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  • The Benefits of Smart Grid Business Software

    - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP
    Smart Grid Background What Are Smart Grids?Smart Grids use computer hardware and software, sensors, controls, and telecommunications equipment and services to: Link customers to information that helps them manage consumption and use electricity wisely. Enable customers to respond to utility notices in ways that help minimize the duration of overloads, bottlenecks, and outages. Provide utilities with information that helps them improve performance and control costs. What Is Driving Smart Grid Development? Environmental ImpactSmart Grid development is picking up speed because of the widespread interest in reducing the negative impact that energy use has on the environment. Smart Grids use technology to drive efficiencies in transmission, distribution, and consumption. As a result, utilities can serve customers’ power needs with fewer generating plants, fewer transmission and distribution assets,and lower overall generation. With the possible exception of wind farm sprawl, landscape preservation is one obvious benefit. And because most generation today results in greenhouse gas emissions, Smart Grids reduce air pollution and the potential for global climate change.Smart Grids also more easily accommodate the technical difficulties of integrating intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar into the grid, providing further greenhouse gas reductions. CostsThe ability to defer the cost of plant and grid expansion is a major benefit to both utilities and customers. Utilities do not need to use as many internal resources for traditional infrastructure project planning and management. Large T&D infrastructure expansion costs are not passed on to customers.Smart Grids will not eliminate capital expansion, of course. Transmission corridors to connect renewable generation with customers will require major near-term expenditures. Additionally, in the future, electricity to satisfy the needs of population growth and additional applications will exceed the capacity reductions available through the Smart Grid. At that point, expansion will resume—but with greater overall T&D efficiency based on demand response, load control, and many other Smart Grid technologies and business processes. Energy efficiency is a second area of Smart Grid cost saving of particular relevance to customers. The timely and detailed information Smart Grids provide encourages customers to limit waste, adopt energy-efficient building codes and standards, and invest in energy efficient appliances. Efficiency may or may not lower customer bills because customer efficiency savings may be offset by higher costs in generation fuels or carbon taxes. It is clear, however, that bills will be lower with efficiency than without it. Utility Operations Smart Grids can serve as the central focus of utility initiatives to improve business processes. Many utilities have long “wish lists” of projects and applications they would like to fund in order to improve customer service or ease staff’s burden of repetitious work, but they have difficulty cost-justifying the changes, especially in the short term. Adding Smart Grid benefits to the cost/benefit analysis frequently tips the scales in favor of the change and can also significantly reduce payback periods.Mobile workforce applications and asset management applications work together to deploy assets and then to maintain, repair, and replace them. Many additional benefits result—for instance, increased productivity and fuel savings from better routing. Similarly, customer portals that provide customers with near-real-time information can also encourage online payments, thus lowering billing costs. Utilities can and should include these cost and service improvements in the list of Smart Grid benefits. What Is Smart Grid Business Software? Smart Grid business software gathers data from a Smart Grid and uses it improve a utility’s business processes. Smart Grid business software also helps utilities provide relevant information to customers who can then use it to reduce their own consumption and improve their environmental profiles. Smart Grid Business Software Minimizes the Impact of Peak Demand Utilities must size their assets to accommodate their highest peak demand. The higher the peak rises above base demand: The more assets a utility must build that are used only for brief periods—an inefficient use of capital. The higher the utility’s risk profile rises given the uncertainties surrounding the time needed for permitting, building, and recouping costs. The higher the costs for utilities to purchase supply, because generators can charge more for contracts and spot supply during high-demand periods. Smart Grids enable a variety of programs that reduce peak demand, including: Time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing—programs that charge customers more when they consume electricity during peak periods. Pilot projects indicate that these programs are successful in flattening peaks, thus ensuring better use of existing T&D and generation assets. Direct load control, which lets utilities reduce or eliminate electricity flow to customer equipment (such as air conditioners). Contracts govern the terms and conditions of these turn-offs. Indirect load control, which signals customers to reduce the use of on-premises equipment for contractually agreed-on time periods. Smart Grid business software enables utilities to impose penalties on customers who do not comply with their contracts. Smart Grids also help utilities manage peaks with existing assets by enabling: Real-time asset monitoring and control. In this application, advanced sensors safely enable dynamic capacity load limits, ensuring that all grid assets can be used to their maximum capacity during peak demand periods. Real-time asset monitoring and control applications also detect the location of excessive losses and pinpoint need for mitigation and asset replacements. As a result, utilities reduce outage risk and guard against excess capacity or “over-build”. Better peak demand analysis. As a result: Distribution planners can better size equipment (e.g. transformers) to avoid over-building. Operations engineers can identify and resolve bottlenecks and other inefficiencies that may cause or exacerbate peaks. As above, the result is a reduction in the tendency to over-build. Supply managers can more closely match procurement with delivery. As a result, they can fine-tune supply portfolios, reducing the tendency to over-contract for peak supply and reducing the need to resort to spot market purchases during high peaks. Smart Grids can help lower the cost of remaining peaks by: Standardizing interconnections for new distributed resources (such as electricity storage devices). Placing the interconnections where needed to support anticipated grid congestion. Smart Grid Business Software Lowers the Cost of Field Services By processing Smart Grid data through their business software, utilities can reduce such field costs as: Vegetation management. Smart Grids can pinpoint momentary interruptions and tree-caused outages. Spatial mash-up tools leverage GIS models of tree growth for targeted vegetation management. This reduces the cost of unnecessary tree trimming. Service vehicle fuel. Many utility service calls are “false alarms.” Checking meter status before dispatching crews prevents many unnecessary “truck rolls.” Similarly, crews use far less fuel when Smart Grid sensors can pinpoint a problem and mobile workforce applications