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• Top tweets SOA Partner Community – October 2013

  - by JuergenKress

  Send your tweets @soacommunity #soacommunity and follow us at http://twitter.com/soacommunity Ronald Luttikhuizen ?My latest upload: SOA Made Simple | Introduction to SOA on @slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/rluttikhuizen/soa-made-simple-introduction-to-soa … via @SlideShare OTNArchBeat ?ArchBeat Link-o-Rama for October 4, 2013 #cloud #linux #oaam #soa http://pub.vitrue.com/y4SK Lucas Jellema ?My blog article shows news on the new SOA Suite 12c release - as it was publicly available during #oow13 see: http://technology.amis.nl/2013/09/27/oow13-soa-suite-12c/ … Yogesh Sontakke ?Introducing OER's new Express Workflows - Simplified Lifecycle Management. Blog post: http://bit.ly/16JKHCf @soacommunity #soagovernance SrinivasPadmanabhuni ?"@OTNArchBeat: SOA and User Interfaces - by @soacommunity @HajoNormann @gschmutz @t_winterberg et al #industrialsoa http://pub.vitrue.com/KmOp " SOA Community ?SOA and User-Interfaces http://servicetechmag.com/I76/0913-2 article published part of #industrialSOA at Service Technology Magazine #soacommunity Estafet Limited ?@Estafet win @UKOUG Middleware Partner of the Year 2013 Yogesh Sontakke ?RT @VikasAatOracle: #Oracle #B2B - written by experts #soa #soacommunity #oraclesoa - time to get a copy ! @SOAScott Danilo Schmiedel ?Thanks a lot to Juergen @soacommunity for the super interesting and well-organized Partner Advisory Council yesterday! Such a Great Value! OTNArchBeat ?Case management supporting re-landscaping application portfolios | @leonsmiers http://pub.vitrue.com/MC5j Samantha Searle ?Apply for the #GartnerBPM 2014 Excellence Awards - find out how via this link http://ow.ly/ptaNQ #Gartner #bpm #process #entarch #cio OTNArchBeat ?SOA and User Interfaces - by @soacommunity @hajonormann @gschmutz @t_winterberg et al #industrialsoa http://pub.vitrue.com/KmOp Dain Hansen ?Hybrid #cloud is on the rise, but is the IT department's culture standing in the way? http://add.vc/eJN #CloudIntegration #OracleSOA OTNArchBeat #SOASuite 11g ps6 - Download your log files directly from the Enterprise Manager | @whitehorsenl http://pub.vitrue.com/KrJ2 Whitehorses ?Whiteblog: SOA Suite 11g ps6 - Download your log files directly from the Enterprise Manager (http://goo.gl/2Gqiax ) Rajesh Raheja ?Cloud integration session recap #oow13 http://blog.raastech.com/2013/09/recap-of-real-world-cloud-integration.html?m=1 … Vikas Anand ?@Ahmed_Aboulnaga thanks for the excellent summary and kind words. #oow13 #cloud #oraclesoa http://blog.raastech.com/2013/09/recap-of-real-world-cloud-integration.html?m=1 … Luis Augusto Weir ?REST is also SOA. Check it out http://www.soa4u.co.uk/2013/09/restful-is-also-soa.html?m=1 … #soacommunity Graham ?“@OracleBPM & @soacommunity: 5 Ways to Modernize Applications with BPM #AppAdvantage" #oracleday http://bit.ly/15yC6e3 SOA Community ?#ACED director asked me for BPM references in FSI - ever visited my #SOACommunity workspace? https://beehiveonline.oracle.com/teamcollab/overview/SOA_Community_Workspace … #soacommunity #bpm OracleBlogs ?SOA Community Newsletter September 2013 http://ow.ly/2Aj6oK OTNArchBeat ?OOW13: First glimpses of the new #SOASuite12c | @LucasJellema http://pub.vitrue.com/2YgX sbernhardt ?Just published new blog entry on OOW 2013 wrap up. http://thecattlecrew.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/oracle-open-world-2013-wrap-up/ … #oow13 @OC_WIRE @soacommunity Emiel Paasschens ?Home with family after an overwhelming #OOW week in San Francisco with lot of info & meetings. Special thanx to @OracleBelux & @soacommunity Robert van Mölken ?Had a awesome week at #OOW13 in SF. Highlights were the @soacommunity Wine tour, @OracleBelux meet-ups and @OracleSOA CAB. Thanks to all :) SOA Community ?The place Oracle Fusion middleware comes from - Oracle 200 - TKs office - next Oracle 100 - SOA & BPM #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/qibFOQVbRo Oracle BPM ?5 Ways to Modernize Applications with BPM #AppAdvantage http://pub.vitrue.com/l2dn Simon Haslam ?Ha ha - how did we miss that! RT @lucasjellema: Post conference announcement of a new middleware appliance? #oow13 pic.twitter.com/3NvcjPfjXb OTNArchBeat ?The OTNArchBeat Daily is out! http://paper.li/OTNArchBeat/1329828521 … ? Top stories today via @lucasjellema @myfear @TylerJewell Packt Publishing ?Get 50% off ALL our DRM-free eBooks - this weekend only! Go to http://www.packtpub.com/ and use code BIG50, as often as you like! #BIG50 OracleBlogs ?Global Perspective: ACE Director from EMEA Weighs in on AppAdvantage http://ow.ly/2Afek2 orclateamsoa ?#orclateamsoa Blog: BPM Auditing Demystified - I've heard from a couple of customers recently asking about BPM aud... http://ow.ly/2AfbAn AMIS, Oracle & Java ?Cool #soasuite 12c feature managed file transfer - visit Dave Barry at demo point sr212 #oow #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/gb4HLbUarR SOA Community ?Let us know what was best at #OOW @soacommunity save trip home - thanks for coming to #SF ;-) see you at #OOW2014 pic.twitter.com/xbWXjRapqh Lonneke Dikmans ?Nice @dschmied is talking about the different steps in his project. He starts with explaining the user interface design #oow13 #ux #acm Lonneke Dikmans ?Saving the best for the end: managing knowledge worker processes by @dschmied and Prasen.#oow13 #acm cool stuff: adaptive case management Luis Augusto Weir ?SOA Governance is more than just OER. Requires people, processes and tools. Check it out #SOA #soacommunity http://youtu.be/Ohn06smVKVw Lonneke Dikmans ?“@OracleSOA: #oow Join us for:Enterprise SOA Infrastructure Best Practices Thu 9/26 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Moscone West - 2020 SOA Community ?Business Process Management (BPM) 11g PS6 Awareness Course http://wp.me/p10C8u-1as Ajay Khanna ?Detect, Analyze, Act - Fast! http://wp.me/p10C8u-1ao via @soacommunity #OracleBPM Simone Geib ?It took a while, but I finally reached 500 followers. Thanks everybody and especially @soacommunity :) SOA Community ?Functional Testing Business Processes In Oracle BPM Suite 11g by Arun Pareek http://wp.me/p10C8u-1aq SOA Community Distribute the September edition of the SOA Community newsletter READ it! Didn't receive it register http://www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa #soacommunity SOA Community ?Detect, Analyze, Act - Fast! by Ajay Khanna http://wp.me/p10C8u-1ao Robert van Mölken ?Finalised my #OOW presentation #CON8736 and live demo on wednesday 25th at 11:45am. Also giving a short version at the SOA CAB on thursday. Rajesh Raheja ?"The AppAdvantage of Oracle Cloud & On-premises Integration" http://bit.ly/14RYHmZ SOA Community ?Additional new content SOA & BPM Partner Community http://wp.me/p10C8u-1aw Dain Hansen ?Right now #oow13 SOA, BPM - Customer Advisory Boards. 'No tweeting' says @SOASimone. Instagram of funny cats still ok. leonsmiers ?Case Management with Oracle BPM Suite our presentation on #oow13 http://www.slideshare.net/leonsmiers/oracle-open-world-2013-case-management-smiers-kitson … #capgemini @nkitson72 Mark Simpson ?Flextronics reduced cost of processing an invoice to <$1 from $7 due to BPM @OracleBPM #oow13 saving millions. Way less than industry avg. Holger Mueller ?#Siemens Shared Services CIO says that #Fusion #Middleware made the difference for #Oracle over #Workday. #Integration matters. #OOW13 oracleopenworld ?Miss any #oow13 keynotes, or simply want to rewatch? Check out the live streaming site for keynotes on demand: http://pub.vitrue.com/RG4D SOA Community ?Analyze your m2m data and act on it! Big data Pattern matching, fast data & soa #soacommunity #oow pic.twitter.com/48Q1z4ckh7 SOA Community ?Top tweets SOA Partner Community – September 2013 http://wp.me/p10C8u-1cR Simone Geib ?#oraclesoa hands on lab at #oow13 pic.twitter.com/IJJrqXIMiu Danilo Schmiedel #oow13 CON8436: Managing Knowledge Worker Processes. Come & get a free Adaptive Case Management poster @soacommunity pic.twitter.com/FRc2CSyLwb John Sim ?Great job again Jurgen @soacommunity helping bring Ace Community together! Danilo Schmiedel ?Excellent #OracleBPM Adaptive Case Management intro by @heidibuelowBPM and Prasen at the #oow13 demo ground.Last chance today @soacommunity SOA Community ?Thanks to all our #bpm #soa and #weblogic partners for the great middleware business #oow #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/dBwZ8DMHfH Whitehorses ?Thanks @soacommunity for the party tonight. Great to meet product management & see all the talented EMEA middleware specialists. #oow13 Danilo Schmiedel ?Great tool demo from Link Consulting about managing your SOA with OER #oow13 @soacommunity Torsten Winterberg ?“@soacommunity: thanks to @dschmied and @OC_WIRE for making it happen to have our case management poster as printed version hier at #oow13 Ronald Luttikhuizen ?These were the architects involved in the diagram excitement :) just after State of SOA podcast with @OTNArchBeat pic.twitter.com/5B8jIrVTA9 SOA Community ?Tanks to AVIO for the excellent #bpmn poster and the great bpm business - visit then at #OOW & get the poster pic.twitter.com/ebTg9pFY1C Dain Hansen ?Kurian introducing Oracle Platform-as-a-Service developments. #oow13 #OracleCloud pic.twitter.com/evJLTU53rx Bruce Tierney ?API Management "multi-level pie chart" at #oow13 by Oracle's Tim Hall pic.twitter.com/q12OIRdaue Dain Hansen ?This is not your Daddy's BAM @soacommunity: Is this BAM? Very cool in #soasuite 12c get a demo at sr225 pic.twitter.com/EvwqXW9U5j SOA Community ?Is this BAM? Very cool in #soasuite 12c get a demo at sr225 pic.twitter.com/LybHxyF362 SOA Community ?SOA governance by @Yogesh_Sontakke at demo point sr214 many good new features - key for soa projects #oow #soa pic.twitter.com/DFK0ummsK1 SOA Community ?Cool #soasuite 12c feature managed file transfer - visit Dave Barry at demo point sr212 #oow #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/GDKcqDGhCF SOA Community ?Adaptive Case Management demo point at #OOW visit @heidibuelowBPM get a demo and cmmn notation poster #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/T7yEyI7tdn Lonneke Dikmans ?In case you missed it: http://blog.vennster.nl/2013/09/case-management-part-1.html?spref=tw … Lucas Jellema ?SOA Suite news: Cloud Adapters RightNow and SalesForce plus SDK to develop custom cloud adapters (CY13); REST/JSON support in SB/SCA (12c) Oracle SOA ?Cloud Integration and AppAdvantage: Transform your Enterprise #soa #oow13 http://pub.vitrue.com/UfPB Dain Hansen ?Cloud Integration and AppAdvantage: Transform your Enterprise #soa #oow13 http://pub.vitrue.com/4QWA Hajo Normann ?#BigData, eventing & real time #analytics suggest timely next actions in #oracleBPM & #oracleACM; #oow13 #FastData pic.twitter.com/aFVGrTXPqu Mark Simpson ?OEP CQL engine now used in BAM12c for event stream summary computation with temporal and pattern match features to feed dashboards. #oow13 Mark Simpson ?BAM12c virtually a new product. Analytics that senses ahead of time and also compares to historical trends to guide process or case #oow13 Andrejus Baranovskis ?Enabling UI Shell 12c/11g Multitasking Behavior http://fb.me/18l9vxQfA Amit Zavery ?Oracle Fusion Middleware Empowers Business Users, EVP Thomas Kurian's session summary http://onforb.es/18Ta1jf #oow13 #oraclemiddle #oracle Vikas Anand ?#oow13 #oracleopenworld BPM on display at Middleware keynote by Thomas Kurian pic.twitter.com/PMm719S0Ui SOA Community ?BPM composer - business user empowerment #oow #soacommunity #bpmsuite pic.twitter.com/0Qgl6oVh0h SOA Community ?Model your process in BPMN - make is executable and analyze & improve them #oow #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/jkLlObDdoi Bruce Tierney ?@demed and Thomas Kurian talk mobile and cloud at #oow13 pic.twitter.com/bAAeqn5a2V Amit Zavery ?Thomas Kurian showcasing all the new features of Oracle Fusion Middleware #oraclemiddle #oow13 SOA Community ?Demo time cloud adapters in #soasuite at Thomas Kurian keynote. Build and integrate mobile apps in minutes #oow pic.twitter.com/qTnCOJLLwS SOA Community ?Soa suite cloud adapters and mobile apps by @demed at Thomas Kurian keynote #oow #oracle #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/5aMLkNH4Ng Danilo Schmiedel ?First impressions from Oracle Open World 2013 http://wp.me/p2fG8x-77 @soacommunity @OC_WIRE SOA Community ?Good morning SFO let us know if you attend #OOW & #OPN keynote - #soacommunity pic.twitter.com/hzLYGDlRgE Simon Haslam ?Had a very useful @wlscommunity PAC meeting yesterday... & probably the best swag to date! pic.twitter.com/Lqus8ysbp7 Vikas Anand ?Oracle SOA Suite - Team Blog http://bit.ly/18I1Zj7 Rajesh Raheja ?Introducing new Cloud Connectivity Adapters #soa #demopod #oow13. I'll be there Sep 23 & 24 3-6pm to meetup http://bit.ly/18I1Zj7 leonsmiers ?..and again a very successful Oracle SOA/BPM partner council on the eve of #oow13. Thanks Jurgen! @soacommunity pic.twitter.com/aM1LMlb7Yw Vikas Anand ?#oow13 #soa #oep #exalogic Canon Delivers Fast Data with Oracle Event Processing (Oracle SOA Suite) http://bit.ly/1dwPeHb #soacommunity Rolf Scheuch ?The ACM poster is a big success. Great talks and .... I am soon out of posters! #bpmcon #ACM pic.twitter.com/TriaUyXRWK Oracle SOA ?British Telecom Sucess with Oracle B2B #oow #soa #b2b http://pub.vitrue.com/1RWi leonsmiers ?(Oracle) Case Management supporting re-platforming, a pre-read before our presentation at #oow13 http://leonsmiers.blogspot.com/2013/09/case-management-supporting-re.html … #capgemini #yammer SOA & BPM Partner CommunityFor regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center. Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki Mix Forum Technorati Tags: Twitter,SOA,Oracle BPM,Community,OPN,Jürgen Kress

