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  • No USB 04b4:0307 mike input after 10.04

    - by Papou
    I am using an USB phone that is in fact a so-called "sound card" based on the 04b4:0307 chip. In fact, I have two different phones using 04b4:0307 and in fact I have a sound USB key too. This, I believe, is the start of why they call 04b4:0307 "ubiquitous" (instead of oh four bee...). But not "eternal". The mike worked in Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04 but not later ([email protected]). "not working" means that 04b4:0307 shows in Sound Preference but that its vu-meter is mute. I have posted the full lsusb and the result of tests in various systems here: http://www.papou.byethost9.com/tmp/1043601.html Note: Tests done on VirtualBox (thankfully). But UbuntUnity no longer works on VB, so I used the LinuxMint equivalent. ?hat's fate. I could not find any problem report close enough. What should be my next step? I believe the problem occurs in module snd-usb-audio. One thing I might try if I knew how is hacking a DEB with its 10.04's source. I can hack DEBs. Any hint welcome on how to make a DEB overriding a kernel packed module. I mean that the newly installed module should have precedence, be loaded instead, the module installed with the kernel. TIA !

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  • What You Said: Favorite Web Clipping Tool

    - by Jason Fitzpatrick
    Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite tools for clipping articles from the web for storage and later reading. You responded and now we’re back to highlight some reader favorites. At the top of the heap, by a wide margin, was Evernote—the ubiquitous web-based notebook that makes it super simple to sync and share your notes. It has a snappy clipping tool built right in, and readers were quite fond of the wide ranging tools and integrations supported by Evernote. Laurel writes: Evernote! That way I always have that info handy on all my computers & phone, at work, home, etc. I can make notes to it and it is always available! It’s the best all around app I’ve found for this use! :) Richard highlights how Evernote’s desktop app has replaced OneNote (another popular reader choice): When in Windows – Evernote desktop 4.1 – it does everything that OneNote ever did for me. How to Make the Kindle Fire Silk Browser *Actually* Fast! Amazon’s New Kindle Fire Tablet: the How-To Geek Review HTG Explains: How Hackers Take Over Web Sites with SQL Injection / DDoS

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  • VISIT ORACLE LINUX PAVILION @ORACLE OPENWORLD

    - by Zeynep Koch
    Back by popular demand, Oracle will again host the Oracle Linux Pavilionat Oracle OpenWorld from October 1-3. The pavilion will be located in the Exhibition Hall at Moscone South, Booth 1033, next to the Oracle DEMOgrounds and Oracle Linux demopods. At the pavilion a select group of ISVs, IHVs, and SIs will showcase their products that have been Oracle Linux- and/or Oracle VM-certified. These certified products enable customer applications to run faster, thereby saving money.Partners exhibiting their solutions in the Oracle Linux Pavilion include: BeyondTrust: context-aware security intelligence for dynamic IT infrastructures such as cloud, mobile, and virtual technologies Centrify: control, secure, and audit access to cross-platform systems, mobile devices, and applications Data Intensity: cloud services and application management Fujitsu: technology platforms, private cloud, services, ubiquitous and device solutions HP: converged cloud, converged infrastructure, application transformation, and information optimization LSI: intelligent solid-state storage solutions for breakthrough database acceleration Mellanox: InfiniBand and Ethernet end-to-end server and storage interconnect solutions and services for data centers Micro Focus: mainframe solutions, application modernization and development tools, software quality tools NetApp: storage and data management QLogic: high performance networking Teleran: BI and data warehouse management solutions for Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Database Be sure to pick up your free Oracle Linux and Oracle VM DVD Kit if you visit one of these partners. And speaking of free, be sure to stop by for some cool treats, courtesy of sponsor QLogic: Smoothie Bar on Monday, October 1 from 2:30 p.m. - 5:30p.m. Ice Cream Social on Wednesday, October 3 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you at the pavilion.

