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  • Hybrid IT or Cloud Initiative – a Perfect Enterprise Architecture Maturation Opportunity

    - by Ted McLaughlan
    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-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; 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-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} All too often in the growth and maturation of Enterprise Architecture initiatives, the effort stalls or is delayed due to lack of “applied traction”. By this, I mean the EA activities - whether targeted towards compliance, risk mitigation or value opportunity propositions – may not be attached to measurable, active, visible projects that could advance and prove the value of EA. EA doesn’t work by itself, in a vacuum, without collaborative engagement and a means of proving usefulness. A critical vehicle to this proof is successful orchestration and use of assets and investment resources to meet a high-profile business objective – i.e. a successful project. More and more organizations are now exploring and considering some degree of IT outsourcing, buying and using external services and solutions to deliver their IT and business requirements – vs. building and operating in-house, in their own data centers. The rapid growth and success of “Cloud” services makes some decisions easier and some IT projects more successful, while dramatically lowering IT risks and enabling rapid growth. This is particularly true for “Software as a Service” (SaaS) applications, which essentially are complete web applications hosted and delivered over the Internet. Whether SaaS solutions – or any kind of cloud solution - are actually, ultimately the most cost-effective approach truly depends on the organization’s business and IT investment strategy. This leads us to Enterprise Architecture, the connectivity between business strategy and investment objectives, and the capabilities purchased or created to meet them. If an EA framework already exists, the approach to selecting a cloud-based solution and integrating it with internal IT systems (i.e. a “Hybrid IT” solution) is well-served by leveraging EA methods. If an EA framework doesn’t exist, or is simply not mature enough to address complex, integrated IT objectives – a hybrid IT/cloud initiative is the perfect project to advance and prove the value of EA. Why is this? For starters, the success of any complex IT integration project - spanning multiple systems, contracts and organizations, public and private – depends on active collaboration and coordination among the project stakeholders. For a hybrid IT initiative, inclusive of one or more cloud services providers, the IT services, business workflow and data governance challenges alone can be extremely complex, requiring many diverse layers of organizational expertise and authority. Establishing subject matter expertise, authorities and strategic guidance across all the disciplines involved in a hybrid-IT or hybrid-cloud system requires top-level, comprehensive experience and collaborative leadership. Tools and practices reflecting industry expertise and EA alignment can also be very helpful – such as Oracle’s “Cloud Candidate Selection Tool”. Using tools like this, and facilitating this critical collaboration by leading, organizing and coordinating the input and expertise into a shared, referenceable, reusable set of authority models and practices – this is where EA shines, and where Enterprise Architects can be most valuable. The “enterprise”, in this case, becomes something greater than the core organization – it includes internal systems, public cloud services, 3rd-party IT platforms and datacenters, distributed users and devices; a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Through facilitated project collaboration, leading to identification or creation of solid governance models and processes, a durable and useful Enterprise Architecture framework will usually emerge by itself, if not actually identified and managed as such. The transition from planning collaboration to actual coordination, where the program plan, schedule and resources become synchronized and aligned to other investments in the organization portfolio, is where EA methods and artifacts appear and become most useful. The actual scope and use of these artifacts, in the context of this project, can then set the stage for the most desirable, helpful and pragmatic form of the now-maturing EA framework and community of practice. Considering or starting a hybrid-IT or hybrid-cloud initiative? Running into some complex relationship challenges? This is the perfect time to take advantage of your new, growing or possibly latent Enterprise Architecture practice.

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  • Windows 8/Surface Lunch Event Summary

    - by Tim Murphy
    Today was a big day for Microsoft with two separate launch event.  The first for Windows 8 and all of it’s hardware partners.  The second was specifically to introduce the Microsoft Windows 8 Surface tablet.  Below are some of the take-aways I got from the webcasts. Windows 8 Launch The three general area that Microsoft focused on were the release of the OS itself, the public unveiling of the Windows Store and the new devices available from its hardware partners. The release of the OS focused on the fact that it will be available at mid-night tonight for both new PCs and for upgrades.  I can’t say that this interested me that much since it was already known to most people.  I think what they did show well was how easy the OS really is to use. The Windows Store is also not a new feature to those of us who have been running the pre-release versions of Windows 8 or have owned Windows Phone 7 for the past 2 years.  What was interesting is that the Windows Store launches with more apps available than any other platforms store at their respective launch.  I think this says a lot about how Microsoft focuses on the ability of developers to create software and make it available.  The of course were sure to emphasize that the Windows Store has better monetary terms for developers than its competitors. The also showed off the fact that XBox Music streaming is available for to all Windows 8 user for free.  Couple this with the Bing suite of apps that give you news, weather, sports and finance right out of the box and I think most people will find the environment a joy to use. I think the hardware demo, while quick and furious, really show where Windows shine: CHOICE!  They made a statement that over 1000 devices have been certified for Windows 8.  They showed tablets, laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and convertibles.  Since these devices have industry standard connectors they give a much wider variety of accessories and devices that you can use with them. Steve Balmer then came on stage and tried to see how many times he could use the “magical”.  He focused on how the Windows 8 OS is designed to integrate with SkyDrive, Skype and Outlook.com.  He also enforced that they think Windows 8 is the best choice for the Enterprise when it comes to protecting data and integrating across devices including Windows Phone 8. With that we were left to wait for the second event of the day. Surface Launch The second event of the day started with kids with magnets.  Ok, they were adults, but who doesn’t like playing with magnets.  Steven Sinofsky detached and reattached the Surface keyboard repeatedly, clearly enjoying himself.  It turns out that there are 4 magnets in the cover, 2 for alignment and 2 as connectors. They then went to giving us the details on the display.  The 10.6” display is optically bonded to the case and is optimized to reduce glare.  I think this came through very well in the demonstrations. The properties of the case were also a great selling point.  The VaporMg allowed them to drop the device on stage, on purpose, and continue working.  Of course they had to bring out the skate boards made from Surface devices. “It just has to feel right” was the reason they gave for many of their design decisions from the weight and size of the device to the way the kickstand and camera work together.  While this gave you the feeling that the whole process was trial and error you could tell that a lot of science went into the specs.  This included making sure that the magnets were strong enough to hold the cover on and still have a 3 year old remove the cover without effort. I am glad that they also decided the a USB port would be part of the spec since it give so many options.  They made the point that this allows Surface to leverage over 420 million existing devices.  That works for me. The last feature that I really thought was important was the microSD port.  Begin stuck with the onboard memory has been an aggravation of mine with many of the devices in the market today. I think they did job of really getting the audience to understand why you want this platform and this particular device.  Using personal examples like creating a video of a birthday party and being in it or the fact that the device was being used to live blog the event and control the lights and presentation.  They showed very well that it was not only fun but very capable of getting real work done.  Handing out tablets to the crowd didn’t hurt either.  In the end I really wanted a Surface even though I really have no need for one on a daily basis.  Great job Microsoft! del.icio.us Tags: Windows 8,Win8,Windows 8 Luanch

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  • iPhone 3DES encryption key length issue

    - by Russell Hill
    Hi, I have been banging my head on a wall with this one. I need to code my iPhone application to encrypt a 4 digit "pin" using 3DES in ECB mode for transmission to a webservice which I believe is written in .NET. + (NSData *)TripleDESEncryptWithKey:(NSString *)key dataToEncrypt:(NSData*)encryptData { NSLog(@"kCCKeySize3DES=%d", kCCKeySize3DES); char keyBuffer[kCCKeySize3DES+1]; // room for terminator (unused) bzero( keyBuffer, sizeof(keyBuffer) ); // fill with zeroes (for padding) [key getCString: keyBuffer maxLength: sizeof(keyBuffer) encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding]; // encrypts in-place, since this is a mutable data object size_t numBytesEncrypted = 0; size_t returnLength = ([encryptData length] + kCCBlockSize3DES) & ~(kCCBlockSize3DES - 1); // NSMutableData* returnBuffer = [NSMutableData dataWithLength:returnLength]; char* returnBuffer = malloc(returnLength * sizeof(uint8_t) ); CCCryptorStatus ccStatus = CCCrypt(kCCEncrypt, kCCAlgorithm3DES , kCCOptionECBMode, keyBuffer, kCCKeySize3DES, nil, [encryptData bytes], [encryptData length], returnBuffer, returnLength, &numBytesEncrypted); if (ccStatus == kCCParamError) NSLog(@"PARAM ERROR"); else if (ccStatus == kCCBufferTooSmall) NSLog(@"BUFFER TOO SMALL"); else if (ccStatus == kCCMemoryFailure) NSLog(@"MEMORY FAILURE"); else if (ccStatus == kCCAlignmentError) NSLog(@"ALIGNMENT"); else if (ccStatus == kCCDecodeError) NSLog(@"DECODE ERROR"); else if (ccStatus == kCCUnimplemented) NSLog(@"UNIMPLEMENTED"); if(ccStatus == kCCSuccess) { NSLog(@"TripleDESEncryptWithKey encrypted: %@", [NSData dataWithBytes:returnBuffer length:numBytesEncrypted]); return [NSData dataWithBytes:returnBuffer length:numBytesEncrypted]; } else return nil; } } I do get a value encrypted using the above code, however it does not match the value from the .NET web service. I believe the issue is that the encryption key I have been supplied by the web service developers is 48 characters long. I see that the iPhone SDK constant "kCCKeySize3DES" is 24. So I SUSPECT, but don't know, that the commoncrypto API call is only using the first 24 characters of the supplied key. Is this correct? Is there ANY way I can get this to generate the correct encrypted pin? I have output the data bytes from the encryption PRIOR to base64 encoding it and have attempted to match this against those generated from the .NET code (with the help of a .NET developer who sent the byte array output to me). Neither the non-base64 encoded byte array nor the final base64 encoded strings match.

