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  • The First Annual Crappy Code Games

    - by Testas
    SQLBits announced some super-exciting news! A tie-up with our platinum sponsor, Fusion-io. Together we'll be running a series of events called "The Crappy Code Games" where SQL Server developers will compete to write the worst-performing code and win some very cool prizes including:   •        Gold: A hands-on, high performance flying day for two at Ultimate High plus Fusion-io flight jackets•        Silver: One day racing experience at Palmer Sports where you will drive seven different high performance cars•        Bronze: Pure Tech Racing 10 person package at PTR’s F1 racing facility includes FI tees, food and drinks. …plus iPods, Windows Mobile phones, X-box 360s, t-shirts and much more. There will be two qualifying events in Manchester on March 17th and London on March 31st, and the third qualifier as well as the grand finale will be held in the evening of Thursday April 7th at SQLBits. And if that isn’t cool enough, Fusion-io's Chief Scientist Steve Wozniak (yes, that Steve Wozniak, tech industry legend and co-founder of Apple) will be on hand in Brighton to hand out the prizes! If you'd like to take part you'll need to register, and since places are limited we recommend you do so right away. For more details and to register, go to http://www.crappycodegames.com/ The Games: In conjunction with SQL Bits, dbA-thletes (that’s you) will compete  head-to-head in one of three separate qualifying events to be held in Manchester, London and Brighton.  Four separate SQL  rounds make up the evening’s Games, and will challenge you to write code that pushes the boundaries of SQL performance.  The four events are: ?  The High Jump: Generate the highest I/O per second ?  The 100 m dash: Cumulative highest number of I/O’s in 60 seconds ?  The SSIS-athon: Load one billion row fact table in the shortest time ?  The Marathon: Generate the highest MB per second in 60 seconds

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  • Documentation in Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS) and Oracle Retail Fiscal Management System (ORFM), Release 13.2.4

    - by Oracle Retail Documentation Team
    The Patch Release 13.2.4 of the Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS) and its module, Oracle Retail Fiscal Management (ORFM)  is now available from My Oracle Support. End User Documentation Enhancements The following summarize the highlights of changes made to the documentation in conjunction with the new Brazil-related functionality: Foundation chapter in the Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS)/Sales Audit (ReSA) Brazil Localization User GuideThis chapter was updated with a non-base Localization Flexible Attribution Solution (LFAS) section that addresses the addition of several new custom attributes to Items and Suppliers through non-base LFAS for Brazil; it also addresses the extension of the Retail Tax Integration Layer (RTIL) through the Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS), and Oracle Retail Fiscal Management System (ORFM).  ORFM User GuideThe Purchase Order chapter was updated to include schedule related updates for a Nota Fiscal. The Fiscal Documents chapter was updated to include information on creating a new NF and searching for details using Vendor Product Number. Oracle Retail Fiscal Management/RMS Brazil Localization Implementation GuideThe Implementation Checklist chapter was updated with a note on multi-currency functionality. The Batch Processes chapter was updated with information on the NF EDI batch. The following summarize the highlights of changes made to the documentation in conjunction with the new technical certifications (see the RMS 13.2.4 Release Notes for more information): Installation Guides for RMS and for ORFM/RMS BrazilThese installation guides were updated extensively to account for the multiple technical certification enhancements in 13.2.4. White Paper: How to Upgrade from WebLogic11g 10.3.3 to WebLogic11g 10.3.4  (Doc ID: 1432575.1)See the previous blog entry regarding this new White Paper. New Documents on My Oracle Support for Brazil Localization Overview and Interfaces Tax Vendor Integration (Doc ID: 1424048.1)Oracle chooses to integrate with a third party tax expert to delivery the Brazilian solution. Oracle has built the Retail Tax Integration layer (RTIL) as the key integration component to support the integration of Oracle suite of products with external tax vendors. This paper addresses the RTIL integration interfaces with TaxWeb, providing guidance on the typical integration interfaces and operations that must be supported by other tax solutions in the Brazilian market. Oracle Retail Fiscal Management/RMS Brazil Localization: Localization Flexible Attribute Solution (LFAS) (Doc ID: 1418509.1)The white paper covers the definition of custom attributes in Localization Flexible Attribute Solution (LFAS) and enables retailers to perform data conversion changes. Retailers can add several new custom attributes to Items and Suppliers through non-base LFAS for Brazil and extend Retail Tax Integration Layer (RTIL) through the Oracle Retail Merchandising System (RMS), and Oracle Retail Fiscal Management System (RFM). Documents Published in RMS and ORFM Release 13.2.4 Oracle Retail Merchandising System Release Notes Oracle Retail Merchandising System Installation Guide Oracle Retail Merchandising System User Guide and Online Help Oracle Retail Sales Audit (ReSA) User Guide and Online Help Oracle Retail Merchandising System Operations Guide Oracle Retail Merchandising System Data Model Oracle Retail Merchandising Batch Schedule Oracle Retail Merchandising Implementation Guide Oracle Retail POS Suite 13.4.1 / Merchandising Operations Management13.2.4 Implementation Guide Oracle Retail Fiscal Management Data Model Oracle Retail Fiscal Management/RMS Brazil Localization Installation Guide Oracle Retail Fiscal Management/RMS Brazil Localization Implementation Guide Oracle Retail Fiscal Management User Guide and Online Help