can then route them directly to it. Smart Grid Business Software Ensures Regulatory Compliance Smart Grids can ensure compliance with private contracts and with regional, national, or international requirements by: Monitoring fulfillment of contract terms. Utilities can use one-hour interval meters to ensure that interruptible (“non-core”) customers actually reduce or eliminate deliveries as required. They can use the information to levy fines against contract violators. Monitoring regulations imposed on customers, such as maximum use during specific time periods. Using accurate time-stamped event history derived from intelligent devices distributed throughout the smart grid to monitor and report reliability statistics and risk compliance. Automating business processes and activities that ensure compliance with security and reliability measures (e.g. NERC-CIP 2-9). Grid Business Software Strengthens Utilities’ Connection to Customers While Reducing Customer Service Costs During outages, Smart Grid business software can: Identify outages more quickly. Software uses sensors to pinpoint outages and nested outage locations. They also permit utilities to ensure outage resolution at every meter location. Size outages more accurately, permitting utilities to dispatch crews that have the skills needed, in appropriate numbers. Provide updates on outage location and expected duration. This information helps call centers inform customers about the timing of service restoration. Smart Grids also facilitates display of outage maps for customer and public-service use. Smart Grids can significantly reduce the cost to: Connect and disconnect customers. Meters capable of remote disconnect can virtually eliminate the costs of field crews and vehicles previously required to change service from the old to the new residents of a metered property or disconnect customers for nonpayment. Resolve reports of voltage fluctuation. Smart Grids gather and report voltage and power quality data from meters and grid sensors, enabling utilities to pinpoint reported problems or resolve them before customers complain. Detect and resolve non-technical losses (e.g. theft). Smart Grids can identify illegal attempts to reconnect meters or to use electricity in supposedly vacant premises. They can also detect theft by comparing flows through delivery assets with billed consumption. Smart Grids also facilitate outreach to customers. By monitoring and analyzing consumption over time, utilities can: Identify customers with unusually high usage and contact them before they receive a bill. They can also suggest conservation techniques that might help to limit consumption. This can head off “high bill” complaints to the contact center. Note that such “high usage” or “additional charges apply because you are out of range” notices—frequently via text messaging—are already common among mobile phone providers. Help customers identify appropriate bill payment alternatives (budget billing, prepayment, etc.). Help customers find and reduce causes of over-consumption. There’s no waiting for bills in the mail before they even understand there is a problem. Utilities benefit not just through improved customer relations but also through limiting the size of bills from customers who might struggle to pay them. Where permitted, Smart Grids can open the doors to such new utility service offerings as: Monitoring properties. Landlords reduce costs of vacant properties when utilities notify them of unexpected energy or water consumption. Utilities can perform similar services for owners of vacation properties or the adult children of aging parents. Monitoring equipment. Power-use patterns can reveal a need for equipment maintenance. Smart Grids permit utilities to alert owners or managers to a need for maintenance or replacement. Facilitating home and small-business networks. Smart Grids can provide a gateway to equipment networks that automate control or let owners access equipment remotely. They also facilitate net metering, offering some utilities a path toward involvement in small-scale solar or wind generation. Prepayment plans that do not need special meters. Smart Grid Business Software Helps Customers Control Energy Costs There is no end to the ways Smart Grids help both small and large customers control energy costs. For instance: Multi-premises customers appreciate having all meters read on the same day so that they can more easily compare consumption at various sites. Customers in competitive regions can match their consumption profile (detailed via Smart Grid data) with specific offerings from competitive suppliers. Customers seeing inexplicable consumption patterns and power quality problems may investigate further. The result can be discovery of electrical problems that can be resolved through rewiring or maintenance—before more serious fires or accidents happen. Smart Grid Business Software Facilitates Use of Renewables Generation from wind and solar resources is a popular alternative to fossil fuel generation, which emits greenhouse gases. Wind and solar generation may also increase energy security in regions that currently import fossil fuel for use in generation. Utilities face many technical issues as they attempt to integrate intermittent resource generation into traditional grids, which traditionally handle only fully dispatchable generation. Smart Grid business software helps solves many of these issues by: Detecting sudden drops in production from renewables-generated electricity (wind and solar) and automatically triggering electricity storage and smart appliance response to compensate as needed. Supporting industry-standard distributed generation interconnection processes to reduce interconnection costs and avoid adding renewable supplies to locations already subject to grid congestion. Facilitating modeling and monitoring of locally generated supply from renewables and thus helping to maximize their use. Increasing the efficiency of “net metering” (through which utilities can use electricity generated by customers) by: Providing data for analysis. Integrating the production and consumption aspects of customer accounts. During non-peak periods, such techniques enable utilities to increase the percent of renewable generation in their supply mix. During peak periods, Smart Grid business software controls circuit reconfiguration to maximize available capacity. Conclusion Utility missions are changing. Yesterday, they focused on delivery of reasonably priced energy and water. Tomorrow, their missions will expand to encompass sustainable use and environmental improvement.Smart Grids are key to helping utilities achieve this expanded mission. But they come at a relatively high price. Utilities will need to invest heavily in new hardware, software, business process development, and staff training. Customer investments in home area networks and smart appliances will be large. Learning to change the energy and water consumption habits of a lifetime could ultimately prove even more formidable tasks.Smart Grid business software can ease the cost and difficulties inherent in a needed transition to a more flexible, reliable, responsive electricity grid. Justifying its implementation, however, requires a full understanding of the benefits it brings—benefits that can ultimately help customers, utilities, communities, and the world address global issues like energy security and climate change while minimizing costs and maximizing customer convenience. This white paper is available for download here. For further information about Oracle's Primavera Solutions for Utilities, please read our Utilities e-book.

