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• How can I get my progress reviewed as a solo junior developer

  - by Oliver Hyde

  I am currently working for a 2 person company, as the solo primary developer. My boss gets the clients, mocks up some png design templates and hands them over to me. This system has been working fine and i'm really enjoying it. The types of projects I work on are for small - medium sized businesses and they usually want a CMS system. Developed from scratch i'll build a customised backend for the client to add/edit/remove categories, tags, products etc and then output them to the front end according to the design template handed to me. As time has gone on, the projects have increased in complexity, with shopping cart / ordering features and other common e-commerce type features. Again, this system has been working fine and i'm really enjoying it. My issue is my personal development as a programmer. I spend a lot of my spare time reading programming blogs, checking through stackexchange, reading suggested programming books (currently on 'The Pragmatic Programmer', really good so far), doing brain exercises (lumosity.com and khanacademy math problems), doing lots of physical exercise and other personal development type activities. I can't help but feel though, that I'm missing out on feedback, critique. My boss is great and never holds back on praise in regards to my work, but he unfortunately is either to busy to check my code, or to be honest, I don't think it's one of his specialties and so can't provide feedback. I want to know what i'm doing wrong and what i'm doing right. Should I be putting that much logic in the controller, am I modulating my code enough etc. So what I have done is developed a little 'Family Budgeting' app and tried to do it as cleanly and effectively as I currently know how. What i'm wanting to know is, is there somewhere I can submit this app, and have some seasoned developers provide feedback. It's not just a subsection of my code like 'codereview.stackexchange' appears to require, it's my entire workflow that I want critiqued. I know this is a lot to ask, and I expect the main advice given will be to look for a job within a team, which is certainly something I will look into later down the track, but for now I want to persist with my current employment situation, but just don't want to develop too many bad habits. Let me know if I can provide any further information to help clarify, or if this isn't the right place for this type of question I apologise in advance. Didn't want to use reddit as I felt this community fosters more well thought out responses.

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• Victor Grazi, Java Champion!

  - by Tori Wieldt

  Congratulations to Victor Grazi, who has been made a Java Champion! He was nominated by his peers and selected as a Java Champion for his experience as a developer, and his work in the Java and Open Source communities. Grazi is a Java evangelist and serves on the Executive Committee of the Java Community Process, representing Credit Suisse - the first non-technology vendor on the JCP. He also arranges the NY Java SIG meetings at Credit Suisse's New York campus each month, and he says it has been a valuable networking opportunity. He also is the spec lead for JSR 354, the Java Money and Currency API. Grazi has been building real time financial systems in Java since JDK version 1.02! In 1996, the internet was just starting to happen, Grazi started a dot com called Supermarkets to Go, that provided an on-line shopping presence to supermarkets and grocers. Grazi wrote most of the code, which was a great opportunity for him to learn Java and UI development, as well as database management. Next, he went to work at Bank of NY building a trading system. He studied for Java certification, and he noted that getting his certification was a game changer because it helped him started to learn the nuances of the Java language. He has held other development positions, "You may have noticed that you don't get as much junk mail from Citibank as you used to - that is thanks to one of my projects!" he told us. Grazi joined Credit Suisse in 2005 and is currently Vice President on the central architecture team. Grazi is proud of his open source project, Java Concurrent Animated, a series of animations that visualize the functionality of the components in the java.util.concurrent library. "It has afforded me the opportunity to speak around the globe" and because of it, has discovered that he really enjoys doing public presentations. He is a fine addition to the Java Champions program. The Java Champions are an exclusive group of passionate Java technology and community leaders who are community-nominated and selected under a project sponsored by Oracle. Nominees are named and selected through a peer review process. Java Champions get the opportunity to provide feedback, ideas, and direction that will help Oracle grow the Java Platform. This interchange may be in the form of technical discussions and/or community-building activities with Oracle's Java Development and Developer Program teams.

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• Going Inside the Store

  - by David Dorf

  Location was the first "killer-tech" for smartphones, and innovators have found several ways to use it. For retail, apps exist to find nearby stores, provide coupons, and give directions to the front door. But once you enter the store, location-finding ceases to work. That's because your location is usually found by finding GPS satellites in they sky, and the store's roof blocks the signal. But it won't take technology long to solve that problem. The first problem to solve is a lack of indoor maps. Navteq and others provide very accurate maps of the outdoors, enabling navigation for cars and pedestrians. Micello is building a business creating digital maps of indoor locations like malls, convention centers, office buildings. They have over 500 live maps, including maps of IKEA stores. They claim it took them only four hours to create a map of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto with its 1.4 million square feet and 140 retail stores. And within stores, retailers are producing more accurate plan-o-grams. I'm always impressed watching demos of our space planning from AVT. It uses CAD software to allow you to walk the virtual store and see products on the shelves. The second problem is being able to determine location inside the store so it can be overlayed on the map. There are several goals for this endeavor. Your smartphone might direct you straight to particular products, it might summon a sales associate to your location for immediate assistance, and it might send you coupons based on the aisle you're viewing. Companies like Nearbuy, ZuluTime, and Skyhook are working to master indoor location using a combination of GPS signals, WiFi, and cell tower positioning to calculate a location. (Skyhook calls this WPS, as depicted in the chart.) Today they can usually hit 10 meters accuracy, but that number is improving all the time. When it gets inside 3 meters some the goals mentioned earlier will be in easy reach. I for one can't wait until the time my iPhone leads me directly to the sprinkler heads in Lowes and Home Depot.