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  • Go Big or Go Special

    - by Ajarn Mark Caldwell
    Watching Shark Tank tonight and the first presentation was by Mango Mango Preserves and it highlighted an interesting contrast in business trends today and how to capitalize on opportunities.  <Spoiler Alert> Even though every one of the sharks was raving about the product samples they tried, with two of them going for second and third servings, none of them made a deal to invest in the company.</Spoiler>  In fact, one of the sharks, Kevin O’Leary, kept ripping into the owners with statements to the effect that he thinks they are headed over a financial cliff because he felt their costs were way out of line and would be their downfall if they didn’t take action to radically cut costs. He said that he had previously owned a jams and jellies business and knew the cost ratios that you had to have to make it work.  I don’t doubt he knows exactly what he’s talking about and is 100% accurate…for doing business his way, which I’ll call “Go Big”.  But there’s a whole other way to do business today that would be ideal for these ladies to pursue. As I understand it, based on his level of success in various businesses and the fact that he is even in a position to be investing in other companies, Kevin’s approach is to go mass market (Go Big) and make hundreds of millions of dollars in sales (or something along that scale) while squeezing out every ounce of cost that you can to produce an acceptable margin.  But there is a very different way of making a very successful business these days, which is all about building a passionate and loyal community of customers that are rooting for your success and even actively trying to help you succeed by promoting your product or company (Go Special).  This capitalizes on the power of social media, niche marketing, and The Long Tail.  One of the most prolific writers about capitalizing on this trend is Seth Godin, and I hope that the founders of Mango Mango pick up a couple of his books (probably Purple Cow and Tribes would be good starts) or at least read his blog.  I think the adoration expressed by all of the sharks for the product is the biggest hint that they have a remarkable product and that they are perfect for this type of business approach. Both are completely valid business models, and it may certainly be that the scale at which Kevin O’Leary wants to conduct business where he invests his money is well beyond the long tail, but that doesn’t mean that there is not still a lot of money to be made there.  I wish them the best of luck with their endeavors!

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  • The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team based Development Free e-book

    - by Mladen Prajdic
    After about 6 months of work, the new book I've coauthored with Grant Fritchey (Blog|Twitter), Phil Factor (Blog|Twitter) and Alex Kuznetsov (Blog|Twitter) is out. They're all smart folks I talk to online and this book is packed with good ideas backed by years of experience. The book contains a good deal of information about things you need to think of when doing any kind of multi person database development. Although it's meant for SQL Server, the principles can be applied to any database platform out there. In the book you will find information on: writing readable code, documenting code, source control and change management, deploying code between environments, unit testing, reusing code, searching and refactoring your code base. I've written chapter 5 about Database testing and chapter 11 about SQL Refactoring. In the database testing chapter (chapter 5) I cover why you should test your database, why it is a good idea to have a database access interface composed of stored procedures, views and user defined functions, what and how to test. I talk about how there are many testing methods like black and white box testing, unit and integration testing, error and stress testing and why and how you should do all those. Sometimes you have to convince management to go for testing in the development lifecycle so I give some pointers and tips how to do that. Testing databases is a bit different from testing object oriented code in a way that to have independent unit tests you need to rollback your code after each test. The chapter shows you ways to do this and also how to avoid it. At the end I show how to test various database objects and how to test access to them. In the SQL Refactoring chapter (chapter 11) I cover why refactor and where to even begin refactoring. I also who you a way to achieve a set based mindset to solve SQL problems which is crucial to good SQL set based programming and a few commonly seen problems to refactor. These problems include: using functions on columns in the where clause, SELECT * problems, long stored procedure with many input parameters, one subquery per condition in the select statement, cursors are good for anything problem, using too large data types everywhere and using your data in code for business logic anti-pattern. You can read more about it and download it here: The Red Gate Guide to SQL Server Team-based Development Hope you like it and send me feedback if you wish too.

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  • Favorite moments of JavaOne

    - by Tori Wieldt
    There are so many events and sessions to attend at JavaOne, it's unfair to ask people to choose just one thing they liked, but here are some favorite moments: I loved meeting many open source contributors and friends I have not met in person before and seeing that projects like e.g. Hudson are alive and kicking and have a great future ahead of them. -Manfred Moser My "The Problem with Women" session. It had LOADS of interactivity from the audience, who really helped to make that session.  I came out if it with a real sense of optimism - we love our jobs, we love what we do, and we should be proud of telling everyone about it to attract different talent into the industry. (Read her blog JavaOne: The Problem With Women - A Technical Approach for details.) -Trish Gee My kudos to Oracle for making the presentation materials quickly available to the public. Some of them were already available during JavaOne. Lots of slide decks are already there, and in some cases you may even find the video recordings too. Go to http://www.oracle.com/javaone and select JavaOne Technical Sessions.  -Yakov Fain I loved that not only was James Gosling present at the Community Keynote (which felt more like the keynotes of old times [big space, big screens, fun and tech]) but he was also found wandering the halls of the Hilton the day prior. Bring back James! Add back the toys section in the Community Keynote. Let the t-shirt tossing begin anew. These are "small" things that really fire up the community. -Andres Almiray Seeing James Gosling at JavaOne was a real shot in the arm for Java.  He needs to be there every year. -Frank Greco +42 on having James and the T-shirt tossing. -Stephan Janssen The session "Integrate Java with Robots, Home Automation, Musical Instruments, and Kinect." Fabiane Nardon explained connecting Jenkins to jHome to a truck horn placed in their sysadmin's bedroom. She dubbed it "extreme feedback."  -Tori Wieldt The User Group Forum [on Sunday] was a success! Congratulations Bruno Souza and John Yeary and everybody that were involved. I believe it really helps to increase community participation! There were lots of interesting talks, and great discussion with JUG leaders and members. Thank you Oracle for supporting that! -Yara Senger What was your favorite moment? Please comment! 

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  • Travelling MVP #3: Community event in Varna, Bulgaria

    - by DigiMortal
    Second stop in my DevReach 2012 trip was at Varna. We had not much time to hang around there but this problem will get fixed next year if not before. But still we had sessions there with Dimitar Georgijev and I had also chance to meet local techies. Next time we will have more tech and beers for sure! We started in the morning from Bucharest and travelled through Ruse, Razgrad and Shumen to Varna. It’s about 275km. We used cab, local bus and Dimitar father’s car. We had one food stop in Ruse and after that we went directly to Varna. Here is our route on map. Varna is Bulgarian city that locates on western coast of Black Sea. I have been there once before this trip and it’s good place to have vacation under sun. Also autumn is there milder than here in Estonia (third day of snow is going on). Bulgaria has some good beers, my favorite mankind killer called rakia and very good national cuisine. Food is made of fresh stuff and it is damn good experience. Here are some arbitrarily selected images (you can click on these to view at original size): Old bus “monument” in Razgrad Stuffed peppers, Bulgarian national cuisine Infra-red community having good time and beers We made our sessions at one study class of Varna technical university. It’s a little bit old style university but everything we needed was there and we had no problems with machinery. Sessions were same as in Bucharest. The user group in Varna is brand new and hopefully it will be something bigger one good day. At least I try to make my commits so they get on their feet quicker. As we had not much time to announce the event there was about 15 guys listening to us and I’m happy that it was not too much hyped event because still I was getting my first experiences with foreign audiences. After sessions we took our stuff to hotel and went to hang around with local techies. We had some good time there and made some new friends. Next time when I go to Varna I go back as more experienced speaker and I plan to do there one tougher and highly challenging session. Maybe somebody from Estonian community will join me and then it will be well planned surprise-attack to Varna :)

