Search Results

Search found 16971 results on 679 pages for 'blogs'.

Page 237/679 | < Previous Page | 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244  | Next Page >

  • Happy Birthday, SPARC!

    - by A&C Redaktion
    25 Jahre gibt es SPARC in diesem Herbst – da gratulieren Oracle A&C und alle Partner natürlich ganz herzlich! Wir blicken zurück auf ein Vierteljahrhundert Erfolgsgeschichte:Wir befinden uns im Jahr 1987 und klobige graue PCs halten seit einigen Jahren Einzug in Büros und Privathäuser. Ein innovatives Startup-Unternehmen namens Sun Microsystems präsentiert seinen neuen Computer Sun-4, die eigentliche Sensation jedoch ist der Mikroprozessor, den die jungen Leute extra dafür entwickelt hatten: SPARC. Es handelte sich um einen extrem leistungsfähigen RISC-Hauptprozessor, der sowohl in den eigenen Workstations als auch den Servern der Sun-4-Baureihe zum Einsatz kommt. Vor allem in der Unternehmens-IT ermöglicht SPARC in den Folgejahren einen enormen Sprung nach vorn.Die weitere Entwicklung von SPARC, kombiniert mit einem Überblick über andere Meilensteine in der Geschichte der Computerwelt, finden Sie auf der Webseite "Celebrate 25 Years of SPARC Innovation".Wir springen gleich weiter in die Gegenwart, denn auch seit Sun zu Oracle gehört, hat sich so manches getan: Gerade erst hat Oracle die neue Server-Linie Sparc T4 vorgestellt – in Fachkreisen spricht man bereits von der größten Leistungssteigerung in der Geschichte der SPARC-Prozessoren.In den USA wurde das Jubiläum bereits kräftig gefeiert: Hier finden Sie Bilder vom Geburtstagsfest im Museum für Computer-Geschichte in Mountain View, Kalifornien, bei dem auch die SPARC-Entwickler Bill Joy and Andreas von Bechtolsheim zugegen waren und auch im Video SPARC-Event Highlights dreht sich alles um das Jubiläum. In der Oracle Familie gibt es 2012 noch ein weiteres Geburtstagskind: Solaris wird 20, herzlichen Glückwunsch! Das Unix-Betriebssystem, basierend auf SunOS, kam im Jahr 1992 erstmals auf den Markt. Solaris konnte seine gute Stellung seither behaupten und hat nun mit Solaris 11.1 das erste Cloud-Betriebssystem vorgestellt. Dieses überträgt die Zuverlässigkeit, Sicherheit und Skalierbarkeit des bewährten Solaris in die Cloud und bietet eine optimale Plattform für Unternehmensanwendungen.  Lesen Sie hier, was die Fachpresse über die Geburtstagskinder schreibt: ProLinux.de (SPARC) Computerwoche.de (Solaris)SearchDataCenter.de (Solaris)

    Read the article

  • Andrejus Keeps Cranking Out the Tips

    - by steve.muench
    I've been working on designing and implementing a new set of features for an upcoming Oracle ADF release for the past several months (and several more to come) and this has put a real limit on the time I have available for helping external customers and internal teams, as well as the time I have for blogging. Thankfully, the ADF community at large has many other voices they can listen to for tips and techniques. One I wanted to highlight specifically today is Andrejus Baranovskis' blog, which is steadily building up a high-quality archive of downloadable ADF examples based on his real-world consulting experiences, each with a corresponding explanatory article. If you're not already subscribed to Andrejus' blog, I highly recommend it. Keep up the great work, Andrejus!

    Read the article

  • Fast Data: Go Big. Go Fast.

    - by J Swaroop
    Cross-posting Dain Hansen's excellent recap of the Big Data/Fast Data announcement during OOW: For those of you who may have missed it, today’s second full day of Oracle OpenWorld 2012 started with a rumpus. Joe Tucci, from EMC outlined the human face of big data with real examples of how big data is transforming our world. And no not the usual tried-and-true weblog examples, but real stories about taxi cab drivers in Singapore using big data to better optimize their routes as well as folks just trying to get a better hair cut. Next we heard from Thomas Kurian who talked at length about the important platform characteristics of Oracle’s Cloud and more specifically Oracle’s expanded Cloud Services portfolio. Especially interesting to our integration customers are the messaging support for Oracle’s Cloud applications. What this means is that now Oracle’s Cloud applications have a lightweight integration fabric that on-premise applications can communicate to it via REST-APIs using Oracle SOA Suite. It’s an important element to our strategy at Oracle that supports this idea that whether your requirements are for private or public, Oracle has a solution in the Cloud for all of your applications and we give you more deployment choice than any vendor. If this wasn’t enough to get the juices flowing, later that morning we heard from Hasan Rizvi who outlined in his Fusion Middleware session the four most important enterprise imperatives: Social, Mobile, Cloud, and a brand new one: Fast Data. Today, Rizvi made an important step in the definition of this term to explain that he believes it’s a convergence of four essential technology elements: Event Processing for event filtering, business rules – with Oracle Event Processing Data Transformation and Loading - with Oracle Data Integrator Real-time replication and integration – with Oracle GoldenGate Analytics and data discovery – with Oracle Business Intelligence Each of these four elements can be considered (and architect-ed) together on a single integrated platform that can help customers integrate any type of data (structured, semi-structured) leveraging new styles of big data technologies (MapReduce, HDFS, Hive, NoSQL) to process more volume and variety of data at a faster velocity with greater results.  Fast data processing (and especially real-time) has always been our credo at Oracle with each one of these products in Fusion Middleware. For example, Oracle GoldenGate continues to be made even faster with the recent 11g R2 Release of Oracle GoldenGate which gives us some even greater optimization to Oracle Database with Integrated Capture, as well as some new heterogeneity capabilities. With Oracle Data Integrator with Big Data Connectors, we’re seeing much improved performance by running MapReduce transformations natively on Hadoop systems. And with Oracle Event Processing we’re seeing some remarkable performance with customers like NTT Docomo. Check out their upcoming session at Oracle OpenWorld on Wednesday to hear more how this customer is using Event processing and Big Data together. If you missed any of these sessions and keynotes, not to worry. There's on-demand versions available on the Oracle OpenWorld website. You can also checkout our upcoming webcast where we will outline some of these new breakthroughs in Data Integration technologies for Big Data, Cloud, and Real-time in more details.

