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  • Professional WCF 4.0: Windows Communication Foundation with .NET 4.0

    - by cibrax
    The book in which I been working on since last year finally went to the light this week. It has been the result of hard work between me and three other Connected Systems MVP, my friend Fabio Cozzolino, Kurt Claeys and Johann Grabner. If you are interested in learning the new features in WCF 4.0, but also WCF in general and how to apply in real world scenarios, this book is for you. I dedicated three chapters of this book to one of my favorites topics, Security, from the basics to more complicated scenarios with Claim-Based security and Federated authentication using WCF services with Windows Identity Foundation. You can find more information about the book and the table of contents in the Wrox web site here.

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  • True Excel Templates for BI Publisher

    - by Annemarie Provisero
    ADVISOR WEBCAST: True Excel Templates for BI Publisher PRODUCT FAMILY: EBS/ATG/BI Publisher  July 12, 2011 at 7am PT, 8 am MT, 10 am ET This one-hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who want to learn how to code Excel formatted layouts for use with BI Publisher to generate binary Excel output. TOPICS WILL INCLUDE: Creating a simple template Formatting Dates Creating Functions A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Oracle Advisor Webcasts are dedicated to building your awareness around our products and services. This session does not replace offerings from Oracle Global Support Services. Click here to register for this session ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The above webcast is a service of the E-Business Suite Communities in My Oracle Support. For more information on other webcasts, please reference the Oracle Advisor Webcast Schedule.Click here to visit the E-Business Communities in My Oracle Support Note that all links require access to My Oracle Support.

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  • Modular Open MMO RPG

    - by Chris Valentine
    Has there been an MMORPG type attempt at some kind of open universe where you could host a server on your own if you wish and it would merely be added to the collective of possible places to travel within the MMO? Two types come to mind, a DnD Neverwinter Nights type place or something like EVE online. Where there is a "universe" and each hosted space is a planet or solar system or galaxy and players can travel between them using the same characters/ships/portal system and each new server is than just a new adventure or place to go. I would also assume there were dedicated/replicated servers that housed the characters/inventory themselves so that the environment was decentralized and always expandable. Not sure thats clear but has there been any such attempts or WIP? thanks

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  • Professional WCF 4.0: Windows Communication Foundation with .NET 4.0

    The book in which I been working on since last year finally went to the light this week. It has been the result of hard work between me and three other Connected Systems MVP, my friend Fabio Cozzolino, Kurt Claeys and Johann Grabner. If you are interested in learning the new features in WCF 4.0, but also WCF in general and how to apply in real world scenarios, this book is for you. I dedicated three chapters of this book to one of my favorites topics, Security, from the basics to more complicated...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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  • AMD/AMD GPU Switching

    - by user73816
    I have two GPU's in my laptop, both of which are AMD. Whenever I use the Catalyst Control Centre to change the GPU, nothing changes after reboot. In fact, when I do the fglrxinfo command the terminal only reports seeing one GPU, the integrated one (HD 4250). The dedicated one (Mobility HD5470) goes unnoticed and I can't seem to use that GPU at all. I really don't want to use the Open Source drivers because I've found there generally slower than the proprietary, but the proprietary doesn't seem to work either. Any help is appreciated.

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  • A few meta questions about making flash games

    - by idan
    A few questions for a beginner game maker without an artist. Is there a site where flash game creators can download (and use) free art? I don't need character sprites but environments like trees, clouds, platforms, etc. Is there a site where a programmer can collaborate with an artist and a composer? (Even if so, the chances are low for a beginner with no portfolio to find an artist willing to collaborate, right?) Do you have recommended sites for asking action script questions (dedicated solely to flash?) Thanks!

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  • Convert DVD to MKV (et al) without transcoding/recompression

    - by Oli
    Like a lot of people, I have a lot of DVDs. But we also have a stupid amount of disk space and a media centre (Boxee) so the DVDs are getting less and less use. It would be nice to convert our DVDs into something more relevant to our needs. I've dabbled with DVD ripping before but whereas I'd usually transcode down to a smaller picture size with a better video compression algorithm, this takes a silly amount of time. I don't have a couple of hours available for each disk. (Sidebar: is there dedicated, Linux-friendly hardware to improve h264 encoding performance?) So I was wondering if there's anything that take the DVD filesystem, De-CSS it, and then stitch together any the VOBs that make up the main part of the film and package that up in a wrapping format like MKV. A bonus would be if it could grab the subtitles and stick them in too but that's not a requirement as Boxee can grab the subtitles online if it needs to.