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  • How to deal with a boss who is extremely competitive [closed]

    - by user72101
    Okay, so I recently joined this group. My boss who I reported to, left a while ago and my colleague was made the team lead. We both now report to the same head, but she heads the team I work in. I am not sure on how to deal with various situations. I would imagine a team lead who motivates the rest of the team, and not someone who would take credit for what others do. I am the only one who works at the same geographic location. She is very smart, no doubt about it. Things get to me, for example I work on an issue and email a dev team, she would respond on top of my emails and as she is the lead, people respond to her rather than to me. If there is an email addressed with the head on it, she would get it to faster than I do, even when she knew I am looking into it. The rest of the team keeps asking me questions or help. I find it hard to say no, and I try to help them as i feel I might need their help someday as well. I slack in my own work or I could have used the time to learn things. I feel that she should be the go to person and not me. If one gets the benefits of being a lead, why not the work that goes with it? I feel I am stuck in a very unfortunate situation and am totally helpless about it. Everyday it is something or the other. I work on a project for months and finally when it is about to go live and there was a minor issue and the head started asking questions, she completely stole my thunder on a call. She would not let me speak and I have to actually cut her off to speak up. The ideal would be not to give it a thought and just do the best I can,but I feel I am capable of much more and not able to give my best because of this constant war at work. Neetu

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  • Framework 4 Features: User Propogation to the Database

    - by Anthony Shorten
    Once of the features I mentioned in a previous entry was the ability for Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4 to automatically propogate the end user to the database connection. This bears more explanation. In the past releases of the Oracle Utilities Application Framework, all database connections are pooled and shared within a channel of access. So for example, the online connections on the Business Application Server share a common pool of connections and the batch in a thread pool shares a seperate pool of connections. The connections are pooled for performance reasons (the most expensive part of a typical transaction is opening and closing connections so we save time by having them ready beforehand). The idea is that when a business function needs some SQL to be execute it takes a spare connection from the pool, executes the SQL and then returns the connection back to the pool for reuse. Unfortunelty to support the pool being started and ready before the transactions arrives means that you need to have a shared userid (as you dont know the users who need them beforehand). Therefore each connection uses the same database user to execute the SQL it needs. This is acceptable for executing transactions, generally but does not allow the DBA or other tools to ascertain which end user is actually running the transaction. In Oracle Utilities Application Framework V4, we now set the CLIENT_IDENTIFIER to the end userid (not the Login Id) when the connection is taken from the pool and used and reset it back to blank when returned to the pool. The CLIENT_IDENTIFIER is a feature that is present in the Oracle Database connection information. From a monitoring perspective, when a connection to the database is actively running SQL, the end user is now able to be determined by querying the CLIENT_IDENTIFIER on the session object within the database. This can be done in the DBA's favorite monitoring tool (even just some SQL on the v$session table is enough). This has other implications as well. Oracle sells a lot of other security addons to the database and so do third parties. If a site wants to have additional levels of security or auditing in the database then the CLIENT_IDENTIFIER, if supported, is now available to be recorded or used by those products to provide additional levels of security. This facility was one of the highly "nice to haves" that customers would ask us about so we now allow it to be used to allow finer grained monitoring and additional security facilities. Note: This facility is only available for customers using the Oracle Database versions of our products.

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  • JavaOne Rock Star – Adam Bien

    - by Janice J. Heiss
    Among the most celebrated developers in recent years, especially in the domain of Java EE and JavaFX, is consultant Adam Bien, who, in addition to being a JavaOne Rock Star for Java EE sessions given in 2009 and 2011, is a Java Champion, the winner of Oracle Magazine’s 2011 Top Java Developer of the Year Award, and recently won a 2012 JAX Innovation Award as a top Java Ambassador. Bien will be presenting the following sessions: TUT3907 - Java EE 6/7: The Lean Parts CON3906 - Stress-Testing Java EE 6 Applications Without Stress CON3908 - Building Serious JavaFX 2 Applications CON3896 - Interactive Onstage Java EE Overengineering I spoke with Bien to get his take on Java today. He expressed excitement that the smallest companies and startups are showing increasing interest in Java EE. “This is a very good sign,” said Bien. “Only a few years ago J2EE was mostly used by larger companies -- now it becomes interesting even for one-person shows. Enterprise Java events are also extremely popular. On the Java SE side, I'm really excited about Project Nashorn.” Nashorn is an upcoming JavaScript engine, developed fully in Java by Oracle, and based on the Da Vinci Machine (JSR 292) which is expected to be available for Java 8.    Bien expressed concern about a common misconception regarding Java's mediocre productivity. “The problem is not Java,” explained Bien, “but rather systems built with ancient patterns and approaches. Sometimes it really is ‘Cargo Cult Programming.’ Java SE/EE can be incredibly productive and lean without the unnecessary and hard-to-maintain bloat. The real problems are ‘Ivory Towers’ and not Java’s lack of productivity.” Bien remarked that if there is one thing he wanted Java developers to understand it is that, "Premature optimization is the root of all evil. Or at least of some evil. Modern JVMs and application servers are hard to optimize upfront. It is far easier to write simple code and measure the results continuously. Identify the hotspots first, then optimize.”   He advised Java EE developers to, “Rethink everything you know about Enterprise Java. Before you implement anything, ask the question: ‘Why?’ If there is no clear answer -- just don't do it. Most well known best practices are outdated. Focus your efforts on the domain problem and not the technology.” Looking ahead, Bien remarked, “I would like to see open source application servers running directly on a hypervisor. Packaging the whole runtime in a single file would significantly simplify the deployment and operations.” Check out a recent Java Magazine interview with Bien about his Java EE 6 stress monitoring tool here.