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  • MS Chart Control Scale - Line graph show 12 months

    - by Mike
    Hi, On my X Axis, I have months. The chart shows up to 11 points, i.e. Jan - Nov of the same year, but when I add 12 points (Jan - Dec), it will do an auto label thing and change the interval for every 4 months. How can I change the graph so that it shows 12 months before it does the auto labels? Here is the server control code I am currently using. <asp:CHART ID="Chart1" runat="server" BorderColor="181, 64, 1" BorderDashStyle="Solid" BorderWidth="2" Height="296px" ImageLocation="~/TempImages/ChartPic_#SEQ(300,3)" ImageType="Png" Palette="None" Width="700px" BorderlineColor=""> <legends> <asp:Legend BackColor="Transparent" Font="Trebuchet MS, 8pt, style=Bold" IsTextAutoFit="False" Name="Default" Alignment="Center" DockedToChartArea="ChartArea1" Docking="Top" IsDockedInsideChartArea="False" Title="Legend"> </asp:Legend> </legends> <series> <asp:Series BorderColor="180, 26, 59, 105" BorderWidth="2" ChartType="Line" Color="220, 65, 140, 240" MarkerSize="6" Name="Series1" ShadowColor="Black" ShadowOffset="2" XValueType="DateTime" YValueType="Double" LabelFormat="c0" LegendText="Actual" MarkerStyle="Circle"> </asp:Series> <asp:Series BorderColor="180, 26, 59, 105" BorderWidth="2" ChartType="Line" Color="220, 224, 64, 10" MarkerSize="6" Name="Series2" ShadowColor="Black" ShadowOffset="2" XValueType="DateTime" YValueType="Double" LabelFormat="c0" LegendText="Projected" MarkerStyle="Circle"> </asp:Series> <asp:Series BorderColor="180, 26, 59, 105" BorderWidth="2" ChartArea="ChartArea1" ChartType="Line" Legend="Default" Name="Series3" LabelFormat="c0" XValueType="DateTime" YValueType="Double" Color="0, 192, 192" MarkerSize="6" ShadowColor="Black" ShadowOffset="2" LegendText="Actual Credit Limit" MarkerStyle="Circle"> </asp:Series> </series> <chartareas> <asp:ChartArea BackColor="#DEEDF7" BackGradientStyle="TopBottom" BackSecondaryColor="White" BorderColor="64, 64, 64, 64" BorderDashStyle="Solid" Name="ChartArea1" ShadowColor="Transparent"> <area3dstyle inclination="40" isclustered="False" isrightangleaxes="False" lightstyle="Realistic" perspective="9" rotation="25" wallwidth="3" /> <axisy linecolor="64, 64, 64, 64" islabelautofit="False" isstartedfromzero="False"> <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, style=Bold" Format="c0" /> <majorgrid linecolor="64, 64, 64, 64" /> </axisy> <axisx linecolor="64, 64, 64, 64" intervaloffsettype="Months" intervaltype="Months" islabelautofit="False" isstartedfromzero="False"> <LabelStyle Font="Trebuchet MS, 8.25pt, style=Bold" Angle="-60" Format="MMM yy" /> <majorgrid linecolor="64, 64, 64, 64" /> </axisx> </asp:ChartArea> </chartareas> </asp:CHART> Thanks.

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  • IE6 and fieldset background color?

    - by codemonkey613
    Hey, I'm having some difficulty with CSS and IE6 compatibility. URL: http://bit.ly/dlX7cS Problem #1: I put a background image on the fieldset around Canada and United States. In IE6 and IE7, the background bleeds above the border-top of the fieldset. So, I found a fix. It is applied only to IE browsers, and moves the legend up a few pixels, aligning the background correctly. <!-- Fix: IE6/IE7, Legends --> <!--[if lte IE 7]> <style type="text/css"> fieldset { position: relative; } fieldset legend { position: absolute; top: -0.5em; left: 0; } </style> <![endif]--> This fixes IE7. But in IE6, it seems to make my legend for Canada vanish completely. Does anyone have a copy of IE6 they can open my site and tell me if you see Canada label. (I am testing with a multi-IE program, and it keeps crashing. My copy might not be accurate). If it's not there, any suggestions on how to fix it? Also, any suggestion on where I can download working copy of IE6? Problem #2: I have a Google Map embedded using iframe. The width of that iframe is 515px. In Firefox, Chrome, IE7 -- that is the correct alignment. But in IE6, it gets <br/> underneath the Just Energy paragraph beside it. It doesn't fit. I have to change width to 513px for it to fit. Uhm, anyone know where those 2px of difference happen? I removed border, padding, margin from the iframe, but still something is happening. <!-- Google Maps --> <iframe class="gmap" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&amp;msid=100146512697135839835.000481e2a2779e8865863&amp;ll=42,-100&amp;spn=20,80&amp;output=embed" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <!-- / Google Maps --> Er, big headache. lol

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  • How can I extract paragaphs and selected lines with Perl?

    - by neversaint
    I have a text where I need to: to extract the whole paragraph under the section "Aceview summary" until the line that starts with "Please quote" (not to be included). to extract the line that starts with "The closest human gene". to store them into array with two elements. The text looks like this (also on pastebin): AceView: gene:1700049G17Rik, a comprehensive annotation of human, mouse and worm genes with mRNAs or ESTsAceView. <META NAME="title" CONTENT=" AceView: gene:1700049G17Rik a comprehensive annotation of human, mouse and worm genes with mRNAs or EST"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT=" AceView, genes, Acembly, AceDB, Homo sapiens, Human, nematode, Worm, Caenorhabditis elegans , WormGenes, WormBase, mouse, mammal, Arabidopsis, gene, alternative splicing variant, structure, sequence, DNA, EST, mRNA, cDNA clone, transcript, transcription, genome, transcriptome, proteome, peptide, GenBank accession, dbest, RefSeq, LocusLink, non-coding, coding, exon, intron, boundary, exon-intron junction, donor, acceptor, 3'UTR, 5'UTR, uORF, poly A, poly-A site, molecular function, protein annotation, isoform, gene family, Pfam, motif ,Blast, Psort, GO, taxonomy, homolog, cellular compartment, disease, illness, phenotype, RNA interference, RNAi, knock out mutant expression, regulation, protein interaction, genetic, map, antisense, trans-splicing, operon, chromosome, domain, selenocysteine, Start, Met, Stop, U12, RNA editing, bibliography"> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT= " AceView offers a comprehensive annotation of human, mouse and nematode genes reconstructed by co-alignment and clustering of all publicly available mRNAs and ESTs on the genome sequence. Our goals are to offer a reliable up-to-date resource on the genes, their functions, alternative variants, expression, regulation and interactions, in the hope to stimulate further validating experiments at the bench "> <meta name="author" content="Danielle Thierry-Mieg and Jean Thierry-Mieg, NCBI/NLM/NIH, [email protected]"> <!-- var myurl="av.cgi?db=mouse" ; var db="mouse" ; var doSwf="s" ; var classe="gene" ; //--> However I am stuck with the following script logic. What's the right way to achieve that? #!/usr/bin/perl -w my $INFILE_file_name = $file; # input file name open ( INFILE, '<', $INFILE_file_name ) or croak "$0 : failed to open input file $INFILE_file_name : $!\n"; my @allsum; while ( <INFILE> ) { chomp; my $line = $_; my @temp1 = (); if ( $line =~ /^ AceView summary/ ) { print "$line\n"; push @temp1, $line; } elsif( $line =~ /Please quote/) { push @allsum, [@temp1]; @temp1 = (); } elsif ($line =~ /The closest human gene/) { push @allsum, $line; } } close ( INFILE ); # close input file # Do something with @allsum There are many files like that I need to process.

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  • OnExit is not entering via PostSharp in asp.net project.

    - by mark smith
    Hi there, I have setup PostSharp and it appears to be working but i don't get it entering OnExit (i have logged setup to ensure it is working) ... Its a bit tricky to configure with asp.net - or is it just me ... I am using the 1.5 new version I basically have the following in my web.config and i had to add the SearchPath otherwise it can't find my assemblies <postsharp directory="C:\Program Files\PostSharp 1.5" trace="true"> <parameters> <!--<add name="parameter-name" value="parameter-value"/>--> </parameters> <searchPath> <!-- Always add the binary folder to the search path. --> <add name="bin" value="~\bin"/> </searchPath> </postsharp> I have set tracing on but what is strange to me is that it appears to build to the temp directory, maybe this is my issue, i am unsure .. hence i do F5 ... Is it possible to name the Output directory and output file?? As you can see it is editing a DLL in the temp dir so IIS is no longer in control so it doesn't execute it ??? Confused! :-) C:\Program Files\PostSharp 1.5\postsharp.exe "/P:Output=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\postsharp\App_Web_04ae3ewy.dll" "/P:IntermediateDirectory=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\postsharp " /P:CleanIntermediate=False /P:ReferenceDirectory=. /P:SignAssembly=False /P:PrivateKeyLocation= /P:ResolvedReferences= "/P:SearchPath=C:\Source Code\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\mysitemvc\mysitemvc\bin," /V /SkipAutoUpdate "C:\Program Files\PostSharp 1.5\Default.psproj" "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\before-postsharp\App_Web_04ae3ewy.dll" PostSharp 1.5 [1.5.6.627] - Copyright (c) Gael Fraiteur, 2005-2009. info PS0035: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\ilasm.exe "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\postsharp\App_Web_04ae3ewy.il" /QUIET /DLL /PDB "/RESOURCE=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\postsharp\App_Web_04ae3ewy.res" "/OUTPUT=C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\mysitemvc-1.2\c2087140\8ac2dc93\postsharp\App_Web_04ae3ewy.dll" /SUBSYSTEM=3 /FLAGS=1 /BASE=18481152 /STACK=1048576 /ALIGNMENT=512 /MDV=v2.0.50727

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  • IronPython and Nodebox in C#

    - by proxylittle
    My plan: I'm trying to setup my C# project to communicate with Nodebox to call a certain function which populates a graph and draws it in a new window. Current situation: [fixed... see Update2] I have already included all python-modules needed, but im still getting a Library 'GL' not found it seems that the pyglet module needs a reference to GL/gl.h, but can't find it due to IronPython behaviour. Requirement: The project needs to stay as small as possible without installing new packages. Thats why i have copied all my modules into the project-folder and would like to keep it that or a similar way. My question: Is there a certain workaround for my problem or a fix for the library-folder missmatch. Have read some articles about Tao-Opengl and OpenTK but can't find a good solution. Update1: Updated my sourcecode with a small pyglet window-rendering example. Problem is in pyglet and referenced c-Objects. How do i include them in my c# project to be called? No idea so far... experimenting alittle now. Keeping you updated. SampleCode C#: ScriptRuntimeSetup setup = Python.CreateRuntimeSetup(null); ScriptRuntime runtime = new ScriptRuntime(setup); ScriptEngine engine = Python.GetEngine(runtime); ScriptSource source = engine.CreateScriptSourceFromFile("test.py"); ScriptScope scope = engine.CreateScope(); source.Execute(scope); SampleCode Python (test.py): from nodebox.graphics import * from nodebox.graphics.physics import Vector, Boid, Flock, Obstacle flock = Flock(50, x=-50, y=-50, width=700, height=400) flock.sight(80) def draw(canvas): canvas.clear() flock.update(separation=0.4, cohesion=0.6, alignment=0.1, teleport=True) for boid in flock: push() translate(boid.x, boid.y) scale(0.5 + boid.depth) rotate(boid.heading) arrow(0, 0, 15) pop() canvas.size = 600, 300 def main(canvas): canvas.run(draw) Update2: Line 139 [pyglet/lib.py] sys.platform is not win32... there was the error. Fixed it by just using the line: from pyglet.gl.lib_wgl import link_GL, link_GLU, link_WGL Now the following Error: 'module' object has no attribute '_getframe' Kind of a pain to fix it. Updating with results... Update3: Fixed by adding following line right after first line in C#-Code: setup.Options["Frames"] = true; Current Problem: No module named unicodedata, but in Python26/DLLs is only a *.pyd file`. So.. how do i implement it now?!