    Read the article

  • About Entitlement Grants in ADF Security of JDeveloper 11.1.1.4

    - by frank.nimphius
    Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Oracle JDeveloper 11.1.1.4 comes with a new ADF Security feature called "entitlement grants". This has nothing to do with Oracle Entitlement Server (OES) but is the ability to group resources into permission sets so they can be granted with a single grant statement. For example, as good practices when organizing your projects, you may have grouped your bounded task flows by functionality and responsibility in sub folders under the WEB-INF directory. If one of the folders holds bounded task flows that are accessible to all authenticated users, you may create an entitlement grant allAuthUserBTF and select all bounded task flows that are accessible for authenticated users as resources. You can then grant allAuthUserBTF to the authenticated-role so that with only a single grant statement all selected bounded task flows are protected. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} <permission-sets>         <permission-set>             <name>PublicBoundedTaskFlows</name>             <member-resources>               <member-resource>                 <resource-name>                      /WEB-INF/public/home-btf.xml#home-btf                 </resource-name>                 <type-name-ref>TaskFlowResourceType</type-name-ref>                 <display-name> ... </display-name>                 <actions>view</actions>               </member-resource>               <member-resource>                 <resource-name>                         /WEB-INF/public/preferences-btf.xml#preferences-btf                </resource-name>                 <type-name-ref>TaskFlowResourceType</type-name-ref>                 <display-name>...</display-name>                 <actions>view</actions>               </member-resource>             </member-resources>           </permission-set>   </permission-sets> The grant statement for this permission set is added as shown below <grant>   <grantee>     <principals>        <principal>             <name>authenticated-role</name>             <class>oracle.security.jps.internal.core.principals.JpsAuthenticatedRoleImpl</class>         </principal>       </principals>     </grantee>     <permission-set-refs>         <permission-set-ref>            <name>PublicBoundedTaskFlows</name>         </permission-set-ref>      </permission-set-refs> </grant>

    Read the article

  • Sweden: Hot Java in the Winter

    - by Tori Wieldt
    No, it's not global warming, but for some reason Sweden is a hotbed of great Java developers and great Java conferences in the winter. First, all three Swedish Java Champions are on Computer Sweden's 100 Best Swedish Developers List. You can read the full Sweden's Top 100 Developers article *if* you can read Swedish (or want to use Google Translate). Congratulations to:  Jonas Bonér, CTO Typesafe Skills: In recent years worked with solutions for scalability and availability. Previously, most between programs and compilers. Other qualifications: Located behind the framework Aspectwerkz and Akka platform for developing parallel, scalable and fault-tolerant software in Scala and Java. Rickard Oberg, Neo Technology Skills: Java, and the framework in Java EE and graph databases. Other qualifications: Founder of open source projects Xdoclet and Webwork. The latter is now called Struts second Rickard Oberg wrote the basics of the application server JBoss. Founder of Senselogic and architect of CMS and portal product SiteVision. Launched frameworkQi4j. Been a speaker at Java Zone JavaPolis, Jfokus, Øredev. Mattias Karlsson Skills: Java. Good at agile system development methods and architecture. Activity: telecom, banking, finance and insurance. Other qualifications: Runs Javaforum Stockholm. Arranges the conference Jfokus.  Frequent speaker at major international conferences such as JavaOne. Holds the title Java Champion. Also, Sweden is home to some top-notch Java Developer conferences during the Winter: jDays Gothenburg, Sweden, Dec 3-5. jDays, a dynamic Java developer conference, comes to Gothenburg. In addition to conference and presentations, visitors can join any courses in Java and related technologies for free.  Jfokus Stockholm, Sweden, Feb 4-6. Jfokus is the largest annual conference for everyone who works with Java in Sweden. The conference is arranged together with Javaforum, the Stockholm JUG.  Thanks to all the Java community who keep the Java hot in Sweden!

    Read the article

  • .NET 4: &ldquo;Slim&rdquo;-style performance boost!

    - by Vitus
    RTM version of .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 is available, and now we can do some test with it. Parallel Extensions is one of the most valuable part of .NET 4.0. It’s a set of good tools for easily consuming multicore hardware power. And it also contains some “upgraded” sync primitives – Slim-version. For example, it include updated variant of widely known ManualResetEvent. For people, who don’t know about it: you can sync concurrency execution of some pieces of code with this sync primitive. Instance of ManualResetEvent can be in 2 states: signaled and non-signaled. Transition between it possible by Set() and Reset() methods call. Some shortly explanation: Thread 1 Thread 2 Time mre.Reset(); mre.WaitOne(); //code execution 0 //wating //code execution 1 //wating //code execution 2 //wating //code execution 3 //wating mre.Set(); 4 //code execution //… 5 Upgraded version of this primitive is ManualResetEventSlim. The idea in decreasing performance cost in case, when only 1 thread use it. Main concept in the “hybrid sync schema”, which can be done as following:   internal sealed class SimpleHybridLock : IDisposable { private Int32 m_waiters = 0; private AutoResetEvent m_waiterLock = new AutoResetEvent(false);   public void Enter() { if (Interlocked.Increment(ref m_waiters) == 1) return; m_waiterLock.WaitOne(); }   public void Leave() { if (Interlocked.Decrement(ref m_waiters) == 0) return; m_waiterLock.Set(); }   public void Dispose() { m_waiterLock.Dispose(); } } It’s a sample from Jeffry Richter’s book “CLR via C#”, 3rd edition. Primitive SimpleHybridLock have two public methods: Enter() and Leave(). You can put your concurrency-critical code between calls of these methods, and it would executed in only one thread at the moment. Code is really simple: first thread, called Enter(), increase counter. Second thread also increase counter, and suspend while m_waiterLock is not signaled. So, if we don’t have concurrent access to our lock, “heavy” methods WaitOne() and Set() will not called. It’s can give some performance bonus. ManualResetEvent use the similar idea. Of course, it have more “smart” technics inside, like a checking of recursive calls, and so on. I want to know a real difference between classic ManualResetEvent realization, and new –Slim. I wrote a simple “benchmark”: class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { ManualResetEventSlim mres = new ManualResetEventSlim(false); ManualResetEventSlim mres2 = new ManualResetEventSlim(false);   ManualResetEvent mre = new ManualResetEvent(false);   long total = 0; int COUNT = 50;   for (int i = 0; i < COUNT; i++) { mres2.Reset(); Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();   ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem((obj) => { //Method(mres, true); Method2(mre, true); mres2.Set(); }); //Method(mres, false); Method2(mre, false);   mres2.Wait(); sw.Stop();   Console.WriteLine("Pass {0}: {1} ms", i, sw.ElapsedMilliseconds); total += sw.ElapsedMilliseconds; }   Console.WriteLine(); Console.WriteLine("==============================="); Console.WriteLine("Done in average=" + total / (double)COUNT); Console.ReadLine(); }   private static void Method(ManualResetEventSlim mre, bool value) { for (int i = 0; i < 9000000; i++) { if (value) { mre.Set(); } else { mre.Reset(); } } }   private static void Method2(ManualResetEvent mre, bool value) { for (int i = 0; i < 9000000; i++) { if (value) { mre.Set(); } else { mre.Reset(); } } } } I use 2 concurrent thread (the main thread and one from thread pool) for setting and resetting ManualResetEvents, and try to run test COUNT times, and calculate average execution time. Here is the results (I get it on my dual core notebook with T7250 CPU and Windows 7 x64): ManualResetEvent ManualResetEventSlim Difference is obvious and serious – in 10 times! So, I think preferable way is using ManualResetEventSlim, because not always on calling Set() and Reset() will be called “heavy” methods for working with Windows kernel-mode objects. It’s a small and nice improvement! ;)