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  • Oracle Linux Pavilion is Back for Oracle OpenWorld

    - by Oracle OpenWorld Blog Team
    By Zeynep Koch Back by popular demand, Oracle will again host the Oracle Linux Pavilion at Oracle OpenWorld from October 1-3. The pavilion will be located in the Exhibition Hall at Moscone South, Booth 1033, next to the Oracle DEMOgrounds and Oracle Linux demopods. At the pavilion a select group of ISVs, IHVs, and SIs will showcase their products that have been Oracle Linux- and/or Oracle VM-certified. These certified products enable customer applications to run faster, thereby saving money.Partners exhibiting their solutions in the Oracle Linux Pavilion include: BeyondTrust: context-aware security intelligence for dynamic IT infrastructures such as cloud, mobile, and virtual technologies Centrify: control, secure, and audit access to cross-platform systems, mobile devices, and applications Data Intensity: cloud services and application management Fujitsu: technology platforms, private cloud, services, ubiquitous and device solutions HP: converged cloud, converged infrastructure, application transformation, and information optimization LSI: intelligent solid-state storage solutions for breakthrough database acceleration Mellanox: InfiniBand and Ethernet end-to-end server and storage interconnect solutions and services for data centers Micro Focus: mainframe solutions, application modernization and development tools, software quality tools NetApp: storage and data management QLogic: high performance networking Teleran: BI and data warehouse management solutions for Oracle Exadata Database Machine and Oracle Database Be sure to pick up your free Oracle Linux and Oracle VM DVD Kit if you visit one of these partners. We look forward to seeing you at the pavilion.

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  • SDL & Windows 8 Metro WinRT

    - by Adrian
    I am just beginning to dip my tow into game programming and have been reading up on SDL, SFML, OpenGL, XNA, MonoGame and of course DirectX. (Needless to say there are a lot of choices out there) As much as I like SFMLs syntax I have chosen to read up and start with SDL as it is pretty ubiquitous and available on every platform (Windows, Linux, Mac) and also available on portable devices (Android, iOS) with the current exception of WinPhone 7 After that pre-amble here is my question. I notice that the docs say that for the windows platform the SDL API calls through to DirectX for higher perf. ( http://www.libsdl.org/intro.en/whatplatforms.html ) Microsoft have said that for Metro Game Apps you can only use DirectX (which means no XNA, no OpenGL, no SFML, etc, etc) My question is: If SDL just wraps DirectX calls will I (we) be able to use SDL to bring games to the new Metro WinRT environment and Windows 8 marketplace? This would be great if possible. Additionally as WinPhone 8 is supposedly built on Win8 then this could mean SDL would be available on the win phone in the future too. Thanks for your time in responding to this question and I look forward to hearing your response. EDIT: Based on DeadMG's answer I have installed Visual Studio 11 (beta) in Windows 8 Consumer Preview (CP) and went file-New to check project types. The project types: "Blank Application", "Direct2D Application" and "Direct3D Application" look of interest. I have selected "Direct2D App" but SDL generates its own window when you call: SDL_INIT Is it possible to link/setup the SDL window to point to the Direct2D surface in the this project?

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  • Is SQL Azure a newbies springboard?

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

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  • Emacs/Vim/Vi - do they have a place in modern software development ecosystem? [closed]

    - by Anton Gogolev
    Watching all those screencasts (and listening all those podcasts) with more-or-less famous hackers/programmers I hear that many of those use emacs/vi(m) for their daily work. Now, I myself tried using both emacs and vim, and I honestly cannot understand why would anybody use these for any kind of serious development. The most advertised feature is something along the lines of "you'll be able to work with text (meaning cutting, pasting, duplicating, moving, etc) up to ten times faster than with conventional IDEs", but I don't buy that. When has the success of a software project been defined by how fast a programmer can juggle lines in a text editor or by saving a couple of keystrokes here and there? Plugins and extensions? I bet nothing comes close to R# or IDEA in terms of refactoring support ("Rename" refactoring implemented by means of "Search and Replace" is not a refactoring IMO); others are trivial. Ubiquitous and available everywhere? So what? How often do you find yourself editing files over a 300 baud connection on an esoteric *nix installation without a VCS? So here goes: do said editors have a justified place in a modern software development ecosystem?

