Search Results

Search found 8840 results on 354 pages for 'drupal developers'.

Page 237/354 | < Previous Page | 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244  | Next Page >

• OWB/ODI Users: Last Chance to Submit and Vote On Sessions for OpenWorld 2010

  - by antonio romero

  Now is the last chance for OWB and ODI users to propose new ETL/DW/DI sessions for OpenWorld! Oracle OpenWorld 2010 "Suggest a Session" lets members of the Oracle Mix community submit and vote on papers/talks for OpenWorld. The most popular session proposals will be included in the conference program. One promising OWB-related topic has already been submitted: Case Study: Real-Time Data Warehousing and Fraud Detection with Oracle 11gR2 Dr. Holger Friedrich and consultants from sumIT AG in Switzerland built a real-time data warehouse and accompanying BI system for real-time online fraud detection with very limited resources and a short schedule. His presentation will cover: How sumIT AG efficiently loads complex data feeds in real time in Oracle 11gR2 using, among others, Advanced Queues and XML DB How they lowered costs and sped up development, by leveraging the DBs development features including Oracle Warehouse Builder How they delivered a production-ready solution in a few short months using only three part-time developers Come vote for this proposal, on Oracle Mix: https://mix.oracle.com/oow10/proposals/10566-case-study-real-time-data-warehousing-and-fraud-detection-with-oracle-11gr2  I have already invited members of the OWB/ODI Linkedin group (with over 1400 members) to come vote on topics like this one and propose their own. If enough of us vote on a few topics, we are sure to get some on the agenda!  And if you have your own topics, using the Suggest-a-Session instructions here: http://wiki.oracle.com/page/Oracle+OpenWorld+2010+Suggest-a-Session If you propose a topic, don't forget to come to Linkedin and promote it! I have already sent the members of the Linkedin group an email announcement about this, and I will send another in a week, with links to all topics submitted. Thanks, all!

  Read the article

• XMLPad – a new tool in my developer utility belt

  - by jamiet

  Yesterday I was on the lookout for a free tool that would help me write XPath statements. I put a shout out on Twitter and Johan Barnard replied saying : Give XMLPad a try http://www.wmhelp.com/xmlpad3.htm I’m sure there are legions of developers out there that know all about XMLPad but I had never heard about it so I suspect some of you reading haven’t either. Today I downloaded it to give it a run out and I gotta say – I love it. I only used it to do one thing –constructing an XPath expression to point to a particular Configuration definition in a .dtsx file- and it allowed me to do that with consummate ease. The feature I particularly loved was that, similar to Google Suggest, it showed me results from my expression as I typed. Here is a screenshot of my XPath expression to find (and just try saying this in a hurry) the value of a property whose DTS:Name attribute equals ‘ConfigurationString’ of a Configuration definition where the value of that Configuration definition’s property whose DTS:Name attribute equals ‘ObjectName’, equals ‘BIConfig My XPath expression: /DTS:Executable/DTS:Configuration[DTS:Property[@DTS:Name=’ObjectName’]=’BIConfig’]/DTS:Property[@DTS:Name=’ConfigurationString’] and believe me, there was no way I would have been able to come up with that without a tool to help me! So, an easy tip for you – if you need to write XPath expression download XMLPad for free from http://www.wmhelp.com/xmlpad3.htm and see what it can do for you. That’s all. Its now Friday evening and I’m shutting down and relaxing before heading to the big game at Twickenham tomorrow (yes, I have a ticket ). Have a good one! @Jamiet

  Read the article

• Developing professionally for iOS, Android and web - an insight

  - by Scott Roberts

  This is not really a question on how to develop all three, I know various cross platform ways and so on. But I more want to know from developer standpoint how hard it is to basically develop iOS, Android and web apps? I am currently in my first job as a mobile/web developer. I have already developed my first iPhone/iPad app and now I have to develop the app for android because the web version I tried just didn't perform as well as needed and web databases just did not seem to make the cut. But I am not sure it's possible to be good at developing all 3 in terms of remembering all the api's etc. I wouldn't say I have an issue with the programming languages just how to use the api's for the various platforms. Also, all the other languages I look at, in my spare time, just feel like I am spreading myself to thin. Is it feasible for one person to be developing ios, android and web apps? Should I think about reducing it to iOS and web based apps? I develop everything by myself, so I have no one to discuss what the best solutions are for everything and I am just trying to workout as I go along. So any cross platform developers out there? Do companies have different teams for different platforms? Any insight would just help me get my head together. Hopefully this question makes sense.

  Read the article

• How to solve Bumblebee/Nvidia Optimus issues with kernel 3.4 (works perfectly under 3.2)

  - by theJimy

  I installed Ubuntu and could setup to utilize my Intel HD 3000/Geforce GT 540M hybrid graphics perfectly with the method described here: How well do laptops with Nvidia Optimus work? Everything works fine under Kernel 3.2. Now I wanted to upgrade though to Kernel 3.4, as it brings many improvements, especially in saving battery life (ie. Intel RC6)... at least from what I heard. While I had no issues installing the 3.4 Kernel under Ubuntu 12.04 and everything so far runs fine, Bumblebee causes issues under kernel 3.4. When trying to run commands like optirun, lsmod (or similar kernel tools) these just lock up and never return. The Bumblebee developers seem to refuse to help with mainline kernels (as seen here: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/bbswitch/issues/17 ). Does anyone know, how to solve this issue? Could I solve this probably, by compiling the kernel and/or Bumblebee against the kernels sources myself and having a Ubuntu-like kernel? Any other idea that might help me to solve this myself, so I could profit from the 3.4 features and Optimus, would be very appreciated.

