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• Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website Using OAuth

  Earlier this year I wrote an article about Twitterizer, an open-source .NET library that can be used to integrate your application with Twitter. Using Twitterizer you can allow your visitors to post tweets, view their timeline, and much more, all without leaving your website. The original article, Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website, showed how to post tweets and view a timeline to a particular Twitter account using Twitterizer 1.0. To post a tweet to a specific account, Twitterizer 1.0 uses basic authentication. Basic authentication is a very simple authentication scheme. For an application to post a tweet to JohnDoe's Twitter account, it would submit JohnDoe's username and password (along with the tweet text) to Twitter's servers. Basic authentication, while easy to implement, is not an ideal authentication scheme as it requires that the integrating application know the username(s) and password(s) of the accounts that it is connected to. Consequently, a user must share her password in order to connect her Twitter account with the application. Such password sharing is not only insecure, but it can also cause difficulties down the line if the user changes her password or decides that she no longer wants to connect her account to certain applications (but wants to remain connected to others). To remedy these issues, Twitter introduced support for OAuth, which is a simple, secure protocol for granting API access. In a nutshell, OAuth allows a user to connect an application to their Twitter account without having to share their password. Instead, the user is sent to Twitter's website where they confirm whether they want to connect to the application. Upon confirmation, Twitter generates an token that is then sent back to the application. The application then submits this token when integrating with the user's account. The token serves as proof that the user has allowed this application access to their account. (Twitter users can view what application's they're connected to and may revoke these tokens on an application-by-application basis.) In late 2009, Twitter announced that it was ending its support for basic authentication in June 2010. As a result, the code examined in Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website, which uses basic authentication, will no longer work once the cut off date is reached. The good news is that the Twitterizer version 2.0 supports OAuth. This article examines how to use Twitterizer 2.0 and OAuth from a website. Specifically, we'll see how to retrieve and display a user's latest tweets and how to post a tweet from an ASP.NET page. Read on to learn more! Read More >

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• Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website Using OAuth

  Earlier this year I wrote an article about Twitterizer, an open-source .NET library that can be used to integrate your application with Twitter. Using Twitterizer you can allow your visitors to post tweets, view their timeline, and much more, all without leaving your website. The original article, Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website, showed how to post tweets and view a timeline to a particular Twitter account using Twitterizer 1.0. To post a tweet to a specific account, Twitterizer 1.0 uses basic authentication. Basic authentication is a very simple authentication scheme. For an application to post a tweet to JohnDoe's Twitter account, it would submit JohnDoe's username and password (along with the tweet text) to Twitter's servers. Basic authentication, while easy to implement, is not an ideal authentication scheme as it requires that the integrating application know the username(s) and password(s) of the accounts that it is connected to. Consequently, a user must share her password in order to connect her Twitter account with the application. Such password sharing is not only insecure, but it can also cause difficulties down the line if the user changes her password or decides that she no longer wants to connect her account to certain applications (but wants to remain connected to others). To remedy these issues, Twitter introduced support for OAuth, which is a simple, secure protocol for granting API access. In a nutshell, OAuth allows a user to connect an application to their Twitter account without having to share their password. Instead, the user is sent to Twitter's website where they confirm whether they want to connect to the application. Upon confirmation, Twitter generates an token that is then sent back to the application. The application then submits this token when integrating with the user's account. The token serves as proof that the user has allowed this application access to their account. (Twitter users can view what application's they're connected to and may revoke these tokens on an application-by-application basis.) In late 2009, Twitter announced that it was ending its support for basic authentication in June 2010. As a result, the code examined in Integrating Twitter Into An ASP.NET Website, which uses basic authentication, will no longer work once the cut off date is reached. The good news is that the Twitterizer version 2.0 supports OAuth. This article examines how to use Twitterizer 2.0 and OAuth from a website. Specifically, we'll see how to retrieve and display a user's latest tweets and how to post a tweet from an ASP.NET page. Read on to learn more! Read More >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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• NoSQL with RavenDB and ASP.NET MVC - Part 2