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  • Back in Brazil! See you at JavaOne LAD this week

    - by terrencebarr
    It’s great to be back in Sao Paulo. I’m looking forward to a another buzzing JavaOne LAD conference and the energy of the Latin American Java community! And, of course, catching up with Brazilian friends over some serious Caipirinhas I’m part of the Technical Keynote on Tuesday, and doing three technical sessions: Harnessing the Explosion of Advanced Microcontrollers with Embedded Java, Dec 5, 11:15 A New Platform for Ubiquitous Computing: Oracle Java ME Embedded, Dec 5, 17:30 Java ME Embedded Profile 8—for an Embedded World with Increasing Demands, Dec 6, 11:15 In fact, I think I will morph the last session into a more wide sweeping introduction into Java ME 8 (of which the Java ME Embedded Profile 8 is a component) – there is so much new and cool stuff in the pipe that just talking about Java ME Embedded Profile doesn’t do it justice.   Plus, I’ll be showing some small embedded Java toys at the demo booth (in the Exhibition Pavilion).   Hope to see you there!   Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: "Java ME 8", "JavaOne LAD", Java Embedded, Java ME

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  • Using Computer Management (MMC) with the Solaris CIFS Service (August 25, 2009)

    - by user12612012
    One of our goals for the Solaris CIFS Service is to provide seamless Windows interoperability: not just to deliver ubiquitous, multi-protocol file sharing, which is obviously a major part of this project, but to support Windows services at a fundamental level.  It's an ongoing mission and our latest update includes support for Windows remote management. Remote management is extremely important to Windows administrators and one of the mainstay tools is Computer Management. Computer Management is a Windows administration application, actually a collection of Microsoft Management Console (MMC) tools, that can be used to configure, monitor and manage local and remote services and resources.  The MMC is an extensible framework of registered components, known as snap-ins, which allows Computer Management to provide comprehensive management features for both the local system and remote systems on the network. Supported Computer Management features include: Share ManagementSupport for share management is relatively complete.  You can create, delete, list and configure shares.  It's not yet possible to change the maximum allowed or number of users properties but other properties, including the Share Permissions, can be managed via the MMC. Users, Groups and ConnectionsYou can view local SMB users and groups, monitor user connections and see the list of open files. If necessary, you can also disconnect users and/or close files. ServicesYou can view the SMF services running on an OpenSolaris system.  This is a read-only view - we don't support service management (the ability to start or stop) SMF services from Computer Management (yet). To ensure that only the appropriate users have access to administrative operations there are some access restrictions on these remote management features. Regular users can: List shares Only members of the Administrators or Power Users groups can: Manage shares List connections Only members of the Administrators group can: List open files and close files Disconnect users View SMF services View the EventLog Here's a screenshot when I was using Computer Management and Server Manager (another Windows remote management application) on Windows XP to view some open files on an OpenSolaris system to prepare a slide presentation on MMC support.

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  • Can JSON be made easily and safely editable by the non-technical Excel crowd?

    - by glitch
    I'm looking for a data storage format that's very intuitive and easy to edit. It should be ideally targeted towards the same crowd as Excel. At the same time I would like the data structure to be a tree. Ideally this would be JSON, since it offers both the tree aspect and allows for more interesting constructs like arrays. That and parsing libraries for JSON are ubiquitous, so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. The problem is that, at least with a non-specialized text editor, JSON is a giant pain to edit for a non-technical user. I'm thinking along the lines of someone who might have used Excel in the past, but never a real text editor. Someone who might not be comfortable with the idea of preserving JSON syntax by hand. Are there data formats out there that would fit this profile? I'd very much prefer this to be a JSON actually, but then it would require a solid editing tool that would hide the underlying implementation from the user. Think Excel and how it abstracts CSV syntax from the user. The reason I'm looking for something like this is because the team has been working with pretty hierarchical data for a while now and we've hit the limits of how easy it is to represent in simple CSVs without having to create complex rules for how represent hierarchy semantics from each row. Any suggestions?

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  • Three New Videos on Social Development

    - by Bob Rhubart
    By now it should be clear to even the most tenacious Luddite that the social media phenomenon is no mere fad. Those ubiquitous icons for Facebook and Twitter and other social networks are little beacons of disruptive change signalling yet again that the 20th century is over, dude. And that presents an opportunity for software developers with the necessary insight and expertise to tap into and expand social platforms for forward-thinking organizations. If you're a developer and you're interested in exploiting these emerging opportunities you'll want to check out three new videos that focus on software development for social platforms. Developing with Facebook: An Introduction to Social Design James Pearce, Facebook's head of Mobile Developer Relations, provides an overview of the Facebook platform and the underlying APIs that are available to the developer community. Building on the LinkedIn Platform: Content Amplified Adam Trachtenberg, Director of LinkedIn's Developer Network, discusses how you can make it simple for a professional audience to discover and distribute your content on LinkedIn. Emergence of the Social Enterprise Roland Smart, Oracle's VP of Social Marketing, shares Oracle’s vision for the social-enabled enterprise and highlights the role developers will play in the next phase of enterprise development. OTN has also created the Oracle Social Developer Community, a new Facebook page devoted to the promotion of community conversation and resources to support Social Developers. If you're working on a social development project, visit the page and tell us about it.