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• Building services with .Net Part 1

  - by Allan Rwakatungu

  On the 26th of May 2010 , I made a presentation to the .NET user group meeting (thanks to Malisa Ncube for organizing this event every month … ). If you missed my presentation , we talked about why we should all be building services … better still using the .NET framework. This blog post is an introduction to services , why you would want to build services and how you can build services using the .NET framework. What is a service? OASIS defines service as "a mechanism to enable access to one or more capabilities, where the access is provided using a prescribed interface and is exercised consistent with constraints and policies as specified by the service description." [1]. If the above definition sounds to academic , you can also define a service as loosely coupled units of functionality that have no calls to each other embedded in the. Instead of services embedding calls to each other in their service code they use defined protocols that describe how services pass and parse messages. This is a good way to think about services if you’re from an objected oriented background. While in object oriented programming functions make calls to each other, in service oriented programming, functions pass messages between each other. Why would you want to use services? 1. If your enterprise architecture looks like this   Services are the building blocks for SOA . With SOA you can move away from the sphaggetti infrastructure that is common in most enterprises. The complexity or lack of visibility of the integration points in your enterprises makes it difficult and costly to implement new initiatives and changes into the business - and even impossible in some cases - as it is not possible to identify the impact a change in one system might have to other systems. With services you can move to an architecture like this Your building blocks from Spaghetti infrastructure to something that is more well-defined and manageable to achieve cost efficiency and not least business agility - enabling you to react to changes in the market with speed and achieve operational efficiency and control are services. 2. If you want to become the Gates or Zuckerburger. Have you heard about Web 2.0 ? Mashups? Software as a service (SAAS) ? Cloud computing ?   They all offer you the opportunity to have scalable but low cost business models and they built using services.  Some of my favorite companies that leverage services for their business models include  https://www.salesforce.com/ (cloud CRM) http://www. twitter.com (more people use twitter clients built by 3rd parties than their official clients) http://www.kayak.com/ (compares data from other travel sites to give information to users in one location) Services with the .NET framework      If you are a .NET developer and you want to develop services, Windows Communication Framework (WCF) is the tool for you. WCF is Microsoft’s unified programming model (service model) for building service oriented applications. ( Before .NET 3.0 you had several models for programming services in .NET including .NET remoting, Web services (ASMX), COM +, Microsoft Messaging queuing (MSMQ) etc, after .NET 3.0 the programming model was unified into one i.e. WCF ). Windows Communication Framework (WCF) provides you 1. An Software Development Kit (SDK) for creating SOA applications 2. A runtime for running services on the Windows platform Why should you use Windows Communication Foundation if you’re programming services?   1. It supports interoperable and open standards e.g. WS* protocols for programming SOAP services 2. It has a unified programming model. Whether you use TCP or Http or Pipes or transmitting using Messaging Queues, programmers need to learn just one way to program. Previously you had .NET remoting, MSMQ, Web services, COM+ and they were all done differently 3. Productive programming model You don’t have to worry about all the plumbing involved to write services. You have a rich declarative programming model to add stuff like logging, transactions, and reliable messages in-built in the Windows Communication Framework. Understanding services in WCF The basic principles of WCF are as easy as ABC A – Address This is where the service is located B- Binding This describes how you communicate with the service e.g. Use TCP, HTTP or both. How to exchange security information with the service etc. C – Contract This defines what the service can do. E.g. Pay water bill, Make a phone call A - Addresses In WCF, an address is a combination of transport, server name, port and path Example addresses may include http://localhost:8001 net.tcp://localhost:8002/MyService net.pipe://localhost/MyPipe net.msmq://localhost/private/MyService net.msmq://localhost/MyService B- Binding   There are numerous ways to communicate with services , different ways that a message can be formatted/sent/secured, that allows you to tailor your service for the compatibility/performance you require for your solution. Transport You can use HTTP TCP MSMQ , Named pipes, Your own custom transport etc Message You  can send a plain text binary, Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) message Communication security No security Transport security Message security Authenticating and authorizing callers etc Behaviour You service can support Transactions Be reliable Use queues Support ajax etc C - Contract You define what your service can do using Service contracts :- Define operations that your service can do, communications and behaviours Data contracts :- Define the messages that are passed from and into your service and how they are formatted Fault contracts :- Defines errors types in your service   As an example, suppose your service service shows money. You define your service contract using a interface [ServiceContract] public interface IShowMeTheMoney {   [OperationContract]    Money Show(); } You define the data contract by annotating a class it with the Data Contract attribute and fields you want to pass in the message as Data Members. (Note:- In the latest versions of WCF you dont have to use attributes if you passing all the objects properties in the message) [DataContract] public Money {   [DataMember]   public string Currency { get; set; }   [DataMember]   public Decimal Amount { get; set; }   public string Comment { get; set; } } Features of Windows Communication Foundation Windows Communication Foundation is not only simple but feature rich , offering you several options to tweak your service to fit your business requirements. Some of the features of WCF include 1. Workflow services You can combine WCF with Windows WorkFlow Foundation (WWF) to write workflow type services 2. Control how your data (messages) are transferred and serialized e.g. you can serialize your business objects as XML or binary 3. control over session management , instance creation and concurrency management without writing code if you like 4. Queues and reliable sessions. You can store messages from the sending client and later forward them to the receiving application. You can also guarantee that messages will arrive at their destincation. 5.Transactions:  You can have different services participate in a transaction operations that can be rolled back if needed 6. Security. WCF has rich features for authorization and authentication  as well as keep audit trails 7. Web programming model. WCF allows developers to expose services as non SOAP endpoints 8. Inbuilt features that you can use to write JSON and services that support AJAX applications And lots more In my next blog I will show you how you can use WCF features to write a real world business service.               Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ]] /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}

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• Code Reuse is (Damn) Hard

  - by James Michael Hare

  Being a development team lead, the task of interviewing new candidates was part of my job.  Like any typical interview, we started with some easy questions to get them warmed up and help calm their nerves before hitting the hard stuff. One of those easier questions was almost always: “Name some benefits of object-oriented development.”  Nearly every time, the candidate would chime in with a plethora of canned answers which typically included: “it helps ease code reuse.”  Of course, this is a gross oversimplification.  Tools only ease reuse, its developers that ultimately can cause code to be reusable or not, regardless of the language or methodology. But it did get me thinking…  we always used to say that as part of our mantra as to why Object-Oriented Programming was so great.  With polymorphism, inheritance, encapsulation, etc. we in essence set up the concepts to help facilitate reuse as much as possible.  And yes, as a developer now of many years, I unquestionably held that belief for ages before it really struck me how my views on reuse have jaded over the years.  In fact, in many ways Agile rightly eschews reuse as taking a backseat to developing what's needed for the here and now.  It used to be I was in complete opposition to that view, but more and more I've come to see the logic in it.  Too many times I've seen developers (myself included) get lost in design paralysis trying to come up with the perfect abstraction that would stand all time.  Nearly without fail, all of these pieces of code become obsolete in a matter of months or years. It’s not that I don’t like reuse – it’s just that reuse is hard.  In fact, reuse is DAMN hard.  Many times it is just a distraction that eats up architect and developer time, and worse yet can be counter-productive and force wrong decisions.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of reusable code when it makes sense.  These are in the few cases where you are designing something that is inherently reusable.  The problem is, most business-class code is inherently unfit for reuse! Furthermore, the code that is reusable will often fail to be reused if you don’t have the proper framework in place for effective reuse that includes standardized versioning, building, releasing, and documenting the components.  That should always be standard across the board when promoting reusable code.  All of this is hard, and it should only be done when you have code that is truly reusable or you will be exerting a large amount of development effort for very little bang for your buck. But my goal here is not to get into how to reuse (that is a topic unto itself) but what should be reused.  First, let’s look at an extension method.  There’s many times where I want to kick off a thread to handle a task, then when I want to reign that thread in of course I want to do a Join on it.  But what if I only want to wait a limited amount of time and then Abort?  Well, I could of course write that logic out by hand each time, but it seemed like a great extension method: 1: public static class ThreadExtensions 2: { 3: public static bool JoinOrAbort(this Thread thread, TimeSpan timeToWait) 4: { 5: bool isJoined = false; 6:  7: if (thread != null) 8: { 9: isJoined = thread.Join(timeToWait); 10:  11: if (!isJoined) 12: { 13: thread.Abort(); 14: } 15: } 16: return isJoined; 17: } 18: } 19:  When I look at this code, I can immediately see things that jump out at me as reasons why this code is very reusable.  Some of them are standard OO principles, and some are kind-of home grown litmus tests: Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) – The only reason this extension method need change is if the Thread class itself changes (one responsibility). Stable Dependencies Principle (SDP) – This method only depends on classes that are more stable than it is (System.Threading.Thread), and in itself is very stable, hence other classes may safely depend on it. It is also not dependent on any business domain, and thus isn't subject to changes as the business itself changes. Open-Closed Principle (OCP) – This class is inherently closed to change. Small and Stable Problem Domain – This method only cares about System.Threading.Thread. All-or-None Usage – A user of a reusable class should want the functionality of that class, not parts of that functionality.  That’s not to say they most use every method, but they shouldn’t be using a method just to get half of its result. Cost of Reuse vs. Cost to Recreate – since this class is highly stable and minimally complex, we can offer it up for reuse very cheaply by promoting it as “ready-to-go” and already unit tested (important!) and available through a standard release cycle (very important!). Okay, all seems good there, now lets look at an entity and DAO.  I don’t know about you all, but there have been times I’ve been in organizations that get the grand idea that all DAOs and entities should be standardized and shared.  While this may work for small or static organizations, it’s near ludicrous for anything large or volatile. 1: namespace Shared.Entities 2: { 3: public class Account 4: { 5: public int Id { get; set; } 6:  7: public string Name { get; set; } 8:  9: public Address HomeAddress { get; set; } 10:  11: public int Age { get; set;} 12:  13: public DateTime LastUsed { get; set; } 14:  15: // etc, etc, etc... 16: } 17: } 18:  19: ... 20:  21: namespace Shared.DataAccess 22: { 23: public class AccountDao 24: { 25: public Account FindAccount(int id) 26: { 27: // dao logic to query and return account 28: } 29:  30: ... 31:  32: } 33: } Now to be fair, I’m not saying there doesn’t exist an organization where some entites may be extremely static and unchanging.  But at best such entities and DAOs will be problematic cases of reuse.  Let’s examine those same tests: Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) – The reasons to change for these classes will be strongly dependent on what the definition of the account is which can change over time and may have multiple influences depending on the number of systems an account can cover. Stable Dependencies Principle (SDP) – This method depends on the data model beneath itself which also is largely dependent on the business definition of an account which can be very inherently unstable. Open-Closed Principle (OCP) – This class is not really closed for modification.  Every time the account definition may change, you’d need to modify this class. Small and Stable Problem Domain – The definition of an account is inherently unstable and in fact may be very large.  What if you are designing a system that aggregates account information from several sources? All-or-None Usage – What if your view of the account encompasses data from 3 different sources but you only care about one of those sources or one piece of data?  Should you have to take the hit of looking up all the other data?  On the other hand, should you have ten different methods returning portions of data in chunks people tend to ask for?  Neither is really a great solution. Cost of Reuse vs. Cost to Recreate – DAOs are really trivial to rewrite, and unless your definition of an account is EXTREMELY stable, the cost to promote, support, and release a reusable account entity and DAO are usually far higher than the cost to recreate as needed. It’s no accident that my case for reuse was a utility class and my case for non-reuse was an entity/DAO.  In general, the smaller and more stable an abstraction is, the higher its level of reuse.  When I became the lead of the Shared Components Committee at my workplace, one of the original goals we looked at satisfying was to find (or create), version, release, and promote a shared library of common utility classes, frameworks, and data access objects.  Now, of course, many of you will point to nHibernate and Entity for the latter, but we were looking at larger, macro collections of data that span multiple data sources of varying types (databases, web services, etc). As we got deeper and deeper in the details of how to manage and release these items, it quickly became apparent that while the case for reuse was typically a slam dunk for utilities and frameworks, the data access objects just didn’t “smell” right.  We ended up having session after session of design meetings to try and find the right way to share these data access components. When someone asked me why it was taking so long to iron out the shared entities, my response was quite simple, “Reuse is hard...”  And that’s when I realized, that while reuse is an awesome goal and we should strive to make code maintainable, often times you end up creating far more work for yourself than necessary by trying to force code to be reusable that inherently isn’t. Think about classes the times you’ve worked in a company where in the design session people fight over the best way to implement a class to make it maximally reusable, extensible, and any other buzzwordable.  Then think about how quickly that design became obsolete.  Many times I set out to do a project and think, “yes, this is the best design, I can extend it easily!” only to find out the business requirements change COMPLETELY in such a way that the design is rendered invalid.  Code, in general, tends to rust and age over time.  As such, writing reusable code can often be difficult and many times ends up being a futile exercise and worse yet, sometimes makes the code harder to maintain because it obfuscates the design in the name of extensibility or reusability. So what do I think are reusable components? Generic Utility classes – these tend to be small classes that assist in a task and have no business context whatsoever. Implementation Abstraction Frameworks – home-grown frameworks that try to isolate changes to third party products you may be depending on (like writing a messaging abstraction layer for publishing/subscribing that is independent of whether you use JMS, MSMQ, etc). Simplification and Uniformity Frameworks – To some extent this is similar to an abstraction framework, but there may be one chosen provider but a development shop mandate to perform certain complex items in a certain way.  Or, perhaps to simplify and dumb-down a complex task for the average developer (such as implementing a particular development-shop’s method of encryption). And what are less reusable? Application and Business Layers – tend to fluctuate a lot as requirements change and new features are added, so tend to be an unstable dependency.  May be reused across applications but also very volatile. Entities and Data Access Layers – these tend to be tuned to the scope of the application, so reusing them can be hard unless the abstract is very stable. So what’s the big lesson?  Reuse is hard.  In fact it’s damn hard.  And much of the time I’m not convinced we should focus too hard on it. If you’re designing a utility or framework, then by all means design it for reuse.  But you most also really set down a good versioning, release, and documentation process to maximize your chances.  For anything else, design it to be maintainable and extendable, but don’t waste the effort on reusability for something that most likely will be obsolete in a year or two anyway.