  - by shiju

  In my previous post, we have discussed on how to work with RavenDB document database in an ASP.NET MVC application. We have setup RavenDB for our ASP.NET MVC application and did basic CRUD operations against a simple domain entity. In this post, let’s discuss on domain entity with deep object graph and how to query against RavenDB documents using Indexes.Let's create two domain entities for our demo ASP.NET MVC appplication  public class Category {       public string Id { get; set; }     [Required(ErrorMessage = "Name Required")]     [StringLength(25, ErrorMessage = "Must be less than 25 characters")]     public string Name { get; set;}     public string Description { get; set; }     public List<Expense> Expenses { get; set; }       public Category()     {         Expenses = new List<Expense>();     } }    public class Expense {       public string Id { get; set; }     public Category Category { get; set; }     public string  Transaction { get; set; }     public DateTime Date { get; set; }     public double Amount { get; set; }   }  We have two domain entities - Category and Expense. A single category contains a list of expense transactions and every expense transaction should have a Category.Let's create  ASP.NET MVC view model  for Expense transaction public class ExpenseViewModel {     public string Id { get; set; }       public string CategoryId { get; set; }       [Required(ErrorMessage = "Transaction Required")]            public string Transaction { get; set; }       [Required(ErrorMessage = "Date Required")]            public DateTime Date { get; set; }       [Required(ErrorMessage = "Amount Required")]     public double Amount { get; set; }       public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> Category { get; set; } } Let's create a contract type for Expense Repository  public interface IExpenseRepository {     Expense Load(string id);     IEnumerable<Expense> GetExpenseTransactions(DateTime startDate,DateTime endDate);     void Save(Expense expense,string categoryId);     void Delete(string id);  } Let's create a concrete type for Expense Repository for handling CRUD operations. public class ExpenseRepository : IExpenseRepository {   private IDocumentSession session; public ExpenseRepository() {         session = MvcApplication.CurrentSession; } public Expense Load(string id) {     return session.Load<Expense>(id); } public IEnumerable<Expense> GetExpenseTransactions(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate) {             //Querying using the Index name "ExpenseTransactions"     //filtering with dates     var expenses = session.LuceneQuery<Expense>("ExpenseTransactions")         .WaitForNonStaleResults()         .Where(exp => exp.Date >= startDate && exp.Date <= endDate)         .ToArray();     return expenses; } public void Save(Expense expense,string categoryId) {     var category = session.Load<Category>(categoryId);     if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(expense.Id))     {         //new expense transaction         expense.Category = category;         session.Store(expense);     }     else     {         //modifying an existing expense transaction         var expenseToEdit = Load(expense.Id);         //Copy values to  expenseToEdit         ModelCopier.CopyModel(expense, expenseToEdit);         //set category object         expenseToEdit.Category = category;       }     //save changes     session.SaveChanges(); } public void Delete(string id) {     var expense = Load(id);     session.Delete<Expense>(expense);     session.SaveChanges(); }   }  Insert/Update Expense Transaction The Save method is used for both insert a new expense record and modifying an existing expense transaction. For a new expense transaction, we store the expense object with associated category into document session object and load the existing expense object and assign values to it for editing a existing record.  public void Save(Expense expense,string categoryId) {     var category = session.Load<Category>(categoryId);     if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(expense.Id))     {         //new expense transaction         expense.Category = category;         session.Store(expense);     }     else     {         //modifying an existing expense transaction         var expenseToEdit = Load(expense.Id);         //Copy values to  expenseToEdit         ModelCopier.CopyModel(expense, expenseToEdit);         //set category object         expenseToEdit.Category = category;       }     //save changes     session.SaveChanges(); } Querying Expense transactions   public IEnumerable<Expense> GetExpenseTransactions(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate) {             //Querying using the Index name "ExpenseTransactions"     //filtering with dates     var expenses = session.LuceneQuery<Expense>("ExpenseTransactions")         .WaitForNonStaleResults()         .Where(exp => exp.Date >= startDate && exp.Date <= endDate)         .ToArray();     return expenses; }  The GetExpenseTransactions method returns expense transactions using a LINQ query expression with a Date comparison filter. The Lucene Query is using a index named "ExpenseTransactions" for getting the result set. In RavenDB, Indexes are LINQ queries stored in the RavenDB server and would be  executed on the background and will perform query against the JSON documents. Indexes will be working with a lucene query expression or a set operation. Indexes are composed using a Map and Reduce function. Check out Ayende's blog post on Map/Reduce We can create index using RavenDB web admin tool as well as programmitically using its Client API. The below shows the screen shot of creating index using web admin tool. We can also create Indexes using Raven Cleint API as shown in the following code documentStore.DatabaseCommands.PutIndex("ExpenseTransactions",     new IndexDefinition<Expense,Expense>() {     Map = Expenses => from exp in Expenses                     select new { exp.Date } });  In the Map function, we used a Linq expression as shown in the following from exp in docs.Expensesselect new { exp.Date };We have not used a Reduce function for the above index. A Reduce function is useful while performing aggregate functions based on the results from the Map function. Indexes can be use with set operations of RavenDB.SET OperationsUnlike other document databases, RavenDB supports set based operations that lets you to perform updates, deletes and inserts to the bulk_docs endpoint of RavenDB. For doing this, you just pass a query to a Index as shown in the following commandDELETE http://localhost:8080/bulk_docs/ExpenseTransactions?query=Date:20100531The above command using the Index named "ExpenseTransactions" for querying the documents with Date filter and  will delete all the documents that match the query criteria. The above command is equivalent of the following queryDELETE FROM ExpensesWHERE Date='2010-05-31' Controller & ActionsWe have created Expense Repository class for performing CRUD operations for the Expense transactions. Let's create a controller class for handling expense transactions.   public class ExpenseController : Controller { private ICategoryRepository categoyRepository; private IExpenseRepository expenseRepository; public ExpenseController(ICategoryRepository categoyRepository, IExpenseRepository expenseRepository) {     this.categoyRepository = categoyRepository;     this.expenseRepository = expenseRepository; } //Get Expense transactions based on dates public ActionResult Index(DateTime? StartDate, DateTime? EndDate) {     //If date is not passed, take current month's first and last dte     DateTime dtNow;     dtNow = DateTime.Today;     if (!StartDate.HasValue)     {         StartDate = new DateTime(dtNow.Year, dtNow.Month, 1);         EndDate = StartDate.Value.AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1);     }     //take last date of startdate's month, if endate is not passed     if (StartDate.HasValue && !EndDate.HasValue)     {         EndDate = (new DateTime(StartDate.Value.Year, StartDate.Value.Month, 1)).AddMonths(1).AddDays(-1);     }       var expenses = expenseRepository.GetExpenseTransactions(StartDate.Value, EndDate.Value);     if (Request.IsAjaxRequest())     {           return PartialView("ExpenseList", expenses);     }     ViewData.Add("StartDate", StartDate.Value.ToShortDateString());     ViewData.Add("EndDate", EndDate.Value.ToShortDateString());             return View(expenses);            }   // GET: /Expense/Edit public ActionResult Edit(string id) {       var expenseModel = new ExpenseViewModel();     var expense = expenseRepository.Load(id);     ModelCopier.CopyModel(expense, expenseModel);     var categories = categoyRepository.GetCategories();     expenseModel.Category = categories.ToSelectListItems(expense.Category.Id.ToString());                    return View("Save", expenseModel);          }   // // GET: /Expense/Create   public ActionResult Create() {     var expenseModel = new ExpenseViewModel();               var categories = categoyRepository.GetCategories();     expenseModel.Category = categories.ToSelectListItems("-1");     expenseModel.Date = DateTime.Today;     return View("Save", expenseModel); }   // // POST: /Expense/Save // Insert/Update Expense Tansaction [HttpPost] public ActionResult Save(ExpenseViewModel expenseViewModel) {     try     {         if (!ModelState.IsValid)         {               var categories = categoyRepository.GetCategories();                 expenseViewModel.Category = categories.ToSelectListItems(expenseViewModel.CategoryId);                               return View("Save", expenseViewModel);         }           var expense=new Expense();         ModelCopier.CopyModel(expenseViewModel, expense);          expenseRepository.Save(expense, expenseViewModel.CategoryId);                       return RedirectToAction("Index");     }     catch     {         return View();     } } //Delete a Expense Transaction public ActionResult Delete(string id) {     expenseRepository.Delete(id);     return RedirectToAction("Index");     }     }     Download the Source - You can download the source code from http://ravenmvc.codeplex.com

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

  - by pgfearo

  I'm writing an XML text editor that provides 2 view options for the same XML text, one indented (virtually), the other left-justified. The motivation for the left-justified view is to help users 'see' the whitespace characters they're using for indentation of plain-text or XPath code without interference from indentation that is an automated side-effect of the XML context. I want to provide visual clues (in the non-editable part of the editor) for the left-justified mode that will help the user, but without getting too elaborate. I tried just using connecting lines, but that seemed too busy. The best I've come up with so far is shown in a mocked up screenshot of the editor below, but I'm seeking better/simpler alternatives (that don't require too much code). [Edit] Taking the heatmap idea (from: @jimp) I get something like this: or even these alternates:

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• How To Watch Live Streaming of Oscars 2011 (Academy Awards)

  - by Kavitha

  The Academy Awards or more popularly known as Oscars for this year will go live on Sunday,  February 27, 2011 (8PM ET/5pm PT) at the Kodak Theatre (Hollywood), Los Angeles, California. It’s a star studded event every movie lover wish to follow and watch live. We at Tech Dreams always love to write about live streaming of popular events happening across the globe. Here is our guide to follow Oscars 2011. Oscars 2011 Live Streams Last year we did not have many choices to view the Oscars online. But this year there are plenty of them available from the best of the media power houses APLive Oscars coverage on livestream.com (embedded below) Oscars.com – The Official Web Site of Academy Awards Oscars.org Live Streaming Academy Awards – Official Live Steaming Channel on livestream.com(embedded below) APLive Oscars coverage on Facebook Watch Oscars 2011 On Your iPad / iPhone You can catch Oscars 2011 on your iOS devices – iPhone, iPad and iPods for the time ever using the official oscar’s application. Application cost $0.99 and you can download it from AppStore Websites To View Highlights & Exclusive Clips Of Oscars 2010 If you miss to catch the live streaming of Oscars 2011, here are few sites you can check to view video highlights of the entire event.  Few websites like Hulu have access to exclusive moments. Oscar’s Official YouTube Channel Hulu Award Season 2011 coverage Oscar’s 2011 Event Schedule Oscars 2011 will begin at on 27th February Sunday 8PM EST in California. The local time in India will be around 9:30 AM on Monday. Here is list of major cities and the local time at which Oscars 2011 are going to start   Date & Time California February 27th, Sunday 20:00 Adelaide February 28th, Monday 14:30 Bangkok February 28th, Monday 11:00 Beijing February 28th, Monday 12:00 Brisbane February 28th, Monday 14:00 Cape Town February 28th, Monday 06:00 Dubai February 28th, Monday 08:00 Frankfurt February 28th, Monday 05:00 Hong Kong February 28th, Monday 12:00 Delhi/Chennai/Mumbai/Kolkata February 28th, Monday 09:30 New York February 27th, Sunday 23:00 Paris February 28th, Monday 05:00 Washington February 27th, Sunday 23:00 London February 28th, Monday 04:00 or more cities visit this link This article titled,How To Watch Live Streaming of Oscars 2011 (Academy Awards), was originally published at Tech Dreams. Grab our rss feed or fan us on Facebook to get updates from us.