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  • Do you think we will ever settle on a "standard" platform? [closed]

    - by GazTheDestroyer
    The recent explosion of phone platforms has depressed me (slightly), and made me wonder if we will ever reach any kind of standard for presentation? I don't mean language or IDE. Different languages have different strengths and I can see that there may always be a need for disparity, although I do note that languages are merging somewhat in functionality, with traditional imperitive languages like C++ now supporting things like lambdas. What I'm really talking about is a common presentation mechanism. Before smart phones and tablets came along, the web seemed to be finally becoming a reasonable platform for presenting an application that was globally accessible, not just geographically, but by platform too. Sure there are still (sometimes infuriating) implementation differences and quirks, but if you wrote a decent site you knew it could be accessed on anything from a PC to a phone to a C64 running the right software. "Write Once Run Anywhere" seemed to finally be becoming a reality. However, in the last few years we've seen an explosion of mobile operating systems, and the ubiquitous "app". A good site is no longer enough, you need a native "app", and of course we have a sudden massive disparity in OS, language, and APIs needed to write them as each battles for supremecy. It's kind of weird how the cycle of popularity goes. Mainframes with terminals - thin client. PC - thick client. Web browser - thin client. Phone app - thick(ish) client. I just wonder if you think there will ever be a global standard for clients, or whether the "shiny and different" cycle will always continue along with the battle of the tech du jour.

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  • How to avoid the GameManager god object?

    - by lorancou
    I just read an answer to a question about structuring game code. It made me wonder about the ubiquitous GameManager class, and how it often becomes an issue in a production environment. Let me describe this. First, there's prototyping. Nobody cares about writing great code, we just try to get something running to see if the gameplay adds up. Then there's a greenlight, and in an effort to clean things up, somebody writes a GameManager. Probably to hold a bunch of GameStates, maybe to store a few GameObjects, nothing big, really. A cute, little, manager. In the peaceful realm of pre-production, the game is shaping up nicely. Coders have proper nights of sleep and plenty of ideas to architecture the thing with Great Design Patterns. Then production starts and soon, of course, there is crunch time. Balanced diet is long gone, the bug tracker is cracking with issues, people are stressed and the game has to be released yesterday. At that point, usually, the GameManager is a real big mess (to stay polite). The reason for that is simple. After all, when writing a game, well... all the source code is actually here to manage the game. It's easy to just add this little extra feature or bugfix in the GameManager, where everything else is already stored anyway. When time becomes an issue, no way to write a separate class, or to split this giant manager into sub-managers. Of course this is a classical anti-pattern: the god object. It's a bad thing, a pain to merge, a pain to maintain, a pain to understand, a pain to transform. What would you suggest to prevent this from happening?

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  • Interfaces: profit of using

    - by Zapadlo
    First of all, my ubiquitous language is PHP, and I'm thinking about learning Java. So let me split my question on two closely related parts. Here goes the first part. Say I have a domain-model class. It has some getters, setters, some query methods etc. And one day I want to have a possibility to compare them. So it looks like: class MyEntity extends AbstractEntity { public function getId() { // get id property } public function setId($id) { // set id property } // plenty of other methods that set or retrieve data public function compareTo(MyEntity $anotherEntity) { // some compare logic } } If it would have been Java, I should have implemented a Comparable interface. But why? Polymorphism? Readbility? Or something else? And if it was PHP -- should I create Comparable interface for myself? So here goes the second part. My colleague told me that it is a rule of thumb in Java to create an interface for every behavioral aspect of the class. For example, if I wanted to present this object as a string, I should state this behaviour by something like implements Stringable, where in case of PHP Stringable would look like: interface Stringable { public function __toString(); } Is that really a rule of thumb? What benefits are gained with this approach? And does it worth it in PHP? And in Java?