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• How far is too far?

  - by David Dorf

  Previously I've talked about Safeway's personalized pricing as well as Target's use of analytics to learn about customers.  Then last week I read about Orbitz tailoring their hotel offers based on the browser used.  (Orbitz claims that Mac users are 40% more likely than PC users to book four- or five-star hotels.)  So just how far is too far when tailoring the retail experience? When most consumers read about these types of tactics, they tend to feel violated, as if someone was reading their personal diary.  Nobody wants to be tricked into buying things.  Walking into a grocery store and seeing crates of apples stacked high looks enticing, but the crates are just for display and the apples may be over a year old.  Even though its much cheaper to print markdown tags, many retailers manually write the price tags because consumers think they deal is better if the price is hand-written. The technology already exists to personalize prices and experiences for consumers.  People get upset thinking they paid more for something than a neighbor, but it already happens all the time with cars, flights, and the use of loyalty programs and coupons. There are many variables at play for any purchase.  They only difference is that the customer segments are getting smaller, sometimes reaching a size of one. There's two ways to look at this.  Retailers have always manipulated the environment to get consumers to buy more -- or -- Retailers are getting better at tuning the shopping experience for consumers.  I choose the latter, and so do most consumers by spending their money in the stores they like.  Consumers like to see fresh flowers at the entrance to the grocery store, and they like to see specials scrawled on chalkboards. The key is making sure that consumers benefit from the experience as well.  I'm willing to give up some personal information in exchange for discounts and more relevant marketing, and the next-generation of shoppers are even less concerned about privacy.  Retailers need to use all the tools available to differentiate their offers and connect with their customers. So if Orbitz wants to put three-star hotels at the top of the list for me because I'm using a PC, that's fine by me.

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• Stop Saying "Multi-Channel!"

  - by David Dorf

  I keep hearing the term "multi-channel" in our industry, but its time to move on. It kinda reminds me of the term "ECR" or electronic cash register. Long ago ECR was a leading-edge term, but nowadays its rarely used because its table-stakes. After all, what cash register today isn't electronic? The same logic applies to multi-channel, at least when we're talking about tier-1 and tier-2 retailers. If you're still talking about multi-channel retailing, you're in big trouble. Some have switched over to the term "cross-channel," and that's a step in the right direction but still falls short. Its kinda like saying, "I upgraded my ECR to accept debit cards!" Yawn. Who hasn't? Today's retailers need to focus on omni-channel, which I first heard from my friends over at RSR but was originally coined at IDC. First retailers added e-commerce to their store and catalog channels yielding multi-channel retailing. Consumers could use the channel that worked best for them. Then some consumers wanted to combine channels with features like buy-on-the-Web, pickup-in-the-store. Thus began the cross-channel initiatives to breakdown the silos and enable the channels to communicate with each other. But the multi-channel architecture is full of duplication that thwarts efforts of providing a consistent experience. Each has its own cart, its own pricing, and often its own CRM. This was an outcrop of trying to bring the independent channels to market quickly. Rather than reusing and rebuilding existing components to meet the new demands, silos were created that continue to exist today. Today's consumers want omni-channel retailing. They want to interact with brands in a consistent manner that is channel transparent, yet optimized for that particular interaction. The diagram below, from the soon-to-be-released NRF Mobile Blueprint v2, shows this progression. For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways. I'm looking forward to the day in which I can use my phone to scan QR-codes in a catalog to create a shopping cart of items. Then do some further research on the retailer's Web site and be told about related items that might interest me. Be able to easily solicit opinions and reviews from social sites, and finally enter the store to pickup my items, knowing that any applicable coupons have been applied. In this scenario, I the consumer are dealing with a single brand that is aware of me and my needs throughout the entire transaction. Nirvana.

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• ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for 2012-04-05