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  • Oracle India: Become an Oracle Student Ambassador

    - by user769227
     As the new year begins in India for many students, Oracle India is currently looking for bright, energetic students who are interested in becoming Oracle Campus Ambassadors. We have a dedicated team of Campus Recruiters who are regularly on site at selected Engineering Colleges in India - we need your help to spread the Oracle message within the Student Community. This is a great chance to work with one of the global leaders in the IT space and get some exposure to Oracle that many people do not get the chance to experience We are specifically looking for Campus Ambassadors at these colleges:   IIT Kanpur IIT Delhi  IIT  Madras  IIT Kharagpur  IIT Kharagpur  IIT Bombay  IIT Guwahati  IT-BHU  BITS Pilani  BITS Goa  IISc Bangalore  Do you want to find out more? Have a read of the Infographic we have created below that will talk a little about what an 'Oracle Ambassador' actually will do. If you are interested in this fantastic opportunity and meet the eligibility criteria send us your resume at [email protected] We are excited for another great school and we are looking forward to sharing that experience with you.

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  • Five Reasons to Attend PLM Summit 2013: The Conference Formerly Known as AGILITY

    - by Terri Hiskey
    As we approach the end of 2012, we are also closing in on the last couple of weeks that Agile customers and prospects can register for the upcoming PLM Summit 2013 for the bargain early bird rate of $195. Register now to secure your spot! The Conference Formerly Known as AGILITY... Long-time Agile customers may remember AGILITY, which was Agile's PLM customer conference that was held on an annual basis prior to Oracle's acquisiton of Agile in 2007. In February 2012, due to feedback we received from our Agile PLM community, we successfully resurrected the AGILITY conference and renamed it the PLM Summit. The PLM Summit was so well received and well-attended, that we are doing it again in 2013. This upcoming PLM Summit is being co-located in San Francisco under the overarching banner of the Oracle Value Chain Summit, and will be held alongside several other Oracle customer conferences that cover a range of value chain solutions, including Value Chain Planning, Value Chain Execution, Procurement, Maintenance and Manufacturing. This setup offers PLM attendees the best of all worlds--the opportunity to participate and learn about PLM in smaller, focused sessions by product and by industry, while also giving attendees the chance to see how PLM works together with other critical enterprise applications that address other important aspects of the value chain. Top Five Reasons to Attend the PLM Summit 2013 In the spirit of all of the end-of-the-year lists that are currently popping up, here is a list of the top five reasons to attend the PLM Summit for anyone out there needs a little extra encouragement to register: 1. The Best Opportunities for Customer Networking   The PLM Summit offers attendees numerous opportunities to learn and network with fellow Agile users. Customer stories are featured in keynote and breakout presentations and the schedule allows for plenty of networking time during breakfasts, lunches, breaks and dinners. Customer networking is the number one reason that Agile users attend the PLM Summit. Read what attendees thought of the most recent PLM Summit: "Hearing about the implementation of Agile products from a customers’ perspective is invaluable." - Director of Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs, leading medical device manufacturer "Understanding the scope of other companies’ projects and the lessons learned made attending this event well worth my time." - Director of Test Engineering, global industrial manufacturer "The most beneficial thing about attending this event is the opportunity to network with other customers with similar experiences." - Director of Business Process Improvement, leading high technology company Come to the PLM Summit and play an active role within the PLM community: swap war stories and business cards, connect on LinkedIn and Facebook, share your stories and discuss the sessions from each day. Register now! 2. It's Educational! The PLM Summit is the premier educational event for anyone in the Agile PLM community. There are nearly 40 PLM-focused in-depth educational sessions led by Agile PLM experts, customers and partners that will cover a range of specific product and industry-focused topics. Keynotes will give attendees a broad overview of the entire Agile PLM footprint, while sessions will delve deeply into specific product functionality and customer case studies. There is truly something for everyone. Check out the latest agenda for view of all the sessions. 3. Visit with the PLM Partner Community Our partners play a significant and important role within the Agile PLM community. At the PLM Summit, attendees will be able to meet and mingle with several of the top Oracle Agile PLM partners including: Deloitte, Domain, GoEngineer, Hitachi Consulting, IBM, Kalypso, KPIT Cummins (CPG Solutions), Perception Software, Verdant, Xavor and ZeroWaitState. Go here for a complete list of all the Value Chain Summit sponsors. 4. See Agile PLM in Action at our Dedicated PLM Demo Pods At the PLM Summit, attendees will have the chance to see Agile PLM in action at dedicated PLM demo pods, manned by expert members of our Agile PLM team. If you would like to see up close specific Agile PLM functionality, or if you have a question on how to extend the scope of your current implemention or if you want a better understanding of how to leverage Agile PLM to address specific use-cases, stop by one of the Agile PLM demo pods and engage the Agile PLM experts on hand at the PLM Summit. 5. Spend Some Time in Lovely San Francisco Still on the fence about the upcoming PLM Summit? Remember that it is being held in San Francisco, which is a fantastic city for a getaway. After spending time learning and networking about PLM, take an extra day or two to escape the dreary winter and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the unique actitivies offered only by the City by the Bay. You will walk away from the conference not only with renewed excitement about Agile PLM, but feeling rejuvenated in general.