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  • Can't download updates for reinstalled Office 2000 on WinXP OS "expected version not found" error message

    - by mpmadigan
    I replaced HD and reinstalled WinXP Pro and successfully downloaded all of the service packs and security updates. I've reinstalled my licensed version of Office 2000 (upgrade version from Office 97). The software installs and is functional; but when trying to install updates SR-1 or SR-1a or any individual security update I get error message "expected version of product not found". Microsoft no longer provides support for this legacy version of office. I can't find any support documents in Microsoft's database that addresses this issue. This is my sister's computer and I've already come out-of-pocket $100 for hardware (not counting the $$hours of labor). She only uses MS Word for minimal correspondence. No desire to spend $100+ for new version of Office. I would greatly appreciate any suggested fixes for this problem.

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  • Solaris10 x86 mirror. Making second disk booteable when failure

    - by Kani
    Did a mirror (RAID1) with Solaris 10 in x86. Everything OK. Now, I´m trying to make the second disk booteable, this is: from grub or in case of failure of disk1. I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst: #---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ---------- title Solaris 10 9/10 s10x_u9wos_14a X86 findroot (rootfs1,0,a) kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive #---------------------END BOOTADM-------------------- #---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ---------- title Solaris failsafe findroot (rootfs1,0,a) kernel /boot/multiboot -s module /boot/amd64/x86.miniroot-safe #---------------------END BOOTADM-------------------- #---------- ADDED BY BOOTADM - DO NOT EDIT ---------- title Solaris failsafe findroot (rootfs1,0,a) kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -s module /boot/x86.miniroot-safe #---------------------END BOOTADM-------------------- #Make second disk booteable!!!!!!! title alternate boot findroot (rootfs1,1,a) kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -s module /boot/x86.miniroot-safe But is not working. In the BIOS, when I select "alternate boot" I get: Error 15: 15 file not found also, how to configure to GRUB to make the disk2 to boot in case of error in disk1? Additionally, I did (but not related to GRUB): eeprom altbootpath=/devices/pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@1,0:a Here is the output of some commands that may help you: /sbin/biosdev 0x80 /pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@0,0 0x81 /pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@1,0 ls -l /dev/dsk/c1t?d0s0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jul 7 12:01 /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 -> ../../devices/pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@0,0:a lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 Jul 7 12:01 /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s0 -> ../../devices/pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@1,0:a more /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc setprop ata-dma-enabled '1' setprop atapi-cd-dma-enabled '0' setprop ttyb-rts-dtr-off 'false' setprop ttyb-ignore-cd 'true' setprop ttya-rts-dtr-off 'false' setprop ttya-ignore-cd 'true' setprop ttyb-mode '9600,8,n,1,-' setprop ttya-mode '9600,8,n,1,-' setprop lba-access-ok '1' setprop prealloc-chunk-size '0x2000' setprop bootpath '/pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@0,0:a' setprop keyboard-layout 'US-English' setprop console 'text' setprop altbootpath '/pci@0,0/pci108e,5352@1f,2/disk@1,0:a' cat /etc/vfstab #device device mount FS fsck mount mount #to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options # fd - /dev/fd fd - no - /proc - /proc proc - no - #/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s1 - - swap - no - /dev/md/dsk/d1 - - swap - no - /dev/md/dsk/d0 /dev/md/rdsk/d0 / ufs 1 no - /devices - /devices devfs - no - sharefs - /etc/dfs/sharetab sharefs - no - ctfs - /system/contract ctfs - no - objfs - /system/object objfs - no - swap - /tmp tmpfs - yes - df -h Filesystem size used avail capacity Mounted on /dev/md/dsk/d0 909G 11G 889G 2% / /devices 0K 0K 0K 0% /devices ctfs 0K 0K 0K 0% /system/contract proc 0K 0K 0K 0% /proc mnttab 0K 0K 0K 0% /etc/mnttab swap 14G 972K 14G 1% /etc/svc/volatile objfs 0K 0K 0K 0% /system/object sharefs 0K 0K 0K 0% /etc/dfs/sharetab /usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap1.so.1 909G 11G 889G 2% /lib/libc.so.1 fd 0K 0K 0K 0% /dev/fd swap 14G 40K 14G 1% /tmp swap 14G 28K 14G 1% /var/run