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  • Any way to simulate MouseOver in WPF

    - by jpierson
    I'm working on a link control in WPF which fits the text with icon links case in the Windows UX Guide. What I want is to have some text within a hyperlink that appears to the right of some image. In my case I started off by using a TextBlock that contained a Hyperlink which then contained my image and some text. <TextBlock> <Hyperlink> <Rectangle Height="16" Width="16" Fill="{StaticResource MyIconBrush}" Stretch="UniformToFill" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Left" /> <Run>My link text</Run> </Hyperlink> </TextBlock> The problem with this however was that the image being taller than my text produced an effect where the text was aligned to the bottom. Unfortunately I haven't found any way to control the vertical alignment within the TextBlock or within the Hyperlink so I've resorted to attempting an alternative layout where the Hyperlink and the Rectangle that represent my vector icon are separated in order to get them to align properly like shown below. <TextBlock> <Hyperlink> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <Rectangle Height="16" Width="16" Fill="{StaticResource MyIconBrush}" Stretch="UniformToFill" VerticalAlignment="Center" HorizontalAlignment="Left" /> <TextBlock VerticalAlignment="Center"><Hyperlink>My link text<Hyperlink></TextBlock> </StackPanel> </Hyperlink> </TextBlock> The problem with this however is that now that my Icon and my Hyperlink are separated I don't get my MouseOver appearance of my link when I the mouse is over my icon and vise-versa. So this got me to thinking, how do I simulate MouseOver for a given control such with a checkbox where you get the MouseOver effect on the box when you actually mouse over it's associated text. I know in the HTML world the label element has a for attribute that can be used to specify which control it is labeling which will basically do what I'm looking for. Also I can imagine that in other scenarios it may be nice to have a label that when you mouse over shows a corresponding text box as if the mouse is over it and possibly when clicked focus is given to the corresponding text box as well. For now though I'm interested mainly in how to to get a label or label like element in WPF to act as a proxy for a given control in terms of it's MouseOver state. Also I would like to do this purely in XAML if possible.

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  • Get HDD (and NOT Volume) Serial Number on Vista Ultimate 64 bit

    - by TheAgent
    Hi all. I was once looking for getting the HDD serial number without using WMI, and I found it. The code I found and posted on StackOverFlow.com works very well on 32 bit Windows, both XP and Vista. The trouble only begins when I try to get the serail number on 64 bit OSs (Vista Ultimate 64, specifically). The code returns String.Empty, or a Space all the time. Anyone got an idea how to fix this? EDIT: I used the tools Dave Cluderay suggested, with interesting results: Here is the output from DiskId32, on Windows XP SP2 32-bit: To get all details use "diskid32 /d" Trying to read the drive IDs using physical access with admin rights Drive 0 - Primary Controller - - Master drive Drive Model Number________________: [MAXTOR STM3160215AS] Drive Serial Number_______________: [ 6RA26XK3] Drive Controller Revision Number__: [3.AAD] Controller Buffer Size on Drive___: 2097152 bytes Drive Type________________________: Fixed Drive Size________________________: 160041885696 bytes Trying to read the drive IDs using the SCSI back door Drive 4 - Tertiary Controller - - Master drive Drive Model Number________________: [MAXTOR STM3160215AS] Drive Serial Number_______________: [ 6RA26XK3] Drive Controller Revision Number__: [3.AAD] Controller Buffer Size on Drive___: 2097152 bytes Drive Type________________________: Fixed Drive Size________________________: 160041885696 bytes Trying to read the drive IDs using physical access with zero rights **** STORAGE_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR for drive 0 **** Vendor Id = [] Product Id = [MAXTOR STM3160215AS] Product Revision = [3.AAD] Serial Number = [] **** DISK_GEOMETRY_EX for drive 0 **** Disk is fixed DiskSize = 160041885696 Trying to read the drive IDs using Smart Drive 0 - Primary Controller - - Master drive Drive Model Number________________: [MAXTOR STM3160215AS] Drive Serial Number_______________: [ 6RA26XK3] Drive Controller Revision Number__: [3.AAD] Controller Buffer Size on Drive___: 2097152 bytes Drive Type________________________: Fixed Drive Size________________________: 160041885696 bytes Hard Drive Serial Number__________: 6RA26XK3 Hard Drive Model Number___________: MAXTOR STM3160215AS And DiskId32 run on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit: To get all details use "diskid32 /d" Trying to read the drive IDs using physical access with admin rights Trying to read the drive IDs using the SCSI back door Trying to read the drive IDs using physical access with zero rights **** STORAGE_DEVICE_DESCRIPTOR for drive 0 **** Vendor Id = [MAXTOR S] Product Id = [TM3160215AS] Product Revision = [3.AA] Serial Number = [] **** DISK_GEOMETRY_EX for drive 0 **** Disk is fixed DiskSize = 160041885696 Trying to read the drive IDs using Smart Hard Drive Serial Number__________: Hard Drive Model Number___________: Notice how much lesser the information is on Vista, and how the Serial Number is not returned. Also the other tool, EnumDisk, refers to my hard disks on Vista as "SCSI" as opposed to "ATA" on Windows XP. Any ideas? EDIT 2: I'm posting the results from EnumDisks: On Windows XP SP2 32-bit: Properties for Device 1 Device ID: IDE\DiskMAXTOR_STM3160215AS_____________________3.AAD___ Adapter Properties ------------------ Bus Type : ATA Max. Tr. Length: 0x20000 Max. Phy. Pages: 0xffffffff Alignment Mask : 0x1 Device Properties ----------------- Device Type : Direct Access Device (0x0) Removable Media : No Product ID : MAXTOR STM3160215AS Product Revision: 3.AAD Inquiry Data from Pass Through ------------------------------ Device Type: Direct Access Device (0x0) Vendor ID : MAXTOR S Product ID : TM3160215AS Product Rev: 3.AA Vendor Str : *** End of Device List

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  • Salesforce consuming XML and display data in Visualforce report

    - by JavaKungFu
    Firstly, this question requires a bit of introduction so please bear with me. The high level is that I am connecting to a outside web service which will return some XML to my apex controller. The idea is that I want to display the XML returned into a nice tabular format in a VisualForce page. The format of the XML coming back will look something like this: <Wrapper><reportTable name='table_id' title='Report Title'> <row> <Element1><![CDATA[campaign_id]]></Element1> <Element2><![CDATA[577373]]></Element2> <Element3><![CDATA[4129]]></Element3> <Element4 dataFormat='2' dataSuffix='%'><![CDATA[0.7151]]></Element4> <Element5><![CDATA[2010-04-04]]></Element5> <Element6><![CDATA[2010-05-03]]></Element6> </row> </reportTable> ... Now currently I am using the XMLdom utility class (developed by SF for XML functions) to map this data into a custom object "reportTable" which contains a list of "row" custom objects. The reason I am building it out this way is because I don't know how many elements will be in each row, nor the number of rows. The Visualforce page looks something like this: <table><apex:repeat value="{!reportTables}" var="table"> <apex:repeat value="{!table.rows}" var="row"> <tr> <apex:repeat value="{!row.ColumnValue}" var="column"> <apex:repeat value="{!column}" var="value"> <td> <apex:outputText value="{!value}" /> </td> </apex:repeat> </apex:repeat> </tr> </apex:repeat> Questions are: 1) Does this seem like a good approach to the problem? 2) Is there a simpler/better way to consume the XML besides writing my own custom objects to map VF to? Open to any and all suggestions. I really hope there is a better way than building the HTML table myself, as then I also have to deal with styling and alignment etc. Thanks.

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  • OpenGL Polygon Stipple Not Working On Different Machine

    - by FranticPedantic
    I have a situation where I am trying to draw a semi-transparent rectangle over a background that is not using openGL and so I can not use blending. I decided to use polygon stippling for a 'screen door transparency' effect as recommended by some. It works fine on my machine and some others, but on some machines with slightly old Intel graphics cards it's failing to render the rectangle at all. If I turn off polygon stipple, it renders fine (but without the stipple). I have compared many of the state variables that I thought might affect it (see code) between machines and they are all the same, and I get no errors. static const GLubyte stipplePatternChkr[128]; //definition omitted for clarity //but works on my machine // stipple the box glPolygonMode(GL_FRONT_AND_BACK, GL_FILL); glColor4ubv(Color(COLORREF_PADGRAY)); glEnable(GL_POLYGON_STIPPLE); glPolygonStipple(stipplePatternChkr); CRect rcStipple(dim); rcStipple.DeflateRect(padding - 1, padding - 1); glBegin(GL_QUADS); glVertex2i(rcStipple.left, rcStipple.bottom); glVertex2i(rcStipple.right, rcStipple.bottom); glVertex2i(rcStipple.right, rcStipple.top); glVertex2i(rcStipple.left, rcStipple.top); glEnd(); glDisable(GL_POLYGON_STIPPLE); int err = glGetError(); if (err != GL_NO_ERROR) { TRACE("glError(%s: %s)\n", s, gluErrorString(err)); } float x; glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_ALIGNMENT, &x); TRACE("unpack alignment %f\n", x); glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_IMAGE_HEIGHT, &x); TRACE("unpack height %f\n", x); glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_LSB_FIRST, &x); TRACE("unpack lsb %f\n", x); glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_ROW_LENGTH, &x); TRACE("unpack length %f\n", x); glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_SKIP_PIXELS, &x); TRACE("upnack skip %f\n", x); glGetFloatv(GL_UNPACK_SWAP_BYTES, &x); TRACE("upnack swap %f\n", x);

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  • Question SpeechSynthesizer.SetOutputToAudioStream audio format problem

    - by Chris Kugler
    Hi, I'm currently working on an application which requires transmission of speech encoded to a specific audio format. System.Speech.AudioFormat.SpeechAudioFormatInfo synthFormat = new System.Speech.AudioFormat.SpeechAudioFormatInfo(System.Speech.AudioFormat.EncodingFormat.Pcm, 8000, 16, 1, 16000, 2, null); This states that the audio is in PCM format, 8000 samples per second, 16 bits per sample, mono, 16000 average bytes per second, block alignment of 2. When I attempt to execute the following code there is nothing written to my MemoryStream instance; however when I change from 8000 samples per second up to 11025 the audio data is written successfully. SpeechSynthesizer synthesizer = new SpeechSynthesizer(); waveStream = new MemoryStream(); PromptBuilder pbuilder = new PromptBuilder(); PromptStyle pStyle = new PromptStyle(); pStyle.Emphasis = PromptEmphasis.None; pStyle.Rate = PromptRate.Fast; pStyle.Volume = PromptVolume.ExtraLoud; pbuilder.StartStyle(pStyle); pbuilder.StartParagraph(); pbuilder.StartVoice(VoiceGender.Male, VoiceAge.Teen, 2); pbuilder.StartSentence(); pbuilder.AppendText("This is some text."); pbuilder.EndSentence(); pbuilder.EndVoice(); pbuilder.EndParagraph(); pbuilder.EndStyle(); synthesizer.SetOutputToAudioStream(waveStream, synthFormat); synthesizer.Speak(pbuilder); synthesizer.SetOutputToNull(); There are no exceptions or errors recorded when using a sample rate of 8000 and I couldn't find anything useful in the documentation regarding SetOutputToAudioStream and why it succeeds at 11025 samples per second and not 8000. I have a workaround involving a wav file that I generated and converted to the correct sample rate using some sound editing tools, but I would like to generate the audio from within the application if I can. One particular point of interest was that the SpeechRecognitionEngine accepts that audio format and successfully recognized the speech in my synthesized wave file... Update: Recently discovered that this audio format succeeds for certain installed voices, but fails for others. It fails specifically for LH Michael and LH Michelle, and failure varies for certain voice settings defined in the PromptBuilder.