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  • Hide collision layer in libgdx with TiledMap?

    - by Daniel Jonsson
    I'm making a 2D game with libgdx, and I'm using its TileMapRenderer to render my map which I have made in the map editor Tiled. In Tiled I have a dedicated collision layer. However, I can't figure out how I'm supposed to hide it and its tiles in the game. This is how a map is loaded: TiledMap map = TiledLoader.createMap(Gdx.files.internal("maps/map.tmx")); TileAtlas atlas = new TileAtlas(map, Gdx.files.internal("maps")); tileMapRenderer = new TileMapRenderer(map, atlas, 32, 32); Currently the collision tiles are rendered on top of everything else, as I see them in the map editor.

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  • Book Review: Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns by Scott Millett

    - by Sam Abraham
    In the next few lines, I will be providing a brief review of Wrox’s Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns by Scott Millett. Design patterns have been a hot topic for many years as developers looked to do more with less, re-use as much code as possible by creating common libraries, as well as make their code easier to understand, extend and collaborate on. Scott Millett’s book covered classic and emerging patterns in a practical presentation that demonstrated with thorough examples how to put each pattern to use in the context of multi-tiered ASP.NET applications. The author’s unique approach and content earned him much kudos in the foreword by Scott Hanselman as well as online reviews. The book has 14 chapters of which 5 are dedicated to a comprehensive case study. Patterns covered therein include S.O.L.I.D, Gang of Four (GoF) as well as Martin Fowler’s Patterns of Enterprise Applications. Many thanks to the Wiley/Wrox User Group Program for their support of our West Palm Beach Developers’ Group. Best regards, --Sam You can access my reviews of books I recently read: Professional WCF 4.0 Inside Windows Communication Foundation Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 series

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  • Who organizes your Matlab code?

    - by KE
    After reading How to organize MATLAB code?, I had a follow up question. If you work in a group of Matlab programmers, who enforces the organization of the shared Matlab code and project matfiles? For example do you have a dedicated Matlab IT person, or does the most senior programmer issue guidelines that everyone must follow, or does everyone agree to follow a system? In my small group, each person has their own 'system'. Matlab code and project matfiles are either piled into a shared drive or tucked away on people's own computers. Hard to recreate work done by another person, or even to locate their code. There were lots of good suggestions on how to get organized. But it seems like someone has to make the trains run on time. Who does it in your group?

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  • Oracle CloudWorld: Social, Mobile, Complete.

    - by Dana Singleterry
    Mobile, social, and cloud are redefining how business gets done. Discover what your company can do to take advantage of these new opportunities and gain a competitive advantage at Oracle CloudWorld. Experience insightful keynotes, real-world case studies, in-depth Q&A sessions, hands-on demos, face-to-face networking, and dedicated tracks for different audiences.In one day, you'll learn how Oracle Cloud can transform your organization. View Streams and Sessions. First event is coming soon: Dubai, UAE, January 15 followed by Los Angeles, US, January 29. Check out all the events around the world and find one that fits your schedule. Register Now!

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  • Oracle CloudWorld: Social, Mobile, Complete.

    - by Dana Singleterry
    Mobile, social, and cloud are redefining how business gets done. Discover what your company can do to take advantage of these new opportunities and gain a competitive advantage at Oracle CloudWorld. Experience insightful keynotes, real-world case studies, in-depth Q&A sessions, hands-on demos, face-to-face networking, and dedicated tracks for different audiences. In one day, you'll learn how Oracle Cloud can transform your organization. View Streams and Sessions. First event is coming soon: Dubai, UAE, January 15 followed by Los Angeles, US, January 29. Check out all the events around the world and find one that fits your schedule. Register Now!

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  • Can i make money with my Android Engine or should I focus on game-making?