    Read the article

  • PRUEBAS DE ESPECIALIZACION GRATUITAS 2013

    - by agallego
    Consigue  tu Certificado de Especialista Oracle  de forma GRATUITA , 27 y 28 de Noviembre de 2013  Ahora puedes realizar los exámenes de implementación de las especializaciones de Oracle y convertirte en especialista. Podrás realizar cualquiera de los exámenes de implementación de la siguiente lista: Oracle Fusion Customer Relationship Management 11g Sales Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-456) Oracle Fusion Financials 11g General Ledger Implementation Specialist(1Z0-508) Oracle Fusion Financials 11g Accounts Payable Implementation Specialist(1Z0-507) Oracle Fusion Financials 11g Accounts Receivable Implementation Specialist(1Z0-506) Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management 11g Human Resources Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-584) Oracle Fusion Human Capital Management 11g Talent Management Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-585) Oracle ATG Web Commerce 10 Implementation Developer Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-510) Oracle Hyperion Planning 11 Essentials (1Z0-533) Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7.9.6 for ERP Essentials (1Z0-525) Oracle Hyperion Financial Management 11 Essentials (1Z0-532) Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7.9.6 for CRM Essentials (1Z0-524) Oracle Hyperion Data Relationship Management 11.1.2 Essentials (1Z1-588) Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite 11g Essentials (1Z0-591) Oracle Essbase 11 Essentials (1Z0-531) SPARC T4-Based Server Installation Essentials (1Z0-597) Oracle Solaris 11 Installation and Configuration Essentials (1Z0-580) Sun ZFS Storage Appliance Certified Implementation Specialist Exalogic Elastic Cloud X2-2 Certified Implementation Specialist Oracle Exadata 11g Essentials (1Z0-536) Oracle VM 3 for x86 Essenstials (1Z0-590) Oracle Linux Fundamentals (1Z0-402) Oracle Linux System Administration (1Z0-403) Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-451) Oracle Unified Business Process Management Suite 11g Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-560) Oracle WebLogic Server 12c Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-599) Oracle WebCenter Portal 11g Essentials (1Z0-541) Oracle WebCenter Content 11g Essentials (1Z0-542) Oracle Application Development Framework 11g Certified Implementation Specialist Oracle Identity Analytics 11g Certified Implementation Specialist (1Z0-545) Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c Essentials (1Z0-457) Puedes consultar la información acerca de los examenes en cada uno de los enlaces. Para prepararte los examenes sigue la Guia de estudio que encontrarás en la página de cada examen. Requisitos: ser  Partner Gold, Platinum o Diamond de Oracle y tener un usuario de Oracle Pearson Vue.  ¿Cuándo?: 27 y 28 de noviembre  a las (9:00, 12:00, 16:00)  ¿Dónde?: Core Networks, C.E.Parque Norte, Edificio Olmo, Planta 1 Serrano Galvache 56 | 28033, Madrid Para inscribirte: Create una cuenta en Pearson Vue (www.pearsonvue.com/oracle). Para Registrarte aquí. Para más información sobre el programa de especializaciones, haz clic aquí. No pierdas esta oportunidad e inscríbete hoy.  Para cualquier duda contactar con [email protected]. Ana María Gallego Partner Enablement Manager Spain and Portugal      

    Read the article

  • Announcing a functional best practices White Paper for SIM and RMS integration

    - by Oracle Retail Documentation Team
    Oracle Retail has published a document on My Oracle Support (https://support.oracle.com) that provides you with guidance on how to adopt best practices that best facilitate the integration between the Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS) and the Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management System (SIM). Doc ID: 1424596.1This paper highlights some specific functional best practices when integrating Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS) and Oracle Retail Store Inventory Management (SIM). The list in this paper is not comprehensive. Topics include: Inventory adjustments Returns to vendor (RTV) Transfer shipping Receipts Receipt unit adjustments Stock order reconcoliation Stock counts Transformable items

    Read the article

  • John Hitchcock of Pace Describes the Oracle Agile PLM Customer Experience

    John Hitchcock, Senior Manager of Configuration Management at Pace (formerly 2Wire, Inc.), sat down for an interview during Oracle's Innovation Summit with Kerrie Foy, Manager of PLM Product Marketing at Oracle. Learn why his organization upgraded to the latest version of Agile and expanded the footprint to achieve impressive savings and productivity gains across the global, networked product value-chain.

    Read the article

  • John Hitchcock of Pace Describes the Oracle Agile PLM Customer Experience

    John Hitchcock, Senior Manager of Configuration Management at Pace (formerly 2Wire, Inc.), sat down for an interview during Oracle's Innovation Summit with Kerrie Foy, Manager of PLM Product Marketing at Oracle. Learn why his organization upgraded to the latest version of Agile and expanded the footprint to achieve impressive savings and productivity gains across the global, networked product value-chain.