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  • Do superuser's prefer business grade or consumer grade PCs?

    - by joelhaus
    Having burned through a number of consumer grade laptops in recent years, I'm wondering if the additional cost of a business grade computer is a worth while investment. I'm considering getting a laptop with slightly lower specs to justify the added cost. The primary benefits I see are: (i) the notebook will be more reliable, (ii) have a longer life and (iii) the warranty (parts and labor) will be 3 years instead of 1 year. Are there any other considerations one should keep in mind when shopping for a business grade PC? Is purchasing direct from the manufacturer wise or are there other options that should be considered too? Thanks in advance!

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  • what software will rip a CD to flac files in one step?

    - by jcollum
    I'm using EAC to rip files to FLAC. Seems fine. But for a large amount of CDs (200 or so) the process is a little labor intensive. There's 4 or 5 clicks in there that seem extraneous -- EAC seems to want to rip the CD to a set of WAV files then (after all those files are ripped) I have to select "Process WAV files" (I'd get it exact, but EAC is occupied right now). I'd like to send all of it to FLAC files in just a few steps: get cddb info, select art, rip. Is there a way to do this with EAC that I'm missing? Haven't been able to find anything on the web that explains this. Is there a better program for this?

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  • Will Yosemite Server backup 8.1 work on Windows Server 2008 R2 to backup Exchange 2010?

    - by best
    I've inherited the backup support of some Windows server 2003 machines that used Yosemite Server backup 8.1 The company has joined the BizSpark program and want to use the license of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange 2010. I've tried to email barracuda who took over Yosemite to ask this but with no success. (do you need a support contract?) I don't have a spare machine or even space for a VM to test it on, does anybody know it it will work?

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  • Run Rails server on client's local machine for single tenancy [on hold]

    - by rigyt
    We are building a Rails application for a client that wants to run the app locally to be close to their data center for best performance. I had assumed we would use a standard web host. What requirements should we demand of the client's infrastructure..all I can think of so far is remote access for developers and a Linux machine? We don't have server admin expertise so would need to contract this, I doubt the client has the expertise. Does this sound like a recipe for disastor?!

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  • restrict views of custome list by group in sharepoint

    - by Crash893
    Im pretty new to sharepoint and what i would like to do is create a huge master list of all our employees and then make diffrent "views" on that person depending on the persons group for example a new employe might have sallery info security info personel info contract info i would like to have all that in on row (per employee) but then when someone from the hr group logs in they can only see personel and salery or something like that If that is not an option is there a way to link tables across different lists?

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  • Printing images with same orientation in Windows 7

    - by Notinlist
    I have generated many graphs (GraphViz .dot, about 35 pcs) from a grammar and then I generated .png files from it. All of them are small graphs with a few (2 to 5) nodes on it. I would like to print them, 9 or 12 per page. The problem is that Windows 7 Print Pictures guesses orientation for every image on the grid individually. How can I force Windows 7 Print Pictures to use the same orientation for all pictures (use the files as-is, just do the fitting) What alternative solution can I use for my task which does not include repetitive manual labor? (OS: Windows 7 64 bit, regularly updated.) Thanks in advance!

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  • How Do I Restrict Views of a Custom List by Group in Sharepoint 2007?

    - by Crash893
    I'm pretty new to Sharepoint and what I would like to do is create a huge master list of all our employees and then make different "views" on that person depending on the persons group For example: A new employee might have Salary info Security info Personnel info Contract info I would like to have all that in one row (per employee) but then when someone from the hr group logs in they can only see Personnel and Salary or something like that. If that is not an option is there a way to link tables across different lists?