  Read the article

• Code Reuse is (Damn) Hard

  - by James Michael Hare

  Being a development team lead, the task of interviewing new candidates was part of my job.  Like any typical interview, we started with some easy questions to get them warmed up and help calm their nerves before hitting the hard stuff. One of those easier questions was almost always: “Name some benefits of object-oriented development.”  Nearly every time, the candidate would chime in with a plethora of canned answers which typically included: “it helps ease code reuse.”  Of course, this is a gross oversimplification.  Tools only ease reuse, its developers that ultimately can cause code to be reusable or not, regardless of the language or methodology. But it did get me thinking…  we always used to say that as part of our mantra as to why Object-Oriented Programming was so great.  With polymorphism, inheritance, encapsulation, etc. we in essence set up the concepts to help facilitate reuse as much as possible.  And yes, as a developer now of many years, I unquestionably held that belief for ages before it really struck me how my views on reuse have jaded over the years.  In fact, in many ways Agile rightly eschews reuse as taking a backseat to developing what's needed for the here and now.  It used to be I was in complete opposition to that view, but more and more I've come to see the logic in it.  Too many times I've seen developers (myself included) get lost in design paralysis trying to come up with the perfect abstraction that would stand all time.  Nearly without fail, all of these pieces of code become obsolete in a matter of months or years. It’s not that I don’t like reuse – it’s just that reuse is hard.  In fact, reuse is DAMN hard.  Many times it is just a distraction that eats up architect and developer time, and worse yet can be counter-productive and force wrong decisions.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of reusable code when it makes sense.  These are in the few cases where you are designing something that is inherently reusable.  The problem is, most business-class code is inherently unfit for reuse! Furthermore, the code that is reusable will often fail to be reused if you don’t have the proper framework in place for effective reuse that includes standardized versioning, building, releasing, and documenting the components.  That should always be standard across the board when promoting reusable code.  All of this is hard, and it should only be done when you have code that is truly reusable or you will be exerting a large amount of development effort for very little bang for your buck. But my goal here is not to get into how to reuse (that is a topic unto itself) but what should be reused.  First, let’s look at an extension method.  There’s many times where I want to kick off a thread to handle a task, then when I want to reign that thread in of course I want to do a Join on it.  But what if I only want to wait a limited amount of time and then Abort?  Well, I could of course write that logic out by hand each time, but it seemed like a great extension method: 1: public static class ThreadExtensions 2: { 3: public static bool JoinOrAbort(this Thread thread, TimeSpan timeToWait) 4: { 5: bool isJoined = false; 6:  7: if (thread != null) 8: { 9: isJoined = thread.Join(timeToWait); 10:  11: if (!isJoined) 12: { 13: thread.Abort(); 14: } 15: } 16: return isJoined; 17: } 18: } 19:  When I look at this code, I can immediately see things that jump out at me as reasons why this code is very reusable.  Some of them are standard OO principles, and some are kind-of home grown litmus tests: Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) – The only reason this extension method need change is if the Thread class itself changes (one responsibility). Stable Dependencies Principle (SDP) – This method only depends on classes that are more stable than it is (System.Threading.Thread), and in itself is very stable, hence other classes may safely depend on it. It is also not dependent on any business domain, and thus isn't subject to changes as the business itself changes. Open-Closed Principle (OCP) – This class is inherently closed to change. Small and Stable Problem Domain – This method only cares about System.Threading.Thread. All-or-None Usage – A user of a reusable class should want the functionality of that class, not parts of that functionality.  That’s not to say they most use every method, but they shouldn’t be using a method just to get half of its result. Cost of Reuse vs. Cost to Recreate – since this class is highly stable and minimally complex, we can offer it up for reuse very cheaply by promoting it as “ready-to-go” and already unit tested (important!) and available through a standard release cycle (very important!). Okay, all seems good there, now lets look at an entity and DAO.  I don’t know about you all, but there have been times I’ve been in organizations that get the grand idea that all DAOs and entities should be standardized and shared.  While this may work for small or static organizations, it’s near ludicrous for anything large or volatile. 1: namespace Shared.Entities 2: { 3: public class Account 4: { 5: public int Id { get; set; } 6:  7: public string Name { get; set; } 8:  9: public Address HomeAddress { get; set; } 10:  11: public int Age { get; set;} 12:  13: public DateTime LastUsed { get; set; } 14:  15: // etc, etc, etc... 16: } 17: } 18:  19: ... 20:  21: namespace Shared.DataAccess 22: { 23: public class AccountDao 24: { 25: public Account FindAccount(int id) 26: { 27: // dao logic to query and return account 28: } 29:  30: ... 31:  32: } 33: } Now to be fair, I’m not saying there doesn’t exist an organization where some entites may be extremely static and unchanging.  But at best such entities and DAOs will be problematic cases of reuse.  Let’s examine those same tests: Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) – The reasons to change for these classes will be strongly dependent on what the definition of the account is which can change over time and may have multiple influences depending on the number of systems an account can cover. Stable Dependencies Principle (SDP) – This method depends on the data model beneath itself which also is largely dependent on the business definition of an account which can be very inherently unstable. Open-Closed Principle (OCP) – This class is not really closed for modification.  Every time the account definition may change, you’d need to modify this class. Small and Stable Problem Domain – The definition of an account is inherently unstable and in fact may be very large.  What if you are designing a system that aggregates account information from several sources? All-or-None Usage – What if your view of the account encompasses data from 3 different sources but you only care about one of those sources or one piece of data?  Should you have to take the hit of looking up all the other data?  On the other hand, should you have ten different methods returning portions of data in chunks people tend to ask for?  Neither is really a great solution. Cost of Reuse vs. Cost to Recreate – DAOs are really trivial to rewrite, and unless your definition of an account is EXTREMELY stable, the cost to promote, support, and release a reusable account entity and DAO are usually far higher than the cost to recreate as needed. It’s no accident that my case for reuse was a utility class and my case for non-reuse was an entity/DAO.  In general, the smaller and more stable an abstraction is, the higher its level of reuse.  When I became the lead of the Shared Components Committee at my workplace, one of the original goals we looked at satisfying was to find (or create), version, release, and promote a shared library of common utility classes, frameworks, and data access objects.  Now, of course, many of you will point to nHibernate and Entity for the latter, but we were looking at larger, macro collections of data that span multiple data sources of varying types (databases, web services, etc). As we got deeper and deeper in the details of how to manage and release these items, it quickly became apparent that while the case for reuse was typically a slam dunk for utilities and frameworks, the data access objects just didn’t “smell” right.  We ended up having session after session of design meetings to try and find the right way to share these data access components. When someone asked me why it was taking so long to iron out the shared entities, my response was quite simple, “Reuse is hard...”  And that’s when I realized, that while reuse is an awesome goal and we should strive to make code maintainable, often times you end up creating far more work for yourself than necessary by trying to force code to be reusable that inherently isn’t. Think about classes the times you’ve worked in a company where in the design session people fight over the best way to implement a class to make it maximally reusable, extensible, and any other buzzwordable.  Then think about how quickly that design became obsolete.  Many times I set out to do a project and think, “yes, this is the best design, I can extend it easily!” only to find out the business requirements change COMPLETELY in such a way that the design is rendered invalid.  Code, in general, tends to rust and age over time.  As such, writing reusable code can often be difficult and many times ends up being a futile exercise and worse yet, sometimes makes the code harder to maintain because it obfuscates the design in the name of extensibility or reusability. So what do I think are reusable components? Generic Utility classes – these tend to be small classes that assist in a task and have no business context whatsoever. Implementation Abstraction Frameworks – home-grown frameworks that try to isolate changes to third party products you may be depending on (like writing a messaging abstraction layer for publishing/subscribing that is independent of whether you use JMS, MSMQ, etc). Simplification and Uniformity Frameworks – To some extent this is similar to an abstraction framework, but there may be one chosen provider but a development shop mandate to perform certain complex items in a certain way.  Or, perhaps to simplify and dumb-down a complex task for the average developer (such as implementing a particular development-shop’s method of encryption). And what are less reusable? Application and Business Layers – tend to fluctuate a lot as requirements change and new features are added, so tend to be an unstable dependency.  May be reused across applications but also very volatile. Entities and Data Access Layers – these tend to be tuned to the scope of the application, so reusing them can be hard unless the abstract is very stable. So what’s the big lesson?  Reuse is hard.  In fact it’s damn hard.  And much of the time I’m not convinced we should focus too hard on it. If you’re designing a utility or framework, then by all means design it for reuse.  But you most also really set down a good versioning, release, and documentation process to maximize your chances.  For anything else, design it to be maintainable and extendable, but don’t waste the effort on reusability for something that most likely will be obsolete in a year or two anyway.