    - by Roger Travis
    I have dedicated past few month to developing my own android 2d engine. You can see its description, demo and tutorials here http://www.aboxengine.com/ ( jar files will be up in a day or two ). While working on the engine I believed it to be better then most available alternatives ( such as andengine, etc. ) and that people would love to use it in their games and, hopefully, would give me some royalties. Yet as I started posting about my engine on other forums, it start looking like people are only interested in free/opensource engines. Based on your experience, what do you think, is there some way for me to make money with that engine or should I forget about selling it and more focus on making games with it myself? Thanks!

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  • How to produce assets effectively on large Flash game projects?

    - by Antoine Lassauzay
    I have been working on Flash games professionally for two years now and somehow, having our artists producing assets the right way is one of our biggest challenge. More precisely, it is very hard to have them following any kind of structure and/or standards, nor taking into consideration performance. I would say also the most of our issues concerns UI and related animations. Our current workflow is (on a Facebook hidden object game) : Artists produce PSD and animate prototypes in Flash Artists re-organize their FLA files to be a bit more "programmer friendly" Programmers retouches assets until they have the right structure and export classes inside a SWC, from Flash Programmers try to improve performances, sometimes degrading the quality of game graphics Our main idea is to hire somebody dedicated to prepare assets for programmers but I am really looking forward to improving the pipeline. I was wondering if you guys have tips of any kind to improve this workflow, whether it be team organization, training, tools or tips with Flash. Any explanation on your asset pipeline is well appreciated too.

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  • Why am I getting cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi coming up when I browse my webpage?

    - by CraigJ
    I've recently set up a website with a smaller hosting company. The plan has a dedicated IP. They sent me emails to say it's all set up, but now their support channels are all unresponsive even though they say it's open 24 hours. In the File Manager in the cpanel I've put an index.html file in the public_html directory. But when I point my browser to the IP address given to me, it comes up with the cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi page. What is the problem? I haven't set the name-servers for my domain yet, but that shouldn't be a problem because I am using the IP address in the browser. Note: I don't think I have access to ssh.

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  • Replica Myst Book Actually Plays all the Myst Games

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Runaway 1990s gaming hit Myst features books that had the power to transport you to other worlds. One dedicated fan has gone so far as to make a book that, when opened, transports you to the Myst universe. From hand-crafting the book itself to populating the guts of the book with carefully selected (and frequently modified) parts, Mike Ando left no part of his project uncustomized. The end result is a stunning mod and tribute to the Myst franchise–a beautiful book you can open and play through all the games in the series. Check out the video above to see it in action then hit up the link below to check out Mike’s build album. Myst Book [via Hack A Day] What Is the Purpose of the “Do Not Cover This Hole” Hole on Hard Drives? How To Log Into The Desktop, Add a Start Menu, and Disable Hot Corners in Windows 8 HTG Explains: Why You Shouldn’t Use a Task Killer On Android

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  • Is this overkill? Using MDX queries and cubes instead of SQL stored procedures

    - by Jason Holland
    I am new to Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services Cubes and MDX queries. Where I work we have a daily sales table in SQL Server 2005 that already contains an aggregate of sale information per store per day. At this time it contains only 164,000+ rows. We have a sales cube dedicated to this table that about 15 reports are based off of. Now, I should also note that we generate reports based on our own fiscal year criteria: a 13 period year (1 month equals 28 days etc.). Is this overkill? At what point is it justified to begin using SSAS Cubes/MDX over plain old SQL Server stored procedures? Since I have always been just using plain old SQL am I tragically late to the MDX party?

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  • A simple trick to play YouTube videos in background on iPhone/iPad running on iOS 7

    - by Gopinath
    YouTube is not only the best source of videos, but also for great music. Most of the Indian movie music albums are officially released on YouTube with high quality. I hear a lot of music on YouTube instead of streaming from dedicated music streaming websites as their quality is no match to YouTube. While it is possible to run YouTube in the background on desktop, it is not possible on smartphones and tablets as they stop the background YouTube app automatically. But a simple trick from tech guru labnol let you play YouTube videos on the background on iPhone/iPads running on the latest iOS 7. Here is a video demonstration of the trick Read detailed explanation of the trick at labnol and don’t miss to browse through hundreds of useful tips and tricks listed on the blog.