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  • Objective-C and Android

    - by Tom R
    I've just finished a relatively large project for the Android, and it's left a bitter taste in my mouth with the knowledge that it will never run on one of the most ubiquitous handsets this side of the solar system (the one by that fruity little club). So, for my next project, I want to write it in a way that makes most of the components easily transportable between the iPhone and Android platforms. The way I'm thinking of doing this is by coding most of it in Objective-C, and then adding the platform-specific parts in more Objective-C and Java respectively. On the Android side, this will require using the the NDK. My knowledge of C is good, but my knowledge of Objective-C is close to zero, and I have no desire to learn C++. How sane is the approach above, and is there a better one? Is there any way I can code in Java and still reach the un-hacked iPhone market? And how likely is it that the people I know (iPhone users) will have an Android phone by next year?

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  • Is there any use for Bash scripting anymore?

    - by Precision
    I just finished my second year as a university CS student, so my "real-world" knowledge is lacking. I learned Java my first year, continued with Java and picked up C and simple Bash scripting my second. This summer I'm trying to learn Perl (God help me). I've dabbled with Python a bit in the past. My question is, now that we have very readable, very writable scripting languages like Python, Ruby, Perl, etc, why does anyone write Bash scripts? Is there something I'm missing? I know my linux box has perl and python. Are they not ubiquitous enough? Is there really something that's easier to do in Bash than in some other hll?

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  • How to add debug assemblies to my Silverlight 2 application?

    - by Steve Wortham
    So I know now that the debug assemblies have been intentionally left out of the Silverlight runtime to save space. For that reason I get good detailed error messages on my local machine that has the Silverlight SDK on it, but I don't on a computer with the runtime only. I get the ubiquitous, "Debugging resource strings are unavailable." Unfortunately my requirements are a bit unique. I need to include the debug assembly (not sure which one yet) that will give me details of a regular expression error. And so essentially I want to include the dll in the xap if I can. The problem is that I can't seem to do this. I've tried adding the debug dll's as references and setting them to "copy local." And I've tried adding them into the project as content. But in fact, with either method the xap hardly grows in size and the error message doesn't change. Any ideas?

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  • Linux friendly (.NET/Mono) browser object?

    - by HankB
    Hi folks, A friend of mine (familiar with C# and .NET on Windows) has asked how to port some functionality to a Linux host. This functionality is based on a JSP web page that fetches some data from the host server and displays it in a banner on a page. His Win/C#/.NET code simply creates a browser object which loads the page and he then inspects the resulting object to extract the data. I'm wondering what alternatives exist to duplicate this function on Ubuntu Linux. I'm not certain that the necessary libraries exist on this installation. I can assume that things like Perl and Python are ubiquitous, but I am not familiar with any libraries that include a browser object capable of executing javascript and exposing the results to another program. Any suggestions that lead in this direction are welcome. Thanks!

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  • Can PHP Perform Magic Instantiation?

    - by Aiden Bell
    Despite PHP being a pretty poor language and ad-hoc set of libraries ... of which the mix of functions and objects, random argument orders and generally ill-thought out semantics mean constant WTF moments.... ... I will admit, it is quite fun to program in and is fairly ubiquitous. (waiting for Server-side JavaScript to flesh out though) question: Given a class class RandomName extends CommonAppBase {} is there any way to automatically create an instance of any class extending CommonAppBase without explicitly using new? As a rule there will only be one class definition per PHP file. And appending new RandomName() to the end of all files is something I would like to eliminate. The extending class has no constructor; only CommonAppBase's constructor is called. Strange question, but would be nice if anyone knows a solution. Thanks in advance, Aiden (btw, my PHP version is 5.3.2) Please state version restrictions with any answer.

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  • What programming language do you wear a suit for?

    - by Paul
    My company writes mostly .NET code, I work in a professional, 'business casual' environment. Both of these things seemed pretty ubiquitous across the corporate software world, however I recently visited a few companies that use PHP/Ruby and nearly all their devs had facial piercings/visible tattoos, etc. and their offices had no apparent dress code. This might sound funny, but it made me wonder, is there any correlation between specific technology and office culture? For example, have you ever had to wear a suit to a programming job, and if so what technology did you use?

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  • Is there any practical usage of Doubly Linked List, Queues and Stacks?