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• Reference Data Management

  - by rahulkamath

  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2 {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:1; mso-tstyle-colband-size:1; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-tstyle-shading:#F8EDED; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:25; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:black; mso-themecolor:text1;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2FirstRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:first-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#9E3A38; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themeshade:204; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:1.5pt solid white; mso-tstyle-border-bottom-themecolor:background1; color:white; mso-themecolor:background1; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2LastRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:last-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:white; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:background1; mso-tstyle-border-top:1.5pt solid black; mso-tstyle-border-top-themecolor:text1; color:#9E3A38; mso-themecolor:accent2; mso-themeshade:204; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2FirstCol {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:first-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2LastCol {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:last-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-weight:bold; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2OddColumn {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:odd-column; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#EFD3D2; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:63; mso-tstyle-border-top:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-left:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-bottom:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-right:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-insideh:cell-none; mso-tstyle-border-insidev:cell-none;} table.MsoTableColorfulListAccent2OddRow {mso-style-name:"Colorful List - Accent 2"; mso-table-condition:odd-row; mso-style-priority:72; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-tstyle-shading:#F2DBDB; mso-tstyle-shading-themecolor:accent2; mso-tstyle-shading-themetint:51;} Reference Data Management Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) has always been extremely powerful as an Enterprise MDM solution that can help manage changes to master data in a way that influences enterprise structure, whether it be mastering chart of accounts to enable financial transformation, or revamping organization structures to drive business transformation and operational efficiencies, or mastering sales territories in light of rapid fire acquisitions that require frequent sales territory refinement, equitable distribution of leads and accounts to salespersons, and alignment of budget/forecast with results to optimize sales coverage. Increasingly, DRM is also being utilized by Oracle customers for reference data management, an emerging solution space that deserves some explanation. What is reference data? Reference data is a close cousin of master data. While master data may be more rapidly changing, requires consensus building across stakeholders and lends structure to business transactions, reference data is simpler, more slowly changing, but has semantic content that is used to categorize or group other information assets – including master data – and give them contextual value. The following table contains an illustrative list of examples of reference data by type. Reference data types may include types and codes, business taxonomies, complex relationships & cross-domain mappings or standards. Types & Codes Taxonomies Relationships / Mappings Standards Transaction Codes Industry Classification Categories and Codes, e.g., North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) Product / Segment; Product / Geo Calendars (e.g., Gregorian, Fiscal, Manufacturing, Retail, ISO8601) Lookup Tables (e.g., Gender, Marital Status, etc.) Product Categories City à State à Postal Codes Currency Codes (e.g., ISO) Status Codes Sales Territories (e.g., Geo, Industry Verticals, Named Accounts, Federal/State/Local/Defense) Customer / Market Segment; Business Unit / Channel Country Codes (e.g., ISO 3166, UN) Role Codes Market Segments Country Codes / Currency Codes / Financial Accounts Date/Time, Time Zones (e.g., ISO 8601) Domain Values Universal Standard Products and Services Classification (UNSPSC), eCl@ss International Classification of Diseases (ICD) e.g., ICD9 à IC10 mappings Tax Rates Why manage reference data? Reference data carries contextual value and meaning and therefore its use can drive business logic that helps execute a business process, create a desired application behavior or provide meaningful segmentation to analyze transaction data. Further, mapping reference data often requires human judgment. Sample Use Cases of Reference Data Management Healthcare: Diagnostic Codes The reference data challenges in the healthcare industry offer a case in point. Part of being HIPAA compliant requires medical practitioners to transition diagnosis codes from ICD-9 to ICD-10, a medical coding scheme used to classify diseases, signs and symptoms, causes, etc. The transition to ICD-10 has a significant impact on business processes, procedures, contracts, and IT systems. Since both code sets ICD-9 and ICD-10 offer diagnosis codes of very different levels of granularity, human judgment is required to map ICD-9 codes to ICD-10. The process requires collaboration and consensus building among stakeholders much in the same way as does master data management. Moreover, to build reports to understand utilization, frequency and quality of diagnoses, medical practitioners may need to “cross-walk” mappings -- either forward to ICD-10 or backwards to ICD-9 depending upon the reporting time horizon. Spend Management: Product, Service & Supplier Codes Similarly, as an enterprise looks to rationalize suppliers and leverage their spend, conforming supplier codes, as well as product and service codes requires supporting multiple classification schemes that may include industry standards (e.g., UNSPSC, eCl@ss) or enterprise taxonomies. Aberdeen Group estimates that 90% of companies rely on spreadsheets and manual reviews to aggregate, classify and analyze spend data, and that data management activities account for 12-15% of the sourcing cycle and consume 30-50% of a commodity manager’s time. Creating a common map across the extended enterprise to rationalize codes across procurement, accounts payable, general ledger, credit card, procurement card (P-card) as well as ACH and bank systems can cut sourcing costs, improve compliance, lower inventory stock, and free up talent to focus on value added tasks. Specialty Finance: Point of Sales Transaction Codes and Product Codes In the specialty finance industry, enterprises are confronted with usury laws – governed at the state and local level – that regulate financial product innovation as it relates to consumer loans, check cashing and pawn lending. To comply, it is important to demonstrate that transactions booked at the point of sale are posted against valid product codes that were on offer at the time of booking the sale. Since new products are being released at a steady stream, it is important to ensure timely and accurate mapping of point-of-sale transaction codes with the appropriate product and GL codes to comply with the changing regulations. Multi-National Companies: Industry Classification Schemes As companies grow and expand across geographies, a typical challenge they encounter with reference data represents reconciling various versions of industry classification schemes in use across nations. While the United States, Mexico and Canada conform to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) standard, European Union countries choose different variants of the NACE industry classification scheme. Multi-national companies must manage the individual national NACE schemes and reconcile the differences across countries. Enterprises must invest in a reference data change management application to address the challenge of distributing reference data changes to downstream applications and assess which applications were impacted by a given change.

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• Super-Charge GIMP’s Image Editing Capabilities with G’MIC [Cross-Platform]

  - by Asian Angel

  Recently we showed you how to enhance GIMP’s image editing power and today we help you super-charge GIMP even more. G’MIC (GREYC’s Magic Image Converter) will add an impressive array of filters and effects to your GIMP installation for image editing goodness. Note: We applied the Contrast Swiss Mask filter to the image shown in the screenshot above to create a nice, warm sunset effect. To add the new PPA open the Ubuntu Software Center, go to the Edit Menu, and select Software Sources. Access the Other Software Tab in the Software Sources Window and add the first of the PPAs shown below (outlined in red). The second PPA will be automatically added to your system. Once you have the new PPAs set up, go back to the Ubuntu Software Center and do a search for “G’MIC”. You will find two listings available and can select either one to add G’MIC to your system (both work equally well). Click on More Info for the listing that you choose and scroll down to where Add-ons are listed. Make sure to select the Add-on listed, click Apply Changes when it appears, and then click Install. We have both shown here for your convenience… When you get ready to use G’MIC to enhance an image, go to the Filters Menu and select G’MIC. A new window will appear where you can select from an impressive array of filters available for your use. Have fun! Command Line Installation For those of you who prefer using the command line for installation use the following commands: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ferramroberto/gimp sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gmic gimp-gmic Links Note: G’MIC is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. G’MIC PPA at Launchpad [via Web Upd8] G’MIC Homepage at Sourceforge *Downloads for all three platforms available here. Bonus The anime wallpaper shown in the screenshots above can be found here: anime sport [DesktopNexus] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions Access and Manage Your Ubuntu One Account in Chrome and Iron Mouse Over YouTube Previews YouTube Videos in Chrome Watch a Machine Get Upgraded from MS-DOS to Windows 7 [Video] Bring the Whole Ubuntu Gang Home to Your Desktop with this Mascots Wallpaper Hack Apart a Highlighter to Create UV-Reactive Flowers [Science] Add a “Textmate Style” Lightweight Text Editor with Dropbox Syncing to Chrome and Iron

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• Windows Azure Use Case: Infrastructure Limits

  - by BuckWoody

  This is one in a series of posts on when and where to use a distributed architecture design in your organization's computing needs. You can find the main post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/buckwoody/archive/2011/01/18/windows-azure-and-sql-azure-use-cases.aspx  Description: Physical hardware components take up room, use electricity, create heat and therefore need cooling, and require wiring and special storage units. all of these requirements cost money to rent at a data-center or to build out at a local facility. In some cases, this can be a catalyst for evaluating options to remove this infrastructure requirement entirely by moving to a distributed computing environment. Implementation: There are three main options for moving to a distributed computing environment. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) The first option is simply to virtualize the current hardware and move the VM’s to a provider. You can do this with Microsoft’s Hyper-V product or other software, build the systems and host them locally on fewer physical machines. This is a good option for canned-applications (where you have to type setup.exe) but not as useful for custom applications, as you still have to license and patch those servers, and there are hard limits on the VM sizes. Software as a Service (SaaS) If there is already software available that does what you need, it may make sense to simply purchase not only the software license but the use of it on the vendor’s servers. Microsoft’s Exchange Online is an example of simply using an offering from a vendor on their servers. If you do not need a great deal of customization, have no interest in owning or extending the source code, and need to implement a solution quickly, this is a good choice. Platform as a Service (PaaS) If you do need to write software for your environment, your next choice is a Platform as a Service such as Windows Azure. In this case you no longer manager physical or even virtual servers. You start at the code and data level of control and responsibility, and your focus is more on the design and maintenance of the application itself. In this case you own the source code and can extend or change it as you see fit. An interesting side-benefit to using Windows Azure as a PaaS is that the Application Fabric component allows a hybrid approach, which gives you a basis to allow on-premise applications to leverage distributed computing paradigms. No one solution fits every situation. It’s common to see organizations pick a mixture of on-premise, IaaS, SaaS and PaaS components. In fact, that’s a great advantage to this form of computing - choice. References: 5 Enterprise steps for adopting a Platform as a Service: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/davidmcg/archive/2010/12/02/5-enterprise-steps-for-adopting-a-platform-as-a-service.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0  Application Patterns for the Cloud: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kashif/archive/2010/08/07/application-patterns-for-the-cloud.aspx

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• Create Custom Sized Thumbnail Images with Simple Image Resizer [Cross-Platform]

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you looking for an easy way to create custom sized thumbnail images for use in blog posts, photo albums, and more? Whether is it a single image or a CD full, Simple Image Resizer is the right app to get the job done for you. To add the new PPA for Simple Image Resizer open the Ubuntu Software Center, go to the Edit Menu, and select Software Sources. Access the Other Software Tab in the Software Sources Window and add the first of the PPAs shown below (outlined in red). The second PPA will be automatically added to your system. Once you have the new PPAs set up, go back to the Ubuntu Software Center and click on the PPA listing for Rafael Sachetto on the left (highlighted with red in the image). The listing for Simple Image Resizer will be right at the top…click Install to add the program to your system. After the installation is complete you can find Simple Image Resizer listed as Sir in the Graphics sub-menu. When you open Simple Image Resizer you will need to browse for the directory containing the images you want to work with, select a destination folder, choose a target format and prefix, enter the desired pixel size for converted images, and set the quality level. Convert your image(s) when ready… Note: You will need to determine the image size that best suits your needs before-hand. For our example we chose to convert a single image. A quick check shows our new “thumbnailed” image looking very nice. Simple Image Resizer can convert “into and from” the following image formats: .jpeg, .png, .bmp, .gif, .xpm, .pgm, .pbm, and .ppm Command Line Installation Note: For older Ubuntu systems (9.04 and previous) see the link provided below. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rsachetto/ppa sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install sir Links Note: Simple Image Resizer is available for Ubuntu, Slackware Linux, and Windows. Simple Image Resizer PPA at Launchpad Simple Image Resizer Homepage Command Line Installation for Older Ubuntu Systems Bonus The anime wallpaper shown in the screenshots above can be found here: The end where it begins [DesktopNexus] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Macs Don’t Make You Creative! So Why Do Artists Really Love Apple? MacX DVD Ripper Pro is Free for How-To Geek Readers (Time Limited!) HTG Explains: What’s a Solid State Drive and What Do I Need to Know? How to Get Amazing Color from Photos in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Learn To Adjust Contrast Like a Pro in Photoshop, GIMP, and Paint.NET Have You Ever Wondered How Your Operating System Got Its Name? Create Shortcuts for Your Favorite or Most Used Folders in Ubuntu Create Custom Sized Thumbnail Images with Simple Image Resizer [Cross-Platform] Etch a Circuit Board using a Simple Homemade Mixture Sync Blocker Stops iTunes from Automatically Syncing The Journey to the Mystical Forest [Wallpaper] Trace Your Browser’s Roots on the Browser Family Tree [Infographic]

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• Win7 is not a tablet OS, no matter what the boys in Redmond think.