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  • Towards Database Continuous Delivery – What Next after Continuous Integration? A Checklist

    - by Ben Rees
    .dbd-banner p{ font-size:0.75em; padding:0 0 10px; margin:0 } .dbd-banner p span{ color:#675C6D; } .dbd-banner p:last-child{ padding:0; } @media ALL and (max-width:640px){ .dbd-banner{ background:#f0f0f0; padding:5px; color:#333; margin-top: 5px; } } -- Database delivery patterns & practices STAGE 4 AUTOMATED DEPLOYMENT If you’ve been fortunate enough to get to the stage where you’ve implemented some sort of continuous integration process for your database updates, then hopefully you’re seeing the benefits of that investment – constant feedback on changes your devs are making, advanced warning of data loss (prior to the production release on Saturday night!), a nice suite of automated tests to check business logic, so you know it’s going to work when it goes live, and so on. But what next? What can you do to improve your delivery process further, moving towards a full continuous delivery process for your database? In this article I describe some of the issues you might need to tackle on the next stage of this journey, and how to plan to overcome those obstacles before they appear. Our Database Delivery Learning Program consists of four stages, really three – source controlling a database, running continuous integration processes, then how to set up automated deployment (the middle stage is split in two – basic and advanced continuous integration, making four stages in total). If you’ve managed to work through the first three of these stages – source control, basic, then advanced CI, then you should have a solid change management process set up where, every time one of your team checks in a change to your database (whether schema or static reference data), this change gets fully tested automatically by your CI server. But this is only part of the story. Great, we know that our updates work, that the upgrade process works, that the upgrade isn’t going to wipe our 4Tb of production data with a single DROP TABLE. But – how do you get this (fully tested) release live? Continuous delivery means being always ready to release your software at any point in time. There’s a significant gap between your latest version being tested, and it being easily releasable. Just a quick note on terminology – there’s a nice piece here from Atlassian on the difference between continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment. This piece also gives a nice description of the benefits of continuous delivery. These benefits have been summed up by Jez Humble at Thoughtworks as: “Continuous delivery is a set of principles and practices to reduce the cost, time, and risk of delivering incremental changes to users” There’s another really useful piece here on Simple-Talk about the need for continuous delivery and how it applies to the database written by Phil Factor – specifically the extra needs and complexities of implementing a full CD solution for the database (compared to just implementing CD for, say, a web app). So, hopefully you’re convinced of moving on the the next stage! The next step after CI is to get some sort of automated deployment (or “release management”) process set up. But what should I do next? What do I need to plan and think about for getting my automated database deployment process set up? Can’t I just install one of the many release management tools available and hey presto, I’m ready! If only it were that simple. Below I list some of the areas that it’s worth spending a little time on, where a little planning and prep could go a long way. It’s also worth pointing out, that this should really be an evolving process. Depending on your starting point of course, it can be a long journey from your current setup to a full continuous delivery pipeline. If you’ve got a CI mechanism in place, you’re certainly a long way down that path. Nevertheless, we’d recommend evolving your process incrementally. Pages 157 and 129-141 of the book on Continuous Delivery (by Jez Humble and Dave Farley) have some great guidance on building up a pipeline incrementally: http://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Delivery-Deployment-Automation-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321601912 For now, in this post, we’ll look at the following areas for your checklist: You and Your Team Environments The Deployment Process Rollback and Recovery Development Practices You and Your Team It’s a cliché in the DevOps community that “It’s not all about processes and tools, really it’s all about a culture”. As stated in this DevOps report from Puppet Labs: “DevOps processes and tooling contribute to high performance, but these practices alone aren’t enough to achieve organizational success. The most common barriers to DevOps adoption are cultural: lack of manager or team buy-in, or the value of DevOps isn’t understood outside of a specific group”. Like most clichés, there’s truth in there – if you want to set up a database continuous delivery process, you need to get your boss, your department, your company (if relevant) onside. Why? Because it’s an investment with the benefits coming way down the line. But the benefits are huge – for HP, in the book A Practical Approach to Large-Scale Agile Development: How HP Transformed LaserJet FutureSmart Firmware, these are summarized as: -2008 to present: overall development costs reduced by 40% -Number of programs under development increased by 140% -Development costs per program down 78% -Firmware resources now driving innovation increased by a factor of 8 (from 5% working on new features to 40% But what does this mean? It means that, when moving to the next stage, to make that extra investment in automating your deployment process, it helps a lot if everyone is convinced that this is a good thing. That they understand the benefits of automated deployment and are willing to make the effort to transform to a new way of working. Incidentally, if you’re ever struggling to convince someone of the value I’d strongly recommend just buying them a copy of this book – a great read, and a very practical guide to how it can really work at a large org. I’ve spoken to many customers who have implemented database CI who describe their deployment process as “The point where automation breaks down. Up to that point, the CI process runs, untouched by human hand, but as soon as that’s finished we revert to manual.” This deployment process can involve, for example, a DBA manually comparing an environment (say, QA) to production, creating the upgrade scripts, reading through them, checking them against an Excel document emailed to him/her