Search Results

Search found 7399 results on 296 pages for 'character entities'.

Page 235/296 | < Previous Page | 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242  | Next Page >

• Date Time Format in RUBY

  - by Madhan ayyasamy

  The following snippets is very useful when we render views dates in various format in ruby on rails."Format meaning:  %a - The abbreviated weekday name (``Sun'')  %A - The  full  weekday  name (``Sunday'')  %b - The abbreviated month name (``Jan'')  %B - The  full  month  name (``January'')  %c - The preferred local date and time representation  %d - Day of the month (01..31)  %H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)  %I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)  %j - Day of the year (001..366)  %m - Month of the year (01..12)  %M - Minute of the hour (00..59)  %p - Meridian indicator (``AM''  or  ``PM'')  %S - Second of the minute (00..60)  %U - Week  number  of the current year,          starting with the first Sunday as the first          day of the first week (00..53)  %W - Week  number  of the current year,          starting with the first Monday as the first          day of the first week (00..53)  %w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)  %x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time  %X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date  %y - Year without a century (00..99)  %Y - Year with century  %Z - Time zone name  %% - Literal ``%'' character   t = Time.now   t.strftime("Printed on %m/%d/%Y")   #=> "Printed on 04/09/2003"   t.strftime("at %I:%M%p")            #=> "at 08:56AM""Have a great day!

  Read the article

• How do I fix postfix TLS?

  - by Savanni D'Gerinel

  STARTTLS was working with my system earlier today. Without me altering the system in any way, it spontaneously broke. I've now been trying to fix it for a couple of hours, to no success. When I connect to the server, this is what I get: savanni@Orolo:~$ telnet apps.savannidgerinel.com 25 Trying 129.121.182.135... Connected to apps.sasavanni@Orolo:~$ telnet apps.savannidgerinel.com 25 Trying 129.121.182.135... Connected to apps.savannidgerinel.com. Escape character is '^]'. 220 *********************************************** ehlo dude 250-apps.savannidgerinel.com 250-PIPELINING 250-SIZE 10240000 250-VRFY 250-ETRN 250-XXXXXXXA 250-AUTH PLAIN 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES 250-8BITMIME 250 DSN ^]close telnet> close Connection closed. Okay, obviously STARTTLS isn't present in this list. So I've been digging through my configuration files and working through the tutorials again, and that has done me no good at all. Here's my tls-related configuration: smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/savannidgerinel_com_CA.pem smtp_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/apps.savannidgerinel.com.pem smtp_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/apps.savannidgerinel.com.key.pem smtp_tls_security_level = may smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtpd_tls_CAfile = /etc/ssl/certs/savannidgerinel_com_CA.pem smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/apps.savannidgerinel.com.pem smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/apps.savannidgerinel.com.key.pem smtpd_tls_loglevel = 3 smtpd_tls_received_header = yes smtpd_tls_security_level = may smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom All of the certificate files are present, the server private key is present, the server CA is present, and the smtpd_scache.db and smtp_scache.db files are both present. All are accessible to the postfix user. Speaking of which, here are the processes running: savanni@apps:/var/lib/postfix$ ps aux | grep postfix root 3525 0.0 0.1 25112 1680 ? Ss 20:19 0:00 /usr/lib/postfix/master postfix 3526 0.0 0.1 27176 1524 ? S 20:19 0:00 pickup -l -t fifo -u -c -o content_filter= -o receive_override_options=no_header_body_checks postfix 3527 0.0 0.1 27228 1552 ? S 20:19 0:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u postfix 3528 0.0 0.4 46948 4144 ? S 20:19 0:00 smtpd -n smtp -t inet -u -c -o stress= -s 2 postfix 3529 0.0 0.1 27176 1628 ? S 20:19 0:00 proxymap -t unix -u postfix 3530 0.0 0.3 38212 3176 ? S 20:19 0:00 tlsmgr -l -t unix -u -c postfix 3531 0.0 0.1 27176 1516 ? S 20:19 0:00 anvil -l -t unix -u -c postfix 3535 0.0 0.1 27188 1544 ? S 20:20 0:00 trivial-rewrite -n rewrite -t unix -u -c The log files say absolutely nothing related to TLS except for this: Nov 6 02:19:45 apps postfix/master[3525]: daemon started -- version 2.9.6, configuration /etc/postfix Nov 6 02:19:49 apps postfix/smtpd[3528]: initializing the server-side TLS engine Nov 6 02:19:49 apps postfix/tlsmgr[3530]: open smtpd TLS cache btree:/var/lib/postfix/smtpd_scache Nov 6 02:19:49 apps postfix/tlsmgr[3530]: tlsmgr_cache_run_event: start TLS smtpd session cache cleanup Nov 6 02:19:49 apps postfix/smtpd[3528]: connect from unknown[204.16.68.108] Neither syslog nor mail.err shows any indication of a problem. As far as the whole system is concerned, all is well. But there is no STARTTLS and so I suddenly can't send any email at all. Help???

  Read the article

• How to Modify a Signature for Use in Plain Text Emails in Outlook 2013

  - by Lori Kaufman

  If you’ve created a signature with an image, links, text formatting, or special characters, the signature will not look the same in plain text formatted emails as it does in HTML format. As the name suggests, Plain Text does not support any type of formatting. For example, if you include an image in your signature, as shown below, the plain text version will be blank. Active links in HTML signatures will be converted to just the text of the link in plain text emails. The How-To Geek link in the image below will become simply How-To Geek and will look like the rest of the text in the signature. The same thing is true in the following example. The active links are stripped from the text. The picture of the envelope that was inserted using the Wingdings font will only display as the plain text character associated with it. There are times you may need to send email in Plain Text format, but still include your signature. You can edit the plain text version of your signature to make it look good in plain text emails by manually editing the text file. To do this, click the File tab. Click Options in the menu list on the left side of the Account Information screen. On the Outlook Options dialog box, click Mail in the list of options on the left side of the dialog box. In the Compose messages section, press and hold the Ctrl key and click the Signatures button. This opens the Signatures folder containing the files used to insert signatures into emails. The .txt file version of each signature is used when inserting a signature into a plain text email. Double-click on a .txt file for the signature you want to edit to open it in Notepad, or your default text editor. Notice that the links on “How-To Geek” and “Email me” are gone and the envelope typed using the Wingdings font was converted to an “H.” Edit the text file to remove extra characters, replace images, and provide full web and email links. Save the text file. Create a new mail message and select the edited signature, if it’s not the default signature for the current email account. To convert the email to plain text, click the Format Text tab and click Plain Text in the Format section. The Microsoft Outlook Compatibility Checker displays telling you that Formatted text will become plain text. Click Continue. The HTML version of your signature is converted to the plain text version. NOTE: You should make a backup of the .txt signature file you edited, as this file will change again when you change your signature in the Signature Editor.     