  Read the article

• Insufficient permissions within Eclipse when installed via synaptic in Ubuntu 12.04

  - by Clayton

  I installed Eclipse via the Synaptic Package Manager on Ubuntu 12.04 Desktop (more details on footer). However, from within Eclipse, I lack sufficient permissions to perform upgrades on my package and add-ons. I'm a recovering Windows user, and while I have a couple of years Ubuntu experience, I am unfamiliar with the command-line and mainly interact through the packaged GUI. Specifically, I am trying to install the upgrade for Eclipse CVS Clientorg.eclipse.cvs.feature.group1.3.100.v20110520-0800-7B78FHl9VF7BD7KBM4GP9C I am tracking the varying installation advice on a similar question eclipse install: Gaurav Butola Basically, the most current upgrades are available directly from eclipse?... But at some point I remember reading that the latest version of eclipse had been designed for the previous LTS of Ubuntu - I don't know if that is still true. I have read about the vulnerabilities of Java 6, and so I have gone with Open Java 7 openjdk-amd64 (if that has any relevance to which Eclipse package and installation method I choose). But I'm not crazy about the idea of creating a gksudo link in the sidebar launcher. I don't know enough about chown to use it - if that's even appropriate (I don't want stray java escaping from Eclipse and connecting to SkyNet). Another possible solution that I foresee is modifying my user's group memberships/privileges on the file system as a whole. The only other information that I think might be relevant is that I notice that Synaptic installed all of the files into /usr/ instead of /opt/ like I have seen recommended. So should I be changing ownership, reinstalling using a non-Synaptic method, or what? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Ubuntu information Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Memory 2.9 GiB Processor AMD Sempron(tm) Processor LE-1300 Graphics VESA: XXXXXXX OS type 64-bit Eclipse Version: 3.7.2 Build id: I20110613-1736 Ubuntu Developers :/usr/share$ ls -h -l drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4.0K Sep 13 08:43 eclipse Install paths: /. /usr /usr/share ...

  Read the article

• Netretail's online retail operation benefits from personal contact

  - by christopher.jones

  Hot on oracle.com is a snapshot of Netretail Holding B.V. profiling their use of PHP and Oracle technology such as Oracle RAC cluster database to become a leading online retailer across Central and Eastern Europe. We've also just refreshed our key PHP Scalability and High Availability whitepaper which talks about connection pooling (DRCP) and Fast Application Notification (FAN). We brought it up to date for 11gR2 and PHP 5.3. It now includes the new 11gR2 V$CPOOL_CONN_INFO view, the new columns for DBA_CPOOL_INFO, information about LOGOFF triggers, and information about the support for Client Result Caching with DRCP. Back to Netretail. Two of their secrets to success are keeping technically up to date, and networking. That is, networking in the business sense. I had the pleasure of meeting Michal Táborský (@whizz), the Chief System Architect, when he was in California for a Velocity conference. Michal took time to visit Oracle HQ and talk with our developers about his then current architecture and future needs. I also met his manager at last year's Oracle OpenWorld conference. Having built up a relationship with us, Netretail now has access to Oracle Development staff. While this will never bypass Oracle Support (which have tools, systems etc that are needed and useful for resolving issues), it makes communication easier for some classes of questions. It helps discussions that will let us improve Oracle products, and make Netretail stronger. I like this. And there's no reason why you can't talk with us too. You know where to email me.

  Read the article

• Almost at our first year anniversary!

  - by Vizioz Limited

  It has been a hectic first year at Vizioz and things are still going from strength to strength. 11 months ago I started Vizioz with zero capital investment in the middle of a recession, which to some may seem a daunting prospect but to others including myself it was the challenge I needed to make me want to get up in the morning :) I wanted to prove that even in the curent financial climate it is still possible to start a new business.We are still experiencing the normal growing pains of a small business but this is something we just need to work our way through, it is amazing how much paperwork and administration there is running a small business, office admin, insurance, vat and for the last few months PAYE.For the last 9 months we have shared an office with another small business called Little Big Ideas. They are a design agency working across a broad spectrum of design from branding, print and digital. Last month we decided to move offices to a larger office and now have room for 8 of us, so now we need a couple more clients to help produce enough work to fill the space and grow to the next level.As well as moving office 2 months ago I blogged about my first employee Colin starting work for me, he has picked up Umbraco very well and has mastered the art of good CSS design, as the majority of our clients are large multi-nationals they still require support for IE6 which as all web developers know is the nightmare of all web browsers.This month has seen the next step in the growth of Vizioz as I have taken on another PhD graduate called Pricilla, welcome to the team!This month we plan to launch our own website to enable us to showcase some of the sites we have built over the past 11 months and to allow potential clients to see what we can offer. We might still be relatively small but we have some great case studies to show and with two PhD graduates on the team we have great talent capable of producing complex and innovative solutions for our clients. As soon as we have launched out new website I will blog again about what the future holds for Vizioz and what we can offer our prospective clients as well as e obvious Umbraco CMS solutions.