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  • Which techniques to study?

    - by Djentleman
    Just to give you some background info, I'm studying a programming major at a tertiary level and am in my third year, so I'm not a newbie off the street. However, I am still quite new to game programming as a subset of programming. One of my personal projects for next semester is to design and create a 2D platformer game with emphasis on procedural generation and "neato" effects (think metroidvania). I've written up a list of some techniques to help me improve my personal skills (using XNA for the time being). The list is as follows: QuadTrees: Build a basic program in XNA that moves basic 2D sprites (circles and squares) around a set path and speed and changes their colour when they collide. Add functionality to add and delete objects of different sizes (select a direction and speed when adding and just drag and drop them in). Particles: Build a basic program in XNA in which you can select different colours and create particle effects of those colours on screen by clicking and dragging the mouse around (simple particles emerging from where the mouse is clicked). Add functionality where you can change the amount of particles to be drawn and the speed at which they travel and when they expire. Possibly implement gravity and wind after part 3 is complete. Physics: Build a basic program in XNA where you have a ball in a set 2D environment, a wind slider, and a gravity slider (can go to negative for reverse gravity). You can click to drag the ball around and release to throw it and, depending on what you do, the ball interacts with the environment. Implement other shapes afterwards. Random 2D terrain generation: Build a basic program in XNA that randomly generates terrain (including hills, caves, etc) created from 2D tiles. Add functionality that draws the tiles from a tileset and places different tiles depending on where they lie on the y-axis (dirt on top, then rock, then lava, etc). Randomised objects: Build a basic program in XNA that, when a button is clicked, displays a randomised item sprite based on parameters (type, colour, etc) with the images pulled from tilesets. Add the ability to save the item as an object, which stores it in a side-pane where it can be selected for viewing. Movement: Build a basic program in XNA where you can move an object around in an environment (tile-based) with a camera that pans with it. No gravity. Implement gravity and wind, allow the character to jump and fall with some basic platforms. So my question is this: Are there any other commonly used techniques that I should research, and can I get some suggestions as to the effectiveness of the techniques I've chosen to work on (e.g., don't do QuadTree stuff because [insert reason here], or, do [insert technique here] before you start working on particles because [insert reason here])? I hope this is clear enough and please let me know if I can further clarify anything!

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  • Back-sliding into Unmanaged Code

    - by Laila
    It is difficult to write about Microsoft's ambivalence to .NET without mentioning clichés about dog food.  In case you've been away a long time, you'll remember that Microsoft surprised everyone with the speed and energy with which it introduced and evangelised the .NET Framework for managed code. There was good reason for this. Once it became obvious to all that it had sleepwalked into third place as a provider of development languages, behind Borland and Sun, it reacted quickly to attract the best talent in the industry to produce a windows version of the Java runtime, with Bounds-checking, Automatic Garbage collection, structures exception handling and common data types. To develop applications for this managed runtime, it produced several excellent languages, and more are being provided. The only thing Microsoft ever got wrong was to give it a stupid name. The logical step for Microsoft would be to base the entire operating system on the .NET framework, and to re-engineer its own applications. In 2002, Bill Gates, then Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect said about their plans for .NET, "This is a long-term approach. These things don't happen overnight." Now, eight years later, we're still waiting for signs of the 'long-term approach'. Microsoft's vision of an entirely managed operating system has subsided since the Vista fiasco, but stays alive yet dormant as Midori, still being developed by Microsoft Research. This is an Internet-centric fork of the singularity operating system, a research project started in 2003 to build a highly-dependable operating system in which the kernel, device drivers, and applications are all written in managed code. Midori is predicated on the prevalence of connected systems, with provisions for distributed concurrency where application components exist 'in the cloud', and supports a programming model that can tolerate cancellation, intermittent connectivity and latency. It features an entirely new security model that sandboxes applications for increased security. So have Microsoft converted its existing applications to the .NET framework? It seems not. What Windows applications can run on Mono? Very few, it seems. We all thought that .NET spelt the end of DLL Hell and the need for COM interop, but it looks as if Bill Gates' idea of 'not overnight' might stretch to a decade or more. The Operating System has shown only minimal signs of migrating to .NET. Even where the use of .NET has come to dominate, when used for server applications with IIS, IIS itself is still entirely developed in unmanaged code. This is an irritation to Microsoft's greatest supporters who committed themselves fully to the NET framework, only to find parts of the Ambivalent Microsoft Empire quietly backsliding into unmanaged code and the awful C++. It is a strategic mistake that the invigorated Apple didn't make with the Mac OS X Architecture. Cheers, Laila

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  • What's your advise on a potential legal suit? [closed]

    - by ohho
    I [xxx app developer] received an email from Apple that a developer [of yyy app] believes I am "infringing their copyright." Description of Issue: [xxx developer] copied my application (my application is [yyy]) feature by feature. Even their donation model is completely copied from my application. Their first release was significantly later than mine, which implies copying of the application rather than parallel development. I suffered significant financial losses because of their actions, in additional to promotion problems as many people are confused with their product. My advertising was based around the idea of a "free [yyy] application for an iPhone" and they have just taken that as a title for their application. I would appreciate if someone takes a look at their release schedule and compare it to my releases. Additionally, please take a look at their functionality and how it point by point copies the functionality of my older releases. I am asking Apple to remove their application from the App Store, and ban them from resubmitting it. Thank you for your time! [yyy developer], the developer of the [yyy] application. My response was: The code of [xxx] is written by myself, using Apple public API. The graphics elements are designed by myself. The user interface and app control are independently designed and different from other [similar type] apps (please judge yourself). In-app Purchase is iOS Apple standard API. iAd is Apple iOS standard API. I don't think features can be owned exclusively. In fact, my app comes with fewer features, as I prefer minimalist design. I don't think idea can be owned exclusively. Apple responded: Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, Apple cannot serve as arbiter for disputes among third parties. Please contact [yyy developer] directly regarding your actions. You can reach [yyy developer] through: [...]. We look forward to confirmation from both parties that this issue has been resolved. If this issue is not resolved shortly, Apple may be forced to pull your application(s) from the App Store. Then I sent my response above to [yyy developer]. [yyy developer] then asked me "to provide (my) legal address and contact details that (his) lawyer requires to file a copyright infringement suit." IMO, I don't think the [yyy developer]'s claim on "feature by feature" copy is valid. I have fewer features, completely different user interface design. However, I don't think I can afford a legal action for an app of so little financial return. So what's your advise on this? Should I just let Apple pull my app? Or is there any alternative I can consider? FYI ... UI of [xxx app]: and UI of [yyy app]:

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  • Qt's future in the light of Nokia-Microsoft partnership

    - by Shinnok
    In case you missed it, a lot has happened in the last two day that could potentially impact the Qt framework, for the worse. :-( It will impact the mobile sector in several and probably not currently acknowledged ways, for sure. It started yesterday with Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop internal letter depicting Nokia sitting on a burning platform and the need for a big and aggressive shift in business. A day later, at the Nokia World conference, Nokia announced the partnership with Microsoft , which at the moment resumes to Nokia adopting the Windows Phone 7 platform and development environment, dumping Symbian along the road and tagging Meego as R&D(a pretty dangerous keyword if you ask me), as for Maemo/N900 series i guess it's bye bye for good. I know what you're thinking but no, Qt is not going to be ported to the Window Phone platform. And i'm also scared about this. You can watch the Elop & Ballmer joint press release here. Now after reading this huge thread on the Qt-interest mailing list i can't help but wonder, what is the future of Qt at Nokia, now that they aren't focused(at all?) on Qt anymore(remember the full focus switch on Qt as main development framework for all Nokia products(including Symbian, yes) back in October?). I love Qt, in my opinion it is the only true cross-platform application development framework and one of the few to make C++ development a joy(to the extent possible) and good things has happened to the framework and considerable momentum while under Nokia, thus i am wondering, what are the chances that Qt might suffer a slow death at Nokia after this? Yes i know about KDE.org and the fact that Qt is easily spawnable, but i still feel uneasy. It also must be horrible for all of the efforts either by Nokia employees or third parties that have gone into Symbian and all of the Ovi Store Symbian/Qt content and business and why not, Maemo/Meego. There are also massive layouts planned, i suspect Symbian techs and Qt? I'd love to hear your input on this? Is Qt future safe&proof? LE: The question as been gradually revised, improved and better referenced, thus you might want to throw a quick re-read to see what you might have missed.

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  • ASP.NET MVC 3 Hosting :: How to Upgrade ASP.NET MVC 2 Project to ASP.NET MVC 3

    - by mbridge
    ASP.NET MVC 3 can be installed side by side with ASP.NET MVC 2 on the same computer, which gives you flexibility in choosing when to upgrade an ASP.NET MVC 2 application to ASP.NET MVC 3. The simplest way to upgrade is to create a new ASP.NET MVC 3 project and copy all the views, controllers, code, and content files from the existing MVC 2 project to the new project and then to update the assembly references in the new project to match the old project. If you have made changes to the Web.config file in the MVC 2 project, you must also merge those changes with the Web.config file in the MVC 3 project. To manually upgrade an existing ASP.NET MVC 2 application to version 3, do the following: 1. In both Web.config files in the MVC 3 project, globally search and replace the MVC version. Find the following: System.Web.Mvc, Version=2.0.0.0 Replace it with the following System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0 There are three changes in the root Web.config and four in the Views\Web.config file. 2. In Solution Explorer, delete the reference to System.Web.Mvc (which points to the version 2 DLL). Then add a reference to System.Web.Mvc (v3.0.0.0). 3. In Solution Explorer, right-click the project name and then select Unload Project. Then right-click again and select Edit ProjectName.csproj. 4. Locate the ProjectTypeGuids element and replace {F85E285D-A4E0-4152-9332-AB1D724D3325} with {E53F8FEA-EAE0-44A6-8774-FFD645390401}. 5. Save the changes and then right-click the project and select Reload Project. 6. If the project references any third-party libraries that are compiled using ASP.NET MVC 2, add the following highlighted bindingRedirect element to the Web.config file in the application root under the configuration section: <runtime>   <assemblyBinding >     <dependentAssembly>       <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc"           publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35"/>       <bindingRedirect oldVersion="2.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0"/>     </dependentAssembly>   </assemblyBinding> </runtime> Another ASP.NET MVC 3 article: - Rolling with Razor in MVC v3 Preview - Deploying ASP.NET MVC 3 web application to server where ASP.NET MVC 3 is not installed - RenderAction with ASP.NET MVC 3 Sessionless Controllers

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  • New Wine in New Bottles

    - by Tony Davis
    How many people, when their car shows signs of wear and tear, would consider upgrading the engine and keeping the shell? Even if you're cash-strapped, you'll soon work out the subtlety of the economics, the cost of sudden breakdowns, the precious time lost coping with the hassle, and the low 'book value'. You'll generally buy a new car. The same philosophy should apply to database systems. Mainstream support for SQL Server 2005 ends on April 12; many DBAS, if they haven't done so already, will be considering the migration to SQL Server 2008 R2. Hopefully, that upgrade plan will include a fresh install of the operating system on brand new hardware. SQL Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 are designed to work together. The improved architecture, processing power, and hyper-threading capabilities of modern processors will dramatically improve the performance of many SQL Server workloads, and allow consolidation opportunities. Of course, there will be many DBAs smiling ruefully at the suggestion of such indulgence. This is nothing like the real world, this halcyon place where hardware and software budgets are limitless, development and testing resources are plentiful, and third party vendors immediately certify their applications for the latest-and-greatest platform! As with cars, or any other technology, the justification for a complete upgrade is complex. With Servers, the extra cost at time of upgrade will generally pay you back in terms of the increased performance of your business applications, reduced maintenance costs, training costs and downtime. Also, if you plan and design carefully, it's possible to offset hardware costs with reduced SQL Server licence costs. In his forthcoming SQL Server Hardware book, Glenn Berry describes a recent case where he was able to replace 4 single-socket database servers with one two-socket server, saving about $90K in hardware costs and $350K in SQL Server license costs. Of course, there are exceptions. If you do have a stable, reliable, secure SQL Server 6.5 system that still admirably meets the needs of a specific business requirement, and has no security vulnerabilities, then by all means leave it alone. Why upgrade just for the sake of it? However, as soon as a system shows sign of being unfit for purpose, or is moving out of mainstream support, the ruthless DBA will make the strongest possible case for a belts-and-braces upgrade. We'd love to hear what you think. What does your typical upgrade path look like? What are the major obstacles? Cheers, Tony.