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  • Problem with Landscape and Portrait view in a TabBar Application

    - by JoshD
    I have an TabBar app that I would like to be in landscape and portrait. The issue is when I go to tab 2 make a selection from my table then select tab 1 and rotate the device, then select tab 2 again the content does not know that the device rotated and will not display my custom orientated content correctly. I am trying to write a priovate method that tells the view what orientation it is currently in. IN viewDidLoad I am assuming it is in portrait but in shouldAutoRotate I have it looking in the private method for the correct alignment of the content. Please Help!! Here is my code: #import "DetailViewController.h" #import "ScheduleTableViewController.h" #import "BrightcoveDemoAppDelegate.h" #import "Constants.h" @implementation DetailViewController @synthesize CurrentLevel, CurrentTitle, tableDataSource,logoName,showDescription,showDescriptionInfo,showTime, showTimeInfo, tableBG; - (void)layoutSubviews { showLogo.frame = CGRectMake(40, 20, 187, 101); showDescription.frame = CGRectMake(85, 140, 330, 65); showTime.frame = CGRectMake(130, 10, 149, 119); tableBG.frame = CGRectMake(0, 0, 480, 320); } /* // The designated initializer. Override if you create the controller programmatically and want to perform customization that is not appropriate for viewDidLoad. - (id)initWithNibName:(NSString *)nibNameOrNil bundle:(NSBundle *)nibBundleOrNil { if (self = [super initWithNibName:nibNameOrNil bundle:nibBundleOrNil]) { // Custom initialization } return self; } */ /* // Implement loadView to create a view hierarchy programmatically, without using a nib. - (void)loadView { } */ // Implement viewDidLoad to do additional setup after loading the view, typically from a nib. - (void)viewDidLoad { [super viewDidLoad]; self.navigationItem.title = CurrentTitle; [showDescription setEditable:NO]; //show the description showDescription.text = showDescriptionInfo; showTime.text = showTimeInfo; NSString *Path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]; NSString *ImagePath = [Path stringByAppendingPathComponent:logoName]; UIImage *tempImg = [[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:ImagePath]; [showLogo setImage:tempImg]; [tempImg release]; [self masterView]; } - (BOOL)shouldAutorotateToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)interfaceOrientation { return YES; } - (void)willAnimateRotationToInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)toInterfaceOrientation duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration { isLandscape = UIInterfaceOrientationIsLandscape(toInterfaceOrientation); if(isLandscape = YES){ [self layoutSubviews]; } } - (void)didReceiveMemoryWarning { // Releases the view if it doesn't have a superview. [super didReceiveMemoryWarning]; // Release any cached data, images, etc that aren't in use. } - (void)viewDidUnload { // Release any retained subviews of the main view. // e.g. self.myOutlet = nil; } - (void)dealloc { [logoName release]; [showLogo release]; [showDescription release]; [showDescriptionInfo release]; [super dealloc]; } @end

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  • Create Menu with css and li elements compatible for all browsers.

    - by Cesar Lopez
    Hi all, I am trying to create a simple menu using li elements, but it only works on IE7, in FF and Chrome, the alignment get weird. Also the :hover and :Active only works on IE7. Could anybody give me a hit on this? I would really appreciate it. CSS: #heading{ width: 700px; height:auto; margin: 0 auto; background-color:#FFFFFF; margin-top:5px; margin-bottom:5px; display:block; } #imglogo{ float:left; } #barDescription{ float:right; } #navigation{ text-align: right; margin-top: 70px; } #navigation li{ float: right; display: block; text-align: center; list-style-type: none; } #navigation li a{ color:#A08019; background-image: url('Images/Menu1.png'); background-repeat:repeat-x; background-position: center center; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold; display: block; height:25px; vertical-align:middle; padding-right:10px; padding-left:10px; } HTML: <div id="heading" > <div id="imglogo"> <img id="logo" src="Images/logo.png" alt="logo" /> </div> <div id="barDescription"> <h4>Especialidad en tapas,vinos y menus</h4> <h5>Restaurante de cocina creativa tradicional. Vinos y tapas</h5> </div> <ul id="navigation"> <li><a href="#">Contacto</a></li> <li><a href="#">Ubicacion</a></li> <li><a href="#">Reservas</a></li> <li><a href="#">Menus</a></li> <li><a href="#">Local</a></li> </ul> </div>

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  • Can this way of storing typed objects be improved?

    - by Pindatjuh
    This is an "can it be improved"-question. Topic: Storing typed objects in memory. Background information: I'm building a compiler for the x86-32 Windows platform for my language. My goal includes typed objects. Idea: Every primitive is a semi-class (it can be used as if it was a normal class, but it's stored more compact). Every class is represented by primitives and some meta-data (containing class-properties, inheritance stuff, etc.). The meta-data is complex: it doesn't use fields but instead context-switches. For primitives, the meta-data is very small, compared to a "real" class, which is alot bigger. This enables another idea that "primitives are objects", in my language, which I found nessecairy. Example: If I have an array of 32 booleans, then the pure content of this array is exactly 4 byte (32 bits of booleans). The meta-data will contain flags that the type is an array of booleans, which contains 32 entries. The meta-data is very compacted, on bit-level: using a sort of "packing" mechanism, which is read by a FSM at runtime, when doing inspection of the type (like when passing the object to methods for checking, etc.) For instance (read from left to right, top to bottom, remember vertical position when going to the right, and check nearest column header for meaning of switch): Primitive? Array? Type-Meta 1 Byte? || Size (1 byte) 1 1 [...] 1 [...] done 0 2 Bytes? || Size (2 bytes) 1 [...] done || Size (4 bytes) 0 [...] done Integer? 1 Byte? 2 Bytes? 0 1 0 1 done 1 done 0 done Boolean? Byte? 0 1 0 done 1 done More-Primitives 0 .... Class-Stuff (Huge) 0 ... (After reaching done the data is inserted. || = byte alignment. [...] is variable sized. ... is not described here, for simplicity. And let's call them cost-based-data-structures.) For an array of 32 booleans containing all true values, the memory for this type would be (read top-down): 1 Primitive 1 Array 1 ArrayType: Primitive 0 Not-Array 0 Not-Integer 1 Boolean 0 Not-Byte (thus bit) 1 Integer Size: 1 Byte 00100000 Array size 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101 Data (user defined) Thus, 8 bytes represent 32 booleans in an array: 11100101 00100000 01010101 01010101 01010101 01010101 How can I improve this? (Both performance- and memory-consumption wise)

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  • A few problems with Delphi involving Mail Merge, SQL + Databases.

    - by Daniel
    My first problem is with mail merge. I have created a a Data File and a table, yet I am not able to fill my table with information from my Data File. The << just seems to be inserted after wherever the cursor is on the page, which is not where the table is. All that is entered into the actual table is a '59'. Therefore I think I either need to to change the code or be able to move the cursor. Here is the code I am currently using: wrdDoc.Tables.Add(wrdSelection.Range, ADOTable1.FieldCount, 3); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Columns.Item(1).SetWidth(51,wdAdjustNone); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Columns.Item(2).SetWidth(20,wdAdjustNone); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Columns.Item(3).SetWidth(100,wdAdjustNone); // Set the shading on the first row to light gray wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Rows.Item(1).Cells .Shading.BackgroundPatternColorIndex := wdGray25; // BOLD the first row wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Rows.Item(1).Range.Bold := True; // Center the text in Cell (1,1) wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell(1,1).Range.Paragraphs.Alignment := wdAlignParagraphCenter; // Fill each row of the table with data wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell(1, 1).Range.InsertAfter('Time'); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell(1, 2).Range.InsertAfter(''); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell(1, 3).Range.InsertAfter('Teacher'); For Count := 1 to (ADOTable1.FieldCount - 1) do begin wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell((Count + 1), 1).Range.InsertAfter(wrdSelection.Range,'Time' + IntToStr(Count)); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell((Count + 1), 2).Range.InsertAfter(wrdSelection.Range,'THonorific' + IntToStr(Count)); wrdDoc.Tables.Item(1).Cell((Count + 1), 3).Range.InsertAfter(wrdSelection.Range,'TSurname' + IntToStr(Count)); end; My second problem is that I do not know what the correct SQL syntax is for editing the name of a column in the database (I am using Delphi 7 and Microsoft Jet Engine if that makes a difference). The third problem is that when I add a new column to my database manually (which I need to do) I get a 'violation' error in one of my units when I activate an ADOTable. This only happens on one unit and it happens when I add a column with any name anywhere in the table. I know that is vague but I can't seem to narrow down the problem any further than that. If you could help with me with any of those it would be great. Thanks.