  Read the article

• Azure Service Bus - Authorization failure

  - by Michael Stephenson

  I fell into this trap earlier in the week with a mistake I made when configuring a service to send and listen on the azure service bus and I thought it would be worth a little note for future reference as I didnt find anything online about it.  After configuring everything when I ran my code sample I was getting the below error. WebHost failed to process a request.Sender Information: System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment+HostingManager/28316044Exception: System.ServiceModel.ServiceActivationException: The service '/-------/BrokeredMessageService.svc' cannot be activated due to an exception during compilation.  The exception message is: Generic: There was an authorization failure. Make sure you have specified the correct SharedSecret, SimpleWebToken or Saml transport client credentials.. ---> Microsoft.ServiceBus.AuthorizationFailedException: Generic: There was an authorization failure. Make sure you have specified the correct SharedSecret, SimpleWebToken or Saml transport client credentials.   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.RelayedOnewayTcpClient.ConnectRequestReplyContext.Send(Message message, TimeSpan timeout, IDuplexChannel& channel)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.RelayedOnewayTcpListener.RelayedOnewayTcpListenerClient.Connect(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.RelayedOnewayTcpClient.EnsureConnected(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.RefcountedCommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.RelayedOnewayChannelListener.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ChannelDispatcher.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.SocketConnectionTransportManager.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.TransportManager.Open(TimeSpan timeout, TransportChannelListener channelListener)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.TransportManagerContainer.Open(TimeSpan timeout, SelectTransportManagersCallback selectTransportManagerCallback)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.SocketConnectionChannelListener`2.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at Microsoft.ServiceBus.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ChannelDispatcher.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostBase.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout)   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.ActivateService(String normalizedVirtualPath)   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.HostingManager.EnsureServiceAvailable(String normalizedVirtualPath)   at System.ServiceModel.ServiceHostingEnvironment.EnsureServiceAvailableFast(String relativeVirtualPath)Process Name: w3wpProcess ID: 8056As recommended by the error message I checked everything about the application configuration and also the keys and eventually I found the problem.When I set the permissions in the ACS rule group I had copied and pasted the claim name for net.windows.servicebus.action from the Azure portal and hadnt spotted the <space> character on the end of it like you sometimes pick up when copying text in the browser.  This meant that the listen and send permissions were not setup correctly which is why (as you would expect) my two applications could not connect to the service bus.So lesson learnt here, if you do copy and paste into the ACS rules just be careful you dont leave a space on the end of anything otherwise it will be difficult to spot that its configured incorrectly

  Read the article

• DISA Cross Domain Enterprise Solutions on the NetBeans Platform

  - by Geertjan

  Bray 2.0 is a tool based on the NetBeans Platform that assists in creating valid Data Flow Configuration (DFC) files. The DFC Specification was developed to provide a standardized way for defining, validating, and approving data flows for use on cross-domain guarding solutions. A DFC document specifies key entities such as security domains, guards that facilitate data between security domains, data flows that describe how data travels between security domains, filters that transform and validate the data and more. Related info: http://www.disa.mil/Services/Information-Assurance/Cross-Domain-Solutions The Bray product is in development at Fulcrum IT (http://www.fulcrumco.com). The DFC Specification and Bray were developed in support of the US Department of Defense. Bray 2.0 marks the first release of Bray on the NetBeans Platform and utilizes a number of features that are core to the NetBeans Platform: Modular plugability. Bray consumers can integrate their own tools, file types, and more into the product with relative ease. Robust UI. The NetBeans Platform intuitive UI makes it easy to access and manipulate multiple aspects of a DFC. Explorer. The Explorer is a key component that makes the DFC XML easy to traverse, edit, and find errors. Context-sensitive help. JavaHelp can be readily integrated for the product as well as all the UI within. Editors. Any external file can be added to a DFC. Users can register their own editors or use the provided NetBeans editors to edit files. Printing. The NetBeans Platform Print API makes it easy to determine what should be printed and how.   A screenshot: Bray 2.0 provides a lot of key features in developing valid, robust DFC files:  XML validation. A DFC can be validated against the DFC schema specification. DFC Check List. An interactive, minimal guide for creating a complete DFC. Summary Window. The Summary Window functions like the Navigator in NetBeans IDE. The current "item of interest" is checked against various business rules and provides the ability to quickly find and fix errors. Change Log. Bray audits every change to a DFC and places them in a change log for users to peruse. Comments. Users can optionally add comments for other users to see. Digital signatures. DFC files can be digitally signed. A signature history and signature validation is provided in Bray. Pluggable security schemes. Bray ships with plain text and IC-ISM security schemes. If needed, users can integrate additional ones.  ...and more to come! New features for Bray are constantly in development including use of the NetBeans Visual Library, language support, and more. More screenshots:

  Read the article

• Node.js Lockstep Multiplayer Architecture

  - by Wakaka

  Background I'm using the lockstep model for a multiplayer Node.js/Socket.IO game in a client-server architecture. User input (mouse or keypress) is parsed into commands like 'attack' and 'move' on the client, which are sent to the server and scheduled to be executed on a certain tick. This is in contrast to sending state data to clients, which I don't wish to use due to bandwidth issues. Each tick, the server will send the list of commands on that tick (possibly empty) to each client. The server and all clients will then process the commands and simulate that tick in exactly the same way. With Node.js this is actually quite simple due to possibility of code sharing between server and client. I'll just put the deterministic simulator in the /shared folder which can be run by both server and client. The server simulation is required so that there is an authoritative version of the simulation which clients cannot alter. Problem Now, the game has many entity classes, like Unit, Item, Tree etc. Entities are created in the simulator. However, for each class, it has some methods that are shared and some that are client-specific. For instance, the Unit class has addHp method which is shared. It also has methods like getSprite (gets the image of the entity), isVisible (checks if unit can be seen by the client), onDeathInClient (does a bunch of stuff when it dies only on the client like adding announcements) and isMyUnit (quick function to check if the client owns the unit). Up till now, I have been piling all the client functions into the shared Unit class, and adding a this.game.isServer() check when necessary. For instance, when the unit dies, it will call if (!this.game.isServer()) { this.onDeathInClient(); }. This approach has worked pretty fine so far, in terms of functionality. But as the codebase grew bigger, this style of coding seems a little strange. Firstly, the client code is clearly not shared, and yet is placed under the /shared folder. Secondly, client-specific variables for each entity are also instantiated on the server entity (like unit.sprite) and can run into problems when the server cannot instantiate the variable (it doesn't have Image class like on browsers). So my question is, is there a better way to organize the client code, or is this a common way of doing things for lockstep multiplayer games? I can think of a possible workaround, but it does have its own problems. Possible workaround (with problems) I could use Javascript mixins that are only added when in a browser. Thus, in the /shared/unit.js file in the /shared folder, I would have this code at the end: if (typeof exports !== 'undefined') module.exports = Unit; else mixin(Unit, LocalUnit); Then I would have /client/localunit.js store an object LocalUnit of client-side methods for Unit. Now, I already have a publish-subscribe system in place for events in the simulator. To remove the this.game.isServer() checks, I could publish entity-specific events whenever I want the client to do something. For instance, I would do this.publish('Death') in /shared/unit.js and do this.subscribe('Death', this.onDeathInClient) in /client/localunit.js. But this would make the simulator's event listeners list on the server and the client different. Now if I want to clear all subscribed events only from the shared simulator, I can't. Of course, it is possible to create two event subscription systems - one client-specific and one shared - but now the publish() method would have to do if (!this.game.isServer()) { this.publishOnClient(event); }. All in all, the workaround off the top of my head seems pretty complicated for something as simple as separating the client and shared code. Thus, I wonder if there is an established and simpler method for better code organization, hopefully specific to Node.js games.

  Read the article

• What information must never appear in logs?

  - by MainMa

  I'm about to write the company guidelines about what must never appear in logs (trace of an application). In fact, some developers try to include as many information as possible in trace, making it risky to store those logs, and extremely dangerous to submit them, especially when the customer doesn't know this information is stored, because she never cared about this and never read documentation and/or warning messages. For example, when dealing with files, some developers are tempted to trace the names of the files. For example before appending file name to a directory, if we trace everything on error, it will be easy to notice for example that the appended name is too long, and that the bug in the code was to forget to check for the length of the concatenated string. It is helpful, but this is sensitive data, and must never appear in logs. In the same way: Passwords, IP addresses and network information (MAC address, host name, etc.)¹, Database accesses, Direct input from user and stored business data must never appear in trace. So what other types of information must be banished from the logs? Are there any guidelines already written which I can use? ¹ Obviously, I'm not talking about things as IIS or Apache logs. What I'm talking about is the sort of information which is collected with the only intent to debug the application itself, not to trace the activity of untrusted entities. Edit: Thank you for your answers and your comments. Since my question is not too precise, I'll try to answer the questions asked in the comments: What I'm doing with the logs? The logs of the application may be stored in memory, which means either in plain on hard disk on localhost, in a database, again in plain, or in Windows Events. In every case, the concern is that those sources may not be safe enough. For example, when a customer runs an application and this application stores logs in plain text file in temp directory, anybody who has a physical access to the PC can read those logs. The logs of the application may also be sent through internet. For example, if a customer has an issue with an application, we can ask her to run this application in full-trace mode and to send us the log file. Also, some application may sent automatically the crash report to us (and even if there are warnings about sensitive data, in most cases customers don't read them). Am I talking about specific fields? No. I'm working on general business applications only, so the only sensitive data is business data. There is nothing related to health or other fields covered by specific regulations. But thank you to talk about that, I probably should take a look about those fields for some clues about what I can include in guidelines. Isn't it easier to encrypt the data? No. It would make every application much more difficult, especially if we want to use C# diagnostics and TraceSource. It would also require to manage authorizations, which is not the easiest think to do. Finally, if we are talking about the logs submitted to us from a customer, we must be able to read the logs, but without having access to sensitive data. So technically, it's easier to never include sensitive information in logs at all and to never care about how and where those logs are stored.