  - by John Conwell

  Despite what execs at Microsoft think, Windows 7 is NOT a tablet OS.  Just because you can install some software (or OS) on a device, doesn't mean that device is meant to run that software.  This seems to be the step that the non-engineer execs at Microsoft have seem to not understood.  In order to seamlessly work with a device, the software needs to be designed with that device in mind.  That has been the problem with the Windows PDA platform, the Windows Mobil platform, and now with trying to force fit Windows 7 on a tablet.  Its just not designed for that style of interaction.   Windows is designed to be interacted with via a mouse and keyboard.  In fact, it is brilliant at that.  But, It is NOT designed to be interacted with by your fingers.  And that is why the Windows tablet failed 10 years ago, and why it will fail today.  Its not the hardware's fault like Microsoft claimed 10 years ago.  Its the User Interaction design that failed. And this is why the iPhone and Android OS's work wonderfully on a tablet.  The user interaction was designed for small screens, navigated by big fat fingers.  I love these OS's and how I interact with them.  And when I play with a touch screen Windows 7 device, I am feel like I'm playing with a brittle wana-be.  And its not the hardware's fault.  The touchscreen is very responsive.  I actually like the hardware.  But the OS and the software are just not designed to be interacted with, with my big fat fingers.  In order to be successful, Microsoft needs to start from scratch, and build a platform AND SOFTWARE specifically for use by fingers.  Thats why everyone was so excited when they though Microsoft was going to release the Courier tablet.  Because it looked like a totally different platform.  Something that might actually work.  But Windows 7...I hate to burst your bubble, but you are not a touch platform.

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• Cloud Computing: Start with the problem

  - by BuckWoody

  At one point in my life I would build my own computing system for home use. I wanted a particular video card, a certain set of drives, and a lot of memory. Not only could I not find those things in a vendor’s pre-built computer, but those were more expensive – by a lot. As time moved on and the computing industry matured, I actually find that I can buy a vendor’s system as cheaply – and in some cases far more cheaply – than I can build it myself.   This paradigm holds true for almost any product, even clothing and furniture. And it’s also held true for software… Mostly. If you need an office productivity package, you simply buy one or use open-sourced software for that. There’s really no need to write your own Word Processor – it’s kind of been done a thousand times over. Even if you need a full system for customer relationship management or other needs, you simply buy one. But there is no “cloud solution in a box”.  Sure, if you’re after “Software as a Service” – type solutions, like being able to process video (Windows Azure Media Services) or running a Pig or Hive job in Hadoop (Hadoop on Windows Azure) you can simply use one of those, or if you just want to deploy a Virtual Machine (Windows Azure Virtual Machines) you can get that, but if you’re looking for a solution to a problem your organization has, you may need to mix Software, Infrastructure, and perhaps even Platforms (such as Windows Azure Computing) to solve the issue. It’s all about starting from the problem-end first. We’ve become so accustomed to looking for a box of software that will solve the problem, that we often start with the solution and try to fit it to the problem, rather than the other way around.  When I talk with my fellow architects at other companies, one of the hardest things to get them to do is to ignore the technology for a moment and describe what the issues are. It’s interesting to monitor the conversation and watch how many times we deviate from the problem into the solution. So, in your work today, try a little experiment: watch how many times you go after a problem by starting with the solution. Tomorrow, make a conscious effort to reverse that. You might be surprised at the results.

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• How to interview a natural scientist for a dev position?

  - by Silas

  I already did some interviews for my company, mostly computer scientists for dev positions but also some testers and project managers. Now I have to fill a vacancy in our research group within the R&D department (side note: “research” means that we try to solve problems in our professional domain/market niche using software in research projects together with universities, other companies, research centres and end user organisations. It’s not computer science research; we’re not going to solve the P=NP problem). Now we invited a guy holding an MSc in chemistry (with a lot of physics in his CV, too), who never had any computer science lesson. I already talked with him about half an hour at a local university’s career days and there’s no doubt the guy is smart. Also his marks are excellent and he graduated with distinction. For his BSc he needed to teach himself programming in Mathematica and told me believably that he liked programming a lot. Also he solved some physical chemistry problem that I probably don’t understand using his own software, implemented in Mathematica, for his MSc thesis. It includes a GUI and a notable size of 8,000 LoC. He seems to be very attracted by what we’re doing in our research group and to be honest it’s quite difficult for an SME like us to get good people. I also am very interested in hiring him since he could assist me in writing project proposals, reports, doing presentations and so on. He would probably fit to our team, too. The only question left is: How can I check if he will get the programming skills he needs to do software implementation in our projects since this will be a significant part of the job? Of course I will ask him what it is, that is fascinating him about programming. I’ll also ask how he proceeded to write his natural science software and how he structured it. I’ll ask about how he managed to obtain the skills and information about software development he needed. But is there something more I could ask? Something more concrete perhaps? Should I ask him to explain his Mathematica solution? To be clear: I’m not looking for knowledge in a particular language or technology stack. We’re a .NET shop in product development but I want to have a free choice for our research projects. So I’m interested in the meta-competence being able to learn whatever is actually needed. I hope this question is answerable and not open-ended since I really like to know if there is a default way to check for the ability to get further programming skills on the job. If something is not clear to you please give me some comments and let me improve my question.

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• career planning advice [closed]

  - by JDB

  Possible Duplicate: Are certifications worth it? I am at the point in my career where people start to veer off into either management-type roles or they focus on solidifying their technical skills to stay in the development game for the long-haul. Here's my story: I've got a degree in economics, an MA in Political Science and an MBA in Finance and Management. In addition, I've done coursework in advanced math and software development (although no degree in math or software). All-in-all, I've got 13 years of post-secondary education under my belt. I, however, currently work as a software developer using C# for desktop, Silverlight, Flex and javascript for web, and objective c for mobile. I've been in software development for the past 3.3 years, and it seems like it comes pretty easy to me. I work in a field called "geospatial information systems," which just involves customization and manipulation of geospatial data. Right now I am looking at one of several certifications. Given this background, which of these certifications has the highest ceiling? CFA PMP various development/technological certifications from Microsoft, etc. Other? My academic and work experience are all heavy on the analytical/development side, esp. so given the MBA and the B.S. in Econ. The political science degree was really a lot of stats. So it seems that I would be good pursuing more of the CFA/analytical role. This is a difficult path, however, because I have no work experience in the financial sector, and the developers in finance are all "quants," which again, I am OK with, but I haven't done much statistical modeling in the past 3.3 years. The PMP would require knowledge of best practices as it pertains explicitly to software development. I also don't enjoy a lot of business travel, a common theme for most PMP jobs I've seen. If certifications is the route, which would you recommend? Anything else? I've thought about going back to try to knock out a B.S. in C.S., but I wasn't sure how long that would take, or what would be involved. Thoughts or recommendations? Thanks in advance! I turn 32 this weekend, which is what has forced me to think about these issues.

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• Problems extracting information from RSS feed description field