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  • Another Marketing Conference, part two – the afternoon

    - by Roger Hart
    In my previous post, I’ve covered the morning sessions at AMC2012. Here’s the rest of the write-up. I’ve skipped Charles Nixon’s session which was a blend of funky futurism and professional development advice, but you can see his slides here. I’ve also skipped the Google presentation, as it was a little thin on insight. 6 – Brand ambassadors: Getting universal buy in across the organisation, Vanessa Northam Slides are here This was the strongest enforcement of the idea that brand and campaign values need to be delivered throughout the organization if they’re going to work. Vanessa runs internal communications at e-on, and shared her experience of using internal comms to align an organization and thereby get the most out of a campaign. She views the purpose of internal comms as: “…to help leaders, to communicate the purpose and future of an organization, and support change.” This (and culture) primes front line staff, which creates customer experience and spreads brand. You ensure a whole organization knows what’s going on with both internal and external comms. If everybody is aligned and informed, if everybody can clearly articulate your brand and campaign goals, then you can turn everybody into an advocate. Alignment is a powerful tool for delivering a consistent experience and message. The pathological counter example is the one in which a marketing message goes out, which creates inbound customer contacts that front line contact staff haven’t been briefed to handle. The NatWest campaign was again mentioned in this context. The good example was e-on’s cheaper tariff campaign. Building a groundswell of internal excitement, and even running an internal launch meant everyone could contribute to a good customer experience. They found that meter readers were excited – not a group they’d considered as obvious in providing customer experience. But they were a group that has a lot of face-to-face contact with customers, and often were asked questions they may not have been briefed to answer. Being able to communicate a simple new message made it easier for them, and also let them become a sales and marketing asset to the organization. 7 – Goodbye Internet, Hello Outernet: the rise and rise of augmented reality, Matt Mills I wasn’t going to write this up, because it was essentially a sales demo for Aurasma. But the technology does merit some discussion. Basically, it replaces QR codes with visual recognition, and provides a simple-looking back end for attaching content. It’s quite sexy. But here’s my beef with it: QR codes had a clear visual language – when you saw one you knew what it was and what to do with it. They were clunky, but they had the “getting started” problem solved out of the box once you knew what you were looking at. However, they fail because QR code reading isn’t native to the platform. You needed an app, which meant you needed to know to download one. Consequentially, you can’t use QR codes with and ubiquity, or depend on them. This means marketers, content providers, etc, never pushed them, and they remained and awkward oddity, a minority sport. Aurasma half solves problem two, and re-introduces problem one, making it potentially half as useful as a QR code. It’s free, and you can apparently build it into your own apps. Add to that the likelihood of it becoming native to the platform if it takes off, and it may have legs. I guess we’ll see. 8 – We all need to code, Helen Mayor Great title – good point. If there was anybody in the room who didn’t at least know basic HTML, and if Helen’s presentation inspired them to learn, that’s fantastic. However, this was a half hour sales pitch for a basic coding training course. Beyond advocating coding skills it contained no useful content. Marketers may also like to consider some of these resources if they’re looking to learn code: Code Academy – free interactive tutorials Treehouse – learn web design, web dev, or app dev WebPlatform.org – tutorials and documentation for web tech  11 – Understanding our inner creativity, Margaret Boden This session was the most theoretical and probably least actionable of the day. It also held my attention utterly. Margaret spoke fluently, fascinatingly, without slides, on the subject of types of creativity and how they work. It was splendid. Yes, it raised a wry smile whenever she spoke of “the content of advertisements” and gave an example from 1970s TV ads, but even without the attempt to meet the conference’s theme this would have been thoroughly engaging. There are, Margaret suggested, three types of creativity: Combinatorial creativity The most common form, and consisting of synthesising ideas from existing and familiar concepts and tropes. Exploratory creativity Less common, this involves exploring the limits and quirks of a particular constraint or style. Transformational creativity This is uncommon, and arises from finding a way to do something that the existing rules would hold to be impossible. In essence, this involves breaking one of the constraints that exploratory creativity is composed from. Combinatorial creativity, she suggested, is particularly important for attaching favourable ideas to existing things. As such is it probably worth developing for marketing. Exploratory creativity may then come into play in something like developing and optimising an idea or campaign that now has momentum. Transformational creativity exists at the edges of this exploration. She suggested that products may often be transformational, but that marketing seemed unlikely to in her experience. This made me wonder about Listerine. Crucially, transformational creativity is characterised by there being some element of continuity with the strictures of previous thinking. Once it has happened, there may be  move from a revolutionary instance into an explored style. Again, from a marketing perspective, this seems to chime well with the thinking in Youngme Moon’s book: Different Talking about the birth of Modernism is visual art, Margaret pointed out that transformational creativity has historically risked a backlash, demanding what is essentially an education of the market. This is best accomplished by referring back to the continuities with the past in order to make the new familiar. Thoughts The afternoon is harder to sum up than the morning. It felt less concrete, and was troubled by a short run of poor presentations in the middle. Mainly, I found myself wrestling with the internal comms issue. It’s one of those things that seems astonishingly obvious in hindsight, but any campaign – particularly any large one – is doomed if the people involved can’t believe in it. We’ve run things here that haven’t gone so well, of course we have; who hasn’t? I’m not going to air any laundry, but people not being informed (much less aligned) feels like a common factor. It’s tough though. Managing and anticipating information needs across an organization of any size can’t be easy. Even the simple things like ensuring sales and support departments know what’s in a product release, and what messages go with it are easy to botch. The thing I like about framing this as a brand and campaign advocacy problem is that it makes it likely to get addressed. Better is always sexier than less-worse. Any technical communicator who’s ever felt crowded out by a content strategist or marketing copywriter  knows this – increasing revenue gets a seat at the table far more readily than reducing support costs, even if the financial impact is identical. So that’s it from AMC. The big thought-provokers were social buying behaviour and eliciting behaviour change, and the value of internal communications in ensuring successful campaigns and continuity of customer experience. I’ll be chewing over that for a while, and I’d definitely return next year.      

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  • Create PDF document using iTextSharp in ASP.Net 4.0 and MemoryMappedFile

    - by sreejukg
    In this article I am going to demonstrate how ASP.Net developers can programmatically create PDF documents using iTextSharp. iTextSharp is a software component, that allows developers to programmatically create or manipulate PDF documents. Also this article discusses the process of creating in-memory file, read/write data from/to the in-memory file utilizing the new feature MemoryMappedFile. I have a database of users, where I need to send a notice to all my users as a PDF document. The sending mail part of it is not covered in this article. The PDF document will contain the company letter head, to make it more official. I have a list of users stored in a database table named “tblusers”. For each user I need to send customized message addressed to them personally. The database structure for the users is give below. id Title Full Name 1 Mr. Sreeju Nair K. G. 2 Dr. Alberto Mathews 3 Prof. Venketachalam Now I am going to generate the pdf document that contains some message to the user, in the following format. Dear <Title> <FullName>, The message for the user. Regards, Administrator Also I have an image, bg.jpg that contains the background for the document generated. I have created .Net 4.0 empty web application project named “iTextSharpSample”. First thing I need to do is to download the iTextSharp dll from the source forge. You can find the url for the download here. http://sourceforge.net/projects/itextsharp/files/ I have extracted the Zip file and added the itextsharp.dll as a reference to my project. Also I have added a web form named default.aspx to my project. After doing all this, the solution explorer have the following view. In the default.aspx page, I inserted one grid view and associated it with a SQL Data source control that bind data from tblusers. I have added a button column in the grid view with text “generate pdf”. The output of the page in the browser is as follows. Now I am going to create a pdf document when the user clicking on the Generate PDF button. As I mentioned before, I am going to work with the file in memory, I am not going to create a file in the disk. I added an event handler for button by specifying onrowcommand event handler. My gridview source looks like <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" Width="481px" CellPadding="4" ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None" onrowcommand="Generate_PDF" > ………………………………………………………………………….. ………………………………………………………………………….. </asp:GridView> In the code behind, I wrote the corresponding event handler. protected void Generate_PDF(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e) { // The button click event handler code. // I am going to explain the code for this section in the remaining part of the article } The Generate_PDF method is straight forward, It get the title, fullname and message to some variables, then create the pdf using these variables. The code for getting data from the grid view is as follows // get the row index stored in the CommandArgument property int index = Convert.ToInt32(e.CommandArgument); // get the GridViewRow where the command is raised GridViewRow selectedRow = ((GridView)e.CommandSource).Rows[index]; string title = selectedRow.Cells[1].Text; string fullname = selectedRow.Cells[2].Text; string msg = @"There are some changes in the company policy, due to this matter you need to submit your latest address to us. Please update your contact details / personnal details by visiting the member area of the website. ................................... "; since I don’t want to save the file in the disk, I am going the new feature introduced in .Net framework 4, called Memory-Mapped Files. Using Memory-Mapped mapped file, you can created non-persisted memory mapped files, that are not associated with a file in a disk. So I am going to create a temporary file in memory, add the pdf content to it, then write it to the output stream. To read more about MemoryMappedFile, read this msdn article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd997372.aspx The below portion of the code using MemoryMappedFile object to create a test pdf document in memory and perform read/write operation on file. The CreateViewStream() object will give you a stream that can be used to read or write data to/from file. The code is very straight forward and I included comment so that you can understand the code. using (MemoryMappedFile mmf = MemoryMappedFile.CreateNew("test1.pdf", 1000000)) { // Create a new pdf document object using the constructor. The parameters passed are document size, left margin, right margin, top margin and bottom margin. iTextSharp.text.Document d = new iTextSharp.text.Document(PageSize.A4, 72,72,172,72); //get an instance of the memory mapped file to stream object so that user can write to this using (MemoryMappedViewStream stream = mmf.CreateViewStream()) { // associate the document to the stream. PdfWriter.GetInstance(d, stream); /* add an image as bg*/ iTextSharp.text.Image jpg = iTextSharp.text.Image.GetInstance(Server.MapPath("Image/bg.png")); jpg.Alignment = iTextSharp.text.Image.UNDERLYING; jpg.SetAbsolutePosition(0, 0); //this is the size of my background letter head image. the size is in points. this will fit to A4 size document. jpg.ScaleToFit(595, 842); d.Open(); d.Add(jpg); d.Add(new Paragraph(String.Format("Dear {0} {1},", title, fullname))); d.Add(new Paragraph("\n")); d.Add(new Paragraph(msg)); d.Add(new Paragraph("\n")); d.Add(new Paragraph(String.Format("Administrator"))); d.Close(); } //read the file data byte[] b; using (MemoryMappedViewStream stream = mmf.CreateViewStream()) { BinaryReader rdr = new BinaryReader(stream); b = new byte[mmf.CreateViewStream().Length]; rdr.Read(b, 0, (int)mmf.CreateViewStream().Length); } Response.Clear(); Response.ContentType = "Application/pdf"; Response.BinaryWrite(b); Response.End(); } Press ctrl + f5 to run the application. First I got the user list. Click on the generate pdf icon. The created looks as follows. Summary: Creating pdf document using iTextSharp is easy. You will get lot of information while surfing the www. Some useful resources and references are mentioned below http://itextsharp.com/ http://www.mikesdotnetting.com/Article/82/iTextSharp-Adding-Text-with-Chunks-Phrases-and-Paragraphs http://somewebguy.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/itextsharp-simplify-your-html-to-pdf-creation/ Hope you enjoyed the article.

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  • How can a code editor effectively hint at code nesting level - without using indentation?