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• Rendering ASP.NET MVC Razor Views outside of MVC revisited

  - by Rick Strahl

  Last year I posted a detailed article on how to render Razor Views to string both inside of ASP.NET MVC and outside of it. In that article I showed several different approaches to capture the rendering output. The first and easiest is to use an existing MVC Controller Context to render a view by simply passing the controller context which is fairly trivial and I demonstrated a simple ViewRenderer class that simplified the process down to a couple lines of code. However, if no Controller Context is available the process is not quite as straight forward and I referenced an old, much more complex example that uses my RazorHosting library, which is a custom self-contained implementation of the Razor templating engine that can be hosted completely outside of ASP.NET. While it works inside of ASP.NET, it’s an awkward solution when running inside of ASP.NET, because it requires a bit of setup to run efficiently.Well, it turns out that I missed something in the original article, namely that it is possible to create a ControllerContext, if you have a controller instance, even if MVC didn’t create that instance. Creating a Controller Instance outside of MVCThe trick to make this work is to create an MVC Controller instance – any Controller instance – and then configure a ControllerContext through that instance. As long as an HttpContext.Current is available it’s possible to create a fully functional controller context as Razor can get all the necessary context information from the HttpContextWrapper().The key to make this work is the following method:/// <summary> /// Creates an instance of an MVC controller from scratch /// when no existing ControllerContext is present /// </summary> /// <typeparam name="T">Type of the controller to create</typeparam> /// <returns>Controller Context for T</returns> /// <exception cref="InvalidOperationException">thrown if HttpContext not available</exception> public static T CreateController<T>(RouteData routeData = null) where T : Controller, new() { // create a disconnected controller instance T controller = new T(); // get context wrapper from HttpContext if available HttpContextBase wrapper = null; if (HttpContext.Current != null) wrapper = new HttpContextWrapper(System.Web.HttpContext.Current); else throw new InvalidOperationException( "Can't create Controller Context if no active HttpContext instance is available."); if (routeData == null) routeData = new RouteData(); // add the controller routing if not existing if (!routeData.Values.ContainsKey("controller") && !routeData.Values.ContainsKey("Controller")) routeData.Values.Add("controller", controller.GetType().Name .ToLower() .Replace("controller", "")); controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(wrapper, routeData, controller); return controller; }This method creates an instance of a Controller class from an existing HttpContext which means this code should work from anywhere within ASP.NET to create a controller instance that’s ready to be rendered. This means you can use this from within an Application_Error handler as I needed to or even from within a WebAPI controller as long as it’s running inside of ASP.NET (ie. not self-hosted). Nice.So using the ViewRenderer class from the previous article I can now very easily render an MVC view outside of the context of MVC. Here’s what I ended up in my Application’s custom error HttpModule: protected override void OnDisplayError(WebErrorHandler errorHandler, ErrorViewModel model) { var Response = HttpContext.Current.Response; Response.ContentType = "text/html"; Response.StatusCode = errorHandler.OriginalHttpStatusCode; var context = ViewRenderer.CreateController<ErrorController>().ControllerContext; var renderer = new ViewRenderer(context); string html = renderer.RenderView("~/Views/Shared/GenericError.cshtml", model); Response.Write(html); }That’s pretty sweet, because it’s now possible to use ViewRenderer just about anywhere in any ASP.NET application, not only inside of controller code. This also allows the constructor for the ViewRenderer from the last article to work without a controller context parameter, using a generic view as a base for the controller context when not passed:public ViewRenderer(ControllerContext controllerContext = null) { // Create a known controller from HttpContext if no context is passed if (controllerContext == null) { if (HttpContext.Current != null) controllerContext = CreateController<ErrorController>().ControllerContext; else throw new InvalidOperationException( "ViewRenderer must run in the context of an ASP.NET " + "Application and requires HttpContext.Current to be present."); } Context = controllerContext; }In this case I use the ErrorController class which is a generic controller instance that exists in the same assembly as my ViewRenderer class and that works just fine since ‘generically’ rendered views tend to not rely on anything from the controller other than the model which is explicitly passed.While these days most of my apps use MVC I do still have a number of generic pieces in most of these applications where Razor comes in handy. This includes modules like the above, which when they error often need to display error output. In other cases I need to generate string template output for emailing or logging data to disk. Being able to render simply render an arbitrary View to and pass in a model makes this super nice and easy at least within the context of an ASP.NET application!You can check out the updated ViewRenderer class below to render your ‘generic views’ from anywhere within your ASP.NET applications. Hope some of you find this useful.ResourcesViewRenderer Class in Westwind.Web.Mvc Library (Github)Original ViewRenderer ArticleRazor Hosting Library (GitHub)Original Razor Hosting Article© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2013Posted in ASP.NET  MVC   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• What's new in Xamarin and iOS7 - webinar

  - by Wallym

  I recently did an online webinar regarding the new iOS7 and Xamarin.  In it, I covered the basics of what is new in iOS7 along with what is new in Xamarin's developer platform.  Please take some time and view this webinar.  The items that were covered include:What's new in iOS7.The XCode Design Surface.An example showing new iOS7 View Animations.What's new with Xamarin and async, await, and HttpClient.A demo of Razor Templating.The Xamarin.iOS Plugin for Visual Studio.  ** The video only works in Windows.  I don't control the content, so I have to go with what I am given. :-( **

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• ArcSig Meeting at 04/20/2010 with Sam Abraham

  - by Rainer

  Sam Abraham gave a great presentation, “MVC2 – Do it your way in VS 2010”, at our monthly ArcSig meeting on 04/20/2010 at Global Response. The interest in Sam’s talk was immense, we almost run out of seats. The audience got an in-depth view and walkthrough of the Model View Controller functionality in Visual Studio 2010 with detailed code examples. Sam answered many user questions about practical applications in MVC. Free soft drinks and pizza kept the participants energized during the whole presentation and a raffle of books and software completed this meeting, with a preview about the upcoming meetings and events in May and June. Thank you to Sam for the exciting presentation, and to the Shooster family for hosting us this month at Global Response! Posted: Rainer Habermann ArcSig Site Director CIO @ Global Response

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• Here’s a Quick Alternative Way to Download Videos from YouTube

  - by Taylor Gibb

  More than 24 hours of video content are uploaded to the internet per minute. With so many videos being uploaded, there’s no doubt you’ve come across a video you want to keep. Read on to find out how you can download your favorite videos for offline viewing. This method of downloading YouTube videos, is different, in the sense that you are just retrieving a buffered version of the video from your browsers cache. While you could always do this manually, different browsers store the cache in different places, a much easier method would be to head over to the NirSoft site and download a copy of Video Cache View (choose the zipped version), which allows you to view all the videos in your cache and supports all major browsers. Note: The download link is quite far down the page, see screenshot below How To Properly Scan a Photograph (And Get An Even Better Image) The HTG Guide to Hiding Your Data in a TrueCrypt Hidden Volume Make Your Own Windows 8 Start Button with Zero Memory Usage

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• The Complementary Roles of PLM and PIM