  - by Bob Rhubart

  Webcast: Oracle Maximum Availability Architecture Best Practices event.on24.com Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012 Time: 10:00 AM PDT Oracle expert Tom Kyte discusses how Oracle’s Maximum Availability Architecture can help to minimize the costs and risk of downtime. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center 12c Launch - Interactive Webcast and Live Chat www.oracle.com Thursday, April 12, 2012. 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. GMT. Speakers: Steve Wilson (VP Systems Management, Oracle) John Fowler (Exec VP Systems, Oracle) Brad Cameron (VP Development, Oracle Fusion Middleware) Bill Nesheim (VP Oracle Solaris) Dennis Reno (VP Customer Portal Experience, Oracle) Mike Wookey (Chief Architect, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center) Prasad Pai (Sr Director, Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center) 2012 Real World Performance Tour Dates |Performance Tuning | Performance Engineering www.ioug.org Coming to your town: a full day of real world database performance with Tom Kyte, Andrew Holdsworth, and Graham Wood. Rochester, NY - March 8 Los Angeles, CA - April 30 Orange County, CA - May 1 Redwood Shores, CA - May 3 Oracle Technology Network Developer Day: MySQL - New York www.oracle.com Wednesday, May 02, 2012 8:00 AM – 4:30 PM Grand Hyatt New York 109 East 42nd Street, Grand Central Terminal New York, NY 10017 Webcast Series: Data Warehousing Best Practices event.on24.com April 19, 2012 - Best Practices for Workload Management of a Data Warehouse on Oracle Exadata May 10, 2012 - Best Practices for Extreme Data Warehouse Performance on Oracle Exadata How to create a Global Rule that stores a document’s folder path in a custom metadata field | Nicolas Montoya blogs.oracle.com An illustrated how-to from Oracle Fusion Middleware A-Team blogger Nicolas Montoya. Get Proactive with Fusion Middleware | Daniel Mortimer blogs.oracle.com Daniel Mortimer shows how to access "a one stop shop for navigating to proactive support material, tools, and communication channels related to Oracle Fusion Middleware." Build an enterprise on 'other peoples' work', via SOA and cloud | Joe McKendrick www.zdnet.com Are you down with OPW? Joe McKendrick's synopsis of a recent presentation by David Linthicum focuses on reuse. Oracle Fusion Middleware Security: Unsolicited login with OAM 11g | Chris Johnson fusionsecurity.blogspot.com Chris Johnson shows how to create a shopping cart login model using "plain old HTML." How to use the Human WorkFlow Web Services | Edwin Biemond biemond.blogspot.com Oracle ACE Edwin Biemond shows how to invoke two WorkFlow web services to query the Human task in Oracle SOA Suite with your own ordering and restrictions. Bad Practice Use Case for LOV Performance Implementation in ADF BC | Andrejus Baranovskis andrejusb.blogspot.com "If you want to learn something well, there is nothing better [than] to learn bad practices first," says Oracle ACE Director Andrejus Baranovskis. Thought for the Day "The best meetings get real work done. When your people learn that your meetings actually accomplish something, they will stop making excuses to be elsewhere." — Larry Constantine

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• Commerce, Anyway You Want It

  - by David Dorf

  I believe our industry is finally starting to realize the importance of letting consumers determine how, when, and where to interact with retailers.  Over the last few months I've seen several articles discussing the importance of removing the barriers between existing channels. Paula Rosenblum of RSR first brought the term omni-channel to my attention back in September. She stated, "omni-channel retail isn’t the merging of channels – rather, it’s the use of all possible channels (present and future) to enhance the customer experience in a profitable way." I added to her thoughts in this blog posting in which I said, "For retailers to provide an omni-channel experience, there needs to be one logical representation of products, prices, promotions, and customers across all channels. The only thing that varies is the presentation of the content based on the delivery mechanism (e.g. shelf labels, mobile phone, web site, print, etc.) and often these mechanisms can be combined in various ways." More recently Brian Walker of Gartner suggested we stop using the term multi-channel and begin thinking more about consumer touch-points. "It is time for organizations to leave their channel-oriented ways behind, and enter the era of agile commerce--optimizing their people, processes and technology to serve today's empowered, ever-connected customers across this rapidly evolving set of customer touch points." Now Jason Goldberg, better known as RetailGeek, says we should start breaking down the channel silos by re-casting the VP of E-Commerce as the VP of Digital Marketing, and change his/her focus to driving sales across all channels using digital media. This logic is based on the fact that consumers switch between channels, or touch-points as Brian prefers, as part of their larger buying process. Today's smart consumer leverages the Web, mobile, and stores to provide the best shopping experience, so retailers need to make this easier. Regardless of what we call it, the key take-away is that "multi-channel" is not only an antiquated term but also an idea who's time has passed.  Today, retailers must look at e-commerce, m-commerce, f-commerce, catalogs, and traditional store sales collectively and through the consumers' eyes.  The goal is not to drive sales through each channel but rather to just drive sales -- using whatever method the customer prefers.  There really should be just one cart.

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• Walmart's Mobile Self-Checkout

  - by David Dorf

  Reuters recently reported that Walmart was testing an iPhone-based self-checkout at a store near its headquarters.  Consumers scan items as they're placed in the physical basket, then the virtual basket is transferred to an existing self-checkout station where payment is tendered.  A very solid solution, but not exactly original. Before we go further, let's look at the possible cost savings for Walmart.  According to the article: Pushing more shoppers to scan their own items and make payments without the help of a cashier could save Wal-Mart millions of dollars, Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said on March 7. The company spends about $12 million in cashier wages every second at its Walmart U.S. stores. Um, yeah. Using back-of-the-napkin math, I calculated Walmart's cashiers are making $157k per hour.  A more accurate statement would be saving $12M per year for each second saved on the average transaction time.  So if this self-checkout approach saves 2 seconds per transaction on average, Walmart would save $24M per year on labor.  Maybe.  Sometimes that savings will be used to do other tasks in the store, so it may not directly translate to less employees. When I saw this approach demonstrated in Sweden, there were a few differences, which may or may not be in Walmart's plans.  First, the consumers were identified based on their loyalty card.  In order to offset the inevitable shrink, retailers need to save on labor but also increase basket size, typically via in-aisle promotions.  As they scan items, retailers should target promos, and that's easier to do if you know some shopping history.  Last I checked, Walmart had no loyalty program. Second, at the self-checkout station consumers were randomly selected for an audit in which they must re-scan all the items just like you do at a typical self-checkout.  If you were found to be stealing, your ability to use the system can be revoked.  That's a tough one in the US, especially when the system goes wrong, either by mistake or by lying.  At least in my view, the Swedes are bit more trustworthy than the people of Walmart. So while I think the idea of mobile self-checkout has merit, perhaps its not right for Walmart.