  Read the article

• Is my first employer expecting too much?

  - by priyank patel

  This is my first job as a programmer. I am working using the followig technologies: ASP.NET C# HTML CSS Javascript JQuery I work for a firm which develops software for small banking firms. Currently they have their software running in 100 firms. Their software is developed in Visual Fox Pro. I was hired to develop an online version of this software. I am the only developer. My boss is another developer, the only other developer in the firm. Therefore, my employer has a total of two developers. My boss does not have any experience with .NET development. I have been working on this project for 8 months. The progress is there, but has been very slow. I try my best to do what my boss asks. But the project just seems too ambitious for me. The company has not done have any planning for the project. They just ask me to develop what their older software provides. So I have to deal with front end, back end, review code, design architecture, and more. I have decided to give my best. I try a lot. But the project sometimes just seems to be overwhelming. Question: Is it normal for a beginner programmer to be in this place? Are my employers just expecting too much of a new programmer? As a programmer, am I lacking skills one needs to deal with this? I always feel the need to work in at least a small team, if not big one. I am just not able judge my condition. Also I am paid very low salary. I do work on Saturday as well. Please, help to clarify my judgment. Any suggestions are welcome.

  Read the article

• Formatting minified jQuery, JavaScript using the Internet Explorer 9 Developer Toolbar

  - by Harish Ranganathan

  Much has been talked about the F12 developer toolbar in IE and the support it provides for web developers.  Starting IE8, the Developer Toolbar is a menu item that helps you view the page source, scripts, profiling and many other details of the rendered page.  It even allows script debugging from within and that makes it a truly powerful web developer tool bar. With IE9, the developer toolbar got even better with the Networking Tab that allows you to inspect the traffic/time taken and drill down into the Request/Response headers and other specifics. The script tab allows you to view the scripts used in the page. One of the challenges of working with JavaScript / jQuery when they are minified, is that, it becomes really hard to read.  Minified JavaScript is a compression technique and also a best practice for delivering faster web pages.  However, when you would like to debug, minified JavaScript files become very hard since they aren't properly formatted.  Take the case of the above sample, which is a basic MVC 3 Web Application.  It uses the minified jQuery and modernizr files. Once we select the above scripts, the script source looks as follows:- But with the “Format JavaScript” option in the Configuration icon, Once you click on the “Format JavaScript”, you can see the formatted JavaScript as per screen below:- This makes the script readable and also easy for debugging.  Cheers !!!

  Read the article

• Podcast Show Notes: The Big Deal About Big Data

  - by Bob Rhubart

  This week the OTN ArchBeat kicks off a three-part series that looks at Big Data: what it is, its affect on enterprise IT, and what architects need to do to stay ahead of the big data curve. My guests for this conversation are Jean-Pierre Dijks and Andrew Bond . Jean-Pierre, based at Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores, CA, is product manager for Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle's big data strategy. Andrew Bond  is Head of Transformation Architecture for Oracle, where he specialzes in Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, and Big Data. Andrew is based in the UK, but for this conversation he dialed in from a car somewhere on the streets of Amsterdam. Listen to Part 1What is Big Data, really, and why does it matter? Listen to Part 2 (Oct 10)What new challenges does Big Data present for Architects? What do architects need to do to prepare themselves and their environments? Listen to Part 3 (Oct 17)Who is driving the adoption of Big Data strategies in organizations, and why? Additional Resources http://blogs.oracle.com/datawarehousing http://www.facebook.com/pages/OracleBigData https://twitter.com/#!/OracleBigData Coming Soon A conversation about how the rapidly evolving enterprise IT landscape is transforming the roles, responsibilities, and skill requirements for architects and developers. Stay tuned: RSS

  Read the article

• Will HTML5/JS Eventually Replace All Client Side Languages? [closed]

  - by Shnitzel

  I'm just wondering about the future of it all. IMHO, there are 4 forces that define where technology goes: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Adobe. It looks like in Apple's iPhone/iPad iADs can now be programmed in HTML5. So does that mean HTML5 will eventually replace objective-c? Also, Microsoft has now shifted it's focus from WPF/Silverlight to HTML5 and I assume Visual Studio 2011 will be all about tooling support for HTML5. Because that's what Microsoft do. (Tools). In a few months IE9 the last major browser will support HTML5. Similarly Adobe is getting on the HTML5 bandwagon and allows to export flash content to HTML5 in their latest tools. And we all know how much in bed Google is with html5. Heck, their latest Operating System (Chrome OS) is nothing but a big fat web browser. Apps for Mobile (i.e., iPhone, Android, WM7) are very hard for a company to program especially for many different devices (each with their own language) so I'm assuming this won't last too long. I.e., HTML5 will be the unifying language. Which is somewhat sad for app developers because now users will be able to play the "cool" html5 apps for free on the web and it'll be hard to charge for them. So are strongly-typed languages really doomed, and in the future, say 5-10 years, will client side programming only be in HTML5? Will all of us become javascript programmers? :) Because the signs are sure pointing that way...

  Read the article

• Microsoft Sponsored - Give Camp

  - by Ken Lovely, MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS

  Are you ready to connect with the local tech community for a good cause? GiveCamp needs your support. For one weekend in June, we’ll take on the technology wish lists of 20 non-profit organizations, and we’re looking for about 100 volunteers, both technical and non-technical, to help us do it. A typical GiveCamp draws 75 to 100 volunteers. Individuals can work with their colleagues in company teams, or they can opt to be matched with fellow volunteers who have complementary skill sets. Everyone is welcome to head home for the evenings – but there are always the diehards who work from Friday kickoff straight through Sunday afternoon. Food and drinks, especially of the caffeinated variety, are provided, along with game systems for breaks. Technical volunteers We're looking for graphic or UX designers, developers with .NET/Java/LAMP/Open Source/CMS experience, project managers, system/network administrators, DBAs, and non-profit technical consultants and web strategists. Non-technical volunteers Beyond the technology, there are many other aspects that make GiveCamp a success. We need non-technical volunteers to run errands, help with setting up and cleaning up, and everything in between. Whether you can offer a couple hours of your time or join GiveCamp for a couple days, your support is needed Sign up at; http://www.eventbrite.com/event/650615007 Feel free to contact me or Dani Diaz of Microsoft for more information

  Read the article

• Creating reproducible builds to verify Free Software

  - by mikkykkat

  Free Software is about freedom and privacy, Open Source software is great but making that fully practical usually won't happen. Most Free Software developers publicize binaries that we can't verify are really compiled from the source code or have something bad injected already! We have the freedom to change the code, but privacy for ordinary users is missing. For desktop software there is a lot of languages and opportunities to create Free Software with a reproducible build process (compiling source code to always produce the exact same binary), but for mobile computing I don't know if same thing is possible or not? Mobile devices are probably the future of computing and Android is the only Open Source environment so far which accept Java for coding. Compiling same Android application won't result in the exact same binary every time. For Open Source Android apps how we can verify the produced binary (.apk) is really compiled from the source code? Is there any way to create reproducible builds from the Android SDK or does Java fail here for Free Software? is there any java software ever wrote with a reproducible build?