  - by Ulf Köster

  Oracle Product Value Chain Solutions (aka Enterprise PLM Solutions) are a comprehensive set of product management solutions that work together to provide Oracle customers with a broad array of capabilities to manage all aspects of product life: innovation, design, launch, and supply chain / commercialization processes beyond the capabilities and boundaries of traditional engineering-focused Product Lifecycle Management applications. They support companies with an integrated managed view across the product value chain: From Lab to Launch, From Farm to Fork, From Concept to Product to Customer, From Product Innovation to Product Design and Product Commercialization. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) represents a broad suite of software solutions to improve product-oriented business processes and data. PLM success stories prove that PLM helps companies improve time to market, increase product-related revenue, reduce product costs, reduce internal costs and improve product quality. As a maturing suite of enterprise solutions, PLM is still evolving to realize the promise it can provide across all facets of a business and all phases of the product lifecycle. The vision for PLM includes everything from gathering early requirements for a product through multiple stages of the product lifecycle from product design, through commercialization and eventual product retirement or replacement. In discrete or process industries, PLM is typically more focused on Product Definition as items with respect to the technical view of a material or part, including specifications, bills of material and manufacturing data. With Agile PLM, this is specifically related to capabilities addressing Product Collaboration, Governance and Compliance, Product Quality Management, Product Cost Management and Engineering Collaboration. PLM today is mainly addressing key requirements in the early product lifecycle, in engineering changes or in the “innovation cycle”, and primarily adds value related to product design, development, launch and engineering change process. In short, PLM is the master for Product Definition, wherever manufacturing takes place. Product Information Management (PIM) is a product suite that has evolved in parallel to PLM. Product Information Management (PIM) can extend the value of PLM implementations by providing complementary tools and capabilities. More relevant in the area of Product Commercialization, the vision for PIM is to manage product information throughout an enterprise and supply chain to improve product-related knowledge management, information sharing and synchronization from multiple data sources. PIM success stories have shown the ability to provide multiple benefits, with particular emphasis on reducing information complexity and information management costs. Product Information in PIM is typically treated as the commercial view of a material or part, including sales and marketing information and categorization. PIM collects information from multiple manufacturing sites and multiple suppliers into its repository, but also provides integration tools to push the information back out to the other systems, serving as an active central repository with the aim to provide a holistic view on any product sold by a company (hence the name “Product Hub”). In short, PIM is the master of commercial Product Information. So PIM is quickly becoming mandatory because of its value in optimizing multichannel selling processes and relationships with customers, as you can see from the following table: Viewpoint PLM Current State PIM Key Benefits PIM adds to PLM Product Lifecycle Primarily R&D Front end Innovation Cycle Change process Primarily commercial / transactional state of lifecycle Provides a seamless information flow from design and manufacturing through the ultimate selling and servicing of products Data Primarily focused on “item” vs. “product” data Product structures Specifications Technical information Repository for all product information. Reaches out to entire enterprise and its various silos of product information and descriptions Provides a “trusted source” of accurate product information to the internal organization and trading partners Data Lifecycle Repository for all design iterations Historical information Released, current information, with version management and time stamping Provides a single location to track and audit historical product information Communication PLM release finished product to ERP PLM is the master for Product Definition Captures information from disparate sources, including in-house data stores Recognizes the reality of today’s data “mess” across information silos Provides the ability to package product information to its audience in the desired, relevant format to meet their exacting business requirements Departmental R&D Manufacturing Quality Compliance Procurement Strategic Marketing Focus on Marketing and Sales Gathering information from other Departments, multiple sites, multiple suppliers A singular enterprise solution that leverages existing information silos and data stores Supply Chain Multi-site internal collaboration Supplier collaboration Customer collaboration Works with customers, exchanges / data pools, and trading partners to provide relevant product information packaged the way the customer desires Provides ability to provide trading partners and internal customers with information in a manner they desire, continuously Tools Data Management Collaboration Innovation Management Cleansing Synchronization Hub functions Consistent, clean and complete commercial product information The goals of both PLM and PIM, put simply, are to help companies make more profit from their products. PLM and PIM solutions can be easily added as they share some of the same goals, while coming from two different perspectives: the definition of the product and the commercialization of the product. Both can serve as a form of product “system of record”, but take different approaches to delivering value. Oracle Product Value Chain solutions offer rich new strategies for executives to collectively leverage Agile PLM, Product Data Hub, together with Enterprise Data Quality for Products, and other industry leading Oracle applications to achieve further incremental value, like Oracle Innovation Management. This is unique on the market today.

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• How would you advocate not using a shared spreadsheet to track bugs / issues ?

  - by Sylvain Defresne

  In our company, the developers want to use a proper bug tracking tool to manager issues in our application. The management however insists on using a shared spreadsheet (formeerly a shared excel file, now a spreadsheet on a web base solution allowing concurrent access). Their argument is that the spreadsheet allow them to have a more highlevel view of the state of the project as they can see how many bugs are open with a quick glance. This also allow them to see who is working on each bug, and get estimation of the time required to close them all (as developer are required to fill time estimation of the bug they are working on). As you can understand, this is not really practical to use for the developers (bug tracking software were invented for a reason). So how can I advocate bug tracking software to ease the work of the developer ? As a bonus, which software would you recommend that would allow the management to be able to get their feedbacks (number of bugs opens, who is working on them, time estimation) with a high level view ?

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• Visualising data a different way with Pivot collections

  - by Rob Farley

  Roger’s been doing a great job extending PivotViewer recently, and you can find the list of LobsterPot pivots at http://pivot.lobsterpot.com.au Many months back, the TED Talk that Gary Flake did about Pivot caught my imagination, and I did some research into it. At the time, most of what we did with Pivot was geared towards what we could do for clients, including making Pivot collections based on students at a school, and using it to browse PDF invoices by their various properties. We had actual commercial work based on Pivot collections back then, and it was all kinds of fun. Later, we made some collections for events that were happening, and even got featured in the TechEd Australia keynote. But I’m getting ahead of myself... let me explain the concept. A Pivot collection is an XML file (with .cxml extension) which lists Items, each linking to an image that’s stored in a Deep Zoom format (this means that it contains tiles like Bing Maps, so that the browser can request only the ones of interest according to the zoom level). This collection can be shown in a Silverlight application that uses the PivotViewer control, or in the Pivot Browser that’s available from getpivot.com. Filtering and sorting the items according to their facets (attributes, such as size, age, category, etc), the PivotViewer rearranges the way that these are shown in a very dynamic way. To quote Gary Flake, this lets us “see patterns which are otherwise hidden”. This browsing mechanism is very suited to a number of different methods, because it’s just that – browsing. It’s not searching, it’s more akin to window-shopping than doing an internet search. When we decided to put something together for the conferences such as TechEd Australia 2010 and the PASS Summit 2010, we did some screen-scraping to provide a different view of data that was already available online. Nick Hodge and Michael Kordahi from Microsoft liked the idea a lot, and after a bit of tweaking, we produced one that Michael used in the TechEd Australia keynote to show the variety of talks on offer. It’s interesting to see a pattern in this data: The Office track has the most sessions, but if the Interactive Sessions and Instructor-Led Labs are removed, it drops down to only the sixth most popular track, with Cloud Computing taking over. This is something which just isn’t obvious when you look an ordinary search tool. You get a much better feel for the data when moving around it like this. The more observant amongst you will have noticed some difference in the collection that Michael is demonstrating in the picture above with the screenshots I’ve shown. That’s because it’s been extended some more. At the SQLBits conference in the UK this year, I had some interesting discussions with the guys from Xpert360, particularly Phil Carter, who I’d met in 2009 at an earlier SQLBits conference. They had got around to producing a Pivot collection based on the SQLBits data, which we had been planning to do but ran out of time. We discussed some of ways that Pivot could be used, including the ways that my old friend Howard Dierking had extended it for the MSDN Magazine. I’m not suggesting I influenced Xpert360 at all, but they certainly inspired us with some of their posts on the matter So with LobsterPot guys David Gardiner and Roger Noble both having dabbled in Pivot collections (and Dave doing some for clients), I set Roger to work on extending it some more. He’s used various events and so on to be able to make an environment that allows us to do quick deployment of new collections, as well as showing the data in a grid view which behaves as if it were simply a third view of the data (the other two being the array of images and the ‘histogram’ view). I see PivotViewer as being a significant step in data visualisation – so much so that I feature it when I deliver talks on Spatial Data Visualisation methods. Any time when there is information that can be conveyed through an image, you have to ask yourself how best to show that image, and whether that image is the focal point. For Spatial data, the image is most often a map, and the map becomes the central mode for navigation. I show Pivot with postcode areas, since I can browse the postcodes based on their data, and many of the images are recognisable (to locals of South Australia). Naturally, the images could link through to the map itself, and so on, but generally people think of Spatial data in terms of navigating a map, which doesn’t always gel with the information you’re trying to extract. Roger’s even looking into ways to hook PivotViewer into the Bing Maps API, in a similar way to the Deep Earth project, displaying different levels of map detail according to how ‘zoomed in’ the images are. Some of the work that Dave did with one of the schools was generating the Deep Zoom tiles “on the fly”, based on images stored in a database, and Roger has produced a collection which uses images from flickr, that lets you move from one search term to another. Pulling the images down from flickr.com isn’t particularly ideal from a performance aspect, and flickr doesn’t store images in a small-enough format to really lend itself to this use, but you might agree that it’s an interesting concept which compares nicely to using Maps. I’m looking forward to future versions of the PivotViewer control, and hope they provide many more events that can be used, and even more hooks into it. Naturally, LobsterPot could help provide your business with a PivotViewer experience, but you can probably do a lot of it yourself too. There’s a thorough guide at getpivot.com, which is how we got into it. For some examples of what we’ve done, have a look at http://pivot.lobsterpot.com.au. I’d like to see PivotViewer really catch on a data visualisation tool.