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  • Best way to replicate servers

    - by Matthew
    I currently have two servers both with linux software RAID1 configurations. They use heartbeat and DRBD to create a shared DRBD device that hosts a a exported NFS directory. The servers run Ubuntu Server with a LXDE GUI and some IP These servers are going to be placed on fishing vessels to act has redundant storage for IP cameras. My boss wants me to figure out the most efficient way to create these servers. We might be looking at pushing out several systems a week. Each configuration will be almost identical besides IP addressing. What would be the best method to automate the configuration process? We are trying to cut down on labor costs to set these up. Imaging and Proceeding are both on my mind right now

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  • Collect and Backup Photos from Multiple Photographers

    - by Graviton
    I have a few photographers working under me ( well, not exactly under me, but I say it anyway just for illustration purpose), so they shoot a lot of photos, the problem is that they all store their photos on their hard disk, and I have no way to retrieve them unless I pass them an USB and ask them to fill it with their photos. Very labor intensive and inefficient! Is there any other better ( more automated) ways of doing this? For the fear of losing the resolution, I don't really favor a online-synch approach, because I think all the photos uploaded to any website will suffer a resolution loss, which is the last thing I want. Is there a better idea? Edit: Being artistic as they are, I can't guarantee that they all use PC and Windows; so the software must at least be able to run on Mac.

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  • How do I get around restrictive email policies by ISP?

    - by Peter Turner
    Apparently we've been restricted (though packet filtering) to some arbitrarily small and untenable number of emails a day by some bankrupt ISP (and they say that's how it's always been chortle). We've been using our own mail server for the last 15 years, and only recently they've been giving us guff. Is there a way for a legitimate business to email their clients, who really want to receive these emails, by bypassing the ISP? The way we've been doing it is by breaking up into 20 or 30 emails, but that gets complicated and requires a lot of manual labor by the receptionist, and unless she's really careful we wind up emailing lots of people twice. So what are my options (Hosted Email, Lithuanian Proxy Server, Different ISP, not writing awful PHP that sends out zillions of emails and gets us blacklisted)?

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  • Can I Reimage My Laptop With the Image of My Desktop?

    - by picardo
    I figured if I could reimage the new laptop, I wouldn't have to reinstall all the development software I install on a regular basis on every new system when I get a new contract gig and have to work on site--it takes me a day and a half to get through all of them, so I really need a better solution. Note: I am using Windows 7 Ultimate on my desktop, and using Windows 7 Home on my laptop.

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  • Excel-based Performance Reviews transformed into Web Application for Performance Management

    - by Webgui
    HR TMS provides enterprise talent management solutions for healthcare, retail and corporate customers, focusing on performance management, compensation management and succession planning. As the competency of nurses and other healthcare workers is critical, the government, via the Joint Commission (JCAHO), tightly monitors their performances. On a regular basis, accredited healthcare organizations are required to review employee performance using a complex set of position dependent job descriptions and competencies. Middlesex Hospital managed their performance reviews for 2500 employees manually with Excel spreadsheets. This was a labor intensive process that proved to be error prone and difficult to manage. Reviews were not always where they belonged and the job descriptions and competencies for healthcare workers were difficult to keep accurate and up to date. As a result, when the Joint Commission visited and requested to see specific review documentation, there was intense stress. Middlesex Hospital needed to automate their review process, pull in the position information from those spreadsheets and be able to deliver reviews online. Users needed to have online access to those reviews from a standard browser. Although the manual system had its issues, it did have the advantage of being very comprehensive and familiar to users. The decision was made to provide a web-based solution that leveraged the look and feel of those spreadsheets in order to insure user acceptance of the system and minimize the training needed. Read the full article here >

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  • Oracle Outsourced Repair Solution: The “Control Tower” for the Reverse Supply Chain

    - by John Murphy
    By Hannes Sandmeier, Vice President of cMRO and Depot Repair Development Smart businesses are increasing their focus on core competencies and aggressively cutting costs in their supply chains. Outsourcing repairs can enable a business to focus on what they do best and most profitably while delivering top-notch customer service through partners that specialize in reverse logistics and repair. A well managed “virtual service organization” can deliver fast turn times, lower costs and high customer satisfaction. A poorly managed partner network can deliver disaster for your business. Managing a virtual service organization requires accurate, real-time information and collaboration tools that enable smart, informed and immediate corrective action. To meet this need, Oracle has released the Oracle Outsourced Repair Solution to provide the “control tower” for managing outsourced reverse supply chain operations from customer complaint through remediation to partner claim settlement. The new solution provides real-time visibility to return status, location, turn time, discrepancies and partner performance. Additionally, its web portals allow partners and carriers to view assigned work, request parts, enter data, capture time and submit claims. Leveraging the combined power of Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle E-Business Suite Extensions for Oracle Endeca, the Oracle Outsourced Repair Solution provides a comprehensive set of tools that range from quick online partner registration to partner claim reconciliation, from capturing parts and labor to Oracle Cost Management and Financials integration, and from part requisition to waste and hazmat controls. These tools empower service operations managers to: · Increase customer satisfaction Ensure customers are satisfied by holding partners accountable for the speed and quality of repairs, and taking immediate corrective action when things go wrong · Reduce costs: Remove waste from the repair process using accurate job cost and cost breakdown data · Increase return velocity: Users have the tools to view all orders in flight and immediately know the current location, status, owner and contact point for repairs so as to be able to remove bottlenecks, resolve discrepancies and manage escalations The Oracle Outsourced Repair Solution further demonstrates Oracle’s commitment to helping supply chain professionals and service managers deliver high customer satisfaction at the lowest cost. For more information on the Oracle Outsourced Repair Solution, visit here. 