  Read the article

• Webcast: June 29th at 11am Eastern - Optimize ePermitting Reviews & Approvals with AutoVue

  - by Warren Baird

  I'm pleased to announce that the Enterprise Visualization special interest group (SIG) is organizing it's first webcast on June 29th - Palm Beach County is going to present how they use AutoVue as part of their e-permitting processes.  This is a must-see for anyone in the Public Sector, but even for people who aren't in the Public Sector, it should be very interesting to see how Palm Beach County has tied AutoVue tightly into their business processes.If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest joining up for our SIG at http://groups.google.com/group/enterprise_visualization_sig.The registration link for the webcast is: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/565294190 - more details are below:The Enterprise Visualization Special Interest Group (EVSIG) is proud to present the first in a series of webcasts designed to educate the AutoVue user community on innovative and compelling AutoVue solutions.  Attend the Webcast and discover how AutoVue can make building permit application and approval processes more efficient.Presenters:Oracle: Warren Baird, Principal Product Manager, AutoVue Enterprise VisualizationPalm Beach County: Paul Murphy, Systems IntegratorLaura Yonkers, Permit Section SupervisorChuck Lemon, Project Business AnalystAbstract:In their efforts to deliver better services to citizens, save money and “think green”, many cities, states and local governments have implemented online e-permitting processes that allow developers and citizens to apply for and receive building permits via the Web.Attend this webcast and discover how AutoVue visualization solutions enhance ePermitting processes by streamlining the review and approval of digital permit applications.  Hear from Palm Beach County about how they leveraging AutoVue within their ePermitting system to:·         provide structure to the land development review and approval process·         accelerate and improve efficiency throughout the permitting process·         decrease permit review times·         increase the level of transparency during the permit application and review process·         improve accountability in the organization·         improve citizen services by providing 24-7 ability to submit and track applicationsSign up for the Enterprise Visualization SIG to learn about future AutoVue Webcasts. Register today at http://groups.google.com/group/enterprise_visualization_sig and become a part of our growing online user community. We look forward to seeing you on the 29th of June.