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• Speaking at Tech-Ed Europe Next Week

  - by Stephen Walther

  I’m going to Berlin! Next week, I’m giving talks at Tech-Ed Europe on two of my favorite topics: What's New in Microsoft ASP.NET Model-View-Controller ASP.NET Model-View-Controller (MVC) 2 introduces new features to make you more productive when building an ASP.NET MVC application. Templated helpers allow automatically associatiating edit and display elements with data types. Areas provide a means of dividing a large Web application into multiple projects. Data annotations allow attaching metadata attributes on a model to control validation. Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX: Taking AJAX to the Next Level Hear how ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 makes building pure client-side AJAX Web applications even easier, and watch us build an entire data-driven ASP.NET AJAX application from start to finish by taking advantage of only JavaScript, HTML pages, and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services. Also learn about new ASP.NET AJAX features including the DataView control, declarative templates, live client-side data binding, WCF, and REST integration.   The conference has sold out, but you can register for the wait list: http://www.microsoft.com/europe/TechEd/

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• Measuring Usability with Common Industry Format (CIF) Usability Tests

  - by Applications User Experience

  Sean Rice, Manager, Applications User Experience A User-centered Research and Design Process The Oracle Fusion Applications user experience was five years in the making. The development of this suite included an extensive and comprehensive user experience design process: ethnographic research, low-fidelity workflow prototyping, high fidelity user interface (UI) prototyping, iterative formative usability testing, development feedback and iteration, and sales and customer evaluation throughout the design cycle. However, this process does not stop when our products are released. We conduct summative usability testing using the ISO 25062 Common Industry Format (CIF) for usability test reports as an organizational framework. CIF tests allow us to measure the overall usability of our released products.  These studies provide benchmarks that allow for comparisons of a specific product release against previous versions of our product and against other products in the marketplace. What Is a CIF Usability Test? CIF refers to the internationally standardized method for reporting usability test findings used by the software industry. The CIF is based on a formal, lab-based test that is used to benchmark the usability of a product in terms of human performance and subjective data. The CIF was developed and is endorsed by more than 375 software customer and vendor organizations led by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), a US government entity. NIST sponsored the CIF through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards-making processes. Oracle played a key role in developing the CIF. The CIF report format and metrics are consistent with the ISO 9241-11 definition of usability: “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.” Our goal in conducting CIF tests is to measure performance and satisfaction of a representative sample of users on a set of core tasks and to help predict how usable a product will be with the larger population of customers. Why Do We Perform CIF Testing? The overarching purpose of the CIF for usability test reports is to promote incorporation of usability as part of the procurement decision-making process for interactive products. CIF provides a common format for vendors to report the methods and results of usability tests to customer organizations, and enables customers to compare the usability of our software to that of other suppliers. CIF also enables us to compare our current software with previous versions of our software. CIF Testing for Fusion Applications Oracle Fusion Applications comprises more than 100 modules in seven different product families. These modules encompass more than 400 task flows and 400 user roles. Due to resource constraints, we cannot perform comprehensive CIF testing across the entire product suite. Therefore, we had to develop meaningful inclusion criteria and work with other stakeholders across the applications development organization to prioritize product areas for testing. Ultimately, we want to test the product areas for which customers might be most interested in seeing CIF data. We also want to build credibility with customers; we need to be able to make the case to current and prospective customers that the product areas tested are representative of the product suite as a whole. Our goal is to test the top use cases for each product. The primary activity in the scoping process was to work with the individual product teams to identify the key products and business process task flows in each product to test. We prioritized these products and flows through a series of negotiations among the user experience managers, product strategy, and product management directors for each of the primary product families within the Oracle Fusion Applications suite (Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Financials, Projects, and Procurement). The end result of the scoping exercise was a list of 47 proposed CIF tests for the Fusion Applications product suite.  Figure 1. A participant completes tasks during a usability test in Oracle’s Usability Labs Fusion Supplier Portal CIF Test The first Fusion CIF test was completed on the Supplier Portal application in July of 2011.  Fusion Supplier Portal is part of an integrated suite of Procurement applications that helps supplier companies manage orders, schedules, shipments, invoices, negotiations and payments. The user roles targeted for the usability study were Supplier Account Receivables Specialists and Supplier Sales Representatives, including both experienced and inexperienced users across a wide demographic range.  The test specifically focused on the following functionality and features: Manage payments – view payments Manage invoices – view invoice status and create invoices Manage account information – create new contact, review bank account information Manage agreements – find and view agreement, upload agreement lines, confirm status of agreement lines upload Manage purchase orders (PO) – view history of PO, request change to PO, find orders Manage negotiations – respond to request for a quote, check the status of a negotiation response These product areas were selected to represent the most important subset of features and functionality of the flow, in terms of frequency and criticality of use by customers. A total of 20 users participated in the usability study. The results of the Supplier Portal evaluation were favorable and exceeded our expectations. Figure 2. Fusion Supplier Portal Next Studies We plan to conduct two Fusion CIF usability studies per product family over the next nine months. The next product to be tested will be Self-service Procurement. End users are currently being recruited to participate in this usability study, and the test sessions are scheduled to begin during the last week of November.