    Read the article

  • Developer Profile: Marcelo Quinta

    - by Tori Wieldt
    As the Java developer community lead for Oracle, the best part of my job is going to conferences and meeting Java developers. I’ve had the pleasure to meet men and women who are smart, fun and passionate about Java—they make the Java community happen. The current issue of Java Magazine provides profiles of other young Java developers around the world. Subscribe to read them! Marcelo Quinta Age: 24Occupation: Professor, Federal University of GoiasLocation: Goias, Brazil Twitter: @mrquinta Marcelo (white polo shirt, center) and class OTN: When did you realize that you were good at programming? When I was in graduate school, I developed a Java system that displayed worked out the logics of getting the maximum coverage using the fewest resources (for example, the minimum number of soldiers [and positions] needed for a battlefield. It may seems not difficult, but it's a hard problem to solve, mathematically. Here I was, a freshman, who came up with an app  "solving" it. Some Master's students use my software today. It was then I began to believe in what I could do.OTN: What most inspires you about programming?I'm really inspired by the challenges and tension that comes from solving a complicated problems. Lately, I've been doing a new system focused on education and digital inclusion and was very gratifying to see it working and the results. I felt useful for the community. OTN: What are some things you would like to accomplish using Java?Java is a very strong platform and that gives us power to develop applications for different devices and purposes, from home automation with little microcontrollers to systems in big servers. I would like to build more systems that integrate the people life or different business contexts, from PCs to cell phones and tablets, ubiquitously. I think IT has reached a level where the current challenge is to make systems that leverage existing technologies that are present in daily life. Java gives us a very interesting set of options to put it into practice, especially in systems that require more strength.OTN: What technical insights into Java technology have been most important to you?I have really enjoyed the way that Java has evolved with Oracle, with new features added, many of them which were suggested by the community. Java 7 came with substantial improvements in the language syntax and it seems that Java 8 takes it even further. I also made some applications in JavaFX and liked the new version. The Java GUI is on a higher level than is offered out there. I saw some JavaFX prototypes running in modern tablets and I got excited. OTN: What would you like to be doing 10 years from now?I want my work to make a difference for individuals or an institution. It would be interesting to be improving one of the systems that I am making today. Recently I've been mixing my hobbies and work, playing with Arduino and home automation. The JHome project, winner of the Duke's Choice Award in 2011, is very interesting to me.OTN: Do you listen to music when you write code? If so, what kind?Absolutely! I usually listen to electronic music (Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and Paul Oakenfold), rock (Metallica, Strokes, The Black Keys) and a bit of local alternative music. I live in Goiânia, "The Brazilian Seattle" and I profit from it very well. OTN: What do you do when you're not programming?I like to play guitar and to fish. Last year I sold my economy car and bought a old jeep. Some people called me crazy, but since then I've been having a great time and having adventures on the backroads of Brazil. Once I broke my glasses in a funny game involving my car's suspension and the airbags. OTN: Does your girlfriend think you are crazy?Crazy is someone who doesn't have courage to do strange things! My girlfriend likes my style. =D Subscribe to the free Java Magazine to read profiles of other young Java developers. Visit the Java channel on YouTube to see a video of Marcelo in action.

    Read the article

  • Day 6 - Game Menuing Woes and Future Screen Sneak Peeks

    - by dapostolov
    So, after my last post on Day 5 I dabbled with my game class design. I took the approach where each game objects is tightly coupled with a graphic. The good news is I got the menu working but not without some hard knocks and game growing pains. I'll explain later, but for now...here is a class diagram of my first stab at my class structure and some code...   Ok, there are few mistakes, however, I'm going to leave it as is for now... As you can see I created an inital abstract base class called GameSprite. This class when inherited will provide a simple virtual default draw method:        public virtual void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, Color.White);         } The benefits of coding it this way allows me to inherit the class and utilise the method in the screen draw method...So regardless of what the graphic object type is it will now have the ability to render a static image on the screen. Example: public class MyStaticTreasureChest : GameSprite {} If you remember the window draw method from Day 3's post, we could use the above code as follows...         protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)         {             GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);             spriteBatch.Begin(SpriteBlendMode.AlphaBlend);             foreach(var gameSprite in ListOfGameObjects)            {                 gameSprite.DrawSprite(spriteBatch);            }             spriteBatch.End();             base.Draw(gameTime);         } I have to admit the GameSprite object is pretty plain as with its DrawSprite method... But ... we now have the ability to render 3 static menu items on the screen ... BORING! I want those menu items to do something exciting, which of course involves animation... So, let's have a peek at AnimatedGameSprite in the above game diagram. The idea with the AnimatedGameSprite is that it has an image to animate...such as ... characters, fireballs, and... menus! So after inheriting from GameSprite class, I added a few more options such as UpdateSprite...         public virtual void UpdateSprite(float elapsed)         {             _totalElapsed += elapsed;             if (_totalElapsed > _timePerFrame)             {                 _frame++;                 _frame = _frame % _framecount;                 _totalElapsed -= _timePerFrame;             }         }  And an overidden DrawSprite...         public override void DrawSprite(SpriteBatch spriteBatch)         {             int FrameWidth = Sprite.Width / _framecount;             Rectangle sourcerect = new Rectangle(FrameWidth * _frame, 0, FrameWidth, Sprite.Height);             spriteBatch.Draw(Sprite, Position, sourcerect, Color.White, _rotation, _origin, _scale, SpriteEffects.None, _depth);         } With these two methods...I can animate and image, all I had to do was add a few more lines to the screens Update Method (From Day 3), like such:             float elapsed = (float) gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds;             foreach (var item in ListOfAnimatedGameObjects)             {                 item.UpdateSprite(elapsed);             } And voila! My images begin to animate in one spot, on the screen... Hmm, but how do I interact with the menu items using a mouse...well the mouse cursor was easy enough... this.IsMouseVisible = true; But, to have it "interact" with an image was a bit more tricky...I had to perform collision detection!             mouseStateCurrent = Mouse.GetState();             var uiEnabledSprites = (from s in menuItems                                    where s.IsEnabled                                    select s).ToList();             foreach (var item in uiEnabledSprites)             {                 var r = new Rectangle((int)item.Position.X, (int)item.Position.Y, item.Sprite.Width, item.Sprite.Height);                 item.MenuState = MenuState.Normal;                 if (r.Intersects(new Rectangle(mouseStateCurrent.X, mouseStateCurrent.Y, 0, 0)))                 {                     item.MenuState = MenuState.Hover;                     if (mouseStatePrevious.LeftButton == ButtonState.Pressed                         && mouseStateCurrent.LeftButton == ButtonState.Released)                     {                         item.MenuState = MenuState.Pressed;                     }                 }             }             mouseStatePrevious = mouseStateCurrent; So, basically, what it is doing above is iterating through all my interactive objects and detecting a rectangle collision and the object , plays the state animation (or static image).  Lessons Learned, Time Burned... So, I think I did well to start, but after I hammered out my prototype...well...things got sloppy and I began to realise some design flaws... At the time: I couldn't seem to figure out how to open another window, such as the character creation screen Input was not event based and it was bugging me My menu design relied heavily on mouse input and I couldn't use keyboard. Mouse input, is tightly bound with graphic rendering / positioning, so its logic will have to be in each scene. Menu animations would stop mid frame, then continue when the action occured again. This is bad, because...what if I had a sword sliding onthe screen? Then it would slide a quarter of the way, then stop due to another action, then render again mid-slide... it just looked sloppy. Menu, Solved!? To solve the above problems I did a little research and I found some great code in the XNA forums. The one worth mentioning was the GameStateManagementSample. With this sample, you can create a basic "text based" menu system which allows you to swap screens, popup screens, play the game, and quit....basic game state management... In my next post I'm going to dwelve a bit more into this code and adapt it with my code from this prototype. Text based menus just won't cut it for me, for now...however, I'm still going to stick with my animated menu item idea. A sneak peek using the Game State Management Sample...with no changes made... Cool Things to Mention: At work ... I tend to break out in random conversations every-so-often and I get talking about some of my challenges with this game (or some stupid observation about something... stupid) During one conversation I was discussing how I should animate my images; I explained that I knew I had to use the Update method provided, but I didn't know how (at the time) to render an image at an appropriate "pace" and how many frames to use, etc.. I also got thinking that if a machine rendered my images faster / slower, that was surely going to f-up my animations. To which a friend, Sheldon,  answered, surely the Draw method is like a camera taking a snapshot of a scene in time. Then it clicked...I understood the big picture of the game engine... After some research I discovered that the Draw method attempts to keep a framerate of 60 fps. From what I understand, the game engine will even leave out a few calls to the draw method if it begins to slow down. This is why we want to put our sprite updates in the update method. Then using a game timer (provided by the engine), we want to render the scene based on real time passed, not framerate. So even the engine renders at 20 fps, the animations will still animate at the same real time speed! Which brings up another point. Why 60 fps? I'm speculating that Microsoft capped it because LCD's dont' refresh faster than 60 fps? On another note, If the game engine knows its falling behind in rendering...then surely we can harness this to speed up our games. Maybe I can find some flag which tell me if the game is lagging, and what the current framerate is, etc...(instead of coding it like I did last time) Sheldon, suggested maybe I can render like WoW does, in prioritised layers...I think he's onto something, however I don't think I'll have that many graphics to worry about such a problem of graphic latency. We'll see. People to Mention: Well,as you are aware I hadn't posted in a couple days and I was surprised to see a few emails and messenger queries about my game progress (and some concern as to why I stopped). I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support and put everyone at ease by stating that I do intend on completing this project. Granted I only have a few hours each night, but, I'll do it. Thank you to Garth for mailing in my next screen! That was a nice surprise! The Sneek Peek you've been waiting for... Garth has also volunteered to render me some wizard images. He was a bit shocked when I asked for them in 2D animated strips. He said I was going backward (and that I have really bad Game Development Lingo). But, I advised Garth that I will use 3D images later...for now...2D images. Garth also had some great game design ideas to add on. I advised him that I will save his ideas and include them in the future design document (for the 3d version?). Lastly, my best friend Alek, is going to join me in developing this game. This was a project we started eons ago but never completed because of our careers. Now, priorities change and we have some spare time on our hands. Let's see what trouble Alek and I can get into! Tonight I'll be uploading my prototypes and base game to a source control for both of us to work off of. D.