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• The State of the Internet -- Retail Edition

  - by David Dorf

  Over at Business Insider, there's a great presentation on the State of the Internet done in the Mary Meeker style.  Its 138 slides so I took the liberty of condensing it down to the 15 slides that directly apply to the retail industry.  However, I strongly recommend looking at the entire deck when you have time.  And while you're at it, Business Insider just launched a retail portal that's dedicated to retail industry content.  Please check it out as well.  My take-aways are below after the slide show. &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span id=&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;XinhaEditingPostion&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; [Source: Business Insider] Here are a few things I took away from the statistics: Facebook and Twitter are in their infancy.  While all retailers should have social programs, search is still the driver and therefore should receive the lions share of investment.  Facebook referrals are up 92% year-over-year, but Google still does 80% of the referrals. E-commerce continues to grow at breakneck speed, but in-store commerce is still king. Stores are not showrooms yet.  And social commerce pure-plays like Gilt and Groupon are tiny but worthy of some attention. There are more smartphones than PCs on the internet, and the disparity will continue to grow. PC growth will be flat and Tablet use will continue to grow. Mobile accounts for 12% of all internet traffic. A quarter of smartphone sales come from China, so anyone with a presence there better have a strong mobile strategy. 38% of people have used their smartphone to make a purchase, and many use their smartphones inside stores.  Smartphones are a critical consumer tool for shopping. Mobile is starting to drive significant traffic to e-commerce sites, especially tablets.  Tablet strategies are crucial for retailers. Mobile payments from the likes of Paypal and Square are growing quickly.  It will be interesting to see how NFC plays in this area. Mobile operating systems are losing market share to iOS and Android.  I wonder in Microsoft can finally make a dent? The internet is being dominated by mobile devices, and retailers had better have a strong mobile strategy to meet consumer demand.

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• Wireframing: A Day In the Life of UX Workshop at Oracle

  - by ultan o'broin

  The Oracle Applications User Experience team's Day in the Life (DITL) of User Experience (UX) event was run in Oracle's Redwood Shores HQ for Oracle Usability Advisory Board (OUAB) members. I was charged with putting together a wireframing session, together with Director of Financial Applications User Experience, Scott Robinson (@scottrobinson). Example of stunning new wireframing visuals we used on the DITL events. We put on a lively show, explaining the basics of wireframing, the concepts, what it is and isn't, considerations on wireframing tool choice, and then imparting some tips and best practices. But the real energy came when the OUAB customers and partners in the room were challenge to do some wireframing of their own. Wireframing is about bringing your business and product use cases to life in real UX visual terms, by creating a low-fidelity drawing to iterate and agree on in advance of prototyping and coding what is to be finally built and rolled out for users. All the best people wireframe. Leonardo da Vinci used "cartoons" on some great works, tracing outlines first and using red ochre or charcoal dropped through holes in the tracing parchment onto the canvas to outline the subject. (Image distributed under Wikimedia commons license) Wireframing an application's user experience design enables you to: Obtain stakeholder buy-in. Enable faster iteration of different designs. Determine the task flow navigation paths (in Oracle Fusion Applications navigation is linked with user roles). Develop a content strategy (readability, search engine optimization (SEO) of content, and so on) Lay out the pages, widgets, groups of features, and so on. Apply usability heuristics early (no replacement for usability testing, but a great way to do some heavy-lifting up front). Decide upstream which functional user experience design patterns to apply (out of the box solutions that expedite productivity). Assess which Oracle Application Development Framework (ADF) or equivalent technology components can be used (again, developer productivity is enhanced downstream). We ran a lively hands-on exercise where teams wireframed a choice of application scenarios using the time-honored tools of pen and paper. Scott worked the floor like a pro, pointing out great use of features, best practices, innovations, and making sure that the whole concept of wireframing, the gestalt, transferred. "We need more buttons!" The cry of the energized. Not quite. The winning wireframe session (online shopping scenario) from the Applications UX DITL event shown. Great fun, great energy, and great teamwork were evident in the room. Naturally, there were prizes for the best wireframe. Well, actually, prizes were handed out to the other attendees too! An exciting, slightly different aspect to delivery of this session made the wireframing event one of the highlights of the day. And definitely, something we will repeat again when we get the chance. Thanks to everyone who attended, contributed, and helped organize.