  Read the article

• LCM says Smart List import is complete but actually its not...Here are probable reasons

  - by RahulS

  First of all some basics of smart list: Administrators use Smart Lists to create custom drop-down lists that users access from data form cells. When clicking in cells whose members are associated with a Smart List (as a member property), users select items from drop-down lists instead of entering data. Users cannot type in cells that contain Smart Lists. Smart Lists display in cells as down arrows that expand when users click into the cells. Below link will give you more information on Smart Lists: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/hp_admin/enum_pg.html I got a simple query today, "The LCM process generates and indicates a status of "Complete", however, the 3,018 records do not appear in the Planning application. No error exists in the log to identify the problem." Things which can be checked in this case: 1. Spaces are not allowed in the Entry Name, 2. Spaces are allowed in the Entry Label, 3. The name must start with an alpha character or underscore, 4. Valid characters for the remaining part of the name must be alpha, numeric, or an underscore, 5. Enter a name that is unique within the smart list, 6. I am not sure about the limits but I have seen 22,000 members loaded fine, 7. ID for every entry should be unique,  8. IDs need not to be consecutive, Ex: It was go from 1 to 100 then 500 to 900 then 1900 to 4500 etc. While import .xml file using LCM there were no errors in the foundation and LCM migration logs, but when checked in the HyS9PlanningSysErr.log, few errors were found:Ex: The name Data_Coord_(Prod)_ACS is invalid, The name Sr_Dir_b+Medcd_Gvt_Rel_Sls_Mkt is invalid, The name entered is invalid. Enter a name that is unique within the smart list, Also, we can Load Smart List dimensions and Smart List dimension entries using the /DS:HSP_SMARTLISTS parameter in outlineload utility: OutlineLoad /A:acpt /U:admin /M /I:c:/smartlist_create1.csv /DS:HSP_SMARTLISTS /L:c:/OutlineLogs/outlineLoad.log /X:c:/OutlineLogs/outlineLoad.exc SmartList Name, Operation, Label, Display Order, Missing Label, Use Form Missing Label, Entry ID, Entry Name, Entry Label SL1,addsmartlist,SL1Label,,,,,, SL1,addEntry,,,,,,entry1,entrylabel1 SL1,addEntry,,,,,,entry2,entrylabel2 Cheers..!!! Rahul S. http://www.facebook.com/pages/HyperionPlanning/117320818374228

  Read the article

• Protecting Consolidated Data on Engineered Systems

  - by Steve Enevold

  In this time of reduced budgets and cost cutting measures in Federal, State and Local governments, the requirement to provide services continues to grow. Many agencies are looking at consolidating their infrastructure to reduce cost and meet budget goals. Oracle's engineered systems are ideal platforms for accomplishing these goals. These systems provide unparalleled performance that is ideal for running applications and databases that traditionally run on separate dedicated environments. However, putting multiple critical applications and databases in a single architecture makes security more critical. You are putting a concentrated set of sensitive data on a single system, making it a more tempting target.  The environments were previously separated by iron so now you need to provide assurance that one group, department, or application's information is not visible to other personnel or applications resident in the Exadata system. Administration of the environments requires formal separation of duties so an administrator of one application environment cannot view or negatively impact others. Also, these systems need to be in protected environments just like other critical production servers. They should be in a data center protected by physical controls, network firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, etc Exadata also provides unique security benefits, including a reducing attack surface by minimizing packages and services to only those required. In addition to reducing the possible system areas someone may attempt to infiltrate, Exadata has the following features: 1.    Infiniband, which functions as a secure private backplane 2.    IPTables  to perform stateful packet inspection for all nodes               Cellwall implements firewall services on each cell using IPTables 3.    Hardware accelerated encryption for data at rest on storage cells Oracle is uniquely positioned to provide the security necessary for implementing Exadata because security has been a core focus since the company's beginning. In addition to the security capabilities inherent in Exadata, Oracle security products are all certified to run in an Exadata environment. Database Vault Oracle Database Vault helps organizations increase the security of existing applications and address regulatory mandates that call for separation-of-duties, least privilege and other preventive controls to ensure data integrity and data privacy. Oracle Database Vault proactively protects application data stored in the Oracle database from being accessed by privileged database users. A unique feature of Database Vault is the ability to segregate administrative tasks including when a command can be executed, or that the DBA can manage the health of the database and objects, but may not see the data Advanced Security  helps organizations comply with privacy and regulatory mandates by transparently encrypting all application data or specific sensitive columns, such as credit cards, social security numbers, or personally identifiable information (PII). By encrypting data at rest and whenever it leaves the database over the network or via backups, Oracle Advanced Security provides the most cost-effective solution for comprehensive data protection. Label Security  is a powerful and easy-to-use tool for classifying data and mediating access to data based on its classification. Designed to meet public-sector requirements for multi-level security and mandatory access control, Oracle Label Security provides a flexible framework that both government and commercial entities worldwide can use to manage access to data on a "need to know" basis in order to protect data privacy and achieve regulatory compliance  Data Masking reduces the threat of someone in the development org taking data that has been copied from production to the development environment for testing, upgrades, etc by irreversibly replacing the original sensitive data with fictitious data so that production data can be shared safely with IT developers or offshore business partners  Audit Vault and Database Firewall Oracle Audit Vault and Database Firewall serves as a critical detective and preventive control across multiple operating systems and database platforms to protect against the abuse of legitimate access to databases responsible for almost all data breaches and cyber attacks.  Consolidation, cost-savings, and performance can now be achieved without sacrificing security. The combination of built in protection and Oracle’s industry-leading data protection solutions make Exadata an ideal platform for Federal, State, and local governments and agencies.

  Read the article

• How Do You Actually Model Data?