the night before, turning to page 29 in his/her notebook to double-check how replication is switched off and on for deployments, and so on and so on. Painful, error-prone and lengthy. But the point is, if this is something like your deployment process, telling your DBA “We’re changing everything you do and your toolset next week, to automate most of your role – that’s okay isn’t it?” isn’t likely to go down well. There’s some work here to bring him/her onside – to explain what you’re doing, why there will still be control of the deployment process and so on. Or of course, if you’re the DBA looking after this process, you have to do a similar job in reverse. You may have researched and worked out how you’d like to change your methodology to start automating your painful release process, but do the dev team know this? What if they have to start producing different artifacts for you? Will they be happy with this? Worth talking to them, to find out. As well as talking to your DBA/dev team, the other group to get involved before implementation is your manager. And possibly your manager’s manager too. As mentioned, unless there’s buy-in “from the top”, you’re going to hit problems when the implementation starts to get rocky (and what tool/process implementations don’t get rocky?!). You need to have support from someone senior in your organisation – someone you can turn to when you need help with a delayed implementation, lack of resources or lack of progress. Actions: Get your DBA involved (or whoever looks after live deployments) and discuss what you’re planning to do or, if you’re the DBA yourself, get the dev team up-to-speed with your plans, Get your boss involved too and make sure he/she is bought in to the investment. Environments Where are you going to deploy to? And really this question is – what environments do you want set up for your deployment pipeline? Assume everyone has “Production”, but do you have a QA environment? Dedicated development environments for each dev? Proper pre-production? I’ve seen every setup under the sun, and there is often a big difference between “What we want, to do continuous delivery properly” and “What we’re currently stuck with”. Some of these differences are: What we want What we’ve got Each developer with their own dedicated database environment A single shared “development” environment, used by everyone at once An Integration box used to test the integration of all check-ins via the CI process, along with a full suite of unit-tests running on that machine In fact if you have a CI process running, you’re likely to have some sort of integration server running (even if you don’t call it that!). Whether you have a full suite of unit tests running is a different question… Separate QA environment used explicitly for manual testing prior to release “We just test on the dev environments, or maybe pre-production” A proper pre-production (or “staging”) box that matches production as closely as possible Hopefully a pre-production box of some sort. But does it match production closely!? A production environment reproducible from source control A production box which has drifted significantly from anything in source control The big question is – how much time and effort are you going to invest in fixing these issues? In reality this just involves figuring out which new databases you’re going to create and where they’ll be hosted – VMs? Cloud-based? What about size/data issues – what data are you going to include on dev environments? Does it need to be masked to protect access to production data? And often the amount of work here really depends on whether you’re working on a new, greenfield project, or trying to update an existing, brownfield application. There’s a world if difference between starting from scratch with 4 or 5 clean environments (reproducible from source control of course!), and trying to re-purpose and tweak a set of existing databases, with all of their surrounding processes and quirks. But for a proper release management process, ideally you have: Dedicated development databases, An Integration server used for testing continuous integration and running unit tests. [NB: This is the point at which deployments are automatic, without human intervention. Each deployment after this point is a one-click (but human) action], QA – QA engineers use a one-click deployment process to automatically* deploy chosen releases to QA for testing, Pre-production. The environment you use to test the production release process, Production. * A note on the use of the word “automatic” – when carrying out automated deployments this does not mean that the deployment is happening without human intervention (i.e. that something is just deploying over and over again). It means that the process of carrying out the deployment is automatic in that it’s not a person manually running through a checklist or set of actions. The deployment still requires a single-click from a user. Actions: Get your environments set up and ready, Set access permissions appropriately, Make sure everyone understands what the environments will be used for (it’s not a “free-for-all” with all environments to be accessed, played with and changed by development). The Deployment Process As described earlier, most existing database deployment processes are pretty manual. The following is a description of a process we hear very often when we ask customers “How do your database changes get live? How does your manual process work?” Check pre-production matches production (use a schema compare tool, like SQL Compare). Sometimes done by taking a backup from production and restoring in to pre-prod, Again, use a schema compare tool to find the differences between the latest version of the database ready to go live (i.e. what the team have been developing). This generates a script, User (generally, the DBA), reviews the script. This often involves manually checking updates against a spreadsheet or similar, Run the script on pre-production, and check there are no errors (i.e. it upgrades pre-production to what you hoped), If all working, run the script on production.