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• Big Companies Influence Retail in 2010

  - by David Dorf

  From a retail industry perspective, 2010 will go down as the year mobile went mainstream, the economy recovered from the crash, and Facebook surpassed Google as the most influential online property. While the economy certainly had the biggest impact on the retail industry, a few big companies also exerted influence. Here's a rundown and a look back at 2010: Apple -- Steve Jobs and company continued to lead the mobile pack. Consumers are using their iPhones to shop, retailers are using the iPod Touch for mobile checkout, and both are embracing the iPad as the next wave of technology. The Next Technology from Apple Mobile Platforms in Retail Apple Stores, Touch2Systems, and the iPad Google -- Not to be outdone, Google's Android platform grew faster than Apple's, plus they support QRCodes natively and will probably beat Apple to NFC. Google Checkout, Product Search, and Boutiques.com continue to impact the e-commerce scene. Google Leverages Like.com Facebook -- While the movie The Social Network certainly made Facebook a household name, Connect, Places, and seeing the "like" button all over the Web really pushed Facebook everywhere. 2010 set the foundations for f-commerce. Facebook Participatory Promotions Crowd Savers What's the value of a Facebook fan? Step Aside Google Leveraging Social Networks for Retail Social Shopping at Nine West Groupon -- This newcomer executed on a simple concept flawlessly, making them the fasted company to reach $1B in revenue. (See cool chart from Silicon Alley Insider.) Google's offer of $5-6B wasn't enough, so now they are raising an additional $1B in funding, presumably to buy-up all the copycats across the globe. Changing the Way We Shop Amazon -- As if leading the e-commerce charge wasn't enough, Amazon shook things up with their purchase of Woot and release of their Price Checker mobile app. They continue to push boundaries with Kindle, and don't seem worried about the iPad at all. You Can't Win on Price Amazon Looks at Your Social Graph eBay -- Acquiring Skype didn't exactly work out, but eBay's purchase of PayPal and RedLaser are driving the company forward. They are still a major force. Bump the Bill Oracle, SAP, HP, IBM, and Cisco left their marks on the retail industry as well with various acquisitions and CxO shake-ups. We'll just have to wait and see what 2011 brings next.

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• The Softer Side of Customer Experience

  - by Christina McKeon

  It’s election season in the U.S., and you know what that means. It means I stop by the recycling bin in my garage before entering the house with the contents of my mailbox. A couple of weeks ago, I was doing my usual direct mail purge when I came across a piece from The Container Store®. This piece would have gone straight to the recycling bin, but the title stopped me: Learn what WE STAND FOR! Under full disclaimer, I’m probably a “frequent flier” at The Container Store. One can never be too organized! Now, back to the direct mail piece. I opened it to discover that The Container Store has taken their customer experience beyond “a shopping experience that makes you smile” to giving customers more insight and transparency into how they feel about their employees, the vendors they partner with, and the communities they live in. The direct mail piece included several employees showcasing a skill, hobby or talent with their photo and a personal note that used one word to describe what these employees believe The Container Store stands for. I do not recall the last time I read through an entire piece of direct mail. But this time, I pored over all the comments and photos.  Summer, a salesperson, believes that one word is PASSION. Thomas in distribution center inventory systems chooses the word ACTION. The list goes on to include MATCHLESS, FUN, FAMILY, LOVE, and EMPOWERMENT. The Container Store is running a contest asking you to tell them what nonprofit organization you stand for. Anyone can submit their favorite nonprofit to win cash, products and services from The Container Store. Don’t forget about the softer side of customer experience. With many organizations working feverishly to transform their business into being more customer-centric, it’s easy to get caught up in processes and technology. Focusing on people and social responsibility often falls behind and becomes a lower priority. Keeping people and social responsibility at the forefront is crucial. Your customers will use your processes and technology, but they will see or hear your people and feel their passion. The latter is what they will remember most about your brand. I’m sure there are many other great examples of the softer side of customer experience. Please share your examples in the comments section.

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• I didn't mean to become a database developer, but now I am. Should I stop or try to get better?

  - by pretlow majette

  20 years ago I couldn't afford even a cheap POS program when I opened my first surf shop in the Virgin Islands. I bought a copy of Paradox (remember that?) in 1990 and spent months in a back room scratching out a POS application. Over many iterations, including a switch to Access (2000)/SQL Server (2003), I built a POS and backoffice solution that runs four stores with multiple cash registers, a warehouse and office. Until recently, all my stores were connected to the same LAN (in a small shopping center) and performance wasn't an issue. Now that we've opened a location in the States that's changed. Connecting to my local server via the internet has slowed that locations application to a crawl. This is partly due to the slow and crappy dsl service we have in the Virgin Islands, and partly due to my less-than-professional code and sql. With other far-away stores in the works, I need a better solution. I like my application. My staff knows it well, and I'm not inclined to take on the expense of a proper commercial solution. So where does that leave me? I should probably host my sql online to sidestep the slow dsl here. I think I can handle cleaning up my SQL querries to speed that up a bit. What about Access? My version seems so old, but I don't like the newer versions with the 'ribbon'. There are so many options... Should I be learning Visual Studio with an eye on moving completely to the web? Will my VBA skills help me at all there? I don't have the luxury of a year at the keyboard to figure it out anymore. What about dotnetnuke, sharepoint, or lightswitch? They all seem like possibilities, but even understanding their capabilities is daunting. I'm pretty deep into it, but maybe I should bail and hire a consultant or programmer. That sounds expensive tho, and there's no guarantee there either... Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Or, if anybody is interested in buying a small chain of surf shops...