    Read the article

  • How to Search for (and Find) Solaris Docs

    - by rickramsey
    Just the other day, I went to the recently-released Oracle Solaris 11 library to search for information about the print service changes. I knew there had been changes in Oracle Solaris 11, but could not remember the new approach to printing. So, being the optimist that I (never) am, I went to the Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library on docs.oracle.com and typed "print service" into the search box. Imagine my surprise when the response back was: We did not find any search results for: print service site:download.oracle.com url:/docs/cd/E23824_01. OMG! WTF? Are you kidding me? After throwing a few stuffed animals at my computer screen, I tried again. Is search broken? Well, sort of (and I'm trying to get it fixed). In the meantime, however, there is a reasonably simple user workaround. Possibly unnoticed by most people, there is a Within drop-down menu on the Oracle search results page. If you simply open the Within menu, select Documentation, and click the little magnifying glass again, you (should) get the expected results. Is it perfect? No, but at least it's an improvement over being completely broken. - Janice Critchlow, Information Architect, Systems Website Newsletter Facebook Twitter

    Read the article

  • Best Easiest Fastest No Install USB Boot Disk in 4 Simple Steps :)

    - by PearlFactory
    USB Boot Disk When you look how to create USB Boot Disk on the web it is a nightmare   Here is the easiest I use that works for all MS prods At a computer running Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008, run a command prompt as administrator and execute the following: Make Sure you have all explorer windows closed and nothing referencing the USB i.e a doc open in Word 1. C:\> diskpart DISKPART> list disk [Identify disk # of the USB key] DISKPART> sel disk 1 [assuming 1 was the # from above] DISKPART> clean [CAUTION—will wipe whichever disk is selected] DISKPART> cre part pri DISKPART> active DISKPART> assign DISKPART> format fs=ntfs quick DISKPART> exit C:\> exit 2. Copy the contents of the Windows Server 2008 R2 or any other MS OS  DVD/ISO to the USB key. 3. From the system tray, use the “Safely remove hardware” icon to safely remove the USB key from the computer. This helps ensure that all files have been fully written to the USB key. (Especially after the large file copy) 4. Restart,,,put usb in and Find reference from HP h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA3-1317ENW.pdf

    Read the article

  • Display root node of Hierarchical Tree using ADF - EJB DC

    - by arul.wilson(at)oracle.com
    Displaying Employee (HR schema) records in Hierarchical Tree can be achieved in ADF-BC by creating custom VO and a Viewlink for displaying root node. This can be more easily done using  EJB-DC by just introducing a NamedQuery to get the root node.Here you go to get this scenario working.Create DB connection based on HR schema.Create Entity Bean from Employees Table.Add custom NamedQuery to Employees.java bean, this named query is responsible for fetching the root node (King in this example). @NamedQueries({  @NamedQuery(name = "Employees.findAll", query = "select o from Employees o"),  @NamedQuery(name = "Employees.findRootEmp", query = "select p from Employees p where p.employees is null")}) Create Stateless Session Bean and expose the Named Queries through the Session Facade.Create Datacontrol from SessionBean local interface.Create jspx page in ViewController project.Drop employeesFindRootEmp from Data Controls Palette as ADF Tree.Add employeesList as Tree level rule.Run page to see the hierarchical tree with root node as 'King'