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  • Do I need to contact a lawyer to report a GPL violation in software distributed on Apple's App Store?

    - by Rinzwind
    Some company is selling software through Apple's App Store which uses portions of code that I released publicly under the GPL. The company is violating the licensing terms in two ways, by (1) not preserving my copyright statement, and not releasing their code under the GPL license and (2) by distributing my GPL-licensed code through Apple's App Store. (The Free Software Foundation has made clear that the terms of the GPL and those of the App Store are incompatible.) I want to report this to Apple, and ask that they take appropriate action. I have tried mailing them to ask for more information about the reporting process, and have received the automated reply quoted below. The last point in the list of things one needs to provide, the “a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury,” sounds as if they mean some kind of specific legal document. I'm not sure. Does this mean I need to contact a lawyer just to file the report? I'd like to avoid going through that hassle if at all possible. (Besides an answer to this specific question, I'd welcome comments and experience reports from anyone who has already had to deal with a GPL violation on Apple's App Store.) Thank you for contacting Apple's Copyright Agent. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes infringement on Apple’s Web site, please provide the following information: an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site; your address, telephone number, and email address; a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf. For further information, please review Apple's Legal Information & Notices/Claims of Copyright Infringement at: http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/claimsofcopyright.html To expedite the processing of your claim regarding any alleged intellectual property issues related to iTunes (music/music videos, podcasts, TV, Movies), please send a copy of your notice to [email protected] For claims concerning a software application, please send a copy of your notice to [email protected]. Due to the high volume of e-mails we receive, this may be the only reply you receive from [email protected]. Please be assured, however, that Apple's Copyright Agent and/or the iTunes Legal Team will promptly investigate and take appropriate action concerning your report.

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  • Importing PKCS#12 (.p12) files into Firefox From the Command Line

    - by user11165
    I’ve posted this question up on #Ubuntu and #Firefox Forums, and really could do with some help.. Anyone know where i could look or help with the answer. I’m hoping the power of social media will come through… I have a need to perform the following action: Firefox 3.6.x: Quote: open Edit - Preferences - Advanced - Encryption - View Certificates - Your Certificates - Import However i need the same functionality from the bash command line. So far I’ve established that the following command is supposed to be used: Quote: certutil -A -t “u,u,u” -d /home/df001/.mozilla/firefox/qe5y5lht.tc.default/ -n “mycert” -i client.p12 This executes with no isses, however, doesn’t show up in any Firefox Certificate store. However, I have noted that prior to running this command, i have a cert8.db key3.db and secmod.db file in the above folder. After running the command the certutil seems to have created a cert9.db, key4.db and pkcs12.txt file Listing the contents using the command: Quote: certutil -L -d sql:/home/df001/.mozilla/firefox/qe5y5lht.tc.default/ does seem to confirm my attempts of importing files into a certificate folder of some kind have worked. because i get Quote: Certificate Nickname Trust Attributes SSL,S/MIME,JAR/XPI Thawte SSL CA „ Go Daddy Secure Certification Authority „ Thawte SGC CA „ Entrust Certification Authority - L1C „ My Nero CT,C,c mynero P„ davidfield - Internet Widgits Pty Ltd u,u,u So, having tried this, and heading back over to the www, i cam across this command: Quote: pk12util -d /home/df001/.mozilla/firefox/qe5y5lht.tc.default/ -i client.p12 -n “David Field” -P “cert8.db” this again, appears to be importing something somewhere, however, again, Viewing certs from the Firefox interface doesn’t show the imported Cert. I’m surmising here on reading that the certutil and pk12util are creating a new NSS database, which firefox isn’t reading. So my question is, how can i get the p12 cert from the command line so it displays in the firefox Certificate manager interface? Why have i posted this here? Why not post on the firefox forum? Well i will copy and post the same question there as well, however the ability to use the command line to do this is important, as I have potentially 2000 machines which will need a user cert imported into firefox via a p12 file. I need to do this in the form of a script, i thought the hard part was going to be making the p12 file from the microsoft 2003 CA, turns out thats easy. I can’t just import via the GUI and copy over cert8.db x 2000, i can’t ask users to use the CA webinterface as its for VPN access, the users are off site, and they need the VPN to get to the cert server.. Is there any person out there who can help? By the way, i don't have the tor buttun installed.

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  • I still think Twitter is dead &hellip; but

    - by Randy Walker
    Twitter finally hit the mainstream about 8 months ago, but I’ve been saying for a couple of years now, without a real way for the company to earn money, what’s the future fate of Twitter?  On the personal side, where is the real value for the users?  For the most part, Twitter has replaced most people’s IM (instant messaging), at least in the technology circles I run in.  It still has value for users as a communication tool.  But I see it more as a fad.  My prediction is over the next 6 months we’ll start seeing a usage drop (if we haven’t already started to see it). On the business side, how does Twitter make money?  It doesn’t.  If you use the text messaging capabilities, you see a few ads.  But most smart phone and PC users, won’t ever see them.  I still think Twitter has the best chance to make money by forcing the “collectors” to pay money.  You know what I mean by “collector”, those people that collect tons of followers or friends.  If Twitter caps the number of followers and makes you pay to have more, would you?  The normal twitter user doesn’t have that many followers, and this is where my title comes in … BUT The financial value for Twitter is really seen through businesses connecting with their customers.  I’ve seen 3 effective ways this has been accomplished. 1. Giving your customers a coupon or announcing a sale My favorite is @amazonmp3, Being a huge music lover, I get notified when they put music on sale. Various restaurants like @ruthschris_ARK will let their favorite customers know about certain specials @BluefinMemphis I was traveling through Memphis once looking for a sushi restaurant when they had %50 off if we mentioned we saw them on Twitter.  It was their first attempt at trying to encourage customers in the door, and after talking with the management, it was a huge success 2. Giveaways @namecheap Several companies have started huge marketing campaigns, but my favorite is watching companies post trivia questions, and the first person to respond wins a prize. 3. Responding to Customer Complaints I once posted a complaint about American Express (a company that I have slowly come to really dislike) but they actually had someone contact me to try and resolve the issue.  I give them credit for paying attention, but still dislike them for their horrible credit practices.