    - by Chouette
    I've been coding for quite sometime now. And my work pertains to solving real-world business scenarios. However, I have not really come across any practical usage of some of the data structures like the Linked List, Queues and Stacks etc. Not even at the business framework level. Of course, there is the ubiquitous HashTable, ArrayList and of late the List...but is there any practical usage of some of the other basic data structures? It would be great if someone gave a real-world solution where a Doubly Linked List "performs" better than the obvious easily usable counterpart.

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  • A Plea for Plain English

    - by Tony Davis
    The English language has, within a lifetime, emerged as the ubiquitous 'international language' of scientific, political and technical communication. On the one hand, learning a single, common language, International English, has made it much easier to participate in and adopt new technologies; on the other hand it must be exasperating to have to use English at international conferences, or on community sites, when your own language has a long tradition of scientific and technical usage. It is also hard to master the subtleties of using a foreign language to explain advanced ideas. This requires English speakers to be more considerate in their writing. Even if you’re used to speaking English, you may be brought up short by this sort of verbiage… "Business Intelligence delivering actionable insights is becoming more critical in the enterprise, and these insights require large data volumes for trending and forecasting" It takes some imagination to appreciate the added hassle in working out what it means, when English is a language you only use at work. Try, just to get a vague feel for it, using Google Translate to translate it from English to Chinese and back again. "Providing actionable business intelligence point of view is becoming more and more and more business critical, and requires that these insights and projected trends in large amounts of data" Not easy eh? If you normally use a different language, you will need to pause for thought before finally working out that it really means … "Every Business Intelligence solution must be able to help companies to make decisions. In order to detect current trends, and accurately predict future ones, we need to analyze large volumes of data" Surely, it is simple politeness for English speakers to stop peppering their writing with a twisted vocabulary that renders it inaccessible to everyone else. It isn’t just the problem of writers who use long words to give added dignity to their prose. It is the use of Colloquial English. This changes and evolves at a dizzying rate, adding new terms and idioms almost daily; it is almost a new and separate language. By contrast, ‘International English', is gradually evolving separately, at its own, more sedate, pace. As such, all native English speakers need to make an effort to learn, and use it, switching from casual colloquial patter into a simpler form of communication that can be widely understood by different cultures, even if it gives you less credibility on the street. Simple-Talk is based, at least in part, on the idea that technical articles can be written simply and clearly in a form of English that can be easily understood internationally, and that they can be written, with a little editorial help, by anyone, and read by anyone, regardless of their native language. Cheers, Tony.

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  • Step Away From That Computer! You’re Not Qualified to Use It!

    - by Michael Sorens
    Most things tend to come with warnings and careful instructions these days, but sadly not one of the most ubiquitous appliances of all, your computer. If a chainsaw is missing its instructions, you’re well advised not to use it, even though you probably know roughly how it’s supposed to work. I confess, there are days when I feel the same way about computers. Long ago, during the renaissance of the computer age, it was possible to know everything about computers. But today, it is challenging to be fully knowledgeable even in one small area, and most people aren’t as savvy as they like to think. And, if I may borrow from Edwin Abbott Abbott’s classic Flatland, that includes me. And you. Need an example of what I mean? Take a look at almost any recent month’s batch of Windows updates. Just two quick questions for you: Do you need all of those updates? Is it safe to install all of those updates? I do software design and development for a living on Windows and the .NET platform, but I will be quite candid: I often have little clue what the heck some of those updates are going to do or why they are needed. So, if you do not know why they are needed or what they do, how do you know if they are safe? Of course, one can sidestep both questions by accepting Microsoft’s recommended Windows Update setting of “install updates automatically”. That leads you to infer that you need all of them (which is not always the case) and, more significantly, that they are safe. Quite safe. Ah, lest reality intrude upon such a pretty picture! Sadly, there is no such thing as risk-free software installation, and payloads from Windows Update are no exception. Earlier this year, a Windows Secrets Patch Watch article touted this headline: Keep this troublesome kernel update on hold. It discusses KB 2862330, a security update originally published more than 4 months earlier, and yet the article still recommends not installing it! Most people simply do not have the time, resources, or interest, to go about figuring out which updates to install or postpone or skip for safety reasons. Windows Secrets Patch Watch is the best service I have encountered for getting advice, but it is still no panacea and using the service effectively requires a degree of computer literacy that I still think is beyond a good number of people. Which brings us full circle: Step Away From That Computer! You’re Not Qualified to Use It!