    - by pgfearo
    I've written an XML text editor that provides 2 view options for the same XML text, one indented (virtually), the other left-justified. The motivation for the left-justified view is to help users 'see' the whitespace characters they're using for indentation of plain-text or XPath code without interference from indentation that is an automated side-effect of the XML context. I want to provide visual clues (in the non-editable part of the editor) for the left-justified mode that will help the user, but without getting too elaborate. I tried just using connecting lines, but that seemed too busy. The best I've come up with so far is shown in a mocked up screenshot of the editor below, but I'm seeking better/simpler alternatives (that don't require too much code). [Edit] Taking the heatmap idea (from: @jimp) I get this and 3 alternatives - labelled a, b and c: The following section describes the accepted answer as a proposal, bringing together ideas from a number of other answers and comments. As this question is now community wiki, please feel free to update this. NestView The name for this idea which provides a visual method to improve the readability of nested code without using indentation. Contour Lines The name for the differently shaded lines within the NestView The image above shows the NestView used to help visualise an XML snippet. Though XML is used for this illustration, any other code syntax that uses nesting could have been used for this illustration. An Overview: The contour lines are shaded (as in a heatmap) to convey nesting level The contour lines are angled to show when a nesting level is being either opened or closed. A contour line links the start of a nesting level to the corresponding end. The combined width of contour lines give a visual impression of nesting level, in addition to the heatmap. The width of the NestView may be manually resizable, but should not change as the code changes. Contour lines can either be compressed or truncated to keep acheive this. Blank lines are sometimes used code to break up text into more digestable chunks. Such lines could trigger special behaviour in the NestView. For example the heatmap could be reset or a background color contour line used, or both. One or more contour lines associated with the currently selected code can be highlighted. The contour line associated with the selected code level would be emphasized the most, but other contour lines could also 'light up' in addition to help highlight the containing nested group Different behaviors (such as code folding or code selection) can be associated with clicking/double-clicking on a Contour Line. Different parts of a contour line (leading, middle or trailing edge) may have different dynamic behaviors associated. Tooltips can be shown on a mouse hover event over a contour line The NestView is updated continously as the code is edited. Where nesting is not well-balanced assumptions can be made where the nesting level should end, but the associated temporary contour lines must be highlighted in some way as a warning. Drag and drop behaviors of Contour Lines can be supported. Behaviour may vary according to the part of the contour line being dragged. Features commonly found in the left margin such as line numbering and colour highlighting for errors and change state could overlay the NestView. Additional Functionality The proposal addresses a range of additional issues - many are outside the scope of the original question, but a useful side-effect. Visually linking the start and end of a nested region The contour lines connect the start and end of each nested level Highlighting the context of the currently selected line As code is selected, the associated nest-level in the NestView can be highlighted Differentiating between code regions at the same nesting level In the case of XML different hues could be used for different namespaces. Programming languages (such as c#) support named regions that could be used in a similar way. Dividing areas within a nesting area into different visual blocks Extra lines are often inserted into code to aid readability. Such empty lines could be used to reset the saturation level of the NestView's contour lines. Multi-Column Code View Code without indentation makes the use of a multi-column view more effective because word-wrap or horizontal scrolling is less likely to be required. In this view, once code has reach the bottom of one column, it flows into the next one: Usage beyond merely providing a visual aid As proposed in the overview, the NestView could provide a range of editing and selection features which would be broadly in line with what is expected from a TreeView control. The key difference is that a typical TreeView node has 2 parts: an expander and the node icon. A NestView contour line can have as many as 3 parts: an opener (sloping), a connector (vertical) and a close (sloping). On Indentation The NestView presented alongside non-indented code complements, but is unlikely to replace, the conventional indented code view. It's likely that any solutions adopting a NestView, will provide a method to switch seamlessly between indented and non-indented code views without affecting any of the code text itself - including whitespace characters. One technique for the indented view would be 'Virtual Formatting' - where a dynamic left-margin is used in lieu of tab or space characters. The same nesting-level data used to dynamically render the NestView could also used for the more conventional-looking indented view. Printing Indentation will be important for the readability of printed code. Here, the absence of tab/space characters and a dynamic left-margin means that the text can wrap at the right-margin and still maintain the integrity of the indented view. Line numbers can be used as visual markers that indicate where code is word-wrapped and also the exact position of indentation: Screen Real-Estate: Flat Vs Indented Addressing the question of whether the NestView uses up valuable screen real-estate: Contour lines work well with a width the same as the code editor's character width. A NestView width of 12 character widths can therefore accommodate 12 levels of nesting before contour lines are truncated/compressed. If an indented view uses 3 character-widths for each nesting level then space is saved until nesting reaches 4 levels of nesting, after this nesting level the flat view has a space-saving advantage that increases with each nesting level. Note: A minimum indentation of 4 character widths is often recommended for code, however XML often manages with less. Also, Virtual Formatting permits less indentation to be used because there's no risk of alignment issues A comparison of the 2 views is shown below: Based on the above, its probably fair to conclude that view style choice will be based on factors other than screen real-estate. The one exception is where screen space is at a premium, for example on a Netbook/Tablet or when multiple code windows are open. In these cases, the resizable NestView would seem to be a clear winner. Use Cases Examples of real-world examples where NestView may be a useful option: Where screen real-estate is at a premium a. On devices such as tablets, notepads and smartphones b. When showing code on websites c. When multiple code windows need to be visible on the desktop simultaneously Where consistent whitespace indentation of text within code is a priority For reviewing deeply nested code. For example where sub-languages (e.g. Linq in C# or XPath in XSLT) might cause high levels of nesting. Accessibility Resizing and color options must be provided to aid those with visual impairments, and also to suit environmental conditions and personal preferences: Compatability of edited code with other systems A solution incorporating a NestView option should ideally be capable of stripping leading tab and space characters (identified as only having a formatting role) from imported code. Then, once stripped, the code could be rendered neatly in both the left-justified and indented views without change. For many users relying on systems such as merging and diff tools that are not whitespace-aware this will be a major concern (if not a complete show-stopper). Other Works: Visualisation of Overlapping Markup Published research by Wendell Piez, dated from 2004, addresses the issue of the visualisation of overlapping markup, specifically LMNL. This includes SVG graphics with significant similarities to the NestView proposal, as such, they are acknowledged here. The visual differences are clear in the images (below), the key functional distinction is that NestView is intended only for well-nested XML or code, whereas Wendell Piez's graphics are designed to represent overlapped nesting. The graphics above were reproduced - with kind permission - from http://www.piez.org Sources: Towards Hermenutic Markup Half-steps toward LMNL

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  • XBRL US Conference Highlights

    - by john.orourke(at)oracle.com
    Back in early November I had an opportunity to attend the XBRL US National Conference in Philadelphia.  At the event, XBRL US announced that Oracle had joined the initiative, so I had a chance to participate in a press conference and attend a number of sessions.  Oracle joined XBRL US so we can stay ahead of the standard and leverage it in our products, and to help drive awareness with customers and improve adoption of XBRL. There were roughly 250 attendees at the event, about half of which were vendors and consultants and the rest financial reporting staff from corporate filers.  Event sponsors included Ernst & Young, SWIFT and Fujitsu.  There were also a number of XBRL technology and service providers exhibiting at the conference.  On Monday Nov. 8th, the XBRL US Steering Committee meetings and Annual Members meeting and reception were held.  At the Annual Members meeting the big news was that current XBRL US President, Mark Bolgiano, is moving to a new position at Howard Hughes Medical Center.  Campbell Pryde, who had led the Taxonomy Development for XBRL US, is taking over as XBRL US President. Other items that were highlighted at the members meeting included: The US GAAP XBRL taxonomy is being used by over 1500 SEC filers and has now been handed over to the FASB to maintain and enhance 16 filer training events were held in 2010 XBRL Global Magazine was launched Corporate Actions proposal was submitted to the SEC with SWIFT in May XBRL Labs for iPhone, XBRL US Consistency Suite launched ISO 2022 Corporate Actions Alignment with XBRL achieved The XBRL Credit Rating taxonomy was accepted Tuesday Nov. 9th included Keynotes, General Sessions, Innovation Workshop for Governments and Securities Professionals, and an Opening Reception.  General sessions included: Lessons Learned from the SEC's rollout of XBRL.  More than 18,000 errors were identified in reviews of filings between June 2009 and September 2010.  Most of these related to negative values being used where they shouldn't have.  Also, the SEC feels there are too many taxonomy extensions being created - mostly in the Cash Flow Statements.  They emphasize using existing elements in the US GAAP taxonomy and advise filers not to  create extensions to improve the visual formatting of XBRL filings. Investors and XBRL - Setting the Standard for Data Quality.  In this panel discussion, the key learning was that CFA's, academics and the financial community are not using XBRL as expected.  The issues raised include the  accuracy and completeness of filings, number of taxonomy extensions, and limited number of tools available to help analyze XBRL data.  Another big issue that was raised is the lack of historic results in XBRL - most analysts need 10 quarters of historic data.  On the positive side, XBRL has the potential to eliminate re-keying of data and errors here and can improve analytic capabilities for financial analysts once more historic data is available and more companies are providing detailed tagging of their filings. A US Roadmap for XBRL Financial Reporting.  This was a panel discussion featuring Jeff Neumann(SEC), Campbell Pryde(XBRL US), and Louis Matherne(FASB).  Key points included the fact that XBRL is currently used by 1500 companies, with 8000 more companies coming in 2011.  XBRL for Mutual Fund Reporting will start in 2011 for 8000 funds, and a Credit Rating Taxonomy has now been submitted for review.  The XBRL tagging/filing process is improving each quarter - more education is helping here.  The FASB is looking at extensions to date, and potential additions to US GAAP taxonomy, while the SEC is evaluating filings for accuracy, consistency in tagging, and tools for analyzing data.  The big news is that the FASB 2011 US GAAP Taxonomy has been completed and reviewed by SEC.  The 2011 US GAAP Taxonomy supports new FASB accounting standards issued since 2009, has new taxonomy elements for certain industries (i.e airlines) and the elimination of 500 concepts.  (meaning they can't be used going forward but are still supported for historical comparison)  The 2011 US GAAP Taxonomy will be available for usage with Q2 2011 SEC filings.  More information about this can be found on the FASB web site.  http://www.fasb.org/home Accounting Firms and XBRL.  This session covered the Role of Audit Firms, which includes awareness and education, validation of XBRL filings, and in-house transition planning.  The main advice provided was that organizations should document XBRL mapping process, perform peer comparisons, and risk assessments on a regular basis. Wednesday Nov. 10th included more Keynotes, General Sessions on Corporate Actions, and XBRL Essentials Workshop Training for corporate filers.  The XBRL Essentials Training included: Getting Started Once you Have the Basics Detailed Footnote Tagging and Handling Tables Quality Control and Trust in the XBRL Process Bringing XBRL In-House:  What are the Options, What should you consider? The US GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy - Overview of the 2011 release The XBRL Essentials Training was well-attended with about 80 people.  This included a good overview of the SEC's XBRL mandate, limited liability issue, tagging levels, recommended planning process, internal vs. outsourced approach, and how to manage service providers.  I learned a lot from the session on detailed tagging.  This is the requirement that kicks in during a company's second year of XBRL filing with the SEC and applies to financial statements, footnotes and disclosures (it does not apply to MD&A, executive communications and other information).  The review of the Linkbase model, or dimensional table structure, was very interesting and can be complex to understand.  The key takeaway here is that using dimensional tables in XBRL filings can help limit the number of taxonomy extensions that are required.  The slides from this session are posted on the XBRL US web site. (http://xbrl.us/events/Pages/archive.aspx) For me, the main summary points and takeaways from the XBRL US conference are: XBRL for financial reporting has turned the corner and gone mainstream - with 1500 companies currently using it and 8000 more coming in 2011 The expected value is not being achieved by filers or consumers of XBRL data - this will improve when more companies are filing in XBRL, more history is available, and more software tools are available for analysis (hmm, sounds like an opportunity for Oracle) XBRL is becoming the global standard for all business communications beyond just the financials - i.e. adoption for mutual funds, corporate actions and others planned for the future If you would like to learn more about XBRL and the various training programs, services and software tools that are available check out the XBRL US web site and even better - become a member.  Here's a link:  http://xbrl.us/Pages/default.aspx