  - by Graeme

  Hi, I've built an iPhone application using the parsing code from the TopSongs sample iPhone application. I've hit a problem though - the feed I'm trying to parse data from doesn't have a separate field for every piece of information (i.e. if it was for a feed about dogs, all the information such as dog type, dog age and dog price is contained in the feed. However, the TopSongs app relies on information having its own tags, so instead of using it uses and . So my question is this. How do I extract this information from the description field so that it can be parsed using the TopSongs parser? Can you somehow extract the dog age, price and type information using Yahoo Pipes and use that RSS feed for the feed? Or is there code that I can add to do it in application? Update: To view the code of my application parser (based on the TopSongs Core Data Apple provided application, see below. Here's a sample of one item from the the actual RSS feed I'm using (the description is longer, and has status,size, and a couple of other fields, but they're all formatted the same.: <item> <title>MOE, MARGRET STREET</title> <description> <b>District/Region:</b>&nbsp;REGION 09</br><b>Location:</b>&nbsp;MOE</br><b>Name:</b>&nbsp;MARGRET STREET</br></description> <pubDate>Thu,11 Mar 2010 05:43:03 GMT</pubDate> <guid>1266148</guid> </item> /* File: iTunesRSSImporter.m Abstract: Downloads, parses, and imports the iTunes top songs RSS feed into Core Data. Version: 1.1 Disclaimer: IMPORTANT: This Apple software is supplied to you by Apple Inc. ("Apple") in consideration of your agreement to the following terms, and your use, installation, modification or redistribution of this Apple software constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use, install, modify or redistribute this Apple software. In consideration of your agreement to abide by the following terms, and subject to these terms, Apple grants you a personal, non-exclusive license, under Apple's copyrights in this original Apple software (the "Apple Software"), to use, reproduce, modify and redistribute the Apple Software, with or without modifications, in source and/or binary forms; provided that if you redistribute the Apple Software in its entirety and without modifications, you must retain this notice and the following text and disclaimers in all such redistributions of the Apple Software. Neither the name, trademarks, service marks or logos of Apple Inc. may be used to endorse or promote products derived from the Apple Software without specific prior written permission from Apple. Except as expressly stated in this notice, no other rights or licenses, express or implied, are granted by Apple herein, including but not limited to any patent rights that may be infringed by your derivative works or by other works in which the Apple Software may be incorporated. The Apple Software is provided by Apple on an "AS IS" basis. APPLE MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, REGARDING THE APPLE SOFTWARE OR ITS USE AND OPERATION ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH YOUR PRODUCTS. IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE, REPRODUCTION, MODIFICATION AND/OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE, HOWEVER CAUSED AND WHETHER UNDER THEORY OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF APPLE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. Copyright (C) 2009 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. */ #import "iTunesRSSImporter.h" #import "Song.h" #import "Category.h" #import "CategoryCache.h" #import <libxml/tree.h> // Function prototypes for SAX callbacks. This sample implements a minimal subset of SAX callbacks. // Depending on your application's needs, you might want to implement more callbacks. static void startElementSAX(void *context, const xmlChar *localname, const xmlChar *prefix, const xmlChar *URI, int nb_namespaces, const xmlChar **namespaces, int nb_attributes, int nb_defaulted, const xmlChar **attributes); static void endElementSAX(void *context, const xmlChar *localname, const xmlChar *prefix, const xmlChar *URI); static void charactersFoundSAX(void *context, const xmlChar *characters, int length); static void errorEncounteredSAX(void *context, const char *errorMessage, ...); // Forward reference. The structure is defined in full at the end of the file. static xmlSAXHandler simpleSAXHandlerStruct; // Class extension for private properties and methods. @interface iTunesRSSImporter () @property BOOL storingCharacters; @property (nonatomic, retain) NSMutableData *characterBuffer; @property BOOL done; @property BOOL parsingASong; @property NSUInteger countForCurrentBatch; @property (nonatomic, retain) Song *currentSong; @property (nonatomic, retain) NSURLConnection *rssConnection; @property (nonatomic, retain) NSDateFormatter *dateFormatter; // The autorelease pool property is assign because autorelease pools cannot be retained. @property (nonatomic, assign) NSAutoreleasePool *importPool; @end static double lookuptime = 0; @implementation iTunesRSSImporter @synthesize iTunesURL, delegate, persistentStoreCoordinator; @synthesize rssConnection, done, parsingASong, storingCharacters, currentSong, countForCurrentBatch, characterBuffer, dateFormatter, importPool; - (void)dealloc { [iTunesURL release]; [characterBuffer release]; [currentSong release]; [rssConnection release]; [dateFormatter release]; [persistentStoreCoordinator release]; [insertionContext release]; [songEntityDescription release]; [theCache release]; [super dealloc]; } - (void)main { self.importPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; if (delegate && [delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(importerDidSave:)]) { [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:delegate selector:@selector(importerDidSave:) name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:self.insertionContext]; } done = NO; self.dateFormatter = [[[NSDateFormatter alloc] init] autorelease]; [dateFormatter setDateStyle:NSDateFormatterLongStyle]; [dateFormatter setTimeStyle:NSDateFormatterNoStyle]; // necessary because iTunes RSS feed is not localized, so if the device region has been set to other than US // the date formatter must be set to US locale in order to parse the dates [dateFormatter setLocale:[[[NSLocale alloc] initWithLocaleIdentifier:@"US"] autorelease]]; self.characterBuffer = [NSMutableData data]; NSURLRequest *theRequest = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:iTunesURL]; // create the connection with the request and start loading the data rssConnection = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:theRequest delegate:self]; // This creates a context for "push" parsing in which chunks of data that are not "well balanced" can be passed // to the context for streaming parsing. The handler structure defined above will be used for all the parsing. // The second argument, self, will be passed as user data to each of the SAX handlers. The last three arguments // are left blank to avoid creating a tree in memory. context = xmlCreatePushParserCtxt(&simpleSAXHandlerStruct, self, NULL, 0, NULL); if (rssConnection != nil) { do { [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode beforeDate:[NSDate distantFuture]]; } while (!done); } // Display the total time spent finding a specific object for a relationship NSLog(@"lookup time %f", lookuptime); // Release resources used only in this thread. xmlFreeParserCtxt(context); self.characterBuffer = nil; self.dateFormatter = nil; self.rssConnection = nil; self.currentSong = nil; [theCache release]; theCache = nil; NSError *saveError = nil; NSAssert1([insertionContext save:&saveError], @"Unhandled error saving managed object context in import thread: %@", [saveError localizedDescription]); if (delegate && [delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(importerDidSave:)]) { [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:delegate name:NSManagedObjectContextDidSaveNotification object:self.insertionContext]; } if (self.delegate != nil && [self.delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(importerDidFinishParsingData:)]) { [self.delegate importerDidFinishParsingData:self]; } [importPool release]; self.importPool = nil; } - (NSManagedObjectContext *)insertionContext { if (insertionContext == nil) { insertionContext = [[NSManagedObjectContext alloc] init]; [insertionContext setPersistentStoreCoordinator:self.persistentStoreCoordinator]; } return insertionContext; } - (void)forwardError:(NSError *)error { if (self.delegate != nil && [self.delegate respondsToSelector:@selector(importer:didFailWithError:)]) { [self.delegate importer:self didFailWithError:error]; } } - (NSEntityDescription *)songEntityDescription { if (songEntityDescription == nil) { songEntityDescription = [[NSEntityDescription entityForName:@"Song" inManagedObjectContext:self.insertionContext] retain]; } return songEntityDescription; } - (CategoryCache *)theCache { if (theCache == nil) { theCache = [[CategoryCache alloc] init]; theCache.managedObjectContext = self.insertionContext; } return theCache; } - (Song *)currentSong { if (currentSong == nil) { currentSong = [[Song alloc] initWithEntity:self.songEntityDescription insertIntoManagedObjectContext:self.insertionContext]; } return currentSong; } #pragma mark NSURLConnection Delegate methods // Forward errors to the delegate. - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didFailWithError:(NSError *)error { [self performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(forwardError:) withObject:error waitUntilDone:NO]; // Set the condition which ends the run loop. done = YES; } // Called when a chunk of data has been downloaded. - (void)connection:(NSURLConnection *)connection didReceiveData:(NSData *)data { // Process the downloaded chunk of data. xmlParseChunk(context, (const char *)[data bytes], [data length], 0); } - (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection { // Signal the context that parsing is complete by passing "1" as the last parameter. xmlParseChunk(context, NULL, 0, 1); context = NULL; // Set the condition which ends the run loop. done = YES; } #pragma mark Parsing support methods static const NSUInteger kImportBatchSize = 20; - (void)finishedCurrentSong { parsingASong = NO; self.currentSong = nil; countForCurrentBatch++; // Periodically purge the autorelease pool and save the context. The frequency of this action may need to be tuned according to the // size of the objects being parsed. The goal is to keep the autorelease pool from growing too large, but // taking this action too frequently would be wasteful and reduce performance. if (countForCurrentBatch == kImportBatchSize) { [importPool release]; self.importPool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init]; NSError *saveError = nil; NSAssert1([insertionContext save:&saveError], @"Unhandled error saving managed object context in import thread: %@", [saveError localizedDescription]); countForCurrentBatch = 0; } } /* Character data is appended to a buffer until the current element ends. */ - (void)appendCharacters:(const char *)charactersFound length:(NSInteger)length { [characterBuffer appendBytes:charactersFound length:length]; } - (NSString *)currentString { // Create a string with the character data using UTF-8 encoding. UTF-8 is the default XML data encoding. NSString *currentString = [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:characterBuffer encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] autorelease]; [characterBuffer setLength:0]; return currentString; } @end #pragma mark SAX Parsing Callbacks // The following constants are the XML element names and their string lengths for parsing comparison. // The lengths include the null terminator, to ensure exact matches. static const char *kName_Item = "item"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Item = 5; static const char *kName_Title = "title"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Title = 6; static const char *kName_Category = "category"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Category = 9; static const char *kName_Itms = "itms"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Itms = 5; static const char *kName_Artist = "description"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Artist = 7; static const char *kName_Album = "description"; static const NSUInteger kLength_Album = 6; static const char *kName_ReleaseDate = "releasedate"; static const NSUInteger kLength_ReleaseDate = 12; /* This callback is invoked when the importer finds the beginning of a node in the XML. For this application, out parsing needs are relatively modest - we need only match the node name. An "item" node is a record of data about a song. In that case we create a new Song object. The other nodes of interest are several of the child nodes of the Song currently being parsed. For those nodes we want to accumulate the character data in a buffer. Some of the child nodes use a namespace prefix. */ static void startElementSAX(void *parsingContext, const xmlChar *localname, const xmlChar *prefix, const xmlChar *URI, int nb_namespaces, const xmlChar **namespaces, int nb_attributes, int nb_defaulted, const xmlChar **attributes) { iTunesRSSImporter *importer = (iTunesRSSImporter *)parsingContext; // The second parameter to strncmp is the name of the element, which we known from the XML schema of the feed. // The third parameter to strncmp is the number of characters in the element name, plus 1 for the null terminator. if (prefix == NULL && !strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Item, kLength_Item)) { importer.parsingASong = YES; } else if (importer.parsingASong && ( (prefix == NULL && (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Title, kLength_Title) || !strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Category, kLength_Category))) || ((prefix != NULL && !strncmp((const char *)prefix, kName_Itms, kLength_Itms)) && (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Artist, kLength_Artist) || !strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Album, kLength_Album) || !strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_ReleaseDate, kLength_ReleaseDate))) )) { importer.storingCharacters = YES; } } /* This callback is invoked when the parse reaches the end of a node. At that point we finish processing that node, if it is of interest to us. For "item" nodes, that means we have completed parsing a Song object. We pass the song to a method in the superclass which will eventually deliver it to the delegate. For the other nodes we care about, this means we have all the character data. The next step is to create an NSString using the buffer contents and store that with the current Song object. */ static void endElementSAX(void *parsingContext, const xmlChar *localname, const xmlChar *prefix, const xmlChar *URI) { iTunesRSSImporter *importer = (iTunesRSSImporter *)parsingContext; if (importer.parsingASong == NO) return; if (prefix == NULL) { if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Item, kLength_Item)) { [importer finishedCurrentSong]; } else if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Title, kLength_Title)) { importer.currentSong.title = importer.currentString; } else if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Category, kLength_Category)) { double before = [NSDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate]; Category *category = [importer.theCache categoryWithName:importer.currentString]; double delta = [NSDate timeIntervalSinceReferenceDate] - before; lookuptime += delta; importer.currentSong.category = category; } } else if (!strncmp((const char *)prefix, kName_Itms, kLength_Itms)) { if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Artist, kLength_Artist)) { NSString *string = importer.currentSong.artist; NSArray *strings = [string componentsSeparatedByString: @", "]; //importer.currentSong.artist = importer.currentString; } else if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_Album, kLength_Album)) { importer.currentSong.album = importer.currentString; } else if (!strncmp((const char *)localname, kName_ReleaseDate, kLength_ReleaseDate)) { NSString *dateString = importer.currentString; importer.currentSong.releaseDate = [importer.dateFormatter dateFromString:dateString]; } } importer.storingCharacters = NO; } /* This callback is invoked when the parser encounters character data inside a node. The importer class determines how to use the character data. */ static void charactersFoundSAX(void *parsingContext, const xmlChar *characterArray, int numberOfCharacters) { iTunesRSSImporter *importer = (iTunesRSSImporter *)parsingContext; // A state variable, "storingCharacters", is set when nodes of interest begin and end. // This determines whether character data is handled or ignored. if (importer.storingCharacters == NO) return; [importer appendCharacters:(const char *)characterArray length:numberOfCharacters]; } /* A production application should include robust error handling as part of its parsing implementation. The specifics of how errors are handled depends on the application. */ static void errorEncounteredSAX(void *parsingContext, const char *errorMessage, ...) { // Handle errors as appropriate for your application. NSCAssert(NO, @"Unhandled error encountered during SAX parse."); } // The handler struct has positions for a large number of callback functions. If NULL is supplied at a given position, // that callback functionality won't be used. Refer to libxml documentation at http://www.xmlsoft.org for more information // about the SAX callbacks. static xmlSAXHandler simpleSAXHandlerStruct = { NULL, /* internalSubset */ NULL, /* isStandalone */ NULL, /* hasInternalSubset */ NULL, /* hasExternalSubset */ NULL, /* resolveEntity */ NULL, /* getEntity */ NULL, /* entityDecl */ NULL, /* notationDecl */ NULL, /* attributeDecl */ NULL, /* elementDecl */ NULL, /* unparsedEntityDecl */ NULL, /* setDocumentLocator */ NULL, /* startDocument */ NULL, /* endDocument */ NULL, /* startElement*/ NULL, /* endElement */ NULL, /* reference */ charactersFoundSAX, /* characters */ NULL, /* ignorableWhitespace */ NULL, /* processingInstruction */ NULL, /* comment */ NULL, /* warning */ errorEncounteredSAX, /* error */ NULL, /* fatalError //: unused error() get all the errors */ NULL, /* getParameterEntity */ NULL, /* cdataBlock */ NULL, /* externalSubset */ XML_SAX2_MAGIC, // NULL, startElementSAX, /* startElementNs */ endElementSAX, /* endElementNs */ NULL, /* serror */ }; Thanks.

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• PC runs very slowly for no apparent reason

  - by GalacticCowboy

  I have a Dell Latitude D820 that I've owned for about 2.5 years. It is a Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0GHz, with 2 GB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive and an NVidia Quadro 120M video card. The computer was purchased in late November of 2006 with XP Pro, and included a free upgrade to Vista Business. (Vista was available on MSDN but not yet via retail, so the Vista Business upgrades weren't shipped until March of '07.) Since we had an MSDN subscription at the time, I installed Vista Ultimate on it pretty much as soon as I got it. It ran happily until sometime in the spring of 2007 when Media Center (which I had never used except to watch DVDs) started throwing some kind of bizarre SQL (CE?) error. This error would pop up at random times just while using the computer. Furthermore, Media Center would no longer start. I never identified the cause of this error. I had the Vista Business upgrade by this time, so I nuked the machine, installed XP and all the drivers, and then the Vista Business upgrade. Again, it ran happily for a few months and then started behaving badly once again. Vista Business doesn't have Media Center, so this exhibited completely unrelated symptoms. For no apparent reason and at fairly random times, the machine would suddenly appear to freeze up or run very slowly. For example, launching a new application window (any app) might take 30-45 seconds to paint fully. However, Task Manager showed very low CPU load, memory, etc. I tried all the normal stuff (chkdsk, defrag, etc.) and ran several diagnostic programs to try to identify any problems, but none found anything. It eventually reached the point that the computer was all but unusable, so I nuked it again and installed XP. This time I decided to stick with XP instead of going to Vista. However, within the past couple of months it has started to exhibit the same symptoms in XP that I used to see in Vista. The computer is still under Dell warranty until December, but so far they aren't any help unless I can identify a specific problem. A friend (partner in a now-dead business) has an identical machine that was purchased at the same time. His machine exhibits none of these symptoms, which leads me to believe it is a hardware issue, but I can't figure out how to identify it. Any ideas? Utilities? Seen something similar? At this point I can't even identify any pattern to the behavior, but would be willing to run a "stress test"-style app for as long as a couple days if I had any hope that it would find something. EDIT July 17 I'm testing jerryjvl's answer regarding the video card, though I'm not sure it fully explains the symptoms yet. This morning I ran a video stress test. The test itself ran fine, but immediately afterward the PC started acting up again. I left ProcExp open and various system processes were consuming 50-60% of the CPU but with no apparent reason. For example, "services.exe" was eating about 40%, but the sum of its child processes wasn't higher than about 5%. I left it alone for several minutes to settle down, and then it was fine again. I used the "video card stability test" from firestone-group.com. Its output isn't very detailed, but it at least exercises the hardware pretty hard. EDIT July 22 Thanks for your excellent suggestions. Here is an update on what I have tried so far. Ran memtest86, SeaTools (Seagate), Hitachi drive fitness test, video card stability test (mentioned above). The video card test was the only one that seemed to produce any results, though it didn't occur during the actual test. I defragged the drive (again...) with JkDefrag I dropped the video card

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• Why didn't 12.04 install?