  Since the 1970’s Developers, Analysts and DBAs have been able to represent concepts and relations in the form of data through the use of generic symbols.  But what is data modeling?  The first time I actually heard this term I could not understand why anyone would want to display a computer on a fashion show runway. Hey, what do you expect? At that time I was a freshman in community college, and obviously this was a long time ago.  I have since had the chance to learn what data modeling truly is through using it. Data modeling is a process of breaking down information and/or requirements in to common categories called objects. Once objects start being defined then relationships start to form based on dependencies found amongst other existing objects.  Currently, there are several tools on the market that help data designer actually map out objects and their relationships through the use of symbols and lines.  These diagrams allow for designs to be review from several perspectives so that designers can ensure that they have the optimal data design for their project and that the design is flexible enough to allow for potential changes and/or extension in the future. Additionally these basic models can always be further refined to show different levels of details depending on the target audience through the use of three different types of models. Conceptual Data Model(CDM)Conceptual Data Models include all key entities and relationships giving a viewer a high level understanding of attributes. Conceptual data model are created by gathering and analyzing information from various sources pertaining to a project during the typical planning phase of a project. Logical Data Model (LDM)Logical Data Models are conceptual data models that have been expanded to include implementation details pertaining to the data that it will store. Additionally, this model typically represents an origination’s business requirements and business rules by defining various attribute data types and relationships regarding each entity. This additional information can be directly translated to the Physical Data Model which reduces the actual time need to implement it. Physical Data Model(PDMs)Physical Data Model are transformed Logical Data Models that include the necessary tables, columns, relationships, database properties for the creation of a database. This model also allows for considerations regarding performance, indexing and denormalization that are applied through database rules, data integrity. Further expanding on why we actually use models in modern application/database development can be seen in the benefits that data modeling provides for data modelers and projects themselves, Benefits of Data Modeling according to Applied Information Science Abstraction that allows data designers remove concepts and ideas form hard facts in the form of data. This gives the data designers the ability to express general concepts and/or ideas in a generic form through the use of symbols to represent data items and the relationships between the items. Transparency through the use of data models allows complex ideas to be translated in to simple symbols so that the concept can be understood by all viewpoints and limits the amount of confusion and misunderstanding. Effectiveness in regards to tuning a model for acceptable performance while maintaining affordable operational costs. In addition it allows systems to be built on a solid foundation in terms of data. I shudder at the thought of a world without data modeling, think about it? Data is everywhere in our lives. Data modeling allows for optimizing a design for performance and the reduction of duplication. If one was to design a database without data modeling then I would think that the first things to get impacted would be database performance due to poorly designed database and there would be greater chances of unnecessary data duplication that would also play in to the excessive query times because unneeded records would need to be processed. You could say that a data designer designing a database is like a box of chocolates. You will never know what kind of database you will get until after it is built.

  Read the article

• How to access files on a drive from an older system, mounted in a new system?

  - by David Thomas

  I've recently built a new system, after a rather large physical injury was sustained by my previous system (a precarious balance, and gravity, were not a happy mix). Surprisingly the /home drive of that system appears to have more-or-less survived the trauma. However... I decided to use a fresh drive for / (and swap) partition(s), and another fresh drive for the new /home. Now that's working, I decided to install the old /home drive (that I had assumed until now would be entirely dead and without capacity for use) into the new system to recover the files and data (so far as is possible). At this point I've run into a snag: I have no idea how to go about this (with Windows it was relatively easy, the new drive would be the latest character of the alphabet, and go from there). With 'disk utility' (System - Administration - Disk Utitlity) I've worked out which drive it is (/dev/sda) but clicking on 'mount' produces an error: 1: helper failed with: mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on / mount failed ...if it is mounted on / I can't see it. I'm also moderately confused by the disk (device /dev/sda) being referred to as /dev/sdb1. Any and all insights would be incredibly welcome (I've already voted for: Idea #9063: New internal hard drives default automount at Brainstorm). Edited in response to Roland's request for a screenshot of disk utility: Details (so far as I know them): 40GB disk is / and swap, 1.0 TB Samsung is /home 1.0 TB Hitachi is from the old system (and was the old /home drive). Output from sudo fdisk -l pasted below: Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000bef00 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 121601 976760001 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40018599936 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00037652 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 * 1 4742 38084608 83 Linux /dev/sdb2 4742 4866 993281 5 Extended /dev/sdb5 4742 4866 993280 82 Linux swap / Solaris Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000e8d46 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 121602 976760832 83 Linux

  Read the article

• October in Review

  - by Richard Bingham

  With OpenWorld over October was time to get back to serious work for everyone, including the Fusion Applications Developer Relations team. Don't forget the OpenWorld content is still available, including presentation downloads, for a limited period of time so be sure to grab anything you found useful or take another scan for anything you might have missed. Of all the announcements, the continued evolution of the Oracle Cloud services for extending and integrating with Fusion Applications is increasing in popularity, and certainly the Cloud Marketplace is something we're becoming involved in. More details to follow. Fusion Concepts Last week Vik from our team started the new "Fusion Concepts" series of articles, providing those new to Fusion Applications an explanation of the architectural basics, with the aim to reduce the learning curve and lay the platform for more efficient and effective development. The series begun with an insightful first post on the different schemas that exist in the Fusion Applications database. Look out for upcoming posts on multi-lingual entities, profile options, look-ups and more. New Learning Resources Our YouTube channel continued to expand with more 'how to' videos on using page composer, extending the Simplified UI (aka FUSE), and integrating BI reports and analytics. Also the Oracle Learning Library is now well established as a central resource for knowledge, now with thousands of tutorials, videos, and documents. Of particular note are the great new extensibility-related videos added by the CRM Product Management team, including more on the ever-expanding capabilities of Application Composer. To see some examples of these search using keyword 'customization' or the product 'Sales Cloud'. Finally on learning resources, as Oliver mentioned the Oracle Press book on Fusion Application Customization and Extensibility is now available for pre-order on Amazon (due out 1st Jan). Out And About October also saw us attend the annual Apps Conference held by the UK Oracle User Group in London. Interestingly there was an Applications Transformation stream of sessions and content that included Fusion Applications with all the latest in the Oracle Applications evolution, as always focused around the three tenets of social, mobile, and cloud. Read more in Richard's post-event write up. Other teams around Oracle have also been busy. Angelo from the Platform Technical Services group has done quite a bit of work using web services with Fusion SaaS and has published many interesting findings on his blog. It's definitely recommended reading if you are working on any related integration projects. The middleware-for-applications group has built a new tool called "AppAdvantage" offering an online assessment of your use of Fusion Middleware technologies with Oracle Applications. As the popularity of integrating cloud applications with on-premises systems continued to grow, leveraging existing middleware technologies (and licenses) to support the integration solution is likely to be of paramount importance. Similarly the "Build Enterprise Application Extensions with Ease" section of the related webpage has AppsUX director Killan Evers speaking about customization using the composer tools. Both are useful resources for those just getting started with a move to Fusion Applications. The Oracle A-Team, specialists in middleware technical architecture, always publish superb content via their 'chronicles' site, now with a substantial amount specifically related to Fusion Applications. Click on the Fusion Applications menu on the top right of their homepage to see more. Last month of particular note was an article on customizing the timeout pop-up message that shows to inactive users, providing design-time insight and easy-to-follow steps. Finally if you're looking at using Oracle Middleware and Cloud to tailor and extend your applications then you may also be interested in this new blog post on the roadmap for Oracle SOA and the latest on-demand Cloud Development webcast.

  Read the article

• Understanding the Customer Form in Release 12 from an AR Perspective!!

  - by user793553

  Confused by the Customer Form in Release 12??  Read on, to get some insight into the evolution of this screen, and how it links in with Trading Community Architecture. Historically, the customer data model was owned by Oracle Receivables (AR).  However, as the data model changed and more complex relationships and attributes had to be tracked and monitored, the Trading Community Architecture (TCA) product was created.  All applications within the E-Business suite that require interaction with a customer integrate with TCA. Customer information is no longer stored in the individual applications but rather in a central repository/registry maintained within TCA.  It is important to understand the following entities/concepts stored in TCA: Party: A party is an entity with whom you can have a potential business relationship.  A party can be either a Person or an Organization.  The Party entity is completely independent of any business relationship; this means that a Party can exist even if you have no transactions with it.   The Party is the "umbrella" entity under which you capture all other attributes listed below. Customer: A customer is a party with whom you have an existing business relationship.  From an AR perspective, you can simplify the concepts by thinking of a Customer as a Party. This definition however does not apply to all other applications. In the Oracle Receivables Customer form, the information displayed at the Customer level is from TCA's Party information record. Customer Account (also called Account): An account contains information about how you transact business with a particular customer.  You can create multiple accounts for a customer.  When you create invoices and receipts you associate it to a particular Account of a Customer. Location: A Location is an address.  It is a point in space, typically identified by a street number, a street name, a city, a state or province, a country.  A location is independent of what it is used for - you do not associate a purpose to a location. Party Site: A Party Site is associated to a Party.  It is the location where a party is physically located.  When defining sites for a Party, only one can be an identifying address.  However, you can define other party sites associated to a party. You can define purposes/usage for Party Sites. Account Site: An Account Site is associated to a Customer Account. It is the location associated to the account you are transacting business with. You can define business purposes (also called site uses) for an Account site. Read more about the Customer Workbench in these notes: Doc ID 1436547.1 Oracle Receivables: Understanding the Customer Form in Release 12 Doc ID  1437866.1 Customer Form - Address: Troubleshooting, Known Issues and Patches Doc ID  1448442.1 Oracle Receivables (AR): Customer Workbench Information Center Do you find this type of blog entry useful?  Please add comments to let us know how we can help you more effectively.  Thank you!