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• Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Manage Your Twitter Account from the Sidebar in Firefox

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you a Twitter addict and need an easy way to manage your account in Firefox? Now you can access Twitter in your Sidebar or as a separate window with the TwitKit+ extension for Firefox. Accessing TwitKit+ There are three ways that you can access TwitKit+ after installing the extension. The first is by adding the “Toolbar Button” to your browser’s UI. The second and third methods are through the “View & Tools Menus”.   TwitKit+ in Action When you open TwitKit+ for the first time you will see Twitter’s “Public Tweet Stream”. To get started login into your account. Note: If you do not care for the “brown theme” you can select a different one in “Preferences”. Here is a closer look at the top area and the commands available. Notice the “blue arrow symbol” in the upper left corner…very useful if you want to separate TwitKit+ from your main browser window for a bit. Secure Mode, Undock, Preferences, Login/Logout Google Search, Twitter Search, Copy Selection To Status Box, Shorten Selected URL Public, User, Friends, Followers, @ Messages, Direct Messages, Profile Note: To use Google or Twitter search enter your term in the “Status Area” and click on the appropriate service icon. Here is the regular timeline for our account…the “clickable tab buttons” make everything easy to view and work with. You can perform actions such as replying, retweeting, marking as a favorite, etc. using the set of “management buttons” at the bottom of each tweet. To add a new tweet to your timeline enter your text and press “Enter”. A look at the “Following List” for our account. Having a more defined and separate “view categories” set makes this better than directly accessing the Twitter website. Preferences The preferences can be quickly sorted out…choose how often the timeline is updated, name display, favorite URL shortening service, theme, and font size. Note: The default connection setting is for “Secure Access”. Conclusion TwitKit+ makes a nice addition to Firefox for anyone who loves keeping up with Twitter throughout the day. There when you want it and out of your way the rest of the time. Links Download the TwitKit+ extension (Mozilla Add-ons) Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Move Add-on Management to the Sidebar in FirefoxPreview and Manage Multiple Tabs in Firefox with Tab SidebarDisable Windows Sidebar in VistaQuick Tip: Use Google Talk Sidebar in FirefoxRun Windows Sidebar Gadgets Without the Sidebar TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Oracle VM Deep Dives

  - by rickramsey

  "With IT staff now tasked to deliver on-demand services, datacenter virtualization requirements have gone beyond simple consolidation and cost reduction. Simply provisioning and delivering an operating environment falls short. IT organizations must rapidly deliver services, such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Virtualization solutions need to be application-driven and enable:" "Easier deployment and management of business critical applications" "Rapid and automated provisioning of the entire application stack inside the virtual machine" "Integrated management of the complete stack including the VM and the applications running inside the VM." Application Driven Virtualization, an Oracle white paper That was published in August of 2011. The new release of Oracle VM Server delivers significant virtual networking performance improvements, among other things. If you're not sure how virtual networks work or how to use them, these two articles by Greg King and friends might help. Looking Under the Hood at Virtual Networking by Greg King Oracle VM Server for x86 lets you create logical networks out of physical Ethernet ports, bonded ports, VLAN segments, virtual MAC addresses (VNICs), and network channels. You can then assign channels (or "roles") to each logical network so that it handles the type of traffic you want it to. Greg King explains how you go about doing this, and how Oracle VM Server for x86 implements the network infrastructure you configured. He also describes how the VM interacts with paravirtualized guest operating systems, hardware virtualized operating systems, and VLANs. Finally, he provides an example that shows you how it all looks from the VM Manager view, the logical view, and the command line view of Oracle VM Server for x86. Fundamental Concepts of VLAN Networks by Greg King and Don Smerker Oracle VM Server for x86 supports a wide range of options in network design, varying in complexity from a single network to configurations that include network bonds, VLANS, bridges, and multiple networks connecting the Oracle VM servers and guests. You can create separate networks to isolate traffic, or you can configure a single network for multiple roles. Network design depends on many factors, including the number and type of network interfaces, reliability and performance goals, the number of Oracle VM servers and guests, and the anticipated workload. The Oracle VM Manager GUI presents four different ways to create an Oracle VM network: Bonds and ports VLANs Both bond/ports and VLANS A local network This article focuses the second option, designing a complex Oracle VM network infrastructure using only VLANs, and it steps through the concepts needed to create a robust network infrastructure for your Oracle VM servers and guests. More Resources Virtual Networking for Dummies Download Oracle VM Server for x86 Find technical resources for Oracle VM Server for x86 -Rick Follow me on: Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Personal Twitter | YouTube | The Great Peruvian Novel

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• Unable to create dynamic web application in IIS7 and above

  - by Dhwani

  Not able to view application in IIS after successfully calling below method: ServerManager serverMgr = new ServerManager(); Configuration config = serverMgr.GetApplicationHostConfiguration(); ConfigurationSection isapiCgiRestrictionSection = config.GetSection("system.webServer/security/isapiCgiRestriction"); ConfigurationElementCollection isapiCgiRestrictionCollection = isapiCgiRestrictionSection.GetCollection(); //ConfigurationElement addElement = isapiCgiRestrictionCollection.CreateElement("add"); //addElement["path"] = @"C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\"; //addElement["allowed"] = true; //addElement["groupId"] = @"ContosoGroup"; //addElement["description"] = @"Contoso Extension"; //isapiCgiRestrictionCollection.Add(addElement); //serverMgr.CommitChanges(); Site defaultSite = serverMgr.Sites["PharmaConnect"]; defaultSite.Applications.Add("/blogs3", @"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\blogs1"); serverMgr.CommitChanges(); I don't know how to create dynamically sub domain though c# code. We just tried to implement above. But unable to view application/virtual directory in iis. I have tried this, but didn't get success.

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• Experience your music in a whole new way with Zune for PC