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  • Mission 26 Captures Endeavour’s Last Trip in Stop Motion

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    On September 21, 2012 the Space Shuttle Endeavour was delivered to the Los Angeles International Airport and spent the next three days being slowly transported 12 miles to the California Science Center. One dedicated team of photographers captured the whole thing. Lead by Matthew Givot, the group followed the shuttle for three straight days, photographing it around the clock. The Endeavor started on Thursday night and went on until Sunday night, with very little sleep to no sleep. The only thing that kept us going was pure love of the art and adrenaline. One thing that stood out the most for me, while I was shooting, was the people of Los Angeles. It was so powerful to see the excitement on peoples faces and the pride of their home town. No matter how many times I would see the Shuttle it would never get old. This has been an amazing experience that I will never forget. My hope is that this film will show you the amount of dedicated people and teamwork that it took to get the Endeavour to its new home. Enjoy. The end result of their labor is the above video, a beautiful time-lapse video of Endeavour’s journey from the airport to its hanger at the California Science Center. Can Dust Actually Damage My Computer? What To Do If You Get a Virus on Your Computer Why Enabling “Do Not Track” Doesn’t Stop You From Being Tracked

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  • The Social Business Thought Leaders - John Hagel

    - by kellsey.ruppel
    While many European economies are on the brink of a recession between increasing taxation and mounting loss of jobs and bankruptcy filing rates, there's an understandable risk of losing sight of the deeper forces at play. Yet instead of surrendering to uncertainty and trying to survive in the short term, many organizations are feeling the urge to be better prepared to thrive in these complex times by developing a more articulated long term understanding of both the opportunities / challenges ahead. For example: What long-term economic, technological and societal changes are rolling out? Which foundational dynamics will affect our companies' performance, productivity, competition, and innovative potential in the upcoming decades? How will digital infrastructure change our business landscape? What kind of capabilities will be key to compete in a market shaped by growing turbulence, unpredictability and volatility? Breaking out from a strictly cyclical thinking, studies such as the Shift Index by John Hagel, Co-Chairman of the Center for the Edge at Deloitte & Touche (See Measuring the forces of long-term change - The 2009 Shift Index), depict a worrying performance challenge that affected every industry in the entire US economy over the last 45 years. Amidst a more than doubled competitive intensity of the market, and even with an improved labor productivity, the actual performance of US firms has consistently fallen to 25% of what it was in 1965. Most of this reported value is shifting from institutions and organizations to individuals, whether they are customers or young creative talent. To thrive in the digital economy and reverse declining performance trends, companies will have to fundamentally rethink their management approach by moving from knowledge stocks to knowledge flows, from scalable efficiency to scalable learning, from push organizations to pull organizations. Based on the outcomes of the Shift Index and on the book The Power of Pull, the first episode of the Social Business Thought-Leaders features John Hagel to provide strategic insights on how companies will succeed in the 21st century.

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  • How did I get here? My route to Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, and interest in Mobile Devices