  Read the article

• Simplifying C++11 optimal parameter passing when a copy is needed

  - by Mr.C64

  It seems to me that in C++11 lots of attention was made to simplify returning values from functions and methods, i.e.: with move semantics it's possible to simply return heavy-to-copy but cheap-to-move values (while in C++98/03 the general guideline was to use output parameters via non-const references or pointers), e.g.: // C++11 style vector<string> MakeAVeryBigStringList(); // C++98/03 style void MakeAVeryBigStringList(vector<string>& result); On the other side, it seems to me that more work should be done on input parameter passing, in particular when a copy of an input parameter is needed, e.g. in constructors and setters. My understanding is that the best technique in this case is to use templates and std::forward<>, e.g. (following the pattern of this answer on C++11 optimal parameter passing): class Person { std::string m_name; public: template <class T, class = typename std::enable_if < std::is_constructible<std::string, T>::value >::type> explicit Person(T&& name) : m_name(std::forward<T>(name)) { } ... }; A similar code could be written for setters. Frankly, this code seems boilerplate and complex, and doesn't scale up well when there are more parameters (e.g. if a surname attribute is added to the above class). Would it be possible to add a new feature to C++11 to simplify code like this (just like lambdas simplify C++98/03 code with functors in several cases)? I was thinking of a syntax with some special character, like @ (since introducing a &&& in addition to && would be too much typing :) e.g.: class Person { std::string m_name; public: /* Simplified syntax to produce boilerplate code like this: template <class T, class = typename std::enable_if < std::is_constructible<std::string, T>::value >::type> */ explicit Person(std::string@ name) : m_name(name) // implicit std::forward as well { } ... }; This would be very convenient also for more complex cases involving more parameters, e.g. Person(std::string@ name, std::string@ surname) : m_name(name), m_surname(surname) { } Would it be possible to add a simplified convenient syntax like this in C++? What would be the downsides of such a syntax?

  Read the article

• /etc/postfix/transport missing; what should it look like?

  - by Thufir

  I'm following the mailman guide but couldn't locate /etc/postfix/ so created it as follows: root@dur:~# root@dur:~# cat /etc/postfix/transport dur.bounceme.net mailman: root@dur:~# root@dur:~# telnet localhost 25 Trying 127.0.0.1... Connected to localhost. Escape character is '^]'. 220 dur.bounceme.net ESMTP Postfix (Ubuntu) ehlo fqdn_test 250-dur.bounceme.net 250-PIPELINING 250-SIZE 10240000 250-VRFY 250-ETRN 250-STARTTLS 250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES 250-8BITMIME 250 DSN mail from:[email protected] 250 2.1.0 Ok rcpt to:thufir@localhost 451 4.3.0 <thufir@localhost>: Temporary lookup failure rcpt to:[email protected] 451 4.3.0 <[email protected]>: Temporary lookup failure quit 221 2.0.0 Bye Connection closed by foreign host. root@dur:~# root@dur:~# postconf -n alias_database = hash:/etc/aliases alias_maps = hash:/etc/aliases, hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases append_dot_mydomain = no biff = no broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes config_directory = /etc/postfix default_transport = smtp home_mailbox = Maildir/ inet_interfaces = loopback-only mailbox_command = /usr/lib/dovecot/deliver -c /etc/dovecot/conf.d/01-mail-stack-delivery.conf -m "${EXTENSION}" mailbox_size_limit = 0 mailman_destination_recipient_limit = 1 mydestination = dur, dur.bounceme.net, localhost.bounceme.net, localhost myhostname = dur.bounceme.net mynetworks = 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 readme_directory = no recipient_delimiter = + relay_domains = lists.dur.bounceme.net relay_transport = relay relayhost = smtp_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtp_scache smtp_use_tls = yes smtpd_banner = $myhostname ESMTP $mail_name (Ubuntu) smtpd_recipient_restrictions = reject_unknown_sender_domain, reject_unknown_recipient_domain, reject_unauth_pipelining, permit_mynetworks, permit_sasl_authenticated, reject_unauth_destination smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtpd_sasl_authenticated_header = yes smtpd_sasl_local_domain = $myhostname smtpd_sasl_path = private/dovecot-auth smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot smtpd_tls_auth_only = yes smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-mail.pem smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/ssl-mail.key smtpd_tls_mandatory_ciphers = medium smtpd_tls_mandatory_protocols = SSLv3, TLSv1 smtpd_tls_received_header = yes smtpd_tls_session_cache_database = btree:${data_directory}/smtpd_scache smtpd_use_tls = yes tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom transport_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/transport root@dur:~# root@dur:~# tail /var/log/mail.log Aug 28 02:05:15 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: connect from localhost[127.0.0.1] Aug 28 02:06:10 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: warning: hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases is unavailable. open database /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases.db: No such file or directory Aug 28 02:06:10 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: warning: hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases lookup error for "thufir@localhost" Aug 28 02:06:10 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from localhost[127.0.0.1]: 451 4.3.0 <thufir@localhost>: Temporary lookup failure; from=<[email protected]> to=<thufir@localhost> proto=ESMTP helo=<fqdn_test> Aug 28 02:06:23 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: warning: hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases is unavailable. open database /var/lib/mailman/data/aliases.db: No such file or directory Aug 28 02:06:23 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: warning: hash:/var/lib/mailman/data/aliases lookup error for "[email protected]" Aug 28 02:06:23 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from localhost[127.0.0.1]: 451 4.3.0 <[email protected]>: Temporary lookup failure; from=<[email protected]> to=<[email protected]> proto=ESMTP helo=<fqdn_test> Aug 28 02:06:28 dur postfix/smtpd[20326]: disconnect from localhost[127.0.0.1] Aug 28 02:06:49 dur dovecot: pop3-login: Login: user=<thufir>, method=PLAIN, rip=127.0.0.1, lip=127.0.0.1, mpid=20338, TLS Aug 28 02:06:49 dur dovecot: pop3(thufir): Disconnected: Logged out top=0/0, retr=0/0, del=0/0, size=0 root@dur:~# The manual page is here.

  Read the article

• In a state machine, is it a good idea to separate states and transitions?

  - by codablank1

  I have implemented a small state machine in this way (in pseudo code): class Input {} class KeyInput inherits Input { public : enum { Key_A, Key_B, ..., } } class GUIInput inherits Input { public : enum { Button_A, Button_B, ..., } } enum Event { NewGame, Quit, OpenOptions, OpenMenu } class BaseState { String name; Event get_event (Input input); void handle (Event e); //event handling function } class Menu inherits BaseState{...} class InGame inherits BaseState{...} class Options inherits BaseState{...} class StateMachine { public : BaseState get_current_state () { return current_state; } void add_state (String name, BaseState state) { statesMap.insert(name, state);} //raise an exception if state not found BaseState get_state (String name) { return statesMap.find(name); } //raise an exception if state or next_state not found void add_transition (Event event, String state_name, String next_state_name) { BaseState state = get_state(state_name); BaseState next_state = get_state(next_state_name); transitionsMap.insert(pair<event, state>, next_state); } //raise exception if couple not found BaseState get_next_state(Event event, BaseState state) { return transitionsMap.find(pair<event, state>); } void handle(Input input) { Event event = current_state.get_event(input) current_state.handle(event); current_state = get_next_state(event, current_state); } private : BaseState current_state; map<String, BaseState> statesMap; //map of all states in the machine //for each couple event/state, this map stores the next state map<pair<Event, BaseState>, BaseState> transitionsMap; } So, before getting the transition, I need to convert the key input or GUI input to the proper event, given the current state; thus the same key 'W' can launch a new game in the 'Menu' state or moving forward a character in the 'InGame' state; Then I get the next state from the transitionsMap and I update the current state Does this configuration seem valid to you ? Is it a good idea to separate states and transitions ? And I have some kind of trouble to represent a 'null state' or a 'null event'; What initial value can I give to the current state and which one should be returned by get_state if it fails ?