* * this assumes there’s no problem with production drifting away from pre-production in the interim time period (i.e. someone has hacked something in to the production box without going through the proper change management process). This difference could undermine the validity of your pre-production deployment test. Red Gate is currently working on a free tool to detect this problem – sign up here at www.sqllighthouse.com, if you’re interested in testing early versions. There are several variations on this process – some better, some much worse! How do you automate this? In particular, step 3 – surely you can’t automate a DBA checking through a script, that everything is in order!? The key point here is to plan what you want in your new deployment process. There are so many options. At one extreme, pure continuous deployment – whenever a dev checks something in to source control, the CI process runs (including extensive and thorough testing!), before the deployment process keys in and automatically deploys that change to the live box. Not for the faint hearted – and really not something we recommend. At the other extreme, you might be more comfortable with a semi-automated process – the pre-production/production matching process is automated (with an error thrown if these environments don’t match), followed by a manual intervention, allowing for script approval by the DBA. One he/she clicks “Okay, I’m happy for that to go live”, the latter stages automatically take the script through to live. And anything in between of course – and other variations. But we’d strongly recommended sitting down with a whiteboard and your team, and spending a couple of hours mapping out “What do we do now?”, “What do we actually want?”, “What will satisfy our needs for continuous delivery, but still maintaining some sort of continuous control over the process?” NB: Most of what we’re discussing here is about production deployments. It’s important to note that you will also need to map out a deployment process for earlier environments (for example QA). However, these are likely to be less onerous, and many customers opt for a much more automated process for these boxes. Actions: Sit down with your team and a whiteboard, and draw out the answers to the questions above for your production deployments – “What do we do now?”, “What do we actually want?”, “What will satisfy our needs for continuous delivery, but still maintaining some sort of continuous control over the process?” Repeat for earlier environments (QA and so on). Rollback and Recovery If only every deployment went according to plan! Unfortunately they don’t – and when things go wrong, you need a rollback or recovery plan for what you’re going to do in that situation. Once you move in to a more automated database deployment process, you’re far more likely to be deploying more frequently than before. No longer once every 6 months, maybe now once per week, or even daily. Hence the need for a quick rollback or recovery process becomes paramount, and should be planned for. NB: These are mainly scenarios for handling rollbacks after the transaction has been committed. If a failure is detected during the transaction, the whole transaction can just be rolled back, no problem. There are various options, which we’ll explore in subsequent articles, things like: Immediately restore from backup, Have a pre-tested rollback script (remembering that really this is a “roll-forward” script – there’s not really such a thing as a rollback script for a database!) Have fallback environments – for example, using a blue-green deployment pattern. Different options have pros and cons – some are easier to set up, some require more investment in infrastructure; and of course some work better than others (the key issue with using backups, is loss of the interim transaction data that has been added between the failed deployment and the restore). The best mechanism will be primarily dependent on how your application works and how much you need a cast-iron failsafe mechanism. Actions: Work out an appropriate rollback strategy based on how your application and business works, your appetite for investment and requirements for a completely failsafe process. Development Practices This is perhaps the more difficult area for people to tackle. The process by which you can deploy database updates is actually intrinsically linked with the patterns and practices used to develop that database and linked application. So you need to decide whether you want to implement some changes to the way your developers actually develop the database (particularly schema changes) to make the deployment process easier. A good example is the pattern “Branch by abstraction”. Explained nicely here, by Martin Fowler, this is a process that can be used to make significant database changes (e.g. splitting a table) in a step-wise manner so that you can always roll back, without data loss – by making incremental updates to the database backward compatible. Slides 103-108 of the following slidedeck, from Niek Bartholomeus explain the process: https://speakerdeck.com/niekbartho/orchestration-in-meatspace As these slides show, by making a significant schema change in multiple steps – where each step can be rolled back without any loss of new data – this affords the release team the opportunity to have zero-downtime deployments with considerably less stress (because if an increment goes wrong, they can roll back easily). There are plenty more great patterns that can be implemented – the book Refactoring Databases, by Scott Ambler and Pramod Sadalage is a great read, if this is a direction you want to go in: http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-Databases-Evolutionary-paperback-Addison-Wesley/dp/0321774515 But the question is – how much of this investment are you willing to make? How often are you making significant schema changes that would require these best practices? Again, there’s a difference here between migrating old projects and starting afresh – with the latter it’s much easier to instigate best practice from the start. Actions: For your business, work out how far down the path you want to go, amending your database development patterns to “best practice”. It’s a trade-off between implementing quality processes, and the necessity to do so (depending on how often you make complex changes). Socialise these changes with your development group. No-one likes having “best practice” changes imposed on them, so good to introduce these ideas and the rationale behind them early.   Summary The next stages of implementing a continuous delivery pipeline for your database changes (once you have CI up and running) require a little pre-planning, if you want to get the most out of the work, and for the implementation to go smoothly. We’ve covered some of the checklist of areas to consider – mainly in the areas of “Getting the team ready for the changes that are coming” and “Planning our your pipeline, environments, patterns and practices for development”, though there will be more detail, depending on where you’re coming from – and where you want to get to. This article is part of our database delivery patterns & practices series on Simple Talk. Find more articles for version control, automated testing, continuous integration & deployment.