  - by Josephisscrewed

  Ok, so I've installed Ubuntu many times on my computer.. Normally on the same partition, and WIndows would always delete Ubuntu(I don't know how.. it just happens) if i go away from keyboard during boot and it chooses Windows automatically because I took to long. So i tried to reinstall again, but after the fifth time it wouldn't let me, and told me to check "wubi-12.04-rev266.log". It took a while to find, but when i found it, I had no idea what any of it meant, as I'm no programmer.I first tried this the day Precise Pangolin came out. SO skip ahead 2.5 months, when I finally found this file, and i then got the idea of making a new partition to install Ubuntu on, but I used wubi, like I always did. It didn't look like it would f anything up, so I did it. it went through all the downloads, extracting, etc. Which took about 40 minutes total, then ended with an error message saying to check "wubi-12.04-rev266.log". i did. Here's what it says: 07-10 23:33 INFO root: === wubi 12.04 rev266 === 07-10 23:33 DEBUG root: Logfile is c:\users\joseph\appdata\local\temp\wubi-12.04-rev266.log 07-10 23:33 DEBUG root: sys.argv = ['main.pyo', '--exefile="C:\\Users\\Joseph\\Downloads\\wubi.exe"'] 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: data_dir=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\data 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: 7z=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\bin\7z.exe 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: startup_folder=C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Fetching basic info... 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: original_exe=C:\Users\Joseph\Downloads\wubi.exe 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: platform=win32 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: osname=nt 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: language=en_US 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: encoding=cp1252 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: arch=amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Parsing isolist=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\data\isolist.ini 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Xubuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Edubuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Xubuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Kubuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Mythbuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Edubuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Ubuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Lubuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Ubuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Mythbuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Kubuntu-i386 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Adding distro Lubuntu-amd64 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: Fetching host info... 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: registry_key=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows version=vista 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_version2=Windows 7 Home Premium 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_sp=None 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_build=7600 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: gmt=-8 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: country=US 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: timezone=America/Los_Angeles 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_username=Joseph 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: user_full_name=Joseph 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: user_directory=C:\Users\Joseph 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_language_code=1033 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: windows_language=English 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: processor_name=Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 370 @ 2.40GHz 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: bootloader=vista 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: system_drive=Drive(C: hd 78696.8203125 mb free ntfs) 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: drive=Drive(C: hd 78696.8203125 mb free ntfs) 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: drive=Drive(D: hd 4303.48046875 mb free ntfs) 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: drive=Drive(E: cd 0.0 mb free udf) 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: drive=Drive(U: hd 79907.8320313 mb free ntfs) 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: uninstaller_path=None 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: previous_target_dir=None 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: previous_distro_name=None 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: keyboard_id=67699721 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: keyboard_layout=us 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: keyboard_variant= 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: python locale=('en_US', 'cp1252') 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: locale=en_US.UTF-8 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsBackend: total_memory_mb=3893.859375 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Searching ISOs on USB devices 07-10 23:33 DEBUG CommonBackend: Searching for local CDs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Kubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Xubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Mythbuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Edubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Lubuntu CD 07-10 23:33 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:33 INFO root: Running the installer... 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsFrontend: __init__... 07-10 23:33 DEBUG WindowsFrontend: on_init... 07-10 23:33 INFO WinuiPage: appname=wubi, localedir=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\translations, languages=['en_US', 'en'] 07-10 23:33 INFO WinuiPage: appname=wubi, localedir=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\translations, languages=['en_US', 'en'] 07-10 23:35 DEBUG WinuiInstallationPage: target_drive=U:, installation_size=30000MB, distro_name=Ubuntu, language=en_US, locale=en_US.UTF-8, username=joseph 07-10 23:35 INFO root: Received settings 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Searching for local CD 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: checking whether C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: does not contain C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: checking whether D:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: does not contain D:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: checking whether E:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: does not contain E:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: checking whether U:\ is a valid Ubuntu CD 07-10 23:35 DEBUG Distro: does not contain U:\casper\filesystem.squashfs 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Searching for local ISO 07-10 23:35 INFO WinuiPage: appname=wubi, localedir=C:\Users\Joseph\AppData\Local\Temp\pylA05E.tmp\translations, languages=['en_US', 'en'] 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: # Running tasklist... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running select_target_dir... 07-10 23:35 INFO WindowsBackend: Installing into U:\ubuntu 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished select_target_dir 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running create_dir_structure... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\disks 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\install 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\install\boot 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\disks\boot 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\disks\boot\grub 07-10 23:35 DEBUG CommonBackend: Creating dir U:\ubuntu\install\boot\grub 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished create_dir_structure 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running create_uninstaller... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG WindowsBackend: Copying uninstaller C:\Users\Joseph\Downloads\wubi.exe -> U:\ubuntu\uninstall-wubi.exe 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi UninstallString U:\ubuntu\uninstall-wubi.exe 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi InstallationDir U:\ubuntu 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi DisplayName Ubuntu 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi DisplayIcon U:\ubuntu\Ubuntu.ico 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi DisplayVersion 12.04-rev266 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi Publisher Ubuntu 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi URLInfoAbout http://www.ubuntu.com 07-10 23:35 DEBUG registry: Setting registry key -2147483646 Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Wubi HelpLink http://www.ubuntu.com/support 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished create_uninstaller 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running create_preseed_diskimage... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished create_preseed_diskimage 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running get_diskimage... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: New task download 07-10 23:35 DEBUG TaskList: ### Running download... 07-10 23:35 DEBUG downloader: downloading http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz > U:\ubuntu\disks\ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz 07-10 23:35 DEBUG downloader: Download start filename=U:\ubuntu\disks\ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz, url=http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz, basename=ubuntu-12.04-wubi-amd64.tar.xz, length=512730488, text=None 07-11 00:00 DEBUG TaskList: ### Finished download 07-11 00:00 DEBUG downloader: download finished (read 512730488 bytes) 07-11 00:00 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished get_diskimage 07-11 00:00 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running extract_diskimage... 07-11 00:03 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished extract_diskimage 07-11 00:03 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running choose_disk_sizes... 07-11 00:03 DEBUG WindowsBackend: total size=30000 root=29744 swap=256 home=0 usr=0 07-11 00:03 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished choose_disk_sizes 07-11 00:03 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running expand_diskimage... 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished expand_diskimage 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running create_swap_diskimage... 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished create_swap_diskimage 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running modify_bootloader... 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: New task modify_bcd 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ### Running modify_bcd... 07-11 00:05 DEBUG WindowsBackend: modify_bcd Drive(C: hd 78696.8203125 mb free ntfs) 07-11 00:05 ERROR TaskList: Error executing command >>command=C:\Windows\sysnative\bcdedit.exe /set {970e3d1b-e019-11df-a016-81045c79c1f9} device partition=U: >>retval=1 >>stderr=An error has occurred setting the element data. The request is not supported. >>stdout= Traceback (most recent call last): File "\lib\wubi\backends\common\tasklist.py", line 197, in __call__ File "\lib\wubi\backends\win32\backend.py", line 697, in modify_bcd File "\lib\wubi\backends\common\utils.py", line 66, in run_command Exception: Error executing command >>command=C:\Windows\sysnative\bcdedit.exe /set {970e3d1b-e019-11df-a016-81045c79c1f9} device partition=U: >>retval=1 >>stderr=An error has occurred setting the element data. The request is not supported. >>stdout= 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: # Cancelling tasklist 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: New task modify_bcd 07-11 00:05 ERROR root: Error executing command >>command=C:\Windows\sysnative\bcdedit.exe /set {970e3d1b-e019-11df-a016-81045c79c1f9} device partition=U: >>retval=1 >>stderr=An error has occurred setting the element data. The request is not supported. >>stdout= Traceback (most recent call last): File "\lib\wubi\application.py", line 58, in run File "\lib\wubi\application.py", line 132, in select_task File "\lib\wubi\application.py", line 158, in run_installer File "\lib\wubi\backends\common\tasklist.py", line 197, in __call__ File "\lib\wubi\backends\win32\backend.py", line 697, in modify_bcd File "\lib\wubi\backends\common\utils.py", line 66, in run_command Exception: Error executing command >>command=C:\Windows\sysnative\bcdedit.exe /set {970e3d1b-e019-11df-a016-81045c79c1f9} device partition=U: >>retval=1 >>stderr=An error has occurred setting the element data. The request is not supported. >>stdout= 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: New task modify_bcd 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: ## Finished modify_bootloader 07-11 00:05 DEBUG TaskList: # Finished tasklist What have I done wrong? What can I do? If I turn off my laptop, will I actually be able to turn it back on? If you want me to post the log from the first day it happened, i'd be glad to in the comments, in the main body it made it over 30000 characters.

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• AIX Checklist for stable obiee deployment

  - by user554629

  Common AIX configuration issues     ( last updated 27 Aug 2012 ) OBIEE is a complicated system with many moving parts and connection points.The purpose of this article is to provide a checklist to discuss OBIEE deployment with your systems administrators. The information in this article is time sensitive, and updated as I discover new  issues or details. What makes OBIEE different? When Tech Support suggests AIX component upgrades to a stable, locked-down production AIX environment, it is common to get "push back".  "Why is this necessary?  We aren't we seeing issues with other software?"It's a fair question that I have often struggled to answer; here are the talking points: OBIEE is memory intensive.  It is the entire purpose of the software to trade memory for repetitive, more expensive database requests across a network. OBIEE is implemented in C++ and is very dependent on the C++ runtime to behave correctly. OBIEE is aggressively thread efficient;  if atomic operations on a particular architecture do not work correctly, the software crashes. OBIEE dynamically loads third-party database client libraries directly into the nqsserver process.  If the library is not thread-safe, or corrupts process memory the OBIEE crash happens in an unrelated part of the code.  These are extremely difficult bugs to find. OBIEE software uses 99% common source across multiple platforms:  Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris and HPUX.  If a crash happens on only one platform, we begin to suspect other factors.  load intensity, system differences, configuration choices, hardware failures.  It is rare to have a single product require so many diverse technical skills.   My role in support is to understand system configurations, performance issues, and crashes.   An analyst trained in Business Analytics can't be expected to know AIX internals in the depth required to make configuration choices.  Here are some guidelines. AIX C++ Runtime must be at  version 11.1.0.4$ lslpp -L | grep xlC.aixobiee software will crash if xlC.aix.rte is downlevel;  this is not a "try it" suggestion.Nov 2011 11.1.0.4 version  is appropriate for all AIX versions ( 5, 6, 7 )Download from here:https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24031426 No reboot is necessary to install, it can even be installed while applications are using the current version.Restart the apps, and they will pick up the latest version. AIX 5.3 Technology Level 12 is required when running on Power5,6,7 processorsAIX 6.1 was introduced with the newer Power chips, and we have seen no issues with 6.1 or 7.1 versions.Customers with an unstable deployment, dozens of unexplained crashes, became stable after the upgrade.If your AIX system is 5.3, the minimum TL level should be at or higher than this:$ oslevel -s  5300-12-03-1107IBM typically supports only the two latest versions of AIX ( 6.1 and 7.1, for example).  AIX 5.3 is still supported and popular running in an LPAR. obiee userid limits$ ulimit -Ha  ( hard limits )$ ulimit -a   ( default limits )core file size (blocks)     unlimiteddata seg size (kbytes)      unlimitedfile size (blocks)          unlimitedmax memory size (kbytes)    unlimitedopen files                  10240 cpu time (seconds)          unlimitedvirtual memory (kbytes)     unlimitedIt is best to establish the values in /etc/security/limitsroot user is needed to observe and modify this file.If you modify a limit, you will need to relog in to change it again.  For example,$ ulimit -c 0$ ulimit -c 2097151cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted$ ulimit -c unlimited$ ulimit -c0There are only two meaningful values for ulimit -c ; zero or unlimited.Anything else is likely to produce a truncated core file that cannot be analyzed. Deploy 32-bit or 64-bit ?Early versions of OBIEE offered 32-bit or 64-bit choice to AIX customers.The 32-bit choice was needed if a database vendor did not supply a 64-bit client library.That's no longer an issue and beginning with OBIEE 11, 32-bit code is no longer shipped.A common error that leads to "out of memory" conditions to to accept the 32-bit memory configuration choices on 64-bit deployments.  The significant configuration choices are: Maximum process data (heap) size is in an AIX environment variableLDR_CNTRL=IGNOREUNLOAD@LOADPUBLIC@PREREAD_SHLIB@MAXDATA=0x... Two thread stack sizes are made in obiee NQSConfig.INI[ SERVER ]SERVER_THREAD_STACK_SIZE = 0;DB_GATEWAY_THREAD_STACK_SIZE = 0; Sort memory in NQSConfig.INI[ GENERAL ]SORT_MEMORY_SIZE = 4 MB ;SORT_BUFFER_INCREMENT_SIZE = 256 KB ; Choosing a value for MAXDATA:0x080000000  2GB Default maximum 32-bit heap size ( 8 with 7 zeros )0x100000000  4GB 64-bit breaking even with 32-bit ( 1 with 8 zeros )0x200000000  8GB 64-bit double 32-bit max0x400000000 16GB 64-bit safetyUsing 2GB heap size for a 64-bit process will almost certainly lead to an out-of-memory situation.Registers are twice as big ... consume twice as much memory in the heap.Upgrading to a 4GB heap for a 64-bit process is just "breaking even" with 32-bit.A 32-bit process is constrained by the 32-bit virtual addressing limits.  Heap memory is used for dynamic requirements of obiee software, thread stacks for each of the configured threads, and sometimes for shared libraries. 64-bit processes are not constrained in this way;  extra heap space can be configured for safety against a query that might create a sudden requirement for excessive storage.  If the storage is not available, this query might crash the whole server and disrupt existing users.There is no performance penalty on AIX for configuring more memory than required;  extra memory can be configured for safety.  If there are no other considerations, start with 8GB.Choosing a value for Thread Stack size:zero is the value documented to select an appropriate default for thread stack size.  My preference is to change this to an absolute value, even if you intend to use the documented default;  it provides better documentation and removes the "surprise" factor.There are two thread types that can be configured. GATEWAY is used by a thread pool to call a database client library to establish a DB connection.The default size is 256KB;  many customers raise this to 512KB ( no performance penalty for over-configuring ). This value must be set to 1 MB if Teradata connections are used. SERVER threads are used to run queries.  OBIEE uses recursive algorithms during the analysis of query structures which can consume significant thread stack storage.  It's difficult to provide guidance on a value that depends on data and complexity.  The general notion is to provide more space than you think you need,  "double down" and increase the value if you run out, otherwise inspect the query to understand why it is too complex for the thread stack.  There are protections built into the software to abort a single user query that is too complex, but the algorithms don't cover all situations.256 KB  The default 32-bit stack size.  Many customers increased this to 512KB on 32-bit.  A 64-bit server is very likely to crash with this value;  the stack contains mostly register values, which are twice as big.512 KB  The documented 64-bit default.  Some early releases of obiee didn't set this correctly, resulting in 256KB stacks.1 MB  The recommended 64-bit setting.  If your system only ever uses 512KB of stack space, there is no performance penalty for using 1MB stack size.2 MB  Many large customers use this value for safety.  No performance penalty.nqscheduler does not use the NQSConfig.INI file to set thread stack size.If this process crashes because the thread stack is too small, use this to set 2MB:export OBI_BACKGROUND_STACK_SIZE=2048 Shared libraries are not (shared) When application libraries are loaded at run-time, AIX makes a decision on whether to load the libraries in a "public" memory segment.  If the filesystem library permissions do not have the "Read-Other" permission bit, AIX loads the library into private process memory with two significant side-effects:* The libraries reduce the heap storage available.      Might be significant in 32-bit processes;  irrelevant in 64-bit processes.* Library code is loaded into multiple real pages for execution;  one copy for each process.Multiple execution images is a significant issue for both 32- and 64-bit processes.The "real memory pages" saved by using public memory segments is a minor concern.  Today's machines typically have plenty of real memory.The real problem with private copies of libraries is that they consume processor cache blocks, which are limited.   The same library instructions executing in different real pages will cause memory delays as the i-cache ( instruction cache 128KB blocks) are refreshed from real memory.   Performance loss because instructions are delayed is something that is difficult to measure without access to low-level cache fault data.   The machine just appears to be running slowly for no observable reason.This is an easy problem to detect, and an easy problem to correct.Detection:  "genld -l" AIX command produces a list of the libraries used by each process and the AIX memory address where they are loaded.32-bit public segment is 13 ( "dxxxxxxx" ).   private segments are 2-a.64-bit public segment is 9 ( "9xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx") ; private segment is 8.genld -l | grep -v ' d| 9' | sort +2provides a list of privately loaded libraries. Repair: chmod o+r <libname>AIX shared libraries will have a suffix of ".so" or ".a".Another technique is to change all libraries in a selected directory to repair those that might not be currently loaded.   The usual directories that need repair are obiee code, httpd code and plugins, database client libraries and java.chmod o+r /shr/dir/*.a /shr/dir/*.so Configure your system for diagnosticsProduction systems shouldn't crash, and yet bad things happen to good software.If obiee software crashes and produces a core, you should configure your system for reliable transfer of the failing conditions to Oracle Tech Support.  Here's what we need to be able to diagnose a core file from your system.* fullcore enabled. chdev -lsys0 -a fullcore=true* core naming enabled. chcore -n on -d* ulimit must not truncate core. see item 3.* pstack.sh is used to capture core documentation.* obidoc is used to capture current AIX configuration.* snapcore  AIX utility captures core and libraries. Use the proper syntax. $ snapcore -r corename executable-fullpath   /tmp/snapcore will contain the .pax.Z output file.  It is compressed.* If cores are directed to a common directory, ensure obiee userid can write to the directory.  ( chcore -p /cores -d ; chmod 777 /cores )The filesystem must have sufficient space to hold a crashing obiee application.Use:  df -k  Check the "Free" column ( not "% Used" )  8388608 is 8GB. Disable Oracle Client Library signal handlingThe Oracle DB Client Library is frequently distributed with the sqlplus development kit.By default, the library enables a signal handler, which will document a call stack if the application crashes.   The signal handler is not needed, and definitely disruptive to obiee diagnostics.   It needs to be disabled.   sqlnet.ora is typically located at:   $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/sqlnet.oraAdd this line at the top of the file:   DIAG_SIGHANDLER_ENABLED=FALSE Disable async query in the RPD connection pool.This might be an obiee 10.1.3.4 issue only ( still checking  )."async query" must be disabled in the connection pools.It was designed to enable query cancellation to a database, and turned out to have too many edge conditions in normal communication that produced random corruption of data and crashes.  Please ensure it is turned off in the RPD. Check AIX error report (errpt).Errors external to obiee applications can trigger crashes.  $ /bin/errpt -aHardware errors ( firmware, adapters, disks ) should be reported to IBM support.All application core files are recorded by AIX;  the most recent ones are listed first. Reserved for something important to say.