  Read the article

• A developer&rsquo;s WBS &ndash; 3 factors of 5

  - by johndoucette

  As a development manager, I have requested work breakdown structures (WBS) many times from the dev leads. Everyone has their own approach and why it takes sometimes days to get this simple list is often frustrating. Here is a simple way to get that elusive WBS done in 30 minutes and have 125 items in your list – well, 126. The WBS is made up of parent-child entities representing the overall outcome of the project. At the bottom of the hierarchical list should be the task item that a developer would perform in support of the branch in the list or WBS. Because I work with different dev leads on every project, I always ask the “what time value would you like to see at the lowest task in order to assign it to a developer and ensure it gets done within the timeframe”. I am particular to a task being 8 hours. Some like 8 to 24 hours. Stay away from tasks defaulting to 1 week. The task becomes way to vague and hard to manage completeness, especially on short budgets. As a developer, your focus is identifying the tasks you to accomplish in order to deliver the product. As a project manager, you will take the developer's WBS and add all the “other stuff” like quality testing, meetings, documentation, transition to maintenance, etc… Start your exercise with the name of the product you are delivering as a result of the project. You should be able to represent what you are building and deploying with one to three words. Example; XYZ Public Website Middleware BizTalk Application The reason you start with that single identifier is to always see the list as the product. It helps during each of the next three passes. Now, choose 5 tasks which in their entirety represent the product you will be delivering and add them to list under the product name you created earlier; Public Website     Security     Sites     Infrastructure     Publishing     Creative Continue this concept of seeing the list as the complete picture and decompose it one more level. You should have 25 items. Public Website     Security         Authentication         Login Control         Administration         DRM         Workflow     Sites         Masterpages         Page Layouts         Web Parts (RIA, Multimedia)         Content Types         Structures     Infrastructure         ...     Publishing         ...     Creative         ... And one more time for a total of 125 items. The top item makes the list 126. Public Website     Security         Authentication             Install (AD/ADAM/LDAP/SQL)             Configuration             Management             Web App Configuration             Implement Provider         Login Control             Login Form             Login/Logoff             pw change             pw recover/forgot             email verification         Administration             ...         DRM             ...         Workflow             ...     Sites         Masterpages         Page Layouts         Web Parts (RIA, Multimedia)         Content Types         Structures     Infrastructure         ...     Publishing         ...     Creative         ... The next step is to make sure the task at the bottom of every branch represents the “time value” you planned for the project. You can add more to the WBS and of course if you can’t find 5 items, 4 is fine. If a task can be done in a fraction of the time value you determined for the project, try to roll it up into a larger task. In the task actions (later when the iteration is being planned), decompose the details back to the simple tasks. Now, go estimate!

  Read the article

• Where Twitter Stands Heading Into 2013

  - by Mike Stiles

  As Twitter continued throughout 2012 to be a stage on which global politics and culture played itself out, the company itself underwent some adjustments that give us a good indication of what users and brands can expect from the platform in 2013. The power of the network did anything but fade. Celebrities continued to use it to connect one-on-one. Even the Pope signed on this year. It continued to fuel revolutions. It played an exponentially large factor in this US Presidential election. And around the world, the freedom to speak was challenged as users were fired, sued, sometimes even jailed for their tweets. Expect more of the same in 2013, as Twitter has entrenched itself, for individuals, causes and brands, as the fastest, easiest, most efficient way to message the masses so some measure of impact can come from it. It’s changed everything, and it’s not finished. These fun facts reveal the position of strength with which Twitter enters 2013: It now generates a billion tweets every 2.5 days It has 500 million+ users The average Twitter user has tweeted 307 times 32% of everyone using the Internet uses Twitter It’s expected to bring in $540 million in ad revenue by 2014 11 new accounts are created every second High-level Executive Summary: people love it, people use it, and they’re going to keep loving and using it. Whether or not outside developers love it is a different matter. 2012 marked a shift from welcoming the third party support that played at least some role in Twitter being so warmly embraced, to discouraging anything that replicates what Twitter can do itself…or plans to do itself. It’s not the open playground it once was. Now Twitter must spend 2013 proving it can innovate in-house and keep us just as entranced. Likewise, Twitter is distancing itself from Facebook. Images from the #1 platform’s Instagram don’t work on Twitter anymore, and Twitter’s rolling out their own photo filter product. Where the two have lived in a “plenty of room for everybody” symbiosis up to now, 2013 could see the giants ramping up a full-on rivalry. Twitter is exhibiting a deliberate strategy. Updates have centered on more visually appealing search results, and making finding and sharing content easier. Deals have been cut with some media entities so their content stands out. CEO Dick Costolo has said tweets aren’t the attraction, they’re what leads you to content. Twitter aims to be a key distributor of media and info. Add the addition of former News Corp. President Peter Chernin to the board, and their hashtag landing page experience for events, and their media behemoth ambitions get pretty clear. There are challenges ahead and Costolo has also laid those out; entry into China, figuring out how to have Twitter deliver both comprehensive and relevant, targeted experiences, and the visualization of big data. What does this mean for corporations? They can expect a more media-rich evolution and growing emphases on imagery. They can expect more opportunities to create great media content and leverage Twitter for its distribution. And they can expect new ways to surface in searches. Are brands diving in? 56% of customer tweets to companies get completely and totally ignored. Ugh. A study Twitter recently conducted with Compete shows people who see tweets from retailers are more likely to buy a product. And, the more retailer tweets they see, the more likely they are to purchase on the retail site. As more of those tweets point to engaging media content from the brand, the results should get even better. Twitter appears ready for 2013. Enterprise brands have some work to do. @mikestilesPhoto Stuart Miles, freedigitalphotos.net

  Read the article

• More Stuff less Fluff

  - by brendonpage

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/brendonpage/archive/2013/11/08/more-stuff-less-fluff.aspxYAGNI – "You Aren't Going To Need It". This is an acronym commonly used in software development to remind developers to only write what they need. This acronym exists because software developers have gotten into the habit of writing everything they need to solve a problem and then everything they think they're going to possibly need in the future. Since we can't predict the future this results in a large portion of the code that we write never being used. That extra code causes unnecessary complexity, which makes it harder to understand and harder to modify when we inevitably have to write something that we didn't think of. I've known about YAGNI for some time now but I never really got it. The words made sense and the idea was clear but the concept never sank in. I was one of those devs who'd happily write a ton of code in the anticipation of future needs. In my mind this was an essential part of writing high quality code. I didn't realise that in doing so I was actually writing low quality code. If you are anything like me you are probably thinking "Lies and propaganda! High quality code needs to be future proof." I agree! But what makes code future proof? If we could see into the future the answer would be simple, code that allows for or meets all future requirements. Since we can't see the future the best we can do is write code that can easily adapt to future requirements, this means writing flexible code. Flexible code is: Fast to understand. Fast to add to. Fast to modify. To be flexible code has to be simple, this means only making it as complex as it needs to be to meet those 3 criteria. That is high quality code. YAGNI! The art is in deciding where to place the seams (abstractions) that will give you flexibility without making decisions about future functionality. Robert C Martin explains it very nicely, he says a good architecture allows you to defer decisions because if you can defer a decision then you have the flexibility to change it. I've recently had a YAGNI experience which brought this all into perspective. I was working on a new project which had multiple clients that connect to a server hosted in the cloud. I was tasked with adding a feature to the desktop client that would allow users to capture items that would then be saved to the cloud. My immediate thought was "Hey we have multiple clients so I should build a web service for these items, that way we can access them from other clients", so I went to work and this is what I created.  I stood back and gazed upon what I'd created with a warm fuzzy feeling. It was beautiful! Then the time came for the team to use the design I'd created for another feature with a new entity. Let's just say that they didn't get the same warm fuzzy feeling that I did when they looked at the design. After much discussion they eventually got it through to me that I'd bloated the design based on an assumption of future functionality. After much more discussion we cut the design down to the following. This design gives us future flexibility with no extra work, it is as complex as it needs to be. It has been a couple of months since this incident and we still haven't needed to access either of the entities from other clients. Using the simpler design allowed us to do more stuff with less stuff!