    Read the article

  • MVC Portable Areas &ndash; Deploying Static Files

    - by Steve Michelotti
    This is the second post in a series related to build and deployment considerations as I’ve been exploring MVC Portable Areas: #1 – Using Web Application Project to build portable areas #2 – Conventions for deploying portable area static files #3 – Portable area static files as embedded resources As I’ve been digging more into portable areas, one of the things I’ve liked best is the deployment story which enables my *.aspx, *.ascx pages to be compiled into the assembly as embedded resources rather than having to maintain all those files separately. In traditional web forms, that was always the thing to prevented developers from utilizing *.ascx user controls across projects (see this post for using portable areas in web forms).  However, though the aspx pages are embedded, the supporting static files (e.g., images, css, javascript) are *not*. Most of the demos available online today tend to brush over this issue and focus solely on the aspx side of things. But to create truly robust portable areas, it’s important to have a good story for these supporting files as well.  I’ve been working with two different approaches so far (of course I’d really like to hear if other people are using alternatives). Scenario For the approaches below, the scenario really isn’t that important. It could be something as trivial as this partial view: 1: <%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl" %> 2: <img src="<%: Url.Content("~/images/arrow.gif") %>" /> Hello World! The point is that there needs to be careful consideration for *any* scenario that links to an external file such as an image, *.css, *.js, etc. In the example shown above, it uses the Url.Content() method to convert to a relative path. But this method won’t necessary work depending on how you deploy your portable area. One approach to address this issue is to build your portable area project with MSDeploy/WebDeploy so that it is packaged properly before incorporating into the host application. All of the *.cs files are removed and the project is ready for xcopy deployment – however, I do *not* need the “Views” folder since all of the mark up has been compiled into the assembly as embedded resources. Now in the host application we create a folder called “Modules” and deploy any portable areas as sub-folders under that: At this point we can add a simple assembly reference to the Widget1.dll sitting in the Modules\Widget1\bin folder. I can now render the portable image in my view like any other portable area. However, the problem with that is that the view results in this:   It couldn’t find arrow.gif because it looked for /images/arrow.gif and it was *actually* located at /images/Modules/Widget1/images/arrow.gif. One solution is to make the physical location of the portable configurable from the perspective of the host like this: 1: <appSettings> 2: <add key="Widget1" value="Modules\Widget1"/> 3: </appSettings> Using the <appSettings> section is a little cheesy but it could be better formalized into its own section. In fact, if were you willing to rely on conventions (e.g., “Modules\{areaName}”) then then config could be eliminated completely. With this config in place, we could create our own Html helper method called Url.AreaContent() that “wraps” the OOTB Url.Content() method while simply pre-pending the area location path: 1: public static string AreaContent(this UrlHelper urlHelper, string contentPath) 2: { 3: var areaName = (string)urlHelper.RequestContext.RouteData.DataTokens["area"]; 4: var areaPath = (string)ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[areaName]; 5:   6: return urlHelper.Content("~/" + areaPath + "/" + contentPath); With these two items in place, we just change our Url.Content() call to Url.AreaContent() like this: 1: <img src="<%: Url.AreaContent("/images/arrow.gif") %>" /> Hello World! and the arrow.gif now renders correctly:     Since we’re just using our own Url.AreaContent() rather than the built-in Url.Content(), this solution works for images, *.css, *.js, or any externally referenced files.  Additionally, any images referenced inside a css file will work provided it’s a relative reference and not an absolute reference. An alternative to this approach is to build the static file into the assembly as embedded resources themselves. I’ll explore this in another post (linked at the top).

    Read the article

  • The Evolution of Television and Home Entertainment

    - by Bill Evjen
    This is a group that is focused on entertainment in the aviation industry. I am attending their conference for the first time as it relates to my job at Swank Motion Pictures and what we do for our various markets. I will post my notes here. The Evolution of Television and Home Entertainment by Patrick Cosson, Veebeam TV has been the center of living rooms for sometime. Conversations and culture evolve around the TV. The way we consume this content has dramatically been changing. After TV, we had the MTV revolution of TV. It has created shorter attention spans, it made us more materialistic, narcissistic, and not easily impressed. Then we came to the Internet. The amount of content has expanded. It contains a ton of user-generated content, provides filtering, organization, distribution. We now have a problem. We are in the age of digital excess. We can access whatever we want. In conjunction with this – we are moving. The challenge we have now is curation. The trends  we see: rapid shift from scheduled to on demand consumption. A move to Internet protocols from cable Rapid fragmentation of media a transition from the TV set to a variety of screens Social connections bring mediators and amplifiers. TiVo – the shift to on demand It is because of a time-crunch Provides personal experiences Once old consumption habits are changed, there is no way back! Experiences are that people are loading up content and then bringing it with them on planes, to hotels, etc. Rapid fragmentation of media sources Many new professional content sources and channels, the rise of digital distribution, and the rise of user-generated content contribute to the wealth of content sources and abundant choice. Netflix, BBC iPlayer, hulu, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon Video, Vudu, Voddler, Spotify (these companies didn’t exist 5 years ago). People now expect this kind of consumption. People are now thinking how to deliver all these tools. Transition from the TV set to multi-screens The TV screen has traditionally been the dominant consumption screen for TV and video. Now the PC, game consoles, and various mobile devices are rapidly becoming common video devices. Multi-screens are now the norm. Social connections becoming key mediators What increasingly funnels traffic on the web, social networking enablers, will become an integral part of the discovery, consumption and sharing model for Television. The revolution will be broadcasted on Facebook and Twitter. There is business disruption There are a lot of new entrants Rapid internationalization Increasing competition from existing media players A fragmenting audience base Web browser Freedom to access any site The fight over the walled garden Most devices are not powerful enough to support a full browser PC will always be present in the living room Wireless link between PC and TV Output 1080p, plays anything, secure Key players and their challenges Services Internet media is increasingly interconnected to social media and publicly shared UGC Content delivery moving to IPTV Rights management issues are creating silos and hindering a great user experience and growth Devices Devices are becoming people’s windows into all kinds of media from all kinds of sources There won’t be a consolidation of the device landscape, rather the opposite Finding the right niche makes the most sense. We are moving to an on demand world of streaming world. People want full access to anything.