  Read the article

• CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 19, 2014

  CodePlex Daily Summary for Monday, May 19, 2014Popular ReleasesLINQ to Twitter: LINQ to Twitter v3.0.3: Supports .NET 4.5x, Windows Phone 8.x, Windows 8.x, Windows Azure, Xamarin.Android, and Xamarin.iOS. New features include Status/Lookup, Mute APIs, and bug fixes. 100% Twitter API v1.1 coverage, Async, Portable Class Library (PCL).CS-Script for Notepad++ (C# intellisense and code execution): Release v1.0.26.0: Added access to the Release Notes during 'Check for Updates...'' Debug panels Added support for generic types members Members are grouped into 'Raw View' and 'Non-Public members' categories Implemented dedicated (array-like) view for Lists and Dictionaries http://download-codeplex.sec.s-msft.com/Download?ProjectName=csscriptnpp&DownloadId=846498ClosedXML - The easy way to OpenXML: ClosedXML 0.70.0: A lot of fixes. See history.SFDL.NET: SFDL.NET (2.2.9.2): Changelog: Neues Icon Xup.in CnL Plugin BugfixSEToolbox: SEToolbox 01.030.008 Release 1: Fixed cube editor failing to apply color to cubes. Added to cube editor, replace cube dialog, and Build Percent dialog. Corrected for hidden asteroid ore, allowing rare ore to show when importing an asteroid, or converting a 3d model to an asteroid (still appears to be limitations on rare ore in small asteroids). Allowed ore selection to Asteroid file import. (Can copy/import and convert existing asteroid to another ore). Added progress bars to common long running operations. Fixed ...Better Robocopy GUI: Command Line GUI for Robocopy: Better Robocopy GUI had become the primary plugin in Command Line GUI built on .NET 4Mini SQL Query: Mini SQL Query (1.0.71.456): Minor fixes and template corrections.HMS_TEST: ??1: ?? ???????TFS Planning and Disaster Recovery Avoidance Guide: v1.4.BETA - TFS, DR and Azure IaaS Planning Guides: Welcome to the TFS Planning and DR Avoidance Guidance What is new? A new crisper, more compact style, which is easier to consume on multiple devices without sacrificing any content. Also included are the new TFS on Azure IaaS guide and supplementary guides. Note Capacity planning workbook and posters are included in the Everything Zip package. Quality-Bar Detail Documentation has been reviewed by Visual Studio ALM Rangers Documentation has been through an independent technical review ...CRM Web API Lead Capture Example: CRM Web API Lead Capture Example: Sample Visual Studio 2013 project that provides an example of how you could use Web API and Microsoft Azure (could be deployed anywhere) to capture simple HTML form data into Dynamics CRM without directly having to integrate a .NET component.MB Tools: MDT Monitor Tool v1.4: This tool is used to connect to an MDT 2013 Monitor Webservice. The purpose is to provide an alternative to the MDT Deployment Workbench. Update: New in v1.4: Fixed bug where Dart Remote Viewer didnt work Option to show client local time instead of UTC, edit config.xml to enable/disable New in v1.2: Fixed Dart Remote Viewer not connection to full ip Issue: 1222 New in v1.1: Added timers for autorefresh of webservice info Added some better errorchecking and cleaned up the code a bit ...Bob The Simple Text Game: Bob The Simple Text Game: Bob The Simple Text GameWinAudit: WinAudit Freeware v3.0: WinAudit.exe v3.0 MD5: 88750CCF49FF7418199B2645755830FA Known Issues: 1. Report creation can be very slow when right-to-left (Hebrew) characters are present. 2. Emsisoft Anti-Malware may stop and/or quarantine WinAudit. This happens when WinAudit attempts to obtain a list if running programmes. You will need to set an exception rule in Emsisoft to allow WinAudit to run.crashme: crashme source tarball 2.7: Updated for 64-bit Linux environments with a system call to change the default no-execute-data protection. This tarball is equivalent to committed source revision 108727LUA for Windows CE: LUA 5.2.3 for Windows CE 5.0 (ARMV4I): LUA for Windows CE This is a preliminary porting of the latest LUA release (5.2.3) to the Windows CE platform. Command-line compiler, interpreter, dynamic-link-library, and import-library (both static and dynamic stubs) are provided as a binary release. In this release, the Windows CE compatibility CRT static library has been added, in order to embed statically the LUA interpreter. Moreover, the include files are present in the distribution archive, too.Jquery Dirty Flag: Beta Version 1.0: Simple Way to Manage Dirty Flag @ Client SideProView: ProView-2: Added a new short-cut key: Ctrl+D copies the value from the above cell to the current cell. The key combination Shift+NumPadMinus makes an underscore character Fixed a bug during renaming that displayed the message "The file is in use by another process" The spread sheet can now be customized with a highlighting row color for the currently displayed image.TerraMap (Terraria World Map Viewer): TerraMap 1.0.4: Added support for the new Terraria v1.2.4 update. New items, walls, and tiles Fixed Issue 35206: Hightlight/Find doesn't work for Demon Altars Fixed finding Demon Hearts/Shadow Orbs Added ability to find Enchanted Swords (in the stone) and Water Bolt books Fixed installer not uninstalling older versions The setup file will make sure .NET 4 is installed, install TerraMap, create desktop and start menu shortcuts, add a .wld file association, and launch TerraMap. If you prefer the zip ...WPF Localization Extension: v2.2.1: Issue #9277 Issue #9292 Issue #9311 Issue #9312 Issue #9313 Issue #9314CtrlAltStudio Viewer: CtrlAltStudio Viewer 1.2.1.41167 Release: This release of the CtrlAltStudio Viewer includes the following significant features: Oculus Rift support. Stereoscopic 3D display support. Variable walking / flying speed. Xbox 360 Controller support. Kinect for Windows support. Based on Firestorm viewer 4.6.5 codebase. For more details, see the release notes linked to below. Release notes: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/release-notes/1-2-1-41167-release Support info: http://ctrlaltstudio.com/viewer/support Privacy policy: http:/...New Projects.NET Development Library: .NET Development LibraryBizTalk Flow Visualizer: This tool has been designed to help BizTalk developers and administrators visualize the flow of messages through their implementation of BizTalk Server.BlackSwan: Provides tools for value investingCamel Case Parser: Simple method with unit tests for splitting an up or down camel cased word into the words that comprise it.eukota_sandbox: really just a repository for practicing with some students i mentor.Hyperlapse: Software repository for Hyperlapse, a Universal Store App for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, National Level entry in code.fun.do hackathon by Microsoft.Informiamoci Partecipando: Progetto presentato al #code4italyKipLink: MVC5 Web Api 2 EF DB First Oracle 11g Custom MembershipMatAcademyPlayground: MatAcademy 2014 playgroundOgCRM: Proyecto OgCRMPowerSYDI: This is an re-engineering of SYDI vbscript created by Patrick Ogenstad in PowerShell. SharpLightReporting: SharpLightReporting is a reporting system for .Net developers, based on open source SpreadsheetLight excel/spreadsheet automation system. T4 Template to pre-generate views for Entity Framework 5.0, .NET 4.5: T4 Template to pre-generate views for Entity Framework 6.0, .NET 4.5Task Board: Simple TaskboardWentex OS: Wentex das kostenfrei Betriebssystem für alleWinldTunnel - VIPBrowserProject: NoneWintcy: Wintcy's only function is to disable taskbar transparency that Microsoft for some reason has left in Windows 8.????????-????????【??】????????????: ????????????????????????,??????????,????,????,?????????、??????,??????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????,?????????????? ??。????????、????、????、?????????? ???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????????????????:????、????、??????????????,????????。????????! ??????-【??】??????????: ???????????????????,????,????,????,???????,?????,?????.??????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????????????????:???????,??????,????,????,????,?????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????,??,??,??,??? ?,??,,??,??,??,??,??,??,????????,??????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????,?????????????。????????????,???????,???????,?????,?????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??????? ?????，????????????????. ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????、????、????、??????、????、????????,????????、?????????,?????。 ???????-???????【??】???????????: ?????????????????????,??????????,????????、????,??????????,??????????。 ???????-???????【??】???????????: ???????????????????、????,??100%????,??????,????????????,???????????! ???????-???????【??】???????????: ?????????,??????:?????,?????,??????,??????????,????????。????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????【.????.????.????.????.】??【??】:、??、??、??、??、??、??、??、??、??、??、?????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????,????,??.??.??.??.??.??.??.???，????，???????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????、????、??????、????????,????????????,???????????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????,???????????????。???????????,??????:????、????、???????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????????,????,????,??????????。???????????????,??,??,??????????,??????... ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????,?????????????,????,?????????,?????????????,?????,?????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????，???????、???????????，????????、????、????、??????、????????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????、?????,????????????????????,????,????,??????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????:??????、????、????、????、????、??????、??????，???????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??????? ?????，????????????????. ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????????:?????? ???? ??????,???????,??????,???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????,????,??????????? ???? ???? ?????????,???,??,?????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????,????,????,??????,????“????、????、????、????”????????,??????. ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????、????、????、??????、????、????????,????????、?????????,?????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????,?????????????。????????????,???????,???????,?????,?????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????????????????、????、????、???????????,????,????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????6?,???????????????????????????,??????????????,?????????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????8?，????????,????????,??????????,?????,????? ,????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????,??????????????、???????、???????、???????、?????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????????????,???????????,????????,?????????????????????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????????,????????????????,????????????????,??????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????,????,??????????? ???? ???? ?????????,???,??,?????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????????????????????,???????????????????????,???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????:?????? ???? ??????,???????,??????,???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????、???、??、??????????????????????????????,????????????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????????,????????:??、??、???,?????????????????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????,?????,???????????,???????,????,????,????,?????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????????,????,???????、???????????,???????????,????,?????,???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????,???????????,??????????????,??????????，??????????????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????,?????????????? ??。??????????、????、????、?????????? ???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????,??????????、??????,??????????、????、????、???????。 ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????、??????????????????,????????,?????,??????,????,????,????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????????,????????,??????????,?????,????? ,????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????,????????,?????,???,???????????,???????????,?????,??????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????,??????????????????????,???????????????,?????????????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ?????????????????????，?????????/?,,???????????,??????????????! ??????-??????【??】??????????: ????????????????,?????????、??、??、????,??????????,?????????????！ ??????-??????【??】??????????: ???????????、????、????、??????????,???,?????,???????????????. ??????-??????【??】??????????: ??????????????????????,?????, ... ????????????,????,????,?????,???????。