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• Moms on Mobile: Are They Way Ahead of You?

  - by Mike Stiles

  You may have no idea how much and how fast moms are embracing mobile. Of all the demographics that can be targeted by marketers, moms have always been at or near the top of the list. And why not? They’re running households, they’re all over town, they’re making buying decisions, and they’re influencing family and friends. They, out of necessity, become masters of efficiency and time management. So when a technology tool, like mobile, comes along that assists with that efficiency and time management, we would obviously expect them to take advantage of it. So if it’s obvious, why are so many big, sophisticated brands left choking on the dust of moms who have zoomed past them in the adoption of mobile, and social on mobile? Let’s break down some hard truths as presented by a Mojiava report: -Moms spend 6.1 hours per day on average on their smartphones – more than magazines, TV or radio. -46% took action after seeing a mobile ad. -51% self-identify as “addicted” to their smartphone. -Households with an income of $25K-$50K have about the same mobile penetration among moms as those with incomes of $50K-$75K. So mobile is regarded as a necessity for middle-class moms. -Even moms without smartphones spend 2.5 hours on average per day on some connected mobile device. -Of moms with such devices, 9.8% have an iPad, 9.5% a Kindle and 5.7% an iPod Touch. -Of tablet-owning moms, 97% bought something using their tablet in the last month. -31% spend over 10 hours per week on their tablet, but less than 2 hours per week on their PCs. -62% of connected moms use shopping apps. -46% want to get info on their mobile while in a store. -Half of connected moms use social on their mobile. And they’re engaged. 81% are brand fans, 86% post updates, and 84% comment. If women and moms are one of your primary targets and you find yourself with no strong social channels where content is driving engagement and relationship-building, with sites not optimized for mobile, or with no tablet or smartphone apps, you have been solidly left behind by your customers and prospects. And their adoption of mobile and social on mobile is only exponentially speeding up, not slowing down. How much sense does it make when your customer is ready to act on your mobile ad, wants to user your iPad app to buy something from you, wants to be your fan on Facebook, wants to get messages and deals from you while they’re in your store…but you’re completely absent? I’ll help you cheat on the test by giving you the answer…no sense at all. Catch up to momma.

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• Spotlight on an office - Moscow

  - by Maria Sandu

  Probably the most famous place in Moscow, after Red Square, is the centre of Moscow. Here you can find beautiful buildings that seem to touch the sky, located on the banks of the river. In one of these high towers you can find the Oracle offices, friendly and modern. The stunning view will keep capture your attention for a couple of minutes and then you can enjoy a delicious coffee and take a seat at your desk, starting a new day. My name is Dmitry and I can tell you that we’re enjoying every minute spent in the office and that’s because of the pleasant atmosphere. As soon as you enter the offices, the friendly environment will make you feel more relaxed. Even though the space is split between the different departments, we interact and communicate a lot. We take our cup of coffee or tea together and discuss our achievements and all sort of subjects in the kitchen or in the open space. One of my favorite parts are the festive events when we celebrate with cakes and goodies. Any birthday or new arrival is a good reason for a tea party! We have some work-related traditions that help us as employees. One of them is the monthly Tech Hour when Experts from the Pre-sales team discuss technical topics and about the most recent innovations within the company. Lunch is another good opportunity to interact and chat. We have a variety of options, such as the two kitchens or the vast number of restaurants where you can serve up anything you want. As we are right in the centre of Moscow, you can choose between Sushi, Italian Pasta and all sorts of food. We usually go with our colleagues to have lunch. If you care about your health, I have very good news for you as nearby there are two first-class fitness centres with swimming pools, yoga and various sport classes that you can attend. My suggestion would be to either start or end your day with a visit to the swimming pool for a well-deserved hour of relaxation. As I mentioned before, we’re right in the heart of Moscow, so after work you can spend some time in the large shopping centers where you can choose between many different entertainment options. We often go to bowling or to the cinema. I hope I have given you a glimpse into working life at the Oracle offices in Moscow, a really great and pleasant place to work in, so follow us on http://campus.oracle.com for our latest vacancies and internships.

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• error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure(35)

  - by ArunS

  Hello there, We have online shopping site. When I am going to checkout page i am getting a error like this "error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure(35)" From the apache error log i can see some attempts to connect to api.paypal.com. Here is the part of my apache error log About to connect() to api.paypal.com port 443 (#0) Trying 66.211.168.123... * connected Connected to api.paypal.com (66.211.168.123) port 443 (#0) successfully set certificate verify locations: CAfile: none CApath: /etc/ssl/certs error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure Closing connection #0 When i tried to connect to api.paypal.com using curl i am getting a error like this curl -iv https://api.paypal.com/ * About to connect() to api.paypal.com port 443 (#0) * Trying 66.211.168.91... connected * Connected to api.paypal.com (66.211.168.91) port 443 (#0) * successfully set certificate verify locations: * CAfile: none CApath: /etc/ssl/certs * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Request CERT (13): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16): * SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20): * SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2): * error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure * Closing connection #0 curl: (35) error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure Can anyone help me to figure out this. Thanks in Advance. Arun S