    - by Wallym
    I get asked all the time how/why I got interested in mobile and jumped on this fairly early.  I tend to give half answers because it wasn't just one thing that took me to mobile, but a whole host of separate ivents culminating in a specific event where I wasdoing market research in May/June 2008.  Let me throw out the events and the facts about me: I tend to like new, different, cool stuff.  I jumped on .NET early on.  I jumped on Ajax early on.  I don't jump on every new technology that comes down the road, I'm probably the only person on the planet that doesn't "get" MVC, though I acknowledge that a lot of people do and it solves a number of problems in the default settings of ASP.NET WebForms. I remember buying an early Windows CE device. It was interesting, but dang, this stylus thing sucks. After I lost my third stylus, i just gave up.  I got my first mobile phone in early 1999.  Reception was crappy, but I could see the value in being mobile. In 1999, I worked on a manufacturing systems project.  One piece of the projects was a set of handheld devices on the shop floor.  While the UI was a crappy DOS based, yes I said DOS as in Disk Operating System Version 6.22, I could see that the wireless world was a direction I wanted to be in. In 2000, Microsoft released the first public alpha of .NET.  Very cool stuff indeed.  One piece of the puzzle was a set of mobile controls for ASP.NET.  I build numerous test apps as well as mobile version using these mobile controls.  Now, the mobile UIs of the time were based on WML, which was crap. I could real all the analysis of mobile and read all about growth rates.  Now, you have to realize that growth rates can be impressive when dealing with small numbers, but I knew it was a comer. In our first book, I got talked out of mobile because of the line from the publisher "Wally, mobile doesn't sell." Blackberry was the dominant device of the mid 2000s.  Its users were referred to as "Crackberry addicts."  Unfortunately, the mobile development experience for native apps was crap and the web experience was fairly rough as well, but if they could get the ecosystem started, other phones and better blackberryies would come out.  I finally jumped into using a blackberry. Sometime around 2006, I heard "Wally, mobile doesn't sell" again.  Now, anyone that knows me knows that someone saying something like this to me means I'll keep trying it. The phones of the mid 2000s were moving to be more graphical, but there were too many that had this idea that they had to use a stylus.  Stylus suck.  They get lost too easily. I worked on a project in 2007 and 2008 for a startup trying to answer the question of "What is there to do where I am at?"  For some reason, they wanted to be tied to PCs.  As it became obvious that they were having problems, their investor asked us to do some market research and to figure out what the marketplace did want.  One of the important things that I figured out was the we lived in a mobile world and if you had a mobile app, it need to be on a mobile device, not tied to a desktop/laptop/netbook device.  If there was any single event, this was it - I was doing some market research and sat and talked to people in a bar/restaurant in Atlanta called "The Grove" on Lavista.  The consensus of the people that I talked to was that they wanted their data where ever they were at, laptop, pc, mobile, whereever. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone.  Wow, what an impressive device, even with all the problems of a 1st generation device.  I bought an iPod Touch 1st generation to understand touch better, one of the best decisions I ever made. I decided in late 2008, to make a move into cloud, for a number of reasons.  I was working on an example app.  In April, 2009, one of my friends at Microsoft said "don't mention my name with this, but you need an iPhone front end for this app."  How do you get on the iPhone.  Well, there are a number of ways including: ObjectiveC.  Its hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and this dog knows .NET, not ObjectiveC. HTML, web, javascript optimized interface.  yeah, this is possible. PhoneGap.  Now, this is interesting, take an html interface and get it to run on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and other platforms.  I thought that this way made the most sense for me until......... MonoTouch.  In May/June 2009, Novell announced a way for .NET/c# developers to write apps for the iPhone.  This is the way that made the most sense to me. Titanium by Appcelerator.  This is similar in concept to PhoneGap.  I haven't played with this much but do want to learn more about it. In July, 2009, I emailed one of my contacts at Wrox to see if they would be interested in a short MonoTouch ebook in their Wrox Blox format.  I fully expected another  response along the lines of "Wally, mobile doesn't sell."  The response I got was "Wally, iPhone is H O T, get started immediately, can you have this to me before Labor Day."  Not quite the response I expected.  Thankfully, we didn't make the Labor Day, first draft date. I kept pushing back because I had a feeling that things were not going to be quite as polished and feature rich as necessary.  After all, Novell doesn't have the resouces of Microsoft's developer division. The ebook shipped on November 30, 2009. On about December, 15, 2009, my editor emailed and said "Your ebook is selling really well, lets do a full book and it by March 1 so get started."  Thankfully, guys like Craig Dunn and Chris Hardy were interested along with Martin and Ror joinged us later on. I bought my wife an iPhone 3Gs in early 2010 to go along with all my iPod Touch devices. I tried to pretend in 2010 that I wasn't that interested in mobile and still had interest in the desktop technologies.  I love the technologies and continue to use them today, but that isn't where my interest is right now.  I'm just about all mobile all the time with my energies.  Our book shipped in the beginning of July, 2010 right in the middle of the Apple FUD.I've been looking at Mobile Web as a way around the AppStores and Apple FUD problems of 2010. With all the Apple self FUD, we became interested in Android.I went up to Dino Esposito at DevConnections in Las Vegas at introduced myself. I've always tried to keep up with what Dino has been doing. I was shocked, he wanted to meet me.  We must have talked for 1.5 hours. It was way more time than I deserved. If you get a chance, go and introduce yourself to Dino. He's a great guy. Microsoft released Windows Phone 7 in the Fall of 2010.  I'm not doing development on that platform at this time.  I think they have a very interesting user interface.  The devices are being positively reviewed.  For my purposes, the devices are limited at this point in time.  We'll see what 2011 brings as far as updates to the operating system.  I need multitasking/background processing and html5 in the browser. Add that as well as acceptance in the marketplace and I'll be more interested in the device. Obviosuly, I'm now working on a MonoDroid book . I own Android and iPhone/iOS devices.  I am currently working on some startup ideas and am exploring as much in that area as I can. For 2011, I'm planning on speaking at Android Developer's Conference (AnDevCon) and Mobile Connections.  I'm really excited about this. I have a couple of magazine articles coming out in 2011 on Android and iPhone development with the Mono technologies.is Mono "The Answer"? What's "The Question?" I think it will work for me.  It might work for you, it might not.  it depends on your situation.  Its the current horse that I am riding. I might find a better horse tomorrow. So, that's how I got here.  I'm in love with mobile.  Mobile native apps on the device as well as mobile web.  I'm into all this cool stuff.  Where are you at?