    Read the article

  • Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework - Day 2 Part 2 of MIX 2010

    - by GeekAgilistMercenary
    I went to the session on Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework (MSAF) today while here at MIX 2010.  It was a great walk through the features, ideas, and what the end goal is.  Michael Scherotter did a great job of lining up the ideas, intentions, and the functional ideas behind the framework. The framework is built around the Silverlight Behaviors.  If you aren't sure what behaviors are, check out these entries from Nikhilk.net Silverlight Behaviors, Silverlight 3 Drag Behavior, An Introduction to Behaviors, Triggers, and Actions, and of course the MSDN Documentation on the matter. Some of the key features of the framework is to support out-of-browser scenarios, which works perfectly with out Webtrends DX Web Services.  Offline scenarios, which again, we have worked toward supporting at Webtrends DC Web Services via caching and other criteria as needed.  Another feature that I was really stoked about is the Microsoft Expression Blend integration that removes the need for coding, thus simplifying the addition of analytics components based on events or other actions within a Silverlight Application.  This framework also easily supports A/B Testing (again, something we do quit a bit of at Webtrends with Webtrends Optimize. The last thing I really wanted to point out was the control support that this framework has support in already from Telerik RadControls, Smooth Streaming Media Element, and Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework Player 1.0.  These are implemented with behaviors and handlers exposed via MEF (Managed Extensibility Framework). All in all, great second day, great analytics framework for Silverlight, and great presentation.  Until tomorrow, adieu. For this original entry and all sorts of other technical gibberish I write, check out my other blog Agilist Mercenary.

    Read the article

  • Adding attachments to HumanTasks *beforehand*

    - by ccasares
    For an demo I'm preparing along with a partner, we need to add some attachments to a HumanTask beforehand, that is, the attachment must be associated already to the Task by the time the user opens its Form. How to achieve this?, indeed it's quite simple and just a matter of some mappings to the Task's input execData structure. Oracle BPM supports "default" attachments (which use BPM tables) or UCM-based ones. The way to insert attachments for both methods is pretty similar. With default attachments When using default attachments, first we need to have the attachment payload as part of the BPM process, that is, must be contained in a variable. Normally the attachment content is binary, so we'll need first to convert it to a base64-string (not covered on this blog entry). What we need to do is just to map the following execData parameters as part of the input of the HumanTask: execData.attachment[n].content            <-- the base64 payload data execData.attachment[n].mimeType           <-- depends on your attachment                                               (e.g.: "application/pdf") execData.attachment[n].name               <-- attachment name (just the name you want to                                               use. No need to be the original filename) execData.attachment[n].attachmentScope    <-- BPM or TASK (depending on your needs) execData.attachment[n].storageType        <-- TASK execData.attachment[n].doesBelongToParent <-- false (not sure if this one is really                                               needed, but it definitely doesn't hurt) execData.attachment[n].updatedBy          <-- username who is attaching it execData.attachment[n].updatedDate        <-- dateTime of when this attachment is                                               attached  Bear in mind that the attachment structure is a repetitive one. So if you need to add more than one attachment, you'll need to use XSLT mapping. If not, the Assign mapper automatically adds [1] for the iteration.  With UCM-based attachments With UCM-based attachments, the procedure is basically the same. We'll need to map some extra fields and not to map others. The tricky part with UCM-based attachments is what we need to know beforehand about the attachment itself. Of course, we don't need to have the payload, but a couple of information from the attachment that must be checked in already in UCM. First, let's see the mappings: execData.attachment[n].mimeType           <-- Document's dFormat attribute (1) execData.attachment[n].name               <-- attachment name (just the name you want to                                               use. No need to be the original filename) execData.attachment[n].attachmentScope    <-- BPM or TASK (depending on your needs) execData.attachment[n].storageType        <-- UCM execData.attachment[n].doesBelongToParent <-- false (not sure if this one is really                                               needed, but it definitely doesn't hurt) execData.attachment[n].updatedBy          <-- username who is attaching it execData.attachment[n].updatedDate        <-- dateTime of when this attachment is                                               attached  execData.attachment[n].uri                <-- "ecm://<dID>" where dID is document's dID                                      attribute (2) execData.attachment[n].ucmDocType         <-- Document's dDocType attribute (3) execData.attachment[n].securityGroup      <-- Document's dSecurityGroup attribute (4) execData.attachment[n].revision           <-- Document's dRevisionID attribute (5) execData.attachment[n].ucmMetadataItem[1].name  <-- "DocUrl" execData.attachment[n].ucmMetadataItem[1].type  <-- STRING execData.attachment[n].ucmMetadataItem[1].value <-- Document's url attribute (6)  Where to get those (n) fields? In my case I get those from a Search call to UCM (not covered on this blog entry) As I mentioned above, we must know which UCM document we're going to attach. We may know its ID, its name... whatever we need to uniquely identify it calling the IDC Search method. This method returns ALL the info we need to attach the different fields labeled with a number above.  The only tricky one is (6). UCM Search service returns the url attribute as a context-root without hostname:port. E.g.: /cs/groups/public/documents/document/dgvs/mdaw/~edisp/ccasareswcptel000239.pdf However we do need to include the full qualified URL when mapping (6). Where to get the http://<hostname>:<port> value? Honestly, I have no clue. What I use to do is to use a BPM property that can always be modified at runtime if needed. There are some other fields that might be needed in the execData.attachment structure, like account (if UCM's is using Accounts). But for demos I've never needed to use them, so I'm not sure whether it's necessary or not. Feel free to add some comments to this entry if you know it ;-)  That's all folks. Should you need help with the UCM Search service, let me know and I can write a quick entry on that topic.

    Read the article

  • Architecture Forum in the North 2010 - Hosted by Black Marble

    - by Stuart Brierley
    On Thursday the 8th of December I attended the "Architecture Forum in the North 2010" hosted by Black Marble. The third time this annual event has been held, it was pitched as featuring Black Marble and Microsoft UK architecture experts focusing on “Tools and Methods for Architects.... a unique opportunity to provide IT Managers, IT and software architects from Northern businesses the chance to learn about the latest technologies and best practices from Microsoft in the field of Architecture....insightful information about the latest techniques, demonstrating how with Microsoft’s architecture tools and technologies you can address your current business needs." Following a useful overview of the Architecture features of Visual Studio 2010, the rest of the day was given over to various features and ways to make use of Microsoft's Azure offerings.  While I did feel that a wider spread of technologies could have been covered (maybe a bit of Sharepoint or BizTalk even), the technological and architectural overviews of the Azure platform were well presented, informative and useful. The day was well organised and all those involved were friendly and approachable for questions and discussions.  If you are in "the North" and get a chance to attend next year I would highly recommend it.

