encryption Algorithm : aes-128-cbc - Lifetime : 3600 seconds - Mode : tunnel - Perfect Forward Secrecy : Diffie-Hellman Group 2 IPSec Dead Peer Detection (DPD) will be enabled on the AWS Endpoint. We recommend configuring DPD on your endpoint as follows: - DPD Interval : 10 - DPD Retries : 3 IPSec ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) inserts additional headers to transmit packets. These headers require additional space, which reduces the amount of space available to transmit application data. To limit the impact of this behavior, we recommend the following configuration on your Customer Gateway: - TCP MSS Adjustment : 1387 bytes - Clear Don't Fragment Bit : enabled - Fragmentation : Before encryption #3: Tunnel Interface Configuration Outside IP Addresses: - Customer Gateway : 217.33.22.33 - Virtual Private Gateway : 87.222.33.46 Inside IP Addresses - Customer Gateway : 169.254.254.6/30 - Virtual Private Gateway : 169.254.254.5/30 Configure your tunnel to fragment at the optimal size: - Tunnel interface MTU : 1436 bytes #4: Static Routing Configuration: Static Route Configuration Options: - Next hop : 169.254.254.5 You should add static routes towards your internal network on the VGW. The VGW will then send traffic towards your internal network over the tunnels. EDIT #1 After writing this post, I continued to fiddle and something started to work, just not very reliably. The local IPs to use when setting up the tunnels where indeed my network subnets. Which further confuses me over what these "inside" IP addresses are for. The problem is, results are not consistent what so ever. I can "sometimes" ping, I can "sometimes" RDP using the VPN. Sometimes, Tunnel 1 or Tunnel 2 can be up or down. When I came back into work today, Tunnel 1 was down, so I deleted it and re-created it from scratch. Now I cant ping anything, but Amazon AND the router are telling me tunnel 1/2 are fine. I guess the router/vpn hardware I have just isnt up to the job..... EDIT #2 Now Tunnel 1 is up, Tunnel 2 is down (I didn't change any settings) and I can ping/rdp again. EDIT #3 Screenshot of route table that the router has built up. Current state (tunnel 1 still up and going string, 2 is still down and wont re-connect)

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