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• Sign multiple domains with single Domain Key (dk-filter)

  - by Lashae

  Motivation The private shopping website GILT, send periodical update emails from giltgroupe.bounce.ed10.net however all of the mails are signed with domain keys of giltgroupe.com. mailed-by giltgroupe.bounce.ed10.net signed-by giltgroupe.com My Story I couldn't manage to sign x.com with y.com 's domain key using dk-filter under Debian Lenny with postfix. If I try to init dk-filter service with following arguments: DAEMON_OPTS="$DAEMON_OPTS -d x.com,y.com -c nofws -k -i /var/dk-filter/internal_hosts -s /etc/dk-keys.conf" dk-filter service signs with domain x.com (d=x.com) If I change the daemon arg.s as following: DAEMON_OPTS="$DAEMON_OPTS -d x.com -c nofws -k -i /var/dk-filter/internal_hosts -s /etc/dk-keys.conf" then emails sent From y.com is not being signed. the dk-keys.conf file is as follows: *:/var/dk-filter/y.com/mail I managed to do same thing with DKIM, works perfect. However DK doesn't seem to work. I don't have any problem signing y.com's emails with y.com's key and x.com's emails x.com's key, which indicates there is no configuration problem. Do you have any experience/advice to make it possible to sign emails from multiple domains by a specific chosen domain?

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• Mac Security - Which one?

  - by Bob Rivers

  Hi, Recently I had my credit card cloned. A few hours after shopping at an online store (in which I trust and buy since 2006) I received a call from my bank asking if I recognize a $5,000 debt to a store(?!) called Church of Christ... I'm a Mac user (OS X 10.6.3). I always kept my system updated and I have firewall enabled (in my Mac and in my broadband router), but I decided to adopt some kind of protection. I don't want to rise passionate discussions. Real or not, snake oil or not, I need to have back my peace of mind... I read this and this posts. I selected two software that I think that could help me (both have more features other than just an antivirus). Does someone have feedback about Intego's VirusBarrier X6 or Trendmicro's Smart Surfing? Intego solutions seems to be better, but TrendMicro brand/name is stronger in corporate environment, so their solution should be good. Both solutions have 30 day free trial, but I would like to hear something from you. Any other solution that I should look? TIA, Bob

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• Will Parallel-port dongle work on USB-to-Parallel Adapter?

  - by Gary M. Mugford

  We have a niche program running on a Win2K laptop that uses a security dongle connected to a parallel port for authentication. The laptop is getting creaky and I spent a frustrating night last night shopping various websites for a new laptop that had a parallel port. Seems I'm about three years late [G]. The question I have, is, if I buy a new(ish) laptop and use a USB-to-Parallel Port adapter, will the security dongle work? I know I'm not being specific about the app, but it's one most people wouldn't have heard of anyways. I've been guessing the answer to my question is no, since the app won't know to send a request out to the non-existent port. But, if the process actually is that the dongle sends a message INTO the computer every now and then, then it might work. And, I'm not sure whether the dongle is only needed at program startup time or randomly. The dongle is a 'permanent' addition to the old laptop. This is all about the money. We can have a newly-updated version of the program (which won't add any features we need) for the princely sum of $2700. Or we can spend $500 on a refurbed laptop still running WinXP, add a 30 buck adapter and keep the same solid, stolid performance we've come to appreciate. But it all comes down to the dongle behaviour. Oh, and a dock won't work. The whole laptop issue is about moving about the various nooks and crannies of the building with laptop in hand. Thanks for any suggestions/guidance. GM

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• How do I know what hardware to buy to meet my needs?

  - by Darth Android

  While Stack Exchange does not permit shopping recommendations, it doesn't provide any general advice to consider when buying hardware. So, instead of just telling those that ask what to buy that it's not allowed, let's tell them how to figure out what they need. When looking forward to build a computer, how do I know what to buy? How do I find out if a given CPU will be enough for a certain game or application that I want to run? How do I find out if a given graphics card will be enough for a certain game or application? What is important when looking at motherboards? How much memory do I need? How do I know how much wattage I need for a power supply? What size case do I need? What relevant standards do I need to read up on and be aware of? PCI, PCIe, SATA, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, etc... What "gotchas" do I need to be on the lookout for? Please keep responses generation-agnostic to ensure they will be helpful to our future users. :)

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• error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure(35)

  - by ArunS

  We have online shopping site. When I am going to checkout page i am getting a error like this "error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure(35)" From the apache error log i can see some attempts to connect to api.paypal.com. Here is the part of my apache error log * About to connect() to api.paypal.com port 443 (#0) * Trying 66.211.168.123... * connected * Connected to api.paypal.com (66.211.168.123) port 443 (#0) * successfully set certificate verify locations: * CAfile: none CApath: /etc/ssl/certs * error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure * Closing connection #0 When i tried to connect to api.paypal.com using curl i am getting a error like this curl -iv https://api.paypal.com/ * About to connect() to api.paypal.com port 443 (#0) * Trying 66.211.168.91... connected * Connected to api.paypal.com (66.211.168.91) port 443 (#0) * successfully set certificate verify locations: * CAfile: none CApath: /etc/ssl/certs * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server hello (2): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Request CERT (13): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Server finished (14): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, CERT (11): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client key exchange (16): * SSLv3, TLS change cipher, Client hello (1): * SSLv3, TLS handshake, Finished (20): * SSLv3, TLS alert, Server hello (2): * error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure * Closing connection #0 curl: (35) error:14094410:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:sslv3 alert handshake failure Can anyone help me to figure out this. Thanks in Advance. Arun S