    Read the article

  • New JDeveloper/ADF book hits the bookshelves

    - by Grant Ronald
    I've just received a nice new copy of Sten Vesterli's book Oracle ADF Enterprise Application Development - Made Simple.  I was one of the technical reviewers of the book but I'm looking forward to be able to read it end-to-end in good old fashioned book format this coming week. The book bridges the gap between those existing books that describe Oracle ADF features, and real world ADF development.  So, source control, bug tracking, estimating, testing, security, packaging etc are all covered.  Of course, every project and situation is different so the book could never supply a one-size-fits-all guide, but I think its a good addition to your ADF bookshelf.  I'll hopefully post a full review in the coming weeks. Oh, and congratulations Sten,  having gone through the pain of writing my own ADF book, I take my hat off to anyone who goes through the same journey!

    Read the article

  • Silverlight Cream for June 22, 2011 -- #1111

    - by Dave Campbell
    In this Issue: Kunal Chowdhury, Beth Massi, Mike Taulty, Xpert360, and Erno de Weerd. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Silverlight, HTML and the WebBrowser Control for Offline Apps" Mike Taulty WP7: "Windows Phone 7 (Mango) Tutorial - 18 - Know about various Phone Tasks" Kunal Chowdhury LightSwitch: "How to Create a Simple Audit Trail (Change Log) in LightSwitch" Beth Massi From SilverlightCream.com: Windows Phone 7 (Mango) Tutorial - 18 - Know about various Phone Tasks Kunal Chowdhury has number 18 in his Mango series up and is discussing WP7.1 Microsoft.Phone.Tasks namespace classes How to Create a Simple Audit Trail (Change Log) in LightSwitch Beth Massi's latest is a demo of building an audit trail to track changes to records in LightSwitch Silverlight, HTML and the WebBrowser Control for Offline Apps Mike Taulty takes a good hard look at the WebBrowser control ... and all the permutations and gyrations. If you're using or going to use this control, you definitely want to read this article. PivotViewer Shorts Part 5: Invert Facet Category Selections Xpert360 has his 5th tutorial up on PivotViewer, covering the topic of inverting the facet category's selections... per reader request. Windows Phone 7: Drawing graphics for your application with Inkscape – Part III: Backgrounds Erno de Weerd has his 3rd tutorial in his series using Inkscape to draw graphics for your WP7 app... this one is on Background images, and staying within in the Marketplace guidelines of course Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

    Read the article

  • Bad Spot to Be In: Playing Catch-up with Mobile Advertising

    - by Mike Stiles
    You probably noticed, there’s a mass migration going on from online desktop/laptop usage to smartphone/tablet usage.  It’s an indicator of how we live our lives in the modern world: always on the go, with no intention of being disconnected while out there. Consequently, paid as it relates to mobile advertising is taking the social spotlight. eMarketer estimated that in 2013, US adults would spend about 2 hours, 21 minutes a day on mobile, not counting talking time. More people in the world own smartphones than own toothbrushes (bad news I suppose if you’re marketing toothpaste). They’re using those mobile devices to access social networks, consuming at least 17% of their mobile time on them. Frankly, you don’t need a deep dive into mobile usage stats to know what’s going on. Just look around you in any store, venue or coffee shop. It’s really obvious…our mobile devices are now where we “are,” so that’s where marketers can increasingly reach us. And it’s a smart place for them to do just that. Mobile devices can be viewed more and more as shopping facilitators. Usually when someone is on mobile, they are not in passive research mode. They are likely standing near a store or in front of a product, using their mobile to seek reassurance that buying that product is the right move. They are the hottest of hot prospects. Consider that 4 out of 5 consumers use smartphones to shop, 52% of Americans use mobile devices for in-store for research, 70% of mobile searches lead to online action inside of an hour, and people that find you on mobile convert at almost 3x the rate as those that find you on desktop or laptop. But what are marketers doing? Enter statistics from Mary Meeker’s latest State of the Internet report. Common sense says you buy advertising where people are spending their eyeball time, right? But while mobile is 20% of media use and rising, the ad spend there is 4%. Conversely, while print usage is at 5% and falling, ad spend there is 19%. We all love nostalgia, but come on. There are reasons marketing dollar migration to mobile has not matched user migration, including the availability of mobile ad products and the ability to measure user response to mobile ads. But interesting things are happening now. First came Facebook’s mobile ad, which let app developers pay to get potential downloads. Then their mobile ad network was announced at F8, allowing marketers to target users across non-Facebook apps while leveraging the wealth of diverse data Facebook has on those users, a big deal since Nielsen has pointed out mobile apps make up 89% of the media time spent on mobile. Twitter has a similar play in motion with their MoPub acquisition. And now mobile deeplinks have arrived, which can take users straight to sub-pages of mobile apps for a faster, more direct shopper/researcher user experience. The sooner the gratification, the smoother and faster the conversion. To be clear, growth in mobile ad spending is well underway. After posting $13.1 billion in 2013, Gartner expects global mobile ad spending to reach $18 billion this year, then go to $41.9 billion by 2017. Cheap smartphones and data plans are spreading worldwide, further fueling the shift to mobile. Mobile usage in India alone should grow 400% by 2018. And, of course, there’s the famous statistic that mobile should overtake desktop Internet usage this year. How can we as marketers mess up this opportunity? Two ways. We could position ourselves in perpetual “catch-up” mode and keep spending ad dollars where the public used to be. And we could annoy mobile users with horrid old-school marketing practices. Two-thirds of users told Forrester they think interruptive in-app ads are more annoying than TV ads. Make sure your brand’s social marketing technology platform is delivering a crystal clear picture of your social connections so the mobile touch point is highly relevant, mobile optimized, and delivering real value and satisfying experiences. Otherwise, all we’ve done is find a new way to be unwanted. @mikestiles @oraclesocialPhoto: Kate Mallatratt, freeimages.com

    Read the article

  • Changing Platform

    - by Liam McLennan
    From time to time a developer makes a break from their platform of choice (.NET, Java, VB, Access, COBOL) and moves to perceived greener pastures. Zed Shaw did it, jumping from Ruby to Python, and Mike Gunderloy went from .NET to Rails. But it can be difficult to change platform. My clients don’t come to me looking for  a software developer, they come looking for a .NET developer. This is a tragic side effect of big software companies marketing. If your village is under attack by bandits, would you turn away the first seven samurai who offered to help because you didn’t like their swords? What matters is how effectively they can defend your village. You should not tell your carpenter what sort of hammer to use and you should not tell your software developer what platform to use.

    Read the article

< Previous Page | 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244  | Next Page >