  - by Matthew Guay

  Tired of the standard Media Player look and feel, and want something new and innovative?  Zune offers a fresh, new way to enjoy your music, videos, pictures, and podcasts, whether or not you own a Zune device. Microsoft started out on a new multimedia experience for PCs and mobile devices with the launch of the Zune several years ago.  The Zune devices have been well received and noted for their innovative UI, and the Zune HD’s fluid interface is the foundation for the widely anticipated Windows Phone 7.  But regardless of whether or not you have a Zune Device, you can still use the exciting new UI and services directly from your PC.  Zune for Windows is a very nice media player that offers a music and video store and wide support for multimedia formats including those used in Apple products.  And if you enjoy listening to a wide variety of music, it also offers the Zune Pass which lets you stream an unlimited number of songs to your computer and download 10 songs for keeps per month for $14.99/month. Or you can do a pre-paid music card as well.  It does all this using the new Metro UI which beautifully shows information using text in a whole new way.  Here’s a quick look at setting up and using Zune on your PC. Getting Started Download the installer (link below), and run it to begin setup.  Please note that Zune offers a separate version for computers running the 64 bit version of Windows Vista or 7, so choose it if your computer is running these. Once your download is finished, run the installer to setup Zune on your computer.  Accept the EULA when prompted. If there are any updates available, they will automatically download and install during the setup.  So, if you’re installing Zune from a disk (for example, one packaged with a Zune device), you don’t have to worry if you have the latest version.  Zune will proceed to install on your computer.   It may prompt you to restart your computer after installation; click Restart Now so you can proceed with your Zune setup.  The reboot appears to be for Zune device support, and the program ran fine otherwise without rebooting, so you could possibly skip this step if you’re not using a Zune device.  However, to be on the safe side, go ahead and reboot. After rebooting, launch Zune.  It will play a cute introduction video on first launch; press skip if you don’t want to watch it. Zune will now ask you if you want to keep the default settings or change them.  Choose Start to keep the defaults, or Settings to customize to your wishes.  Do note that the default settings will set Zune as your default media player, so click Settings if you wish to change this. If you choose to change the default settings, you can change how Zune finds and stores media on your computer.  In Windows 7, Zune will by default use your Windows 7 Libraries to manage your media, and will in fact add a new Podcasts library to Windows 7. If your media is stored on another location, such as on a server, then you can add this to the Library.  Please note that this adds the location to your system-wide library, not just the Zune player. There’s one last step.  Enter three of your favorite artists, and Zune will add Smart DJ mixes to your Quickplay list based on these.  Some less famous or popular artists may not be recognized, so you may have to try another if your choice isn’t available.  Or, you can click Skip if you don’t want to do this right now. Welcome to Zune!  This is the default first page, QuickPlay, where you can easily access your pinned and new items.   If you have a Zune account, or would like to create a new one, click Sign In on the top. Creating a new account is quick and simple, and if you’re new to Zune, you can try out a 14 day trial of Zune Pass for free if you want. Zune allows you to share your listening habits and favorites with friends or the world, but you can turn this off or change it if you like. Using Zune for Windows To access your media, click the Collection link on the top left.  Zune will show all the media you already have stored on your computer, organized by artist and album. Right-click on any album, and you choose to have Zune find album art or do a variety of other tasks with the media.   When playing media, you can view it in several unique ways.  First, the default Mix view will show related tracks to the music you’re playing from Smart DJ.  You can either play these fully if you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, or otherwise you can play 30 second previews. Then, for many popular artists, Zune will change the player background to show pictures and information in a unique way while the music is playing.  The information may range from history about the artist to the popularity of the song being played.   Zune also works as a nice viewer for the pictures on your computer. Start a slideshow, and Zune will play your pictures with nice transition effects and music from your library. Zune Store The Zune Store offers a wide variety of music, TV shows, and videos for purchase.  If you’re a Zune Pass subscriber, you can listen to or download any song without purchasing it; otherwise, you can preview a 30 second clip first. Zune also offers a wide selection of Podcasts you can subscribe to for free. Using Zune for PC with a Zune Device If you have a Zune device attached to your computer, you can easily add media files to it by simply dragging them to the Zune device icon in the left corner.  In the future, this will also work with Windows Phone 7 devices. If you have a Zune HD, you can also download and add apps to your device. Here’s the detailed information window for the weather app.  Click Download to add it to your device.   Mini Mode The Zune player generally takes up a large portion of your screen, and is actually most impressive when run maximized.  However, if you’re simply wanting to enjoy your tunes while you’re using your computer, you can use the Mini mode to still view music info and control Zune in a smaller mode.  Click the Mini Player button near the window control buttons in the top right to activate it. Now Zune will take up much less of your desktop.  This window will stay on top of other windows so you can still easily view and control it. Zune will display an image of the artist if one is available, and this shows up in Mini mode more often than it does in the full mode. And, in Windows 7, you could simply minimize Zune as you can control it directly from the taskbar thumbnail preview.   Even more controls are available from Zune’s jumplist in Windows 7.  You can directly access your Quickplay links or choose to shuffle all music without leaving the taskbar. Settings Although Zune is designed to be used without confusing menus and settings, you can tweak the program to your liking from the settings panel.  Click Settings near the top left of the window. Here you can change file storage, types, burn, metadata, and many more settings.  You can also setup Zune to stream media to your XBOX 360 if you have one.   You can also customize Zune’s look with a variety of modern backgrounds and gradients. Conclusion If you’re ready for a fresh way to enjoy your media, Zune is designed for you.  It’s innovative UI definitely sets it apart from standard media players, and is very pleasing to use.  Zune is especially nice if your computer is using XP, Vista Home Basic, or 7 Starter as these versions of Windows don’t include Media Center.  Additionally, the mini player mode is a nice touch that brings a feature of Windows 7’s Media Player to XP and Vista.  Zune is definitely one of our favorite music apps.  Try it out, and get a fresh view of your music today! Link Download Zune for Windows Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Redeem Pre-paid Zune Card Points for Zune Marketplace MediaUpdate Your Zune Player SoftwaredoubleTwist is an iTunes Alternative that Supports Several DevicesFind Free or Cheap Indie Music at Amie StreetAmie Street Downloader Makes Purchasing Music Easier TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips DVDFab 6 Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 The Ultimate Guide For YouTube Lovers Will it Blend? iPad Edition Penolo Lets You Share Sketches On Twitter Visit Woolyss.com for Old School Games, Music and Videos Add a Custom Title in IE using Spybot or Spyware Blaster When You Need to Hail a Taxi in NYC

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• Succesful Hosted TFS Event at VISUG by Hassan Fadili at Microsoft Belgium

  - by hassanfadili

  On Tuesday November 22th, VISUG User Group has hosted an event at Microsoft Belgium about Hosted TFS by Hassan Fadili see http://www.visug.be/Eventdetails/tabid/95/EventId/48/Default.aspx. This event was very interactive and many as 60 people have taken part. The topic was about Build, Relase and Deploy with TFS2011 and MS Deploy. A combination of Slides and Demo's was perfect to explain this common mechanism for developers.To learn more about this topic check the earlier article pubished by Hassan Fadili for Software Developer Network Community at: http://www.sdn.nl/SDN/Artikelen/tabid/58/view/View/ArticleID/3199/Build-Release-and-Deploy-BRD-using-TFS2010-MS-Web-Deploy-and-WIX3X.aspxIf you have questions/Suggestions or thoughts about this topic, feel free to contact me by E-mail: [email protected] and/or via Twitter: @HassanFad

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• Mars Mania and the Google Maps APIs!

  Mars Mania and the Google Maps APIs! Interested in learning how to use the Google Maps API and WebGL to create a dynamic terrain lighting map of the surface of Mars? Or how about using the Street View API and a bit of ImageMagick to view the high resolution panoramic images from the Curiosity Rover? Since Curiosity's touchdown, Brendan Kenny and Paul Saxman have been infected with a bit of Mars Mania. Stop by this week's Google Maps Developers Office Hours to see how they've been seeking therapy through productive programming. From: GoogleDevelopers Views: 1146 28 ratings Time: 34:15 More in Science & Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Auditing and Profiling Database Made Easy with SQL Audit and Comply

  - by Pinal Dave

  Do you like auditing your database, or can you think of about a million other things you’d rather do?  Unfortunately, auditing is incredibly important.  As with tax audits, it is important to audit databases to ensure they are following all the rules, but they are also important for troubleshooting and security. There are several ways to audit SQL Server.  There is manual auditing, which is going through your database “by hand,” and obviously takes a long time and is quite inefficient.  SQL Server also provides programs to help you audit your systems.  Different administrators will have different opinions about best practices and which tools to use, and each one will be perfected for certain systems and certain users. Today, though, I would like to talk about Apex SQL Audit.  It is an auditing tool that acts like “track changes” in a word processing document.  It will log what has changed on the database, who made the changes, and what effects these changes have had (i.e. what objects were affected down the line).  All this information is logged, and can be easily viewed or printed for easy access. One of the best features of Apex is that it is so customizable (and easy to use!).  First, start Apex.  Then you can connect to the database you would like to monitor. Once you select your database, you can select which table you want to audit. You can customize right down to the field you’d like to audit, and then select which types of actions you’d like tracked – insert, delete, or update.  Repeat these steps for every database you want monitored. To create the logs, choose “Create triggers” in the menu.  The script written here will be what logs each insert, delete, and update function.  Press F5 to execute.  All this tracking information will be stored in AUDIT_LOG_DATA and AUDIT_LOG_TRANSACTIONS tables.  View these tables using ApexSQL Audit reports. These transaction logs can be extremely detailed – especially on very busy servers, where every move it traced.  Reading them can be overwhelming, to say the least.  Apex has tried to make things easier for the average DBA, though. You can read these tracking logs in Apex, and it will display data and objects that affect your server – even things that were happening on your server before you installed Apex! To read these logs, open Apex, and connect to that database you want to audit. Go to the Transaction Logs tab, and add the logs you want to read. To narrow down what results you want to see, you can use the Filter tab to choose time, operation type, name, users, and more. Click Open, and you can see the results in a grid (as shown below).  You can export these results to CSV, HTML, XML or SQL files and save on the hard disk. One of the advantages is that since there are no triggers here, there are no other processes that will affect SQL Server performance.  Using this method is also how to view history from your database that occurred before Apex was installed.  This type of tracking does require storage space for the data sources, as the database must be fully running, and the transaction logs must exist (things not stored in the transactions logs will not be recoverable). Apex can also replace SQL Server Profiler and SQL Server Traces – which are much more complex and error-prone – with its ApexSQL Comply.  It can do fault tolerant auditing, centralized reporting, and “who saw what” information in an easy-to-use interface.  The tracking settings can be altered by the user, or the default options will provide solutions to the most common auditing problems. To get started: open ApexSQL Comply, and selected Database Filter Settings to choose which database you’d like to audit.  You can select which tracking you’re like in Operation Types – DML, DDL, queries executed, execute statements, and more.  To get started, click Start Auditing. After this, every action will be stored in the central repository database (ApexSQLCrd).  You can view the audit and create a report (or view the standard default report) using a wizard. You can see how easy it is to use ApexSQL Comply.  You can easily set audits, including the type and time, and create customized reports.  Remote users can easily access the reports through the user interface (available online, as well), and security concerns are all taken care of by the program.  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL, Technology