  Read the article

• A better way to encourage contributions to OSS

  - by Daniel Cazzulino

  Currently in the .NET world, most OSS projects are available via a NuGet package. Users have a very easy path towards *using* the project right away. But let’s say they encounter some isssue (maybe a bug, maybe a potential improvement) with the library. At this point, going from user to contributor (of a fix, or a good bug repro or even a spike for a new feature) is a very steep and non trivial multi-step process of registering with some open source hosting site (codeplex, github, bitbucket, etc.), learning how to grab the latest sources, build the project, formulate a patch (or fork the code), learn the source control software they use (mercurial, git, svn, tfs), install whatever tools are needed for it, read about the contributors workflow for the project (do you fork &amp; send pull requests? do you just send a patch file? do you just send a snippet? a unit test? etc.), and on, and on, and on. Granted, you may be lucky and already know the source control system the project uses, but in really, I’d say the chances are pretty low. I believe most developers *using* OSS are far from familiar with them, much less with contributing back to various projects. We OSS devs like to be on the cutting edge all the time, ya’ know, always jumping on the new SCC system, the new hosting site, the new agile way of managing work items, bug tracking, code reviews, etc. etc. etc.. But most of our OSS users are largely the “... Read full article

  Read the article

• Recommended: IntelliCommand for Visual Studio 2010/2012

  - by WeigeltRo

  The Morning Brew is a great news source for developers for many years now. In its most recent post it mentioned an extension for Visual Studio 2010 and 2012 called IntelliCommand that implements something that I had wanted for quite some time: Some kind of dynamic help for hotkeys. IntelliCommand shows a popup when you press and hold Ctrl, Shift or Alt (or combinations thereof) for a configurable amount of time, or after you press the first key combination of a chord shortcut key (e.g. Ctrl-E) and wait for an (independently configurable) amount of time. In the following screenshot I pressed and released Ctrl-E, and after a short delay the popup appeared: The extension is available in the Visual Studio Gallery, so finding, downloading and installing it via the Extension Manager is extremely simple: The default delays (2000 / 1600 milliseconds) are a bit long for my liking, but this can be changed in Tools – Options: So far things are working great on my machine. Some known issues do seem to exist, though (e.g. that the extension doesn’t work on non-EN versions of Visual Studio). See the author’s comments in the announcement blog post and in the Visual Studio Gallery for more information.

  Read the article

• SQL – Difference Between INNER JOIN and JOIN

  - by Pinal Dave

  Here is the follow up question to my earlier question SQL – Difference between != and Operator <> used for NOT EQUAL TO Operation. There was a pretty good discussion about this subject earlier and lots of people participated with their opinion. Though the answer was very simple but the conversation was indeed delightful and was indeed very informative. In this blog post I have another following up question to all of you. What is the difference between INNER JOIN and JOIN? If you are working with database you will find developers use above both the kinds of the joins in their SQL Queries. Here is the quick example of the same. Query using INNER JOIN SELECT * FROM Table1 INNER JOIN  Table2 ON Table1.Col1 = Table2.Col1 Query using JOIN SELECT * FROM Table1 JOIN  Table2 ON Table1.Col1 = Table2.Col1 The question is what is the difference between above two syntax. Here is the answer – They are equal to each other. There is absolutely no difference between them. They are equal in performance as well as implementation. JOIN is actually shorter version of INNER JOIN. Personally I prefer to write INNER JOIN because it is much cleaner to read and it avoids any confusion if there is related to JOIN. For example if users had written INNER JOIN instead of JOIN there would have been no confusion in mind and hence there was no need to have original question. Here is the question back to you - Which one of the following syntax do you use when you are inner joining two tables – INNER JOIN or JOIN? and Why? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Joins, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

  Read the article

• CQRS without using others patterns

  - by John Smith

  I would like to explain CQRS to my team of developers. I just can't figure out how to explain it in the simplest way so they can implement the pattern rapidly without any others frameworks. I've read a lot of resources including video and articles but I don't find how to implement CQRS without using others patterns like a service Bus, event sourcing pattern, domain driven design. I know the purpose of these pattern but for the first step, I don't want them to think CQRS and theses patterns must be tied together. My first idea is to say that CQRS is about separating the read part and the write part. The read part is composed only of the UI project, and DAL project. Then the write part is composed of a typical multilayer architecture: UI/BLL/DAL. Then, does CQRS say we must also have two datastore ? What about the notion of commands which reveal the user's intention, is it also something part of CQRS or DDD ? Basically, how to implement CQRS without using others patterns. I concede it's also not that clear in my mind because I've used to work with NCQRS/DDD/Event Sourcing/ServiceBus in my personal project. Thanks

  Read the article

• How can dev teams prevent slow performance in consumer apps?

  - by Crashworks

  When I previously asked what's responsible for slow software, a few answers I've received suggested it was a social and management problem: This isn't a technical problem, it's a marketing and management problem.... Utimately, the product mangers are responsible to write the specs for what the user is supposed to get. Lots of things can go wrong: The product manager fails to put button response in the spec ... The QA folks do a mediocre job of testing against the spec ... if the product management and QA staff are all asleep at the wheel, we programmers can't make up for that. —Bob Murphy People work on good-size apps. As they work, performance problems creep in, just like bugs. The difference is - bugs are "bad" - they cry out "find me, and fix me". Performance problems just sit there and get worse. Programmers often think "Well, my code wouldn't have a performance problem. Rather, management needs to buy me a newer/bigger/faster machine." The fact is, if developers periodically just hunt for performance problems (which is actually very easy) they could simply clean them out. —Mike Dunlavey So, if this is a social problem, what social mechanisms can an organization put into place to avoid shipping slow software to its customers?