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• ASP.NET Web API Exception Handling

  - by Fredrik N

  When I talk about exceptions in my product team I often talk about two kind of exceptions, business and critical exceptions. Business exceptions are exceptions thrown based on “business rules”, for example if you aren’t allowed to do a purchase. Business exceptions in most case aren’t important to log into a log file, they can directly be shown to the user. An example of a business exception could be "DeniedToPurchaseException”, or some validation exceptions such as “FirstNameIsMissingException” etc. Critical Exceptions are all other kind of exceptions such as the SQL server is down etc. Those kind of exception message need to be logged and should not reach the user, because they can contain information that can be harmful if it reach out to wrong kind of users. I often distinguish business exceptions from critical exceptions by creating a base class called BusinessException, then in my error handling code I catch on the type BusinessException and all other exceptions will be handled as critical exceptions. This blog post will be about different ways to handle exceptions and how Business and Critical Exceptions could be handled. Web API and Exceptions the basics When an exception is thrown in a ApiController a response message will be returned with a status code set to 500 and a response formatted by the formatters based on the “Accept” or “Content-Type” HTTP header, for example JSON or XML. Here is an example:   public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new ApplicationException("Error!!!!!"); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The response message will be: HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error Content-Length: 860 Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8 { "ExceptionType":"System.ApplicationException","Message":"Error!!!!!","StackTrace":" at ..."} .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   The stack trace will be returned to the client, this is because of making it easier to debug. Be careful so you don’t leak out some sensitive information to the client. So as long as you are developing your API, this is not harmful. In a production environment it can be better to log exceptions and return a user friendly exception instead of the original exception. There is a specific exception shipped with ASP.NET Web API that will not use the formatters based on the “Accept” or “Content-Type” HTTP header, it is the exception is the HttpResponseException class. Here is an example where the HttpReponseExcetpion is used: // GET api/values [ExceptionHandling] public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError)); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The response will not contain any content, only header information and the status code based on the HttpStatusCode passed as an argument to the HttpResponseMessage. Because the HttpResponsException takes a HttpResponseMessage as an argument, we can give the response a content: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("My Error Message"), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   The code above will have the following response:   HTTP/1.1 500 Critical Exception Content-Length: 5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 My Error Message .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } The Content property of the HttpResponseMessage doesn’t need to be just plain text, it can also be other formats, for example JSON, XML etc. By using the HttpResponseException we can for example catch an exception and throw a user friendly exception instead: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { try { DoSomething(); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } catch (Exception e) { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("An error occurred, please try again or contact the administrator."), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Adding a try catch to every ApiController methods will only end in duplication of code, by using a custom ExceptionFilterAttribute or our own custom ApiController base class we can reduce code duplicationof code and also have a more general exception handler for our ApiControllers . By creating a custom ApiController’s and override the ExecuteAsync method, we can add a try catch around the base.ExecuteAsync method, but I prefer to skip the creation of a own custom ApiController, better to use a solution that require few files to be modified. The ExceptionFilterAttribute has a OnException method that we can override and add our exception handling. Here is an example: using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Net; using System.Net.Http; using System.Web.Http; using System.Web.Http.Filters; public class ExceptionHandlingAttribute : ExceptionFilterAttribute { public override void OnException(HttpActionExecutedContext context) { if (context.Exception is BusinessException) { throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(context.Exception.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Exception" }); } //Log Critical errors Debug.WriteLine(context.Exception); throw new HttpResponseException(new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent("An error occurred, please try again or contact the administrator."), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Exception" }); } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   Note: Something to have in mind is that the ExceptionFilterAttribute will be ignored if the ApiController action method throws a HttpResponseException. The code above will always make sure a HttpResponseExceptions will be returned, it will also make sure the critical exceptions will show a more user friendly message. The OnException method can also be used to log exceptions. By using a ExceptionFilterAttribute the Get() method in the previous example can now look like this: public IEnumerable<string> Get() { DoSomething(); return new string[] { "value1", "value2" }; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } To use the an ExceptionFilterAttribute, we can for example add the ExceptionFilterAttribute to our ApiControllers methods or to the ApiController class definition, or register it globally for all ApiControllers. You can read more about is here. Note: If something goes wrong in the ExceptionFilterAttribute and an exception is thrown that is not of type HttpResponseException, a formatted exception will be thrown with stack trace etc to the client. How about using a custom IHttpActionInvoker? We can create our own IHTTPActionInvoker and add Exception handling to the invoker. The IHttpActionInvoker will be used to invoke the ApiController’s ExecuteAsync method. Here is an example where the default IHttpActionInvoker, ApiControllerActionInvoker, is used to add exception handling: public class MyApiControllerActionInvoker : ApiControllerActionInvoker { public override Task<HttpResponseMessage> InvokeActionAsync(HttpActionContext actionContext, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var result = base.InvokeActionAsync(actionContext, cancellationToken); if (result.Exception != null && result.Exception.GetBaseException() != null) { var baseException = result.Exception.GetBaseException(); if (baseException is BusinessException) { return Task.Run<HttpResponseMessage>(() => new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(baseException.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Error" }); } else { //Log critical error Debug.WriteLine(baseException); return Task.Run<HttpResponseMessage>(() => new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError) { Content = new StringContent(baseException.Message), ReasonPhrase = "Critical Error" }); } } return result; } } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } You can register the IHttpActionInvoker with your own IoC to resolve the MyApiContollerActionInvoker, or add it in the Global.asax: GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.Remove(typeof(IHttpActionInvoker), GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.GetActionInvoker()); GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Services.Add(typeof(IHttpActionInvoker), new MyApiControllerActionInvoker()); .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   How about using a Message Handler for Exception Handling? By creating a custom Message Handler, we can handle error after the ApiController and the ExceptionFilterAttribute is invoked and in that way create a global exception handler, BUT, the only thing we can take a look at is the HttpResponseMessage, we can’t add a try catch around the Message Handler’s SendAsync method. The last Message Handler that will be used in the Wep API pipe-line is the HttpControllerDispatcher and this Message Handler is added to the HttpServer in an early stage. The HttpControllerDispatcher will use the IHttpActionInvoker to invoke the ApiController method. The HttpControllerDipatcher has a try catch that will turn ALL exceptions into a HttpResponseMessage, so that is the reason why a try catch around the SendAsync in a custom Message Handler want help us. If we create our own Host for the Wep API we could create our own custom HttpControllerDispatcher and add or exception handler to that class, but that would be little tricky but is possible. We can in a Message Handler take a look at the HttpResponseMessage’s IsSuccessStatusCode property to see if the request has failed and if we throw the HttpResponseException in our ApiControllers, we could use the HttpResponseException and give it a Reason Phrase and use that to identify business exceptions or critical exceptions. I wouldn’t add an exception handler into a Message Handler, instead I should use the ExceptionFilterAttribute and register it globally for all ApiControllers. BUT, now to another interesting issue. What will happen if we have a Message Handler that throws an exception?  Those exceptions will not be catch and handled by the ExceptionFilterAttribute. I found a  bug in my previews blog post about “Log message Request and Response in ASP.NET WebAPI” in the MessageHandler I use to log incoming and outgoing messages. Here is the code from my blog before I fixed the bug:   public abstract class MessageHandler : DelegatingHandler { protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var corrId = string.Format("{0}{1}", DateTime.Now.Ticks, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId); var requestInfo = string.Format("{0} {1}", request.Method, request.RequestUri); var requestMessage = await request.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await IncommingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, requestMessage); var response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken); var responseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await OutgoingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, responseMessage); return response; } protected abstract Task IncommingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); protected abstract Task OutgoingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }   If a ApiController throws a HttpResponseException, the Content property of the HttpResponseMessage from the SendAsync will be NULL. So a null reference exception is thrown within the MessageHandler. The yellow screen of death will be returned to the client, and the content is HTML and the Http status code is 500. The bug in the MessageHandler was solved by adding a check against the HttpResponseMessage’s IsSuccessStatusCode property: public abstract class MessageHandler : DelegatingHandler { protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken) { var corrId = string.Format("{0}{1}", DateTime.Now.Ticks, Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId); var requestInfo = string.Format("{0} {1}", request.Method, request.RequestUri); var requestMessage = await request.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); await IncommingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, requestMessage); var response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken); byte[] responseMessage; if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode) responseMessage = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync(); else responseMessage = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(response.ReasonPhrase); await OutgoingMessageAsync(corrId, requestInfo, responseMessage); return response; } protected abstract Task IncommingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); protected abstract Task OutgoingMessageAsync(string correlationId, string requestInfo, byte[] message); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } If we don’t handle the exceptions that can occur in a custom Message Handler, we can have a hard time to find the problem causing the exception. The savior in this case is the Global.asax’s Application_Error: protected void Application_Error() { var exception = Server.GetLastError(); Debug.WriteLine(exception); } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } I would recommend you to add the Application_Error to the Global.asax and log all exceptions to make sure all kind of exception is handled. Summary There are different ways we could add Exception Handling to the Wep API, we can use a custom ApiController, ExceptionFilterAttribute, IHttpActionInvoker or Message Handler. The ExceptionFilterAttribute would be a good place to add a global exception handling, require very few modification, just register it globally for all ApiControllers, even the IHttpActionInvoker can be used to minimize the modifications of files. Adding the Application_Error to the global.asax is a good way to catch all unhandled exception that can occur, for example exception thrown in a Message Handler.   If you want to know when I have posted a blog post, you can follow me on twitter @fredrikn

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• New EBS 12.0 AutoConfig Rollup 7 Now Available

  - by Steven Chan

  AutoConfig manages the configuration of E-Business Suite environments.  The seventh and latest rollup patch for the AutoConfig engine and tools for Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.0 is now available for download.  The official (and admittedly-cryptic) name for this EBS 12.0 patch is: R12.TXK.A.DELTA.7 (Patch 9386653)

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• Oracle VM and JRockit Virtual Edition: Oracle Introduces Java Virtualization Solution for Oracle(R)

  - by adam.hawley

  Since the beginning, we've been talking to customers about how our approach to virtualization is different and more powerful than any other company because Oracle has the "full-stack" of software (and even hardware these days!) to work with to create more comprehensive, more powerful solutions. Having the virtualization layer, two enterprise class operating systems in Solaris and Enterprise Linux, and the leading enterprise software in nearly every layer of the data center stack, allows us to not just do virtualization for virtualization's sake but rather to provide complete virtualization solutions focused on making enterprise software easier to deploy, easier to manage, and easier to support through integration up and down the stack. Today, we announced the availability of a significant demonstration of that capability by announcing a WebLogic Suite option that permits the Oracle WebLogic Server 11g to run on a Java JVM (JRockit Virtual Edition) that itself runs directly on the Oracle VM Server for x86 / x64 without needing any operating system. Why would you want that? Better performance and better consolidation density, not to mention great security due to a lower "attack surface area". Oracle also announced the Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder product. Oracle Virtual Assembly Builder provides a framework for automatically capturing the configuration of existing software components and packaging them as self-contained building blocks known as appliances. So you know that complex application you've tweaked on your physical servers (or on other virtual environments for that matter)?  Virtual Assembly Builder will allow the automated collection of all the configuration data for the various application components that make up that multi-tier application and then use the information to create and package each component as a virtual machine so that the application can be deployed in your Oracle VM virtualization environment quickly and easily and just as it was configured it in your original environment. A slick, drag-and-drop GUI also serves as a powerful, intuitive interface for viewing and editing your assembly as needed.No one else can do complete virtualization solutions the way Oracle can and I think these offerings show what's possible when you have the right resources for elegantly solving the larger problems in the data center rather than just having to make-do with tools that are only operating at one layer of the stack. For more information, read the press release including the links to more information on various Oracle websites.