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• Oracle Customer Hub - Directions, Roadmap and Customer Success

  - by Mala Narasimharajan

   By Gurinder Bahl With less than a week from OOW 2012, I would like to introduce you all to the core Oracle Customer MDM Strategy sessions. Fragmentation of customer data across disparate systems prohibits companies from achieving a complete and accurate view of their customers. Oracle Customer Hub provide a comprehensive set of services, utilities and applications to create and maintain a trusted master customer system of record across the enterprise. Customer Hub centralizes customer data from disparate systems across your enterprise into a master repository. Existing systems are integrated in real-time or via batch with the Hub, allowing you to leverage legacy platform investments while capitalizing on the benefits of a single customer identity. Don’t miss out on two sessions geared towards Oracle Customer Hub:   1) Attend session CON9747 - Turn Customer Data into an Enterprise Asset with Oracle Fusion Customer Hub Applications at Oracle Open World 2012 on Monday, Oct 1st, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM @ Moscone West – 2008. Manouj Tahiliani, Sr. Director MDM Product Management will provide insight into the vision of Oracle Fusion Customer Hub solutions, and review the roadmap. You will discover how Fusion Customer MDM can help your enterprise improve data quality, create accurate and complete customer information,  manage governance and help create great customer experiences. You will also understand how to leverage data quality capabilities and create a sophisticated customer foundation within Oracle Fusion Applications. You will also hear Danette Patterson, Group Lead, Church Pension Group talk about how Oracle Fusion Customer Hub applications provide a modern, next-generation, multi-domain foundation for managing customer information in a private cloud. 2)  Don't miss session  CON9692 - Customer MDM is key to Strategic Business Success and Customer Experience Management at Oracle Open World 2012 on Wednesday, October 3rd 2012 from 3:30-4:30pm @ Westin San Francisco Metropolitan 1. JP Hurtado, Director, Customer Systems, will provide insight on how RCCL overcame challenges of data quality, guest recognition & centralized customer view to provide consolidated customer view to multiple reservation, CRM, marketing, service, sales, data warehouse and loyalty systems. You will learn how Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL), which has over 30 million customer and maintain multiple brands, leveraged Oracle Customer Hub (Siebel UCM) as backbone to customer data management strategy for past 5 years. Gurinder Bahl from MDM Product Management will provide an update on Oracle Customer Hub strategy, what we have achieved since last Open World and our future plans for the Oracle Customer Hub. You will learn about Customer Hub Data Quality capabilities around data analysis, cleansing, matching, address validation as well as reporting and monitoring capabilities. The MDM track at Oracle Open World covers variety of topics related to MDM. In addition to the product management team presenting product updates and roadmap, we have several Customer Panels, and Conference sessions. You can see an overview of MDM sessions here.  Looking forward to see you at Open World, the perfect opportunity to learn about cutting edge Oracle technologies. 

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• Silverlight Cream for June 28, 2011 -- #1112

  - by Dave Campbell

  In this Issue: WindowsPhoneGeek, John Papa, Mike Taulty, Erno de Weerd, Stephen Price, Chris Rouw, Peter Kuhn, Damian Schenkelman, Michael Washington, and Manas Patnaik. Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Binding to View Model properties in Data Templates. The RootBinding Markup Extension" Damian Schenkelman WP7: "Storing Files in SQL Server using WCF RIA Services and Silverlight – Part 3" Chris Rouw LightSwitch: "Saving Files To File System With LightSwitch (Uploading Files)" Michael Washington Shoutouts: Steve Wortham announced a change to his XilverlightXAP.com site... they're now accepting XAML illustrations: Introducing XAML Illustrations, Increased Payouts to Contributors, and More Amid all the discussions that I've tried to avoid, Michael Washinton is Betting The House On LightSwitch From SilverlightCream.com: Dynamically updating a data bound LongListSelector in Windows Phone WindowsPhoneGeek's latest is on using the LongListSelector from the Toolkit and dynamically updating it with data... detailed guidelines and plenty of pictures and code as always. Silverlight TV 77: Exploring 3D with Aaron Oneal John Papa has Silverlight TV number 77 up and is chatting with Aaron Oneal, program manager of the Silverlight 3D efforts... too cool. Silverlight WebBrowser Control for Offline Apps (Part 2) Mike Taulty wrote this post in Silverlight 5 Beta, but says it should be fine in 4... a continuation of his HTML Content display using the WebBrowser control while offline Windows Phone 7: Databinding and the Pivot Control Erno de Weerd discusses the Pivot control in WP7 based on his attempts to use it in an app. Required Attribute on an Entity Stephen Price has a new post at XAML Source... first is this one on setting the required attribute and the troubles you can get into if it's not set correctly Storing Files in SQL Server using WCF RIA Services and Silverlight – Part 3 Chris Rouw has Part 3 of his series on Storing files in SQL Server using FILESTREAM Storage in SQL Server 2008 and Silverlight... this time he's viewing files stored in the FILESTREAM from the LOB app. Getting ready for the Windows Phone 7 Exam 70-599 (Part 4) Peter Kuhn has Part 4 of his series on getting ready for the WP7 exam up at SilverlightShow... the date is coming up soon... are you ready? Binding to View Model properties in Data Templates. The RootBinding Markup Extension Damian Schenkelman has a Silverlight 5 Beta post up... digging into the XAML Markup Extensions and popping out a RootBindingExtensionthat helps bind to a property in a view model from a DataTemplate. Saving Files To File System With LightSwitch (Uploading Files) Michael Washington has a cool tutorial up on his new LightSwitch Help Website... File Upload to a server file system using LightSwitch, plus a project to download... good stuff! Microsoft Media Platform (MMPPF): Player Framework for Silverlight Manas Patnaik's latest post is about the Media Player Project... some of the history of media with Silvelight and how to go about using the Media Player Project bits Stay in the 'Light! Twitter SilverlightNews | Twitter WynApse | WynApse.com | Tagged Posts | SilverlightCream Join me @ SilverlightCream | Phoenix Silverlight User Group Technorati Tags: Silverlight    Silverlight 3    Silverlight 4    Windows Phone MIX10

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• Screen magnifier wrecks login screen — how to get rid of it?

  - by Jonik

  In the Ubuntu / GNOME login screen, I tried some of the different accessibility settings out of curiosity. Big mistake! Enabling the "use screen magnifier" (or whatever) option breaks down the view horribly, and makes it impossible to even access the settings again: (Right click & View Image for full size) Yes, I tried to access every corner of the screen using the mouse, but there's just chaos everywhere. Fortunately, I can still log in (pressing "Esc" makes the normal login dialog appear on the left-hand monitor). My question is, how to disable the "magnifier" option outside of the login screen itself? (By editing some config file perhaps?) I don't care about getting the magnifier mode to work properly - just make it go away altogether, please.

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