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  • ACORD LOMA 2010: Building Insurance Companies in the Clouds

    - by [email protected]
    Chuck Johnston, vice president of global strategy and alliances for Oracle Insurance, participated in a featured speaking session at ACORD LOMA 2010. He provides an update on his discussions with insurers at the show and after his presentation. Every year I always make a point of walking the show floor at the ACORD LOMA technology conference to visit with colleagues and competitors, and try to get a feel for which way the industry will move over the next 12 months. Insurers are looking for substance in cloud (computing), trying to mix business with pleasure (monetizing social networks), and expect differentiation through commodity (Software as a Service). The disconnect at this show is that most vendors are still struggling with creating a clear path from Facebook to customer intimacy, SaaS to core cost savings and clouds to ubiquitous presence. Vendors need to find new ways to help insurers find the real value in these potentially disruptive technologies by understanding the changes coming to the insurance business and how these new technologies impact the new insurance business. Oracle's approach to understanding the evolving insurance industry comes from a discussion with our customers in our Insurance CIO Council, where one of our customers suggested we buy an insurance company to really understand our customers. We have decided to do the next best thing and build our own model of an insurance company, Alamere Insurance, that uses the latest technologies to transform its own business. Alamere will never issue an actual policy, but it does give us a framework to consider the impacts of changes in the insurance landscape and how Oracle technology meets the challenge or needs to evolve to help our customers be successful. In preparing for my talk at the conference using Alamere as my organizing theme, I found myself reading actuarial memoranda on CSO table changes and articles on underwriting theory that really made me think about my customer's problems first and foremost, and then how Oracle technology can provide answers. As much as I prefer techno-thrillers and sci-fi novels to actuarial papers for plane reading, I got very excited about the idea of putting myself back in the customer shoes I haven't worn in a decade, and really looking at how Oracle can power the Adaptive Insurance Enterprise. Talking to customers and industry people after the session, the idea of Alamere seemed to excite people and I got a lot of suggestions as to what lines of business we should model and where we should focus first on technology uptake. One customer said to a colleague that Oracle's attempt to "share their pain" was unique among vendors. More about Alamere, and the Adaptive Insurance Enterprise next time. Chuck Johnston is vice president of global strategy and alliances for Oracle Insurance.

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  • The Social Business Thought Leaders - Ray Wang

    - by kellsey.ruppel
    It seems both consumers and businesses are at the peak of the social hype. Overwhelmed by social media channels, platforms, and processes both in their private and professional life, many early adopters are starting to feel the social fatigue. Mirroring what happened with email and web sites during the late 1990's - early 2000's, more and more managers are looking to move from ubiquitous social media tactics to the most appropriate business use case and processes. This step becomes even more important considering the year over year contraction in IT budgets and the consequent need to maximize return on every dollar spent in new technologies. Ray Wang, CEO and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, suggests engagement through collaborative technologies both as a conceptual model and a transformational tool for enterprises to reap business value. Without participation - the reasoning goes - there is no value and good technology alone is not enough to guarantee employee and customer adoption. Enterprise gamification is a new lever to succeed with Social Business by directing a critical mass of participation towards desired outcomes. What kind of outcomes? A recent study from Constellation Research (see 2012 Q1 Gamification Early Adopters Best Practices) highlights how Marketing, Customer Service and HR are leading the pack with gamification in processes such as: Sustaining long term customer loyalty (76.4%) Improving response in campaign to lead (74.5%) Right channeling incidents for resolution in social media (67.3%) Growing the number service and support incidents resolved by the community (63.6%) Improving employee referral rates and effective recruiting (43.6%) Driving on-boarding success with new hires (20%) More than simply adding badges, points and leaderboards to existing processes, enterprise gamification should be holistically embedded into employee and customer experience to stimulate specific behaviors. According to Ray Wang this can be done at three core levels: Measurable actions. The behaviors we want to facilitate consist of granular actions (i.e likes, comments, posts, recommendations, etc) and more complex actions (i.e projects, initiatives, programmes) attributed to individuals, groups and/or external actors  Reputation. The reputation an individual has earned through his actions is a key factor in building motivation among others and it is determined by its identity, social standing status and competitiveness Incentives or the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards that motivate behaviors and drive actions Listen to Ray Wang's video-interview to learn more about the dynamics that are shaping the future of collaboration and how gamification can help organizations attain new levels of engagement.

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