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  • Convert DVD to MKV (et al) without transcoding/recompression

    - by Oli
    Like a lot of people, I have a lot of DVDs. But we also have a stupid amount of disk space and a media centre (Boxee) so the DVDs are getting less and less use. It would be nice to convert our DVDs into something more relevant to our needs. I've dabbled with DVD ripping before but whereas I'd usually transcode down to a smaller picture size with a better video compression algorithm, this takes a silly amount of time. I don't have a couple of hours available for each disk. (Sidebar: is there dedicated, Linux-friendly hardware to improve h264 encoding performance?) So I was wondering if there's anything that take the DVD filesystem, De-CSS it, and then stitch together any the VOBs that make up the main part of the film and package that up in a wrapping format like MKV. A bonus would be if it could grab the subtitles and stick them in too but that's not a requirement as Boxee can grab the subtitles online if it needs to.

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  • Upcoming Webcast: Basic Troubleshooting Information For Stuck Sales Order Issues

    - by Oracle_EBS
    ADVISOR WEBCAST: Basic Troubleshooting Information For Stuck Sales Order IssuesPRODUCT FAMILY: Logistics April 18, 2012 at 1 pm ET, 11 am MT, 10 am PT This one-hour session is recommended for technical and functional users who deal with stuck sales order issues in Inventory module.TOPICS WILL INCLUDE: General Overview about Open Transactions Interface How sales order records are interface to Oracle Inventory How to track sales order cycle flow once the records are interface into MTL_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE table How to troubleshoot sales order stuck in MTL_TRANSACTIONS_INTERFACE What to look for when reviewing screen shots and diagnostics A short, live demonstration (only if applicable) and question and answer period will be included. Oracle Advisor Webcasts are dedicated to building your awareness around our products and services. This session does not replace offerings from Oracle Global Support Services. Current Schedule can be found on Note 740966.1 Post Presentation Recordings can be found on Note 740964.1

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  • What are the best practices for rapid prototyping using exclusively HTML/CSS/JS

    - by charlax
    I'm developing a prototype of a web application. I want to only use HTML, CSS and Javascript. I prefer to use my text editor and not having to learn (or pay, for that matter) a new tool like Axure. What would be, to your mind, the best practices? To me there are many qualities for a good prototype: Quickly developed Easy to improve Fair fidelity as regards UX (this disqualifies tools like Omnigraffle or PowerPoint that are more dedicated to wireframing) I trying to learn as quickly as possible, but I would like to know, based on your experience, on how you managed to be both quick and agile. Reference: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/prototyping-with

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  • Issue 15: Oracle Exastack: Are You Ready?

    - by rituchhibber
      ORACLE EXASTACK: ARE YOU READY? SVP Focus: Chris Baker Oracle Exastack Partner Focus The Benefits of Oracle Exastack Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ Oracle OpenWorld PARTNER FOCUS Oracle Exastack Partner Focus Steve McNickle is VP Europe for cVidya, the long-term Oracle Gold level partner currently racking up accreditation for its solutions as a pioneering partner in the Oracle Exastack Optimized programme Read the full article SOLUTIONS FOCUS The Benefits of Oracle Exastack Paul Thompson, Director of Oracle EMEA Alliances and Solutions Partner Programs, explains the benefits of the Oracle Exastack Program in supporting ISV partners across the Oracle Exa family Read the full article ORACLE FOCUS OPN Exchange @ Oracle OpenWorld Sylvie Michou, Senior Director, Partner Marketing & Communications and Strategic Programs, introduces the dedicated Oracle PartnerNetwork Exchange @ Oracle OpenWorld Read the full article

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