  Read the article

• TechEd Europe early bird saving &ndash; register by 5th July

  - by Eric Nelson

  Another event advert alert :-) But this one comes with a cautious warning. I spoke at TechEd Europe last year. I found TechEd to be a huge, extremely well run conference filled with great speakers and passionate attendees in a top notch venue and fascinating city. As an “IT Pro” I think it is the premiere conference for Microsoft technologies in Europe. However, IMHO and those of others I trust, I didn’t think it hit the mark for developers in 2009. There was a fairly obvious reason – the PDC was scheduled to take place only a couple of weeks later which meant the “powder was being kept dry” and (IMHO) some of the best speakers on developer technologies were elsewhere. But I’m reasonably certain that this won’t be repeated this year (Err… Have I missed an announcement about “no pdc in 2010”?) Enjoy: Register for Tech·Ed Europe by 5 July and Save €500 Tech·Ed Europe returns to Berlin this November 8 – 12, for a full week of deep technical education, hands-on-learning and opportunities to connect with Microsoft and Community experts one-on-one.  Register by 5 July and receive your conference pass for only €1,395 – a €500 savings. Arrive Early and Get a Jumpstart on Technical Sessions Choose from 8 pre-conference seminars led by Microsoft and industry experts, and selected to give you a jumpstart on technical learning.  Additional fees apply.  Conference attendees receive a €100 discount.   Join the Tech·Ed Europe Email List for Event Updates Get the latest event news before the event, and find out more about what’s happening onsite.  Join the Tech·Ed Europe email list today!

  Read the article

• Windows 8&ndash;Custom WinRT components and WinJS

  - by Jonas Bush

  Wow, I’m still alive! I installed the RTM of Windows 8 when it became available, and in the last few days have started taking a look at writing a windows 8 app using HTML/JS, which in and of itself is a weird thing. I don’t think that windows developers of 10 years ago would’ve thought something like this would have ever come about. As I was working on this, I ran across a problem, found the solution, and thought I’d blog about it to try and kick start me back into blogging. I already answered my own question on Stack Overflow, but will explain here. I needed to create a custom WinRT component to do some stuff that I either wouldn’t be able to or didn’t know how to do with the javascript libraries available to me. I had a javascript class defined like this: WinJS.Namespace.define("MyApp", { MyClass: WinJS.Class.define(function() { //constructor function }, { /*instance members*/ }, { /*static members*/ }) }); This gives me an object I can access in javascript: var foo = new MyApp.MyClass(); I created my WinRT component like this: namespace MyApp { public sealed class SomeClass { public int SomeMethod() { return 42; } } }   With the thought that from my javascript, I’d be able to do this: var foo = new MyApp.MyClass(); var bar = new MyApp.SomeClass(); //from WinRT component foo.SomeProperty = bar.SomeMethod();   When I tried this, I got the following error when trying to construct MyApp.MyClass (the object defined in Javascript) 0x800a01bd - Javascript runtime error: Object doesn't support this action. I puzzled for a bit, then noticed while debugging that my “MyApp” namespace didn’t have anything in it other than the WinRT component. I changed my WinRT component to this: namespace MyAppUtils { public sealed class SomeClass { //etc } } And after this, everything was fine. So, lesson learned: If you’re using Javascript and create a custom WinRT component, make sure that the WinRT component is in a namespace all its own. Not sure why this happens, and if I find out why or if MS says something about this somewhere, I’ll come back and update this.

  Read the article

• Do we really need a thousand Linux distributions?

  - by nebukadnezzar

  Pointed from an answer to a (possibly related) question, I came across this graphic, and I'm shocked how many linux distributions currently exist. However, it seems that most of these distributions are forks of already popular distributions with minimal changes, usually limited to themes, wallpapers, buttons, the kind of stuff most people probably wouldn't see as a reason to fork a Linux distribution. Of course, someone will always say "Opensource is also about the freedom of choice", and while I wholeheartedly agree, I do not believe that this is a valid reason to fork an already perfectly working Distribution into a new one, which might possibly result in less security/stability due to smaller group of developers. There's another problem: Those, who want to switch to Linux, are confronted with a neverending list of Linux distributions, and wonder rightfully which they're supposed to chose (infact, I was facing that problem before I've discovered Ubuntu). There might be (very few) valid reasons to fork a distribution: Specializing on a particular topic (FOSS Only, work-related topic (i.e., for a Hospital), etc) An exceptional architecture, that requires a special set of software Use of non-FOSS, propietary technology, and such But even with these points in mind, it would still seem easier to create a subdistribution with the required changes, such as XUbuntu with XFCE4, KUbuntu with KDE4, Fluxbuntu with Fluxbox, etc. So, why exactly do we need so many distributions?

  Read the article

• Is SQL Azure a newbies springboard?

  - by jamiet

  Earlier today I was considering the various SQL Server platforms that are available today and I wondered aloud, wonder how long until the majority of #sqlserver newcomers use @sqlazure instead of installing locally Let me explain. My first experience of development was way back in the early 90s when I would crank open VBA in Access or Excel and start hammering out some code, usually by recording macros and looking at the code that they produced (sound familiar?). The reason was simple, Office was becoming ubiquitous so the barrier to entry was incredibly low and, save for a short hiatus at university, I’ve been developing on the Microsoft platform ever since. These days spend most of my time using SQL Server. I take a look at SQL Azure today I see a lot of similarities with those early experiences, the barrier to entry is low and getting lower. I don’t have to download some software or actually install anything other than a web browser in order to get myself a fully functioning SQL Server  database against which I can ostensibly start hammering out some code and I believe that to be incredibly empowering. Having said that there are still a few pretty high barriers, namely: I need to get out my credit card Its pretty useless without some development tools such as SQL Server Management Studio, which I do have to install. The second of those barriers will disappear pretty soon when Project Houston delivers a web-based admin and presentation tool for SQL Azure so that just leaves the matter of my having to use a credit card. If Microsoft have any sense at all then they will realise the huge potential of opening up a free, throttled version of SQL Azure for newbies to party on; they get to developers early (just like they did with me all those years ago) and it gives potential customers an opportunity to try-before-they-buy. Perhaps in 20 years time people will be talking about SQL Azure as being their first foray into the world of coding! @Jamiet Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

  Read the article

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