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  • What do you do when you encounter an idiotic interview question?

    - by Senthil
    I was interviewing with a "too proud of my java skills"-looking person. He asked me "What is your knowledge on Java IO classes.. say.. hash maps?" He asked me to write a piece of java code on paper - instantiate a class and call one of the instance's methods. When I was done, he said my program wouldn't run. After 5 minutes of serious thinking, I gave up and asked why. He said I didn't write a main function so it wouldn't run. ON PAPER. [I am too furious to continue with the stupidity...] Believe me it wasn't trick questions or a psychic or anger management evaluation thing. I can tell from his face, he was proud of these questions. That "developer" was supposed to "judge" the candidates. I can think of several things: Hit him with a chair (which I so desperately wanted to) and walk out. Simply walk out. Ridicule him saying he didn't make sense. Politely let him know that he didn't make sense and go on to try and answer the questions. Don't tell him anything, but simply go on to try and answer the questions. So far, I have tried just 4 and 5. It hasn't helped. Unfortunately many candidates seem to do the same and remain polite but this lets these kind of "developers" just keep ascending up the corporate ladder, gradually getting the capacity to pi** off more and more people. How do you handle these interviewers without bursting your veins? What is the proper way to handle this, yet maintain your reputation if other potential employers were to ever get to know what happened here? Is there anything you can do or should you even try to fix this? P.S. Let me admit that my anger has been amplified many times by the facts: He was smiling like you wouldn't believe. I got so many (20 or so) calls from that company the day before, asking me to come to the interview, that I couldn't do any work that day. I wasted a paid day off.

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  • Beware of const members

    - by nmarun
    I happened to learn a new thing about const today and how one needs to be careful with its usage. Let’s say I have a third-party assembly ‘ConstVsReadonlyLib’ with a class named ConstSideEffect.cs: 1: public class ConstSideEffect 2: { 3: public static readonly int StartValue = 10; 4: public const int EndValue = 20; 5: } In my project, I reference the above assembly as follows: 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: for (int i = ConstSideEffect.StartValue; i < ConstSideEffect.EndValue; i++) 4: { 5: Console.WriteLine(i); 6: } 7: Console.ReadLine(); 8: } You’ll see values 10 through 19 as expected. Now, let’s say I receive a new version of the ConstVsReadonlyLib. 1: public class ConstSideEffect 2: { 3: public static readonly int StartValue = 5; 4: public const int EndValue = 30; 5: } If I just drop this new assembly in the bin folder and run the application, without rebuilding my console application, my thinking was that the output would be from 5 to 29. Of course I was wrong… if not you’d not be reading this blog. The actual output is from 5 through 19. The reason is due to the behavior of const and readonly members. To begin with, const is the compile-time constant and readonly is a runtime constant. Next, when you compile the code, a compile-time constant member is replaced with the value of the constant in the code. But, the IL generated when you reference a read-only constant, references the readonly variable, not its value. So, the IL version of the Main method, after compilation actually looks something like: 1: static void Main(string[] args) 2: { 3: for (int i = ConstSideEffect.StartValue; i < 20; i++) 4: { 5: Console.WriteLine(i); 6: } 7: Console.ReadLine(); 8: } I’m no expert with this IL thingi, but when I look at the disassembled code of the exe file (using IL Disassembler), I see the following: I see our readonly member still being referenced by the variable name (ConstVsReadonlyLib.ConstSideEffect::StartValue) in line 0001. Then there’s the Console.WriteLine in line 000b and finally, see the value of 20 in line 0017. This, I’m pretty sure is our const member being replaced by its value which marks the upper bound of the ‘for’ loop. Now you know why the output was from 5 through 19. This definitely is a side-effect of having const members and one needs to be aware of it. While we’re here, I’d like to add a few other points about const and readonly members: const is slightly faster, but is less flexible readonly cannot be declared within a method scope const can be used only on primitive types (numbers and strings) Just wanted to share this before going to bed!

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  • SQLAuthority News – 5th Anniversary Giveaways

    - by pinaldave
    Please read my 5th Anniversary post and my quick note on history of the Database. I am sure that we all have friends and we value friendship more than anything. In fact, the complete model of Facebook is built on friends. If you have lots of friends, you must be a lucky person. Having a lot of friends is indeed a good thing. I consider all you blog readers as my friends so now I want do something for you. What is it? Well, send me details about how many of your friends like my page and you would have a chance to win lots of learning materials for yourself and your friends. Here are the exciting prizes awaiting the lucky winner: Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend This is USD 444 (each set USD 222) worth gift. It contains all the five Joes 2 Pros books (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3, Vol4, Vol5) + 1 Learning DVD. [Amazon] | [Flipkart] If in case you submitted an entry but didn’t win the Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros books, you could still will  my SQL Server Wait Stats book as a consolation prize! I will pick the next 5 participants who have the highest number of friends who “liked” the Facebook page, http://facebook.com/SQLAuth. Instead of sending one copy, I will send you 2 copies so you can share one copy with a friend of yours. Well, it is important to share our learning and love with friends, isn’t it? Note: Just take a screenshot of http://facebook.com/SQLAuth using Print Screen function and send it by Nov 7th to pinal ‘at’ sqlauthority.com.. There are no special freebies to early birds so take your time and see if you can increase your friends like count by Nov 7th. Guess – What is in it? It is quite possible you are not a Facebook or Twitter user. In that case you can still win a surprise from me. You have 2 days to guess what is in this box. If you guess it correct and you are one of the first 5 persons to have the correct answer – you will get what is in this box for free. Please note that you have only 48 hours to guess. Please give me your guess by commenting to this blog post. Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Milestone, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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  • MIX 2010 Covert Operations Day 1