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  • Anatomy of a .NET Assembly - PE Headers

    - by Simon Cooper
    Today, I'll be starting a look at what exactly is inside a .NET assembly - how the metadata and IL is stored, how Windows knows how to load it, and what all those bytes are actually doing. First of all, we need to understand the PE file format. PE files .NET assemblies are built on top of the PE (Portable Executable) file format that is used for all Windows executables and dlls, which itself is built on top of the MSDOS executable file format. The reason for this is that when .NET 1 was released, it wasn't a built-in part of the operating system like it is nowadays. Prior to Windows XP, .NET executables had to load like any other executable, had to execute native code to start the CLR to read & execute the rest of the file. However, starting with Windows XP, the operating system loader knows natively how to deal with .NET assemblies, rendering most of this legacy code & structure unnecessary. It still is part of the spec, and so is part of every .NET assembly. The result of this is that there are a lot of structure values in the assembly that simply aren't meaningful in a .NET assembly, as they refer to features that aren't needed. These are either set to zero or to certain pre-defined values, specified in the CLR spec. There are also several fields that specify the size of other datastructures in the file, which I will generally be glossing over in this initial post. Structure of a PE file Most of a PE file is split up into separate sections; each section stores different types of data. For instance, the .text section stores all the executable code; .rsrc stores unmanaged resources, .debug contains debugging information, and so on. Each section has a section header associated with it; this specifies whether the section is executable, read-only or read/write, whether it can be cached... When an exe or dll is loaded, each section can be mapped into a different location in memory as the OS loader sees fit. In order to reliably address a particular location within a file, most file offsets are specified using a Relative Virtual Address (RVA). This specifies the offset from the start of each section, rather than the offset within the executable file on disk, so the various sections can be moved around in memory without breaking anything. The mapping from RVA to file offset is done using the section headers, which specify the range of RVAs which are valid within that section. For example, if the .rsrc section header specifies that the base RVA is 0x4000, and the section starts at file offset 0xa00, then an RVA of 0x401d (offset 0x1d within the .rsrc section) corresponds to a file offset of 0xa1d. Because each section has its own base RVA, each valid RVA has a one-to-one mapping with a particular file offset. PE headers As I said above, most of the header information isn't relevant to .NET assemblies. To help show what's going on, I've created a diagram identifying all the various parts of the first 512 bytes of a .NET executable assembly. I've highlighted the relevant bytes that I will refer to in this post: Bear in mind that all numbers are stored in the assembly in little-endian format; the hex number 0x0123 will appear as 23 01 in the diagram. The first 64 bytes of every file is the DOS header. This starts with the magic number 'MZ' (0x4D, 0x5A in hex), identifying this file as an executable file of some sort (an .exe or .dll). Most of the rest of this header is zeroed out. The important part of this header is at offset 0x3C - this contains the file offset of the PE signature (0x80). Between the DOS header & PE signature is the DOS stub - this is a stub program that simply prints out 'This program cannot be run in DOS mode.\r\n' to the console. I will be having a closer look at this stub later on. The PE signature starts at offset 0x80, with the magic number 'PE\0\0' (0x50, 0x45, 0x00, 0x00), identifying this file as a PE executable, followed by the PE file header (also known as the COFF header). The relevant field in this header is in the last two bytes, and it specifies whether the file is an executable or a dll; bit 0x2000 is set for a dll. Next up is the PE standard fields, which start with a magic number of 0x010b for x86 and AnyCPU assemblies, and 0x20b for x64 assemblies. Most of the rest of the fields are to do with the CLR loader stub, which I will be covering in a later post. After the PE standard fields comes the NT-specific fields; again, most of these are not relevant for .NET assemblies. The one that is is the highlighted Subsystem field, and specifies if this is a GUI or console app - 0x20 for a GUI app, 0x30 for a console app. Data directories & section headers After the PE and COFF headers come the data directories; each directory specifies the RVA (first 4 bytes) and size (next 4 bytes) of various important parts of the executable. The only relevant ones are the 2nd (Import table), 13th (Import Address table), and 15th (CLI header). The Import and Import Address table are only used by the startup stub, so we will look at those later on. The 15th points to the CLI header, where the CLR-specific metadata begins. After the data directories comes the section headers; one for each section in the file. Each header starts with the section's ASCII name, null-padded to 8 bytes. Again, most of each header is irrelevant, but I've highlighted the base RVA and file offset in each header. In the diagram, you can see the following sections: .text: base RVA 0x2000, file offset 0x200 .rsrc: base RVA 0x4000, file offset 0xa00 .reloc: base RVA 0x6000, file offset 0x1000 The .text section contains all the CLR metadata and code, and so is by far the largest in .NET assemblies. The .rsrc section contains the data you see in the Details page in the right-click file properties page, but is otherwise unused. The .reloc section contains address relocations, which we will look at when we study the CLR startup stub. What about the CLR? As you can see, most of the first 512 bytes of an assembly are largely irrelevant to the CLR, and only a few bytes specify needed things like the bitness (AnyCPU/x86 or x64), whether this is an exe or dll, and the type of app this is. There are some bytes that I haven't covered that affect the layout of the file (eg. the file alignment, which determines where in a file each section can start). These values are pretty much constant in most .NET assemblies, and don't affect the CLR data directly. Conclusion To summarize, the important data in the first 512 bytes of a file is: DOS header. This contains a pointer to the PE signature. DOS stub, which we'll be looking at in a later post. PE signature PE file header (aka COFF header). This specifies whether the file is an exe or a dll. PE standard fields. This specifies whether the file is AnyCPU/32bit or 64bit. PE NT-specific fields. This specifies what type of app this is, if it is an app. Data directories. The 15th entry (at offset 0x168) contains the RVA and size of the CLI header inside the .text section. Section headers. These are used to map between RVA and file offset. The important one is .text, which is where all the CLR data is stored. In my next post, we'll start looking at the metadata used by the CLR directly, which is all inside the .text section.

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  • The Application Architecture Domain

    - by Michael Glas
    I have been spending a lot of time thinking about Application Architecture in the context of EA. More specifically, as an Enterprise Architect, what do I need to consider when looking at/defining/designing the Application Architecture Domain?There are several definitions of Application Architecture. TOGAF says “The objective here [in Application Architecture] is to define the major kinds of application system necessary to process the data and support the business”. FEA says the Application Architecture “Defines the applications needed to manage the data and support the business functions”.I agree with these definitions. They reflect what the Application Architecture domain does. However, they need to be decomposed to be practical.I find it useful to define a set of views into the Application Architecture domain. These views reflect what an EA needs to consider when working with/in the Applications Architecture domain. These viewpoints are, at a high level:Capability View: This view reflects how applications alignment with business capabilities. It is a super set of the following views when viewed in aggregate. By looking at the Application Architecture domain in terms of the business capabilities it supports, you get a good perspective on how those applications are directly supporting the business.Technology View: The technology view reflects the underlying technology that makes up the applications. Based on the number of rationalization activities I have seen (more specifically application rationalization), the phrase “complexity equals cost” drives the importance of the technology view, especially when attempting to reduce that complexity through standardization type activities. Some of the technology components to be considered are: Software: The application itself as well as the software the application relies on to function (web servers, application servers). Infrastructure: The underlying hardware and network components required by the application and supporting application software. Development: How the application is created and maintained. This encompasses development components that are part of the application itself (i.e. customizable functions), as well as bolt on development through web services, API’s, etc. The maintenance process itself also falls under this view. Integration: The interfaces that the application provides for integration as well as the integrations to other applications and data sources the application requires to function. Type: Reflects the kind of application (mash-up, 3 tiered, etc). (Note: functional type [CRM, HCM, etc.] are reflected under the capability view). Organization View: Organizations are comprised of people and those people use applications to do their jobs. Trying to define the application architecture domain without taking the organization that will use/fund/change it into consideration is like trying to design a car without thinking about who will drive it (i.e. you may end up building a formula 1 car for a family of 5 that is really looking for a minivan). This view reflects the people aspect of the application. It includes: Ownership: Who ‘owns’ the application? This will usually reflect primary funding and utilization but not always. Funding: Who funds both the acquisition/creation as well as the on-going maintenance (funding to create/change/operate)? Change: Who can/does request changes to the application and what process to the follow? Utilization: Who uses the application, how often do they use it, and how do they use it? Support: Which organization is responsible for the on-going support of the application? Information View: Whether or not you subscribe to the view that “information drives the enterprise”, it is a fact that information is critical. The management, creation, and organization of that information are primary functions of enterprise applications. This view reflects how the applications are tied to information (or at a higher level – how the Application Architecture domain relates to the Information Architecture domain). It includes: Access: The application is the mechanism by which end users access information. This could be through a primary application (i.e. CRM application), or through an information access type application (a BI application as an example). Creation: Applications create data in order to provide information to end-users. (I.e. an application creates an order to be used by an end-user as part of the fulfillment process). Consumption: Describes the data required by applications to function (i.e. a product id is required by a purchasing application to create an order. Application Service View: Organizations today are striving to be more agile. As an EA, I need to provide an architecture that supports this agility. One of the primary ways to achieve the required agility in the application architecture domain is through the use of ‘services’ (think SOA, web services, etc.). Whether it is through building applications from the ground up utilizing services, service enabling an existing application, or buying applications that are already ‘service enabled’, compartmentalizing application functions for re-use helps enable flexibility in the use of those applications in support of the required business agility. The applications service view consists of: Services: Here, I refer to the generic definition of a service “a set of related software functionalities that can be reused for different purposes, together with the policies that should control its usage”. Functions: The activities within an application that are not available / applicable for re-use. This view is helpful when identifying duplication functions between applications that are not service enabled. Delivery Model View: It is hard to talk about EA today without hearing the terms ‘cloud’ or shared services.  Organizations are looking at the ways their applications are delivered for several reasons, to reduce cost (both CAPEX and OPEX), to improve agility (time to market as an example), etc.  From an EA perspective, where/how an application is deployed has impacts on the overall enterprise architecture. From integration concerns to SLA requirements to security and compliance issues, the Enterprise Architect needs to factor in how applications are delivered when designing the Enterprise Architecture. This view reflects how applications are delivered to end-users. The delivery model view consists of different types of delivery mechanisms/deployment options for applications: Traditional: Reflects non-cloud type delivery options. The most prevalent consists of an application running on dedicated hardware (usually specific to an environment) for a single consumer. Private Cloud: The application runs on infrastructure provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers. Public Cloud: The application runs on infrastructure provisioned for open use by the general public. Hybrid: The application is deployed on two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability. While by no means comprehensive, I find that applying these views to the application domain gives a good understanding of what an EA needs to consider when effecting changes to the Application Architecture domain.Finally, the application architecture domain is one of several architecture domains that an EA must consider when developing an overall Enterprise Architecture. The Oracle Enterprise Architecture Framework defines four Primary domains: Business Architecture, Application Architecture, Information Architecture, and Technology Architecture. Each domain links to the others either directly or indirectly at some point. Oracle links them at a high level as follows:Business Capabilities and/or Business Processes (Business Architecture), links to the Applications that enable the capability/process (Applications Architecture – COTS, Custom), links to the Information Assets managed/maintained by the Applications (Information Architecture), links to the technology infrastructure upon which all this runs (Technology Architecture - integration, security, BI/DW, DB infrastructure, deployment model). There are however, times when the EA needs to narrow focus to a particular domain for some period of time. These views help me to do just that.