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• What do you upgrade to make games load faster? [on hold]

  - by Superbest

  Let's say you have a relatively modern game like Shogun 2. The loading screens take several minutes. This bothers you and you'd like to improve it. What is actually going on when loading screens are up? I'm guessing assets are being loaded into memory from disk, and possibly being decompressed first. However, what is actually causing the slow down? The memory? Mainboard? CPU? HDD? If you had $100 to spend on upgrades and your only goal is to speed up loading screens without reducing other performance, what component of the computer does it make sense to upgrade for maximum benefit? If your answer is "it depends on the existing setup", what sort of benchmarks would you run to determine what is causing the bottleneck? What if you had $500 instead? I give the two budgets for context. I am not asking for actual recommendations about which component to buy (nor are the numbers supposed to be rigid limits), but what features are important when shopping for components with small and large budgets (a large budget could allow buying multiple components which are not so good on their own, but work particularly well together). I mention Shogun 2 as an example, but I'm asking about reducing overall loading times, across all games, not just one game. Therefore, "put it on a solid state disk" probably won't be good solution, because putting every game on your SDD will quickly fill it up.

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• What do I need to consider when buying hardware to meet my needs?

  - by Darth Android

  I'm looking to build a new computer from the ground up. I'm not sure what to look out for and need guidance and help on how to pick the hardware needed to construct my new rig. How do I know what to buy? How do I find out if a given CPU will be enough for a certain game or application that I want to run? How do I find out if a given graphics card will be enough for a certain game or application? What is important when looking at motherboards? How much memory do I need? How do I know how much wattage I need for a power supply? What size case do I need? What relevant standards do I need to read up on and be aware of? PCI, PCIe, SATA, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, etc... What "gotchas" do I need to be on the lookout for? Please keep responses generation-agnostic to ensure they will be helpful to our future users. While Stack Exchange does not permit shopping recommendations, it doesn't provide any general advice to consider when buying hardware. So, instead of just telling those that ask what to buy that it's not allowed, let's tell them how to figure out what they need. This question was Super User Question of the Week #20 Read the June 20, 2011 blog entry for more details or submit your own Question of the Week.

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• Outlook VBA script - find and replace text with image

  - by user2530616

  I have a e-commerce store. When I get a sale, I receive an order confirmation email which contains the name of the product sold. When the email comes through, I would like to run a script that replaces the product name eg. "red widget", with a picture of that product. Is that possible? I have found a similar code to replace text (set of numbers in this case) with a link, but I need it to replace with a picture instead. Option Explicit Sub InsertHyperLink(MyMail As MailItem) Dim body As String, re As Object, match As Variant body = MyMail.body Set re = CreateObject("vbscript.regexp") re.Pattern = "#[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]" For Each match In re.Execute(body) body = Replace(body, match.Value, "http://example.com/bug.html?id=" & Right(match.Value, 6), 1, -1, vbTextCompare) Next MyMail.body = body MyMail.Save End Sub example mail Order Confirmation Thanks for shopping with us today! ------------------------------------------------------ Order Number: 2209 Date Ordered: Friday 28 June, 2013 Products ------------------------------------------------------ 1 x red widget = $5.00 ------------------------------------------------------ Total: $0.00 Delivery Address xxx search text: "red widget" replace picture: redwidget.jpg

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• Sign multiple domains with single Domain Key (dk-filter)

  - by Lashae

  Motivation The private shopping website GILT, send periodical update emails from giltgroupe.bounce.ed10.net however all of the mails are signed with domain keys of giltgroupe.com. mailed-by giltgroupe.bounce.ed10.net signed-by giltgroupe.com My Story I couldn't manage to sign x.com with y.com 's domain key using dk-filter under Debian Lenny with postfix. If I try to init dk-filter service with following arguments: DAEMON_OPTS="$DAEMON_OPTS -d x.com,y.com -c nofws -k -i /var/dk-filter/internal_hosts -s /etc/dk-keys.conf" dk-filter service signs with domain x.com (d=x.com) If I change the daemon arg.s as following: DAEMON_OPTS="$DAEMON_OPTS -d x.com -c nofws -k -i /var/dk-filter/internal_hosts -s /etc/dk-keys.conf" then emails sent From y.com is not being signed. the dk-keys.conf file is as follows: *:/var/dk-filter/y.com/mail I managed to do same thing with DKIM, works perfect. However DK doesn't seem to work. I don't have any problem signing y.com's emails with y.com's key and x.com's emails x.com's key, which indicates there is no configuration problem. Do you have any experience/advice to make it possible to sign emails from multiple domains by a specific chosen domain?

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