  Read the article

• Sql Table Refactoring Challenge

  Ive been working a bit on cleaning up a large table to make it more efficient.  I pretty much know what I need to do at this point, but I figured Id offer up a challenge for my readers, to see if they can catch everything I have as well as to see if Ive missed anything.  So to that end, I give you my table: CREATE TABLE [dbo].[lq_ActivityLog]( [ID] [bigint] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, [PlacementID] [int] NOT NULL, [CreativeID] [int] NOT NULL, [PublisherID] [int] NOT NULL, [CountryCode] [nvarchar](10) NOT NULL, [RequestedZoneID] [int] NOT NULL, [AboveFold] [int] NOT NULL, [Period] [datetime] NOT NULL, [Clicks] [int] NOT NULL, [Impressions] [int] NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT [PK_lq_ActivityLog2] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ( [Period] ASC, [PlacementID] ASC, [CreativeID] ASC, [PublisherID] ASC, [RequestedZoneID] ASC, [AboveFold] ASC, [CountryCode] ASC)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]) ON [PRIMARY] And now some assumptions and additional information: The table has 200,000,000 rows currently PlacementID ranges from 1 to 5000 and should support at least 50,000 CreativeID ranges from 1 to 5000 and should support at least 50,000 PublisherID ranges from 1 to 500 and should support at least 50,000 CountryCode is a 2-character ISO standard (e.g. US) and there is a country table with an integer ID already.  There are < 300 rows. RequestedZoneID ranges from 1 to 100 and should support at least 50,000 AboveFold has values of 1, 0, or 1 only. Period is a date (no time). Clicks range from 0 to 5000. Impressions range from 0 to 5000000. The table is currently write-mostly.  Its primary purpose is to log advertising activity as quickly as possible.  Nothing in the rest of the system reads from it except for batch jobs that pull the data into summary tables. Heres the current information on the database tables size: Design Goals This table has been in use for about 5 years and has performed very well during that time.  The only complaints we have are that it is quite large and also there are occasionally timeouts for queries that reference it, particularly when batch jobs are pulling data from it.  Any changes should be made with an eye toward keeping write performance optimal  while trying to reduce space and improve read performance / eliminate timeouts during read operations. Refactor There are, I suggest to you, some glaringly obvious optimizations that can be made to this table.  And Im sure there are some ninja tweaks known to SQL gurus that would be a big help as well.  Ill post my own suggested changes in a follow-up post for now feel free to comment with your suggestions. Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

  Read the article

• following a moving sprite

  - by iQue

  Im trying to get my enemies to follow my main-character of the game (2D), but for some reason the game starts lagging like crazy when I do it the way I want to do it, and the following-part dosnt work 100% either, its just 1/24 enemies that comes to my sprite, the other 23 move towards it but stay at a certain point. Might be a poor explenation but dont know how else to put it. Code for moving my enemies: private int enemyX(){ int x = 0; for (int i = 0; i < enemies.size(); i++){ if (controls.pointerPosition.x > enemies.get(i).getX()){//pointerPosition is the position of my main-sprite. x = 5; } else{ x=-5; } Log.d(TAG, "happyX HERE: " + controls.pointerPosition.x); Log.d(TAG, "enemyX HERE: " + enemies.get(i).getX()); } return x; } private int enemyY(){ int y = 0; for (int i = 0; i < enemies.size(); i++){ if (controls.pointerPosition.y > enemies.get(i).getY()){ y = 5; } else{ y=-5; } } return y; } I send it to the update-method in my Enemy-class: private void drawEnemy(Canvas canvas){ addEnemies(); // a method where I add enemies to my arrayList, no parameters except bitmap. for(int i = 0; i < enemies.size(); i++){ enemies.get(i).update(enemyX(), enemyY()); } for(int i = 0; i < enemies.size(); i++){ enemies.get(i).draw(canvas); } } and finally, the update-method itself, located in my Enemy-class: public void update(int velX, int velY) { x += velX; //sets x before I draw y += velY; //sets y before I draw currentFrame = ++currentFrame % BMP_COLUMNS; } So can any1 figure out why it starts lagging so much and how I can fix it? Thanks for your time!

  Read the article

• root issues in softwarecenter, synaptic and update manager

  - by user188977

  i have a notebook samsung ativ 2 and ubuntu 12.04 precise, cinnamon desktop. after logging in today my update manager, synaptic and ubuntu softwarecenter stopped working. synaptic i can only launch from terminal the others from panel.when choosing to update, nothing happens. same thing when trying to install programms from syn. or softw.center.when launching softwarec. from terminal i get: marcus@ddddddddd:~$ software-center 2013-11-10 22:30:46,206 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - setting up proxy 'None' 2013-11-10 22:30:46,217 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - open() database: path=None use_axi=True use_agent=True (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:34:20: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:34:22: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:56:20: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:56:22: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:60:20: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. (software-center:4772): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: softwarecenter.css:60:22: Not using units is deprecated. Assuming 'px'. 2013-11-10 22:30:46,977 - softwarecenter.backend.reviews - WARNING - Could not get usefulness from server, no username in config file 2013-11-10 22:30:47,320 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - show_available_packages: search_text is '', app is None. 2013-11-10 22:30:48,057 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open() 2013-11-10 22:31:00,646 - softwarecenter.fixme - WARNING - logs to the root logger: '('/usr/share/software-center/softwarecenter/utils.py', 201, 'get_title_from_html')' 2013-11-10 22:31:00,645 - root - WARNING - failed to parse: '<div style="background-color: #161513; width:1680px; height:200px;">  <div style="background: url('/site_media/exhibits/2013/09/AAMFP_Leaderboard_700x200_1.jpg') top left no-repeat; width:700px; height:200px;"></div> </div>' ('ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xa0' in position 70: ordinal not in range(128)) 2013-11-10 22:31:02,268 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'Comentarios Web' (not whitelisted) 2013-11-10 22:31:02,769 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'reEarCandy' (not whitelisted) 2013-11-10 22:31:04,821 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'Flaggame' (not whitelisted) 2013-11-10 22:31:05,622 - softwarecenter.db.update - INFO - skipping region restricted app: 'Bulleti d'esquerra de Calonge i Sant Antoni ' (not whitelisted) 2013-11-10 22:31:08,352 - softwarecenter.ui.gtk3.app - INFO - software-center-agent finished with status 0 2013-11-10 22:31:08,353 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - reopen() database 2013-11-10 22:31:08,353 - softwarecenter.db.database - INFO - open() database: path=None use_axi=True use_agent=True 2013-11-10 22:33:32,319 - softwarecenter.backend - WARNING - _on_trans_error: org.freedesktop.PolicyKit.Error.Failed: ('system-bus-name', {'name': ':1.72'}): org.debian.apt.install-or-remove-packages 2013-11-10 22:36:01,818 - softwarecenter.backend - WARNING - daemon dies, ignoring: <AptTransaction object at 0x48e4b40 (aptdaemon+client+AptTransaction at 0x645aaa0)> exit-failed 2013-11-10 22:36:01,820 - softwarecenter.db.pkginfo_impl.aptcache - INFO - aptcache.open()