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  • Rapid Evolution of Society & Technology

    - by Michael Snow
    We caught up with Brian Solis on the phone the other day and Christie Flanagan had a chance to chat with him and learn a bit more about him and some of the concepts he'll be addressing in our Social Business Thought Leaders Webcast on Thursday 12/13/12. «--- Interview with Brian Solis  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* 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-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Be sure and register for this week's webcast ---» ------------------- Guest post by Brian Solis. Reposted (Borrowed) from his posting of May 24, 2012 Dear [insert business name], what’s your promise? - Brian Solis You say you want to get closer to customers, but your actions are different than your words. You say you want to “surprise and delight” customers, but your product development teams are too busy building against a roadmap without consideration of the 5th P of marketing…people. Your employees are your number one asset, however the infrastructure of the organization has turned once optimistic and ambitious intrapreneurs into complacent cogs or worse, your greatest detractors. You question the adoption of disruptive technology by your internal champions yet you’ve not tried to find the value for yourself. You’re a change agent and you truly wish to bring about change, but you’ve not invested time or resources to answer “why” in your endeavors to become a connected or social business. If we are to truly change, we must find purpose. We must uncover the essence of our business and the value it delivers to traditional and connected consumers. We must rethink the spirit of today’s embrace and clearly articulate how transformation is going to improve customer and employee experiences and relationships now and over time. Without doing so, any attempts at evolution will be thwarted by reality. In an era of Digital Darwinism, no business is too big to fail or too small to succeed. These are undisciplined times which require alternative approaches to recognize and pursue new opportunities. But everything begins with acknowledging the 360 view of the world that you see today is actually a filtered view of managed and efficient convenience. Today, many organizations that were once inspired by innovation and engagement have fallen into a process of marketing, operationalizing, managing, and optimizing. That might have worked for the better part of the last century, but for the next 10 years and beyond, new vision, leadership and supporting business models will be written to move businesses from rigid frameworks to adaptive and agile entities. I believe that today’s executives will undergo a great test; a test of character, vision, intention, and universal leadership. It starts with a simple, but essential question…what is your promise? Notice, I didn’t ask about your brand promise. Nor did I ask for you to cite your mission and vision statements. This is much more than value propositions or manufactured marketing language designed to hook audiences and stakeholders. I asked for your promise to me as your consumer, stakeholder, and partner. This isn’t about B2B or B2C, but instead, people to people, person to person. It is this promise that will breathe new life into an organization that on the outside, could be misdiagnosed as catatonic by those who are disrupting your markets. A promise, for example, is meant to inspire. It creates alignment. It serves as the foundation for your vision, mission, and all business strategies and it must come from the top to mean anything. For without it, we cannot genuinely voice what it is we stand for or stand behind. Think for a moment about the definition of community. It’s easy to confuse a workplace or a market where everyone simply shares common characteristics. However, a community in this day and age is much more than belonging to something, it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter The next few years will force a divide where companies are separated by intention as measured by actions and words. But, becoming a social business is not enough. Becoming more authentic and transparent doesn’t serve as a mantra for a renaissance. A promise is the ink that inscribes the spirit of the relationship between you and me. A promise serves as the words that influence change from within and change beyond the halls of our business. It is the foundation for a renewed embrace, one that must then find its way to every aspect of the organization. It’s the difference between a social business and an adaptive business. While an adaptive business can also be social, it is the culture of the organization that strives to not just use technology to extend current philosophies or processes into new domains, but instead give rise to a new culture where striving for relevance is among its goals. The tools and networks simply become enablers of a greater mission You are reading this because you believe in something more than what you’re doing today. While you fight for change within your organization, remember to aim for a higher purpose. Organizations that strive for innovation, imagination, and relevance will outperform those that do not. Part of your job is to lead a missionary push that unites the groundswell with a top down cascade. Change will only happen because you and other internal champions see what others can’t and will do what other won’t. It takes resolve. It takes the ability to translate new opportunities into business value. And, it takes courage. “This is a very noisy world, so we have to be very clear what we want them to know about us”-Steve Jobs ----------------------------------------------------------------- So -- where do you begin to evaluate the kind of experience you are delivering for your customers, partners, and employees?  Take a look at this White Paper: Creating a Successful and Meaningful Customer Experience on the Web and then have a cup of coffee while you listen to the sage advice of Guy Kawasaki in a short video below.   An interview with Guy Kawasaki on Maximizing Social Media Channels 

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  • Webcast Q&A: Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter

    - by kellsey.ruppel
    Last Thursday we had the second webcast in our WebCenter in Action webcast series, "Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter, where customer Michael Chander from Qualcomm and Vince Casarez & Gourav Goyal from Oracle Partner Keste shared how Oracle WebCenter is powering Qualcomm’s externally facing website and providing a seamless experience for their customers. In case you missed it, here's a recap of the Q&A.   Mike Chandler, Qualcomm Q: Did you run into any issues when integrating all of the different applications together?A: Definitely, our main challenges were in the area of user provisioning and security propagation, all the standard stuff you might expect when hooking up SSO for authentication and authorization. In addition, we spent several iterations getting the UI’s in sync. While everyone was given the same digital material to build too, each team interpreted and implemented it their own way. Initially as a user navigated, if you were looking for it, you could slight variations in color or font or width , stuff like that. So we had to pull all the developers responsible for the UI together and get pixel level agreement on a lot of things so we could ensure seamless transitions across applications. Q: What has been the biggest benefit your end users have seen?A: Wow, there have been several. An SSO enabled environment was huge a win for our users. The portal application that this replaced had not really been invested in by the business. With this project, we had full business participation and backing, and it really showed in some key areas like the shopping experience. For example, while ordering in the previous site, the items did not have any pictures or really usable descriptions. A tremendous amount of work was done to try and make the site more intuitive and user friendly. Site performance has also drastically improved thanks to new hardware, improved database design, and of course the fact that ADF has made great strides in runtime performance. Q: Was there any resistance internally when implementing the solution? If so, how did you overcome that?A: Within a large company, I’m sure there is always going to be competition for large projects, as there was here. Once we got through the technical analysis and settled on the technology choices, it was actually no resistance to implementing the solution. This project was fully driven by the business with the aim of long term growth. I can confidently say that the fact that this project was given the utmost importance by both the business and IT really help put down any resistance that you would typically see while implementing a new solution. Q: Given the performance, what do you estimate to be the top end capacity of the system? A:I think our top end capacity is really only limited by our hardware. I’m comfortable saying we could grow 10x on our current hardware, both in terms of transactions and users. We can easily spin up new JVM instances if needed. We already use less JVM’s than we had planned. In addition, ADF is doing a very good job with his connection pooling and application module pooling, so we see a very good ratio of users connected to the systems vs db connections, without impacting performace. Q: What's the overview or summary of feedback from the users interacting with the site?A: Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from both the business and our customers. They’re very happy with the new SSO environment , the new LAF, and the performance of the site. Of course, it’s not all roses. No matter what, there are always going to be people that don’t like the layout or the color scheme, etc. By and large though, customers are happy and the business is happy. Q: Can you describe the impressions about the site before and after the project within Qualcomm?A: Before the project, the site worked and people were using it, but most people were not happy with it. It was slow and tended to be a bit tempermental, for example a user would perform a transaction and the system would throw and unexpected error. The user could back up and retry the steps and things would work fine, so why didn’t work the first time?. From a UI perspective, we’d hear comments like it looked like it was built by a high school student.  Vince Casarez & Gourav Goyal, Keste Q: Did you run into any obstacles when implementing the solution?A: It's interesting some people call them "obstacles" on this project we just called them "dependencies".  There were both technical and business related dependencies that we had to work out. Mike points out the SSO dependencies and the coordination and synchronization between the teams to have a seamless login experience and a seamless end user experience.  There was also a set of dependencies on the User Acceptance testing to make sure that everyone understood the use cases for how the system would be used.  With a branching into a new market and trying to match a simple user experience as many consumer sites have today, there was always a tendency for the team members to provide their suggestions on how things could be simpler.  But with all the work up front on the user design and getting the business driving this set of experiences, this minimized the downstream suggestions that tend to distract a team.  In this case, all the work up front allowed us to enumerate the "dependencies" and keep the distractions to a minimum. Q: Was there a lot of custom work that needed to be done for this particular solution?A: The focus for this particular solution was really on the custom processes. The interesting thing is that with the data flows and the integration with applications, there are some pre-built integrations, but realistically for the process flow, we had to build those. The framework and tooling we used made things easier so we didn’t have to implement core functionality, like transitioning from screen to screen or from flow to flow. The design feature of Task Flows really helped speed the development and keep the component infrastructure in line with the dynamic processes.  Task flows and other elements like Skins are core to the infrastructure or technology stack of Oracle. This then allowed the team to center the project focus around the business flows and use cases to meet the core requirements and keep the project on time. Q: What do you think were the keys to success for rolling out WebCenter?A:  The 5 main keys to success were: 1) Sponsorship from the whole organization around this project from senior executive agreement, business owners driving functionality, and IT development alignment; 2) Upfront design planning and use case definition to clearly define the project scope and requirements; 3) Focussed development and project management aligned with the top level goals and drivers; 4) User acceptance and usability testing along the way to identify potential issues and direct resolution of the issues;  and 5) Constant prioritization of the issues for development to fix by the business.  It also helps to have great team chemistry and really smart people working on the project. If you missed the webcast, be sure to catch the replay to see a live demonstration of WebCenter in action!  Qualcomm Provides a Seamless Experience for Customers with Oracle WebCenter from Oracle WebCenter

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