    - by GeekAgilistMercenary
    Portland Departure - Farewell Stumptown Off I go on a plane from Portland, Oregon to Las Vegas, Nevada for the MIX 2010 Conference.  Before I even boarded the plane I met Paul Gomes a Senior Software Engineer and Andrew Saylor the Director of Business Development.  Both of these SoftSource Employees were en route to MIX themselves.  Being stoked to already be bumping into some top tier people, I bid them adieu and headed for my seat on the plane. I boarded, and had before the boarding opted for an upgrade.  I have to advise that if you get a chance on Alaska to upgrade at the last minute, take it.  It is usually only about $50 bucks or so and the additional space makes working on the ole' laptop actually possible (even on my monstrous 17" laptop).  So take it from me, click that upgrade button and fork over that $50 bucks for anything over an hour flight, the comfort and ability to work is usually worth it! Las Vegas Arrival - Welcome to Sin City Got into Las Vegas and swung out of the airport.  I then, with my comrade Beth attempted to get Internet Access for the next 3 hours.  Las Vegas, is not the most friendly Internet Access town.  I will just say it, I am not sure why any Internet related company (ala Microsoft) would hold a conference here.  There are more than a dozen other cities that would be better. But I digress, I did manage to get Internet Access after checking into the Circus Circus.  Don't ask why I ended up staying here, if you run into me in person, ask then because there is a whole story to it. At this point I started checking out each session further on the MIX10 Site.  There are a number I deemed necessary to check out.  However, you'll have to read my pending entries to see which session I jumped into. With this juncture in time reached, I got a ton of work to wrap up, some code to write and some sleep to get.  Until tomorrow, adieu. For more of my writing, thoughts, and other topics check out my other blog, where the original entry is posted.

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  • How to include an apache library with my opensource code?

    - by OscarRyz
    I have this opensource code with MIT license that uses an Apache 2.0 licensed library. I want to include this in my project, so it can be built right away. In the point 4 of that license explains how to redistribute it: excerpt: 4 . Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You meet the following conditions: You must give any other recipients of the Work or Derivative Works a copy of this License; and You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices stating that You changed the files; and You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and attribution notices from the Source form of the Work, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works; and If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or, within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed as modifying the License. You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and may provide additional or different license terms and conditions for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use, reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with the conditions stated in this License. I'm not creating a derivative work ( I plan to provide it as it is ). I don't have a NOTICE file, just my my own LICENSE.txt file. Question: Where should I put something along the lines: "This project uses Xyz library distributed under Apache2.0 ..."? What's recommented? Should I provide the apache license file too? Or would be enough if I just say "Find the license online here...http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html" I hope someone who has done this in the past may shed some light on the matter.

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  • SQLAuthority News – Presenting at Great Indian Developer Summit 2012 – SQL Server Misconception and Resolutions

    - by pinaldave
    Earlier during TechEd 2012, I presented a session on SQL Server Misconception and Resolutions. It was a pleasure to present this session with Vinod Kumar during the event. Great Indian Developer Summit is around the corner and I will be presenting there once again with the same topic. We had an excellent response during the last event; the hall was so filled, but there were plenty who were not able to get into the session as there was no place for them to sit or stand inside. Well, here is another chance for all who missed the presentation. New Additions During the last session, we were a two-presenter tag team, and we presented the session in a sense that it would suit two speakers in one stage. But this time, I am the only presenter, so I decided to present this session in a much different way. I will still assume there are two presenters. One of the presenters will be me, of course, and the second person will be YOU! Yes, you read that right – you will be presenting this session with me. If you wonder how, well, you will have to attend the session to figure it out. Talking Points We will be talking about the following topics in the session which we will relate to SQL Server: Moon Landing Napoléon Bonaparte Wall of China Bollywood …and of course, SQL Server itself. I promise that this 45 minute- presentation will be the one of the highlights of the event for you. Goodies I can only promise 20 goodies as of the moment. I might bring more when you meet me there. Session Details Title: SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective (Add to Calendar) Abstract: “The earth is flat”! – An ancient common misconception, which has been proven incorrect as we progressed in modern times. In this session, we will see various database misconceptions prevailing and their resolutions with the aid of the demos. In this unique session, the audience will be a part of the conversation and resolution. Date and Time: April 17, 2012, 16:55 to 17:40 Location: J. N. Tata Auditorium, National Science Symposium Complex (NSSC), Bangalore, India Add to Calendar Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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  • Leveraging Social Networks for Retail

    - by David Dorf
    For retailers, social media is all about B2C2C. That is, Business to Consumer to Consumer, or more specifically, retailer to influencer to consumer. Traditional marketing targeted mass media, trying to expose the message to as many people as possible. While effective, this approach has never been very efficient, with high costs for relatively low penetration. Then it was thought that marketers should focus their efforts on a relative few super-influencers that would then sway the masses. History shows a few successes with this approach but lacked any consistency or predictability. After all, if super-influencers were easy to find, most campaigns would easily go viral. Alas, research shows that most wide-spread trends were the result of several fortunate events, including some luck. So do people exert influence over each other when it comes to purchase decisions? Of course they do, all the time. But that influence is usually limited to a small set of friends and specific specialization. For instance, although I have 165 friends on Facebook, I am only able to influence my close friends and family on PC purchases, and I have no sway at all for fashion purchases. People trust my knowledge on technology, but nobody asks my advice on shoes. How then should retailers leverage social networks in order to reinforce brand image and push promotions? Two obvious ways are Like and Share. Online advertisements or wall-postings receive more clicks when the viewer sees that friends have "liked" the posting. That's our modern-day version of word-of-mouth advertising. Statistics show that endorsements from friends make it more likely a person will engage. If my friends and I liked it, then I might also "share" (or "retweet" in the case of Twitter) it with other friends. In that case the retailer has paid for X showings of the advertisement, but sharing has pushed it to an additional Y people at no cost. And further, the implicit endorsement by the sharer makes it more likely the recipient will engage. So a good first step is to find people active in social networks that will Like and Share in order to exert influence. Its still tough to go viral, but doubling engagement is still a big step in the right direction. More complex social graph analysis would be a second step, but I'll leave that topic for another day. If you're interested in the academic side of social dynamics, I suggest reading Duncan Watts' work.

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