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• "Mac" vs "OS X" vs "Mac OS X"

  - by Brian Campbell

  I am writing server software that gives administrators options that apply only to Mac OS X clients. When naming those options, I need to decide how I am going to refer to such clients. I can see three choices: Mac OS X Mac OS X In context, I feel that "Mac OS X" might be a little clumsy: "Default protocol for Mac OS X clients"; "Change Mac OS X protocol". In discussing with my boss, he suggests "OS X", as that's the name for the OS itself, while I think that "Mac" is more recognizable. While "OS X" is technically correct and is what Apple recommends, I feel that it has a lot less name recognition than "Mac"; in particular, administrators who work in a Windows-only environment may not even recognize "OS X" and wonder what the options is about, while I think everyone knows what "Mac" refers to. In looking at what several popular pieces of software choose, I see that Microsoft has "Office for Mac". Adobe calls it "Macintosh" (which sounds very outdated, I believe that Apple stopped using that "Macintosh" years ago). Firefox uses "Mac OS X". Google has "Google Software Downloads for Mac". I don't see many popular pieces of software that refer to it solely as OS X; it seems that either "Mac OS X" or "Mac" is used most often. Apple does refer to it as OS X, but I think the fact that it's coming from Apple provides the disambiguation that you need, so it's not confusing coming from them, while it may be in another context. Is there any good solution for this? Should I just use the somewhat clumsy "Mac OS X" everywhere (or at least, the first time I refer to it in any given screen)? Obviously, my boss has final say, but I'd like to be able to provide a coherent argument.

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• Partner Webcast – More out of Database Appliance with DB Options - 13 September 2012

  - by Thanos

  The Oracle Database Appliance is a new way to take advantage of the world's most popular database—Oracle Database 11g —in a single, easy-to-deploy and manage system. It's a complete package of software, server, storage, and networking that's engineered for simplicity; saving time and money by simplifying deployment, maintenance, and support of database workloads. But that is not all, with the support for all Oracle Database Options, Oracle Database Appliance can be the ideal solution for many use cases. Feature Benefit Simplifies deployment, maintenance, and support of high-availability database workloads Saves significant time and effort throughout the database administration lifecycle An engineered system of software, server, storage, and networking High availability for a wide range of custom and packaged OLTP and data warehousing application databases Simple one-button Installation, full-stack integrated patching and diagnostics Reduces planned and unplanned downtime by automatically monitoring and logging service requests with Oracle Support Built using the world’s #1 database Protects databases from server and storage failures with Oracle Real Application Clusters and Automatic Storage Management Unique Pay-As-You-Grow software licensing Reduces cost with flexibility to adjust your software spend as your business grows without the need for any hardware upgrades Discover the Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition and learn how to position and combine it with database options to capture new business and easily roll out solutions safely and with maximum cost efficiency. This webcast is repeated once again for your benefit. Agenda: Oracle Database& Engineered Systems Innovation. What’s the Oracle Database Appliance ? Oracle Database Appliance Value Proposition. Oracle Database Appliance with Database Options Oracle Database Appliance Partners Business Delivery FormatThis FREE online LIVE eSeminar will be delivered over the Web. Registrations received less than 24hours prior to start time may not receive confirmation to attend. Duration: 1 hour Register Now! Oracle Database Appliance is available for purchase at the Oracle Store under Engineered Systems. For any questions please contact us at partner.imc-AT-beehiveonline.oracle-DOT-com Visit regularly our ISV Migration Center blog Or Follow us @oracleimc to learn more on Oracle Technologies as well as upcoming partner webcasts and events.

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• Get Professional SEO Service From SEO Experts

  SEO service is imperative to online business. Business today has gone digital. With its power to perform international promotion, almost every brand is on a bid to establish an online presence. However, it's not easy to gain online presence without proper SEO service.

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• [News] S?rie d'articles sur Silverlight 4 et RIA Services de Brad Abrams

  Brad Abrams, un des co-fondateurs de .NET et de la CLR livre ici une s?rie d'articles tr?s int?ressants sur le couple Silverlight 4 et RIA Services : "I thought it would be worthwhile to highlight some of the key features of the platform and tools that make Silverlight a fantastic platform for building business applications. I?ll avoid gratuitous video and dancing hippos and focus on just the bread and butter of business applications (...)"

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• Are programmers bad testers?

  - by jhsowter

  I know this sounds a lot like other questions which have already being asked, but it is actually slightly different. It seems to be generally considered that programmers are not good at performing the role of testing an application. For example: Joel on Software - Top Five (Wrong) Reasons You Don't Have Testers (emphasis mine) Don't even think of trying to tell college CS graduates that they can come work for you, but "everyone has to do a stint in QA for a while before moving on to code". I've seen a lot of this. Programmers do not make good testers, and you'll lose a good programmer, who is a lot harder to replace. And in this question, one of the most popular answers says (again, my emphasis): Developers can be testers, but they shouldn't be testers. Developers tend to unintentionally/unconciously avoid to use the application in a way that might break it. That's because they wrote it and mostly test it in the way it should be used. So the question is are programmers bad at testing? What evidence or arguments are there to support this conclusion? Are programmers only bad at testing their own code? Is there any evidence to suggest that programmers are actually good at testing? What do I mean by "testing?" I do not mean unit testing or anything that is considered part of the methodology used by the software team to write software. I mean some kind of quality assurance method that is used after the code has been built and deployed to whatever that software team would call the "test environment."

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• Who IS Brian Solis?

  - by Michael Snow

  Q: Brian, Welcome to the WebCenter Blog. Can you tell our readers your current role and what career path brought you here? A: I’m proudly serving as a principal analyst at Altimeter Group, a research based advisory firm in Silicon Valley. My career path, well, let’s just say it’s a long and winding road. As a kid, I was fascinated with technology. I learned programming at an early age and found myself naturally drawn to all things tech. I started my career as a database programmer at a technology marketing agency in Southern California. When I saw the chance to work with tech companies and help them better market their capabilities to businesses and consumers, I switched focus from programming to marketing and advertising. As technologist, my approach to marketing was different. I didn’t believe in hype, fluff or buzz words. I believed in translating features into benefits and specifications and capabilities into solutions for real world problems and opportunities. In the mid 90’s I experimented with direct to consumer/customer engagement in dedicated technology forums and boards. I quickly realized that the entire approach to do so would need to change. Therefore, I learned and developed new methods for a more social and informed way of engaging people in ways that helped them, marketed the company, and also tied to tangible benefits for the company. This work would lead me to start an agency in 1999 dedicated to interactive marketing. As I continued to experiment with interactive platforms, I developed interesting methods for converting one-to-many forms of media into one-to-one-to-many programs. I ran that company until joining Altimeter Group. Along the way, in the early 2000s, I realized that everything was changing and that there were others like me finding success in what would become a more social form of media. I dedicated a significant amount of my time to sharing everything that I learned in the form of articles, blogs, and eventually books. My mission became to share my experience with anyone who’d listen. It would later become much bigger than marketing, this would lead to a decade of work, that still continues, in business transformation. Then and now, I find myself always assuming the role of a student. Q: As an industry analyst & technology change evangelist, what are you primarily focused on these days? A: As a digital analyst, I study how disruptive technology impacts business. As an aspiring social scientist, I study how technology affects human behavior. I explore both horizons professionally and personally to better understand the future of popular culture and also the opportunities that exist for organizations to improve relationships and experiences with customers and the people that are important to them. Q: People cite that the line between work and life is getting more and more blurred. Do you see your personal life influencing your professional work? A: The line between work and life isn’t blurred it’s been overtly crossed and erased. We live in an always on society. The digital lifestyle keeps us connected to one another it keeps us connected all the time. Whether your sending or checking email, trying to catch up, or simply trying to get ahead, people are spending the equivalent of an extra day at work in the time they spend out of work…working. That’s absurd. It’s a matter of survival. It’s also a matter of unintended, subconscious self-causation. We brought this on ourselves and continue to do so. Think about your day. You’re in meetings for the better part of each day. You probably spend evenings and weekends catching up on email and actually doing the work you couldn’t get to during the day. And, your co-workers and executives are doing the same thing. So if you try to slow down, you find yourself at a disadvantage as you’re willfully pulling yourself out of an unfortunate culture of whenever wherever business dynamics. If you’re unresponsive or unreachable, someone within your organization or on your team is accessible. Over time, this could contribute to unfavorable impressions. I choose to steer my life balance in ways that complement one another. But, I don’t pretend to have this figured out by any means. In fact, I find myself swimming upstream like those around me. It’s essentially a competition for relevance and at some point I’ll learn how to earn attention and relevance while redrawing the line between work and life. Q: How can people keep up with what you’re working on? A: The easy answer is that people can keep up with me at briansolis.com. But, I also try to reach people where their attention is focused. Whether it’s Facebook (facebook.com/briansolis), Twitter (@briansolis), Google+ (+briansolis), Youtube (briansolis.tv) or through books and conferences, people can usually find me in a place of their choosing. Q: Recently, you’ve been working with us here at Oracle on something exciting coming up later this week. What’s on the horizon? A: I spent some time with the Oracle team reviewing the idea of Digital Darwinism and how technology and society are evolving faster than many organizations can adapt. Digital Darwinism: How Brands Can Survive the Rapid Evolution of Society and Technology Thursday, December 13, 2012, 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET Q: You’ve been very actively pursued for media interviews and conference and company speaking engagements – anything you’d like to share to give us a sneak peak of what to expect on Thursday’s webcast? A: We’re inviting guests to join us online as we dive into the future of business and how the convergence of technology and connected consumerism would ultimately impact how business is done. It’ll be an exciting and revealing conversation that explores just how much everything is changing. We’ll also review the importance of adapting to emergent trends and how to compete for the future. It’s important to recognize that change is not happening to us, it’s happening because of us. We are part of the revolution and therefore we need to help organizations adapt from the inside out. Watch the Entire Oracle Social Business Thought Leaders Webcast Series On-Demand and Stay Tuned for More to Come in 2013!

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• Unstructured Data - The future of Data Administration

  Some have claimed that there is a problem with the way data is currently managed using the relational paradigm do to the rise of unstructured data in modern business. PCMag.com defines unstructured data as data that does not reside in a fixed location. They further explain that unstructured data refers to data in a free text form that is not bound to any specific structure. With the rise of unstructured data in the form of emails, spread sheets, images and documents the critics have a right to argue that the relational paradigm is not as effective as the object oriented data paradigm in managing this type of data. The relational paradigm relies heavily on structure and relationships in and between items of data. This type of paradigm works best in a relation database management system like Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and Oracle because data is forced to conform to a structure in the form of tables and relations can be derived from the existence of one or more tables. These critics also claim that database administrators have not kept up with reality because their primary focus in regards to data administration deals with structured data and the relational paradigm. The relational paradigm was developed in the 1970’s as a way to improve data management when compared to standard flat files. Little has changed since then, and modern database administrators need to know more than just how to handle structured data. That is why critics claim that today’s data professionals do not have the proper skills in order to store and maintain data for modern systems when compared to the skills of system designers, programmers , software engineers, and data designers  due to the industry trend of object oriented design and development. I think that they are wrong. I do not disagree that the industry is moving toward an object oriented approach to development with the potential to use more of an object oriented approach to data.   However, I think that it is business itself that is limiting database administrators from changing how data is stored because of the potential costs, and impact that might occur by altering any part of stored data. Furthermore, database administrators like all technology workers constantly are trying to improve their technical skills in order to excel in their job, so I think that accusing data professional is not just when the root cause of the lack of innovation is controlled by business, and it is business that will suffer for their inability to keep up with technology. One way for database professionals to better prepare for the future of database management is start working with data in the form of objects and so that they can extract data from the objects so that the stored information within objects can be used in relation to the data stored in a using the relational paradigm. Furthermore, I think the use of pattern matching will increase with the increased use of unstructured data because object can be selected, filtered and altered based on the existence of a pattern found within an object.

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