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  • "Are You There?".. India Tops Logistics List of Emerging Nations

    - by [email protected]
    It's just amazing how far, wide and deep modern supply chains are extending. AMR reported on 15 Apr (M.Burkett, A.Reese) in a SCM webcast that 'Penetrating Emerging Markets" was the top priotiy for organizations based on a recent survey. I took this as both adding new consumers to their prospect-list as well as leveraging 'lower cost labor arbitrage". (Read '3 Billion Capitalists") Supply Chain Quarterly reports that India and Brazil received the highest ranking of the logistics markets in developing nations India tops the list of emerging nations that scores the attractiveness of logistics markets to foreign investors. Developed by the UK-based research firm Transport Intelligence, the new  Emerging Market Logistics Index rated 38 developing countries on 3 factors. 1. "Market size and growth attractiveness," considered a country's economic output, projected growth rate, and population size.  2. "Market compatibility," which examined how well-matched a nation was with the services offered by global logistics providers. This includes a country's security levels, market accessibility, foreign direct investment, distribution of wealth and population, and development of its service sector. 3. "Connectedness," which rated the efficiency of customs and border controls, liner shipping connections, and transportation infrastructure. India claimed the top spot due to its market size and growth prospects. Brazil is second because of its economic performance, good levels of market accessibility, and improving domestic and international transport connections. Are you there? For more information see www.transportintelligence.com/articles_papers. The top 10 emerging countries India Brazil Indonesia Mexico Russia Turkey United Arab Emirates Egypt Saudi Arabia Malaysia Source: Transport Intelligence, The Emerging Markets Logistics Index, March 2010

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  • A Technical Perspective On Rapid Planning

    - by Robert Story
    Upcoming WebcastTitle: A Technical Perspective On Rapid PlanningDate: April 14, 2010 Time: 11:00 am EDT, 9:00 am MDT, 8:00 am PDT, 16:00 GMT Product Family: Value Chain PlanningSummary Oracle's Strategic Network Optimization (SNO) product is a powerful supply chain design and tactical planning tool.  This one-hour session is recommended for functional users who want to gain a better understanding of how Oracle's SNO solution can help you solve complex supply chain issues, including supply chain design, risk management, logistics planning, sustainability planning, and a whole lot in between! Find out how SNO can be used to solve many different types of real-world business issues. Topics will include: Risk/Disaster Management Carbon Emissions Management Global Sourcing Labor/Workforce Planning Product Mix Optimization A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Click here to register for this session....... ....... ....... ....... ....... ....... .......The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support.For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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  • about freelancer in third world countries

    - by MaKo
    hello guys, one question that is been bogging me... first of all I want to say that I actually come from a third world country, so I am all up for opportunities for everybody... so here comes my consideration,,, I have been working as a programmer for Iphone apps (noob in the company), now in my new "first" world country (immigration can be good!!!), but seem to be getting more and more advertisement from sites like freelancer.com etc,,, so I would want to know what do you think about all this???, would the jobs be getting cheaper?? if a project can be done by say 10% of the cost overseas, what is stopping the employers of doing just that? is it worth it? how about the quality? from a local job and overseas job? and all other aspects I cannot think about?? I just want to know if all this years of learning are going to pay off? or if in a near future all programming jobs will just go to cheaper labor? (sweat shops??) ok hope to make sense in my ramblings,, cheers;)

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  • How to sell logistical procedures that require less time to perform but more finesse?

    - by foampile
    I am working with a group where part of the responsibilities is managing a certain set of configuration files which, of course, have the same skeleton/structure across different environments but different values (like server, user, this setting, that setting etc.). Pretty classic scenario... The problem is that everyone just goes and modifies final, environment-specific files and basically repeats the work for every environment. Personally, I am offended to have to peform repeatable, mundane tasks in this day and age when we have technologies to automate it all. So I devised a very simple procedure of abstracting the files into templates, stubbing env-specific values with parameters and then wrote a simple Perl script that, given a template and an environment matrix with env-specific values for each param, produces the final file. So this is nothing special, cutting-edge or revolutionary -- I am pretty sure that 20 years ago efficient places did their CM like that. However, that requires that changes are made at the template level and then distributed across different environments using the script and not making changes in the final environment-specific files. This is where I am encountering resentment as they feel "comfortable" doing it their old, manual, repeated labor way. Personally, I don't have a problem with them working hard rather than smart but the problem is when I have to build on top of someone else's changes, I have to merge their changes into my template from a specific file, which takes time and is grueling. So my question is how to go about selling my method, which makes it so much faster in an environment that is resentful to change and where most things have to be done at the level of the least competent team member?

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