  Read the article

• NHibernate Pitfalls: Custom Types and Detecting Changes

  - by Ricardo Peres

  This is part of a series of posts about NHibernate Pitfalls. See the entire collection here. NHibernate supports the declaration of properties of user-defined types, that is, not entities, collections or primitive types. These are used for mapping a database columns, of any type, into a different type, which may not even be an entity; think, for example, of a custom user type that converts a BLOB column into an Image. User types must implement interface NHibernate.UserTypes.IUserType. This interface specifies an Equals method that is used for comparing two instances of the user type. If this method returns false, the entity is marked as dirty, and, when the session is flushed, will trigger an UPDATE. So, in your custom user type, you must implement this carefully so that it is not mistakenly considered changed. For example, you can cache the original column value inside of it, and compare it with the one in the other instance. Let’s see an example implementation of a custom user type that converts a Byte[] from a BLOB column into an Image: 1: [Serializable] 2: public sealed class ImageUserType : IUserType 3: { 4: private Byte[] data = null; 5: 6: public ImageUserType() 7: { 8: this.ImageFormat = ImageFormat.Png; 9: } 10: 11: public ImageFormat ImageFormat 12: { 13: get; 14: set; 15: } 16: 17: public Boolean IsMutable 18: { 19: get 20: { 21: return (true); 22: } 23: } 24: 25: public Object Assemble(Object cached, Object owner) 26: { 27: return (cached); 28: } 29: 30: public Object DeepCopy(Object value) 31: { 32: return (value); 33: } 34: 35: public Object Disassemble(Object value) 36: { 37: return (value); 38: } 39: 40: public new Boolean Equals(Object x, Object y) 41: { 42: return (Object.Equals(x, y)); 43: } 44: 45: public Int32 GetHashCode(Object x) 46: { 47: return ((x != null) ? x.GetHashCode() : 0); 48: } 49: 50: public override Int32 GetHashCode() 51: { 52: return ((this.data != null) ? this.data.GetHashCode() : 0); 53: } 54: 55: public override Boolean Equals(Object obj) 56: { 57: ImageUserType other = obj as ImageUserType; 58: 59: if (other == null) 60: { 61: return (false); 62: } 63: 64: if (Object.ReferenceEquals(this, other) == true) 65: { 66: return (true); 67: } 68: 69: return (this.data.SequenceEqual(other.data)); 70: } 71: 72: public Object NullSafeGet(IDataReader rs, String[] names, Object owner) 73: { 74: Int32 index = rs.GetOrdinal(names[0]); 75: Byte[] data = rs.GetValue(index) as Byte[]; 76: 77: this.data = data as Byte[]; 78: 79: if (data == null) 80: { 81: return (null); 82: } 83: 84: using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(this.data ?? new Byte[0])) 85: { 86: return (Image.FromStream(stream)); 87: } 88: } 89: 90: public void NullSafeSet(IDbCommand cmd, Object value, Int32 index) 91: { 92: if (value != null) 93: { 94: Image data = value as Image; 95: 96: using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream()) 97: { 98: data.Save(stream, this.ImageFormat); 99: value = stream.ToArray(); 100: } 101: } 102: 103: (cmd.Parameters[index] as DbParameter).Value = value ?? DBNull.Value; 104: } 105: 106: public Object Replace(Object original, Object target, Object owner) 107: { 108: return (original); 109: } 110: 111: public Type ReturnedType 112: { 113: get 114: { 115: return (typeof(Image)); 116: } 117: } 118: 119: public SqlType[] SqlTypes 120: { 121: get 122: { 123: return (new SqlType[] { new SqlType(DbType.Binary) }); 124: } 125: } 126: } In this case, we need to cache the original Byte[] data because it’s not easy to compare two Image instances, unless, of course, they are the same.

  Read the article

• Jitter during wall collisions with Bullet Physics: contact/penetration tolerance?

  - by Niriel

  I use the bullet physics engine through Panda3d. My scene is still very simple, think 'Wolfenstein3d': tile-based, walls are solid cubes. I expect walls to block the player, and I expect the player to slide along the walls in case of non-normal incidence. What I get is what I expect, with one difference: there is some jitter. If I try to force myself into the wall, then I see the frames blinking quickly between two positions. These differ by about 0.04 units of distance, which corresponds to 4 cm in my game. I noticed a 4 cm elsewhere: the bottom of my player capsule is 4 cm below ground, when at rest. Does that mean that there is somewhere in the Bullet engine a default 0.04-units-long tolerance to differentiate contact from collision? If so, what should I do ? Should I change the scale of my game so that these 0.04 units correspond to 0.4 cm, making the jitter ten times smaller? Or can I ask bullet to change its tolerance to a smaller value? Edit This is the jitter I get: 6.155 - 6.118 = 0.036 LPoint3f(0, 6.11694, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15499, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11802, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15545, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11817, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15726, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11876, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.15911, 0.835) LPoint3f(0, 6.11937, 0.835) I found a setMargin method. I set it to 5 mm both on the BoxShape for the walls and on the Capsule shape for the player. It still jitters by about 35 mm as illustrated by this log (11.117 - 11.082 = 0.035): LPoint3f(0, 11.0821, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1169, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.082, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.117, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.082, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.117, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0821, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1175, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0822, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1178, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.0823, 0.905) LPoint3f(0, 11.1183, 0.905) The margin on the capsule did change my penetration with the floor though, I'm a bit higher (0.905 instead of 0.835). However, it did not change anything when colliding with the walls. How can I make the collisions against the walls less jittery? Edit, the day after: After more investigation, it appears that dynamic objects behave well. My problem comes from the btKinematicCharacterController that I use for moving my character; that stuff is totally bugged, according to the whole Internet :/.

  Read the article

• Professional immigration

  - by etranger

  Hello all, Does anyone here have a practical advice on professional relocation from Russia to Europe? The reasons behind making such a decision are far beyond the subject, perhaps, so I'll stick to the practical part. Having done some of the "common stuff" for finding a job, I am now facing two serious problems: I am a "dual-class" person, with university degree in marketing, and multiple years of self-studied computer competence (hence my writing here). Have professional experience in both areas. I don't currently hold a European work permit. From what I can see, this results in normal HR person throwing out my CV as either being "overqualified" or "too much trouble with making the permit". I do have the skills and character to start my own business, but it requires start-up capital that I don't have, over the last years I had to pay high bills for medical treatment of my family member, who had deceased. Now, I'm almost out of debts. As you can probably guess, English is not a problem, and I'm open to new languages, but first steps of entering the market, or the society, is the problematic part. I live close to Norway, and am trying to get some professional contacts there, but it hasn't got me any practical perspective so far. Any advice is greatly appreciated. EDIT: I am currently making my living off web site development, and occasional consulting services both in IT and marketing. For purely geographic reasons I'm dealing with clients that reside in the same city where I live, pop. 350 000. Being quite local, market requirements for web sites are simple and stable — clients need to control navigation, write articles in a word-like editor, upload illustrations and place ad banners, all with no additional programming. As many web developers do, I'm using my own content management system that fits these expectations. I have also started developing a newer version of this system that has better support for international environments, but I'm too distant from the real market demand in Europe to speak of the right track here. Technically it's based on php/mysql and uses xslt for templating. It allows for quick website deployment, and has architectural neatness, lack of which made me abandon similar opensource solutions (Joomla and the like). Deploying time from rasterized design proofs is normally under 6-8 working hours, don't know how that compares to the world practice. EDIT 2: Can anyone share what Norwegian (Scandinavian) web solutions market currently demands?

  Read the article

< Previous Page | 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242  | Next Page >